Network

Current Mood: busy

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Poem: "Genuinely Sufficient Resources"

This poem is spillover from the February 4, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from

alchemicink,

dialecticdreamer,

kellan_the_tabby, and

rix_scaedu. It also fills the "Taking It Slow" square in my 2-1-25 card for the Valentines Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with

fuzzyred. It belongs to the Big One thread of the Polychrome Heroics series.

( Read more... )

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!sign up post

January Sign Ups

It's officially time to sign up for January! Buddy assignments will be posted on the 1st. You'll have until the 5th to choose books for your partners.

The themes for January will be:
THRILLER // NON-FICTION // FEMALE AUTHOR
You must choose books with one or a combination of these genres and themes for your buddy. If you think your buddy might have a problem picking from your TBR pile, please mention that in your comment.

Please sign up in the comments:

Also:
• Our December Discussion is still open!

Current Mood: busy

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followfriday

Follow Friday 12-26-25

Got any Follow Friday-related posts to share this week? Comment here with the link(s).

Here's the plan: every Friday, let's recommend some people and/or communities to follow on Dreamwidth. That's it. No complicated rules, no "pass this on to 7.328 friends or your cat will die".

Current Mood: busy

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Follow Friday 12-26-25: Learning

Today's theme is Learning.

( Read more... )

Current Music: The Mountain Goats, "Your Bandage"

And those who can remember when the night sky was a tapestry

In the afternoon there was eggnog, in the evening there was roast beef, and after dinner with my parents and my husbands and

nineweaving, there was plum pudding with an extremely suitable amount of brandy on fire.

At the end of a battering year, it was a small and a nice Christmas. There was thin crisp snow on the ground. In addition to the traditional and necessary socks and a joint gift with

spatch of wooden kitchen utensils to replace our archaically cracked spoons, I seem to have ended up with a considerable stack of books including Robert Macfarlane's Ghostways: Two Journeys in Unquiet Places (2020), Monique Roffey's The Mermaid of Black Conch (2020), and the third edition of Oakes Plimpton's Robbins Farm Park, Arlington, Massachusetts: A Local History from the Revolutionary War to the Present (1995/2007) with addenda as late as 2014 pasted into the endpapers by hand, a partly oral history I'd had no idea anyone had ever conducted of a place I have known for sledding and star-watching and the setting off of model rockets since childhood. The moon was a ice-white crescent at 18 °F. After everything, as we were driving home, I saw the unmistakable flare of a shooting star to the northwest, a stray shot of the Ursids perhaps after all.

Entry tags:

due 2025-12-31

Post-Reveals PH #1 - CLAIMED

The following pinch hit (1k words, focusing on requested characters, avoiding DNWs) is due as soon as you can post it - please contact yuletideadmin@gmail.com with your best offer!

This pinch hit has been claimed, but you are still welcome to post treats! Please contact the mods for instructions on how to post them now that reveals have occurred.

CLAIMED - EPH #1: Nine Worlds Series - Victoria Goddard, Лето в пионерском галстуке - Елена Малисова и Катерина Сильванова | Pioneer Series - Elena Malisova & Katerina Silvanova, The Paris Express - Emma Donoghue

Request 1 by Shizuku206
Nine Worlds Series - Victoria Goddard
Characters: Cliopher ""Kip"" Mdang (Nine Worlds), Artorin Damara | Fitzroy Angursell (Nine Worlds)
My gift must feature all of my chosen character tags (if 0: any from tag set)

I have read HotE, Petty Treasons, Portrait of a Wide Seas Islander, RoFA, and AtfotS. Please NO SPOILERS for books I haven’t read.
I definitely want Kip & HR to be a focus but please feel free to also include additional canon characters!
HotE ate my entire brain. I LOVE Cliopher. I love his devotion and love for his Radiancy, his desire to make the world a better place, his stubbornness and determination, his deep connection to his family, home and culture despite his long years so far away, his utter competence and unshakeable ethics… I love HR and his humor and mischief and longing to escape the confines of his position. I love the special bond they obviously have and which obviously means so much to them both, and my god the pining, I want them to be able to be together in all the ways they want to. I obviously ship them romantically, but if you are more moved to write about their love platonically, that is completely welcome as well. I am absolutely on board with canon divergence of the flavor ""Kip is sexually attracted to HR"" OR canon-level aroace Kip. I would adore fic that has the five friends living in Kip’s house in Gorjo City after they retire, something slice-of-life or working out who they are apart from their jobs. I’m imagining some silly roommate fluff/humor like HR making nothing but fruit salad every time it’s his turn to cook (because he loves fresh fruit!! And he doesn’t know how to cook anything) and everyone else is like “again?!”
General likes: hurt/comfort, pining, mutual pining, friends to lovers, enemies to lovers, couples who super dislike each other on first meeting, alt-POV canon scenes, missing scenes, fix-it, whump, smut, fluff, cuddling and snuggling, helping lovers recover from past trauma, neurodivergence (canon or headcanon), lovers accommodating characters’ neurodivergence especially when the ND character doesn’t even have to ask/assumes they don’t deserve accommodations/doesn’t know what accommodations they need, neurodivergent traits celebrated and loved (e.g. infodumping, special interests, hyperfocus), characters oblivious to the fact that they’re in love, tender caretaking, wearing each others’ clothes, sleeping together, only one bed/forced proximity due to circumstances, crying, crying on each other, angst and comfort, anxiety and reassurance, rescuing each other, taking revenge on someone who wronged their partner, found family, love declarations, commitment declarations, sweet gestures of affection especially from normally reserved/prickly characters, “mom friend override” (normally anxious/nonconfrontational character going in guns blazing because someone they love has been threatened), background characters being queer, happy endings, waking from a nightmare and their partner is there, grief/mourning and partner helping them cope, catharsis, trying to come out but whoops the person already knows you’re queer, supporting characters accepting and affirming the canon ship as a matter of course especially if MCs were trying to hide it, queer culture/safe queer spaces to escape period homophobia & be openly affectionate.
Smut likes: Experienced partner/inexperienced partner, gentle first time, explicit consent, enthusiastic consent, negotiating, ongoing communication about consent & likes/dislikes, trying new things, role play and dressing up, hurt/comfort sex, normally anxious/reserved character finding their voice in bed/taking charge, height difference, partially clothed, undressing each other, caring for each other as foreplay/afterplay (e.g. hairwashing, baths, etc.), nipple play, orgasm delay, blindfolds, lots of buildup, characters desperate and begging, so horny they can’t wait/semi-public sex, not conventionally attractive character being desired, rewrite of canon scenes full of sexual tension to instead be ‘what if they just went for it’, restraint, light pain play, sharing of fantasies & then partner planning to fulfill them, disability/neurodivergence accommodation during sex, use of magic during sex, consensual somnophilia.

General DNWs:
-AI-generated content
-Noncon/dubcon
-Scat/watersports/vomit/blood kink. (Blood in general is ok, just not as a kink.)
-Guinea pigs being eaten or abused
-Under age 16 sex
-Time/setting change AUs
-Infidelity, breakup, heartbreak/sad ending, MCD
Canon divergence and AUs that add elements to the canon setting are welcome.
Treats are welcome!!

No letter

Request 2 by Shizuku206
Лето в пионерском галстуке - Елена Малисова и Катерина Сильванова | Pioneer Series - Elena Malisova & Katerina Silvanova
Characters: Yuri Konev, Vladimir Davydov
My gift must feature all of my chosen character tags (if 0: any from tag set)

Oh these boys!! I have only read book 1 and I want to see them have happy times together, it could be either in the original camp time, maybe they agree/decide to have sex before they part, or when they meet again, figuring out how to be together as adults.
General likes: hurt/comfort, pining, mutual pining, friends to lovers, enemies to lovers, couples who super dislike each other on first meeting, alt-POV canon scenes, missing scenes, fix-it, whump, smut, fluff, cuddling and snuggling, helping lovers recover from past trauma, neurodivergence (canon or headcanon), lovers accommodating characters’ neurodivergence especially when the ND character doesn’t even have to ask/assumes they don’t deserve accommodations/doesn’t know what accommodations they need, neurodivergent traits celebrated and loved (e.g. infodumping, special interests, hyperfocus), characters oblivious to the fact that they’re in love, tender caretaking, wearing each others’ clothes, sleeping together, only one bed/forced proximity due to circumstances, crying, crying on each other, angst and comfort, anxiety and reassurance, rescuing each other, taking revenge on someone who wronged their partner, found family, love declarations, commitment declarations, sweet gestures of affection especially from normally reserved/prickly characters, “mom friend override” (normally anxious/nonconfrontational character going in guns blazing because someone they love has been threatened), background characters being queer, happy endings, waking from a nightmare and their partner is there, grief/mourning and partner helping them cope, catharsis, trying to come out but whoops the person already knows you’re queer, supporting characters accepting and affirming the canon ship as a matter of course especially if MCs were trying to hide it, queer culture/safe queer spaces to escape period homophobia & be openly affectionate.
Smut likes: Experienced partner/inexperienced partner, gentle first time, explicit consent, enthusiastic consent, negotiating, ongoing communication about consent & likes/dislikes, trying new things, role play and dressing up, hurt/comfort sex, normally anxious/reserved character finding their voice in bed/taking charge, height difference, partially clothed, undressing each other, caring for each other as foreplay/afterplay (e.g. hairwashing, baths, etc.), nipple play, orgasm delay, blindfolds, lots of buildup, characters desperate and begging, so horny they can’t wait/semi-public sex, not conventionally attractive character being desired, rewrite of canon scenes full of sexual tension to instead be ‘what if they just went for it’, restraint, light pain play, sharing of fantasies & then partner planning to fulfill them, disability/neurodivergence accommodation during sex, use of magic during sex, consensual somnophilia.

DNWs:
-AI-generated content
-Noncon
-Scat/watersports/vomit/blood kink. (Blood in general is ok, just not as a kink.)
-Guinea pigs being eaten or abused
-Under age 16 sex
-Time/setting change AUs
-Breakup/sad ending/MCD
-Focus on internalized homophobia/conversion therapy (brief mention of canon stuff ok)
Canon divergence and AUs that add elements to the canon setting are welcome.
Treats are welcome!!

No letter

Request 3 by Shizuku206
The Paris Express - Emma Donoghue
Characters: Victor Garnier (The Paris Express), Guillaume Pellerin (The Paris Express)
My gift must feature all of my chosen character tags (if 0: any from tag set)

The Victor/Guillaume relationship was by far the most compelling part of this book for me. What's it like for them to be the loves of each others' lives, but with so much unspoken?
General likes: hurt/comfort, pining, mutual pining, friends to lovers, enemies to lovers, couples who super dislike each other on first meeting, alt-POV canon scenes, missing scenes, fix-it, whump, smut, fluff, cuddling and snuggling, helping lovers recover from past trauma, neurodivergence (canon or headcanon), lovers accommodating characters’ neurodivergence especially when the ND character doesn’t even have to ask/assumes they don’t deserve accommodations/doesn’t know what accommodations they need, neurodivergent traits celebrated and loved (e.g. infodumping, special interests, hyperfocus), characters oblivious to the fact that they’re in love, tender caretaking, wearing each others’ clothes, sleeping together, only one bed/forced proximity due to circumstances, crying, crying on each other, angst and comfort, anxiety and reassurance, rescuing each other, taking revenge on someone who wronged their partner, found family, love declarations, commitment declarations, sweet gestures of affection especially from normally reserved/prickly characters, “mom friend override” (normally anxious/nonconfrontational character going in guns blazing because someone they love has been threatened), background characters being queer, happy endings, waking from a nightmare and their partner is there, grief/mourning and partner helping them cope, catharsis, trying to come out but whoops the person already knows you’re queer, supporting characters accepting and affirming the canon ship as a matter of course especially if MCs were trying to hide it, queer culture/safe queer spaces to escape period homophobia & be openly affectionate.
Smut likes: Experienced partner/inexperienced partner, gentle first time, explicit consent, enthusiastic consent, negotiating, ongoing communication about consent & likes/dislikes, trying new things, role play and dressing up, hurt/comfort sex, normally anxious/reserved character finding their voice in bed/taking charge, height difference, partially clothed, undressing each other, caring for each other as foreplay/afterplay (e.g. hairwashing, baths, etc.), nipple play, orgasm delay, blindfolds, lots of buildup, characters desperate and begging, so horny they can’t wait/semi-public sex, not conventionally attractive character being desired, rewrite of canon scenes full of sexual tension to instead be ‘what if they just went for it’, restraint, light pain play, sharing of fantasies & then partner planning to fulfill them, disability/neurodivergence accommodation during sex, use of magic during sex, consensual somnophilia.
General DNWs:
-AI-generated content
-Noncon
-Scat/watersports/vomit/blood kink. (Blood in general is ok, just not as a kink.
-Guinea pigs being eaten or abused
-Under age 16 sex (reference to canon instances ok)
-Time/setting change AUs
-Breakup/sad ending/MCD
Canon divergence and AUs that add elements to the canon setting are welcome.
Treats are welcome!!

No letter

Entry tags:

Yuletide!!

This is just a quick drive-by post to say: hello! I hope that those of you who are celebrating Christmas have had a lovely one, and that those of you who aren't have had a nice Thursday.

We're at my parents' place having a pleasantly low-key celebration (lots of joy! but also, us plus two elderly people = a lot of lying around on the couch reading, and not a lot of impetus to go all-out for the decorations and feasting), and meanwhile the weather is giving us scenic snow all around.

And also! I got an INCREDIBLY GOOD Yuletide fic!

The Villainous Princess Saves Her Kingdom is a note-perfect post-canon story for Jeongnyeon: The Star Is Born. I mostly enjoyed the heck out of that kdrama, in which everyone is a dramatic lesbian who cares deeply about their all-female melodramatic theater, but the heroine makes many incredibly stupid choices and there were various things that frustrated me about the ending. This story focuses on Seo Hyerang, a secondary character who does not care at all about our beloved stupid heroine (and that's beautiful to me), and it deftly and delightfully fixes almost all of my complaints, and made me cackle several times. It's everything I hoped and dreamed for in a Jeongnyeon fic! I'm so happy!!!

I think it's readable without canon knowledge, but you'll have to do a certain amount of piecing things together as you go, and the emotions won't hit as hard. I had many emotions, though. What a treat, what a delight!

Current Mood: busy

Entry tags:

Poem: "The Heart to Change the World"

This poem is spillover from the November 4, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from

siliconshaman,

fuzzyred,

mama_kestrel , and

see_also_friend. It also fills the "Fairies" square in my 11-1-25 card for the Fairy Tales and Fantasy Stories Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with

fuzzyred. It belongs to the Big One thread of the Polychrome Heroics series.

( Read more... )

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Original Work; Barbie: How to View a Christmas Tree, by Rubynye

Fandom: Original Work, Christmas Tales & Traditions, Barbie
Pairings/Characters: OCs; a child & her faithful dolls.
Rating: General Audiences
Length: 612
Content Notes: No Content Warnings Apply
Creator Tags: Barbie Dolls, Christmas, Christmas Tree

Creator Links: (AO3)

Rubynye; (Dreamwidth)

minoanmiss; (Tumblr)

rubynye

Theme: Amnesty, Female Relationships, Action/Adventure, Comfort Fic, Female Friendships, Folklore & Fairytales, Teams

Summary: All around her spread the magnificent brilliance of the shining tree, its decorations alight and glittering.

Author’s Notes: Merry Christmas to my dear friend Amaebi!

Reccer's Notes: A little girl’s Barbie dolls come to life to keep her company on Christmas Eve. The author maintains a keenly lived-in sense of scale; acting as a team in the fashion of the Madagascar Penguins, the dolls scale the California redwood heights and marvel in the celestial lighting of the Christmas tree (while remaining vigilant against the approach of the Parents—or, worse, the Kitty!)

A nostalgic snapshot of the fierce Velveteen Rabbit Reality of our imaginary friends.

Fanwork Links: How to View a Christmas Tree, by

Rubynye for

amaebi.
Part 18 of How To Indulge Your Writerly Soul.

Entry tags:

(no subject)

I am not allowing myself to dive into the Yuletide archive this year until after reveals due to a bunch of other reading commitments that have to get done by early January, BUT! I obviously made an exception for my own

THREE

INCREDIBLE

GIFT

FICS:

The Knight Under the Apple Tree

“Our crop is well tended,” Celia protested, despite all evidence that it was not. “It grows copiously out yonder.”

Oliver turned his head to look out the window. “Indeed, the grass outside does grow most mightily.”

“It is a sheepcote, sir; as the name suggests, it is for the keeping of sheep. Thus grass is essential.”

“And yet I do not see the sheep.”

I asked someone to sell me on As You Like It's Celia/Oliver side ship and I have completely received my wish: this fic is SO cute and does such a lovely job filling out the relationship between these characters until it feels like something that fully exists and that I want to root for

A rainbow-stripe in another proper world

“None of it ever happened,” said Uncle Nirupam in his precise way, “and so we have no memories of it, of course. But the instincts remain. I felt the same way when I first visited this world. I thought, is this where they burn people like us?”

The first of two excellent Witch Week fix-it fics -- this one is a short little outsider-POV gem in which Janet Chant and Nan Pilgrim are married, which is not something I would have ever thought of in a million years but which delights me deeply! galaxy brain!

Remember, Remember

“To produce the required crispiness, the mandrake is dipped in wallpaper paste, dredged in sawdust, and then pan-fried until it is completely burnt on all sides,” Nan recited obligingly. “It is served with a side of slugs poached in their own slime. Their chewy texture provides a perfect complement…” Estelle was howling with laughter by this point. Nan, as always in such moments, felt as though she were being carried along by an inexorable flood of words quite independent of herself. A rhyme was pushing insistently at the inside of her head, and she let it out without the least idea where it was going to finish up:

“Crispy mandrake, extra fancy,

Bring me something

Chrestomanci!”

and THIS one is a luxurious and voice-perfect THIRTEEN THOUSAND WORDS spent with my beloved terrible children as their memories are returned by way of an encounter with the TRAGICALLY ABANDONED SENTIENT GARDEN IMPLEMENTS. ABSOLUTE GALAXY BRAIN AGAIN ... I'm so happy ...

and having been Yuletided well beyond my deserts, I now leave the archive for now but I look forward to reading everyone's recs on the other side!

Current Music: “We’re Despicable”.

Entry tags:

Chen Qing Ling; A Christmas Carol: An Accurate (Anachronic) Jianghu Christmas Carol, by Mikkeneko

Fandom: Chen Qing Ling; A Christmas Carol
Pairings/Characters: Meng Yao | Jin Guangyao, Jin Guangshan, Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji, Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin, Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Wen Ruohan, Background & Cameo Characters
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Length: 7,500
Content Notes: No Archive Warnings Apply, (although Jin Guangshan is his own content warning.)
Creator Tags: Minor Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji/Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Inspired by A Christmas Carol, Crack, Christmas Crack, Breaking the Fourth Wall, Jin Guangyao is gonna soften his dad's heart if it kills him, Jiang Cheng wasn't even supposed to be here today, Lan Wangji is only here for the snacks, (Wei Ying is the snack), Daddy Issues: The Play, It's WangXian but that's not the focus here

Creator Links: (AO3)

Mikkeneko; (Tumblr)

mikkeneko

Theme: Amnesty, Uncommon Settings, Crack, Crossovers/Fusions, Humor, Research, Trope Subversion & Inversion

Summary: It's Christmas Eve in the Jianghu, and Jin Guangyao is determined to show his father the meaning of charity and generosity and the brotherhood of man if it kills him.

(It will.)

Author’s Notes: You know, throughout this fandom I've seen fans extend grace towards all sorts of morally grey characters. There are Xue Yang stans, Su She truthers, Wen Ruohan fuckers and Meng Yao apologists, I've even seen Jin Zixun have something like a redemption arc! But the one thing I've never, ever seen is a redemption story for Jin Guangshan.

This fic isn't one either.

… Thanks for reading! I'm so sorry.

I referenced this copy of Charles Dickens' ACC while writing this fic. How come nobody told me Dickens was such a fuckin' comedian? The adaptations only ever quote the dramatic lines.

Reccer's Notes: This is one of the most meticulous, erudite, and considered pieces of crack I’ve ever read; the characters themselves are constantly lampshading the incompatibility of the crossover. Mikkeneko manages, somehow, to keep everyone in character while shoehorned into the Christmas Carol roles and to transpose this Christian morality play into the context of a Xianxia China unbothered by missionaries—demonstrating a thorough understanding of both the canons she’s Frankenstitched together. There’s a smidgen of Shakespeare in there too; the Christmas Carol scenario is a stage play, presented by Jin Guangyao in a Hamletesque ploy to lay a ruler’s sins bare.

Fanwork Links: https://archiveofourown.org/works/35699251

Current Mood: busy

Entry tags:

Notes for "Technique, Timing, and Leverage"

These are the notes for "Technique, Timing, and Leverage."

( Read more... )

Current Mood: good

Entry tags:

reading

Reading

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

Current Mood: busy

Entry tags:

Poem: "Technique, Timing, and Leverage"

This poem came out of the June 4, 2024 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from

siliconshaman and

wyld_dandelyon. It also fills the "Family" square in my 6-1-24 card for the Pride Fest Bingo. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with

fuzzyred. It belongs to the Big One and Kraken threads of the Polychrome Heroics series.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: pleased

Wake Up Dead Man

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

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Daily Happiness

1. We had a really fun day at Universal Studios today. It didn't rain nearly as much as we feared. We'd prepped for a lot of rain, but this morning the forecast was saying it would be dry most of the day with just a little light rain here and there, so we ended up leaving the parkas and umbrellas in the car, and as it turned out it was dry 98% of the time and the bit of rain we did have was mostly just very light with one brief harder shower that was over quickly (and even that was not really hard rain).

2. It feels like Saturday but I still have three more days of weekend! Tomorrow we're staying in and Alex is coming over and Carla is making a roast for dinner, so that will be fun. If the weather's still nice we're planning to go to Knott's on Saturday for one last go at their holiday food.

3. Gemma loves these crinkly stuffed carrot toys.

Entry tags:

daily

Daily Check-In

This is your check-in post for today. The poll will be open from midnight Universal or Zulu Time (8pm Eastern Time) on Thursday, December 25, to midnight on Friday, December 26 (8pm Eastern Time).

Poll #34007 Daily check-in poll

Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: Access List, participants: 15

How are you doing?

I am OK
12 (80.0%)

I am not OK, but don't need help right now
3 (20.0%)

I could use some help
0 (0.0%)

How many other humans live with you?

I am living single
5 (33.3%)

One other person
6 (40.0%)

More than one other person
4 (26.7%)

Please, talk about how things are going for you in the comments, ask for advice or help if you need it, or just discuss whatever you feel like.

Current Mood: amused

Entry tags:

Photography

16 Cats Cozying Up Next To The Fireplace

And by cozying up I mean literally getting as close to it as they can — without self-combusting.

Entry tags:

Criminal Minds: War Crimes, by mosylu.

Fandom: Criminal Minds
Pairings/Characters: F/M; Emily Prentiss/Spencer Reid, Aaron Hotchner/Jennifer "JJ" Jareau; Aaron Hotchner, David Rossi, Emily Prentiss, Penelope Garcia, Jennifer "JJ" Jareau, Henry LaMontagne, Derek Morgan, Spencer Reid
Rating: Teen and Up
Length: 50,833
Content Notes: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, bittersweet ending, canon-typical violence, colorism, period-characteristic prevalence of smoking, period-characteristic attitudes toward mental illness, PTSD, war-typical gore
Creator Tags: Alternate Universe - Historical, Everybody's Looking Sharp, Get Some Benny Goodman on the Radio, Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net, Author is a Research Nerd, And Not Ashamed of It Either, Period-Typical Homophobia, Period-Typical Racism, Period-Typical Sexism, Alternate Universe - 1940s
Creator Links: (AO3)

mosylu, (Dreamwidth)

mosylu, (FF.net)

mosylu, (Tumblr)

mosylufanfic

Theme: Amnesty, Mystery & Suspense, Uncommon Settings, Casefic, Characters of Color, FANCAKE IS FIFTEEN, Fandom Classics, Historical AUs, Research, Women Being Awesome

Summary: Historical AU. In 1947 New York, a motley group of strangers are about to come face-to-face with the idea that you can catch a criminal from within his own mind.

Author’s Notes: Honestly, this came about because of Garcia's hair. Yes, Garcia's hair. Follow me here. There was an episode where she was wearing it in this marvelous retro-40's do, and I started picturing how she'd look in a whole 40's ensemble. And then I started picturing the entire cast in 40's styles. (Boy howdy, would it suit Reid, and Morgan would rock a fedora like nobody's business.) Then I started thinking about how different their lives would have been sixty years ago, and then the social and cultural upheaval of an entire nation coming back from WWII, and . . . well . . . enjoy.

Historical Note: Shell shock was the World War I term, and battle fatigue the WWII term, for what we now call PTSD.

Reccer's Notes: A post-WWII noir mystery AU in which an oddly assorted bunch of cops, academics, veterans, and civilians, masterminded by neighborhood reference librarian and gossip networker Penelope Garcia, band together to solve some violent local crimes—and proceed to pioneer criminal profiling in the process.

(When this fic debuted in October 2010, the mystery of Reid’s chronic migraines was an ongoing canon subplot; this setting provides a ruthlessly plausible explanation. That’s all I’m going to say.)

Fanwork Links:
AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3161369
Fanfiction.net: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6391786/1/War-Crimes

Current Mood: sore
Current Music: Moonlight Mile - The Rolling Stones

Warm my bones.

My parents' apartment building is in a U shape, and on the roof, the bottom of the U is the social area - tables, chairs, plants, tiles. The two sides are closed off from general use - the water tower, electrical system access, stuff where you need it clear for safety.

I recently found out someone's been sneaking up onto the roof to smoke, and they've been doing it in the social area, or so close to it to make no difference. I figure that if they could smoke in their apartment, they would, so this is probably someone's kid, and it's easier to go to the roof to smoke than head out to the breezeway next to the building.

My concern's not any of that, but rather that they're doing it badly. When I was told about the sneaking, I remarked that they'd do better to sneak farther away from the social area so the smell doesn't linger. I said if it's cigarettes, they should do it over the breezeway so they can tap the ash away, and if they're really dedicated, they should bring along a tin of some kind to carry the refuse away with them to dispose of the evidence later. The smoking's one thing to protest, and what really gets to me is the person's total lack of tradecraft.