"You look Time Lord."

The conference in Cyprus organised us a trip to the Paphos Archeological Park. This is an excavation of the old city, parts of which date back to prehistoric times, and there are definitely Greek bits but in the main it is a Roman city and it is famous for the mosaic floors.

( Picspam Ahoy! )

Title: i never knew
Length: 300 words
Fandom: 逆転裁判 | Gyakuten Saiban | Ace Attorney
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Ayame | Iris & Ayasato Chihiro | Mia Fey (Gyakuten Saiban)
Characters: Ayame | Iris (Gyakuten Saiban)
Additional Tags: Mentioned Mia Fey, Mentioned Dahlia Hawthorne, Mentioned Phoenix Wright, Post-Case 1-2: Turnabout Sisters, Case 3-5: Bridge to the Turnabout Spoilers, Canonical Character Death, Grief/Mourning, News Media, Triple Drabble, Gift Fic, Fic Exchange, Seasons of Drabbles Exchange Summer Round 2025
Summary: BLUECORP CEO CONVICTED OF MURDER, BLACKMAIL
Notes: Written for nemali as part of the Summer 2025 round of seasonsofdrabbles . Originally posted 25 August 2025

Iris was in the checkout line of a store, waiting with the basket of goods that Bikini had asked her to pick up while she was in the city visiting Iris, when a headline caught her eye:

BLUECORP CEO CONVICTED OF MURDER, BLACKMAIL

Good , she thought - his blackmail had caused her family to crumble, and was the reason so many tragedies had taken place. Then: wait, murder? She took the paper and began to read.

LOS ANGLES - Redd White, CEO of Bulecorp has been convicted of murdering defense attorney Mia Fey,

Iris stopped reading and stared at the paper. Her cousin was the one who died - and this was how she found out!?

Iris couldn’t say that she’d liked Mia that much - after all, she was the one who’d caught Iris. But then again, she’d also managed to save her Feenie, and it’s not like Dahlia hadn’t deserved some sort of punishment. And even if that wasn’t the case… she hadn’t deserved to die, and Iris didn’t deserve to find out this way

Iris read on, pleased to see that Mia had taken Phoenix under her wing, and that he was the one who had caught White. But that didn’t take away from her somber mood.

She wished that she’d known Mia better. She was Iris’ cousin, yes, but she’d also played a large part in the lives of Dahlia and Feenie, the two people that she loved the most. And beyond that, according to the article, she was an excellent lawyer who was trying to bring down Bluecorp. And she’d done that, in the end - but at the cost of her life.

Perhaps she could get Bikini to channel her. But for now… the least she could do is find some way to honor Mia while she was here.

 
Here we are, Monday again, so have some more of my favourite songs from my favourite artists, including one from my favourite local British country singer, who sadly passed away the year after my mum.

Let's kick off with something more cheerful though, a couple of lively tracks by two great but very different bands. First up, some Western Swing.


Can never go wrong with these boys...

David Lynn Jones was never as popular as he should have been, and this duet with Waylon Jennings is one of his best.


Another one of Mary Chapin Carpenter's best...

Who doesn't love Dolly Parton? She's a treasure.

I'm not keen on most of what's called country in recent years, but I love Jon Pardi.

T. Graham Brown is another long-time favourite.

Love this song!

One from a man I met multiple times. He always had time for his fans.

And finally, an instrumental, because I could listen to Bela all day. Finally managed to get this album.

And that's it. Feel free to post your own favourites in the comments.

The plasterer who was making good around the new windows left the most phenomenal mess throughout the ground floor of the house. In his defence he had tried to mop up. On the other hand, I'm not convinced he really knew his way around a mop and bucket and I'm mystified by the lack of dust sheets. Most of the ground floor was covered in a thin layer of plaster dust but thankfully we only have carpets on the upper floors so it wasn't trodden into anything difficult to clean. Some things had actual plaster stuck to them - most notably an attachment that came with our toaster for making toasted ciabatta sandwiches which now has plaster stuck to each corner. At least we never actually use it, so I can merely be mildly non-plussed - did he think it was some kind of plastering tool? A dustpan? who knows? It was stacked on top of the toaster some way from the site of actual plastering, so I don't think it was just random plaster splashes.

The plasterer returns tomorrow to tackle replastering of the pantry where a leak had completely ruined the old plaster.

I have invested in dust sheets.

UPDATE: Apparently the plasterer won't be here tomorrow...

It really feels like all my journal has talked about lately is bad news. Ah well, things are as they are. I know I don't need to say what I'm talking about.

( Read more... )

*waves at everyone* I've been ill and haven't been around much, but I'm feeling distinctly better today, so I'm posting while it lasts. (I really hope it lasts longer than the posting, LOL.) Have some randomness!

1. Cnovels: Faraway Wanderers, one of my favourite danmei novels (aka the source for Word of Honor), is apparently finally open for licensing!


2. Trek: Captain Janeway says RPF is good for morale, hee!


3. Writing: I woke up today with words in my head and scribbled them down before falling back asleep! It's been a while since that happened, and it's such a good feeling. :D
   
   (I'm currently editing/rewriting my fandom5k fic, and also playing with a sequel idea for my original space opera Zhentari's Choice, which is very slowly coming together. Still having so much fun playing with this 'verse!)


4. Enshittification: after reading Google Search as you know it is over (in May) I switched all my default search engines (personal and work) to Startpage, and it's honestly such a relief. (Though of course sometimes I cycle through a bunch of search engines and still don't find what I know Google would have turned up in 10 seconds a few years ago, and that's only partially due to there being so much more crap on the web. *grumbles*)


5. Guardian: Our slo-mo rewatch (1/2 episode per week) is still so much fun! I can't always manage to comment right away, but thanks to the magic of DW, the discussion is just as good no matter when I get there. ♥ ♥ ♥
   
   (Seriously, this is one of my top reasons for preferring DW-style fandom over any other kind.)


6. Trope meme: Give me a fanfiction trope and I'll grade it:

   A: Love it. Spend my time combing AO3 for it.
   B: Like it. Not one of my bigger cravings, but it can scratch a certain itch if I’m in the right mood.
   C: Neutral. A good author might be able to sell it, but a bad one will kill it deader than dead.
   D: Not my favorite. I avoid it if I can, but it won't necessarily put me off reading something.
   F: Hate it. Will immediately make me nope out of a fic.

Hope everyone else is doing well!

This afternoon, I went to see Julius Caesar by Secret Shakespeare at the Abbey ruins. I saw the same group's performance of the Scottish play there last summer, so I was intrigued by this one too, although my prior knowledge of the play was non-existent. Anyway, the concept was similar: a promenade performance stopping at various points in the area, no fixed stages, ordinary clothes rather than costumes, hardly any props, starting without a preamble with the actors just stepping out of the audience. And I enjoyed all of that, but it really would have helped to be more familiar with the play than just skim-reading the Wikipedia article. That said, I was surprised I recognised parts of some of the speeches, because I clearly didn't know they came from this one. On the whole, I was pretty confused all the way through, although I was enjoying the experience of being there. And in a performance like this and the ruins open to the public throughout, it's also fun to overhear passers-by wondering what's going on.

I'm going to see another round of Shakespeare at the ruins in July, but that will be with a fixed stage and seating in the chapterhouse.

Yesterday, didn't do anything much. On Friday, I had a break from ordinary work in the form of a volunteering day with a charity partner, in west London. That was fun. I've been at the same site a couple of times before, including last year on a day when it was 30 degrees with blue skies and sunshine. This year, the weather was more suited to working outdoors, breezy, mostly overcast, warm enough but not too hot. We started our day there by carrying some metal posts across the site so they can be repurposed, then worked on some Hügelkultur beds and wheelbarrowed woodchip and manure and some vegetation and spread it on the beds. It was fun, but my arms have been pretty sore yesterday and today.