+ Presents are now wrapped and under the tree, and yesterday we got a giant gingerbread heart to hang up on the wall, decorated by my nephew. Ever so often the scent wafts over to me in the couch, and you get a face full every time you walk in and out of the living room. Ten out of ten.

+ Norway finally vetoed the sea-mining proposals - at least for the next two years - thanks to the party I vote for putting their foot down and refusing to cooperate on the budget if that didn't happen.

+ Bumblebee population increases 116 times over in 'remarkable' Scotland rewilding project.

+ Sapphic Stocking Stuffers and The Fifteenth (2024) and Final Annual Femslash Kink Meme have opened.

+ First crossover rec for the year :D

Killing Eve/Leverage
The Rose City Job by zozo (2226 words).

“Mr. Dillon, I’m Eve Polastri of MI6. This is my associate, Oksana Astankova.”

“A pleasure to meet you both, though these are grim circumstances indeed. And on that topic: this is our head of internal security, Nicholas Courtney.”

Courtney is a compact man, almost stocky, standing between Eve and Villanelle in height. He nods at them politely when his name is mentioned. His unshaven face and messy ponytail say “chill intellectual,” but the way he holds his body, keeps his eyes constantly scanning the room from behind wire-framed glasses—all of that says “ex–Special Forces.”

Next to Eve, Villanelle goes very, very still.

+ I don't have internet atm, and so I can't get in on the new season of Killing Eve. I better be able to dodge spoilers. Man I hope they stick the landing.

+ And while I do have Horizon Forbidden West, I do not have the PS5 version, and so now the dilemma is do I just play the PS4 pro version - still very much an upgrade from my base PS4 - or actually put it off? (I could play Ghost of Tsushima... but. ALOY.) This would have all been avoided if my pre-ordered copy didn't arrive last Tuesday, when it should have been here Friday. When I still had internet. GRUMP.

+ Managed to catch No Way Home in cinemas last week. Enjoyed myself a heck of a lot! Yes, some complaints, but MY HEART. *sighs contently* This Monday, I'll be seeing the new Batman. Both in the luxe cinema, so few seats, and super spread out. Thankfully my brother is still slightly nerdy, so I can go with him, and have a ride both ways.

+ Also took a trip to Gdansk with my mom for a few days. Actually more relaxing, as they had masks on everywhere, until Sunday. Wore a filtered mask both ways, and whenever in a crowded place or in stores. Felt so good to actually see some new sights, and feel the sun on my face.

Btw if you've been bothered by foggy glasses? The filtered masks are a godsend. Zero issues for me at all. Except I now know how much moisture I breathe out all the time lol. I leaned forwards a couple of times and liquid came out the filter blech. (granted, I was walking a lot, and wore the mask for hours at a time)

+ At home the attitude is "everyone will catch this at some point, no biggie". Including my dad, who got Corona the weekend before last, while alone at the cabin, and has regaled me with how he felt completely wrung out and spent a day and a half in a stupor/unconscious in bed. With nobody there to keep an eye on him. Cool story, dad.

And it's really making the rounds on the boat as well. I think about half the crew caught it at some point this trip? Wow am I looking forwards to going back to work, two enthusiastic thumbs up. Not a nightmare scenario at all.

+ Bah negativity. I've been enjoying Fanny a lot lately.

* We're by the coast now, and I'm enjoying the view and going out on deck from time to time to smell land. Also means I have 3G more often than not, letting me pick up a couple of new albums to listen to while washing down. Emilie Nicolas is as lovely as ever, though a bit more poppy that her last outing, and Lady Gaga's entire album sounds like a club I'd actually like to be at. Should keep me happy on my feet throughout the day.

* I've been diving back into Reiki for a bit the past few months, and happy to say I'm actually feeling energy in my hands again. When I was in junior high I used to do remote healing, a combination of Reiki and intuitive stuff. I was good at it. I also did a tarot card spread that was extremely on the nose on what I need to do about all of this heh.

I know this is all very woowoo to some people. If I start posting more on it, I'll make sure to give ya'll a tag to block.

* I learned a really gross raccoon/anal fact yesterday that made me wish I were in Guardians of the Galaxy fandom so I could spread the joy. *cackles*

* Seeing everything going on with AO3 on twitter lured me back for a bit. First just to do a search or two to keep up, then boom, I was back to scrolling my feed. Just a little week later and yeah, I quit that site for very good reasons. Makes me sad, because so many wonderful people are actually active on there and I'd love to keep up with them, but twitter just absolutely does my brain in. So yeah, cold turkey from this morning on.

* I was too pooped last night to join the live watch of Xena 1x03 - I will browse back to see the squee during the dream sequence oh yesss - but the recap post on 1x01 is up at she_was_xena rn. Anybody can join in that way too =)

* Posted a batch of icons a few days back.

02-01 community
03-08 corona tv
09-09 once upon a time
10-10 killing eve
11-15 legend of the seeker
16-16 maleficent
17-18 love
19-20 masters of the universe
21-21 snow white and the huntsman
22-31 mcu
32-37 never have i ever
38-38 star wars
39-44 the great
45-47 the witcher
48-52 xena




H E R E

jb_slasher is planning on watching all the Star wars movies this week. I've had a blast watching movies with a bunch of people via Discord lately, and I'm definitely jumping in on the original trilogy for this one. It's been aaaages. Is Luke still my #1 boi? Who knows!

Oh, and some icons went up.

01-03 witcher
04-06 voyager
07-10 vagrant queen
11-11 supergirl
12-16 picard, the mandalorian, wynonna earp
17-17 avengers endgame
18-20 masters of the universe
21-21 underwater
22-22 knightriders
23-26 killing eve
27-28 community
29-29 buffy the vampire slayer
30-44 comics




H E R E

I tell ya what, watching everybody get super involved in Game of Thrones here and on twitter has been hella fun. Quite some time since the last big fandom wave hit that hasn't been MCU-related.

On that note: if you're posting about GoT, maybe head on over to game_of_thrones and liven things up a bit? Let's get those community-juices flowing again! Let the river run wild! Dracarys!
(I know on the down low of a Jaimie/Brienne rec list forthcoming, and it shall be most glorious)

Oh, and anybody know of screencaps from this season? Feeling the urge to icon some of those nice faces before somebody stabs them in said nice face.

Eyyyy and guess who made a buttload of icons lately? Itse meee, Maaaaargareth.

01-16 various comics
17-22 xena
23-24 killing eve
25-31 supergirl
32-33 black panther
34-37 harlots
38-40 voyager
41-45 misc




H E R E

Hidden Figures | Sisters of the Moon by aurumcalendula.

My Cat From Hell | Tail As Old As Time by thingswithwings and eruthros.

Runaways | Dance to Another Tune by absternr.

Archer | Woo Hoo by meivocis.

Pose | Crazy, Classic, Life by metatxt.

Colossal | Small Town Moon by Nestra.

GLOW | We Are The Champions by findmeinthealps.

A Discovery of Witches | Black Magic by ayeayecaptswan.

Star Trek (multi) | Into Dust by trelkez.

Through The Looking Glass by aurumcalendula.

No Trace by aurumcalendula.

Disobedience | Side To Side by hollywoodgrrl.

Killing Eve | Hard Knock Life by FlufferNutter.

Star Wars | New Born by findmeinthealps.

* So I had a dream taking place at a lecture. Middle-aged man on the stage in front of a big audience is talking about controlling your breath, blah blah blah. Pinnacle of his lecture? Humans love ice-cream so much that if you mimic the licking motion as if you're eating a giant ice-cream while exhaling, you'll be able to go on for much longer. He then proceeded to illustrate this, doing the licking motion and exhaling slowly. Into the microphone. For two minutes and thirty-five seconds. He then paused, as if waiting for an applause.

I protest-woke up. At five thirty. I was not amused.

* Still haven't started episode four of my Killing Eve accidental rewatch, but ( a few thoughts )

Oh! and:

good news: Killing Eve Season 2 will be easier than ever for fans to watch. AMC will simulcast the hit spy drama along with original network BBC America when the series returns for its sophomore season on April 7 at 9 p.m. ET/PT, as both networks announced on Wednesday, Jan. 30, per The Wrap.

Whups I slightly spoiled myself by scrolling down that article, damn it. The pretty pictures made me do it!

Oh! vol.2:

The building used as Eve's base of operations is in Warwick House Street, just off Trafalgar Square.[citation needed]In the London pub scene, the external shot shows "The Albert" pub in Victoria Street, whilst the dark panelled wall interiors of "The Old Nick" in Sandford Street were optioned for the interior scene.

I sense some sightseeing/photoshoots in my future *g*

* Did not know icon_resources was a thing until today.

* Ey! Looks like both Lauren Cohan and Jennifer Carpenter might be heading up their own shows. (Whiskey Cavalier Cohan BETTER get to be cavalier as fuck and The Enemy Within third law-centered show in a row Carpenter's doing dodgy as fuck stuff). Fingers and toes crossed they're any good. Sick of my faves being held hostage by stuff I don't wanna watch.

20muses started up again to run a new challenge, and a lot of old icon makers came back to do it, and I jumped in too because omg inspiration post so pretty. Went with two fandoms, and tried my very best to not be my lazy, basic self :p Really helpful to shake some more of those cobwebs off, textures are slightly starting to make sense again, and playing with curves has been a lot of fun.

Not having any caps from Killing Eve, my brilliant plan revolved around "oh I'll just dip in, scrub through to scenes I want, and get some images". Obviously I fell into a full rewatch, which I aparantly thought was avoidable? IDK. (you're all laughing at me right now, and I deserve it)

But as a result, I only have icons from the first three episodes whups. And the only Disco eps I had were s2, so equally limited there *cries about Mirror!verse aesthetics* But I did finish the challenge yay! Making more than double the icons before I was somewhat happy but hey, more icons :DDD

01-20 star trek discovery & killing eve
21-37 disco
38-51 killing eve
52-53 elseworlds event
54-64 hellblade senua's sacrifice
65-65 horizon zero dawn
67-72 comics




H E R E

It's such a thrill to be in full fannish gear again, and with two current shows at that! Funny thing, I actually posted another batch of icons, oh, about a week ago? And I've had the post open in my tab here since, because I had ~things~ I wanted to write about Disco 2x04 - ESPECIALLY SARU THINGS OMG SARUUUU - and predictably, that completely stalled ahaha.

So, belatedly, some Voyager icons of our most beloved Captain!




H E R E

killingeve is currently hosting a rewatch - another fun thing I wanted to do this month before illness + work *grumble* - and on the latest post the mod asked:

I'm sure we have all heard that Season 2 is premiering on BBC America on April 7! It's always fun when new canon is coming out and I'm excited to chat with all you guys about it. Between the end of this Season 1 rewatch and the start of Season 2, I'm thinking I will make a weekly post for us to share fanworks, articles, news, etc. and generally keep in touch--like Thursday Recs or something. Is there anything else you guys would like to see in this space? Weekly general chat posts, art or fic challenges, etc.? Feel free to make suggestions!

And yes, yes I would like that very much. (at the very least, I could make icons) If you'd like that very much too, voice your interest/suggestions in the post.

The only community I was ever active in over a long period of time was still_grrr (they've copied the comm over to dw as backup, it was never active here), and it was such a fun, low-pressure weekly Create A Thing. I really miss the days of when I joined fandom, and for every new episode of Supernatural, or every new issue of the Buffy comic, there'd be a swath of reaction posts, meta, ficlets, picspams, etc.

There's also an icon meme making the rounds. teigh_corvus picked these:


From my earlier days in fandom, with all the meta going around about female characters. People were fed up with ladies not getting to be awesome and competent without the misogynistic baggage. This particular icon is a quote from the comments section of one of those posts, by violetisblue, and it is one (of many) I am keeping for whenever someone tries to pull that bullshit. They need to fuck off forever.


I never said I was a pilot.
Sam Wilson, I love him dearly. Captain America Winter Soldier is still my favorite MCU film, because of the excellent character focus within. Very pleased to see Infinity War confirm that Sam, Nat, and Steve has indeed been out in the world trioing it up, but forever pissed CA 3 was coopted into Avengers 1.5. (also MUCH less pleased he went poof, I wanted him and Rhodney to get into some stuff and I am CRANKY). I guess now we'll have to wait and see what Sam gets up to in the new Disney series. Without Steve. (i has sads)


Did you hunt? Or did you lure?
Oh Abigail. I knew Hannibal had tucked her away somewhere, but then The Thing happened. Poor murderbaby. What a deliciously disfunctional family unit that would have been... If you haven't seen this vid, rectify it!

Comment "Oooh shiny!" and I'll pick three of your userpics for you to talk about :D

Doing these as I go, because planning for future posts never goes to plan.

Star Trek Disco
Ships in the Night by betofalltrades.

Across the Universe by isagel. (bring tissues)

Star Wars
60 Years by beccatoria. (more tissues)

Synesthesia by bethofalltrades.

MCU
Bleeding Heart by vordeel.

Gods and Monsters by mithborien. (omg Valkyrie vid!! ♥)

Extraterrestrial by fightingarrival.

Killing Eve
One Way or Another by Fluffer Nutter.

WestWorld
A Human Being by lookingforastar.

The Avengers(TV show)
Short Skirt, Long Jacket by hepburned.

Xena
Shed Your Skin by frayadjacent.

Legend of the Wild Horse by hollywoodgrrl.

Mr. Robot
wa1kwithm3.exe by meivocis.

300 films
Music by hollywoodgrrl.

Stalking the #vividcon tag on twitter, here's what I've come across so far :D (plus leftovers from elsewhere)

Star Wars
Even if it hurts by pollyrepeats.

Rogue One/Serenity
House of Mercy by rhoboat.

Black Panther
Blood / Water by Mariana Studart.

Killing Eve
I Did Something Bad by jarrow.

Multi
Dream by gwyn. (get out the tissues)

Getting Bi by thingswithwings.

Weapon by aurumcalendula.

MCU
Avengers Get Ready by niyalune.

FILMCRITICHULK posted a new column, and it's about Star Wars! The Beautiful, Ugly, and Possessive Hearts of Star Wars. As expected, it is quite good indeed.

It was surely a shock for a generation of young people, who intrinsically identified with Luke Skywalker, to suddenly see “themselves” as a cranky, cynical hermit who ran away from the damage they caused the world. If you wanted to imagine yourself as a Jedi god, that can be a rude awakening. But, of course, some fans were uncomfortable with this. So, of course, they first fell back to the “logic” of how this action didn’t seem to make sense. Never mind the fact that Luke literally did the same exact thing that Yoda did, but Yoda’s introduction in Empire took the audience’s dramatic understanding from hermit to Jedi master, not the other way around. They then threw out a million other fan fiction ideas about what to do with that character, many of which seemed to deal with him secretly building a weapon (you know, like bad guys do) or training to BECOME EVEN MORE BADASS THAN KYLO AT THE FORCE. The juvenile instincts of these choices are telling when it’s all about indulging your power fantasy.

(doesn't just dive into the toxic mess that's been swirling around the films, but also digs into all the character arcs and made me smile in so many places.)

* Starbucks to pay for all surgeries for its transgender employees. That's just a lovely bit of news right there.

* Cameron Esposito put her latest stand up routine, Rape Jokes, online for free. You can choose to donate something in return, and the proceeds go to RAINN. Haven't had a chance to watch it myself just yet, but I've heard good things.

* Between the Coats: A Sensitivity Read Saved My Life. The story I wrote was queer, like me. It was queer in ways I didn’t even know that I was yet. And it was tragic.

* Whatever's Your Darkest Question, You Can Ask Me. Stellar longform article on women who work to provide safe, affordable home abortions.

* If you love Oksana on Killing Eve as much as I do, and you'd like to show off that love with a bit of flair, a couple of pins are being kickstarted atm. Bisexual assassins ftw ♥