Challenge #1

The Icebreaker Challenge: Introduce yourself. Tell us why you're doing the challenge, and what you hope to gain from it.

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

Happy New Year, snowflakes!

I'm lightbird here on dreamwidth, snarky_panda on AO3 (though I write everything under the "dramatic owl" pseud), dramaticowl on tumblr (yep, still on tumblr), and I'm dramaticowl on Bluesky/Blacksky. I'm a native New Yorker, still living in the city. I love swimming, reading, cats, and coffee, and I am not a morning person. I also sign up for too many bingo card challenges. Check out my profile page for my interests and other info, as well as my transformative works policy. I also have a master post of all my fanworks. I engage with fanworks in a large variety of fandoms, but I create works in a more limited set of fandoms. Most of my work is in AtLA, Hey Arnold!, Mulan (Disney 1998), and Quantum Leap, but I've dabbled in a couple of other fandoms here and there.

I've been participating in the snowflake_challenge since 2014. I love doing this challenge. It's fun and low-pressure, and it's always a great way to start the new year. The challenges are fun and help spark/re-spark my creativity, they get me thinking about how I want to move through the new year, and they are always encouraging. For the most part I write fic, but in past years these challenges have prompted me to try working with other media, as well as to explore new fandoms. It's also a great way to meet and talk to lovely new people, and to read all the posts and see how differently people might respond to a prompt.

I'm really excited about doing this challenge again this year and looking forward to seeing everyone else's responses. And here's hoping that 2026 is a kinder year for all of us.

Started my revisit of the second Book of Dust volume. Again, liveblogging it on Mastodon and on Bluesky, and not looking at my original-reading reaction post from 2019 until I finish.

This has gotten very long, so I’m cutting off Roundup Post #1 after the big narrative turning point at the end of chapter 10. With 33 chapters total, that sets a pace for a total of 3 roundup posts. (Haven’t gotten far enough to know what would be a good milestone to end Roundup Post #2. I’ll keep an ear out.)

Held off long enough to make it my first post of 2026! That way, all the roundups for TSC will be posted in the same year.

Audiobook is 19 hrs 43 min. TBD how many times I pause it to comment/complain about something…

 

( Pantalaimon, the daemon of Lyra Silvertongue… )

Thank you for your interest in the Monopoly 2026 challenge. To participate, leave a comment on this post. The sign-up is open until January 15, 23.59 UTC


We will have an optional Team Challenge again. To sign up, please visit the Team Challenge rules.

If you have any questions, you can leave them here. Or send me, prisca a PM.

Welcome to our first challenge of 2026. Even if you have already participated in a Monopoly Challenge, please read the rules before signing up.



January 1 - January 15: sign up
January 11 - April 5: Challenge open
April 5 - April 19: Final scores + Rewards

The Board
Let's have a quick look at the board first.

You will find eight groups of prompts, four stations, one starting point (go!), one jail, four x chance, and two wildcards.

Every street and every station comes with two prompts.
Every street comes with a minimum to earn points.
Every station comes with a fixed requirement.
Stopping at the starting point will bring you three extra points.
Stopping at the jail will offer you the choice to move on (in this case, you can post only one work) or to skip the week.
Stopping at a chance square will offer you a 'secret chance'.
Wildcards will allow you to create two free works of your choice.

For the board and the play table go here.

Signing up
If you want to play, you need to sign up here until January 15, 23.59 UTC.

Let's play
On January 11, I will roll the dice for you for the first time. Check out the dice list and then go to the play table to find your prompts, the minimum, and the possible points.

You have three options to play:
Use one prompt for one work.
Use both prompts for two works. (Fandoms and worktypes can differ.)
Use both prompts in one work. (Important: you must double the given minimum; you will earn points for work 1+2.)

On January 18, I will roll the dice again, and you will move on to the next square.

Points
There are different ways to earn points for this challenge.

1. Regular Challenge
You can create up to 2 works per week.
You will earn 2-6 points for your first work and 1-3 points for your second work. If you use both prompts in one work, you can earn 3-9 points.

2. Extra Points:
Stopping at 'Go' = 3 extra points; the dice are rolled again

A Row of Streets / Four Stations
Complete a row of streets (3 of the same color) or four Stations, and you will earn some extra points.
Easy (2 / 3 points per street) = 2 extra points
Difficult (4 / 5 points per street) = 3 extra points
Stations = 4 extra points

3. You can earn even more points by participating in the Team Challenge.
The Team Challenge is optional for everyone who wants to create more than two works a week. Check out the information post here..

Joker Card
At the beginning of the challenge, everyone gets one Joker Card with 15 tokens.
You can use these tokens in different ways:
1. Missed week - use three tokens, and you can post up to two belated works for your missed prompts.
2. Roll the dice again - use two tokens and I will roll the dice again.
3. Move to a different square - use five tokens to move to any square of your choice (exception: go!, chance, jail)
tbc

Posting
Every work should be new and not be posted anywhere before. You can re-post / re-use it for other communities later.
Every work should be completed (single chapters are okay as long as they work as stand-alone ficlets).

You have seven days to post your finished works at fandom_empire_workplace The official posting ends every Sunday, 17.00 UTC, but I will allow belated works until I've made the closing post).
Use a header and a cut (for works bigger than 2 icons or 1 haiku) or a header and a link if you prefer to post elsewhere, like AO3.

AO3 Collection
The AO3 Collection for Monopoly 26 can be found here. (will be added later)

Questions?
Leave a comment here. Or send me, prisca, a PM.

( Prompts, minimum and points )

Unique words:
Calamity - a great misfortune or disaster
Ebullient - cheerfull and energetic
Ensconced - hiding in a secret, safe place
Flimflam - a trick or decption
Kismet - destiny
Lagom - not too much and not too litte; just the right amount
Lollapalooza - an extraordinary or impressive person
Metanoia - the journey of changing mind, heart and your way of life.
Moira - a person's fate or destiny
Orphic - mysterious and enchanting
Shenanigans - mischief, prank
Tacenda - things better left unsaid

No Fandom:
allowed are original works of any kind

Notes:
Graphics: All graphics should be edited!
Icons: Icons must fit DW standard (< 60kb, 100x100 px).
Minimum: More words/bigger graphics are fine.
Exactly: Follow the given requirements! (no smaller/bigger works are allowed)

Poems Minimum: The minimum gives you the number of lines, but it's up to you if you post one poem of (example!) 9 lines, or 3 connected haiku.
Graphics with different elements: Example 1: one main screenshot/stock photo plus some text or frame = two different elements. Example 2: one main screenshot/stock photo plus some text and a smiley = three different elements.

For the rules of the challenge go here.

Here you can find general information for the team challenge. As always, the team challenge is optional, but it offers the opportunity to earn additional individual points.

The Board

The board comes with 32 prompts and four colors.

There will be two teams: Team Alpha & Team Omega. Sign up if you want to get assigned to a team.

Rules
To participate, post at least one work for the weekly regular challenge.
Participants can post one work every week to earn points for their assigned teams, plus some individual points.
Prompts can be used multiple times by different participants.

Every color row has its own minimum:
gold: 100 words - 1 icon - 3-line poem
blue: 150 words - 2 icons (or 1 graphic 150x300)- 6-line poem
green: 200 words - 3 icons (or 1 graphic 300 x 500) - 9-line poem
red: 250 words - 4 icons (or 1 graphic 500 x 800) - 12-line poem

Points
Team
One point for every posted piece of work.
Two points when finishing the gold line.
Three points when finishing the blue line.
Four points when finishing the green line.
Five points when finishing the red line.
Ten points when finishing all lines.

Individual
After finishing the gold line, everyone who submitted a fill will receive 1 point per work.
After finishing the blue line, everyone who submitted a fill for the color will receive 2 points per work.
After finishing the green line, everyone who submitted a fill for the color will receive 3 points per work.
After finishing the red line, everyone who submitted a fill for the color will receive 4 points per work.

Posting
Post your works at the empire_fandom_workplace.
Always make a separate post for a team fill.
Leave the name of your team and the used prompt in the subject line.
Use the tag of your team!

Sign up
Sign-up for a team will stay open until January 15.
To sign up for the team challenge, leave a comment on this post.
You can request to be assigned to a team (Alpha or Omega), but I cannot guarantee anything, as I will strive to keep the teams as evenly balanced as possible.

I started my internet day off with my hackles up apparently.

Reference material: Mary Sue at Fanlore & Mary Sue at Wikipedia.

Language evolves, meanings drift, and there will be variation, especially once you add in geo-location, age, gender, etc to the use of language.

I personally will never take well to seeing a writer use Mary Sue or its equivalent concepts to disparage their own writing. As I came to online fandom a bit late, the meaning for Mary Sue that I was quickly seeing was "this character is the main character and stands out but oh it is a girl and therefore is a Mary Sue".

Folks, have you read mythology from around the world? The main characters are nearly always bigger than life in some fashion. The best or worst at so many things, and they are MEANT to stand out and take your mind into imagination and wonder. All too often I see the accusation of Mary Sue used not at a badly written character but at one who is meant to be the push-pull point of the story! One who is crafted to be the Main Character.

And the biggest example I have of it is Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Specifically to that movie, Rey is set up to parallel Luke Skywalker pretty intensely. And she was HATED or mocked until people latched onto the concept of leashing her to the villain of the story. Rey was NOT poorly written. She is almost beat for beat Luke Skywalker from the very first movie in her journey. And in both cases, they ARE MEANT TO BE THE SPECIALIST LITTLE SNOWFLAKES because it is THEIR STORY.

Mary Sue and her cousins DO exist. A lot of people will start out experimenting with a self-insert crafted to fit the narrative they want to explore. They are great beginnings for many people.

BUT NOT EVERY OC IS A MARY SUE. Sometimes, they're just the center of the story that is being told.

Drumroll please! It is Friday somewhere in the world, and that means Purimgifts signups are now OPEN!

Nominate fandoms here; sign up here. Ask questions here or at purim_gifts@yahoo.com.

We are LIVE, folks! Let's go!

Title: Just Keep Building
Author: monkiainen
Fandom: Eureka
Pairing/Characters: Jack/Nathan
Rating/Category: PG/Slash
Prompt: Endgame
Summary: A moment between two people in an apocalyptic world
Notes/Warnings: This is stylishly somewhat different what I'm used to writing - it's deliberately vague. Let's just say there was a disaster at GD that couldn't be fixed and leave it there.

( Read more... )

When it comes to books, it was a hell of a year with several of my favs releasing books. Kate Alice Marshal, Rory Power, Ben Aaronovitch, V.E. Schwab, Nova Ren Suma all there!

Books
1-3) "Renegades 1-3" by Marissa Meyer
4) "A Killing Cold" by Kate Alice Marshal
5) "Daughter of Mine" by Megan Miranda
6) "No One Can Know" by Kate Alice Marshall
7) "Scattered Snows, to the North" by Carl Phillips
8) "Kill Creatures" by Rory Power
9) "A Game of Lies" by Clare Mackintosh
10) "Other People's Houses" by Clare Mackintosh
11) "The Last Girls Standing" by Jennifer Dugan
12) "Cutting Teeth" by Chandler Baker
13) "When the Ghosts Come Ashore" by Jacqui Germain
14) "Stone and Sky" by Ben Aaronovitch
15) "We Won't All Survive" by Kate Alice Marshall
16) "Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil" by V.E. Schwab
17) "Wake the Wild Creatures" by Nova Ren Suma
18) "The Bridesmaid" by Cate Quinn
19) "Over My Dead Body" by Maz Evans
20) "Poetry On Ice" by Jesse H. Reign
21) "The Last Time I Lied" by Riley Sager
22) "The Hallmarked Man" by Robert Galbraith
23) "Home Before Dark" by Riley Sager
24) "The Only One Left" by Riley Sager
25) "Possessive Puckboy" by Eden Finley
26) "You Know Her" by Meagan Jennett
27) "Egotistical Puckboy" by Eden Finley
28) "Middle of the Night" by Riley Sager
29) "Open Ice Hit" by E.M. Lindsey
30) "Catch Your Death" by Ravena Guron
31) "Description" by Monica Wood
32) "War of the Foxes" by Richard Siken

Movies
# Chantal im Märchenland
# Eternals, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
# Black Panter 2, Thor 4, Werewolf by Night, GotG Holiday Special, Ant-Man 3, GotG 3
# Thundebolts*
# Ash, Another Simple Favor, Venom 2 & 3
# Kraven, Wicked Part 1, Flight Risk
# Jem and the Holograms
# M3GAN 2.0, Jurassic World Rebirth, Death of a Unicorn

TV
# The Falcon and the Winter Soldier - Season 1
# Hawkeye - Season 1
# Moon Knight - Season 1
# She-Hulk: Attorney at Law - Season 1
# Fallout

In 2025, I read:

51 published novels
18 novel-length fics
1,948,555 words of shorter fic

Which works out to 104.97 books.

(I measure fic by the NaNoWriMo rule: 50,000 words = a novel.)

1. i evidently published more books than i finished reading last year :/ which is a pretty terrible look sorry everyone

2. i did a horrible job keeping track of what i read on storygraph and now i dont get a nice 2025 wrapped infograph so maybe i'll learn my lesson this time. the most enjoyable book i read was the tainted cup by robert jackson bennett which is fantasy nero wolfe basically.

3. whenever i read a blurb with so and so's "adult epic fantasy debut" i immediately stop, ponder did this person used to write ya?, and then assume they did and scroll. is that wrong? AITAH? just kidding i don't care.

4. i can't enjoy dark erotica because whenever they do something unhinged i'm like no they should have done this depraved thing you're doing it WRONG and then i'm like ffs do i have to write everything and--no. please, no. i just want to vibe with an author who knows when to be soft and when to give someone a urine enema. and sadly nobody threads the needle quite like me. i may have to start reading fanfic again? undecided.

5. tumblog on dw just means i was gonna pop off on tumblr and instead i'll pop off here

Dear Candy Hearts Writer,

Thank you so much for volunteering to write a story for me! I’m the sort of nerd who’s interested in lore and worldbuilding, but I have a major soft spot for stories that focus on friendship and romance. I also enjoy relationships in which the characters don’t particularly like each other but have an interesting dynamic together. Situationships? Why not!

I admire and appreciate stories of all lengths. If you’re here to write a short vignette, that would make me very happy. But longer stories are welcome too, of course! Whatever you create, I’m excited to see what you do with these characters and their relationships.

I am totally okay with:

( Read more... )

I’d prefer not to see:

( Read more... )

Fandom-Specific Interests

Breath of the Wild + Tears of the Kingdom

( Read more... )

Echoes of Wisdom

( Read more... )

Hollow Knight: Silksong

( Read more... )

Elden Ring

( Read more... )

Thank you again for volunteering your time and talent. I know you’ll create something marvelous, and I’m sending lots of encouragement and sweet candy energy your way.

This is going to be another tough year. Remember, if you have the time and if you're able, volunteer locally!

For some fun times, there's a friending meme going on at the Heated Rivalry community. <3

It is 11° this morning and snowy. The expected high is 19°. It may snow some more. It may not. It's supposed to snow overnight, too, and the red band snowstorm warning continues until overnight Friday. I thought it was supposed to end tonight. Le sigh. Eh, well. I don't have anywhere to go, anyway.

Yesterday was snowy off and on. The plow went by a couple of times, including in the evening, which surprised me. Usually, after a certain hour, we're on our own, but I guess they were cleaning it up for New Year's Eve revelers.

It was a quiet day yesterday. After my interrupted sleep of the night before, I took a couple of naps, one right after I made my post yesterday morning. I didn't do much of anything. I spent a lot of time at my desk. I noodled around online, but I also caught up my book journal, which I had let languish since the end of June. I read a lot in July, but I was also on vacation and didn't take the book with me. I hurried to catch it up, so really only put in the published books that I read, not all the fic, which I also track. I'll have to run some numbers, then I'll have a more or less accurate count for the year.

Last evening, instead of reading, I watched a movie. I dithered between ID4 (because I was sort of depressed and that's one of the movies that I watch when I'm depressed) or Mission Impossible and went with the latter, since I still haven't seen the last movie. I started with Ghost Protocol which is my favorite of the series. The first one is great for introducing the characters, but I don't like it because I was a fan of the original series and liked Jim Phelps. The second one is...yeah, okay, whatever. The third one...like Benji, I like Julia, but I do not like Philip Seymour Hoffman in it, so I don't watch it. So usually when I do a rewatch, I start with Ghost Protocol. I like all the characters, and really wish they'd kept Brandt...though apparently he left due to scheduling conflicts, which is fine. Oh, and I would like to point out that despite everything everyone knows about team/ensemble movies, it is entirely possible to have more than one woman on a team.

I went to bed more or less on time. Parker was curled up on the bench at the foot of the bed, so he was entirely accessible for kicking out of the bedroom, but I left him, so he came up next to me and settled in for the night. I left the door partly open, so if he decided he wanted to leave, he could, or if Tegan wanted to join us, she could, but neither thing happened. I didn't really sleep -- or I dreamed that I wasn't sleeping, which amounts to the same thing. At midnight, I heard a muffled thud, and was afraid that it was the critters coming back, but I think it was the big church near my office building having a fireworks show. In the middle of a snowstorm. With wind. Presumably because they're idiots.

Also? Fireworks at midnight? That would be one thing if they were out in the country somewhere with no homes for miles around, but they're in the middle of the city, fercryin'outloud -- and not everyone stays up to make sure the door doesn't hit the old year in the ass on the way out. I was not impressed. It didn't last long, at least, though twenty minutes at midnight, is still extremely annoying.

So, yeah, I did see the year tick over, though not at all because I wanted to.

But when I said it was a quiet day, I meant quiet. There were no animal noises all day and none during the night. It was all a relief, but I spent the day (and night) on edge. Maybe that's why I didn't sleep, more than Parker's presence.

I have no plans for today at all. Maybe I'll go upstairs and work in my craft room. Maybe I'll watch movies. Maybe I'll sit here at my desk and watch YouTube clips all day. It's Other Thursday, but I might as well wait to pay bills until tomorrow, since the only reason I usually do it on Thursday evenings is that I'm not available to do it on Friday mornings. I should probably log into my work email at some point and clear out some of the junk emails that will have accumulated. The only thing I absolutely have to do is change the kitty litter and get the garbage out, but that can wait until later.

Hi ho. Happy New Year, I guess.

Happy new year!

As promised (or threatened?) at the start of the last post about stranger things here’s a more general post.

The past week has been that weird time of year where everything is kinda strange so it’s been a time of mostly watching stuff. I’ll get to some of that later on though.

Tuesday was an unexpected trip, mums friend from the library (not who she’s with most of the time but she is sometimes) was heading to Home Bargains and asked if we wanted to go. I wasn’t too keen cause of momey and not wanting to go out in general but she mentioned she was feeling unsteady so I told mum it’s best we go just in case. We didn’t get much from there but I got chilli sauce I wanted to pick up and two more of the doorables things (one which had Fennec the other had Leia). On seeing that the guy at the til asked who my fav Star Wars character was and my mind instantly blanked 😭 I said R2 and Leia which is true but I could have said more if I had thought.

Going also meant I could pop in JYSK a store that sells furniture. I saw they had storage boxes for £2.50 and the measurements seemed like one would be good for record storage so I picked on up. When I got home it was the right size, the records fit nicely so that’ll be useful.

I found that my Xmas package from fleshdoll had arrived but it wasn’t here. After checking the other house with the same number, he sent me a pick of where it was and I managed to pick it up. And ahh! It was a plushie of Steve, a Stranger Things bitty pop (which was Dustin!) and a cool Stranger Things book that’s Walmart exclusive (it’s dnd focussed and includes stickers, cards and lil standees). It’s so cool and something I know I’d never see here. I’m gonna love looking through it properly when I have more focus!

Yesterday we went down to Sainsburys, it was mums idea cause of the party food ending last night. Alas as such most of it was gone (I hate that the tacos went so quick I love them so many) but I got some of the dim sum things reduced so it was essentially 3 for the price of 1. And at least I got my Lego magazines (and a lil set from Aldi). It also meant mum could see the new M and S (she didn’t think much of it cause of the layout) and at least I got sushi

We also went into tk and I got some books (myths and legends of Egypt, the dark forces of Tolkien) and some Cinamoroll stuff (a mug and socks, plus some lights) which was cute.

But ugh going meant I was so exhausted last night and it meant I just tuned out a bit. I did try and finish a fall guys event but failed cause damn getting ranked wins is hard (I needed 2 to get the last reward and only managed one, I didn’t realise it ended today until then or I’d have tried harder sooner)

And then the alcohol we have didn’t taste too great, made my head fuzzy and then activated my sadness which is still there now. Ugh.

***

But onto things watched.

Bullet point thoughts on shows
*The Good Ship Murder - was pretty good, I’m glad the series is back on in a few days
*Death In Paradise - was pretty good too. It was funny that so much of it was in the cold drab uk (poor Selwyn!) though that last scene made me happy
*Midsomer Murders - two pretty solid eps, I think the first was the one that worked best
*the Christmas lectures - I managed to see them all (roughly on time) and they were pretty fun. I do enjoy Maggie (and her hair was so pretty) but she did talk a lil fast at times (which might be an adhd thing since she mentioned having it at the end, which was a sweet moment)

Thee was also a thing on called Titanic Sinks Tonight. I’ve seen three of the eps so far and it’s so fascinating. It’s about the sinking (obviously) but from the perspectives and memories of survives (with some experts too) and it is both interesting and horrific. (I dunno what it is about the sinking that interests us so this long after.) So much is just galling. A communication about ice was completely ignored, there was no direct communication between the engine room to let the crew know a flood was happening (it took someone running through the ship to find out!), the captain didn’t inform key crew about the urgency of the situation, a nearby ship didn’t have the radio room manned so missed the sos’, third class passengers weren’t even told anything was happening and, of course, there’s the lifeboats which were famously not fully filled (again cause of poor communication and one guy taking women and children first to mean women and children only).

I’ve also watched a bunch of films, so same deal.
*Puss In Boots the last wish - I loved this, one of the best films I’ve seen over the holidays. (And not just cause of the hot wolf). I loved the lil dog and that it turned into a quest (I love a good quest) and kitty soft paws looks so much like Midna.
*A Wrinkle In Time - Not scene before but wanted to because of Stranger Things. For the most part it was pretty good, especially the Camazotz scenes
*Back To The Future - The trilogy was on tv and I’d not seen for awhile so decided to watch. It was pretty good, part II was my fav (though it’s so funny how advanced they thought we’d be in 2015). It was bold to make the third one a western (though that meant it didn’t quite land as well cause Im not a western fan.)

Also I finally watched Strange Harvest, I’d wanted to see it since seeing the trailer and it came to prime video as a paid download this month. It was half off in the sale so I picked it up and ahh I’m so glad I did. It’s played as true crime documentary with interviews from police, experts and family of victims of a serial killer. It works so well and I’m glad it was as good as I hoped it would be (perhaps better).

(I’m sure I missed a bunch of other stuff I watched, this year is always so busy with things)

Today is gonna be spent watching the traitors prom, then the traitors tonight and maybe watching something else but what depends on mood (if it’s still low I doubt I’ll watch the Stranger Things finale) and there’ll be another post for snowflake. I do wanna fic some (again depends on mood) and set up a quest calendar thing I got.

Via synecdochic, and also what I see happening based on the latest post on dw_maintenance and comments there.

Please spread this far and wide so as many people see it as possible, because I really don't see English-language LJ continuing in its present form for much longer, and I know some people may still have things they care about there. It doesn't matter how you get it backed up, but it's absolutely crunch time for getting it backed up.

I saw this import FAQ being linked in the dw_maintenance comments for how to import into Dreamwidth, if that's the option you choose. So I take it this is working again, I remember there were issues a couple of years back, but better act quickly before that's no longer the case.

Link: Get anything you have left on LJ backed up ASAP by synecdochic
Link: How do I import my journal from another site? (dreamwidth.org)

Candy Hearts sign-ups are OPEN!!! You can find the schedule here, and the sign-up info post there, and here's for a direct link to the sign up form, and to the tagset!

You will never guess which fandom is included in my sign-up... and which canon I wrote a canon promo comment for ;D Haha. I'm actually signing up with tiny beloved polyships in 3 fandoms this time (K-9, Wind Breaker, Kaijuu No. 8) and I'm seriously excited about receiving any of them. It's the first time I do a sign-up like this haha, in that normally I try to be serious or close enough, but instead this is just me kind of jumping around about "THEM" whichever THEM it happens to be about XD :D I'm excited. It's also the first time I sign up for an exchange so early I think!! Normally I procrastinate until dangerously late because I worry about forgetting something. I also linked to the K-9 primer in my request... XD

Anyway, I love candyheartsex (and its predecessor chocolateboxcomm), it's a chill exchange with a small minimum (300 words fic or podfic, art) that reveals on Valentine's Day (but doesn't have to be valentine-themed, at all). Because of the low word count maybe, there's usually a fantastic treating culture around it, and it's just sweet and delightful fun all around. I'm really glad to be participating this year! I'll have to remember to check in a few days that I can match as well. I see BNHA and Wind Breaker people are starting to sign up so it should be fine :D Maybe see you there??

I just posted a thread to my Bluesky account about why I think it's extremely urgent for people to back up anything they still have on LiveJournal, however they do it. Thread starts here:

https://bsky.app/profile/rahaeli.bsky.social/post/3mbebi2xfxc25

ru-news LJ post I was relying on:

https://ru-news.livejournal.com/80899.html

Please spread this far and wide so as many people see it as possible, because I really don't see English-language LJ continuing in its present form for much longer, and I know some people may still have things they care about there. It doesn't matter how you get it backed up, but it's absolutely crunch time for getting it backed up.