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FIC: Engineers' Rooms and Engineering Academy (Tempestuous Tours)
Jan. 26th, 2026 10:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
duskpetersonIf you want to thank someone in Emor for your inn's lavatory, this is the place to do so. Emor's engineers are the best in the world and are admirably eager to spread their wonderful inventions outside of Emor. If you wish, you may make arrangements here to have your own tribe's housing improved; some engineers are willing to travel as far as the mainland, if the job is interesting enough.
As you may have guessed by now, "Engineering Academy" means that engineering students are trained here. While the Law Academy and Medical Academy train only peninsulareans, the Engineering Academy opens its doors to mainlanders as well. You may apply for entrance into the Academy while you are here.
[Translator's note: The Emorian engineers are so discreet in their work that they aren't often seen. However, their Marcadian colleagues are the ones to blame for the terrifying catapult used in Empty Dagger Hand.]
(no subject)
Jan. 24th, 2026 07:55 pmthisbluespiritSome things that I have had stashed away for a little while:
1.sovay very kindly sent me a copy of Exit Through the Fireplace by Kate Dunn, which was waiting for me at the new house when I got here. It is about repertory theatre with lots of accounts on every aspect from actors and others involved, including a lot of people I have watched in old telly, so I enjoyed it a lot.
But having only recently before tried to make a post explaining what I loved about Terence Rattigan's plays, including floundering about trying to say how effective his dialogue is, I was v pleased to find this quote:
John Moffatt: (On being in rep, and the difficulty of remembering the lines, doing a new play every week): "You got to know who the good writers were. With Rattigan you barely had to learn it at all, even after just blocking it you almost knew it because it is so beautifully written. The only way to reply to something that has just been said is what he's written."
2. Talking of people being kind,swordznsorcery wrote me a lovely Sapphire & Steel story with a new Element and a stealth crossover very RTMI here, and if you also like S&S, I recommend taking a look, as it's great! <3
3. The book I was reading introduced me to the utterly untrue but very S&S like urban myth/ghost story of the Zanetti Train. Sounds like an Assignment to me, or a film I would watch, anyway. (It seems to have been taken from a Ukrainian work of fiction, most likely - certainly not one detail of it has any truth in it).
4. Making personalised bingo cards proved to be exactly in my wheelhouse right now, so I had fun with that. If anyone missed it the other day and would like one, feel free to still ask! (Here or there, whatever).
5. Random AO3 tag found while wrangling that is currently amusing me: It is literally just Twelfth Night but with Moomins.
Otherwise still slowly progressing and all that etc etc etc.
1.
sovay very kindly sent me a copy of Exit Through the Fireplace by Kate Dunn, which was waiting for me at the new house when I got here. It is about repertory theatre with lots of accounts on every aspect from actors and others involved, including a lot of people I have watched in old telly, so I enjoyed it a lot.But having only recently before tried to make a post explaining what I loved about Terence Rattigan's plays, including floundering about trying to say how effective his dialogue is, I was v pleased to find this quote:
John Moffatt: (On being in rep, and the difficulty of remembering the lines, doing a new play every week): "You got to know who the good writers were. With Rattigan you barely had to learn it at all, even after just blocking it you almost knew it because it is so beautifully written. The only way to reply to something that has just been said is what he's written."
2. Talking of people being kind,
swordznsorcery wrote me a lovely Sapphire & Steel story with a new Element and a stealth crossover very RTMI here, and if you also like S&S, I recommend taking a look, as it's great! <33. The book I was reading introduced me to the utterly untrue but very S&S like urban myth/ghost story of the Zanetti Train. Sounds like an Assignment to me, or a film I would watch, anyway. (It seems to have been taken from a Ukrainian work of fiction, most likely - certainly not one detail of it has any truth in it).
4. Making personalised bingo cards proved to be exactly in my wheelhouse right now, so I had fun with that. If anyone missed it the other day and would like one, feel free to still ask! (Here or there, whatever).
5. Random AO3 tag found while wrangling that is currently amusing me: It is literally just Twelfth Night but with Moomins.
Otherwise still slowly progressing and all that etc etc etc.
January again???
Jan. 22nd, 2026 04:32 pmnineveh_ukAlthough January doesn't usually come with threats to invade Greenland. It's a mad, mad world... I have mostly been spending the new year feeling January-ish; it's wet and grey here and I've had a lingering bug that has not inclined me to do anything much more than look forward to the Winter Olympics* and spring in general, although I've enjoued my art class starting again. I would like some snow and have not seen more than a sprinkling. But I have read a couple of books worth noting:
The Burning Stones, by Antti Tuomainen. Not Nordic noir, but a comic crime story in which a middle-aged sauna stove company employee finds herself having to investigate the murder of a colleague. Thoroughly entertaining, though I had to decide it was set in "no lawyer AU world" as the sensible, competent protagonist would surely have rung a solicitor by the end of the first few chapters if only they existed. Introduced me to the word bumlet for small towels one sits on in saunas, which since it scarcely seems to exist on the internet, I can only assume that the translator picked up from the Anglophone community in Helsinki (or possibly invented independently).
Advent, by Gunnar Gunnarsson. Every year, in the middle of winter, farmhand Benedikt goes on a journey to rescue sheep that are lost in the mountains. Fantastic landscape descriptions, there's a real sense of time and place and the arduous nature of the journey and why he does it, although there is also the reader's inevitable moment of realisation, 'Oh, is this meant to be allegory and the shepherd Jesus?' On reflection after finishing it, I think it's meant to prompt the association, but not intended as allegory, other things are also going on, not least that the book is based on a true story. There is something of an early non-fiction novel about it. The afterward, interesting as it is, does not mention that Gunnar went on a 1940 lecture tour of Germany and met Hitler. Presumably, it was supposed that this would get in the way of the heartwarming Christmas novella marketing.
Over Christmas itself, I re-read Moreta, Dragonlady of Pern for the first time since I was about 15. It had less sex than I remembered (possibly because I first read it at 13, when sex in any book was remarkable), and on adult reflection is more of a tragedy brought about by class prejudice among dragonriders. Although post-COVID, there was some interesting elements of the flu pandemic that rang true in a way I hadn't previously recognised - at the point of writing, McCaffrey had lived through three, if none so deadly as the Spanish flu she was born just six years after.
*No, I have not seen Heated Rivalry. IMO ice hockey is the most boring Olympic sport, beating even curling, which takes some doing since even actual bowls (world championships currently being televised, I am not watching) is more exiting than curling. Still, I am happy for the fandom.
The Burning Stones, by Antti Tuomainen. Not Nordic noir, but a comic crime story in which a middle-aged sauna stove company employee finds herself having to investigate the murder of a colleague. Thoroughly entertaining, though I had to decide it was set in "no lawyer AU world" as the sensible, competent protagonist would surely have rung a solicitor by the end of the first few chapters if only they existed. Introduced me to the word bumlet for small towels one sits on in saunas, which since it scarcely seems to exist on the internet, I can only assume that the translator picked up from the Anglophone community in Helsinki (or possibly invented independently).
Advent, by Gunnar Gunnarsson. Every year, in the middle of winter, farmhand Benedikt goes on a journey to rescue sheep that are lost in the mountains. Fantastic landscape descriptions, there's a real sense of time and place and the arduous nature of the journey and why he does it, although there is also the reader's inevitable moment of realisation, 'Oh, is this meant to be allegory and the shepherd Jesus?' On reflection after finishing it, I think it's meant to prompt the association, but not intended as allegory, other things are also going on, not least that the book is based on a true story. There is something of an early non-fiction novel about it. The afterward, interesting as it is, does not mention that Gunnar went on a 1940 lecture tour of Germany and met Hitler. Presumably, it was supposed that this would get in the way of the heartwarming Christmas novella marketing.
Over Christmas itself, I re-read Moreta, Dragonlady of Pern for the first time since I was about 15. It had less sex than I remembered (possibly because I first read it at 13, when sex in any book was remarkable), and on adult reflection is more of a tragedy brought about by class prejudice among dragonriders. Although post-COVID, there was some interesting elements of the flu pandemic that rang true in a way I hadn't previously recognised - at the point of writing, McCaffrey had lived through three, if none so deadly as the Spanish flu she was born just six years after.
*No, I have not seen Heated Rivalry. IMO ice hockey is the most boring Olympic sport, beating even curling, which takes some doing since even actual bowls (world championships currently being televised, I am not watching) is more exiting than curling. Still, I am happy for the fandom.
Personalised bingo card offer
Jan. 20th, 2026 06:16 pmthisbluespiritHello, I am still recovering, etc. Quite nicely as these things go, but still not up to doing all my usual little things.
Anyway, thought of something fannish and fun I could do if anyone wanted it - I made a personalised bingo card fortheseatheseatheopensea once, which was fun, and I do always love doing that kind of thing. So...
... if anyone else would find a custom-made bingo card (for writing/creating prompts) fun/useful/inspiring, comment here and I will have a go at making you one!
(I'll use the Bingo Generator, so it's very easy, and if I fail and include some rubbish prompts, a new card without such prompts can magically be re-generated with no trouble. Will do any size from 2x2 to 5x5.)
So just comment here if you'd like one & say what size card you'd prefer. You can also point me to/away from any fandoms/prompt types etc if you'd like, but no need. (If I'm really stuck for some reason, I'll just ask you for some pointers!)
Anyway, thought of something fannish and fun I could do if anyone wanted it - I made a personalised bingo card for
theseatheseatheopensea once, which was fun, and I do always love doing that kind of thing. So...... if anyone else would find a custom-made bingo card (for writing/creating prompts) fun/useful/inspiring, comment here and I will have a go at making you one!
(I'll use the Bingo Generator, so it's very easy, and if I fail and include some rubbish prompts, a new card without such prompts can magically be re-generated with no trouble. Will do any size from 2x2 to 5x5.)
So just comment here if you'd like one & say what size card you'd prefer. You can also point me to/away from any fandoms/prompt types etc if you'd like, but no need. (If I'm really stuck for some reason, I'll just ask you for some pointers!)