Recipe
Asparagus and shrimp casserole
4 cans asparagus, drained (You can use fresh if you'd prefer)
1 cup cream
1 tablespoon butter
4 oz cream cheese OR marscapone
1 cup half n half (may use milk)
1 can cream of shrimp soup
1 lb already cooked shrimp
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
salt and pepper, to desired taste
1 can cheese French fried onions

In a saucepan on low heat, whisk together cream, butter and cream cheese until melted and smooth. Add in half and half and soup and stir well. Add spices and incorporate well then mix in drained asparagus and shrimp. Pour into a casserole dish and sprinkle the onions on top.
Bake in a 350°F oven until bubbly about 40 minutes

Not quite 365 days questions March.

6. Have you ever seen a dinosaur skeleton?

Just at the museum. And it was super cool seeing them. I love dinosaurs.

90 questions for discussion

1. What things are currently keeping you awake at night or causing you stress?
Donald Trump. I can't believe he started a war. And I hear the man who is going to take Noem’s place is ten times worse than her. I'm actually shocked that he fired her. Anyhow, that's why I can't sleep.

How about you?

Topics for talk

Places I Would Like to Visit

We want to go to Hawaii, so we're going to plan the trip for next year soon. We're very excited. Next, we’d like to plan a trip to Key West. Hubby has always wanted to go there. Lots of boat rides. I love them.

SIGN UP!!

Need to get some words in? The Weekend Writing Marathon (WWM) is a writing challenge designed to help you do just that. You set your own writing goal for the weekend and work to achieve it before reporting back to the group on Sunday night.

How do I participate?

1. Reply to this post with your weekend writing plans–be as specific (or not) as you’d like.

2. Start writing on Friday 12:01 am local time. Work to meet your goal by Sunday night at 11:59 pm local time. You can work on whatever you want during this time.

3. Post your accomplishments to the Finish Line post at the end of the weekend (even if you didn’t reach your goal).

How do I report my accomplishments?

A Finish Line post will go up on Sunday. Reblog that post with your final word count/accomplished goal(s) by Monday at midnight local time. Totals from the weekend will be posted on Tuesday.

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Let us know if you have any questions!

have an EKG and then have someone from the clinic calls you to talk about it. Since they almost never call you for a normal, I'm like OMG I'm dying. No, my doctor was just exercising caution. the EKG is 'mostly normal' but there was no more details. They posted the strip in a blurry pic to my portal. I'm assuming they mean the tachycardia. I'll see the new cardiologist in a couple weeks so we shall see.

No one came to micro today. I'll point out spring break doesn't start until Monday. out of 40 students I had 10. And being the bitch I am I had a test in anatomy today (found out there's one tomorrow for my ultrasound students) most of the sports teams were gone and someone cheated on the exam. I didn't catch them (it's hard I'm in a hole in an auditorium and even if I walk up and down the steps, I take steps SO slowly they have warning so what's the point. Another pissed off student turned them in. I'm saying nothing but I know how they're cheating and next test, without warning, I'm taking all that away. (i.e. every phone must be placed on MY table)

I wish I could stay over near Cinci for more than 24 hours tomorrow. there is SO MUCH food Restaurants of every kind. I'm thinking Korean. Oooo the choices.

Making: I made a chicken, cheesy, biscuit meal for friends today. It was delish.

Watching: Person of Interest on my player.

Reading: A Comedian Walks Into a Funeral Home by Dennis Kelly. I love this book. It's really good.

Listening: to Person of Interest

Eating: a new dessert I made. Lemon cheesecake bites.

Drinking: Dr. Pepper.

Loving: this new meme.

Hating: the dishes I just finished.

Wanting: chocolate, but being good.

Thinking: about what I'm doing tomorrow.

Planning: what I'm going to make for dinner tomorrow. People will think all we do is eat.

Wishing: I didn't have to clean my bathrooms tomorrow. I'd give anything to be Samantha on Bewitched. Then I could keep this house super clean.

Puzzle Books: I don't do them.

Weathering: I'm not sure what this means. If it's about the weather, then the day was wonderful. 79° and sunny.

Wearing: black shorts, green short-sleeve top, and no shoes.

Needing: I don't need much.

Enjoying: this meme.

Wondering: what I would be doing if I wasn't on Dreamwidth every night.

Playing: Person of Interest.

Trying: to watch the show and do this at the same time.

Cooking: not until tomorrow.

Calling: my daughter is calling me at 9:30 on her way home from work.

Texting: not texting right now.

Crafting: I don't craft.

Going: to finish this if it kills me.

Feeling: happy.

Hoping (For): another spring day tomorrow.

Celebrating: my birthday, early.

Smelling: Lemon cheesecake bites.

Thanking: I'm very thankful to my friend Vicki, who made me a gorgeous quilt for my birthday.

Considering: it might be for my spare room. The quilt is the most beautiful I have ever seen.

Finishing: I'm finishing this. Yay.

Starting: I don't know about this one.

Notes: thanks to spirelicious, for giving me something to do.

There's been a downpour on and off tonight, hitting a couple hours ago and then coming back loud enough I can't miss it. There was a little snow left in the parks and at the very edges, but this is going to see to everything. The feeling of knowing this is exactly it, more than it felt on Sunday, is somehow both peaceful and unsettling. There's an acceptance and a sense of gratitude of not having missed the moment. It's not something I'm eager to seek out, and it's one I can hold onto and sit with a while.

I put in three bids for this year's Fandom Trumps Hate, two for beta readers and one for a vid. Whether they'll end up getting outbid remains to be seen. I've got at least a day to figure out what my absolute maximum collective bid should be and which ones to prioritize. Not something to think about for the rest of the night, at least.

AO3 Link | Divining Destiny: Flight for Freedom (1050 words) by Merfilly
Chapters: 3/3
Fandom: Forgotten Realms, The Legend of Drizzt Series - R. A. Salvatore
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Characters: Vierna Do'Urden, Zaknafein Do'Urden, Drizzt Do'Urden, Ensemble
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Typical Violence, Fratricide, Murder, flashfic, Cross-Posted from Archive Of Our Own (AO3), Time Travel
Summary:

Vierna is Betrayed

Divining Destiny: Flight for Freedom

Vierna came alert from the dream with a chill on her spine. Things had been going so well ever since she had managed to give Drizzt a chance to live elsewhere.

Her Lord was the only reason she dreamed at all, which meant the dream was a portent that she had to divine the meaning of quickly. With a flicker of her will, she sent her current messenger spider, one of the line from her father's gift to her so long ago, to fetch him to her. While she did that, she cleared her mind to take up the spells of hiding that she had lived under, ever since the Masked God chose her as His priestess.

Zaknafein was waiting when she came up from the prayers, sitting calmly opposite her — and a barrier to anything else that would have dared enter the Matron's chambers.

"Something has shifted, and we are now in danger," Vierna signed to him. "Invite your lover to take those of our people he wishes. You and I, any you trust explicitly, will use the gathering paths to leave this city."

"You are certain?"

Vierna's mouth set in a grim line for a long moment. "Only that the hiding spell is known to me from childhood allowed me to take it, I think. She is seeking His influence in the city now."

"Be at the portal by the time for evening meal; I will have all things in motion," Zak told her firmly.

For better or worse, House Do'Urden in Menzoberranzan would be abandoned to the Spider Queen, but personal survival was prized above all else, for most drow, and Vierna was typical in that regard.

---

Dinin sat in the safe house of Bregan D'Aerthe with his head in his hands, still mulling over everything. He was grateful to the Weapon Master for making this opportunity appear, but he was at a loss for what would be expected now that he was without a House.

Jarlaxle, leader of the mercenary company, sat beside him, uncovered eye surveying those few men he had chosen to bring into the band. He wasn't very pleased; Vierna Do'Urden had been opening avenues to the cunning man for years now.

"It is done."

"She — they did make it out, yes?" Dinin asked, looking over.

"That actually matters to you," Jarlaxle said, and he looked pleased with that awareness. "Yes, they did. And to spare the rest, their meal was laced with poison, courtesy of my sense of mercy."

Dinin pondered that. When the Matrons of the ruling council moved to end the heresy, they would have tortured the commoners to learn all they could. The loyalty of the fighters would have pushed them to fight even without knowing where their matron was. The changes that Vierna had brought about in the House had made them all stronger, but…

… it was the kind of strength that was not allowed.

"Send me to one of your outposts, with some of my people and any of yours you trust to keep me under your eye." Dinin drew in all of his own cunning, ambition, and pride. "I live, and serving you is damn sure better than being dead or in the clutches of a different House."

"I have just the place for you," Jarlaxle said, smiling. "And I think you will thrive in our network."

---

Zaknafein inspected the house that had been procured in Rilauven, checking it over for any and all possible traps. When he at last came to Vierna, who was just settling back from prayer, she looked fatigued but content.

"With only ten to support us, it's not the most defensible place, but we can make it work," Zak told her.

"We will have more in time," Vierna promised him. "We still have enough gems to set ourselves on the path of growth."

"Once I am satisfied one of the fighters is able enough to defend in my absence, I will take up the offered contract at their school."

"Mother's manner of salves are unknown here, from all I can learn. That is another avenue of income." Vierna reached for his hands, and he gave them. "Thank you, for having faith in me."

"Nothing else to do when my own daughter proved she was not lost," he said quietly. "Will you be able to scry Drizzt now?"

Vierna sighed, shaking her head. "I had no luck, but then the prayers are still shrouded."

Zak frowned, but if the gods wanted to war on each other, he didn't care; he'd rather they left drow alone. "At least you being so high in favor, even with Him weakened, means you shouldn't be tested too soon."

"So I think, yes."

---

Vhaeraun sighed melodramatically as Eilistraee finally managed to pull the poisoned chelicerae out of His abdomen.

"You should have made it clear You wished aid long before now," Eilistraee scolded, putting the large pincers into the waiting darkflame to destroy them. "What happened?"

He considered how to answer as Her hands moved back to the wound, bringing healing and soothing the unending agony He had been inflicted with since the attack.

"One of the junior clerics My priestess had sent to learn in Her temple betrayed My priestess by thought. I managed to warn her, just before My realm was swarmed by Her abyssal spiders.

"I believe She'd already glimpsed My influence building." He grimaced with distaste for losing the first real foothold He'd made in that city.

"She will be on guard for reprisals," Eilistraee mused. "You must be careful, My Twin."

"When am I not, My dear Sister?" he asked in mocking tones, before lying back to let Her finish the healing He needed. She let Him rest, considering all of this, and how it might backlash upon Her own people.

"My priestess is safe, with her father, in one of the cities I hold more strongly," He said. "I chose well with her, even if this did not work the way I wished."

"Just don't go becoming enamored of her, Brother. My Nephew is enough trouble."

Vhaeraun laughed, bitterly, but nodded at the warning. He did enjoy such pleasures, but this priestess was too important, in His limited foresight, to risk that with.

Prololgue:

Noa is the successor to Cosmos Conglomerate, he's at a museum with his butler Leon when he sees a kamen mask and gets sucked into a portal. Monsters attack but they're saved by Mikami (guy on cover) and taken to Rider Academy, where they meet another guy Iori.

The Riders-in-training have to show they can transform to pass aaand then a huge plot twist happens where it turns out the whole school is being run by the enemy, Chaosim, and they were lying and training the students to be Chaos Riders! The enemy leave after realizing who Noa is and say 'this too is fate' basically. 



Chapter 1 Part 1:

Leon tells Nao he has inherited the Rider Station which has been locked up since their father's death, he was a Rider agent and looked after the Riders.

The top floor of the Rider Station is a front cafe called Camouflage lol aka Kamen Cafe, a concept cafe where you wear a mask. I guess it's supposed to be a way to get info from outsiders while masked?

Chapter 1 Part 2:

LMAO Noa screaming 'monster!' at Leon because he was wearing a mask and Leon screaming back



Noa's mask is very...flashy. It's a purple sparkly cat.

Are the Chaos stones pieces of an alien meteor or something??

Chapter 1 Part 3:

When I first learned about the game, I did not think Mikami's personality would be like this. He's pessimistic. He still has a sense of justice though. Noa saved him, so he wants to use the things he learned to fulfill his duty as a Rider and save them.

Chapter 1 Part 4:

What's wrong with just liking water to drink?

Iori trying to understand Mikami lol 'so when I can't tell what you're thinking, that means you aren't thinking'.

Mikai doesn't remember anything before the academy. 🤔



Chapter 1 Part 5:

...Well this is dark. Chaosism fucked with their memories. Iori had this whole family in this head... They're somewhere they don't even recognize and the police just shrugged them off.

A long-haired blond guy says he believes them and gives them a place to stay. 🤔

Lol at Iori being super positive and Mikami being super negative.

I'm on the edge of my seat wondering where this is going. What happened to the other Riders?

I'm just not managing to stay on top of any of the fandom trends.

Still haven't watched K-Pop Demon Hunters, or Heated Rivalry, or even Bridgerton S4...

I'm not bothering with Marvel (they're dead to me, like all the best characters in the franchise) and there's not much else that particularly interests me.

As usual, I mostly lack someone to watch things with. I'll watch movies that I'm only marginally interested in with friends, but I've never been a 'rewatch' kind of person - even in the background. Too many things to do.

--

Actually, I'm just not managing to stay on top of ANYTHING right now.

The singer and piano player I heard last night were just great!
One thing last night that was not great was the entire electronic card payment system on Bart screwed up so nobody could put more money on those cards, and for those of you reading this who are not from the bay area, all the buses and stuff use those cards, not just Bart. I called their office this morning and the people I talked to weren't even aware there was a problem, so who knows when this is gonna get fixed, in the meantime I only have 2 dollars left on my card which isn't even enough to get on the damn bus.

Since my sudden mania for film shows no signs of slowing, I've created a Letterboxd account. I don't really plan to use it for much besides tracking what I've watched and what I plan to watch, but add me if you're a user and I'll heart your reviews when I see them. :)

Anyway it has been A Week and I've been too tired by the end of each day to do ANYTHING other than vegetate in front of the TV, and specifically to vegetate in front of something scary and tense enough to prevent my otherwise inevitable zoning-out. The upside of which is yay, more horror movies!

Hell House LLC (2015): A documentary crew investigates a haunted house attraction that went gruesomely wrong on its opening night, leading to more than a dozen fatalities under baffling circumstances which the authorities have hushed up. When snickfic recced this movie to me, I said I would not watch it because clowns gross me out. But the haunted house + found footage conceit was calling to me enough that I decided I could probably handle the clowns - and hey, I was right! This is not especially clowny clown horror by my highly arbitrary personal standards that mostly boil down to "there are no gross clown smiles" and "there are no even grosser clown laughs". Maybe this is a gateway for me? Maybe someday I'll be sufficiently desensitised to clowns that I can catch up to the rest of the world and watch It? Whatever the case, I had fun with this movie. I admired the filmmakers' decision to leave so many questions unanswered and I think that uncertainty is scarier than any explicit answers they could have devised. (For that reason, I'm going to go right on ahead and ignore the fact that there are sequels. Not EVERYTHING has to be a franchise, damn. The movie stands alone just fine.)

On a minor note, I REALLY liked the piano-and-violin piece in the soundtrack. Beautifully simple, beautifully discordant.

Carrie (1976): I am once again standing in awe of the incredibly broad palate of flavours that get lumped together under the "horror" label. This movie is not a scare so much as an anguished distillation of the cruelties of high school. Carrie suffers horrific religious abuse at home and extreme bullying at school; after falling victim to a very public and sadistic "prank" during senior prom, she unleashes her budding telekinetic powers on the watching crowd with murderous results. But her rampage is - well, not an afterthought per se, but it happens right at the end of the film in a dizzying blitz; the vast majority of the screentime (and the most visceral source of horror, for me at least) is the long, slow lead-up to the prank, as tension mounts between the glow-up narrative Carrie thinks she's living and the humiliation we know she's about to suffer.

I am not enough of a Film Buff(TM) to comment on the weird split-screen thing they were doing during the climax, or whatever the fuck was happening at the start with that borderline pornographic locker room shower scene. Both of them threw me out a bit but neither was enough of a hiccup to spoil what was otherwise a really gripping story.

The Old Dark House (1932): I watched this because it stars Boris Karloff, and while it may not be one of his most iconic roles, it was the one my library happened to have on offer at the moment I found myself thinking, 'Hey, I should watch some Boris Karloff!' So on those qualifications, I bring you this old-school spooky cult classic about two small groups of travellers who are forced by a violent storm to go begging for shelter at an isolated old house in the Welsh countryside, whose eccentric inhabitants turn out to be harbouring a deadly family secret. Karloff's physical acting is impressive: his character, Morgan the butler, is completely mute but has an immense screen presence (literally as well as metaphorically) despite the lack of dialogue. He's a hulking mass of danger whose sullen subservience turns to violent, lust-addled malice when he drinks, as of course he does on the stormy night in question. There's also a romance between a feckless WWI vet and a chorus girl who is only technically not the sugar baby of one of the other houseguests, which aside from being endearing in its own right was a lot more risqué than I expected of a movie from the 30s. Evidently the "pre-Code" label is more than just a historical technicality!

These questions were suggested by dray.

1. Do you know of any other words for snow? What's your favourite and why?

2. What's your ideal temperature range for winter?

3. Favourite winter activity? What about it makes it your favourite?

4. What are three things you can't do without when winter arrives?

5. Do you have favourite winter holiday activities?

Copy and paste to your own journal, then reply to this post with a link to your answers. If your journal is private or friends-only, you can post your full answers in the comments below.

If you'd like to suggest questions for a future Friday Five, then do so on DreamWidth or LiveJournal. Old sets that were used have been deleted, so we encourage you to suggest some more!

**Remember that we rely on you, our members, to help keep the community going. Also, please remember to play nice. We are all here to answer the questions and have fun each week. We repost the questions exactly as the original posters submitted them and request that all questions be checked for spelling and grammatical errors before they're submitted. Comments re: the spelling and grammatical nature of the questions are not necessary. Honestly, any hostile, rude, petty, or unnecessary comments need not be posted, either.**

I thought it was about time to play this game again!

A Kitarella Original TM.


i. Look at your last 10** fics.

ii. Make a list of their first lines of dialogue, with any necessary description. No cheating, I mean don't go through your fics looking for the best line of dialogue.

iii. Post them and we'll see if we can guess what the story will be about from the dialogue.


**You may need to go back further than your last 10 fics. I certainly did! Because many of my first lines are very dull.

Here are mine:

( Read more... )

Right! I posted an entry about things that weren't The Goes Wrong Show, and everyone's very proud of me. Time to reward myself with more Goes Wrong fanfiction.


Title: Chekhov's Knife
Fandom: The Goes Wrong Show
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Robert/Chris
Wordcount: 2,700
Summary: Robert has the perfect plan for making things up to Chris after the Chekhov's Gun incident. Well, maybe 'perfect' isn't the right word.
Warnings: S... sort of self-harm? It's pretty atypical as self-harm goes, but this is a fic about Robert going 'well, I've injured Chris; obviously our relationship will be fixed if I can get Chris to injure me in return.'

( Chekhov's Knife )

Okay, I'm going to be very brave and make a post that's not about The Goes Wrong Show. Let's talk about videogames! You wouldn't know it from my determination to talk about Robert Grove five hundred percent of the time, but I have played a couple of interesting games lately.

The games in question are Silent Hill f and Lost Records: Bloom & Rage. They're substantially different in gameplay and tone, but they're both on the theme of 'weird, intense, supernatural coming-of-age stories about young women'.


( Thoughts on Silent Hill f. )

( Thoughts on Lost Records: Bloom & Rage. )


Okay! That's your allotted entry about other things. Let's get back to working on my fifteenth Goes Wrong fic.

Apparently I posted fourteen Goes Wrong fics over the course of two months? Not counting the fifty-two Goes Wrong fills I wrote for the Three-Sentence Ficathon? I'm personally responsible for over 20% of the Chris Bean/Robert Grove fics on AO3. This might be the most severely and swiftly a fandom has ever eaten me.

I'm not sure how much longer I'll be able to sustain my Goes Wrong illness, but I'm having a great time while it lasts!

Hello there, and welcome to Thursday! :D Tuesday was rather cozy and climate-controlled, wasn't it? Well, get ready to endure the elements and try to dress accordingly, because...

Today's theme is (the great) outdoors. Nature. The environment. Wildlife. Anything from taking one step outside to roughing it in the middle of nowhere. Personally, I wouldn't suggest outer space or deep sea adventures... unless your characters can handle it, of course.

Feel free to add specifics to your prompts, like whether you'd prefer a gen fill over something shippy, or if you have a squick or trigger you hope to avoid. Original fiction, fanfiction, and fanfic crossovers are always welcome. ~_^

Just a few rules:
No more than five prompts in a row.
No more than three prompts in the same fandom.
Use the character's full names and the fandom's full name
No spoilers in prompts for a month after airing, or use the spoiler cut option found here. Unfortunately, DW doesn’t have a cut tag, so use your best judgment when it comes to spoilers.
If your fill contains spoilers, warn and leave plenty of space, or use the above-mentioned spoiler cut.

Prompts should be formatted as follows: [Use the character's full names and fandom's full name]
Fandom, Character +/ Character, Prompt

Some examples to get things started...
+ The Librarian(s) (TV movies and series), any (+/ any), in (or inside) a tree
+ any legal or medical TV fandom, any (+/ any), their first taste of fresh air (and sunlight?) in hours
+ author's choice, any (+/ any), a surprise wildlife sighting

We are on AO3! If you fill a prompt and post it to AO3, please add it to the Bite Sized Bits of Fic from 2026 collection. See further notes on this option here.

Not feeling any of today’s prompts? You can use LJ’s advanced search options to limit keyword results to only comments in this community. Fret not, DW members; we are working on a way to search through old entries for prompts for you! As of right now, the best way to search for a lonely prompt on DW is to search the community’s archive, which can be found [[HERE]].

While the use of LJ's advanced search and DW’s archive are options, bookmarking the links of prompts you like might work better for searching in the future.

As a friendly reminder about our schedule, Lonely Prompts and sharing completed fills are encouraged on Sundays, while new themes and prompts are posted on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Saturdays are a Free for All day. We'll share our posts on DW and LJ for everyone's convenience. Keep an eye out for notifications!

If you have a Dreamwidth account and would feel more comfortable participating there, please feel free to do so… and spread the word! comment_fic


tag=outdoors

I took this challenge from ravensilversea here. I thought it would be fun!

Rules: List the first line of your last 10 14 (posted) fics and see if there’s a pattern!

I picked 14 because that's how many fics I've published, as of now, in 2026. They have all being crossposted here on dreamwidth (and since the start of this month I've begun doing the same with older ones).

Now, in reverse order of publication:

• "You and I should go to the Rivers Casino," Santos told her, blasé as ever. "Bet you're really good at counting cards." ace in the hole. The Pitt, Javadi/Santos.

• Kyle would think he must be dreaming —except for how he's never felt so present in his body, so keenly aware of the nerve endings in each of his fingertips. So exultant, and at once, fearful. carnal idolatry. Terminator, Kyle/Sarah.

• As it did every so often, Laura's mind drifted towards poor, ill-fated Bertha. hating me through death and after. Carmilla (J. Sheridan Le Fanu's novella), Carmilla/Laura.

• It's everything she could have dreamed, as if her world has expanded —not just around her, the world she can touch and hear and affect and be affected by, but on the inside; she's finally faced with a challenge, and for the first time she feels like she is all but stumbling, scrambling and struggling to catch up, under-educated and plainly naïve and oblivious. true thirst. Bridgerton, Eloise x academia.

• Tara is a bitch; she doesn't swallow her tongue or her pain like a good dainty woman —a model heroine, turning the other cheek with a smile for those who harmed her; she lacks that saintly forgiving heart. hearsay. DC comics, Tara Markov.

• "Pick another movie." bat-man and robins. Stranger Things, Dusteve pre-slash.

• The little girl didn't look much like Mia, for where she shared their father's features —compact but athletic build, hair like hay, chocolate-brown eyes, easily-tanned skin, sharp jaw—, the kid had grown to resemble her own ailing mother: lanky, porcelain-pale, with tight black curls and a moon-shaped face; but in her half-sister's eyes, if the wrong shade of brown, Mia spotted the same haunted quality that she'd seen in the mirror, over fifteen years ago. better than being the prey. DC comics, Mia Dearden.

• Her new body's palms are rough, something as extravagant as moisturizer undeniably foreign to them; bathrobe fallen on the ground, Josephine uses coarse fingertips to examine its imperfections —idle, she picks at the unevenly tanned skin; lingering, she rubs them against the leather rash in the inner tights; vicious, she nudges the tender bruise on the belly. pillage. The 100, Clarke/Josephine.

• The wool fell off Maika's eyes long ago; she knew Tuya intimately, the way you're bound to when someone cracked open your chest cavity and burrowed a place for themselves within your very bones, blood, and viscera. bloodless, Monstress (Image Comics), Maika/Tuya.

• Nona practices in the mirror. mimicry. The Locked Tomb, Nona x Camilla.

• When Helena startles awake, the last thing her eyes caught on were the elevator doors closing on their way to the severed floor, and the first thing they see now are the tiles on her father's kitchen floor; the second, him, gasping, desperate, choking on his own blood, the offending device in his hand; the third, the knife in her own blood-soaked hands. clean hands. Severance, Helena & Helly R.

• The dreams are all the more unsettling, eerie, because nothing wrong happens in them; Henry Creel comes to her as Mr. Whatsit —as a protector, as a friend, with a pleasant face and a gentle voice and a pair of warm hands, tucking her into bed and plying her with gifts and promises of safety and freedom and adventure. her arms, a fortress. Stranger Things, Holly & Nancy.

• It takes a village to raise Diana: grown warriors, scholars, pioneers, who see her as the child they once indulged —yet her body changes and her desire grows, itching under her skin with melancholic jealousy, barred from the women's games and rituals. replica. DC comics, Diana/Donna.

• We want you open —like a flower whose petals desperately seek the warmth of the sun; like the loud pop of a yogurt's lid, then licked clean; like a patient's skull drilled into after the skin has been carefully split apart with a scalpel. communion. Pluribus, The Hive x Carol.

Well, one thing across the board is that I can string a long (but hopefully understandable) sentence lmao, but to be fair, all but four of these were for the three sentence ficathon. It's a feature, not a bug xD. You MUST do terrible things to punctuation. And on top of being strict about the just-three-sentence rule, I give myself an extra one by keeping the ficlets at precisely 100/200/etc. words.

Something else I've always noticed is that in fics that are meant to be humorous I do tend to start mid-dialogue. Snappy banter is the perfect tool for that.

Also, these are all very short ficlets (the longest one is Carmilla's, a triple drabble sequence of 900 words, and all the others have 300, 200, and mostly 100 words). So they're very to-the-point fics, as well as character-centric ones, where I immediately (or nearly so) dive into the character's state of mind. In many other stories I prefer to start setting-first, or action-first, to ground them in whatever I feel should get the focus to set the story, and in some of these you can see the barest bit of context like that, but short-form limits you. And yet, working within those limits to imbue each sentence with all the relevant information, trying to find the right spin on a description, is incredibly fun.

It could be interesting to do this again later on in the year, maybe when I have posted longer fics that aren't limited to drabble form (except one, which I kept 300 words long just for fun, all of these where either for the three sentence ficathon, or seasons of drabbles). I think there could be a lot of shorter first lines, stuff that's meant to paint a vivid but immediate picture on the reader's mind without so many twists and turns. I like to target the senses, too (smell, etc.) in order to achieve it, maybe using a bit of "shocking" imagery to get the point across. 

So I'm definitely keeping this meme in mind to go back to it later on ^-^

Peach cream cheese cobbler

Ingredients
2 cans (20 oz each) peaches chunks or tidbits, drained (reserve ½ cup juice)
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 box yellow or white cake mix
¾ cup unsalted butter, melted
½ cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp ground cinnamon (optional)
Pinch of salt

Serves: 8–10

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 35–40 minutes

How to Make:
Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C) and grease a 9x13-inch baking dish. In a medium bowl, beat the softened cream cheese with sugar, vanilla, and the reserved peach juice until smooth. Spread the drained peach chunks evenly across the bottom of the prepared dish.

Dollop the cream cheese mixture over the peaches and spread it out as evenly as possible. Sprinkle the dry cake mix over the top, followed by a dusting of cinnamon if you are using it. Pour the melted butter evenly over the entire surface, ensuring there are no large dry patches of cake mix.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until the top is golden brown and the peach filling is bubbling. Remove from the oven and let it stand for at least 15 minutes to allow the cobbler to set. Serve warm, perhaps with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a dollop of whipped cream.

🧊 Storage Tip:
Store any leftover cobbler in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 day. To reheat, place a portion in the oven at 300°F for 10 minutes to maintain the texture of the cake topping.