thisbluespirit: (viyony)
thisbluespirit ([personal profile] thisbluespirit) wrote2025-10-23 08:22 pm

Starfall Stories 50

I've left it a while since I did a crosspost for [community profile] rainbowfic, which was because I was doing a very long sequence divided up into five parts and wasn't sure what to do about it now it's complete - it's something like 28k altogether (this is what has been absorbing my whole writing time for four months, when I've had any). Anyway, I've decided I might as well crosspost all the parts at once and move on. People certainly aren't obliged to read any of it, let alone all of it.


Name: Calla Island
Word Count: 5053
Rating: PG
Summary: Viyony visits Calla Island, the ancestral seat of the Allin family.


Name: Dazzled
Word Count: 5364
Rating: PG
Summary: Viyony explores a sacred cave and gets considerably more than she bargained for.


Name: Assignations
Word Count: 8293
Rating: Teen
Warnings: Death, blood, injury.
Summary: Viyony arranges an assignation with Leion, but she's not the only one with plans for midnight.


Name: Storms
Word Count: 5326
Rating: PG
Warnings: Threat of drowning, sea-sickness.
Summary: Viyony's determined to get Leion off the island.


Name: Harbour
Word Count: 5079
Rating: Teen
Summary: Leion takes Viyony home.
sholio: trio of brightly dressed aliens (B5-Londo G'Kar Delenn)
Sholio ([personal profile] sholio) wrote2025-10-23 08:19 pm
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slippery_fish: (calm)
slippery_fish ([personal profile] slippery_fish) wrote2025-10-23 08:29 pm
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"Middle of the Night" by Riley Sager

Decades after his best friend Billy vanished in the middle of the night, Ethan returns to the house where it all happened. Only to come face to face with people from the past, Billy's body finally being found and messages that might be sent by Billy himself.

A fast read with a good set of characters. I especially liked the take on childhood friendships and how complicated they can be.

I also seem to wise up on Sager's tactics. I kinda figured out most of the twists and the murderer before the end but I never mind something like that. It means that the lead-up is clear and that the author doesn't pull a reveal out of nothing.
usuallyhats: The Second Doctor at the TARDIS console, Jamie biting his knuckles as he looks over the Doctor's shoulder (two jamie ohnoes)
incorrigibly frivolous ([personal profile] usuallyhats) wrote in [community profile] doctor_who_sonic2025-10-23 07:04 pm

Thursday 23rd October 2025

Do you have a Doctor Who community or a journal that we are not currently linking to? Leave a note in the comments and we'll add you to the watchlist ([personal profile] doctor_watch).

Editor's Note: If your item was not linked, it's because the header lacked the information that we like to give our readers. Please at least give the title, rating, and pairing or characters, and please include the header in the storypost itself, not just in the linking post. Spoiler warnings are also greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Off-Dreamwidth News
Blogtor Who's video of the day for yesterday was a clip from 1968's "The Dominators"
Blogtor Who's video of the day for today is a clip of Ncuti Gatwa and Varada Sethu on Radio 1
Nicholas Whyte reviews the Bernice Summerfield novel "Mean Streets"

(News via [syndicated profile] doctorwhonews_feed and [syndicated profile] blogtorwho_feed among others.)

Discussion and Miscellany
[personal profile] purplecat with the winner of the Doctor Who Costume Bracket

Fanfiction
Complete
Always Alone by [personal profile] badly_knitted (Jack | PG)

Icons, Fanart & Creative Endeavours
[personal profile] purplecat with five Martha icons

If you were not linked, and would like to be, contact us in the comments with further information and your link.
nanslice: (Default)
perpetually late to the party ([personal profile] nanslice) wrote2025-10-23 10:18 am

/flops

Hello, friends!

Job continues to go well. talk of money ) I'm now finally in my regular schedule. Last week going into this week was killer, because I was off Thursday and Sunday, and then went into huge work days on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I need days off together! It's so important! But I'm off Thursday, Friday, and Sunday now, and I can't argue about that. My weekend is here! ;3;

I'm still learning how to be at home without being completely flopped (I've been useless lately) but I think I'm getting the hang of it. I've been playing a lot of Darkest Dungeon, which is such a cozy game to me. XD;

I failed out of Kinktober, which is a surprise to no one! XD I'm really no good with challenges like that. Somehow I manage to do exchanges, although I'm running later than I'd like on two right now. :\a I will make a new post for all the art I did manage, since this post is meant to be fully SFW.

Also! Selphie got her Halloween pictures taken! ♥ ♥ ♥


The best little hotdog. ♥
susandennis: (Default)
Susan Dennis ([personal profile] susandennis) wrote2025-10-23 08:53 am

Just the usual

I have a couple of Dollar Store items I need but not critically. And I need to get gas, but not critically. So I might not do either today.

Last night's dinner with Bonny turned out to be dinner with Gail and Jim and Bonny. Jim lives across the hall next to the Jim who needs a lot of help. Gail lives on the other side of the complex. Neither are very interesting and I was not the one who invited them to join us. But, it worked out fine. The service was very slow. I like eating in the dining room once in a while but it is a production that eats up your evening. I have other, more interesting things to do. Plus there's the eating. Gail got a pork chop which she said was delicious and she really would have loved to have picked it up and gnawed all the good off the bone. But, she didn't and I wouldn't have either. HOWEVER, I will when I order it for take out tonight! Take out means you can spice your food to your heart's content and eat it any way you wish. Also some of their menu items do not 'take out' well. I had trout last night which was delicious.

Volleyball was short this morning. We usually play for 2 hours but a bunch of people were missing and the asshole was one of the few people who showed so we quit. The asshole says stupid, insulting things and has no player skills nor does he seem to be interested in acquiring any and he's dangerous to play next to. All of this annoys me but what annoys my friend, Steve, the most is that a few weeks ago, the asshole lost his swimming trunks and so now just wears his underwear. It's knitting boxers so not tightly whities but it really annoys the shit out of Steve. Which amuses me. So all is not lost. Anyway we quit after an hour. It was fine.

I've been on the hunt for a rain jacket for a while. It has to be the lightest of weights with a hood and pockets, of course, and room for a sweater under. I finally set Gemini to the task this morning and found a nice on on sale at Columbia. As much as I hate ordering from places other than Amazon, Columbia seems to have a fairly easy and straightforward return situation which, in my experience, means it won't need to be returned. hahah.

Ugh. I just saw an article about how successful TV drug ads are. Ugh.


20251022_190907-COLLAGE
runpunkrun: chibi me with pigtails and fangs, text: punk (punk & disorderly)
Punk ([personal profile] runpunkrun) wrote2025-10-23 09:19 am

Game: Kentucky Route Zero

Kentucky Route Zero is a creative and thoughtful interactive story about debt, grief, and the relentless march of capitalism, but also creation, repair, and community. There are enough dialogue choices that I felt like I was actually engaging with the characters, who all have their own thing going on, and you're even given some choices about who you can hang out with or where you go next. Some choices will give you a deeper engagement with the story and some just add further texture to this world.

Because it's a story more than a game, you can explore the environment and talk to the people you meet and accomplish tasks you're assigned, but it generally plays out the same regardless of your choices. There aren't any puzzles to solve except for the mystery of wtf is going on, and you'll do most of that on your own time.

The stylized art contributes to the mystery because you'll want to know more, but can't. You view this world from a set distance and because you can't zoom in to inspect the details, there's a kind of remove to it, like you're in a movie and just have to go where it takes you. It's best experienced in a dark room because it's literally too dark to see if there's any light around you.

The story is messy, with the past sliding through the present, and many questions are left unanswered as you attempt to deliver some antiques to an address you can't find. You start out with Conway, a big rectangle of a man, and his old dog, who you can name Blue or Homer—I went with Homer—and along the way you meet people who join you and bring their talents and troubles with them.

The dialogue between the characters slowly reveals their histories and concerns, and at times you can even talk to the dog as a way to talk yourself through what you're thinking. The dog doesn't talk back, but all the other characters have distinct personalities, and I felt like I was building real conversations—and relationships—between them through my choices.

However, I had a real problem with something that happened about halfway through the game that made me feel used, and it colored the rest of the play for me. I could have just stopped there, at the end, and parted with it unhappy, but I couldn't shake the feeling I was missing something and so the next night I started it up again and gave it a second chance, with Blue.

I still have a big issue with that aspect of the game (it involves alcohol, an alcoholic, and a choice that isn't a choice), but my second playthrough picked up a lot of things I didn't see the first time, and I'm glad I gave it a second try. It's definitely a unique story, filled with wondrous things.

Recommended, probably, if you like worldbuilding, games with low stakes—you can't really make mistakes here, though I somehow managed—interesting characters, found family, and a world that's punched through with mysteries: abandoned mines, hidden caves, a moldy computer, an underground river, and of course the secret highway—Kentucky Route Zero.

I've got content notes down below, feel free to ask me for more details. I played this on my Android tablet through my Netflix subscription.

Now for my chronological thoughts as I was playing. Vague spoilers for the game throughout.

Homer )

Blue )

Contains: (metaphorical) amputation (maybe); alcohol and alcoholism; debt, foreclosure; dementia and the impending loss of an old friend; repeated references to the death of a child; dead horses, on screen; an old dog who has seen better days but keeps on seeing them; some sounds (mainly discordant electronic ones) made me very anxious, but there's nothing abrupt, loud, or jump-scary.

Accessibility: The game has white text on a black background, which you can't change, but you can change the size of the text and remove some glitch effects. You also can control FPS on the video and turn on captions for the audio.
profiterole_reads: (The Secret Circle - Diana Adam Cassie)
profiterole_reads ([personal profile] profiterole_reads) wrote2025-10-23 06:02 pm

Eclepsis by Aloïs

The French graphic novel Eclepsis, written and illustrated by Aloïs, was awesome! Basile lives in Gouès, where only women are allowed to practise witchcraft. After transitioning, he leaves for Eclepsis, where he takes the exams to enter the Academy of Magic.

This will be a trilogy, and I'm very excited to read more. The characters are loveable, the two magic systems are interesting and the art is great.

In addition to the trans male protagonist, there's some f/f. For more HP-like LGBT stories, check out my rec list. For more LGBT Quick Reads, check out my other rec list.

Thanks for the rec to [personal profile] malurette!
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-10-23 11:41 am
Entry tags:

Bundle of Holding: Nightmares Underneath (from 2023)



The August 2023 Nightmares Underneath Bundle featuring The Nightmares Underneath, the old-school horror-fantasy tabletop roleplaying game from Chthonstone Games.

Bundle of Holding: Nightmares Underneath (from 2023)
yhlee: d20 on a 20 (d20)
yhlee ([personal profile] yhlee) wrote2025-10-23 09:07 am
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short story rec: Chris Willrich's "A Random Walk through the Goblin Library"

A Random Walk through the Goblin Library" by Chris Willrich [Beneath Ceaseless Skies]. Superlative fantasy + math short story. I am excited to FINALLY be able to shout about this now that it's published - I had the privilege of reading this in draft and I love it to pieces. :3
dewline: Virus Don't Care (virus)
On the DEWLine 2.0: Dwight Williams ([personal profile] dewline) wrote2025-10-23 09:55 am

About My Interests Here

Yesterday, if memory serves, I added Public Health to my profile's list of interests. I consider that choice on my part long overdue.
karios ([personal profile] karios) wrote in [community profile] yuletide2025-10-23 07:59 am

Interactive Fiction (IF) For Yuletide 2025

Are you interested in text adventures, CYOA, Twine games, or other sorts of interactive fiction? Do you want to let your writer know you'd be happy to receive something along those lines? Are you looking for someone to write IF for? This post is for you.
 
 
(I copied and pasted this directly from last year which was also copy pasted from previous years. Let me know via comment or discord ping if any of the links broke or anything else needs editing.)
 
 
What is IF?
 

Interactive Fiction (IF) covers everything from text adventures through to visual novels, by way of all sorts of experimental works. It can be mostly a game, or mostly a story; it can be a way to immerse the reader, or to play around with the concepts of storyteller and audience; it can be an exploration of chance, or of fate; it can be a straightforward story, or something else entirely. From Healy's post:
 
 
[IF] is a term used for games which are made up primarily of text, like Adventure, Zork, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and other text adventures, or more experimental hypertext works like My Father's Long, Long Legs, or even visual novels. Interactive fiction these days is generally divided into two groups based on how you interact with the game: parser-based IF, and choice-based IF.
 
 
Parser-based IF, more commonly known as text adventures, are controlled by typed in commands, like "GET KEY", "OPEN DOOR", "GO NORTH", "LOOK UNDER BED", and stuff like that. Not every command you type in will work, though, so they're hard to get used to if you haven't tried them before. To make things easier, here's a card of most of the common commands. Some good parser-based IF to try first would be Ryan Veeder's So, You've Never Played a Text Adventure Before, Huh?, Admiral Jota's Lost Pig, Andrew Plotkin's The Dreamhold, and Adam Cadre's Photopia.
 
 
Choice-based IF is simpler; you just pick from a number of options. This can be done through hyperlinks and other clicky selections, though more rarely you may have to type a number from a list. Good examples of choice-based IF include Anna Anthropy's Star Court, Alan DeNiro's Solarium, the various games hosted by Choice of Games, and most every given visual novel.
 
 

Writing IF for Yuletide

 
IF is considered opt-in for Yuletide - please don't write it for people who don't want it. If you aren't sure whether it would be welcome or not, ask a mod to check with the intended recipient.
 
You are still required to follow the normal rules, such as focusing on requested characters (unless the recipient has said you needn't include them all).  

It can be hard to figure out what word count an IF story really is - what you've written is full of code that doesn't count, and what your recipient sees may vary in length depending on their choices. If you're posting to the main collection, try to overshoot the minimum requirement a bit, just to be on the safe side. Say a minimum of somewhere between 2,000 and 4,000 words. Or probably about 10 to 15 minutes play through.
 
If your post to the main AO3 collection is under 1,000 words (e.g. you're just linking to an online playable version elsewhere), please drop the mods a note so they know it isn't someone posting something under the minimum, and provide them with an estimated word-count.




If you're writing a treat, unless it includes over 1,000 words of text and you're also sure your recipient would be happy with it as a main gift, please post it to Madness

Your recipient does need to be able to access what you've created! Please link to a suitable IF interpreter if required, or if possible make a web-playable version.
 

Requesting IF for Yuletide
 

If you would be happy to receive IF this year, please leave a comment below, following this template:
 

 
 

IF Canons Nominated for Yuletide

 
Plenty of IF canons get nominated for Yuletide! While it's still important to ask before writing IF for someone, someone who consumes IF already will probably be more interested in getting it. (Some of these canons were adapted into other mediums, so it's possible that someone who's interested in one of those isn't at all into the IF side of things. Thus why it's important to ask.) Consider requesting or offering one of these if you're interested in IF for Yuletide. For 2025 moontyger thoughtfully composed a list of IF canons in the tagset, available here: Interactive Fiction in the 2025 Tagset!
 
Some IF Tools

 
A * means they can make web-based games.
 

Parser-based

Inform*: One of the biggest development tools for making parser-based IF. Has an English-like code. Available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Quest*: Another big IF development tool. Has a click-and-point editor with the option to check out the code. For Windows and web.
TADS*: A long running engine for writing interactive fiction, though generally not as easy to use as Inform. The latest version can make web-based games, although they need to be hosted on a non-https address or on the IFDB.
 

Choice-based

Twine
*: Very popular tool for making choice-based IF. Has a visual editor, with some code-y bits for variables and the like. Can be extended with some Javascript passages. Available for Mac and Windows, and Twine 2 is web-based. See this comment for more notes.
ChoiceScript*: Used by the fine folks over at Choice of Games. Uses simplified Javascript to make games. It's very stat heavy. Requires a text editor. See this comment for notes.
Ren'py: Engine for making visual novels. Uses a simple scripting language. Available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, and can make games for all those platforms.
Inklewriter*: A completely web-based engine for making CYOA-style games.
 
yhlee: Alto clef and whole note (middle C). (Default)
yhlee ([personal profile] yhlee) wrote2025-10-23 08:51 am
Entry tags:

therapy spinning, helpy catten edition

handspun yarn

This one's headed for [personal profile] helen_keeble. :3

(Sorry, I need to source some purple spinning fiber! I'm running low on inherited detash wools and most of what I have is blues or neutrals.)

cat loafing on spinning fiber

Cloud was VERY HELPY.
glitteryv: (Default)
Glittery ([personal profile] glitteryv) wrote in [community profile] recthething2025-10-23 09:29 am
Entry tags:

Community Recs Post!

Every Thursday, we have a community post, just like this one, where you can drop a rec or five in the comments.

This works great if you only have one rec and don't want to make a whole post for it, or if you don't have a DW account, or if you're shy. ;)

(But don't forget: you can deffo make posts of your own seven days a week. ;D!)

So what cool fanart/fics/fanvids/fancrafts/podfics/other kinds of fanworks have we discovered this week? Drop it in the comments below. Anon comment is enabled.

BTW, AI fanworks are not eligible for reccing at recthething. If you aware that a fanwork is AI-generated, please do not rec it here
lauradi7dw: me wearing a straw hat and gray mask (anniversary)
lauradi7dw ([personal profile] lauradi7dw) wrote2025-10-23 08:55 am

Should have mentioned

I posted several times when Cory Booker was in the midst of his long talking streak in the senate. I didn't do the same thing the other day when Jeff Merkley did 16 hours.



The easily distracted woman (me) wonders how many shift changes there were for the stenographer, hands seen lower right.
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-10-23 08:51 am
Entry tags:

Girl in the Creek by Wendy N. Wagner



Faraday, Oregon, seems to have a missing persons problem. Its problem is much worse.

Girl in the Creek by Wendy N. Wagner
The Comics Curmudgeon ([syndicated profile] joshreadscomics_feed) wrote2025-10-23 11:23 am

Soapy Thursday

Posted by Josh

Comics Curmudgeon readers! Do you love this blog and yearn for a novel written by its creator? Well, good news: Josh Fruhlinger's The Enthusiast is that novel! It's even about newspaper comic strips, partly. Check it out!

Judge Parker, 10/23/25

I don’t know if I’ve actually spelled out the current Judge Parker situation, but it goes like this: April vanished after her Norwegian spy encounter and Randy vanished after going off in search of her, leaving their daughter Charlotte in the care of her increasingly drunk and depressed grandparents and, once they got too drunk and depressed, Neddy. Charlotte has been rather shy and withdrawn under her semi-competent care, until she got wind that Neddy and Sophie had a pet squirrel at one point in their youth (possibly in their foundling days before Sam and Abbey took them in, this is deep lore from before my time) and went absolutely berserk. You never know what’s going to trigger a child who’s experienced significant emotional trauma, but that face in panel two is one of the most terrifying things I’ve ever seen in the comics. I assume that Neddy is holding onto her temple because Charlotte’s shrieks are growing so intense that she’s afraid her skull is going to shatter like an eggshell.

Mary Worth, 10/23/25

Speaking of terrifying children and their mental powers, I am dying at Jeff’s dialogue here. You have to imagine that “Did that really happen, Mary?” was put in a painfully neutral tone, and then, when he had to come back with “I agree with you. I’ve been around enough to have seen things in life that cannot easily be explained!” he took it to the next level of neutrality, because he knows he needs to be very careful if he wants to get back to shore alive.

Dick Tracy, 10/23/25

Hey, remember Silver Nitrate, who last we saw a year and change ago was having a hard time in prison? Well, he’s still having a hard time, and now he’s got to decide if he trusts the prison infirmary to dispense psychopharmaceuticals that will actually soothe his mind instead of potentially making things worse. It’s a real downer! I think this strip should go back to violent gangsters with weird shaped heads shooting tommy guns at people, personally!