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Friday, January 23rd, 2026 04:47 pm
AO3 Link | To Heal With Trust (200 words) by Merfilly
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Birds of Prey, Outsiders
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Roy Harper & Dinah Lance
Characters: Roy Harper, Dinah Lance
Additional Tags: Double Drabble, +Modern Age (1986-Present), Post-Crisis
Summary:

Dinah came to manage his recovery from the gunshots.



To Heal With Trust

"Slow and easy, yes, just like that. I have your head, just let your body float," Dinah said, confident and reassuring all in one.

Roy closed his eyes, his body already feeling less sore as he followed her instructions. When she'd shown up, thrown Ollie out, and told him to stay clear, Roy hadn't known what to expect. Now, living with her, Lian occupied by Oracle and Dinah's teammates, he knew he was in the best possible hands to recover.

The hot tub was set just warm enough to pull his muscles loose, salt-tanged for buoyancy, and she had him. She'd never let him fall under, while his body just floated, easing the stress of his physical therapy away. She pushed when they did it, but not so hard as to build injuries, and then… she always took care of him after.

He wasn't going to fail her, or his baby girl, by wallowing in the fear of the near-fatal shots. He would trust her, as he always had, letting her guide him. When he went back out there, he'd be as strong as he'd ever been.

It was just like when she put him back together from the drugs.

Friday, January 23rd, 2026 04:59 pm



#01 – Adamant #02 – Snow #03 – Lion #04 – Spark #05 – Amber
#06 – Lust #07 – Bronze #08 – Mint #09 – Arctic #10 – Black
#11 – Moonlight #12 – Sunlight #13 – Blue #14 – Navy #15 – Tea
#16 – Neon #17 – Twilight #18 – Blush #19 – Wine #20 – Nude
#21 – Rhythm #22 – Brown #23 – Linen #24 – Ember #25 – Thistle
#26 – Cherry #27 – Orange #28 – Vanilla #29 – Bone #30 – Harlequin
#31 – Cadet #32 – Chocolate #33 – Peach #34 – Lead #35 – Cream
#36 – Sand #37 – White #38 – Crimson #39 – Pink #40 – Ocean
#41 – Dove #42 – Platinum #43 – Yellow #44 – Earth #45 – Midnight
#46 – Pearl #47 – Frostbite #48 – Pumpkin #49 – Electric #50 – Purple
#51 – Coral #52 – Salt #53 – Crow #54 – Rainbow #55 – Cloud
#56 – Flame #57 – Red #58 – Ash #59 – Rose #60 – Slate
#61 – Green #62 – Ruby #63 – Olive #64 – Lipstick #65 – Spice
#66 – Grey #67 – Denim #68 – Rust #69 – Flirt #70 – Sunset
#71 – Sable #72 – Desert #73 – Jade #74 – Sage #75 – Buff
#76 – Jet #77 – Plum #78 – Leather #79 – Liberty #80 – Metal
#81 – Sepia #82 – Lavender #83 – Scarlet #84 – Crystal #85 – Chestnut
#86 – Shadow #87 – Lemon #88 – Mystic #89 – Silver #90 – Coffee
#91 – Seafoam #92 – Lime #93 – Punch #94 – Pickle #95 – Champagne
#96 – Copper #97 – Bittersweet #98 – Honey #99 – Candy #100 – Gold
Friday, January 23rd, 2026 03:24 pm
Hope and Courage, a poem about the USA I wrote in 2003.
Saturday, January 24th, 2026 07:38 am
We have over one day left of nominations! Thank you to everyone who has caught my bloopers. Let's say I did them on purpose to test your eagle eyes…

Nominations close Saturday 24 January. [ In your timezone + Countdown ] (It's the correct countdown this time!)

Please review our nomination guidelines before nominating. There's an opportunity to transfer accepted tags from the 2025 tagset to the 2026 tagset.

*

All Media Types + Related Fandoms
Can the nominator(s) please amend their nominations? We do not accept "All Media Types" and "Related Fandoms" without a case being made.

    Les Misérables - All Media Types
    Enjolras/Grantaire (Les Misérables)
    Grantaire & Jean Prouvaire

    Please amend the canon to reflect what version of Les Misérables canon you are after. Is it the movie? The novel? The musical?

    Chronicles of Narnia - All Media Types
    Aslan & Caspian (Narnia)
    Aslan & Eustace Scrubb
    Aslan & Lucy Pevensie
    Aslan & Susan Pevensie
    Caspian & Edmund Pevensie
    Edmund Pevensie & Lucy Pevensie & Peter Pevensie & Susan Pevensie
    Edmund Pevensie & Peter Pevensie
    Edmund Pevensie & Susan Pevensie

    Please renominate as per the nomination guidelines. Are you wanting the books, TV Show, musical, or films?

    Please note I will reject all nominations that remain as "All Media Types" and "Related Fandoms" when nominations close and will not be giving the chance to amend them. Please nominate your canon as per the nomination guidelines!


Crossover Fandom

    Doctor Who
    Clara Oswin Oswald (Doctor Who 2005) & Team Torchwood (Torchwood)
    Fourth Doctor (Doctor Who 1963)/Clara Oswin Oswald (Doctor Who 2005)

    Please renominate under "Crossover Fandom" as the fandom, not "Doctor Who".
    Sorted!


Other

    Big Finish Audio

    Hello Doctor Who fans! I know I can ask this question when we conclude the round, but I wanted to get ahead of the feedback post and ask it while it's still fresh. Can those familiar please let me know if what I have in the tagset in terms of Big Finish Audio is correct? I did a bit of Googling, but I'm admittedly a little lost. (My familiarity with Big Finish Audio is only through tagset approvals.)

    In the tagset, we have:

    • Doctor Who (Big Finish Audio)
    • Gallifrey (Big Finish Audio)
    • UNIT: the New Series (Big Finish Audio)


    Should all of these remain as separate canons, or should they fall under one big "Big Finish Audio" umbrella? From my understanding, Big Finish Audio is the production company, and these are all different series, much like how Doctor Who 1963 and 2005 are different series (in a way that they're not even different series… Doctor Who is a very complicated canon when you go into the fandom weeds!).

    I'm happy to keep them separate, but I wanted to know so I can make any amendments (if needed) and make a note for 2027's nomination guidelines.


I will be rejecting all lingering nomination queries once nominations close. Please check the nominations queries posts from 2026 to make sure your nominations are not one of them! If you need help making amendments, please ask rather than risk losing your nominations.

There will most likely be one last nomination queries post before nominations close. Please ensure you spell your nominations correctly! There will be very little opportunity to fix these errors once sign-ups open.

Please let me know on any nominations post if you see any duplicates or errors (like typos or my bloopers!) in the tagset. I'll be doing a sweep of the tagset once nominations close. Your eagle eyes are much appreciated! Happy last-leg-of-nominating!
Thursday, January 22nd, 2026 02:33 pm
[personal profile] kingstoken's 2026 Book Bingo: First Person POV

The Red Chesterfield by Wayne Arthurson is a 2019 crime novella (with a touch of magical realism) about a bylaw enforcement officer, M, who finds a body while investigating an abandoned chesterfield. The incident leaves M shaken and drawn into more than one mystery as the chesterfield keeps appearing and a regular on M's route disappears. But the book is less interested in answering "whodunnit" than it is with looking at characters' decisions about getting involved in crime and drama and how priorities around family, romantic relationships, career, community, truth and justice can shift the usual narrative shape of the genre.

This is one of those books that I want to take apart with a little eyeglass screwdriver to see how it works. It's an absolute marvel of efficiency. It's only 99 pages (that exact number being by design, I suspect) with large text and several half-page chapters, but it's packed with story. It covers a lot of ground without feeling like it's moving as fast as it is. We get to know so much about who M is as a person but from a deep enough position that we skip a lot of high-level markers or exposition. This story is built on implication and inference, and the reader's principally assigned to solving the protagonist rather than the plot.

I really enjoyed this one, and I'm looking forward to checking out the author's other work.

An Excerpt )
Friday, January 23rd, 2026 07:22 pm
So, after a number of years on multiple waiting lists, I have my autism diagnosis

I don’t really know how I’m supposed to feel about it, but there’s a lot of “oh… that explains everything” and a lot of relief that I’m not a bad or broken person.

I spent a long time thinking I was wrong somehow - cold, lacking empathy, too intense about the “wrong” things. It turns out my brain just works differently.

Right now I mostly feel... buffering. Numb, but not in a bad way. Like my system is quietly re-sorting years of memories with new labels.

I’m not ready to be insightful or inspirational about this. I just wanted to say it out loud.

I wasn’t a psycho. I was autistic, without the information I needed.
Tags:
Friday, January 23rd, 2026 01:04 pm
На крыльях соблазна (154 words) by WTF Furry Anthro and Xeno 2026
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Gargoyles (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Goliath/Elisa Maza
Characters: Goliath (Gargoyles), Elisa Maza
Additional Tags: Translation, Перевод на русский | Translation in Russian, Fandom Kombat, Winter Temporary Fandom Kombat 2026, Don’t copy to another site, Slice of Life, This Work Is Stolen If Not On AO3, Работа Украдена Если Не На АО3
Summary:

Элиза пользуется тем, что Голиаф слишком много думает.

Tuesday, January 20th, 2026 06:30 pm
⭐️⭐️⭐️ (3 stars)

Insurgent is an interesting but uneven middle book - one that kept my attention without ever fully winning me over.

I'm very aware that I'm not the target audience for this series, and I think that colours my response here. There's a lot in Insurgent that will work well for readers invested in the characters and the world, particularly the escalating stakes and constant forward momentum.

At the same time, the novel often feels busy rather than deep. The plot is packed with movement, faction politics, and shifting alliances, but emotional beats are rushed through in favour of action. As a result, moments that should land hard sometimes pass by without much impact.

That said, I was intrigued. The world-building continues to raise interesting questions about control, identity, and rebellion, and the series' larger ideas kept me turning pages even when the execution didn't fully work for me. Tris remains a compelling central figure, even if I never felt as emotionally connected as the story seemed to want me to be.

Ultimately, Insurgent is a solid, readable sequel that does what it needs to do to move the story forward. It didn't quite click for me, but I can absolutely see why it resonates with its intended audience.
Friday, January 23rd, 2026 07:29 pm
Taking the opportunity to do [community profile] 100ships as was intended: multishipping Wu Lei. :)

Five new icons - hover for fandom and pairing:

#37 – White #45 – Midnight #46 – Pearl #65 – Spice #76 – Jet


some comments

* 1) I keep thinking Wu Lei's dog is called Xiao Bai (bai means white), but it's called Xiaobei. No matter, the dog is white. :D
* 3) This is from the Dongji press tour. In all the pics I have, no exceptions, Zhu Yilong is between Wu Lei and Ni Ni. Sorry, z1l, I had to cut you out of this one.
* 4) Made from my favorite Zhao Lusi/Wu Lei manip (I am nearly 100% sure that it is a manip, but I did not make it and I don't know who did, sorry).
* 5) The text (black on black, hard to read) says "Fly to your side".



The table is here: https://tinny.dreamwidth.org/704185.html. There are currently 53 icons in it.

I'm happy to receive all kind of comments, including concrit! All icons shareable. Credit for brushes and textures I use can be found here in my resource post.


Previous icon posts:

Friday, January 23rd, 2026 06:19 pm

Blue sky with fluffy clouds above a geen field.  In the field are two small standing stones and a third lying flat.
Also the stones of Stenness, but not the large ones.
Friday, January 23rd, 2026 05:57 pm
There is no Friday open thread this week, because the [community profile] snowflake_challenge backlog was stressing me out so much that I needed devote a whole post to catching up with it. That said, if you want to use any of the challenges as a prompt, and respond in some way to it in the comments (either by linking to your own [community profile] snowflake_challenge post, or by answering it fresh), do feel free to treat it as a Friday open thread.

two log cabins with snow on the roofs in a wintery forest the text snowflake challenge january 1 - 31 in white cursive text

Challenge 10 )

Challenge 11 )

Challenge 12 )
Friday, January 23rd, 2026 11:35 am


Today I wanted to stay home from work, so I did. To celebrate myself, I made my favorite vegetarian tortilla soup and ate it with Wisconsin Organic Fontina that I got at HEB (before people panicking over the weather cleared the shelves).

It’s pretty good. It is extremely smooth and mild when you first bite into it, but then you find that it’s a bit crumbly and has a slightly sharp flavor. I actually really liked it. I had it with Hatch green chili pita chips and spicy pumpkin tortilla soup and it was a good combo.
Friday, January 23rd, 2026 11:05 am
I would very much like to attend a local rally in solidarity with Minnesota today - there are events planned nationwide - but it's currently -24C, which is -11F, and it feels like -32C, which is -26F. The wind is making my wind chimes do the intermittent mambo. Schools have closed all over the area, because it's not safe for kids to wait for buses in this. BRRRR! And not only BRRRR! It would be unsafe, in a very real way, for me to be outside for any length of time, even if I layered up.

... Do I head for a rally anyway, despite the horrible weather, or not? A large chunk of me is willing to risk it. I mean, the ICEDamns* aren't taking time off from intimidating and brutalizing people, are they?

*That's an admittedly clumsy play on ice dams i.e. what accumulate on a roof if there's heat escaping a house through the attic or similar, but I couldn't come up with anything better on short notice.
Friday, January 23rd, 2026 12:15 pm
Best Medicine: Does anyone else ‘sing’ this title to the tune of Bon Jovi’s Bad Medicine, or is that just me? *g* This ep was okay. spoilers )


Wild Cards: This ep was just okay. spoilers )
Tuesday, January 13th, 2026 04:45 pm
A Bit of a Stretch is funny, furious, and quietly devastating in equal measure.

Written as a diary of Chris Atkins' time in prison, the book is sharply observational and often laugh-out-loud witty, even as it documents a system that is chronically underfunded, overcrowded, and casually cruel. The humour never blunts the reality; instead, it makes the injustice land harder.

Atkins is particularly good at capturing the small, grinding absurdities of prison life - the bureaucracy, the petty rules, the boredom - and showing how they erode people over time. What makes the book so effective is its refusal to sensationalise. Violence is not the point here; degradation, neglect, and indifference are.

There's a clear awareness of the author's own privilege and the ways it buffers him from the worst excesses of the system, and that self-reflection adds weight rather than defensiveness. The book is angry, but it's also humane, empathetic, and deeply concerned with how easily society accepts cruelty once it's hidden behind walls.

The only reason this isn't a full five stars is that the diary format can occasionally feel repetitive - though that repetition arguably mirrors the reality of incarceration itself.

A compelling, important read that manages to be entertaining without ever losing sight of the human cost of prison.