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Guardian Readalong: Vol. 3, Bonus Stories: Sage 1 & Sage 2

Hi, and welcome to this week's installment of the Guardian novel readalong! We're finished with the main text of the novel, but the readalong continues - it's time for the first bonus stories. ♡

Here are last week's chapters, and you can find all previous discussions in the schedule posts (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5), or via the !readalong tag.

This week's chapters:

Sage 1: Many SID team shenanigans happen, including but not limited to: They have acquired a Samoyed puppy named Xiaomi who plays with Daqing. They talk about the new office they're moving to, and have some theories why Zhao Yunlan is not at work. No one tells Guo Changcheng that he's the wick, they just confuse him with questions and occasionally pluck his hair to experiment on. Meanwhile, Zhao Yunlan talks to Shennong's mortar about the primordial past and Shen Wei's oath, and explains that some things are meant to be confusing. Shennong's mortar announces that he's leaving Zhao Yunlan's father's body. Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan take a walk together and cause spring flowers to bloom.

Sage 2: The SID moves to their new office, which includes a sunny attic and Zhao Yunlan's vegetable garden, among other things. Everyone loves Shen Wei because his arrival means that Zhao Yunlan finally goes home. Lin Jing invents an invisible listening device. Daqing bickers with people, including Shen Wei. Zhao Yunlan falls asleep trying to learn gardening from a boring book, and cuddles with Shen Wei (while also bickering). Guo Changcheng goes on an arranged date with a girl. Chu Shuzhi accompanies him and listens in on their awkward conversation, and then interrupts the date and drags Guo Changcheng away. They start dating, which is revealed to the rest of the SID by Lin Jing's listening device.

The corresponding chapters:
Sage 1 = fan translation Extra 2
Sage 2 = fan translation Extra 3

Excerpts:

( 1) The SID team speculating about Zhao Yunlan's activities )

( 2) Shennong's mortar leaves, and Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan make flowers bloom )

( 3) The new SID office )

( 4) Daqing 'practices yoga' )

( 5) Chu Shuzhi interrupts Guo Changcheng's date )

Questions:

Favorite SID shenanigans moment? (Or several - there are so many!) Do you think Xiao-Guo should be told that he's the wick? Do you understand what Zhao Yunlan explained about the primordial gods, or are you also a few thousand years too young? Are Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan consciously making flowers bloom, or is it just what happens when nature gods are happy? What is your favorite thing about the new office? Whose garden idea do you like the best, and why is it (not) the slutty eggplant? Any thoughts about the drama adaptation of these chapters, especially Xiao Guo's date?

You can answer as many or as few questions as you like, or just comment without answering any of them at all! And if you see this post and you're not actually reading the novel, I would love to know what you think about any of this with limited context. :D

And here is the schedule, where you can sign up to host a post. (There are only two weeks left!)

Entry tags:

iggy,
molly

Never Enuff Icky!!!

I was outside watering the window boxes when Icky materialized.

Remember when Icky informed me he was too particular to share the backyard garden with me?

And how he battled me over my tomato cages?

Welp, here's what Icky's garden & Icky's tomato cages look like today:

Altogether now: What a dick!

The window boxes are mine, too. But I am thinking I'll leave them here when I move. It would cost more to transport them than to buy new.

###

"How are you?" I asked Icky to be polite.

Icky mistook this for actual interest. And immediately began unloading.

Icky was not good because Gus absolutely refused to come over; in fact, Gus refused to take off his Meta Goggles when Icky was trying to talk to him, plus Christine was hovering and would not let Icky talk to his son alone—

"And when I came over to pick Gus up, Christine acted surprised to see me!" Icky complained. "I mean, it's Friday, right? I pick up the boys every other Friday."

Well, no, I thought. Sometimes, you pick them up on Thursdays. Or Saturdays.

In fact, Icky's pickup schedule kinda reminded me of Peter Pan's pickup schedule. How some years Peter Pan would show up to take Wendy's daughter Jane to Neverland in the spring and then two years or six years or 50 would pass before he showed up again—

"You didn't call?" I said.

"No," said Icky. "Why should I?"

"Where's Dante?"

"Oh, he's off somewhere in the City."

The situation was further aggravated by the fact that Dante was off to Utah tomorrow—meaning today—and Christine was driving him there. Gus was coming along on the road trip, too.

If you knew your kids were leaving on a road trip, why didn't you make arrangements to pick them up early so you could spend some extra time with them? I wondered.

'Cause Icky had shown up with the usual mountain of food.

What was that all about? Some complicated form of denial?

"I ask myself why I even bother?" said Icky. "I'm tired of dealing with this shit."

"You bother because your relationship with your children is the most important relationship you have in your life," I said. And in 10 years, when you are—what? 75?—it may well be your only relationship.

"I'm furious," said Icky.

I shrugged. "No, you're not. You're hurt. If it were me, I'd go back over there & explain that: My feelings are hurt. Gus is a really gentle, sensitive kid. He wouldn't want to hurt you if he knew you were hurting."

Icky just glared at me.

Fine, asshole, I thought. And scampered up the stairs to barricade myself in the Patrizia-torium.

When I went back downstairs hours later to put Black Chicken safely in her coop, he was still glaring—only this time in the general direction of the ginormous living room TV, which was blaring some sort of action movie.

###

Icky's sudden appearance wasn't all bad, of course. The propane had run out! And I was too lazy to get another tank!

So, Icky did it.

###

Here is Molly wishing you all a Happy International Cat Day:

Current Mood: geeky

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The Skies of Pern

By Anne McCaffrey.

This is me being late to the party again, since this book was published in 2001.

Back in the day, when I first read the Pern series, I finished at All the Weyrs of Pern. Maybe because I didn't know about the others, or maybe they weren't even out yet. But also it felt like a satisfying conclusion.

But The Skies of Pern was the final book that Anne McCaffrey wrote solo, and also the final book in the timeline. So it's kind of been on my bucket list. Over the past year, I've been doing a reread of the Pern books, so it seemed like a good time to finally check it out.

( Spoilery musings )

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Three links with concrete actions

Two are in support of Ukraine, the third for UK citizens and residents specifically, in support of some university students from Gaza.

( Details behind the cut )

Current Mood: contemplative

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seren is a little out of sorts

Um...hi?

Well, hullo Dreamwidth!

So...it's been a minute! I am thinking about dusting this place off a little as I go through a bunch of stuff and dang it, I miss longform blogging and posts. I'm wondering if having a space to write STUFF might help my brain and health some. I'll put the bigger stuff under a cut 'cause A LOT is going on.

However, here's my not-so-deep-thought for the day:

I was scrolling through something the other day and I just realized how much I miss movies. They haven't gone away, obviously, but my attention span and my ability to afford to take three hours out of my life to drive across town to watch something that may or may not be good is just plain gone. I actually had the urge to watch the new Jurassic World movie (cause I love a creature feature), but it was freakin' $20 to RENT. Nope. There feels like there's too much choice and yet not enough choices? Like I said, this is definitely a not-so-deep-thought and others have commented on it far more eloquently than I have. I'd just like my attention span back. That would be nice.

Anywho, I think I might try to be on here a bit more often. I miss writing and I miss y'all.

Have a Happy Saturday!

Entry tags:

saturday

You know how I always say Rainy looks crazy when she has her mouth is open and is panting. Yesterday morning one of the smoke alarms had a low battery in the basement and Rainy heard it. She is very afraid of high pitched sounds like that and was following me around panting and crazy looking. I did eventually find the problem and changed the battery but it took her an hour to get over it. It looks like she's about to explode.

Spending a lot of time outside in the goatshed/mosaic shed nowadays and I'm loving it. I listen to music and can lose myself, moving little pieces of glass around. Some pictures from yesterday:( Read more... )

Current Mood: drained

Entry tags:

comics,
year 2025

Mistakes have been made

I waffled for weeks on whether to get the Humble Bundle of James Tynion IV's stuff (as of posting, there's five days of the offer left), before finally getting it and forgetting how weird my brain gets when I binge on creepy media.

BASICALLY, I should not have read The Department of Truth before bedtime. Even when I got Nice House on the Lake, I don't read a whole volume in one go! There's such a thing as pacing things out! Plus I made the other mistake of reading Deviant first without processing the consequences of it only being volume 1, i.e. the story is not done.😢

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Photos: Baby A

And now you get some pics of Baby A having fun with mommy! First up they went to Sylvan Beach for a nostalgia visit. It made me all nostalgic when I saw the pics.

Sylvan Beach

( more back here )

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dorset walks

West wind

A pleasant cool start to the day. Took a walk up onto the Purbeck Hills to photograph the west wind.

( Watching the grass blow )

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health: allergies

There must have been a musk in that curl spray

Like oud or something. Not patchouli anyway. Because after shampooing it three times the night before last, I could still smell that on it yesterday every time it got in my face (the physically irritating part of the smell did wash out, but I personally dislike musks and think they're gross even when they don't make me sneeze). I can still smell it today too, but my hair is dry, and I don't want to shampoo it again yet.

So I guess this is no longer directly related to allergies, but I don't have a haircare tag or an "I fucking hate perfume flames on the side of my face" tag.

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film

[film] Partir un jour

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theme: free for all 2025

Free for All Saturday, Week 32 [DW Edition]

[ If you're interested in being a Tuesday-Thursday guest host, you can sign up here. Thanks! ]
↑↑↑ Available dates:
August 12 & 14
August 19 & 21
August 26 & 28

Happy Saturday to you and your writing muses, bunny-shaped or not. ~_^ Let's get the day (or night) started with a Free for All. There are no themes to follow for prompts or fills. If you've had any ideas this week that didn't really work with Tuesday's or Thursday's posts, today's your chance to prompt 'em. Be free, and have fun! ✎

Just a few rules:
1. No more than five prompts in a row.
2. No more than three prompts in the same fandom.
3. Use the character's full name and the fandom's full name for ease in adding to the Lonely Prompts spreadsheet.
4. No spoilers in prompts for a month after airing, or use the spoiler cut option found here. Unfortunately, DW doesn’t have a cut tag, so use your best judgment when it comes to spoilers.
5. If your fill contains spoilers, warn and leave plenty of space, or use the spoiler cut.
6. If your story has possible triggers, please warn for them in the subject line!

Prompts should be formatted as follows: [Use the character's full names and fandom's full name]
Fandom, Character +/ Character, Prompt

Are today's prompts not catching your eye? No worries, because we have plenty of older prompts that just might do the trick! You can browse through the comm's calendar archive (here on LJ or here on DW) for themed and Free For All posts, or perhaps check out Sunday posts for Lonely Prompt requests. (Or, you can be like me, and try to save interesting prompts as you see 'em... and then end up with multiple text doc files full of [themes + links + prompts] that you can easily look through and search for keywords.) Multiple fills for one prompt are welcome, by the way! Oh, and you are very likely to find some awesome fills to read as well, and wouldn't it be nice to leave a comment on those lovely little writing distractions? ~_^

We are on AO3! If you fill a prompt and post it to AO3, please add it to the Bite Sized Bits of Fic from 2025 collection.

If you are viewing this post on our Dreamwidth site: please know that fills posted here will not show up as comments on our LiveJournal site, but you are still more than welcome to participate. =)

If you have a Dreamwidth account and would feel more comfortable participating there, please feel free to do so… and spread the word! comment_fic

A friendly reminder about our posting schedule: Themed posts for new prompts go up on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Saturdays are a Free for All day for new prompts of any flavor. Sundays are for showing Lonely Prompts some love, whether by requesting for someone to adopt them or by sharing any fills that you've recently completed.

Entry tags:

just one thing

Just One Thing (09 August 2025)

It's challenge time!

Comment 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!

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weekly chat

Weekly Chat

The weekly chat posts are intended for just that, chatting among each other. What are you currently watching? Reading? What actor/idol are you currently following? What are you looking forward to? Are you busy writing, creating art? Or did you have no time at all for anything, and are bemoaning that fact?

Whatever it is, talk to us about it here. Tell us what you liked or didn't like, and if you want to talk about spoilery things, please hide them under either of these codes:
or

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The Day in Spikedluv (Friday, Aug 7)

I hit Price Chopper while I was downtown and got in a walk around the park. I visited my aunt (who woke up enough for me to show her some recent photos) and stopped in to see mom on the way home.

On the way home from mom's I picked up chicken quarters for supper o_O, stopped at the library to return a book (and got a surprise book that had just arrived!), hit the bank drive-thru, and filled my gas tank. I also did a load of laundry (washed, dried AND folded!), hand-washed dishes and did a load in the dishwasher, baked chicken for the dogs’ meals, scooped kitty litter, and showered.

I started the next Duncan Kincaid book. I forgot to mention that I recently purchased the Thunderbolts DVD, so I hope to watch that again at some point.

Temps started out at 61.7(F) and reached 88.0. We’re hitting hotter temps again. Today started off hazy (again, I’m sure it’s smoke) and then cleared so that we had blue sky and full on sun.

Mom Update:

Mom was doing better today than yesterday! ( more back here )

Check Tag Set; Sign-Ups Soon

Main nominations are closed! Thanks for all your choices. The randomizer widget is updated too.

I don't have any outstanding nominations! So, next is sign-ups. Shortly after opening sign-ups, I'll re-set available nominations at the tag set to let people nominate one or two more fandoms if you think of anything last-minute you really want to request.

What that means is: if it's helpful to you to check "My Nominations" at the tag set to remind yourself what you meant to request/offer, please go check that soon - that data won't be available once I change the settings to give people more nominations.

Current Mood: blah

Entry tags:

(no subject)

Since Alamy deleted the Ida Lupino and Conrad Veidt having a time seperately either before or after their A Woman's Face radio recording, it's now on the Internet Archive :)

chiaroscuros on Pillowfort shouted out the Festival Internacional de Cine Recobrado de Valparaíso. Liebe macht blind has been uncovered, an almost-pristine copy even, and it's going to premiere there. Seems like a fun film. Connie is ridiculous.

During a convo with

liadt, I was reminded of something that apparently Connie told Paul Henreid, about only taking the role of Strasser for the money (to give to the Brits, probably). As I tried finding the source, we got this instead.

Conrad Veidt's [FBI] files manage to have their cake and eat it too. Veidt is accused of having pro-Axis leanings and of being associated with fervent anti-Fascists.
The day that Veidt finished work on Casablanca, July 20, 1942, he had plans for the evening. According to FBI file No. 100-3514, Veidt was to be a speaker at the Free Peoples' Dinner held at the Beverly Hills Hotel under the auspices of the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee and the Council on African Affairs. Guests included the mayor of Los Angeles, the vice-consul of the USSR, Charles Laughton, Major William Wyler, and an FBI agent who detailed the pro-Russian sentiments of the guest of honor, Paul Robeson. Although Veidt's name was on the program, he never showed up. He may have gone out to celebrate the end of his role in Casablanca or simply gone home to bed. But the fact that he was expected to appear is on file forever.

- Round Up the Usual Suspects: the Making of Casablanca: Bogart, Bergman, and World War II

Files, which are an absolute mess. Bet the "pro-Axis" thing is just plain xenophobia (ya know, ew German), and bet that, had he lived and stayed in America, he would be grey-or-blacklisted like many of his buddies. I'm now scared for Lili (she became an agent in the film industry).

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Round 173: Rain Rain Rain

Nothing But You | Dongji Rescue | Wu Lei

https://tinpix.de/2025/nothingbut35_18.23.png
https://tinpix.de/2025/zyl_wulei_dongji_g6jj.png
https://tinpix.de/2025/wulei_8j29a2j602a.png

( alt )

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Helpful link for people new to exchanges

First, a PSA for people who keep letting things slide until the last minute/sometimes too late: you only have until Wednesday to sign up as a creator the sunflower_auction! I finally did it.

Secondly, the main point of this entry! I want to share sunsalute's post for people just starting out with exchanges, with is information that I sure could have used that when I trying to figure things out. Here's the table of content, because Sun is cool like that:

Contacting Mods

Signups and DNWs

Posting and Fulfilling Assignments

Chatter and Discord

Unintuitive Systems Everyone Seems To Know How To Use Already (AO3 & DW)

Further Reading & Thanks

There's a little bit on the technical aspects, but mainly the post focuses on etiquette and things that are not necessarily spelled out. It's a great post!

Link: Help I'm New To Fandom And Need To Get A Good Grade by sunsalute.

Current Mood: busy

So much to do

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