Today we had the most sunshine than we've had in a month, possibly two. *happy dances*

Over the last three weeks, I got a ton of adulting done. And even fit a short trip to Cleveland to visit one of my fandom friends. She helped me come up with an excellent idea for First Touch, one of my soulmate prompts.

Meanwhile, I finished a third story for the 5soulmates challenge. You can find it here:

Printed on Your Skin (4103 words)
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Rodney McKay/John Sheppard
Characters: Rodney McKay, John Sheppard
Additional Tags: Soulmates
Summary:

Touching your soulmate leaves fingerprints.

I have a bunch of fanfic to catch up on. This is not a hardship. :)

Title: February
Part 28 of the Alphabet series
Author: Grey/Grey853
Fandom: Due South
Pairing: Benton Fraser/Ray Kowalski
Rating: Explicit
Tags: Male slash, alternate universe-canon divergent, explicit sexual content, explicit language, case fic
Word Count: 24,456

Summary: Ray becomes a Canadian.

Link:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/81743581


Snippet:

His father’s ghost straighten slightly and then said, ″Now, about the Yank.″

″What about him?″

″I hear he’s supposed to be a Canadian after this weekend.″

Ben beamed with pride. ″Yes. He’s taking the oath on Saturday.″

″Congratulations. But I have one question.″

″What’s that?″

″What am I supposed to call him once he’s converted?″

″He’s not converting, Dad. Being Canadian isn’t a religion.″

″Speak for yourself. At any rate, I won’t be able to call him Yank anymore. So what should I call him?″

″Call him Ray, Dad.″

″Ray is is then. Give him my blessings.″ His father hesitated and then met Ben’s gaze. ″I have to go now. I won’t be back to see him sworn in, but I’ll be there in spirit.″

″Isn’t that the way you’re always around?″

His father actually chuckled. ″An attempt at humor, Son?″

″I try.″

″Keep trying.″

Then his father blinked away and Ben heard Ray shuffling in from the bedroom. ″What’s going on? Who are you talking to?″

″My father was here.″

″Yeah? Been a while. He have anything good to report?″

″Only that he won’t be calling you Yank anymore.″

Ray smirked. ″About time. It only took renouncing my country and joining you guys across the border to finally make that happen.″

″Indeed.″

After Ny's memorial I felt like a complete awkward pony; I talked myself down from an anxiety spiral with the very jadelennox-branded pep talk of, basically, "Stop being so damn full of yourself, kid, literally nobody is going to notice or remember how bad you were at personing in a room full of grieving people in shock, many of whom primarily know each other online. Nobody was looking at you."

Anyway I have heard from three different people, one of whom I see in person regularly, that I either didn't see them at all when they tried to talk to me, or I saw them and talked to them like they were strangers.

Honestly I think this is an achievement. Being so Not At My Best I was noticeably out of it even in a room full of people Not At Their Best. Awkward pony gold star!

Immediately in front of you, as you enter the palace, is the most important chamber in the palace: the Chara's court.

As you will have gathered by now, peninsularean royal life is centered upon the rulers' status as High Judges over their people. This can be seen most clearly in the Chara's court, which contains an impressive throne where the Chara sits as he hears his court cases.

The main doors to the court are gilded but plain in design, except for the inscription on them of a balance (scale) holding a bird in one pan and a sword in the other pan. This is the Chara's emblem, which appears on Emorian banners, on covers of the Chara's law books, and in many other places. The doors are two storeys tall and are made deliberately heavy. At the time they were built, occasional outbreaks of fighting still occurred between the Chara and his council. The fortress-heavy doors permitted the Chara to endure a siege by his council.

Today, the doors are guarded during council sessions. Assuming you have already gone through the protocol of entrance into the palace, you may simply give your name to the guards there; they will check the list of palace guests and then permit you into the court.

There is no seating in the court, except for the Chara, but you will see that Emorians stand in orderly rows. There is no special section for visitors; simply stand in one of the rows. The rows surround the Chara's throne on four sides. Which side is the best is hotly debated. I recommend the back side for new visitors. This will allow you to watch the Chara's arrival, but it will shield you from watching the face of the Chara transform into "the look of the Chara," which many visitors find as terrifying as a similar transformation in the face of Koretia's ruler.

Light conversation is permitted before the court session begins. The arrival of the Chara is signalled by trumpets. From that point on, you should remain silent and motionless. Even coughs and sneezes are considered so disruptive that you may end up expelled by the vigilant guards.

An exception to this respectful silence is if you bring a translator. Your translator should introduce himself as such when you enter the court. He may whisper a translation to you during the proceedings. Translators who use gestures to convey their information should take care not to bump into other visitors in the compact rows of listeners.

The court follows the same procedure during every case: The prisoner is brought forward under guard, the charges are read, and previously scribed accounts by witnesses are recited by the Chara's clerk. Witnesses are usually present in the court, so that the Chara may ask them questions if needed. The prisoner's own document of witness will be recited. He will be given an opportunity to declare aloud his innocence or guilt, to provide further witness to his actions, and to call upon any additional witnesses present in the court, who may have decided at the last minute to speak on his behalf. At the end of the case, the Chara will offer his judgment, using a time-honored ritual. The prisoner will then be escorted out of the court, either to be freed or to be punished. See the chapter on the Chara's law for more information.

If you are in the court as a witness, you may be asked to come forward. Stand at the foot of the thirty-step platform holding the throne, directly in the Chara's view. You should bow to the Chara, if your gods permit that. Eastern mainlanders may prostrate themselves, but should do so in the briefest manner possible; lengthy obeisances are not valued in the Three Lands. If your beliefs do not permit you to bow or make obeisance, then you should nod your head briefly, as a courteous acknowledgment of the Chara's status as High Judge. Lack of any gesture will be seen as insulting and may harm your nation's relations with Emor.

Wait until the Chara's clerk – the man at the Chara's right hand, who has been reciting the witness documents – signals you to speak. Thereafter, take your cues from the Chara, answering any questions he asks. Do not volunteer any information you have not been asked. Do not greet the Chara by words. Do not – may your gods protect you – compliment the Chara on his outfit or engage in other light chitchat. Emorians are highly formal people; only the eastern mainlanders take protocol more seriously than Emorians do. Whatever you may think of this strict formality, you should conform to it. Believe me when I say that southern peninsulareans find this nearly as much a strain as northern mainlanders do; nonetheless, if you take the trouble to visit Emor, you need to follow their sometimes onerous customs.

If you're tempted to make a public fuss, keep in mind that the small door at the north side of the court, through which the prisoner enters and exits, leads almost directly into the Chara's dungeon.

[Translator's note: The Chara's court is in session in Blood Vow.]

Title: The People You Meet Along The Way.
Author: lannamichaels
Fandom: The Parent Trap (1998)
Rating: G
Archives: Archive Of Our Own, SquidgeWorld

Summary: Twelve years later, they meet at an airport.


( Meredith is so fun to write )

1. What was the reason you began a Dreamwidth or LiveJournal account (or both)?

I was reading a lot of fanfic and following the writers on LJ. At one point I decided that if I wanted to leave a Thank You comment, I should join. I did. Eventually, I moved over to DW

2. How many DW or LJ communities do you subscribe to?

78. Most of them are inactive, but I can't quite bring myself to leave.


3. Do you have a favorite community or one you check out often to see what's new?

sga_saturday It's one of the few active communities associated with Stargate Atlantis and has a monthly prompt. I do check in on my reading circle (it will always be my flist to me) on a daily basis so if a community has posted (like thefridayfive) I'll see it.

4. How did you pick your user name?
As I recall, I'd had a long run of the user name you have chosen has already been used. I decided to take my first and last name and scramble the letters. And that is why my user name is what it is.

5. If you could change your user name, would you?

Maybe in the early days, but not now. I'm the same name too many places at this point.

From the community:

The following bonus questions are brought to you by the fact that I (anais_pf) have been unable to access any page of LiveJournal for more than a week (and therefore cannot post to The Friday Five there):

6. If you have a LiveJournal, are you currently able to access it?

Yes. (to my surprise)

7. Do you have any information about why one would be unable to access LiveJournal?

I had heard that they were planning to remove access to members outside of Russia. If that is about to be the case (and they'd probably hit communities first) maybe a vpn would help?

The original palace of the Chara was built nearly seven hundred years ago (around 300 years after the giving of the law, as the Emorians date it), under the supervision of the Chara William. In the earliest years of Emor, the Chara and his council lived in a small hall, similar to the Royal Residence of the Kings of Koretia. After a time, though, the Chara and his council fell into a terrible civil war. By the end of this war, the Chara had gained so many followers that a larger building was clearly needed.

The original palace was a one-storey building set atop a high hill, though the hill was lower then. Around it gradually grew the capital of Koretia. This palace was intended only for the Chara, not for his recent enemy, the Great Council of Emor. As part of the peace settlement, however, it was agreed that one-third of the new palace should be given over to the Great Council. Another third was retained by the Chara. The exact purpose of the remaining third is not known for certain, but it appears to have been for rites that have since died out in Emorian culture.

Within two hundred and fifty years, Emor had grown into an empire. With the arrival of a vast bureaucracy to deal with imperial matters, it was clearly time to build a new palace. This palace was built atop the original palace, the old palace being buried under soil that heightened the hill. So well hidden is the original palace that, within a hundred years, many visitors to the new palace were unaware that an older palace still existed under the new one. That remains the case to this day, though the present Emorian government makes no effort to hide the existence of the underground rooms.

The palace that began to be built in 568, under the supervision of the Chara Rowland, was not the vast, sprawling palace of today. It covered only the area that had been taken up by the old palace. This second palace would later be dubbed the East Wing, as the palace expanded.

Like the original palace, it was single-storeyed, but it was as high as a two-storey building. This lent it a majestic appearance. Emor's finest architects were brought in to build the palace, aided by the fledgling engineers who were beginning to transform life in the new empire. Arpesh and Marcadia, close to the mainland, were at that time only just establishing relations with Emor; Arpesh, in a gesture of friendship that it later came to regret bitterly, sent down some of its artists to help with the building. The result was what is widely acknowledged to be the most beautiful building in the world, as well as the largest and most impressive. Only the Daxion palace, a full six storeys high, comes close to rivalling the Chara's palace.

The Chara's palace has vastly expanded in the four centuries since then, but the character of the East Wing has not changed in any substantial manner. It remains in appearance and use as it did in the centuries of the Middle Charas.

[Translator's note: The expansive nature of the Chara's palace becomes apparent in Law-Lover.]

Does anyone have or have access to the The Polychrome Historical Haggadah by Jacob Freedman? I'm curious as to what kind of hagadah text it has. I can find a write-up that lists the levels and one of them is Contemporary, defined as beginning in 1900. What's the contemporary stuff? Are there notable things this hagadah includes/doesn't include?

It having contemporary things/cup of Miriam/etc is not a downside, I just want to know what sort of thing is in this before I decide if I wanna get it for this year or not. My utmost value in a hagadah is "is this usable", not really "is this beautiful", and my "is this historically interesting" niche is already fulfilled by the hagadah shelaimah. So is this the sort of thing that would perfectly slot next to the hagadah shelaimah on the shelf, or is it more of a gimmick? The last hagadah I got because it was artistic, I ended up giving away, because it was pretty but not actually functional.

I like a good apple pie myself. I'm in favor of a nice chunk of cheddar cheese on the side.

What are your favorite pies? (plural because no one should have to pick just one)

It's time to celebrate the annual due South fandom holiday!