(no subject)

Jul. 23rd, 2025 12:16 am
tellshannon815: (mikkel)
[personal profile] tellshannon815
Challenge #6

Journaling prompt: What games do you play, if any? Are you a solo-gamer or do you view games as a social activity?
Creative prompt: Write a story/fic around the theme "game night".

I would tend to think of family occasions here, such as the Christmas just gone where a lot of time was spent playing card games (and trying to figure out why, exactly, someone had scrawled all the Cluedo names over the playing cards. That was eventually traced back to my cousin's soon to be ex husband, although no one ever did remember why he'd done it). It's inevitable that it ends up in laughter when someone muddles the rules (see: my cousin's attempts to teach Mum Exploding Kittens, or the accusations of reneging at cards which my grandad renamed "running the egg" back in the 70s and it's stuck as a family expression ever since).

And here's a Dark drabble:

When Ines presents Mikkel with a 1980s computer, Mikkel finds himself thinking back to the times he’d sneak in when Magnus had his game nights with Jonas and Bartosz. One time when Magnus had refused to let him play, Mikkel had pulled the plug, and Bartosz got pretty angry at him because he’d been winning. Jonas had been nice about it, though, and had offered to teach him some of the basics so that one day, Mikkel would be able to join in with them.

Now he’s stuck in 1986, Mikkel thinks of the game night he now won’t experience.

Stolen from kitarella_imagines

Jul. 21st, 2025 09:33 pm
tellshannon815: (claire zomer)
[personal profile] tellshannon815
If you’ve written fics for more than one year on AO3, go to your statistics page. Click on the different years at the top to see the categories of statistics for each year.

1. Which year did you write the most words? Do you know why? e.g. you had more time; you were caught up in an exciting new fandom or pairing; you got a rush of ideas etc.
Apparently 2023. That was the year I got into three of my top five fandoms of all time (Dark, From and School Spirits - there was also a new season of Yellowjackets, another of the top five, so I think those would have given me inspiration). Having said that, this was the year I started the epic Dark series which I'm only now coming close to finishing, and AO3 has carried that word count over to 2025 because the most recent chapter of that was posted this year.


2. Which year did you write the least words? Why was this? e.g. lack of time, too busy, no inspiration etc.
Technically it's telling me 2012, but I don't know if I should count that because I only joined AO3 that October so would have the least words for that reason. Out of the full years, it appears to be 2020, with 2021 following. That time period is pretty self explanatory, with a combination of lots of my shows being on ice for the pandemic and therefore not providing as much inspiration, but also I was not in a good headspace during that time due to the lockdowns and not seeing any family for over a year (for anyone who doesn't know this, my extended family is rather scattered across the UK)

3. Which years did you get most hits, kudos, bookmarks and fic subscriptions? Do you know why? (e.g. popular fandoms, lots of words written.) Are there years where you have the same amount of bookmarks and subscriptions?
2015 for hits, 2017 for subscriptions and that has just reminded me of another series I need to finish. Will someone please stop me from starting series? 2023 for bookmarks (blame that one on School Spirits.) 2015 just beats 2023 for kudos.

4. Which years did you get least hits, kudos, bookmarks and fic subscriptions? Do you know why? (e.g. niche fandoms, not many fics written.) Do you have any other conclusions?
2019, looks like quite a few niche fandoms that year.

Art post - Daredevil

Jul. 20th, 2025 01:17 pm
alchemise: Matt with costume peeling off (Daredevil)
[personal profile] alchemise
I've been spending the summer learning how to draw! I've always wanted to and I figured why not now. I'm having a blast with it, and I feel like every drawing I do I get a little better.

I decided to try and draw something fannish this weekend, so here's Daredevil, in charcoal!

Expandart behind the cut! )

Reference image: here.

(no subject)

Jul. 20th, 2025 11:37 am
tropicsbear: Pink and a purple versions of Pop☆Step from Vigilantes: BnHA Illegals (Vigilantes: Pop☆Step colorful)
[personal profile] tropicsbear

I've just recently found out about Make Some Noise and while I can't say I'm invested—I haven't started following their YouTube channel, for example—I'm certainly happy enough to click on a suggested short if the title catches my attention.

(Another win for the YouTube algorithm. Maybe it's actually improving? I will say I was pleasantly surprised when they announced they'd demonetize content with AI slop.)

My favorite shorts so far:

Sunshine Revival

Jul. 20th, 2025 01:01 am
tellshannon815: (charley)
[personal profile] tellshannon815
Ever wished more people knew more about some of your favourite fandoms, whether that be movie, book, show, video game, comic, even band or hobby? Now is your chance to be a “carnival barker”, someone who hangs around outside the carnival and tries to promote it to people passing by.

Challenge #5

Journaling prompt: Be a carnival barker for your favorite movie, book, or show (or any other of your choice - game, comic, anything else)! Write a post that showcases the best your chosen title has to offer and entices passersby to check it out.
Creative prompt: Write a fic or original story about a character reluctantly doing something they are hesitant about.

Title: I'm Never Going Back, The Past Is In The Past
Fandom: School Spirits
Characters: Charley, Yuri, Wally, Rhonda, Janet, Quinn
Rating: PG
Warnings: Spoilers all through S2
Summary: Charley's always avoided his class reunions, but reluctantly considers attending the next one.

ExpandRead more... )

Jukebox 2025 fic post!

Jul. 19th, 2025 05:28 pm
alchemise: Faith, dancing (AtS: dance)
[personal profile] alchemise
I had a great time this year writing for an excellent folk song, I Go Like the Raven by Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer.

O'er the dark and dervish sky (2141 words) by alchemise
Fandom: I Go Like the Raven - Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer (Song)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Characters: Narrator (I Go Like The Raven)
Additional Tags: Captivity, Magic, Animal Transformation
Summary: She was trapped.

Expandfic behind the cut! )

Finally!

Jul. 19th, 2025 09:59 pm
tropicsbear: Sophie from Leverage reading a file (Leverage: Sophie reading a file)
[personal profile] tropicsbear

Finally finished a fic for 2025! I've been plugging away at this since January oof.

The older I get, the longer it takes to complete something. To be fair, it's not like I focus on WIP to the exclusion of others—I prefer jumping around my WIPs depending on my mood—but I used to post at least one fic a month.

I think my creative juices are, maybe not drying up, but slowing down. Because even when I have a shiny new fandom taking up residence in my headspace and spurring me to write, getting things over the finish line still takes up more effort than when I was younger. (I've also noticed that my sentence structures have become repetitive. Which is kind of weird to me?? Maybe they've always been repetitive and I've just noticed it now.)

Anyway! The fic. It's for Sk8 the Infinity and my first Matchablossom fic. TadaAi still owns my heart, but variety is the spice of life, etc. etc.

I've closed the document for tonight because I'm at the point where I've been staring at the cursor for so long that my eyes are glazing over the mistakes. Gonna try to look for a beta on [community profile] betaplease but if no one bites by tomorrow night I'll do one last round of edits by myself and post it.

Seasons of Fandom landcomm promotion

Jul. 19th, 2025 03:08 pm
meridian_rose: tabby cat (Lyra) lying on her back with one paw in the air (cat)
[personal profile] meridian_rose

Round 1 of [community profile] seasons_of_fandom a successor to the now closed [community profile] lands_of_magic is opening soon! Multifandom challenge community with original fic and stock icons welcome. Challenges include graphics, writing, and puzzle games.

There are 4 teams and Summer and Spring could do with a few more members!

Please check it out, and if you join tell them I sent you :)
Some no pressure pre-round challenges are already posted but the community and challenges open fully in September.

sign up post

Of interest to some of y'all

Jul. 19th, 2025 08:03 pm
tropicsbear: Half-body image of Joan Watson with a zoomed in close-up of Sherlock Holmes behind her (Elementary: Joan and Sherlock)
[personal profile] tropicsbear

[personal profile] senmut has opened commissions to help pay for a replacement phone.

Normal rate is 100 words per dollar. I do typically make a limit of 5K words, but that's negotiable for the right idea.

Additional details are on their journal here as well as a link to their Ko-fi.

meridian_rose: pen on letter background  with text  saying 'writer' (Default)
[personal profile] meridian_rose


Why don't I just trust governments and censorship in the name of safetyism and AI and digital everything?
For a whole host of reasons and this is just another example from the corporate world from a site I'm not obligated to use unlike other services.

This image was one I had pinned to a Pinterest board, inspiration for a fantasy romance I was writing some years ago. I got an email about it. (As I mentioned before I'm not adding anything to Pinterest now and downloaded what I wanted to keep to back up elsewhere. Though any cloud service could start spying on and deleting your "bad" content.)
This image was deactivated why?
"This Pin violates our Community Guidelines on adult content because it contains sexual exploitation"

Not only are we controlling, censoring, and sanitising in ways that are stifling free speech and creativity, we're letting computers do it with no capability for nuance or context.
Can we go back to the days of "Terminator" when we were worried about AI instead of "it write email for me".

And now I'm having issues because I don't want to give Reddit a copy of my photographic ID or let their dodgy third party verifier take and store a selfie of me. Remember as one Reddit user pointed out "Face ID seems convenient and secure, but here's the catch: your face is public. Unlike a PIN code or password, your face is always visible and can't be changed."

I'll take the "bad old wild west days" of the internet over the current control-freakery.

Jukebox 2025!

Jul. 14th, 2025 07:32 pm
alchemise: Faith, dancing (AtS: dance)
[personal profile] alchemise
There are some great works in the collection this year. I received a lovely romance story for Barenaked Ladies - Lovers in a Dangerous Time:

Nothing Worth Having (1902 words) by felcast
Fandom: Lovers in a Dangerous Time - Barenaked Ladies (Song)
Rating: Mature
Additional Tags: Post-Apocalypse Glamping
Summary: What do you do when everyone but your girlfriend vanishes overnight? According to Molls, you go find ‘em.

Other works I really enjoyed:

Last One on the Ground (4 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Abandoned Town - The Smooth Maria (Song)
Rating: General Audiences
Additional Tags: Art

Perigee (1025 words) by galaxyofroses
Fandom: Bad Moon Rising - Creedence Clearwater Revival (Song)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Relationships: Original Female Character/Original Female Character
Additional Tags: Magic, POV Second Person, Apocalypse, Horror
Summary: The moon is a sly bitch with a slantwise smile.

Heartlock (1226 words) by felcast
Fandom: Lock-Keeper - Stan Rogers (Song)
Rating: Mature
Summary: I wouldn't trade your life for one hour of home.

Living Here Today (1431 words) by Iseult_Variante
Fandom: Mr. Blue Sky - Electric Light Orchestra (Song)
Rating: General Audiences
Additional Tags: Magical Realism, Weather, Optimism, Having a Nice Day
Summary: And don't you know
It's a beautiful new day?
Hey...
tropicsbear: Alexandra Trese from Trese with her hair in a ponytail (Trese: Ponytail!Alexandra)
[personal profile] tropicsbear

Ballerina (2025) (8/10)

Ballerina is set between John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum and John Wick: Chapter 4, though the story focuses on new character Eve Macarro and her quest for revenge.

We were introduced to the Tarkovsky Theater, one of the Ruska Roma's bases, in John Wick: Chapter 3. There we see what John's childhood was supposedly like and where he probably had his training. What I, personally, found most intriguing about the theater were the ballerinas. Based on what we were shown, all the women in the Ruska Roma were trained in ballet, while all the men were trained in judo. But everyone was also an assassin, and everyone was tatted up and had gnarly injuries from harsh training. A female assassin who relied less on her looks and more on her physicality? Color me intrigued.

And Eve definitely didn't disappoint. Action-wise, I thought this was every bit as good as the main films in the John Wick franchise. It's actually a bit gorier because while John favors guns, Eve seems to have a fondness for grenades. (Let's not get caught up in the physics of whether you can blow someone up in close quarters without also getting blown up. Grenade-fu!)

ExpandCut for length and mild spoilers. )

Random stuff:

  • Hard to pick a favorite fight, but I think I'll go with the flamethrower vs. firehose one. The primal scream Eve let out was 👌🏽 (Not counting this as a spoiler since the scene was in one of the trailers.)
  • I will admit that there's something the movie doesn't quite pull off that's in the main films, but I can't quite put my finger on what's missing. Which isn't to say that this is a bad movie—I think it's great—but there's something in the vibes.

(no subject)

Jul. 13th, 2025 11:57 pm
tellshannon815: (victor)
[personal profile] tellshannon815
Challenge #4

Fun House
Journaling: What is making you smile these days? Create a top 10 list of anything you want to talk about.
Creative: Write from the perspective of a house or other location.

There is one house I can think of that must have seen a lot over the years, would have stories to tell if it could, and that is Colony House in the TV show From.

Title: No One Here Is Free
Fandom: From
Characters: Colony House, Jasmine, Smiley, Old Lady Creature, Donna, Victor, Ellis, Fatima, Jade, Boyd, Nicki, Acosta, Kevin, Clara
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Spoilers all through S3, mentions of character deaths
Summary: Colony House was originally a family home.

ExpandRead more... )

July 2025 update

Jul. 12th, 2025 07:05 am
meridian_rose: pen on letter background  with text  saying 'writer' (Default)
[personal profile] meridian_rose
Hi all
I did try and read some entries this week but it's so hot that I'm barely catching up.
I've edited and posted some fic to AO3 but not much else lately.
Have a photo edit of two pics I took this week. We have a pair of juvenile robins regularly feeding and bathing in the garden! They have golden speckles at present with one starting to get the red breast feathers. Plus a picture of one of the adult robins who visits along with the blackbirds, sparrows, and bluetits.
I don't have pics but we've also got hawks, neighbour who did get photos thinks peregrine falcons. They shriek and call and can sometimes be glimpsed wheeling across the sky.


tropicsbear: Green silhouette image of Knuckleduster from Vigilantes: BnHA Illegals (Vigilantes: Knuckleduster silhouette)
[personal profile] tropicsbear

Vigilantes: Boku no Hero Academia Illegals (8/10)

Vigilantes is a spin-off story set before the events of Boku no Hero Academia which focuses on vigilantes in a world where being a pro hero is a viable career path. It expands the worldbuilding of BnHA beyond pro heroes and gives more historical information about how society developed after the appearance of Quirks. (Someone in YouTube comments said that Vigilantes is actually more academic about hero society history than BnHA which is more "My Hero Military Camp" sometimes. Absolutely wild and yet weirdly accurate.)

We're introduced to a new set of characters—college student Haimawari Kouichi, "freelance idol" Pop☆Step, and eccentric bruiser Knuckleduster—but lots of pro heroes from the main series appear in supporting roles as well.

ExpandCut for length and spoilers (for the anime and some of the manga). )

Random stuff:

  • There's a distinct lack of protecting secret identities in this show. Kouichi spends more than half the time with his face out in the open even if they explicitly say that vigilantes are technically on the wrong side of the law. (Because even if they're doing good, they're not licensed.)
  • There's a trio of characters who are assholes to Kouichi and Kazuho in E01. Like, assault and beat up levels of being assholes. And yet there's some weird redemption thing going for them by the end of the season? We don't need this.
  • We get a fair share of Tensei AKA Big Iida in this show and I'm eternally grateful for it. We even get a minute of kid!Tenya struggling with his Quirk!! Cutie!!!
  • The animation quality's much more consistent compared to the recent seasons of the main show, and also just higher quality in general. Which is interesting because you'd think that the main series would get more love since it's the central canon. Checking on MyAnimeList, studio Bones produces the main series and Bones Film produces Vigilantes. Poking around the Wikipedia page, it looks like Bones Film is a subsidiary of Bones and different studios in Bones Film work on each series (Studio B for Vigilantes and Studio C for the main BnHA).
  • My per-episode reactions are in the comments of the corresponding posts over at [community profile] bnha_fans. Spoilers abound in the comment discussions, so beware if you check them out.
  • S02 is targeted for release in 2026!