not today or tomorrow

Welcome to sideways :)

• Winger, mid 30s, she/her, Australian. There are few things I love more than being told stories, and occasionally I engage in story-telling as a strange side-effect. I'm especially interested in filling up my reading page with people sharing their writing journeys and/or media commentary, and if I subscribe out of the blue it's usually because I think it would be fun to follow along.

• Mostly a media musing blog, occasional observations from life. I keep chatter about my work under private access these days but if you ask I'll likely grant it - and you certainly don't have to ask permission to comment or unsubscribe! Some key tags include:
→ paperwork: general chatter
→ fiction: all writing
→ media roundup: commentary on recent media

• There are many things that spark my enthusiasm, some of which I've written for. A short list of things you'll always grab my interest with include:
( blorp )

• I track my video game playing at GG.

• I'm arkosic on AO3 and PS4, and you can catch me over at darkwingerduck on Tumblr.

Title: Pigeon Talk
AO3: Link
Rating: PG
Series: Widdershins (Jack O'Malley, Ben Thackery)
Wordcount: 3,478
Summary: One week he's the bastard second cousin of the king long kept in hiding, a rumour so far outside anything Mal's ever had hurled his way before that it's almost funny. The next, he talks to pigeons.
Remarks: How did this end up as long as it did. Good grief. Anyway, deeply hypocritical for Mal of all people to complain about Being Perceived on a discomfiting level, but also he totally would.

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( what's a pigeon got to talk about anyway? )

Title: Under Your Skin
AO3: Link
Rating: PG
Series: A House of Many Doors (Char Dvetistek/Kinetopede Captain)
Wordcount: 1,100
Summary: Char doesn't worry. Except when she does, a little.
Tags: Mild Spoilers for Canon, Implied/Referenced Drug Addiction, Implied Sexual Content, Body Horror
Remarks: I've been playing HoMD again and delighted to find that since my last delving the creator launched a HUGE patch that has cleared up many bugs, including Char's romance! Hilariously, it so far seems to be about what I'd already headcanoned. Nobody here has an emotional IQ worth squat. Honestly, most of this fic was just an excuse for me to muse on how Ira lost her hand.

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( don't think I haven't figured it out - you're hooked on something )

As a long-standing fan of Alastair Reynolds who is finally getting around to watching Babylon 5, it's a bit like... so Mass Effect really just mashed these two things together (and sprinkled a bit of other sci-fi flavouring on top), huh.

Not a crime, of course; and I don't think Mass Effect has ever pretended to be anything but deep and affectionate bow to all things space opera. It's getting a rueful chuckle out of me nonetheless. O to get to file off those serial numbers so successfully.

Well! That was certainly an election.

My greatest fear was that we'd see a repeat of 2019, when the (incumbent) conservative Coalition won over one of Labor's more centre-left offerings despite campaigning almost exclusively on "see how this guy wants to change things, arguably for the better? yeah we simply won't do any of that" - or worse, a crushing conservative victory founded entirely in nationalist scare tactics such as in 2013, supported by a Trump-inspired far right surge amidst the fringe parties like One Nation and Palmer's latest and most cringe-inducing effort yet to ride the populist wave ('Trumpets for Patriots'? gaaaaag).

My greatest hope was that we'd see the trends of 2022 continue instead, strengthening the crossbench with a slew of socially-left minorities and independents to bolster Labor as the leading party while also holding them accountable and dragging them away from their more centre-right proclivities. I've been a political donor these last three years for the first time in my life - those shock successes through Climate 200 had me paying attention.

...And we didn't get either of these things! But we did get a hell of a lot closer to the second than the first with the Coalition taking the absolute worst ass-beating of its life - so bad leader Peter Dutton lost his own seat, a viciously vindicating moment for anyone who's had a healthy loathing of the man since he spent his time in border security pissing on refugees. One Nation saw a small surge, but nothing like I was most sweating about, and Trumpets for Patriots seems to have netted little but memes about how annoying everyone found it being constantly texted by the guy.

On top of that, the Teal independents are holding strong! Reports suggest that the vast majority are holding their seats and are actually seeing a strong swing from being second to first preference, and they may even scoop up one or two new seats. Thrilling! I love it! Keep going!

The downside to all this is seeing the Greens backslide massively from their 2022 wins, which is not totally surprising when you look into the complex machinations of preferences, but still dampens the mood a bit by confirming Australia still simply is not ready to consider true reform on the social and environmental fronts. They did still see an overall increase in first preferences, I believe, and have maintained a healthy presence in the Senate, so that's something.

What are the Coalition going to do from here? Self-destruct, one almost hopes... certainly there has been an amount of denial and doubling-down spilling out from predictable quarters. Ideally, they'd shape up and take some damn cues from the Teals already.

In the meantime, I'll take some heart in Albanese prioritising words like 'kindness' in his winning speech, emphasising his commitment to indigenous issues despite the catastrophe that was the Voice, and dedicating Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again to Dutton on the radio (no way, get fucked, fuck off!).

Anyway, if you'd rather skip my rambling, here's the obligatory "emotional election journey set to Offenbach" video.

Title: Sewer Stories
AO3: Link
Rating: G
Series: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT)
Wordcount: 1,504
Summary: Drabbles set in the TMNT 2003 universe.
Remarks: Had a bit of fun drabbling recently, so cross-posting across the first batch.

• Severance had such a strong first season, so I really hate to admit I have mixed feelings about the follow-up. It started off so well, but after episode three... the reveals did not always justify the build-up, the character motivations (and focus) grew increasingly wobbly, and there were an awful lot of long artistic scenes that did not sufficiently distract me from how little material forward progress was being made. If Arcane's season 2 frustrated me in part because I felt it needed to be split into two seasons, Severance makes me want to tap on Ben Stiller's window like, hey, I think you could have fit a lot more in here, actually. I did still enjoy having something weekly to chime into.

• Comfort food: Schitt's Creek and His Dark Materials, which incidentally pair well because daemon-typing the SC cast is very entertaining (bird-of-paradise for Moira Rose and I won't hear otherwise). HDM has its own minor frustrations, of course. The first book is one of the richest and most thoughtfully detailed explorations of another world I've ever read, and then Pullman spends the rest of the series never quite devoting the same time or care to it. I haven't found myself a fan of the sequel trilogy either.

• I think I have to reluctantly put Angelmaker back on the shelf for now. I'm intrigued! But Harkaway's particular style of "never say in ten words what you can say in four theatrical pages" just isn't holding my tired and fractured attention and I keep forgetting who people are. One day.

• I am similarly finding myself thwarted in my attempts to play Avowed! It doesn't help that my poor laptop can barely run the thing.

• Prior to watching Osomatsu-san, I would have said it was an anime about six identical brothers who don't really do anything. Turns out that's not untrue, but it omits the crucial context of it being an affectionate tribute to an old school gag series called Osomatsu-kun, and an adult comedy that vacillates between crude humour, genre jokes, and hilariously savage slice of life skits that should resonate with anyone who has ever experienced siblings frustrations. I wouldn't recommend it without caveats, but I had a surprisingly good time.

• Mouthwashing rocketed across Tumblr and I managed to get curious enough to watch an LP just before the hype backlash started to kick in. Well-crafted, overall! The ending dragged a little and I have various complex feelings about Anya's storyline, but it did some genuinely impressive things with the medium.

• Having been there for the beginning of Destiny, it felt wrong not to be there at the end, so I ended up purchasing and quickly mainlining some of the key expansions I'd missed during my, er, seven year hiatus: Shadowkeep, Beyond Light, and Witch Queen. The last one was by far my favourite, even if it forced me to continually crush Ghosts with my bare hands, aaaugh.

• The Final Shape itself was... okay. I applaud the decision to make Ghosts its narrative heart, and the continuation of the alliances built with other aliens, and some of the nostalgia button mashing. I can't say it stuck the ten year landing, though. Destiny's slipping grasp on its own core mythology - the conflict between Light and Darkness, and what that actually looks like and means - was disappointingly obvious. On top of that, the expansion threatened to not even be that fun to play as a solo campaigner thanks to six hundred annoying ass shield mechanics and three boss fights per level. Bungie. Please. I have other things to do. Still, I got through it (with help) and got a little misty-eyed about it, and now I feel comfortable never spending money on Destiny again, so it's at least it is an ending.

• Arcane's second season either greatly delighted or greatly disappointed people. Alas, I am on the side of the haters. So it goes. Spreading the story across three seasons rather than two might have salvaged it for me; but there were also some choices I simply didn't vibe with at all.

This one's been doing the rounds!

🎶 Last song I listened to: "Existential Heckle" by The Yellow Dress.

📺 Currently reading/playing/watching:
Reading: "The Paramedic Mindset" by Leigh Anderson, "The ADKAR Advantage" by Karen Ball, and "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" by CS Lewis.
Playing: Machinarium, Pillars of Eternity
Watching: Person of Interest, The Bad Batch

🌶️ Sweet/Savory/Spicy?: Sweet > savoury > spicy. I have very little tolerance for the last and my tolerance for the first seems to be waning some over time, but it's still my usual predilection.

❤️ Relationship status: Single mother of struggling potplants.

🤩 Current obsession: I have fallen back into the Pillars of Eternity hole for what will probably be a brief but fierce time!

I've never been a very committed cook, so it's always nice when I manage to get into at least a temporary routine of doing more home-cooking, trying a few new recipes, wheedling some extra nutrition in there. Recent successes include:

• My mother's recipe for florentine slice (oats, dried fruit, sweeteners) which has become my staple for lengthy client visits. It doesn't take long to make, the output is very reliable (unlike my many attempts at perfecting brownies), and it's always a hit with whoever I'm visiting. I used to just buy store-made Anzac biscuits or cakes, but homemade goods are the undeniably superior option when you're trying to build a connection. The office also seems to hoover up the leftovers with a speed that suggests the clients aren't just being polite.

• Mucking around with my recipes for beef & veg stew and spaghetti bolognese. With the former I've mostly been experimenting to see how much I can dial down the beef portion to pack more veg in, and with the latter I added some veg, played around with spices, and accidentally used lamb instead of beef mince, and it turned out so nice I'm inclined to do it again. They're of course ideal bulk meals too, so plenty of leftovers for the freezer.

• I don't remember what suddenly inspired me to try overnight oats. Possibly the bag of oats in my pantry? Anyway, that's been fun! I'm not terribly creative with it yet, but I like adding chia seeds and it's a good way to get some berries in my diet... at least whenever I can find berries for less than nine dollars, oh my god. I feel like the maple syrup I use as a sweetener is doing a bit too much heavy lifting, but I'm hoping to try and taper it off a bit, and find a few other nutritional additives. Mostly, though, I like that I can put it together in under five minutes and have a bit of breakfast ready for the next three days.

• I also finally, finally broke the seal on my blender and made myself a banana smoothie today. Delicious! The trick is using frozen bananas. As with the overnight oats, I don't think I can call this a terribly healthy meal, but it at least scratches the itch for a smoothie without forking out $14 at a cafe. I'm contemplating seeing if adding dates to the mixture works, hmm.

• Going to try making some gluten-free coconutty cheesecake balls tomorrow, as we're having a Biggest Morning Tea at work on Tuesday. Not something I'd risk in the heat of summer, but now that things have cooled down some I think I can serve them up without worrying they'll dissolve the second I put them out on a platter.