Dreamwidth Atlantis

How's everyone doing? I'm having a devil of a time with a particular WIP. I seem to have let myself be distracted by other things (reading fanfic, re-reading Murderbot, procrastinating in general--omg even vacuuming).

Why is it so hard to just open the folder and work on it? I like the story, and I like where it's going. But I'm at a point where decisions must be made to move forward.

Decision fatigue is definitely a thing.

How's everyone else doing?

In the cabin, Jane was growing tired of waiting for rescue. She paused in her umpteenth defense of Daria and looked at the approaching storm.

“Storm, so what?” Kalina said.

“It’s just the sort of thing SpiderGirl or the fourth vigilante could use as cover in a rescue attempt,” Jane answered.

“Are you sure?” Kalina asked.

“Yes, I have met SpiderGirl,” Jane said.

Oliver spoke up. “This is a lot different to stopping muggers, stopping that Green Goblin and rescuing kittens from trees.”

“That’s true,” Jane said. “But I don’t doubt that she could do it, despite Quentin’s illusions.”


“They’re now talking about possible rescue,” SpiderGirl said as rain started to fall.

“I’d say that’s as good as invitation as any,” Ninja Talon said.

“Another minute.”


The Enigma and Dafoanairi felt the rain as it began to fall. “We’re almost there,” The Enigma said.

“We might get soaked, but it will be worth it,” Dafoanairi said.

Lightning streaked across the sky and the thunder soon followed.

( Read More )

Is it tacky to use a friend's husband for fanfic? Let me explain!

So I am somewhat embarrassed, having heard all my life about the Appalachian Trail, that I didn't know the west coast has a similar trek, the Pacific Crest Trail, from the border with Mexico, up through California, Oregon, and Washington, until reaching the Canadian border. A friend's husband started walking it mid-April, so I'd heard a bit about his planning and have been following his hike on Tumblr.
(https://www.tumblr.com/robpct2025) He's gone over 1000 miles already.

It makes me realize that this is something I would never have been capable of doing and will never try now, but go him!

At some point on the trail, he was given the sobriquet of Lighthouse. He's a tall man with a light on his hat, it was getting dark and other hikers used his light to see their way. Trail nickname! (This is apparently a special naming that happens for some people but not everyone.)

Of course, I had to think of Liam's 6'4" height. QUINN. Hiking the trail by himself. He's always wanted to do it and has taken a sabbatical for it. He's in his mid-40s, he figures he should get it done soon. He comes up on three hikers, young people in their 20s, moving a bit slower than him. Normally he politely passes slower hikers, but it's getting late and dark and he's looking for the next good spot to pitch his tent for the night. He chats with them a bit, sensing a bit of discord between them, but flattered when they begin calling him Lighthouse. Trail nickname has come to him!

They reach a good flat area and decide to camp side by side. He's taking a detour soon to meet up with his friend Mace, get more supplies, maybe sleep overnight in a motel and have a long, proper shower. He shares the rest of his candy. The young men seem fairly well organized but also certainly not perfectly, they didn't have his two extra decades of contemplation and reading about other people's successful treks.

One of them in particular (of course!) catches his attention. Ben, with his easy smile and changeable grey-blue-green eyes. He's the most diplomatic of the three and it seems like he's been playing referee a lot.

All goes well, it's nice to have real conversation over a meal after several weeks already of being mostly alone.

In the morning, they share breakfast and pack up. Does tragedy strike so that the other two bail, leaving Ben alone? Does Ben then end up hiking the rest of the trip with Quinn? Of course he does! Hours pass by where they silently walk, simply enjoying each other's company, but they also share long, thoughtful conversations and really get to know each other in a way that's deeper and more meaningful than casually getting to know each other in a city.

And of course, sex under the stars, in a tent, in a waterfall...

I probably won't try to write that, but it's been amusing to contemplate whenever I look at the pics on Tumblr. Such gorgeous scenery, it's so easy to see the boys enjoying it.

Fanfic everything!

Played two games on Sunday. Think I played 2 games a couple of rounds ago, too.

On the whole, the body is hurting quite a bit more than it was last time. But I've been having a few aches and pains.

Good feeling: I scored a goal - a beautiful pass from the wing straight into the middle of the circle, and I (and a defender whose stick clashed with mine) reangled it into the goal behind the keeper.

Bad feeling: all the twingy, twitchy hip and leg aches for which I am going to see a physio this morning.

Apparently, Team 1 is down to 13 players (there's 11 on the field) and they were going to move some of T2 up (myself and my friend J, who came and played for the club last year because I was here and her team was being relegated to a competition in the southwest; she still plays with them for the masters/veterans competition) but we've got about three injuries ongoing on the team - including one fractured foot and one pregnancy, who is taking it fairly easy.

Yesterday, we were missing one of our 'young runners', and the other had period cramps really bad. Both inners (women about my age, so perimenopausal) were nursing injuries, and our pregnancy is on the wing. Doing well, but...yeah. She probably won't be running much longer...

Our forward line is simply not able to get the ball up there with any kind of strength, so we're losing 3-0, but we're doing a really good job at playing. I know that doesn't sound like we are with 3-0 losses, but truly told, we're playing amazing. Passing, calling, talking, we just can't get it into the circle and into the goal.

Anyway, we're improving and we're having fun. Even the not-so-nice team was okay to play yesterday.

Back to Team 1, they're probably going to try to get myself and J qualified for the team in the finals series. Which...eek. That means at least another 2 weekends with 2 games for me. Which...I can maybe do if I keep my fitness up? Oof.

But I may reach my holidays and be like "here is a pool and a nice hotel in Sinagapore and I AIN'T MOVING A MUSCLE"...

I love my dad but...

( he's a cheapskate )

Otherwise, am making plans for places to stay in London, Bath, Porto, and Rotterdam, and finding things to do in those places, too.

Anyone done day tours in Porto, Portugal?

My answers to this week's questions!

The Friday Five for 11 July 2025 - https://thefridayfive.dreamwidth.org/141045.html

 

 

Friday 5 for July 11: In the can - http://f.riday5.com/2025/07/11/friday-5-for-july-11-in-the-can/

 

 

13th
Daniel 6
Darius, like most ancient, and not so ancient, kings and emperors, had delusions of grandeur.
Eunuchs as a way to prevent infidelity.

Deuteronomy 23:1

Was Daniel a eunuch?
Quite likely
2 Kings 20:14 - 18
How would this affect Daniel?
Isaiah 56:3 - 5

God says; "If you humble yourself and come to me, I will accept you."

The Jews were spreading their faith.

Matthew 7:24 - 27
Daniel built on the rock.

Daniel knew in his heart that God was real. He continued praying openly, despite Darius' decree.

Thy name is not Elayna. No, it's really not!

I hadn't thought much about writing until suddenly I had a story in my brain and was writing it. And kept doing that, and at some point I thought, I should probably read some advice on writing. I've read a lot but not studied that much about the actual mechanics of writing. So much advice is "Write What You Know." Really! So much! And I found this sorta stressful! I was a middle-aged female bureaucrat with a job in an 8x8 cubicle, I wanted to write about Jedi in a galaxy far, far away, not what I knew, thank you very much.

But I go through life and I swear, so often I'm thinking, how can I use this in fanfic?

I got a free turkey recently, which had been in a freezer since last November. Normally I cook a turkey once a year, on Thanksgiving, but I didn't want to keep this one for another 4 months. I cooked it yesterday. My brother always carves it on Thanksgiving, so I had to do that myself. I looked up instructions online, and it went fine.

Today I'm boiling the bones with vegetables for turkey stock. It smells absolutely delicious.

And I just keep thinking... who should be roasting a turkey> Thanksgiving or some other time? What do they think about how good it smells? What did they think about carving it and getting grease on their hands? I feel Bucky would snap a glove on his prosthetic hand so the turkey grease wouldn't invade the finger joints. Would Tony find cooking stock an extremely odd thing to do, or would it bring back fond childhood memories of Ana Jarvis?

I seem to be MCU these days.

I don't want to write what I know... except I totally do. EVERYTHING.

/weird writerly ramble

Mine and society's, I guess.

When I was a kid, I watched a lot of movies from the 1940s and 50s. Many of the characters smoked, which looked glamorous to me. I often pretended to smoke with those white candy cigarettes.

Then my parents stopped when I was around 13, and I got to watch first hand the difficulty of breaking an addiction. Also, a health unit at school on smoking showed a picture of a smoker’s lung and ew. Smoking still looked glamorous in movies but the impact in real life very much did not.

I saw The Materialists this week, primarily for my love of Chris Evans. In several early scenes, Dakota Johnson’s character smokes, looking very elegant with how she holds the cigarette. Chris’s character does too, though with less stylistic drama.

And it was so weirdly distracting! I don’t remember the last time I saw a character smoke in a movie set in modern times. All I could think was how nasty those characters must have smelled.

As the movie progresses, both characters stop smoking, like it was just something to give ‘a bit of business’ to their hands until the plot got more intense, but not really supposed to be part of their personality.

I’m very happy attitudes have changed so much toward smoking. I don’t know anyone who smokes. I only smell it when I go to a casino, which always makes me so grateful that California outlaws smoking most places.

I have no clue why the director had those characters smoke, but it seemed like a bad decision to have it and then inconsistent to drop it. I found the movie interesting though a weird mix of jaded cynicism and hopefulness. I don’t know that I’d recommend it, though if you want to watch for Chris, he definitely looked very good. There’s a scene where he has a few lines about love, and the camera stays focused on him the whole time, and I thought: someone must use that in a video. It would be perfect.

Pedro Pascal looks very good too.

So qualified rec. But really, why have main characters smoke? Why? It's a unpleasant habit that kills people.

Brittany thought about what DeMartino said as they moved on. That Ms. Li was lining her own pockets wasn’t surprising. But why were his funds meagre?


Brittany, Daria, Andrea and Donna were far from the only students doing fundraising for the Coffee House. They saw another group of students in the distance as they left DeMartino’s neighborhood.

“Is that Quinn and her friends?” Andrea asked.

“Probably,” Daria answered.

“Then we could go a different way?” Donna asked.

“We could,” Brittany said.

“Let’s do so,” Daria said.

“Certainly,” Andrea said.

“We can take up De Martino’s offer and find Mr. O’Neill,” Daria suggested.

“But do we know where he lives?” Andrea asked.

“Yes,” Donna answered.


They headed in that direction.

“Good afternoon,” O’Neill said. “I suppose you’re here for the Coffee House fundraising?”

“Yes,” Brittany answered.

“Excellent.”

“We’re selling holiday wrapping paper and chocolates,” Donna said.

“How wonderful!” O’Neill said. “But of course, I knew that.”

“Are you interested in buying something?” Brittany asked.

“Of course!” O’Neill said.

“Great!” Brittany responded.

“I’ll have some of the wrapping paper,” O’Neill decided.

“Sure!” Brittany said.

“How much?” O’Neill said.

“I’m sure you know,” Daria said.

“Um…”

“You forgot?”

“Um…” The teacher dissembled.

“You did, didn’t you?”

“Yes. But I have a lot to do.”


Daria wasn’t sure what to make of that interaction. But then she had figured that there were things wrong with O’Neill from her first Language Arts class in Lawndale.

“Something on your mind?” Andrea asked.

“Oh, just wondering what might be up with O’Neill,” Daria answered.

“All of us do from time to time,” Donna added.

Daria nodded.


Most of the afternoon went by without further incident.


“How did it go?” Quinn asked when they arrived back at the Morgendorffers.

“Better than I expected,” Daria answered.

“That’s great!” Quinn said.

“Except that we ran into Mr. O’Neill,” Donna said.

“What happened there?”

“Mr. O’Neill forgot how much the wrapping papers were,” Brittany answered.

“Oh,” Quinn said.

“That might mean something,” Daria said.

“That he’s forgetful?” Quinn asked.

“Yes” Daria answered. “But could be something deeper.”

“We also ran into DeMartino,” Donna added.

“How did he react?” Quinn asked.

“How do you think he reacted?” Daria asked.

“In his usual way, ranting about students being more into things other than their classes?” Quinn asked rhetorically.

Daria nodded.

“But otherwise, it was a good afternoon,” Brittany said.

“That’s good,” Quinn said.

“And we achieved something,” Donna added with a smile.

“I didn’t think Daria would make friends here,” Quinn said.

“I was patient and she was willing to take a chance,” Brittany responded.


They went up to Daria’s room.

“This is cool,” Andrea said.

“The previous owners had a psychotic aunt up here,” Daria explained.

“That explains it,” Brittany said.

“I didn’t want a normal room after I saw how this was,” Daria added.

“It does look unique,” Donna said. “It suits you.”

“Thanks,” Daria said.

“It does look cool, now that I think about it,” Brittany said.

Daria smirked.

“But how do you think we’ll use the coffee house?” Andrea asked.

“I’m not sure,” Daria answered.

“A hangout spot?” Brittany asked.

“Obviously,” Donna said.

“With you three, I would,” Daria said. “I might share some of my writing.”

“Cool!” Donna and Brittany said.