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Fancake's Theme for October: Uncommon Settings

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If you're a font nerd like I am, you might be interested to know this font is called Cubao and is inspired by the signboards hung on jeepneys, SUVs, buses, and other transport vehicles within and outside the Metro Manila in the Philippines. I picked it because it looked awesome, only afterward learning that it also represents an uncommon fannish setting.
Also, also, I don't know if this'll work for you, but I accidentally discovered if I stare at this image and kind of Magic Eye it (stare through it) the moon appears to jiggle around inside its circle of text, like a hologram. Spooky.
If you have any questions about this theme, or the comm, or fonts, come talk to me!
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Wednesday Reading Meme for Oct 1 2025
What I’ve Read
Strong Poison – Dorothy Sayers – Our heroine is finally introduced! It’s so good, but it’s also meaningfully unfinished in terms of their relationship.
The Left Hand of Darkness – Ursula K. Le Guin – This book moved me – I had read it last in high school and what stayed with me was etched deep. But, there was a lot that I honestly forgot and the ending hit me like a truck.
What I’m Reading
The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club – Dorothy Sayers
The Mismeasure of Man – Stephen Jay Gould
Mimesis – Erich Auerbach
What I’ll Read Next
Witness for the Dead Katherine Addison
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My stupid as hell Schlocktober plans
I've mentioned before on this journal how small the fandom is for Hello From the Magic Tavern (an improvised comedic fantasy podcast). It has 28 fics on AO3, most of which were posted pre-pandemic. Consequently, I've been trying to post more about it on Tumblr, whether sharing specific clips from the show or rambling about the characters. And I'm determined to contribute more fic. I was vaguely considering Kinktober, though I knew that the smut would maybe be more cracky than titillating, considering the source material.
And then! I saw Schlocktober, which seems to have started as a joke but got a lot of interest and is now an actual challenge. Under the cut is an image of the prompts:
( Read more... )
I was SO excited, because in case I haven't already made it abundantly clear, this podcast is stupid as hell. By which I mean, the people who make the show are brilliant and clever and have spun up a beautiful, enormous structure that holds endless possibilities, but the structure also resembles a cartoon bouncy-house castle decorated with dicks. In other words, its typical tone and content seamlessly fit in with the Schlocktober prompts.
I've got the shape of about 3 different fics pretty clearly in my head, which I think will check off several prompts. They are as follows:
- Otok Barleyfoot/Blemish, for the prompt Genital Swap. Otok is the half-elf proprietor of the titular tavern; Blemish is his creepy half-dwarf servant-slash-employee who both loathes and loves him. Blemish's dick is, canonically, a cat. You see where this is going, maybe.
- Soulwalker/Cowboy!AU!Soulwalker, for the prompts Quadruple Fisting, Autocannibalism, and 96ing if I can figure out WTF I want that last one to mean. The Cowboy!AU!Soulwalker (a shambling corpse full of the souls of the dead) canonically seeks out AU versions of himself to fuck. There was a podcast episode that basically faded-to-black these two, with mentions of tentacles. So I'm gonna try to un-fade that black. It's gonna be a bit challenging to capture both of their voices--the Wild West patter and the more lyrical fantasy nonsense. I'll try my best!
- Baron Ragoon/Tomblain Belaroth, for the prompt Shallow Throating. Prince Tomblain, a noted actor, goes undercover to spy on the evil Baron and ends up seducing him while in disguise as a woman named Lady Eliza Parts. In canon, he flees before they can consummate their relationship because he's worried about the Baron finding out his identity. I have long wanted to write a fic where the Baron learns that Lady Parts has a dick and does not fucking care and they go at it like rabbits. With some ambiguity of how much of it is Tom just acting vs him genuinely getting into it.
If I can post those three fics, honestly, I'm happy! But maybe I'll also see about tossing off some drabbles for some of the other prompts too. There are so many other possibilities that I've jotted down but have kept secondary for now.
The Mysterious Man is perfect for the CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Torture) prompt, and I would love to write some Dripfang/Baron for the prompt Fuck or Die Trying. Usidore and Jyn'Leeviah have so much questionable magical sex in canon where they transform themselves into various foodstuffs, that they would fit right in as well. And then Chunt and Arnie (the ship between two of the main hosts) should really get something too, but they have the most fic on AO3 so far and I've already written 2 fics about them, so putting them on the backburner. I could go on and on...
So, my goal this month is to post three fics, prob to a sock account. To be perfectly honest, they feel like such low-hanging fruit--if the podcast had a thriving transformative fandom, I feel like these premises would have already been written to death. That's part of why I'm so determined for them to exist.
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fall vibes
While we're on the subject of gourds, let me also recommend this recipe for gluten-free pumpkin bars from Texanerin. Though, really, it's more of a pumpkin cake, tall and fluffy and full of fall spices. I wrote up the details over on
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mask up
Yesterday, I was upset to learn that at some point in the last five months Masklab (Wayback link) decided not to sell masks anymore. They were the brand that fit me the best and they came in so many colors and patterns they made wearing a mask feel a little less dire.
Here's the stats for comparison:
- Made in Hong Kong in an ISO-certified Class 7 clean room
- Highest surgical mask standard ASTM F2100 Level 3 certified by STC:Test Report
- PFE>99.9%, BFE>99.9%
- EU PPE Standard EN149 FFP2:Test Report
- Printed with non-toxic, azo-free dyes certified by STC:Test Report
- High breathability
- Fluid resistant up to 160mmHg
- Individually-wrapped
- Size: 190mm x 85mm
The good news is that other companies also make this style of mask. So does anyone have recommendations for PPF2/KF94 Korean-style respirators? I'd love it if they came in fun colors, but it's more important that they're trustworthy and reasonably priced.
The folks in r/Masks4All recommend Savewo (Family Masks in the US site), Breatheteq, WellBefore, and Vida as substitutes.
Anyone familiar with any of these?
Or just tell me what you're wearing these days.
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Weekly Reading Meme for Sept 24, 2025
Lent by Jo Walton – “A novel of many returns” – I read this for the first time about three months ago and avoided spoilers – I recommend this book and I also recommend going in without an idea of you’re getting into it. That said, I think some spoilers would help people make up their minds, so I will put them under a cut.
Whose Body by Dorothy Sayers – # 1 in series - Fun to read, really gives Lord Peter’s backstory some oomph, but it’s also a bit convoluted and very very English. I can see the promise of the future but if this were the first book I’d read, I am not sure I would have bothered with the rest of the series .
Clouds of Witness by Dorothy Sayers - #2 in Series – Wow, this book is just a careful examination, via murder mystery, of all the ways women are trapped in this society in this era. It introduces Peter Wimsey’s noble family, and his brother and sister are both moderately miserable to be caught in a murder investigation. It’s very 1920s England but also does a great job of characterizing a lot of ways a person could be flawed, and how women end up having to make the best of some fairly awful situations.
In news unrelated to reading, I’ve been trying for some time to get off the short form video content sites (mostly TikTok) and spend more time with people whose work feels thoughtful and interesting – so, here’s Technology Connections - https://www.youtube.com/@TechnologyConnections Go learn about how pinball machines do math.
The Revolutionary Temper: Paris, 1748-1789 by Robert Darnton – The library has returned this lovely audiobook to me! I am really enjoying, as a counterpoint to Lent, the ways the book really looks at how the specific circumstances and personalities impact the decisions leading up to the breakdown of the French monarchy. I am sure this is all old hat to people who studied this period of French history in any detail, but I was not among them. Even my interest in the History of Napoleon podcast didn’t cover this period in such a pragmatic, on-the-ground, “who knew what when” approach. The little details matter – I had not know that, as the Estates General was meeting to try and figure out how France was to go on, King Louis XVI left for a day to go sit with his dying seven year old son. Like, it’s not the most important detail of the book, but it just sticks with me that all this uproar and confusion and politics, his kid was dying. I finished the book late last night – highly recommend.
What I’m Reading
Strong Poison by Dorothy Sayers
Mimesis – Auerbach -Just started this while I was trapped in a long meeting and it was available. Said’s forward is good!
What I’ll Read Next
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin for book club
Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison
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A Drop of Corruption (Shadow of the Leviathan #2), by Robert Jackson Bennett
The world is interesting, but the main characters still aren't doing it for me. Like the first book, I was more intrigued by the secondary characters. Here, the warden Malo with her brash confidence, traumatic past, and uncertain future, and in the last book, the investigator who was better with a sword than a notebook and whom I'd inadvertently—and with absolutely no encouragement from the text—pictured as Gimli from The Lord of The Rings movies. Din, in many ways, reads as a means to an end, a recording device more than a fully developed person with his own voice and thoughts, and Ana, well, I figured out what she was before Din, but that's not saying much.
Contains: smoking (especially as a form of self-medication); hereditary enslavement; descriptions of violence and dead bodies; body horror.
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Duolingo Japanese Vocabulary, Vol 4
Volume 4
Describe a wedding | Make plans to go out( Vol 4 )