drop ★ pop ★ candy

columbina pull day!!! i doubt i'll be getting her i have basically Nothing but LMAO

Challenge #7

LIST THREE (or more) THINGS YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF. They don’t have to be your favorite things, just things that you think are good. Feel free to expand as much or as little as you want.

i ... hm!! i mean i at least can think of a few, i'm just always bad at hyping myself up with stuff cause i'm just like ... it's just things i do LOL

1. I like trying out new stuff and thus having resources for things; which makes it easier for me to share resources if other people get into it as well (like coding, game dev, art stuff, game stuff in general like mods, resources, etc)
2. I like that I'm good at games!! I won't say I'm the best, but I can pride myself in figuring out how to play games and adapt to them. I mean I'd hope I do ... 
3. I like that I keep trying to improve my systems of living/organizing; which means learning what works for me and doesn't, and coming to cope with the fact that sometimes they just don't work out, or get dropped for months and returned to, etc

I've been trying to keep up with snowflake_challenge so I haven't been feeling like writing any other posts lol. I'm not sure if I'll do challenge #7 because I'm my own worst enemy but we'll see. I did not expect my wish for writing advice to attract so many replies, but I'm super grateful to everyone who gave me one! <3

I spent most of today playing catch-up on the Archon Quest in Genshin before maintenance. We're getting Columbina and Ineffa's banners afterward, and I am going to try to get Ineffa while my partner tries to get Columbina. I do not have a guaranteed banner five star right now so I'm not sure if I'll pull her... I also need to save since I want Illuga. The damn twinks always get me. 

Seeing Arlecchino and Columbina interact again also makes me want to write slash for them so bad. There are other things I should be writing though!! My brain needs to stop this madness. Arlecchino just seems like she would be incredibly fun to write, and I've been itching for a good writing idea involving her.

A writing project I'm currently doing is revising the only Soriku fic I ever posted on Ao3. I love the concept because it's about Dream Eater Riku. But it's like... years old. Like KH3 just released old. My writing is a little better now, so I want to edit it. Surprisingly, I still get kudos for it every now and then, and I just think people deserve to read a better version of it lmfao. 

Top 10 Challenge. The category(ies) you choose are up to you. 

Ah, an excuse for me to talk about my top 10 visual kei bands! (As of me making this post at least.)

I added three songs I enjoy from each if you want to listen to something new in the realm of j-rock. I did not feel like trying to embed 100 videos, so I just have Youtube links. Sorry. Half of these bands are quite popular if you're into j-rock/vkei, but listen, they get the attention for a reason. Some music videos require some warnings, so look for those in bold if certain subjects upset you. 
( Read more... )

At the suggestion of one of my neocities neighbours, I thought I'd partake and unpack my experiences with various social medias (some with intentions of being used for art as well) and how I felt about them. Keep in mind this is from a vibes standpoint and less of TOS or other things, some of the things I may not have direct links to and it's more of stuff I've heard, and it's more how I felt as a person on there + the community.

Being able to hold a personal and art account contributes a bit to some of it, but not a lot (it's rare for me to be very personal on my art accounts, it feels too weird for me :( ).

(This is also crossposted on my Bear Blog.)

( Read more... )

I had plans for tonight but they got cancelled. :(

If there are any vidders who follow me, Dashcon 3 is looking for vids for their AMV Showcase, they're having an in person show and a virtual show.  If anyone is interested you can find more info here: https://www.tumblr.com/dashcon-two/805639043423535104/amv-showcase?source=share ;

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A Financial Times article discussed a cultural change during the holidays in Britain, as smart TVs and non-TV viewing by a younger generation means that there is much less viewing of holiday specials, which had been a national tradition. Instead "data shows children as young as four spend longer watching YouTube each day than all PSB services combined", and that ratio is even worse with young teens. The article notes the situation is equally dire for other European broadcasters.

In the article, the concern is that younger viewers are turning away from content that is authentic to and about their own country. In the U.S., too, public television is under threat. Are there TV traditions that are disappearing due to the shift in viewing? What might be gone in another generation or two?

Heeey look... a new fandom tag...!! The art is very pretty.

      

I think the three of them should kiss.

The Serenade of Spring Thunder can be read on the Kodansha site also btw XD

---

a shinobi plans, the gods laugh | The Serenade of Spring Thunder | Kagaribi/Rindou/Shisui | <750 words | rated T
Spoilers for chapter 10

Summary: Seducing the vengeful spirits of wronged women didn't seem like a bad plan, considering Kagaribi's background and how no one else had offered a better idea. It is, however, not going well, and the two people that Kagaribi is definitely not falling in love with are doing nothing to help.

Read it on Dreamwidth or on AO3.

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Where am I at with all the projects? Definitely nowhere I thought I'd be in early December. Let's have a look at the "vague current plan" back then:

• Let [the Cursed Witch] Rest - I've sure been doing that! Though not the "not too long" bit.

...Actually that's it I did nothing else on that list, and half the rest will have to change. In fairness, I knew all the sequel-related stuff would have to be temporarily shelved about a week later: I was deep in the kn8 edits, and could tell it would take longer than anticipated. I wanted the time away from the witch so my subconscious could ✨ work its magic ✨ about the remaining problems, but once most of the story left my "active" memory, outlining or planning a sequel felt nearly impossible.

Then K-9 happened. Lol. I mean, this was and continues to be fun, and I'm surfing that delightful fandom wave for as long as I can. 🏄 Did I mention our fandom tag was canonised? Teeheehee.

I'm writing a lot of short fics in too many fandoms and I think that's doing me good for now. Mostly because I want to keep myself distracted away from *waves wildly*. It means I'm rereading manga chapters here and there, rewatching episodes bits. I'm still reading a lot of new manga at the moment, and unfortunately feeling fannish about more and more of the tiniest, non-existent fandoms. It's just!! There's so much awesome polyship potential everywhere!!!! They just huh write themselves, or should!!!!! Or I wish someone else did so I could just read it... XD At least, a few of them have English translations out there so maybe some readers will have the same vision and eventually find the fic, but there's also a BL horror manga (the true monster isn't really the creature...) that doesn't, despite calling my name and whispering OT3 into my head louder and louder....... Ah well. Fan does as fan must.

But anyway! Writing short is doing me good, I think, and writing varied too. But I still have plans for the big original projects:

• I want/must do the pacing check for the cursed witch in January. At the very, very least, do the full re-read and take notes on where to break down the new chapters. But ideally I'd like to do that work itself, too, because...
• ...I signed up for an editing course/workshop/cheeralong in February and I plan to begin again the structural edits for the soul thief then. I'm hoping the peer support/challenge will help me get past the "blergh I already did 2/3 of this before but stopped at an awkward point." It's been a year now, so hopefully the reset will work out ok...

But I'd really like to have this round of Cursed Witch edits feel like they're a better shape, with chapters properly broken down and cliffhangerised. Also I hope to keep writing ficlets as a pressure valve for launching myself into yet another MASSIVE EDITING/BIG LENGTH round.

That's the current plan! Let's see in a month how it totally didn't work out that way!! XD

 Name:  Ciacconne 

Age: Mid 30s. 

I mostly post about: My life, health, and fandom. 

My hobbies are: Writing, reading, gaming, and art. 

My fandoms are: HP, FF16, FF7, Frieren, Slayers, Gintama, Kekkai Sensen, YGO. 

I'm looking to meet people who: wanna talk about life and fandom stuff. 

My posting schedule tends to be: Daily. 
 

When I add people, my dealbreakers are: Antis. 

Before adding me, you should know: I post about my health, be it mental or physical, 

Challenge #6
Cheating big time! But finding the Top 10 books I read this year was too daunting (even when I cheated and counted a whole series as one 😍). So here, have a few Top 10s. These are all books I've read this year (mostly). I didn't count re-reads (of which there were many and would have skewed the results drastically).

( Queer Male Romances  )
*and yes, I loved that their were two re-tellings of Pride and Prejudice in there. ❤️❤️

( Mixed Bag )

Title: Empty Wardrobes
Author: Maria Judite de Carvalho
Translator: Margaret Jull Costa
Genre: Fiction, literary

I collect false treasures in empty wardrobes.

This quote by Paul Eluard opens book #14 from the "Women in Translation" rec list, which continues to fatten up my TBR list. This is Empty Wardrobes by Maria Judite de Carvalho, translated from Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa. This novella, originally published in the 1960s, is about the ways in which women are subsumed by the men in their lives, or otherwise are buffeted about with less control over their lives than they ought to have.

The forward by Kate Zambreno is a wonderfully complementary piece. She talks about the anger she feels going to a woman's funeral and hearing the dead woman sanctified by men in her life who did nothing but take from her, who can speak of her only to praise what she did for others, and can say nothing about what the woman herself was. 

Sometimes you can read a book and just know the author was angry when she wrote it. This is one of those. The book uses the phrase "discreet rage" about one of its characters, and I think that sentiment succinctly describes the whole book. The protagonist, Dora Rosario, is ten years into widowhood, and she has devoted her entire life to mourning her unremarkable husband as much as she had previous devoted her life to supporting his every opinion regardless of whether or not she agreed with it. Now, a decade on, her mother-in-law reveals something about Dora's late husband that changes her entire perspective.

I would like to believe we are moving away from the world portrayed in Empty Wardrobes (though not with as much success as I'd like), but this is a stark reminder of how even a few generations ago, in the Sixties, a woman's identity was so controlled by her husband's. There are only two men in this book--Duarte, Dora's dead husband, and Ernesto, the longtime partner of a side character--and they both, through social structures, exercise incredible control over the lives of the women around them without any respect or even knowledge of their impact.

The three main women in this book--Dora, her daughter Lisa, and the narrator--each take a different approach to the male romantic partners in their lives, and none of them comes out the better for it (well, perhaps for Lisa, but I personally doubt it will last), because the ultimate problem is societal attitudes about the way men and women are meant to relate to each other. 

It's not a long book, and I can't say much more without spoiling things, but I also think it does some fabulous things with its narration and perspective, and the way it doles out information. Really an excellent framing that allows for a lot of fluidity and filling in gaps with your own visions while remaining clear in the nature of the story it's telling. 

This book was only translated into English in 2021, which is a shame, because I think it would have struck a nerve much earlier, but we have it now! Costa does an excellent job with the work too; the writing is full of punchy phrases like the above, and she captures some realistic dialogue--characters repeating themselves, responding in ways that don't quite match up with what was asked, etc.--while keeping it natural-sounding.

I collect false treasures in empty wardrobes.

This quote by Paul Eluard opens book #14 from the "Women in Translation" rec list, which continues to fatten up my TBR list. This is Empty Wardrobes by Maria Judite de Carvalho, translated from Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa. This novella, originally published in the 1960s, is about the ways in which women are subsumed by the men in their lives, or otherwise are buffeted about with less control over their lives than they ought to have.

The forward by Kate Zambreno is a wonderfully complementary piece. She talks about the anger she feels going to a woman's funeral and hearing the dead woman sanctified by men in her life who did nothing but take from her, who can speak of her only to praise what she did for others, and can say nothing about what the woman herself was. 

Sometimes you can read a book and just know the author was angry when she wrote it. This is one of those. The book uses the phrase "discreet rage" about one of its characters, and I think that sentiment succinctly describes the whole book. The protagonist, Dora Rosario, is ten years into widowhood, and she has devoted her entire life to mourning her unremarkable husband as much as she had previous devoted her life to supporting his every opinion regardless of whether or not she agreed with it. Now, a decade on, her mother-in-law reveals something about Dora's late husband that changes her entire perspective.

I would like to believe we are moving away from the world portrayed in Empty Wardrobes (though not with as much success as I'd like), but this is a stark reminder of how even a few generations ago, in the Sixties, a woman's identity was so controlled by her husband's. There are only two men in this book--Duarte, Dora's dead husband, and Ernesto, the longtime partner of a side character--and they both, through social structures, exercise incredible control over the lives of the women around them without any respect or even knowledge of their impact.

The three main women in this book--Dora, her daughter Lisa, and the narrator--each take a different approach to the male romantic partners in their lives, and none of them comes out the better for it (well, perhaps for Lisa, but I personally doubt it will last), because the ultimate problem is societal attitudes about the way men and women are meant to relate to each other. 

It's not a long book, and I can't say much more without spoiling things, but I also think it does some fabulous things with its narration and perspective, and the way it doles out information. Really an excellent framing that allows for a lot of fluidity and filling in gaps with your own visions while remaining clear in the nature of the story it's telling. 

This book was only translated into English in 2021, which is a shame, because I think it would have struck a nerve much earlier, but we have it now! Costa does an excellent job with the work too; the writing is full of punchy phrases like the above, and she captures some realistic dialogue--characters repeating themselves, responding in ways that don't quite match up with what was asked, etc.--while keeping it natural-sounding. 

Games: I played a bunch of Hive.

Miscellaneous: No podcasts, one longform article:

Why I Wrote Dirty Linen

Music: I didn't go to yesterday's pub session because Newest D&D Homebrew Campaign had a D&D session scheduled, which was cancelled at the last minute. Alas.

Roleplaying: See above. :-/

Television: We watched the first two episodes of Max Headroom S2, which predicted AI-generated avatars of deceased loved ones and parodied certain aspects of religion in ways that ::cough:: would not make it onto TV in 2026.

I also watched the final three episodes of Heated Rivalry. ( Thoughts, in no particular order. )

Video Games: I finished Samorost 2, which is a mechanically simpler game than Botanicula and thus tricky to play after it, as I had to rethink the way I approached the puzzles. It's still a super fun game; I love everything Amanita Design puts out.

I wanted to play Downwell next for a change of pace, but fucking windows insists on rendering it in a tiny 3" x 4" box in the center of the screen, making it all but unplayable. I've thus settled on a Pentiment replay (in which I am once again on a collision course with the church from the get-go) and am also toying with the idea of a Darklands replay as well, given the clear debt the former owes this game...provided windows cooperates.

これで以上です。

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Title: Alone
Author: goddess47
Character(s): John Sheppard, Rodney McKay
Pairing(s): John Sheppard/Rodney McKay
Rating: PG
Length: 265 words
Warnings: none

Notes:

For mcsheplets prompt #126 - runaway

For sweetandshort January 2026 prompt - alone


Summary:

John just needed to breathe.



Alone on AO3