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The world in general and the US in particular do not seem to be having a very good time right now, and neither, really, am I. But there are a few ways I've been dealing with the stress of living in a handbasket that might or might not be on its way to hell, and I thought it might be interesting to list them!

( Hiding. )

( Getting political. )

( Adopting cats!!! )

How has life been treating the rest of you?

Hello, Dreamwidth. I seem to be having trouble keeping up with you lately. Everything is more or less fine in my own tiny corner of the world, there's no emergency that's been keeping me away, it's just... really sad knowing how much isn't fine, and isn't going to be fine any time soon.

But have some Wednesday things.

READ

( Three painfully good DA:I fics, emphasis on "painful". )

I also enjoyed the Witcher longfic Meet Death Sitting by bomberqueen17, as well as some of its sequels. It takes place after the Netflix series, I think? It's got the tiredest, most resignedly altruistic Jaskier, and eventually some Jaskier/Geralt, and a really lovely brave Ciri, and also a sequel where Yennefer sort of dubcons Jaskier (just, not in a way he seems to greatly mind?) into letting her peg him and it's incredibly hot. It's so hard waiting to read the installments that are still in progress! But I've been brave so far!

Also, this ficlet about Finch and Reese and a pomeranian puppy by argylepiratewd for sholio's Happy Distracting Comment Fest is incredibly adorable, with spot on character voice, and I love it. ♥

PLAYED

Mostly Stardew Valley these past couple of weeks!  My astonishingly gullible vestibular system apparently finds the charming pixel art so convincing that it gives me motion sickness if I spend too much time walking around in the game, but I get really invested in these fetch quests, so I do my best.

It's funny, because when I first picked up this game a couple of years ago I had no opinion on any of the love interests, and that's still nearly true -- but somehow since coming back to it this month, I've grown wistful about Robin and Demetrius not being romanceable in a polyamorous fashion.  This is so completely on brand for me.

WATCHED

The Expanse through the entire first season! I really wasn't sure I was going to like it after the first episode, given ( spoilers ). But I actually ended up really glad we kept watching it! There's actual plot that actually kind of holds together, the space politics and environments are pretty interesting, and most importantly, there's a character who makes my id extremely happy.

( Amos-centric spoilers. )

( Other spoilery comments. )

I wouldn't recommend this show without qualifications -- it's fairly heavy on white dudes, and it's got some mild to moderate sexism going on, in that it's got some genuinely interesting female characters, but the narrative can get kind of weird about them. There are also several applicable content warnings: lots of violence, death, and despair, a scene with some really gross attitudes about sex workers, and a fair bit of body horror. But I've ended up enjoying it, and I'm looking forward to watching more!

Sym-Bionic Titan through episode 1x10, "Lessons in Love". Animal harm warnings for "Tashy 497", but this show really seems to have hit its stride. Octus is so adorable? A teenage girl got to have emotional complexity? I really enjoy things so much more when they aren't just all fight sequences all the time!