In the penultimate episode of Succession, Ken orders his driver to get to Rava's in three minutes, "I'll figure out fines and violations".

It's like, dude. This is how you get in car accidents. This is how you get people killed. Kendall is guilt ridden about the death of Andrew Dodds, but is not actually taking any action to keep something like this from happening again.

In the middle of the night, I woke from a really vivid, elaborate dream:

Ben had fallen in love with a girl from a hippie evangelist Christian sect.

In the dream's meta-tags, there'd been a lot of history: He'd left to be with her. He'd come back. He couldn't live without her & left again. He came back. He had to go back to the sect to get his stuff, and he'd only be gone for four days, and he was definitely coming back—but when he came back, he was very sorry, but his love for this woman was bigger than everything—

I wasn't hurt. I was furious. Get out now, I snarled, and pushed him out the door.

He was shocked, But-but—

I wasn't sad over Ben at all. The only thing that was on my mind was how was I going to handle my life on my own? Two kids and all these animals!

###

The girl Ben had fallen in love with was married to the leader of the hippie evangelist Christian sect, and I was hip to the fact that the leader was essentially pimping her out, and that's how the leader got recruits for his sect.

Not expecting to be kicked out, Ben had invited the girl, her husband, and their four impossibly platinum-haired kids to live with us.

I found them in one of the bedrooms.

OUT, I thundered.

The girl slit her eyes and looked at me haughtily. Of course, I was curious about her—she was short, slim, had chestnut hair and oddly tilted eyes. Nothing to look at. I was much better looking. She must be some kind of sexual goddess, I thought because that was one thing Ben was very, very good at, sex, and I often felt a little inadequate because my sexual needs and performance are on the simple side: Does not take much for passion to ignite in me.

I shoved the girl and her husband/leader out the door.

Felt a bit sorry for the children who were sweet and innocent, but no, they'd have to go, too.

###

(Again in the dream meta-tags.) Stephen Silverman had found me the apartment.

I'd gone to him in great distress, and he'd told me, This is a very special building. Chateau D'Amboise (?) Rent controlled: $1,500 a month. It's a very special building; only special people are allowed to live here.

The apartment was very messy, crowded with unpacked boxes and cages in which lived a number of cats—a large ginger female and a tiny translucent Bengal, no bigger than my fingernail, among others.

There were also several black and white puppies running around yipping.

You've got to get RTT to walk the puppies, otherwise they'll shit all over the place. And you've got to get the cats water—

Only in transferring the tiny snail-like Bengal to a cage with water, I somehow killed it. Felt an impulse to mourn and reminded myself sternly: You don't have time for that now.

Went out with the puppies. Somehow ended up at one of the outdoor cafeterias at U.C. Berkeley where I filled my pockets up with candy. Knew I had to get back to the Chateau, but didn't know which bus to take. Guessed I'd have to find a taxi, but could not find one.

###

Finally, I was back at the Chateau, only I couldn't remember which floor I lived on. Took the elevator to various floors. The floors all had various themes—I remember the tenth floor was Paris: You got out of the elevator, and you were in France.

Somehow I was in another family's apartment, & I recognized the family—You're Tamsin's mother, aren't you? But they did not recognize me. I did notice, however, that even though the family had lived in the apartment for years and years and years, it was almost completely empty. The interior decor of my apartment, as cluttered as it was, was actually more attractive.

Finally went back downstairs to the lobby and asked the concierge: Where do I live?

The concierge was a burly gentleman in elaborate livery with an elaborately curled mustache. He consulted an illuminated medieval scroll and told me, You live on the 15th floor—

And I awoke.

###

The heat dome had not yet descended yesterday, and so I spent four very pleasant hours playing in the dirt at the New Paltz community garden.

The New Paltz community garden is vast:



This morning I woke up with a mysterious stomach ache & kind of freaked because how am I gonna keep Black Chicken comfortable when the Heat Dome descends plus my car's AC isn't working—it's an expensive fix and requires sitting for an entire day at the dealership in Kingston—& suppose the Nazis invade, and I have to flee?

But I suppose it will all work out.

It almost always does.

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silence rang out on the day
that we should have spoken
but we thought it would be better
than trying to un-ring the bell

     where in the world are you taking me? i asked, breathless. you didn't respond; you like to keep me guessing. or at least that's how it seems from my perspective while i wonder how it seems from yours. when we reached the pinnacle, i found myself too awestruck to question anymore. the world opened up, all greens and browns and blues, and i was there with you. the silence embraced me, a warm blanket that was comfortable to the point of suffocation.
     i broke it, as i am wont to do, with a joke about the view, with a smile and a wink in your direction. as if i could not let myself be comfortable there, even for a moment.

and why should i be comfortable
when we are what we are and
when we're doing what we're doing
why shouldn't i be afraid of

     i never did find out exactly when it was that you fell in love with me, if you did, since i never found that out, either. you told me a few times, but i guess i had a hard time believing it. it doesn't really make sense, after all, this thing between us. but the pull you have over me—it's incredible. i think i do that to you, too, but i just think. too much thinking without any knowing.
     we moved away from the peak, our feet crunching against old leaves that lazily fell to the ground in colder months, their trees shaking them off with the grace of a wet dog, renewing themselves. it feels different from the hair that falls to the bathroom floor when i shave my head, but i can't pinpoint why. maybe if i could, i would find that renewal. as it stood, i just followed you along the path you were making.

what are we becoming as we
slink silently to the shore
plant our feet in the water
and will ourselves to grow

     at its apex, i fell for you, and at its nadir, i second-guessed. i let myself embrace the silence between us, depressed the need to fill it up with words. i reflected myself in the water and saw you there, a distorted image that was almost wrong, but not wrong enough to give me the pause i needed. just wrong enough to put a question in my mind, words that my mouth would never form.
     it wasn't the first time we met, and it wasn't the last, but it sticks in my mind like used chewing gum clings to old carpet fibers. and it stays there as my thoughts race, trampling it bit by bit until it is a stain, an unremovable bit of miscellany like so many others. some days, i should very much like to cut that square from my mind and replace it with a fresh piece, ignoring the incongruity; it would fade in time to match the rest.

we are alike in so many ways
i am drawn to the similarities
and fascinated by the differences
you said we make a good team

     when you asked me to run away with you, to put aside everything else that i had worked for, to start a new life with you in another place, i didn't have to think. i had been, instead, waiting for you to ask. the ease with which i shed my skin came as a shock to me, but i could never tell you no when your thoughts met mine. maybe i should have. maybe where in the world are you taking me should have fallen from my lips like it did on the mountain.
     but I fear that all i've ever wanted was quality time with you.

I don't know if this one's going to happen. I'll have to crank out 5 fills in 4 days. But it makes me think of BBC Sherlock's Sally and Stella.

https://getyourwordsout.dreamwidth.org/856782.html?thread=10808526#cmt10808526

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↑↑↑ Available dates:
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Hi, how's it going? :3 Today's Free for All is the last chance for making new prompts before Lonely Prompts Week starts. ✨ There are no themes to follow for prompts or fills. If you've had any ideas this week that didn't really work with Tuesday's or Thursday's posts, today's your chance to prompt 'em. Be free, and have fun! ✎

Just a few rules:
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6. If your story has possible triggers, please warn for them in the subject line!

Prompts should be formatted as follows: [Use the character's full names and fandom's full name]
Fandom, Character +/ Character, Prompt

Are today's prompts not catching your eye? No worries, because we have plenty of older prompts that just might do the trick! You can browse through the comm's calendar archive (here on LJ or here on DW) for themed and Free For All posts, or perhaps check out Sunday posts for Lonely Prompt requests. (Or, you can be like me, and try to save interesting prompts as you see 'em... and then end up with multiple text doc files full of [themes + links + prompts] that you can easily look through and search for keywords.) Multiple fills for one prompt are welcome, by the way! Oh, and you are very likely to find some awesome fills to read as well, and wouldn't it be nice to leave a comment on those lovely little writing distractions? ~_^

We are on AO3! If you fill a prompt and post it to AO3, please add it to the Bite Sized Bits of Fic from 2025 collection.

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If you have a Dreamwidth account and would feel more comfortable participating there, please feel free to do so… and spread the word! comment_fic

A friendly reminder about our posting schedule: Themed posts for new prompts go up on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Saturdays are a Free for All day for new prompts of any flavor. Sundays are for showing Lonely Prompts some love, whether by requesting for someone to adopt them or by sharing any fills that you've recently completed.

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Title: Collectors
Universe: Kamen Rider Black RX
Character(s): Kengo, Daisuke
Series: The Unspeakable Oath | Between To-day and To-morrorow | Pagliacci | The Ghost of a Flea | Dangerous Days | dérive | In Accordance to Natural Law | Shadow Moon | Wake Up the Hero! | Rêve | Channelling the Power of Souls | Evanescent Quietude | Pearls Before Swine | One Day Closer to the End of the World | The Nobodies | Breath, Held | Lonely, Lonely Heart | Life Eternal
Rating: PG
Warnings:
Summary: Kengo watched as he looked around, staring at the posters, the old newspaper clippings, the once brilliant gold of Great Mask’s suit reduced now to monochrome grey in the eye of cameras long forgotten.
Length: 466 words
Author's Notes: external link.



( Collectors )

 The Summer Solstice- and it's going to be another in this run of very hot days.

Yesterday we drove across the County to buy the intensely local cheese they make in Rudgwick up against the Surrey border. The cheese is called Sussex Charmer and I've been eating it at the Long Man Inn. The outlet in Rudgwick has a cafe alongside where the speciality is toasted cheese and just about everything they serve is finger food. Where are the knives and forks? we wondered. But, of course there aren't any. This fed into the dream I had last night where I was working at a school and my job was to give out cutlery to the children then collect it up at the end of the meal. It was a peach of a job (though it entailed early rising) and I got on wonderfully with the kids.

Rudgwick has a church. I thought it a very average sort of a church. The pictures I took of it were very average too (the sort of uninspired, documentary pictures I've taken in a hundred different places: view of the tower from the south-west, check, close up of tower, check, view looking eastward down the nave, etc.....) so I wasn't particularly upset when I got home and found I'd been snapping away without a memory card.

( beneath the jump. )

✓ kingstoken's 2025 Book Bingo: Non-Human POV

Mirror Lake is the third book in the Shady Hollow series by Juneau Black. The series' titular town is occupied by a cast of anthropomorphic woodland animals who keep getting embroiled in crimes. In this one, a picturesque autumn is disrupted when a rat from neighbouring Mirror Lake suddenly declares that her husband has gone missing and has been replaced by an imposter.

...okay, is it weird that I wanted the story about a fox named Vera Vixen solving playing sleuth to be more twee?

I think when I heard "cozy" and "anthropomorphic animals" and saw the book cover, my mind went to things like The Wind in the Willows and Frog and Toad Are Friends, and the addition of a mystery made me think of the Dimension 20 campaign Mice & Murder. Which was to say, I went into this expecting something a lot more stylized, with the animal conceit either adding a lot of whimsy or providing the counterweight to a darker or more satirical story.

Then again, maybe I would have also found The Wind in the Willows disappointingly contemporary if I'd read it in 1908? I definitely think it's true that imaginary Edwardian!me would bounce off the country squire stuff as hard as present!me bounces off the idealized bland upstate New York type village vibe going on here. (And the thing where the only character with a non-WASP name is a panda named Sun Li, which felt like it should have been in the early 20th century book and not the 2020 one.)

All in all, the mystery ended up being what kept me reading this one, since it had an additional twist beyond just a murder whodunnit. It's a short book, but it still dragged a little for me—I think because of the presence of a lot of conversations and very basic/straightforward descriptions that are probably intended to be the thick icing on a cupcake if you're someone who's going to fall in love with the setting. I also didn't really click with the protagonist, but I recognize that I'm coming into this series on the third book and there might have been developments in the first two instalments that would have given me a better sense of her.

But if you are someone this setting appeals to, or if you devour a lot of cozy mysteries and are always up for a new gimmick, or you're someone for whom anthros are an automatic bonus, this might be your thing.

(Also, now I really want fic where Frog and Toad have to solve a mystery. Or where Mole is framed for murder and Rat has to prove his innocence.)

( An Excerpt )

Due to a complicated series of events, I attended a musical put on by a local community children's theater this week.

It went on for three hours. It was rough. In order to get through it, I employed my favorite trick for watching non-professionals perform: I picked out the least coordinated member of the cast in the background, and I just focused on them as they clapped slightly out of sync, and spun the wrong way during every dance number, and looked anxiously at their neighbor to see what to do every fifteen seconds. My target this time also had the advantage of making really exaggerated expressions of surprise and alarm every time something did not go as planned. By the end of the evening, their shirt was untucked, their hair was wild, and they looked ready to murder someone.

Sometimes, it's the simple pleasures in life.

Raising Arizona (1987) -- I've seen this movie one million times, and it always slaps. Holly Hunter's "warthog from hell" line reading is a hall-of-famer.

Yuri On Ice (2016) -- I think I originally watched this series right after it finished airing. I have strong memories of hanging out in my childhood bedroom and marathoning the series, so I must have been home for the holidays. Maybe January 2017? (I also remember discussing it with Gosling at some point, but since I can't find a record of that conversation, possibly it happened in-person?) I found it very charming on that initial watch; I find it possibly even more charming on this rewatch. It belongs on the same shelf as Pride and Prejudice and Moonstruck and Howl's Moving Castle; it's a romance that I absolutely love. It's uneven -- the broad comedy of the supporting cast in the second half of the series is, uh, a choice -- but the core trio of Yuri, Yuri, and Victor is so strong that it easily compensates for the weaknesses in the series. (Admittedly, the series is bizarrely coy about its central gay relationship, but I suspect that this coyness may read differently to future viewers. Watching in the context of 2025, it just seems like Yuri K. and Victor are casually fucking off-screen throughout the entire series while glacially inching their way toward "defining" their "relationship" on-screen using "words." Which seems plausible! Realistic! Deeply relatable!)

On this rewatch, my favorite parts were the moments of friction and conflict between Yuri K. and Victor. There's one scene where Victor says something that makes Yuri cry, to Victor's obvious surprise and distress. Immediately afterward, Yuri has to go out to skate, and we spend the scene listening to his inner monologue, which is basically a litany of Stupid Victor, he shouldn't have said that, but now he feels soooooo bad about it, yessssssss. It just perfectly captures that sickening satisfaction of having a fight with a loved one and watching them say something that they instantly regret, and you can see that knowledge flash across their face, and you have the perversely heartwarming experience of knowing, in that moment, that they love you so much that this particular exchange is going to haunt them thereafter. Even if they originally had the upper hand in the argument, now you have effectively won in all the ways that matter. The show nails a beautiful moment of piercing human insight! (And then the moment gets reversed at the end of the series, when Victor cries and Yuri goes ooooooh nooooooo. Incredible stuff!)

Kate Racculia, Tuesday Mooney Talks To Ghosts (2020) -- A wealthy eccentric has died, and his will decrees fabulous prizes to whomever solves a series of cryptic clues hidden throughout Boston. Joining the hunt is Tuesday Mooney, a self-contained and self-assured researcher who is definitely not still haunted by the unsolved disappearance of a childhood friend.

This book starts out as a zany puzzle-solving quest in the vein of The Westing Game -- and then, midway through, it takes a turn into much darker and bleaker territory. Violence! Murder! Psychological disintegration! Maybe a ghost? The ultimate effect is one of two separate novels grafted together. And also the puzzles get abandoned, as if the book has abruptly bored of them. (This is the shortest city-wide scavenger hunt in the history of the genre! There are...two clues total?) And the climactic reveal of the game's "understory" suggests that Wealthy Eccentric and his collaborators are maybe cruel psychopaths and not the lovable whimsy-makers that the novel seems to think them.

I thought the first half of the novel was kind of terrific, but it went steadily downhill thereafter.

Schedule

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( Playing the game )

 

( After the game ends )

Not just reading Bleach again, but watching it again. I never finished the old anime (and I guess the new one of the final arc isn't done yet but should be this year?). I wasn't sure where I was up to last time I watched, which would not be an issue if it were still on Crunchyroll, but alas... I was pretty sure I'd already seen the Shunsuke Amagai arc, which is the absolutely most boring filler arc. I will take no arguments on this. So I started the episodes just after, and it seems like that's a good choice, because it all seems to be Hueco Mundo episodes I haven't seen.

I remember last time I was watching I was excited to get to the end of the boring filler and get to animation of bits I enjoy from the manga, but I must have gotten distracted by the dozen other things I was watching at the time. Now I've reached episode 204... which turns out to be more filler, hahaha! But at least I got to see some cool fights before that.

Nnoitra v Kenpachi felt a little dragged out animated, but I do like the ending, the way the flashback makes it clear that they fight for totally opposite reasons. Kenpachi is so fighting obsessed that it's always a shock when he has his moments of adult sense and maturity, but it is in character for him, and I do like him telling Ichigo that fighting everyone and saving everything is not his job (I mean, we know that Ichigo is the main character and that therefore saving everything is his job, but it is good to see a semi-responsible adult tell him he doesn't have to be responsible for everything). I feel like Byakuya vs the guy with all the eyes was more exciting to me in the manga; the problem with how slow the anime is (and I get it's A. because they didn't want to outpace the manga too much and B. because this is aimed at 12-15 year olds, and therefore characters talk slowly; tbh, it's helpful for me as a language learner that they talk slowly) is that some things hit stronger for me in the written form where I can read at a pace that makes the impact strongest. But I do love Byakuya being ice cold in service of saving Rukia and how far he's come since the soul society arc. Mayuri vs Szayelaporro is like, fine, whatever, I liked it in the manga but I don't like Mayuri so I mostly wanted it over and done with.

But as soon as this new to me filler is done (please be only one episode), I get to see more cool stuff animated! For the first time for me! More of the Ulquiorra-Orihime-Ichigo not quite love triangle, my boy Yumichika showing up again, that fuckhead Ikkaku getting absolutely told, etc. etc.

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How to Destroy Your Extremely Successful Game in 1 Day - Infinity Nikki's Cataclysmic Downfall

Everything wrong with the anime adaptation of Whisper Me a Love Song - Agh I'm glad I didn't try to watch the anime first. This is a really well done video, spoilers if you haven't read the manga.

AO3 is entering a new era

the Four Simple Tools Which Have Most Improved My AO3 Experience (on PC)

Why Are So Many Horror Movies Set at Summer Camp? - Interesting bit of history.

The Deserved Downfall of Crunchyroll: Every Controversy and Crime Explained - They didn't even cover everything but this is plenty on its own to condemn them...

The E Train
Idol Wheel Of Chaos | Week 1 | 7 x 100 words
Quality

x-x-x-x-x

Queenie
"Can't carry the world, can't bury the world," her mama used to say, but somehow Queenie was still trying.

With her daughter going to prison, there'd be two more mouths to feed. Queenie was headed to Brooklyn, where the food pantries were supposed to be better. She'd never used them before, but a secretary's salary only stretched so far.

Where would her grandbabies sleep? Her own kids already used the sofa. Guess she'd have to put them in her bed, at least for now. Anything but foster care.

Queenie couldn't protect her daughter anymore, but she'd keep her children safe.


Umesh
Umesh wasn't nervous yet. He was on his way to the airport, to fly home and begin the process of choosing a bride.

He wasn't sure he was ready, but he was twenty-eight and he'd already outlasted his mother's patience. He'd hoped he might meet someone on his own, but it hadn't happened. And his parents wanted him to marry a traditional girl, even though Umesh was a modern man.

He wanted someone pretty and accomplished, but who knew what women his mother had selected? Would the beautiful Anjali be among them?

Umesh shivered. No, he wasn't nervous at all.


Anthony
Quit yer bellyachin', he thought, his father's voice still in his head after all these years. So what if he hated his job? The pay was good. Not everyone got to live their dream. His dream was drinking beer and watching baseball, so no chance of making a living there.

If he had a car, he wouldn't have to ride this goddamn train. And if you was a surgeon, you wouldn't be going to Mrs. Sepka's to fix her toilet.

But there was a game on tonight, and Billy was coming over with a six-pack. Suddenly, things were looking up.


Lainie
It was just after eight o'clock, but Lainie was already drunk. She sat in the back left corner, her usual spot, and watched the other passengers' eyes slide past her. She used to be just like them.

Losing John had destroyed her. Five months she'd known it was coming, but that hadn't prepared her for the crushing grief that followed. Two years later now, she didn't want to die, but she couldn't figure out how to live.

Better to numb the pain and hope it would someday leave her.

Someday, she thought.

But today would not be when that happened.


Isabella
Isabella fingered the acceptance letter inside her purse. Medical school! It was everything she'd ever wanted.

She knew she had a hard road ahead of her. The studying would be intense, and then the years of internship and residency, and after that she still had to pass the boards. But it'll be worth it.

She was dressed in her most businesslike clothes now, on the way to interview for a loan. She hoped she looked grown-up, instead of like a kid going with her grandmother to the ballet.

And Illinois… She'd never been. But she couldn't wait to get started.


Teo
Abuela smelled like cinnamon, the most delicious smell there was. Teo's stomach growled as he thought about churros, but those were a Saturday treat, so he played with his toy car instead.

Down his leg and over the back of the empty seat in front of him it went. He imagined being a race-car driver, though "pirate" and Futbolista were still his favorites.

Abuela touched his cheek and offered him a slice of mango. "Tres paradas," she said. Teo could count to tres.

He watched treetops go by as the train rushed past. This is the world the birds see…


Yuri
Yuri's duffel bag held everything he could carry.

He'd hoped for acceptance, but he hadn't been surprised. There was no room in his parents' culture for boys like him.

"When did this happen?" his mother had asked, but Yuri always knew. He was just tired of hiding, and Andrei's smile had made him brave. Even if his parents never forgave him, he was still running to something instead of away from it. Andrei's house was just a few miles down the track, now.

Down below, sunlight glinted off car windows, a stream of stars pointing the way toward Yuri's future.


--/--

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