Dreaming on a Budget

I keep meaning to write on here more and then -- not -- I'm doing pretty well in a personal if not global/ existential sense. Job is fine, I'm reading and watching interesting things, spending time with friends, watching a lot of tennis because it turns out if you want to watch this sport it is pretty much all going on. The sounds are soothing, the people are attractive, and the social media and journalism are very good about the narratives.

Also, I'm reading and writing about fictional tennis, leading to a couple recs:

A person who might be anonymous or might be a user named 'Buries' recorded a podfic, never be lonely anymore of one of my more fun loving Challengers fics, and it's fun to hear these characters in what I think might be an Australian accent.

I participated in the Challengers summer fic exchange and received Epilogue after Epilogue, by MostReverent (who is great and also ran the exchange). This is a great, chewy Tashi POV where the three of them take a road trip together. Get three people with sexual tension in a vehicle and I am there for it. I've been craving road trip fic with these characters and the author does an amazing job of digging into their feelings after the events of the film. Also, I learned from the title that Dave Malloy wrote and recorded an epilogue to my favorite musical, "Natasha Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812." Pretty sure the author had no way to know I dig that show. Here's the the song which wasn't in the show and didn't appear on the cast album.

Finally, I wrote my own story for the exchange, which is also about the trio post movie:

the music of your broken window (4028 words) by likeadeuce
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Challengers (Movie 2024)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Art Donaldson/Tashi Donaldson/Patrick Zweig
Characters: Art Donaldson, Tashi Donaldson, Patrick Zweig
Additional Tags: Tennis, Negotiations, Art Donaldson's POV, US Open 2019, optimism (Mostly), Post-Canon, Polyamory, The negotiations are not about the polyamory
Summary:

Since the New Rochelle Challenger, Art has been enjoying a kind of summer camp/ adult slumber party with his wife and his oldest friend, but it can't last forever. Can they plan a way forward, or will they always be caught in the wreckage of their teenage relationship crash?

I'm just continuing to have a good time playing with these toys.