Sorry Gym Closed — The Coronavirus Workout
from Alan Thrall
handwashing can dramatically lower the risk of contracting coronavirus because it's an enveloped virus, it's specifically surrounded in a lipid (fat) and the majority of soaps are designed to break up grease and fat bonds which means if you break up that outer layer? the virus dies! it's not super hardy without that outer layer, so washing your hands beyond just physically removing the virus, kills it as well if you use soap.
:)
Lock Down Fest is a non-anon, self-posting, multi-ship and multi-fandom mini fest that is designed to bring comfort to everyone staying indoors under quarantine restrictions at the moment and to all of us experiencing fear because of the pandemic. Anxiety levels are high and the news is distressing, so we want to invite everyone to use this time to be creative and spread joy. LDF will run from 20-30 March; announcements will be made here.
We want everyone to be encouraged to participate and to follow the fest, but we also appreciate that reading about the virus can be upsetting for many people. For that reason, we’ve decided on a twofold theme:
a. Getting Stuck In/Isolated Together (which doesn’t need to involve the virus in any way whatsoever)
b. Quarantine-inspired, if it occurs during the current pandemic. Works MUST be tagged with the tag: “Covid-19 Related” on AO3.
All kinds of fanworks are welcome with no minimum or maximum wordcount for fics. There is no claiming time nor the need to sign up. Simply, 1. visit the collection on AO3 and post your work when it opens, then 2. email: quarantinefest [at] gmail [.] com with a link to your fanwork.
If you don’t wish to write or draw, you can always contribute by offering beta services. Feel free to DM one of the mods and we’ll post a list with those volunteering to beta in the next couple of days. We’d appreciate it if all fics are beta-read.
Most importantly, please ensure you tag your work as “Covid-19 related” on AO3 if it takes place during the current pandemic, so as to give the chance to readers to exclude the tag, if they wish. Be mindful of your tags: if they deal with a pandemic anyway (historical or fictional), do tag and warn accordingly. If your work doesn’t comply with this requirement and we can’t get hold of you via the email provided, your work might be removed from the collection.
Lock Down Fest is open to everyone over 18 years old.
Your mods,
@magpiefngrl @nerdherderette @tackytigerfic @shealwaysreads (our fantastic and speedy banner-maker <3 )
26 March 2020: It’s happening, kids: National Theatre: At Home is coming
Released weekly on YouTube here
Every Thursday, the NT will be releasing a play from their NTLive archive to watch for free, for everyone, for 7 days.
First up is:
One Man, Two Guvnors (2nd April)
Jane Eyre (9th April)
Treasure Island (16th April)
Twelfth Night (23rd April)
Further productions to be announced.
Really cool tutorial about drawing (and how not to draw) East Asian eyes from @_ket2 on Twitter that I thought people would find useful! I really appreciate it as an East Asian person myself, and often frustrated by some of the uniform ways we’re represented in illustrations (reposted with permission).
Devil John
Chapter 5 - Tea
Fandom:Sherlock
Rating: Explicit
Excerpt:
The Black Dragon's Blood is long gone. It had given him confidence last time, burning through his veins. Without it, his anger is buried deep, even so, he can feel it simmering like a coal covered in a bed of ash waiting to catch fire again.
“So,”John says, looking back at the newspaper again. “Has it really been over a year?”
“Almost two.”
“I see.”
“But time passes differently in Hell, you said.”
“Yes.”
“Was it much shorter?”
“Hard to say. It's hard to tell the hours apart when things are always the same.”
“It would be interesting to make a calculation of the differences. That is, people have speculated about the afterlife for quite a long time, and this is a unique opportunity to write something definitive on the subject. If you could simply describe what it is like there. I mean, I've read books. There are tales of a tunnel, some sort of light, but no one ever sees what's on the other side of the ...”
“I don't want to talk about it.”
“Is it that you are forbidden from speaking of it? You might let me guess. Then you only need nod. Is it anything like Dante's inferno? Or is it possibly that you...”
“I said that I don't want to talk about it!”
Sherlock stops talking. That more than anything drives John to turn and face him. Sherlock seems much healthier than before. He's underweight, as always, but despite his leg, he seems in good vigor. His blue eyes sparkle in the light from the window, and there is nothing about them that suggests that he isn't sleeping.
“You came back to me,” Sherlock says with eyes soft with feeling.
“Did you doubt I would?”
“No.”
“Liar. If you didn't doubt it, you wouldn't have mentioned in the first place.”
John walks over to his chair. It has been recently dusted and the union jack pillow neatly placed in the center. He thinks of sitting in it, but that would be too normal, so he walks around the chair instead placing his hands on the back to steady himself as he looks down at Sherlock.
Sherlock stares at him in wonder. John looks at his amazed face and then down at his own hands. He is uncertain what to do next. This isn't a completely uncommon state of affairs. Sherlock often unsettles him. When he had been alive, he had felt so confused at times, knowing that he wanted to say something, but not quite knowing what it was. But this is embarrassing. Demons aren't supposed to feel awkward, not in any vision of the afterlife that he's heard of. He rocks back and forth on his heels glancing up at Sherlock who is staring at him as if he believes that tearing his eyes away would make John disappear.
John starts to talk, then stops. Last visit he said some things that he was ashamed of. He wants to apologize to Sherlock for calling him names and for hurting him, but he's fairly certain that apologizing is also something that demons don't do. He had thought that death would change things, but he was pants at this sort of thing when he was alive, and it seems that he's going to be a pants demon as well?
Continued on AO3
Hey! I’m going to start a little thing, if you’ll join me! It’s very much like a thing I did a couple of summers ago, the Summer Saturday Self-Reblog thing. It’s not summer and it doesn’t have to be Saturday - just re-post an old fic of yours. Lots of people may not have read it, and lots of people may be in the market to read something new. Make a fun header for your post. Or not! As you like. :) I’ll be back in a few with my first one. :)