common_nature | Member Posts

threesentenceficathon began yesterday! I've posted... more fills than I think so far. xD I started listing them and then went HM OKAY THAT'S A BUNCH ACTUALLY:
Leverage ot3 fluff
Obi-Wan/Asajj post-PT AU [also on ao3 because it got away from me a bit xD]
Julien's unrequited feels for Aranessa (CR Araman)
Silt Verses, godsummoning
Olruggio/Qifrey angst (WHA)
Kara/Lee (the thin line between fighting and fucking) (BSG 2003)
Thimble+Occtis reunion (CR Araman)

I also posted some prompts. They're hiding in there somewhere. But mostly the fun is in making little ficlets, for me.

2.
I've watched through s3e3 of Star Trek: Discovery, and I adore Starfleet Honor but also every time Georgiou is on screen making snarky comments and beating people up and looking at Michael with maternal pride I care naught for Starfleet Honor because I'm too busy thinking about how much Georgiou is delighted to see Michael get rougher around the edges after her time alone in the future.

This also means I have just met Adira Tal, who I know will become a major character and who is also going to come out as nonbinary once we get more into that story, and I am curious about how that'll unfold considering that Adira has a Trill symbiote and I have some feelings (mostly sighs) about nonbinary characters and the plurality aspects of such an arrangement. But hey, can't really have proper opinions on it until I see how it plays out in the show, you know?

3.
Testing at my dojo went very well! Love to see two people take very good tests perfectly appropriate to their level! Love also to see one of them have a worse randori than usual simply because he was clearly exhausted by the time he reached it, but hey even that was still perfectly reasonable for the level the test expects; I just know what he's capable of.

It was also like "HUH OKAY" seeing him do one technique (hanmi handachi shomenuchi iriminage) because I saw my own technique in how he did it. I get it! I know why! I did it with him a bunch when he was learning it! I just!

I do not think of myself as One Of The Sensei despite it being pretty clear that a lot of the white belts absolutely do think of me that way. This is mostly because I don't teach regularly, and so nobody calls me sensei on the regular.

4.
This weekend has been full of CLASSIC WINTER SNOW. After testing yesterday I detoured to the local state park and spent an hour walking a path that was very covered in snow and also icy beneath said snow. There were a couple other people out in the closer bits of this path, but once I turned onto the loop fewer people tend to go on anyway, it was clear that nobody had been there for at least a hour, so it was all FRESH CLEAR SNOW and that was gorgeous and really peaceful to spend time in.

I know intellectually how relaxing and restorative it is for me to spend time in the woods, especially if I can find woods where I won't hear/see other humans, but it's always a bit of an oh! right! feeling when I experience it again. Shall try and hold on to it, but it's always easier to go out into the woods during the beautiful times than when winter fades once more into dreary slushy/icy grayness instead of this perfect high-contrast fresh new fluffy snow.

Pictures under the cut! I took way more than this but I didn't feel like uploading all of them and I think these are nicely representative!

( four photos from a snowy walk in the woods )

ysabetwordsmith

Today is cloudy and cold.

I fed the birds. A few sparrows approached as soon as I put seed in the fly-through feeder.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 1/18/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

.

Current Mood: busy

galeogirl

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

Current Mood: sick
Current Music: Strange Days - The Doors

scrubjayspeaks

Okay, so. Sinus whatever turned into a hacking, wheezing cough. Still no fever, aches, anything that would resemble a traditional cold or flu. Gave up and went into Urgent Care again on Thursday, when it became obvious that I was not improving.

I am once again on ALL the drugs. Normally, they wouldn’t do antibiotics for a cough like this--those tend to be viral--but it turns out my left ear is actually still infected, on top of everything else. No wonder I haven’t had any energy.

So I get to be on antibiotics again for that, which might also help with the cough. It might also obliterate my digestive system again, so I have that to look forward to. Plus two different cough suppressants. And most importantly, an albuterol inhaler, which is basically a miracle drug. I don’t get sick often, but when I do, it tends to turn into bronchitis, and the inhaler is an old friend at this point.

I don’t want to take any time off work, because I’ll be on birthday vacation time starting the 26th, damn it. But I am so very, very tired every day.

In completely different news, my iPad bullied me into upgrading to the new OS release. Which immediately broke my reminders app, just like it did last time. Since I remembered said last time, I only freaked out a little and mostly left it to sort itself out by morning. Which it did, thank goodness, because I live and die by those reminder lists. But thanks, Apple, for yet another appalling update experience that makes me regret ever tying myself to your products, you absolute garbage pile. PS, still bitter about the years of ghost alarms you subjected me to when I upgraded to this iPad in the first place.

Lewisia: still on break

Day job: 42.25 hours, all of which should have been spent in bed instead

Reading: Clockwork Boys by T. Kingfisher (effectively just part one, so excuse me while I thrash and gibber my way into the next book to know what happens, I love all of them but the latecomer Grimehug the gnole most of all)

Watching: Revolutionary Girl Utena episodes 24 to 26 and halfway into 27

Listening: Repertoire by Shane Parish (instrumental guitar noodling, some pieces more experimental than others, generally quite nice, I should start making notes of where I saw recs for artists, because gods know I don’t remember on my own)

Playing: Animal Crossing 3.0 release! So much decorating! Yay!

Clock Mouse: 92 minutes of planning work

althea_valara

Snowflake Challenge promotional banner featuring an image of a wrapped giftbox with a snowflake on the gift tag. Text: Snowflake Challenge January 1-31.

Challenge #9

Talk about your favorite tropes in media or transformative works. (Feel free to substitute in theme/motif/cliche if "trope" doesn't resonate with you.)

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.

Given that I've read a romance novella recently (Courtney Milan's "The Pursuit Of..."), I've got romance tropes on the brain.

I like a slow burn. I remember once borrowing a book from the library and the main characters were having sex by page 50 and I was like "...". Yeah, that completely turned me off. The desire, the wanting, the longing is FUN! Jumping into bed that early misses out on a lot of the fun for me.

When I was younger, I liked "damsel in distress" tropes in romance novels, but I don't really have the patience for that these days. Because in those kind of books, too often the hero doesn't realize his feelings for the heroine UNTIL she gets herself into trouble, and that's kind of boring.

Looking at this list of tropes: My own writing has had the "mutual pining" trope, and yeah, I really dig that in a romance novel. I'm not opposed to "Enemies to Lovers" but it's not something I normally read these days, nor write. "Friends to Lovers"? yes, I like that, and I'm working on some more fics revolving around that theme.

I feel like a lot of my own fic is "Missing Scene" stuff (not that I've written much fic yet! but still). I try hard to fit my fic into the canon, either in the midst of it (as with my FFXII & FFXIV fic) or after it (as with my FFV fic). The thing is, canon usually means SO MUCH to me that I want to extend it. I don't feel I'm trying to fix it, more like... taking a thing that canon made me feel/think and running with it.

I'm not entirely sure I understand the definition of "crack" but I think I've written some? Both Best-Laid Plans & if you like it, then you should've put an earring on it (fics by me) are what I consider to be crack. Ridiculous situations that surprise the reader and make them laugh or smile.

I very much strongly identify with the "Fluff" nomenclature. Most of my fics are short, sweet little things. I have written angst but I'd much rather write happy things.

I like there being some humor in what I read/write. If I can crack up over my own work? BONUS. I think there's room for humor in most longer works, because life is NOT always dreary. Sometimes the funny happens, and that should be included.

I don't do AUs, really. I haven't read much fanfic myself yet, but the idea of reading my favorite characters in alternate settings just doesn't appeal to me. Like I said above: I want to see canon extended, not transformed.

Given that I read so rarely these days, it's a wonder to me that I even have a sense of what I like and dislike. I'm hoping to read more this year, of both traditional published works and fanfic. But yeah, these are some things that draw me.

soemand

The snow didn’t last long in its natural state — it was quickly transformed into a snowman and a couple of snow forts. None of them survived the enthusiastic demolition crew led by our little one, who toppled everything with great joy 🤣

crown_of_antlers

At this point I have my Old West Appaloosa Plains save the way I want it and have multiple copies saved in different folders so I'll always have it whenever I want to start a Old West themed game. With that project done, I decided to do something similar with Moonlight Falls. I've tried changing the time period of that world in the past, but that was before I had the dirt road replacer and an assortment of horse and wagon/carriage traffic replacers. Since Appaloosa Plains looks so good as a Wild West town, I thought it would be worth taking another stab at Moonlight Falls.
( Read more... )

Current Mood: accomplished

bluegreenwhirlywindy

The Bunny: No Exact Idea But A Couple Of Years At The Least – Probably Heavier Than It Appears To Look – Brown-White But With The Very Tips Of Its Ears Black. This bunny is the definition of moody and picky, it cannot seem to decide whether it likes me and wants affection or whether I’m a nuisance.

Fandom: Boku no Hero Academia

Characters/Ships: Fukukado Emi (Ms. Joke)/Usagiyama Rumi (Miruko)

Important Themes/Tags: Alternate Universe – Pre-Canon, Fake Dating, Staged Roofie-ing

Description: Rumi, recently graduated from hero school and with a shiny new pro-hero license, one day sees someone bothering a woman in an alleyway while on patrol and knocks that guy out. Instead of thanking her, however, the woman is pretty pissed, because she is the not-yet-much-older pro hero Ms. Joke on an undercover mission to gain access to a club in which shady dealings are going on. She was about to use the sleezy guy to obtain an invitation. Indignant about the situation, Rumi boasts that she can obtain entry to that club as well – which she then does as her Tiger Bunny identity. She and Ms. Joke (Emi) infiltrate the club together as a fake couple. The issue Emi is investigating deals with reports of people being roofied and afterwards disappearing, thus, the plan is for Emi to roofie herself (with a special substance not as strong and causing her to wake up quicker, maybe derived from Midnight’s quirk) and thereby being able to investigate where the people might disappear to. However, with the silly and stupid way she behaves, Rumi has serious doubts about her capabilities and qualifications as a pro hero. And when she catches sight of one of the people they party with putting something in Emi’s drink after she herself had just prepared it with the fake drug, Rumi decides to drown the spiked drink herself because she doesn’t trust Emi to carry the mission. When she wakes up, it’s in a backroom of the club with Emi next to her, looking very mad (and with ruined make-up on her face, as she explains she faked crying so much that they let her into the room to Rumi’s side). Emi’s so enraged about Rumi going off-script that she says it’d be better to abort the mission, however, Rumi picks up with her sensitive hearing how some guys talk about planning to transfer Rumi to a hospital so she can “disappear” from there and they can capture her. Rumi still feels weak from the combined drugs she took but naturally gears up for a fight. Emi, meanwhile, cannot use her quirk because of her anger, as she needs to laugh in order to activate it and in that moment is just too angry to manage that. However, before Rumi can worry, Emi demonstrates just how powerful and skilled her punches are. As the two of them take out their enemies and wait until backup from the hero team behind the scenes arrives, Rumi gains a new level of respect for Emi. Even looking at Emi with something akin to awe. After the villain goons are taken in for questioning by the police, she thus compliments Emi’s fighting and suggests they should train together (totally not inviting her on a date that way).

A/N: There are two ideas I love: Emi showing that she is a badass even without her quirk (since her quirk doesn’t give her any physical boosts) and Rumi being wowed by someone’s fighting ability that she totally underestimated [in my mind, it goes something like this: Emi: *punches a villain, knocking them out cold*, Rumi (wide-eyed): Holy shit, I think I’m in love]. Also, there is just something interesting to me and so much room for potential in a story set during Emi and Rumi’s early pro hero days when they are just starting out and trying to make names for themselves and find their own styles of working. This bunny is the product of all of those things, and whenever I go back and imagine the scenes once more, I fall in love all over again.

gimmighoulcoins

The Art of Murder feels like an especially fitting thing to recommend for Fannish 50, as - despite its ominous title - it's all centered on the experience of being a fan and creating fanworks. It's an indie animation pilot (there are some truly amazing indie animation projects on YouTube, it's a rabbit hole I highly, highly suggest hopping down), and the premise is so charming: When young artist Pip goes to sleep, the characters she draws fanart of in her sketchbook always come to life for the night.

These characters really set the tone of The Art of Murder: not only are they all aware they're fanart of fictional characters, with all of them taking pride in the popularity of their source material, but they're all pastiches of existing character archetypes. There's Winn, a young girl who primarily draws from Adventure Time's Finn, but also generally represents that high-energy kid hero type in a lot of similarly quirky cartoons. Albie draws from the library of traditionally-animated Disney Princesses, and is insecure about the rise of 3D animation, (and one of my favorite jokes in the pilot is when her character is used to poke at the way princess media like Disney's make money selling dozens of differently dressed merchandise for the characters). Sousuke the anime ninja draws from, well, Sasuke from Naruto - and speaks entirely in (captioned) Japanese, a fantastic touch - and finally, Giorgio is a detective from an dating sim game, and his hamminess delightfully plays up the tone of many of those games.

The story starts on a night where someone new has been drawn: Not a character from an existing IP, but Pip's own original character. The other characters welcome the aptly-named OC to "The World of Pip's Sketchbook" in a super-catchy musical number As dawn comes, the characters return to the sketchbook... And then the next night, a page of the sketchbook has been torn out - one of the characters has been, effectively, killed.

The pilot mostly sets up the characters and story, but I do believe there's more in progress. While I don't think the mystery is exactly hard to take a guess at solving, I kind of love that, because the direction I see things going just further highlights how this is a show about the experience of being a fan, but also just being a creator! And who knows, maybe I'm entirely wrong!

If you check out The Art of Murder, let me know what you think - it's really got some great self-aware, tongue-in-cheek humor. It feels like a love letter to loving things, and I think that's so fun!

badly_knitted

Title: The Only Way
Fandom: Babylon 5
Author:

badly_knitted
Characters: Garibaldi, Sheridan.
Rating: PG
Spoilers/Setting: The Exercise of Vital Powers.
Summary: For Sheridan’s sake, Garibaldi will have to betray his former captain.
Written For: Challenge 501: Amnesty 83 at

fan_flashworks, using Challenge 100: Choices.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Babylon 5, or the characters. They belong to J. Michael Straczynski.
A/N: Double drabble and a half, 250 words.

( The Only Way... )

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my desk

badly_knitted

Title: Workplace Incident
Fandom: FAKE
Author:

badly_knitted
Characters: Dee, Ryo.
Rating: PG
Written For: Challenge 485: Accident at

drabble_zone.
Setting: After the manga.
Summary: There’s been an… incident at the two-seven, leaving the boys a bit worse for wear.
Disclaimer: I don’t own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.
A/N: Double drabble.

( Workplace Incident... )

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my desk

badly_knitted

Title: Dusted
Author:

badly_knitted
Characters: Owen, Ianto, Jack, Tosh.
Rating: PG
Written For: Challenge 900: Dust, at

torchwood100.
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: Unfamiliar aliens can surprise even Torchwood.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters.
A/N: Double drabble.

( Dusted... )

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my desk

sparowe

ODB: Faith and False Accusation

Jan 18, 2026/in Our Daily Bread/by YMI

January 18, 2026

READ: Nehemiah 6:1-9

I prayed, “Now strengthen my hands.” Nehemiah 6:9

Driven by powerful winds, the fire raged for days. The historian Tacitus describes a chaotic scene filled with screams and citizens running for their lives. In the end, nearly two-thirds of Rome had been destroyed. The Roman emperor Nero falsely accused believers in Jesus of starting the fire. He hated Christians and selected them to be the scapegoat for the disaster—one that was rumored to have been ordered by Nero himself!

Nehemiah also faced the blistering heat of false accusation. He’d been a servant to the king of Persia but had been allowed to return to Jerusalem with other Israelites to repair its walls (Nehemiah 2:1-10). When the wall was repaired, however, enemies accused the Jews of “planning to rebel” and making Nehemiah “their king” (6:6 nlt). How did they respond to false accusations? By declaring and living out their innocence (v. 8), courageously standing in God’s power (v. 11), and praying fervently to Him (v. 14). Their enemies were ultimately “frightened and humiliated” as they “realized [the wall reconstruction] had been done with the help of . . . God” (v. 16 nlt).

At times, we’ll be falsely accused by others. But as God provides the strength we need, we can forgive our accusers and “live such good lives” that, though “they accuse [us] of doing wrong, they may see [our] good deeds and glorify God” (1 Peter 2:12).

— Tom Felten

Why are believers in Jesus sometimes falsely accused? How can you live out a courageous faith?

Loving God, thank You for helping me when I’m falsely accused.

Source: Our Daily Bread

Current Mood: thoughtful

marycatelli

This week's prompt is:
queen 👸

Anyone can join, with a 50-word creative fiction vignette in the comments. Your vignette does not have to include the prompt term. Any (G or PG) definition of the word can be used.

glinda

Speaking of making a good start on some new year’s resolutions, I thought I’d break myself easy with the re-read/re-watch project with something fairly short.

I was, for reasons, re-reading a bunch of raven’s fic the other night and came across and re-read their Piranesi fic from yuletide (I think?) a few years back. It reminded me how much I enjoyed the book and made me want to re-read it. In a remarkably sensible move, given that I was just sitting at my computer reading fic and chilling to classical music, I got up and grabbed it from the shelf, sat back down and started reading it, planning just to read the first chapter before bed to get me started on the project. I read half the book that night and the rest of it the following morning. (I pretty much only didn’t just stay up stupid late because I got uncomfortable in my desk chair and in getting up to decant to the sofa realised the time and reluctantly made the sensible choice to go to bed.

Spoilers say: ( Read more... )

Current Mood: calm
Current Music: Jessie Buckley - Glasgow (No Place Like Home)

seleneheart

Where the Dark Stands Still by A.B. Poranek

Blurb:

Liska knows that magic is monstrous, and its practitioners are monsters. She has done everything possible to suppress her own magic, to disastrous consequences. Desperate to be free of it, Liska flees her small village and delves into the dangerous, demon-inhabited spirit-wood to steal a mythical fern flower. If she plucks it, she can use its one wish to banish her powers. Everyone who has sought the fern flower has fallen prey to unknown horrors, so when Liska is caught by the demon warden of the wood—called The Leszy—a bargain seems better than one year of servitude in exchange for the fern flower and its wish.

Whisked away to The Leszy’s crumbling manor, Liska soon makes an unsettling [discovery] - she is not the first person to strike this bargain, and all her predecessors have mysteriously vanished. If Liska wants to survive the year and return home, she must unravel her taciturn host’s spool of secrets and face the ghosts—figurative and literal—of his past. Because something wakes in the woods, something deadly and without mercy. It frightens even The Leszy…and cannot be defeated unless Liska embraces the monster she’s always feared becoming.

I seem to have fallen into reading books in a small niche genre of Polish folk/fairy tales turned into novels. If I hadn't previously read Uprooted, I might have rated this one more highly. Liska is a good character, but I found the story too derivative - of Beauty and the Beast, Howl's Moving Castle, and Uprooted itself. YA novels can be complex and original but this is not one of them. However, I didn't feel like it was a waste of my time, and it was an enjoyable read.

The cover art is gorgeous and on point.

Current Mood: awake
Current Music: Springtime Carnivore - Name on a Matchbook

soemand

Pretty scene right now with the sun rays peeking through the snow covered trees.

soemand

Updated a few albums in my music collection yesterday , swapping in lossless versions I found on archive.org. I’ve got plenty of the original CDs tucked away in storage, and I wasn’t about to repurchase anything I already own. Same story for a couple of albums I’d originally bought on iTunes — I just wanted a cleaner, higher‑quality version. These days, when it comes to music from the 1960–1980 era, I always prefer DSD or SACD versions if I can get them. A small upgrade session, but a satisfying one.

Current Music: I’m old fashioned, John Coltrane

rizhi_fin

I have frequent headaches. Since I was a teenager, I had migraines that periodically went away and came back. Now they came back. Третий день лежу, не сплю, не бодрствую. Ибупрофен не помог, потом не помог напроксен, и вчера ночью не помог парацетамол. Вообще-то предупреждали, что обезболивающие при таких болях становятся менее эффективными, но всегда веришь, что уж с тобой-то такого не случится.

И тут я почувствовал странное освобождение. Обезболивающие не помогут. Я сам по себе со своей головной болью. Неоткуда ждать помощи. И хотя я скорее всего не умру от нее, the ball is in its court. Я просто жду когда она уйдет, или переместится на другую часть головы.

В этом полубредовом состоянии возникло странное понимание и разделение вещей на важные и неважные. Появилось ясное видение прошлых событий, которым не придавал значения. И возникли ответы на вопросы, давно остававшиеся без ответа.

Например, как помочь ребенку или подростку понять, чем он хочет заниматься в жизни? Спросить его, что бы ему хотелось изменить. В своей жизни, жизни его семьи, и тех вокруг него. Если бы меня спросили об этом тогда, когда я еще верил в Деда Мороза, я бы ответил, что ни музыка, ни медицина и ни математика не могут изменить то, что я хотел бы изменить. Во-первых, научиться драться. Во-вторых, больше "заботиться о природе". Тогда мне нравилось ходить в лес, смотреть на деревья и растения и определять их. Наблюдать за птицами, изучать следы.

What would my life be like if I "followed my passions"? Maybe it's question for next headache episode.

cosmicjellyfish

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

Current Mood: awake
Current Music: some kind of drone

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Common Nature

January 2026

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Page Summary

shadaras - (no subject)
ysabetwordsmith - Birdfeeding
galeogirl - Strange days have found us
scrubjayspeaks - Done This Week
althea_valara - Snowflake Challenge 2026 - Challenge 9: Favorite Tropes
soemand - ☃️
crown_of_antlers - More Victorian Moonlight Falls
bluegreenwhirlywindy - Plot Bunny: Punch Right In The Heart
gimmighoulcoins - [Fannish 50 #4] Recommendation: The Art of Murder
badly_knitted - Choices Challenge: Babylon 5: The Only Way
badly_knitted - FAKE Double Drabble: Workplace Incident
badly_knitted - Double Drabble: Dusted
sparowe - YMI -- ODB: 18 January 2026
marycatelli - vignettes
glinda - Shoebox of Dreams Kept Under My Bed
seleneheart - Book Bingo: G1 | An author's debut/first book | Where the Dark Stands Still
soemand - ❄️🌄
soemand - 🎶
rizhi_fin - headaches
cosmicjellyfish - just spotted on tumblr: writing for donations

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Style: Fall Leaves for ColorSide by branchandroot
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don't fear the daystar

Member Posts

(no subject)

Birdfeeding

Strange days have found us

Done This Week

Snowflake Challenge 2026 - Challenge 9: Favorite Tropes

☃️

More Victorian Moonlight Falls

Plot Bunny: Punch Right In The Heart

[Fannish 50 #4] Recommendation: The Art of Murder

Choices Challenge: Babylon 5: The Only Way

FAKE Double Drabble: Workplace Incident

Double Drabble: Dusted

YMI -- ODB: 18 January 2026

ODB: Faith and False Accusation

vignettes

Shoebox of Dreams Kept Under My Bed

Book Bingo: G1 | An author's debut/first book | Where the Dark Stands Still

❄️🌄

🎶

headaches

just spotted on tumblr: writing for donations

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January 2026

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