Fic - ladiesbingo - Demon Slayer - Shinobu/Tamayo
Feb. 12th, 2026 10:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
flo_neljaTitre : D'amour et de poison
Auteur : Nelja
Fandom : Demon Slayer
Persos/Couples : Shinobu/Tamayo
Genre : UST et angst
Résumé : Shinobu s'était promis de ne pas laisser sa haine sur les démons affecter son professionalisme, quand elle prémare un poison avec Tamayo. C'est plus compliqué quand d'autres sentiments s'en mêlent.
Rating : PG-13
Disclaimer : Rien ne m'appartient !
Nombre de mots : ~1500
Avertissements : Des mentions de mort à venir, et des spoilers.
Notes : Ecrit pour ladiesbingo sur le thème "Icy Politenesse" et sur une liste femslash february sur le thème "Plongeons ensemble"
( Lien vers AO3 )
Auteur : Nelja
Fandom : Demon Slayer
Persos/Couples : Shinobu/Tamayo
Genre : UST et angst
Résumé : Shinobu s'était promis de ne pas laisser sa haine sur les démons affecter son professionalisme, quand elle prémare un poison avec Tamayo. C'est plus compliqué quand d'autres sentiments s'en mêlent.
Rating : PG-13
Disclaimer : Rien ne m'appartient !
Nombre de mots : ~1500
Avertissements : Des mentions de mort à venir, et des spoilers.
Notes : Ecrit pour ladiesbingo sur le thème "Icy Politenesse" et sur une liste femslash february sur le thème "Plongeons ensemble"
( Lien vers AO3 )
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy 1.01. - 1.06
Feb. 12th, 2026 05:10 pmselenakBecause there was good word of mouth from various friends and trusty reviewers, I decided to give the latest Star Trek show a go, have now marathoned the six episodes released so far, and can report that word of mouth was correct: this latest installment, which is set in the 31rd century last seen in Star Trek: Discovery, shows none of the weaknesses of the third season of ST: SNW and is actually really good. Mind you, watching the first three episodes I thought, okay, they're good, not not groundbreaking, and some of the reactions made me expect more, but then came episodes 3 - 6 . building on the previous ones and fleshing out more characters, and I went "wow!" myself. And also "awwwww" at certain points. More beneath the spoiler cut.
The reason why I wasn't wowed by the first three in the way I was by the later three is that they included some clichés I never much cared for, such as a Marine, err, Starfleet instructor yelling "give me 100 pushups" . And the only school/school prank war I enjoyed fictionally was Das fliegende Klassenzimmer by Erich Kästner, plus I thought, really, do we need more mean Vulcans. These nitpicks aside (and the prank war did have its plusses as well), the first three episodes do a solid job in introducing the premise, the setting, and some of the main characters. They also showed versatality in format: the pilot episode has more action while the second episode is a classic ST ethical dilemma with lots of debate type of episode (and not the last one of the first six), and the third episode while having some serious character stuff mainly goes for broad comedy. Which is all fine, and confidence-building, but with episode 4, the show simply becomes more than that as we get our first hardcore (previously supporting) character episode which simultanously is an ethical dilemma episode and adds to the overall Star Trek lore because it tells us how the Klingons fared post Burn, something Disco did not. Now after a quiet spotlight on supporting character episode I expected the next to revert back to ensemble or main character format, but no! We got another " (different) supporting character in the spotlight" episode - which also doubled as an unabashed love declaration to one Benjamin Sisko in particular and DS9 in general. Which was great, because while other more recent ST shows did include some nods to DS9, it never got as much love as TOS and TNG did from the new kids on the block. Until now. And it was especially lovely to see because it did nostalgia right instead of going ST: Picard season 3, sigh, or follow ST:STNW's increasing tendency to become ST: TOS in its cast. Instead, it did a Star Trek: Prodigy. By which I mean: The love for the "old" characters as strong and great - but it was used in service of character fleshing out and growth of the new characters of the new show. Complimenting them, instead of replacing them. Homage, instead of a rerun. It was great. And then episode 6 went for a taut space thriller while also using what we learned so far about the characters and sharpening the profile of who seems to be the season's main villain. (And it took me until this episode to finally recall where I had heard the voice before. It was John Adams, I mean Paul Giametti!)
One more general observation: As a Discovery fan, I was delighted to see Admiral Vance again in most of the episodes, being his calm and responsible self, ditto for Jett Reno snarkng and being dead-pan as ever, and a bit surprised that Mary Wiseman has yet to make an appearance because I thought she was supposed to be a regular. Speaking of Discovery, its last two seasons feature a supporting guest star, Laira Rillak, who has both Bajoran and Cardassian heritage, and I thought that was great and that by the 31st Centuy, there ought to be a lot more "hybrids" of spacefaring nations with centuries of interaction . Starfleet Academy thought so, too, and we got indeed not just another hybrid in the regular cast but also several others popping up. And I really like the sheer number of middle-aged women we get in addition to the kids. Oh, and evidently the return to Discovery territory also meant the return to featured queer relationships. Excellent.
( Now onto more spoilery territory with comments on the individiual characters and their development so far. )
In conclusion: it's a really good first season so far! May it continue to be!
The reason why I wasn't wowed by the first three in the way I was by the later three is that they included some clichés I never much cared for, such as a Marine, err, Starfleet instructor yelling "give me 100 pushups" . And the only school/school prank war I enjoyed fictionally was Das fliegende Klassenzimmer by Erich Kästner, plus I thought, really, do we need more mean Vulcans. These nitpicks aside (and the prank war did have its plusses as well), the first three episodes do a solid job in introducing the premise, the setting, and some of the main characters. They also showed versatality in format: the pilot episode has more action while the second episode is a classic ST ethical dilemma with lots of debate type of episode (and not the last one of the first six), and the third episode while having some serious character stuff mainly goes for broad comedy. Which is all fine, and confidence-building, but with episode 4, the show simply becomes more than that as we get our first hardcore (previously supporting) character episode which simultanously is an ethical dilemma episode and adds to the overall Star Trek lore because it tells us how the Klingons fared post Burn, something Disco did not. Now after a quiet spotlight on supporting character episode I expected the next to revert back to ensemble or main character format, but no! We got another " (different) supporting character in the spotlight" episode - which also doubled as an unabashed love declaration to one Benjamin Sisko in particular and DS9 in general. Which was great, because while other more recent ST shows did include some nods to DS9, it never got as much love as TOS and TNG did from the new kids on the block. Until now. And it was especially lovely to see because it did nostalgia right instead of going ST: Picard season 3, sigh, or follow ST:STNW's increasing tendency to become ST: TOS in its cast. Instead, it did a Star Trek: Prodigy. By which I mean: The love for the "old" characters as strong and great - but it was used in service of character fleshing out and growth of the new characters of the new show. Complimenting them, instead of replacing them. Homage, instead of a rerun. It was great. And then episode 6 went for a taut space thriller while also using what we learned so far about the characters and sharpening the profile of who seems to be the season's main villain. (And it took me until this episode to finally recall where I had heard the voice before. It was John Adams, I mean Paul Giametti!)
One more general observation: As a Discovery fan, I was delighted to see Admiral Vance again in most of the episodes, being his calm and responsible self, ditto for Jett Reno snarkng and being dead-pan as ever, and a bit surprised that Mary Wiseman has yet to make an appearance because I thought she was supposed to be a regular. Speaking of Discovery, its last two seasons feature a supporting guest star, Laira Rillak, who has both Bajoran and Cardassian heritage, and I thought that was great and that by the 31st Centuy, there ought to be a lot more "hybrids" of spacefaring nations with centuries of interaction . Starfleet Academy thought so, too, and we got indeed not just another hybrid in the regular cast but also several others popping up. And I really like the sheer number of middle-aged women we get in addition to the kids. Oh, and evidently the return to Discovery territory also meant the return to featured queer relationships. Excellent.
( Now onto more spoilery territory with comments on the individiual characters and their development so far. )
In conclusion: it's a really good first season so far! May it continue to be!
(no subject)
Feb. 12th, 2026 07:44 amskygiantsI went into Lessons in Magic and Disaster somewhat trepidatiously due to the degree to which her YA novel Victories Greater Than Death did not work for me. The good news: I do think Lessons in Magic and Disaster is MUCH better than Victories Greater Than Death and actually does some things remarkably well. The bad news: other elements did continue to drive me up a wall ....
Lessons in Magic and Disaster centers on the relationship between Jamie, a trans PhD student struggling to finish her dissertation on 18th-century women writers at a [fictional] small Boston college, and her mother Serena, an abrasive lesbian lawyer who has been sunk deep in depression since her partner died a few years back and her career simultaneously blew up completely.
Jamie does small-scale lower-m magic -- little rituals to make things go a little better in her life, that usually seem to work, as long as she doesn't think about them too hard -- and the book starts when she takes the unprecedented-for-her step of telling her mother about the magic as a sort of mother-daughter bonding ritual to see if her mother can use it to help herself get less depressed! Unfortunately Serena is not looking for a little gentle self-help woo-woo; she would like to UNFUCK her life AND the world in SIGNIFICANT ways that go way beyond what Jamie has ever done with magic and also start blowing back on Jamie in ways that eventually threaten not only Jamie and Serena's relationship but also Jamie's marriage, Jamie's career, and Serena's life.
Serena is an extremely specific, well-observed character, and Serena and Jamie's relationship feels real and messy and complicated in ways that even the book's tendency towards therapy-speak couldn't actually ruin for me, because yeah, okay, I do think Jamie would sometimes talk like an annoying tumblr post, that's just part of the characterization and it doesn't actually fix everything and sometimes even hurts. But the book's strengths -- that it's grounded very much in a world and a community and a type of people that Charlie Jane Anders clearly knows really well and can paint extremely vividly -- are also its weaknesses, in that it's also constantly slipping into ... I guess I'd call it a kind of lazy-progressive writing? The book is full of these sharp, vivid, messy moments whenever it's focused on this particular relationship and Serena in specific, and without that flashpoint, the messiness vanishes. Jamie goes into her grad school classroom and thinks about how the white men are always so annoying but the queer and bipoc students Always pick up what she's putting down. Jamie's partner Ro sets down boundaries in their marriage after a magic incident goes wrong and they are Always right and Jamie is Always humble and respectful about it, because respecting boundaries is Always the Correct thing to do. (Ro is the sort of person who says things like "this is bringing back a lot of trauma for me" while Jamie's mother is actively, in that moment, on the verge of death. I'm all for honesty in relationships but maybe you could give it a minute?)
I don't know. I think there is quite a good book in here, but I also think that good book is kind of fighting its way a little bit to get out from under the conviction that We Progressive Right-Thinking People In The Year 2025 Know What Righteous Behavior Looks Like. You know. But sometimes it does indeed succeed!
I did really enjoy the book's hyper-local Cambridge setting. Yeah, I see you name-checking those favorite restaurants, and yes, I have been to them and they are pretty good. Also, as a b-plot, Jamie is uncovering some lesbian literary drama in her dissertation that gives Charlie Jane Anders a chance to play around with 18thc pastiche and write RPF about Sarah Fielding, Jane Collier, and Charlotte Clarke and sure, fine, I didn't know very much about any of those people and she has very successfully made me want to know more! There were a bunch of times she'd drop something int he book and I'd be like "that's SO unsubtle as pastiche" and then I'd look it up and it was just a real thing that had happened or been published, so point again to Charlie Jane Anders.
Lessons in Magic and Disaster centers on the relationship between Jamie, a trans PhD student struggling to finish her dissertation on 18th-century women writers at a [fictional] small Boston college, and her mother Serena, an abrasive lesbian lawyer who has been sunk deep in depression since her partner died a few years back and her career simultaneously blew up completely.
Jamie does small-scale lower-m magic -- little rituals to make things go a little better in her life, that usually seem to work, as long as she doesn't think about them too hard -- and the book starts when she takes the unprecedented-for-her step of telling her mother about the magic as a sort of mother-daughter bonding ritual to see if her mother can use it to help herself get less depressed! Unfortunately Serena is not looking for a little gentle self-help woo-woo; she would like to UNFUCK her life AND the world in SIGNIFICANT ways that go way beyond what Jamie has ever done with magic and also start blowing back on Jamie in ways that eventually threaten not only Jamie and Serena's relationship but also Jamie's marriage, Jamie's career, and Serena's life.
Serena is an extremely specific, well-observed character, and Serena and Jamie's relationship feels real and messy and complicated in ways that even the book's tendency towards therapy-speak couldn't actually ruin for me, because yeah, okay, I do think Jamie would sometimes talk like an annoying tumblr post, that's just part of the characterization and it doesn't actually fix everything and sometimes even hurts. But the book's strengths -- that it's grounded very much in a world and a community and a type of people that Charlie Jane Anders clearly knows really well and can paint extremely vividly -- are also its weaknesses, in that it's also constantly slipping into ... I guess I'd call it a kind of lazy-progressive writing? The book is full of these sharp, vivid, messy moments whenever it's focused on this particular relationship and Serena in specific, and without that flashpoint, the messiness vanishes. Jamie goes into her grad school classroom and thinks about how the white men are always so annoying but the queer and bipoc students Always pick up what she's putting down. Jamie's partner Ro sets down boundaries in their marriage after a magic incident goes wrong and they are Always right and Jamie is Always humble and respectful about it, because respecting boundaries is Always the Correct thing to do. (Ro is the sort of person who says things like "this is bringing back a lot of trauma for me" while Jamie's mother is actively, in that moment, on the verge of death. I'm all for honesty in relationships but maybe you could give it a minute?)
I don't know. I think there is quite a good book in here, but I also think that good book is kind of fighting its way a little bit to get out from under the conviction that We Progressive Right-Thinking People In The Year 2025 Know What Righteous Behavior Looks Like. You know. But sometimes it does indeed succeed!
I did really enjoy the book's hyper-local Cambridge setting. Yeah, I see you name-checking those favorite restaurants, and yes, I have been to them and they are pretty good. Also, as a b-plot, Jamie is uncovering some lesbian literary drama in her dissertation that gives Charlie Jane Anders a chance to play around with 18thc pastiche and write RPF about Sarah Fielding, Jane Collier, and Charlotte Clarke and sure, fine, I didn't know very much about any of those people and she has very successfully made me want to know more! There were a bunch of times she'd drop something int he book and I'd be like "that's SO unsubtle as pastiche" and then I'd look it up and it was just a real thing that had happened or been published, so point again to Charlie Jane Anders.
Just One Thing (12 February 2026)
Feb. 12th, 2026 08:12 amnanila posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
awesomeersIt's challenge time!
Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.
Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished! Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!
Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.
Go!
Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.
Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished! Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!
Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.
Go!
LB tables at Boskone this weekend!
Feb. 11th, 2026 06:57 pmlb_leeThis weekend, February 13-15, we will be tabling at Boskone 63, at the Westin Boston Seaport District, Boston, Massachusetts. Tabling hours will be 4-8 Friday, 10-6 Saturday, and 10-3 Sunday. To make up for the sick day at Arisia, we will be debuting four new titles, creek don't rise! All of them are short stories, and two of them contain all-new material available nowhere else (yet): Sacrificial Stories of the Neverwas, a collection of imaginary folk takes on the nature of sacrifice, and Kayfabe in the Coliseum, a pseudo Greco-Roman tale of prizefighting and metanarrative.
The other two are a zine version of Crazy Boys Get Money (with an illustration I'm proud of!) and Time is a Mobius Strip, which is a compilation of two short stories, "Ana, Chronistic", and "Chrone," originally published in Flights of Reality under the name "Better Luck Next Time."
All of the stories have been edited for print. Hope to see you there!
EDIT from Rogan: Just realized this I guess makes Crazy Boys Get Money a Valentine's Day debut. Well, maybe it's happier than Red Roses, Old Horses?
The other two are a zine version of Crazy Boys Get Money (with an illustration I'm proud of!) and Time is a Mobius Strip, which is a compilation of two short stories, "Ana, Chronistic", and "Chrone," originally published in Flights of Reality under the name "Better Luck Next Time."
All of the stories have been edited for print. Hope to see you there!
EDIT from Rogan: Just realized this I guess makes Crazy Boys Get Money a Valentine's Day debut. Well, maybe it's happier than Red Roses, Old Horses?
(no subject)
Feb. 11th, 2026 08:00 amskygiantsPicking up a book called Part Time Girl about a high school kid who switches (physically, magically, inconveniently) back and forth between Being A Boy and Being A Girl, I was like, okay, I know pretty much what the vibes of this are going to be. And the first couple chapters in which protagonist Michael/Kayla worries about a Sort Of Girlfriend and a Hot Boy and I Have Taken This Part Time Job As A Girl But Now I Need Girl Clothes, Bra Shopping! So Stressful!! did not really lead me to think anything different!
Then about 40% of the way through the book our protagonist was suddenly running through the woods from evil wizards, and I'm like, okay, this I did not expect.
It turns out the plot of this book is NOT high school drama and figuring out your complicated gender feelings! The plot of this book is that evil racist homophobic wealthy wizards called the Clan (yes) run the world and you have to team up with your traumatized neighbor to fight them, while also figuring out your complicated gender feelings along the way.
Also, the protagonist and the traumatized neighbor bond by hanging out and watching the 2014 kdrama Healer, the plot and cast of which is lovingly described in text. This is in fact plot relevant because they later use their arguments over which cast member is hotter to prove their identities to each other when it's in question. Now I do love Healer but given that it came out, again, in 2014 and I haven't heard anyone talk about it pop culturally in more than a decade, this possibly surprised me even more than the evil wizards.
I can confidently say that at no point did I predict some of the major turns this book took, and I will put them under a spoiler in case you, too, would like to experience this Experience as I confidently believe it was meant to be Experienced: ( here we go! for the ride! )
Then about 40% of the way through the book our protagonist was suddenly running through the woods from evil wizards, and I'm like, okay, this I did not expect.
It turns out the plot of this book is NOT high school drama and figuring out your complicated gender feelings! The plot of this book is that evil racist homophobic wealthy wizards called the Clan (yes) run the world and you have to team up with your traumatized neighbor to fight them, while also figuring out your complicated gender feelings along the way.
Also, the protagonist and the traumatized neighbor bond by hanging out and watching the 2014 kdrama Healer, the plot and cast of which is lovingly described in text. This is in fact plot relevant because they later use their arguments over which cast member is hotter to prove their identities to each other when it's in question. Now I do love Healer but given that it came out, again, in 2014 and I haven't heard anyone talk about it pop culturally in more than a decade, this possibly surprised me even more than the evil wizards.
I can confidently say that at no point did I predict some of the major turns this book took, and I will put them under a spoiler in case you, too, would like to experience this Experience as I confidently believe it was meant to be Experienced: ( here we go! for the ride! )
Heated Rivalry: Knowing by toomuchplor
Feb. 11th, 2026 11:25 pmmific posting in fancakeFandom: Heated Rivalry
Characters/Pairings: Scott Hunter/Kip Grady, Shane Hollander/Ilya Rozanov, Cliff Marlow, Elena, Carter Vaughan, JJ Dagenais, Eric Bennett
Rating: Mature
Length: 14,405
Content Notes: no AO3 warnings apply
Creator Links: toomuchplor on AO3, sweaters_in_the_summer on AO3
Themes: Inept in love, Canon LGBTQ+ characters, Established relationship, Outsider POV, Humor, Happy Endings
Summary: Scott Hunter is just trying to make the most of his closeted NHL career, keep his head down, wait until he retires before he tries find his person.
He doesn't want to know anything at all about these two dumb rookies and what they're getting up to behind the facade of their so-called rivalry... but they're making it really hard for him to ignore them.
Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov are not Scott's problem. That's all there is to it.
Reccer's Notes: This is a brilliant and often hilarious fic about Scott and Kip, but also about how Scott keeps catching the two damn rookies giving themselves away ineptly left, right and centre. I love outsider POV and this delivers, and there's also a wonderful portrayal of Scott and Kip's relationship across the years - Scott can be pretty inept in love, as well! I loved the texting and chat between Scott and Kip as Scott overhears yet another Shane/Ilya secret or catches them out somewhere - Kip is so gossipy and funny. There's some angst, but of course a happy ending. So good, and very clever and full of heart.
Fanwork Links: Knowing
And there's a great podfic by sweaters_in_the_summer
Characters/Pairings: Scott Hunter/Kip Grady, Shane Hollander/Ilya Rozanov, Cliff Marlow, Elena, Carter Vaughan, JJ Dagenais, Eric Bennett
Rating: Mature
Length: 14,405
Content Notes: no AO3 warnings apply
Creator Links: toomuchplor on AO3, sweaters_in_the_summer on AO3
Themes: Inept in love, Canon LGBTQ+ characters, Established relationship, Outsider POV, Humor, Happy Endings
Summary: Scott Hunter is just trying to make the most of his closeted NHL career, keep his head down, wait until he retires before he tries find his person.
He doesn't want to know anything at all about these two dumb rookies and what they're getting up to behind the facade of their so-called rivalry... but they're making it really hard for him to ignore them.
Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov are not Scott's problem. That's all there is to it.
Reccer's Notes: This is a brilliant and often hilarious fic about Scott and Kip, but also about how Scott keeps catching the two damn rookies giving themselves away ineptly left, right and centre. I love outsider POV and this delivers, and there's also a wonderful portrayal of Scott and Kip's relationship across the years - Scott can be pretty inept in love, as well! I loved the texting and chat between Scott and Kip as Scott overhears yet another Shane/Ilya secret or catches them out somewhere - Kip is so gossipy and funny. There's some angst, but of course a happy ending. So good, and very clever and full of heart.
Fanwork Links: Knowing
And there's a great podfic by sweaters_in_the_summer
Announcing: Retro Writing May!
Feb. 11th, 2026 04:08 pmnotfreyja posting in fandomcalendar
A month long writing challenge focused on tropes, tags, and formats that have (for better or worse) fallen out of style.
From May 1st to 31st, creators will post their takes on each of the days' prompts, in any medium. Fan fiction, original stories, poetry, meta-analysis, and (even though writing is in our name!) yes, visual art as well! Currently all event documentation is on Tumblr, so the links below will redirect to the appropriate Tumblr posts.
Quick Links: