Short fics, new shows

[enemyofperfect]

In the brief window left by a Snowflake challenge that doesn't involve posting anything, have some belated Wednesday things!

READ

For some reason I randomly lost interest in the fascinating omegaverse hockey AU, but of course there are many other fics in the AO3!

The Fish's Palace by UrsulaKohl is a lovely glimpse from the perspective of the Myriad from The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie. It makes only oblique references to the book, but is probably more enjoyable if you've read it.

Embargoes, Lifted by pendrecarc, is a delicious Pride & Prejudice cisswap about Elizabeth and the confounding Miss Darcy.

Once and Future by oliviacirce builds on the John M Ford poem Winter Solstice, Camelot Station, which is pretty much what it sounds like. Rich in sense of place, time, and timelessness.

Gold Alpha Yankee by canadianwheatpirates was brought to my attention by st_aurafina, and oh my gosh, it has the dommiest Control and the most devoted Schiffman, all in less than a thousand words!

Family Protocol by talkingtothesky for the same pairing, meanwhile, is 100 words exactly, and nicely chilling.

I'm also a few chapters into Reparations by Saras_Girl after seeing it recced by oracne. So far, it features Harry Potter taking great pleasure in his new status as a Healer at St Mungos, and rather less pleasure in the fact that it throws him into contact with Draco Malfoy, but it seems like that latter fact might change, doesn't it?

In the world of origfic, I (28M) created a deepfake girlfriend and now my parents think we're getting married by Fonda Lee is exactly what it says on the tin, and basically amazing.

I'm also reading Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (previewable here), and it certainly makes a bold impression! Necromancy, spaceships, impassioned teenage rivalry, a heroine fond of the longsword and of disreputable comics. In addition to the general atmosphere of biting sarcasm and abusive hazing, there is repeated mention of rendered human fat, as well as animated human bones, being put to use in the death-obsessed Ninth. But I've been enjoying myself so far!

PLAYED

Seedship, a lovely poignant little game where you're an AI trying to find humanity a new home among the stars. I don't seem to be very good at that job yet, but maybe someday?

WATCHED

The last two installments of Parallax by Adam Westbrook (mentioned previously). I'm glad I watched this; it's entertaining, thought-provoking, and not a minute longer than it needs to be.

This Is My Story, which is introduced here by LeVar Burton. Six short personal accounts of racism in America, five from black men and one from a black woman. I think Burton's own story hit me the hardest.

The Witcher 1x01, "The End's Beginning". I don't think this is my kind of show:  there's a lot of violence and death, and a lot of references to sexualized violence.  To be fair, it does open with animal harm, so it's pretty up front about not being peaceful viewing.  And on the bright side, with my two favorite characters already dead, I don't think I'll feel too sad if I don't watch more.

Sym-Bionic Titan 1x06, "Shaman of Fear". The enemy monster in this episode had a really cute design. Apart from that, still a low-investment watch, which is sometimes exactly what I want.

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel spoilers through the end of season three:

Oh Midge, you deserved to be fired. Even if Reggie had been saying to go out there and make jokes about Shy's orientation, that's not the kind of thing you do without hearing it from the actual person you'd be outing. Wow.

Well, I'll miss having Shy in season four.

I'm also sad about Sophie sabotaging her own dramatic debut and about Susie giving up on her. I was all ready for Susie to put Midge's advice into action and really push Sophie to overcome her own worst instincts! Instead, we got sex jokes and disaster. Maybe I should have seen it coming.

I did enjoy Benjamin this season, at least -- trying so hard to be reasonable when the way Midge left him wasn't. And Mei was a fantastic addition from start to finish. Stephanie Hsu has so much presence!

Fleabag episode 1x01, which was not the most comfortable thing to watch with my parents! But I kind of want to watch more on my own and see if I can figure out more of what it's doing. The asides to the viewer are brilliantly distancing, evoking the protagonist as someone who scathingly observes her life more than she actually lives it, and I'm guessing that both her infuriating behavior and the frequent ambiguity about whether other people are really as bad as she thinks are intentional choices as well. It makes for deeply uncomfortable viewing, but it's also incredibly interesting. I'll definitely report back on this one if I watch more.

Stumptown spoilers through episode 1x10, "Reality Checks Don't Bounce:"

Oh no, Dex shot Miles down! That's so sad! She obviously already misses him! It also broke my heart when she basically said that of course Grey would think she'd sleep with his girlfriend, oh my gosh. Dex, sweetheart!

Of course, it was messed up in a different way when she kept acting like Ansel's independence was hers to give or withhold. I know you're scared of being abandoned, Dex, but Ansel deserves a chance to stretch his wings. Grey seemed to be a pretty wholesome influence on that front, at least.

I probably should not have enjoyed Miles co-opting Grey for undercover work nearly as much as I did, and yet.

Also amazing: Cosgrove pranking Miles once and then declaring herself done with humor forever -- and, for that matter, the car full of animal crackers she was getting him back for. They are honestly so fun together!

The Good Place spoilers through episode 4x10, "You've Changed, Man":

I don't know how I feel about this development! I guess we've got four more episodes left to help me work on that?

It's unsettling that Chidi isn't just relaxed and confident and willing to tell people to shut up, but also... willing to suggest that he and Eleanor stop trying to save all of humanity and just have a quickie instead. Chidi, are you okay?

Also, wow but Jason's comment about "Jacksonville plea bargains" was unsettling. I know that mentioning messed up stuff really casually is like half of his entire thing, but I wasn't expecting that to extend to sexual assault, I guess. Wow.

I will say that Timothy Olyphant's guest appearance was charming. (And since he was just a figment of Janet's imagination, I have no compunctions about enjoying Gen's pervy crush on him!)

And it was kind of fun that Michael got through to Shawn by refusing to be his nemesis anymore and then hooking him with the promise of teamwork.

Comments

[st_aurafina]

Argh, I am still one ep behind on Stumptown, why don't I get paid to watch TV??? It seems unfair.

And it was kind of fun that Michael got through to Shawn by refusing to be his nemesis anymore and then hooking him with the promise of teamwork

The whole ep was a bit up and down for me, too, but this scene with Shawn and Michael was so good. So compelling and good.

I'm glad you liked the POI fic!!

[enemyofperfect]

Being behind can be so frustrating! But I hope you enjoy catching up?

And the POI fic was amazing, so thank you again for mentioning it!