you're not going to slow it down

Title: The PFLAG Conference
Author: senmut
Prompt: Dorothy Zbornak goes into a bar and meets... Julia Sugarbaker (Designing Women)!
Fandoms: The Golden Girls / Designing Women
Word count: 587
Rating: General Audiences
Contents: The situation for support for Southern queers has not changed since the era of these shows and that is referenced here.

The PFLAG Conference

As far as conferences and political rallies went, Dorothy was glad this one seemed to be staying at a civil discourse. Not, she amended in her own thoughts, that she wasn't ready to blaze truth across narrow-minds in a hope of seeing people live better, stronger lives in the open. She had to stand up for all of her principles, and was glad that joining PFLAG had given her a new outlet to do so.

Still, it had been a long day, and while she wasn't given to drinking much, a nightcap would settle her muscles down, giving her a better chance for sleep in the hotel's luxurious bed. She slipped into more casual, but still classy, attire, picked up her clutch, and headed down to the bar. It might even give her a chance to mingle with others of like minds.

If she found some of different minds, she had a piece or two of her own she'd be able to give out.

---

Julia Sugarbaker had been brewing on a storm since early that morning. It was bad enough that Georgia didn't have a proper organization to help the young men and women suffering from vitriol and hate, but she'd run into one too many damned Yankees tossing around their patronizing looks about even attempting to get one set up!

She straightened out her blouse, adjusted the sleeve at the wrists, and then snatched up her purse rather than stay in this ridiculously ill-decorated hotel room. She'd seen a bar downstairs. A nice little cocktail hour would help bring her down from her anger, and leave her more likely to find the right words on where to tell the next New York organizer where they could stick their disbelief in gay rights for the South!

---

Dorothy had seen the brunette going into one of the conference rooms earlier in the day. The decided emphasis on how the woman sat at the bar next to her spoke of difficulties.

"You're here with the PFLAG conference, yes?" Dorothy asked after the woman had a mint julep in front of her, while playing with the straw in her Long Island Iced Tea.

"I am here attempting to convince them to invest in my geographical region instead of writing us all off under the heels of those — " The woman cut herself off completely, took a deep breath. "Yes," she answered instead. "Julia Sugarbaker."

Dorothy raised an eyebrow. "The Julie Sugarbaker who was thanked in Representative Sugarbaker's speech last week?"

Julia softened her stance. "You pay attention to Washington, I take it, ma'am?"

"Dorothy Zbornak. Trying to put more effort into my ideals these days.

"And yes. Helping keep my chapter informed of events, since I have more free time."

"Were you instrumental in organization, or did you step in later? And either way, would you be willing to share any tips? The idiot I spoke to today doesn't feel there is any room in Georgia for them."

Dorothy sighed. "There are so many places in Florida that need outreach, and we run into that there. Or upstate New York, because no, the entire state does not follow the city's lead," she agreed, sympathizing. "I would be glad to work with you, and talk about how to get the support you need."

Julia smiled broadly. "Then Ms. Zbornak, I am looking forward to getting to know you."

"Likewise. Someone willing to stand up when the deck is stacked that way is the kind of woman I'd like to know," Dorothy agreed.

1990, [redacted a lot of depressing anecdata]. Let's just roll the credits, hmm? Nine movies because I was choosy... and honestly don't have much to say about movies of this year.

~ Tremors - AWW YEAH a hella good creature feature. To be honest? This was like catching old 50s B movies on TBS, because those creature features were my kind of camp horror comedy.
~ The Hunt for Red October - I can't remember much of this film, but there were some pretty people in it.
~ Ghost - +sighs+ Patrick and Whoopi, I loved. I am still on a fence about Demi's acting, but she's pretty.
~ Quigley Down Under - the movie that reinforced lessons I had begun studying due to "Beds are Burning" by Midnight Oil. It's also the movie that put Alan Rickman on my radar properly. I love his villainy here.
~ The Rescuers Down Under - Hmm, two Aussie based movies for me this year? MARAHUTE! Not quite mixing the adventure and scary like the first, but a DAMN GOOD FILM.
~ Predator 2 - So I enjoy the first. So much. BUT THIS?! This movie started solidifying actual lore for me (BLESS DARK HORSE COMICS) and the yautja in this one is BADASS.
~ Mermaids - A really sweet film, and the cast? +faints+ Hoskins, Cher, Ryder, Ricci? Excellent. A little angst and harm to children warning.
~ Hamlet - So I rather hate putting this on the list. And I know it is seriously panned. But honestly? Seeing this in the theater, watching EVERY ACTOR CHEW THE SCENERY? Made me delighted at an above the top performance. Just wish the fucker in the lead role wasn't... himself.
~ Kindergarten Cop - Sweet. Funny. Dramatic at parts. "It's naht a too-mah" Was surprised when I went back to find that his partner that was supposed to do the teaching and got sick was Iza from Clan of the Cave Bear.

Fave? Toss up between Predator 2 and Kindergarten Cop.

Started re-reading Red Star Rising also known as Dragonseye.

( The first three chapters, mostly negative reactions to the world building/culture )

communityactionusa is set up now. As you can probably tell by the name, it's intended as a place to help guide action, and the sticky is referencing "Project Mailstorm". Go look, see if it's your cuppa.

Marking Dates (531 words) by Sharpest_Asp
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Leverage
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Eliot Spencer/Alec Hardison/Parker
Characters: Alec Hardison, Eliot Spencer, Parker [Leverage]
Additional Tags: Origami, Fluff
Summary:

Hardison and Eliot mark the date in a way that Parker will enjoy.

Marking Dates

The saying that money can't buy happiness had to have been thought up by a rich person, Hardison decided. He kept folding the non-sequential bills, setting up a menagerie of wild animals. After he had twenty-six of them, he put them in the box, closed it, and left it on his desk, just where the box had been for several days.

Parker had noticed it on the first day it was there, asked about it two days after that, then forgot it existed as it became part of her surroundings. It was the perfect place to hide something in plain sight — though he'd taken the precaution of spritzing it with his aftershave, to hide the money smell.

Parker was funny enough about money that she might have smelled it otherwise.

When Eliot came in that evening, Hardison caught his eyes, looked at the box, got the slow blink of agreement, and that was that.

Two days later, the box was gone, and Parker studied that space, making the cute frowny face she did while cataloguing where everything was supposed to be.

"Where'd the box go?" she asked.

"Have to find it," Eliot answered, before he and Hardison exchanged a grin. Her eyes lit up, so Hardison continued. "Scavenger hunt, in our building, out of the way spots… with things to find on the way to the box."

"What kind of things?" she asked, even as she was getting excited.

"The kind of things you like," Eliot said, and she did a tiny little clap and bounce before vanishing.

"And that, my friend, is how we say 'happy anniversary' to her," Hardison crooned, amused, and going to watch the spy-eyes through the building. Eliot joined him, putting him in a brief headlock playfully.

"Figuring out her love language wasn't so hard," Eliot said, but he was smiling when she found the first animal, right where he'd thought she would, an alligator. "How in the hell did you find an origami A to Z?"

"Man, everything is on the internet now," Hardison told him, still thrilled they'd found a gift that worked.

---

Parker found the last animal, cunningly folded so it appeared striped, making it a zebra, and the box was just ahead. She opened it, seeing cash — multiple currencies even! — and the note that said 'happy change together day'. Her chin wibbled, for just a moment, before she put all of her finds in the box. She'd had to back track for the otter and the shrew when she realized they were in alphabetical order, but now she had a full menagerie of money.

Her men — both of them were hers and theirs and ours — made fusses on days that weren't Christmas, but not in the way she saw other people do it. That, among many things, kept her falling in love with them every day, knowing neither one would ever push her in a path she couldn't handle.

She'd have to make a run on a store before she went back up to them; junk food for Hardison that had some pretzels in it, and she'd pick up that smelly cheese Eliot had insisted would make great brioche grilled cheese sandwiches.