I know hollowbolding and I are virtually alone on team 'Moiraine and Siuan's romantic relationship was over before we saw them meet and Siuan died exactly as and when she should have' but that has never stopped me from making my feelings everyone else's problem anyway. Happy new year? Have a Toni/Mariah icon because my paid time ran out and I am debating whether it's reasonable for me to purchase more despite how much I think the site deserves it, given how little I'm here.

A LONELY TOWER that held the versions of you that thought love would make you a different person, through which you're dragging the ghost of your relationship hoping the remnants and memories of your love is enough to re-animate it in this life, in which you're living when your dear friend almalexia comes to kill you — a fanmix about moiraine, siuan, and the things love doesn't save

i. cornflower blue flower face ii. the scythe the last dinner party iii. the craving kingfisher sky iv. love's souvenir seven spires v. i buried us blackbriar vi. a vampire's view the flower kings vii. if i could madder mortem viii. hide in shade zeal & ardor ix. sun down shores glass hammer x. tower one the flower kings

[ openwhyd ]

( lyrics )

🎧 music

• TBA

📚 books

• Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy

🎥 movies

• Son of the White Mare (1981)

📺 shows

• Mobile Suit Gundam [rewatch]
• Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam [rewatch]
• Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team

🎲 games

• Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel

🎙️ podcasts

• Friends at the Table: Twilight Mirage
• Zen Studies Podcast

For this year, I'm going to try participating in a few things to help nurture and maintain habits related to writing and creative practice. We'll see how they feel!

cultivativity | Welcome & FAQ post

This is a space for cultivating creativity.

This is not set up as a challenge, as that implies competition or accountability to produce something (which are fun activities, and for which there are several other communities available). Rather, this community is organized as a series of modules designed to help build a practice to nurture our creative selves. Do the things you want, ignore the ones that don't.

getyourwordsout | Pledges & Requirements for 2026 Participation
I've never signed up to GYWO before! I decided to try a Habit Pledge. I chose The Excursionist level, which is writing for 180 days over the year (approx 15 days/month). This feels ambitious but not impossible to me, and I think working towards building a habit of regular writing will be more fruitful for me than monitoring my wordcounts.

I'm also going to try doing Fannish 50 again! "Make fifty posts about topics related to fandom. You may set any theme(s) you wish, or pick random topics for each post." The info & sign-up post for 2026 is here.

I dimly remember THE COINLOCKERS but I had no idea that their membership rotated so significantly during the three years they were active. That surely should have been a sign considering the higher bar of entry, the need for all prospective members to not only play but be fairly proficient with their instruments, but, whatever the case, hot off the heels of WWTHYWC!'s band theme, this Akimoto Yasushi idol-group-band weathered a fairly tumultuous storm, even if only for a few years.



Before the debut of the group, however, bass player Hayasaka Tsumugi debuted in the original line-up of Team 8 in 2014 alongside, deep breath, Abe Mei, Okabe Rin, Okubora Chinatsu, Oguri Yui, Oda Erina, Nagano Serika, Fujimura Natsuki, Onishi Momoka, Kuranoo Narumi, Shitao Miu, Cho Kurena, Hamamatsu Riona, Fukuchi Rena, Honda Hitomi, Yokomichi Yuri, the other Yokoyama Yui, and Yoshino Miyu. Like her colleagues, she was there for the first performances of Team 8's revival of PARTY ga Hajumaru yo, appearing on stage at the SKE48 theatre in early August of that year. In September, when the team moved on to performing Aitakatta, Tsumugi was there also, the youngest member of a very young team, a girl who loved omurice and whose oshi was Goto Moe. Like Yoshino Miyu, she was also present on the on the B sides of every AKB release from Kokoro no Placard through to High Tension, as well as outlasting her by one single with the dubious honour of appearing on a B side for Teacher Teacher, Romantic Junbichuu.

When Tsumugi announced her graduation in 2018, there must have been some knowledge of what was coming next, of Akimoto's plans to launch THE COINLOCKERS as an independent idol-group-band. Debuting in December of that year with a significant rotation of members in the three short years in which they were active, THE COINLOCKERS felt like they were trying to capture some of that feeling that bands such as Whiteberry evoked in the late '90s as well as conjuring up that nostalgic feeling of school festival bands. I have no sources to confirm this, but I feel the roots of the project and Akimoto's creative motivation lay with GIVE ME FIVE!, and, even further back than that, with the Team K song, Tomo yo. What is disappointing in terms of Tsumugi's tenure with the group was so short. Before the year was out, Tsumugi had gone on hiatus in order to focus on school, and by the time the band's contract was renewed for 2019, she came back for the big end of year concert at Zepp Tokyo, along with all but thirteen members, she graduated as the record company "restructured" the band in light of sales for the concert not having reached some arbitrary target.

If this sounds gross to you, it's because it is. Already, THE COINLOCKERS were set up not in terms of a "real band" but much more in spirit like Team 8, a large cast of members who could fill in for different parts on different dates. Whilst Tsumugi was on hiatus, there were still Kagami Nozomi, Nakajima Sumire, Yamagishi Uta, Terada Momo, Yoshida Momo, and YURI who played bass in the band, and concerts were far more like idol concerts, consisting of a number of subunits rather than being like a regular band. You can see the impact of Team 8's popularity in this approach, you don't need me to point it out to you. Whatever happened after that 23rd December concert, however, Tsumugi was not a part of it.

It's a sad note to end it on. Tsumugi, who sold herself as being expressionless and tomboyish, made a jump following Team 8's success and it feels like she was both let down by record companies and management as well as maybe overestimating how much she could commit to in light of schoolwork. That really makes me sad, friends. I hope that whatever she is doing now, she is happy doing it. I hope that, from time to time, she still picks up her bass.

snowflake_challenge is currently running throughout the month of January! You can jump in and catch up anytime.

gamechangerhr is a community dedicated to Game Changers book series/Heated Rivalry TV series. Discussions & fanworks on Rachel Reid's other Hockey Romance books are also allowed/welcome.

bookclub_dw is a Monthly Book Club where a host will pick three books, participants vote on them, and everyone reads the winner/discusses later.

moodthemeinayear is a low-pressure community dedicated to creating a custom mood theme

allbingo is running a Public Domain Bingo Fest through the month of January. There are pre-made cards or you can create your own based on the available prompts.

candyheartsex, an exchange focused on both platonic and romantic relationships, is still open for sign-ups until January 7th, 11:59PM EST.

purimgifts, an exchange focused on characters who are at least one of: women, Jewish, or persecuted (preferably by evil viziers), is open for both nominations and sign-ups until January 9th.

rewrite_a_fic is a low-commitment, multi-fandom event dedicated to rewriting a fic you've written before. More info can be found HERE.

fandom_empire is running a Monopoly Challenge. Sign-ups are open until January 15th, 11:59PM UTC.

fancake's theme of the month is: crack treated seriously. Click on the banner below to learn more.



friending_memes is hosting a new one for the New Year!


Click the banner to join us and make some new friends!

Last year, I created more than 20 posts on Dreamwidth. I'm pleased as that surpasses my initial aim of 1 post per month.

To post more in the upcoming months, I'm thinking of:

(01) Getting more used to talking about my obscure interests and fandoms as if everyone knows what I'm talking about. I'd like to create a space more representative of my obsessions rather than only creating one post to announce a new one, as I've been doing so far 😬 I want to get out of the digital marketing mindset of chiefly posting for engagement which is different from simply creating a semi-public digital personal space.

(02) Try out solutions/routines for saving, resizing and uploading posts here to complement my written commentaries and the like. I've managed to embed images here in the past, but not often enough to become more efficient in carrying out the steps involving switching between apps and softwares, depending on whether I'm blogging with my phone or computer. It seems too much like a hassle, but I remain motivated anyway to think up posts with images since I like colour and pretty pictures, especially more since I got back into graphic editing last year.

(03) Figure out how to allocate my blogging energy among creating community posts, entering discussions on Dreamwidth and just posting on my own blog. These activities call for different approaches to communicating, yet they seem to deplete the same kind of energy.