sholio: heart in a cup of tea (Heart)
Sholio ([personal profile] sholio) wrote2025-07-12 12:18 am

Another Murderbot TV fic, Temperature Flash, and Hurt/Comfort-Ex

I wrote another Murderbot 1x10 episode missing scene.

Echoes (gen, 2500 words, Gurathin-centric)
Summary redacted because of spoilers; basically Gurathin's POV on some of the events of the finale.

A few notes on the fic (spoilery for both fic and episode):
under here• I kept tweaking Gura's final line to Murderbot, so it might be a bit different if you read an earlier version. (I felt like I needed to soften it from how it originally was. They are hard to write! Especially keeping their edge when they're so soft in the final scene.)

• We know Murderbot has trouble figuring out what it's feeling, but I also think it's very plausible that Gurathin has the same problem, if not as badly. He's repressed so much for so long. Asking himself to identify exactly what emotions he's feeling is something that some therapist or other taught him to do.

• This is not necessary context for the fic and it's entirely subject to interpretation, but what I was thinking when it wrote it is that Murderbot using "its" for augmented humans in its last line of dialogue to Gurathin is actually MB doing roughly the same thing (except more emotionally positive) that Gurathin is doing in the episode of the show where he's arguing with Mensah and calls it "he" and then corrects himself to "it." It's over-identifying and doesn't even realize that it's doing so; I mean, it's worried about Gurathin, obviously, and that's why it's here, but there's also a certain amount of "we are the same kind of creature" going on here, even though it doesn't realize it's relating to him on that level. It knows that he might have damaged himself with the data overload because it also knows that it might damage itself in a similar way, and he has much less storage to handle it. And it's just kind of subconsciously being concerned about him as it might be concerned about a fellow construct, or itself, having taken damage. Of course neither of them parses all of that consciously.


In other events, Terrible Temperature Troubles Flash Exchange revealed gifts tonight! I got two absolutely delightful gifts - An Official Complaint Against the Universe (Babylon 5, Vir & Londo, hypothermia and h/c) and Consequences of Cold (Biggles, Biggles/EvS, snuggling when chilled). I loved them!

And finally, [community profile] hurtcomfortex author reveals were tonight. I wrote Sleepover (MASH, 1700 words, Margaret POV) with huddling for warmth and light comfort after nightmares.
sholio: Text: "Age shall not weary her, nor custom stale her infinite squee" (Infinite Squee)
Sholio ([personal profile] sholio) wrote2025-07-11 12:14 am
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sholio: Made by <lj user=aesc> (Atlantis city)
Sholio ([personal profile] sholio) wrote2025-07-10 09:44 pm

Starting to think I need a Murderbot icon

Finished the season finale, immediately turned around and wrote an episode tag.

Arrow (~2K words, gen, Mensah & Gurathin)
Set right during/after the end of the last scene in the episode.

I also saw on Tumblr that it's been renewed for a season two. Something delightful to look forward to!
sholio: two men on horseback in the desert (Biggles-on a horse)
Sholio ([personal profile] sholio) wrote2025-07-09 10:29 am

Enemies to lovers

I ended up nominating a few things for Enemies to Lovers (hush, I'm using it as a bribe for finishing my other assignments xD) and this made me spend some time thinking about which of my ships actually qualify - I had some trouble coming up with a third fandom, and trying to figure out where exactly I'd draw the line. (Like, I wouldn't call Sam/Bucky E2L - more like people who mildly antagonize each other to friends/lovers. But some might!)

So I got to wondering how other people define it. I selected check boxes since some people might have more than one answer. I mean, *I'm* not even sure where I fall in all of this!

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 54


How would you define Enemies to Lovers? (or Enemies to Friends, if you're not a shipper)

View Answers

Must try to kill each other (or at least want to), or be on opposite sides of a conflict with life-or-death stakes
20 (37.0%)

Rivalries like sports rivalries are fine, but there needs to be a strong personal element and/or unhealthy fixation on each other (not just regular sports team conflict)
26 (48.1%)

Any kind of rivalry or antagonism will do
11 (20.4%)

For me it's about the Vibe™ - from distrust/antagonism to trust, whatever form that takes
23 (42.6%)

I do not accept it as proper E2L if there's any softening at all - they must remain antagonists
0 (0.0%)

I know it when I see it but don't get too fussed about definitions
9 (16.7%)

My thoughts are too complex for your ticky boxes (answer in comments)
1 (1.9%)

Not my trope so I don't care, but I want to click something.
3 (5.6%)

sholio: sun on winter trees (Default)
Sholio ([personal profile] sholio) wrote2025-07-08 01:25 pm
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(no subject)

I have discovered Enemies to Lovers exchange. o deer.

THAT being said, I really need to put a cork in the new exchange signups for a bit. Summer of Horror and Temperature Flash both reveal somewhere around this weekend, as well as that being the Casefic submission deadline. I have a pinch hit, I have things to edit, and I haven't even started Just Married.

Today it's rainy AND smoky, a wonderful combination.
sholio: sun on winter trees (Default)
Sholio ([personal profile] sholio) wrote2025-07-07 11:19 pm
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Dungeon Crawler Carl books 4 & 5

"The Gate of the Feral Gods" and "The Butcher's Masquerade." I'd say this series is pretty solidly scifi now, so I'm tagging it that way.

Random spoilers )

Moving on soon to book 6, "The Eye of the Bedlam Bride"! No future spoilers, please!
sholio: (Cute cactus)
Sholio ([personal profile] sholio) wrote2025-07-04 11:31 pm

Hurt/Comfort Exchange

[community profile] hurtcomfortex released today! I happened to be driving a backcountry highway with no cell service at the time (coming home from Mom Things), but it was lovely to find my gifts waiting for me when I got back.

Hold a Candle To (MASH, 3400 wds, gen) delivered some lovely Charles drug withdrawal h/c with teamy affection, and A Way Out (Biggles, 4400 wds, gen) let me roll around in excellent Biggles & von Stalhein enemies-era reluctant cooperation and sympathy. Truly a lovely haul!
sholio: Made by <lj user=aesc> (Atlantis city)
Sholio ([personal profile] sholio) wrote2025-07-03 09:09 pm
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Murderbot 1x09

This show is such a freakin' delight.

Spoilers )
sholio: outline of Alaska with aurora colors (Alaska aurora)
Sholio ([personal profile] sholio) wrote2025-07-01 11:10 pm
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Start July as you mean to go on

Technically this was yesterday, but I climbed a hill and had an eagle fly past me. (The hill is the Bodenburg Butte in Palmer, AK.)

Photo from a high vantage point, looking down on farms and fields stretching to blue mountains with their tops covered in clouds. Small figure of an eagle is visible against the clouds.

I realize the eagle is more like a dot, but if you've tried to take a quick photo of a bird, this is without zoom (I was just trying to snap a fast shot without completely losing the experience of having an eagle flying in front of me) so it is actually very close! After it flew past, I turned around and two teenage guys were standing above me, having just descended from the top and watched it too. "Sick," one of them said in obvious delight, and we nodded at each other.

I'm down in Southcentral doing Mom Things. Mom has been moved out of the rental where she was living since last August, and she was supposed to go home via helicopter today, but the weather was a problem. But that's why I reserved two extra days at the Airbnb beforehand, just in case. Tomorrow we try again! She was very respectful of my space today - I think she recognized that I was planning on having the evening to myself tonight and it didn't happen - and I wrote both fanfic and original fiction, and took a long walk to sort some plot things out in my head. Thursday I go home, and perhaps drive the Denali Highway on my way, if the wildfire smoke isn't too bad.