wolffyluna

I have recently acquired an electric bike. I went back and forth on whether to get one (due to the expense, risk of getting stolen, etc) but I finally decided to. I am for various reasons deliberately not buying a car, and I live somewhere hilly enough that having a bit of help from a motor makes a bike more practical.

I have only had it for a few days and they have been... an exciting few days. I am developing a love-hate relationship for this heavy thing that goes NYOOM. But at the moment it is mostly love, just. If it was a boyfriend and not a bike, people should be worried, but it's an inanimate object, so it's probably fine. ("Yes, he hurts me, but he can change!!!")

But yesterday-- it was pouring rain, but I decided that shouldn't stop me from taking it for a spin. I also managed to have a literal fender bender* that day, which was the day after I bought the thing. I had to try and repair a bike while in the rain by getting instructions from a discord friend. Also, because I wear glasses, I could only sort of see where I was going. But I have RARELY FELT SO ALIVE. I LOVE MY BIKE.

But any way. I'm having fun, and I am appreciating being able to get places faster, and once I get more confidence, I can go even fasterer.

...if I end up as mincemeat on the road at some point, not that I died doing one of the things I loved.

/* My bike, me, and a bike rack got into a disagreement that ended up with me falling one way, the bike falling the other, and bending the wires that held the front fender in place. It was fixable, thankfully, by being the wires back.

I've cracked. The propaganda has worked.

I have put in a library hold request for the first volume of Witch Hat Atelier.

I'm trying out the Gideon Method with both my writing and craft projects. The short version is: you have five 'slots' for works in progress. You work for about 12 hours on one project, and then you got to the next project in the queue for about 12 hours, rinse and repeat. Once a project is done, it's slot is opened and you can add a new project to the rotation.

I'm not sure how well it will work with writing compared to crafts? With writing you're much more likely to go "wait, what was I doing with this one again?" But it seems worth an experiment.

Behold, my current Gideon queue:

I have had. A week. Or, well. Ten days.

Now, a bunch of what happened in that ten day span was supremely frustrating, but also, supremely doxxing. Needless to say, it ended up with me working 24 days instead of 21 in a row, and also my suitcase being. stuck at my workplace.

But I have, also, had something not doxxing happen, and it's funny because it's a very "how the hell did you DO THAT?" injury. You see, I injured myself with that most dangerous of crafts: spinning yarn.

( injury details )

Anyway, I have also had good things happen. I have discovered sweet potato slump. (Excuse the shorts link, the recipe is in the description box.) A slump is a type of dessert that is like a crumble in that it has a layer of fruit, and then a layer of something on top, but in a slump's case, the layer on top is cakey.

I knew that sweet potato in desserts was a thing. But with this recipe, I have been converted. Sweet potato cooked in spiced syrup is so so good, it's soft and warm and sweet but still has that complexity of sweet potato without the spices or sugar overpowering it. And by baking it still with it's syrup, you make this spiced sauce that goes so well with the cakey layer on top. And it's so simple too! It's a solid 'it's saturday, I want dessert, but I don't want to spend all day making dessert' dish.

(WickdConfections has a whole series of historical African American dessert recipes that this slump is a part of. I haven't tried any of her other recipes, but I definitely am going to try some of the other simple ones, because goodness is this a good recipe.)

( General and Art Likes )

I have recently got very into Vampires SMP. It is a linked series of Minecraft Let's Plays of several players all playing a modded version of minecraft. (The 'SMP' in the name stands for 'survival multiplayer' which translates to 'on a multiplayer server where you can die and have to gather resources.) The modifications: vampires exist and have access to powers that the 'human' players do not have, including the ability to turn humans, and there is a capture the flag like mechanic about claiming beacons for the vampire or human teams.

But what makes this most interesting are that all of the players are roleplaying, and that the game very quickly becomes a social deception and deduction game-- one made even More So, because at the beginning, most of the characters do not believe vampires are real.

Now, roleplay combining with social deduction is fun enough, but there is another reason that Vampires SMP has got it's claws into me so much: the way point of view works. Because each player creates and edits their own videos, and these videos are all in first person. If the player did not see it, the camera and the viewers don't know about it. (Only adding to this is the fact that players will often edit conversations they have, so two videos of the same conversation can be slightly different.) This leads to people doing soliloquies to their audience. To people having conversations where from one point of view you know they are a vampire, and from the other you have no idea that they are lying. It leads to, in one case, someone giving a dramatic speech thinking it worked because the other characters only went "so, they were lying, right?" after they left.

But even better, is the way that, at least for me, you end up seeing things through that character's eyes and ~agreeing with them? Which makes it interesting to then watch those same scenes from other people's perspectives. Is this person reckless and jumping the gun, or full of reasonable paranoia and intense emotion. Is this person in a revolving door of loyalty, or do they keep getting driven away from people.

It's fun!

I made some things for it!

pistachios (1545 words) by WolffyLuna
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Goblin Emperor Series - Katherine Addison
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Csevet Aisava & Deret Beshelar
Characters: Csevet Aisava, Deret Beshelar
Additional Tags: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Aftermath of trauma, Set After Winternight, Csevet-centric, Implied/Referenced Sexual Assault, Referenced violence, Referenced Death, Missing Scene
Summary:

After the attempted assassination, Csevet cannot sleep. He meets Beshelar in the kitchens of the Alcethmeret.

The Promise (1222 words) by WolffyLuna
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Oathsworn (Actual Play Podcast)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Dorado the Adamant & Nabain Palisade
Characters: Dorado the Adamant, Nabain Palisade
Additional Tags: and the absence of Serikali, Post canon, Missing Scene, Dialogue Heavy, Major Spoilers
Summary:

“Did you ever speak to Serikali?” Dorado asked.

“Not as often as I would have liked.” The broken promise settled over his shoulders like a yoke. But even under that weight, he still could carry curiosity. Dorado was direct: if she changed topic, there had to be a reason.

silver peonies (2460 words) by WolffyLuna
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 苍兰诀 | Love Between Fairy and Devil (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Dongfang Qingcang/Xiao Lanhua
Characters: Dongfang Qingcang, Xiao Lanhua (Love Between Fairy and Devil)
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Fluff with feelings, Trans Female Character, Makeover, dongfang qingcang is bad at feelings
Summary:

Lanhua cocked her head. “Do you want to be human again?”

“No. It’s—” The feeling scurried away from the light of scrutiny. “I want to be a different person. But not too different.” She threw out a random suggestion. “Like myself, but a woman.”

Xiao Lanhua lit up, eyes sparkling.

Qingcang recognised that expression from experience. She waved a hand again. “It was just an example.”

Thread of Duty: (aka the Cavalry General and Embroidery Mage arranged marriage romance.) Finished, except for cover, formatting, and acknowledgements. I mean, I could edit it again? But also, I can move forward. ...even if that would require working out what to do with it. (Insert combined rant about both Amazon and itch.io.)

Survival Showdown: (aka VR streamers in not-a-death-game.) I thiiiiiink it's had it's second draft? But I'd need to check. So the first step is 'reconstruct where I was up to with it, and go forward from there.' Also, then work out what I'm going to do with it. (See above rant.)

Sapphic Steppe Atrocities: (which needs a more descriptive name.) I have got an editorial letter back, and need to go do some chunky edits to the thing. The next step is to go and do research on the Central Asian Steppe (short chain of logic gets me here) and research on [deep sigh] early modern Japan and World War 1, even though I don't want to do either (a longer chain of logic gets me here.)

Emperor/Favourite: partway through outlining.

Hi. How are your days going? Yesterday, I experienced an hour long surprise hike feat. 31C and humidity + having to psychologically manipulate some cows.

*So. Picture this. Before work, we realise that two of us need to to Mining Town in the morning, while two of us need to go into the office (which is in the middle of a cattle station). But we only have one work car.

... one of my coworkers does have a personal car, which he is willing to let us borrow.

So. The coworker who owns the personal car + another guy drive into town... with the work car. Me and my other coworker take the personal car. It's an old rattley thing with no clearance, but it is technically a four wheel drive, so it should be fine on the dirt station tracks? Right?

We turn off the highway, and start driving down the tracks. Within 5 minutes, we mysteriously lose power steering. A minute later, the check engine light comes on. During that minute as we try and work out what was going on, my coworker goes "FUCK LOOK AT THE ENGINE TEMPERATURE GAUGE." We stop and get out.

Belt? On the ground. A worrying mix of radiator fluid and oil? Also on the ground. Bonnet? Gently smoking.

We are currently in the middle of a dirt track, in the middle of nowhere. The weather can best be described as "the inside of Satan's swampy butt cheeks." It's going to take a couple hours for our coworkers to get to Mining Town and back. We have no phone reception. We have limited water and no air condititioning.

But we have some water, and our office has A/C and a phone, and it is, technically, walking distance.

So we spend an hour wading 7km through the more humid parts of the Devil.

But we are on a cattle station. There are cows. Now, these cows are appropriately afraid of cars: they'll get out of the way but they won't panic. They are inappropriately afraid of people on foot: we are talking full on galloping away from us PANIC, the earth shaking under their hooves.

Now. Flight is fine. We're going to have a problem if any of them choose fight.

My goal: get the cows to run away from us while we were still as far from them as possible... without freaking them out so much some decided to run in the wrong direction. With their horns down.

Now, I don't know much about cows, but I do know about horses. And horses and cows are basically the same [citation needed.] How would I manipulate a horse to get them to run far, far away?

I stood up very, very straight. I picked a cow in the herd to stare at dead in the eyes. And I thought thoughts like "mmmm, steak tartare," and "you know, it's always been a dream of mine to rip a still beating heart out of a rib cage as I watch the life leave my victim's eyes, but I've just never had a chance to."

Which worked way better than it should have? So we reached the office, without dying of a heat stroke, cow, or coworker avenging his car.

Before I forget: If I am incommunicado, or something odd happens to my account on December 10th, do not worry! I will be alive (...inshallah?), just potentially fighting Australia's incoming under-16 social media ban.