I was rearranging rocks in my tank and I saw a BABY EMBER TETRA about 8mm long. I may have accidentally killed it when I was poking around the tank, but the presence of fry means the fish are happy! Tetras aren't like guppies or cichlids, they're egg-scatterers so it's generally harder to get them to breed. 

In other news I think my hygro has a potassium/magnesium deficiency :/  I've upped the tap in my tap/RO mix so hopefully it works out. Can't wait until the plants fill in so I can ditch the hornwort. Damn thing triples in size every week, and is constantly full of snails, and the tank looks SO MUCH BETTER without it. But I keep it around because it sucks the poop out and prevents me from overdosing ferts.

--

So a person I crushed on years ago is actually trans and bi, and back in the day they were ace and not trans. They look good. 

--

Having a lot of trouble with my next chapter because nothing happens, but I couldn't just LEAVE a bunch of temporary emotional loose ends lying around. Dang thing is 63k words long now. Wondering if it'll break 70k, because I haven't even touched the last chapter yet. 

--

The Good Place presses all my buttons. Timey-wimey Jeremy Bearimy shit, AU shenanigans (sorta), philosophy, and at last, an answer to why Chidi is so jacked. 

This weekend: 

- Yoshi puked on my glasses. 
- I finalized my favourite chapter of Once More with Pharaohs
- Justin and I finished a playthrough of Divinity 2
- Scully got abducted and unabducted on the X-files
- I need to get my update schedule in order and put chapters 13/14 (out of 17) out for beta. 
- I think I'm going to start a playthrough on tactical difficulty for Divinity 2
- Need more red plants for the aquarium, I'm thinking AR mini. I like to get my livestock/plants from angelfins because it's local, they've got the best selection of in-vitro plants in a 50km radius, and none of the fish I've gotten there have died themselves dead yet. 

 Sooo I'm proactively beating jet lag to Japan by doing an all-nighter today, in theory so I can sleep half the way to Japan, wake up over the Pacific, and then be perfectly refreshed for dinner. I'd like to think that this is what I've been abstaining from coffee for - so that I can pound back mugs of yin yeung until 7AM while maximizing effect, and minimizing the bit where my heart has a pizza party. Once, I had an extra large coffee from Tim's and felt like I was gonna die for a whole lecture. Another time, I had coffee en route to Kingston, and where I got massage, and couldn't enjoy it properly because of the caffeine. 

Still working on writing chapters 8-9 for beta. This is the bit where I could write good sex scenes. Then I watched this video and realized that the choreography has to mean something in terms of character development. But now it's just... not as nice and fluffy as I thought it was gonna be. Which is fine I guess. But last chapter Shivani said that Az was being sort of harsh in one of his comments and I don't know if she'll like the new power dynamics. 

I had an idea for a gambling scene in Chapter 6 based on this comment (https://archiveofourown.org/comments/250112765) but then I spent a week trying to figure out who was gambling what, in what game, with what stakes... 

Chapters 5 and 6 are out for beta now, and the draft has officially hit the 40k mark. 

It'll be at least 40k before it's all done. Chapters 3 and 4 are out for beta. 

https://archiveofourown.org/works/20428025 

 - Went to BBQ
- At 26k words, chapters 1 and 2 out for beta


10. Dancing With Our Hands Tied
Ironically, the brightest part of Reputation was the slew of dark, atmospheric songs like So It Goes, Dress, Getaway Car, and this one. 

9. Sparks Fly
This is peak country Taylor. 

8. Out of the Woods
This is kind of a weird, cheesy song, but the energy just carries all the weirdness and cheesiness. I'll take it. 

7. Miss Americana
Taylor channels Lana, feat. Halsey. Is it too early to put this on the list? I really appreciate the inclusion of the line, "Play stupid games, win stupid prizes." 

6. Love Story
A well-deserved starmaker. I get giddy when the key changes and she sings, "he KNELT to the GROUND and PULLED out a RING and said, MARRY me JULIET, you'll NEVER have to BE ALONE" 

5. Style
I don't relate to it at all but it just sounds so lush and dark and beautiful. Style is my platonic ideal of synthpop. 

4. All Too Well
Some lines are just SO GOOD - "So you call me up again just to break me like a promise, casually cruel in the name of being honest," for one - others are too specific for me to really latch onto it. 

3. Enchanted
"Please don't be in love with someone else, please don't have somebody waiting for you." A sentiment with hefty memories attached. 

2. The Archer
Is it premature to have a song from an album released a day ago in the penultimate slot? Pretty much every lyric here is eminently quotable. "Who could ever leave me, darling? But who could stay?" 

1. Treacherous
I just really like the structure, the way the song tumbles over itself in the bridge, and the way it tumbles over itself. I appreciate she never names love in the song at all. 

So I'm writing a prequel now. I'm 12k words in. It's got time travel, because time travel is my other favourite trope.

Also I got this comment today and I felt SO HAPPY.

Ashling_jay: So- correct me if I'm wrong- let's say things are getting tetchy with heaven or hell. When aziraphale and Crowley meet somewhere they have to use their shibboleths.
But imagine them meeting in public, like the park or an restaurant. Think of what that would look like from a outside view.

Your walking through the park and pass these two men, the sharp red haired man suddenly says “You’re going home in a fuckin’ ambulance.”. The softer blond male calmly replies with some hardcore poetry. Then they kiss.

I think that's great
Loved your story <3

https://archiveofourown.org/comments/243350971

I'm done! Eight out of eight chapters done! At last, I can allow something else to take over my life. 

Title: In the Face of Fear
Rating: R
Fandom: Good Omens, by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
Characters/Pairings: Aziraphale/Crowley
Warnings: A bit of swearing, violence, and minor torture
Word Count: 27k
Summary: Hastur spies Crowley and Aziraphale switching bodies after their tribunal, and plots his revenge. The two are forced to find their courage and confront the truth between them. Featuring angsty mistaken identity shenanigans, two beings who can't seem to talk about their feelings, Denial as a river in Egypt, and the sword Excalibur!

Aziraphale raised his hands to his temples, sweeping the square for prying eyes and ears. “Nobody,” said the angel. “Right. Swap back, then.” They grasped each other’s hands. In a fluid sweep, Aziraphale became Crowley, and Crowley became Aziraphale again.

Unfortunately, that is where Crowley - who had been wearing Aziraphale’s face - had been wrong about the state of surveillance in Berkeley Square. Hastur, Duke of Hell, lurked behind them, near the refuse bins. His fury blended in perfectly with the malodour of decomposing food waste and dog shit, like maggots on a choice bit of roadkill. Noticeable if you prodded the corpse in the appropriate places, but why would you? Crowley’s sweep had slid right over Hastur, like a tourist’s eyes over a tramp.

If by "I've been busy" I mean I've posted 5/8 chapters of my Good Omens fanfic. 

https://archiveofourown.org/works/19838476 



I had vague ideas for other stories too but I couldn't get them started because they didn't have enough angst to keep them going. 

Title: A song for two voices (starting with In your arms I shall not fear the night)
Fandom: The Heralds of Valdemar
Pairing: Canon pairings (Vanyel/Tylendel)
Categories: AU
Length: 350k and counting
Rating: T for canon-level violence
Author: swimmer963
Author's Summary: This is a rationalfic take on "The Last Herald-Mage", inspired by HPMOR and other works. Accessible regardless of whether you've read the original series. Though far from perfect, the characters are trying to do their best with the information, intelligence, and skills they have. Unfortunately, their enemies are also doing that, and sometimes even reasonable decisions can turn out badly.

Ashamed of him, Vanyel's father sends his disappointing son to live with his strict aunt, the Herald-Mage Savil. Although he knows things will change, Vanyel dramatically underestimates just how different his life is about to become. Sparks fly as he discovers both love and magic.

My comments: I don't often have the exquisite pleasure of recommending an actively updating fic in progress and holy shit, I think the author updates weekly. 

Anyways, I know it's hard to tell but I've had my head buried in Valdemar for a long time and once I'd hit the end of the available chapters I couldn't believe that 350k words and counting had garnered fewer than 200 comments. Suppose it's not a particularly popular fandom, and I can understand why - I love Mercedes Lackey's worldbuilding but she can get preachy and her villains are silly and moderately incompetent. This author remedies both of those flaws. Swimmer963 says that the series is a "rationalfic" inspired by Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, but the story's "rational" properties are subtle (apart from some gentle discussions of, I think, deontology vs utilitarianism and Hobbe's social contracts?), characters have realistic levels of knowledge and awareness. Also, Leareth is definitely more complex, more relatable, and more sinister in Swimmer963's incarnation (pun intended). 

Anyways, this is the longest and best Valdemar fic I've ever read.