extrapenguin

I write stuff occasionally – mostly fic, some meta, reviews, and general thoughts. The best way to find my works is on AO3:

ExtraPenguin. I also have a tumblr:

extrapenguin. If you catch sight of an ExtraPenguin anywhere, it's probably me. My name is spelled as ExtraPenguin whenever orthography permits. Any pronoun save "she" or "it" is fine.

I maintain a tumblr for generating title suggestions; the maintenance/improvement post is here. I mod the

space_swap exchange as well as past iterations of the Bujold Fest and the first two years of

coronationceremony.

Transformative works: I give blanket permission to translate, remix, podfic, make fanart of, etc. any of my fics, provided that you list it as a related work on AO3 or otherwise make me aware of the result.

Friending: I will follow if you post about stuff I'm interested in at the moment. I give access much more stingily, but you're not missing much – the occasional post where I'm slightly less vague about my RL or just want to post something (fandom-y) that is not indexed by google, at a rate of maybe twice a year. Feel free to follow me or give access to me whenever, and also comment on whatever post you wish to comment on.

My fandoms are mostly SF things. Currently, I have fallen down the Star Wars rabbit hole, both prequels and KOTOR/SWTOR era. Other interests include linguistics, engineering, space, and writing origfic. My fic is on AO3 (big fandoms: Guardian, The Goblin Emperor, Vorkosigan saga, Modao Zushi), and here are my tags for fic recs, icons, and meta.

(Last edited: 2 Sept 2021)

Went to the ballet again last weekend; will report on that tomorrow I think. Meanwhile, for the music meme, today's prompt is for an underrated song. This is a somewhat hard choice when working with new songs, as something that is new is discovered or undiscovered; overrated and underrated require a certain maturity. So I chose a song from 2023.

an underrated song
Elysion - Crossing Over

Watch on YouTube

prompts under the cut

a song you discovered this month Lady Gaga - Disease
a song that makes you smile Catalyst Symphony - Eden
a song that makes you cry Stratovarius - Shine in the Dark
a song that you know all the lyrics of Deep Sun - Storyteller
a song that proves that you have good taste Synthwailer - Iron Arch
~~a song title that is in all lowercase~~ newest release FlowerLeaf - The Wake
a song title that is in all uppercase Illumishade – ELEGY
an underrated song
a song that has three words
a song from your childhood
a song that reminds you of summertime
a song that you feel nostalgic to
the first song that plays on shuffle
a song that someone showed you
a song from a movie soundtrack
a song from a television soundtrack
a song about being 17
a song that reminds you of somebody
a song to drive to
a song with a number in the title
a song that you listen to at 3am in the morning
a song with a long title
a song with a color in the title
a song that gets stuck in your head
a song in a different language
a song that helps you fall asleep at night
a song that describes how you feel right now
a song that you used to hate but love today
a song that you downloaded
a song that you want to share

While I didn't have any song titles in all lowercase, I do have some in all uppercase! All by the same band! So I picked the one with a music video.

a song title that is in all uppercase
Illumishade - ELEGY

Watch on YouTube

These guys are more on the symphonic rock end. Very light and soothing.

Another Side of You by Illumishade came out in Feb 2024.

prompts under the cut

a song you discovered this month
a song that makes you smile
a song that makes you cry
a song that you know all the lyrics of
a song that proves that you have good taste
~~a song title that is in all lowercase~~ newest release
a song title that is in all uppercase
an underrated song
a song that has three words
a song from your childhood
a song that reminds you of summertime
a song that you feel nostalgic to
the first song that plays on shuffle
a song that someone showed you
a song from a movie soundtrack
a song from a television soundtrack
a song about being 17
a song that reminds you of somebody
a song to drive to
a song with a number in the title
a song that you listen to at 3am in the morning
a song with a long title
a song with a color in the title
a song that gets stuck in your head
a song in a different language
a song that helps you fall asleep at night
a song that describes how you feel right now
a song that you used to hate but love today
a song that you downloaded
a song that you want to share

My February Ballet Experience was watching the Dance Theater of Harlem when they came to Paris earlier this week. (For the first time in 40 years!) The black girls turned out in force, and thus I was slightly less overdressed than usual. Also the Parisians did actually dress up for the Saturday evening, though uh very elevated basics, heavy on teh basic.

General notes:
The dancers looked to have a bit more muscle definition than usual; I think this is because the American ballet style (Balanchine) is aggressively BOING BOING, meaning that the ideal dancer has more fast-twitch muscle fibers, and is thus more inclined to put on visible muscle definition.

Both shows were ~2:30 long. Neither was one ballet through, but more of a idk variety show, with three half-times, all of which contained a different set of choreographies. More "look what we can do" than telling a story, y'know? (Except for their Firebird; thoughts on which below.)

This was mostly less pure ballet and more of an old and new together thing, with there being some pure ballet stuff, but also a straight-up jazz dance number, and an extended modern-ballet blend set to Motown/Stevie Wonder afrobeats. This one was cool, with the blend including incredibly specific ballet #moments, like Giselle's transformation sequence, seamlessly blended in. There was also a pure ballet section, where the lead danseur performed the Bluebird variation.

The current artistic director and lead choreographer is I think incredibly talented in this blend of classical ballet and other styles, as well as choreographing for things done in canon (in the round). The formations (lines of overlapping dancers etc) were well executed, too.

The star of their show/grand finale was the Balanchine choreography of the Firebird. Which. Um. The dancing was great! The costumes were pretty! The problem was George Balanchine going "The Americans cannot sit still for 45 min; I will make this 20 min". And the Firebird is a ballet that has zero fluff!

So, what were the changes?

Firebird variation #1: heavily abridged, in a way that takes away from her birdlike nature imo

Firebird & prince pas de deux: heavily abridged and rearranged in a way that makes the narrative progression make zero sense

Prince & princess: this one was mostly preserved, I think? The golden apples dance of princess and the other women (handmaidens, in this production) was very much shortened, tho

Koschei confrontation: heavily altered so that instead of the prince struggling against this powerful evil sorcerer whom he has no hope of defeating, they wrestle a bit, I don't think he was even losing, and then he summoned the Firebird for idk shits and giggles

Infernal Dance: COMPLETELY DELETED

like seriously, the Firebird just poofs up and everyone falls over? no making people dance until they drop? no THE ENTIRE POINT OF THE BALLET?

Firebird variation #2 (keeping Koschei's minions asleep): here she just waved her hands at them and made them roll away (so that the dancers could do a quick costume change), KOSCHEI INCLUDED, then she just danced in place a bit as FILLER

Koschei's death: did not happen. He simply exited stage left, not even pursued by a bear. prince was AWOL and did not retrieve any glowy soul eggs

Wedding tableau: This one was cool! The floaty afrofuturist Caribbean fish costumes of the women made the walking around of this bit look nice, and the Firebird appeared and was suspended in the air

So uh. The company is great, and you should definitely see them if you can, but the American Firebird sucks ass, regardless of performance. Really wish they'd do the original 45-min Firebird with those costumes tho.

Today I came across this factsheet on autism comorbidities (sleep issues, hypermobility, cardiovascular, immunology/MCAS, gastrointestinal, long COVID, chronic pain, reproductive, jaw/dental stuff), and a) I really need to get back into the melatonin game for my sleep issues, and b) it turns out that L-theanine ("caffeine of tea") is an analog of glutamate, and can thus be metabolized into GABA, which autistic brains generally have less of. So my tea habit is a medical expense!

(WRT the autism comorbidities mentioned, I def have the sleep issues, bruxism, a food allergy, and I guess some non-hEDS hypermobility? I bruise moderately easily, but my floppy joints are my shoulders, I've never dislocated anything due to good muscle tone, and my fingers and wrists are turbo normal, leading to me never getting over the threshold score in any assessments lol.)

Also I have good news WRT VidUKon: I can't be there in person, but my in-person commitment was altered to be only the Saturday, so I can watch the Sunday programming in peace! This year's themed vidshow is Unfinished Business, with vids for sources that e.g. were cancelled before their time, had a rushed ending, etc. So now I'm trying to think about canons that fit. My little lesbian shampoo commercials etc, short though they may be, don't count imo, as they all tell nice self-contained stories. The Star Wars Sequels, maybe, for Finn, but idek. Does anyone have any canon recs? I am willing to invest max 10h in your science fiction or wuxia that was cancelled (possibly mid-airing) or which has an unsatisfying ending.

For regular premieres, I currently have two finished vids. One is Star Wars Sequels (for my vid album); the other is for the Firebird ballet. I think I'll take a look at the full program and then decide which one I want to be my VidUKon premiere.

The original prompt for today was "a song title that is in all lowercase" ... which, uh, I have zero (0) songs like that so I came up with an alternative prompt:

newest release
FlowerLeaf - The Wake

Watch on YouTube

This is the first song I heard from the band, and instantly got me preordering the album. Also it's the freshest single, dropping a month ago.

Dreamerie by FlowerLeaf came out last Friday, 20th of Feb 2026.

prompts under the cut

Procrastinating on my Tit4Tat assignment and listening to today's new release, Dreamerie by FlowerLeaf. (Kimara, I think you might enjoy The Wake!) But! I have also been reading! ...Dante Alighieri.

This is the 700th anniversary edition, translated by J.G. Nichols. It's ... surprisingly hand-hold-y. Like, each canto is prefaced with a prose explanation of what happens in the canto (spoilers!!!!), and adds footnotes in support of readers who can't count (e.g. "So in the smallest circle, at the centre" is footnoted as "The ninth and last"; Inferno XI) and who can't keep track of pronouns (sooo many occurrences of "Named Person, did this and that, and lo, a slightly long description! Is he¹ still alive?" with a footnote on "'He' refers to Named Person"). Judas Iscariot is given an explanatory footnote. ("Who betrayed Christ") One would think that anyone operating on even a pop culture osmosis level of Christianity would realize that the Judas dude being specially punished in the hell for betrayers is probably the one who betrayed Jesus.

Anyway! I have read Inferno, and just started Purgatorio. The translation is eminently readable, with transparent verse. (I guess I'd hoped for a slightly more showy take to mine for fic titles, but I'm not complaining.) Also Dante and Virgil's relationship, though probably considered normal enough by the standards of the period, comes across as very homo by present ones: Dante is incredibly appreciative of Virgil guiding him through the way, gets carried around by him, and kisses his cheeks with gratefulness on multiple occasions. Not really that many thoughts, but. Reading. Classics. I fully expect to go WTF at Purgatorio and especially Paradisio, because uhhh not a Christian at all lol, but hey, at least I can say I read them.

Current Music: FlowerLeaf - Silksong

Space Swap assignments are out, and that means I return to the music meme! In keeping with the recent music theme, have a song that came out this year! In 2026! And a good thing too, because it's the only possible answer to this week's question:

a song that proves that you have good taste
Synthwailer - Iron Arch

Watch on YouTube

This one's on Bandcamp! The band itself describes it as:

Inspired by early-2000s trance melodies, industrial metal, and Middle Eastern tonal colors, the song tells the tale of a world trapped in eternal twilight — where the sun itself is chained above a black citadel, stolen as a symbol of power. As the march continues, the voice of the hollow sun awakens those who once served the machine, turning obedience into defiance.

And yeah, that tracks! It's symphonic metal, trance, electronic, industrial, and 100% amazing. It's so great I immediately bought it (despite the fact I generally only buy albums on Bandcamp), and then vidded it, thus listening to it 198374938 times on repeat, and I still want to listen to it on repeat! I love this.

prompts under the cut

a song you discovered this month
a song that makes you smile
a song that makes you cry
a song that you know all the lyrics of
a song that proves that you have good taste
a song title that is in all lowercase
a song title that is in all uppercase
an underrated song
a song that has three words
a song from your childhood
a song that reminds you of summertime
a song that you feel nostalgic to
the first song that plays on shuffle
a song that someone showed you
a song from a movie soundtrack
a song from a television soundtrack
a song about being 17
a song that reminds you of somebody
a song to drive to
a song with a number in the title
a song that you listen to at 3am in the morning
a song with a long title
a song with a color in the title
a song that gets stuck in your head
a song in a different language
a song that helps you fall asleep at night
a song that describes how you feel right now
a song that you used to hate but love today
a song that you downloaded
a song that you want to share

(Am I radically redefining the definition of Monday? Why yes, yes I am. Any day can be Monday if you believe hard enough!)

Today's challenge was slightly difficult with my commitment to new music – it generally takes time and repetitive exposure to learn all the lyrics – so my options were some songs I'd vidded, basically ... and the one I like the most, I want to use next week! So then I remembered this joyous number about the awe and wonder of childhood, of the thrill of stories, of wanting to be taken for a ride, and realized I do know all of the lyrics, because how could I not? It is perfect.

a song that you know all the lyrics of
Deep Sun - Storyteller

Watch on YouTube

( the lyrics )

prompts under the cut

I am

ExtraPenguin and this is my

space_swap letter.

To save from excessive repeating of myself, for some fandoms I have separated out General Adventure Prompts, which are more focused on external plot, and character-specific prompts that are focused on emotional dynamics and/or inner growth – or just character/ship specific. Please mix and match to your heart's content! I've also mentioned which unrequested characters I most enjoy in case you want to write something with an ensemble cast. If I'm requesting A/B and B & C, feel free to write something that's A/B & C; likewise, if I'm requesting A & B and B & C, I'd be happy to receive A & B & C.

Navigation:
Likes
DNWs
Children of Time series - Adrian Tchaikovsky
The Expanse series - James S. A. Corey
Uplift series - David Brin
Knights of the Old Republic
Star Wars: the Old Republic
Star Wars Prequel Trilogy

( Read more... )

Slightly delayed by the fact that I only published 3 vids last year, even if I did finish a fourth and have a fifth only in need of like 10 seconds of clip. Anyway.

...Actually, let me publish the fourth one real quick. I vidded it last summer so I'll have it count here. So! Here's the 2025 published vids:

SW ST: Is There Anybody Out There?

vidukon_cardiff
Fox Volant: My Loss

ficinabox
Fox Volant: Sister Moon

ficinabox
SW ST: Wide Awake
(The unpublished fifth, Free Me, one is also SW ST, and part of my vid album project like the other two.)

( 2025 vid review )

This week's entry is from 2015, rather than my self-imposed 2020 onwards; OTOH, it's the only actual answer to this prompt.

a song that makes you cry
Stratovarius - Shine in the Dark

Watch on YouTube

These guys are not (yet?) on Bandcamp; OTOH, the runner-up (I Wish, by Battle Beast) is up there.

prompts under the cut

Didn't, like, actually go to the ballet, but I wanted to see the Firebird and uhhhh good luck seeing that outside of Russia. So I turned to YouTube, and found this recording, in all its 360p glory. It's a short ballet, less than 50 min long, and the music is by Stravinsky.

Watch on YouTube

As for who performed it, well, I also found this recording of what looks to be the same production (with more close-ups) that says it's from the Bolshoi Ballet.

Watch on YouTube

This one (same props etc) claims to be Mariinskiy, though. It also has more pixels if you absolutely require 1080p. They made some changes to where the Firebird is during the bit where Ivan is taunting Koschei with the egg which I don't like (in the original, the effect is that she's really enjoying it; the revision, not especially).

Watch on YouTube

Pingu, I do not ballet; plz give synopsis

The Firebird: woman in red
Ivan Tsarevich: dude in red
Tsarevna: of the women in white, the one with the special costume
Koschei the Deathless: evil sorcerer dude with the staff

Ok so. Ivan is a prince, going to this enchanted wood (either to hunt the Firebird, investigate WTF is going on, or just to hunt). There, he sees the Firebird by golden apple tree and manages to capture her. She struggles to free herself, but he prevails. Then he realizes that the Firebird cannot live in captivity, and he sets her free. As thanks, she gives him her feather, with the promise that if he wields it, she will return.

Next it is dusk and thirteen princesses, captives of Koschei the Deathless, come to play with the golden apples of the tree. Ivan enters and has a Moment(TM) with the youngest, Tsarevna; they fall in love. Then trumpets summon the princesses back. Ivan wants to follow but is warned off. (The wall has a bunch of dudes who tried and were turned to stone.)

Of course our heroic prince doesn't care and opens the gates, setting off 198751834 alarms and all of Koschei's demons come at him. He fights some off before being subdued. Koschei himself then appears and tries to turn Ivan into stone. Ivan, in the nick of time, summons the Firebird.

The Firebird knows exactly what to do. She saves Ivan and makes all under Koschei's spell dance until they're exhausted and fall asleep. Then she tells Ivan the key to Koschei's immortality: he has his soul hidden in an egg that is hidden in a box.

Ivan, of course, immediately sets out to get this box. He gets out the egg, waking up Koschei, and taunts him for a moment before making the omlet.

Final scene: the warriors from the wall have been de-petrified, and reunite with their lovers, the twelve princesses. Group wedding! Ivan and the Tsarevna appear and also get married. They open the gates and walk away from the forest.

Anyway! I really like the Infernal Dance section, but also just the Firebird herself. She's sharp and powerful and her language of motion is so completely different from all the "classic" ballet protagonists that I can't help but love her.

AO3 Stats

Stat	2025	2024 then	2024 now	All years
User Subscriptions:	295	269	-	-
Kudos:	884	410	599	57624
Comment Threads:	129	99	104	3547
Bookmarks:	134	59	105	13732
Subscriptions:	21	1	3	1503
Word Count:	45047	9238	9238	957299
Hits:	15183	3550	6166	598872

45k! Much better than last year. Still not close to my 2018-2021 heyday of 100k+/year, but, uh, idk. I guess I need to learn to forgive myself. Or just get into a new fandom. The large numbers came from mostly Guardian fandom (RIP, for all I can remember is the fucking trashfire harassment campaign), bracketed by MDZS at the start (before my flist got anywhere near it, ofc) and Star Wars at the end.

I posted 49 things to AO3 in 2025. Again, mostly for Battleship – some fic, some art, a few vids, one fanmix.

Popularity

( Read more... )

Self-recs

Art/Comics
Hard to pick, this year! I decided against the art listed above, and instead have a mermaid:
Moongazer

(Honorable mention to Die Before You Wake, an OW F/M M-rated comic that is peak cdrama trope)

Fanmix
As is by now tradition, I made an Expanse fanmix! This one's about Laconia, and I uhhh got a bit fancy-ass about the formatting. I long to make a fanmix where the pull lines make a CYOA poem like Obligations 2 (image) by Layli Long Soldier, but, uh, at what point does a fanmix stip being a fanmix and instead become something else? Anyway, this is a regular, linear fanmix, but with the songs plonked into columns based on whether they are about the Leader, the People, or the Planet.
Write the History

Vid
I only published three this year (made a fourth, have one missing like 15 seconds, and then there's my festivids draft). My favorite is actually one of the unpublished ones, I think, but of the published ones I choose this one:
Sister Moon (Side Story of Fox Volant)
Yuan Ziyi is peak and I love the fight scenes and also how she does not compromise her principles for a man.

Fic

Best Title is shared between Breast Foot Forward (OW, F/M, making the most of being forcibly remarried to an Emperor young enough to be your son) and Ka-BOOB (OW, F/F, having your way with the concubine you've been told to breast expand), both of which are lactation kink boob expansion Battleship fics.

"But Pingu, did you write anything other than boob-focused OW porn?" Oh yes I did! This year the theme seems to have been "understated, maybe wistful, potentially hopeful". Have three, with escalating positivity:
Watching the world come undone (MDZS, Wei Wuxian/Jiang Yanli, 1.1k) post-apocalyptic, making the most of a bad situation
Horizons Deep (SWTOR, Acina/Sith Inquisitor, 1k) "What does one want when the wanting is done?" wistful yearning-ish
End of Exile (Expanse, Filip Nagata, 1.3k) post-canon, hopeful ending
(+ OW on the mood: With Eyes Wide Open, F/M steampunk ritual sex)

"But surely you wrote something weird this year????" A bit less weirdery than is typical of me, but I did write something on the unusual end:
reborn (MDZS, Wei Wuxian/OFC, 1.8k)

Wei Wuxian gets resurrected by ... matriarchal necromancers?

I did so much research for this, considering that it's for Battleship, speed writing event extraordinaire. The ruling clans bear the Eight Great Surnames of Chinese Antiquity and then I went on a deep dive of what other Chinese surnames have the woman radical in them. (Spoiler: exclusively the Wei of Wei Wuxian. He was made for this!)

"Pingu, I want something dumber!" OK, have this
The Emperor's New Woes (OW, F/M, 2.1k)

Emperor Zhao Yiqin has, to the consternation of all of his ministers and his eunuch friend Lan He, bought a stack of talismans (which obviously won't work, come on, Your Majesty) from a Daoist (charlatan) in an effort to guarantee conception of a son and heir. Things don't quite go as anyone expected...

Emperor hires Daoist to guarantee that he'll conceive a son with the Empress; ends up being the one carrying the baby. Smut is Emperor/Empress, emotionally the core relationship is Emperor/Head Eunuch (who is plotting to mpregnate the Emperor later).

2025 Resolutions & did I do them

Write 10k
Yes! I wrote over 40k! That's as many as four tens!

Be more present on DW
Uhhhhhh no. Did not really happen. I think I need some level of fannish fixation/new and improved energy.

But on the community front, I did befriend

tavina via battleship! (Like the one (1) good thing that happened relating to the battleship 2025 mod team. Jesus fuck was that a clusterfuck.) And I got the rest of Team Pear! Tower and Volcano just bye'd off, but now I have a new community of peeps in the After Pearty. One quarter of a point?

Get a new vid_bingo card and make at least one vid
This also didn't happen! However, this didn't happen because the new round didn't start, so I'm pleading force majeure.

2026 Resolutions

Go to a Cultural Event at least once a month
The opera. Ballet. Some other dress-up event. I am giving myself permission to skip July, as I will probably be back home, and idk if there's anything in August, but the goal is 12 events.

Community in fandom, part 1
I think I need to get into a new fandom. Does anyone on DW want to suggest a new fandom for me? Science fiction books and historical/scifi cdramas preferred. In addition to my love for worldbuilding and weird stuff, I love significant female characters that don't have romance-related plots. Must have a fandom on DW that is not just me. (No Murderbot, Guardian, MDZS.) I just want the 2018 Guardian fandom energy and idk, I guess the chance to fall in love with something new. I only need like 2-3 other people, I think, if they're willing to fall in and be active about timeline posts and fanmixes and stuff.

Community in fandom, part 2
I am a member of the fanwork exchange community and shall continue with that. I have

space_swap, but also, I am (with some friends) building a replacement for battleship. Please welcome

taggle to the world! Everything is still under construction, and none of what we have is on DW, but we're tentatively thinking about an early summer date and should have things up in ... a few months?

Real announcements will, of course, wait for us to have something to announce; consider this an executive pre-announcement.

Or, perhaps, Vid in a Box on the creation part. I took on 12k of assignment and 2k of pinch hit, and ended up with a touch of overkill. Only a bit over 1k of wordcount, but 15k of wordcount + equivelent.

I made two vids, both for Side Story of Fox Volant:
My Loss – Nan Lan/Miao Renfeng, but it's Nan Lan choosing divorce
Sister Moon – Yuan Ziyi has principles and she will not abandon them for anyone, Hu Fei included

I wrote one fic for SWTOR, this time T-rated (??? I know, I know, what is this, my lesbians are neither fucking nor covered in gore, what has the world come to, etc):
Horizons Deep – Darth Nox/Empress Acina pre-femslash, idk Nox is having a Sithly midlife crisis I guess

and I made one fanmix for The Expanse:
Write the History – Laconia. Shall gather into an actual YouTube playlist in January when I'm on desktop again.

In exchange, I received two things! One incredibly fun romp for SWTOR, where the Inquisitor and Talos Drellik crash somewhere and, well, Talos gets one hell of a story to tell:
Temporarily Stranded, by

Gammarad

and a long and very canon-typical adventure for The Apothecary Diaries, where Empress Gyokuyou summons Maomao to solve a puzzle posed to her by a foreign envoy:
treasures from the blue north, by

discokonomi

In an effort to actually get some wear out of my formalwear, I have decided to take up going to the ballet. Here are the first two.

Carmina Burana (Paris Ballet Theater, Choir & Orchestra of Budapest)
I caught a matinee (16:00) at the Palais de Congrès and was basically the only person who was dressed up at all :'D Ah well. (Achivement unlocked: overdressed at the ~~opera~~ ballet in Paris.)

I reserved the tickets knowing absolutely nothing about what I was getting into, beyond "high culture", so I the fact that it was a ballet was a, uh, surprise.

Anyway. I loved it! There were basically two prima ballerina roles, and the music was great. More ballet should have a choir on stage. The, idk, multimediality? of having a soloist singer sing an aria while the dancers danced a pas de deux or variation was cool. All the drama was on point. I think this is a good production, and they're touring in the rest of France + neighboring regions, so if you can, I rec going!

I also bought the programme and basically everyone named, from production to roles, is from East of the Iron Curtain. (The one exception, The Temptress, is from Italy.) It's noticeable in how the style of dance is much more Vaganova/Russian school, with open shoulders and an engaged back. The same corps is putting on a Swan Lake in March/April that I will catch.

Notre Dame de Paris (Paris Opera Ballet)
This one was at the Opéra Bastille, and people did dress up! (Not all tho; I spotted several people in jeans and t-shirts, puffer coats, or sweatpants. Also a random old lady told me I was truly magnificent.) Sartorial observations below.

This ballet didn't end up working for me. Some of it was synchronization issues (several in the corps de ballet, but also one in a pas de deux between Esmeralda and Quasimodo), some of it was the costuming (all the women were in microskirts and the styling made them look at most 15), but mostly it was I think the fact that it's a French production.

You see, the French style of ballet is all about clean lines, exact positions, control, #chic, #cleangirl. It is fundamentally incapable of adapting Notre Dame because it is fundamentally incapable of depicting horniness. Phoebus and Esmeralda both lost their shirts during a pas de deux and it was not horny, Frollo was just an evil sorcerer who had a stick up his ass in an unhorny way, the prostitutes were unhorny and so was Phoebus dancing with them. I have seen hornier Swan Lakes. Everyone needed to go on a vision quest to find their inner Odile. The Quasimodo & Esmeralda worked, because that's based on innocent sentiment, but the Phoebus/Esmeralda and Frollo -> Esmeralda didn't come across properly at all. Also Frollo came across as sympathetic (99% sure unintentionally) because there's something just that pathetic about having a dude solo dance one half of a pas de deux while two people are dancing the actual pas de deux.

Esmeralda, in a microskirt, being not at all seductive.

However, this does choreographically give the entire corps de ballet (in fact, everyone but Phoebus) some movement stuff to do that's usually reserved for jesters, so this is the production to put on when your corps de ballet has jester envy.

Not super impressed with the company, but I guess I'll catch at least Romeo and Juliet in Apr/May before giving up. Also kinda want to see La Bayadère in Jun/Jul because I've never seen that before.

anthropological observations on clothing
The average Frenchwoman is rail thin, but more of a pear/spoon type – not much beneath, but even less up top, if you will. As such, the "dressy" clothing seems to be elevated pant + elevated shirt + nice scarf. Any dresses are cut incredibly straight in the skirt, at max a very drapey A-line. The goal is to look ~effortlessly put together~, i.e. spend an hour of effort to look like you simply pulled out the first two items from your elegant, curated closet and put them on without thought.

(The person sitting next to me was wearing an actual nice dress with a pleated skirt. Then her similarly dressed friend turned up and turns out they're Russian.)

(By French standards, I am tallish with a broad ribcage. I also objectively have broad shoulders, and an amazingly athletic butt and thighs. There is no way I am able to give the same vibes as the locals lol. Anything I wear will look more playful, intentional, and/or dramatic.)

Lanna mentioned being out of the loop wrt new music, so I've decided that, when it fits the prompt, I'll pick some 2020s music. After all, we're halfway through the decade, now! (More than, if 2020 counts and 2030 doesn't!) So have some symphonic metal released in 2025 for...

a song that makes you smile
Catalyst Symphony - Eden

Watch on YouTube

The Light Inside EP on Bandcamp

prompts under the cut

Iiii have decided to do another music meme, this time yoinked from

shipperslist. IDK if anyone in particular cares, though, since my taste in music is comparatively out there to most of my circle. After all, I am a metalhead (see also: Finnish) and that's basically all I listen to. So have some newish music from the incredibly famous metal artist known as ... Lady Gaga.

a song you discovered this month
Lady Gaga - Disease

Watch on YouTube

I think this is her best work yet! Previously I'd have said Judas, or Telephone, but this is catchier than both. (I ofc also like Born This Way, but it's a bit less dancily catchable. Applause isn't quite as catchy, but it's rhythmically v fun to dance to.) She's really good at catchy aaa-aaahhhs and oh god I have missed dance pop so much.

prompts under the cut

✨ holiday love meme 2025 ✨
my thread here

I've been feeling melancholy for – well. The calendar says it's almost December, the Christmas lights are up here, etc, but the weather says it's the start of October. And also, as it is still my first year in Paris, I have been basically sick nonstop. Last weekend I got the influenza or something.

Last year, I read a book that changed my life (or, at least, how I approach other people). The book's analysis of appreciation and how it is and isn't given thus lurks at the back of my mind; less "living rent-free" and more like a structural element.

My job is ... well. Theoretically, it's interesting. In practice, it feels like nothing I do matters – no-one admits to being in charge, the person I thought was my boss is too busy doing project administration paperwork to supervise me and has informed me that she's actually not my boss at all, I do not know who my boss is, and the piece of equipment I was promised would arrive in September has been delayed to February at best. I do not know who my boss is.

(Also this is not a job for a postdoc IMO? I really think they should've hired a PhD student instead, and only got a postdoc because they only have two years of funding...)

In short, the management is shit. I've tried giving feedback, but the problems with this group run deep, apparently, and also I'm not officially a part of the group. (The least wrong answer to "Where do you work?" is "It's complicated.") Like. It's one thing to be self-directed, but frankly, I feel self-employed, except with none of the good parts.

(Also Paris fucking sucks, y'all? Pollution so bad you can taste it, the sheer noise of the masses, all the grocery stores have more restrictive opening times than the fucking alcohol monopoly in Finland, and the locals are all "omg you live in the bad part of town???" my dude your entire fucking city is sketchy af! All of Paris is "the bad part of town"!)

Oh yeah and I've been suffering with bedbugs. I hired the pros the moment I found them, buuuuut I think they've been coming through the vents. I recently covered them with fabric (and duct tape), but ofc there's the residual population. I sleep with no skin uncovered so they cannot feed and multiply. I do a final sweep of visible surfaces before bed and exterminate all I can find. There are bloodstains on my ceiling and a hatred in my soul.

Rules: How many letters of the alphabet have you used for [starting] a fic title? One fic per line, 'A' and 'The' do not count for 'a' and 't'. Post your score out of 26 at the end, along with your total fic count.

This is part III: Fic, finally. Stuff chosen is stuff where I think the title has a nice cadence, or idk people might otherwise want to look if nothing super stands out. I also noted how many fic titles I have starting with that letter for some sort of, idk, Deep Thoughts potential, but ended up having none.

For each work, I've noted the fandom, ship/main character, and whether it's porn. I think everything's under 10k, too, except for Questions at Dusk and Sing Dead the Dark.

A: Aflame With Need; TGE femslash porn (21 fics; apparently I love beginning titles with "And" or "As")

B: But for Me It Was Tuesday, for

tuesday; MDZS Wangxian (16 fics)

C: Calling the Lost Sheep Home; Guardian Zhu Jiu (23 fics, including two called "Control")

D: Darkness Brings; MDZS Yu Ziyuan (23 fics; very happy with the titles in this section)

E: Escape the Story of My Life MDZS Wei Wuxian (12 fics)

F: Fell High from the Zenith; MDZS Star Wars AU (23 fics; "For" and "From" are apparently very nice initial words)

G: Give Your Kingdom; OW F/F porn (7 fics)

H: Hand to Mouth; OW F/F porn (18 fics)

I: If I Must Leave the Long River of Time; basically-OW gen (20 fics; a lot of "In the" and a few "In this"

J: Jossain ruostuvat tykit; Guardian (3 fics; yes, this one is in Finnish, but of the Js, I am least unhappy with this one)

K: Ka-BOOB; OW F/F porn (5 fics)

L: Lightbringer; Star Wars Shmi/OFC (16 fics)

M: Mirror Dance; Machineries of Empire Cheris/Jedao (13 fics)

N: Needn't wake to answer; Guardian Weilan (21 fics, mostly a lot of "No" and "Not")

O: Operational Insecurity; Guardian Ye Zun (16 fics)

P: Papers, Please Star Wars Anakin & Ahsoka (14 fics)

Q: Questions at Dusk; MDZS Wangxian (1 fic!)

R: Rediscovery, Reconstruction; MDZS Wei Wuxian (18 fics)

S: Sing Dead the Dark; Star Wars Anakin Skywalker (51 fics!!!!)

T: There is no returning to; MDZS, WWX/LQR (30 fics; a lot of "Through" and "To (the)")

U: Undertow; Star Wars Mace Windu (5 fics, 3 of which start with "Under")

V: A Very Willing Envoy; Guardian Weilan (4 fics)

W: What Is Not Yet Will Not Be; MDZS Songxiao (31 fics; a lot of "What", some "While" and "When", only one "Who")

X:

Y: Yet the skies always sing to me; Star Wars Shmi Skywalker (4 fics, two of which begin with "You")

Z:

24/26, with 408 non-art non-vid works, but like 5+ of those are filk and fanmixes so let's round down to an even 400. It seems it's time for me to write about x-rays and zebras...

Top letters: S (51!!), W (31), T (30)
Single digits: QJVUKG
Missing: XZ

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