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Dragon Sword And Wind Child by Noriko Ogiwara (Translated by Cathy Hirano)

Saya's infatuation with Prince Tsukishiro is but another move in a long-running struggle on whose outcome existence itself depends.

Dragon Sword And Wind Child (Tales of the Magatama, volume 1) by Noriko Ogiwara (Translated by Cathy Hirano)

Parental Approval

http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=5811

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In honor of Three Weeks for Dreamwidth, I'm hosting a little Pokémon prompt meme on my journal, like I did back in 2024! It's 18+ only, but open to all mediums, ratings, and Pokémon subfandoms! Come join us!

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One Of These Doesn't Feature Robert At All, And Everyone Is Very Impressed By My Restraint.

Here are a handful of short Goes Wrong Show ficlets written in response to various requests, mainly on Tumblr! (I put out a call for fic requests, with the caveat that I was likely to make everything Robert-centric.)

( Assorted Goes Wrong ficlets, including crossovers with Final Fantasy VIII and Death Note. )

I had a lot of fun writing these! But apparently I cannot be trusted to stick to the actual details of a fic request.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my desk

The Other Side Challenge: Babylon 5: Irrational

Title: Irrational
Fandom: Babylon 5
Author:

badly_knitted
Characters: Bester, Byron.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 300
Spoilers/Setting: Phoenix Rising.
Summary: Telepaths are feared and distrusted.
Content Notes: None needed.
Written For: Challenge 513: Amnesty 85, using Challenge 38: The Other Side.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Babylon 5, or the characters. They belong to J. Michael Straczynski.

( Irrational... )

Current Mood: busy

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Three Weeks for Dreamwidth: Painting

This year during Three Weeks for Dreamwidth, I'm writing about reading as a way of becoming an expert in a given subject. Read Part 1: Introduction to Becoming an Expert, Part 2: Architecture, Part 3: Dance, Part 4: Music.

Three Weeks for Dreamwidth Part 5: Painting

Painting is a visual art based on meaningful marks. I'll include both drawing and painting here, as they use some of the same materials to similar ends. Popular media include acrylic paint, charcoals, colored pencils, ink, oil paint, and watercolor. It's really a spectrum because some media can be used for both, like watercolor pencils or ink. All known human cultures make art, hence the huge range of drawing and painting styles. Here on Dreamwidth, check out

art,

drawesome,

everykindofcraft, or

justcreate. See also lists of Drawing and Graphics communities for more ideas.

Three Weeks for Dreamwidth April 25-May 15

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

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Cuddle Party

Everyone needs contact comfort sometimes. Not everyone has ample opportunities for this in facetime. So here is a chance for a cuddle party in cyberspace. Virtual cuddling can help people feel better.

We have a cuddle room that comes with fort cushions, fort frames, sheets for draping, and a weighted blanket. A nest full of colorful egg pillows sits in one corner. There is a basket of grooming brushes, hairbrushes, and styling combs. A bin holds textured pillows. There is a big basket of craft supplies along with art markers, coloring pages, and blank paper. The kitchen has a popcorn machine. Labels are available to mark dietary needs, recipe ingredients, and level of spiciness. Here is the bathroom, open to everyone. There is a lawn tent and an outdoor hot tub. Bathers should post a sign for nude or clothed activity. Come snuggle up!

Meme from Impala-Chick

The Last...

Movie I watched: Persuasion (2007)
Series I finished: The Other Bennet Sister (2026)
Book I finished: The Once and Future Riot by Joe Sacco (2024)
Book I bought: Cards of Grief by Jane Yolen (1984)
Book I received as a gift: Not sure, I've had a "Dear God, I have too many books already!" standing comment on gifts for some years now.
Food I ate: Okonomiyaki.
Meal I cooked: Same as above.
Drink I had: Other than water, coffee with cream. If alcohol, rum and orange juice a couple days ago.
Song I listened to: "Everything's Going to Be Alright" by Beverley Knight.
Album I listened to: J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations by Angela Hewitt.
Playlist I listened to: I don't really playlist.
Concert I went to: Lennie Gallant last fall? Maybe?
Game I played: Civilisation IV: Beyond the Sword
Person I talked to: Nenya.
Person I texted: A neighbour lady.

(no subject)

Anybody able to recommend a library or ten that allows for nonresident digital cards?

There’s a series I was reading, and the three libraries in NYC have books 1 - 4 and then 9 - 11. I don’t like it enough to pay for just the missing books. I still want to read them. More library systems, that I would pay for. (And hopefully get these books.)

Current Mood: busy

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Poem: "Always Guided by Passion"

This poem came out of the January 6, 2026 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from

see_also_friend. It also fills "The End of the World" square in my 1-1-26 card for the Public Domain Day Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with

fuzzyred. It belongs to the Shiv thread of the Polychrome Heroics series. It follows "Cause a Riot of Color."

( Read more... )

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: somewhere
Current Music: Wormrot - Erased Existence

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AKC Courtneyyyyyy Culture Festival #219: Suzuki Kurumi

I do not want to be the one to break it to you, but Suzuki Kurumi is graduating. Not this week, or the week after, but the week after that, in fact, on 15th May—on the very day that

3weeks4dreamwidth concludes, friends! Not, ah, that it was planned this way, I'm sure. This feels like a really sad way to begin May's Wednesday columns, friends!

Kururun!

I think Kururun looks great in the Team AKB Oshi video! Look, I'm saying something positive about this video because I feel bad, it's clearly something to be used as a backdrop for stage performances, and yet... I still think it could be better. I'm saying this because my oshi, Hashimoto Eriko, looks like a startled deer throughout the whole thing. I digress. Kururun joined AKB48 during the 11th anniversary in 2016 and she will leave during the protracted 20th anniversary in 2026. Ten years is, as established, about the most you can expect. Joining the group as a member of the 16th generation that were unveiled as kenkyuusei during the December concert—Kururun and Taya Misaki, Yamauchi Mizuki and many others—each of them having passed auditions in October, Kururun and her peers immediately got to work! By February the year after, Kururun was performing in the theatre, a place she clearly cared for a lot, performing there 123 times in 2025, the highest number of performances of any member that year. In 2017, however, she was something of an unknown quantity, her generation appearing for the first time to the general public on the team's theme song, Dakitsukouka?, a B side on the theatre edition of #SukiNanda. From there on, she had a pretty solid run of B side appearances, even scoring a Wcentre with Arai Sae, Yumemite Gomen, the song being the theme tune to the live action adaptation of Hoshikuzu Telepath and appearing as a B side for Koi Tsun Jatta.

After a year in the kenkyuusei, Kururun moved up to Team A in 2017 where she stayed until 2022 when she was moved to Team B, and, presumably, like Hashimoto Haruna, got to sing the real Team B Oshi. As the youngest member of her generation, and with a photobook already on her belt and so many appearances in the theatre—including the Yukirin produced special stage, Boku no Natsu ga Hajimaru—I don't think we have seen the last of Kururun at all, but, at the same time, I'm really sorry that she will no longer be in AKB. I know I get moody every time someone graduates, and that I kind of want everyone to stay together forever, but the silver lining here is that Kururun is young, she has made a name for herself, she has celebrated her time in AKB48 with friends, and those friendships won't diminish just because she is heading out on her own. I'm really excited to see what Kururun does after this month!

Current Mood: busy

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New verses in "No Faster or Firmer Friendships"

Based on the general fund poll, "No Faster or Firmer Friendships" has 10 new verses. Josué reads a funny poem to Maria-Vera.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my apartment

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Tuesday, April 21: Matthews/Winters Park

Last Tuesday, we also went on a hike!

It was a pretty warm day, but a nice one for a walk. Alex wanted to go to Red Rocks, but there was a show that night, so the park was closed early. Instead we went to Matthews/Winters, which is a county park that borders Red Rocks. We've been there several times before. It's a bittersweet place for me, because we went there with Cy a lot, and it's the first hike we went on after he passed away.

The landscape.

It's Bella!

Twelve more pictures:

The water was definitely very low in the creek, but it was flowing.

Bella laying on the bridge over the creek.

There's a short little path that follows the creek upstream, so we went up that way first.

Looking back downstream.

There's a little "fort" of sorts set up, so of course had Bella sit in it.

We joke it's not a hike if there's not a picture of Bella sticking her tongue out.

A dandelion.

Chokecherries.

Back over the bridge and up the main path, the start is an uphill section... that basically always kicks my ass. It's not that steep, but man, I feel like I'm dying by the time I get to the top.

The short walk I'm trying to do a couple times a day at work does have an uphill section, which I certainly still feel when I do it, but I'm hoping that's going to help my ability to handle even relatively gentle inclines. (I can walk basically forever on a flat or downhill path, but the instant I'm moving uphill? I'm dying.)

I think it was a little easier for me to do this time? I was still struggling a little, but not quite as badly as I remember? So maybe the walks are helping my endurance, haha.

Tiny ant on an aster.

Up at the top of the loop is the Mount Vernon cemetery. I of course take pictures of it every time we go, even though I have pictures from every other time we've been.

The two stones are the only marked burials, though there are supposedly others in the cemetery. The cemetery is the only thing left of the town of Mount Vernon.

A cactus with a hole through it!

Then poor Bella had a no good very bad day. She drank water a little too fast, and immediately threw up. She was doing okay after that, until we got about 2/3 of the way through the loop. Then she stepped on a red ant, which bit her. She spent the whole rest of the walk kicking and biting at her foot, because I know it had to still be stinging. Ant bites suck! When we got back to the start she stood in the cold water of the creek, and that seemed to help soothe it.

A late blooming apple tree.

(I was busy trying to take a picture of the flowers, and missed getting to see a tiny snake that Alex spotted. Happy for first snake of the year, bummed I didn't see it!)

Then back at the car, Alex noticed I had a hitchhiker!

The tiniest inchworm! I let her go back in the grass.

After that, we went to get ice cream, as a local ice cream parlor was doing a fundraiser for my old high school. I got a "kid's" size of vanilla ice cream for Bella... They packed so much in there, lol. So suddenly it was back to being the best day ever, and the ant bite seemed entirely forgotten.

Current Mood: busy

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Poem: "The Doom Puff"

This poem came out of the April 7, 2026 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from

nsfwords. It has been sponsored by the general fund poll. This poem belongs to the series Monster House.

Warning: Do not read with mouth full.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: exhausted
Current Music: Evil Lives Here

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work

Last night took it out of me

Just as I was getting ready to go to bed at 130 AM the storm did something that scared me. You know how your lights flicker off and on because the power lines are galloping? It did it for about three minutes before failing. I was afraid something might have overloaded and caught fire (it didn't). Now it's too hot to sleep but raining too hard to open a window and my blood sugar is being stupid so I have to pee 4 times between bed time and 6 AM when the power finally turns on.

I said today can you believe it was the last week of class and several said 'thank god.' I know the feeling but on the other hand it stings.

my Indian cowoker brought in a curried egg dish and coconut rice filled with cardamon and cinnamon and so I had to have elevensies. I don't make the rules.

I came home to one story rejection but also one story accepted so I'm taking that as a win.

I'm too exhausted to think of anything for Tuesday's fannish 50. I am looking for thoughts, thinking of doing yet another con panel at a pop culture. I was thinking about the history of women writing horror. Would that be interesting? Maybe link it up with women mangaka/animators because surely there have to be some.

Current Mood: mischievous
Current Music: Dreamers in Exile - Voxtrot

Sing another part.

Tonight at the local chamber music recital, the production halted between performances because someone's device was making enough noise to be heard by the musicians. That the person's device was in the front row right up against the stage isn't as important as you'd think, because the acoustics in this room are good enough you could hear it from several rows away. At least, I was able to.

An old woman had taken off her hearing aids and put them in her bag, but they kept producing feedback and chirping loud enough that the bag had to be taken out of the room so the performance would continue - and then got taken out again after the intermission when the chirping still hadn't died down.

Chamber music performances are a very different beast than many other live productions, and even so: seeing that kind of thing done soothed me to know that there's at least one place still holding onto decorum.

Current Mood: artistic

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Here we go (again!)

Name: C.K. or Chester
Age group: mid-to-late 30s -- 36 specifically.
Country: USA
Subscription/Access Policy: 18+ only. No Harry Potter fans. No antis. No Chappell Roan stans (I see how y'all are treating my man and I don't like it.) For a more in-depth 'about me', follow this link.

Main Fandoms: Culture Club (the greatest band of the '80s! I write fic for them and sometimes cross-post deep dives from my website on them.)
Other Fandoms: Linkin Park, WWE, Smoky Mountain Wrestling
Fannish Interests: Fanfiction mostly, and doing deep dives on my many OCs.
OTPs and Ships: Culture Club: Boy George/Jon Moss, Roy Hay/Mikey Craig; Linkin Park: Bennoda [Chester Bennington/Mike Shinoda]; Wrestling: Hartbreak (Bret Hart/Shawn Michaels), Shawnter (Shawn Michaels/Hunter Hearst-Helmsley), Candy (Cody Rhodes/Randy Orton); and then I have a lot of ships in my fandoms involving OCs.

Favourite Movies: The Room (lol), Pretty in Pink, Borat, Major League, man there's so many and I can't think of all of them.
TV Shows: I actually don't watch TV.
Books: Broken Harts: The Life and Death of Owen Hart by Martha Hart
Music: I listen to a lot of '80s. My faves are Culture Club (and yes, that means I like Boy George's solo work too), a-ha, Depeche Mode, Yazoo, Information Society, New Order, The Cure, A Flock of Seagulls, Real Life, Johnny Hates Jazz, Mr. Mister, Oingo Boingo. Then outside of '80s music I like Massive Ego, $uicideboy$, Linkin Park, and Fort Minor.
Games: Sonic the Hedgehog (1, 2, 3), Sonic & Knuckles, Sonic 3D Blast, Pokemon, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, GTA series, Hitman series, WWE series, Tomb Raider (original games series), Crash Bandicoot 1 & 2, Legacy of Kain series
Comics/Anime/Misc: Not really into much comics or anime, but my fave anime is Death Note.

Current Mood: working

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DC Comics: SOULPIERCER

Title: SOULPIERCER
Fandom: DC Comics
Characters/Pairings: Joey Wilson
Notes: Draws from a graceless hodgepodge of every piece of canon I've ever liked regarding Joey as a character. This mix deals with themes of suicidality and body dysmorphia. Tread with caution.

LISTEN ON YOUTUBE.

( Track list, lyric selections, and commentary under the cut. )

Current Mood: WHERE DO I START
Current Music: castle

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the saga continueth

guy from the garage called me today to tell me that the part he ordered so he can fix my car? there aren't any in the us. (my response: "i'm going to swear." to be fair, he did say to the guy from the place where he tried to order it "it would've been nice if you'd told me this sooner.") so what does that mean? i ask. he says he's going to try and find said part secondhand. from a salvage yard, i guess. is this an improvement? i do not know. will i ever get my car back? i do not know that either. not by this weekend, that's pretty sure.

jesus christ. maybe i should start researching new cars after all.

the elevators keep going out in the ugly building where i work, to the point that there's only one that still works on my side of the building. (usually there are three.) this seems like a suggestion from the universe that i start taking the stairs.

world's longest tiramisu baked and assembled in london. it used 19,000 eggs and almost 120,000 ladyfingers and was 440m long (1445 feet). that is a lot of dessert. italian bakers made it in london to commemorate italy's friendship with the uk, and after it was certified as the longest tiramisu, it was cut into pieces and sold for charity. yum.

We were living in a blue room, somewhere near
the coast. The trees were tall and green as sleeping men,
bent against the wind. There were blackberries,
apple farms, roaring waves of storms. Long December
foghorn nights, the distant tinny ringing of a bell.
We watched the ships go by, the seagulls flock
and spread. We stayed up late and read Neruda
in the dark, returning every nerve. So close it seemed
the other person’s body was our own. Eyes for eyes,
hands for hands, waiting for the other one to come.
It wasn’t beauty but a lack of time. We saw the stars
dissolve, the shifting range of blues against the peaks.
Mountains in the distance. Black hills. Moon. There was
a time, a period of days and nights before the end.
We were living in a blue room, and we were happy.

--"Blue Room", Kai Carlson-Wee

Eldergoth Nostalgia

Or to quote Rasputina, "The scene is never what it used to be".

I had a lovely, wistful sort of dream the other night in which

solstice_lilac gave me an old compilation tape she had made long ago. (In the dream) I had a full stereo system with a tape deck that magically produced fantastic-quality audio, and I immediately played the tape. It was 120 minutes of gorgeous ethereal swirly goth music. I woke up with the melancholy realization that 1) I couldn't remember any of the bands on the dream tape, and 2) they probably didn't exist in the real world.

But oh! It was lovely while the dream lasted.