cruel_summer | Network

Booked a massage for next Saturday (Note to self: 4:30). My entire body hurts. I’m sitting in the kitchen waiting for acetaminophen to kick in.

Woke up at 6:30 AM. Feeling groggy. Fed us all. Nap time. Showered and got myself together.

Planted the Japanese Maple. The wind keeps threatening to knock it over. I think that it needs a stake, so I ordered some garden tape.

I received two extra peonies from my order last year. I guess that I could expand the left-hand flowerbed in front and plant them. I might need one more.

Hell. I’ve been hauling bricks away from the side garden, and then I was going to use the tiller. Well, Bella and Gracie burst out of the front door. So much for the tiller. Maybe I could do the wildflower patches in front.I don’t know about assembling the raised boxes because the instructions will blow away.

And no, the garage guy never showed up. I hate him.

It was splatting raindrops, so I came in. It’ll have to rain harder for Bella and Gracie to come in. Lily is making a fuss over me because she’s hungry. Fed myself and the cats. Bella came in but Gracie would not.

I’m really, really tired. I’m thinking of posting early and getting to bed early. Gracie came in at 7. Fed the dogs. Watched the first episode of Heated Rivalry. Now I’ll post.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I found the garage keys! They were in a pocket of a pair of jeans that I hadn't worn in a while. Yay.

abyss_valkyrie posting in

perioddrama_ic

Welcome to Challenge Eighty Seven. This round is an inspirational one. You have to create icons based on the lyrics / the visuals or anything centered around 'Cosmic Love' by Florence & the Machine. Below are some icons; the first row is inspired by the lyrics(hover to see the lines) and the second row is inspired by the visuals of the Music video.
Under the cut you will find gifs, most of the lyrics & the Music Video to inspire you.

And now it's left me blind

The stars, the moonThey have all been blown out

And I was in the darknessSo darkness I became

I took the stars from my eyes and then I made a map

Then I heard your heart beating, you were in the darkness tooSo I stayed in the darkness with you

tinny

aurora_amethyst

narnialover7

wickedgame

littlemissnovella

magicrubbish

ella_rose88

thesleepingbeauty

mementomoris

abyss_valkyrie

Deadline: 27th April, 2026

( Gifs, lyrics & MV )

Create up to 5 icons.
When posting, tag it with challenge 87: Cosmic Love & your username. Ask for a username tag if you don't have one.
Post the URLs of your icons.
Fandoms can include drama, movies, animation, historical, fantasy etc. that can be considered as a period piece.
Icons submitted must be NEW and never posted before.
Icons MUST be 100px by 100px. Animation will only be allowed when included in a challenge.
Each fortnight a challenge post WILL be put up with a theme.
Participants will have TWO WEEKS to make and submit their icons.
Got any questions? Ask them below.

witchpoetdreamer

When I joined DW, I knew this was the right place for me. I am a long-form yapper first and foremost, so out of all social networks I've ever been on, this has been the best for me and remains so.

I did mention in a previous post that I joined Pillowfort as well. That was a short lived moment. As it turns out, my main desire was not to join a mirror of Tumblr, it was really to find the space for me that feels the most natural to post on, and that place remains DW. As my wife says, Tumblr is for shower thoughts, and I don't do shower thoughts. I don't even think in the shower! Shower is the place I either don't think at all or think of the next step in the washing routine. It's where thoughts go down the drain, never to resurface again. Thoughts right before sleep though... I digress.

I haven't deleted my PF account yet. I don't know if I will, it might be useful to keep, but I'm not present at all on it. I might delete it later on though.

All this to say, my only online "priority" is DW. This is where I feel the most at ease, so I have no reason to be anywhere else. Besides, I have no fear of losing any of my writing through a disappearance of the website since I meticulously copy and paste all my writing in a word doc (well, libre office doc) monthly. At most, I might lose my most recent posts, but I also keep all the drafts on Obsidian where I write everything first, so the fear is moot. Decentralization is good practice, but turns out it's not the practice for me. And if DW does die one day, I'll figure out where to go from there, if I go anywhere at all.

When I was in a polyamorous relationship, I heard of the term poly-saturated, which pretty much changed the way that I view relationships in general. As it turns out, I get saturated really fast in any kind of relationships. I prefer monogamy, and keeping my friend groups small, and that is reflected in how I like to be online as well. I should've honestly known, considering I only follow less than 30 blogs on Tumblr, and around 6 of them are my wife's sideblogs XD. Like most good things in my life, I like things slow and steady. That applies to reading and writing as well as everything else. And it's really hard to keep in mind when the rest of the world is so fast. But I'm getting there.

Keeping DW as my only social network also means I have chosen to be more conscientious of how long my reading list is. I've had a moment earlier last month when I felt somewhat paralyzed by the amount of posts waiting for me. Communities went out first, and I have also now unsubscribed to friending communities so I can focus first and foremost on the people I'm already subscribed to and want to maintain contact with. For now, I just go with the flow, aware that the people that I think are right for me might not feel the same way about me and vice versa. I'm learning not to take it personally, to feel comfortable in the occasional disappointments that might produce. And I'm learning to welcome life with patience. Slow and steady. That's the mantra. Some good things in life are meant to rattle our world with a bang. But most of them follow the rhythm of the seasons, years in the making. This is the rhythm I want to follow in my own life.

All this to say, I'm done playing the social media hopping game. I'm here now. That's where it feels the most natural for me to be. Turns out I'm social media monogamous too XD.

Current Mood: contemplative

flareonfury posting in

fandom_on_dw

( You're about to view content that a community administrator has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

breyzyyin posting in

fandom10in30

( The rest of the icons are under the cut... )

sheliak posting in

icontalking

Better late than never, right?

( A year of icons )

snickfic

(I guess I'm letting out all my bottled-up words today...)

A collection of essays on feminist topics. I've been meaning to read some Solnit ever since everyone was reading her book Hope in the Dark during the first Trump administration. I randomly was in need of an ebook to read, and this was the book of Solnit's available through my library, so here we are.

On one hand, I did not find this a challenging read. Most of what Solnit had to say, I've encountered in some form or another before, and most of these essays are surface-level examinations of their topics. OTOH, there's something to be said for having thoughts laid out in a coherent essay format when one has previously only encountered them via social media, haphazardly and in fragments. And even though the collection had a strong feminism 101 feeling for me, I did highlight a bunch of quotes, which I am putting below under a cut, mostly for my own use. So, clearly I got some value out of the book!

IMO, by far the strongest essay is the one where she gets into specifics, and that's the final essay, "Giantess," about a 1950s film called Giant starring Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson. I feel like I might vaguely have heard of this movie, and although it doesn't sound like my usual jam genre-wise, the politics sound progressive even today, so I'm tempted just from a point of historical interest.

( quotes )

immortalje posting in

dailyicons

Today's prompt is: lies

• You have 2 days time to submit an icon for this prompt (in other words, until prompt 2818 gets posted)!
• Prompt 2814 has been closed.
• If you have any questions regarding the prompt, feel free to ask in a comment.
• To submit an icon you simply reply to this post with the following information:
Icon:
Claim: (only necessary if it's a specific claim)
Status: (e.g. #1/10 - number of icon completed/table size)

Pre-formatted

itsanonyx posting in

your_favourites

Dear members,

so sorry for disappearing again. 😥 I got sick and spend the last weeks in bed and had no time to get everything done. So the current Challenge is extended for a week. The Challenge ends now next Sunday.

Current Mood: cold

case posting in

fandomsecrets

⌈ Secret Post #7037 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.

( More! )

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 00 pages, 00 secrets from Secret Submission Post #1005.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

abyss_valkyrie posting in

iconbattles

Hello, participants! There are just 3 days remaining for this battle and we got most of the entries in already. Can't wait to share the results at the end!
Check out the Submission Post here. Comments will be screened until the end of the battle.

Participants that need to enter their icons:

1.

shuufleur93

snickfic

Assorted items:
+

seasonsofdrabbles spring round signups close today!

+ Having posted the fic below, I seem to have gotten all my Oasis feelings out for the moment, or maybe just all my writing feelings. I spent the last couple of weekends going to art museums, and I've also finally found the brain space and desire to read again. It feels really good. I've finished two books in the past week! Amazing!

+ Currently actively reading:
- In the Forests of Serre by Patricia McKillip
- It's Not a Cult by Joey Batey (thanks to

troisoiseaux, who passed their copy on to me <3)
- The Beginning Comes After the End by Rebecca Solnit

I wrote a fic! Not even for an exchange!

doughnut hips (6511 words) by Snickfic
Fandom: Oasis (Band)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Liam Gallagher/Noel Gallagher
Additional Tags: Chubby Kink, sensory play, Light CBT, Light BDSM, Anal Sex, Porn with Feelings, Oasis Reunion (Band), Sibling Incest, Crying, Weight Gain, Kissing
Summary:
Liam settled his hands on Noel’s hips and then wondered if he shouldn’t, but there weren’t a lot of places for him to touch Noel that weren’t softer than they’d been sixteen years ago.
Noel cleared his throat. “I didn’t think you’d care if—you know. If I put on a few pounds.”

This was supposed to be a quick kink-focused one-shot, but it almost immediately grew a bunch of reunion feelings and became a lot more emotionally dense than I planned, and it ended up taking me about five months to write (across 19 days of writing). It was really satisfying to finish, and I feel like I did all the things I set out to do.

On the theme of "every kink applies to Gallaghercest," this has my first ever CBT and sensory deprivation. I've never had even the faintest inclination to write those before, did not go in planning to write them here, and yet: here they are.

I'm calling this a fill for

crackthewip, which makes it the first fic I've finished for that event, despite having run it for three years (and then passed it on to

chacusha). Yay.

This fic really filled a niche, apparently, because I got the most feedback on this that I've ever gotten in the first week of posting an Oasis fic (not counting the one last year that I was posting in daily installments). It's so gratifying to write things that people want to read. ;______;

snickfic

Exit 8 (2026). A man who has just found out his ex-girlfriend is pregnant gets lost in a seemingly infinite subway tunnel.

This is a Japanese movie based on a Japanese video game that was apparently a huge hit a few years ago. It's also the second movie this year based on an essentially non-narrative video game with long stretches of "yup, this sure feels like I'm watching someone play a video game." Like Iron Lung, they really have to work here to stretch their premise to a 90-minute runtime with an actual story. Things get pretty repetitive after a while, since the tunnel acts essentially as a spacial time loop (as elegantly depicted by the movie poster).

That said, I mostly enjoyed the experience, in large part because of the lead actor Kazunari Ninomiya, who is great. I've learned he was a beloved Jpop idol 20+ years ago, and I believe it, because he has loads of charisma while acting basically alone for the first 2/3 of the film. I would absolutely watch him in more things.

The movie is also occasionally really stylish. The opening scenes are IMO the best part of the film from a filmmaking perspective, starting with our guy on a crowded train listening to Bolero to the camera-eye POV first loop through the subway tunnel (as a nod to the game being a walking simulator).

However, I think my favorite part of the movie is the interlude where we see the backstory for the other recurring character in the subway tunnel, a man walking robotically with a briefcase. That's easily the best horror material in the film.

--

Forbidden Fruits (2026). Three women named after fruits who work in a mall fashion boutique tentatively welcome a new member into their girl-power coven.

This movie is kind of all over the place. It leans a bit too hard into satire, which loses me sometimes, while also not seeming to have a clear idea what it's trying to say about female relationships. In my opinion Lili Reinhart as the coven leader is one of the weak links, although I've seen a lot of people say the opposite. On the other hand, Victoria Pedretti as the airhead recovering alcoholic stole the show for me. I didn't even recognize her at first because Cherry is so different from the Mike Flanagan characters I've seen her play, but she's hilarious and heartbreaking.

The movie is also very stylish, and the fashion is incredible, like truly impossible to describe, you have to experience it for yourself. Each of the four gets their own consistent look: glam seductress, gothy femme, girl next door, sexy baby.

The movie also, after an hour and fifteen minutes of campy satire, suddenly goes extremely hard. It gets gnarly, you guys. It fucking commits. It must have been a real challenge to market this film, because if you're watching it as a horror movie, it takes over an hour to get there, but if you're not into horror, you are in for a nasty surprise at the end.

Put this on the list of "wasn't quite for me, not mad I saw it, happy it exists." It had style and ambition, and that goes a long way with me. (Typing that out, I realize it has a ton in common with last movie's football horror movie Him, with a lot of the same strengths and weaknesses. So if you were into that, try this.)

kat_lair

***

Kat Reads Books

Hildur by Satu Rämö - Hildur is the only detective in the sparsely populated western fjords of Iceland, busy dealing with childhood trauma (a mysterious disappearance of her little sisters) by surfing in the freezing waves of the Atlantic and having a casual no strings attached thing with a neighbouring P.E. teacher. Then a local drug dealer and child abuser is killed and Jakob, a police trainee from Finland arrives on a Nordic exchange programme. This was the first of the series that's proven super popular in Finland, and other Nordics I think. No idea if it's been translated to English yet but if you like 'Nordic noir' that isn't actually that dark, then I would recommend. The case is interesting, the characters are all very real, and the book does a really good job at weaving in information about Icelandic society and mythology without slipping into info dumping.

Rosa ja Björk by Satu Rämö - Second in the series, named after the missing sisters, whose fate starts to unravel on the background while Hildur and Jakob get busy with a murder of a local politician. Like the first book, this does a great job at weaving multiple timelines and storylines (the case, but also Hildur's family, and Jakob's custody worries) without getting confusing. The society and landscape play almost as large a role as the actual characters. I've decided that since my own Iceland trip is almost certain for August, this book series counts as like, work related research, which is obviously why I'm moving through it at a pace.

Kat Watches Things

BTS Arirang on Gwanghwamun Square - The Netflix comeback concert which I watched at pushkin666's. It was a spectacle for sure but so lovely to see the guys back and the live performances of the new album song (damn those new choreos). Camerawork was a bit too much on the crowds at times and wasn't always following the singer quite as tightly as I would've liked to see but on the whole it was fire. Special mention from me to the sit-down performance of Like Animals (equal amounts flustering and heart-wrenching, how?)

Stray Kids: Dominate Experience - The concert itself was, as I knew from personal experience thank you very much, amazing and the sit-down mini interview sections causes me Many Feelings. Probably 75% of them are about Chan for reasons I will not be elaborating on outside fanfic fjkdagtwankfmwalnf (please, someone find his off button, I am begging).

Luca - Rewatch but still excellent. Off the coast of Italy, Luca is a seamonster boy looking for adventure. He finds it with Alberto, another seamonster boy with equal amounts of bravado and insecurities. Together they embark on a quest to win the local race with a local human girl Giulia so that they can buy a Vespa and travel the world together. Listen. You will not convince me this is not a queer love story in the making. I have AO3 receipts to prove it. Anyway, this is a love animation about acceptance and found family.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire - Another rewatch. Well, I mostly put it in the background whilst writing. Fun and flashy, the family dynamics are cute and generally I would watch Paul Rudd read the phonebook so... Phoebie/ghost girl Melody had some potential. It was lovely to see the old crew having a blast.

Madame Webb - In the early 00s a NY paramedic Cassie dies for a bit and activates a mysterious power to see to the future, well, a few minutes only, stemming from her mother being bit by a spider in the Amazon whilst pregnant. She ends up protecting three teenagers who will grow to kill the bad guy in the future. Look. I have absolutely no idea about the Marvel canon for this character so can't comment on the adaptation. Things Iiked: found family of women kicking ass, no romantic subplots, the spider aspects not as creepy as I feared. Things that annoyed me: the logistical plotholes, like I'm sorry but do you know how long it would take to travel from NYC to deep in Peruvian jungle and how unadvisable it would be to go there with like a backpack and a sleeveless top. Also the actual motivation of the bad guy was just... not explained. Sure, he was all 'I will not lose everything I've built' and had some cool spider powers but like... Greed? Was that really it? Boring af. I will give the movie a Very Clever character backstory, which I absolutely did not get until like 15mins after the film ended and I was like '...omg CHARACTER NAME'.

The Curse of Bridge Hollow - A family moves to a small town obsessed with Halloween which suits their teenager paranormal enthusiast daughter well except for how she accidentally releases the spirit of Stingy Jack, who then makes al the Halloween decorations come to live. Yes, I absolutely clicked on this because it was Halloween themed and it provided perfect breakfast watching. Fun little family romp, plus Kelly Rowland as the mother. Very watchable.

メアリと魔女の花 | Mary to Majo no Hana | Mary and the Witch's Flower (2017) - Bored and in a new town, Mary discovers mysterious flower in the forest that gives her magical powers and leads her to a magical Endor College where she discovers dubious transmogrification experiments... And also sort of gets the local delivery boy kidnapped. Rescue mission ensues. This was a beautiful animation with suitably unsettling feel at times. The messages of 'you don't need magic to be special' and 'animal experimentation bad' weren't like, subtle, but they're good messages to deliver to the target audience so. Yes. Liked it.

Migration - A duck family decides to leave their safe pond and migrate to Jamaica, encounter many eccentric birds on the way and one scary chef with obsession for duck a l'orange. Adventures are had, bravery is discovered. This was a fun a fun animation, with shout outs for Danny DeVito as Uncle Dan (I see what they did there), Carol Cane as Eron the elderly heron and David Mitchell as Googoo the yogic farm duck.

Borderlands - Lilith a first grade (not scumbag) bounty hunter gets a gig to find a kidnapped teenager on her home planet of Pandora where she swore never to return, since it's mostly a shithole overrun by psychos and hopeful explorers looking for a mythical alien vault... That the teenager girl in question may just be a key for. A ragtag of people band together to fight against a greedy corporation looking to use the alien technology in the vault for nefarious purposes. Including a snarky robot. Listen, this was So Fun, just a lot of smash bang quip. A twist that I absolutely saw coming. Also, did I say Lilith is played by Cate Blanchett? In a fire red hair. MmmmHhhmmm. Also, I love Jame Lee Curtis.

Zootopia 2 - Ahhhhhhhhh. Okay, I love the first movie so much I was a little apprehensive about going into the sequel but happy to report that my heart-eyes for this franchise remain. Nick and Judy are struggling to adjust to their partnership and like Talk About Their Feelings (not like that in the movie though I would say it's Very Open To Interpretation) due to hiding them behind incessant jokes and trying to save everyone, respectively. The plot involves a stolen diary of the inventor of Zootropolis' weather wall and a hundred year conspiracy that saw reptiles banished and becoming second class citizens. The themes of differences are our strength and looking beyond stereotypes are present and accounted for and I loved all the new characters, and the old of course. BRB, off to check if the fandom on AO3 has my back because I need approximately 348290 post-canon feelings fic.

***

nanila

What was the last book you read (or are currently reading)?

Jan Morris’ Trieste and the meaning of nowhere, for what I feel are obvious reasons. It is a very romantic, forgiving view of the city.
What was the last movie you watched?

We caught a bit of the Minions movie dubbed into Italian last night. It was (perhaps unsurprisingly?) easy to follow in another language.
What television series are you currently watching?

Nothing at the moment. We finished a few things before the Easter holiday (new series of Death in Paradise, Small Prophets).
What are some of your favorite blogs or communities online?

I really only read DW and LJ these days. That's enough for me.
What social media do you belong to and check often?

I still have accounts on the usual platforms but I haven't checked any of them since January 2025 when I removed all the apps from my phone. I vaguely miss contact with a few people but it has generally been a good move. I spend more time communicating directly through messaging or email, or more diffusely but in greater depth here on DW & LJ.

greghousesgf

Got up early to go to Arizmendi to get a cinnamon roll for my breakfast this morning as well as some other goodies. Looking forward to going to a concert this afternoon.

Current Music: Xcultures

linaewen posting in

writethisfanfic

Hello on Sunday! What kind of a writing day has it been so far today -- or if today hasn't gotten going yet, how did you fare yesterday?

- I thought about my fic once or twice
- I wrote
- I did some planning and/or outlining
- I did research and/or canon review
- I edited
- I've sent my fic off to my beta
- I posted today!
- I'm taking a break
- I did something else that I'll talk about in a comment

Sunday Discussion: It's a new writing week, and that means a fresh start. Maybe you had a great writing week last week, or maybe last week wasn't the greatest for getting writing things done -- what kind of goals do you have for keeping up your momentum or starting off fresh this week?

zimena

Believe it or not, I've bought my own flat!!!

I can't move in until June, but that's still not very far away.

In fact, I've been searching for a flat for many years. I think I started even before I moved out from my childhood home in 2020, so probably around 2018 or so. In 8 years of searching, and going to look at various places, I've never found anything that felt right. Either, I had to discard it because the bathroom was impossible for me to use, and also because of things like doors being too narrow for me to get through with the wheelchair, or once - when I thought I had found a perfect place - I had to discard that idea because the building had no lift. Or also, I've been to places where I just didn't like the area at all.

Then, about 2.5 weeks ago, just before Easter, I got a non-renewal notice for my current flat. I live in an adapted council flat, and they apparently decided that I don't need those adoptions anymore. I don't really understand their reasoning, because my disability is life-long and static, so what changed since I moved in six years ago?

Well, whatever - the important thing is that I ended up flat-searching again... and I found the dream place. It is:

* Brand new, in a building that's still being finished up as of now.
* Sold for a fixed price, because of the point above.
* Near the main bus line in my town - 5-6 buses per hour.
* A little bit outside the main town centre - about 10 minutes by bus or so.
* Near a shopping mall with basically everything, and also near a couple of streets with things like a pharmacy, a sushi place, a pizza place, and the local branch of the activity centre where my exercise group is.
* 66 square meters - a little bit bigger than where I live now.
* It has two bedrooms. I intend to make the smaller one of them a combined guest room and office/computer room.
* There's no separate kitchen - the kitchen is in a corner of the living area.
* I'm getting a dishwasher for the first time in my life - yes, it's included, and so are a number of other fancy kitchen appliances.
* On the first floor when you see the building from the front, but it feels more like a "high" ground floor when you see it from the side where my flat is.
* It has its own terrace space, which is partly roofed. It's very big - 27 square meters!

I've already signed the first papers for it, and I have a legal document saying that I've bought it. The contract itself will be signed during next week, though. But still - I'm a flat owner now!

The next few months will be wild! I need to sort through all of my stuff from here, and probably through away a bunch of things. But also, in about two months' time I'll be living in a different place and learning to feel at home there.

I'm so excited and happy! ❤️

kat_lair

***

Title: Window Box
Author:

kat_lair
Fandom: Grimm
Pairing: Nick/Monroe
Tags: Drabble, Gardens/Gardening
Rating: G
Word count: 100

Summary: Monroe wakes to the sound of hammering.

Author notes: Spring defiance from under the crushing forces of capitalism = a drabble a day in April. This one for verdande_mi who wanted something for Grimm.

Window Box on AO3

( Window Box )

***

impala_chick posting in

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Cobra Kai
The Falcon & The Winter Soldier
The Umbrella Academy

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I love you ain't that the worst thing you ever heard

He looks up grinning like a devil

Network

Yard Work Day

Challenge Eighty Seven:Cosmic Love-Challenge rules!

Slow and steady

Crossover Galore Challenge

Round 63: Let's Go Outside! by Breyzy

Icon Progression 2025

The Mother of All Questions by Rebecca Solnit

Prompt 2816: Lies

Today's prompt is: lies

Extension

[ SECRET POST #7037 ]

BBC Merlin Battle-Last Reminder!

Oasis fic and other fannish things

Movies: Exit 8 and Forbidden Fruits

Kat Consumes Media

The Friday Five on a Sunday

(no subject)

WIP Challenge Check-in, Day 12 -- Sunday

Big news!!!

Spring Drabble 12/30: Grimm, Window Box

Challenge 32: Copious Colors

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July 2023

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