Challenge #8

Talk about your creative process.

Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it.

lol, I don't exactly have a process. Sometimes I've tried the outline method for creating a story, and sometimes that even works. A lot of times it doesn't. Other times something sparks an idea and I'm able to just start writing.

A large part of the time I'm wracking my brain over what I'm going to write for the many bingo card prompts I've collected.

Previous Days
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Day 6
Day 7

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 kind of struggle with these things but I'll try. :D

1. I'm punctual. I like that I'm on time and even if I stress myself out a little when I work backwards, it's less stressful than the alternative. I don't mind being at the airport two hours early and I'm glad I can tell someone a time and unless there are certain unforeseen circumstances, I will be there then.

2. I'm fairly easy to talk to and am a good listener. I am best with at one on one or a couple of people, but I can carry a conversation if they're engaged and am happy to listen to other people/be a shoulder/offer advice if needed.

3. I'm a good baker and a decent cook. I can follow a recipe and can make the right modifications if needed and am aware of my limitations/can do what I know how to do well.

Challenge #8: Talk about your creative process.

Ah, my creative process! A thing that is definitely not at all comparable to herding a pack of several dozen rabid plot bunnies!

( cut to spare reading pages )

The Animals in That Country by Laura Jean McKay tells the story of Jean, who works in a wildlife park and has a special relationship with the dingoes, which is developed much further when a plague leaves people able to interpret the body language and noises of animals as speech.

Jean ends up going on a road trip with Sue the dingo and sees first-hand the implications and consequences of this increased connection between humans and animals. And it's not pretty.

This book is not an easy read - but it's definitely a worthwhile one. I particularly like the fact that what the animals say is weird, alien and largely very creepy. The books is fairly unpleasant in places, but it's both impactful and compelling - I read it in two days and stayed up way too late reading on both of them!

In terms of its arc, it really reminded me of Flowers For Algernon. It didn't hit as hard, but I thought it was really good overall.

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 am so good at making cheesecake. Cheesecake is finicky and I can make it turn out pretty much every single time. Granted, I have a lot of easy recipes (King Arthur Baking's chocolate cheesecake is my favorite and the one I usually default to), but I'm still proud of it.

2.) I can give cats medication! Pills, liquids, eye drops, ear drops, gel, you name it, I have given it to a cat that wanted to maul me about it. Which I think is a pretty impressive skillset for someone who is not remotely in a veterinary field and has no training. I had my cat Prowl for ten years, and she needed lots of meds for five of those years; she was also semi-feral, not particularly food motivated, opposed to getting meds in any form, and an automatic sedation at the vet for everybody's safety. So the fact that I reliably got meds into her at home by myself for five years is worth celebrating, I think.

3.) I write good :D Sure, some of it is a matter of personal taste and most of what I write is tailored to me specifically, but still, I think my writing's pretty good! And maybe more on the topic of this post, I can always come up with something to write. I have half a dozen ideas living in my head at any given time, and I think that's fantastic.

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.

Challenge #6
Top 10 Challenge.

I decided to do two.

Top 10 Favorite Songs of 2025 (in no order; all links go to YouTube)
1. Ordinary - Alex Warren
2. Three Six Five - Shinedown
3. Golden - KPOP Demon Hunters/Hunter/X
4. The Fate of Ophelia - Taylor Swift
5. Undressed - Sombr
6. Abracadabra - Lady GaGa
7. Azizam - Ed Sheeran
8. Mystical Magical - Benson Boone
9. Birds of a Feather - Billie Eilish
10. Sink or Swim - OneRepublic

Top Ten Things I Made in 2025

( image heavy )

I don't normally like asking for favors, but is anyone here good with graphics and willing to do me a quick solid?

Here's the skinny: For Blair's birthday, I'm going to do something crazy and get her a life-size cardboard standee of one of her favorite blorbos, Bode Akuna. The man is over 6 feet tall, so it's going to be pretty impressive.

The thing is, the image I need to upload needs to be "greater than 1MB, greater than 1800x1800 pixels, and in JPEG format." Does anyone know how to increase the size and quality to meet these criteria? If possible, I would also love for the grey background in the imagine I'm using to be made white instead (or made into a transparent background, if you please) to make it easier on the company to prep the character image for printing.

I know how to make an image bigger, obviously, but what I do not know is how to keep the quality up at the same time, if that makes sense?

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.

Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it.

Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so. Also, feel free to entice engagement by giving us a preview of what your post covers.

* I have a strong sense of who I am as a person and I'm comfortable with myself.

* I always try to be kind, but I also won't let anyone take advantage of me.

* I'm really, really good at my job, which has allowed me to pretty much do whatever I want when I need it. Need to work from home, even though it's an in-office day? It's fine because everyone I work for trusts me.

Previous Days
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Day 6

If you want to see Emor at its best, visit its City Court in session.

Actually, if you are staying with an Emorian acquaintance, it's unlikely you'll be given any choice about this. Emorians assume that everyone in the world is as enthralled with their laws as they are. Thankfully, Emorians are right to be proud of their law system, founded centuries ago by their Chara and council. This law system, known simply as the Chara's law, is one of the bulwarks of civilization in the Three Lands.

The best way to visit a law court is to prepare yourself beforehand by listening to an Emorian explain their law system to you. Any Emorian will do; even Emorian ditch-diggers know a good deal about the law. Indeed, even Emorian women do.

The City Court is not terribly formal, by Emorian standards, and the rules for behavior will be explained to you beforehand by the guards at its door. Wear your best clothes and be on your best behavior; otherwise, you can relax and enjoy the spectacle.

On your way out, be sure to visit the adjoining Law Academy, founded by the City Court in order to give advanced lessons in the law. The Academy does not try to compete with the traditional Emorian methods of learning law: tutoring, apprenticeships, and playing law-based games when one is a boy. Rather, the Academy provides supplemental education for Emorians who plan to apply for high positions in the law, such as at the palace. Most of the Academy students are between the ages of eight and sixteen, though students as young as four are accepted, if they plan to apply for a youth post, such as scribing or paging. On the other end of the scale, a few students are full-grown men who, because of unfortunate circumstances, missed out on the normal training in the law that virtually all Emorian boys receive. In recent years, many of these students have been former slaves. The Academy welcomes them all, even going so far as to pay the fees of any students whose slave service left them penniless.

[Translator's note: Emorians' obsession with the law is on full display in Law Links.]

The Other Moctezuma Girls by Sofia Robleda tells the story of Isabel, an Aztec princess in the 1550s, who goes on a quest after her mother's death, to find journals that relate the true and previously hidden story of her mother's life. I liked Isabel a lot as a narrator, particularly her very honest reactions to things, as a rebellious young woman in a very patriarchal society. Her interactions with her siblings felt quite modern, but then I guess teenagers have always been teenagers! The reportage style of Nantzin's journals made those sections a lot less dynamic than the main narrative - but they were, at least, a lot more credible as diary-style narratives than you find in most stories. The puzzle hunt was really exciting, I thought the romance was well done and impactful, and I enjoyed the highs and lows of Isabel's changing relationships with her brothers and sisters. The book was a bit grim in places, but that was in keeping with the nature of the story and certainly made the stakes feel very real. The historical setting was rich in detail and seemed well researched - and I thought the very end of the story had a really satisfying punch to it. Very enjoyable overall!

This week's entry is from 2015, rather than my self-imposed 2020 onwards; OTOH, it's the only actual answer to this prompt.

a song that makes you cry
Stratovarius - Shine in the Dark


These guys are not (yet?) on Bandcamp; OTOH, the runner-up (I Wish, by Battle Beast) is up there.

prompts under the cut

a song you discovered this month
a song that makes you smile
a song that makes you cry
a song that you know all the lyrics of
a song that proves that you have good taste
a song title that is in all lowercase
a song title that is in all uppercase
an underrated song
a song that has three words
a song from your childhood
a song that reminds you of summertime
a song that you feel nostalgic to
the first song that plays on shuffle
a song that someone showed you
a song from a movie soundtrack
a song from a television soundtrack
a song about being 17
a song that reminds you of somebody
a song to drive to
a song with a number in the title
a song that you listen to at 3am in the morning
a song with a long title
a song with a color in the title
a song that gets stuck in your head
a song in a different language
a song that helps you fall asleep at night
a song that describes how you feel right now
a song that you used to hate but love today
a song that you downloaded
a song that you want to share

Challenge #6: Top 10 Challenge

Picking my favorite 10 of anything is hard! That list changes every time I find something new, and I'm never good at filtering it down. (This happens every time I mention reading as a hobby and a new coworker asks about my favorite book, too. Well, right now it's the really fun new one I just read, and also the new-to-me one I read last week, but what about all the ones I could re-read any time and still love...) So instead, here's ten random selections from my very long list of Ace Attorney Fic I Really Like. Some of these I've probably recced before, and a lot of them are explicit rarepair fic.

Like A Record, Baby: Klavier/Daryan PWP from the kink meme. I like basically everything this author ever did (their Klavdar first time fic is amazing), but this one in particular is a lot of fun. Ambidextrous Daryan showing off in the bedroom. (Or, well, the kitchen, technically, but you get the point.)

on the perils of babygays and underage drinking: Anybody who's been following my Dreamwidth knows how much I love genderbent lesbian Klavier/Daryan, and this is an excellent version of it. 10/10 disastrous teenage pining.

Leaves from the Vine: Mia Fey-focused Ace Attorney/Pokemon crossover in which Charley the office plant is a Bulbasaur that she brought with her from Kurain Village. This one made me actually cry. Absolutely gorgeous, very nicely meshes the two canons together.

Turnabout Skeleton: Larry Butz is arrested for allegedly murdering a man with a twelve-foot artisanal injection-molded plastic skeleton. Edgeworth's life gets weirder from there. Absolutely hysterical casefic, mostly gen unless you want to read subtext into things. Some of the best pun names I've ever seen in Ace Attorney fic, and that is saying something.

Like A Sinner Before: Lana/Mia PWP where they have sex on a motorcycle. It's fantastic. I'm a big fan of all Mia stuff that incorporates her motorcycle from the early concept art into canon, and this is both extremely hot and my favorite characterization for both of them.

Mediation: Klavier/Daryan/Apollo kinky PWP (and I strongly recommend the sequel linked from the attached series, too). I don't usually go for sub!Daryan, but this one is fun, hot, and about my OT3, so I'm sold!

The Music Our Collisions Make: Franziska/Ema PWP, one of the fics that originally convinced me to give the pairing a shot. Ema's voice is fantastic here (both of them are, but it's from her POV) and it's exactly the kind of messy it's-complicated situationship I love for them.

#DaryanCrescendIsOverParty: Social media fandom reacts to Turnabout Serenade and Daryan's arrest. Hilariously accurate fandom meltdown, 10/10 read if you enjoy social media fic and/or fandom drama with zero stakes (because the drama is not real). #anyway stan Jangly Justice

we go together or we don't: And speaking of Jangly Justice, the Daryan/Apollo AA5-bad-end AU that's mostly porn but also has the fantastic subthread of Daryan being obsessed with this one random indie musician as a teen, only to find out, well, about that Justice guy that sent you to jail... Also extremely fun.

Anyway, Here's Guilty Love: And the longest fic on the list: Klavier/Apollo with past Klavier/Daryan, AA4 college AU retelling. Okay, so, listen. I don't usually read college AUs. I don't usually like college AUs. But this is the one college AU that not only worked for me, it worked for me well enough to convince me to give Klapollo another chance after reading some fic I Did Not Like. And the Daryan characterization in this is fantastic - I'm always down for fic that lets Daryan and Apollo begrudgingly work together. I'm not saying I'm headcanoning an eventual threesome way in the future, but...the fic doesn't rule it out. Linking to the full series because the prequel and tie-in are also great.

Fun fact: Since AO3 switched their tally on assignments to only show the number yet to be filled, I've never once hit 0! I currently stand at 1, and I'm pretty sure that by the time I finish and post that one, the next one will have rolled in. For at least the next two assignments, but maybe not after that?!?! We shall see!

In life news, my coach has decided that my program has too many crossovers in it, based upon the fact that I'm not tripping laboriously slowly through it. So, we get to tweak my program to put in more transitions until I am tripping laboriously slowly again. Figure skating is such a weird sport. 🤔 My synchro team didn't have practice this week, but we did do an outdoor open-skate social event, and OMG, it was so much fun! I haven't open-skated in years, and I'd forgotten how much fun it can be when you have people to talk to. And I'm sure I got in more laps than I ever do otherwise, so good exercise too.

I'm back at work, which is a big shock after spending two weeks eating cheesecake and marathoning episodes of Midsommer Murders (although, alas, not the cheese episode!) until my brains dribbled out my ears. Our project is ridiculously behind schedule, even more so than it was before break. Our PM is going to try to rearrange the chairs on the Titanic to "fix" this tomorrow. This will probably result in me writing double status reports, whee! 😕

Anyway, enough of that. Here's fandom stuff:

• Exchanges due in January/February (fffx, Just The Tip flash, Fisting Flash, candyheartsex, seasonofdrabbles, threesentenceficathon + mystery pinch-hits and treats + future sign-ups): Lots of movement this week! First of all, I signed up for Fisting Flash and SOD. So, now my fic total for this period stands at: 3/6. But! One of those 3 completed fics? Is FFFX! 🎉 My fourth idea was, indeed, the charm on that one, and I motored through it really fast last week. I probably still want to add more (maybe even 1-2k more), but the basic plot and story is done. Whew, that's a relief: I genuinely thought a couple of times there that I was going to have to default. I also finished my Just The Tip fic, which is anon-revealing today. So that's all of last week's goals achieved! This week, I need to finish Fisting Flash (once assignments come out) and my Candy Hearts assignment. This is doable! Maybe I'll see that 0 assignments indicator for a few seconds, even, before SOD assignments come out? 😝


• Exchanges due in March/April: caseficexchange is coming back, and definitely one of the ones I want to sign up for! Still thinking I will probably skip highadrenalineexchange, unless someone requests my dream prompt.


• I'm catching up on S2 of The Devil's Hour. I'd watched S1 way back in the day, and then just sort of forgotten that S2 even came out. I actually really like this show and am surprised I don't see more buzz about it. I guess its major flaw is no potential slash ships, but I'm in it totally for the plot anyway. I should finish this week.


• Heaven Official's Blessing by MXTX - I'm a little over halfway through volume 3, and oof: MXTX's indictment of human nature is pretty scathing (and accurate). I suspect she wrote the second arc during the pandemic, although it's hard to check via the publication date. If she wrote it before them, she's downright psychic! I am in a weird state right now where I am super invested in the plot and don't care about the ship at all - we'll see if that changes. Also, this one is taking me a long time to get through. I wonder how long it will take me?


• The Deer and the Cauldron by Louis Cha - I made some good progress on this this week! Things picking up with 15 different factions all trying to get Wei Xiaobao to help the assassins escape for different reasons, and him getting favors out of all of them for doing just the one thing that literally everyone wants, lol. This novel really is quite good when it's on; it's just a lot of the treatment of women that it painfully lacking.


• Dear Door - Slow progress also continues.

Goals for next week: 1) Finish Fisting assignment. 2) Finish Candy Hearts assignment. 3) Finish The Devil's Hour. 4) Figure out what to watch next: now that I'm done with FFFX, I suddenly have loads of free time! 5) More progress on Heaven Official's Blessing. 6) Read some of the others, too.

Challenge #6

Top 10 Challenge. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it.

Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so. Also, feel free to entice engagement by giving us a preview of what your post covers.

My top 10 film noirs!

(10) The Big Sleep (1946 original)

(9) The Maltese Falcon

(8) Diabolique (original 1955)

(7) M (original 1931)

(6) Key Largo

(5) Laura

(4) Shadow of a Doubt

(3) The Third Man

(2) Sunset Boulevard

(1) Double Indemnity

I was originally writing commentary for each, then I lost the post/it got overwritten and I couldn't piece it back together. So I just did the list, lol.

Previous Days
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Day 5

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.)

Challenge #5: In your own space, create a list of at least three things you'd love to receive, a wishlist of sorts.

Every single year I get to the wishlist challenge and go "but that's HARD, why can't people just read my mind and know what I want". If nothing else, I am very consistent! :D But I went and filled some wishes, so I guess it's time for me to make my own list.

1) The Predictable Writer Request: comments and/or kudos on any of my fic would make my day. I write for Transformers and Ace Attorney mostly, but there's a few smaller fandoms in there (if you like Redwall, I've got Redwall!).

2) Klavier/Daryan, Klavier/Daryan/Apollo, or Ema/Franziska icons (both from Ace Attorney). I lack the photo editing skills to do more than crop existing images to the right size, and there's very little promo art featuring those characters together (the woes of rarepair shipping, LOL).

3) The real long shot: transformative works based on any of my fics, whether that's art, moodboards, covers, whatever. Especially for Sonata in F You, which is my favorite thing I've ever written.

Challenge #4: Rec The Contents Of Your Last Page. Any website that you like, be it fanfiction, art, social media, or something a bit more eccentric!

Have you ever wished you could listen to the exact sounds of the scene you're trying to write? Add some appropriately themed ambiance to your D&D game or art project? Or just find some soothing rain noise or birdsong to listen to while you work, no, not that birdsong, a different bird, why doesn't this ONE BIRD exist on Youtube -

Anyway, try MyNoise! It's a collection of different soundscapes, from basic rain-and-thunder noises to settings like a medieval library, medieval village, or creepy dungeon. It's pretty much always open somewhere in my tab collection; I use it for writing, relaxing, blocking out annoying equipment noises at work, and when I feel like listening to something but not music per se.

No, I didn't wait until I could guarantee I had something cool in my tabs before I did this prompt, why do you ask?

The Little Vampire by Angela Sommer-Bodenburg is the first in a long series of kids' books about a young boy called Tony, who befriends a vampire.
I hadn't come across them before - but there are over 20 in the series, published throughout the 80s and 90s, and re-released in updated versions only a couple of years ago.
I wasn't a big fan, though, I'm afraid - I didn't like Tony and felt his reactions to things were very odd in places. There's also the usual problem with vampire stories involving young protagonists - while Rudolph and Anna (the vampire siblings) present as children, they are actually over 100 years old, which makes their friendship with Tony a bit unsettling.
I also found the story itself rather torturous and awkward - but then it's not aimed at me!
I have had a lot of success with middle grade stories recently - but not this one.