Paste, paste, paste...

I've managed to sign up and top up to JJWXC using Alipay thanks to a guide. It hasn't changed all that much since 2021.

My phone refuses to let me download the JJWXC apk for android (restricting me to the samsung and google play store), so I'm stuck with the web version. The website feels a bit dated, like it's a mix of 90s and 2010s functionality compared to the slick functions of the fanqie app.

My first foray on JJWXC is 放肆[娱乐圈] [alt name: Fangsi (novel updates)] by 玄笺, one of the more infamous Baihe novels whose author was mired in some controversy over plagiarized bits in 2021 and had several other works taken down (this work survived). In general it's a gripping read, but suffers from pacing issues where lots of things are happening all at once close together, while there's some chapters where it's all warm and fluffy feelings and not much going on at all. I'm currently going through the extras at the end.

The cost to purchase all the VIP chapters for this title was 10,954 Jinjiang coins, or CNY109.54 (US$16.34). Only 322/345 chapters were VIP chapters, so it works to about CNY0.34 (US$0.05) per VIP chapter. The purchase for VIP chapters are guaranteed for 1 year and customer service can be contacted thereafter if there are issues with accessing it (with the exception of any takedowns / author contract non-renewals). (note: if you have insufficient coins for the purchase, the site won't mention the amount to be deducted)

So far with Open Novel I'm already at the highest tiered bookworm plan. It's coming to the end of 1 month.

ePub export: 965/1000 credits utilised
Notes: It doesn't automatically come with a cover. Best to make sure all the chapters aren't accidentally cut off first in the app before exporting.

Boosts: 120 / 120 used.
Notes: Use the glossary and regenerate functions before you try using the boost function.

Tokens: 5,470,682 / 9,000,000

Due to my very limited Chinese I've been trying out a paid version of the Open Novel app as a way to read the original Chinese raws.

It doesn't work all that well for Fanqie novels since for chapter 11 onwards they push you to the app (which has an audiobook function). The translation app currently gets you to around 70% of my expectations for a well translated work-- basic enough to figure out what's going on-- they mostly get the gender right, at least (unlike google translate), and if the first results are not that accurate, you hit the boost button to try and get a more accurate generation. As a pretty heavy and quick reader I've almost hit the hobbyist max boosts.

I haven't tried the more advanced features, like asking for a different style or tone to the translation, or delved into the glossary functions.

Supposedly it works well for jjwxc novels, but I haven't tried it yet.

Just watched this in the theaters as I didn't want to get spoiled by the fanfics. Pretty good. :)

Hi, I've been neglecting this reading journal for a while, hope to weed / update the dead links in the next few weeks as I get some time off from work.

Been busy with real life but here are some things to recommend.

I've been watching Harmony Secret, a Thai Girls' Love series about the heirs of two business rivals bidding for the same project on iQiYi (an Asian streaming platform), where there's uncut scenes and bonus extras (it's rated R-21 there). There's also a free youtube version here. Here's a teaser, for those interested.

I've also been playing Road to Empress, a choose your own adventure where you start out as a young Wu Zetian when she first enters the palace as a concubine. (for those who don't know, Wu Zetian was an Empress of China during the Tang dynasty). I've never laughed so much. Usually in games when your character dies you get frustrated but for this one the story branching was interesting. I initially saw it on Jessie Cox's youtube channel as he was doing a let's play, but after 5 minutes immediately decided that I wanted to play it myself. The danmei and baihe (aka yaoi and yuri) elements were surprising to me. I didn't expect that. Pretty fun for the first part. I look forward to playing part 2 when it hopefully comes out next year.

It seems that xiaohongshu has led me to a deep rabbit hole. lol

Watching: Thai GL

The Loyal Pin (2024) (mydramalist) (complete)
"Her Serene Highness Aninlaphat, or Princess Anin, and Mom Rajawongse Pilanthita, or Khunying Pin, have been close since they were young. When Princess Anin is fifteen, she must travel to England for her studies, separating the princess from her close friend Khunying Pin by a great distance. The distance, however, allows Anin to come to know herself, to know deep down how she's felt about Khunying Pin without question. Once she returns to Thailand, Princess Anin tries everything to get near to Khunying Pin where she can find the opportunity to confess her love. However, it seems to be an impossible task as Khunying Pin has been engaged to marry Khun Chai Kueakiat."

Us (2025) (mydramalist) (ongoing)
"Twenty-year-old Dokrak decides to take a gap year to find herself after finishing high school. She has a part-time job at a coffee shop in the gallery Art & Us. It's here that she crosses paths with twenty-two-year-old dentistry student Pam, who's a regular at the café, to hit the books. As she gets to know Pam, Dokrak develops a crush. When her brother, however, meets Pam, he falls for her at first sight. Kawi turns to Dokrak, asking her to play matchmaker. Because she loves him and wants to see him happy, Dokrak begins coaching him. As time goes on, however, she finds herself unable to ignore her growing feelings for Pam. Before she knows it, she's fully in love, and Pam is Kawi's girlfriend."

Reading: Baihe
Female General Eldest Princess by 请君莫笑 (Please Don’t Laugh) (trans. meltsmelts, ed. iceiclesified) (novelupdates) (complete)
"To live on in this turbulent world, to take revenge for her family, to seek justice for her entire village of a hundred and eighteen people who had their lives cut short, Lin Wanyue took the name of her younger twin brother Lin Feixing to enlist in the military, vowing to kill every single Hun under the sky. The Empress has passed into heaven, leaving the sixteen year old Eldest Princess and eight year old Crown Prince to depend on each other for survival. The other Seigniors who were older than the Crown Prince look upon the royal seat with ravenous eyes, the position of these two siblings are in a precarious situation."

Clear and muddy loss of love by 请君莫笑 (Please Don’t Laugh) (trans. meltsmelts) (novelupdates) (complete)
"A natural moat called the Luo river split the great land into two. Jing of the north, and Wei of the south.
One was the Prince of the grass plains who had no worries or sorrow. One was a lawful Princess who received exclusive favour of the Emperor. A war turned the Prince of the grass plains into an orphan. She who had laid dormant for ten years had originally planned to become a sycophantic official, to manipulate the enemy kingdom into chaos, but she was appointed as Fuma at the Chionglin banquet. Wait and see, how this debt of grudge from a fallen kingdom and devastated home will be settled."

Note: These two novels are likely to be taken down soon, once the official translated novels are published.

Listening to
Sunny Afro Latin House Mix at a Backyard New York Party | Tinzo (Book Club radio)

So...It's been a while. I was asked to share some recs by eneri, so here they are.

Devil Wears Prada, The
Gravity by janewestin (Miranda/Andy)
Andy is working as the managing editor of Cellular Function, a science journal, when Cassidy Priestley's article is submitted to her journal.

Take Me to the River by spacedmuch (Miranda/Andy)
"With her marriage now in ruins, Andy decides to return to New York to get some answers and hopefully a fresh start. However, things don't go entirely according to plan."

I think these publishing what if's are not new but are new to my recs. :)

Game of Thrones
For Fear Tonight Is All by silberias (Oberyn Martell/Ellaria Sand/Sansa Stark)
"Tyrion knew, as he gazed up at the dark skinned Martell man that this was perhaps his only chance to spirit Sansa out of King's Landing and away from his father's greedy fingers. Tywin Lannister would have married the girl himself if he felt he could have gotten away with it, and so Tyrion knew his own marriage was no protection to Ned Stark's daughter whatsoever.'Invite her, demand her, steal her--whatever you choose, Prince Oberyn, choose it soon. Else my lady wife shall break into more pieces than the stars.'"

Such an fascinating fork in the road, and the world building and pacing keeps it interesting.

Star Wars
landscape with a blur of conquerors by diasterisms (Rey/Kylo)
Rey finds her lost family when she finds an ancient Jedi artifact, and regains her place as Chume'da, the heir of a matriarch-led society. Heirs must marry, and marry well.

A novel-length story about finding lost family, arranged marriage tropes and interesting narratives and world building. This was the one work I kept thinking about as I watched the latest installment of the Star Wars movie franchise.

World of Warcraft
Last Resort by sniperct (Jaina Proudmoore/Sylvanas Windrunner)
"The war has not gone well for anyone. The Alliance has three months left before collapse. The Horde is not much better off. With neither victory or death as options, Sylvanas proposes an alternative. A treaty, to ease tensions and open borders, with a political hostage to ensure that both sides stay in line. A marriage with many political implications and Sylvanas would only accept one person. Jaina Proudmoore. And Jaina Proudmoore made for the perfect hostage. If the Alliance moves wrong, Jaina dies. The Horde attacks, and Jaina reduces Orgrimmar to a wisp of a memory in the minds of children. Of course, no one expected Sylvanas and Jaina to be anything more than uneasy partners with each other, least of all Sylvanas and Jaina..."

This was another memorable political marriage trope story that had some interesting tug and pulls.

*looks at lengthy 'to rec' list* Hmm. It's time, I think, to do some recs. I've also done a small update for the Dreamwidth F/F community list due to the influx of tumblr refugees.

Dragon Age
Transfigurations 12:1 by isyche (Leliana/Cassandra)
"Cassandra and Leliana have to ascend the Sunburst Throne together."

Interesting premise, good world building.
Game of Thrones

Keep the Bouquets, Throw Away the Grooms by Netgirl_y2k (Sansa/Margaery)
"The Lannisters meant it as an insult when they arranged the marriage of Sansa Stark to Margaery Tyrell. But is it truly an insult if nobody is insulted?"

The one fic that I think got the wheels turning for a lot of the authors for this pairing...

Those Who Wait by oddcoupler222 (Sansa/Margaery) (note: offline awaiting publication)
"Sansa's ideas for her life were actually fairly simple: finish graduate school and fall in love. In that order and certainly no rush, given that she was barely out of the closet, a little wary from past experiences, and completely hopeless at talking to women. Margaery's plan was much more concrete, with clear steps outlining her path to success and no time or inclination for romance. At least, not for years to come, until her career was well and truly established. Casual and discrete would be just fine with her until then. However, the universe - in the form of a friend and a dating website - has other plans for them."

This one had a fun premise, and the modern translation of the politicking generally came across well.

thoughts of pretty you and me by honey_wheeler (Sansa/various)
"Sansa has missed this, she’s missed soft touches and sweet pleasure and the company of women. She’s missed the heady feeling of power that could only be found in making someone tremble apart with her fingers and tongue."

This one was well written.

Hi. It's been a while...

I'm in the process of clearing up the old dead links from my archives (see cut below) and if you have links that I can use, please let me know.

Two things:

(1)I'm a little wary of linking to archives of locked or deleted journals however, as the author may have intended to erase them for good.
(2)If they've been published I'll link to it below.

( from the notables.... )

Been pretty busy lately IRL, but I'll just share my current tiny rarepair fandom for Femslash February. :D

Mamamoo (wikipedia), whose new album is coming out next week! Very talented group with very strong femslash vibes. lol

Favorite Songs and Covers
( Read more... )

Favorite femslashy Songs, featuring the ship that literally sails itself (MoonSun)
( Read more... )

The Ships
( Read more... )

I've been neglecting dreamwidth lately; I didn't really do a lot of fanfic reading in the past year (mostly due to geopolitics--it felt kind of weird to read about Cold War pairings when there's actual political tensions going on lol); instead I became more active on the r/babymetal and r/sakuragakuin sub-threads on reddit--which has been pretty unexpected. I even went to Japan to catch a concert. :) It's a completely different type of fandom (hey, it's music and idols! -_-;;) but fandom nonetheless; and the threads make it so much easier to keep up with conversations. Sorry, Tumblr; you're pretty but my attention span is zilch on your platform.

Also, if you haven't seen the awesomeness that is Dragon Age Inquisition do consider checking it out; I predict that quite a number of femslash fics will be based off of this one--mostly because some characters have no in-game options for F/F romance. :) I appreciate that. If you wanted to hear some witty (well--maybe snarky) conversation while checking out some of the gameplay I would recommend checking out Geek Remix's Let's Play of it. They're pretty good at figuring out what would feel like stale gameplay for the viewer and showcasing some of the more important dialogues and/or scenes. They dive right in after doing the character creation off screen. They did finish playing it, so I felt like it was a good time to share it. :D And here's their DA:I bingo card while you're at it.

Since I'm posting this I'll post some manga recs here too...



The only yuri manga that I've been quite excited about in the last few weeks have been Samba's Fluttering Feelings. It's so good, I wish she had an official English translation subscription so I can support her and subscribe to her updates. ^_^ There's 22 chapters out at the moment but I think this site has linked to only the first 5 (I think the fanpage has more). If you understand Korean, here's the official site for this series. [Update 25 June 2015: Someone created an overlay guide and visual guide on how to register and read the chapters on Comico itself!]

As for others...

5 Centimeters per Second by SHINKAI Makoto (artist: SEIKE Yukiko)
"A tale of two people, Tono Takaki and Shinohara Akari, who were close friends but gradually grow farther and farther apart as time moves on. They become separated because of their families yet continue to exchange contact in the form of letters. Yet as time continues to trudge on, their contact with one another begins to cease. Years pass and the rift between them grows ever larger. However, Takaki remembers the times they have shared together, but as life continues to unfold for him, he wonders if he would be given the chance to meet Akari again as the tale embarks on Takaki's realization of the world and people around him."

By the same creator of "Voices from a Distant Star;" it's very good. Prepare tissues for this one.

Real Clothes by MAKIMURA Satoru
Kinue is a saleswoman in the futon section of a department store. Despite her plain clothes and poor makeup, she ends up being transferred to the women’s clothing department, where she has to be trained by her extraordinarily fashionable boss.

Interesting.