Sprocket

Me: okay, I have a work week which isn't so bad, then PTO.
Immune system: no, you have two weeks with no hard commitments. It's covid time.

While embracing my status as a virus battle ground, I watched:
- The Last of Us: "wow, Tess really reminds me of Olivia." Yes, that would be thanks to Anna Torv playing Tess. Acceptable alt-pandemic viewing, if one forgives the selective grasp on antibiotics and antifungals. If you take the show on its own premise, it's acceptable.
- due South: s1+ rewatch for Reasons.
- Harold and Maude: 1971 movie, suicidal 20 year old boy falls for 79 year old manic pixie dream girl. Selections filmed in San Francisco. Apparently was a cult classic?
- Nimona: 2023 movie, trans allegories abound.
- Dune 2: 2024 movie featuring swathes of my least favorite part of Dune, the banal evil of the Harkonnens. Expected it to end before the battle of Arrakeen, it didn't. Chani gets 90% of the respect I have to allocate to the people in this movie.

I also have been watching (and rewatching) The Expanse, because I am a known sucker for stuff in space with multi-episode arcs. Just assume I'm scribbling Venn diagrams of Expanse tropes and Babylon 5 tropes in the background.

( Gorgeous animation and expensive soundtrack skinned over a complex yet predictable plot. )

Jayce is boring.

Viktor, Mel Medara, Vi, and Ekko are not boring.

Never played the game, unlikely to start now, because my gameplay stats run toward laughable, but will probably watch the second and third drops when Netflix puts them up. Assuming, with the writer's strike on, they go forward on time.

Jee: now that you've forced 1.5 seasons of B5 on me, I really think you'd like Mass Effect.
Me: hit me with a playthrough, I like space stuff

pause for ME1 and a good chunk of an ME2 playthough

Me: But imagine for a moment that Garrus gets side-tracked enroute to Omega and does his little vigilante side-trip in Downbelow. Ex-mil ex-cop argues with Garibaldi, a military cop, about justice and friendship and lost chances with amazing people and stuff.

In completely unrelated news - hah - Jee hit me with a Shepard/Garrus playthough, which is heterosexual catnip. "Oh Jane Shepard, you're good at shooting guns and commanding people and you're more emotionally perceptive than me, you've changed my world and I want to make you happy. Have my heart and also lots of shooting at stuff together, but in a really smooth voice actor voice, not Sprocket's squeaky head-voice soprano." That's it, open up the mass effect wiki. You're ready to enjoy the AO3 Mass Effect tag's lust for validation and also orgasms.

I could go on about Reapers and Shadows, and Big Space Opera tropes, and how badly Psi Corp would want to get their hands on biotics (and do exactly the sort of things we see in the MEverse, like Conatix / BAaT and Cerberus's Pragia base), and this one TF crossover fic that I am holding off on reading until I finish the ME3 playthrough, but you get the picture.

Happy holidays, and happy binge-viewing!

The Mummy and The Mummy Returns: excellent low-brain background for data entry, would do again.

Black Widow: would watch Natasha and Yelena bicker for hours. CGI fights overrated.

Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings: There's a 30 minute slice of Zoomer gen life, a fun fight scene on a 1-California that clearly has a divergent route in the MCU AU, some killer acting by Awkwfina and Tony Leung Chiu-wai, and a completely average MCU origin story. It's great to see the MCU expand past whiteness and dudes, but it's expanding by applying the same formula that's worked for it so far.

Venom: Let Theee Be Carnage: billed by fandom as a rom-com; I forgot that usually most rom-coms are Not My Thing.

The Amazon Wheel of Time: I wandered away from the books around the eighth installment, I wasn't planning to watch the adaptation until peer excitement pulled me in. All the way until ep 4 I wasn't sold. Turns out angry, angry Nyanaeve is my catnip. Logain starting at angry!Nynaevae with that "step on me" expression is gold. Not sure if I'll be watching S2 with appropriate respect... oh, who am I kidding. I'll be watching this show with great shirt-posting energy.

So I read the two Scholomance novels, and have latched on with the joy of someone who has found Dubious Worldbuilding. Specifically, there is no way the family sizes as seen and wizard death rates, ages 0 - 18, add up.

( Let's talk numbers. Spoilers for A Deadly Education and The Last Graduate. )

So yeah, I am dying for book 3, which hopefully will drop more shoes, pull guns of the mantelpiece, etc etc etc.

Dear Yulegoat,

Thanks so much for writing for me! I will be thrilled to receive a story in any of these tiny canons. If you already have an idea you're fired up to write, please get started! Finding out what other people love about a canon is one of the things I like about fandom.

Stuff I Like: people working together to overcome obstacles, snark and snappy dialogue, banter, darkfic, place as character, postapocalyptic, N Times Characters Did A Thing. Solving love triangles with OT3s. Worldbuilding. Food descriptions! I have a bulletproof love of competence, including competence at being villainous, and characters finding connections and trusting each other. If crossovers and fusions are your things, go for it: I am a fan.

Do Not Wants: PWP, bloodplay, coffeeshop AU, high school/college AU, explicit descriptions of sexual assault, cross-generation (May-December) ships, violence much more intense than canon-typical levels.

Gen or Shippy? Add "in bed" to any of the likes and ship away. I am in favor of consenting adults enjoying each others' company and quirks (and kinks).

Happy Yuletide!

Prompts below, with comments for color:

( Ivory Series - Doris Egan )

( The Paladin - C. J. Cherryh )

( Fall of Ile-Rien - Martha Wells )

My pandemic viewing has been Guardian, heavily pimped by glymr. C-drama deeply involved in the Dashing Roguish Police Chief and the Humble University Professor With A Secret... past? Identity? Entire other life? Which becomes increasingly central to the narrative. Also, there's supernatural powers. The final plot arc and conclusion are a hot mess, but the "spot the trope" action is strong all the way through the series.

I tried to watch The Witcher. I noped out before the end of the first episode. Protagonist's manly stoic angst isn't doing it for me. Some city getting overrun by its enemies isn't doing it for me. If you can't make me care about the tearful parting of the Stern Queen and her granddaughter, this show is not for me.

After much nudging, I've finally gotten started on Nirvana in Fire, a historical C-drama about Imperial Palace plotting. At least, it's all been Imperial Palace plotting so far. And counter-plots. And spur-of-the-moment use of others' plots. And Mei Changsu sort of poking at bloated corruption schemes to see how they explode, so he can turn that into more plotting. Frank "wheels within wheels" Herbert would love this.

My pandemic reading has been a heap of Transformers fic. I wish I had a bit of shame left, but nope, it's just "Barbarian AU, but city!mech!Breakdown accidentally kidnaps barbarian!Knock Out" (sidebar: TF and race issues, wow they're there) and "maybe it's time to reread "Victory Condition", oh, do I have friends I can inflict this on?" and "OKAY FINE maybe I will reread The Brave Shall Heed the Call" and "okay, this 'protagonist crushes on Optimus Prime is a Bit Much, but this one is Just Right," with the occasional Hot Rod being... Hot Rod. *facepalm*

I hope everyone's people are well; and if less than well, are getting the care and support they and you need.

I am fortunate that me and mine have so far dodged the coronavirus bullet.

If you're so moved, let me know how you're doing!

Well.

That was a case study in How Not To Do Pacing. Also How To Destroy Writer / Exec Producer Cred With The Fanbase, and How To Get Fans to Dis-Rec A Formerly Enjoyed Show To Their Entire F-List. Bummer.