Saudade de Mim

Title/Link: The Perfect Soufflé
Fandom: Hey Arnold!
Character(s): Helga Pataki, Phoebe Heyerdahl
ladiesbingo prompt: wabi/sabi
genprompt_bingo prompt: cooking
Rating: G
Summary: After a big pre-holiday move, Phoebe helps Helga unpack.

Go me!

Title/Link: Partners
Fandom: Hey Arnold!
Character(s): Phoebe Heyerdahl, Helga Pataki
Rated: G
halfamoon prompt: the explorer
ladiesbingo prompt: journalist/chronicler
Summary: When Phoebe and Helga decided to collaborate and pool both their talents, they were unstoppable.

Title/Link: Time Heals
Fandom: Quantum Leap
Character(s): Donna Elesee, Original Female Character
Rating: G
halfamoon prompt: the scholar
ladiesbingo prompt: midnight
genprompt_bingo prompt: eclipses and other astronomical events
Summary: The loneliness and unhappiness she'd felt from his sudden, never-explained leaving had finally dissipated. She only pitied him; he'd missed out on watching his bright daughter grow up to be a brilliant young woman.

It's a tiny ficlet of 250 words so unfortunately not enough to fulfill a prompt on either of my bingo cards. I'll be posting it tomorrow for halfamoon.

Many thanks to brightknightie who put this on my radar!



Journaling Prompt: Light up your journal with activity this month. Talk about your goals for July or for the second half of 2025.

Creative Prompt: Shine a light on your own creativity. Create anything you want (an image, an icon, a story, a poem, or a craft) and share it with your community.. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Getting the serious stuff -- and the huge elephant in the room -- out of the way, I'm trying to just keep living my life while The Sword Of Damocles hangs over my head (a feeling many of us are sharing no doubt). I'm continuing to take enjoyment wherever I can, helping where I can. I'm very concerned about the amount of people that are and will be experiencing food insecurity, so I've been and will continue to donate to a couple of local groups in my neighborhood: one serves hot meals, both at their facility and delivering to homebound, and the other distributes packaged food and sundries in the park every Saturday. And of course I'm donating to orgs like the ACLU who continue to do great work. Looking for other ways I can help.

Starting on July 14, I will be attending Karen Attiah's "Race, Media and International Affairs 101" class. She used to teach the class at Columbia, but they cancelled it because DEI (eyeroll). She took a survey on Bluesky to see if people would be interested in attending it as an independent series on Zoom and there was overwhelming interest. She's posted information on the class here (she's calling it Resistance Summer School). Summer session filled up, so she was offering a Fall session too and not sure if that has filled up yet. There's different pricing tiers and depending on which tier you choose there are certain perks. It looks to be a really interesting and informative class, so I'm looking forward to it.

I'll be continuing to swim and work out and do my best to stay fit. And reading. Lots and lots of reading, both serious stuff and light-hearted poolside.

On the creative side, I've taken up needlepoint and completed my first project. I started small, with a bookmark, and while the result is kind of sad (and the backing that came with the kit didn't fit the canvas well so I had to cut, and I have issues cutting in a straight line), it's not bad for a first try. And at least I chose a cute pattern. I'll be continuing to try different canvases.

( not quite a masterpiece under the cut )

I also wrote a story for intoabar, which I got some nice feedback on:

Title: Serendipity
Author: lightbird
Prompt: Fa Mulan goes into a bar and meets... Toph Beifong (Avatar: The Last Airbender)!
Fandoms: Mulan (1998), Avatar: The Last Airbender
Word count: 872
Rating: T
Summary: When she walked into the tea shop, she immediately recognized the girl sitting at the table...

And I'm already working on another story, which I hope to finish this summer.

I had different ideas for my assignment for this challenge, but every time I sat down to write I could not even get one word on the page.

I've finally written a story. And fortunately we had an extra week this year because the mod had something going on the day it would normally be due. So instead of last Sunday, it's due tomorrow.

The story is very rough and I don't feel like it's a very inspired idea. It also feels a bit of a cheat. And there's no time to get it beta'd. I'll spend the next few hours going through to see where I can fix it, tweak it, then post.

At least I got something written though, and I can always fix it afterward. And I have an additional entry into my Mulan/AtLA series.

So far I've contributed something everyday (though we're only on Day 2 of 14, lol).

Yesterday, I wrote my own Hey Arnold! fic for Day One's prompt: fashion.

And today, I posted a rec for the classic film The Apartment (1960) for Day Two's prompt: barriers or boundaries.

Many thanks to brightknightie for the terrific beta.

Title/Link: Small Gifts
Fandom(s): Mulan/Hey Arnold
Prompt: Fa Mulan walks into a bar and meets…Helga Pataki (Hey Arnold!)!
genprompt_bingo Prompt: isolation/loneliness (it fits so I'm checking off another square with this fic, lol)
Rated: G
Word Count: 1,778

This is a contemporary au for Mulan and kind of a sequel to one of my prior intoabar fics, Same Same, But Different, in which Mulan meets both Grandma Gertie and Mai Huynh (though it's not necessary to read that story before this one).

As well as responding to today's halfamoon prompt!

Title/Link: Falling Blossoms
Fandom: Mulan
Character(s): Fa Li, Grandma Fa, Fa Zhou
Rating: G
ladiesbingo prompt: sacrifice/letting go
genprompt_bingo prompt: the sound of footsteps
halfamoon prompt: sea/sky/storm
Word Count: 1,129
Content Note: angst with a happy ending

Summary: She wasn't supposed to lose a daughter in this way. Fa Li after Mulan goes away to fight in the war.

Title/Link: Seasons Change
Fandom: Mulan
Character(s): Mulan
Rating: G
halfamoon prompt: seasons
Word Count: 265

Summary: She left home in late spring, during a thrashing rainstorm.