smallweb | Member Posts

Starting to process my backlog of links. Originally, I started collecting this particular list when the allegations about Neil Gaiman surfaced last year (if you've been lucky enough to miss that, but want to learn more, muccamukk's round-up post is still an excellent overview).

It's always hard when stories, songs, shows, etc that made a difference to you turn out to be created by someone who's done or is doing horrible things. I always find it hard when it's followed by a demand to just stop liking whatever it was, as if that's as easy as snapping your fingers to remove the impact of sometimes formative stories from one's life.

Here are a few links that helped me navigate this, whenever it happens, since it happens often. If you only have energy for one link, I'd recommend making that the first one. It's nuanced and practical.

Dealing with Authors Who are Jerks, Bastards, or Downright Evil in Real Life by writinginthedarktw. "But how should we react when a writer we admire, or who we have a personal relationship with, turns out to be a not-so-good person? The short answer, of course, is you can react any damn way you wish. There’s no right way. But I can share with you how I attempt to navigate these rough waters."

( 4 more links: 1 for library workers, 2 on how putting people on a pedestal does no one any good, 1 on a specific fandom )

fred_mouse

I really haven't been putting much effort into tracking things here; my last post about it was 10th of May. At that point I had finished 2 projects of the 10 I'm hoping for, and made good progress on three. I've not finished anything else since, but I have made good progress on some

Previous good progress

towel rail - has not been progressed. I need a day a) without rain and b) that I have multiple hours available and c) (most importantly) that I remember this needs doing
door mat(s) - I've used up all the existing 'yarn' and I have half a rag rug. Every time I am surprised by how much 'yarn' it takes. I need to work out where I stashed the rest of the strips while we had a houseguest, and assemble more.
Teach myself to draw - this has stalled. I keep misplacing my drawing book or the sketch book I'm using, or the pencil. I need to get a better process.

Progressed since

pink / white / brown crochet blanket -- crochet finished, sewing in the ends. I think I'm half done on the ends?
brown / green knit -- this gets 4-6 rows roughly every second Thursday (when we game online) plus I've sat and worked on it while listening to podcasts.
T's jumper - a handful of rows. I need to make sure to do this every second day at least
blue / white virus blanket - I've finished the first of the two balls I had left, now on to the last one. It is just shy of 70cm square, and I'm on the 13th repeat of the pattern. I suspect this is the last repeat, based on available yarn. Hopefully I have enough to finish.
Eldest's quilt - I have laid it out, I have worked out what is needed to finish it. I have made and joined four blocks and worked out that I was doing something different from the book, and now those are going to be the front of a cushion, just as soon as they aren't attached to the quilt any more (basically, I'm adding 1/2" to each so the finished size is 9.5" rather than 9", but hadn't noted that down anywhere).
Knitting for Kitties - using up a couple of balls of yarn; the green one is done, and we have handed three squares over to purrdence

I'm reasonably happy with this progress. It is possible that either the knitting for kitties or the virus blanket will be finished next, because those are relatively portable. The former lives in my handbag; the latter is going to go in my uni bag (it is possible I will mostly stop carrying the handbag, because it doesn't fit a lunch or a laptop)

svgurl

julybreakbingoevent is a multifandom bingo challenge with customizable cards (link goes to the

fandomcalendar post). Sign-ups close on July 7th.

sunshine_revival is a community set to revive the Sunshine Challenge, a companion to the

snowflake_challenge, that will run through the month of July.

allbingo is running a Pride Fest through the month of June. There are premade cards or you can create your own based on the available prompts.

justmarriedexchange, a marriage-themed multifandom exchange for marriage tropes of all kinds: convenient, accidental, undercover, arranged, forced, etc, is open for nominations until June 10th, 11:59PM UTC.

land_of_art is a landcomm challenge for graphic lovers. There are two teams and the first round is in progress and will continue until January 18th, 2026. Sign up for a team HERE.

fourormore, a community to promote and celebrate ships with four or more people, is running a Bingo Event. Cards will given until December 31st.

smallfandomfest is open for prompt claiming for its Small Fandom Fest. Submissions may be posted until July 31st.

fancake's theme of the month is: female relationships. Click on the banner below to learn more! :)

Photograph with added text: Female Relationships, at Fancake. Four old Nepalese women sit together on a low brick wall, their feet dangling, most of them barefoot, their shoes kicked off below them. They're dressed in loose patterned fabrics in various shades of red and the mood is relaxed.

the_siobhan

Steroids are fucking magic, yo. They have returned my cat to his normal bitchy emotionally needy self. They have also taken most of the stabbing out of my foot so I can walk without limping, at least while I'm moving around the house. I cheated a bit and put some of the foot cream on my arm because I officially overdid it with the shovelling, and as a result I can now lift a water glass without wincing.

What a country.

Upper third of my yard is now graded and seeded. My daughter came over and helped. She's not getting a lot of hours at work so she has an open invitation to come over and help me move dirt from one place to another whenever she wants to make a few bucks and be given beer and dinner. It works out well for both of us.

Basement guys came back today - they said they figured they had about three hours of work to finish. More swearing in Polish ensued. In the end they were in my basement for eight hours, but they got it all done. They had to build entirely new frames to hang the doors from and there was at least one hardware store trip to replace borked parts in the storm door and BOY HOWDY did they have something to say about that, but everything is now perfect and the basement apartment has functional doors that work and close and lock and everything.

Next step: I got somebody to come over and have a look at finishing the wood work. This consists of:
1. The stairs from the kitchen door to the backyard. Currently about a three foot drop, which I have been climbing up and down but that's not a perfect long term solution. (Especially in winter.)
2. The stairs from the basement apartment into the yard, are flimsy, wobbly, and don't have any hand rails so they are definitely not code. They are also resting on a base of wooden slats that just randomly shift if you put your weight in the wrong spot. I have no fucking idea what Original Contractor was even thinking. They need to be replaced with something that will pass a city inspection and that also will not kill you when you try to use them.
3. I want to put some kind of a sound-proof bench over the sump pump, because that fucker is loud. Also I figure an exposed ginormous battery is possibly a safety hazard of some kind. So the guy who looked at it said they can build something that acts as a solid bench but you can flip the top up if it needs maintenance, which sounds perfect.
4. My original blueprints include a deck on the kitchen roof. That would be really nice if I can swing it, but we'll see how much this all costs. Mainly it would be an additional place for me to grow herbs and stuff so it's in the "nice to have" pile.

( CUT FOR GROSS, SERIOUSLY YOU WERE WARNED )

Every time I see my doctor she asks me how the Not Drinking is going and every single time I'm all, FUNNY YOU SHOULD ASK.

linky

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

Current Mood: contemplative

haunted_cherries

FFXIV: Making Sense of Loose Change

beginning

haunted_cherries

Characters: OCs
Rating: Teen
Summary: As an echo user, you get a firsthand glimpse of what memories may be attached to this trunk of items you've found at a secondhand store. Who did these belong to, and what glimpses into the lives of their previous owners might they contain?

Notes: Originally posted to AO3 on 11/11/22 and now being archived here! Original notes: My brain said I should make an "x reader" series for all of my FFXIV OCs, so this is the first of those. I plan for these to be short and sweet, so apologies in advance for the length. I preface this by saying that this is written out of pure self-indulgence and isn't mean to be a one to one match for your own personality/actions/demeanor etc. Simply put, if "x reader/ Y/N" content isn't your cup of tea for whatever reason, feel free to pass on by!

****

Chapter 1: Jihe'to
The first item in the trunk of wonders you’ve found is a sunflower brooch. It’s small and missing a few of its petals, but you can’t help but smile at how cute it is. With no time to further speculate on its potential owner, the echo immediately propels you into your first memory.

Your vision opens to the view of a serene sunset overlooking a grassy field. Thanks to the power of the echo, you seem to be looking through the eyes of the vision’s owner, awakening with a small yawn.
( Read more... )

FFXIV: Making Sense of Loose Change

beginning
next

pebbleinalake

My responses to the

thefridayfive for 6/6/2025.

1. Have you ever been to summer camp?
No.

2. Have you ever made a s'more?
Yes. My family used to have bonfires in one of the outer fields every autumn and we'd roast marshmallows and make s'mores.

3. Have you ever slept under the stars (no tent/tarp)?
No. I'm very much not an outdoorsy person.

4. Have you ever had a member of the opposite sex sleep over at your house?
Yes

5. What type of bed do you have (queen, twin, bunk, etc.)?
Twin

thispatternismine

So bloody sick of grimdark soulslike games holy shit. The aesthetic is always the same. The combat is always the same.

Also the audio on most of these trailers is so badly mixed I can barely make out dialogue, let alone what's being said

I don't know if I'll make it through the whole thing. I'm generally forgiving when it comes to games showcases as I understand not everything is for me & am capable of being happy for other people, & sometimes it's okay for smaller showcases to be more lowkey. But this is giving nowt & it's supposed to be a big blowout. I'm so bored.

Current Mood: bored
Current Music: Summer Games Fest trailers

jazzfish

Going through my books, because it's been a couple years since my last serious purge. Pick up The Fortunate Fall. Note that it's under the author's deadname. Ponder what to do about that: sticky-label on the spine? Shelve it under R?

Open it up. Note that my copy is signed (under the author's deadname). Flip through. Read two and a half pages. Realise I've just booksniped myself. Put it firmly back on the shelf.

Next up, I guess. I was gonna read some of my unreads to see if they're worth keeping / hauling but sometimes the bookshelf speaks.

(I believe Cameron Reed's second novel will be out this fall. FINALLY. I am excited.)

Just finished Michael Swanwick's The Iron Dragon's Daughter. It's ... the trappings are I guess "industrial fantasy." I think Abby described it as nihilistic. I can see where she was coming from but to me it's more about, mm. The process of outgrowing nihilism, maybe.

DONNY: Are these the nazis?
WALTER: No, Donny, these men are nihilists. There's nothing to be frightened of.

Currently reading the sequel, The Dragons of Babel, which starts off in the same nihilistic vein but quickly takes a turn for the at least somewhat more cheerful. I remember liking this one an awful lot when I read it. Looking forward to the third volume after this.

sonofgodzilla

Title: Veritable Pandæmonium
Universe: A Nation of Orugu
Character(s): Asuka, Odagiri Aya, Arashiyama Misa, OCs
Series: in answer | Divine Metal | Reinforcements From the Future | Forever Red | Monster Calendar Worlds: tsukumogami | All Because of You | A Nation of Orugu (I, II) | A Nation of Ogres (I, II, III) | A Nation of Orugu (III, IV, V) | Monster Calendar Worlds: Kaijin | Whisper of Demon | Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger vs Aliens
Rating: U
Warnings: N/A
Summary: With Odagiri Aya in command, she was certain nothing could go wrong.
Length: 1511 words
Author's Notes: external link.

Asuka

( Veritable Pandæmonium )

Current Mood: blah
Current Location: somewhere
Current Music: 聖飢魔II - 白い奇蹟

selenicseas

I think this is probably the longest I've gone without actually coming up with a name for a conlang. I've created more words since my last update, but none of them seem suitable to actually use as a name. If I don't come up with anything in the next month, I'm probably going to just start calling it samara, which is just the word for "language".

After deciding that syllables could end in /t/, I decided to remove that rule. I only had two words will syllables ending in /t/ and I didn't actually like how they looked.

I took the time to work on adjectives and verbs this past week. I decided that adjectives precede nouns, agree in case and number, and are declined like nouns – so they have different declensions depending on if they end in a vowel or consonant. I also worked out comparative and superlative forms of adjectives.

For verbs, I decided they'd be marked for tense and mood. I originally wanted them to be marked for person and number, but then I decided there would be four different verb conjugations, and since this is a fusional language and not agglutinative, I'd have to create way too many verb endings if I marked person and number as well.

Yes, four verb conjugations. There's a conjugation for verbs ending in vowels, one for verbs ending in nasals, one for verbs ending in /s/, and one for verbs ending in approximants. I could have had separate vowel and consonant conjugations like with nouns, but I thought that would be too boring.

The thing I'll be working on next is the pronouns system, which will probably end up being fairly complicated as the culture attached to this conlang has a pretty strict caste system. After that, it's on to numerals.

paperghost

lassarina

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

erinptah

I’ve been working my way through the library’s collection of audiobooks by Cathy Glass, a long-time foster carer in the UK who writes about her experiences with different kids over the years. So here’s a post about some of those.

Most of them have really generic titles (“Cut“, “Neglected“, “A Terrible Secret”, “Girl Alone“, you get the picture), but the actual writing is detailed and engaging. She comes off like exactly the kind of person you’d want in this job: thoughtful and attentive, firm about setting boundaries but patient and tolerant with some pretty gnarly issues, detail-oriented enough to adapt to the new batch of paperwork and scheduling (so much scheduling!) that every case dumps on her. (Obviously this could just be her talking herself up, but I’ll be an optimist and hope it’s true.)

The overall foster system fails these kids in various ways on a regular basis, but there is some comfort if you jump around in the timeline, you see how much it improves over the years. The first book I read was I Miss Mummy, where Cathy’s oldest son is 14, and there are all these procedures and check-ins and reports. Then I jumped back to Cut, where the son is an infant and the kid is her second foster charge ever — and wow, a social worker basically just rolls up to her house and goes “here, this is your problem now.”

( Cathy frequently has to give herself a bunch of ad-hoc education mid-case... )

delphi

Cloudward, Ho! is the newest Dimension 20 campaign of actual-play D&D with its classic cast of comedy improvisers. This one is an aeronautical adventure set in a steampunk universe, about a motley crew who set out on a quest in search of a lost continent and the expedition that disappeared before them. The first episode just came out yesterday, and I really enjoyed it!

Watch on YouTube

( Some Notes About the Premise (Moderate Spoilers) )
I'm looking forward to seeing where the campaign goes from here! Anyone else watching or planning to watch?

intothisshadow

Answers to questions at thefridayfive

1. Have you ever been to summer camp?

Nope. I never wanted to go. I have never liked big groups and crowds, and by the time the school year was over, all I wanted was to was to be by myself alone, or with my friends (1-2 friends), or at the most, when I was in years 1-2, with the small family day care group (2-3 kids in addition to me). And by the time I was in year 3, I had negotiated with my parents that I could be alone at home those weeks my parents weren’t on summer leave. The family day carer was a neighbor and lived in the same apartment building, so Mom and Dad made a deal with her that I can always go to her if I get scared or lonely or anything. I never did - didn’t need to: I loved being alone at home or with my 1-2 close friends at home/the yard/on biking adventures or whatever..

2. Have you ever made a s'more?

Nope, those are not a thing here.

3. Have you ever slept under the stars (no tent/tarp)?

I’m not entirely sure! We used to spend most of the summers camping when I was a kid, with a tent. I vaguely think we might have slept under the stars as a novelty/treat once or twice, but I don’t really remember it. The nights were never that warm in the 80s when we were camping; sleeping in sleeping bags, wearing long johns, inside the tent was just comfortable enough, and rain was likely whenever, so if we did, it was just a special treat when circumstances were just weirdly right!

4. Have you ever had a member of the opposite sex sleep over at your house?

As a kid sleep over party? Nope.

5. What type of bed do you have (queen, twin, bunk, etc.)?

My bed is 120cm x 200cm - no idea how that translates to US sizes. It’s technically wide enough for two, but I’ve slept on that size bed my whole life (except for the 2 years I was living in student housing while doing library studies - that bed was provided by the housing and was 80xm x 200cm and felt way too narrow and cramped - I almost fell off many times, not being used to narrow bed like that.) and if I ever acquire a long-term bed partner, I’d need to buy a bigger bed in order to sleep comfortably. The bed frame is made of wood and is about 25 years old but doesn’t show any sign of wear and tear.

My mattress is quite hard and I love it that way - it feels like it doesn’t give under me, but it does just a little. I love softer mattresses too, but after sleeping on one for more than 2 nights, my lower back starts to hurt and I can hard get up and move. So softer mattresses a nope for me. Last year we had to buy a new mattress and mattress topping, and it was surprisingly difficult! Few places sold only mattresses (and none of the big furniture stores had traditional bed frames for sale, ones like mine is.). Now it’s all jenkkisänky (I think it’s called continental bed in English) - they were all selling the whole damn bed system complete with a frame-mattress-bottom-with-legs, the mattress and the mattress topping! One place was able to order just the mattress and mattress topping for me, finally, because I already have a great wooden frame.

haunted_cherries

Fandom: Final Fantasy XIV
Characters/Pairing: Jihe'to Fashonti (OC), G'raha Tia (Canon), Canon x OC
Rating: Teen (Light angst)
Words: 119
Prompt: ficwip's 3 sentence prompt “First Love and a Last Look”.
Summary: G'raha doesn't want to see Jihe'to's smile disappear, but when we do ever have a choice in the things we want?

Notes: Originally posted to AO3 on 5/3/24 and now being archived here! Original notes: Couldn't let V-day slip by without a tensy bit of angst, NOW COULD I? ;3 Anyways, enjoy!! ^ o^)/

****
No matter how much time had passed, G’raha could always compare Jihe’to to the living personification of a bright, beautiful summer day.

Jihe’to had always been a beacon of love and comfort to everyone he’d come across, soothing the uncertainty of everyone he held dear, rekindling their hope, and reaffirming G’raha’s adoration.

Now, as the End of Days turned the skies blood red and ravaged the land, G’raha could only watch in horror as that beautiful smile was robbed from them and warped into something so sinister, so unlike the beaming Keeper he’d come to know and love, and replaced with whatever the scheming Fashonti matriarch wanted it to be, all in the name of creating a “perfect world”.

haunted_cherries

Fandoms: Twisted Wonderland
Characters: Fafnir Starweaver (OC)
Rating: Teen
Words: 875
Prompts: Break for

fandomocweekly and ficwip's Level Up challenge!
Summary: After waking up from his coma and adjusting to a new "normal", Fafnir takes to his journal to jot down his thoughts.

Notes: Originally posted to AO3 on 5/3/24 and now being archived here! Using "break" since Fafnir is up at em from his coma and his giving himself a break for once HDSJKHDJKS Original Notes: Never written first person POV before, so wanted to try my hand at it with one of my OCs! Enjoy! (Also crossposted to my journal!)

****

The first thing they don’t tell you about being in a coma is how disorienting it can be.
( Read more... )

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All Things Small Web

June 2025

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Page Summary

tarlanx - Fortune Wheel Week 4 - Dramatic Reveal and Dragon Egg
vriddy - Link spam: Enjoying problematic works/authors
fred_mouse - [100 days] Craft project update
svgurl - current fandom events
the_siobhan - nothing matters but the weekend from a Tuesday point of view
linky - Make Art
haunted_cherries - [FFXIV] Making Sense of Loose Change: End
haunted_cherries - [FFXIV] Making Sense of Loose Change: Part 1
pebbleinalake - Friday Five
thispatternismine - Summer Games Fest reaction so far
jazzfish - bookbookbook
sonofgodzilla - FIC: A Nation of Orugu - Veritable Pandæmonium
selenicseas - More updates on the new conlang
paperghost - lol
lassarina - Clair Obscur Liveblog Part Fourteen
erinptah - Erin Reads: the Cathy Glass extended universe
delphi - What's Making Me Happy Today: Cloudward, Ho! ep. 1
intothisshadow - The Friday Five for 6 June 2025
haunted_cherries - [FFXIV] Please Don't Take My Sunshine Away
haunted_cherries - [TWST] Changing Seasons

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