rarepairfest | Member Posts

I continue to make slow progress with recovering, which is very dull, but still generally in the right direction, however hard it is to be patient. I haven't been able to keep up much at all here, only in bits and pieces.

However, I realised I was behind with crossposting

rainbowfic pieces, and I can do that:

Name: Turn To Dust
Story: Starfall
Colors: Warm Heart #25 (Spite); Azul #9 (Willpower); Colour of the Day - 30/10/2025 (Wheedle)
Supplies and Styles: Charcoal + Chiaroscuro + Graffiti (for October Challenge incl. bonus prompt "Psychological Horror") + Novelty Beads ("But I am alive. And I am not afraid." from

bookblather for Birthday Prompts 2021).
Word Count: 3808
Rating: Teen
Warnings: Mental manipulation, threat, injury, death.
Notes: Portcallan, 1313. Leion Valerno, Donn Chiulder, Tana Veldiner. (This isn't Psychological Horror as a genre per se, but I thought taken as a prompt, it fitted too perfectly not to use for this).
Summary: Leion faces his worst nightmare.

fleetsparrow

I feel like it's very hard for me to describe my creative processes. Maybe it's because I haven't spent much time actually thinking about what makes them happen. Maybe it's because I'm so used to them that there doesn't seem to be anything worth talking about. Maybe it's because 99% of my process is extremely internal, just turning the idea over and over like a rotisserie chicken until it's ready. Which, I mean, isn't not my process, so I guess that's descriptive???

Maybe if I break it down by types.

For fics--specifically fics written for fun that actually have a plot and aren't just elaborate set-ups for jokes:
There's a lot of poking at a plot to see if it's worth being Fic Plot or just Fun Daydream Idea. Pretty much all my fics start out as Fun Daydream Ideas anyway, but if something keeps coming up and I can see the story being written--I mean this literally; I see the sentences in front of me and will start rewriting/rewording them as I go--then it's time to start writing them down.

For fics that are basically elaborate set-ups for jokes:
A punchline gets me, or a pun, or a meme format makes me think "how could I put this into [fic universe]?" and then that's it. My like my full fics, I start writing and rewriting the idea over and over in my head. Sometimes I'll swap in different characters for whatever places they need to be. For example, I'm being haunted by the "Robert and Barbara Wire" Tumblr post, and I have a different word in mind but using that format, so I've been trying to figure out which of the Batfamily I want to use for each speaker. So, like all of them, I keep turning it around and trying new characters in different roles until I find what I like.

Fandom related posts, not fics:
Pretty much the same as above. I don't write a lot of serious meta about my fandoms because that's just not my preferred way to fan, so most of my fandom posts are jokes. I will say, though, that I tend to work these the same way I work my stand-up comedy bits: I try it out in my head to play around with it and see if there's a funnier way to do the bit. If I can't decide what version works best, I start ~~inflicting it upon~~ testing it out with my friends and family. Usually, I'll start IRL with my mom (as she knows at least of most of my fandoms) or a friend via text. Then I might move to a Discord friend, test it there. Once I think it's got the right feel of what I want, then I'll usually share it on Tumblr (which is pretty much my only social media presence nowadays).

And there you have it! Or some of it, at least.

estirose

There's a nasty bot going around telling authors in a comment to run a Windows PowerShell command to "make sure your IP is on the safe list" as "AO3 is going to block thousands of IP addresses". AO3 is doing no such thing! It actually is meant to panic authors (who use Windows) into running a malicious command designed to permanently delete everything in their Documents folder.

Here's the command broken down, and what it does:
Get-ChildItem: This is telling it to essentially list an entire directory.
-Path "$env:USERPROFILE\Documents\": This lets Get-ChildItem know that you want it to list your Documents directory.
-Exclude *.archiveofourown: This is put in to make you think you're reaching out to AO3. In reality, it's just telling it to exclude all files with the file extension *.archiveofourown (that is, files ending with .archiveofourown). Chances are you do not have any files named that.
-Recurse: do this for everything in the directory, including all subfolders and everything in them
|: take what you've got so far and use it with the following instruction(s).
Remove-Item: delete files/folders.
-Force: Permanently delete, no retrieving from recycle bin.

So to put it together: "List this entire directory, not including anything with the file extension .archiveofourown; we want to look at all subdirectories and files as well. Take this listing and delete everything permanently." And needless to say, your computer will do this without asking you if you are sure!

The big thing to take away from this is Never, ever run a command you don't understand!

scripsi

Esaias Tegnér (1782 – 1846) was a Swedish bishop and writer. He wrote this poem in 1810 as a reaction to Napelon. And 216 years later I find it still has relevance.

The eternal

The strong one shapes his world with the sword,
His reputation soars like the eagles;
But one day the wandering sword will break,
And the eagles will fall in their flight.
What force will create is both fleeting and short,
like storms in the desert it soon comes to nought.

But truth will live on. Amidst axes and blades
her calm, gleaming brow she uncovers.
She guides through the nocturnal world’s shady glades,
and constantly points to some other.
What’s true is eternal: round heaven and earth
its words will re-echo from birth to new birth.

What’s right is eternal: its lily though crushed
can ne’er be completely uprooted.
Should evil prevail and the world end as dust,
what’s right can be willed unrefuted.
Though round you with cunning and force it’s oppressed,
it still has a refuge concealed in your breast.

And will which in flaming breast refuge did seek
takes mandom like God, becomes action.
What’s right now gains arms, what’s true now can speak,
and all see a world that’s re-fashioned.
Each hazard you faced and each sacrifice made
like stars rise from Lethe and never will fade.

And poetry lasts, unlike flowers’ passing scent,
or rainbows in clouds someone glances.
The beauty you fashion as dust will not end,
its countenance old age enhances.
For beauty’s eternal: with mind keen and brave
we fish up its gold-sand from time’s mighty wave.

So grasp all that’s true, so dare all that’s right,
the beautiful fashion with pleasure!
The three will for ever be mankind’s delight
and from time do we plead for such treasure.
What time gave you once you must give back as well,
the eternal alone in your heart may still dwell.

Det eviga

Väl formar den starke med svärdet sin värld,
Väl flyga som örnar hans rykten;
Men någon gång brytes det vandrande svärd
Och örnarna fällas i flykten.
Vad våldet må skapa är vanskligt och kort,
Det dör som en stormvind i öknen bort.

Men sanningen lever. Bland bilor och svärd
Lugn står hon med strålande pannan.
Hon leder igenom den nattliga värld
Och pekar alltjämt till en annan.
Det sanna är evigt: Kring himmel och jord
Genljuda från släkte till släkte dess ord.

Det rätta är evigt: Ej rotas där ut
Från jorden dess trampade lilja.
Erövrar det onda all världen till slut,
Så kan du det rätta dock vilja.
Förföljs det utom dig med list och våld,
Sin fristad det har i ditt bröst fördold.

Och viljan, som stängdes i lågande bröst,
Tar mandom, lik Gud, och blir handling.
Det rätta får armar, det sanna får röst,
Och folken stå upp till förvandling.
De offer du bragte, de faror du lopp,
De stiga som stjärnor ur Lethe opp.

Och dikten är icke som blommornas doft,
Som färgade bågen i skyar.
Det sköna, du bildar, är mera än stoft,
Och åldern dess anlet förnyar.
Det sköna är evigt: Med fiken håg
Vi fiska dess guldsand ur tidens våg.

Så fatta all sanning, så våga all rätt,
Och bilda det sköna med glädje!
De tre dö ej ut bland människors ätt,
Och till dem från tiden vi vädje.
Vad tiden dig gav må du ge igen,
Blott det eviga bor i ditt hjärta än.

estirose

This was shared in the Stardew Valley official Discord, apparently you should be very cautious in downloading from ModDrop and stick to NexusMods for Stardew Valley mods. Apparently there's nobody moderating ModDrop and therefore stolen and/or malicious mods are getting uploaded there.

I do have a mod on there (Raven's Mystery Box Exchanger), it is not being deleted from there and I'm not uploading it on Nexus, mostly because I uploaded it there for a grand total of one person to be able to grab it easily - having other players grab it was nice but far from critical, and I don't take offense at people being warned from downloading from there. I will also be the first person to tell you that you need to be careful of any executables where they're not expected (bat, exe, sh) and be cautious of .dll files (to a lesser extent - be aware there are plenty of benign community mods with .dll files!).

(I really do need to get into my github and update it with all my freaking mods! But that's for another day.)

thisbluespirit

Some things that I have had stashed away for a little while:

1.

sovay very kindly sent me a copy of Exit Through the Fireplace by Kate Dunn, which was waiting for me at the new house when I got here. It is about repertory theatre with lots of accounts on every aspect from actors and others involved, including a lot of people I have watched in old telly, so I enjoyed it a lot.

But having only recently before tried to make a post explaining what I loved about Terence Rattigan's plays, including floundering about trying to say how effective his dialogue is, I was v pleased to find this quote:

John Moffatt: (On being in rep, and the difficulty of remembering the lines, doing a new play every week): "You got to know who the good writers were. With Rattigan you barely had to learn it at all, even after just blocking it you almost knew it because it is so beautifully written. The only way to reply to something that has just been said is what he's written."

2. Talking of people being kind,

swordznsorcery wrote me a lovely Sapphire & Steel story with a new Element and a stealth crossover very RTMI here, and if you also like S&S, I recommend taking a look, as it's great! <3

3. The book I was reading introduced me to the utterly untrue but very S&S like urban myth/ghost story of the Zanetti Train. Sounds like an Assignment to me, or a film I would watch, anyway. (It seems to have been taken from a Ukrainian work of fiction, most likely - certainly not one detail of it has any truth in it).

4. Making personalised bingo cards proved to be exactly in my wheelhouse right now, so I had fun with that. If anyone missed it the other day and would like one, feel free to still ask! (Here or there, whatever).

5. Random AO3 tag found while wrangling that is currently amusing me: It is literally just Twelfth Night but with Moomins.

Otherwise still slowly progressing and all that etc etc etc.

norsellie

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

Current Mood: tired

thisbluespirit

Hello, I am still recovering, etc. Quite nicely as these things go, but still not up to doing all my usual little things.

Anyway, thought of something fannish and fun I could do if anyone wanted it - I made a personalised bingo card for

theseatheseatheopensea once, which was fun, and I do always love doing that kind of thing. So...

... if anyone else would find a custom-made bingo card (for writing/creating prompts) fun/useful/inspiring, comment here and I will have a go at making you one!

(I'll use the Bingo Generator, so it's very easy, and if I fail and include some rubbish prompts, a new card without such prompts can magically be re-generated with no trouble. Will do any size from 2x2 to 5x5.)

So just comment here if you'd like one & say what size card you'd prefer. You can also point me to/away from any fandoms/prompt types etc if you'd like, but no need. (If I'm really stuck for some reason, I'll just ask you for some pointers!)

fleetsparrow

I am sticking to 3 because, if you saw my last attempt at "top X list" I, uh, have trouble restricting.

These are not in specific order, just in the order I thought of them:

I'm curious
I'm Justice-oriented
I am actually 5 puns in a trench coat pretending to be human

fleetsparrow

Christmas is my favorite holiday. Its got joy, its got lights, its got music--what could be better!

This year I went ~~a little fucking crazy~~ deep into the Christmas music archives, adding as many Christmas songs and albums to my single streaming playlist as possible. It now sits at an ~~overwhelming~~ amazing 1,594 songs for a total of 79 hours and 5 minutes!

There are so many songs I had never heard before adding them. Many of my favorites from that bunch were written in the '60s, when Christmas music and lore were not so set in stone as we seem to think of them now. (Even Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is a modern invention, he of the Montgomery-Ward catalogue. But I digress.)

Here is a couple of Top 10(ish) lists. You may have heard of some of them, you may have heard of none of them (or maybe you know all of them??? if so, please share where, as I am constantly looking for more.)

Top 10 World-building songs:

Jingle-O The Brownie - Tennessee Ernie Ford
Uncle Mistletoe - The Three Suns
Poppy the Puppy - Gene Autry
The Three Little Dwarfs (Hard Rock, Coco, and Joe) - Gene Autry
Little Klinker - Tennessee Ernie Ford
Santa And The Purple People Eater - Sheb Wooley
Captain Santa Claus (And His Reindeer Space Patrol) - Bobby Helms
Freddie, The Little Fir Tree - Gene Autry
Socko, The Smallest Snowball - The Bell Sisters & Spike Jones & His City Slickers
Christy Christmas - Brenda Lee

Honorary mentions (eclectic collection):

Christmas Is A-Comin' - Bing Crosby
Santa Claus, That's Me! - Vernon Dalhart
Who's That Up On The Roof - The Caroleers
The Stingiest Man In Town - The Four Lads
The Christmas Blues - Julia Lee & Her Boyfriends
Christmas Rappin' - Kurtis Blow
The Fairy On The Christmas Tree - BBC Orchestra & The Three Sisters
The Bell That Couldn't Jingle - Burt Bacharach
Snoopy's Christmas - The Royal Guardsmen
The Night Before Christmas (In Texas That Is) - Montana Slim

Shout-out to the spoken word Christmas recordings:

Christmas Dragnet (Yulenet) Parts 1 & 2 - Stan Freberg
I Was A Teenage Reindeer - Jim Backus & Daws Butler
I Yust Go Nuts At Christmas - Yogi Yorgesson
Elvis For Xmas - Mad Milo
Chinchy Old Scrooge - Phil Moore
Blink Before Christmas - Phil Moore
Santa Claus Proves There Is A Santa - Ernest Hare
Santa Claus Hides In Your Phonograph - Ernest Hare

fleetsparrow

I always feel like wishlists are so hard for me to create. They feel a lot like asking for help, another thing I have a terribly hard time doing. ~~Yes, this is something I'm currently working on in therapy. How is that going? Haha, don't worry about it.~~

But, in the interest of Putting Myself Out There, here is a wishlist:

Top surgery
1. ~~Oh, we're starting in Hard Mode I see... fun!~~
A couple new multi-color packs of Pilot Varsity disposable fountain pens
A good region-free DVD player
Any kind of recommendations on how to learn written shorthand
Advice on how to do candle magic when you can't burn candles
1. Or, alternatively I guess, what to substitute for candle magic when you can't burn candles
Recommendations for language learning apps that aren't Duolingo (or Rosetta Stone, only because I already have that)
A year of Boot.dev
Gift card(s) to Bookshop.org, Google Play Store, or BetterWorldBooks (~~the last of which might make me finally move my unending wishlist from Thriftbooks to BWB~~)
Best places to learn Linux and such
Obligatory newly-curated Amazon wishlist

please do not judge the fact that it took me 3 entire hours to post this single thing akdhgaolksdjflkhajd I sleep now before I break out in hives for Wanting Things and Letting People Know I Want Things

fleetsparrow

Apologies for a link to a link, but I cannot for the life of me figure out DW image formatting and I do not care to learn tonight.

Cats, cats, and... cats???

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Rare Pair Fest

Member Posts

Starfall Stories 51

Snowflake Challenge 8: How The Trick Is Done

AO3 PowerShell PSA

The Eternal

ModDrop PSA

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Heated Rivalry rewatch, recap and commentary: part 4/?

Personalised bingo card offer

Snowflake Challenge 7: Counting Down Fleet's Top Three Traits

Snowflake Challenge 6: Top 10 Worldbuilding Christmas Songs

Snowflake Challenge 5: Wishes and Wishes

Snowflake Challenge 2: Pet Pics Or It Didn't Happen

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