Scales and Tales

Ugh, just when I thought this might be one of the rare winters without catching some sort of crud, it arrived. Felt fine Friday morning; at 3PM I noticed my sinuses were sore, and by 5:30 PM my throat was on fire. Spent today alternately napping and poking through the 2025 Yuletide Collection; my face hurts too much to read, but I can skim and mark things for later! I must have at least three pages worth of "later" reading stacked up now, which is exciting to think about. Let's hope that, whatever this crud is, it goes away as fast as it came.

Between being busy and getting sick, it looks like my annual Cards & Tea post may have be postponed to the New Year - I definitely don't want to be handling comestibles, or even cards, in the state I'm in now.

I've been too busy to crack the pages on either my newest purchases, Stars of Chaos volume 2 and the first book of Married Thrice to a Salted Fish, but I'm still looking forward to them. I did finally finish watching Mob Psycho 100's 3rd season last week, and greatly enjoyed it! Yesterday, when I wasn't feeling quite as awful, I started a Tiger & Bunny rewatch, and got 7 episodes in; no progress on that today, but maybe tomorrow.

If you participated in Yuletide, what gift(s) did you get? If you're just reading, has anything caught your eye? Any new fandoms you're eyeing for 2026, or rereads/rewatches you're planning?

Thursday night I finished reading Married Thrice to Salted Fish! What a fun ride that was. The two main leads are both highly enjoyable characters, and their interactions are both lots of fun and often quite touching. I love that they achieved their happy ending at last, and I felt that the author built their relationship really well - they're very different people, but they work with each other's strengths and flaws and you can feel the affection that it creates. If you're looking for a m/m cnovel, I'd recommend it!

(More accurately, I finished reading it on Friday morning, around 2AM - which made work on Friday unpleasant. Don't recommend that part.)

Watched four more episodes of Modao Zushi yesterday! Seeing Lan Wangji be as blatantly obvious in his affections as he knows how to be - which is enough to throw Wei Wuxian off his stride, but never quite bring him to the conclusion he's hovering on - is delightful. I'm through the Yi City arc now.

Last night I started reading After I Married the Disabled War God As My Concubine, in part because the ludicrously long and detailed title made me giggle, and in part because it was pimped to me as "concubine is given to the prince as an insult," which is a trope I'm weak to. I'm about 20 chapters in so far; the translation is a little rough in places, and the writing often feels more 'tell' than 'show,' but there are enough fun moments and hints of future shippiness that I plan to continue.


ETA: I also began a Tiger & Bunny rewatch yesterday! I needed something to half-watch while baking lemon bread. :) Wasn't really intending to do a full rewatch, but now I think I might.

I think it's safe to say my energy and attention span for fandom things is coming back. :D