symbrock | Member Posts

Snowflake Challenge: A flatlay of a snowflake shaped shortbread cake, a mug with coffee, and a string of holiday lights on top of a rustic napkin.

Challenge #8

Talk about your creative process.

( Read more... )

So, that's how I write things. I quite enjoyed writing for this challenge: it was nice to thing about how I do things and compare them to how I used to do it. There's been a lot of trial and error over the years.

I used to have to write analyses of my own writing for university (my BA is in English Lit and Creative Writing, and we had to do that for the CW part) and it used to make me want to die inside from how fucking pretentious the whole exercise was. They were never really accurate either, mostly because they talked about symbolism more than "I wrote this for a grade and I hate this teacher, so fuck it." But now I'm now kind of wondering what an analysis piece would look like for one of my fics. Huh. Let me know if you want to see one someday, I guess.

Current Location: Hanoi - Vietnam
Current Music: Run - SKALD

melagan

An old-fashioned ornament of two young girls bundled up in coats and walking side by side is nestled amidst pine boughs.

Challenge #8

Talk about your creative process.

Dear god, I wish had an actual process. Then maybe I wouldn't get 'stuck' so often. Better I talk about a common thread that gets the ball rolling.

It usually starts with a question. What if this instead of that? If that sparks an idea, I will sometimes jot it down on the wall. (Cling sheet). I really like doing this. I don't have to boot up my computer or hunt down a pen and paper.

story ideas

Sometimes it's just random ideas that don't go anywhere, but often enough they do. That particular cling sheet turned into a story for Unconventional Courtship.

First draft is often on notepaper. It goes through a lot of changes and gets fleshed out on the first typed draft. I've found that taking the time to read the story out loud finds a lot of mistakes and plot holes.

Yep, gonna need a second draft.

And then there are the other kind of stories. Like the ones for written for the Fuck for Science! Challenge.
Those I'm just winging.

For Science II (NSFW)

So...eh. I had to reread the story and...what were we talking about?

Artwork! I dabble a little. It's a learning process. Boy, have I come to have an enormous respect for the work artists put into their art. It's hard.

I did like how this one came out though.

Tickets to Pegasus.

mific

An interesting essay on why Connor Storrie is much more likely to get an award than Hudson Williams (if either of them does). Clarifies a number of things I'd been vaguely thinking about.

And a hockey player from the USA leagues has just come out publicly and in detail, saying his statement was partly inspired by Heated Rivalry. It's not quite that dramatic - he was partly out already (to friends and family and had been playing in LGBTQ+ clubs since 2017) but it looks like this is his first major statement on social media. He never made the NHL but used to play in the USA leagues - the intricacies of all the NHL/AHL league levels baffle me. Anyway, it seems important, and was undoubtedly made a bit easier for him by the reception of Heated Rivalry.

scrubjayspeaks

While getting the death one deserved could never be guaranteed, a suitable, if not always desirable, afterlife would usually be arranged. For him, after a life spent using headphones and dark glasses and carefully chosen fabrics to defend against a world of pricking noise and sizzling light and grating texture, heaven was a Rothko. When his soul slipped free of this plane, Death escorted him to a universe of blue, soothing and cool as a pool of pure water stretching out forever.

---

LL#1356

bookblather

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

kitewithfish

What I’ve Read
Novel Length fanfic!
Super/Bat - The Long Hangover by CoffioCake – a comics-focused Super/Bat fanfic with a very delightful level of identity porn! “Clark knows he should take a break: His powers are on the fritz, he feels like shit, and Batman’s treating him like a liability. But Gotham's villains seem to have it in for Metropolis' Big Blue Boy Scout and Clark won't just wait around for answers. Batman might be the world’s greatest detective, but Clark Kent is one of the Daily Planet’s most tenacious reporters. This is definitely a job for Superman.” https://archiveofourown.org/works/5912137

Hannibal/Will Graham - Falls the Shadow by littlesystems - https://archiveofourown.org/works/23577121 Hannibal/Will Graham fanfic. “AKA an AU where Bedelia is Will’s psychiatrist instead of Hannibal, Will makes a series of increasingly questionable life choices, and no one should ever take Bedelia’s advice. Ever.” - A very indulgent fic where Hannibal and Will get a chance to meet under more romantic circumstances.

Sidebar: So I write this on Tuesday, a day after I applied a latte to my aging human body after 2pm and screwed up my sleep pretty drastically last night. So drastically, in fact, that I left comments on fic I was reading at every thirty minutes from midnight to 2am. Since caring is sharing, in no particular order, here’s some of the fic I read Monday night/Tuesday morning!

Fandom: Guillermo Del Toro’s Hellboy II The Golden Army
I got into a headspace about old Guillermo del Toro movies and ended up re-watching it. (Fun!) One thing I enjoy with del Toro is that he often carries character-types and themes from film to film, so that Nuada from Hellboy II and Nomak from Blade II and Quinlan from The Strain and The Creature from Frankenstein are all characters that shade into each other. It feels very fannish to me – wanting to play with similar characters in different scenarios.

I found some fic focusing on Prince Nuada Silverlance, the villainous and thinly veiled survivor of colonialism becomes genocidal threat dude from the second movie, pairing him with the fandom bicycle of John Meyers, Agent Rookie Who Needs Exposition from the first Hellboy movie. (They never meet in canon.) Not going to lie, some similarities to Thorin Oakenshield here – the quest to save a kingdom in the face of certain ruin, a quest that kills him? Not the same but not different! (Sidebar: I was hoping to see more fic of Abe Sapien/Nuada from the Hellboy II fans. In the film, Abe’s paired with the other twin, Nuala, and the twins have a psychic bond type thing that means they suffer each other’s wounds. It just seems like a trio pairing would make sense here!)

-To Swallow My Desire And Choke On It by Skelettoine – and sequel Bury me to the sound of your name - https://archiveofourown.org/series/4520452

-it’s all going To End in Spears by psychomachia https://archiveofourown.org/works/76350796

-One of these things by obscureshipyard - https://archiveofourown.org/works/31634057

Fic from other fandoms, in which people make very poor choices about their sexual partners for extremely human reasons:

Mo Dao Zu Shi fic - so low i can't see the high road (on my knees) by Anonymous (Restricted) - https://archiveofourown.org/works/33068710 – Very niche and fucked up pairing in Mo Dao Zu Shi modern au. What do you do when your best friend and foster brother from childhood, your first love and the one who you thought you’d spend your whole life with, shows up with a boyfriend? Jiang Cheng decides the answer is: Fuck his dad.

Batfamily - (you kept me like a secret) i kept you like an oath by gatheringwool - https://archiveofourown.org/works/43038276 A well written fucked up Bat Family fic -In Jason Todd’s POV - about the night where it is revealed that he and Bruce have been having sex since Jason was twelve. It goes as well as could be expected. Mind the warnings.

What I’m Reading Now
Sunrise in the East by wroth_and_ruin – aka “that Hobbit/Pushing Daisies Sentinel/Guide AU crossover that nobody asked for and nobody wanted but you're getting anyway.” I read this at the recommendation of a friend years ago and it is charming and holds up to multiple re-reads. https://archiveofourown.org/works/1319923 This fic is fantastic if you like horny slow burns and cultural differences and Lee Pace.

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins – The second Hunger Games book. - Paused, bc hearing about fictional police crackdowns in Panem was… not doing it for me this week.

One Corpse Too Many by Ellis Peters – Book two of the Brother Cadfael medieval mysteries. 75% ish

What I’ll Read Next
I want to read some physical books I have around

melagan

Snowflake Challenge: A pair of ice skates hanging on a wood paneled wall. Pine boughs with a few ornaments are stuffed into the skates.

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.

1. My blue hair.

2. The variety in my fanfic. Yes, my works are almost exclusively McShep. But with that in mind, I've made them laundry machines put them in the 1940's and and explored canon possibilities
Apparently, I have no shame when it comes to these two.

3. I'm a patient listener.

evandar

two log cabins with snow on the roofs in a wintery forest the text snowflake challenge january 1 - 31 in white cursive text

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

1. I like my creativity. I think I'm a fairly solid writer, and I enjoy reading back over my own stuff at times because I'm the audience I write for the most. I've also spent the last year or so learning how to paint with oils, which has been pretty fun to explore.

2. I'm pretty adventurous. I'm up for trying pretty much anything at least once (my hard limit is cave diving), whether it's an activity or something to eat. I was raised to not say I don't like something without trying it first, and that's kind of stuck with me. It's led to me eating ready salted crickets (crunchy, but not much in the way of flavour), but it's stuck regardless. I also enjoy learning how to cook different things, and experimenting with putting new ingredients together.

3. I've developed some good boundaries. I used to be a bit of a people-pleaser, but I've become a lot more sure of myself in recent years. I've also stopped caring so much about what other people think of me, and while I'm still generally a kind and helpful person, I'm a lot more protective of myself.

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: Hanoi - Vietnam
Current Music: Ghost House Heart - Delain

evandar

Challenge #6

Top 10 Challenge.

I decided to write about the top 10 books and short stories that I read this year. I read less this year than I did in 2024. Partially due to availability: English books are possible to buy here, and I'm a big fan of a ~~not very~~ local second-hand bookshop that primarily buys from and sells to the expat community. The bookshop in my local mall also has a surprisingly large selection of foreign-language books, although they're a lot more expensive ~~and the organisation of that section relies on a system that I haven't been able to decipher yet, so there's no way to find anything quickly. You can only go if you're prepared to browse for hours.~~

Anyway, here's the list! It's not in any particular order; it's just ten things I liked.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: Hanoi - Vietnam
Current Music: Shoemaker - Nightwish

ride_4ever

Thank you kindly to the fen who sent me holiday cards in December and early January:

noxelementalist,

james,

dine,

adafrog,

aurumcalendula,

spikesgirl58,

elayna,

lauramcewan,

sidleypkhermit, and

brumeier.

If you sent me a card and you aren't listed here, that's a postal fail. If you are listed here and didn't get a card from me, that's another postal fail.

Current Mood: still moderately festive
Current Location: near the lake they call Michigan

scrubjayspeaks

While the ground is frozen and there is little for gardeners to do but wait, the temptation may come to try growing things in unusual, climate-controlled locations. If you have a greenhouse, cold frame, or suitable windowsill, this can be an appropriate outlet for your gardening impulses and will, at worst, result in some premature seedlings. Please resist the urge, however great, to plant seeds in your partner’s coffee mug, the office break room sink, your car in an elaborate raised bed arrangement on the dashboard, or in any other places you would not wish to eventually deal with a full-grown marigold shrub, pumpkin vine, or ambulatory tree sapling.

---

LL#1355

melagan

Snowflake Challenge: Three men wearing santa hats standing on the beach at sunset

Top 10 Challenge: The category(ies) you choose are up to you. You can give top 10 Fics you read last year, the top 10 songs to create to, the to 10 guest stars on your favorite show, top 10 characters in your favorite book series, top 10... well, you get the idea.

(Can't think of 10 of anything? That's okay, 10 is just an abstract. It's totally up to you.)

Series I have enjoyed and happily reread.

1. Murderbot by Martha Wells

2. The Expanse by James S.A, Corey

3. Library of the Unwritten by A.J. Hackwith

4. Finder series by Suzanne Palmer

5. Sector General by James White

6. Discworld by Terry Pratchett (with a special love for Sam Vimes)

7. So you want to be a Wizard by Diane Duane

8. The Black Stallion by Walter Farley

9. Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey

10. Excultus by Mottlemoth

This fanfic series blew me away. You don't know need to know a thing about the Sherlock fandom because this is a complete AU. In the 23rd century, two hundred years of genetic tampering has fractured humanity into subspecies.

11. Special mention: Bahamian-Style Mooring by syllic.

A story that no Shawshank Redemption lover should miss. This was the story I didn't know I needed until I read it.

I'm not ashamed to say, by the time I finished, my cheeks were wet.

These are just the ones off the top of my head. I've read--let's say A LOT and leave it at that. 😊📚

melagan

Coming your way in February!

Romancing McShep. Celebrating the pairing of my heart.

Pimping banner! (artwork by

cassiope25)

Info link

mific

You'll have picked up that there's a lot of sex in the show (and book) Heated Rivalry. And, unsurprisingly, there's a lot in the fanfic.

And one thing I'm having to deal with is a bunch of otherwise perfectly readable authors referring to "cum". It almost knocks me out of the mood, but not quite.

Having issues about spelling come as cum is doubtless linked with me being older than dirt and having learned English not just in school but from reading a hell of a lot of novels (before sinking without trace into fanfic). And I probably associate cum with porn dialogue, so that's partly an embarrassment thing, and partly me being a snob.

Anyway, I did some research on the interwebs and the most frequent viewpoint is:

cum is the noun
come is the verb

From etymonline.com, cum dates from 1973, initially used as a noun and mostly in porn, now used more widely and as both a noun and verb. Come is obviously a lot older, but as a synonym for ejaculating it seems to date from the 1500-1600s, and as semen, from the 1920s.

Which is all very well, but I just have a visceral dislike of the word cum. I'm going "ew, gross", like Shane when people use the term "lovers". It looks like a spelling mistake to me, and I doubt I'll ever use it in a fic except in a fake porn video title. So that leaves me stubbornly using come, or writing in a way that avoids the word altogether, because I am also not going to use "semen" or (worse) "ejaculate", except in very specific circumstances. Not to mention "reach completion" or "climax". Nope. Slang terms like jizz, spunk and spooge are sometimes okay in dialogue though, or in the pov of characters where it wouldn't be ooc.

What about you: come or cum? Enquiring minds want to know! Don't feel limited to its use in Heated Rivalry - this applies in most fandoms, and in some profic, I bet.

ride_4ever

What I did for More Joy Day: wrote a Guardian ficlet Zhen Hun Bibliomancy Tanka for

amedia; made a donation to Fraser.org, an organization that supports mental health, emotional health, and disability care (made as a memorial donation in memory of

andeincascade and I notified Ande's family about it); sent a letter of appreciation to my primary-care doctor of many years who retired last month; sent letters of solidarity to neighbors who have "No Kings in America" signs in their front yard; sent an ILU letter and fannish bookmark to a fan who -- the day before More Joy Day -- posted the comment "tell someone you love them today".

What I received for More Joy Day: a due South x Venom crossover fic The Pause That Reinvigorates by

petra and a penpal-type letter in the postal mail from

oldtoadwoman. (The letter did not say it was FOR More Joy Day, but it arrived ON More Joy Day, so I'm "counting" it.)

Current Mood: joyful
Current Location: near the lake they call Michigan

scrubjayspeaks

I! Am sick! Again!

Again-again!

Motherfucker?!

Starting Monday, I had what I think was a horrible delayed reaction to the multiple meds they put me on for the ear infections. Antibiotics tend to upset the digestive biome, but this was in another class. So I spent the first half of the week in agony.

On Thursday, I got the final shot in the series for HPV. (When I was growing up, it wasn’t a thing yet, and then I was under the impression that I was already too old to get it. When I found out I was still eligible, I started the process.) Now here’s the thing: I spent two hours at the clinic, waiting to get this shot. I had an appointment, to be clear. Nonetheless, they actually closed up the place around me, while I waited in a windowless room, to get this thirty-second jab. They had to usher me out a back door, because the main entrance had been locked up already, and they couldn’t have me pay because there was no longer anyone in the building to do that.

Waking up Friday morning to a sore throat did not improve my opinion of the experience. Did I get exposed to something at the clinic? Is this a reaction to the vaccine? Who can say? All I know is that I no longer have a sore throat--instead, I have a sinus infection.

Or something. At this point, identifying what exactly is wrong with me seems quaint. I have all the illnesses. They are queuing up to have their wicked way with my immune system.

I would really like to get back to posting for the Snowflake Challenge. But right now, my brain cells are limited.

Lewisia: no new pieces written, I’m going to take my yearly break from writing this month, instead of doing it next month when the posts themselves are on break

Day job: 42.5 hours, all of which should have been spent in bed instead

Gardening: garden club post

Reading: The Complete SiP (Strangers in Paradise) Kids (the alternate universe kid version of the cast, cute and silly, this is the sort of AU/beach day cozy interlude that I wish all series did, I love when creators are basically doing fanfic of their OCs alongside us)

Watching: Revolutionary Girl Utena episodes 18 through 23 (progress! joy! ...confusion, because this is a very strange series!)

Listening: One More Saturday Night by The Halluci Nation (formerly known as A Tribe Called Red, which is part of why I lost track of them and missed getting this actual album until now, it’s so damn good?!, hits much the same spot for me as FOUR FISTS with the hiphop and spoken word elements)

Playing: fuck it, Animal Crossing: New Horizons completionist play--I’m coming for you, rare fish!

Clock Mouse: 96 minutes of planning work

Other: helped mum upgrade the software on her insulin pump

Current Mood: sick
Current Music: The Halluci Nation - NDN Kars ft. Keith Secola (2020 Remix)

scrubjayspeaks

Welcome to the December edition of Pandemic Garden Club! Growing good things in strange times!

Anyone is welcome to comment with what they're growing right now, things they would like to try, problems they're encountering, and questions they have. Share resources, answer questions, shout encouragement.

As for myself...

( Read more... )

mific

I finally got around to watching the Empty Netters podcast on YT, their breakdowns of HR eps 1 & 2. It's such fun watching them get caught up in the show while still critiquing the hockey details (two of them are brothers and previously high-level hockey players, now in what they call "the beer leagues". And as they get more and more invested in the show they don't care as much about the minor mistakes and unrealistic hockey-world details. Also, the comments are great, very positive and with no trolling or bigotry at all that I've seen so far (maybe they curate that?).
My initial main takeaways from these first two eps are:

The team logos were analysed. Shane's is M for the Metros (a bottom), and Ilya's is a cannon for the Raiders! (obvious symbolism). That has to be deliberate, right? Also hilarious!

Then these two comments, that added details I hadn't known.

I won't do a full transcript but the first says Reid wrote a bonus chapter on her website (a remix of the Vegas penthouse chapter, end of S2 in the show) with a bit more about Ilya's thoughts and feelings, his conflicts about returning to Russia and why he treats Shane badly. Here's the link.

The second comment clarifies that Putin only cracked down on gay people just before the Sochi Olympics. Before 2013 Russia had apparently become reasonably progressive. So Ilya would have been especially paranoid and freaked out at Sochi and would definitely have cold-shouldered Shane, as in canon. Also a nice pick-up that although Carter Vaughan means well, assuming the ice skater is gay was a microaggression, worse for Shane as Carter blithely assumes he's straight (and for Scott, but the Empty Netters don't know about Scott yet!).

I'm going to watch all the Empty Netters vids, but not right now. Jesus, I have to do something other than wallow in HR stuff all the time!

nea

Challenge:

5soulmates, slash
Fandom: The SEAL Team
Pairing: Sonny Quinn/Clay Spenser

Table #0 - Custom
01. soulmate's name	02. first touch	03. touching your soulmate leaves fingerprints	04. kisses leave colour on each other's skin	05. your soulmate is the only other person who can see/touch your wings

tropicsbear

A gold snowflake ornament is nestled amidst pine boughs

Challenge #5

In your own space, create a list of at least three things you'd love to receive, a wishlist of sorts.

Oh lawd. This one's going to be a struggle too. Most of the stuff I want are physical—physical volumes of manga, figures, etc.—and that'd be too much of a hassle for any of y'all reading this.

Comments on any of my fic (AO3 has the most complete list right now but a handful are also mirrored on SqWA and sigaw). Please don't feel obligated to comment if you honestly didn't enjoy it or are unfamiliar with any of the fandoms I've written for. That would just make me feel so awkward /o\
More people (that aren't mods/admin) posting in communities. I know I can't bemoan this too much—I'm hardly as active in comms as I used to be when I was younger—but as someone modding a couple of comms, it does feel lonely sometimes 🥲 I do my best to post whenever I have something to share in the comms I'm part of, so I'll just keep doing my best and hope other people feel encouraged to do the same. I remember some newer DW users a while back sharing that they don't post in comms because they felt like that was a mod-only privilege. No disrespect to whoever told you that, but no. Comms are meant for all members to share their fandom squee! They're not meant to be a mod's personal soapbox. (Unless that's stated somewhere on the community profile, in which case that's a "personal" comm and a different conversation altogether.)
If you can afford it, premium paid time for anyone on DW. Support your friends and the site we're all on, win/win!

Day 1 * Day 2 * Day 3 * Day 4

Profile

Venom and Eddie Brock

February 2023

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
			1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24	25
26	27	28

Page Summary

Style Credit

Style: Neutral Good for Practicality by timeasmymeasure

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Page generated Jan. 15th, 2026 07:41 pm

Venom and Eddie Brock

Member Posts

Snowflake Challenge #8

snowflake Day 8

Good HR meta, and RL news

Lake Lewisia #1356

augh

Wednesday Reading Meme for Jan 14 2026

snowflake Day 7

Snowflake Challenge #7

Snowflake Challenge #6

Fannish Fifty Challenge 2026: Post # 3: Postal Mail from Fen (Holiday Edition)

Lake Lewisia #1355

snowflake Day 6

Romancing McShep Happy-ending Fest 2026

Come vs Cum: a vocabulary discussion

Fannish Fifty Challenge 2026: Post # 2: More Joy Day giving & receiving

Done This Week

Pandemic Garden Club

The Empty Netters rock!

5 Soulmates Custom Table

Snowflake Challenge 2026 Day 5

Profile

February 2023

Most Popular Tags

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags