yougavemeastocking | 2023 Stocking: nostalgicatsea

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2023 Stocking: nostalgicatsea

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Username: nostalgicatsea

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nostalgicatsea

Comics Steve/Tony: 616, Civil Warrior, MA:A, Noir, Ultimates

Other Fandoms/Ships/Characters:
MCU:
- Ships: mainly Steve/Tony, but also Bucky/Nat, Sam/Bucky, Tony/Wenwu
- Gen: Rhodey & Tony, Nebula & Tony, Natasha & Tony, Steve & Natasha, Steve & Thor, Tony & Thor, Steve & Tony & Thor, Steve & Peggy, Tony & Wenwu, Natasha & Yelena, Carol & Nick Fury, anything Kamala-related

AvAC:
- Ship: Steve/Tony
- Gen: Tony & Jan

EMH:
- Ship: Steve/Tony

Succession any gen focused on the Roy siblings, Kendall/Stewy

Mob Psycho 100 any gen

Samurai Champloo Fuu/Jin/Mugen

Likes: I’ll throw a whole list out there because I’m very open to a lot of things!

- AUs (gangster, magic, sports non-powered, high school or college, supernatural, horror, sci-fi, etc. You name it! I love AUs)
- canon divergence
- character studies
- parallels/similarities between characters
- angstttttttttttt (if it's a longer fic, preferably a happy ending, but I like bittersweet and sad endings too)
- soulmates
- found family
- outsiders finding companionship with each other
- family issues/difficult family relationships
- war-forged bonds
- disillusionment in a belief system
- grudging respect turning into something more
- slow burn
- mutual or one-sided pining
- multiverse
- telepathy
- self-sacrifice
- amnesia
- time travel
- reincarnation
- fake relationship
- relationship of convenience
- hurt/comfort
- de-aging
- dream world
- presumed dead
- temporary or permanent death
- post-breakup
- getting together or getting back together
- miscommunication or bad communication
- explorations of emotional/physical trauma and substance abuse/recovery
- grief/mourning
- parental/child relationships
- dark Steve
- the weight of the Captain America mantle and Steve's relationship to it
- road trips
- love/hate relationships
- enemies/friends-to-lovers
- identity porn
- betrayal and forgiveness
- protectiveness/possessiveness
- legacy
- witty humor
- truth serum
- repression
- hiding injuries
- Skrullsssss
- any horror tropes or prompts on this list or this one

Dislikes: Partner abuse, infidelity, or sexual assault between characters in the same ship (unless you’re referencing a canon plot point. I’m also fine with infidelity and abuse involving a villain as long as it’s not OOC); PWP; Hydra Steve; OOC (crack is fine as long as the characters retain their personalities); pregnancy; incest; adult/minor romantic relationships; Avengers fics with Darcy in them.

Non-fandom related requests/anything else?:
- Anything cute, interesting, or funny related to animals
- Fic recs of any of the ships, characters, or fandoms mentioned above (also open to Naruto because I feel like those are very hard to find. I’m in the mood for good worldbuilding or relationship studies, something with good emotional beats, or something very plotty)
- Fanart, fanvids, graphics, fanmixes, edits, gifsets of my ships, favorite characters, Chris Evans, or RDJ
- Your favorite recipes or easy, healthy recipes and any cooking/baking tips
- The most useful tools or life hacks you would recommend to everyone
- Links to favorite non-fandom or fandom shops on Etsy, Society6, etc.
- Things that comforted or distracted you in a good way this year
- Really cool/niche cultural or scientific facts, discoveries
- Best longform articles you read this year
- Computer and Nintendo Switch game recs for casual gamers
- Book recs (all-time favorites or your favorites of the year)
- Poetry recs
- Movie and TV recs (I'm open to a LOT of genres and topics so I'm not picky. I like non-English stuff too so if you have any to rec, please do)
- Cool/unusual/"hidden gem" places (landscapes, favorite spots in your hometown or place you've traveled to, restaurants, shops, architecture)
- Self-learning language tips and resources
- Resources to learn more about film, writing, photography, interior design, art

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Happy New Year!
I still think back fondly to the horror exchange event you organized. I also greatly respect your endless work and effort you put into the LOPA prompts. I keep telling myself to write or draw something for them, but I always forget. Maybe that can be my New Year's resolution. Anyhow: love to hear your juicy characterization thoughts about the MCU.

Here is a shigeo for you :)

Thank you!<3 I'd like to do the horror exchange event again sometime, but I'll have to see if I have enough gas in my tank a few months from now before deciding.

AND THANK YOU FOR THE SHIGEO ART! Omg I didn't expect anyone to share anything MP100-related let alone actually take out the time to create something. 😭 MY SON! You captured his likeness so well...his dorky bowl cut, the placid smile he has on that hides a maelstrom of emotions. The way that where he stands, it's all negative space and then behind him in the shadows, there's so much fractured colorful movement and turmoil! WOW. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! I LOVE THIS.

Sea!! Another year of stockings, and hopefully some more things for you to enjoy in the coming year :) (I hope that you have gotten to some of the ones I left last time, and liked them - I'm always happy to have you in my DMs btw so if you feel the urge to come say what you enjoyed - or what you didn't!! - I'm always keen)

So, this time, I am reccing you:

2 anthologies of short stories:

- The Djin Falls in Love and other stories
- The Mythic Dream

2 graphic novels

Verse Book One: The Broken Half by Sam Beck (written and illustrated!) - fantasy world. Caveat - I haven't finished it because the library only had it in e-book and I just CAN'T read graphic novels on my phone. But what I read was good and the art was gorgeous.

Sentient by Jeff Lemire, illustrated by Gabriel Hernandez. This one's a darker scifi - when a separatist attack kills every adult on board a colony ship in deep space, it is up to VALARIE, the on-board A.I., to help the ship's children survive.

Some books!

The Stars Now Unclaimed by Drew Williams. Space war shenanigans including children with special abilities and a courier who gets them to base safely after searching them out. post-apocalyptic that had tech iimplications, space-faring races.

Chris Wooding's Poison - twisted fairy tale fantasy about a changeling - and also his Tales of the Ketty Jay series, which is about spacefaring pirates! getting up to shenanigans in space!

A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T Kingfisher was a pretty cosy fantasy read (if you are okay with the ~14 yr old gotta save the city trope, which T Kingfisher very much acknowledges, and this one has a MUCH better support system than most of the teen saviours you read about). If you like that one, then Minor Mage (farming village and wild forest setting) and Illuminations (olden days could-be-magical-Italy) should also be just your cuppa, too. If you like her style but want more romance, then try her Paladin series (including Swordheart and the Clocktaur Wars duology, which don't follow the Paladin's X title convention that the rest do, but are part of the same universe). Fantasy setting with brooding paladins, the books have different main characters rather than being a continuation of one story.

I know I've mentioned them both before, but:

Martha Wells; her new book Witch King was excellent (found family! loyalty! awesome worldbuilding with different systems of magic!), plus the newest and last in the Murdurbot series also came out this year.

And, if you want some cosy hopepunk, Becky Chambers Monk and Robot duology (so far) do a great job of that, with mostly tech-free self-sufficient communities spread out across the place and a tea-making monk travelling by solar-caravan and bike between them to give solace to people. Till they go on a trip and meet a robot. Also the novella both have gorgeous covers.

___

May 2024 bring good tidings and fulfillment and some restfulness to you. Also if you ever decide to visit Aotearoa NZ hit me up, but otherwise it's so far there's not much point reccing you places to visit haha.

Hiiii, lore! Wow, I've read a grand total of zero of these so I have a lot of things to add to my reading list! :D Oh wait lol no, I read A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking. Excuse my forgetfulness. I got a bit too excited for a second there haha.

And I'm embarrassed to admit that I forgot about revisiting my stocking last year, but I'm going to make a reminder until I get through everything.

Thank you so much for putting this together. It's so thoughtfully curated and your descriptions intrigue me!

I hope that 2024 gives you the same as well. You certainly deserve it.<3 And one of these days, I'll make my way to NZ!

Aww, thanks 🥰

Don't even worry, TBR lists are there for a reason and also sometimes the right mood has to strike! I hope that you give yourself grace and enjoy them if and when it suits :)

Glad that they pique your interest and also, hiiii! Can you even believe it's March?!

Hey! You're a really great presence in fandom and I appreciate all the things you contribute. Here's a little thing about Tony and Steve being exes but beginning the process of making up.

Wishing you a great soon-to-be spring!

It's late at night so yelling would be inappropriate, but I'm silently yelling because WOW!!!! THANK YOU! I can't wait to read this and then gush because this is exactly what I love. And old Steve? The world needs more old Steve works.<3

Thanks so much for this! May your spring be beautiful and full of light, calmness, and joy.

Happy stocking day!
I made you a Civil Warrior collage. Better quality is on my tumblr (or will be within the next couple of days).

I haven't managed to respond on Tumblr yet, but I wanted to let you know that as soon as I saw the notification and clicked it, I had a good laugh. This is AMAZING and I love it. I admire your collage skills and the text posts that you included are excellent.<3 THANK YOU!

Hooray, I'm glad you like it! The text posts were exactly what I needed to balance the grimness and angst in this piece, heh--and to balance compositionally, too. So I'm pleased to hear they work for you 😂

Hey, sea!

I feel like everything I want to rec to you is something I have recced to you, so apologies if this is a repeat:

The video game that I have put the most hours into in the past couple years is Vampire Survivors, which is on all the platforms, including Switch. It's the originator of the "bullet heaven" genre of shooters (a variant of bullet hell in which you are the bullet hell) and basically you don't have to aim anything and you walk around just absolutely wrecking things and it's very satisfying. It costs like $6 and I have played it for 150 hours.
For longform articles, I signed up for the email newsletter from Tedium, which is one guy who does deep-dive articles a couple times a week into the absolute most niche trivial facts you can imagine, usually technology but not always. It's hard to describe but I think it's fascinating.
Book recs. Hmm. Ever read Always Coming Home by Ursula LeGuin? It's one of the ones that doesn't get recced as much because it's basically just worldbuilding, but I love it.
In the same vein of "books that are definitely someone's favorite book but probably not most people's" I rec anything by John M. Ford, but you should start with The Dragon Waiting, which is a fantasy AU of the Wars of the Roses where Byzantium never fell and vampires exist but people mostly become vampires for political reasons, like, so they can rule most of Italy forever. It is strange and I love it.
i also rec Graydon Saunders' Commonweal series, which is a fantasy series about being a more enlightened civilization in the wake of a massive disaster. The first book is fairly military. It has war sheep. The second and third (I think?) books are about wizardry school except wizardry school is sort of like training to be a civil engineer but you might also die.
I have language-learning resources but really only for specific languages, but let me know if those languages are Latin, Greek, or Old English, because I have you covered. :D

Hi, sine! I'm actually unfamiliar with all of these which is great. :D I have no clue what "bullet heaven" or "bullet hell" are, but the terms made me super curious and wow, I learned a new thing today! Vampire Survivors sounds cathartic.

That email newsletter is exactly the kind of thing I love. If you can deep dive into something that I know nothing about and it's niche, I'm in. I can't wait to check it out.

I admit I'm a bad fantasy fan, and I've only read one book by Ursula LeGuin (the first Earthsea novel) and you're right. I don't think anyone's recced that one to me before.

I was going to tell you what I thought was interesting about the description you gave for The Dragon Waiting, but I realized I was about to copy and paste everything and not leave anything out.

WAR SHEEP?!?!? I'M INTRIGUED. And I love schools in stories that are like the one you described.

Latin and Old English scare me though at some point, I should dip my toes and try learning them...and same with Greek! My only knowledge of Greek other than the names of some food and probably some loan words I can't think of at the moment is a few scattered terms that I can't remember off the bat, but if I hear a friend use it, I can pick up on it and then forget it once that conversation is over haha.

Hi, Sea! I always enjoy reading you because what you say makes me think a lot.

So in the spirit of that, first is a question that I swear is not paid promotion lol: do you have mubi? It's a streaming service with a more off-beat, arthouse style. It's really helped me get back in the groove about film.

Also if you haven't read her yet and you want some litficcy horror, Mariana Enriquez is an Argentinian author that's been translated to English and she's excellent.

Thanks for this lovely comment :')!<3 And I don't have mubi although I know of it, but I like what you said about it. I'll check it out! It can be difficult to access films like that or catch them at the theater in time (usually the only way I could/can, but I haven't gone out to the theater much since the pandemic began).

I don't know Mariana Enriquez so thanks for the rec too. I've been in the mood for horror and literary fiction that's not...idk, someone just pondering about their life, so this is great! WAIT. I Googled her and I know her short story collections though I haven't read them yet! I've been meaning to check them out, so I'll request them at the library. :)

Happy Leap Day!

I don't have anything fandom related for you but I have a couple healthy recipes.

A simple one pan bake is this fennel and chicken thigh recipe. The nice thing about chicken thighs is they're a cheap cut of meat and they're very hard to over bake.
https://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-roasted-chicken-thighs-with-fennel-amp-lemon-139854

I recently made a potato leek soup that I thought came out really well. The only thing I changed is I used sour cream instead of heavy cream (cus I like it). Also, if you want to portion this recipe out and freeze some for later, leave out the cream/sour cream before freezing. That bit doesn't freeze well but you can just stir in a spoonful into each portion after it's reheated. (Added tip, if leeks are expensive where you are, check whole foods. They actually had the cheapest price for me!)
https://www.onceuponachef.com/recipes/potato-leek-soup.html

And my favorite healthy recipe I've made recently is this squash and goat cheese galette. This IS more of a fall recipe cus of the squash it uses but if you know squash/pumpkin you should be able to swap in another kind (just be sure to peel it if it's not delicata). I made za'atar chicken thighs to go with this and it worked great.
https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/delicata-squash-galette-with-cheese-and-herbs-recipe

Wow, these are amazing recipes! I haven't eaten any of these before (I've never had any type of galette), and I didn't know that chicken thighs are hard to over bake. That's one less thing to worry about. :D These sound delicious and not even exaggerating, my mouth is watering even though it's late at night and I ate a lot today.

Thanks for your tips too. I appreciate hearing people's takes on what worked/didn't work for them or what they think could be a great thing to try out, and your suggestions are very helpful. I'm going to try making these in the coming weeks!

HI SEA!!! Thank you so much for being one of the people to make my fandom experience so lovely. I love screaming with you and also dissecting canon. You're such a bright spot of my fandom life!

life hacks...well, for writing, I pretty much always have the OneLook Reverse Dictionary open as a tab, it is SO helpful: https://www.onelook.com/reverse-dictionary.shtml

My favorite book I read last year was probably the Radiant Emperor duology, She Who Became the Sun and He Who Drowned the World! I described it to a friend as "everyone is a problematic queer in fantasy ancient China" so if you like. things like that. HAHAH. Last year, I also read and liked the Teixcalaan duology, too, if you like more political intrigue and lots of linguistics nerdery! The main character gave me vibes of someone who obsesses over things in a fandom-sense, but it was done really beautifully and painfully from the point of view of person from a colonized area who still loves the arts and culture of the colonizers.

But you know my real favorite book rec is Umineko <3 *gets shot*

HI, MAGIC!!!<3 Right back atcha. I never heard of the OneLook Reverse Dictionary, and this is AMAZING. I need to bookmark that site. This is better than thesaurus.com haha.

I remember you talking about the Radiant Emperor duology and istg this has been on my reading list for 238758932727 years, but I'm trying to be better at doing things instead of saying I will and then forgetting about them SO I'm going to set a reminder for myself to get these books out from the library. Everything you said is whetting my appetite for the books even more. :)

AND SPEAKING OF SAYING I'LL DO SOMETHING AND THEN FORGETTING, before I do anything, I need to get to Umineko haha. I'm determined to continue it this year!

Hello Friend!
I first wanted to thank you for all the hard work you do for fandom including MTH, your enthusiasm that keeps us going, and all your thoughtful input into different matters fandom and otherwise; you rock!
you said you're after recs for TV, and I don't know if you're into Good Omens/Doctor Who or not (I definitely recommend Good Omens because whoa) but because of Good Omens, I went down a rabbit hole of Michael Sheen and David Tennant shows and found a few absolutely amazing shows that I guess you might like:

Masters of Sex (especially the first two seasons) is just peak television. The atmosphere, the way things are always at stake, the acting, and omg the steam...I really really recommend it.

Broadchurch is also AMAZING. It has the best David Tennant ever and his character is just a wet, sad cat that we all wanna take home and feed and keep warm. The plot keeps you on your toes and Olivia Colman's character and acting is just fantastic. (Warning for plot line of murder of a kid first two seasons and sexual assault the third one)

There She Goes just blew me away. I didn't know a show could be this heartbreaking and this funny at the same time, so human, so amazingly well-written. It approaches disability and parenthood in a unique, raw, and honest way; I don't think I've ever have seen anything like it.

I have the biggest 🥹 face reading this. Thanks so much! I think I need a few days off to rest soon because I'm feeling a bit ragged, but comments like this keep me going.<3

Haha, I loved the GO novel and watched the first season and really like Michael Sheen and David Tennant as actors. Did you see the DW specials at the end of the year? Seeing him—and Catherine Tate—return, however briefly, to DW lifted my spirits! I had a blast watching them even if the specials had some clunky moments (but they're specials and RTD's at the helm again haha. That comes with the territory).

ANYWAY. I never managed to get around to watching Masters of Sex or Broadchurch, but you've sold me on both and I think I'll check them out later this spring or summer. I never heard of There She Goes, but your endorsement is a convincing one and I'll make sure to check it out too. Thanks for these recs!

Happy new year! I hope the world treats you kind and gives you much to explore and enjoy! For your stocking this year, I have a couple of different recs:

Naruto:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/20760530 My own fic! Fits the good worldbuilding and relationship study with plot bill, if I do say so meself. WIP but stands alone well, if I also do say so myself haha.
https://archiveofourown.org/series/525844 You might have already read it but in case you haven’t, this series really is such a juicy narrative that pulls together all of naruto’s plot
https://archiveofourown.org/series/3026433 Team minato what-if, good character deep dives with some really compelling worldbuilding choices

Some recipes I have loved in the past year:

https://thekitchengirl.com/thai-coconut-soup/#Ingredient_notes Fabulous, hearty soup with lots of veg and textures. Very adaptable
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzDCuS2l_qI Especially the mushroom leek pasta. Little effort, great flavor reward
https://mattymatheson.wetransfer.com/ Matty Matheson’s college coookbook which is filled with easy budget recipes that do shy away from taste
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CrpDXT1g4Az/?igsh=MWcxa3M4YjZhd2VqZw This cottage cheese and tomato pasta recipe which me and my partner can NOT stop making. simple base ingredients but you can add extra seasonings, garlic, etc. as you wish

Long form articles I have enjoyed:
https://knowablemagazine.org/content/article/food-environment/2022/how-truffles-took-root-around-world Fungi knowledge is essential and delicious!
https://catapult.co/stories/the-pain-of-losing-your-first-language-attrition-bilingualism-kristin-wong Reflections on bilingualism and cultural loss

Thank you! I hope the new year gives you that as well.<3

:O!!! I didn't know you wrote Naruto fic! And the relationship tags...I see you're someone with impeccable taste. I haven't read the other two recs so thank you. I'm excited to read them. I used to read Naruto fic a lot, but then I stopped and then when I tried to go back, it was difficult finding good fics. I know they exist! :( But generally speaking, I find it harder to come across fics that check off things on my interest list in anime fandoms, so recs are invaluable.

Those recipes sound scrumptious, and I feel like I made a mistake looking at them so late at night because I want to run out and get ingredients to try these out. And hey, it's Matty! :) (I'm a fan of The Bear).

You're absolutely right about fungi knowledge and I can't wait to dive in. Thanks for the Catapult link too. That's something that is personal for me as a bilingual speaker, so I know it's going to hit hard in the best of ways.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

2023 Stocking: nostalgicatsea

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some recs for you <3

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