Pan-Atomic Publishing

I just got back from holiday!

I was super lucky that I was able to get tickets to four of the shows in the Mountain Goats Aus/NZ Tour. I had such an amazing time following them around, and even got one of my song requests played! My only regret is that I didn't do more shows (joking... mostly). I met so many wonderful people, and it was very cool seeing the familiar faces at all the shows. I did record all the shows I went to, and I think they all turned out okay except the Adelaide show (because I recorded more of the crowd than the band :( I'm so annoyed at myself). I'll figure out how to get those up onto the Internet Archive in the next couple of days.

Photos to come!

I posted a Chain of Acheron fic for fandom_empire!

bravest face [G, 313 words]

Nails wakes up weak, tired, and with silver eyes.

Or, the beginning of the end.

I thought it might be the first fic in the tag, but it's actually the second... But it's still the first with canon characters! The Chain is probably one of my favourite D&D actual play shows (is that what they're called?), I was so sad when it was discontinued. I re-listen to it all the time.

I wrote four more original works for fandom_empire! All exactly 333 words.

Still Dreaming (sequel to Doctoral Dreaming)
[warning: surgery]

The second dream was the same as the first, with a new patient on the table.
( Keep Reading )

Are You Listening?
[warning: death of parent, corpses]

The world has been ending since you first became sentient — later than your sister, whose first memory is of the two of you in your cot — since that day when you were five and you were struck with the sudden knowledge that you existed.
( Keep Reading )

Displacement

The sun rose over the fields of Mary's little farm like it did every morning, with a long metallic whir as the shades fell from the reinforced glass sky.
( Keep Reading )

Broadcasts, Unheard (sequel to Are You Listening?)

You sold your soul for a pack of gum, three weeks and four states over.
( Keep Reading )

I've been pretty busy lately, now that Uni has started for the year. I'm not particularly interested in the classes I'm doing this semester (and I'm still annoyed I wasn't able to take any astronomy classes...) but whatever gets me to a degree. I haven't been able to play D&D again, because it's a nightmare to coordinate six people when half of us are casual and they don't know their schedules ahead of time. I really don't miss that, having my roster changed around on me was the main reason I went full time at my last job.

I also gave a presentation for my local astronomy org! I was super nervous, because I've historically been pretty bad with public speaking, but I think it went okay. I was probably talking too fast, but it is what it is -- I think it ended up being about twenty minutes long (20-30 minutes was the guide). I only presented in front of about twenty people, so it wasn't too daunting. Most of them seemed pretty happy with it! I didn't really get any of the questions I thought I'd get at the end, but someone did take a picture of my 'where to find out more' slide, which means I did enough to get him interested!

I did overhear one guy saying "thankfully there weren't any questions" as he left, and I don't really get what he meant, but I'm choosing not to dwell on it. (Which is much easier now I'm medicated for anxiety...)

Fandom-wise, I posted chapter two of falling asleep with the lights on (my Heated Rivalry sickfic). Got a couple of nice comments, which is always lovely. I really need to get better at replying to comments...

Speaking of, someone on tumblr rec'd my first Heated Rivalry fic bad decisions! I got fifteen comments literally overnight, it was very exciting (and a little confusing, before I found the post!) I have a theory that people are more likely to comment on a fic that they've been rec'd, rather than one that they've just stumbled across, does that match anyone else's experience?

Either way I'm really liking the Heated Rivalry fandom so far. It's nice writing for a big fandom again! I've never been the best at making fandom friends, but everyone's been super nice so far. I also made a Heated Rivalry sideblog, if anyone wants to follow me there!

A couple of sessions under my belt now, and I think it's gone okay. I threw a bunch of orcs at my players, and they seemed to have fun. I did have to do a little bit of fudging behind the screen so they didn't all die, but that's because I knocked out their only spellcaster out in the first round, so they weren't dealing as much damage as I thought they'd be. Game-wise it went pretty well... People-wise, well. One guy showed up drunk, which I wasn't very happy with. It mostly went okay, but he wasn't able to focus, and we were basically babysitting him all night. If it happens again IDK what I'm going to do, because I really don't know the guy well, but I'm not doing that again.

In nicer news, I had brunch with my dad. We aren't super close, mostly because we're both (probably) on the spectrum, and have a bit of trouble talking to each other. We're both studying right now, which gives us something to talk about, even if I'm not as invested in my course as he is. And he played D&D as a teenager, so we can talk about that. He said that he might even have some of his old metal-cast miniatures somewhere that I could have. (I don't think he still does, but I won't complain if looking for them motivates him to finally clean up his garage.)

I finally got to meet with my new D&D group! It went mostly well, especially considering I had four people I'd never met before in my house.

I wrote up a couple of options for campaigns we could play, which they seemed to like. My only complaint is that they picked the *one* option where I said that they would have to play a specific race (dwarves), and then decided that they didn't want to play dwarves... and I don't know them well enough yet to push back, so I guess that's what we're doing. I think in general I want to play a more serious, high fantasy sort of game, while they want slapstick comedy with a fantasy paintjob. Which was my problem with the last group I played with.

We'll still have a fun time, it's just annoying. And I'm not social enough to seek out a group I would like more.

Posted a new HR fic for fandom_empire! There's so many things I should probably be doing, but instead I spent several hours writing about Shane having a really terrible day.

Title: kicking at the topsoil
Word Count: 2756
Warnings: Racism, Homophobia, Outing
Summary:

Three messages come through from Hayden:
I'm so fucking sorry Mnan
Are you OK????
CALL ME!!!!'
Which is concerning enough that Shane does.

Or: Hayden accidentally publishes a FanMail video that outs Shane. (No, not that one.)

[Read on Ao3]

I posted a new heated rivalry fic for fandom_empire.

Title: Poor(ly) Timing
Pairings: Shane Hollander/Ilya Rozanov
Word Count: 1331

Ilya passes out on the ice while Shane's on the eastern seaboard.

( Excerpt )

I made five icons for fandom_empire. I had a lot of fun with the rainbow theme! The Paul Baker icon is probably my favourite.

Adults is such a fun show, very re-watchable.

( Spoilery Thoughts: )

I finished Pluribus! Such a good show. To celebrate, I made a few icons:


( Variants )

I'm still sort of noodling around with PicMonkey, figuring out the best way to do things. But overall I'm having heaps of fun! And if anyone has any tips for getting sceencaps, I'd love to hear them :)