Let's blame the change of season for today's restlessness and this disjointed post
Sep. 1st, 2025 04:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
This morning I did manage to do some small puttery things that needed doing, but most things require input from both of us and
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(I'm reminding myself that any surfaces we can declutter before the fall crunch starts at Dayjob will be a significant help for my brain while that's going on. Here's hoping we can manage some of that.)
I won't think it's properly autumn until equinox anyway, but I do think maybe I'm ready for it.
The Last Word: xxxHoLiC: Podfic: death as a perfect circle (that elusive object)
Sep. 1st, 2025 01:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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Fandom: xxxHoLiC
Reader's name: bluedreaming
Author's name: bluedreaming
Link to text version of story: text here
Rating: G
Length/file size: 1:15 min, 1.19 mb
Content notes: none
Podficcer's notes: The music used is an excerpt from track 21 HoLiC End Title (YouTube music) from Keiichiro Shibuya's 2022 ATAK025 xxxHOLiC soundtrack album. The photo is my own work.
Summary: In which Doumeki has the last word.
( embedded streaming and direct-download links )
东极岛 Dongji Rescue
Sep. 1st, 2025 08:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
It's based on a historical episode from World War 2 (the sinking of the Lisbon Maru), though it's heavily fictionalised and in no way historically accurate. *g*
(There's a 2024 documentary on the real event, which I'd love to see if anyone knows where to find it!)
Anyway, Dongji Rescue is a really well done, effective film! ( spoilers below the cut )
Also, watching this movie was a very multilingual experience - the film itself has Chinese, Japanese and English dialogue all aplenty (which you don't see nearly enough of, IMO!), handling the language barriers really well - and then we had German subtitles on top of that. *g* They were good, too, and not as distracting as I might have expected. Since I've generally watched Chinese media with English subtitles, and also learned what Chinese I have with English-language material, all my Chinese is routed through English, and it's usually somewhat disorienting to watch something with German subtitles instead. But the multilingual mix of this film somehow balanced that out, and I didn't have an issue. Though I was happy to have the Chinese subtitles as well as they helped me follow along the Chinese dialogue where I could!
Day 1: Storytime - Stargate Atlantis (PG)
Sep. 1st, 2025 01:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Rodney McKay, Miko Kusanagi
Additional Tags: No True Pair 2025
Series: Part 1 of No True Pair 2025, Part 4 of Rule 5
For
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Summary:
"How the fu-- heck did I get roped into this?" Rodney hissed at MIko.
Seasonsofdrabbles summer '25 reveals
Sep. 1st, 2025 10:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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"Even the Smallest Possibility"
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
(G, gen, 100 words; Link, Revali; Minish | Picori legend)
"Reasons to Visit the Library"
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
(G, gen, 100 words; Link, Zelda; King Rhoam's secret study)
The folks who wrote so nicely for me, as previously posted, are now known to be
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Spicy: Wildfrost: Art: spice yuki
Sep. 1st, 2025 12:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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Rating: G
Summary: yknow delta pokemon? yeah? spice yuki
( im thinkin. perma atk up whenever a card gets spice. just like regular yuki )
Gabranth--Not Gabranth (Final Fantasy XII, Basch & Drace)
Sep. 1st, 2025 01:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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Fandom: Final Fantasy XII
Pairing/Characters: Basch & Drace
Content Notes: Major Game Spoilers by way of Extreme Canon Divergence.
Prompt: September 1st: and they lived happily ever after
Gabranth--Not Gabranth @ Ao3.
Fannish options & enthusiasms | September 2025
Sep. 1st, 2025 09:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Here are some recent fannish things I've happened to see and would like to share!
Spotlight: I don't subscribe to Netflix, so I assumed I was going to miss out on K-Pop Demon Hunters. But then they released widely in cinemas for one weekend only and I happily got tipped off in time. I liked it even more than I thought I would! K-Pop isn't my genre, but thoughtful magical-girl adventures? Well, yeah. Imagine that the original Sailor Moon manga and the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV show had a daughter and appointed High School Musical her fairy godmother. K-Pop Demon Hunters is joyful, hopeful, and deeper than it looks. It's a packed 90 minutes, with nothing missing and nothing to spare. (And I really enjoy "What it Sounds Like.")
Ficathons, fests & communities
- Create & engage
trickortreatex, where every gift is a "trick" or a "treat," has nominations through 9/08, sign-ups through 9/18, due 10/24.
yuletide_admin '25 is underway. Nominations through 9/26; sign-ups through 10/24; due 12/17.
fandomgiftbasket, a gifting fest a la Fandom Stocking/Trees, has sign-ups through 9/05 and reveals 10/12.
fandommixtapeex uses songs as exchange prompts. Nominations through 9/09, sign-ups through 9/21, due 11/16.
fffx, the "Five Figure Fanwork Exchange" (10K+ words), has sign-ups through 9/07; due 1/24.
aspecex is a fic exchange themed on asexuality/aromanticism. Nominations through 9/17; sign-ups through 9/20; due 10/07.
no_true_pair's 8-Character Challenge somewhat resembles Into A Bar, but everyone gets matched with everyone via distinct prompts.
10itemsorless is for ships with >10 works on the AO3. Sign-up through 9/06; due 10/25.
1character is a challenge community in which you claim a character and a prompt set and write 50 one-sentence micro-fics.
fandomwithbenefits is a low-commitment, no deadlines, monthly challenge/interaction community.
drabbleonficathon is a prompt-meme challenge. Prompts close 10/01; fills open now and indefinitely.
dreamwars is a community for all Star Wars.
vampiremedia is a community for all vampire media.
seasonsofdrabbles has released its summer event and will de-anonymize the works today.
pinchhits is a forum for pinch-hits in exchanges. For example,
wipbigbang is seeking pinch hitters.
whenisitdue tracks many more events than I note here!
- Enjoy & share
fancake (themed fanfic recs); September theme: "food & cooking"
gensplosion (gen fanfic recs)
het_reccers (m/f fanfic recs)
fanart_recs (fanart recs)
recthething (fanwork recs)
Sidelight: Those who enjoy the ongoing Aurora webcomic by Red of Overly Sarcastic Productions (online | hardcopy) might like to know that Red is currently selling a pack of 4 character pins (Kendall, Alinua, Erin, and Falst). Shop the OSP store. Red's custom pins are always limited time, limited stock (though occasionally some do come back for deals around US Thanksgiving time, I wouldn't depend on that). I plan to put Kendall and Alinua on my work backpack.
August Language Roundup
Sep. 1st, 2025 11:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Chinese — Finished 1/10 of Rookie Unit 8; legendary through Rookie Unit 6
Dutch — Finished 1/5 of Explorer Unit 2; legendary through Rookie Unit 3
Gaelic — Finished 1/5 of Explorer Unit 13; legendary through the Explorer Unit 10
Hindi — Finished 4/5 of Unit 1; backburnered to focus on the letters with the GC
Indonesian — Finished 2/5 of Explorer Unit 12; legendary through 2/5 of Explorer Unit 11
Japanese — Finished Traveler Unit 24; legendary through Traveler Unit 21
Korean — Finished 1/5 of Rookie Unit 6; legendary through Rookie Unit 5
Latin — Finished 1/5 of Rookie Unit 6
Manx — Finished lesson 3 of the Loayr Gaelg 3 textbook
Welsh — Finished 1/5 of Rookie Unit 6; legendary through 1/5 of Rookie Unit 4
And, because, why not? Here's where things stood ( last month. )
これで以上です。
And They Lived Happily Ever After (Miss Marple/Winnie-the-Pooh, Jane Marple/Tigger Holmes)
Sep. 1st, 2025 04:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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Fandom: Miss Marple/Winnie-the-Pooh
Pairing/Characters: Jane Marple & Tigger Holmes
Content Notes: No warning needed
Prompt: September 1st: and they lived happily ever after
And They Lived Happily Ever After on AO3
Crafting Update, August 2025
Sep. 1st, 2025 10:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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It was an on month for Nerdopolis; we were in the third and final round for the current tournament, and I got inspired by some of the challenges.
The first challenge was the traditional Love What You Do challenge, in which teams pick their own themes. My team is all about gaming, and this month, we chose Mini-games as our theme. I immediately thought of the butterfly hunt in Final Fantasy X and dutifully searched for butterfly-related patterns. I found this butterfly shawl pattern. "It's crocheted - I can finish it in a month!" I said to myself. Reader, I did not finish it. Instead, I knocked out a quick crocheted hat yesterday that has the classic butterfly-made-of-chains on it. Apologies for poor picture.

[Image Description: A pink crocheted hat, featuring a butterfly made of chain stitches on the brim.]
Then there was the Boats challenge. Well, boats are often white in color, so I thought hey, let's make some white snowflakes! I chose this snowflake pattern, and tried it holding thread doubled. Alas, I got bored at the tediousness of it in the final round, and literally dropped it to finish it later... and it ended up under my desk, where it tangled with OTHER projects that have been dropped. BIG SIGH.
Anyway! I did not feel like unearthing it, so I decided to do something else instead. If you stand on the deck of a boat while it's in motion, it gets HECKIN' WINDY and your hair blows all over the place. So I started contemplating a hairband of some kind.
I considered yet another Lacy Crochet Kerchief - this pattern is like potato chips for me, I've made NINE of them. I did dutifully get yarn and started the chain/first row, but changed my mind. I considered a granny head scarf I found and even started that one, but the pattern called for fingering and I had just grabbed the first yarn/hook combo I found (worsted weight and a J hook) and it was coming out ugly. So I went back to the drawing board AGAIN, and finally whipped out this YESTERDAY:

[Image Description: A crocheted headband. It is tan in color and features bright orange pumpkins made of cluster stitches. A green vine meanders through the pumpkin patch.]
I left off round 2 and 6 because I didn't have much time. Even so, I barely finished this before the deadline. I'm happy with it, and it looks really cute on me and HEY I LOVE ALL THINGS PUMPKIN so now I have a seasonal headband - or will, once I weave in ends, oops.
For Nerd Cred, I tied to the All Saints' Wake in FFXIV, as there are plenty of pumpkin decorations then.. and also pumpkin cookies, as featured in this clip from one of my Twitch streams:
The Lab's theme this month was Paper Manipulation. I immediately thought PAPER QUILLING! Alas, I couldn't find my quilling pen, and didn't have the proper color paper for what I wanted to make anyway, so I bought more supplies, oops. I did start quilling a bird, but (a) it wasn't coming out too well (b) I ran out of time. So in desperation, I made an origami inflated box. HEY, IT COUNTS!

[Image Description: An inflated paper box, folded in the origami style. Made with a piece of paper torn from a spiral notebook.]
I made a ton of these toys when I was a kid. The children's craft book I got it from said you could fill them when water and use them as water bombs, but wouldn't the paper disintegrate? Hmmm. Anyway, I used that "water bomb" idea for my Nerd Cred, and tied to Final Fantasy Tactics as there is a Water Ball throwing weapon in that game.
I did not work on my cardi at all this month, but did spend an hour starting the Sylvan Tee. I'd like to really put some work into that this month, maybe for
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A bit about sleep, but primarily about peaches, plus a long-ago happening in Toronto
Sep. 1st, 2025 11:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Firm reminder to self: that used to be the norm. And at least there's no Dayjob today.
We didn't go to the wee local market this weekend, because when we were out with a car on Friday we were able to stop by the stall for a produce place ("place") I love, even though this was only our second time there. It's produce from a variety of farms down in the Valley, and they usually have a lot of different things, but for us it's not super feasible to get to without driving, even though it's not that far.
We came home with a pint of blueberries and three quarts of peaches, encompassing four peach varieties! ( cut in case you DGAF about peaches )
Back when we lived in Toronto (over twenty years ago now--what even?), of course, we had access to Ontario peaches, which are a glory upon the earth. And because my exposure to popular music (or, y'know, an awful lot of music generally) was even worse then than it is now, a couple decades later, I didn't actually know the "millions of peaches" song other than the "millions of peaches, peaches for me; millions of peaches, peaches for free" bit. Like. At all. But I would go around singing that bit in sheer joy over peaches, and sometimes about other things that I loved. No context.
(The classic example of that last bit is the time or three I was singing about "millions of Quake-chans", because a] the original Quake is one of my lifetime favorite games {am I still ridiculously annoyed both that the name/"franchise" has had absolutely nothing to do with the original game beyond the fucking game engine AND how bad Quake II was? Yes} and b] I had mostly left behind my early-anime-fangirl habit of using fragments of Japanese, but was still blithely appending "-chan" now and then for fun.)
Anyway, the point of this ramble is that (if I'm remembering correctly at this distance) one time Em was visiting and I merrily sang out "millions of kittens" etc. (this was before
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Then she and
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12 Week Year WAM Week 10
Sep. 1st, 2025 08:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Goal 1: Declutter house and take care of family. 32% (8/25)
Review: No luck on most of everything this week. I actually feel pretty good about the way the dishes went, but that's about it. No cleaning, no laundry. That has to change.
Goal 2: Catch up on Fannish50. 100% (9/9)
Review: it took me a couple of days to get all the writing done, and I managed to get everything posted that I wanted to. I'm actually really happy about how this is going, and I'm looking forward to getting it all done.
Goal 3: Prep for writing retreat. 100% (1/1)
Review: This is done. I've done all the prep. I'm so excited!
Intentions for the future: G1: I want to spend time in the conservatory and clean up in front of the piano. When that's done, I'm going to move the piano bench back and work on the living room. G2: I have two posts to write, and three to upload, so that will be easy. G4: The retreat happens starting Thursday! Nothing on my metrics to take care of, but outside of them, i need to pack, go shopping, and get ready to go!
Hope (Transformers [Shattered Glass-ish], Starscream & Thundercracker)
Sep. 1st, 2025 08:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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Fandom: Transformers [Shattered Glass-ish]
Pairing/Characters: Starscream & Thundercracker
Content Notes: None
Prompt: September One - 2 & 6 - and they lived happily ever after
Thundercracker stood on the ground, letting the weight of pollution and wasted resources settle into his ember, reminding him of what it had been all been for.
His optics flicked out further, seeing the scientist that every Seeker who had survived was pinning their hopes to.
As if in response to the gaze, Starscream looked back at him and flared his wings in a clear show of optimism. For him to do that… Thundercracker ran to him, looking at the test patch.
The metal was renewing itself, clearing away rust and acid pits.
"We will survive, and have our future."
Double Challenge: The Fantastic Journey: Fanfic: Mirage
Sep. 1st, 2025 10:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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Title: Mirage
Fandom: The Fantastic Journey
Author:
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Characters: Varian, Fred, ‘Scott’.
Rating: PG
Setting: Atlanteum.
Summary: It looks and sounds like Scott, but it’s a deception.
Word Count: 300
Content Notes: Nada.
Written For: Challenge 489: Amnesty 81, using Challenge 15: Double.
Disclaimer: I don’t own The Fantastic Journey, or the characters. They belong to their creators.
A/N: Mods, please tag with f: tv (category)
Monthly Round-Up
Sep. 1st, 2025 10:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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• Promo for: Heihua Exchange on
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• Promo/Rec for: Nothing But You (2023)
• Wishlist Wednesday
• Topic Tuesday: Failing Enthusiasm?
• Quick Rec Wednesday
• Promo for: Come and add your recs! on
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• Promo/Rec for: "Hymn" (short film)
• Did You Make a Thing?
• Promo for: sign-ups open! on
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• Fanart for: C-ent art since March: MDZS and DMBJ
And of course we had the monthly round-up for July 2025 and our weekly chats on the 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd, and the 30th
Did you discover an entry you missed? Come on over and take a look/comment!