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Another Cthulhu / Horror Bundle - Tentacles 7

This is an all-new bundle of games, sourcebooks and adventures based on the Cthulhu Mythos from a variety of authors and publishers, the seventh Bundle Of Holding annual collection of this type.

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Tentacles7

Like all of these bundles it's a mixed bag, hopefully containing something for everyone that likes the background. Since multiple games systems are represented here some adaption may be needed - for example, if you're playing the original Call of Cthulhu game some adventures will need conversion from "old school revival" D&D-like rules. There's some systemless background material, such as a book on cults, but this is more diverse than a lot of these bundles and more work is likely to be needed to get the maximum bang for your buck.

Not sure if this is the last horror offering before Halloween, but it seems likely. We should know what comes next before long...

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icons,
icons:pikmin

Pikmin Icons

Purple Pikmin in an airplain, next to a pikmin with a Carreg Dhu mountain badge.

Photo of Grafitti saying Peace Monkey Graffit, Withingon, Manchester, with two pickmin with yellow flowers on their heads down the front.

Bunch of Mii's in a mixture of outfits, most with sunglasses, celebrating 100063 steps.

View of a road layout showing a red mushroom, and various planters.

A blue pikmin an a 3 cupcake holding a cherry

It's remarkably difficult, at least I find it so, to take screenshots of one's iPhone. As a result capturing good images of Pikmin proced challenging.

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bundle of holding

Bundle of Holding: Tentacles 7

The seventh all-new library of Sanity-shattering tabletop roleplaying ebooks inspired by the Cthulhu Mythos.

Bundle of Holding: Tentacles 7

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emotional support dyeing?

A test batch to see how the colors come out. Next I start measuring out and doing this more systematically.

Three-ply handspun wool yarn.

New to me

The song version of The Great Nebraska Sea. Which seems to call for an actual musical.

Watch on YouTube

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Touring After the Apocalypse, volume 6 by Sakae Saito

What dark purpose compels a girl and her android companion to wander post-apocalyptic Japan?

Touring After the Apocalypse, volume 6 by Sakae Saito

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Interesting Links for 29-10-2025

1. Labour Deputy Lucy Powell says EHRC's single-sex spaces draft is 'not right': (tags:LGBT transgender GoodNews bigotry UK labour )
2. Nearly 90% of Windows Games now run on Linux, latest data shows: (tags:games windows Linux )
3. A satellite runs Doom from orbit, using Ubuntu on Arm: (tags:space doom games )

Current Mood: worried

Diverging Media Worlds

15 or so years ago I began hearing more about how people have increasing difficulty talking to their parents or other relatives who listened to faux news and thus inhabited increasingly divergent media universes than they did. I never had that problem – my parents (and now just my mom) are basic centrist liberals who have never watched (and would never) watch faux and enjoy the Daily Show. We didn’t always agree on politics (me being a democratic socialist), but we very much lived in the same media universe, and our facts were mostly the same.

Now I have a similar problem, because my mom watches NBC, ABC news, or CNN and reads the Washington Post, and I don’t and instead get my news from Bluesky, What the Fuck Just Happened Today? (which is awesome), Daily Kos, and similar lefty sources. Recently I discovered my mom hadn’t heart of the costumed protests (starting with frog guy) in Portland, hadn’t heard of any but the largest No Kings protests, and most concerningly had no idea who JB Pritzker (the governor of Illinois, and by far the most credible 2028 presidential candidate on our side) was or how he'd been standing up to 47, and she also hadn’t heard or seen anything about 47’s increasingly obvious mental decline (like the recent video of the Japanese PM leading him around, which reminded me astonishingly much of how my mom used to lead my dad around while he was still mobile (he died of Alzheimer’s). OTOH, she has heard of Gavin Newsom and has also heard news reports that he is (gag) the only possible Democratic candidate in 2028). That’s what you get when billionaires own all large-scale media in the US, because billionaires almost universally support authoritarians.

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Donna Icons

Donna, from Doctor Who, looking compassionate

Donna, from Doctor Who, waist up in a pink striped shirt with cardigan over it. Blue scenery behind.

Donna from Doctor Who operating the Tardis.

Donna from Doctor Who. Head and shoulders and it is windy.

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Five SF Stories Featuring the Sudden Formation of New and Exciting Bodies of Water

Sorry if you're a fan of boring old dry land...

Five SF Stories Featuring the Sudden Formation of New and Exciting Bodies of Water

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Tuesday not dictated

Tuesday. Sunny and cool.

Woke up without pain! Two hours later, I do have a tiny ache, which is entirely livable, and I'm shaking bad, but shaking doesn't hurt. Onward.

Scrambled an egg with onion, garlic, and sweet pepper, and toasted the last bits of homemade bread to top with sour cherry jam for breakfast. Which is the first thing I've been able to make and eat in, um, four days. Yes, I do know how to lose five pounds in four days. Not recommended.

Someone had asked if there wasn't anyone who could help with the food, and, err no. The issue this weekend wasn't my usual antipathy to actually making food (I could have ordered in, if that had been the case), but that the pain was so bad, I couldn't eat. I won't bore you with how difficult it is to convince yourself to eat two spoonfuls of cottage cheese so you can take the Tylenol, but trust me -- No Fun.

I'm still doing Tylenol, and may hit the ache with some CBD lotion on my way back to Steve's office after I finish this note, which is not dictated, but I'm feeling so much better -- I can't tell you.

Embroidery is still off the table for tonight. Ellen has courageously agreed to drive me to the cancer center (and back!) at stupid o'clock tomorrow, which is one less thing to worry about, and a load off my ... back. Am I going to stained glass on Thursday? Let's get through today and tomorrow first.

I did snatch a moment out of a relatively pain-free half-hour yesterday to painter-tape cardboard to the inside of the Problematic Table. Do I think Rookie will try to go through the no-longer-big-enough space between the table bars, and get stuck again? How do I know? He's a cat. The best I, a mere human, can do is Plan for the Worst.

I think that's all the news. I have three more Bits to do for the Sekrit Project, and my inbox and physical desktop are a mess.

The Plan is to make myself another cup of tea, go back to Steve's office, do the Bits, reassess, and see if settling in with a heating pad and a book is my next best move, or I'm up for More Adventure.

What're your plans for the day?

In case you missed it, the cats declared Selfie Tuesday

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Days of Atonement by Walter Jon Williams

How could a man die in front of Atocha Chief of Police Loren Hawn when that man died twenty years before?

Days of Atonement by Walter Jon Williams

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Interesting Links for 28-10-2025

1. Why Busy Beaver Hunters Fear the Antihydra: (tags:mathematics computers numbers )
2. Trump Defends Demolition Of Yggdrasil, Ancient Tree Of Life: (tags:satire politics USA )
3. No One Actually Knows What a Moon is: (tags:language space moon )

Alphabetical Story Meme

Seen multiple places, the idea is to go through the titles of all the fanfic you've written then link to one story for each letter of the alphabet, or as many as possible, with the usual rules about A and The not being part of the title. I'm ignoring one story where the title is a number only, and ignoring any punctuation before the first word. Depending on the site I either have 145 works written (AO3), 202 (Fan Fiction Net) or 189 (Twisting the Hellmouth) - the discrepancy is because some short story collections are e.g. separate drabbles on Fanfiction.net or were merged as a single story on the other sites, and so forth. TTH was the first site I ever posted to, so I decided to go through there first. I've decided to go for the first completed story for each letter, or unfinished stories if there's nothing else for a given letter. A LOT of these, are Buffy or Buffy crossovers, since that was the main thing I was posting in my early days. Quite a few are Drabbles, 100 words plus title. I've only included round robins if I began them.

A - Apocrypha - Buffy Drabble
B - Bring Me The Head of Harry Potter - Buffy/Angel/multiple crossovers
C - Contract Negotiation - Buffy/The Destroyer crossover
D - Double Life - Buffy/Miracleman crossover Drabble
E - Encore - Buffy
F - Favour - Buffy/Preacher crossover
G - Green - Buffy/DC Comics drabble
H - Hyperion - Buffy/The Saint crossover
I - The Intern - Veronica Mars/Lois and Clark
J - Jenny the Vampire Slayer - Buffy/Jenny Sparks fusion
K - The Key to Byzantium - Buffy/Stargate SG1 crossover
L - Legend - Buffyverse
M - Manhunters - CSI/Buffy
N - Names - Buffy/Angel/Multiple crossover Drabble
O - ...Or May I Call You Buffy - Buffy
P - Potential Problem CSI/Buffy crossover
Q - Question - Young Wizards/Surprise crossover Drabble
R - Reciprocity - Buffy/LotR crossover Drabble
S - Should Have Gone To Vegas - CSI/Angel crossover
T - They Might Be Drabbles - Pushing Daisies/crossovers drabbles round robin
U - Unexpected Outcome - Buffy/Dogma crossover Drabble
V - Vulnerable - Buffy/Harry Potter crossover Drabble
W - Wish - Buffy/Books of Magic crossover Drabble
X -
Y - Your Mission, Should You Choose to Accept - Buffy/Mission Impossible crossover Drabble
Z - The Zippo - Buffy drabble

The most recent of these was posted in 2011, with no new letters after that though I'm very tempted to write an X as a Buffyverse Halloween story to complete the set - I have a series of them in which something unfortunate happens to Xander, Sunnydale, or the world in general, but I've never used his name to begin the title...

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Another Horror Bundle - Cthulhu Reborn

This is a massive bundle of Cthulhu Mythos RPGs and settings from Cthulhu Reborn, a project to create a D100-based system based wholly on open rules sets and source material from Lovecraft which is definitively out of copyright - a lot of material in previous Mythos games has come from authors and works whose copyright status is unclear or definitely not available for free use. The basic offer is material set mainly in the 1920s, the extended offer includes multiple rules system and adventures in different eras from the past to the far future.

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/CthulhuReborn

I think that this is an extremely good offer, which takes the Cthulhu Mythos back to its roots and provides everything needed to run, write (and possibly publish) your own adventures without having to worry too much about inadvertently falling foul of arcane copyright law. It's relatively cheap and contains several thousand pages of useful material, if you have any interest in role-playing in this genre it's well worth a look.

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That A-Z Meme

Goodness it is ages since I did a meme and, I suspect, even longer since I actually managed to write any fanfic, however the A-Z meme got me curious so without more ado.

After the Apocalypse (Becker, Lester, Primeval Zombie AU, Teen, 1076 words)

Baba Yaga between the Worlds (Natasha, Clint, MCU, ALl Ages, 888 words)

Challenges and Discoveries (Evan, Howard, Primeval:New World, All Ages, 3898 words)

Dinner at the Eagle and Child (Liz, Silver, Doctor Who/Sapphire and Steel crossover, All Ages, 1490 words)

Elle n'a pas Peur des Fantomes (Adele, Agathe, Frankenstein's Creature, Les Aventures Extraordinaires d'Adele Blanc-Sec/Frankenstein crossover, 6174 words)

Foiling the Irulon Invasion (Donna, Eleven, Doctor Who, All Ages, 745 words)

Guardians of the Anomalies (Cutter, Stephen/Ryan, Groot, Rocket, Primeval/MCU AU Crossover, All Ages, 1093 words)

Harriet Vane's Medieval Mysteries (Eowyn/Faramir, Tolkien/Primeval crossover, All Ages, 2011 words)

In which Zoe Washburne meets Esmerelda Weatherwax (Zoe Washburne, Esmerelda Weatherwax, Firefly/Discworld crossover, All Ages, 3015 words)

Just the Fear and the Hatred (Robin of Sherwood, All Ages, 3093 words)

Kidnapped! (Stephen/Ryan, Clint Coulson, Primeval/Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D crossover, Teen, 2530 words)

Livermorium (Clara, Silver, Doctor Who/Sapphire and Steel crossover, 853 words)

Martha and Yaz Adventure in Time and Space (Martha, Yaz, Doctor Who, All Ages, 3890 words)

Not a Creature was Stirring, not even a Mouse (Claudia/Ryan, Primeval, All Ages, 4413 words)

Operation Golden Age (Reprise) (Claudia, Ryan, Primeval/Doctor Who crossover, All Ages, 5510 words)

Playing at Fighting Monsters (Ryan, Sapphire, Steel, Primeval/Sapphire and Steel crossover, All Ages, 1215 words)

Query. Fact. Supposition. Suggestion. Agreement (BB-8, Rey, Star Wars, All Ages, 413 words)

Rain and Blessing (Connor/Becker, Connor/Ryan, Primeval, All Ages, 593 words)

Side Quest (Harry, Sarah, Four, Doctor Who, All Ages, 6388 words)

Twelve and a half Times Silver didn't meet the Doctor and One and a half Times he did (Silver, Doctor Who/Sapphire and Steel Crossover, All Ages, 2253 words)

Waes Hael (Stephen/Ryan, Primeval, All Ages, 4511 words)

Yangchuanosaurus in the Undergrowth (Stephen/Ryan, Primeval, Teen, 1483 words)

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bundle of holding

Bundle of Holding: Cthulhu Reborn

Nearly two dozen Mythos investigations in many eras from the open-license Cthulhu Eternal tabletop roleplaying game line produced by Cthulhu Reborn.

Compatible with your favorite Lovecraftian percentile-based systems)

Bundle of Holding: Cthulhu Reborn

Current Mood: chipper
Current Location: Munich

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This and that

Got my Yuletide assignment, which is going to be fun - I just have to refresh my canon memories, and it's not a long canon. Also, I just finished the (short) first season of Dark Winds. Now I dimly remember reaidng one of Hillerman's novels decades ago, but only a very few details remained with me - the asking about the clans, for example - which meant that basically I went into this unspoiled. And was v. amused that apparantly Noah Emmerich now gets typecast as an F.B.I agent, though Stan from The Americans and High Pockets here are very different types.

( Spoilers thought it was a solid first season and will continue the show )

Meanwhile, thinking back to ye olde days when shows had 22 episodes per season, I just found this well crafted retroscpective on Six Feet Under, which reminded me of how much I loved and appreciated it:

The Family Tomb: A Six Feet Under Retrospective

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clarke award

Clarke Award Finalists 2020

2020: Boris Johnson proposes an unbuildable bridge between Scotland and Ireland, Universal Credit successfully sends stress levels soaring, and the Tories handle Covid as skilfully as they did Brexit.

Poll #33767 Clarke Award Finalists 2020

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 46

View Respondents

Which 2020 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?

View Answers

The Old Drift by Namwali Serpell
1 (2.2%)

A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
38 (82.6%)

Cage of Souls by Adrian Tchaikovsky
4 (8.7%)

The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders
15 (32.6%)

The Last Astronaut by David Wellington
1 (2.2%)

The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley
19 (41.3%)

Bold for have read, italic for intend to read, underline for never heard of it.

Which 2020 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?
The Old Drift by Namwali Serpell
A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
Cage of Souls by Adrian Tchaikovsky
The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders
The Last Astronaut by David Wellington
The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley

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harry potter

Looking a bit old...

For various reasons I wanted to check what Lillly Potter was supposed to look like according to the films etc., and realised that she and James Potter (both about 21 at the time of their deaths) were played by much older cast - Geraldine Somerville (born 1967) and Adrian Rawlins (born 1958).

So by 2010, when Deathly Hallows 1 was released, she was 43 and he was 52. This isn't just a minor discrepancy - even allowing for the stress of war etc., both look way too old for the roles, and James is visibly balding.

There don't appear to be actors for them in the TV series cast, not surprising if they're starting with the first book, but I hope that they will try to get things right. Meanwhile, I've got the young Raquel Welch in that role in my current Harry Potter fanfic, and I think that's as good a mental image as any.