Fic or Treat!

[embraidery]

@ficortreat

EMBRAIDERY's Door

DW username: embraidery

Light is on for: friends, DW followers, anyone who came here from ficortreat!

What's in the Bowl? Ficlets, logic puzzles (by Raymond Smullyan, not me), book recs, podficlets, doodles, blackout poetry

Let Me Know: 

Ficlets - check out my profile on AO3 or my autoao3app for fandoms I've created for or requested before! I'll be honest, I have a lot of rare fandoms, but it's a fun grab bag. I won't create for Harry Potter anymore, but almost anything else is fair game. Let me know characters/ships you're into, maybe a prompt, DNWs? Let me know your AO3 handle if you'd like it gifted.

Logic puzzles - these would be from one of my books of logic puzzles, mostly dealing with figuring out which statements are true and which are false (i.e. one person always lies and the other always tells the truth). 

Book recs - let me know genres! I have a variety of YA, sci-fi, fantasy, a little bit of horror, a little bit of poetry, quite a bit of PG Wodehouse. I also have some short stories to recommend!

Podficlets - drop a few options of fics under 2.5k and I'll see what I can do. Doesn't have to be in a fandom I know. No non-con or omegaverse and no Harry Potter, please! (And, of course, the author must be okay with the work being podficced.) Let me know your AO3 handle if you'd like it gifted.

Doodles - I can draw characters I know or characters I don't if you can link me a visual reference. Or geometric art and/or optical illusion art!

Blackout poetry - send me a page of a fic you wrote or a book/poem in the public domain and I'll black it out and make poetry!

Other info: Drop me a fun fact about something in the world or the weirdest thing you've ever eaten or some other bit of information! Happy Halloween!

Comments

[embraidery]

Happy early Halloween!!



I typed the entire fic on my typewriter, then obscured most of it by typing xxx over it.

Transcription:

"a hand along her back;
warm mouth against her;
breathless

mouth over her breast

murmurs
exhales
arches
breathes
smiles

shakes and shakes
ascends faster,
impatient"

And as for short stories!

Homecoming is Just Another Word for the Sublimation of the Self by Isabel J. Kim: a world where people can split into "instances" of themselves, an original and a copy. The main character moved from Korea to the US as a kid and travels back to Korea for her grandfather's funeral, where she meets her instance for the first time.

The House of Asterion by Jorge Luis Borges: a very short take on the minotaur of Greek myth.

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman: perhaps you read this one in school, but if it's been a long time, may I recommend reading it again? I just read it again for Trick or Treat and loved the horror of Victorian era misogyny and the slow creep of the horrible wallpaper.

Enjoy!!

[embraidery]

Happy early Halloween!!

I have some book recs for you!

This Is How You Lose The Time War is sci fi prose that I personally love, but I know some people find pretty purple.

"Blue carries nothing with her between strands except knowledge, purpose, tactics, and Red's letters. Memory is tipped and decanted into Garden, life to life to life, always deepening, thickening, growing new roots and efficiencies-but Red's letters she keeps in her own body, curled beneath her tongue like coins, printed in her fingers' tips, between the lines of her palms. She presses them against her teeth before kissing her marks, reads them over when she shifts her grip on motorcycle handles, dusts soldiers' chins with them in bar fights and barracks games. She thinks without thinking, often, of what she will name Red in her next letter-hides her lists in plausibly deniable dreamscapes, on the undersides of milkweed leaves, in shed chrysalis and wingtip. Vermillion Lie. Scarlet Tanager. Parthian Thread. My Red, Red Rose."

Mink River (Brian Doyle) is maybe more of a litfic vibe but does contain elements of magical realism. It has beautiful and very unique prose that I would recommend for that alone.

For example: "And the light itself-well, there's a certain certainness of light here, the way it shafts itself through and around things confidently, exuberantly, densely, substantively; it has something to do with the nearby ocean, maybe. Or the rain, which falls eight months a year. Or the sheer jungle energy of trees and plants here, where the flora release so many feminine ions that the light fractures into geometric patterns that are organized along magnetic lines coherent with the tides and sometimes visible to the naked eye.

Really and truly."

and "and so many more stories, all changing by the minute, all swirling and braiding and weaving and spinning and stitching themselves one to another and to the stories of creatures in that place, both the quick sharp-eyed ones and the rooted green ones and the ones underground and the ones too small to see, and to stories that used to be here, and still are here in ways that you can sense sometimes if you listen with your belly, and the first green shoots of stories that will be told in years to come-so many stories braided and woven and inter stitched and leading one to another like spider strands or synapses or creeks that you could listen patiently for a hundred years and never hardly catch more than shards and shreds of the incalculable ocean of stories just in this one town, not big, not small, bounded by four waters, in the hills, by the coast, end of May, first salmonberries just ripe. But you sure can try to catch a few, yes?"

If YA is okay, I find All the Crooked Saints very beautiful and also unique. (Somewhere between our-world fantasy and magical realism.)

"You can hear a miracle a long way after dark.

Miracles are very like radio waves in this way. Not many people realize that the ordinary radio wave and the extraordinary miracle have much in common. Left to their own devices, radio waves would not be audible for much more than forty or fifty miles. They travel on perfectly straight paths from their broadcast source, and because the Earth is round, it does not take them long to part ways with the ground and head out to the stars. Wouldn't we all, if we had the chance? What a shame that both miracles and radio waves are invisible, because it would be quite a sight: ribbons of marvel and sound stretching out straight and true from all over the world.

But not all radio waves and miracles escape unheard. Some bounce off the ceiling of the ionosphere, where helpful free electrons oscillate in joyful harmony with them before thrusting them back to Earth at new angles."

[embraidery]

Happy early Halloween!

Here are a few puzzles paraphrased from What is the Name of This Book? by Raymond Smullyan. They're set in the world of Alice in Wonderland, in the Forest of Forgetfulness (now, I don't know if this is from the original book or if it's a Smullyan original). Alice doesn't remember very much, but she does know that the Lion lies on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, telling the truth on the rest of the days of the week. The Unicorn lies on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, and tells the truth the rest of the week.

1. What day of the week is it if the Lion and the Unicorn make these statements on the same day?
Lion: Yesterday was one of my lying days.
Unicorn: Yesterday was one of my lying days, too.

2. What day of the week is it if the Lion says these two things?
a) I lied yesterday.
b) I will lie again two days after tomorrow.

3. What day of the week is it if the Lion says these two other things?
a) I lied yesterday.
b) I will lie again tomorrow.

Answers

First

: The only days the Lion could make that statement are Mondays and Thursdays; the Unicorn could only make that statement on Thursdays and Sundays. It must, therefore, be Thursday.

Second

: a) means it must be Monday or Thursday; b) means it can't be Thursday. It is Monday!

Third

: Trick question! There's no day of the week when he can say both.

[embraidery]

(Gosh, I can't begin to imagine what that snack would taste like! Did you enjoy it?)

Happy early Halloween!

Here is Lucien on AO3!

[embraidery]

(How was the pinecone? I imagine the taste wasn't that bad but the texture was difficult to get through)

Happy early Halloween!

Here are a few puzzles paraphrased from What is the Name of This Book? by Raymond Smullyan. These are from the chapter on the Island of Knights and Knaves. Knights always tell the truth and knaves always lie (and every person on the island is one or the other).

1. Inhabitants of the island A, B, and C were hanging out. A stranger asked A, "Are you a knight or a knave?" A mumbled the answer and the stranger couldn't hear. The stranger asked B, "What did A say?" B responded, "A said that he is a knave." C interjected: "Don't believe B; he is lying!" Is B a knight or a knave? What about C?

Answer

B must be a knave, since neither a knight nor a knave can say that they are a knave. Therefore, C must be a knight.

2. C's answer isn't needed to solve the above problem. Here's a version where C's answer is necessary. The stranger instead asks A, "How many knights are among you?" A mumbles the answer. The stranger asks B, "What did A say?" B replies, "A said that there is one knight among us." Then C says, "Don't believe B; he is lying!" What are B and C?

Answer

B is a knave and C is a knight.

3. There are two inhabitants, A and B, who are each either a knight or a knave. A says, "At least one of us is a knave." What are A and B?

Answer

A is a knight and B is a knave.

4. Suppose A says, "Either I am a knave or B is a knight." What are A and B? (The meaning of either/or this book uses is this: if the statement "either P or Q" is true, at least one of P or Q is true. [Both can be true.] On the other hand, if the statement "either P or Q" is false, both P and Q are false.)

Answer

If A is a knave, the sentence is false, meaning that A is not a knave and B is not a knight. That would mean that A is a knave and not a knave at the same time. So he must be a knight. His statement must be true and at least one of the phrases must be true. Since A isn't a knave, B must be a knight. They are both knights.

5. Suppose A says, "Either I am a knave or else two plus two equals five." What would you conclude?

Answer

This is a trick question. Neither a knight nor a knave could say that sentence.

6. There are three people, A, B, and C, who are each either a knight or knave. A says "All of us are knaves" while B says "Exactly one of us is a knight." What are A, B, and C?

Answer

A is a knave, B is a knight, and C is a knave.

[thefruitbat]

Thank you! It really captures his essence. :D

Well, since it was a case of the munchies, it tasted pretty good at that time. XD

[reeby10]

Fic or treat! May I have some blackout poetry from Moby Dick by Herman Melville, particularly something of chapter 10 if that inspires?

The weirdest thing I think I've eaten is alligator (tacos? maybe?) while in Florida.

[embraidery]

Hello, happy early Halloween!



Transcript:

I fancied him hideous,
disagreeable,
simple
But looking at him—
affectionate,
sublime,
content,
friendly—
between us
indifference thawed
We were friends
He was
magnanimous
to me
Queequeg and I
at peace

[scintilla10]

Ooooh, yay, thank you so much!! I really enjoyed the fun logic puzzles. The third one puzzled me for a bit, but I successfully figured them all out, hurrah!

And oh wow! Your geometric art is so pretty! I love the cheerful, vibrant colours you selected, and it's such a pleasing and appealing shape. :D :D :D

Thank you for a wonderful treat, and happy early Halloween! <333

[embraidery]

It was probably pretty cheeky of me to include a trick question! It was always such a stumper when I encountered one of those in the book (I think there are a few) and felt like I was doing pretty well before that.

Thank you, I'm glad you like it! <3 I love this watercolour palette I have. I never knew watercolour could be so vibrant!

[vowrawn]

Hi! Could I request a page of blackout poetry using a random page/page of your choice from Dracula, please?

Link at Project Gutenberg: https://gutenberg.org/files/345/345-h/345-h.htm

Thank you & Happy Halloween! :)

[embraidery]

I have the podfic recorded, but archive.org (where I host my podfics) is down! What should I do?

[peasina]

This is an ongoing and super irritating problem (as someone who also hosts there) 💔💔💔

I'd be happy to wait until your hosting is back. For my Fic or Treat pods I'll be linking to dropbox or GDrive then updating once IA is back, so if you wanted to try that, that could work!

(I'm excited 😊)

[embraidery]

Then, for now, here is your podfic of Plucked and Pressed! Thank you for the suggestion. It was a sweet collection of ficlets!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Wog-RvPeW9PukhWwCu4eY47C19hkD_aR/view?usp=sharing

[wintersday]

Oh, these look awesome! Time War is actually on my to-read list already because I love Gladstone’s Craft books, and I love prose that’s an entire experience. Those Mink River excerpts are beautiful, and All the Crooked Saints sounds intriguing and right up my alley. I’m looking forward to giving all of them a try. Thank you so much for the recs!

[embraidery]

Happy late Halloween!!

There are a lot of different ways blackout poetry can be done. I hadn't done much of it before now but I'm really learning!

Transcript:

Want her heart
Want her friendship
Afraid to lose her
Promised to be family
Wanted to be happy

[embraidery]

Hello! Happy late Halloween!

I gotta finish reading Dracula at some point...I was on the Daily Dracula train for a while there.

This is technically erasure poetry, but it's the same concept.

Transcript:

Sunset shrine
Devotion to the world
Birch leaves
Snake vertebra
Coloured twilight
Pine valleys
Snow in darkness
Wind through the hills
Walk here approving
Before sleep

[flowersforgraves]

I'm so excited to look through these, thank you!

(And yes, the sticking point was how fibrous it was. I got through most of it through sheer adrenaline and the last of it from stubbornness, lol.)

[peaked]

OH MY GOD. THIS BLACKOUT IS INCREDIBLE?????? THIS IS AMAZING. I CANNOT TURN MY CAPSLOCK OFF AS I NEED YOU TO KNOW HOW AMAZING THIS IS. OH MY GOD!!!!

Thank you so much for the short stories! I can't wait to devour them.

[embraidery]

Hello, happy late Halloween!

Did you enjoy the scorpion??

Transcript:

Profane souls
Sacrifice rites
Hidden grief
Find beauty
In worldly desires

[embraidery]

Happy late Halloween, and thank you for the fun facts! :D

Transcript:

A slow kiss
A little dance
Her hair
Hypnotized me

[embraidery]

Hello, happy late Halloween!

Kat loves Patrick's hair, and he loves hers. In the evenings, as she sits up against the headboard and reads her books, he'll lay beside her and play with her hair. He twists sections together and watches them untwist. He wraps pieces around his fingers or weaves them in between.

One night, she stops reading a section aloud and turns to look at him. The warm light from their bedside lamp illuminates his hair from behind, limning each strand with gold and giving him the look of a haloed angel. He's far from it, she thinks fondly, but he's beautiful.

He stops twisting a piece of hair around another and looks up at her. "'In these situations, women often find themselves acquiescing to the men—?'" he says encouragingly.

"Ah, so you were listening!" Kat says.

"Why wouldn't I be?" he teases.

Kat sets her book on her lap. "One might say it isn't your area of interest."

"No, but it's yours." He smiles up at her. "And you are my area of interest."

She swats his shoulder. "Flatterer." But she braces herself with one hand on the pillow behind her and leans down for a kiss, smiling into his lips. When she pulls back, she says, "I could teach you how to braid my hair."

"Not that I'm objecting, but—"

"You were playing with it. Before. You do that a lot."

He pushes himself up to sit next to her. "Should I stop?"

She puts a finger on his forehead and smoothes out the crease between his eyebrows. It always surprises her how quickly he can snap into and out of that serious mode, genuinely concerned about her in a way very few people ever are. "No. I just thought you might like to know."

He leans forward and kisses her forehead. "I'd love to."

So she divides her hair into sections and shows him how to do a simple braid. He's always had good hand-eye coordination, making lovely things in wood shop and metal shop, and he quickly catches on. She moves on to French braids, turning her back on him and tilting her head so he can practice. It isn't long, though, before he pulls her braid aside and kisses her neck, her shoulder, her upper back. She grins to herself and lets him enjoy it for a bit before turning around, straddling his lap, and diverting his attention elsewhere.

[embraidery]

Hello, happy late Halloween!

I'm realising now that a lot of what I have read is YA, and I don't know if that's cool or not--if it is, I can add some more recs!

But here's some non-YA:

Beneath the World, a Sea by Chris Beckett: Mildly horror SF in which an asteroid hit the Earth hundreds of millions of years ago, creating an alien ecosystem very cut off from the rest of the world. A cop ventures there to try to enforce the UN ruling that duendes, creatures that instill terror and other psychological effects on nearby humans, are considered people and shouldn't be killed by the people living there...but he is way, way over his head.

Short Stories:

Homecoming is Just Another Word for the Sublimation of the Self by Isabel J. Kim: a world where people can split into "instances" of themselves, an original and a copy. The main character moved from Korea to the US as a kid and travels back to Korea for her grandfather's funeral, where she meets her instance for the first time.

The Court Magician by Sarah Pinsker: a street urchin accepts an offer to go to the palace and learn the secret of real magic, but it comes with a steep price. Dark fantasy

Husband Stitch by Carmen Maria Machado: a girl with a ribbon around her neck meets a boy, gets married, has a family: but her husband won't leave the fact of her ribbon alone and desperately wants to touch it. Kind of a horror about everyday misogyny.

[luvbarryfefe]

Oh wow, I absolutely love that!! How creative and such a good poem too.

[luvbarryfefe]

P.S. Thanks! Happy Halloween. it's perfect.