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Another drabble I wrote for the snowflake challenge in 2025, this time for for

Title: wildflower.
Fandom: Marvel 616.
Character/Pairing: Natalia Romanova.
Rating/Warnings: T, none.
Summary: For the prompt: "Black Widow + Flourish."
Word count: 100.

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Tasha is a girl. She dances, standing gobbly yet proud on her tippy-toes. In the stage, she opens like a fresh flower, colourful, calling attention amidst her sturdier companions.

Natalia is a child. She follows when she can swallow the commands; when she doesn’t, she’s punished. In the Red Room, she wilts, grey petals falling and being torn alike at others’ will.

The Black Widow is an agent, an Avenger, a one-woman army. In the field she blooms, she freezes, she blooms again. She flourishes, she hurts. In constant transformation, never still or static, forever changing, is where she thrives.

spryng

Some days, I'm so very very grateful folks stopped trying to convince me I'd want kids some day when I came out as gay. It was a constant refrain as I was growing up, that of course I'd want kids, and that sure I said I didn't now, but I'd definitely change my mind.

This, naturally, was the worst thing to say to a kid with a stubborn streak the size of Montana. When I was four, I said my favorite number was four; my brother scoffed and said it was only because I was four, and that it'd change when I was five. Well guess who has pink hair and whose favorite number is still four? When I was in middle school, my best friend went vegetarian. I went vegetarian with her in solidarity. Again, my brother said I wouldn't last a week. Well, guess who was vegetarian for ten years?

So yeah, call it spite, call it stubborn, I definitely wasn't going to have kids if everyone kept telling me I'd change my mind. It was only when they stopped and I was given room to actually think about it that I went "okay... maybe...?" And when I met my SIL's baby for the first time, I had the space to go "I get it now."

And I'm grateful for that because dang, I love these kids. CG cackling after telling a bad joke and all of us groaning. 5yo giving me a blanket when I'm lying on the couch, sick. The two of them playing so well together that I can actually have space and time without having to close myself in a back room. CG frustrated because she's already worked ahead through all the extra fraction math her teacher gave them. 5yo excitedly showing her the new dinosaur series he found in the library. The two of them geeking out over Dog Man together.

Babies were cute, but hard. Kids, though. Kids are great. I love watching them grow, watching them become more and more who they are, watching them make their own choices. So many times, I just watch them and can't help but smile.

...I wrote all that on Saturday and then on Sunday we went out to the lake and CG and I had a fantastic time flipping the kayak. ^^() Life skills, I guess? But again, her cackling as she jumped off the end of the kayak, flipping me into the water, was golden. And then working together to flip it back over again. Ugh, I love this age.

abomvubuso posting in

talkpolitics

It's hard not to see the upcoming 2026 World Cup in the US, Canada, and Mexico less as a celebration of football and more as a case study in how global events drift away from ordinary people.

On paper, it's the biggest and most profitable tournament ever: 48 teams, top-tier infrastructure, a showcase of globalisation. In reality, it looks increasingly inaccessible, especially for European fans. Ticket prices alone tell the story: officially "affordable", but in practice driven up by dynamic pricing and resale markets to €400-700 even for group games, and far higher for knockout matches. That effectively turns stadiums into corporate spaces rather than places for real supporters.

Then comes logistics. Transatlantic flights are just the start: moving between host cities across a continent, with limited rail alternatives, means fans are locked into expensive domestic flights. Accommodation prices have surged to the point of absurdity, with hotels inflating rates by several hundred percent. A short trip for a single match can easily exceed €3,000.

( Read more... )

pensnest

Sable peed in Beast's slipper.

I mean, on the one hand, the wee was neatly contained and in a washable place. Way better than on the carpet. On the other hand, ew! And phew, does cat urine stink.

The slipper was rinsed, washed in the machine, soaked, dried outside, washed again, dried outside again, and *seems* to be odour-free. I did suggest the option of new slippers, but we'll see.

*

In other, even odder news, I got THREE comments on AO3 yesterday, all for different stories. As my usual score is one kudos per day (I want to type kudo, but it doesn't look any righter), this was a charming surprise.

poliphilo

The British Prime Minister struggles to hold onto his job. He pretends he didn't know things he must have known and which it was his business to know. I'd be inclined to dismiss this as a headline-hogging distraction were it not for the Epstein dimension. Everything that's happening these days at the top level in politics and industry (including the entertainment industry) has an Epstein dimension- and it's this generation's business to get to the bottom of it.

rekishi

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ysabetwordsmith

dialecticdreamer is hosting Magpie Monday with a theme of "Recovering from Setbacks." Leave prompts, get ficlets!

Current Mood: busy

torachan

1. Back to work today, but since I knew the majority of my day would just be catching up on messages, I decided to work from home. Jasper was extra clingy so I'm glad I was able to snuggle with him so much. And I did get all caught up on email and teams!

2. The other day I saw a post on instagram about some viral loaded fries (the original was orange chicken but they've added a char siu version as well) and it just happens it's at a Chinese restaurant not that far from us. They have delivery, but the fries aren't on the online menu and by the time they got to us they'd be soggy anyway, so we decided to go there for lunch. Since it's gone viral, we decided an early lunch would be best, so we got there around 10:30 (they open at 10) and there was no one else there except someone picking up for delivery, which was good because they only have three tables. We got the char siu fries and they were even better than expected.

The fries are tossed in orange chicken sauce and then there's a bit of melted cheese and sriracha mayo under all that char siu pork. This is like a regular square takeout container but filled so full it would barely be able to close. We shared it and still only ate half. Would definitely get it again, and we want to try the orange chicken version as well.

3. The restaurant is in the same shopping center as a big Mexican market, so we did some shopping there since we usually don't get over there (now we have another reason to go) and got some stuff for carnitas tacos for dinner and those were also delicious.

4. We figured out who the mystery pee-er was, which I'm glad for, because now we know who to keep an eye on. It turns out it's Jasper, which was one of my top suspects. The reason we found out for sure is that I had to throw away all three of the warming beds when we got back because they'd all been peed in and while we'd washed one before, there had been too many recent pee incidents, I didn't want to leave any possibility of a smell. I ordered another one and that came today and not long after we put it down, he peed in it. D:

He is not having trouble using the box, so I don't think this is anything health related, just stress due to us being gone too long, and then I think he now has an association with those warming beds, so thankfully it's not cold weather right now, and when I do get some more for the winter, I'll try a different type and hope that it's been long enough and they're different enough that it doesn't trigger him.

He's such a needy baby, but he's always been a bit weird about Alex, so while he was okay around her in general, he didn't go to her for snuggles while we were gone like Ollie did (Ollie went all in on the snuggles with her; she was not prepared lol), so I think that's what caused him to act out. Hopefully now that we're home and all problem spots have been eliminated, we won't have any more issues.

5. Chloe was checking out the new cat tree.

chanter1944

Also I'm low on eloquence and the tireds are setting in, so forgive the rare brevity.

a Covid vaccine booster in the arm=:)
a fantastic musical performance (Hairspray, which my family loves pretty much to a person)=:)
walking the Horicon Marsh main trail=:)
*not* losing a glove on the very same trail thanks to a reasonably brief search, whew!=:)
not getting to pet the black labby who whimpered at me out a slow-moving car's open window=:( - I had to settle for saying "Awwww, baby," as the friendly fuzz and their possibly-a-golden sibling went by. They were clearly well-loved, but still. I would have so pet both puppydogs, had I been given the chance and the okay.
Storm damage=:( - not us, but other parts of Wisconsin, yikes
Merlin IDs=:)
Cardamom in black coffee=:)
Neighbors being excellent to each other=:)
Oldtime radio streams=:)
Synaesthesia=:)
The chance to, potentially, audit a summer course on the literature of the U.S. women's suffrage movement=:) the professor is making sure to include PoC voices in her selections, too
A family and friends political zoom getting zoombombed by that same professor's 50-pound short-haired pointer deciding to be a lap dog=:) there were pets by proxy
Daylilies overwintering successfully and returning from a dormant state=:) Yay! Little green shoots are go! I thought she was a goner for a second there.

Aaaaand not conking out in my chair is probably a good idea. I'm going the heck to bed!

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: Antioch OTR - The Whistler

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3235/

I can't believe Candles of Vienna caved to commercial pressure and added the Goku expansion.

https://xkcd.com/3235/

troisoiseaux

Read Shubeik Lubeik by Deena Mohamed, a graphic novel in translation from Arabic, set in a world where wishes are real, and regulated, commodities, but most people can only afford sketchy third-class wishes; in Cairo, Egypt, a small neighborhood kiosk with three genuine, first-class wishes for sale changes three lives - a recent widow barely scraping by; a wealthy student struggling with depression; and the kiosk's owner - for better or worse. Clever world-building, with interludes between the three volumes/chapters(?) in the form of world-building infographics and an eye to the way inequality could/would still exist in a world where, theoretically, anyone could wish themselves rich, to solve world hunger or for world peace, etc. (The short answer is who has access to wishes as a resource, on both an individual level and, e.g., which countries have the raw resources vs. the corporate headquarters, a la the history of extractive colonialism.)

Read Hooked by Asako Yuzuki, a contemporary Japanese novel about a budding friendship between two socially isolated thirty-year-old women - an office worker and a homemaker blogger - that quickly grows toxic; picked this up at

osprey_archer's recommendation. From the description, it seems like the plot should be "Misery, but about a parasocial relationship with a social media personality," and might have been more satisfying if it was, but actually I found it most interesting when the two women's storylines ran in parallel, exploring themes of, like... to what extent is any given interaction with someone else a matter of performing the version of yourself that they expect...? And, like, the extent to which other people can have such different worldviews - not even in a political or religious sense, but just, a way of approaching things - that when trying to interact they both just end up baffled. (Speaking of which, I did find the recurring, and perhaps overall, theme of Gendered Expectations in Friendships utterly baffling myself— I think it is to some extent reflective of a cultural difference, but I have definitely encountered the American version of this online in terms of, like, she's a girl's girl! or POV your boyfriend's pick-me girl friend and it always makes me feel like a space alien.) ANYWAY. Shades of Ottessa Moshfegh and Halle Butler, which is to say I found this deeply off-putting but couldn't put it down. ( ... )

It is officially LIBRARY USED BOOK SALE SEASON; I acquired a box set of Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising series from the one I went to last weekend, so I guess I will finally get around to reading that. As 2025 was the Year of Twelfth Night, 2026 really is shaking out to be the Year of As You Like It, because I also stumbled across and acquired a copy of Rosalind: Shakespeare's Immortal Heroine by Angela Thirlwell, a self-described "biography" of the character through interviews with actors, directors, etc.

Current Music: Marsha, Thankk You for the Dialectics, but I Need You to Leave - Will Wood

tjs_whatnot

It seems every time I come here, there is another loss. This one happened so long ago its reminding me how distant I've become.

I honestly can't remember how I first met

minoanmiss they've just always sort of been there, randomly sending me things they thought I (and the kids in my care) would like, and they were always right. I cherished so much all the surprise treats that would just somehow show up and put a smile on my face. They were a much better friend to me than I was to them and I'm just going to have to sit with that for a long time.

And try to be better.

So, this is me being here, asking after you. How are you? What's driving you crazy? What's giving you joy? How can I help put a smile on your face? Who can I raise hell towards on your behalf?

I"m ready.

&hearts; &hearts; &hearts;

azurelunatic

So we have Lawn Dragons. A while ago, an inflatable dragon so new that I didn't even have a lawn picture of it got caught in a wind storm and partially broken. It still lit up, but the blower didn't go, and I thought it was probably some broken wires. And maybe we could fix it.

So Belovedest draped it over the lounge chair on the porch, to dry out.

And there it sat.

I admit that I am short-tempered sometimes.

It's lounging season, I think a little early this year. So the dragon and I have been sharing the chair. And much to my annoyance, we have been sharing it with tiny black ants. Which have been using the deflated dragon as a pathway to climb up onto the chair's side tables (it's a retired infusion chair, so it reclines, has tables, and a place to attach an IV pole) and even on to my very person. I discovered this yesterday.

What losing my temper looked like this time was an enticing Craigslist ad for the salvage-condition dragon (free to the first to arrive), along with reviving my ad to get rid of the aftermarket KitchenAid beater that just barely didn't fit my mixer bowl. Which had been hanging around for months and was starting to develop lichen.

They were both gone by the time I got outside this afternoon.

Current Mood: Satisfied
Current Location: Watching the sunset

mrkinch

Since we didn't get rained out, U and I walked up the road today in the pre-storm quiet. We heard our first of season Swainson's Thrush! There have been a few reports so we weren't surprised, only gleeful.:) Only other interesting events were seeing, finally, two tiny beaks poking up from the Anna's Hummingbird nest over the Lake. I'm fairly sure they were there four days ago but my eyes and bins weren't good enough to be certain; I expect they will have fledged by next week. We also saw a female Mallard with six quite small chicks, not on the Lake but in the spillway below, feeding in the very shallow water. ( The list: )

When we got back to the parking lot the weather was sunny, and though I knew it wouldn't last, after she left I climbed Lower Packrat to the bench and ate my apple while listening to a very loud Orange-crowned Warbler. I heard two Swainson's Thrushes! I wasn't there very long and my list is somewhat shorter but I heard two species we had not heard earlier, Downy Woodpecker and Orange-crowned Warbler. ( Another list: )

It's been raining since I got home and will continue through tomorrow, looks like.

shadowkat

1. My workplace's browser (MSN) shot an article at me today on the renewed, cancelled and still waiting television series. I'll see if I can find it?

Well I found it HERE on Scary Mommy (sigh don't ask) (does it by network and streaming channel) and via Rotten Tomatoes (does it alphabetically),
and Tv Line and Metacritic (which is more up to date than Scary Mommy, not surprising in the least).

Interesting, albeit not surprising, sidebar? Paramount is cancelling all the Star Trek in favor of all of the Taylor Sheridan modern (also uber violent) Westerns. (I'm feeling validated for cancelling Paramount and boycotting CBS. Honestly, people were willing to unsubscribe to Disney for Jimmy Kimmel, but not unsubscribe from Paramount for Star Trek and cancelling Colbert? People? Really?)

Gone are the days, I can just list them. There's too many. It would take me hours.

2. Listened to a podcast - with Juliet Landau interviewing David Greenwalt.
Landau is great at interviewing folks. She barely talks and just lets them talk, with various targeted questions that spur them to say more about the business, and she, for the most part, avoids problematic topics.

Take away? Greenwalt's reward for doing Buffy was supposed to be - joining the writing and producing team for the X-Files. But Greenwalt states that he couldn't write for the X-Files. He just couldn't write that type of television series. When Landau asked why, he said that he needed an emotional arc or an emotional core - that his writing was more character based and emotion based. He said that while the X-Files is brilliantly written - it has no emotional core. It's just not there, and he couldn't write for it because of that. The network apparently wanted Mulder and Scully to kiss in the first episode, and the writers fought against it and won. Which was the right decision - it wouldn't have worked at all.

X-Files is plot based, not character based. You literally could put anyone in it and it would for the most part work - a skeptic and a true believer.
That's actually a hard format to pull off well. Emotion based is easier.
Plot based can get redundant and old fast. X-Files had good writers: Tim Minear came from the X-Files as did Vince Gillian.

I didn't like the X-Files that much - for two reasons? 1) I don't really like hyper-realistic horror. I like my horror unrealistic. Also alien invasion/government conspiracy stories irritate me - it's most likely a side effect of being forced to watch a lot of 1950s, 1960s and 1970s sci-fi alien invasion/government conspiracy series/ and B movies as a child. My best friend at the time loved that shit. 2) It's a by the books, plot procedural with no emotional base - and I'm a bit like Greenwalt, I need the emotional arc. I get bored or my attention starts to wander if I don't have that. I'm more character than plot oriented, most people tend to be one or the other? Some are both. I preferred Fringe? It was less hyper-realistic scary, and had more of an emotional core.

3. Listened to Nerd Subculture - which is an Australian Podcast Series on well, American television series? It's not very good. FB kept throwing snatches of it at me. So I gave it a try. They lost me in their analysis of Beneath You. (It's a couple, one has seen the series, one hasn't.)
( Read more... )

lannamichaels

A Rome of One's Own: The Forgotten Women of the Roman Empire by Emma Southon (2023): Did not finish, through no active fault of the book's own. The author does her absolute best to present a whole lot of misogyny with humor and clarity, but it does not hide the fact that this is all a lot of misogyny being presented. I skipped around, read a few chapters, and just couldn't stomach it. But what I read of it was good!

The Lady With the Gun Asks the Questions: The Ultimate Miss Phryne Fisher Story Collection by Kerry Greenwood (2022): Did not finish. These are short stories, some very short. It poses an interesting question to the reader of what, precisely, makes a mystery/detective book. Should we see the process of the mystery being solved? Should we be able to solve the mystery? Do we need interiority in the solving process? This book has none of that! The stories are stories, very short, as we watch Phryne Fisher encounter a crime/confusing event (I hesitate to even call them mysteries) and then relay the solution, with a minimal amount of detectiving. Some stories have more than others. Some are just essentially lists of events. The short stories are not bad, in of themselves. And not all of them are murder mysteries! They are, however, not at all what I want in my quest for "can I please have a mystery book that isn't a murder mystery".

The Keeper of Magical Things by Julie Leong (2025): I have gotten this out from the library twice and had to return it before getting more than a chapter or two into it. I may have to accept the fact that I don't find it very interesting or gripping. But maybe... maybe the third time out from the library... I'll actually read it.

The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson (2023): DNF. Speaking of acceptance of my literary tastes, I likely must also accept the fact that I don't find Brandon Sanderson books entertaining to read. I read some of it. I flipped to the end, and the ending part did not clearly follow at all from the beginning, so I am certain many many things happened in the meanwhile to get from point A to point B. However, I don't really care. I guess I was hoping for something more like the Tough Guide To Fantasyland or Discworld or something, you know... funny, based on the title. It's a shame because this is, iirc, the third Sanderson I was "meh, this is boring" on, and if I could like his stuff, there would be so many books for me to read.

Strange Houses by Uketsu, translated by Jim Rion (2025): I finished a book! I liked it! This is a "murder mystery" book told via The Author getting interested in a floor plan, talking to someone who is convinced it means the house was being used to murder people, then a bunch of interviews/discussions with people about floor plans of multiple houses and if the floor plans mean that the house must have been used to murder people. This started off as a really convoluted, very "why would they go to all that effort of hiding a child's existence" and then swerved into fantastic "wait so what actually happened" territory, including how much do you trust various sources and various documentary evidence, and ends with a great highlight on "yeah we don't actually know how much of what was presented here is true and what was fabricated and if so by whom and when". There's this hanging plot hole that the epilogue sort of jumps on top of as well, to wit: ( Read more... )

This book is pretty short, which is contributed to by when it refers back to a floor plan, it shows that part of the floor plan, which makes it really easy to follow along but also, frankly, pads the page count. Quick, zippy read, more of a puzzle-that-never-gets-solved book than a murder mystery.

kalloway

I am currently not allowed to purchase any further emotional support notebooks until I use up a substantial amount of the emotional support notebooks that I have. This is actually fine, because for the first time in ages I can get to most of my notebooks. At the very furthest reaches of my bedroom shelves are a bunch of old and battered spiral notebooks, quite a few of which suggest they're leftover from my first stabs at college and university. Any remaining pages in these can be used for things like Accidental Advent, rough logging possessions before sorting properly, and general notes. Use once and destroy. (well, recycle)

I have, multiple times over the years, found absolute notebooks upon notebooks filled with my old fantasy novel. The last plan was to stuff it all into the back of my file cabinet, which I apparently then never did because I just found it all again. This time, it'll get filed for reals. (hopefully)

But I have also found some blank or blank-enough notebooks for projects, which is good. Also found the beginnings of a Serpent Tail timeline, probably from the big timeline that came with the serialized version of Frame Astrays, pre-smartphone... I remember working painstakingly with my kanji dictionary on my lap and now I can just point, poke, and probably have the whole thing translated and corrected in an hour. ;_; (this is mildly untrue because the amount of cross-referencing I'd start doing would turn it into a weekend project and then I'd start adding in information and whoops)

((I wonder if a newer whole-series timeline exists in any form.))

starandrea

Astronomy Picture of the Day (

apod_feed) is delightful for many reasons, one being their lovely astronomy pictures and another being their brief explanations of those pictures.

The explanations include a bunch of links for people who want to learn more, and often a random funny link to make people like me click all of them in order to find it. (A little practice can make you very good at guessing which one is the funny link.)

For example, yesterday's picture was Eye on the Milky Way by Miguel Claro. The explanation acknowledged the "unusual vertical horizon," and unusual vertical was a clickable link. I clicked it and laughed out loud.

Another great one from last year was Little Red Dots in the Early Universe, which concluded: "...searches are underway in our nearby universe to try to find whatever previous LRDs might have become today." The phrase searches are underway linked to a paper in The Astrophysical Journal, but the phrase become today was the one I was looking for.

ranalore

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

Current Mood: sick
Current Location: beginning of the week so it's warm for now

conuly

About their fight against the racist War on Drugs.

It includes what looks like a tea leaf emoji? Whatever sort of leaf this is, it’s not marijuana, even I know that. Maybe no emoji at all would’ve been the better call….

bluapapilio

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fayanora

Saw a post on YouTube (not a video) where someone assumed a 12 year old being pregnant was a rape victim, and the comments were all in agreement. Excuse me? Twelve year old boys exist. Twelve is plenty old enough for a boy to start producing sperm. Hell, my sister had her first period when she was eleven. Puberty makes kids horny, and they experiment with each other. It happens. Hell, I was having sex with people my own age when I was as young as eight. I was never molested, so I wasn't recreating abuse, this was consenting sex between two people the same age. It was gay sex, but still, proves that kids can be horny & have sex with each other, so rape doesn't have to be a factor.

Sure, if there's a big enough age gap, it should be assumed to be rape at some point, but two kids the same age CAN consent to sex with one another. But just because a 12 yo girl is pregnant doesn't mean it was necessarily rape. Minors can consent to sex with each other, just not with adults.

princessofgeeks

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teaotter posting in

fan_flashworks

Our new challenge is our eighty-fifth:

AMNESTY

During amnesty challenges, you can post works for any of the challenges we've had to date: ( Complete list of prompts )

See the Community Report for a sortable list of prompts.
Both reports have a random "Any Challenge" button, and the Creator Report also has a random "Unfilled Challenge" button.

Of course, you're always welcome to post multiple works to any challenge if you finish them before the challenge closes, but that isn't always possible. So dust off those unfinished works and half-formed ideas -- now is the time!

In amnesty rounds, include the challenge you are posting for in the subject line of your post (eg, Blanket: Heated Rivalry: Fanart: If on a winter's night).

Each work created for this challenge should be posted as a new entry to the comm. Posting starts now and continues up until the challenge ends at 4pm Pacific Time on Friday, May 1st. No sign-up required.

Mods will tag your work for fandom. When you've posted entries to three consecutive challenges, you will earn a name tag, and we'll go back and tag all your previous entries with your name.

All kinds of fanworks in all fandoms are welcome. Please have a look at our guidelines before you play. If you have any questions or concerns, don't hesitate to contact a mod. And if you have any suggestions for future challenges, you can leave them in the comments of this post.

You can view stats for

fan_flashworks entries and search and filter them via the Community Report and Creator Report. See our FAQ post for more details. Please let us know if you have any trouble accessing the reports.

Also, keep an eye out for the next

ffw_social post, which will go up in the next couple of days. If you haven't joined the comm yet, it's never too late to come and check it out. (Remember, posts are locked, which means you have to join to see them.)

ysabetwordsmith

Topographic map reveals vast ocean on Mars three billion years ago

Across the northern lowlands, the terrain holds an unusually broad belt of flat ground far below Mars’ reference level.

Tracing that belt across the planet, Abdallah S. Zaki at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), linked it to the kind of coastal margin oceans leave behind on Earth.

Rather than preserving one sharp edge, that ancient coast seems to have survived as a wide zone built and reshaped over long stretches of time.

Current Mood: busy

teaotter posting in

fan_flashworks

The Obstacle challenge is now closed. Here are the entries:

Marvel's Midnight Suns : icons : Robo-Man, by

highlander_ii
Heated Rivalry: Fan Fiction: First Hurdle, by

darkjediqueen
Obstacle: Miss Marple: Fanfic: The Obstacle in the Case, by

smallhobbit
Criminal Minds: Fanfiction: Joke's on You, by

infinitum_noctem
Inspector George Gently: Fanfiction: Perfect, by

lucy_roman
The Fantastic Journey: Fanfic: Another Challenge, by

badly_knitted
Viola come il mare: Fanfic: The Wall Between Us, by

veronyxk84
Torchwood: Fanfic: Bump in the road, by

m_findlow
Mysterious Transfer Student: Fanfic: as if water could explain my crying, by

bluedreaming

\o/ \o/ \o/

Thank you to everyone who participated! You're now free to post your entries to your journal or wherever else you'd like. If you're archiving on AO3, you can add your work to our fan_flashworks collection there.

The Community Report and Creator Report will be updated shortly with the entries from this round. See our FAQ for more details.

New challenge coming right up!

oliviacirce

( In Jerusalem )

jenab

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case posting in

fandomsecrets

⌈ Secret Post #7045 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.

( More! )

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 27 secrets from Secret Submission Post #1006.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

conuly

OMG, but ignore the dipshit in the comments.

*************************

( Read more... )

princessofgeeks

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Current Mood: awake

shadowhive

So last night I ended up watching the next of the Doctor Who run, which was Resurrection Of The Daleks. It’s always funny to me that the last three Dalek stories of old who were R word of the daleks.

With a title like that there’s no room for doubt who the villains are gonna be. Sometimes I do wonder if they considered making these eps without Dalek in the title, as so many old who ones (including this one) hold them back for awhile. Then again maybe the thing isn’t the surprise of them showing up, but the anticipation, knowing they’ll show up.

Anyway, the basic plot of the thing is after the last dalek ep (way back in Destiny of the Daleks) Davros is captured and being held in a prison, but the daleks want him back to help them after a virus depleted their numbers.

I did really like this one, even though it is pretty bleak. Much like Warriors Of The Deep virtually everyone in this one dies so it has a really high body count. The thing is though it is a Dalek episode, so lots of people dying isn’t exactly a surprise.

That said some eps lean into that by making us not care about the people. However this ep does have interesting people. (Bar the people killed at the start which did feel a tad needless) There’s a military bomb squad, an interesting mercenary called Lytton plus the crew of the space station holding Davros.

Said crew is a highlight partly because the script called it an ‘international ‘ space station and the crew took that literally, casting black and Indian actors in key roles which made the crew notably diverse which was nice to see. My fav of the crew was Styles, the Doctor. I just loved her whole attitude. Though it was funny that the stations actual captain (mentioned numerous times as a dick) never shown up and just got killed offscreen.

It does puzzle me know that the prison holding such a dangerous captive isn’t full equipped to deal with a Dalek attack. Then again he has been there for 90 years, so maybe they figured they’d have done it by now and so gotten lax as a result.

Of course Davros also betrays the daleks, which means the daleks plan would’ve been screwed up even without the doctor being there (which happens too in the next dalek ep). Ironically by making sure the doctor was caught in the time corridor all they did was unsure they’d get fully destroyed.

It’s also Tegan’s last ep and her decision to go makes sense, it’s certain valid after the death, but it is a shame the ep wasn’t more focussed on her as a result. She’s pretty much kept in one place most of the time which is a shame but at least the team get to face off against the daleks (and the fifth doctor gets to push one out a window which is cool!). Plus the locations and sets used are really good. I was really surprised the interiors of the warehouse were sets and not just shot there, they looked so good. Plus I’did really like the costumes, even though the Dalek trooper helmets did look a tad silly.

All in all solid ep, next is Planet of Fire, which might be next week after watching the other special features. (resurrection has two discs)

Yesterday ended up being a low energy day (hence not doing this post then) I did end up getting Tomodachi life and the island is Seapeekay, Waterparks, 5 Seconds Of Summer and now Ray Toro. The funny thing is that Callum and Geoff fell for each other pretty quickly which was so funny, so they were a couple within a day of getting the game (Callum even wanted to propose! Though I messed up the mini game). But they are so in love, I gave them guitars and they both serenaded each other, it’s so cute. (Key topics of discussion on the island are boy kissing and eating ass)

I do love all the customisation features, with the quirks and stuff and I’m look8ng forward to seeing the other antics they’ll get up to (and adding more). I just wish I was a better artist for the customisation stuff.

(I am a bit annoyed though that there wasn’t a new High Potential ep to watch yesterday like WTF? Why’d it end the season on that?? At least there’s another one coming but gah)

Also today we finally went back to see the ducklings and we got to see them! Pic under the cut.

( Read more... )

I also had an email from hmv with a deal on and I’m wondering if anyone can look over these and let me know if they’ve seen them. The only one I’ve seen is Broadcast Signal Intrusion (which has Harry Shum Jr) but that was forever ago. I’m thinking of We’re All Going To The Worlds Fair cause I’ve heard it mentioned and I’m curious but…

This week is gonna be a pretty quiet week with no cinema trips (planned anyway) and I’m only really heading out cause of picking up mums meds. I do wanna read more (looking at you Mandalorian and Grogu visual guide and Strange Pictures and Heated Rivalry) and watch more stuff (looking at you Heated Rivalry and The Beauty) but the stranger things animated series is this week and I have a morbid curiosity. I sense it’ll just raise unnecessary questions. But at the same time, plant monsters

Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Music: Badboyhalo cuphead stream

wychwood

I've been sort of meaning to make a gaming post for a while, but also: I have not been playing games really at all, unless you count 2025 (obsessively and continuously). However, Terra Nil just turned up 60% off (for another four days! there's time!) and I bought it on Saturday and have already played over seven hours of it - I'm playing on the easy mode, and find it intensely soothing. I have restored four or five ecosystems, taken photographs of numerous wild animals, sworn at the annoying recycling system as I build numerous extra buildings in order to remove all the buildings from the map, and generally enjoyed myself thoroughly.

Other things I have played, mostly extremely briefly, since my last real gaming post in (*gulp*) July: ( actually quite a long list, but average playtime of about half-an-hour )

Feel free to ask if you're interested in any of them! Most of them do look like things I could enjoy if I were in a game-playing space, but very clearly I have not been.

fayanora

Had a dream just a bit ago wherein the orphan-crushing machine, instead of being a metaphor to help us understand capitalism, was literally real. But we also had what I'm calling a billionaire-crushing machine.

See, these were two halves of a brand new, clean-burning, renewable energy source. The orphan-crushing machine basically extracted everything good and beautiful and right about humanity from the orphans that it crushed, while the billionaire-crushing machine crushed evil people like billionaires and serial killers and so on to extract all the worst things about humans, all the evil and darkness and so on.

Then when you've got full tanks of both, you take tiny but equal amounts of both orphanite and billionairium, reintroduce them in a controlled environment, and the resulting explosions create steam which powers turbines for a very green renewable energy source. Like, you can even store tanks of these substances on a rocket and use it as rocket fuel to get into space.

In the dream, the stuff that you get from crushing billionaires was called dark matter, but honestly the two substances act more like matter and antimatter. I think the only reason the billionairium was being called dark matter was because it was a roiling cloud of darkness.

The names billionairium and orphanite are names that I made up for them after waking up, because the two substances didn't have names in the dream. The billionaire-crushing machine also didn't have a name, it was only the orphan-crushing machine that had a name.

ripplestitch posting in

addme

I made this account in 2022 but abandoned it for a while. I feel very new to this! It took me five minutes just to work out how to join and post here 🙃

Name: June, they/them

Age: 30s!

I mostly post about: My knitting and other craft pursuits, my health (it’s kind of bad, guys) in terms of life updates usually, and my solo rpg games, so far. If I talk about food I’ll make it filterable when I work out… how.

I hope I’ll expand as I get a wider social circle. It’s weird to blog at myself.

My hobbies are: Knitting, writing, solo RPG games, cross-stitch, birdwatching (sort of, I most sit by a window while chilling and watch the birds fight over the bird feeder) paper flowers. I’m currently largely housebound, my hobbies are Indoors Things at the moment. When I AM outside in The Beast (my powerchair) I’ll probably spam pictures of the sky and urban pigeons.

My fandoms are: Star Trek (though I’m SO behind on everything new. I watched half of discovery and nothing else since), Dragon Age, Mass Effect. Flight Rising! Terry Pratchett, The Foreigner Series. I don’t spend a huge amount of time posting about those, these days, though.

I’m looking to meet people who are: Kind, open-minded.

When I add people, my dealbreakers are: Racism, LGBTQ+phobia, Islamophobia, ableism, fatphobia—you get the gist, I hope. If you consider yourself to be ‘a Conservative’ we will probably not get along, let’s save ourselves the bother.

No under 18s, please!

beccaelizabeth

I reread all the Wayward Children books leading up to this new one and then read this one.
... I think my main feeling is I recommend you not do that.
it's kind of like reading a lot of sonnets in a row, when everything goes a bit dedum dedum and the imagery has so much in common it goes from feeling like rhyme makes it stronger to feeling like it repeats itself.

I remember each individual story being strong and leading up to cathartic moments, but I whooshed througb them this time and they rhyme a lot.

I'm pretty sure this was a good strong story
but also that if I'd had a sleep after I read the previous one and enough sleep before I started reading this I would appreciate it more.

though I did try to sleep after I got back from my nice walk
and the fire alarm test happened
and someone played Lets Get Rocked as loud as the song wants but considerably louder than the neighbours do.

I think I like what the story did with each character, it progresses them by steps, but I was surprised that some of them still needed a next step.

I shall read this again later and give it more space to be itself.

stonepicnicking_okapi

My 'this day in jazz' site tells me today is the birthday of Cuban percussionist Tito Puente. Have my favorite of his songs.

Watch on YouTube

bluedreaming posting in

fan_flashworks

Fandom: Mysterious Transfer Student
Mods please use the f: tv (category) tag
Rating: T
Length: 100 words
Content notes: canonical past character death
Author notes: The title is from The Sorrow Garden by Thomas McCarthy. The story is also inspired, in a small way, by Han Kang’s We Do Not Part and NCT Wish’s Ode to Love (which covers a sample of The Cranberries’ Ode to my Family).
Summary: Koichi dreams about his sister.

( Read more... )

bluapapilio

Youtuber: Chinese with Jessie - She does the best skits about Chinese and American culture.

[Fanfic] [Dragon Age | Cullrian]] Darkness Peering - AU where Cullen gets sent to the worst place possible, Tevinter, after Kinloch Hold and meets Dorian, who is struggling with the fact that he's a Dreamer. I love the fresh ideas in this and the pacing was just right.

A Reader’s Guide to the Omegaverse - Most people in fandom already know what they need to but this article does link to books I didn't know about in the genre.

A Guide to DYNAMIC CHORD: The Rise and Fall (and its Resurgence) - One I was always curious about and know I know. I didn't realize it was linked to otome games for one. It has the same art as A3!

The Evolution of “Boys’ Love” Culture: Can BL Spark Social Change? (Drama)

2015-2019: A Fandom Culture Metamorphosis

musesfool

There was some good hockey over the weekend, though given some of the match-ups, I am rooting for teams I have never rooted for before. It's very disconcerting! I mean, some of it is just, I guess I hate this team less than that team (e.g., Pens vs Flyers, and I guess it's cool that Crosby is making what may be his final Cup run but ugh, Pittsburgh; otoh, the only thing the Flyers have going for them is Gritty, and that is not enough, considering everything else about them) or I hate this team so much more than I hate that team (I am rooting for Montreal, my friends. The Habs! I don't even know who I am anymore! But Ryan McDonagh notwithstanding, I do not like the Bolts at all). And as much as I'd like to see Kreider win (a hilarious rebuke to Drury and Dolan), I can't root for Joel Quenneville (and also Anaheim is not making a run).

In some cases, the choice is easy (I still have not forgiven the Kings for 2012 and I have a fondness for the Avs; I root for Dallas because of

angelgazing, and also because while I'd love to see Mats Zuccarello win a Cup, Bill Guerin can go fuck himself, as can VGK and Carter Hart, so Mammoth all the way, there - plus the ZAMMOTH (or the Mammboni, if you're nasty)).

Overall, I would like to see Buffalo win it all, and I enjoyed their game, but if it has to be a Canadian team, at this point, I would pick Montreal over Ottawa (disqualified due to Brady Tkachuk) or Edmonton (ugh, McDavid's vibes are rancid, imo). At least I like Martin St. Louis, and their kids seem fun and their game was also entertaining.

And as I said on bsky last night, Henrik Lundqvist looked like an ANGEL in his silver suit. He just gets more handsome every time I see him. *dreamy sigh*

Anyway!

Today's poem:

White Noise
by Alice Pettway

I ordered silence online,
from the makers

of that robot vacuum,
the one that terrifies cats.

They claim it will ricochet
through my life, siphoning

the mewling of the computer
in its dark cubby, the shiver

of leaves, even the snap of fish beaks
against coral, the air conditioner

accelerating endlessly
around its distant track.

I asked customer support
if there was an attachment

to suck the cacophony
out of my head. For this,

I said, I would pay extra,
whatever they asked, really.

No response came.
I lay on the rug. The machine

ran along my legs, the side
of my face. I imagined

as loudly as possible, waiting
for the indicator to switch on,

for the whir and pinch of suction.
The room is quiet now.

Even the stuffing in the couch
does not exhale beneath my weight.

*

Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Piano Concerto No. 1 in E Minor, Op. 11 - Frederic Chopin

Profile

kitewithfish

April 2026

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queenslayerbee - FANFIC: wildflower (Marvel 616)
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fayanora - Human sexuality is not black and white.
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teaotter in fan_flashworks - Challenge 513: Amnesty
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case in fandomsecrets - [ SECRET POST #7045 ]
conuly - So I saw this nifty video on harp music notation
princessofgeeks - Heated Rivalry rec
shadowhive - What is happening?
wychwood - basically i'm either reading or i'm playing games and right now i am in The Reading Zone
fayanora - Orphan-crushing machine as a real thing.
ripplestitch in addme - Hi!!
beccaelizabeth - Through Gates of Garnet and Gold
stonepicnicking_okapi - Music Monday: Ran Kan Kan by Tito Puente
bluedreaming in fan_flashworks - Mysterious Transfer Student: Fanfic: as if water could explain my crying
bluapapilio - 🔗 Links of interest
musesfool - they claim it will ricochet through my life

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