donutsweeper

EAD's delayed Birthday Bash just had reveals and (as I am sure you will all be shocked to read) I crocheted a lot for it. A LOT a lot. Like 12 things in total, 11 of which were decent sized amigurumi. Between the one I accidentally posted to my main and all the works I posted to my BBsock I now make up 13% of AO3's crochet tag :) I'm sure that will change soon, I'd dropped to just over 11% before all these revealed, but it's a neat stat for now. My favorite of the works was this cute little froggie "knitting"

who is actually not knitting because I tried but couldn't get the knitting to work on toothpicks so instead it's Tunisian crochet threaded onto the toothpicks.

Besides the frog, I made: a hat for it (as per the prompt), a bumblebee, a small doggie "with zero thoughts behind its eyes", a dachshund, two different small dragons, a groundhog, a mola mola sunfish, a fat kitty, a potion bottle, and a Moopsy from Star Trek: Lower Decks. Like I said, far too much to crochet in four or five days or whatever it was. Like usual, I did a group photo of them all:

We went from some of the coldest weather in years here (-40ish or below with windchill) to some serious warmth (relatively speaking) where it's been not only above freezing the last few days but saturday might hit 50f/10c! Which is insanely warm for mid-February.

Just before Birthday Bash took off I finished a bag rug (50 refrigerator bagel bags, halved, for the main and 36 hamburger bags, thirded, as the runner. It's a decent sized one, 27"x18.5" or so:

Last but not least, have some recthething art recs (Bridgerton, DCU, Heated Rivalry, MDZS/The Untamed, Merlin from tumblr and on AO3 from BirthdayBash MCU/Groundhog's Day (the holiday, not the film) and Original Work):

Bridgerton
- happy benophie eve! (this is lovely)

DCU
- Hey Old Man, lose two sleepy superheroes? (Adorable Nightwing, Damian and Jon)

Heated Rivalry
- what do you guys think ilya and shane’s dad talked about while shane and yuna were outside (hilarious comic)

MDZS/The Untamed
- you can pry thicc LWJ from my cold dead hands (yes excellent)

Merlin
- healer Merlin tending to Arthur’s bruises/wounds (excellently done)

--AO3--

MCU/Groundhog's Day (the holiday, not the film):
- Winter is staying? by Odalyn. Summary: A bunch of interviews about the future of winter. Come meet this year's predictions from the paws of our beloved weather casters. (8 different traditional (and non-traditional) Groundhog's Day groundhogs and other creatures and their predictions, absolutely adorable comic)

Original Work:
- More than 8 Ducks by Odalyn. Summary: Duck! (adorable animation of 12 little duckies)
- A Beautiful Hen by Meatball42. Summary: A beautiful hen in a flower crown. (very pretty chicken)
- Ocean Sunfish by RynRose4. Summary: A sketch of an Ocean Sunfish who is up to no good. (excellent mola mola)
- [ART] Parade by ChezPillow (PillowLord). Summary: Animals parade. (3 cute little animals in a parade)

Hope everyone's doing well!

So... ummmm... this January has been something, huh? Although I don't go out of my way to talk about where I live I don't try to hide it either so let me just say that while things are chaotic in my general area, it's not in my (very) specific immediate area and me and mine are fine. Generally speaking, there's the potential for things here to get as bad, if not worse, as when there were the riots a few years ago but here's hoping it all dies down before then. With the egos involved it seems unlikely (which really says something about the world today that I am even typing that) but, hey, it's possible.

But, in trying not to dwell on any of that or going into details on an unlocked post... craft spam time!

Feast your eyes upon this adorable Werewolf in a Top Hat (made by request and done by adapting a few different patterns)


He's a fine gentleman and tipping his hat to you in greeting. :)

I've also made two rugs


The pictures are a bit deceiving, the white and grey one is small-medium sized, 27"x17", while the following blue and white one is one of the larger I've made, 43"x30".

I don't really have a plan or a place for either (nor for the one I'll make out of the fabric strips I'm currently cutting) but upcycling stained/torn sheets and shirts is better than tossing them and I enjoy doing it so who cares.

Have two weeks of recthething recs! One MDZS/Untamed fic and tumbr art for that, Merlin, Murderbot and ST:TOS:

I'll Stop the World (And Melt With You) by Rainewritesfanfics (28k)
Summary: Lan Zhan comes from a long line of aerokinetic heroes. Over time, his family came to found the Cloud Recesses School for Young Heroes. Lan Zhan will now be attending this very same school, however he, unlike his relatives, has no powers. To make matters worse, even though Wei Ying is only steps away, they are barely on speaking terms since the incident before summer break. Add in a dash of conspiracy, a school full of ghosts, and cryptic fortunes, and Lan Zhan and Wei Ying are in for a lively first year! (This is a Sky High fusion but I only know the broad strokes of that movie and still thoroughly enjoyed this fic and its accompanying art)

tumblr art:
MDZS/The Untamed
- Something is gained when something is lost (3 panels, LWJ and A-Yuan, oh my heart)
- When had children started growing up so fast? (two LWJ raising A-Yuan sketches, adorable)
- Wei Ying and his ducklings (adorable wwx and the juniors art)

Merlin
- Still waiting for his king… (hauntingly beautiful)

Murderbot
- I just want to watch my shows I can relate, Murderbot. I can relate. (too valid these days)

Star Trek:TOS
- uhura sketch ^^ (love this style)

And, not rec related, but I know there's some due South fans here and I wanted to share an excellent fandom-specific resource I just discovered: A due South tumblr that posts archival stuff from the show like making of episodes and scripts as well as character bios and episode storylines and whatnot. (I really love the first 5 pages of the second draft to the pilot posted here)

So many, many years after we probably should have we finally went out and bought a new bed to replace the 20 yr old futon (do not be me, that was *far* too long to keep that cheap thing) and when taking apart the bedframe I found an old braided rug I'd stored between the board and the slats in an attempt to flatten it *ages* ago.

And when I say ages, I mean ages. As I vaguely remembered posting about it, I search through my livejournal and found a mention of pulling out the rug to work on (while watching an episode of due South, good taste past!me) in a post from December 2007 (2007!! who knows when I actually started it) and included a picture of the rug then:



The rug I pulled out only had two more color rounds completed so wasn't all that much further along but was left with a long section of braid unattached and needing new strips sewn on. I never quite mastered the technique of sewing on the new strips properly so that the seam didn't show and always found lacing the braid to the rug was frustrating, fiddly and hard to do for any length of time without hurting my back so it's not surprising I just gave up at some point. Tension was always a perpetual problem so I must have shoved the rug there in an attempt to flatten it. (Something that mostly, but not completely, succeeded). Deciding to just figure out some way to finish it (unfortunately, that's a part I had never really mastered either) I eventually finagled something and TADA:



(Do I need another rug? No. Do I have a place for the rug? Also no. Am I also in the process of making a knotted rug that I took a break from to finish this guy off? Yes. Do I have a place for that rug? Bwhahaha, no.)

Anyway... Just a few more days left for Yuletide nominations! We get 5 slots, it's so exciting! (I really need to make an actual decision on my last slot, I've been waffling for ages about it)

And, last but not least, recthething tumblr art recs (whoops, I've been forgetting to crosspost these here, sorry!)

Batman
- images that came to me in a vision. i just needed to see him in a nice cottage kitchen. (this vision of Batman made me laugh)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer
- buffy summers more like buffy snork mimimi <3333

Guardian
- boop the snoot (Adorable cat!da qing booping Zhao Yunlan)

Merlin
- [Dragonlord merlin - 2]: Magic returning slowly. (subtle but sweet)

MDZS/The Untamed
- His love language is being a menace (WWX has the best expression on his face when teasing LWJ)
- I have drawn many, many pictures of Jiujiu Holding A-Ling! Yet somehow, not enough. So I present to you all: Another One (adorable grumpy jin ling!)
- Emotional support hug (aww sweet)

Supernatural
- lazarus rising as a paperback (there's a whole series of these linked on the post and all are amazing)

Under the Skin
- Not sure if they should drink this… (Late night Shen Yi/Du Cheng and a very judgy but adorable cat)
- Cat Cuddles "Because everyone need a little sweetness in september I decided to make a fluffy little animation of DuCheng being adopted by the 2 cats of the house" (absolutely adorable)

Tomorrow is Rosh Hashanah, L'Shana Tova everyone! May your new year be sweet!

Whoops, I completely forgot to mention in my last post that there was a Friday the 13th tattoo related flash and I wrote an Iron Triangle triple drabble for it: As Evening Slowly Slides Into Night. Summary: An evening, like many others, for the Iron Triangle. (And their shared big bed.)

The Hurt/Comfort exchange has (finally) opened! Lots of fandoms to peruse here. Authors will be revealed on the 11th. I got great Guardian art and a fic for The First Shot and, as always, there's just a ton of amazing things in the collection.

Battleship hit its signup cap within 36 hours of opening so now it's just a random prompt period for a few more days until teams are assigned and then it actually starts on the 12th I think. If you want the chance of getting stuff created (fic, art or podfic) for you, prompting is open to anyone. As prompting is a bit complicated, a few different people have written up guides on how to do it: guide #1, guide #2, and guide #3. All are tumblr posts but I checked them in a private tab and they all work when not signed into tumblr. You might not get anything, but, then again, you might so feel free to peruse the tagset (also linked in all the tumblr posts) and see if there's some fandoms and a few freeform additional tags (500+ ranging from the most E rated things to very, very G) that catch your eye and consider throwing in a prompt or two (or 50, the max).

I've only done 11 prompts so far and haven't decided if I want to do more or not. I tend to keep mine pretty simple as I find my eyes glaze over at huge walls of tags so I pick 10-20 and leave it at that with a few comments in the prompt box along with my DNWs but everyone does it differently. If you want to prompt and have any questions, I'd be happy to help.

Well into the ramp up of this year's Battleship it randomly changed its rules to no longer accept crochet art. I'd already started planning a project to fulfill the 'battlesheep' additional tag and decided to finish it anyway. Behold the 'fearsome' (major use of airquotes there) Battlesheep!! (And I now make up 12.7% of AO3's entire crochet tag between my main and birthday bash account.)

I still haven't gotten any of the links from Pocket posted to any of my research link posts, I really need to start working on that. Ugh. So much to do, so little time.

Last but not least, a single recthething fic rec (MDZS/Untamed):

Burn with the sun, die with the sun (series). Summary: A collection of works in which Wen Xu picks Wei Wuxian off Yiling's streets and makes him an integral part of the Wen Sect. (An interesting AU series where shortly after getting his sword WWX is sort of thrown out of the Jiang/Madam Yu sends him to Yiling and tells him he can't return until he's tamed the Burial Mounds but after saving Wen Xu's life there he is taken in by the Wen, currently 3 works, 21k total)

I have managed to go through all of the links I'd saved to Pocket. It was honestly interesting to work my way backwards through fannish interests (the big ones like Sherlock, MCU, SPN, Merlin, NCIS, SGA, Mag7, and DW/TW but also random ones I dipped into like Sleepy Hollow, SouthLAnd, Haven and so many more) via fics and anon meme comments saved, different research rabbit holes, and general hobby interests. Out of the 1.5-2k links I've kept a little over 300 or so (many articles/fics were read but didn't need to be kept and probably at least half the links were dead). About half those kept were genealogy links-I used to be massively interested in that but mostly researched backwards as much as possible (quite far for a few ancestors including some of hub's to late 1600s/early 1700s Sweden on his dad's side and his mom's to 1500/1600 France->Quebec; many of mine I can't trace before they arrive in the US 1900ish but there's a few I've traced back to late 1700s/early 1800s in the Pale of Jewish Settlement) - generally I've lost the shine of the whole search process but I kept the links just in case. The other half is pretty random, but includes a good dozen or two things I'll be adding to various of my useful links posts so keep an eye out for that.

The Hurt/Comfort Exchange announced due to unclaimed pinch hits (there were still two unclaimed last time I checked) that there will be a delay in opening so instead of going live tomorrow, it'll be July 4th. Kind of bummed about that.

I've made two more rugs out of prepped strips I'd made a few weeks back:

a big, give or take 37" by 27" rusty batik(ish) one and

a smaller, 27.5" by 17" ish blue/green plaid and grey one, out of the rest of the strips left over from the rug I posted about 2 weeks ago and a pair of old grey flannel sleep pants

I'm pretty much out of places I can put rugs here, but I still have lots of prepped strips and whatnot. Not sure what I'll do about that.

Here's two week's worth of tumblr art recs at recthething (due South, DMBJ, Doctor Who, Guardian, MDZD/Untamed and Merlin):

due South
- Let’s pretend the Rays are in the basement of an all girls school again okay (hilarious would-be reaction of the Rays responding to Fraser, and his action, in the ep he was posing as Ms Fraser)

DMBJ
- The coolest guy ever (absolutely incredible art of Reboot's version of Hei Xiazi)
- Zhang Qiling doodle (amazing take on UN's Xiao Yulang's Xiaoge photoshoot)

Doctor Who
- Two (absolutely darling)

Guardian
- Something dramatic for Weilan (this is incredible and so tender)

MDZS/The Untamed
- Modern mdzs series: 1) Wei Ying, 2) Lan Zhan, 3) Wen Ning, 4) Wen Qing, and 5) Jiang Cheng. (Love the whole series, especially Lan Zhan and Wen Ning's looks)
- sometimes I think about older Mianmian meeting Jin Ling and I just. have to take a moment (a comic/bit of animation with a little meta/thoughts about Mianmian and Jin Ling, hits you in the feels)

Merlin
- Treating myself with some soft Merthur (tender, beautiful kisses)
- my first offering to the merlin fandom, good god i'm so obsessed. look at what i've done to my boy. (amazing use of color and lighting in this)
- (tw suggestive) Lap dance (yes, good, thank you)

Daughter's favorite animal is the pangolin and she moved last week so I hunted down a pattern and made her one for a housewarming present


It's based off the lemon-pangolin pattern here but I made a bunch of changes (and actually took notes!) so if anyone wants to try their hand at it, let me know, I can write up my version.

Weather here has been nuts, it went from a highs of 94 to 48 in only a few days. I loathed the heat and high humidity but that kind of temperature change is nuts and hard on the body as well. Santini isn't thrilled with the weather change either but that's because he's of the belief windows should always be open just in case he wants to properly stalk the bunnies or squirrels (does he ever get off his pile of blankets on the couch to do so? No, of course not. Does that matter? No, of course not. He is cat. His opinion is all that should matter)

Moths got into the chest we were keeping some random linens and clothes in so had to toss the chest and then decide what to do with all the now not wearable/donatable sheets and shirts and whatnot so, of course, it's all going to be rugs. I spent most of the week prepping about half of it -cutting in strips and then rolling the strips into balls/disks depending for easier use later (after washing, of course)- but then decided to start a blanket instead of a rug. Maybe I'll switch off between a skein of blanket, do a rug, another skein, more rug, etc.

And, last but not least, two weeks of recthething tumblr recs (DCU, MDZS/The Untamed, Sherlock Holmes-ACD, ST:DS9, Star Wars, SPN, X-Files)

DCU
- Every tender shrimp needs a soft space to recuperate, amiright? (very tender Bruce/Clark moment)

MDZS/The Untamed
- mdzs fandom, long time no see! it’s been almost five years since i last drew wei wuxian, so please accept my offering now (wonderfully eerie Yiling Patriarch era WWX)
- Nie Mingjue and Baxi-huahua The Unrelenting (absolutely love this idea of how Baxia would be in a swords->dogs modern AU)
- Wangxian lightbox (very neat)

Sherlock Holmes - ACD
- Holmes and Watson overlooking the moors (lovely yet eerie Hound of Baskervilles moment)

ST:DS9
- Quark Study (Quark and tribbles, love it!)

Star Wars
- happy star wars day!!! may the 4th be with you!!! (adorable grogu doodle)
- Skywalker Twins comic (hilarious Leia being better with the force than Luke comic)

Supernatural
- Destiel (I think I like the alt background under the cut better but this is a wonderful scene from a hunt either way)

X-Files
- Mulder and Scully in the rain (lovely painting of these two)

(I'm honestly surprised I managed to find stuff to rec these past two weeks. I keep thinking that I'm going to break my approximately 4yr long weekly reccing streak but have managed to squeak in a few. I doubt I'll keep it up, but oh well, it was a fun challenge while I managed it)

Ugh this month. I am on take 3 of my h/c assignment. Here's hoping this one actually works. After finishing that blanket and oven mitt I decided to try to use a recently adopted skein into shawl/scarf/wrap thing and only after completing a shawl I realized I hated the shape (it was one of those 'start with tiny triangle and increase in the first and last stitch of every row' things and the resulting shape was weird and extreme) so I puttered about with a few different patterns before finally finding one that worked (technically a pattern called the 'Gratitude Wrap'). I'll probably never wear it, but whatever. Lookie:

(Terrible picture, but I actually blocked this and it made such a difference, growing from 52"x13.5" to 62x 15.5

I then decided to make a string/market bag thing and have just frogged my 4th attempt. No idea why none are working but boy they are not. Time to put that project on the back burner for a while.

I don't *think* tumblr will go down any time soon, but the most recent round of 'the sky is falling' posts there got me to start weeding through my favorited posts (aka stuff to look at later posts) and, while I've still tons to go through, I've added a few dozen more links to various of my Resource Posts (here's the link to the Masterpost. And yes, at some point I will figure out how to either organize the stupidly long history (etc) and randomness posts or split them into two posts each or just a new third one? Or something, I don't know). Ugh. Both posts are such a mess. But, to be fair, when I first collected the links for posting them (SEVEN years ago, wow) there was just under 800 or so links in total between the 10 posts. Now there's over 2k and 11 posts, so it's not surprising organization has fallen by the wayside a little.

And, last but not least, several weeks worth of recthething recs (MDZS/Untamed fics and tumblr art for a bunch of different fandoms):

Last(?) Loop by PyrrhaIphis (10k)
Summary Snippet: Have you ever wondered what a time loop story looks like to the people who aren't doing the looping? This is that fic! Wei Wuxian is living his life over and over again, and this time he thinks he's finally figured out how to get it right so no one he cares about will die. But we're only getting to see the effects of what he's doing through the eyes of others. (really neat take on a time travel fix-it)

Documented Fact by Scrippio (7k)
Summary: In which Zizhen transfers schools and can't quite believe his new professors are rivals the way everyone else says. Or: 5 times no one listened to Zizhen and 1 confirmation (adorable modern-with-cultivation Cultivation University Zizhen POV fic)

The Devil Went Down to Gusu by Nomme_dePlume (21k)
Summary Snippet: Wei Wuxian laughed. “Ah, Lan Zhan, I like you! Let’s be friends! And as a sign of friendship, I’ll tell you a little secret.” He leaned forward, and as he did, his sweet, amused smile curled into something nasty, and his eyes glowed a red so bright, the clearing looked bathed in blood. “I’m as much of a devil as I need to be to cleanse this world of the unrighteous.” He winked again. “Tell your friends about me.” (really great canon divergent AU where WWX has been a story told by the cultivation sects for years and finally makes an appearance)

tumblr art:
Babylon 5
- Vir is best boy. (delightful animation of one of Vir's most iconic scenes)

M*A*S*H*:
- P*E*A*N*U*T*S (various characters drawn in 'Peanuts' style. Adorable!)

MDZS/The Untamed
- they're just so happy (really cute yunmeng trio)
- YLLZ sunshot campaign ver. (spooky wwx at his yiling laozhu best)
- "He has been proper and righteous his whole life, untouched by the corruption of the secular world. The only mistake he has ever made in his life is you!" (powerful art of what the whipping scene might have looked like)

The Muppets
- an album cover for Rowlf (mockup of what a record by rowlf might look like, loved it)

Sylvester - Georgette Heyer
- embroidered hot water bottle cover (excellently done!)

I suspect I'm going to run out of stuff to rec soon, which is a shame since I've been reccing every week there for close to 4 years but I guess it was bound to happen eventually.

Signups for the Hurt/Comfort exchange have opened!! I have been perusing the tagset for days and am still deciding on what I want to request and offer. So many things, so hard to choose.

Attempt #2 at the oven mitt was somehow even more of a failure than attempt #1. No idea how or why. Tension issues, I guess. Luckily (luckily?) I noticed at the 1/3rd-ish mark this time instead of 3/4. Still annoying though.

Taking a break from crochet I pulled out the last of the crappy junk sheets I had and boy were these crappy: a set of Peanuts twin sheets from the mid 70s that were so old the fitted sheet was see-through even after being folded in half. The nice thing about rug making is while I don't know 100% what I'm doing (I tend to misjudge how long to make the initial starting row) I do know enough to work them quickly so the whole process from ripping the strips to finishing the rug was only about 5 days. Rug!

It's not huge, 30"x24" or so, but I managed to get a lot more workable strips out of the sheets than I'd initially thought, so I'm pretty happy with it.

While making it I finished watching The Embers and wow, it was so good. The MDL summary for it is absolutely awful and it's very hard to talk about the show generally without spoiling or at least discussing many of its twists and turns but I made an attempt at writing one with no real spoilers past the opening episode that I've been sharing everywhere in hopes of having more people to scream about this fandom with:

The Embers is a story about Liao Siyuan who currently (in 2019, when the show is set) is 20 and finishing university when a fellow student is killed and he initially gets suspected since he might have been the last one to see her alive. He distrusts/hates the cop, Shu He, who is leading the case because back in 2009 that cop solved the arson/murder of Liao Siyuan's family by claiming Liao Siyuan's older brother did it. Said older brother, Liao Zhibai, was much older, 21 or so and a police cadet at the time and died in the fire. Liao Siyuan idolized his brother and knows his brother didn't do it. He also still sees and interacts with his brother everyday.
(Things get much, much more complicated as the original case and then new ones seem to all be linked to Siyuan and the fire from 2009 somehow and he, first alone with his 'brother' and then actually working with Shu He, tries to figure it all out)

The best recommendation I can give for it is that it's one of those shows that works on both levels - when watching initially without any knowledge or spoilers for events and will still work on a rewatch when you do, which is pretty rare. If I've piqued your interest it's slowly being released on youtube by tencent (with the unfortunately typical occasional missing sound scene) but is also *ahemable* here.

When poking about AO3 while planning nominations for the h/c exchange I discovered that a fandom I had requested for probably 5 yuletides in a row (Strange World, which I wrote up a promo for back then) now has an AO3 presence in the form of an amazing vid!! The vid, set to "Winter" by The Alpha Conspiracy can be found here.

I forgot to post the recs I made recthething for Candy Hearts here but here's the link to the comment I made in that week's weekly recpost back while the authors were still anon (art for Dracula, Guardian, Original Work, Sherlock Holmes and Word of Honor and fic for Addams Family, due South and Great Mouse Detective) along with last week's rec (an MDZS/Untamed fic)

River's Child by NonsensicalRambling (80k, locked to archive)
Summary Snippet: There is an array under the floor at Lotus Pier. Or rather, there used to be an array. For nearly the entirety of the Jiang sect's existence it was kept a secret, passed down only from sect leader to heir. When Jiang Fengmian died without taking his son through the ritual to maintain it, it shattered, and what it bound is now free for the first time in centuries. War is on the horizon, and blood is waking up.

The waters of Yunmeng hold many secrets, and even the most placid looking river can hide dangerous currents and depths. (really interesting canon-divergent, no golden core transfer, dragon AU)

Well, whoops, there went most of the month.

EAD Birthday Bash came and went and I crocheted a *lot* for it (enough that I now make up more than 12% of AO3's crochet tag between my two accounts). The theme was pizza and one of my favorites of what I did was a kitty stealing pizza toppings

but I crocheted a large number of things, including a shark, the gavlegoat, a rose, one of the mutant lizard babies from Star Trek: Voyager's Threshold episode (which I freehanded and now and trying to figure out what I did and how to write up the pattern since people asked for it) all of which can be found in this picture

but I also did my first foray into NSFW crochet (yes, seriously, do not click unless you really want to see nsfw crochet)

The fandom was "cock fandom" and the character requested "blue balled cock" yes, I am hilarious.

This month I decided to try to tackle my 'currently watching' list on mydramalist, where all the asian shows I'd started but have not finished (nor decided to move to the dropped or 'on hold' lists) end up since it was getting quite long. (I watched these three either on youtube or *cough cough here cough*.)

Unfortunately, Fangs of Fortune definitely isn't for me. It's by Guo Jingming (director of Wulang and The Yin-Yang Master: Dream of Eternity etc) and stars Huo Minghao (from Psych-Hunter, I am Nobody and TLT2) but while the sets and costumes were gorgeous it was ploddingly slow and far more flash than substance and really not for me so I dropped it down to the on-hold list. I know lots of people loved it and maybe someday I'll give it another chance, but I doubt it.

I did finish S.C.I. a Hong Kong set cop/special investigations show from 2018 wherein a fancypants amazing detective has to team up with his old childhood psychologist friend to solve cases. I went into knowing the budget mostly went into the flashy car the detective drove and that a chunk of the plot was ridiculous. Those were both true but despite that (and one of the most annoying female characters I've endured in a long time) it was pretty enjoyable a watch. Ji Xiaobing (who was delightful in DMBJ's Mystery of the Abyss) and his fine suits and undercut were great as the psychologist and he had amazing chemistry with the detective and he managed to sell the batshit plots quite well. It also had one of the creepiest, well acted no-effects needed unnerving scene I've seen in ages: Highlight for spoilers! *Zhan Yao (Ji Xiaobing) was walking in an outdoor marketplace, talking on the phone when suddenly two people stop directly in front of him and turn to face him but don't say anything and he's confused for a second but then *everybody* in the marketplace suddenly stops and faces him and then they all start walking in circles around him in this slow, steady pace. The scene lasts a few minutes and evil mastermind badguy dude shows up during it and whatnot but just the whole thing was so unsettling and wonderfully done.* Very creepy and unsettling while not being over the top, kudos for how well done it was. Here's the best gif I could find of it:

36 min mark of e19.

I also finished a Taiwanese BL See Your Love which was utterly delightful. I really liked it! I'm hoping to get my act together to write up a full promo for it but briefly it's the story of Yang Zixiang who was sent to Taiwan for important family business negotiation thing only to be attacked upon arriving. He's saved by deaf mute Jiang Shaoping who happens to also be a nurse/caregiver and gets roped into working for him. Quite a lot of the business/attack plot is contrived/background/barely explored, but Jiang Shaoping's character is so well done with surprisingly good disability representation in that it didn't shy away from either the issues disabled people face (like how difficult it can be trying to find a job when disabled) or the issues/feelings/worry his parents have over it either (they were also great characters, and felt like real people). It's only 13 episodes (25-30 min ea) so not a huge time commitment. And if you like height differences, this show is for you, Yang Zixiang so much shorter than Jiang Shaoping. Here's the best non-spoilery gif I could find:

(And if you're curious, yes, Jiang Shaoping picks up Yang Zixiang numerous times in the drama. Numerous times!)

(There is also a second BL couple who also have interesting dynamic and work well together)

Happy to report I managed to rec every week for the year again (over 3.5 years of weekly recs now!) but I am honestly not sure how long I'll be able to continue. I went from always being able to find 3-5 fics to rec to aiming for three, then two and now the last few weeks it's only been one. I could just switch to more well known things to rec (I usually only rec either newly completed or 'lesser' known fic, which I judge by the number of bookmarks already on the work) but I'd rather not do that. Sigh. Maybe I'll manage to find a new fandom to play in and be able to rec from something other than mdzs/untamed regularly. Or maybe not. I guess I'll see how things go. Anyway, here's 3 mdzs/untamed fic recs and a bunch of art recs from that, doctor who, dracula, nirvana in fire and sherlock holmes.

MDZS/Untamed fic:
The Only Living Boy by deliciousblizzardshark (17k)
Summary: When the lost souls of the Burial Mounds find a homeless child who can manipulate resentful energy, they take him in, raise him as their own, and teach him everything they know. Wei Ying is living contentedly with his ghost family in the Burial Mounds, selling talismans in Yiling, but when the Wen sect invades Yiling he realizes he is going to have to do something to protect everything he loves. (really interesting take of a sentient burial mounds canon divergent AU)

Ghosts of the Burial Mounds by westiec (1.3k)
Summary: Wei Wuxian returned to them soaked in blood and resentment once more, the steel still sharp in his spine as he took his place with them. Safety. Sanctuary. Survival. The Burial Mounds were not made for these things, but Wei Wuxian tugged on the ties between them and made his claim with a strength of will that could not be denied. (absolutely excellent Burial Mounds POV fic)

DMBJ/The Lost Tomb/The Grave Robbers' Chronicles art:
The Little Tomb Robber's Alphabet joint art work by cayra, fox_of_nine_tales, hisapyon, mekare, MountainRose, psghayleaux, SirAuraelius, and Thimblerig
Summary: Wu Xie is bored in Yucun and has got it into his head to write a children's book about tomb robbing. Naturally, Xiaoge and Pangzi help out. How much baiju has been involved in the production is anyone's guess. (An adorable alphabetic art take on DMBJ)

tumblr art:
Doctor Who
- just admiring the view (absolutely adorable Five)

Dracula
- Undead wanderer Quincey P Morris, Bram Stoker can come fight me (eerie yet incredible)

MDZS/The Untamed
- Me, every time WWX and LSZ are in a scene together: THAT’S YOUR BABY. THAT’S! YOUR! BABY! (gorgeous ghost!wwx and young lan sizhui)
- One of my favorite things about The Untamed is how it begins with Wei Wuxian saying ‘Lan Zhan’ and finishes with Lan Wangji saying ‘Wei Ying’ (amazing comic)
- here's to drawing more wangxian in 2025! happy new year!! (lovely art set up like pages of a children's book)

Nirvana in Fire
- Frosted flames (gorgeous art of the majority of the core cast), also on AO3 here

Sherlock Holmes
- Happy birthday sherlock holmes! (such a wonderful Brett!Holmes portrait!)

Hope everyone's doing well and those in the Northern Hemisphere are staying warm, Monday's high is supposed be -7F/-22C here. Brrrrr.

I finished my Yuletide assignment but I don't think any significant amount of treats are happening this year. I had been hoping that my output would turn around and while I didn't expect to be anywhere near my most productive years, I was hoping to match what I managed the last two years but it doesn't look like that will happen. To an extent it's due to my shifting away from watching much western tv - a lot of years there used to be some show (or even two) I'd picked up and watched during the writing period and could then fill some treats that way but I also just haven't been writing much in general lately so who knows. I know there's more to Yuletide than just writing treats, I just have to convince my brain that.

In the least shocking news to people who read my dreamwidth ever, I've been crocheting and baking a bunch. (And tis very annoying I can't just post discord pics of everything here anymore, uploading images to dreamwidth is too annoying to do for everything). Baking over the last month or so has included pumpkin bread with cinnamon streusel, pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, oatmeal raisin muffins, carrot bread, peanut butter swirl brownies, cream cheese chocolate chip cookies, chocolate crumble cake, mixed chip cookies (various combos of white chocolate, peanut butter chip and chocolate chips as well as each separately), peanut butter chocolate chip cookies and probably more?

Crochetwise there's that oven mitt I mentioned last post and then I used all the cotton scraps from the various mitts/potholders to make a kitchen scrubby. I also made a worry wyrm/fidget dragon and am 90% done with current blanket. The black friday yarn sales were meh, but decent enough I could get more cotton and the yarn I need for the next blanket I have planned. (Non-crochet crafting-wise I also have enough bread bags I need to at least start another rug to use them up.) Pictures!:

worry wyrm and oven mitt

and

Under the Skin S2 drops on the 10th. I *loved* s1. (Here's the review I wrote up of it.) It was tightly written and well acted and actually inspired me to write something outside of an exchange for it. So far the promos for S2 look good but still, I'm nervous. More than once I gotten new content in a canon that not only did not improve upon the existing material but also dashed my love and interest in it. *Sigh* fingers crossed.

Anyway, moving on. Randomness from around the world I found interesting:
Notorious skyjacker "Dan Cooper" aka D.B. Cooper might have finally been identified (according to this Popular Science article anyway, there has been nothing officially reported that I can find.)

Ethiopian wolves have been observed foraging for nectar and acting as pollinators for red hot poker flowers (scientific paper, Science.org article about it)

Video on how an accessible no-tape wrapping hack for the upcoming (or any) holiday season (mp4 link from tumblr)

And, last but not least ficinabox art recs (creators still anon, somehow I mucked up a few of the links when posting to the comm but I think they're all fixed now - fandoms are DC comics, Doctor Who, Dungeon Meshi, Dream SMP, Firefly, Hamlet, Original Work, SVSS, Star Trek: Lower Decks and X-files)

DC
- Flying (Coloring Page) Summary: KonJay coloring page (great expressions on both Jason and Kon-el in this)
- Cass (stunning)
- Nightwing and Haley Crochet Doll Patterns Summary: Crochet Nightwing and Haley (Bitewing) dolls and patterns to make them. (adorable crochet plus patterns! How cute!)

Doctor Who
- [Art] Hold On (Two and Jamie, adorable)
- [Art] My Best Enemy (Three and Delgado!Master, the look on the Master's face here is priceless)

ダンジョン飯 | Dungeon Meshi | Delicious in Dungeon
- haircare is very important Summary: Falin is excited to volunteer and help Marcille with her hair when Chilchuck is not around. For Marcille, it feels different when Falin does it. (lovely and sweet)

Dream SMP
- Pig Techno and Crowza On An Adventure Summary: Pictures of pig Techno and Crow Philza in crochet form. (Honestly, I don't know this fandom but saw it was crochet so had to click and it's adorable)

Firefly
- [art] From the Sketchbook of Simon Tam (three sketches, I really love the one of River)

Hamlet
- Hamlet Coloring Pages (Ophelia and Horatio coloring pages, very cool)
- Hamlet Costume Designs Summary: Costume designs for characters from Hamlet. (Hamlet and Ophelia, nicely detailed)

Original Work
- better kept in secret (absolutely gorgeous pirate captain/navy captain nemesis art)
- Be Nice To Your Printer! Summary: A poster tacked to the office noteboard regarding printers (hilarious!)
- [Art] Tiny Witch With a Tiny Familiar Summary: An autumn witch clad in autumn leaves. (leaf art (leaves + art?), stunning)

人渣反派自救系统 - 墨香铜臭 | The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù
- Shen Yuan and the merman (lovely AU)

Star Trek: Lower Decks
- Boldly Go! Summary: A propaganda poster put together by an overworked Starfleet Comms Officer who didn't check what her model's quote translated to before she pushed the Cetacean's recruitment posters live. (this made me laugh)

X-Files
- From Above Summary: Digital Art based on the episode Revelations (really amazing imagery)