dreams_library | Member Posts

The protocol for entering the palace changes from time to time, so I can only offer a general outline. If your business is with the court or council, you should present yourself and your credentials to the guards at the southern gate of the outer wall of the palace. It is best to arrange beforehand for your visit. If this not possible, or if you cannot provide an exact time for your arrival, expect to wait as your credentials are sent into the palace to be checked.

Normally, you will be provided with an escort into the palace. If you arrive at a time before the palace begins its day, you will be expected to make your own way to the eastern gate of the inner wall. There your credentials will be inspected again, along with any document that the palace has sent out, permitting your entrance. You will then be allowed to enter the inner wall and make your approach to the palace itself.

The palace being located atop a high hill, you will find yourself faced with the steepest and longest set of stairs in the world. Pace yourself. You may wish to bring refreshments to partake of at the halfway mark.

At the top of the stairs, once you have recovered your breath, you should show your credentials and palace document to the guards at the gate, holding them up for inspection. The guards may not appear to look at you or even notice you. Do not be deceived. Those are real spears they are holding across the doorway.

If the guards grant you entrance, they will lift the spears. If they do not, you must retreat to the palace's inner wall and determine there what the problem is.

Assuming you manage to pass all these barriers, you will find yourself in the entryway to the palace. You will be guided at this point through the remaining stages of reception, which vary according to your rank and status. At some point, however, you will be let loose from Emor's protocol and permitted to take your own path. Let us start with a general introduction to the Chara's palace.

[Translator's note: This breathtakingly long procedure can be cut short if you possess the right credentials, as can be seen in Breached Boundaries.]

sage

My heart is broken by the terrible loss of

minoanmiss. I met her in fandom in my early DCU days, something like 23 years ago, and once in person in 2009, and always treasured her friendship. Rest in peace and power, love. Hugs to all who grieve her passing.

books by Adrian Tchaikovsky
House of Open Wounds, Lives of Bitter Rain, Days of Shattered Faith, Pretenders to the Throne of God
I don't think I LIKED any of these, but the 'verse is interesting? I get the feeling that he cares far more about gaming out his worldbuilding than he does his actual characters, which is no way to write a novel/series.

yarning
Finished the orange and blue kickbunny. Missed yarn group yet again. Started the Easter carrots. Worked a little on the kickbunny for the kitten academy momcat. The long term commission for 2 kickbunnies turned into a priority commission, so I'm rapidly working on that instead of more carrots. Sold an under the door toy. And 2 more catnip-silvervine hearts that I have to make. Oof! I'm grateful for the sales, but wtf is going on with the deluge? I mean, SEVENTEEN things to make!! Most ASAP!

augh
dad had yet another bad fall Monday night, but, knock wood, I haven't yet been asked to go up and help out. These deadlines make that problematic.

healthcrap
General malaise. Epic brain fog. Continuing vertigo. The internet tells me that a repeatedly bitten tongue can develop white keratosis (like your fingernails) to protect it. I keep biting the wound, which is why I still have an ulcer just under my tongue, way back by my molars. /whine. Also, I didn't get my healthcare coverage renewed before it expired, so I'm having to wrangle that while feeling like crap. :(

#resist
+ voted in the TX primary yesterday. Learned I was gerrymandered into a new congressional district minutes before voting, so I had to choose a new rep.
+ Look out for local anti-war protests in your area.
+ March 5: Fighting and Winning Against Trump's Concentration Camps - Mass Call
+ March 28: #50501 No Kings Protest #3

I hope you're all doing as well as can be expected. <333

queen_ypolita

Finished since the last reading post
Finished A God in Ruins. As I said last week, I kept expecting it to surprise me, but I had pretty much given up on that when it finally did it. I don't think it ever caught my imagination like Life after Life did.

Currently reading
Still reading The Young Alexander and On Thin Ice, the latter is boring me to tears. Also read a few pages of Why Simple Wins and Jonas, Dennis und die Liebe that I've had lying around not finished but not abandoned.

Started reading A Habit of Murder by Susanna Gregory, which is actually taking Matthew and Michael out of Cambridge for a change.

Reading next
I have two library books lined up.

archersangel

AO3 is down for updates, or maintenance, and this community (

ao3_isdown ) is for those who want to write & read something while it is down.

and because the rules are in the style of

threesentenceficathon i'm using that tag for any i might do.

How long will it go?
Prompts until AO3 is looking stable again + small buffer, fills can be made for another week after that.

currently open for prompts & fills.

ETA: Ao3 is currently up. closing for prompts about 7PM march 4. you can do fills for another couple of days.

redbird

[Ny is gravely ill, unconscious, and unlikely to recover:]

Update: Ny is gone. As of a couple of hours ago, she no longer has brain function, and will be moved off life support after evaluation for organ transplant, and allowed to die peacefully, not necessarily immediately.

[my earlier info was via princessofgeeks, who linked to

goss's post]

Current Mood: upset and sad

redbird

We’ve been in New Orleans for a few days, enjoying warm weather and eating outdoors— cattitude in particular needed to get away from winter. Not as much interesting food as we’d hoped, but lunch today was at a lebanese restaurant, where we tried Lebanese iced tea, made with rosewater— the server apologized because she thought we had asked for it instead of ordinary sweet tea. My grilled shrimp and rice were also excellent.

Then we wandered through the French Market, and bought hats, a shoulder bag, and a smaller cros-body bag.

We rounded the afternoon off by listening to the drum circle in Congo Square, which has been weekly for more than 300 years. My brother suggested than because our hotel is across thethe street street from the park.

More when I get home ; we’re flying back tomorrow

althea_valara

I have no pics to share of finished objects this month, because I didn't finish anything. I touched three projects, with the vast majority being my FFXIV Fan Fest entry, which still isn't done. I have until the 6th, so hope springs eternal.

[Image Description: A pivot table showing I crafted over 30 hours in February 2026.]

I am pleased with the efforts this month. I definitely could have done MORE, but what I did was pretty impressive. Lots of trial and error to get things perfect. I like what I've accomplished thus far, and look forward to sharing the completed items with you.

getyourwordsout isn't going too great. I'm supposed to be writing 10 days a month. I did not meet that goal in January so started February with a deficit, and only managed 2 days in February. And yes, I did count leaving Kiss Battle prompts as a writing day, because as I was leaving prompts, I was doing lots of "writing" in my head.

I suppose I could have counted a third day for the day I downloaded Scrivener and went through its tutorial, because
that's writing-adjacent, but I've already turned in my totals for February. Ah well.

As for the second day I wrote: man, why couldn't that count for multiple days? I wrote FOUR HOURS that day, getting into the state of Flow. The words just kept tumbling out! I'm very pleased that happened. I do need to return to that piece and finish it, but first comes the Fan Fest entry.

It is only March 1st, and I am halfway through my reading goal for the year! Huzzah! okay okay, a six book goal isn't that impressive, but when I set that goal, I really did think that would be a challenge.

In February, I finished a reread of Connie Willis' To Say Nothing of the Dog, which is a delightful time travel mystery. Even knowing how it ends, it was still fun to reread because of the journey to the conclusion. A++++ book, would reread again in the future.

I also devoured TJ Alexander's A Gentleman's Gentleman in a few days. This book showed up on a list of "Top Romance Novels of the Century" and it sounded fun, so I bought it because it was a decent price at Bookshop.org, even though I hadn't read the author before. I quite enjoyed the book, though I do have some quibbles. I think the choice to write it from only one of the lovers' POV (Christopher) did work for this book, but it meant I had a lesser feel for who James was as a person individual from Christopher. And although I had no doubt the couple was happy together, I couldn't rightfully say I believed they were actually in love.

I do think the book was skillfully written. It's a historical romance, but it does a good job of fitting LGBTQIA characters into that timeframe. Never once did I feel like the characters didn't belong in that setting.

I definitely do not regret buying the book, and will probably reread in the future. I'd recommend it, especially if you're look for trans romances!

Current Mood: creative

queen_ypolita

In late October, I ordered the fabric I needed to make a sweatshirt knit dress, one plain and another with a print. The one with print was a print-on-demand item, so I was prepared to wait for it, but the wait was a little longer than I'd imagined. It arrived about two or three weeks ago, so I was finally all set to sew. So yesterday I made good progress and only had one somewhat complicated part with the collar to do today, and then it was just easy stuff with sleeves and the hem. I would have finished easily, but ran out of thread with only a little bit to do on the hem, and I didn't really have time to go out and buy more today. So finishing will have to wait for another day, but at least it's not much more left, and I might get some wear out of it before it starts to feel like a winter garment.

kathmandu

Recently I found a new online puzzle-game. Short and simple, like Wordle, except this one is geometry-based. You have a pasture layout, and a horse, and a limited number of fence segments. Your challenge is to build a fence enclosing the largest possible area with those segments.

There are a few complications, like ponds (horse cannot cross ponds) or fruit trees (bonus if you enclose trees) or bee-hives (you can't build across bee-hives, but the horse can pass through them, and you lose points for enclosing bees in the pasture). There's a new map every day.

There's a Help feature, and a menu that lets you try previous days' puzzles.

All free, non-commercial, no log-ins, no ads. Just a basic webpage, works on my phone and tablet and desktop, probably compatible with all operating systems.

If you want to try it out, it's at https://enclose.horse/

archersangel

it is currently lenten season & that means all the restaurants bring out their seafood offerings*.

i did not intend to try wendy's fish sandwich on tuesday, i was going to get their asiago chicken sandwich, but saw they had a fish sandwich & thought; why not?
it was pretty good; the coating was crispy (panko breading), the tartar sauce was decent & the lettuce crisp. but it had pickles, which i don't think belong on a fish sandwich (just in the tartar sauce). i do not like pickles to begin with & should've given them to my brother.
( other wendy's stuff )

another fish ~~story~~ sandwich; i had gotten one a few days before from one of the local convenience stores that has food.
long ago they had fish, but got rid of it. this is the first time they have had fish for lent since. you can put whatever topping they have on there that you want, so i got tartar sauce, & lettuce. the fish itself was fine, the coating was a bit crispy. the tartar sauce on the other hand was terrible. it tasted more like a dill dressing of some sort. it came in a little tub labeled ken's steakhouse (they make good salad dressing, usually, so i was surprised it was bad).
if you get fish & see that the tartar sauce is from them don't use it. or at least dip a finger in it for a taste test before you dump it on your fish.

*do not go on a friday. you will have a long wait & the stuff might not even be done.

Current Location: spring-like weather

duskpeterson

Before I lead you into the palace (figuratively speaking), I need to emphasize the importance of good behavior.

Bad behavior can get you killed anywhere in the Three Lands, but in the Chara's palace it is also likely to get you tortured for days. This is because the highest penalty for crimes committed in the Chara's palace is death by torture - the so-called "Slave's Death." Although the previous Chara ordered the release of the empire's slaves, bringing to an end the torture of every palace slave condemned to death, traitors are still liable to this penalty.

The definition of "traitor" can be quite broad in the Chara's palace. I recommend that you not test its boundaries.

Some specific advice:

Be on your best behavior. Dress well, and learn the rules of courtesy toward Emorian noblemen and palace officials. When in doubt, bow. Address everyone you meet, whatever his age, as "sir" or by his title. You need not address the Chara by his full title, which is quite long; just "Chara" will do.

The wearing of arms is permitted by law in the Chara's palace if it is your custom in your homeland. However, if you choose to wear arms, you will find that every guard in the palace will leap upon you the moment you take the wrong turn in your path. Your life will be easier if you set aside your weapons during your visit. You are in no danger of being attacked yourself; the Chara's palace is the most heavily guarded building in the world, and visitors are free recipients of that guarding.

Also, be aware that the wearing of hidden weapons in the palace is considered a crime of treachery. Even I don't try to do this, unless I have made prior arrangements with the Chara.

[Translator's note: The Slave's Death is a tender topic for the Ambassador. Just why is explained in Blood Vow.]

forestofglory

I’ve gotten back into the habit of going to the library once a week on the same day (Monday) to return stuff and pick up my holds. (This is also the best way I’ve found to get myself to return my books on time now that the library got rid of late fees) I keep thinking “this week the stack of new things will be smaller” but it never is. Surely I’ll run out of graphic novels I want to read that the library has at some point? But I’m glad it's not yet.

In other news I have now read more books this year than I did all of last year, which is pretty wild! Like sure they are all short things but I’m just reading so much more than I was few months ago and it’s really nice.

Red Threads by Ila Nguyen-Hayama—A graphic novel about a 15 year old girl in Tokyo who is invited to attend a magical school. This was very cute and charming if a little heavy on the info dumping about Japanese folklore. I really liked the main character's friendship with another girl at school.

Lumberjanes, Vol. 8-14 by N.D. Stevenson and Shannon Watters, et al.— I’d read up through Vol 10 years ago, but now I’m at stuff I haven’t read before. Still very fun!

Lumberjanes/Gotham Academy by Chynna Clugston Flores et al. —A crossover between two very fun comics both featuring teams of teens who deal with supernatural mysteries – I enjoyed it a lot! I wish there was more time for cross team interactions but it would be hard to fit in and keep focus on the story

Animated Batman—It’s nice to be into media that my kid also is interested in. She doesn’t watch anything with subtitles, but she likes Batman. So I’ve watched a handful of episodes of the 90’s animated Batman with her. (I started from where she’s gotten to before so not at the beginning) In terms of Bat-fam its not doing a lot, most of the kids/sidekicks aren’t in this and those that are aren’t around much (though I’m told they show up more frequently latter on) However the show itself is very well crafted! I’m impressed with both the animation (the style! The attention to detail) and the storytelling

dhampyresa

I've finished a play through of Slay the Princess. I really enjoyed it! I will now try to go after all the achievements héhéhé

I had to turn off the parallax and the ambient sound so I wouldn't get nauseous. Something to keep in mind if you're sensitive to motion sickness and/or vertigo.

sage

books
The Tyrant Philosophers #1: City of Last Chances by Adrian Tchaikovsky. 2022. Incredibly hard to tell the characters apart. Hard to get into. Not sure if I'm going to give book 2 a try.

The Vampire Lestat
The new trailer is out! So much to look forward to!

yarning
Missed yarn group again. Made a new Rockstar Lestat, so slowly. Sold 2 bunnies, a catnip kiss, and a catnip heart where I had to order the yarn to make it in a hurry yesterday. And sold a made to order bunny that I'm working on now. Still haven't started the Easter carrots order. No progress on the bunny for the new kitten academy momcat, who gave birth last night. New commissions on 2 more kickbunnies for down the line.

healthcrap
Still feeling super crummy. Tongue hurts. No energy. Migraine yesterday. Vertigo is slightly better.

Mercury Retrograde
Mercury stations retrograde today (in Pisces) and stations direct March 20. Plus there's an eclipse in Mercury-ruled Virgo in a few days. That's a lot of communications trouble coming our way.

#resist
+ March 28: #50501 No Kings Protest #3

I hope you're all doing well! <333

queen_ypolita

Finished since the last reading post
Actually finished A Grave Concern.

Currently reading
Still reading Young Alexander. Started A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson at the weekend and am about halfway through. I keep expecting it to surprise me at some point and so far it hasn't done that.

Started reading On Thin Ice by Denver Shaw, a romance novel.

Reading next
I've got a library book waiting.

archersangel

if you've arrived late, this post explains things.

i've decided that this is the last of the random frivolous feb. stuff because the other links they have do not interest me. those of you who are annoyed with the random frivolous feb. stuff are thrilled, i'm sure.

today's random thing is a random color. most of which are probably more interesting than the pantone color of the year ~~cloud dancer~~ white.

the color they gave me is coral red which is HEX: #B32821 RGB: 179-040-033, according to them.

Current Mood: artistic

redbird

I have just been out for a walk, a day after the blizzard: bright blue sky, temperature around freezing, and most but not all of the sidewalks have been cleared, so I walked down the middle of the street for a bit. The turkey flock that hangs out on Egremont Road is now up to at least 12 birds, two of which were sitting on a railing. [We got 16-18 inches of snow, I think--the official number from the airport is 16.5, which is significant, but a lot less than this storm dumped on some places.]

ursamajor

Watching my soprano section shrink in real time the week of a concert due to the germ soup we're all swimming around in out there: augh. (People. This is why most of your section leaders and certain choir elders have decided to continue singing masked, even if we can't make it policy again for the whole choir for various bureaucratic reasons. Seriously, 3M, where are those black N95s we've been politely requesting for four years now?)

Still, glad to be singing with a group whose music is meeting the moment; check program notes, well worth a read for background. Keeping in mind the timelines for performing classical music are scheduled well over a year in advance. A program replete with music from immigrants, combining disparate musical traditions in the best ways.

*

We almost had snow in the Bay Area again last week - well, okay, the actual 2500' peaks like Mount Diablo and Mount Hamilton got snow and it looked pretty, and of course the much higher Sierras to our east got feet of snow and "no you can't fucking travel today" warnings and avalanche deaths - and now we're missing the first real snow in Boston in years, and it's pretty, but I'm okay with that.

*

I dropped my phone awhile back, and while it was still technically functional, the back had enough spiderwebbing and flaking glass revealing the motherboard structure below that I got it replaced. It has literally taken most of the day since it arrived to get things swapped over. Mostly because this also involved a forced upgrade to Liquid Glass, which I'd been ducking, sigh.

*

A few months ago,

hyounpark and I were getting on the freeway when a billboard flashed "LOCAL BIRRIA BALLS" at us. For, like, half a second, just long enough for H to read the phrase aloud, and go, "Birria *balls*?"
Me: "That's like, bringing up ancient catchphrases in my brain. Remember 'I wanna dip my balls in it'?"
H: "... I don't want to know, do I."
Me: "MTV in the '90s. For what it's worth, they were golf balls."
H: "I suspect birria balls are going to be quite different, but I'm driving so I can't find out right now."
Me: "I'm on it!"
Me, five minutes later: "Well, I can't find a local option for whatever these are, and Google keeps asking me if I'm looking for 'birria bombs.' But apparently a Mexican food truck in Kentucky says they're meatballs made of birria? With Hot Cheetos dust on the outside for crunch? ... and there's a restaurant in West Virginia that agrees with them."
H: "... I mean, that sounds like uber-American stoner kid food mashup culture, but why aren't there more local search results if there's literally a freeway billboard promoting it?"
Me: "Or we can buy them frozen. From an Italian specialty food shop. In Denmark."
H: "Google, you have utterly lost the plot."

We finally saw that particular billboard again (it's one of those electronic billboards with a rotating stash of ads), and this time, it had a URL attached, so we discovered that the local birria balls are literally just flavor packs, you have to provide your own birria in ball form.

Current Mood: busy
Current Music: and smiles and knows she's home

archersangel

found via

sweetmeow

Adults responsible for your care actively helped facilitate your early learning. (Reading at bedtime, playing educational games, going to child-friendly museums...)
our mom read to us (brother & me) there were no museums, child-friendly, or otherwise, near us. mom probably taught us basic math too, but i was young & that was a long time ago.

You had a library card.
yes. only because a children's library card was free if you lived in the school district the library was located in. otherwise we would not have had one.

( the rest here )

Current Mood: thoughtful

redbird

While I was dealing with trying to figure out whether I could see my psychiatrist, and what it would cost if so, I got an email from medicare.gov about the Medicare Advantage "open enrollment" period: anyone who enrolled in a Medicare Advantage (part C) plan at the end of the previous year can change to a different Medicare Advantage plan between January 1 and March 31st. I decided that it would be worth it to get into a PPO instead of the HMO I had somehow signed up for, even though it means I'll be starting over on the annual out-of-pocket maximums for prescription drugs and for medical care generally. I put the application in this afternoon, and was told the process might take 10 days, but I also think it's supposed to be effective the first day of the month after I requested the change. My confirmation email from Medicare says the plan will notify me after they verify my information and confirm my enrollment, so I will wait and see.

Fortunately, I can afford to do this, rather than having to find new specialists who are in that stupid HMO's network, or spend large amounts to see my current doctors. (Switching now is expensive because I take one very expensive drug, the Kesimpta.)

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Dream's Library

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Dream's Library

Member Posts

FIC: Entrance protocol (Tempestuous Tours)

What I'm Doing Wednesday

Wednesday reading

Ao3 is down again

bad news about @minoanmiss

New Orleans

Crafting & Creative Update, February 2026, plus BOOKS!

Weekend sewing

New puzzle game: Enclose Horse

if you give a (wo)man a fish (sandwich)

FIC: Behavior in the palace (Tempestuous Tours)

Media Roundup: Onward!

Slay the Princess!

What I'm Doing Wednesday

Wednesday reading

one last random frivolous feb. thing

a nice walk, a day after the blizzard

why do you elude me

Education Survey Meme

Medicare advantage, again

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October 2014

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