without end | luca x oc
Jan. 18th, 2026 09:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seraphikisspairing: luca balsa | prisoner/noah stijepović | corrections officer
rating: T
warnings: none
word count: 9,218
AO3 link: without end
"noah," luca says, and his voice is so tender it hurts. "can i—would it be okay if i hugged you?"the question, the asking, the care of it—noah's eyes fill with tears before he can stop them.
"yes," he whispers.
noah wears his wounds where everyone can see them. luca never once asks him to take them off.
( without end )
Pakistan shopping mall fire kills six people
Jan. 18th, 2026 01:38 pm![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
bbcnewsworld_feedSyrian army seizes country's largest oil field from Kurdish forces
Jan. 18th, 2026 01:25 pmbbcnewsworld_feedUgandan leader extends 40-year rule after winning contested poll
Jan. 17th, 2026 05:43 pmbbcnewsworld_feedBig names on Trump's peace panel face huge challenges in Gaza
Jan. 17th, 2026 02:31 pmbbcnewsworld_feedWeekly (ish) check in
Jan. 18th, 2026 09:42 pmfred_mouse posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
unclutterHow goes the decluttering? Have you shifted anything out of the house? Found something to sort through? Had thoughts on things you can let go of?
Comments open to locals, lurkers, drive by sticky beaks, and anyone I've forgotten to mention.
Congratulations to everyone who has found and/or disposed on any clutter in the last week!
Optional extra, for those doing the low key January challenge: how go the work spaces?
Book Bingo: G1 | An author's debut/first book | Where the Dark Stands Still
Jan. 18th, 2026 08:37 amseleneheart
Blurb:
Liska knows that magic is monstrous, and its practitioners are monsters. She has done everything possible to suppress her own magic, to disastrous consequences. Desperate to be free of it, Liska flees her small village and delves into the dangerous, demon-inhabited spirit-wood to steal a mythical fern flower. If she plucks it, she can use its one wish to banish her powers. Everyone who has sought the fern flower has fallen prey to unknown horrors, so when Liska is caught by the demon warden of the wood—called The Leszy—a bargain seems better than one year of servitude in exchange for the fern flower and its wish.
Whisked away to The Leszy’s crumbling manor, Liska soon makes an unsettling [discovery] - she is not the first person to strike this bargain, and all her predecessors have mysteriously vanished. If Liska wants to survive the year and return home, she must unravel her taciturn host’s spool of secrets and face the ghosts—figurative and literal—of his past. Because something wakes in the woods, something deadly and without mercy. It frightens even The Leszy…and cannot be defeated unless Liska embraces the monster she’s always feared becoming.
I seem to have fallen into reading books in a small niche genre of Polish folk/fairy tales turned into novels. If I hadn't previously read Uprooted, I might have rated this one more highly. Liska is a good character, but I found the story too derivative - of Beauty and the Beast, Howl's Moving Castle, and Uprooted itself. YA novels can be complex and original but this is not one of them. However, I didn't feel like it was a waste of my time, and it was an enjoyable read.
The cover art is gorgeous and on point.
Done Since 2026-01-11
Jan. 18th, 2026 05:14 ammdlbearIt didn't feel like a very productive week, but it looks like I actually got a few things done, including data-entry for our (HSX's) bookkeeper to close out VAT for the quarter. So I'm going to cut myself a little slack. Only a little, though, because a lot of stuff still isn't getting done.
On the other hand, I got in five walks, though one was cut short because my knee felt dicey. And the knee braces I ordered thereafter failed to arrive, due to some screw-up at the warehouse -- I got two items all right; an ethernet patch cable and coupler. :P I also fell down the Post Public Domain Day reading rabbit-hole. And I found my glasses! (Under the pile of sweaters and other warm stuff that have accumulated on the arm of the couch nearest my desk.) They'd been missing for almost exactly a month.
As part of the little burst of productivity at the beginning of the week, I upgraded Linux Mint to 22.3 Zena on (Framework 12)Lilac and (main laptop)unSable. Then I noticed that (server)Nova and (spare Thinkpad X230)Panther were still on 21.3 Virginia -- the same as Raven. Which meant in particular that Nova still had Python2.7, so could be used for posting. It required a little fixing, but it now works. So then I upgraded Raven.
I'll upgrade Panther too, but right now it's in the bedroom, and so is Bronx.
I also tracked down Nova's old mirror drive, last updated a year ago just before we left Seattle. That also required some fiddling, but I just got what looks like a clean update to it about an hour ago. Win.
On the gripping hand, I've been feeling distinctly off, in several different ways. I have a cardiology appointment on Tuesday, but whether that will prove enlightening remains to be seen.
Linkies: Red Cards / Tarjetas Rojas | Immigrant Legal Resource Center | ILRC -- if you're in the US you might want to print off a few whether you're an immigrant or not.
Just one thing: 17-18 January 2026
Jan. 18th, 2026 07:12 amjazzyjj posting in awesomeersComment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.
Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished!
Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!
Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.
Go!
Twinned Trilogy Excerpt: Meet Alaric
Jan. 18th, 2026 07:59 amduckprintspress
Commit to the Kick is the first book of the Twinned trilogy by Tris Lawrence. We’re currently crowdfunding the entire trilogy on Kickstarter, and we’re already close to our goal! Commit to the Kick stars Alaric, an aromantic gay college freshman… who can also shapeshift into a bear, and a few other animal forms! His dream is to play football, but in a world that’s only recently learned of the existence of people with magical powers, it’s hard to find a league that will welcome someone who might transform into an animal mid-game. He’s come to Pine Hills University as it’s one of a few schools experimenting with mixed leagues but, well. The excerpt says it all.
Learn more about Commit to the Kick:
Don’t hesitate.
Don’t overthink it.
Commit to the kick.For eighteen years, Alaric has lived under the cloying politics of family and his Clan community. His freshman year is supposed to be a chance to explore a world where Clan and his shapeshifting Talent isn’t central to his life. But when his inner bear bursts forth during his first football game, endangering those around him, Alaric realizes that it’s not so easy to ignore his past, or his own internalized anger.
In his quest for anger management, Alaric begins to train in taekwondo, and makes new friends in both sports. He finds that he is creating his own small community, where Clan, Mages, other Talents, and even humans come together and build their own found family.
When Alaric receives news that something has happened to his brother Orson, he must return and deal with his Clan and his place in their world. He discovers that old prejudices are still strong between Clan and Mage communities, but that both may be in danger from a creature long thought to be only a legend. Alaric must figure out how to move forward and prevent a war and protect both his home and newly built communities, his found family with him every step of the way.
To buy a copy of the first book of the Twinned trilogy, and learn more about the series as a whole (and maybe get all three books!) check out our Kickstarter! Running until 10:30 a.m. Eastern time on January 28th.
sunday
Jan. 18th, 2026 07:43 amsummersgate
I was sitting at my writing table this morning and saw my necklaces in the mirror there. Those represent me as much as my face does. They never come off. The only exceptions are when I go in for a medical procedure and they say to take off all jewelry. Then I am truly naked. Last weekend I painted my nails while Alison was here. Nail polish is a rarity. I'd do it more often, all the time really because I like the look of it, if it didn't take so long to dry. I hate not being able to DO things while it dries. I usually mess up and get it smudged. I smudged it last weekend too. I like pearl white. So far in life that's the only color I've ever liked for my nails. In this pic there is a little bird visiting the feeder outside. I waited to take the pic till one landed.
Going shopping with Jules this morning - our usual bi-weekly walmart and giant eagle shopping. Onward - I need to fill that feeder in the picture above and feed the chickens before I go.
