"It's a metaphor about my childhood!"
I discovered the panorama setting on my iPhone at Coney Island today, which was great! Not as great as getting to hang out with 
shadesofbrixton and B, though. I also discovered that the final season of Parks & Rec is coming to Netflix on Jan. 19 (or 13? it's already fallen out of my brain), which is great, because that S6 finale was A++++.
Tomorrow is the interview about which I am terrified and I still need to focus enough to actually start working on the prep. I do not think I will have a lot of time for Yuletide until Wednesday, so here are a few more recs; my first batch (they're all great!) is here.
American Girl Dolls, Captain America/Agent Carter: Stars and Stripes (3K words)
I never collected these dolls, though I dearly wanted to, but I adore this fic about Molly, the 1940s AG, listening to the Captain America radio plays and dreaming up her Halloween costume. I want to be Peggy Carter too, Molly! Just lovely and feels like children's books without being dismissive at all.“It always ends at the good parts,” she said and Dad smiled at her. “Will you tell me about the real Nurse Betty? Did she have beautiful curly blonde hair? And was she Cap’s girlfriend?”
Dad folded the newspaper and set it aside. Molly scrambled up to sit on the arm of his chair. “Well, her name was Agent Peggy Carter,” he said. “I only met her a few times, but she had brown hair, just like yours, and she did have some curls. I don’t know if she was the Captain’s girlfriend, but I know he liked and respected her very much. All of the Commandos did. They told me about her. She was fighting in the war long before we were, and she was still there when I left.”
Calvin & Hobbes: School Spirit (Or Lack Thereof) (1100 words)
Oh, just darling! How Calvin's parents got together. I love how you can 100% see Calvin in his mom, and you can definitely see Calvin's dad in his dad.“This is my science project,” she said, somewhat archly. “But the underpants are for the other kids in the theatre class. We’re putting on Pride and Prejudice this year.”
“I knew I had you pegged,” he said, happy to be right - adjusting his glasses in what she would soon learn was a nervous gesture. “What are you doing with those worms?”
“Studying their breeding habits. You can never learn too much about asexual reproduction.”
Dublin Murder Squad Series, His Dark Materials: bluebells and a hawthorne tree (8K words)
You don't need to have ready any Tana French to understand this; it's this stunningly rendered, gorgeous voiced, vivid and visceral look at detectives in Dublin, and some of them can see daemons. It uses daemons to explain why people can do things they can do, and it's just. Oh my gosh, given that this is my favorite of all AUs, I can honestly say I've never seen this done before, and it's wonderful.Daemons certainly behave as if they take up space, if there’s enough to be had, but I’ve found that if I look closely, they are often sitting, quite literally, in the middle of things. It’s a persistence of vision, a thaumatrope-that optical illusion with the card and string that promises a bird in an empty cage. Is Ishihail really sitting on my rucksack while I’m crammed on the bus, or is his head sort of peering out the top while the rest of his body is obscured? When I press him to my cheek, he’s warm, and his heartbeat is as tiny and rapid as the ticking of a lady’s watch. Boughs dip and gently wave when he lands in a hawthorn tree, and now and again he’ll help himself to a gulletfull of my coffee. But he doesn’t leave splashes on the counter, and he’s also never had a pee, as far as I know. I’ve heard Ish skitter papers on my desk, and tried getting him to stand on a scale, but he seems to weigh vastly different things and he won’t settle long enough to let me get a good reading. What's more, he won’t tell me why.
A Knight's Tale: The Book of the Duchess, or, In the Dungeons of Her Grace (3400 words)
Of course, Yuletide by nature always has to deliver an excellent story in this fandom, and this is an excellent story, totally nailing both the peanut gallery and the story itself. Chaucer's possibly-not-allegorical tale is a real joy of a fairy tale too. Just a very pleasing read!"But then why bring it up at all?"
With slow precision, he said, "Because it is an exotic name, and lends verisimilitude to the scrivener's claim of wide travels."
Wat had been savoring a mouthful of his beer; now he swallowed it and said, "But he isn't speaking in rhyme."
A muscle jumped in Chaucer's jaw. "Verisimilitude. Not versimi -- that isn't even a word."
This was originally posted on Dreamwidth, where it has
comments. I would love to hear from you at DW! If you can see this post, you can comment here using OpenID. Thanks!
shadesofbrixton and B, though. I also discovered that the final season of Parks & Rec is coming to Netflix on Jan. 19 (or 13? it's already fallen out of my brain), which is great, because that S6 finale was A++++.
Tomorrow is the interview about which I am terrified and I still need to focus enough to actually start working on the prep. I do not think I will have a lot of time for Yuletide until Wednesday, so here are a few more recs; my first batch (they're all great!) is here.
American Girl Dolls, Captain America/Agent Carter: Stars and Stripes (3K words)
I never collected these dolls, though I dearly wanted to, but I adore this fic about Molly, the 1940s AG, listening to the Captain America radio plays and dreaming up her Halloween costume. I want to be Peggy Carter too, Molly! Just lovely and feels like children's books without being dismissive at all.“It always ends at the good parts,” she said and Dad smiled at her. “Will you tell me about the real Nurse Betty? Did she have beautiful curly blonde hair? And was she Cap’s girlfriend?”
Dad folded the newspaper and set it aside. Molly scrambled up to sit on the arm of his chair. “Well, her name was Agent Peggy Carter,” he said. “I only met her a few times, but she had brown hair, just like yours, and she did have some curls. I don’t know if she was the Captain’s girlfriend, but I know he liked and respected her very much. All of the Commandos did. They told me about her. She was fighting in the war long before we were, and she was still there when I left.”
Calvin & Hobbes: School Spirit (Or Lack Thereof) (1100 words)
Oh, just darling! How Calvin's parents got together. I love how you can 100% see Calvin in his mom, and you can definitely see Calvin's dad in his dad.“This is my science project,” she said, somewhat archly. “But the underpants are for the other kids in the theatre class. We’re putting on Pride and Prejudice this year.”
“I knew I had you pegged,” he said, happy to be right - adjusting his glasses in what she would soon learn was a nervous gesture. “What are you doing with those worms?”
“Studying their breeding habits. You can never learn too much about asexual reproduction.”
Dublin Murder Squad Series, His Dark Materials: bluebells and a hawthorne tree (8K words)
You don't need to have ready any Tana French to understand this; it's this stunningly rendered, gorgeous voiced, vivid and visceral look at detectives in Dublin, and some of them can see daemons. It uses daemons to explain why people can do things they can do, and it's just. Oh my gosh, given that this is my favorite of all AUs, I can honestly say I've never seen this done before, and it's wonderful.Daemons certainly behave as if they take up space, if there’s enough to be had, but I’ve found that if I look closely, they are often sitting, quite literally, in the middle of things. It’s a persistence of vision, a thaumatrope-that optical illusion with the card and string that promises a bird in an empty cage. Is Ishihail really sitting on my rucksack while I’m crammed on the bus, or is his head sort of peering out the top while the rest of his body is obscured? When I press him to my cheek, he’s warm, and his heartbeat is as tiny and rapid as the ticking of a lady’s watch. Boughs dip and gently wave when he lands in a hawthorn tree, and now and again he’ll help himself to a gulletfull of my coffee. But he doesn’t leave splashes on the counter, and he’s also never had a pee, as far as I know. I’ve heard Ish skitter papers on my desk, and tried getting him to stand on a scale, but he seems to weigh vastly different things and he won’t settle long enough to let me get a good reading. What's more, he won’t tell me why.
A Knight's Tale: The Book of the Duchess, or, In the Dungeons of Her Grace (3400 words)
Of course, Yuletide by nature always has to deliver an excellent story in this fandom, and this is an excellent story, totally nailing both the peanut gallery and the story itself. Chaucer's possibly-not-allegorical tale is a real joy of a fairy tale too. Just a very pleasing read!"But then why bring it up at all?"
With slow precision, he said, "Because it is an exotic name, and lends verisimilitude to the scrivener's claim of wide travels."
Wat had been savoring a mouthful of his beer; now he swallowed it and said, "But he isn't speaking in rhyme."
A muscle jumped in Chaucer's jaw. "Verisimilitude. Not versimi -- that isn't even a word."
This was originally posted on Dreamwidth, where it has
comments. I would love to hear from you at DW! If you can see this post, you can comment here using OpenID. Thanks!