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ijuststareatstuffhereok89 · 1 month

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"Time & the Trickster" A Loki/Doctor Who crossover

Chapter 10: Green Sky in the Morning

You and Loki strike a bargain before continuing onward to England. Sylvie has an odd encounter as she and The Doctor begin to sense your final approach.

CHAPTER WARNING (18+): none

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You screamed before you clapped your hands over your mouth and sank to the earth in shock.

The sky was green!

Joey was running up the hill in a panic. “SIS! SIS!!!” He fell down beside you and gathered you into his arms. “I don’t know what happened, it just…greened over!”

“Did this just happen?” asked Loki, out of breath despite the lack of physical exertion.

Joey briefly looked up at him. “Yes! We were just cashing out at the cafe when it kind of just…swiped green? Like a Lucas swipe?”

“Shane’s gone down to the boat to give it a test ride around the shore,” Carrie added. “So we can get the hell out of here as soon as possible. Jesus Christ, what’s happening?”

Loki pulled the time stone out of his picket before yelping and tossing it to the ground. “Ouch! It burned me!”

As the stone landed, it sent out a visible green wave that pulsed thrice before rolling off to the horizon. Loki noticed, but he didn’t allow it to distract him. “It’s happening…it’s picking up speed,” he mumbled in panic.

You dared look up again, hoping that maybe it had gone away as you blinked. Instead, you were met with another odd sight: a large white furry creature flying off into the mint clouds, brown patches on his fur that looked like…arrows?

Oh god, just don’t look up anymore, you told yourself.

“What the hell is that?” asked Carrie, pointing up at the creature.

“It’s got someone riding on it…” said Loki.

“Shit,” Joey mumbled, recognizing the beast alongside you. “Just…ignore it. More beings that don’t belong here must be getting through.” The flying buffalo creature flew away, the faintest cry of ‘yip! yip!’ following behind from its rider.

“Makes sense,” Loki added, the urgency returning to his voice. “No one can deny it anymore…time is running out. More crossovers are taking place.”

“Then we really should leave tonight,” Joey said, holding you a little tighter.

“No,” you said softly, wrestling yourself out of his grip. “You can show Loki where the fucking end is.”

Joey was instantly confused, but he turned his head back to the curious sky. “Huh? I don’t--”

You were fully drowning in your emotions now. Pointing an accusing finger at Loki, you scowled. “He’s been keeping exactly where he’s going to end up a secret from us, because he knows we’d never help him do it!”

“Can we talk about this inside before it starts raining jello?” asked Carrie. “Jesus Christ, I still don't know what the fuck’s happening!”

“Agreed,” said Joey, releasing his hold only to get to his feet. You were unstable in the midst of everything, but you also managed to stand up.

“I’m going to go see if Shane’s coming in,” Carrie barely managed to get out before shuffling down the hill toward the dock, mumbling loudly the whole way. “What the fuck…what the actual…”

As you and your brother dashed inside, Loki bent over to retrieve the stone, but saw that it was beginning to singe the grass around it. He chose instead to leave and see if it cooled down away from his grasp. No sense in causing any injury before it was necessary, though he still clung to the hope that it wouldn’t be.

“So, you’re going to give up basically everything but your life in order to sit on a hunk of gold at the edge of time and hold onto a bunch of timelines like they were kite strings?” Joey tried to make sense of what Loki had just confessed, pacing back and forth in a manner that you weren’t used to seeing in your typically-relaxed brother.

“Yes.”

“Alone.”

“Yes.”

“...and you’re just going to….sit there?”

“Using my magic, I will keep the timelines safe and thriving,” Loki replied. “I think it’s a fate I’ve been heading toward my whole life.”

You resisted the urge to throw a Precious Moments figurine sitting on the shelf you were staring at in order to avoid joining the rest of the room in conversion. You’d gone from upset to seething rage, feeling taken advantage of.

“...forever?”

“Likely.”

In spite of the emergency painting itself in green hues above your heads, you’d all retreated to your room and drawn the blackout curtains in order to figure everything out in dark privacy. An untouched tray of cold food from Margaret sat on the table. You refused to look at Loki. Joey tried to act as the mediator, a role for which he had minimal experience.

Rain began to fall outside, and its normally-calming pitter-patter filled the room before you had a chance to turn around and have a look. Loki was able to peek beyond the curtains. His face fell only a little. “Well, at least the rain itself still doesn’t have any color to it…that’s typical for this realm, yes?”

“Y/N,” Joey said uncomfortably, “I’m sorry if I pushed you two together. I didn’t think you’d both go so hard and fast on the emotions.”

“I thought you said you saw all of those films of me!” Loki scoffed.

“Right?” you added, pointing a finger, “When has he ever been the model of discretion or an even mind?”

“Are you suggesting I’m mad?” Loki asked defensively.

“Are you suggesting I’m wrong?” you shot back, giving him a brief pause.

Loki pressed his lips together. “Love, the world is folding in on itself, and now even you can’t deny the danger.” You could sense him moving closer, but you didn’t turn around. “I’ve been preparing for this in my mind the entire time we’ve been traveling. I suppose making peace with it is all I can do.”

“I completely disagree, and the fact that you won’t even TRY to find another way--!” you cut yourself off when you finally turned your body around. Loki had gotten closer than you thought.

“You knew we’d be parted someday, you said it yourself: for now. Yes?”

Rolling your eyes, you leaned back and tried to look casual. “Yes. But I didn’t know that the entire time you held me, kissed me, made love to me under the--”

“--Christ, I didn’t need to know that!--” Joey interjected.

“--stars! The entire time, you kept this from me!” you accused. “Instead of asking me for help!”

“I don’t think there is any way of helping me,” Loki said, melancholic.

Joey groaned. “Drama queen!”

“We’re literally on our way to see someone who can help you!” you emphasized. “For all you know, he could have every answer with him, and he’s just chilling with his TARDIS, waiting for you to show up with the key.”

“Key?” Loki asked.

“The Stone!” said Joey. “You said it got hotter when the sky turned!”

“Yes,” Loki said. “It’s still on the grass outside.”

“Then,” Joey added, “It’s definitely linked. Maybe once we get a Time Stone in range of the TARDIS, it’ll jumpstart a way out of here! I mean, this whole time we’ve been getting closer, it’s been getting more intense, right?”

You raised an eyebrow. “Jesus, Joey, you really do watch Doctor Who too much.”

He beamed at you. “No such thing, Sis.”

“Be that as it may,” you sighed, “I don’t know what to think. I don’t want to make that thing with the tree happen, Loki. It would be like it was all my fault, you know?”

“No!” Loki insisted, finally closing the gap between you, “Never, Y/N. You are only giving me what I want: an end to this instability and to save my friends and allies.” He softly touched your face and looked into your watery eyes. “Don’t cry for me, please,” he pleaded quietly, gently kissing your nose.

“Don’t tell me what to do,” you whispered with weak defiance.

Joey spoke up. “Loki, man, don’t you think we should at least talk to The Doctor before we assume we’re all sacrificing ourselves up there?” he pointed up to the ceiling, as if Asgard lay somewhere beyond heaven. “Maybe we can figure something out.”

“But I will still need to leave you here,” Loki countered.

“I’ve known that,” you replied, your eyes going hot and wet with tears again, “that’s not why my heart’s breaking. I can’t go on knowing that you…that we…that she…”

Loki pulled you tight to his chest, gently rocking back and forth.

“I just want you to be happy for once,” you mumbled into his shoulder. “Everything has been so unfair to you!”

Never in his thousands of years of life had Loki ever heard those words directed at him. His own heart began to break. He let you out of his grip. You began to subconsciously fiddle with the tarot pendant you never took off.

“Look, Loki,” you finally found a wave of calm, allowing you to speak steadily, “We’ve come so far together, but I don’t want to be the last chapter in your story.”

Joey interrupted again, “Again, we need to make sure there isn’t another way out of this for all of us…right?”

You and your brother gave Loki the same pleading look. “Tossing the stone was a risk in and of itself,” said the god. “It failed, as risks often do for me.”

You swallowed, tapping absentmindedly on your necklace again. Loki was beginning to notice your nervous tic. “Risks sometimes succeed, too. You’re here, aren’t you?”

To prevent him from seeing your tears, you turned away again. “You could have died, or gotten lost in the space between the lines, or exploded, or any number of things. But you landed here, in my gray little city, with your green rock…and your blue eyes…”

You trailed off as you felt two large hands on your shoulders, knowing what you had to do.

“If you will promise me that once we reach The Doctor, you’ll let us figure out an alternate way to fix everything and save you, I’ll forgive you and continue this insane little odyssey,” you vowed quietly.

He made his face solemn, and it didn’t look quite right to you as you turned back into his embrace. “I promise,” he agreed, before pausing again. “But you must promise me something in turn.”

“What?”

“You must promise that you’ll willingly let go of me if there is no other way.”

You sank onto the edge of the bed. Loki sat on your left, and Joey on your right.

“I’m not leaving you in Iceland, Sis,” Joey added. “How am I gonna make rent when I get back?”

You smirked. “Yeah, I suppose you have a point.” You met Loki’s eye again. “Yes, I promise to let you go.”

You slid your left hand into Loki’s. His skin was cool against yours. “Then we must hurry,” he insisted. “Norns know what could happen to the planet next.”

“Agreed,” you and Joey said at the same time.

You supplemented your consent. “I guess that means we leave tonight.”

Joey shifted uncomfortable as Loki put his arm around your back, accidentally overshooting, his fingers grazing Joey’s arm. “Yeah, and we should probably do that before things turn into an outright soap opera.”

He got up, heading for the door. “I mean, it looks like it’s just the coloring. I think it’s safe. I’ll grab the stone--”

“--use gloves,” warned Loki.

Joey nodded. “I’m gonna bring the others up here. We need to all figure out what our next move is before we leave. I’ll be back in ten.”

After he closed the door, you finally let your tears out, turning your head into Loki’s shoulder. He said nothing, only holding you tighter.

“Damn you, Loki,” you mumbled into his sleeve.

“I know,” he said sadly, “I love you too.”

The Doctor placed an odd-looking necklace around Sylvie’s neck. “What’s this?” she asked defensively, her hands posed on her hips.

“It's a perception filter,” The Doctor explained, “It’ll make you all but invisible to everyone out there. It’s what the TARDIS uses to stay out of sight. This is sort of the…portable version.”

“Why do I need it if I’m out searching for Loki?” asked Sylvie. She’d finally convinced him to let her go out on her own. Now that the sky was greening over, and the TARDIS seemed to be heading toward a functioning state the greener it got, The Doctor had concluded that Loki could be as close as blocks away (although he could still be as far off as Greenland).

“Because you’ll stand out like a Dalek at Woodstock if you don’t move quietly. If you need to catch anyone’s attention, you can remove it, of course. Or just shriek and bounce around like an ape, I suppose, but that may backfire…”

Sylvie grunted impatiently. “I can feel it…I think he’s close.”

“I still think you need to wait around here, and that he’ll find us first,” The Doctor mumbled. “But it does feel like something’s in the wind, doesn’t it?”

Even Sylvie couldn’t deny anymore that the effects of the collapsing timeline were making her feel antsy. It was like staying in a room with a hot shower running, the steam was growing so hot and thick it was making it difficult for Sylvie to breathe deeply.

“Still, even with the perception filter on you, don't go too far,” The Doctor warned. “This entire reality is as delicate as glass. You meet the wrong person and who knows what’ll happen.”

The blonde woman went to the door. “Fine. I’ll stay about.”

She walked out into the green morning as people in the park were looking up, oddly calm for watching the sky turn an unnatural color. Many had their cell phones out. Children even looked amused. Only a few older people looked upset. One man in a priest’s collar was on his knees in frantic prayer.

Sylvie was able to weave around the distracted people without much effort, leaving the park and heading up the nearby hill. She felt like a shadow, slipping in and out of the cracks in peoples’ consciousness. The discretion made her feel safe. Perhaps the sooner she got back to her little deep-fried corner of paradise, the better for her own mind.

Many people in this neighborhood looked like they spent their lives with their noses in the air, but they were all human. Sylvie would know the second her fellow Asgardian was nearby. He would be the only one in a sea of mortals. Her stone would likely react, as would her senses. She was on guard.

After nearly an hour, she decided to head in a different direction right before something made her heart jump as she spotted it from the corner of her eye.

A man with a frighteningly familiar silhouette to Loki’s was on his phone, wearing sunglasses and a power-blue sweater, standing casually outside a coffee shop. In his free hand, he held a carrier with two large cups fitted inside. His body language looked rehearsed, meant to make him blend in with the crowd as much as possible, as if trying to hide. His head was down, the brim of his baseball cap down over his eyes, further concealing his identity.

Sylvie could hear what he was saying into the phone with her superior hearing. “I’m not leaving for the set until the end of the week, darling--”

She went cold as his face came into focus. Loki! Impossible!

She gripped the pendant, moving to yank it off in order to capture him, but before she could, she did something she wouldn’t normally do: she stopped to think before she acted.

He’s human, she thought. He’s speaking to a lover, and Loki has none.

“--wear whatever you want to the awards dinner, sweetheart, but you know I love the yellow best on you,” the imposter blathered on.

Sylvie rolled her eyes and took a step around the corner, keeping the filter on. He’s only the imposter The Doctor mentioned.

She thought briefly that she might kidnap the man, perhaps he could be of use to her. She took three large steps in the man’s direction, when his head suddenly shot up and swung in her direction. She was only about ten feet from him.

His eyes narrowed, as if he were looking right through her. Sylvie could sense that he had experienced a chill, the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end.

“On second thought, Zawe, I’ll go for the other things in a bit...I don’t know, I just got an odd feeling. I’ll be home in ten minutes. I think I’ve seen enough of this sky.”

Quickly, but discreetly, the Loki Imposter hung up his phone and briskly started walking past Sylvie, still not fully aware of her presence.

She could have stalked him home. She could have captured his wife and held her until he gave up any information he had. Alas, Sylvie chose for the second time both that day and in her life to exercise caution, and she turned away from the actor, going back to the TARDIS with nothing to show for her journey.

Things are heating up!! What will happen when The Doctor, Sylvie, you, and Loki all finally meet face-to-face? Stay tuned for the third act of Time and the Trickster!

@crashingwavesofeuphoria @kkdvkyya @red-shirt-mania @misschris1412 @salvinaa @marygoddessofmischief @spiderstyles04 @fireflymoonwitch @mochie85 @loz-3 @lcolumbia1988 @lokilurker @eleniblue @gruftiela @starkzdaughter @mrsbarnes-avenger @thedistractedagglomeration @km-ffluv @lokisgoodgirl @holdmytesseract @itsthattimedarling @wolfsmom1 @scully2u @shinisenko @mischief2sarawr @ririsutty73 @lulubelle814 @meg81589 @gloriuspurposeposts @theonetruepotato87 @linllewellyn @wistfulclueless @etherealkistar @tinydancer40 @hardtravelerwizard-blog @fangirlofmanysstuff @krabog @soulpiercing @archivelaurarps @banjo-bastard

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gatheringbones · 1 year

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hello! I wonder if you have a tag for or a few jumping-off points for literature about butches and how we relate to our bodies (size/weight, bulk, muscle, ability/disability, feeling un/desirable, space taken up in the world). If not, I'll search harder! Thanks for researching and reading and posting all you do. Your blog is an incredible resource.

tried to include links to all of these but got overwhelmed: here's everything I could think of off the dome:

Please Come And Be Fat by s. bear bergman, see also hir essay from Persistence: All Ways Butch and Femme on butch bodies as sacred multigendered objects worthy of care, as well as the Why Are People Into That? episode on chivalry and the article The Body No Longer Policed By Gender

the essay A Scar Is More Than A Wound that I briefly had access to when JSTOR was free during early 2020; it’s an invaluable text on the intersection of disability and gender nonconformity when it comes to state and institutional violence and the role of aberrant bodies in a violent white supremacist culture

Eli Clare’s books and essays on his history of abuse and how it intersects with his gender and sexuality identity and how that in turn intersects with ability/disability and white american settler colonialist culture

Jan brown’s essay Sex Lies and Penetration from the persistent desire unpacking the myth of the stone butch and diagramming all of the overlaps that crop up when abuse survivors and incest survivors and trans people and broke people and mad people flock to a word like butch and how absolutely none of them need to be “judged, pitied, or analyzed”

Ivan Coyote’s essay from The Slow Fix about butch preparedness anxiety and specifically the bit about lingering catholic trauma, see also Missed Her and Care of and honestly their entire body of work.

Madeline Davis’s essay Oral History and Study of Sexuality in the Lesbian Community: Buffalo, New York, 1940-1960, from Hidden from History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past on butch bonding and brotherhood and sex education between older and younger butches and how the drive and willingness to center and value sex and sexuality gave the gay and lesbian civil rights movement the impetus it needed to change the culture and laws of the united states against its will

Barbara Smith’s essay from the persistent desire on butch power and how much it has to do with the context of that butch’s desires (which has as much to do with femme power and desire as it does with gender and race and personal narrative)

Amy fox’s essay from persistence: all ways butch and femme on the joy and power of being a trans butch and how other butches will orient themselves around the question of transness always with a regard towards their own sense of peace surrounding their body and experience

#lesbian literature #trans literature #gender stuff #wasteland radio

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hometoursandotherstuff · 6 months

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This 1949 home in Columbia, Tennessee has a definite vibe goin' - it's surprisingly moody, neo-gothic, rustic, modern farmhouse, with a bit of tropical & Japanese tea room thrown in. 5bds, 5ba, $920K.

Check it out- Black walls and ceiling with bright yellow buffalo checked sofa and striped curtains. (I'm down w/the striped curtains, but not the buffalo checks- too country.)

Then, at the other end of the room, the vibe changes. There's an old stone fireplace and more moody furnishings.

The kitchen is a modern farmhouse gray with a hint of industrial. From here, you can see a bright cheery turquoise sunroom.

On the other end, you see the front door w/the yellow drapes to the left. They've got an old farm table against a sofa behind the modern kitchen counter. (This is some mix.)

In the sunroom is a dining table with a geometric pattern, plus a wall of floral wallpaper with a sofa upholstered in Asian Chinoiserie. (And, a rustic chest coffee table.)

The black & white guest powder room features wallpaper with flying cranes.

Dark bedroom with yellow gingham curtains and a gossip curtain.

Modern reno'd bath in deep gray.

Small home office with a combo of knotty pine and charcoal walls.

Reno'd bath is white and pale gray.

The turquoise primary bedroom has an English vibe with a leopard accent wall.

Remodeled en-suite has a modern look with a tropical accent wall.

Finished basement rec room is a hodgepodge with a modern sink & cabinetry.

There's a lovely patio and garden in the back.

The grounds are surprisingly beautiful.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/315-5th-Ave-Columbia-TN-38401/41937089_zpid/

#mixed decor #houses #house tours #home tour

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deadboyfriendd · 2 months

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Wild Horse

This is for @dr-aculaaa!! If you are not Drac, keep it moving. (Or you can stay and read this and also read Gutterballs. That would be preferable.)

Read Gutterballs here!

You made a mental note to check the feeder on the front porch later, lest Cecil and Maria lie around your bottlebrushes in wait. It felt silly to name them, you couldn’t even be sure it was the same birds coming around. But, in your heart, you knew it was only right. After all, they were guests here and the weather had just begun to turn. And who were you to deny a guest a drink?

Your fingers were tacky with watercolor pigment and the stretchy latex cling of foam glue. The green of your cutting mat had faded into a teal with use, and cold-pressed watercolor paper fragments stuck to the wide planes of white buffalo sprinkled across your fingers. You should take them off when you do things like this, really, you should. But you thought they looked so pretty when the pigment-tinted water splattered on them and dried.

You looked yourself in the eyes, a mirror reflection encased in talavera tile. You felt the same. The curls arranged in a fast-choreographed pile on your head looked a little more ashen every day. Gray. You forced yourself to regurgitate the word and swallow it again. You made a promise to yourself at twenty that you would not be your mother. That you would embrace it with open arms and welcome it into your home. You just didn’t expect it to arrive so soon.

Pulling yourself away from that mirror, pulling your attention back to the table in front of you. Two thousand one hundred and sixteen running legs, fastened to five hundred and twenty-nine bodies, using one thousand and fifty-eight silver pins. They ran in a stampede of color and pattern and texture. Each one meticulously painted and assembled as its own beautiful being. Each one aptly named.

“I don't know. Maybe. And I don’t know where she’s got that salvaged hunk of tin parked now, but I hope she’s still painting.”

“What did she paint?”

“Everything. Nothing. Me. Herself. Her abundance of rescued desert mutts. Stars. Clowns. Butterflies and Cactuses.”

You laughed solemnly, reaching a finger upwards to feel the raised flesh of hummingbird feather lines before you reached down to pause Gutterballs.

That salvaged hunk of tin sat, still loved and maintained at the end of the property, under her covered carport home. Once a year, during your off-season, she housed one lucky art student in residency for one week as a retreat. Retired, much like you. But did either of you ever truly work?

It was a beautiful life you lived, and you belong deeply to yourself. Bittersweet like the bite of a pimento. You wrinkled your nose thinking about it.

On the back side of the canvas, you inked in delicate writing, “Wild Horses Couldn’t Drag Me Away, 2024” Along with the swirling, sharp aperture of your signature. Though, the piece felt incomplete, merely a mass of horses with no direction.

You trimmed one last body, a swirling, wild mane and a pointed, sure head bowed in forward-facing determination. You pressed the last brass button through the legs and flank of the last horse, wanting to apologize to it for the first prick of creation, yet relished in his brilliant red hue. You placed him further than the others, pulling him forward and out of the stampede. As if he was running harder, faster, than the others.

You think you’d name him Eddie.

#eddie munson #stranger things #stranger things s4 #eddie munson fluff #eddie munson oneshot #eddie stranger things #eddie munson headcanons #eddie munson smut #eddie munson angst #eddie munson imagine #eddie x you #eddie munson x reader #flea #flea's friends #drac #Spotify

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bomberqueen17 · 4 months

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progress etc

god it's less than a week to christmas. ok cool. yeah. great. all right.

i am. what have i been doing??? i don't know. I've sewn several things-- most notably a pair of leggings-- and the house renovations have progressed to the point that we're getting final measurements for counters tomorrow. I'll put pictures behind the cut. We painted the ceiling ourselves, as paint isn't included in the remodel.

I don't remember what I last posted pictures of. IDK there's a floor now, I didn't take pictures of that yet.

ok i was wrong i do have one photo of the floor but it's in-progress, max is in the background wedging it in between the cabinets.

[image description: an awkward angle looking down standing in the side door entryway, with the blue-washed gray side of a new cabinet facing me, some of the plywood subfloor exposed coated in glue, mottled gray fake stone tiles laid out and the hunched form of a man in a gray sweatshirt kneeling on the floor in the background with his head hidden behind the cabinet. Listen I wasn't trying to be creepy.]

it's fake stone vinyl tiles. i know, not normally my aesthetic, and it's probably the thing that'll look most dated in a little bit, but there was no point trying to do anything wooden or wood-look because the rest of the house has original hardwood from 1950 and anything new wouldn't match. (the hardwood badly needs refinishing, let's not contemplate that right at this juncture...)

Max is from Elmira, btw, and only moved to Buffalo a year ago-- just in time for the blizzard to absolutely destroy his first apartment here and wreck most of his stuff. It was a bit of a harsh welcome to the city. He's soft-spoken and extremely polite and doesn't really know how to talk to me, not the way Jim the installer (fiftysomething and very experienced) does. He did gently laugh at me when I left yesterday and then immediately had to come back to get my keys, which I had locked inside the house (but of course as he was still there the other door was still unlocked). "I grew up in the kind of place where you don't bother locking doors," I said, and he was like "lol same".

(I know Elmira because Middle-Little went to college there. It's a sort of dire little place in the Southern Tier-ish region of NY, a couple hours away. The region is fairly economically devastated, alternating crushing rural poverty with Tourism Dollars; Elmira itself boasts a college, a prison, and precious little else.)

Anyway-- painting the ceiling over the weekend, I discovered that the real life hack for painting a ceiling is for at least one member of your party to be six feet three inches.

[image description: my dude, a tall thin white man in an uncharacteristic ball cap he's only wearing to avoid paint splatter (it is embroidered with the HTML tags <head> on the front and </head> on the back, and was a gift to him in like 2002) is standing on the cardboard-and-sheet-draped floor of the kitchen using a paint roller on the ceiling, which he can reach easily; in front of him the cabinets are all draped in old sheets as well and there's a random light bulb sticking out because the installer wired that in for us to use as a work light since the electricians haven't installed the ceiling lights yet which was why it was an ideal time for us to paint said ceiling.]

Anyway it's going great. The counters won't go in until January sometime, but early January. The electricians plan to come the day after Christmas and I won't be there until the afternoon so I'm going to check in with Jim today about what they'll need.

Meanwhile, I remembered that I hadn't set myself the goal of crafting anything for Christmas except I bought a bunch of scarf blanks from Dharma Trading to dye as gift wraps and gift components and my basement is all torn apart and I don't dare make that kind of mess in my mother-out-law's basement so I need to work out how to get that done so I'm really kind of slogging through that, a bit.

OH i just went to look at what the last pictures I posted of the kitchen were and the answer is LIKE NONE so omg sorry here's before we painted the ceiling, where you can see what it's gonna look like!

[image description: This is View A, from the side door toward the front of the house. Along the left of the photo is a line of cabinets, a set on the ground and then another mounted up on the wall; in the middle of that will be the sink, and then farther down a dishwasher (!!!) and beyond that the stove, all along that north wall of the house. The middle of the photo is the big bay window we had installed, and there are cabinets along the front of it: the countertop will extend out from those, and will form a seating area. To the right of the window, the front door is now visible, that little wall having been removed and now being a wide-open space into the entryway. The right of the photo is the interior wall of the kitchen, now transformed into a built-in pantry space with a fridge hole in the middle, where the extra flooring tiles are currently stacked.]

[image description: this is View B, from the front door into the kitchen. The foreground is the big open space where the wall was removed; the bay window is just out of frame to the right, and the far wall shows the empty space (now containing buckets of floor glue and a roll of cardboard) where the stove will be, and above it will be an extractor hood (no more Everything Smells Like Salmon!!), and the empty space (now filled with a rolling garbage can the contractors are using) for the dishwasher, and then the little window right above the sink-- this is a detail we've kept from the old kitchen, that's where the sink was and that's where the window, but the window seems bigger because the cabinets aren't packed so tightly around it now-- and you can see the side door there, and then the left of the photo shows the edge of the pantry unit where the fridge will go.]

It's a much more open space, both of us can be in there, someone doing dishes while you cook is no longer the world-ending inconvenience it historically has been, and also now you can talk to someone in the living room while you're in the kitchen without needing to holler.

Yeah the gray cabinets are-- well they're pale wood washed with dilute blue, is what they are, and all the hard fixtures are in neutral shades like that, grays and gray-blues, and the countertops will be white with tiny sparkles, and the idea is that the big wall to the west and the little bits of wall around the windows will be painted some bold color we'll match with like throw rugs and hot mats and other changeable fixtures, so the kitchen can get "redecorated" with a new coat of paint and not clash with the hard fixtures. This job cost five figures, we're not re-redoing it during our lifetimes.

#about the author #home remodel #etcetera

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journeytothewestresearch · 3 months

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Laozi's Powerful Diamond Cutter

My first article of 2024 focuses on Laozi's "diamond cutter" (jingang zhuo, 金鋼琢; a.k.a. "diamond snare," jingang tao, 金鋼套), an uber powerful holy treasure. The fillet first appears in chapter six when it is used as a blunt throwing weapon to incapacitate Sun Wukong during his rebellion. It later reappears in chapters 50 to 52 as a mysterious, shiny, white string of pearls used by a buffalo spirit to instantly suck away magic weapons and animals and defeat even destructive elemental attacks, kind of like a personal black hole generator with a built-in pocket dimension. It’s so powerful, in fact, that even the sight of it is enough to make Monkey and a host of other gods flee for their lives.

My article quotes all mentions of the weapon, complete with the original Chinese; explains how it was created; describes the history of terminology that ties the treasure to diamond-pointed tools used by craftsmen west of China to work hard stone like jade; demonstrates that it is a mirrored literary element to Sun Wukong’s headband and Prince Nezha‘s fire wheel; and, finally, explores its influence on three fillet-like throwing weapons from another Chinese vernacular classic.

#Journey to the West #JTTW #Laozi #Taishang laojun #diamond cutter #diamond snare #holy treasure #weapon #Sun Wukong #Monkey King #Great King One-Horned Buffalo #Laozi's buffalo #Great King Rhinoceros

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androgynealienfemme · 11 months

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"I need to go home to you tonight, Theresa. I can't. So I'm writing you this letter. I remember years ago, the day I started working at the cannery in Buffalo and you had already been there a few months, and how your eyes caught mine and played with me before you set me free. I was supposed to be following the foreman to fill our some forms but I was so busy wondering what color your hair was under that white paper net and how it would look and feel in my fingers, down loose and free. And I remember how you laughed gently when the foreman came back and said, "You comin' or not?"

All of us he-shes were mad as hell when we heard you got fired because you wouldn't let the superintendent touch your breasts. I still unloaded on the docks for another couples of days, but I was kind of mopey. it just wasn't the same after your light went out.

I couldn't believe it in the night I went to the club on the West Side. There you were, leaning up against the bar, your jeans too tight for words and your hair, your hair all loose and free.

And I remember that look in your eyes again. You didn't just know me, you liked what you saw. And this time, ooh woman, we were on our own turf. I could move the way you wanted me to, and I was glad we'd gotten all dressed up.

On our own turf... "Would you dance with me?"

You didn't say yes or no, just teased me with your eyes, straightened my tie, smoothed my collar, and took me by the hand. You had my heart before you moved against me like you did. Tammy was singing "Stand By Your Man," and we were changing all the he's to she's inside our heads to make it fit right. After you moved that way, you had more than my heart. You made me ache and you liked that. So did I.

The older butches warned me: If you wanted to keep your marriage, don't go to the bars. But I've always been a one-woman butch. Besides, this was our community, the only one we belonged to, so we went every weekend."

- Excerpt from "Stone Butch Blues" by Leslie Feinberg, On Butch and Femme: Compiled Readings, (edited by I.M. Epstein) (2017)

#stone butch blues #leslie feingberg #on butch and femme #on butch and femme: compiled readings #lesbian #lesbianism #butch #femme #butch and femme #butchfemme #butch lesbian #femme lesbian #lgbtq+ lit #lesbian lit #queer lit

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jhungajewelry · 1 year

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White Howlite Pendant 925 Silver White Buffalo Pendant Large Stone Pendant Statement Pendant Boho Pendant White Turquoise Jewelry Gift Her

#White Howlite Pendant 925 Silver White Buffalo Pendant Large Stone Pendant Statement Pendant Boho Pendant White Turquoise Jewelry Gift Her

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halo--hall · 26 days

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tagged by @ukkigirl to share 6 songs i've had on repeat 🖤

i will tag @velocidaixxtor @captainspaulding @racingmiku @hauntanelle @otisbdriftwood @kestreleve @desperadore @weggebobble @deadratinhotcar @snuffdoe & anyone else who wants to do this! also no presh if you don't want to lol, just spreadin the love ✨

#Spotify

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bookgeekgrrl · 2 months

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My media this week (18-24 Feb 2024)

i'll always prefer the og but this iteration is entertaining

📚 STUFF I READ 📚

The Old Codgers Greatest Hits Album (AggressiveWhenStartled, author; quietnight, narrator) - 57K series, canon-divergent stucky co-starring peter parker. Reread of this hilarious forever fave where first teenage peter is forced to deal with two body-swapped geriatric supersoldiers and then bucky is forced to deal with two teenage spidermen trying (and failing) to stealthily rescue their "dog". Great podfic by quietnight, absolute hilarity

History of American Capitalism (Zenaidamacrouras1) - 85K, shrinkyclinks college AU with superstar QB!Bucky & history nerd Steve - incredible found family dynamics, can't believe @zenaidamacrouras1 made me actually really get into an AU that involved both undergrads AND football. The nerve! The talent! (the fic is single POV but there's an amazing companion piece that's Bucky's convos with this sister that give a his POV on some of it and it's equally amazing)

💖💖 +347K of shorter fic so shout out to these I really loved 💖💖

Half sleep, half waking (softestpunk) - The Sandman & Rivers of London crossover: dreamling, 8K - amazing crossover! I wish there was 60K of this for me to read

Road to Joy (Oddree13) - Stranger Things: steddie, 25K - latest chapter in this omegaverse steddie series that I absolutely adore

Knit One, Purl Two (mollus) - MCU: stucky, 32K - reread; forever fave WS recovery fic with lots of softness in the form of: knitting, dancing, soap making and senior citizens

Red, White & Royal Goose (fairestfaerie) - RWRB: alex/henry, 7K - I just love a good Soulmate Goose of Enforcement fic

This Sunlit Land (eyres) - MCU: stucky, 38K - wonderful canon/timeline-divergent WS recovery AU

📺 STUFF I WATCHED 📺

Resident Alien - s1, e1-3

QI - series S, ep 7-9

D20: The Unsleeping City: Chapter II - "The Fall of New York City" (s7, e1)

D20: The Unsleeping City: Chapter II - "Heaven and Hell on Earth" (s7, e2)

D20: Fantasy High: Junior Year - "Stress Tested" (s21, e7)

D20: Adventuring Party - "A Negroni and a Bowl of Spinach" (s16, e7)

Ghosts (US) - s2, e16-22; s3, e1-2

🎧 PODCASTS 🎧

Vibe Check - Hey, Sis: featuring Kimberly Drew

The Sporkful - Can A Restaurant Makeover Make Diners Spend More?

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Boston’s Blue Hill

Short Wave - The Life And Death Of A Woolly Mammoth

Desert Island Discs - Sheku Kanneh-Mason, cellist

I Said No Gifts! - Jay Jurden Disobeys Bridger

The Assignment with Audie Cornish - Where Does Fani Willis Go From Here?

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - World’s Loneliest House

⭐ Switched on Pop - Adult Contemporary, but make it cool (with CHROMEO)

Shedunnit - The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club (Green Penguin Book Club 1)

Up First - Julian Assange Extradition Hearing, Egypt Buffer Zone, Louisiana Special Session

Today, Explained - The Panama Canal is drying up

It's Been a Minute - Jada Pinkett Smith, the artist

Vibe Check - Welcome to Tip Check

Outward - True Detective: Night Country’s Lesbian Subtext

⭐ Code Switch - Why menthol cigarettes have a chokehold on Black smokers

Short Wave - When The Sun Erupts

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Stone of Destiny

⭐ 99% Invisible #571 - You Are What You Watch

Films To Be Buried With - Tyler James Williams

Ologies with Alie Ward - Black Hole Theory Cosmology (WHAT ARE BLACK HOLES?!) Part 1 with Ronald Gamble, Jr.

Off Menu - Ep 226: Noel Fielding

NPR's Book of the Day - 'Thank You Please Come Again' pays homage to Southern gas station food shops

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Buffalo Soldiers National Museum

The Assignment with Audie Cornish - Jake Tapper on American Political Scandal

⭐ Throughline - Dance Yourself Free (Throwback)

If Books Could Kill - The Better Angels of Our Nature

Our Opinions Are Correct - We Don't Give a F*ck About Canon

⭐ Today, Explained - Fight at the Museum

The Sporkful - Deep Dish With Sohla And Ham: Bagels

Dear Prudence - My Friend Has a Master’s Degree in Lying. Help!

What Next: TBD - The Coasts are Sinking

Short Wave - Didn't Get A Valentine's Love Song? These Skywalker Gibbons Sing Love Duets

Endless Thread - Endless Thread: The Musical

⭐ Twenty Thousand Hertz+ - Industrial Musicals

Strong Songs - "Black Hole Sun" by Soundgarden

You're Dead to Me - Queen of Sheba [turned out to be really perfect timing to have this knowledge right before getting to certain relevant bits in my current read The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi]

It's Been a Minute - Have we hit celebrity overload? Plus, Miyazaki's movie magic

Simply Reflecting - Did You Say Delusional?

Under the Influence - Seeing is Believing: The Power of Demonstration Commercials

Hit Parade - The Bridge: Bon Soir, Barbra

🎶 MUSIC 🎶

Chromeo

Living Colour

Chicago House Foundation

Presenting Soundgarden

Swing Fever [Rod Stewart & Jools Holland] {2024}

Adult Contemporary [Chromeo] {2024}

Campfire Classics

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liviavanrouge · 4 months

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Show Yourself(Livia's Return)

Livia(Lost Soul): *Walks through the darkness* Every inch of me is trembling, but not from the cold

Livia: *Looks around* Something is familiar..like a dream I can reach but not quite hold, I can sense you there like a friend I've always known

???: *Hums, getting her attention*

Livia: *Walks after the humming* I'm arriving and it feels like I am home

---

Livia: *Comes out into a forest* I have always been a fortress, old secrets deep inside

Livia: You have secrets, too, but you don't have to hide

???: *Hums*

Livia: *Walks to a stone path, following it* Show yourself, I'm dying to meet you...

Livia: Show yourself, It's your turn

???: *Moves past Livia, moving quickly into the woods*

Livia: *Runs after them surprised* Are you the one I've been looking for all of my life? Show yourself, I'm ready to learn...

Livia: Ah-ah, ah-ah?

???: Ah-ah, ah-ah-ah!

Livia: *Runs down the path, thorns growing at her feet* I've never felt so certain...all my life I've been torn

Livia: *Smiles, deers and wolves running with her* But I'm here for a reason, could it be the reason I was born?

Livia: *Throws her hands up, thorns rising from the water, creating a bridge for her* I have always been so different! Normal rules did not apply!

???: *Flies up ahead of Livia, leading her forward*

Livia: *Looks back as the deers and wolves stopped following then looks forward* Is this the day? Are you the way, I finally find out why?

Livia: *Blows her hair out of her face, bears and buffalo's running with her as she neared a circle of totems*

---

Livia: *Stops in the middle of the totems, thorns around her arms and legs* Show yourself! I'm no longer trembling! Here I am, I've come so far!!

Livia: *Points to each totem, growing thorns around them, causing them to glow bright green* You are the answer I've waited for all of my life! Oh, show yourself! Let me see who you are!

Livia: *Turns and points to the tallest totem, thorns engulfing it*

???: *Walks around the darkness, watching her*

Livia: *Points to the crown totem, making it glow blue* Come to me now, open your door

Livia: *Turns and points to the book totem, causing it to glow yellow* Don't make me wait, one moment more

Livia: *Points to the sword, causing it to glow bright blue* Oh, come to me now, open your door

Livia: *Stares at the frog statue then points to it, causing it to glow green* Don't make me wait, one moment more!!

???: *Floats the statues down, settling them down around Livia*

Livia: *Stares then stands directly in the middle*

Mulan: *Appears from the sword statue* Where the north wind meets the sea

???: Ah-ah, ah-ah

Tiana: *Appears from the frog statue* There's a river

???: Ah-ah, ah-ah

Belle: *Appears from the book statue* Full of memory

Snow White: *Appears from the crown statue smiling*

Livia: *Stares at them all, her eyes widening*

???: Come, my darling, homeward bound!

Livia: *Turns, looking startled then smiles* I am found!!

Meleanor: *Smiles, standing in front of Livia*

Livia: *Smiles, her clothes turning into her fathers old uniform* Show yourself! Step into your power!

Livia: *Grins, and pulls her hood up, her hair tying itself into a ponytail* Throw yourself into something new!!!

Tiana, Bella, Mulan and Snow White: *Lifts their hands, Lilia's lithic appearing now colored with the princesses statue colors*

Livia: *Grab the handle*

Meleanor: You are the one you've been waiting for!

Livia: All of my life!

Meleanor: All of your life!

Livia: *Turns away, looking at the four princesses by their statues* Oh, show yourselves!!!

Belle: Ah-ah, ah-ah!

Mulan: Ah-ah, ah-ah!

Tiana: Ah-ah, ah-ah!

Snow White: Ah-ah, ah-ah!

Livia: *Lifts her lithic upwards, then stabs it into the ground, a bright glow coming from it* Ah-ah, ah-ah!!!

-----

Livia: *Opens her eyes*

Ortho: *Carrying her* Livia! You weren't responding!

Livia: *Flares her wings and holds her hand up* I'm going in, Ortho...

Ortho: *Stares then nods* Got it!

@anxious-twisted-vampire @yukii0nna @writing-heiress

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