rarepairfest | Member Posts

I've been watching the Chinese web drama "Excellent Women" on IQIYI, because Lin Fan is in it. Did not expect a possibly lesbian or bi character to essentially be hitting on Lin Fan's character.

I posted on Tumblr with two sets of screenshots: https://www.tumblr.com/estirose/809851002507395072/i-love-this-exchange-from-the-chinese-web-drama?source=share

We'll see if she hits on anyone else, but so far it's only Lin Fan's character. (As of this writing, only episodes 1-6 are available to me of a 24-32 episode webdrama - short episodes, at least, only about 15 minutes long plus credits.)

(Also, I guess the female cast sung the opening theme? And Lin Fan rapped!)

thisbluespirit

Just wrote a little snippet for Small Prophets, for

100fandoms, because I felt like it and also I thought there should be something for it, so:

Live in Hope (266 words) by thisbluespirit
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Small Prophets (TV)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Kacey & Michael Sleep
Characters: Kacey (Small Prophets), Michael Sleep
Summary: Michael and Kacey have nothing to do but wait.

(I need to rewatch it - I think this must be set c. late ep4 or sometime in ep5? I mean, I need to rewatch anyway, because it hasn't stopped living in my head yet.)

estirose

I had to dig around a bit, but apparently I heard about this game around March of 2016; I bought it on GOG for its full price on March 30th of 2016. At that point, 1.0.6 had been released about 10 days before (and 1.0.7 would be released a week later). Version 1.0 was released on February 26, 2016, so I was about a month late to the party.

Now it's 10 years old, with a retrospective video and the Symphony of Seasons concert showing up on Youtube later today. I've written a bunch of mods for it. Not fancy mods by any stretch, but mods!

Please enjoy this picture from early on when I was playing my first game and romancing Maru (and even somewhat matching the male suits!)

Stardew Valley flower dance

estirose

I picked up both of these from DriveThruRPG. I have yet to play either of them, I'm just looking at their systems.

Cozy MMUGS is $5 USD and Idlewater is Pay-What-You-Want (default $2 USD). They're both variants on the same idea of a life of farming, mining, foraging, and other things you'd expect from their video game equivalents. They're what are considered "solo journaling TTRPGs" (though the author says the journaling is optional), where you write out what you did each day. If you've never heard of journaling RPGs, it's where you have a slightly guided adventure with the dice working more or less as your gamemaster/guide, and you're expected to log/journal in a story format what you did each day as your character.

Of the two, Idlewater is definitely the simpler of the two systems. It's vaguely d20 System based, though it doesn't use the OGL because it doesn't need to. You roll for six stats which very much resemble D&D ones but have different names (for the most part); you also have one skill related to each stat. It comes with its own setting (which is actually based off a related RPG) which seems to be magic-based even though there is no magic in the game, and includes an entire town full of locals. You do the same things that you'd expect in a farming-type cozy video game, such as farming, mining, dungeon delving, blacksmithing, hunting, and selling - oh, and of course, relationships. You are limited by a stamina type system where you have a limit as to how much you can do each day. There's also a weather system, and if you're really unlucky, there will be some days where you feed your animals and then go back to bed.

(This is likely the earlier of the two works and could have used a couple more editing passthroughs; for example, the setting has 12 30-day months split into 4 seasons, but the villagers have the typical "Summer 4" type birthdays; for some reason, the more Constitution stat equivalent you have, the easier it is for you to get hit... and so on. Also, the PDF contains several pages of descriptions about the various ancestries in the setting, some of which supposedly have magic, but there is no magic use in this game....)

Cozy MMUGS is kind of a more detailed version of Idlewater. It uses the author's own dice system (instead of Idlewater's vague d20 System), has a generic setting, and no set village - though you could easily lift Idlewater's characters for it sans that game's setting info regarding their ancestries (or including their ancestries, if you want). It has similar 6 stats (with the same 3-18 number spread as Idlewater), but has more skills, and an xp system so you can go up in level and increase your skills. It also has magic and a related MP system, but no concrete magic powers - very much write your own.

ETA: So there are 3 possible types of rolls: the Oracle Check, which is a simple yes/no question, the rare stat last resort stat check, which is a pretty standard roll at or below stat check, and the regular skill check. The regular skill check goes something like this: roll 2 d12s, and then a die according to how many skill points you have (you can have 0-3) in the related skill. The higher your skill, the bigger your die. If you match or beat at least one of the d12s, you have a success; if you match or are higher than both, it's a great success. If you have a modifier based on the related stat, you add or subtract it from your skill roll before comparing.

Personally, I'd blend the two. Use Cozy MMUGS' system, but include Idlewater's alchemy and plants, along with its calendar system. I'd import Idlewater's village full of folks, use Idlewater's calendar (and set the villagers' birthdays to be spread throughout those months).

( My notes on how I'd merge Idlewater's stuff with Cozy MMUGS )

desertvixen

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fleetsparrow

(Yes, that's pluralized, dw about it)

I'm thinking this will become a master post of my thoughts and musings under the broader idea of spirit (or magic or gods or what have you). These will really be "no plot, just vibes" type posts, the kind that would probably stay in a secret journal if I wasn't actively trying to make myself Be In Community (for whatever value this is). My Tumblr feels too public (like, I know these people there!), while Substack feels a bit too much like Twitter (lots of people whom I do not wish to know, with a few folks I do mixed in).

So, really, this is the best place for it.

(Am I also leaning into the site being called *Dream*width? Maybe....)

I don't fully know what will come up here, but that's the fun of it.

Current Mood: curious

desertvixen

My general preferences are here.

MAYBE: no-harm dubcon (sex pollen or “fertility artifact”) | period typical attitudes | infidelity | power dynamic

Specific DNW: No Yuuzhaan Vong/Force users plague/fridges

I love treats!

I am clearly a Original Trilogy/Legends girlie, so you know what to do!

My Star Wars preferences:

So, I'm a Star Wars fan who's a little sad that the Extended Universe got handwaved away - I really loved Timothy Zahn and Michael Stackpole, and my requests tend to reflect that. I am a Legends girl at heart, and you can’t go wrong if you write me something that belongs in either a Timothy Zahn book or one of Stackpole’s Rogue Squadron books. Please don't refer to anything that happened after the godawful Vector Prime and switch to Del Rey. No Yuuzhan Vong, no Mara Jade gets weird wasting disease, no Teneniel getting put in the freezer.

I'm also not a very active Star Wars fan. I’m not into the games, am not reading the new EU stuff, so don’t write anything that requires a lot of homework to GET.

However, I'm also a Star Wars fan who thought Rogue One totally and completely rocked it out of the park. Loved it loved it loved it! Went and saw it in the theaters like 4 times, including giving up a free day to go see it on a BIG screen. It’s so good. The novelization was good too. I’m a fan of Everyone Lives/Krennic dies AUs or Some People Live/Some People Die.

I love the original three (ROTJ is my favorite).

I enjoyed the sequels (although that like is dwindling more every time I see a stupid handwave plot post) but didn’t LOVE them, especially after the ridiculously evident fact that they DIDN’T HAVE A PLAN.

I am NOT a fan of the prequels. I wanted to like them, but I just couldn’t get past Phantom Menace and the stupidity of traveling around with young Obi-Wan Kenobi and falling for Anakin.

I’m not familiar with the animated SW shows, and my ignoring the prequels means I also missed all the “Jedi don’t have emotional attachments” which maybe should have gone down as a bad idea.

I’m not familiar with most of the Disney shows BUT I did enjoy Kenobi quite a bit. I loved Tala and little Leia and Beru.

I did enjoy the zaniness of the Star Wars Lego Holiday special, so feel free to play off that.

My heart is with the original 3 (and Rogue One, now that it exists) and the "waved away" Extended Universe. The more they make me feel like it requires me to do homework, the less interested I am.

I'm also not really a Luke fan. Give me Han and Wedge any day of the week. And maybe Ben Kenobi. Or an AU where Biggs Darklighter becomes the most famous pilot from Tatooine. And maybe find some way to make Rey a Kenobi descendant…? I really wanted her to be a Kenobi descendant. I still want her to be a Kenobi somehow.

Teneniel Djo/Luke Skywalker

Corran Horn/Mirax Terrik

Wedge Antilles/Leia Organa

Nawara Ven/Rhysati Ynr

Tycho Celchu/Winter Celchu

These are the romance requests.

Teneniel/Luke - I just really loved the vibe they have together. So explore that more. I generally am a Mara/Luke shipper as well but something about these two just speaks to me.

Corran/Mirax - The smartass flyboy meets the smart smuggler. What else do we NEED?

Wedge/Leia - So this is my every year request. I just want this. Like a fling, or FWB or more.

Nawara/Rhysati - These two were also interesting (feel free to pair with Corran/Mirax for a spectacular double date).

Tycho/Winter - I would really just love something soft for these two, maybe aftermath of the trial?

Teneniel/Luke – A fling on Dathomir? I just enjoy them. Feel free to blend with another request.

Corran/Mirax - I'm always down for Corran/Mirax and their relationship. (Combining them with Han/Leia could be very fun. Maybe some diplomatic event that gets steadily less boring? Corellia related? Mirax and Han swapping stories?). I love Mirax and Corran, especially when she takes him down a few notches, as he so often NEEDS.

Wedge/Leia - I think a fling could have happened, a little stress relief...

Keep them in the X-Wing or original series timeframe. Leia is gone when Wedge finally makes his appearance in TLJ, but you could do something with that, him remembering her as friends or more. I'd love to see more of this relationship, especially as it is portrayed in the Legends book. Or if you want to take it to TLJ, that would also be acceptable.

Nawara/Rhysati – Stolen moments in Rogue Squadron? What happens after? And when I say “spectacular double date” it probably involves jail or explosions.

Tycho/Winter - I’d love something soft and fluffy and sweet for them (or maybe a little spicy). Feel free to combine with Wedge/Leia. Tycho/Winter deserve a quiet moment (and maybe a little disbelief that it’s over?)

Wedge Antilles & Leia Organa

Wedge Antilles & Biggs Darklighter

Teneniel Djo & Mara Jade

Corran Horn & Nejaa Halcyon

Tala Durith & Jyn Erso

These are the platonic requests.

Wedge & Leia - Business or pleasure?

Wedge & Biggs - I long for an AU where Biggs Darklighter is the best fighter pilot Tatooine ever produced. These two leaders get in trouble and need to be bailed out (bonus points if Leia is the person they call).

Teneniel & Mara - Aside from possibly dishing about Luke, I'd love to see these two kick some ass together.

Corran & Nejaa - Does Corran ever have a Force Ghost visitation?

Tala & Jyn - An AU where these two survive and get to cause trouble together? Feel free to include little Leia.

Wedge & Leia – Are these two on a mission or just trying to avoid death by boredom in a meeting they would have shot their way out of before the New Republic. Leia’s perspective on Rogue Squadron?

Wedge & Biggs - What if Biggs becomes the most famous fighter pilot from Tatooine? Ghostly encounter? There must always be a Darklighter in Rogue Squadron

I love love love Wedge Antilles. I'd love something set during original movies, X-Wing books or maybe a look at what he's doing in Last Jedi (or why he's NOT doing anything). I like Poe, but he's no Wedge Antilles.

I admit to a preference for the Wedge of the Rogue Squadron books, with the sly humor and him as the Commander of the Rogues (and their craziness). Maybe an AU where Biggs is in there with him? You could keep Gavin around as well.

Not really much to add besides WHERE ARE ALL THE PILOTS in the later movies?

I have a great affection for Biggs as well, and would love to see him and Gavin hanging out (maybe include Wedge). Or maybe Biggs lives and becomes the most famous pilot a planet called Tatooine ever produced....

Teneniel & Mara - Just don't put Teneniel in the fridge like they do later in the series. I loved young Teneniel and was super disapointed to see what they did to her.

Corran & Nejaa - I'd love to see Corran getting a force ghost visit from his grandfather.

Tala Durith and Jyn could be interesting (or Lyra … or all 3). Down time or mission time would be good. Lyra and Jyn escape and join the Rebellion? I’m here for it. Involving Tala (another candidate for Not Dying) would be awesome as well.

Teneniel Djo & Mara Jade & Leia Organa & Mirax Terrik

Corran Horn & Wedge Antilles & Mirax Terrik & Booster Terrik & Han Solo

Wedge Antilles & Tycho Celchu & Wes Janson & Derek "Hobbie" Klivian

Winter Celchu & Wes Janson

Pash Cracken & Wedge Antilles

These are (clearly) the shenanigans requests. For all of these, I am okay with a story about the action OR the bar after the action is over!

Teneniel Djo & Mara Jade & Leia Organa & Mirax Terrik - Not sure what they've teamed up for but their opponents are in trouble.

Corran Horn & Wedge Antilles & Mirax Terrik & Booster Terrik & Han Solo - Corellians attack!

Wedge Antilles & Tycho Celchu & Wes Janson & Derek "Hobbie" Klivian - You know the drill, I love Rogue Squadron. Feel free to add on anyone you need!

Winter Celchu & Wes Janson - What requires both their skills? (If the answer is pre-wedding shenanigans, sign me UP)

Pash & Wedge - The line about Pash buying his father a souvenir gets me every time!

Why have these four teamed up? Not sure, but I feel bad for their opponents.

Wedge & Corran & Mirax & Han: Corellia Forever! The most epic smuggling job ever - or the stories in the bar later. Hijinks ensue. Rogue Squadron timeline or later. Maybe Booster and/or Leia are included?

So this is my Corellia/Corran Horn request. Yes I know he’s a pain in the ass, but I do love him (especially if people take him down a peg or two). I love the idea that all the Corellians could be drinking buddies, and I am 100% here for the idea that Corellians may have a higher percentage of people who use the Force on a subconscious level but think they’re just lucky. Never tell them the odds.

I’m also totally down for you poking some gentle fun at CorSec Corran Horn being a little twitchy at being surrounded by the Corellian Rogues Gallery, even if he is involved with/married to one.

Wedge & Tycho & Wes & Hobbie – If you read Starfighters of Adumar you know the vibe. Feel free to involve some others as well! (including Iella & Winter)

Winter & Wes - Getting into or out of trouble? Bonus points if you tie this to a Rogue Squadron related bachelor party. Remembering things/giving comfort/planning a surprise?

Pash & Wedge - Invasion of Coruscant hijinks? Ball Hijinks? Why are two fine upstanding pilots in quite so much trouble? Bonus points if Pash is about his father's business.

For Wedge and Pash, I love their interactions in the X-Wing books. The whole bit where they’re undercover at the museum and Pask is talking about getting his father a souvenir? That’s peak of what I would like.

thisbluespirit

I thought it might make a change to write something here and post it straight away, instead of in two weeks or three or four months, idk, shocking but still. (I continue as before, getting a little more useful with every few days.) In the meantime, here are some fannish things that made me happy in this last week:

1. Another Enigma fic! \o/ 0_o

All Tapped Out (665 words) by misura
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Enigma (2001)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Tom Jericho/Hester Wallace
Characters: Tom Jericho, Hester Wallace, Wigram (Enigma 2001)
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Vignette, Missions Gone Wrong
Summary: “What the bloody hell was that?”

2. Sesskasays, whose Classic Who reactions I have enjoyed so much... is going to be doing Blake's 7! I did not dare really hope, but yay. I cannot wait for her to meet Servalan.

3. Small Prophets, on the iPlayer, a 6-part comedy from Mackenzie Crook, who did The Detectorists. It has all the mix of slow build, appreciation of small things & being v down to earth of the former, with actual supernatural ingredient in shape of six humunculi that Michael Sleep (Pearce Quigley) grows in his garden shed, for reasons. I haven't watched most of ep6 yet, but cannot imagine it producing any reason in the last 27 minutes for me not to rec it warmly here.

4. Another magnitude of miraculous on from Enigma-fic - a Rufus/Adam vidlet for A Fatal Inversion (Jeremy Northam & Douglas Hodge in 1991/2) from someone on YT:

Watch on YouTube

Like. This is why I wrote Rufus/Adam fic that nobody wanted! And this doesn't even have the shots with the dinner party and the make up, but, lol, I feel like it is a much more compelling argument for watching it than me saying it's very good. XD

Anyway, creative people continue to be a Good Thing is all. <3

thisbluespirit

I've had this post stashed away since late November, meaning to come back to it and write something more sensible about The Stone Tape that wasn't how much I wanted to icon Jane Asher's face. The reviews were already at least a couple months out of date, I think. Then life intervened and alas, I have even less brain now than then, so I should get on and post it anyway.

Eye in the Sky (2015)

This was one of the later things I pulled off Jeremy Northam's CV. The JN tumblrs reckoned it was a good one - and it was.

It's about an international military and political operation to capture the three top leaders of an Islamist extremist group in Somalia, with various layers of people involved via video conference - the UK Colonel in charge (Helen Mirren), the US soldiers running the 'eye in the sky' (Aaron Paul, Phoebe Fox), the Somali agents on the ground (esp. Barkhad Abdi), and a small group overseeing it from a meeting room in Whitehall (Alan Rickman as General Benson, Jeremy Northam as the Minister in charge, Monica Dolan as PR), plus various others who need to be consulted, including Iain Glen as the Foreign Secretary. And right there in the middle of it all, is Alia (Aisha Takow), a child who lives close to the target house.

( Cut for more details )

Smartly made modern film, but also exactly the kind of knotty moral problem and intelligent writing you'd have got in a Play of the Month.

Talking of which...

Nigel Kneale's The Stone Tape (BBC 1972)

I this via Talking Pictures, after having heard of it forever, and it was great! I really loved it. The creepy concept, the scientific approach - I really wished I had screencaps so I could icon Jane Asher in it (she was wonderful generally, not just icon-able) and everything. The way that the misogyny was used was also great, and took me by surprise because I had felt my one other Nigel Kneale did give way to a 1960s/70s misogynistic trope that I had seen too often by that point, but perhaps the "seen too often" part was more of the problem, because this just made me sit up and do the, "Oh. oh" moment for real. Highly recommended if you like any brand of creepy UK 70s TV. (It IS creepy/disturbing, though. This is not a chirpy watch that will end well, please do note). It starred some other people who weren't Jane Asher, too, like Iain Cutherbertson and they were all also good, I just didn't want to icon them and their face and their red hair in quite the same way. XD

So glad I finally watched it & I enjoyed it even in summer, when I so often can't manage TV downstairs.

Official Secrets (2019)

EitS having been so good, when I realised that this one (featuring one of the 2 brief cameos that are all JN has done since 2016) was also directed by Gavin Hood, I checked for a cheap copy & obtained it poste haste. I really liked this too, and watching them close together made me think even more highly of both - this is the story of a real incident from 2002, while EitS is a theoretical piece behind its tension, but underneath, they're both smartly done morality plays with excellent casts. (Incidentally, there are 3 actors who feature in both - Monica Dolan, John Heffernan and Jeremy Northam).

When I looked up both films online the first description is always "underrated" and the Guardian apparently ran a piece for Keira Knightley's 40th earlier this year recommending a top list of her films to watch, and put Official Secrets at no. 1.

Official Secrets isn't as tightly contained as EitS, as it's based on a real UK whistleblower incident from 2002, but which ended up not having much effect, so it's a really unusual thing to tackle (& as faithfully as this - they had a lot of the real people involved in the production in some way or other). As before, it's a large but excellent cast (Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Adam Bakri, Matt Smith, Ralph Fiennes, Indira Varma & more).

( More under here, although not really spoilery )

Anyway, after watching both, I got excited by clearly liking a director's stuff, so I looked up what Gavin Hood had done since - and the answer was nothing, dammit! (Before that he did Wolverine and Ender's Game, which are not tightly done morality plays. I mean, I assume not?? But I might need to investigate the first half of his CV more closely sometime. He has something upcoming lurking on imdb, which sounds more similar, but I'm not sure if that's real, or just a production hell mythical something or other.)

maidenjedi

Husband went to bed feeling crappy and woke up certain he has the flu.

So I'm in the process of changing all the plans this week. Making meetings virtual, finding the masks I stashed in the house in case anyone absolutely must interact with someone this week, changing my daughter's lesson schedule, you name it. No one else has any symptoms but I feel like I need to get critical things done now in case I'm knocked down at some point. I would rather not be worried about my boss' social media if I'm running a fever and needing sleep, you know?

Air filter running, humidifiers newly cleaned, Emergen-C purchased, and my pressure campaign to get my husband to do a virtual doctor's appointment is underway.

I really fucking hate how efficient we all are now about illness, if I'm honest.

-

In totally unrelated news, the padawan got to watch Titanic last night and these were her initial take-aways:

1 - Actually a horror movie
2 - “Mom, WHY did you see this so many times* in the theater?!”
3 - Ismay was the villain
4 - She will never listen to Celine Dion again

* It was 9 times. Once on a date, next time with my best friend, and the rest with male friends who wanted to see it but didn't want to admit to their friends that they did.

She did tell me this morning that while the awful parts of the sinking kept her awake for awhile last night, this morning she's only thinking about the romance, so it didn't totally scar her for life, lol.

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Rare Pair Fest

Member Posts

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Ficlet: Live in Hope (Small Prophets)

Happy Birthday, Stardew Valley!

Idlewater Solo TTRPG & Cozy MMUGS Solo RPG by Sarah Solo

High Adrealine 2026 Letter

Fleet's Spiritual Seekings

May The Fourth 2026 - Dear Yoda

An actual up to date little post of nice things

What I was watching... um... in summer?

ruthless efficiency can't stop the flu, but it can do wonders for the state of your house

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August 2017

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