sylleptic | Reading

http://www.downgoesbrown.com/2025/07/nhl-2024-25-prediction-contest-results.html

July 1 has come and gone, marking one of the most important dates on the entire NHL calendar.

Free agency? Extension? The start of the new league year? Yeah, I guess that stuff matters a bit. But I’m talking about the truly big stuff: The end of the annual prediction contest.

Yes, with the first day of free agency over with, we can officially close the book on the 2024-25 contest. It was the fourth time we’ve run this thing, and scores have been increasing every year. In theory, you guys are getting better at this. In reality… well, we’ll get to that.

As usual, the gimmick here is that the questions are easy, but you take a zero if you offer even one wrong answer, so the risk-reward can get tricky. If you missed out on the contest, or could use a refresher on how it all works, you can find the original post here. An initial summary came a week later, in which we learned that nobody believed in Sam Reinhart. Correctly, as it turns out. I’m sure he’ll be crushed once he and the rest of his teammates sober up. If they ever do.

The good news is that unlike last year, there was no tie at the top this time. There was one winner. Was it you? Maybe! (No.) Let’s go through the questions and see how this played out.

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

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http://www.downgoesbrown.com/2025/07/nhl-2024-25-prediction-contest-results.html

dine

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niqaeli

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ao3_vorkosigan_feed

Posted by Maykenfan

https://archiveofourown.org/works/67122127

by Maykenfan

Creative ways of dealing with jealousy.

Words: 2128, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Series: Part 9 of Vorkosigan Triad

Fandoms: Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Categories: M/M
Characters: Aral Vorkosigan, Oliver Jole
Relationships: Oliver Jole/Aral Vorkosigan
Additional Tags: Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, okay maybe a bit of plot, Oral Sex, Frottage, Missing Scene, Book: The Vor Game

https://archiveofourown.org/works/67122127

dine

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niqaeli

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lightreads

The Obsidian Tower

3/5. Fantasy about the woman who is the one with apparently necromantic magic in a family of vivomancers, and what happens when the door her family has guarded for thousands of years (they have a stupid rhyme about it and everything) is opened.

I picked this up because I liked her more recent release. This has many of the same good elements: bisexual heroine, complex webs of relationships, actual politics, and interest in friendship and teamwork. But I did not like this one nearly so much. I am generally in a bad mood right now, so take this as you will, but the protag’s repeated emotional victimization by two-thirds of the people in the book (including herself), and how she takes on guilt for basically everything, and her self-sacrificing tendencies really irritated me. I imagine the arc of this trilogy will be towards better relationships and some actual self-worth but meh, I’m not along for the ride.

Content notes: Torture.

lightreads

Hidden Nature

3/5. Her latest romantic suspense standalone about the woman recovering back in her home town after getting shot (she’s natural resources police). She gets interested in a series of disappearances, and also meets the new local contractor.

You know what’s the most starry-eyed fantasy of a Nora Roberts book? It’s not the romance – this one is rather lifeless. It’s not even the ubiquity of honest and dedicated cops (she put a black cop in this one, you guys, if you’re keeping track of Nora Roberts’s flailing and minuscule attempts to grapple with her career of coppaganda).

No, the biggest fantasy is of home renovation that is quick, easy, successful, and beautiful. Mostly done, in this case, by a guy who apparently . . . learned his trade skills in a summer with Habitat for Humanity and that’s it? I have concerns.

Content notes: Violence, murder, usual killer POV grossness.

dine

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ao3_temeraire_feed

Posted by revolutionarygold

https://archiveofourown.org/works/66946777

by revolutionarygold

Short ficlets and drabbles with nowhere else to post.

Words: 2496, Chapters: 8/?, Language: English

Fandoms: Temeraire - Naomi Novik
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: William Laurence, Temeraire (Temeraire), Iskierka (Temeraire), Edith Galman, Tenzing Tharkay, Jane Roland, Emily Roland, Lady Allendale (Temeraire)
Relationships: William Laurence & Temeraire, Iskierka & Temeraire (Temeraire), Edith Galman/Tenzing Tharkay, Jane Roland/Tenzing Tharkay, Emily Roland & Lady Allendale, Lady Allendale & William Laurence, William Laurence/Tenzing Tharkay
Additional Tags: Storms, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Dangerous Flirting, i promise what edith and tharkay are doing is flirting, it's just also terrifying, Epistolary, First Flight, balls, Domesticity, Alternate Universe - High School

https://archiveofourown.org/works/66946777

ao3_temeraire_feed

Posted by Pathsleadingaway

https://archiveofourown.org/works/66894667

by Pathsleadingaway

John Granby, lieutenant, went to the gym last night dressed to impress. He was not successful in his attempt to bag the Navy guy; he *did* get picked up by Captain Little, though. The group chat is in hysterics.

Words: 421, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Temeraire - Naomi Novik
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Categories: M/M
Characters: John Granby (Temeraire), Ezekiah Martin (Temeraire), Henry Ferris, Forthing (Temeraire), Catherine Harcourt, Lt. Riggs, Lt Dayes
Relationships: John Granby/Augustine Little
Additional Tags: group text fic, text fic, Takes place after "You Can Call Me Captain", Granby's morning after walk of shame, Martin is a Middie but he's in the Lieuts chat because he's cool, Ferris and Forthing are in a situationship, Dayes is Granby's recent ex

https://archiveofourown.org/works/66894667

ao3_temeraire_feed

Posted by Anonymous

https://archiveofourown.org/works/66777718

by Anonymous

William Laurence was an easy man to desire, but without the resources to keep him in the manner he was accustomed to, Tharkay had resisted reaching out to grasp what he so desperately wanted. Until he found himself once again landed and monied at the end of the war. Then it was only a matter of ensuring that there were no meddling dragons close at hand to stop him from making his claim.

Words: 3608, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Temeraire - Naomi Novik
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Categories: M/M
Characters: Tenzing Tharkay, William Laurence, Temeraire (Temeraire)
Relationships: William Laurence/Tenzing Tharkay
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Mental Coercion, Extremely Dubious Consent, Dubious Morality, Light Dom/sub

https://archiveofourown.org/works/66777718

dine

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lannamichaels

Title: Drabble: Anti-Brooklynians.
Author:

lannamichaels
Fandom: Captain America
Rating: G
Archives: Archive Of Our Own, SquidgeWorld

Summary: Aliens wrote Shakespeare, the Earl of Oxford built the pyramids, and Steve Rogers was never Captain America.

( I started this in 2019 and then ignored it every time I saw it instead of getting it to fit wordcount )

dine

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downgoesbrown_feed

http://www.downgoesbrown.com/2025/06/should-leaf-fans-view-mitch-marner-as.html

It’s official. The Mitch Marner era is over in Toronto, with the Leafs executing a sign-and-trade deal that sends him to Vegas Golden Knights hours before Monday's midnight deadline. (add link)

Leaf fans, how are we feeling about all of this? More specifically, how are we feeling about Marner himself?

Let’s put the question even more simply: When he makes his first trip back to Toronto, are you booing him? Does he get an ovation? Something in between? No reaction at all?

I think I can guess where the majority might be leaning today. I’m also pretty sure that it’s far from unanimous. So today, let’s debate the subject with arguments, from two different types of fans, both of whom are me.

In one corner, my sports fan brain – logical, rational, and not especially susceptible to easy narratives. In the other, my sports fan heart, which is not quite as rational, but is also the main reason I’m here.

It’s worth pointing out that the last time we broke out this gimmick for a Leafs debate, it was 2022 and we were still doing the “run it back” dance with this team. Back then, my head said to stay the course, while my heart said to blow it all up. If you look back at that post today, well, I think it’s fair to say that the heart won, or at least it should have. We’ll see if that holds true today.

Mitch Marner is an ex-Leaf. Are we mad at him? Should we be? I’m not sure, so let’s drop the gloves and square off.

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

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http://www.downgoesbrown.com/2025/06/should-leaf-fans-view-mitch-marner-as.html

alierak posting in

dw_maintenance

We're having to rebuild the search server again (previously, previously). It will take a few days to reindex all the content.

Meanwhile search services should be running, but probably returning no results or incomplete results for most queries.

ao3_vorkosigan_feed

Posted by CodenameCarrot

https://archiveofourown.org/works/66749404

by CodenameCarrot

“They went for the baby, Karla Hysopi raised hell, so they took her too.”

– Barrayar, Chapter 13

2012 Winterfare Exchange Prompt inspired:

trope's prompt:

"Mistress Hysopi and Bothari co-parenting. What does she think of him, to agree to this arrangement? As Elena gets older, do they strategize, or are they working on parallel tracks?"

Words: 452, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English