FFFX Post-Deadline PHs Due March 8
2026-02-21 11:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
modzilla posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
pinchhitsEvent: Five Figure Fanwork Exchange - multifandom gift exchange for 5k+ fanfic and 20+ panel comic-style fanart
Event link:fffx / https://fffx.dreamwidth.org
Pinch hit link: https://fffx.dreamwidth.org/tag/pinch+hits
Due date: 11:59pm EDT, Sunday 8 March
Five Figure Fanwork Exchange is seeking pinch hitters who can create a story of at least 5,000 words or a comic of at least 20 panels. We've already delayed once and we'd be very grateful if pinch hitters could help us avoid delaying again!
Pinch hits are available to pick up in the following fandoms with the following minimum requirements:
ART
( Fandoms available to fulfil with art - 40-panel comic or 20-panel comic needed )
( Fandoms available to fulfil with art - 20-panel comic only needed )
FIC
( Fandoms available to fulfil with fic - 10k fic needed )
( Fandoms available to fulfil with fic - 10k fic or 5k fic needed )
( Fandoms available to fulfil with fic - 5k fic only needed )
Event link:
fffx / https://fffx.dreamwidth.org Pinch hit link: https://fffx.dreamwidth.org/tag/pinch+hits
Due date: 11:59pm EDT, Sunday 8 March
Five Figure Fanwork Exchange is seeking pinch hitters who can create a story of at least 5,000 words or a comic of at least 20 panels. We've already delayed once and we'd be very grateful if pinch hitters could help us avoid delaying again!
Pinch hits are available to pick up in the following fandoms with the following minimum requirements:
ART
( Fandoms available to fulfil with art - 40-panel comic or 20-panel comic needed )
( Fandoms available to fulfil with art - 20-panel comic only needed )
FIC
( Fandoms available to fulfil with fic - 10k fic needed )
( Fandoms available to fulfil with fic - 10k fic or 5k fic needed )
( Fandoms available to fulfil with fic - 5k fic only needed )
Faking a VPN
2026-02-20 03:43 pmelisheva_m posting in little_detailsWhat would be involved in setting up a fake facsimile of a VPN service to gather intelligence on a criminal organisation?
Would this essentially be a VPN where the relay saves a copy of the traffic? Everything I've found to read on the internet assumes more knowledge of tech and jargon than I have. Could a choice of servers in different countries be faked? A UI seems easy enough, but what about the ISP it connects to? If it was simply a gateway to a real VPN, would the real VPN notice? Could it at some point send a second copy elsewhere without being noticed?
This could be a scheme the character is pondering near the end, so it doesn't have to work - it could simply be trying to find solutions to some of the concerns. He has a habit of staring out the window late at night mulling over such things. He really wants to be able to build a phone case with a rechargeable listening device but we've gotten lost on the physics of discretely charging it from the phone.
There's the social infrastructure to make it appear legit, website & fake reviews and social engineering to get them to bite. I've already written this for a different operation, not in great detail but enough for my purposes. If faking a VPN is feasible, I'd probably replace the existing scheme in those scenes with this one. But the marketing email may be more along the lines of "Police and governments can't subpoena a service they don't know exists" with a link to the dark web.
Edit: It doesn't need to actually work as a VPN, the character won't care about hiding the users' info. It just needs to look like one from their side of things.
Please be careful with how much detail and tech-speak you throw at me, my health is poor and I am easily overwhelmed. If this is a rubbish idea, please be kind in putting it down.
Thank you for any help.
This could be a scheme the character is pondering near the end, so it doesn't have to work - it could simply be trying to find solutions to some of the concerns. He has a habit of staring out the window late at night mulling over such things. He really wants to be able to build a phone case with a rechargeable listening device but we've gotten lost on the physics of discretely charging it from the phone.
There's the social infrastructure to make it appear legit, website & fake reviews and social engineering to get them to bite. I've already written this for a different operation, not in great detail but enough for my purposes. If faking a VPN is feasible, I'd probably replace the existing scheme in those scenes with this one. But the marketing email may be more along the lines of "Police and governments can't subpoena a service they don't know exists" with a link to the dark web.
Edit: It doesn't need to actually work as a VPN, the character won't care about hiding the users' info. It just needs to look like one from their side of things.
Please be careful with how much detail and tech-speak you throw at me, my health is poor and I am easily overwhelmed. If this is a rubbish idea, please be kind in putting it down.
Thank you for any help.
Finding old fic snippets
2026-02-20 07:54 amvriddyI remembered an old fic snippet from yonks ago, a terrible BNHA fic called Plucking that I apparently already mentioned over 2 years ago hah. This used to be a stress relief fic in which Hawks endures a no good very bad time anytime I was having a rough time. In 2023 I was apparently staging a rescue for him since I felt better, but looking at the end it looks like that might have been an hallucination, whoops. I wrote "Post anon?" in the notes because I guess it is extremely heavy on whump and angst but heh.
Anyway, it didn't seem like it had been migrated when I moved to Scrivener so I went back hunting into my 4tw files. And wow I found some other stuff that also missed the migration. Mostly written 2022-2023 if I believe my tracking spreadsheet haha. See, when I started writing I had a directory per fandom which made sense in theory, except that then I wrote like 200 fics for BNHA including several multi-chapters, and 2-10 fics for other fandoms. Things got better organised in 2024, apparently (or more like I gave up and created a new directory called BNHA (2024)), and I was good at migrating existing WIPs into BNHA (2025) when the year changed but some stuff got lost in the pre-2024 reshuffle. Several seem like 60-90% finished :0
I checked other fandoms too and found maybe one or two mostly developed concepts for Mairimashita Iruma-kun which I haven't written for since 2021 and it's making me a bit nostalgic... I think I never ended up writing up a post about it, but this was a fandom I tried the "Save The Cat" outlining method for and it utterly broke my brain and the story. Beat sheets don't work well with how I think, it seems. BUT this also reminds me I should have handwritten notes for that full outline and I wonder if I could try to revive that story, too... Like it was a fake dating OT3 and I don't know how I tried to make fake dating work for 3 people!! Maybe I can salvage the heart of it and do something with it? I haven't watched the canon in years either, apparently I stopped watching the anime in the middle of season 2... but that also kinda makes me want to catch up!! Especially since the official Mafia AU also made me nostalgic for the original characters recently. Although I seem to have paused my manga reading for that as well. I think it might be common for me to kind of drift off with "episodic"-style series, but hey maybe that means it shouldn't be too hard to pick back up either.
Anyway I find myself with more ongoing WIPs than I expected!! I think it'd be cool to slap an ending on the ones that have a good chunk written already. There's a couple that are so nearly there for BNHA that I had to check if I didn't somehow post them without remembering, despite the unfinished sentences and couple of bits with brackets lol. [ first kiss description here ].
Anyway, it didn't seem like it had been migrated when I moved to Scrivener so I went back hunting into my 4tw files. And wow I found some other stuff that also missed the migration. Mostly written 2022-2023 if I believe my tracking spreadsheet haha. See, when I started writing I had a directory per fandom which made sense in theory, except that then I wrote like 200 fics for BNHA including several multi-chapters, and 2-10 fics for other fandoms. Things got better organised in 2024, apparently (or more like I gave up and created a new directory called BNHA (2024)), and I was good at migrating existing WIPs into BNHA (2025) when the year changed but some stuff got lost in the pre-2024 reshuffle. Several seem like 60-90% finished :0
I checked other fandoms too and found maybe one or two mostly developed concepts for Mairimashita Iruma-kun which I haven't written for since 2021 and it's making me a bit nostalgic... I think I never ended up writing up a post about it, but this was a fandom I tried the "Save The Cat" outlining method for and it utterly broke my brain and the story. Beat sheets don't work well with how I think, it seems. BUT this also reminds me I should have handwritten notes for that full outline and I wonder if I could try to revive that story, too... Like it was a fake dating OT3 and I don't know how I tried to make fake dating work for 3 people!! Maybe I can salvage the heart of it and do something with it? I haven't watched the canon in years either, apparently I stopped watching the anime in the middle of season 2... but that also kinda makes me want to catch up!! Especially since the official Mafia AU also made me nostalgic for the original characters recently. Although I seem to have paused my manga reading for that as well. I think it might be common for me to kind of drift off with "episodic"-style series, but hey maybe that means it shouldn't be too hard to pick back up either.
Anyway I find myself with more ongoing WIPs than I expected!! I think it'd be cool to slap an ending on the ones that have a good chunk written already. There's a couple that are so nearly there for BNHA that I had to check if I didn't somehow post them without remembering, despite the unfinished sentences and couple of bits with brackets lol. [ first kiss description here ].
Specimen by C. Quince
2026-02-19 09:30 pmprofiterole_readsSpecimen by C. Quince was so much fun! David, who's been experimented on, joins Sonny, another super soldier, as part of a secret division of British Intelligence.
I fell in love with the cover art, which reminded me of Bucky, then with the actual characters of the novel. The plot is sci-fi sprinkled with urban fantasy. I can't wait for Book 2, but the author has released unrelated novellas instead (they're on my to-read list anyway ^^).
ETA: Jingle Jingle Kill is actually set in the same 'verse with some of the same supporting cast.
David is bisexual and half-Mexican, half-White. Sonny is gay and half-Iranian, half-White. The other agents include an enby, a woman using a wheelchair and many POC.
I fell in love with the cover art, which reminded me of Bucky, then with the actual characters of the novel. The plot is sci-fi sprinkled with urban fantasy. I can't wait for Book 2, but the author has released unrelated novellas instead (they're on my to-read list anyway ^^).
ETA: Jingle Jingle Kill is actually set in the same 'verse with some of the same supporting cast.
David is bisexual and half-Mexican, half-White. Sonny is gay and half-Iranian, half-White. The other agents include an enby, a woman using a wheelchair and many POC.
K-9: Volume 4 extras, with translation
2026-02-19 06:45 pmvriddyNo sketches in Volume 4 (cool additional scene fragments instead), but a few 4-koma comics with Massive Revelations for fans of Kagari and Fujimaru........ Massive. THIS IS HUGE!! XD
(You can click on the images to make them larger.)
( 4-koma: Matching )
tiny long-tailed tit
2026-02-19 07:19 pmturlough posting in common_natureWe've had a very persistent winter here this year and this has happily meant that I've had lots of visitors at my bird feeders. Today I had the opportunity to photograph this adorable little Long-Tailed Tit (Aegithalos caudatus caudatus) while it was hunting for seeds on the bike-shed roof just outside my window.
Click to enlarge:
( one more photo... )
Click to enlarge:
( one more photo... )
Community Thursday!
2026-02-19 05:50 amvriddyCommunity Thursday challenge: every Thursday, try to make an effort to engage with a community on Dreamwidth, whether that's posting, commenting, promoting, etc.
Posted and commented on bnha_fans.
Commented on getyourwordsout.
Commented on booknook.
Commented on fills over at threesentenceficathon.
Signal boosts:
- Via finalfantasy, the Final Fantasy kissing battle (prompt fest) has begun! :D
- Unrelated but while we're on the Final Fantasy topic, phoenixdown_ex is open for nominations!
- Via fanifesto, marchmetamatterschallenge returns soon! The challenge involves locating and copying over meta you've created to a second site in order to ensure its preservation, plus some prompts for creating new meta.
Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, Vol. 14
2026-02-18 11:06 pmmarycatelli posting in booksFrieren: Beyond Journey's End, Vol. 14 by Kanehito Yamada
Spoilers ahead for the earlier ones.
( Read more... )
Spoilers ahead for the earlier ones.
( Read more... )
Photos: Flowerbeds
2026-02-18 07:56 pmysabetwordsmith posting in common_natureThe first crocuses are blooming! I just had to take pictures when I spotted them this morning. Yesterday they were just buds.
( Walk with me ... )
( Walk with me ... )
(no subject)
2026-02-18 08:00 pmadoreMy anger was defined as a monster
The only reason it knew it wasn't human
Was because people told it so
My anger was classified as a monster
It had black eyes that could turn red
And a large mouth that could scream loud
And gobble you up (if that was allowed)
My anger should have worn a cape
It always showed up right when it was needed
But capes were reserved for humans and superhumans
I don't think my anger can be satiated
If it was allowed to gobble you up
It would still sit and scowl at your bones until they disintegrated
Maybe that's why they decided it was a monster
The monsters on TV rampage and devour entire populations
And my anger is capable of eating humanity itself
The only reason it knew it wasn't human
Was because people told it so
My anger was classified as a monster
It had black eyes that could turn red
And a large mouth that could scream loud
And gobble you up (if that was allowed)
My anger should have worn a cape
It always showed up right when it was needed
But capes were reserved for humans and superhumans
I don't think my anger can be satiated
If it was allowed to gobble you up
It would still sit and scowl at your bones until they disintegrated
Maybe that's why they decided it was a monster
The monsters on TV rampage and devour entire populations
And my anger is capable of eating humanity itself
Crow Bath
2026-02-18 02:26 pmbookscorpion posting in common_nature
The sun came out and everyone was enjoying it so much after more than a week of clouds and snowfall. This crow was taking a very energetic bath - look how far the water droplets are flying all around him!
Deadloch S2 Trailer
2026-02-18 12:41 pmfeurioo posting in tv_talkRelease: March 20
Summary
Detectives Dulcie Collins and Eddie Redcliffe are in Darwin to investigate the death of Eddie’s former policing partner Bushy. However, their plans are soon diverted when a body part is discovered in a remote town called Barra Creek. With the Northern Territory police force focused on a large-scale search for two missing backpackers, Dulcie and a very reluctant Eddie are tasked with identifying the John Doe.Sticky, sweaty and juggling comprehensive thrush infections, the detectives find themselves embroiled in a world of crocodile-fuelled tourism, overstretched Indigenous rangers, cagey locals, and seven-metre prehistoric predators – all of whom call Barra Creek’s stretch of land, and water, their home. As the humidity builds, and Eddie and Dulcie dig deeper, more questions arise for our duo – not only about the case, but the many secrets that lie beneath the surface of this small town.
New Wind Breaker fic: Acting on instinct (Sakura/Nirei/Suou/Kiryuu/Tsugeura)
2026-02-18 08:03 amvriddyAstute readers with excellent memory (or better than mine anyway XD) may remember when I lost my shit over Wind Breaker's volume 22 back in June. I basically immediately started writing this fic afterwards, which is just That Scene written from different point of views and every character individually losing it, just like I did... Lol. I'm a bit sick of trying to find an ending that is The Best Possible Ever so now that I have one that's probably good enough, let's go with it. Especially since that polyship doesn't have a ton of fic for it either, so it's nice to add one more either way.
On the plus side of going back to this story then dropping it again, the first chapters are decently edited already 😆
Acting on instinct | Wind Breaker | Sakura/Nirei/Suou/Kiryuu/Tsugeura | 800~ words (WIP, 1/5) | rated T
Summary: Something shifted for them all in that moment at Kiryuu's house. They all felt it. But Kiryuu was missing for it, so they can't do anything about it.
Not yet.
Read it on Dreamwidth or on AO3.
On the plus side of going back to this story then dropping it again, the first chapters are decently edited already 😆
Acting on instinct | Wind Breaker | Sakura/Nirei/Suou/Kiryuu/Tsugeura | 800~ words (WIP, 1/5) | rated T
Summary: Something shifted for them all in that moment at Kiryuu's house. They all felt it. But Kiryuu was missing for it, so they can't do anything about it.
Not yet.
Read it on Dreamwidth or on AO3.
Photos: Flowerbeds
2026-02-17 05:00 pmysabetwordsmith posting in common_natureYesterday I shared photos from the House Yard and South Lot plus Savanna and Prairie Garden. Today I did a bit of yardwork that revealed fun new things. :D
( Walk with me ... )
( Walk with me ... )