Home is where the Heart is

Tue, 29 Apr 2025 18:26:14 GMT

I need to remember this place exists. I've spent the last twenty minutes going through things on newcomers which is currently posting tutorials for Tumblr refugees, which all seems ENORMOUSLY useful.

Still. I kinda miss being able to just introduce myself by reblogging a bunch of posts off someone. I have to actually Fill In Templates to get noticed. And I am SO out of practice at writing comments, not to mention anxiety at how it'll be received. I'm not sure I used to be that nervous about it. I am choosing to blame social media for this.

But there's a dragon_age community so maybe some of my meta posts could go over there. Maybe. Wonder what there is in the way of Elder Scrolls fans on here. Oblivion Remastered just came out, must be someone talking about it.

I was tempted to get it, but it still has the over-complicated class and levelling system that put me off before. Also 125 GB's worth of drive space required. ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY FIVE GIGS. THIRTY TWO GIGS Of RAM RECOMMENDED???

Srlsy, devs. Optimise your goddamn games. For reals. I just bought a new laptop for Veilguard purposes, I am NOT buying one AGAIN for Oblivion Remastered when buying OG Oblivion for a fraction of the price and considerably more mods is an option.

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Are mods enough to save Veilguard

Sat, 12 Apr 2025 06:51:28 GMT

Probably not but that's OK, it didn't need saving. It's actually a decent game - fun to play, fun to explore, looks pretty, been playing it non-stop. Is it perfect? No. Is it entertaining? Yes it is.

Have I modded it? Yes, but only recently.

And what would I add to improve it?

That's easy, more opportunities to chat with and hang out with your in-game romance partner, it's the one thing it does obviously badly on.

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Rooks

Wed, 09 Apr 2025 18:23:16 GMT

For posterity! Here are the Rooks of my heart (so far).

( Black Rose )

( Lia Di Rosso )

( Stel Di Rosso )

( Maia )

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Wed, 09 Apr 2025 17:35:16 GMT

I have been shamefully absent from DW for too long. Probably time I used it more, especially as Tumblr might be circling the drain, I always forget to use BlueSky and the other social media sites are a bit too doomscrolly. Is that a word? It is now.

Anyway. Right now I am suffering with a cough and sore throat, so forgive me if this is a little incoherent. But I did get out to the local cinema the other day to see Flow, which is a delightfully cute animation aimed at kids, following the adventures of a little cat forced to flee its home by a catastrophic flood, and trying to survive, making friends with other animals along the way. While it's only 90 minutes long, with no dialogue, the storytelling was absolutely lovely, and I loved all the animals getting character development.

( Spoilers! )

Next trip to the cinema might be the Steve Coogan film coming out later, The Penguin Lessons. Man adopts a penguin, chaos ensues. Marvellous.

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The Flaviuses Come North

Thu, 14 Jul 2022 23:37:10 GMT

A/N: These are excerpts from a longer fic, in which Lucien Flavius goes on an adventure to Skyrim, doesn't meet the Last Dragonborn in the Falkreath tavern, gets bored of waiting and makes his own way to Solstheim instead. Where he nearly ends up killed by reavers, but is saved in the nick of time by this Nord wizard with no memory of who he really is. Together they go on adventures... but these excerpts aren't really about that. No, this is about Lucien's letters home to his poor parents who worry about their only child's wellbeing, and his mother probably didn't want him to go anyway.

These are the letters that prompted Lyra Flavius to ditch her existing plans and come north to find her son due to Alarm and Concern, and for Davidicus Flavius to come north because he had no choice in the matter. ;)

Lucien's cat is also here. I have no canon details on the cat, so Liberties Had To Be Taken.

Canon details on the parents are also a bit sparse, consisting of one short story, one letter and Lucien's in-game dialogue on them both. Still. I've done more with less. The characterisation I've gone with works for this story but will likely vary should we ever get more canon info on them.

Everything below the cut is PG, althoguh the full fic is not. Full fic is mostly wholesome-ish, apart from the bits that aren't.

( The Letters That Launched A Flavius Exodus )

~~~~~~~~~

And there you have it, Lyra and Davidicus arriving in Skyrim! Obviously, nothing goes as planned. Alduin is dead by this point but the Civil War's still ongoing, and Ulfric's got it in for Saviik, something to do with Saviik using Bend Will to get out of talking to him. Not to mention Saviik giving Ulfric Two-Thuums as a nickname. It is not a compliment.

May have loosely based Grigio on the mod author's cat. Loosely. Translate the name from Italian if you're curious. :)

Other excerpts I am considering:

Saviik and Lucien meet the King in Rags.

Saviik Does Dumzbthar, with all the shifts in dynamic a change of Dragonborn brings.

More of Lyra and Davidicus.

All of which is in the full fic of course, but maybe you just want the edited highlights, eh.

Comment if you liked it!

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Twitch Streaming

Sat, 09 Oct 2021 18:53:29 GMT

Dipping my toe into the murky waters of Twitch streaming. It's a bit nervewracking. I mean, I've watched a load of Twitch streamers of late. And I do play a lot of Skyrim so... why not do both.

Scheduled myself in for a stream tomorrow night and am nervous as hell. Well, worst that can happen is no one turns up right?

I keep telling myself if it bombs I can always never stream again, but all the same I'm in the position of wanting it to go well, wanting to build a little community but also terrified of the attention and publicly cocking up.

Webcam is defo off though.

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Sat, 24 Jul 2021 10:19:01 GMT

LFT turned out to be negative, I shall stop worrying for now. Still self-isolating as a precaution, and shall take another one in a few days. Unless I get ill of course, in which case PCR testing it is.

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AAAAND Tumblr is down!

Fri, 23 Jul 2021 20:52:24 GMT

Suspect this is only temporary. Tumblr+ does have the potential to bring the site down eventually but not THAT quickly.

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Olympics

Fri, 23 Jul 2021 11:04:44 GMT

I know the Olympics have a bit of a dodgy rep and there was debate over whether this year's should be going ahead at all.

But damn if I don't enjoy watching them. I have the day off, opening ceremony good to go! That's me sorted for the next fortnight. :)

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Tumblr+

Thu, 22 Jul 2021 22:39:27 GMT

So Tumblr is rolling out a system whereby users can make their posts or indeed their entire blog, subscription only. Starting at $3.99 per month.

Leaving aside that I've never seen a Tumblr post in my life worth paying that amount for, here's the other reasons it's a Bad Idea:

- You can't block people who've subscribed to you, meaning this will turn into a pay to harass system all too quickly. ~~No word on if you can cancel people's subscriptions if you look at their blog and go 'yikes!' or they misbehave.~~ Tumblr's latest update indicates you can block subscribers, presumably cancelling their subscription in the process. But not until the final version goes live later this year. No help for the ones currently in the pilot who are having to use support requests to get rid of harassers then.

- Tumblr are encouraging fan content to become subscription only. Which is... look, the reason fanworks got as mainstream and well-known as they are is because of legal work establishing it was a fair use of the original IP, and that fair use is down to fanficcers and fanartists producing and sharing their work for free. Yes, some have Patreons and Ko-Fis and take commissions from individuals but the work itself is available for free public consumption. Donating to a Patreon or Ko-fi is entirely voluntary. Start paywalling it and it all changes. You can certainly do that on Patreon, but Patreon's TOS are pretty clear the artist is responsible if any C&Ds get issued. Tumblr, less so, and Tumblr's publicity seems to be encouraging users to paywall their fan content. Which will have Implications in lawsuits.

ETA: Staff's response indicates that they believe monetisation and fair use are not mutually exclusive BUT Intellectual property rights holders are in the best position to decide if they think a fanfiction or fan art violates their rights and existing DMCA processes will apply. So in other words, your fanworks are not safe unless you have them on AO3 for free as well, rendering a Tumblr paywall pointless.

- Tumblr's notoriously glitchy interface and functionality does not inspire trust and giving them your card details seems unwise. Some people have caught viruses off Tumblr ads. It is possible to subscribe via the app store instead if you use the Tumblr app... but the phone providers take 30% of the price if you do it that way. Which is a rip-off in anyone's book.

It won't mean the death of fandom, but it could mean the death of Tumblr. At any rate, I'm not going sub-only. Or paying for anyone else's subscription posts.

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LEVERAGE IS BACK!

Sat, 10 Jul 2021 10:53:25 GMT

My fave TV show of all time is back after nine years off air!

And it is so amazing, I love it! Only available via IMDB TV’s streaming service in the US... but that’s OK, that’s what VPNs are for. ;)

New boy Harry still finding his feet but that’s OK. Hardison not in it much after ep 2 but that’s OK too, he’s clearly doing Good Work Out There.

Timothy Hutton’s character written out very permanently - the series is set a year after Nate’s death, with Sophie left as the grieving widow not sure what to do with herself. The Trio still working together, but Hardison taking a back seat to help out NGOs and refugees and save the world on a far bigger scale. I do like that as a cover for why he’s not in it as much.

I love Breanna already, she’s adorable. Please let her be queer. Please.

Parker’s excitement over vents and crime in general - YES. SO MUCH YES. HER FACE IN EP 1 WHEN THE PLAN TURNED OUT TO INVOLVE PLANTING FAKE PAINTINGS IN EIGHT DIFFERENT TOP SECURITY MUSEUMS!

And now I want to watch the rest of it, and it’s Saturday so guess what, I’m going to! We’ve got a visibly older crew still doing stuff, and you don’t see that often! In particular I want to see Sophie’s character development - it’s not often you get to see a visibly middle-aged woman leading the crew and finding herself again after a tragedy. Her working out who she is under all the aliases and getting back in the game after a lengthy retirement, a bereavement, her youthful confidence shaken, and finding her feet again... that’s a story you don’t see that often.

Eliot still Eliot, but he does look older, his skillset relies on physicality in a way the others don’t... hasn’t come up yet but I wonder if him realising his body’s not what it was will come up at any point. Be interesting to see how he deals with that.

Parker is seeing a child psychologist - bless her. Foster care stole her childhood, it’s only fitting.

“Just one job” - WHERE HAVE WE HEARD THAT BEFORE? And Sophie getting all the ‘Let’s go steal a...’ lines... priceless. She hasn’t quite got the hang of it yet, but that just adds to the charm.

In short, it’s amazing, I love it, I may have had tears of joy in my eyes all through episode 1, I was just SO HAPPY to see them all again.

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I have the best friends!

Wed, 07 Jul 2021 17:42:33 GMT

There is nothing quite like the feeling of writing a thing... sharing it... and someone else appreciating it... and then getting a new tablet and DRAWING YOU FANART OF IT!

( Image Behind Cut )

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Sat, 03 Jul 2021 18:46:47 GMT

So there's this adorable Twitch streamer who made a Skyrim mod I like who normally streams Saturday evenings.

This evening, England are playing in a EURO 2020 quarter-final.

I have spent all weekend wondering how to swing this and had come up with having the game on my Kindle Fire and the stream on my phone.

And then I find out he's CANCELLED THE STREAM! His mates are making him socialise lol. He's English, like me, attending a university somewhere in this country. I never had him pegged as a sports fan, he's always come across as Nerdy Theatre Kid.

But I strongly suspect they're making him watch football, and I confidently predict he'll be a bit of a fish out of water. Poor man! He'll be back on Monday, we can find out then. And he can tell us how he deployed his acting skills into the role of Man Who Understands And Likes Football.

What it does mean is I can concentrate on the game. So that's what I'm going to do! That and write fanfic.

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Algorithms are not your friend, or etiquette for social media

Fri, 02 Jul 2021 16:53:06 GMT

Who remembers all the posts we used to have back when the internet was new on netiquette or how to behave online. Some of this even made it into mainstream media!

No one makes them any more because it's assume we all know, but it's becoming abundantly obvious that an awful lot of people, be they youngsters newly unleashed with My First Social Media Account, or non-nerds over 40 who never grew up with it or did but didn't use it because it wasn't cool enough, haven't got a bloody clue how to behave.

( Case in point. )

If a social media site recommends something you aren't sure about or are actively upset by? DON'T FOLLOW IT. CLICK THE LITTLE X TO TAKE THEM OFF YOUR RECOMMENDATIONS. BLOCK IF YOU'RE REALLY BOTHERED, REPORT IF WHAT THEY'VE POSTED LOOKS ACTUALLY ILLEGAL.

But don't message them. Partly because it's rude, partly because they might be evil, but also because if you don't have the discernment to look at a person's profile and public posts and make a decision to follow or not based on that, and on seeing stuff you don't like, still can't make your mind up, you really shouldn't be online in the first place.

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OMG WHAT - EURO 2020

Mon, 28 Jun 2021 21:48:49 GMT

( Spoilers )

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I saw a post on Tumblr and now I own these!

Fri, 25 Jun 2021 19:43:58 GMT

So anyway there was this post on Tumblr getting all nostalgic about these pretty books for kids and nerds, the Ology series and I...

Was not a kid when they came out and could not afford to buy them, but I do remember them existing.

( But now I have a proper job! )

Also Supernatural fandom has apparently gone nuts. Yes I know, not really news, eh. Something about one of actors playing the lead brothers going to take part in a prequel project and the actor playing the other brother found out the project existed on Twitter. And There Was Drama of the 'et tu Jensen?' variety.

Sometimes I'm very glad my fandom's canon is nearly a decade old and the VAs have all moved on so we don't get this sort of drama...

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Unfinished Miraak Fic

Thu, 24 Jun 2021 20:05:34 GMT

Fandom: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (video game)
Rating: PG-ish
Ships: Miraak/Lucien Flavius, Cicero/Eola, Last Dragonborn/Madanach

A/N: So I started this but never finished it. It was the original Miraak/Lucien fic idea and was intended to be a fleshed out version of a Tumblr post where I first kicked off the ship idea. I'd link the post but frankly I don't think I'll easily find it again. I put it on ice due to not being sure where to take it and all the vanilla questlines done in this universe, so it's never going on Ao3 - I might abandon something on there, but I'm not going to post something that I'm literally never going back to. But it's still worth reading - what is here is good, and a lot made it into The Prodigal Dragonborn instead. This is the Nightshade and Juniper verse version, PD is the Melinda-verse equivalent.

Difference here is Miraak doesn't die but gets rescued, and has his memories (and his dragons!). The power balance lies in the Vampire Reach-King just plain not being scared of him, and Lucien having protectors from the get-go. Also Kaidan is in it.

Lucien and Kaidan are modded followers, if you play Skyrim and don't have them installed, click on the links below to find their mod pages, they're well worth having!

( Happily Ever After Takes Some Doing )

Anon commenting on because I'm posting the link to Tumblr and most of you won't have Dreamwidths... but I am screening you all and will turn it back off again if it turns out trolls turn up.

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Euro 2020

Wed, 23 Jun 2021 21:50:43 GMT

Well that was exciting, wasn't it?

( Spoilers for tonight's matches )

One thing I am noticing about Dreamwidth is that I'm feeling more motivated to actually write content. On Other Sites, it's easy to see everyting pouring into your feed and feel like a drop in the ocean but here it does feel a bit more important to Write Stuff.

Hmm. Write Stuff. I have fic bits that are never going to morph into finished works so inappropriate for AO3 but that MIGHT work here. And I can drop the link into Tumblr, tag it with the characters and see if I can lure more of my Tumblr lot over. Worth a thought.

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Euro 2020

Wed, 23 Jun 2021 16:23:18 GMT

One of Scotland's players tested positive for COVID and two England players who play for the same Premier League club he does are self-isolating due to 'interactions'.

Now, the interactions turned out to be hanging out in the tunnel chatting and probably hugging for an extended amount of time, but I won't lie. My mind went the slashy route. ;)

Ah well. We can pretend everyone's agents and national team management hushed it up, right?

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Thing to use Dreamwidth for

Sun, 20 Jun 2021 11:54:09 GMT

Aside from diarying stuff, it also occurred to me Dreamwidth could be the commentary on Things Seen on Tumblr I don't want to comment on there.

( How I have missed Cuts. )

Perhaps Dreamwidth is where I can put those responses. Work out all the feelings without risking a flamewar. I mean, you lot might not agree either, but at least you can't reblog to all your mates and have them get in on the act...

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Virtual Convention

Sat, 19 Jun 2021 16:38:19 GMT

Today was the annual Humanists UK convention, held online due to Plague reasons. It's been interesting!

Started off with a discussion between Samira Ahmed and Sathnam Sanghera about his book Empire-Land and the legacy of the British Empire - really interesting, made a lot of good points, and covered all sorts of things including modern day politics. Including Boris Johnson not seeming to stand for anything - that's because he doesn't, it's power at all costs for that one. Good luck finding his principles, he doesn't have any. Might be worth grabbing the book, it was a good discussion.

Humanists history was the next one, but I skipped out on that, wasn't that interesting.

Then there was one on Our Place in the Universe all about physics, cosmology and the Big Bang, and now the final one with Alice Roberts talking about how humans spread out around the world. It's really interesting! Science is GREAT, folks. Currently we have Alice telling of how she once publicly said, on TV no less, that she didn't think Neanderthals and humans ever interbred, and then the following year, the discovery via genomics that Eurasian humans had in fact interbred with them after all. I like that she's willing to admit that she's since had to backtrack in the face of new evidence. And if there's anything fandom has taught me, it's that there are people out there who will find anything attractive.

Worth it and I am really liking online conventions rather than having to, you know, give up an entire day or weekend to go to it.

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Is Dreamwidth making a comeback?

Sat, 19 Jun 2021 09:09:22 GMT

I don't know but someone on Tumblr linked to a post they'd made on cringe culture they'd made on their DW and now I'm starting to wonder.

Now I've not really used this site for anything but private journal posts for years, and haven't used it at all since 2018. I don't know if Semagic works still because this laptop, not a new one by any means, has never had it installed. I don't have any TES or Skyrim icons because no one makes them anymore.

I suspect my flist here is largely dead but I may be surprised. And I don't know what manner of Elder Scrolls community there is here, probably very little. Can I autopost to Tumblr from here or do I have to manually link it? It's definitely not worth posting fanfic links here and it's not possible to reblog to this place.

Once again, I'm faced with the dilemma of really wanting to use this site, but if the interactions that happen very organically over on Tumblr don't migrate, it's going to hamstring me.

On the other hand you don't need to worry about trolls picking your post up and reblogging it to their blogs to harass you over it. Or critically reblogging a post and worrying about OP coming after you. Anon hate? Nah. Anons can't message you, only comment (if you let them).

So... maybe this is worth thinking about.

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Why I needed the ace label

Thu, 18 May 2017 18:39:33 GMT

( Cut for possible TMI )

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Shiny things

Mon, 15 May 2017 20:00:05 GMT

Back to work from a three day weekend, and it started by finding out Friday afternoon that lots of NHS Trusts were hit by a ransomware attack. Mercifully ours is fine, although I did note a lot of security updates getting put in today and the service desk software essentially forcing a reboot by nagging you to switch your PC off every five minutes. XD

Also I've got a new phone! Upgraded to a Samsung Galaxy S7, and decided to splurge on a massive data allowance, because seeing as, if I don't carefully ration my data use a bit, I could end up spending an extra £10 a month on data add-ons anyway. So the extra cost is worth it.

An unexpected side-effect is that my Here Ones FINALLY WORK PROPERLY. I don't have to keep unpairing and repairing them all the damn time, and as long as they're charged and not in the box, the app appears to reliably recognise them. Hurrah! Note to anyone thinking of buying them or something similar - the Bluetooth on a Galaxy S5 is awful, get a better phone as soon as you can.

Also signed up for a Ko-Fi account. I have no illusions that this will generate anything like a second income, but you get nothing if you don't ask. Basically it's essentially a tip jar for creators - if you like their work, buzz them $3 or more. Unlike Patreon, it's one-off payments only, and you don't have to give rewards to donors. Which suits me just fine - the fics are already online, free to read and download, no obligation to send me anything... and no contractual obligation for me to reward the giver, although I might offer shoutouts in the author's notes for donors, possibly sneak previews of the next chapter for non-anonymous ones over a certain amount. We'll see.

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Asexuality 101

Tue, 02 May 2017 21:49:46 GMT

So anyway, I came out as asexual last year, but it occurs to me a lot of you won't know what that means in practice. So I thought I'd write a thing.

Caveat lector: this may not be representative of all asexuals. It doesn't cover aromanticism either - that's a whole other post. And it doesn't really cover other a-spec identities either, although I'll mention them in passing.

( Asexuality - the definition )

( Dating Aces )

( The Split-Attraction Model )

( Allosexual - you keep using that word )

( A-spec? What's that? )

There is probably more that can be said, but if you do want to find out more, you've got a few terms to google now. Be careful on Tumblr, there are plenty of aces but also plenty of aphobes who think keeping the queer community free of asexuals is a good thing and will use any means necessary to eliminate them. As mentioned above, it's the same mob that hate bisexuals, they've just found an easier target.

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