Freak energy

Over at meta_warehouse, osteophage made a post about a tumblr poll that was going around regarding why fandom is "quieter" now. The tumblr results were surprising to me. Fandom seems plenty "active", with AO3 being such a behemoth that is known in mainstream culture. But it's definitely harder to find community when the mega-websites available aren't really built for finding small niche places to chill and talk. I love AO3 for what it is, but it's not a place to gather and meet others.

I participated in bookclub_dw last month and read The Anomaly by Michael Rutger. I was excited to participate and read something I wouldn't have chosen on my own! But the book was meh. In the beginning it was a neat adventure story, and then the discovery of the cave was creepy at first, but I was disappointed by the ending.

I finished Defending Jacob. I appreciated the legal parts & I could tell this book was written by a lawyer. The characters were SO vivid and I was on the edge of my seat. ( spoilers )

I read Half His Age too. I really enjoy McCurdy's writing style. The characters just explode off the page. It didn't hit as hard as her memoir but for a coming of age novel, it really worked. The mommy/daddy issues to hyper-sexuality pipeline was on full display.

I read The Deep Sky because of colls' post about it and I loved it! It's my favorite book on this list. The space mystery was so captivating, and all of the details of the mission woven in with the flashbacks were great. I loved the main character: she had a tragic backstory, she was grappling with her nationality/ethnicity, and she was working on her relationships with her friends and her mom in a way that I totally related to. People were only allowed on the mission if they could carry a child, but the author included nonbinary people and trans men in such a seamless way. This book reminded me of Ender's Game but with more diverse characters. Beautiful (extinct) birds as metaphors!! Also, it wasn't a romance but I was shipping Ruth/Asuka by the end. I am definitely going to look up more books by this author.

Currently reading Heated Rivalry!

BEHOLD the fic adastreia wrote for me for Marvel Trumps Hate! I wanted something gritty and a little fucked up exploring how Steve and Nat might have helped each other get through the blip, and I love love the result ♥ Steve is the king at compartmentalizing but good thing Nat sees right through him. There's no onscreen non-con but there is past bad-guys-made-them-do-it that is discussed a bit [Please do mind the tags & feel free to ask me if you aren't sure about some of the tags].

dam burst (7647 words) by adastreia
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Natasha Romanov
Characters: Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanov (Marvel)
Additional Tags: The Blip | The Five Years Between Thanos's Snap and Hulk's Snap, Survivor Guilt, Awkward Conversations, Bad BDSM Etiquette, Fingers in Mouth, underwear in mouth, Spanking, Slapping, Gun Kink, Object Insertion, Not Romantic but Not Totally Platonic Either?, We-Only-Have-Each-Other Vibes, Hints of Past Steve/Tony, Past Sexual Assault, Past Bad-Guys-Made-Them-Do-It, Under-negotiated Kink, Dom/sub, Switching, Honor Bondage, Handcuffs
Summary:

Steve had spent a lot of the last ten years mourning the life that he'd lost. Mourning that he'd been dead—or as close to it as possible without actually dying—while everybody else had moved forward, settled down, and passed on. Now that he was the one left behind, he spent most of his time wishing that he, too, had disappeared into nothingness.

Meetings at the VA helped a bit. Picking up his sketchbook and settling in at the park to people watch had been nice during the summer, but the activity didn't hold the same appeal in the fall wind. Still, as he peered through the glass at the passersby, he couldn't help but wish he had something other than a mostly-finished bagel to occupy his hands. Without the distraction, it was all too easy for his mind to steer him in the direction of what exactly he'd been dreaming about when he'd been abruptly awoken that morning.

Maybe it was time to pay Nat a visit.

I watched the finale! Overall I'm so impressed and I'm so glad the fanbase made this happen! I'm doing a rewatch already because I feel like I did not catch everything the first time, but I'm cutting my thoughts into two different posts.

( Part I under the cut )

Very late for coll's vid posting challenge, but here is post one! HBO War Vids on Tumblr hosted a video valentines event and there are some fantastic vids. They didn't include GenKill though :( All of these links go to Tumblr.

Band of Brothers
Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes) by airborneinfantry | Bull/Johnny
A really fun look at their whole relationship over the course of the series :D

Heaven's Gate by oneawkwardcookie | Webgott
Great use of the song, I got chills!

Orange Colored Sky by rockpaperscissuhs | Speirton
Hee! This amused me - perfect song choice for them. Also how did I not notice the part where Speirs pats Lip's leg before he keeps running into Foy??

Twilight by tinglingfuckingsensation | Renée x Eugene x Babe
The vidder does a great job constructing a whole OT3 timeline that totally works.

Masters of the Air
Someone New by whiskeytangofxckers | Croz/Rosie
Love the editing - it's a bit of a sexy AU! The way the vid ends basically gives whole new meaning to a canon scene, which was so clever.

Finally watched the vids in the 2025 festivids collection! Here are my favorites:

Blush | Challengers | by BlueshiftOfDeath
•Ahhhh the way the vid builds momentum with the song is so good. I love the way the vidder mixed in the hotel scene with everyone at the Challenger - like it was Tashi's turn to be impressed and she was not disappointed.

A Good Son Never Dies | Hades Video Game | by hartknyx
•The play-throughs are so pretty! The editing is really clever and I loved how the editor worked with the music. And Meg and Than make appearances too :D After watching, I really wanted to go play the game again.

Take A Chance On Me | Hacks (TV) | by periru3
•This captures Kayla and Jimmy and their hilarious relationship and its progression over the course of the show. Jimmy's face journeys crack me up.

who wants to live forever? | 17776: What Football Will Look Like in the Future - Jon Bois | by magsintherain
•I was so impressed with how the vidder was able to use text and football montages to convey the spirit of the source material! This one had me deep in my feels about the human spirit. And I believe the source mentions 2026, so what a perfect year for a vid about it!

Turn Tables | Multi-fandom/Civil Rights Movement | by eruthros
•A vid that got me deep in the feels about the human spirit, but in a completely different way. Please mind the tags. I wasn't familiar with all of the sources in the vid, but the editing is overall very uplifting. The power is with the people!

The Greatest | Pole Vault RPF | by Isagel
•I had never heard of Emmanouil Karalis until I watched this, but he seems like such a joyous person! I love the vid intro, and then all of the camaraderie among the pole vaulters was so great to see. I can't stop grinning the entire time I'm watching this.

My episode 10 notes didn't get saved :/ But I loved the scene where Lito is at the audition, and Sun really needs his help, and he ends up making the sidecar for her and saving the day. I thought for sure he blew the audition, but then Sun of all people helps him channel that loneliness. Really lovely twist, and it was nice to see Sun and Lito connect when I don't think they have scenes together very often.

The hollywood party! It was so fascinating to see it be so overwhelming for Lito, who I already think of as such a big movie star. The show does a great job of capturing how new things feel now that Lito is trying to be himself and not just some character all the time, but this party really was all about playing your part and being fake. I loved the beautiful scene at the beach with Hernando, where Lito really could feel like himself.

It was so sad to see Capheus' lovely moment get ruined but the speech was great. He really has some of the best lines.

( Episode 11 )

Connor Storrie hosted season 51, episode 13 of SNL! Someone over at gamechangerhr posted the playlist of the whole episode. I think he did a great job, plenty of laughs and silliness to go around. They brought out Knight and Keller from the USA women's hockey team during the monologue! I know the US has very little to celebrate right now but at least we got women's hockey and Alysa Liu. Very proud that Knight and Keller got such applause and that the Hughes brothers took the deserved jokes well enough.

Watch on YouTube

The funniest sketch wasn't even in the episode though! Here it is, with a Rozanov mention :D

Watch on YouTube

Very cute how they included Hudson in the ice skating sketch. And the stripper sketch was also hilarious even though morbid and NSFW.

For the stuff I love challenge #1: my favorite live action and animated films! I'm sure I'm forgetting some (because I do love watching movies), but these are the ones that came to mind when I first saw this challenge. The links are to the trailers on Youtube.

( list under here )

Episode 8: possibly my favorite fight scene yet!
( more under here )

Episode 9: A wedding!
( under here )

Most of these are of Shane Hollander from episodes 1 and 2. There's also one of Conner Storrie at the Golden Globes.


( the rest under here )