then there are blackbirds

Spent some time scrolling re: the Muskification of Twitter today- is it just me, or does this seem like the prelude to a more general internet migration and not just a fandom one? The counterpoint is that I haven't seen any discussion of viable alternatives. Most threads/tweets I've seen (that aren't mocking the muskrat) have highlighted why Cohost/Mastodon/Discord/Tumblr/IG aren't good replacements - TOS, niche organization, not text-friendly... I never thought about the uniqueness of Twitter before these conversations. DW is still my preferred space but it's not exactly a broadcast/short-attention-span system.

Non-internet life continues to be very busy and not super interesting, so have a link instead of an update: DJ Sprenk has done some of my favorite zouk sets! If you're looking for mood music (chill, feel-good, party vibes, etc.), definitely give them a try. :)

My free time/fluff-brain entertainment has basically consisted of nothing but fic for... I'm not sure how many months now? It's been nearly a year since I last posted any recs, so have an incomplete list of things that have given me great glee:

» YOI:
The requisite Victuuri:
- talk crap get smacked - sly prankster Yuuri is one of my FAVORITE YUURIS
- crust and sugar over - asdf;askdj;lk the Yuri/Yuuri friendship here, omg!!
- on growing; - the Yuri's-two-dads trope will never stop being ♥ ♥ ♥
- destiny knot - a Pokemon AU series I loved without actually being in Pokemon fandom
- The Viktor Nikiforov Affair - ahaha omg has anyone else watched The Thomas Crown Affair??? ART THEFT SHENANIGANS that I loved before the Shadow of the Templar series existed!
- I think you'd look pretty good on me - oblivious heartbreaker Katsuki Yuuri vs. probably-Chad
- a dime a dozen - annnnd probably-Chad is a thing I will apparently laugh myself to tears to, every time! Can we call the Chads a trope yet???
- Fated - LOVELESS CROSSOVER OMG!!! I never did finish reading Loveless back in the day, but this does such an excellent job of worldbuilding/dealing with the fucked-up-ness of the Loveless world.
- Collector's Edition - Victuuri fanboying each other + social media = two great tastes that taste great together!
- name is a four-letter word - Viktor's epic pettiness about JJ gives me such life

Otayuri:
- one thing I could save from the fire - Pacific Rim fusion! :D
- Otabek and Yuri Find a Baby - I find an extra layer of hilarity in baby-fic with these two, even out of Yurio's awkward teenagerhood *g*
- he's beauty, he's grace, he'll punch you in the face - if you suspect I first read this without looking beyond the title, you'd be 100% correct
- Work Even to the End

» Nirvana in Fire:
- Handfast - MCS-as-MCS/Nihuang arranged marriage fic :D :D :D
- But Everything Changed - a MCS/Jingyan/Nihuang A:TLA AU! ♥ ♥ ♥
- for every atom belonging to me as good as belongs to you - SUPER satisfying MCS/Jingyan HDM-daemon fic (as the AO3 summary says, a fandom can never have enough daemon fic!)
- New Spring - also MCS/Jingyan; even if you dislike ABO, the amount of family feels in this series (not to mention its integration of ABO dynamics into politics!) makes everything worth it

» Black Panther: I think it was kate_nepveu who pointed me to home training, but the entire erik stevens, prince of wakanda series is GOLDEN. ♥____♥

» Dragon Age: Inquisition: Probably everyone who's into this fandom/the adoribull ship has already read these, but since I'm doing this I may as well include them anyway...
- Titanomachy, a Pacific Rim fusion (I can also never get enough of these!)
- Seven Habits of Highly Effective Dragonslayers, aka adoribull old marrieds with a new generation of ducklings

I have been (unsurprisingly) useless this week, so I ended up in an internet spiral of fic* that somehow led to me marathoning Love in the Moonlight/Moonlight Drawn by Clouds in, uh, 2 days. >.> It was surprisingly addictive for what seemed like a fairly fluffy premise- though in retrospect, maybe I shouldn't have been surprised. I mean, come on, woman MC disguised as a man who somehow ends up as a palace eunuch falls in love with the crown prince? What is that, 5 romcom/fandom tropes smashed in one ball of epic glee? *g*

Anyway, after the pit of FEELS and TEARS that was re/watching Lang Ya Bang/Nirvana in Fire (which is the only thing I've been allowing myself to watch after I inhaled YOI), this kdrama hit the spot re: both feels and ALL THE FLUFF that made it better, haha. I couldn't say how accurate it is in terms of historical details, but I also felt that the storyline came from a more character- and relationship-driven angle than the incredible but unrelenting complex-politics-fest of NiF. As it definitely delivered on those, I'll leave analyzing those other parts to those who know them better :D

*Ending in the relevant stories: Day-to-Day Trials of a Longsuffering Cloud: The Diary of Head Eunuch Jang, A Warm and Generous Heart

Partly for qian, partly for my own reference, haha- I've spent way too much time inhaling a) the series & b) the fic for my own good. ^^; Also, I'm sure you've seen a lot of these before because I'm probably the last person I know to have fallen into this fandom? Anyway, some of the rabbit hole I went down, in no particular order & with various ratings:

Requisite Victuuri:
- Stargazer (YOI IN SPACE)
- Impostor Syndrome
- No Less Unthinkable (not just Victuuri, but I found it a super amusing way to get there)
- Rain Down on Me
- pick lilacs for the passing time (ballet AU!!)
- Three Sheets to the Wind
- you're like heaven to touch
- Fall Behind
- Calligraphia
- Rain Down on Me (series)
- i will see your body bare (and still i will live here)
- never stop until the grave
- icebreaker

Also Otayuri, because I have SUCH A FONDNESS for angry kitten Yurio & super-calm Otabek, haha:
- Gravity (same series as Stargazer, aka MORE YOI IN SPACE!!)
- the naming of cats
- All Things in Their Time
- Two Make a Pair
- My soul is an empty carousel at sunset.
- But I'm Not There Yet, & sequel I've got a list of songs I can't listen to
- Hey, Jealousy
- who can sing both high & low (same series as i will see your body bare)
- in flesh and bone

Went to see Allegiance with my sister last night, and- as I mentioned elsenet- it was heart-exploding. George Takei!! Lea Salonga!!! And of course, that story. ♥ It appears that the primary facilitators of my access to literal gross sobbing are immigrant stories, of course. (I am not a frequent crier!) Also, can I just say how fucking refreshing it was to go and see a Broadway show with a majority-Asian cast?? As in, there were maybe four non-Asian people on stage (WHO SAYS THERE ISN'T A TALENT POOL). Such satisfying feelings of comfort and freedom and recognition and yes.

Of all the things George Takei must intend this story to be, it feels like a conversation starter more than anything else. The history of the Japanese internment camps, race relations, questions of belonging and citizenship, family tensions, the ways diasporados choose again and again to hold on or let go, the ways we express strength in the face of suffering, how we define and choose to be loyal (to a nation? to a family? to our history? to tradition?). It's about the borders we cross, how we live within them, and how we carry them with us. It's about how and where we choose to make our stand. And, of course, the prices of the choices we make.

I may never be able to achieve the most critical mindset about this musical. Quite frankly, to see George Takei perform on stage and pass on pieces of his family's own story put me in a state of emotional flailing even beyond the one accessed through Lin-Manuel Miranda's In the Heights (and oh, when I saw in the program notes that George Takei also cried with recognition at that show. ♥ Immigrant stories!!). Also, LEA SALONGA!!!! My sister, who seems to have retained more dignity and critical thought than I did at the time, said quite accurately that she was great, but everyone else was a bit meepy. This is a fair statement, but it's not that the voice quality of the cast is mediocre; it's that Lea Salonga fucking eclipses everyone else in the room when she opens her mouth to sing.

Other assorted thoughts: ( spoilers-ish? )

In short: loved it, and if you have the chance to see it, do! Especially if you are in/around NYC and may therefore also be able to watch GEORGE TAKEI and LEA SALONGA live on stage. My only regret is that we were running for the bus and therefore couldn't hang around the theater to attempt to greet the cast as they left.

1. She Keeps Me Warm: Saving Face vid from Festivids! ♥ ♥

2. Successfully met up, caught up, and generally nerded around with zouk friend A during his stopover yesterday, despite his lack of a winter coat and the generally disgusting weather. It's been a long time since I've talked music with anyone! We also spent a significant amount of time poking around the performing arts branch of the NYPL (by Juilliard, of course). Must go back to investigate more *___*

3. How Generous Are You Willing To Be? I'm working on communication this year, but I think I've just found my intention for next year.

"How generous are you willing to be? How generous are you willing to be with your whole life? Will you share yourself with us? With the world? Do you dare? Or are you just going to hold yourself tightly in, hold these long arms and legs all to yourself?

"Are you just going to be stingy? Just keep yourself to yourself for the rest of your life? In case you fall? In case you fail? In case you make a fool of yourself? In case we see how imperfect you are?

"OR: are you going to choose to just be generous anyway? To just take up as much space as you actually take up? To be as big, as graceful, as long, as gorgeous, as enormous as you actually are?"

And now, back to work!

So I finally watched Free!, which is all inkstone's fault, of course. Predictably, my reaction to everything is LOLOL :DDDDD ♥ ♥ ♥ and other assorted incoherencies, but if you want some more specifics to my gleeface, they're all included in that primer post (except for a number of very specific spoilery bits).

1. Also predictably, Haruka is my FAVORITE. ♥________♥ Someone needs to write/draw him and Kuroko having an expressionless face-off!

2. Has anyone made icons yet? Should I be getting on that?

3. I checked out some of the iwatobiswimclub fills, and would just like to state for the record that seen everything there is to be shown is A GEM. Seriously hilarious Rin/Haru, and long-suffering Nitori makes the whole story, poor baby. xDDDDDD

+ Favorite age-up of Aang thus far omg ♥ ♥ ♥

+ I already have 123098723095872309487 Korra icon themes plotted in my head! April: SO CLOSE, YET SO FAR A:SDLKJA:LSKFJA.

... I had other things to say and also I think some links and maybe someday they will return to me, but KORRA. Brain is waving goodbye for the foreseeable future!

Awesome A:TLA things:

» white_lotus's Lunar New Year Exchange has begun posting! Things I've consumed & enjoyed so far:
+ stitch me the fabric of fall, creepy/awesome Ursa fic!
+ Waiting to Spark, sweet and believable and complicated Katara/Zuko.
+ Isobel, an awesome Toph and Azula vid!
+ The Grace That It Takes, adorable Sokka/Suki! ♥

And some awesome non-A:TLA things:

» gyzym: rumor has it, the first Glee-related gleeface I've had in a long while. SANTANA ♥

» Cities of You is an awesome art project based on Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities! Check it out. :)

My paper is done and so I have finally read my Kaleidoscope stories! EPIC GLEEFACE IS EPIC.

&hearts Patience, love, courage, tea is the RED CLIFF STORY OF MY HEART, omg. Sun Shangxiang being awesome on and off the battlefield! Friendship with Xiao Qiao! All the banter and snark and needling Zhuge Liang that anybody could wish for! Favorite non-explicitly OT4 is FAVORITE. *draws sparkly hearts forever* (Contains graphic violence.)

&hearts Feminine Wiles, a Red Cliff treat that is also entertainingly snarky! My fondness for terrible innuendo, it is great. xD

&hearts Somewhere Different Now, which is TUMBLING! My brand new sparkly fandom of glee! And also features Kiyama, who is my favoritest favorite character omg, and deals with canon homophobia in a way that I find very satisfying. &hearts &hearts &hearts Also: the appearances by Ryosuke and Wataru are PERFECT. :D