dreamofmystery | Reading

300th fic posted on AO3 :D
(overall, I mean. Not just for K-9!!!!!!!!!! ;D Not yet 😌)

We've seen multiple times in canon now how Ren always waits for teenage girls to wake up after they get involved in Sin-related incidents usually way bigger than they are. Even if she has nothing to say, even if she knows her encouraging words won't be enough. She waits, says something kind, doesn't mind if she gets talked to rudely, then goes on her way, back to her work trying to fix all this.

Another thing I like to do when I'm tired of thinking about K-9 directly (haha as if) is trying to analyse the story structure, how information gets drip-fed to us, what kind of information. What questions are raised, which ones get answers, what new questions those bring up. I am enchanted. May I write such fascinating stories with fascinating casts when I grow up :D <3

Vigil | K-9 | Ren | 300 words | rated T

Summary: Ren always waits for the girls to wake up at the hospital afterwards, like no one did for her.

Read it on Dreamwidth or AO3.

vriddy

For a few months last year, I set up a weekly planning/review system related to my writing habits. I'm not totally sure when I stopped, but I think it might have been because I've internalised a lot of what I was learning. My goal was to teach myself to write more often, so I'd start the week's planning with "write 8 times this week" with the understanding that 15 minutes puttering around a project counts as a writing session (can be brainstorming, writing, editing, organising my notes if my brain struggles with the other things, so the project at least stays familiar in my head). I wish I could sustain like 4h writing marathons, but at this current point in my life, logistics and health stuff means longer sessions are just not happening. That's why I've been exploring whether writing more often can work for me.

As part of the planning, one of the questions I was told to write the answer for is "What are the obstacles?" That's something I always consider now. For example, if I have family visiting, am travelling, or preparing for a stressful presentation, whatever, it's going to affect my focus. So how am I going to mitigate that? Maybe it's fairer to plan for 5 sessions after all. Or maybe I should assume a session's length of 5 minutes is fair for that week, even if that means just spending 5 minutes rereading what I wrote before to keep the story alive in my head. Maybe both, maybe something else. Preparing and writing down the mitigations as part of the planning really helped me because I don't always think straight in the middle of it all.

Anyway, two obstacles I nearly always ended up writing down are:

Can't make myself focus
Can't make myself start

Like, I have a very good system for writing in the morning, it's part of my routine, but later in the day nearly always felt like bodyslamming against a wall. In the end, the solutions that turned out to be effective were the same for both. And after a while, I just printed them out so I have a poster with the list beside my computer! (Not that I always remember to look at it 🥲 but after a couple of days of sighing and doing nothing, my eyes will usually land on it and I'll go, oh!! Who knew!!!!!).

Anyway, here are the tips I landed on to mitigate this in a way that works well with my brain:

Sanctuary mindset
Deep breaths, 3-5 times
Quiet music with no lyrics. If that's not enough, same but with headphones.
Separate computer profile for writing
Wifi off

( Digging a bit more into the details and also why I think this works well for my specific brain and issues )

vriddy

Community Thursday challenge: every Thursday, try to make an effort to engage with a community on Dreamwidth, whether that's posting, commenting, promoting, etc.

Over the last week...

Posted and commented on

bnha_fans.

Commented on

add_a_writer.

Commented on

joicon.

Commented on

getyourwordsout.

Commented on

anime_manga.

Commented on

booknook.

Edit: Also signal-boosting

newcomers /

the_great_tumblr_purge where

soc_puppet has been posting helpful Dreamwidth tutorials, since the latest Tumblr hiccup (that TPTB since temporarily reverted) caused another surge of new people popping by Dreamwidth :)

silversea posting in

booknook

Happy Wednesday! Are you keeping up with your books?

monkiainen posting in

thestoryinside

It's time for our monthly discussion post! This post will remain open for you to contribute at any time, so no pressure. Even if you didn't get around to reading any of your selected books or opted out of participating for the month, you're still more than welcome to take part in the discussion.

Please copy and paste this in the comments!

jajalala

Life's busy etc BUT I've been getting back into various forms of dancing recently. I did a proper East Coast/Lindy Hop swing dance class or two in the last year or so (once as a follow, then as a lead), but I've made a vow this year to actually go out to a social dance at least once a month, and so far these past three months I've been successful!

West Coast Swing Dance
( West Coast Swing Dance )

TL;DR: I tried some West Coast, it didn't click, but may try again in the future.

Lindy Hop
( Lindy Hop )

TL;DR: I'm vibing, getting back into it, and trying to get stronger at leading!

Burlesque
( Burlesque )

TL;DR: Wahoo sexy dance! Reconnecting with my inner theater kid.

Current Mood: excited

nonymos

i cannot share all the details just yet since i JUST got the news and haven't called my agent yet, but

I'M GOING TO GET A SECOND NOVEL PUBLISHED!!!

and not a novella this time, a 100k+ epic fantasy novel!! i've been working on it for years, this feels totally unreal!! i'm so excited!!

the publisher says they're planning on publishing it summer 2027 - which is so SOON!!!

nonymos

hi. i don't know what's going to happen with tumblr, but let's be real, whatever doesn't become permanent this time might well get implemented next time - or something worse. because tumblr, despite the very real unique feel it has compared to twitter etc, is like everything else: a corporate website. as i scrolled down my dash feeling actually rattled about how this would impact community interaction, i found myself wishing once again for an open source website and then i remembered... it exists. it's dreamwidth. i've had an account on here for a while, and i wander back here every once in a while.

maybe this time will stick?

gonna make a last post on both my tumblr blogs for everyone to come find me. if we were mutuals or even just if we interacted often, don't hesitate to send me an invite. let's rebuild a little circle here, at least, and see what happens!

Current Mood: contemplative

ao3_news_feed

https://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/34526

We started the year with some major improvements to our bookmark search, making it possible to sort and filter bookmarks by word count, and deployed several batches of fixes to strengthen site security and improve performance. These release notes collect all changes made to AO3 in January.

Shoutout to first-time contributors Juliette Curran, KooShnoo, Mae Light, and sanchal ghosh! Thank you for your work.

Credits

Coders: Brian Austin, Cubostar, FlyingFalcon, irrationalpie, Juliette Curran, kiyazz, KooShnoo, Mae Light, sanchal ghosh, Sarken, Shakelush
Code reviewers: anmazz, Bilka, Brian Austin, james_, KooShnoo, lydia-theda, ömer faruk, Sarken
Testers: ana, Bilka, Brian Austin, choux, killiane, Lute, lydia-theda, marcus8448, ömer faruk, slavalamp, wichard, Yuca

Details

Release 0.9.453

On January 21, we deployed some major improvements to our bookmark search, including the ability to filter and sort bookmarks by word count!

[AO3-6301] - Series blurbs would list all fandom tags from the works included in that series, even if a work was still saved as an unpublished draft. Now series blurbs only display fandoms from posted works.
[AO3-6303] - Series blurbs would also always list fandoms from works that were restricted to logged-in users. We now make sure that if a fandom in a series comes from a restricted work, it's not listed when a guest is browsing series blurbs.
[AO3-6304] - Relatedly, series blurbs would always show up in bookmark listings for a certain tag even if that fandom's work in the series was restricted to logged-in users. That's also fixed now!
[AO3-6471] - We have added word count information to bookmarks! You can now search, filter, and sort bookmarks by the length of the bookmarked work or series. If a series contains restricted works and you're not logged in, a series' word count will reflect only the works that are accessible to you.
[AO3-7119] - We tweaked the way search queries work when searching bookmarks, so input is parsed more accurately and a "1k" and a "2k" tag won't be interpreted as the same tag anymore (for example).

Release 0.9.454

A small grab bag of fixes was released on January 26.

[AO3-7264] - We employ certain measures to prevent spam on AO3, such as limiting how many times an action can be performed by a user in a certain time frame. We have now added an option to restrict new accounts more severely than older accounts when it comes to leaving and editing comments.
[AO3-7238], [AO3-7262] - We added extra information to the details our spam-checking provider uses to determine if a comment is spam or not.
[AO3-7045], [AO3-7060], [AO3-7248] - Some database clean-up and dependency updates.

Release 0.9.455

On January 28, we deployed some of the necessary changes to enable two-step verification for AO3 admin accounts.

[AO3-6918] - These changes prepare the login interface for 2FA enforcement to ensure the greatest possible security for admin accounts.
[AO3-7249] - Site admins, such as members of the Policy and Abuse committee, frequently need to look up a user's past usernames and email addresses. To speed up searches while we work on long-term performance improvements, we moved this information to separate tables.

Release 0.9.456

A collection of navigation and display fixes was deployed on January 30.

[AO3-6869] - On devices running iOS, footnotes on the Policy Questions & Abuse Reports form were misaligned. Now everything looks tidy again.
[AO3-7028] - In one of our public site skins, some pagination links had become unclickable. If you've been using the Low Vision Default skin, now you can page through a user's works in collections again!
[AO3-7213] - On narrow screens, the "Suggest a Language" button on the Work Languages page was slipping behind the list of languages and couldn't be clicked. That's also fixed.
[AO3-7247] - Fixed the broken link to the Fannish Next of Kin FAQ on the Technical Support & Feedback form.
[AO3-7251], [AO3-7266] - Some code clean-up.

https://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/34526

trobadora posting in

c_ent

Guardian Reverse Exchange 2026. Image shows Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan facing each other, gripping the Sundial between them.

Links: General info/rules/schedule | Sign-ups on

sid_guardian

Description: A 镇魂 | Guardian fandom multimedia exchange covering the drama, the novel and RPF. Participants can offer and/or request fanfic, fanart, icons, vids, podfic, meta, a remix of an existing fanwork, or fanart for an existing fanwork. Or any combination of the above!

This is a reverse exchange with a two-part sign-up process: first you make your offer, saying what you like to create; then you choose three anonymised offers from the list and make your requests. (Only one of your requests will be assigned.)

Important Dates:
Sign-ups part 1 (offers): until Friday 27 March - sign-ups open now
Sign-ups part 2 (requests): Saturday 28 March - Friday 3 April
Deadline: 13 May
Reveals: 20 May (520 Day)

For more info, see the General info post.

vriddy posting in

bnha_fans

( You're about to view content that a community administrator has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

voidbeetles posting in

little_details

Hi!

I have a character in a sci-fi universe who ends up "shipwrecked" alone on a completely uninhabited planet for two years. The planet, and the specific environment he lands in, are perfectly habitable by humans (we are in soft scifi territory here, very Star Trek inspired) and he's able to survive with some effort. (The details of how are not really important to the story - I know at least that he's the kind of guy who'd be able to salvage some tech and emergency supplies from his wrecked ship, and I'm comfortable with brushing past the details of what exactly he brought with him - but if anyone's really interested in coming at it from that logistical angle, I won't stop you!)

What is more relevant to the story is how this experience would continue to affect him by the time he's back home safely. I think there are a bunch of possible avenues here and I'd love to see people's takes on how they would approach this or approach researching it. For example, here are some of my cursory thoughts:

PTSD is certainly a likely long-term complication
It's implied that his shipwrecking was not an accident/was engineered maliciously - I imagine this is something he has dwelt on heavily throughout the two years and will affect his ability to trust people (and to visit other uninhabited planets in the future!). Seems like it would be easy to get caught in delusional spirals in a situation like that.
I know that prolonged isolation can cause hallucination/psychosis in some cases, especially in solitary confinement, sensory deprivation contexts, etc. Is that as much of a risk in this case? And if so, do you think he'd still be experiencing psychotic symptoms after the fact?
One of his personality traits is that he's fairly attention-seeking - I think it's likely this incident will exacerbate that and make him more desperate for connection
It'll probably alter how he approaches social situations in the future in general; that's something I'll definitely be thinking about
Perhaps he got into the habit of talking to himself on the planet, and this never went away

vriddy

I really really like this story, it's filled with so many tropes and elements I love... I'm gonna have to try harder to get people into this manga so I can get someone else to read it XD Say hi to Mozu and his cat Oboro!

Mozu and Oboro from Spring Thunder: cute little guy with his hand on his chin, beside a cute black cat with a forehead scar

This is the little guy who needs saving! He has a frighteningly smart and competent cat friend!!

The executioner's rescue | The Serenade of Spring Thunder | Kagaribi/Rindou/Shisui, Kagaribi & Mozu | 5.5k words | rated T

Summary: Kagaribi is on the run with Rindou and Shisui, quite successfully pretending not to be falling in love if he says so himself. But when Mozu's cat appears, Kagaribi knows this is the end - the village's executioner has finally come for him. Except that Mozu is nowhere to be seen…

Kagaribi can betray their village, but he could never betray Mozu. Even if that means giving up on his chance at the scam called love… Rindou and Shisui, however, do not seem particularly impressed with his plan to leave them behind.

Read it on Dreamwidth or AO3.

grayswandir posting in

c_ent

Not my survey, but I thought I'd share it here since it's on-topic: a researcher from the University of Bristol is looking for participants in an online survey about consuming wuxia media (especially the works of Jin Yong) in English translation.

(It's anonymous, and you don't need to have read or seen any Jin Yong books or adaptations to participate in the survey -- there are also questions about respondents' interest in wuxia more generally, how you tend to consume Chinese media, how much your reading choices are influenced by things like translation quality, prices, formats, illustrations, etc.)

Survey link: Reading Chinese Wuxia (Martial Arts) Fiction in English

I enjoyed filling it out, and the question about book covers has made me interested in reading a Jin Yong novel I hadn't heard much about before! (Which surprised me, since I feel like I'm normally not very influenced by covers.)

mark posting in

dw_maintenance

Happy Saturday!

I'm going to be doing a little maintenance today. It will likely cause a tiny interruption of service (specifically for www.dreamwidth.org) on the order of 2-3 minutes while some settings propagate. If you're on a journal page, that should still work throughout!

If it doesn't work, the rollback plan is pretty quick, I'm just toggling a setting on how traffic gets to the site. I'll update this post if something goes wrong, but don't anticipate any interruption to be longer than 10 minutes even in a rollback situation.

vriddy

I... think I'm caught up with Dreamwidth? If you were expecting a reply from me, let me know because I missed it! The exception is the replies to my latest K-9 translation post because I'm saving them for the next time I'm bursting with the need to talk about K-9 with someone and can't find any ~~victim~~ gentleperson to satisfy the hunger.

( Whoops ended up talking about K-9 anyway. How does this keep happening??? )

Anyway, writing! WIPs! Status!! I met my GYWO goal in January and February, but sacrificed March to the editing gods. So I've written... 288 words so far 😤😤 Unless I get possessed I am NOT meeting my monthly goal, but that's okay. I've got more stuff to edit!! And some fics ready to post, too.

Edited and ready to go (except for maybe a grammar check and/or... a title orz):

Wind Breaker OT4, Chapter 4
Chapter 1 for the K-9 LeopardTree fic (it got LONG!)
K-9 triple drabble about Ren, because in canon she always seems to wait for injured teenage girls to wake up at the hospital, even at great personal cost (that is, nicotine withdrawal), and I find that interesting
Spring Thunder rescue fic about Kagaribi & Co going to Mozu's rescue, together with Mozu's super smart cat :D
A BNHA NagantMiruko fic I wrote nearly 3 years ago for an event that turned out not to happen, and I think it might be time to move on

Written, needs editing:

Wind Breaker OT5, final chapter
K-9 LeopardTree, chapters 2-5

Half-written:

Blaaah a bunch but this is a month of editing and I'm not particularly thinking about them

( Posting order and life in tiny fandoms )

( Original projects )

dancing_serpent posting in

c_ent

The weekly chat posts are intended for just that, chatting among each other. What are you currently watching? Reading? What actor/idol are you currently following? What are you looking forward to? Are you busy writing, creating art? Or did you have no time at all for anything, and are bemoaning that fact?

Whatever it is, talk to us about it here. Tell us what you liked or didn't like, and if you want to talk about spoilery things, please hide them under either of these codes:
or

vriddy

I did a first round of editing to the end, and while in my head the last chapter was clunky (probably because I've changed direction on it about 3 times now), actually I was giggling and hiding my mouth behind my hand through most of it so I think it's okay :D The final sentence/paragraph however is clunky and doesn't work super well, but I have a bit of time to figure out something else.

Each chapter has a different PoV as each character figure some things out, and I like the story and how they all gravitate toward each other. However, the tone and narration are a bit distant, maybe a bit flat. It's the same mistake? flaw? that I saw in my OT3/multi-polyship Kn8 fic, where I was also spending a lot of brain power on "How would these characters fit together?". Maybe this is expected for the first few fics with a new ship. When I compare with DabiHawks for which I've written well over 100 fics (and over 200 with Hawks!), obviously I can't nail every nuance and subtlety of their emotions as easily. Yet. Anyway I still think there's good in there and I'm happy I wrote this :D I enjoy these characters so much.

Acting on instinct | Wind Breaker | Sakura/Nirei/Suou/Kiryuu/Tsugeura | 2.8k words (WIP, 3/5) | 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.

hyarrowen posting in

little_details

For large-scale projects, specifically for ships. All my ship-related resources for the era are for the British Navy, and books on colour that I've read have been on artists' paints or dyes.

How would a French Imperial Navy vessel be painted, not at one of the big shipyards? Would it be mixed up on site from raw ingredients, or bought in? Would there be barrels, buckets with lids, cannisters, vats or what - and what would the paint be made of?

Searching online produces info on painting scale models, or contemporary pictures of ships. I found a chapter on ship decoration in Conway's History of the Ship: The Line of Battle but that doesn't have the early-in-the-process details I want. I found an article on the pre-Revolutionary Navy in the International Journal of Maritime History, by David Plouviez, that's too early and still doesn't cover paint.

Thank-you in advance.

vriddy

Watching the live-action movie motivated me to finally edit this fic! It doesn't actually work with the movie timeline and heavily relies on anime-only elements, but it is done :D

Locked in orbit | Let's go karaoke! | Kyouji/Satomi | 1.8k words | rated T

Summary: Kyouji has been in this time loop for a long time now, meeting Satomi and growing closer over and over, trying to keep him safe. Failing, sometimes. Those are the Bad Loops. If he plays his cards right though, Kyouji hopes he can make this loop the final one.

Read it on Dreamwidth or on AO3.

Profile

LifeOfMystery

May 2024

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Page Summary

vriddy - New K-9 fic: Vigil (Ren)
vriddy - My tips for improving my writing focus and/or helping myself get started
vriddy - Community Thursdayyyy
silversea in booknook - RIP (Read In Progress) Wednesday
monkiainen in thestoryinside - March Discussion Post
jajalala - Dancing Report
nonymos - A NOVEL A NOVEL I'M PUBLISHING A SECOND NOVEL
nonymos - march 2026 tumblr update
ao3_news_feed - Releases 0.9.453 - 0.9.456: Change Log
trobadora in c_ent - 镇魂 | Guardian: 520 Day Reverse Exchange 2026
vriddy in bnha_fans - [Vigilantes Anime] Season 2 / Episode 24
voidbeetles in little_details - Long-term psychological effects of physical isolation
vriddy - New Spring Thunder fic: The executioner's rescue (Kagaribi/Rindou/Shisui, Kagaribi & Mozu)
grayswandir in c_ent - Signal boost: survey about wuxia (esp. Jin Yong) novels/media in English translation
mark in dw_maintenance - Performing some traffic maintenance today
vriddy - Status of the WIPs
dancing_serpent in c_ent - Weekly Chat
vriddy - Updated Wind Breaker fic: Acting on instinct (Sakura/Nirei/Suou/Kiryuu/Tsugeura)
hyarrowen in little_details - Paint manufacture, storage and transport in Napoleonic Europe
vriddy - New Let's go Karaoke! fic: Locked in orbit (Kyouji/Satomi)

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Base style: Planet Caravan by daemon @ LJ and momijizukamori
Theme: Bright Purple by krja

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LifeOfMystery

Reading

Navigation

New K-9 fic: Vigil (Ren)

My tips for improving my writing focus and/or helping myself get started

Community Thursdayyyy

RIP (Read In Progress) Wednesday

March Discussion Post

Dancing Report

A NOVEL A NOVEL I'M PUBLISHING A SECOND NOVEL

march 2026 tumblr update

Releases 0.9.453 - 0.9.456: Change Log

Credits

Details

Release 0.9.453

Release 0.9.454

Release 0.9.455

Release 0.9.456

镇魂 | Guardian: 520 Day Reverse Exchange 2026

[Vigilantes Anime] Season 2 / Episode 24

Long-term psychological effects of physical isolation

New Spring Thunder fic: The executioner's rescue (Kagaribi/Rindou/Shisui, Kagaribi & Mozu)

Signal boost: survey about wuxia (esp. Jin Yong) novels/media in English translation

Performing some traffic maintenance today

Status of the WIPs

Weekly Chat

Updated Wind Breaker fic: Acting on instinct (Sakura/Nirei/Suou/Kiryuu/Tsugeura)

Paint manufacture, storage and transport in Napoleonic Europe

New Let's go Karaoke! fic: Locked in orbit (Kyouji/Satomi)

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May 2024

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