beccaelizabeth | Network

I wrote another HR fic, one I've been thinking about for a while, but it wanted to come out now. It's a therapy session with Galina, set a bit after the end of The Long Game, in which Ilya and Galina finally explore his tendency to idealize Irina. About 2100 words, background Shane/Ilya.

Sad and Funny and Beautiful

pattrose

Jokes

* Where do horses live? In neighhhhhbourhoods.
* What do you call a goat who paints pictures? Vincent Van Goat!
* Why are mice afraid of swimming? Catfish!
*
* What do you call a singer with a laptop on her head? A-Dell.
* When is a door not a door? When it's ajar.
*
* What do toilets do when they're embarrassed? They get a bit flush.
* How do you organize a space-themed party? You planet.

pattrose

90 discussion questions

1. Write a quote that is meaningful to you. Explain why it impacts you.

To the world you may be one person; but to one person you may be the world,

One of my friends put this quote up and it reminded me of something very special. When my grandson was almost 8, his parents decided they wanted to do drugs and stop adulting. We took Vincent into our home and raised him. But one day I went his school to volunteer, and his teacher gave this quote that reminded her of Vincent and me. It made me cry. He was a darling child. 17 years later his parents had a baby girl. Needless to say, they weren’t able to take care of her. So we once again took charge and raised her from 7 to 21. I always wanted 5 children. We only had three but counting us adopting them we do have 5.

pattrose

March not quite 365 days questions.

26. In 1484 Aesops Fables were first printed in English by William Caxton. Do you recall any of the fables, such as The Tortoise and the Hare?

I have a list and I’ll put a heart next to any I love. ❤️

* The Tortoise and the Hare: ❤️Slow and steady wins the race.
* The Boy Who Cried Wolf:❤️Truthfulness is vital; liars are not believed even when they speak the truth.
* The Fox and the Grapes: ❤️It is easy to despise what you cannot have (sour grapes).
* The Ant and the Grasshopper: ❤️Work hard today to prepare for tomorrow.
* The Lion and the Mouse: ❤️❤️Small friends can prove to be great friends; kindness is never wasted.
* The Goose with the Golden Eggs:❤️Greed destroys what it seeks to profit from.
* The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse: ❤️Poverty with security is better than plenty in fear.
* The Wind and the Sun: ❤️Persuasion is better than force.
* The Fox and the Stork: ❤️Treat others as you would like to be treated.
* The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing:❤️Appearances can be deceiving.
I think there are more. I loved these stories.

pattrose

Crunchy questions

Do you read Tarot? (Or use them in other ways?) Do you have a favourite deck? What's your approach?

I know nothing about Tarot cards. I’ve always wanted to have mine read, but never have. Someday I’ll get a book and a deck. Then I’ll have learned something new.

pattrose

Recipes

Blueberry cheesecake breakfast bake

Ingredients
* 2 cups (16 oz / 450 g) cottage cheese (full-fat for creamier texture)
* 8 oz (225 g) cream cheese, softened
* 2 large eggs
* 1/3 cup (65 g) granulated sugar (or 1/4 cup honey/maple syrup)
* 1 tsp vanilla extract
* 1 tbsp lemon juice (optional but recommended)
* 1 tbsp cornstarch (or 1 tbsp flour)
* 1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries (reserve some for topping)
* Pinch of salt
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C). Lightly grease an 8×8-inch baking dish or line it with parchment paper for easy removal.
In a blender or food processor, combine the cottage cheese, softened cream cheese, eggs, sugar (or honey/maple syrup), vanilla extract, lemon juice, cornstarch, and a pinch of salt. Blend until completely smooth and creamy. This step is key to achieving that classic cheesecake texture without lumps.
Gently fold in about 1 cup of the blueberriesusing a spatula. Be careful not to overmix, as you want the berries to stay whole and juicy.
Pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish and spread it evenly. Sprinkle the remaining blueberries over the top for a beautiful finish.
Bake for 40–50 minutes, or until the center is set and the top turns lightly golden. The middle should have a slight jiggle but not appear wet.

Allow the bake to cool at room temperature for 20–30 minutes. Then refrigerate for at least 2 hours before slicing. Chilling helps it firm up and makes clean, neat slices.

For a caramelized finish, sprinkle a little brown sugar on top before baking.
Storage
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4–5 days. This bake is perfect for meal prep — simply slice into portions and enjoy chilled or slightly warmed. It can also be frozen for up to 2 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before serving.

goodbyebird

+ I'm back at work, though one day later than I expected to be. It'll be a shorter trip of only four weeks, so now I just need the fishery to be good. I'd love to come home without my brain leaking out my ears; it took me over two weeks to recoup last time.

+ 2026 is shaping up to be a great movie year. I highly recommend both The Testament of Ann Lee and Project Hail Mary, plus there's both Pillion and Dune 3 to look forwards to. I guess I can hope really hard they don't fuck up Ready or Not 2? (I'm definitely showing up either way, if only for the cast)

+ Other things to look forward to: Microsoft Flight Simulator is set to get its VR update sometime next month. So long as it's not borked on the base PS5, that's a day one purchase for me. There's a bunch of cities to fly around, a safari/hot balloon thing, helicopter rescue missions, etc. It might even be just the thing to let my mom play.

+ And on the subject of my mom: she'll be moving back home! My brother and his partner are splitting up, and my nephew is old enough that she doesn't see him that much anymore, so now she's looking for an apartment to buy. I'm really happy about it. Both for my own sake and for hers.

Now I just have to bee diligent with looking for places we can visit in England. Hoping we can do a fun two week vacation there in August.

dine

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

vriddy

Community Thursday challenge: every Thursday, try to make an effort to engage with a community on Dreamwidth, whether that's posting, commenting, promoting, etc.

Over the last week...

Posted and commented on bnha_fans.

Commented on journalsandplanners.

Commented on addme_fandom.

Posted on getyourwordsout.

Promoted anime_manga, bnha_fans, c_ent, booknook.

Signal boosts:

Via dw_community_promo, latam is a new multilingual comm centered on Latinx culture!
Folks asking for CSS help on ao3_skins, for the CSS-minded people out there who weren't aware of that comm :D (although I think the latest post might have been deleted since I saw it 🤔 but for next time!!)

psocoptera

Short stories:

Wire Mother, Isabel J. Kim, Clarkesworld.

Tell Them a Story to Teach Them Kindness, B Pladek, Lightspeed.

The Repairers of Reality, Shaenon K. Garrity, Drabblecast.

10 Visions of the Future; or, Self-Care for the End of Days, Samantha Mills, Uncanny.

Six People to Revise You, J.R. Dawson, Uncanny.

Novelettes:

The Girl That My Mother Is Leaving Me For, Cameron Reed, Reactor.

Phantom View, John Wiswell, Reactor.

The Twenty-One Second God, Peter Watts, Lightspeed.

Barnacle, Kate Elliott, Reactor.

apod_feed

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260325.html

[Error: Irreparable invalid markup ('<img [...] watched">') in entry. Owner must fix manually. Raw contents below.]

<a href="https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260325.html">https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260325.html</a><a href="https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260325.html"><img src="https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/S_260325.jpg" align="left" alt="In the words of today's astrophotographer, Rositsa Dimitrova, "What have these silent sentinels watched" border="0" /></a> In the words of today's astrophotographer, Rositsa Dimitrova, "What have these silent sentinels watched <a href="https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260325.html">https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260325.html</a>

settiai

In tonight's game, ( the rest under a cut for those who don't care. )

And that's where we left off.

Current Mood: accomplished

psocoptera

A few more recommendations. I have not done as much reading this year as I would have liked to but I'm running out of time, so, here's what I have.

Short stories:

Unbeaten, Grace Seybold, Beneath Ceaseless Skies. Nice riff on "swords into plowshares" and "pen is mightier".

Last Meal Aboard the Awassa, Kev Coleman, Lightspeed. A doomed ship has a party. (This one from the Locus list.)

The Tawlish Island Songbook of the Dead, E.M. Linden, PodCastle. Migration and memory. (Nebula nominee.)

Six People to Revise You, J.R. Dawson, Uncanny. Letting other people fix you. (Nebula nominee.)

ETA: The Fate You Choose, Nadia Radovich, Apex. Atalanta choose-your-own-adventure.

Looped, Nadia Radovich, Heartlines Spec. A time loop, with knitting.

Five Things You Can See, Nadia Radovich, Strange Horizons. Future selves.

Novelette:

Barnacle, Kate Elliott, Reactor. NOVELETTE. Life in a company town.

ETA: The Life and Times of Alavira the Great as Written by Titos Pavlou and Reviewed by Two Lifelong Friends, Eugenia Triantafyllou, Uncanny. NOVELETTE. A meta story about fantasy books and what they mean to people. (Nebula nominee.)

Novellas:

The Chronolithographer's Assistant, Suzanne Palmer, Asimov's. NOVELLA. A young man avoiding the sea becomes a printmaker. Palmer is always a good time.

Murder on the Eris Express, Beth Goder, Asimov's. NOVELLA. A spaceship AI and a mystery.

cornerofmadness

That's what we're being driven to. Nursing is probably pissed at me because I refuse to do one of my classes online. It's for the freshman. No, we're not. So far these online classes are a nightmare of failing software.

We had a pointless all-school meeting (we do every month) and I'm like why are we voting on this? It's mandated by the state. We have to do it.

Sigh. And again no one but me cares.

Maybe others might have thoughts/suggestions. I'm thinking I'm revealing one character's backstory too much too soon. I think I would like it to remain hidden a little longer but the problem is Asha (a detective) knows his secrets. Lilian (her new partner) would ask about this guy. His employee is the sex worker/dancer who is killed in chapter 1. She would ask. So I'm like great now everyone knows his secret and we're only in chapter 4.

I'm not sure I see a good way around it other than maybe his history isn't as well known as I thought but really that makes no sense either. He was taken by a m ajor sex trafficker as a child. Asha knows what Goren did to children. He was one of those they couldn't make things stick to (rich buddies buying him out of trouble) so not sure how to write my way out of this hole. Maybe it's not as disappointing as I think it is.

Yoga went really well tonight. She modified it so I could do 90% of it but one thing I did (and easily) was one that it was easy to move past my natural joint movement into bad zones (which I often can't tell because of my condition) and I think that elevated butterfly move pulled my groin. Rolls eyes.

What I Just Finished Reading:

With Friends Like These by Alissa Lee

What I am Currently Reading:

Violet Thistlewaite is not a villain any more so far, I really like this one

Back to Zombie Day Care just to get it over with and tick off a few challenge boxes

What I Plan to Read Next: The Death Card (an arc I just got in the mail) and The Book woman of troublesome creek for the book club

Current Mood: sore
Current Music: Evil Lives Here

catherineldf

2026 so far:

Massively sick twice with colds that lingered for weeks (still recovering from the last one)
Had to put my beloved boy kitty, Shu, to sleep last week (he had a good passing, but it was hard on me). His sister, Ma'at, and I are trying to adapt to new normal.
My friend and former editor Lee Martindale passed away and I've been trying to support her widower. Next up: drafting her obit.
My city got invaded and two people were murdered by ICE within two miles of my house (I already live 4 blocks from what is now George Floyd Square). We're still dealing with all the after effects, trauma, financial disasters, etc. It's been...a lot.
I started a new job at DreamHaven Books in Minneapolis just in time for owner Greg Ketter to get teargassed and turn into a folk hero.
I came into some money through Jana's dad's estate.
Co-taught a good class at the Loft Literary Center.
Got sick with the aforementioned cold during MarsCon.
Have gotten Joyce Chng's terrific queer pirate collection, Sailing the Golden Chersonese, into preorder status for release next month.
Did sundry fun things like an escape room expedition with the steampunk club, hung out with friends, saw plays and watched some entertaining TV.
Worked on submissions for Queen of Swords.
Campaigned hard for the Astreiant Series created by Melissa Scott and Lisa A. Barnett to be nominated for Best Series Hugo (please - Point of Hearts is the qualifying title!)
Wrote and got an article accepted for Deep Cuts in a Lovecraftian Vein. I wrote about a Margaret St. Clair story that is a fascinating historical artifact. And problematic af.
Got through Part Two and half of Part Three, so far, of my Data Analytics Certification program.
Wrote some thousands of words of new fiction, about which more soon.
I turn 63 on Monday, which is kind of wild.

More detail later after I get some sleep.

pocketmouse

The Torchwood renaissance is trickling down, as I've gone through just about everything worth rereading on the AO3 (it's been a while since I've had the issue of 'I want to read about Character X, but they've been tagged for their supporting role in 80% of the fics they're tagged in, making filtering useless') and I'm not about to try trolling through LJ or even DW.

I have managed to somehow write over 11k of stuff, but it's largely unactionable stuff. Half of it's reliant on the context of the RP I was in back in the day, so most readers would lack the context for anything I wrote (not that I care about other readers, but why post it at that point). The rest is just so abstracted and ephemeral scenes stuck together that I'll be lucky if I manage to wrangle even one of it into a postable fic. So we'll see. And I've reviewed the 95% complete AMTDI fic, and yeah, the problem really is 'this fic is required to end on a dis-satisfactory return-to-stasis note,' which is too quiet a tragedy for 'I'm going to go out screaming' Owen, even if it's par for the course for quiet Tosh. Torchwood loves a good failure, and 'Owen and Tosh fuck but nothing comes of it' is just a 'meh' failure. There's no emotional oomph.

Also I think at this point to finish it properly I'd have to chance rewatching canon and I don't know if I can convince myself to do that. I'm bad at watching stuff these days. I keep thinking I should watch something, but I'm never in the mood for any of the stuff on my list, or I keep thinking 'no, there was something else I'd been meaning to watch, but I'm not sure what it was.' And nothing I have managed to get off my ass and watch has struck my strongly enough to get fannish about it. None of the new Treks have done it enough for me that I haven't even bothered to watch the last of SNW or any of the new Academy one (feels like it would give me the motts). I have zero interest in even approaching Heated Rivalry. What are we doing for poly fandoms these days anyway?

linky posting in

pimpmethis

( You're about to view content that a community administrator has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

flowing_river posting in

pinchhits

Event: Traumatic Experiences
Event Link:

traumaticexperiences
Pinch Hit Link: Current Pinch Hit Post
Due Date: March 30th at 6PM PST

traumaticexperiences is a (psychological) trauma themed multifandom exchange. We have an emergency pinch hit. You must write a fanfiction that is a minimum of 1000 words and include a requested fandom, relationship or solo character, and freeform in the fill.

Assignment Requirements

EPH 1 - NoPixel (Web Series), 仙王的日常生活 | The Daily Life of the Immortal King (Cartoon), 文豪ストレイドッグス | Bungou Stray Dogs, Undertale (Video Game)

For more details/to claim, view the pinch hit post.

kitewithfish

What I’ve Read

The Historian By Elizabeth Kostova – This Dracula novel has a fantastic trick which is telling an epistolary story that nails the fun of reading a story thru someone else’s voice and then returning to the main character’s narrative to go “Oh, my god, they had no idea of the danger they were in!” And that trick is a trick I enjoy a great deal! I don’t know that I enjoy 700 pages of it! Overall, while the narrative is the journey we take with the characters, this journey felt extended beyond the needs of the story or my personal pleasure, and ended in a kind of disappointing splat. I can see why it made a splash – It’s not badly written, and the layered epistolary vibe is pretty great for the first half of the book! But that’s not how you kill Dracula, Frank.

My Real Children by Jo Walton – Ok, I just read this in a fever dream on a plane but I really liked it. The story is a well-told life of a woman named Patricia- specifically, two different lives that branch off from each other in 1949, when she makes a single important personal choice. But, as an elderly woman with dementia, in a nursing home, she remembers both lives and both worlds and both sets of children that she has, different as they are from each other. In one, she lives a life of joy and love in a private oasis from a world gradually falling into violence and instability. In the other, she’s snatching tiny moments of personal peace inside a miserable life, but the world is gradually getting brighter, kinder, and more peaceful. It’s a carefully composed book and I enjoyed both stories really well! I will probably have to re-read it to talk about cogently for book club. Jo Walton has always done a great of seeding her world building naturally throughout the stories she writes, so I think this story will reward re-reading.

The Scales and the Sword by foolish_mortal (Restricted link - https://archiveofourown.org/works/773326) – The Hitcher (1986) fic – So, getting into Talamasca fic led to me finding this extremely homoerotic and murdery film, and then the fic about it has been very interesting. The movie is basically “nice heterosexual boy with a car is stalked by hot murderous stranger with a fixation on him.” It’s great, if you like murderous strangers with a fascination that leads them to toy with their food. The film shows the nice boys slow slide into feral violence, which seems to the murderous stranger’s aim – making this nice boy more like himself. The movie would be much more dull if it were more straight. This story is an AU where our nice boy is… less heterosexual, and the murderous stranger is introduced to him under different circumstances. They dance around each other for a loooong time in a flirtation that gradually becomes more explicitly sexual as the story goes on. Think Hannibal.

What I’m Reading
Hemlock and Silver by T Kingfisher – Kingfisher loves an older lady with an area of expertise, and in Anja’s case, that’s poison! It’s Kingfisher, I know it will be good.

What I’ll Read Next
The Fabric of Civilization – audiobook, the library will pull it back soon.

isis

What I've recently finished reading:

Cinder House by Freya Marske, which is a gothicy Cinderella retelling except that Cinderella is a ghost. For some reason I had osmosed it was f/f, which it is not, though it's not strictly het. The various analogs to the fairy tale were mostly quite charming, and the various rules of ghostness and magic as well - I enjoyed it a great deal. More of a novella than a novel.

What I've recently finished watching:

It looks like I didn't say anything after I finished Pluribus; it was...okay, interesting, some weird plot-gaps (not exactly holes, but) that had me thinking, "yes, but..." a lot.

We watched A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms which was enjoyable enough, though I could have done without certain graphic disgustingness.

Bridgerton S4 was fun as usual. Sophie was delightful (another Cinderella story, hee, complete with evil stepmama!) and the resolution there surprised me a little but I liked it. I was expecting a different outcome of Francesca's story due to osmosis about the books, but I guess that will happen next season. I was completely gobsmacked to see Cressida again but as usual her terrible sartorial choices made for excellent comic relief.

Okay, this was definitely a shorter media review than usual, but I need to finish packing - we're heading out on a camper van roadtrip vacation tomorrow morning. See you all sometime in April!

scrubjayspeaks

It was no one’s business, of course, what gods a person might dedicate themselves to, but humans are humans, and so they marveled openly that he would choose a trickster god. They pointed out his love of clear and consistent rules, his aversion to any change in routine, his fundamental discomfort with unpredictability. Gods seldom make promises, though, and if no one could promise him the stability he craved, he decided he would have to get divine lessons in learning to cope with the chaos of reality.

---

LL#1374

kengr

You know that some asteroids are just loose collections of gravel and dust, right?

Well, it occurred to me that some times (accidentally or on purpose) they may have collected around a core of something. Say an alien artifact or an alien ship.

So, here you are mining this gravel bank, and your scoop hits something solid....

but_can_i_be_trusted posting in

100words

Title: 'The Quest'
Fandom: Original Poetry
Rating: G
Notes: Crossposted to

drabble_zone

( The Quest )

watersword

Conference: godawful o'clock carpool in the bitter cold, my panel was fine, expensed takeout for dinner and fell over in a pile.

Got an early lunch at the fancy food court downtown and caught my train, which was full of college students leaving town for spring break, so I am very grateful Amtrak upgraded me to business class.

Dessa was of course marvelous, even though I did not get either of my favorite songs ("Good Grief" and "The Bullpen"). But I got "Annabelle" and "Fire Drills" and "I Already Like You" and "Camelot" and a new-to-me poem, and basically: YAY DESSA. She's so great. What a delight to watch her perform. And I got to take a FERRY to the venue!

I got so much good food, including an absolutely transcendent arroz meloso, and time with a dear friend and two wonderful exhibits at the Morgan and a walk over the Brooklyn Bridge and, yes, rainbow cookies and bagels. New York is just ...it makes my heart sing every time. It is not for everyone but it absolutely is for me.

The train back was also full to the brim, and late, and it is still cold af here, but C. fed me French toast and work fed me tiny desserts when they gave my team an award, and I sent out Seder invitations, so if I can keep staggering onward, Pesach will happen and someday it will be spring.

fandom_secrets_feed

Posted by Fandom!Secrets

https://fandomsecrets.livejournal.com/2356238.html

Profile

beccaelizabeth

March 2026

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30	31

Page Summary

mific - An HR fic about Ilya and Irina
pattrose - Jokes
pattrose - 90 discussion questions
pattrose - March not quite 365 days questions
pattrose - Crunchy questions
pattrose - Recipes
goodbyebird - Buttering my muffin.
dine - if you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need
vriddy - Community Thursday
psocoptera - my 2026 Hugo short fiction nominations
apod_feed - (no subject)
settiai - Aurendor D&D: Summary for 3/24 Game
psocoptera - 2025 Online Short SFF Fiction - Post Two
cornerofmadness - Burn out
catherineldf - Driveby check-in
pocketmouse - stumbling blocks
linky in pimpmethis - March 2026 Monthly Self-Reccing Period
flowing_river in pinchhits - Traumatic Experiences Emergency Pinch Hit - Due March 30th 6PM PST
kitewithfish - (no subject)
isis - wednesday reads and things
scrubjayspeaks - Lake Lewisia #1374
kengr - Interesting idea for SF
but_can_i_be_trusted in 100words - [Challenge #487: Quest] Original Poetry: 'The Quest'
watersword - Okay, where was I? Right.
fandom_secrets_feed - [ SECRET POST #7019 ]

Style Credit

Style: Sky for Crossroads by branchandroot
Resources: Destined For Nothing

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Page generated Mar. 26th, 2026 08:30 am

beccaelizabeth's dreamwidth reading list

Network

An HR fic about Ilya and Irina

Jokes

90 discussion questions

March not quite 365 days questions

Crunchy questions

Recipes

Buttering my muffin.

if you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need

Community Thursday

my 2026 Hugo short fiction nominations

(no subject)

Aurendor D&D: Summary for 3/24 Game

2025 Online Short SFF Fiction - Post Two

Burn out

Driveby check-in

stumbling blocks

March 2026 Monthly Self-Reccing Period

Traumatic Experiences Emergency Pinch Hit - Due March 30th 6PM PST

(no subject)

wednesday reads and things

Lake Lewisia #1374

Interesting idea for SF

[Challenge #487: Quest] Original Poetry: 'The Quest'

Okay, where was I? Right.

[ SECRET POST #7019 ]

Profile

March 2026

Most Popular Tags

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags