alchemicink | Reading

Wow, vriddy wrote a fic? Wonder what fandom it could be about...............

Good luck, Yuu-san | K-9 | Fujimaru Jin/Hizuki Ren/Kagari Yukito/Oboro Yuushirou | <700 words | rated T

Summary: Fujimaru accidentally discovers a new weakness of Oboro.

Read it on Dreamwidth or AO3.

justonecookbook_feed

Posted by Namiko Hirasawa Chen

https://www.justonecookbook.com/how-to-pack-osechi-ryori/

https://www.justonecookbook.com/?p=90640

How to Pack Osechi Ryori made simple! Explore my 3-tier jubako guide with photos, video, and tips to craft stunning boxes for your Japanese New Year feast.

READ: How to Pack Osechi Ryori in 3-Tier Boxes

https://www.justonecookbook.com/how-to-pack-osechi-ryori/

https://www.justonecookbook.com/?p=90640

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. The comm is really active in all sorts of good ways, which is LOVELY! :D

Commented on goals_on_dw.

Posted & commented on getting_started about whether image links also get redirected when using a rename token. The answer is YES which is pretty cool and good to know :D

Signal boosts:

Someone is asking about the kind of CSS allowed on Dreamwidth over at newcomers, in case any of you have more tips and paths to share.

merriamwebster_feed

https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day/noel-2025-12-25

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 25, 2025 is:

noel • \noh-EL\ • noun

When capitalized, Noel refers to Christmas or the Christmas season. Uncapitalized, noel refers to a Christmas carol.

// We were greeted at the door by a group of carolers singing noels.

// Every year we send our family Christmas cards with our photo enclosed wishing everyone a joyous Noel.

See the entry >

Examples:

“The meeting began with a touch of holiday spirit as members of the Woodland Park High School Madrigals sang three selections. The first was a Noel song with a medieval/renaissance feel that was well matched to their festive costumes. They followed with the popular ‘Carol of the Bells’ and ‘We Wish You a Merry Christmas.’” — Doug Fitzgerald, The Pikes Peak (Colorado) Courier, 9 Dec. 2024

Did you know?

English speakers borrowed noel from the French word noël, which is also used for both the Christmas holiday and a Christmas carol. It can be traced further back to the Latin word natalis, which can mean “birthday” as a noun or “of or relating to birth” as an adjective. (The English adjective natal has the same meaning and is also an offspring of natalis.) Noels were being sung in Latin and French for centuries before English-speakers started using the word to refer to Christmas carols in the 18th century. An early use of noel (spelled Nowel) to mean “Christmas” can be found in the text of the late 14th-century Arthurian legend Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day/noel-2025-12-25

the_exchange_mod posting in

tokuholidayspecials

Works have been revealed for Another Toku Holiday Special 2025!

There are 192 works 70 fandoms in the collection as of reveals, and we will be very happy to welcome any late treats.

Also, we have been made aware that, due to a glitch on AO3, creators may be revealed shortly. If this happens, we will allow them to stay revealed. Otherwise, creators will be revealed on schedule in one week's time.

Thank you to everyone who participated and made this exchange possible, including our absolutely amazing pinch hitters!

Please go, leave some comments, and enjoy the amazing works!

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: excited
Current Music: Want You Back Again

glassesofjustice posting in

startrekholidays

Works will be revealed at 11:59PM EST | 8:59PM PST

the_exchange_mod posting in

tokuholidayspecials

We're on track for reveals in a little over 12 hours, at around midnight EST. But before we get there, here's a few things you can do to make sure that things go as well as possible:

Make sure your gift is going to the right person.
Double-check spelling of your recipient's username and/or pseud, especially if your work is a treat!

Make sure that your work is properly posted.
If your work is still a draft, we can't accept it into the collection! Be sure it's fully posted, and without any glaring errors, so we know it's good to go.

Check your email.
If the mods have noticed any glaring errors, we may have tried to contact you about them. Feel free to email us any questions you may have as well! We're reachable at theexchangemods@gmail.com

Make sure your work is showing up as intended.
Is the whole work there? Has anything been accidentally double-pasted?Are there any notes that you meant to remove before reveals? Is the work edited, and have you posted the latest version? Is the formatting correct?

Keep working on treats!
We'll be welcoming treats to the collection, even after reveals!

Having trouble locating the work you posted? Here's how to find it:

When logged in to your AO3 account, select your icon or "Hi, [username]!" to go to your dashboard.

Select "Collections" from menu at the left or top of your screen.

Select "Manage Collection Items" near the top of your screen, below "[Username]'s Collections".

Use the buttons near the top of the screen, under "Items by [username] in Collections" to find your work.
- It will probably be under "Approved", but if not, check "Awaiting Collection Approval".
- If it's in "Awaiting Collection Approval" and you've posted it more than 24 hours ago, double-check that it's not a draft and that everything is right, and contact us if you have any questions or issues!

Thanks, and we look forward to sharing everything with you tonight!

vriddy

It's hard for me to figure out how to even start this post, because I was just presented with this picture:

A man with fluffy hair with bloodied face holding the cheek of a smoking woman with a bloodied face, text in English

...and I didn't really ask any more questions before reading the manga. Bonus impact for stumbling on it in Japanese because the "kept pet" implied in the verb is delicious, and obviously plays with the K-9/"police dog" title.

Anyway, meet Oboro on the left - he's great - and Ren on the right - she's great. The art is beautiful, and everyone is very pretty.

About the world

Some people have special abilities, most of which are not well understood. Only one thing is known for sure: these abilities manifest after someone commits a crime. For example, the criminal from the first chapter is an arsonist and can control/become fire. (Somewhat unrelated, but this is pretty fun coming in from the BNHA world because it's like a universe in which only bad guys get a quirk.) Here, these abilities are called "sins," haha. In the Japanese, it's simply the kanji for crime with "sin" written in katakana beside it.

This seems pretty simplistic at first glance, but that slowly changes as we drill deeper into the worldbuilding and learn the nuances of these abilities and how they manifest. The implications are deeply fucked up, with often devastating consequences that I'm totally here for as my heart gets shattered again and again.

The story premise

Our plucky detective Ren is selected to join Division 9, a newly created division that pairs a detective with a sin user in order to fight fire with fire -- what could possibly go wrong?! I love her. She kicks so much ass.

Woman with a leg up kicking some dude in the face mid-stride

So, who's our main cast?

( Short character profiles )

Four characters looking way too cool as they step through a broken wall

TOGETHER THEY FIGHT CRIME! More specifically, crime related to sin users. But they also get their asses kicked and handed over to them quite a bit, haha.

( A bit more on the story and on them )

Where to read? How many chapters are out?

( 37 chapters, 3 volumes. You, too, could catch up in a reasonable amount of time! 🫵 )

Bonus scythe, for fellow appreciators of the Rule of Cool

Cross-posted to

fanifesto,

anime_manga,

fourormore (with additional but potentially spoilery OT4 screenshots), also linked to from

polyamships :D

vriddy

I think I'm starting to get it out of my system. Maybe. Not at all eyeing the manga volumes for a reread. This will be fine. I'm fine. We're cool.

Oversight | K-9 | Fujimaru Jin/Hizuki Ren/Kagari Yukito/Oboro Yuushirou | 1.4k words | rated T

Summary: Ren has never questioned where Oboro lives, until now.

Read it on Dreamwidth or AO3.

merriamwebster_feed

https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day/hark back-2025-12-24

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 24, 2025 is:

hark back • \HAHRK-BAK\ • verb

Harking back can be about turning back to an earlier topic or circumstance, as in "a storyteller harking back to his youth," or it can be about going back to something as an origin or source, as in "a style that harks back to the turn of the previous century."

// The dinner conversation harked back to the lunch debate over what counts as a traditional holiday meal.

// The diner's interior decor harks back to the 1950s.

See the entry >

Examples:

"The single harks back to Chenier's heyday when his music was produced on 45s and put into jukeboxes, says [Maureen] Loughran." — Alicia Ault, Smithsonian Magazine, 25 June 2025

Did you know?

Hark, a very old word meaning "to listen," was used as a cry in hunting. The master of the hunt might cry "Hark! Forward!" or "Hark! Back!" The cries became set phrases, both as nouns and verbs. Thus, a "hark back" was a retracing of a route by dogs and hunters, and to "hark back" was to turn back along the path. From its use in hunting, the verb acquired its current figurative meanings concerned with returning to the past. The variants hearken and harken (also very old words meaning "to listen") are also used, with and without back, as synonyms of hark back.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day/hark back-2025-12-24

stepnix posting in

anime_manga

Watch on YouTube

(don't forget to kill the auto-dub)
I enjoyed what I read of the manga! Very excited to see this get an adaptation.

stepnix

Watch on YouTube

(don't forget to kill the auto-dub)
I know what you're thinking: Can I run this in Chuubo's? I'm pleased to say it is the easiest thing in the world to run it in Chuubo's.

vriddy

If I get all the ideas out of my head, then I'll be able to write a mini-promo post for the fandom that doesn't just consist of a couple of screenshots with me pointing and screeching, right?

...Right?! 😨

Looking great | K-9 | Fujimaru Jin/Hizuki Ren/Kagari Yukito/Oboro Yuushirou | 1.6k words | rated T

Summary: After an incident, it's decided that it would be better for the four of them to stay in Akihabara during the investigation.

Read it on Dreamwidth or on AO3.

yourlibrarian posting in

tv_talk

Laptop-TV combo with DVDs on top and smartphone on the desk

Are there things you miss about TV technologies gone by? What about things you definitely don’t?

Alternately, how meaningful is the term "TV" these days given the changes in both method and content?

letzan

High-level stats for week of 2025-12-09 - 2025-12-15

Total works categorized F/F on AO3: 9906 (-145 from last week)

Works I classified F/F: 5442 (-128 from last week) (2335 new, 3107 continued)

0.56% of all 968749 AO3 works I've classified F/F were updated this week

A few callouts this week:

Web series The Amazing Digital Circus returns to the chart after a couple of months away, replacing Honkai: Star Rail.
Hazbin Hotel celebrates 100 consecutive weeks on the chart. Owl House reaches 280 consecutive weeks.
I'm tracking a lot of exchanges that reveal on Christmas, and I'll try to flag any that have a reasonable number of F/F works in my post next week. If there are any exchanges you particularly recommend, let me know about them and I'll make sure to mention them!

( Full top-20 table and description of methodology after the jump )

mific posting in

fancake

Fandom: Game Changers series (Heated Rivalry)
Characters/Pairings: Hayden Pike & Shane Hollander, Shane Hollander/Ilya Rozanov, Hayden Pike/Jackie Pike, Montreal team ensemble
Rating: Mature
Length: 5450
Content Notes: no AO3 warnings apply
Creator Links: gurlsrool on AO3
Themes: Friendship, Five things, Humor, Outsider pov, Established relationship, Canon LGBTQ+ characters

Summary: “I don’t hate him!” Hayden says, which is only true because hate doesn’t quite capture it. No, he despises Rozanov. In his defense, everyone with a pulse and without the last name Hollander does.

Or: 5 times Hayden doesn’t get Shane and Ilya’s relationship, +1 time he does.

Reccer's Notes: This is set just after the end of the Heated Rivalry book so I guess mild spoilers for ep 6 follow (it's really not very spoilery). In the fic, Shane and Ilya have acknowledged their feelings and are exclusive, and Shane's told Hayden, his best friend on the Montreal team. The story focuses on Hayden's incredulity and his conviction that Ilya Rozanov is a giant dick (which Ilya delightedly feeds into). The more Hayden learns about Shane's relationship with Ilya, the more horrified he gets (the bottoming, their mild D/s dynamic). Then, in the sixth part, he sees another side of Ilya entirely. The story's very well written and extremely funny, with brilliant characterization of Hayden, Ilya, and Shane. A ton of fun!

Fanwork Links: fresh out of any good judgment

merriamwebster_feed

https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day/bespoke-2025-12-23

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 23, 2025 is:

bespoke • \bih-SPOHK\ • adjective

Bespoke describes something that is custom-made—that is, made to fit the needs or requirements of a particular person.

// As a tailor, Lana specialized in crafting bespoke clothing for her clients, each piece unique and suited to their tastes.

See the entry >

Examples:

“The vehicles are bespoke machines with every little detail thought of, from embroidered seats to custom floor mats to retro paint jobs.” — Charlie Berrey, SlashGear.com, 10 Nov. 2025

Did you know?

In the English language of yore, the verb bespeak had various meanings, including “to speak,” “to accuse,” and “to complain.” In the 16th century, bespeak acquired another meaning: “to order.” It is from that sense that we get the adjective bespoke, referring to clothes and other things that are ordered before they are made. Bespoke has enjoyed a spike in usage in recent years, perhaps due to consumer trends that champion all things artisanal over those that are prefab.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day/bespoke-2025-12-23