schneefink

Finally continuing with this list: have some more Yuletide recs from 2017 and 2018.

( 4 Yuletide 2018 recs: American Gods, Succession, Versailles, Natsume Yuujinchou )

( 4 Yuletide 2017 recs: The Good Place, Akatsuki no Yona, The Fire's Stone, Noblesse )

It's snowing today, so much so that the roofs and cars and even some streets are white. Wow. So it was too soon to put away the winter jacket after all. April.

I went climbing again yesterday, the second week in a row, go me. My back & shoulders & arms are sore, good sign. Also nice: turns out the climbing hall is a good place to meet people. For the first time in probably years I flirted with someone, I enjoyed it.

A few weeks ago my therapist asked me about goals for the future, and I realized that while it would be very nice to be in a long-term romantic relationship, what I definitely want is not to live alone. If I don't live with a romantic partner, I'd happily keep living with flatmates, just please not on my own. (This might change one day, but right now I don't see it changing.) Should be doable :) (Actually probably the only reason why I wouldn't be happy to just keep living together with DD is because I'm a person who loves & needs regular hugs, and she isn't. I just need to figure out where I can get more hugs from.)


The new season of Natsume Yuujinchou has started already! Wonderfully warm and nice, and at the same time a lot of Feelings that make me want to hug my teddy bear. (I usually hug my big plush monkey that sits next to my table in case I get cold. I brought it from Moscow, where I bought it as a second pillow. Best souvenir. Its name is Galileo, because The Bloggess has a creepy stuffed monkey named Copernicus, but mine is much nicer.)

( Episodes 1+2 )

How is Christmas tomorrow already? Every year it's so sudden. I suspect I'm bad with calendars.

Natsume Yuujinchou season 5 is over after only 11 episodes, but season 6 has already been confirmed so it's okay :) And season 5 was exactly what I wanted so that was great.

( Episodes 10&11 )

Content note: US election
( just in case )


If you want some distractions and good long things to read, have some recs from the "various" pile. (The length of the rec does not mean I liked one of them better, it just turned out that way.)

Raptors in the Rainforest by DisaLanglois (Jurassic World/Parks)
270k, gen, post-canon
Summary: How intelligent are velociraptors? Very, very intelligent, as Owen Grady discovers in the aftermath of the Jurassic World disaster. But his quest to prove their intelligence and save his raptors will take him further than he ever expected, and the world will never be the same again.
Why I loved it: This series has fantastic raptor culture and humans being adopted into raptor packs, culture clash exploration (from the beginning and then even more (spoilers), great action scenes, very nice h/c, strong loyalty elements, and also dinosaurs. The central relationship is Blue & Owen Grady, hetero-species life-partners, and it's great. I also love many of the OCs, especially the dinosaurs. And did I mention dinosaurs?

Finding Home by darkcyan (Natsume Yuujinchou)
250k, gen, apocafic
Summary:On a school trip, between one moment and the next, Tanuma's teacher and about half of his classmates disappear. Everyone must figure out how to deal with this changed world, and the new dangers it has brought with it. Meanwhile, Tanuma wants to believe that Natsume was not one of those who disappeared that day ... but if not, where is he?
Why I loved it: An amazing ensemble fic, where every character gets a chance to shine. The character voices are great, so are the relationships, and the plot. This is apocafic, and it's not miraculously reversed at the end, but the survivors band together and find unlikely friend and allies and build a community, it's very warm and hopeful despite everything.

Harry Potter and the Natural 20 by Sir_Poley (Harry Potter/Dungeons & Dragons)
300k, mostly gen, crossover, WIP
Summary: Milo, a genre-savvy D&D Wizard and Adventurer Extraordinaire is forced to attend Hogwarts, and soon finds himself plunged into a new adventure of magic, mad old Wizards, metagaming, misunderstandings, and munchkinry.
Why I loved it: This is a WIP that hasn't been updated since early 2015, but it currently encompasses two and a half school years and I found what's there very satisfying. It does mean that many storylines are unresolved though, fair warning.
At first I was very sceptical about this crossover: Harry Potter and D&D? It is, however, brilliantly done. Milos' biology, magic etc. still work according to D&D rules, which leads to some hilarious misunderstandings and very creative problem-solving. Depending on which aspects you concentrate on, HP wizards and D&D wizards are very powerful in different ways. In addition to that the author also did amazing worldbuilding of a world that works according to D&D rules and everyone is aware of that. Milos is aware that he is a PC, and he tries to use his meta knowledge from his D&D adventures in Hogwarts.
Full Disclosure, after book 1 I put this down and didn't pick it up again for a few weeks: book 1 is good, but not outstanding. Book 2 however introduces fantastic new storylines and characters and starts to deviate a lot more from the HP storylines, and that continues in book 3 in ways that would be spoiler-y to mention. The ending of book 2 was a gut punch, and then it got even better.

I forgot where I saw the rec, but I just finished watching all four seasons of "Natsume's Book of Friends", or "Natsume Yuujinchou." I loved it. It's about a boy who can see spirits, or youkai. He's moved in with a new foster family and is very lonely at first, but he acquires a youkai "bodyguard" and slowly makes human and youkai friends and becomes closer with his new family and it's all beautiful to see. There are a lot of "youkai of the week" storylines, and he eventually meets other people who know about youkai too. He also received a heavy legacy from his grandmother: a book with many youkais' true names, which he could use to control them, but instead he gives the names back.
The anime feels a bit slow at times (maybe just because I'm sometimes impatient), but it's very warm and nice.

( Spoilers, non-ordered thoughts about many characters )

I'm going to request this fandom for Yuletide, I already have fic prompts to use.

Season five comes out soon! I'm very much looking forward to it :)