Free-For-All (Not) Friday

[geraineon]

Time for free for all (not) Friday, a day for random chit-chat!

Do you want to talk about the other novels you are reading or find a read-along partner? Practice your Chinese? Request for fics? Ask for beta readers? Just talk about your day?

Go right ahead!

Note:

I am giving the Discussion Fridays a pause because I am running dry for topics of discussion. I will give it some thought so I can stockpile some topics for discussion and resume first week of December. Not having a Discussion Friday post have been making posting Friday posts kinda weirdly stressful and led to missing weeks.

Comments

[anne]

Please don't stress about it! This is supposed to be our fun relaxing hobby, not a source of yet more anxiety (or so I tell myself when I feel bad about not participating more).

[geraineon]

<3

(and back at you, no worries about participation level! participate at the level you are comfy with that works with your schedule and energy)

[anne]

The library bought Riverbay Road Men's Dormitory at my request, and I'm enjoying it. A little biphobic for my tastes, but I lived through the 80s in America, so at least it's better than that.

[geraineon]

Yay for libraries!

[duckprintspress]

yeah less biphobia woulda been better

[shipperslist]

I know this might be a bit of a long shot, but does anyone happen to have saved the link to a CQL/MDZS fic where WWX and the Wen leave the Burial in small groups and when LWJ finally makes it to Yiling, everyone is gone. I've tried to find it but my google-fu is lacking.

[geraineon]

Ah, sorry, I don't. Hm, you can try the cent comm as well for more eyes on the question?

[shipperslist]

Yeah, I should. It's nothing pressing, it's just a story that comes to mind every now and then...

And like others have said; please don't stress yourself with the posts. End of the year tends to often be busy for many reasons, and this comm (and we) will be here anyways. This is supposed to be fun and relaxing, a gathering of like-minded people after all.

[thispatternismine]

Late to this, so you may have found it by now, but have you tried wangxianficfinder? You don't need a tumblr account to submit a request.

[shipperslist]

Oh, right, thanks!

ETA: ...except that the askbox won't even activate unless you are signed up or logged in. Thanks, tumbleh. 😑

[thispatternismine]

Ah Tumblr! Always got to find a way to screw up something perfectly functional!

I have an account so I copied your above comment & submitted it as an ask. I sent it off anon so they should tag me when the request gets posted, & I'll give you a heads up. Though I don't check tumblr much these days & have no idea if the site will deign to inform me I have a notification, so might be worth keeping an eye out

[shipperslist]

Oh, thank you! That was so kind of you. 💜

[thispatternismine]

They've just posted it! No.12 on this post. Someone has already suggested a few possibilities. Let me know if the correct fic gets suggested, & I'll comment to mark the fic as found.

[shipperslist]

It was the first, Fading Mirrors! (…and looking at the tags, no wonder I didn’t find it…)

Thank you again!

[thispatternismine]

No problem! :D

[larryhammer]

Still bounding forward with Lady Cultivator during downtimes of cleaning out the house for the (ugh) exterminators. Just as good as I remember it: female-centered xianxia that's not a power fantasy but a survival story.

[geraineon]

oof that doesn't sound like a fun time (the cleaning house bit). good to have an enjoyable thing to read during breaks.

[larryhammer]

Spent the morning pushing aaaaall the furniture into the center of the rooms, away from the baseboards. 不好玩!

[aurumcalendula]

Don't stress about the discuussion posts!

It looks like all Monogatari's English translations now have release dates listed in March 2026 on Amazon. I kinda suspect they'll just keep pushing them back until the licenses expire.

re: non-cnovel stuff, I just finished Nghi Vo's A Mouthful of Dust! It was really haunting (this one's very dark, but not unbearably so imho) and I liked seeing some callbacks to the first novella.

[geraineon]

<3

... ah at this point, I think it's safer to just consider the Monogatari licenses dead.

I really should pick up more Nghi Vo's stuff.

[douqi]

A break is a good idea especially if it's starting to feel stressful! Happy to contribute some topic ideas too if those would be helpful.

[geraineon]

<3 happy to take any and all suggestions~!

[llonkrebboj]

Let Discussion Fridays be fun! Not stressful for you. Maybe some options to consider are throwbacks to previous topics (maybe with a link to those posts too), and if you have a list for community contribution of topics, we could get a nice stockpile together.

[geraineon]

Mm, it'll be nice to do a flashback to older discussion posts due to new members and people changing opinions, yeah.

I don't have anything specifically set up for community contributions, but you can DM if you have suggestions. I'll look into setting up a submission box for ideas too... maybe make it anon? idk

[halfcactus]

Seconding everyone not to stress about coming up with discussion topics! It's not like members can't make their own discussion post when something comes to mind.

[geraineon]

<3 thank you

[geraineon]

I managed to save Global Examination (全球高考) audio drama (all three seasons), Don't Pick Up Boyfriends from the Trashbin (不要在垃圾桶里捡男朋友) season 2 (because I got a message about it) but ugh, renaming the audio files is such a pain, I wish I know how to strip all of that too when I dl.

gonna work on the rest that I've bought during down times.

[duckprintspress]

Echoing everyone else saying don't stress yourself out with it, and adding - I think you could easily repeat the oldest discussion topics. It's not like we've answered them in a while, we may have new or changed answers, and people who weren't here then may not have seen them at all!

[geraineon]

Yeah, I'm gonna take yours + llonkrebboj's suggestion and recycle old topics. Thank you <3