Fiction: "Coming in from the Cold: Monday: Renovations" Part 5

This story belongs to the series Love Is For Children which includes "Love Is for Children," "Hairpins," "Blended," "Am I Not," "Unworthy," "Eggshells," "Dolls and Guys," "Duende," "Saudades," "Querencia," "Turnabout Is Fair Play," "Touching Moments," "Splash," "Coming Around," "Birthday Girl," "No Winter Lasts Forever," "Hide and Seek," "Kernel Error," "Happy Hour," "Green Eggs and Hulk,""kintsukuroi," "Little and Broken, but Still Good," "Byzantine Perplexities," "Up the Water Spout," "The Life of the Dead," "What It Means to Me," "If They Could Just Stay Little," "Anahata," "When the Wheels Come Off," "Against His Own Shield," "Coming in from the Cold: Saturday: Building Towers," "Coming in from the Cold: Sunday: Shaking Foundations," "Coming in from the Cold: Monday: Memorial Day," "Coming in from the Cold: Tuesday: Facing Fears," "Coming in from the Cold: Wednesday: Coping Techniques," "Coming in from the Cold: Thursday: Digging for Answers," "Coming in from the Cold: Friday: Bug Hunt," "Coming in from the Cold: Saturday: Revisiting the Past," "What Little Boys Are Made Of," "Rotten Fruit," "Trying to Find Prui," "Life in Quicktime," "Sunday Dinner," "Cafuné," "Fatherboards and Other F-words," "The Artists Among Us," "Cool Digs," "Keep the Homefires Burning," "Their Old Familiar Carols Play," "Fluffy," "A Leg Up," "Wabbit Season," "No Quarrel with a Boot," "And You Became Like Coffee," and "A Painful Process."

Fandom: The Avengers
Characters: Hulk, Bucky Barnes, Phil Coulson, JARVIS, Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Steve Rogers, Clint Barton, Natasha Romanova, Betty Ross.
Medium: Fiction
Warnings: Past Trauma, Anxiety, Secrets, Flashbacks, Arguments.
Summary: Tony widens the doorway between the common room and the kitchen, so Hulk can fit through it more comfortably. The Avengers talk over what happened between Hulk and Bucky.
Notes: Renovations, Teamwork, Training, Hugging, Food, No Sex, Intimacy, Non-Sexual Intimacy, Asexuality, Friendship, Team as Family, Avengers Family, Artificial Intelligence, Intellectual Foreplay, #coulsonlives.

Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6.

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Poetry Fishbowl on Tuesday, January 5

This is an advance announcement for the Tuesday, January 5, 2021 Poetry Fishbowl. This time the theme will be "short forms." I'll be soliciting poetic forms of 60 lines or less, so basically below my epic range rather than only the short-short length of 10 lines or less. Free verse below the length limit is also fine. Here are 15 short forms with descriptions. Among my favorite short forms not listed there: hexaduad, indriso, sestina, villanelle. This list of 100 forms is alphabetical. Poets Garrett has my favorite list of forms, including a list of repeating-interlocking forms. Their main page has links to poetic forms of 3-10 lines. Plus a few of my own: A darrow poem is a short, haiku-like musing by dark elves. A khazal is a Whispering Sands desert poem in couplets. A moose track is a repeating-interlocking form. A tweet wire is a tiny 10-line poem designed for Twitter. Some short forms, like haiku and tanka, work well as verses in a longer poem. I have The New Book of Forms by Lewis Turco so most forms should be in there. You can also prompt with a link to any exotic form you find; I collect these things.

In addition to forms, I also need topical prompts. One-word or short-phrase framing will assist in keeping them small enough to fit within the theme. Here is a huge list of common themes. This page of idioms has alphabetical and topical listings. I love writing poems about an individual word; see The Phrontistery (WARNING! Black hole caliber time sink ahead!) for glossaries or this list of untranslatable words. Have an orientation that is not well represented in literature? Ask for a sexual, romantic, or other orientation! If it's not on any of my lists, just include a description or link to one. I also list gender identities and my characters with disabilities. Want to help me play with my holiday gifts? :D I just got The Occupation Thesaurus, plus I have The Emotional Wound Thesaurus, The Urban Setting Thesaurus, The Rural Setting Thesaurus, The Emotion Thesaurus, The Positive Trait Thesaurus, and The Negative Trait Thesaurus. Simply click "Look Inside" and view the table of contents for a list of cool ideas. You can prompt a sestina with six end words; I usually pick 5 short flexible words and one long exotic word, but I'll work with whatever I get. Favorite characters, threads, series, settings, etc. are also fair game but this is NOT the time for long plotty prompts. Consider combining a name or title with a short form, theme, or idiom. If you like to prompt with photos, this is a great opportunity for that. Just type in a topic (see above for possibilities) and click the Image link in your favorite search engine.

Among my more relevant series for the main theme:

Arts and Crafts America is ideal for picture prompts, or just name a craft.

Fiorenza the Wisewoman suits Italian forms, most of which are short.

Hart's Farm suits Old Norse poetry.

Kung Fu Robots goes with Chinese forms.

Lacquerware suits Japanese forms.

Or you can ask for something new.

I have a linkback poem "Delight in Another" (7 verses, standalone).

If you're interested, mark the date on your calendar, and please hold actual prompts until the "Poetry Fishbowl Open" post next week. (If you're not available that day, or you live in a time zone that makes it hard to reach me, you can leave advance prompts. I am now.) Meanwhile, if you want to help with promotion, please feel free to link back here or repost this on your blog.

( New to the fishbowl? Read all about it! )

Birdfeeding

Today is cloudy and cold.

I fed the birds.  I've seen several cardinals, a flock of sparrows, a dark-eyed junco, and a squirrel. 

Crockpot Recipes

I'm making crockpot chicken today. Water and a maggi cube; chicken thighs, mushrooms, chopped onion; bay leaf, marjoram, basil, thyme, green bamboo salt, white pepper. It smells so good.

Thus I felt like sharing some crockpot recipes. These are ideal for winter as warming comfort food. They also support self-care and mood improvement because the house smells like delicious food for hours. \o/

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Recipe: "Crockpot Chicken Thighs with Mushrooms"

Today I made a crockpot of chicken thighs and mushrooms. It turned out incredibly well. :D

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