This journal is on hiatus for the time being. In the meantime, please see either delphi.dreamwidth.org or www.livejournal.com/~atdelphi.

Title: The Courtship of Benjamin Jink
Pairing: Slughorn/OMC, Slughorn/Snape
Rating: NC-17
Summary: Horace Slughorn discovers that moving on does not always entail moving forward.
Notes: Written for fluffyllama for the snapelyholidays exchange. Many thanks to jeddy83 and rikibeth for beta-reading, and to everyone kind enough to comment and rec the first time through - you don't know how wonderful a Christmas present that was for me.

( The Courtship of Benjamin Jink )

The masterlist for hp_yule_balls has just gone up, and I urge anyone looking for a good read to browse over the offerings. If anyone missed it the first time, here is the rec I wrote for the gift I received.

Title: The Fisher King
Pairing: Percy/Alastor
Rating: Adult
Summary: In which quests and grails are overrated, and virtues are not.
Notes: Written for florahart for the hp_yule_balls exchange. Many thanks to my trusty beta for her work and advice.

( The Fisher King )

Here in Canada, Boxing Day is something like the U.S. Black Friday - a day (or a week) to brave insanely crowded stores for a few sales. That said, I think a better use of Boxing Day, if you're fortunate enough to have it off, is to stay home and make stock. All it takes is a pot, the bones and whatnot from Christmas dinner, and some veg. You put your feet up and relax, maybe skim the pot now and then. Warm up the house and enjoy the smell of something good on the stove.

Maybe you don't have a ton of swag at the end of the day, but after the excess of Christmas, there's a certain satisfaction in making the most of what you've got.

Plus, soup is yummy!

Happy holidays to all who are celebrating!

It's been a bit of a mixed bag here, but overall I'm so glad I decided not to go to my father's for the break. Any stresses have been solely of the roommate and school variety, which are certainly more minor monsters. I got myself a job today - an RA position for the winter term. I'm a little worried about the time commitment involved; I think I'm the only person in my cohort still taking four courses (three is considered full-time) and on top of that I've discovered that I'm really not partial to carrying out the minutiae of Humanities research with all its tricky coding and weighting and ethics and trying to quantify qualitative data. There's a reason I originally majored in a field where all the subjects have been dead for millenia. Still, money.

Coming back from the interview, I stopped in at the comic shop. One of my fantastic classmates gave gift certificates from her husband's store to those of us who worked with her on a group project for our comic book course. This store is doubly fantastic because everything is priced according to what the exchange rate was when the merchandise was purchased, which is always much cheaper than what goes on the back cover. I got the second little TPB of Runaways and also Astro City: Confession, which is one of my very favourites of the series for both the main arc and the beautiful The Nearness of You, and it prompted me to drabble.

I don't know if anyone on my f-list is an Astro City fan, but if you do know what I'm talking about, I'm sure you'll agree that even if they weren't loosely modelled on Batman and Robin and slashy in their own right, the Confessor and Altar Boy would lend to wickedness by their names alone.

Title: Mortification
Fandom: Astro City
Pairing: Brian Kinney/Jeremiah Parrish (unrequited)
Rating: G
Notes: Spoilers.
( 100 Words )

What a lucky gal I am! Just days after my gift for hp_yule_balls was posted, I woke up to find my gift for snapelyholidays (somehow while berating myself for signing up for two exchanges, it never really occurred to me that this meant I'd get two presents) - and what a gift it is.

I think I know who Surveillance is by, but if there's doubt, it's because I'm so very fortunate to know more than one person who could have written something so perfect for me. The pairings are Snape/Slughorn and Snape/Dumbledore, rated NC-17, with warnings for dub-con (though as the author points out, it's a case of a character who would be consenting currently being incapacitated). This story is hilarious and hot, and features a contrary virgin Snape, a hedonistic Slughorn, a jealous Dumbledore, and some magical twists along the way.

A lovely way to warm up on a cold winter's afternoon.

I have the best luck with exchanges - not only do I always get gifts I'm happy with, but I've been gifted several times with art (and with the pairings I like, fanart is a rare creature).

Today I checked hp_yule_balls and found not just a present for me, not just Snape/Aberforth for me, but Snape/Aberforth art for me!

Absolution (rated R), by my anonymous benefactor, deserves a peek by anyone remotely interested in this pairing. I especially love the use of colour and Aberforth's hand around Snape's wrist. It's the stuff plotbunnies are made of. :-D

Written for the hp100 prompt: Force

Title: The Force
Word Count: 100
Rating: G
Characters/Pairings: Dean Thomas
( The Force )

And written because I just keep picturing poor Filch, after losing Snape, latching on to another young professor...

Title: Caretaker's Pet
Word Count: 100
Rating: PG-ish
Characters/Pairings: Neville Longbottom, Argus Filch (off-screen)
( Caretaker's Pet )

Many thanks to bethbethbeth for bringing this to my attention.

Every once in a while in fandom, someone decides that rather than - oh, say - buy a jump drive or burn a CD or even open a proper archive, the best way to collect other people's work is to post it on their own website without the authors' knowledge or permission, without contact information for them or even the artist's name on fanart.

http://www.amortentia.net/ is such a endeavour, hosted by tehopheliac. Please have a look at the site to see if any of your fic or art is on it, or anything by someone you know, and if you see something of yours you can email her at lilliththeoddity@gmail.com to requeset she take it down. I recognise stories from several people here on my f-list, and will be writing to a few who have retired or taken a sabbatical from fandom to let them know what's going on.

eta: If anyone has an email address for diagonalist, could you let her know about this?

Written for the hp100 prompt: "Tower"

Title: In the Cards
Word Count: 100.
Characters/Pairings: Albus Dumbledore, Cassandra Vablatsky

( In the Cards )

Written for hp100. Prompt: "Pour"

( By the Sea )

Drabbles what I wrote for hp100 and (I don't think) posted here. Mostly gen, all of them safe for general audiences.

( 8 Drabbles )

I hope all who celebrate had a happy Hallowe'en/Samhain/excuse to eat candy!

Title: The Raven
Author: Delphi
Pairing: Argus Filch/Severus Snape
Rating: ADULT
Summary: A play on Poe's famous poem: Filch receives a rather persistent late-night visitor.
Notes: Written for the Pornish Pixies Hallowe'en Challenge. Please consider any liberties with scansion either an homage to the original or, if I can't get away with that, the forgivable weakness of a very unpracticed poet.

The Raven (Link goes to Pornish Pixies)

When finding oneself with a pot of delicious raspberry jam, the only sensible thing to do is make brioche - y/y?

*snarfs brioche with jam*

Wait, what? My riding went NDP? A federal riding in Alberta went NDP for the first time in history?

It's finally happened. Edmonton got its first winter night and Hell froze over.

When I went to bed last night, not only was the Conservative candidate in the lead, but the CBC website had labelled the votes as counted and Jaffer as elected. Then I happen upon a friend's blog and realise that the race went to Linda Duncan by a scant 400 votes - one of which was mine!

A tiny bit of my faith has officially been restored.

So, hundreds of millions of dollars later and it looks like we're back where we started - with a minority Conservative government.

This may not be horrible news in the long term. With two minority governments in a row, I suspect Harper will pack up his toys and sulk home with the next election, which in a better world may prompt the Conservatives to swing back to a leader in the PC rather Alliance tradition - and these results should also spur the Liberals to drop Dion for someone more electable (but please, not Bob Rae). However, in the short term, the Conservatives will have more rein to get their own way, and considering the shit they tried to pull with a stronger opposition...I'm not entirely hopeful.

I'm not pleased with the count in Southern Ontario, but I'm even more displeased to be living in a province that had 27 out of 28 seats go to the Conservatives and the 28th to an Independent who wants to entertain offers to cross the floor to the Conservatives. *sighs* Six more months and I'm getting the heck out of Alberta.

But you know what pisses me off the most? That this year, when the election was so important, it looks like we'll have the lowest voter turnout in history. Voting in Canada is just about the easiest process in the world, and if there is no one in your riding who you want to vote for, you show up and decline your ballot. If you neither voted nor declined your ballot, I'm sorry, you are a complete and utter fucktard. Congratulations.

*goes to bed*

Narrowly escaped death at the grocery store, as while I knew it was the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, I had forgotten that it was the last Save-On-Foods 15% Off Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Small children were climbing shelves at their parents' bidding to grab the last can of gravy and little old ladies were mowing people down with their shopping carts. Nevertheless, I now have the goods to make a roast duck, stuffing, mashed potatoes, buttered brussels sprouts, and pumpkin parfait.

I did run into a snag when I went to the deli counter and asked for kielbasa.

Me: Do you have any k'bossy?
Deli Workers #1 and #2: *blank looks*
Me: *realising I talk like a Southern Ontarian* Kielbasa?
Deli Worker #1: Is that a meat or a cheese?
Me: Meat. Like a Polish sausage?
Deli Worker #2: *consults with her manager and reports back* No, I don't think we carry that.
Deli Worker #3: *interrupts with a faint Ukrainian accent* Kubasa? Over there with the cheese.

Now, other than being mildly surprised that several Canadians, particularly ones working in a neighbourhood with a sizeable Eastern European population, hadn't heard of kielbasa, I got curious about the various pronunciations. Anyone out there care to share how they say it and where they're from? And do you love the stuff or hate it? Personally I can't stand it cold like how my dad eats it, but a diner I know serves it up nice sliced and fried with eggs and toast, and it also goes fabulously in a rye bread and apple stuffing.

Okay, after reading The Graveyard Book, I just couldn't get the notion of this out of my head. No big spoilers, I don't think, but it obviously requires some knowledge of the book and Neil Gaiman's work in general.

( When in Greece )

I am still up writing a paper because I made the mistake of buying The Graveyard Book today and could not stop reading it until it was done.

Chicken and apple sausage, baked sweet potato fries, and an arugula salad with warm goat cheese: the perfect autumn supper.