Reading

Current Mood: hungry

ONE DIRECTION: LEAVE IT TO THE BREEZE

Fandom: One Direction
Pairings/Characters: Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan/Zayne Malik
Rating: Explicit
Length: 81,459 words / 9.5hr podfic
Creator Links: hattalove on AO3, frecklebomb on AO3
Theme: Food & Cooking

Summary: Louis couldn’t be prouder of his bake, but there’s something—there’s something. Something about Harry Styles and the earnest way he measures, pours, mixes, scrapes. Something about the tip of his tongue poking out of his mouth as he knocks the air out of his batter.

Or, a Great British Bake Off AU in which Louis cares about winning and winning only, Harry is made of sunshine and rainbow sprinkles, and Niall sticks his nose into other people's business. Also featuring Liam as Louis's best friend-slash-concerned mother, and Zayn as a macaron connoisseur.

Reccer's Notes: I love GBBO AUs to pieces and this is one of the very best I've found. This story features characters in their early 20s who love baking for a variety of reasons. They are mostly charming but can be very stressed and vulnerable. They find joy in being good at what they can do with batter and dough, but can also be tough on themselves as well as others. IOW you've seen these characters on the show itself at times. : )

There's an enemies-to-lovers progression happening for one half of the main pairing that is exasperating and very human until it reaches the point where it's also very hot and very fun. The writer deserves a cake stand and a big bouquet for managing to weave all these elements together into a very satisfying story.

There's a marvelous podfic version of the story by frecklebomb as well. It's one of my favorite listens.

Fanwork Links: Leave It To the Breeze by hattalove, podfic by frecklebomb

The Friday Five for 5 September 2025

These questions were originally suggested by

rawee1.

1. When did you "lose your innocence"?

2. Would you say you have an accent?

3. Do you hope to be married (married again if divorced)?

4. If you could take one technology to a desert island (the obvious satellite phone excluded), what would it be?

5. What is the last activity you bought a ticket for?

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.**

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my desk

Entry tags:

Check-In Post - Sept 4th 2025

Hello to all members, passers-by, curious onlookers, and shy lurkers, and welcome to our regular daily check-in post. Just leave a comment below to let us know how your current projects are progressing, or even if they're not.

Checking in is NOT compulsory, check in as often or as seldom as you want, this community isn't about pressure it's about encouragement, motivation, and support. Crafting is meant to be fun, and what's more fun than sharing achievements and seeing the wonderful things everyone else is creating?

There may also occasionally be questions, but again you don't have to answer them, they're just a way of getting to know each other a bit better.

This Week's Question: Share your favourite crafting tip, if you have one.

If anyone has any questions of their own about the community, or suggestions for tags, questions to be asked on the check-in posts, or if anyone is interested in playing check-in host for a week here on the community, which would entail putting up the daily check-in posts and responding to comments, go to the Questions & Suggestions post and leave a comment.

I now declare this Check-In OPEN!

Current Mood: anxious

sad dirty elder millennial commie seeks friends for virtual coffee

Name: Mary Cuntrarian or Kat, my real nickname. She/They

Age: near 40

I mostly post about: Right now my journal is new so I'm not exactly sure but I haven't written anything since about 2015. I'm mostly posting stream of consciousness thoughts and things that won't leave my brain like themes in fiction and in life. I might make my journal friends-only soon since that's a thing I can do and write things that are more personal because my life is sort of a mess at the moment and I need to write it out. I'm an artist and I've been putting a lot of effort into my art career recently so I know I'll be writing about my process and struggles there.

My hobbies are: I dabble in all kinds of painting and crafts, but mostly watercolor and ink. I crochet, do some embroidery, I'm relearning web design and have started making web pages as art and for fun. I used to play more video games but nothing has caught my interest lately but I have played Disco Elysium, Fallout 76, Stardew Valley, Breath of the Wild, some GTA Online, Animal Crossing (Pocket Camp, but it counts!) and other random rpgish games. I also have been playing a lot of Dungeons and Dragons lately, and I love coming up with characters! Trying to get back into writing, right now just blogging but maybe fiction and poetry soon. I don't know if I'll write fanfic, I have started making icons again and I think I'll have fully regressed into my old LJer self if I write fanfic again. Which might not be BAD.

My fandoms are: Currently I have some hyperfixations but I hesitate to call them fandoms in the old fashioned way. I'm less obsessed with things than I used to be but I will say my old fangirl tendencies have popped up a little again.

Right now I'm into The Matrix movies including Resurrections, Neo/Trinity might make me read fic again and I'm also watching Sense8 for the first time and I'm really liking it so I'm in a Wachowski Sisters kinda mood.

I love AEW wrestling and I'll list my favorite wrestlers for you if you care. lol

I'm also watching Legends of Tomorrow and almost done with it, pretty into it and I love Constantine.

I recently read the Southern Reach series and could talk about those books forever. Jeff Vandermeer and Edward Carey are my favorite living authors with Shirley Jackson being my favorite classic writer.

Music I'm fannish about is Lord Huron and Tyler the Creator. I'm into indie hip hop and I've gotten into riot grrrl music for the first time recently.

I'm looking to meet people who: Just want to talk and connect? No bullshit, just sharing random cool thoughts and ideas. I'm a stoner, can we start an internet blunt rotation? lol

I've seen a lot of people saying this online recently but I'm looking for that old internet feeling again. I made a Neocities page, I want to talk to people about shit again and not just tweet a few sentences and hope it gets likes.

My posting schedule tends to be: Sporadic as of late but I'm going to post more now that I'm here. I was posting on tumblr here and there but I felt like there were no conversations to be had there. I'm aiming for once a week at least.

When I add people, my dealbreakers are: No bigotry, no terfs, no AI worshippers, MAGA-heads or generally fuckery. I'm basically a dirty commie and I'm not too afraid to talk about it so if that makes you uncomfortable oh well.

Before adding me, you should know: I'm currently struggling quite a bit in life, lost a lot of my agency and control because of lack of money, lost my apartment, and my general sense of self so I might talk about that at times. I'm disabled and queer, neurodivergent and cannot find a job to save my life and currently live with my partner and their family which is rough. If you don't want to hear about my personal bullshit from time to time, I'm probably not the person to follow.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my desk

Entry tags:

Check-In Post - Sept 3rd 2025

haven't done this in a long time

Name: Jack/Jackdaw

Age:44

I mostly post about: writing, life, parenting, school, work, sometimes politics, sometimes other hobbies

My hobbies are: writing, drawing, web stuff, reading, misc fiber arts

My fandoms are: at the moment, Fourth Wing with a side of the Untamed and All For the Game

I'm looking to meet people who: do interesting things, share interesting facts, recommend interesting books, etc... mostly I'm just looking to add some people to my friends page.

My posting schedule tends to be: sporadic. sometimes it can be multiple times a week, and sometimes I will absolutely forget dreamwidth exists.

When I add people, my dealbreakers are: life is too short to deal with people who just want to argue with me. I'm trans and neurodivergent and pagan and a parent and if any of those would bother you, well, now you know.

Before adding me, you should know: two unrelated but occasionally controversial things: we're a plural system and we still mask in crowded public spaces. Neither comes up often on the blog but both have turned out to be dealbreakers for other people before.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my desk

Entry tags:

Check-In Post - Sept 2nd 2025

i mean lots of complaining that it hasn't rained

Name: Keplers_angels. I answer to Trudy, but it's not my name.

Age: 46

I mostly post about: I mostly write to make myself real. And to stun people with my wordery. To give consolation. (or wound) And to figure it out.... Been journaling a long time so there are shifts in topic climate but generally it's a lot of poetry and poeticity on sex and angst with smatterings of perimenopause, breastlessness, and feminism, interpersonal relationships... what to do with my life?! existential and metaphysical drama.... I don't shy away from much-- I come to confess. There will be adult content. There may be mathematics, politics, pain, complaints and exhortations, poems and poems and poems and lots of complaining that it hasn't rained. (In general though, my posts are usually much more readable than this is.)

My hobbies are: This. This is my hobby. Outside of work, which is a whole thing, this. I write. I try to make myself submit poems to stuff. I read books, I waste untold hours on fb, I'm learning to sext, I practice yoga, I over analyze things and am pretentious and arrogant except when I'm in joyful denial or drowning in insecurity. In short, I tell the truth about myself -brutally- but I'm not a very reliable narrator.... what was the question again?

My fandoms are: I don't fandom here. But I lived very happily in Man From UNCLE fandom for most of a decade. It saved my life. Sometimes I'll still do an erotic little fandom vignette but fandom's not why I'm here.

I'm looking to meet people who: write similar, or completely different, kinds of things. Mostly I'm looking for my early aughts LJ experience back. I want people who write with emotion and who will read and comment on my posts as I will read and comment on theirs. If you're not going to read your friends page then I don't want you on mine.

My posting schedule tends to be: In 2025 it's been pretty every-day-ish. (at least weekly, usually more) Which pleases me and I hope it will last. I am not *as* punctual with my friends page and comments but I always catch up-- weekly give-or-take.

When I add people, my dealbreakers are: stalking. violating my privacy or anonymity. I'm not opposed in principle to friends of different belief systems to mine but of course, we all have limits, and I'm not going to censor my own posts to avoid those kinds of things. Content wise, if you post something I can't abide, I'll unfriend. But I don't like my echo-chamber to be too constrictive.

(no subject)

Name: Katie

Age: In my 40s.

I mostly post about: I mostly post about life, work, going to school, my writing, concerts, music, the sims, graphics, and book reviews.

My hobbies are:reading, writing, the sims, hiking, concerts, hanging with family and friends

My fandoms are: I am not in any fandoms. I used to be in LOST. I am more into music which is Jamie Cullum, Linkin Park, My Chemical Romance, Britney Spears, Fall Out Boy and a lot more.

I'm looking to meet people who: Those with similar interest

My posting schedule tends to be: I don't have a schedule.

When I add people, my deal breakers are: People who aren't nice to others, racists, fascist, bigots

Before adding me, you should know:I do not add minors.

Entry tags:

Batman: Say Uncle by Megaerakles

Fandom: Batman
Pairings/Characters: Jason Todd, Tim Drake
Rating: teen
Length: 46k
Creator Links:

Megaerakles
Theme: food, fork in the road AU, domestic, family, fixit, gen, happy endings, secret identity reveal,

Summary: Tim is prepared to take the steps necessary to ensure that Bruce will not feel obligated to adopt Tim when a comatose Jack Drake inevitably dies. But what could be better than preventing Bruce from ending up with a son he doesn't want? Bringing back the one he does.

Jason agrees to the Replacement's stupid, stupid plan to invite some strange adult man he's never met to come live with him, if only to keep the idiot alive long enough for him to serve his purpose in the Great Red Hood Revenge Scheme.

Might this new roommate situation have an impact on either of their worldviews? Surely not...

Reccer's Notes: Both Tim and Jason are oblivious idiots in the best way in this. And Jason shows love through cooking (and teaching how to cook).

Fanwork Links: Say Uncle

Entry tags:

MCU: Dinner In Other Languages by tielan

Fandom: MCU
Pairings/Characters: Steve Rogers/Maria Hill
Rating: Gen
Length: 3107 words
Creator Links:

tielan
Theme: food, working together, friends with benefits, female characters,

Summary: Maria can manage professional colleagues with Rogers, but she values her place in S.H.I.E.L.D more.

Reccer's Notes: Tielan's specialty is female characters who get overlooked by the rest of fandom, and I love the way she writes Maria Hill: a complex woman doing a difficult job in a world that doesn't respect her. And I love the way she writes Steve: a man who deeply and sincerely respects (and falls for) competent women.

Fanwork Links: Dinner In Other Languages

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my desk

Entry tags:

Check-In Post - Sept 1st 2025

Current Music: "Shadows" - Twin Tribes

Are you also wondering how it's September 1st?

Name: Lins

Age: The answer to life, the universe and everything (42)

I post: Snippets of writing, fanfics, ruminations, random thoughts, journal entries, notes about what I'm reading, watching or playing.

Hobbies: Writing, reading, artsy things (sketching, gelli prints, collage, etc.), video games (Minecraft, Fallout, TES, Stardew, Dishonored, and more), hiking, swimming, wandering... I could go on.

Fandoms: Currently: Star Wars (I live in the Clone Wars era for the most part); Skyrim; Fallout; Cyberpunk 2077.

Looking to meet people who: Have similar interests, share their thoughts, ruminations, talk about their passions, can commiserate on how we could do better as a species because *gestures broadly*

My posting schedule is: Sporadic. I've had this journal for years (it's an import of my old LiveJournal which I started in 2001) but I've long been on other social media, much of which I've deleted over the last year. I'm working on getting back into blogging and reducing the time I spend on places like Reddit.

Before adding me, you should know: I'm a lefty. I don't plan to post about politics here (I tend to do that elsewhere) but I reserve the right to vent on occasion.

I'm an atheist. (I don't go out of my way to harsh anyone's personal spirituality but I am critical of religious institutions and this does affect how I navigate the world.)

Reading and posting may be sporadic as I work on parting from other social media and reviving my blogging and creative writing.

Dealbreakers are: The usual -isms and phobias. Trump voters. Nazis. AI devotees. General assholes. (Wheaton's Law, eh?) Tl;dr: We can debate pineapple on pizza (I'm pro), we will not debate human rights and wellbeing.

Entry tags:

Sherlock Holmes: Tea, Coffee, and a Bite of Beef by MadamzelleG

Fandom: Sherlock Holmes (Books/Granada)
Pairings/Characters: Holmes/Watson
Rating: G
Length: 1114 words
Creator Links: MadamzelleG
Theme: food & cooking

Summary: Holmes never orders dinner for himself, but Watson has long since stopped asking why. Instead, he allows the quiet ritual to unfold—Holmes sipping his coffee, stealing a bite here and there from Watson’s plate with effortless precision. In the warm glow of the Café Royal, amidst the murmur of conversation and the clink of silverware, an unspoken understanding lingers between them: Holmes takes, and Watson never minds.

Reccer's Notes: An intimate little scene of Watson and Holmes dining out together. With some exploration of Holmes' canon issues around food, but not in clinical way, more like Watson observing Holmes.

Fanwork Links: Ao3

Entry tags:

Round 178: Food & Cooking

Photograph of steel spoons and spices in a dramatic setting with added text that gives it the look of a gourmet magazine cover: September 2025. Food & Cooking, at Fancake. Steel teaspoons are arranged in an elogated oval to suggest a fish, with the bowls acting as scales and some of the handles left visible to create the fins and tail, giving the creature a spiky appearance. The concave bowls are dusted with a powdery orange spice for color and one spoon at the front of the fish is filled with a coarse black spice to create an eye. The fish is on a black surface with a rough texture and around it are three skinny green peppers, a mound of salt, a mound of orange spice, and a dipping bowl filled with a clear amber liquid.

Our theme for September is food & cooking!

The tag for this round is: theme: food & cooking

If you're just joining us, be sure to check out our policy on content notes. Content notes aren't required, but they're nice to include in your recs, especially if a fanwork has untagged content that readers may wish to know about in advance. Because food can be a sensitive subject, you might want to indicate things like disordered eating, food allergies, dieting, weight loss or gain, food policing, fatphobia, and body shaming.

( Rules! )

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( Promote this round! )

Reblog on Tumblr | Reskeet on Bluesky | Retoot on Mastodon

Code deploy happening shortly

Per the dw_news post regarding the MS/TN blocks, we are doing a small code push shortly in order to get the code live. As per usual, please let us know if you see anything wonky.

There is some code cleanup we've been doing that is going out with this push but I don't think there is any new/reworked functionality, so it should be pretty invisible if all goes well.

Mississippi site block, plus a small restriction on Tennessee new accounts

A reminder to everyone that starting tomorrow, we are being forced to block access to any IP address that geolocates to the state of Mississippi for legal reasons while we and Netchoice continue fighting the law in court. People whose IP addresses geolocate to Mississippi will only be able to access a page that explains the issue and lets them know that we'll be back to offer them service as soon as the legal risk to us is less existential.

The block page will include the apology but I'll repeat it here: we don't do geolocation ourselves, so we're limited to the geolocation ability of our network provider. Our anti-spam geolocation blocks have shown us that their geolocation database has a number of mistakes in it. If one of your friends who doesn't live in Mississippi gets the block message, there is nothing we can do on our end to adjust the block, because we don't control it. The only way to fix a mistaken block is to change your IP address to one that doesn't register as being in Mississippi, either by disconnecting your internet connection and reconnecting it (if you don't have a static IP address) or using a VPN.

In related news, the judge in our challenge to Tennessee's social media age verification, parental consent, and parental surveillance law (which we are also part of the fight against!) ruled last month that we had not met the threshold for a temporary injunction preventing the state from enforcing the law while the court case proceeds.

The Tennesee law is less onerous than the Mississippi law and the fines for violating it are slightly less ruinous (slightly), but it's still a risk to us. While the fight goes on, we've decided to prevent any new account signups from anyone under 18 in Tennessee to protect ourselves against risk. We do not need to block access from the whole state: this only applies to new account creation.

Because we don't do any geolocation on our users and our network provider's geolocation services only apply to blocking access to the site entirely, the way we're implementing this is a new mandatory question on the account creation form asking if you live in Tennessee. If you do, you'll be unable to register an account if you're under 18, not just the under 13 restriction mandated by COPPA. Like the restrictions on the state of Mississippi, we absolutely hate having to do this, we're sorry, and we hope we'll be able to undo it as soon as possible.

Finally, I'd like to thank every one of you who's commented with a message of support for this fight or who's bought paid time to help keep us running. The fact we're entirely user-supported and you all genuinely understand why this fight is so important for everyone is a huge part of why we can continue to do this work. I've also sent a lot of your comments to the lawyers who are fighting the actual battles in court, and they find your wholehearted support just as encouraging and motivating as I do. Thank you all once again for being the best users any social media site could ever hope for. You make me proud and even more determined to yell at state attorneys general on your behalf.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my desk

Entry tags:

Check-In Post - Aug 31st 2025

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my desk

Entry tags:

Check-In Post - Aug 30th 2025

Entry tags:

POI: Love and Marriage by astolat

Fandom: Person of Interest
Characters/Pairings: John Reese/Harold Finch, Lionel Fusco, Jos Carter, Bear
Rating: Explicit
Length: 4697
Creator Links: astolat on AO3, silverkat1620 on Audiofic Archive, kalakirya on Audiofic Archive
Themes: Marriage of Convenience, Friends to lovers

Summary: "Harold," John said, "are you asking me to marry you for your money?"
"Well, Mr. Reese," Harold said, "given how much of it you've spent already, I don't really see how you can complain."

Reccer's Notes: This story is deeply based in canon and yet, despite having only a partial grasp of the show and never having watched more than a couple of seasons, I still find it easy to follow, and it packs an emotional punch. The reason for the marriage of convenience this time is financial, to strengthen John's cover story and explain a recent massive outlay of funds. This isn't one of those stories where there's a prolonged slow burn after they marry - despite the pragmatic reason and their initial obliviousness, they're kissing like it's their job even before the celebrant pronounces them hitched. The characterisation is perfect, and there's a wonderful original character in Miriam Hechel. This fic is a gut punch in the best way on a number of levels - from unexpected attendees at the wedding, to John's catharsis afterwards, to the very end when it seems someone powerful in the shadows made sure their wedding day was undisturbed. It's a lovely story, beautifully written, and there are no less than two excellent podfics.

Fanwork Links:
Love and Marriage - the text
Love and Marriage - podfic by silverkat1620
Love and Marriage - podfic by kalakirya