foxinthestars

So, after my return to DW, it turns out I haven't been around much.

I'm still writing honzuki fics, but posting them here got no response so it didn't feel like there was much point. They are all going on Ao3, though. I also found my way onto the honzuki discord, and I'm not super engaged there either, but somewhat connected. (Turns out that was the place to find beta readers for this fandom; some of the other writers kindly pointed that way in their authors' notes.)

Anyway, as research for one of these fics (part that isn't written yet), I've been trying out genuine maple syrup as a substitute for white sugar, and I've found that sweetening tea with it tastes quite good. I even have some granulated maple sugar on the way to play with. Not cost-effective for ongoing real-world use, but if you're in a fantasy land with analogues of sugar maples but not sugar cane, you can make it work.

Being a fan of Beware of Chicken also makes this fun since maple syrup is a big thing in that series.

Viscountess Eeville and the Spotted Shumils (1005 words) by foxinthestars
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 本好きの下剋上 - 香月美夜 | Honzuki no Gekokujou | Ascendance of a Bookworm Series - Kazuki Miya
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Ferdinand & Rozemyne (Ascendance of a Bookworm)
Characters: Myne (Ascendance of a Bookworm), Ferdinand (Ascendance of a Bookworm)
Additional Tags: One Shot, Humor, Culture Shock, Worldbuilding, References to 101 Dalmatians, Blanket Permission, and in the best and truest tradition of AoaB people sit in a room and discuss things
Summary: An animated movie song lands Rozemyne in Ferdinand's lecture room for more literary culture shock. As usual, everything she knows about storytelling is wrong — including the idea that everything she knows is wrong.

( full text under the cut )

So, following up on the note from my previous post, I went ahead and watched the premiere of "Observation Log of My Fiancee Who Calls Herself a Villainess," and... yeah. That didn't do it for me.

See, for me a major draw of the "villainess" genre --- and reason I keep coming back despite the glut of entries --- is that this is a genre centered on women, typically imperfect women who rise above adversity and are loved even if they're a complete fool or they really like punching people or they're probably on the autism spectrum or whatever not-conventionally-attractive trait they might have.

This premiere, however, is mostly about how the male lead is a flawless prodigy who can do absolutely anything to the point that life is boring to him and how he finds his foolish reincarnated fiancee amusing. It would be like if the male lead of "May I Ask For One Final Thing?" was the viewpoint character and the female lead (who really likes punching people) didn't get to punch him. Add to this a minor plot point made of fatphobia and dieting, and yeah. Sorry, show, you're just not a good fit for my team.

Hopefully Always a Catch will fulfill my "fun villainess anime" quota for the season.

Wanting to Know what you Don’t Want to Know (3896 words) by foxinthestars
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 本好きの下剋上 - 香月美夜 | Honzuki no Gekokujou | Ascendance of a Bookworm Series - Kazuki Miya
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Karstedt & Sylvester (Ascendance of a Bookworm)
Characters: Sylvester (Ascendance of a Bookworm), Karstedt (Ascendance of a Bookworm)
Additional Tags: Sylvester has just been through the wringer and may not be the most reliable narrator atm, Karstedt however is reliable in general, Minor Character Death(s), Past Child Abuse, Animal Death, Veronica was horrible, and now there’s a purge, this gets dark is what I’m saying, but I tried to end it on a hopeful note, takes place during part 5 vol 1, spoilers through the end of part 5, and in the best and truest tradition of AoaB people sit in a room and discuss things, Blanket Permission
Summary: During Ehrenfest’s winter purge, Sylvester is resolved to face the ugly consequences of his decision, and in the process, he finds himself facing ugly truths about his brother’s childhood and his mother’s crimes. Seeing how much had escaped his notice leaves him shaken, but Karstedt is there to support him and remind him of his own better qualities.


( full text under the cut )

I'm in the US lower midwest, and this is the second time this month that the temperature has spiked into the upper 80s/lower 90s F. It's due to happen again later this week, too. And we need to get our air conditioner worked on.

I asked the internet what the climate is like in Whitehorse, Yukon. It sounded lovely.

I really seriously hate hot weather, to the point that if I felt able to relocate somewhere colder, I would. In the SCA, summer is the big season for outdoor events and wars, but my own policy is "A/C or I'm not going."

The first time I said this, it was filtered, so I'll say it again: So far I am enjoying being back! It's early days yet, but I feel like DW addresses a real craving I was having.

No profound new material today; I'm tired.

Yesterday I had a dentist appointment plus my weekly SCA meeting. It was a project night, a new person came, and we had some really nice conversation as we all introduced ourselves (and prompted each other about all the stuff we did) and tried to give some newcomer info. Unfortunately for our post-meeting restaurant trip, it was one of those nights Panera was out of everything; we all wanted warm soup but like everybody else in the county probably already had wanted warm soup, so I ended up resorting to the French Onion. It didn't taste bad, but not good enough to get again, plus it was a gamble; sometimes too much onion doesn't agree with my tummy, but I got away with it this time.

Then today I did my weekly-or-so Walmart pickup and got lunch from the local Senior Center; they were doing corned beef and trimmings for St. Patrick's day. I totally forgot to wear green, tho.

I've been thinking of doing like a read-along here, going through a light novel series I like bit by bit and posting about it. Honzuki (Ascendance of a Bookworm) is the most likely candidate, but if I wanted space for on-first-reading material I could do Weakest Tamer, or I'm also quite fond of Beware of Chicken (which is Canadian not Japanese but still essentially a webnovel-turned-light-novel).

So, I've been away from DW for a long time. My last post was, wow, three and a half years ago. But lately I've been feeling like I want to come back.

In the meantime I'd largely moved to Facebook, since that's where I keep up with my RL friends (mostly my SCA shire and kingdom right now), but the atmosphere there is way different of course, and I was getting back in the mood to ramble about fannish things and just ramble in a more DW-esque way generally, so I guess here I am?

Right now I'm obsessing about Ascendance of a Bookworm -- hereinafter "Honzuki" (new anime season countdown, woo!) -- and yet again trying to get back to studying my Japanese. Conveniently, Honzuki's publisher, TO Books, puts their Japanese edition ebooks on American Amazon, including novels, manga, and the novels in a "Junior" edition with furigana (pronunciation glosses) on everything. They also offer the same options with Weakest Tamer and Tearmoon, and I've been enjoying the former for that reason; it lacks Honzuki's "OMG this is the best thing EVER!" valence, but it's fun. I did enjoy the anime of Tearmoon back when, but I don't feel like going back to that one.

There's other stuff going on, not all of which I want to put in a public post, but that seems like enough for now.

Um, hello again?

I am going to be out of town (and probably away from DW) for about a month. I'm going out of state to attend my sister's baccalaureate graduation ceremony. And a fiber fest. And she has really good East Asian supermarkets where she lives. Also legal cannabis. I'm excited to see how this goes.

This time I'm going to attempt the multi-state trip by car. I have a bit more trepidation re: seeing how that goes, but I feel reasonably confident.

It's Yuletide time again! Thank you, kind writer, for volunteering to write a story for me, or for considering writing a treat for me!

I've been doing Yuletide every year since 2011 and it's a precious annual tradition for me. I hope my prompts inspire you and you enjoy Yuletide this year, too!

See under the cut for the things you need to know… ( Includes prompts for Fiber Arts Anthropomorphic, Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, Pui Pui Molcar, and Toshokan Rocket )

Okay, finish your Yuletide assignment and you can crochet another hat.