smokingboot

Inspired by bleodswean's Monday prompt: any, any/any, let the rain sing you a lullaby

Title: An Interlude of Rain
Fandom: Nosferatu 2024
Characters: Ellen Hutter, Albin von Franz, Thomas Hutter, Count Orlok
Pairing: Ellen Hutter / Albin von Franz
Word Count: 459
Rating: Mature
Warnings / Triggers: Angst, psychic attacks, allusion to dubious consent.
Summary: A short prequel to my Ellen Hutter / Albin von Franz series.

On a cold rainy night, Ellen recalls her first contact with Orlok. But there is light in the darkness.
Note: For plot purposes, I've revised the depiction of von Franz. While still embodied by Willem Dafoe, my version of the character is now younger, in his thirties.

Link: archiveofourown.org/works/65555434

earthspirits posting in

the_scent_of_lilacs

https://photos.smugmug.com/Miscellaneous/Vamps/Vampires/i-ftPjsx4/0/Kxvkz7xGcDPBh4Sph9NzcK3hDTN2tf9bMfz7SSZqC/S/nosferatu%20lily%20rose%20depp-S.jpg

They say a picture is worth a thousand words!

Every Wednesday we share a single photo to inspire your muse.

Please post your Dracula / Nosferatu inspired fic as a stand-alone in the community, and use the header below (or similar). And please put your story behind a cut.

Title:

Fandom:
Characters:
Word Count:
Rating:

( Click for today's photo )

conuly

The Rusty Quill Big Bang is open for writer signups.

And by the way, there's an Ao3 feed for Stellar Firma, except I misspelled it because they're all British and their accents are non-rhotic:

ao3_stella_firma_feed.

Anyway, I definitely would recommend you listen to some of those audiodramas and maaaaaaybe do the fan thing as well.

conuly

Metafilter is having a, uh, lively discussion on whether or not this study proves that contemporary English majors can't read.

There's a lot of potential ways to divide the commenters into two groups, but the one I expected the most was "people who think the correct way to deal with unfamiliar references in literature is to immediately look it up" and "people who think the first group needs to learn to use context clues already".

As always, I am in the second group, and every time the first group appears in real life I find myself wondering if they somehow weren't taught this skill at school. I well remember the worksheets! (To be honest, they were a little hit or miss for me - 95% of the time they just used text with words they assumed the students would be unfamiliar with, which I was never actually unfamiliar with. But the other 5% of the time they used text with made up words or with blacked out bits of text, and that was fun, and presumably we all learned a great deal. Or at least in theory... one of the reasons I had such a good vocabulary as a kid was because I read so much and never looked anything up except for fun, so... well, the point is, my classmates probably learned something! And I use that skill every time I try to read something in Spanish.)

Anyway, I'm really posting this because of two reasons.

1. Somehow, nobody has posted about the lawyer cat from the pandemic. Did they all forget? Or not see that?

2. This paragraph: One of the interesting thing about the Inns of Court is that we have some early dance choreography and melody lines not found anywhere else, in a collection that was used there to teach the law students how to dance. Of course the choreography document predates Dickens by a couple of centuries...

Somebody needs to explain wtf is up with this because wtf.

Edit: No, I thought of a third thing, which I forgot because of the second thing.

3. When your kids are very little, every well-meaning person everywhere will tell you that it's all right for them to watch a little TV, just so long as you watch with them and discuss what you're watching, and ask them questions about it. Watch actively, and train them to do so. And it wasn't until the niblings were in middle school that I realized I wasn't actually doing that the way people keep saying - instead of talking about the plot and "what do you think happens next" my running commentary during TV shows and movies goes "Wow, that background music is awfully forboding for such an apparently hopeful scene" and "Ugh, he put a blanket over her, I guess they'll hook up now" and "That transition sure is cheesy!" and, once, "You think you'll be happy when you get to Omashu , but obviously not", which prompted the kids to ask why and I had to actually think about it. (Because they left the secret tunnel and then had to climb a mountain which blocked their view of the city while chatting about how amazing it'd be to get to the city. If everything was hunky-dory then there would've been no mountain, they would've emerged from the tunnel and seen the city right there.) I don't know if the way I did it was better or worse than what people kept saying to do, but it doesn't seem to have hurt the kids and their ability to pick up on foreshadowing!

conuly

It was so long we had to resetup Paramount Plus on the PS4, which was a job and a half.

Also, Jenn kept trying to guess the ending for one episode so I've banned her from watching with us. I mean, not really, but I'll probably keep saying it for a few more days.

We watched the one with the Demon class planet, which is sorta meh all around but which is important context for one of my favorite ever ST episodes. It's weird that that's my favorite episode, as it's sad and bleak and also doesn't really go anywhere, but I love it.

Then there's the one where Seven's basically all alone for a month, and honestly, this was a terrible idea all around. Voyager is a big ship, you can't run it with two people, and that's if you can expect everything to work smoothly with no problems which obviously they couldn't because of the scary nebula. They should've gone around. Also, at the end Harry makes an ill-conceived joke about Tom being locked up in small places as a child, and what if he had been, Harry? You'd feel awful, and from now on that's my new headcanon. Tom laughed, but he was only hiding his pain....

(Also, it's super weird to me that one of the first evil hallucinations Seven manifested was a creepy creepster. She was a Borg! She was assimilated as a small child! Where was she even drawing that from!?)

Then there's the one with the slipstream drive that's all an elaborate trap, and my man, I get that you're crazed with grief but I think you should have bigger priorities than some petty revenge.

And then there's Night. The crew spends half the episode moping that they're going through a boring, starless region of space. You'd think they'd be happy that they finally have time to finish their concertos and catch up on their reading, but apparently not! They only perk up when they have a chance to avert a genocide. Which, lemme say, they didn't even fucking try with that garbage hauler. I get that the episode and his behavior is supposed to be about us, but they could've pointed out to him that if he comes back with them he can have a monopoly over this cleansing device and make money hand over fist, easily twice as much as he's making now with a lot less risk and labor. But no, they'd rather write Hoggish Greedly instead, even though that characterization doesn't make any damn sense and it requires the crew to be completely undiplomatic.

I mean, I guess I'd be happy too if I could singlehandedly stop a genocide, but damn, I like a little downtime! What is wrong with them? I think they were just itching for a fight, and that's why they picked one.

************

( Read more... )

flemmings

Well, all's well that ends well...

Up to Starkman's and yes, Bathurst is a parking lot no matter the time of day and are they *seriously* thinking of making a dedicated bus lane on it because if so, people will drive in the bus lane ie nothing will change. Anyway, tip my long-suffering cabbie well and walk in. And what's the first thing I see? An upright walker. You have uprights? Oh yes, we have uprights. So in very short order am measured for one, and the arms of the upright are adjusted by pressing a tab-- which I probably won't be able to, given the grief my vacuum cleaner gives me, but that's what pliers are for-- and not by fiddling with screws, hallelujah. Some back and forth about is the one I tried being held for someone or not, but I'm not in a hurry, send me one you have in stock. Which I believe is blue, an extra bonus.

Then think to ask the helpful sales clerk does she know what kind of screwdrivers or wrenches or whatever tighten the wheels on my current beast, and she says Let me ask the technician. You have a technician? Yes, of course. Up he comes, looks at my wobbly wheel, says Your bearings are cracked lemme fix them. So I wait till clerk is finished with one customer, no sales tax on purchases and here, have a discount, so I pay with my debit because the government unaccountably gave me something more than the price of the walker yesterday. Normally I'd let Starkman's eat the Visa fee, but if you're going to be so helpful, we'll settle for the 2% debit one. Technician returns with my walker and a cup holding the worn-out rusted bearings, which walking in rain and snow will get you. Has tightened everything up including the brakes, and then doesn't charge me. So very satisfying all round.

EXCEPT

I want two words with last year's clerk who said No we don't have uprights, no we don't order them, no we don't do repairs, here's the number of the guy who... doesn't do repairs anymore either but sends you to the people up in North York.

However, need only hope walker is delivered when I'm in (last time they left it next door, no longer an option). And as I was walking back down Bathurst and negotiating the crumbling curbs, young 20-something guy asks You OK and gives me a thumbs up and a smile when I say Yes thanks. Mannerly young people are definitely a mood booster.

mallorys_camera

Here's how I've been wasting the time I should be devoting to Remuneration, exercise, & useful errands!

Making AI videos with any kind of narrative momentum is frustrating (to say the least!) This one's got a couple of artifacts, but I spoke sternly to the AI image generator about its hallucinations & promised to get it into therapy pronto.

It almost works.

summersgate

Kind of a drizzly day today. Overcast. Dry at the moment but when I went out early this morning for chores I was getting sprinkled on. We are meeting Chloe in Oil City later to bring her some garden tools that she needs for the ARC to have a garden. She's getting a plot going for them at the Oil City First Presby Church community garden. Dave is a tool guy and loves tools. If he sees a nice shovel at a yard sale, even if he doesn't need one, he'll get it. So he has extra rakes, hoes, shovels etc. One of his hobbies is to put new handles on old tools and spruce them up.

Andy isn't himself yet. Though he's only been on the meds for less than 24hrs. Hoping that in a couple days he'll be his old self again.

*****
You know who I find sexy? UPS and FEDEX delivery drivers. The young guys. They're strong. They don't trudge up to your door - they trot. I like the brown uniforms of UPS too. Shorts in the summer, nice legs. They drive around with their driver's door open most the time. What daredevils! I find the postal workers hiking around neighborhoods with satchels over their shoulders attractive too - men and women both. The girls with ponytails swinging and strong calves. Just now I was watching out the window while the young FEDEX guy (tanned, wearing shorts) brought a big box to the door. Running. I went out to get the box and it was heavy. If I see the delivery guys in time I usually make an effort to meet them at the door and say thank you. Tall, dark and handsome and very polite. A "type". Now that I've said this probably the next delivery we get will be by a surly, old, tired, white guy.

Mama Tomato and her many babies update. I had an empty pot near the back door. I'm wondering if it's actually a good environment for seeds to grow in? Seems like it might be too acidic. It'll be an experiment. That's an empty snail shell in case you were wondering. I found it in the woods yesterday.

earthspirits posting in

the_scent_of_lilacs

Inspired by bleodswean's Monday prompt: Dracula, Mina/Dracula, The Count spends a long tortuous night with his beloved's corpse as the curse begins to take him over.

Title: Night of Death and Sorrows
Fandom: Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)
Characters: Dracula, Elisabeta + Original Characters
Pairing: Dracula / Elisabeta
Word Count: 403
Rating: Mature 18+
Warnings / Triggers: Suicide / Suicidal and vengeful thoughts, blood, death, madness, and heartbreak.
Summary: After Elisabeta's death, a grieving Vlad Dracula locks himself in the cursed chapel.

Link: archiveofourown.org/works/65513032

summersgate

Yesterday's art. I'll either call this Mother's Day or Blue, White, Red and Black.

Candy and I hiked to the Dennison Point Overlook this morning. 3.5 miles over hill and dale with a long sit-down at the overlook bench. I took no pictures but I did try and picture in my head a painting I could do of the little fresh folded maple leaves looking like birds flying against the blue sky.

IMG_20250512_140544442[1].jpg

Skye, my new sweeper, Andy's food that he doesn't want to eat and one of his chews that he's not interested in either. I took the picture to show my sweeper that I am loving right now. It's QUIET. I find that I don't mind sweeping - going over the rugs with this. I already went around the main public spaces twice today! That's crazy. Compared to how I used to housekeep. I've picked up a new hobby. It's called "trying to keep the floor clean". I got as many of those thin flat rugs to cover the floors as I could find spaces for. It is so easy to run the sweeper over them. I find it fun. Dave said that when I was little I must have had one of those wheeled popper toys on a stick that little kids push across the floor. I think I did.

Dave took Andy to the vet this morning. Andy's having a flare up of anaplasmosis and he's anemic too so the vet sent him home with antibiotics and something for inflammation and pain. Poor guy. He has no appetite and he's sleeping a lot.

Leaves Like Birds.

flemmings

So got up and got my aching self down to the lab which was virtually empty at 10:30, so in and out in under ten minutes, though four people arrived as I was leaving. Elevator opens on one person heading to the second floor, so I assume it came down to me first. I press button for ground floor, doors close, nothing happens. Sign still says Basement. She presses G again. Nothing. Presses two again. Nothing. Presses Open doors. Nothing. At this point I'd be freaking if alone because I absolutely hate this elevator and its very antsy-making slowness. She jabs Open doors violently, doors open on basement. 'This is the worst elevator in Toronto,' she says, and I agree wholeheartedly. She jabs G, doors close, elevator makes moving noises, which I didn't realize it actually did. Usually I stand and wonder if we're moving at all. Am eventually allowed to exit at G. Too much excitement for before breakfast and meds.

Rollator still wobbles and sticks. Finally figure it's the right front wheel that's out of true. No idea how to get it straight but tighten what I can. Call the repair place who charge $150 for a house call, with any repairs being extra, I assume. Might cost less than that to taxi up to Dufferin and Steeles, but am warned that I might have to leave it there. Which no, can't do. Shall eventually go up to Starkman's to see if their 'tall' models are any taller than mine. Thought about doing it today after massage but by then it was 3:30 and Bathurst is a parking lot any time after 2, and I certainly wasn't up for the walk.

However I did win $20 on my freebie ticket from last week, which helps.

conuly

and sung them all to sleep and stolen all their hoarded gold and jewels and, idk, silk and spices and shit, and then she rows back to shore... using a broadsword? I mean, doesn't the boat already have oars? Actual oars, which will work better for their intended purpose? She doesn't need to jury-rig something, she can just steal his sword and row back in the normal way!

**********************

( Read more... )

asakiyume

A tale of two rivers. Here's high waters on the Amazon....

And here's high waters on the Connecticut. This road (Aqua Vitae Road! Great name!) floods easily:

The speed limit sign enjoins you to drive your water-worthy car no faster than 25 mph:

The high waters create our very own "selva inundada"

Current Music: Dirk Powell and the Transatlantic Musicians: Waterbound

bleodswean posting in

the_scent_of_lilacs

Commentfic Monenday! Comment with a prompt as many times as you'd like. Respond to another's prompt as many times as you'd like. Dracula / Nosferatu focus.

And PLEASE post a prompt for other writers! :)

Commentfic is a type of fanfiction prevalent on journaling sites, such as LiveJournal or DreamWidth. The term derives from the fact that the fanfiction is written and then posted in the comment field of a journal entry.

mallorys_camera

The third episode of Nathan Fiedler's The Rehearsal, Season 2, is so stunningly brilliant that I'm kinda struck wordless by it.

The best comedy always has that satori quality...

Fiedler is an absolute genius.

He takes that vast warehouse motiff from Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche, New York and races with it. The motif doesn't actually work in Synecdoche, New York—or at least, it didn't work for me: too cerebral. But by milking it for laughs, Nathan Fiedler makes it work in the moment.

And after the moment...

Well. The vast warehouse where everything takes place while life (presumably) continues all around it is a very dreamlike embodiment.

I'm gonna have to think for a while about this one.

###

In other news...

I did very little yesterday except float in a kind of sunny obliviousness. Tromped, enjoyed my spectacular floral tributes:

Ate ice cream for dinner.

I would prefer to do absolutely nothing but float in sunny obliviousness today, but that ain't the way life outside the warehouse works! I got my 2,000 word quota to churn out.

conuly

OMGWTF

This is not a drill. Contact everybody.

Write to them, call them, do not stop pestering them.

conuly

Your absence has gone through me
Like thread through a needle.
Everything I do is stitched with its color.

****

Link

conuly

One thing only, and it can be described as "Their awful dystopian presidency still isn't as bad as our real one".

This is the show where one character asserted his expertise in a certain matter on the grounds of being a Star Trek fanwriter, and then almost immediately thereafter suggested they take the elevator instead of the stairs. Nothing bad happened on the elevator, but nevertheless....

**********************

( Read more... )

mallorys_camera

Mother's Day!

I'm a hater. Hallmark Holiday, I sneer.

Though I do understand every holiday is the result of some sort of marketing campaign. It's not as though when God made the Universe, He equipped it with sparkly plastic slots for Christmas & Thanksgiving.

And, of course, if my own offspring fail to acknowledge Mother's Day, I cycle into the most terrible snit—which must be why Ichabod called me at six o'clock this morning California time to acknowledge my superiority to every single mammal that has ever given birth.

Way to go, Ichabod!

"And something from me & RTT should be delivered later today," he added.

Ohhhhhh! A large floral arrangement.

I ❤️LUV❤️ me some large floral arrangements.

The kids & I are getting on extraordinarily well these days. I must say, I am a lucky person indeed to have such fabulous offspring.

When I got up this morning, I went searching for a photo to illustrate my annual "My Poor Tragic Deluded Mother" essay.

Is my Apple photo archive magic? 'Cause I swear the photos in it metamorphose & change on a daily basis. Like this morning, the only photograph of my mother I could find was the one above, which I don't ever remember seeing before.

The nicest thing Rik ever said to me was, You are nothing like your mother.

Except in this photograph, my mother looks disturbingly like me. (Yes, I know, in truth I look like her, but precedents get very garbled when you're looking at old photographs.) The same exact face shape. It's... defining.

Giving full vent to her narcissism, my mother is staring poutily into a small compact mirror and raising one hand to caress her carefully premeditated flip coif. The photo is carefully posed, and she is pretending it's not posed.

Happy Mother's Day, Lynn, wherever you now may be! From the bottom of my heart, I hope you are having more fun in your present lifetime than you had in the lifetime before.

In other news, I actually ended up having the Big Fun herding children through the bounce house yesterday. Go figure.

A lot of that was because the high school senior volunteer who was assigned to assist me turned out to be lovely, intelligent & poised, and we actually had a real conversation about her life, her hopes, & her dreams, which restored my faith in teenagers—they're not all like the Icky Spawn!

Sadly, the actual Duck Derby event itself had to be canceled because the river was up too high:

Still, amazingly beautiful, no? Extremely pleasant way to loll away an afternoon.

###

Afterwards, I traipsed off to the monthly meeting of the Shawangunk Dems. I have volunteered to take over administering their website—which hasn't been updated in two years and needs a complete redesign.

"Democrat" is a dirty word in this part of Trumplandia, right up there with "cunt" and "Hilary Clinton."

So, I told the group that if they wanted maximum return on our Internet presence, we really need to deemphasize the Dem part of Shawangunk Dems. (And we'll need to do other social media outreach too, because down the line, if we want younger members—and we do: Nobody in our group is younger than 60—they care about Instagram & TikTok, not websites.)

The Shawangunk Dems run an outreach initiative called Neighbor to Neighbor, which consists of knocking on people's doors & giving them home-baked chocolate chip cookies as well as a newsletter chock full of curated local news & sponsored activities—Bingo! Board game nights! Drama classes! Art classes!

"Neighbor to Neighbor is a much stronger pitch than Shawangunk Dems," I argued. "It gives the illusion of non-partisanship. Win their hearts & minds, and then you'll win their votes!"

"But we're the Shawangunk Dems," one of the greybeards gasped, appalled.

"Sure, that's the umbrella organization," I argued cheerfully. "Think of the business analogy. Does Kraft Foods advertise itself? No! It advertises Jell-O and Heinz Ketchup and Kool-Aid!"

Alas, I got voted down.

And sadly—even though I know I'm right—I believe in majority rule when it comes to stuff like this.

These people know nothing about marketing!

summersgate

Rising.

Rainy had some kind of problem in her throat yesterday and this morning. She was eating grass yesterday afternoon. She threw up her dinner nearly as soon as she ate it and then her breakfast this morning. Hacking and coughing and retching. I thought maybe she had something stuck in her throat. I called the vet this morning and got an appointment. As soon as I made the phone call it seemed like she got better. But I took her anyway. The vet thinks that she must have scratched her throat when she ate the grass and threw up the first time. Anyway I'm glad I took her because she started hacking and coughing again when we got home. I got some medicine to give her to make her stomach less acidic. And the vet gave her a shot of something to help her nausea. She seems okay now, tonight. While I was at the vets I made an appointment for Andy for Monday. He's not his usual self, lethargic, not hungry.

I got out the weedwhacker for the first time this afternoon. I was kind of scared that it might not have been a good idea to leave the batteries out in the shed all winter. But it turned out the batteries were just fine, at least the ones I used today. The first place I wanted to whack was around my goat shed. I finished that using 2 batteries.

Jules was mowing and ran over a rabbit nest today. He didn't hurt any of the young bunnies but the top was torn off the nest. One bunny got scared and ran away. And then another one. Jules called me to see if I had any advice. We were hoping that if we put them back in the nest hole and covered them up again then the mom might come back later. Jules found both of them - one was just in some high grass and the other was under a pile of sticks. So I got to hold 2 bunnies when I returned them to the nest. Very sweet little things. They looked almost old enough to be out of the nest but not quite. I hope the mother comes back for them.

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smokingboot

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Page Summary

earthspirits in the_scent_of_lilacs - An Interlude of Rain - AU Ellen Hutter & Albin von Franz Fic - Inspired by Nosferatu 2024
earthspirits in the_scent_of_lilacs - Wednesday Photo Prompt
conuly - PSA
conuly - (no subject)
conuly - After a very long break, E and I have watched some Voyager together!
flemmings - (no subject)
mallorys_camera - Little Patty's Very First AI Video!
summersgate - tuesday
earthspirits in the_scent_of_lilacs - Night of Death and Sorrows - Dracula / Elisabeta Ficlet - Inspired by Bram Stoker's Dracula
summersgate - monday
flemmings - (no subject)
conuly - So, the Maid on the Shore has successfully hoodwinked the rapist captain and his rapist crew
asakiyume - El río creciendo
bleodswean in the_scent_of_lilacs - Commentfic Monenday
mallorys_camera - Life Outside the Warehouse
conuly - Trump administration considers suspending habeas corpus
conuly - Separation by W. S. Merwin
conuly - What I've been listening to lately
mallorys_camera - Marketing & Its Discontents
summersgate - saturday

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The Owls Are Not What They Seem

Reading

An Interlude of Rain - AU Ellen Hutter & Albin von Franz Fic - Inspired by Nosferatu 2024

Wednesday Photo Prompt

PSA

(no subject)

After a very long break, E and I have watched some Voyager together!

(no subject)

Little Patty's Very First AI Video!

tuesday

Night of Death and Sorrows - Dracula / Elisabeta Ficlet - Inspired by Bram Stoker's Dracula

monday

(no subject)

So, the Maid on the Shore has successfully hoodwinked the rapist captain and his rapist crew

El río creciendo

Commentfic Monenday

Life Outside the Warehouse

Trump administration considers suspending habeas corpus

Separation by W. S. Merwin

What I've been listening to lately

Marketing & Its Discontents

saturday

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