Challenge #10: Big Mood (Board)
CHOOSE SOMETHING YOU LOVE AND CREATE A MINI MOOD COLLECTION OF THREE (or more) ITEMS THAT EVOKE YOUR FEELINGS ABOUT IT.
I love pixel art and retro games. I'm posting a bunch of my old piccies drawn during my attempt at a Pixel Art Daily challenge. (Now I'm learning in a more organized way.)
( a bunch of images under cut )
Heated Rivalry: All I Do is Stay Winning by Ragazza_Guasto
Jan. 20th, 2026 06:46 pmFandom: Heated Rivalry
Characters/Pairings: Shane Hollander/Ilya Rozanov, Cliff Marleau, Connors
Rating: Mature
Length: 5144
Content Notes: no AO3 warnings apply. Descriptions of illness, choking, vomiting.
Creator Links: Ragazza_Guasto on AO3
Themes: Crack treated seriously, Pining, Getting back together, Canon LGBTQ+ characters, Angst with a happy ending
Summary: “Can you believe it? How the hell did he end up bagging her?”
Ilya stared, brain not comprehending what his body already seemed to, that Hollander was dating-
“Rose fuckin’ Landry! How does the lamest guy in the League-”
He knew that smile. He thought it was for him, just for him. But it wasn't.
“No,” he whispered. His stomach spasmed.
“You good, Roz?”
Why would he- How could he-
They were holding hands…
“Rozanov? What the fuck?”
He jumped up from the table and stumbled for the front door, just barely making it through before the first mass of petals came up. He heaved as he ran, trying desperately to get away from the pavement, somewhere he could hide what was happening.
Unfortunately, his teammates had followed, because of course they would. He saw a photo of Shane Hollander holding hands with a movie star and promptly threw up.
Who wouldn't be curious?
Reccer's Notes: Hanahaki disease, where a sufferer of unrequited love starts bringing up flowers, has to be one of the crackiest tropes ever. In this story Ilya develops Hanahaki after seeing the pics of Shane going out with Rose Landry. But it's not some gently romantic fluttering of petals from his lips, it's bloodily bringing up a hard, painful tulip bulb, then more flowers, more bulbs. I guess the trope always has a potentially serious outcome (death vs requited love) but to me the "treated seriously" aspects here are the medical details and treatment, the painful and unromantic way the disease affects Ilya, and the way the fic cleverly incorporates his family history, via his mother. Ilya gets very sick indeed before Shane finds out, with inevitable results. Well written, and a great read.
Fanwork Links: All I Do is Stay Winning
All I Do is Stay Winning (podfic by sd_ryan)
Characters/Pairings: Shane Hollander/Ilya Rozanov, Cliff Marleau, Connors
Rating: Mature
Length: 5144
Content Notes: no AO3 warnings apply. Descriptions of illness, choking, vomiting.
Creator Links: Ragazza_Guasto on AO3
Themes: Crack treated seriously, Pining, Getting back together, Canon LGBTQ+ characters, Angst with a happy ending
Summary: “Can you believe it? How the hell did he end up bagging her?”
Ilya stared, brain not comprehending what his body already seemed to, that Hollander was dating-
“Rose fuckin’ Landry! How does the lamest guy in the League-”
He knew that smile. He thought it was for him, just for him. But it wasn't.
“No,” he whispered. His stomach spasmed.
“You good, Roz?”
Why would he- How could he-
They were holding hands…
“Rozanov? What the fuck?”
He jumped up from the table and stumbled for the front door, just barely making it through before the first mass of petals came up. He heaved as he ran, trying desperately to get away from the pavement, somewhere he could hide what was happening.
Unfortunately, his teammates had followed, because of course they would. He saw a photo of Shane Hollander holding hands with a movie star and promptly threw up.
Who wouldn't be curious?
Reccer's Notes: Hanahaki disease, where a sufferer of unrequited love starts bringing up flowers, has to be one of the crackiest tropes ever. In this story Ilya develops Hanahaki after seeing the pics of Shane going out with Rose Landry. But it's not some gently romantic fluttering of petals from his lips, it's bloodily bringing up a hard, painful tulip bulb, then more flowers, more bulbs. I guess the trope always has a potentially serious outcome (death vs requited love) but to me the "treated seriously" aspects here are the medical details and treatment, the painful and unromantic way the disease affects Ilya, and the way the fic cleverly incorporates his family history, via his mother. Ilya gets very sick indeed before Shane finds out, with inevitable results. Well written, and a great read.
Fanwork Links: All I Do is Stay Winning
All I Do is Stay Winning (podfic by sd_ryan)
TOO MANY FEELINGS (and nowhere to put them), so I've been participating in
threesentenceficathon and writing fanfic for the first time in, oh, 20 years?
Fills (in no particular order):
Secret Garden, Dickon/Mary, "April is the cruelest month/breeding lilacs out of the dead land"
Star Trek, Any F/F, otherworldly
Narnia, any, assign a dnd class to a character
Sinners, Stack/Mary, survivors
Any, any, He died alone. The neighbors buried him.
The Darkangel, Aeriel/Erin, star (or planet) gazing
Narnia, any, My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun
Grey's Anatomy, George, his last thoughts before he died
Narnia, Susan arrives in the true Narnia
The Left Hand of Darkness, Genly Ai/Estraven, nightfall
Alien/Aliens, Ellen Ripley, haunted by everyone she couldn't save
Silmarillion/LOTR, any, came back wrong
Knives Out & any fandom, any, can Benoit Blanc solve the case in this canon?
Any, any, Cowboy AU (I went with Macbeth)
Am genuinely sort of impressed with myself that most of 'em are only 3 sentences (however tortured those sentences are).
Will update as I fill more, probably. Have left exactly two (2) prompts, have fun finding them (if that's your thing), they're for Weird Shit.
Fills (in no particular order):
Secret Garden, Dickon/Mary, "April is the cruelest month/breeding lilacs out of the dead land"
Star Trek, Any F/F, otherworldly
Narnia, any, assign a dnd class to a character
Sinners, Stack/Mary, survivors
Any, any, He died alone. The neighbors buried him.
The Darkangel, Aeriel/Erin, star (or planet) gazing
Narnia, any, My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun
Grey's Anatomy, George, his last thoughts before he died
Narnia, Susan arrives in the true Narnia
The Left Hand of Darkness, Genly Ai/Estraven, nightfall
Alien/Aliens, Ellen Ripley, haunted by everyone she couldn't save
Silmarillion/LOTR, any, came back wrong
Knives Out & any fandom, any, can Benoit Blanc solve the case in this canon?
Any, any, Cowboy AU (I went with Macbeth)
Am genuinely sort of impressed with myself that most of 'em are only 3 sentences (however tortured those sentences are).
Will update as I fill more, probably. Have left exactly two (2) prompts, have fun finding them (if that's your thing), they're for Weird Shit.
I saw this go by on Mastodon, and it stayed with me, so I'm reposting it from Tumblr by
nitewrighter. (First few comments are worth reading.)
Me: I don't get it. I thought I was doing a lot better than I was a few years ago. I'm like 10 times more on top of things than I used to be. How does everything feel terrible now?
The Tiny Me in OSHA-approved Hi-Vis Gear Who lives in my brain and pulls all the levers: Boss, it's the fascism. You're completely gunked up with cortisol due to the fact that your entire daily life is now underscored with a haunting awareness of the rapid erosion of your rights, dignity, and any and all social safety nets, and you're also bearing witness to the most vulnerable people immediately being persecuted. This creates a natural stress response that basically means you're going to continue having memory and organizational problems, as well as emotional imbalances.
Me: BUT I HAVE A BULLET JOURNAL AND I MEDITATE NOW.
Tiny OSHA Me: BOSS, THE FASCISM.
Hi all-
Since HalfaMoon has blossomed over the years, I'd like to get some help with the feedback/cheerleading end of things. Basically, I would love to have a person or two sign up for a calendar day (not a theme day) and read/view/appreciate the contributions for that day. Please leave a comment and let me know which day or days you'd like to help with.
Everybody loves a bit of feedback and who knows, you might just discover a new fandom to fall in love with.'
Thanks for the help!
cmk
ETA: Sign-ups below (days can have more than 1 person attached)
1
2
endlesstwanted
3
thatwasjustadream
4
5
potentiality_26
6
rmc28
7
endlesstwanted
8
scintilla10
9
tielan
10
11
12
cornerofmadness
13
rmc28
14
tielan
Since HalfaMoon has blossomed over the years, I'd like to get some help with the feedback/cheerleading end of things. Basically, I would love to have a person or two sign up for a calendar day (not a theme day) and read/view/appreciate the contributions for that day. Please leave a comment and let me know which day or days you'd like to help with.
Everybody loves a bit of feedback and who knows, you might just discover a new fandom to fall in love with.'
Thanks for the help!
cmk
ETA: Sign-ups below (days can have more than 1 person attached)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
After staying up til about 4:40 or so last night (or this morning) I got up at 10:00, made it to breakfast, came back to the room, showered, had the Kid drop by to say good-bye, and get to the ast panel i went to at 11;15.
Went up to the art show again, which was being taken down already.
Then I came back to the room, and took a nap for a couple of hours.
After that I puttered on the computer for several hours whie
mashfanficchick slept.
We went to dinner at the hotel restaurant with Larry.
Then came back here, and after much technical problems, managed to finally Team the FWiB.
Arisia was much fun. I had a great time.
Gratitude List:
1. The FWiB.
2. The Kid got home safely.
3. Got to that last panel.
4. Had a good time all weekend.
5. Bed soon.
6. Plans for tomorrow.
Went up to the art show again, which was being taken down already.
Then I came back to the room, and took a nap for a couple of hours.
After that I puttered on the computer for several hours whie
We went to dinner at the hotel restaurant with Larry.
Then came back here, and after much technical problems, managed to finally Team the FWiB.
Arisia was much fun. I had a great time.
Gratitude List:
1. The FWiB.
2. The Kid got home safely.
3. Got to that last panel.
4. Had a good time all weekend.
5. Bed soon.
6. Plans for tomorrow.
Last week was a pretty good one for leisure media and entertainment.
Games: Gaming group this week! We met at an inconvenient (1+ hour drive) but favorite tavern since there was also a birthday to celebrate. Alas, the games we'd planned to try out (including some recced during
snowflake_challenge) were unavailable, so we played First to Worst and King of Tokyo, and had a great time.
The first is a familiar standard; we mixed things up by eschewing scoring entirely and having the ranker draw only four cards from the deck while the rest of the players collectively tried to correctly order the ranker's preferences, to sometimes hilarious results (one player's partner insisting that they disliked "gift giving" much more than the other three, trivial options, or shocked disbelief at another player's—correct—insistence that their partner genuinely preferred pickles and journaling over ice cream sundaes).
The second, is a familiar group standard but one I had personally yet to play (on account of generally playing Betrayal in the House on the Hill or such instead). The setup is that the players are a group of kaiju battling to level Tokyo. It strikes me as a very Munchkin -or MtG-esque game in that the first several players who look like they have a chance at winning will invariably be leveled by the other players. My low-and-slow strategy got me one victory point away from winning the game, but a bad role ultimately gave the GC the win. Still, not bad for a first playthrough.
And now, a brief digression so I can ( gripe about AI. )
We also played more Hive and picked up copies of Betrayal, Everdell Farshore, and Witchcraft, the latter of which I am about to try out very shortly here.
Music: We had a very excellent house session on Monday, after which one of the players used some fancy software to transcribe my playing of some of the tunes. It's pretty cool to see what I'm actually doing set down in notation.
Podcasts/Articles: No podcasts, as I just haven't been in a longform audio mood for the last several months. I did read one longform article: Irish Gothic, however.
Roleplaying: Nothing this week, although there are noises about starting up Oldest D&D Group's homebrew campaign back up.
Television: Late days at work last week + the full slate of extracurriculars meant the GC and I weren't up for much aside from cute animal videos this week, but we did watch Max Headroom S2 Ep 3 today. The main plot was another variation of the "how channels try to corrupt the elections" storyline, and was convoluted with several gaping holes, but one of the subplots is ( among my favorites in the series. )
Video Games: I'm still playing Pentiment and Ultima IV, and started Machinarium; we also got Ghost of Yotei.
In other news, ( I wander in the wilderness no more. )
これで以上です。
Games: Gaming group this week! We met at an inconvenient (1+ hour drive) but favorite tavern since there was also a birthday to celebrate. Alas, the games we'd planned to try out (including some recced during
The first is a familiar standard; we mixed things up by eschewing scoring entirely and having the ranker draw only four cards from the deck while the rest of the players collectively tried to correctly order the ranker's preferences, to sometimes hilarious results (one player's partner insisting that they disliked "gift giving" much more than the other three, trivial options, or shocked disbelief at another player's—correct—insistence that their partner genuinely preferred pickles and journaling over ice cream sundaes).
The second, is a familiar group standard but one I had personally yet to play (on account of generally playing Betrayal in the House on the Hill or such instead). The setup is that the players are a group of kaiju battling to level Tokyo. It strikes me as a very Munchkin -or MtG-esque game in that the first several players who look like they have a chance at winning will invariably be leveled by the other players. My low-and-slow strategy got me one victory point away from winning the game, but a bad role ultimately gave the GC the win. Still, not bad for a first playthrough.
And now, a brief digression so I can ( gripe about AI. )
We also played more Hive and picked up copies of Betrayal, Everdell Farshore, and Witchcraft, the latter of which I am about to try out very shortly here.
Music: We had a very excellent house session on Monday, after which one of the players used some fancy software to transcribe my playing of some of the tunes. It's pretty cool to see what I'm actually doing set down in notation.
Podcasts/Articles: No podcasts, as I just haven't been in a longform audio mood for the last several months. I did read one longform article: Irish Gothic, however.
Roleplaying: Nothing this week, although there are noises about starting up Oldest D&D Group's homebrew campaign back up.
Television: Late days at work last week + the full slate of extracurriculars meant the GC and I weren't up for much aside from cute animal videos this week, but we did watch Max Headroom S2 Ep 3 today. The main plot was another variation of the "how channels try to corrupt the elections" storyline, and was convoluted with several gaping holes, but one of the subplots is ( among my favorites in the series. )
Video Games: I'm still playing Pentiment and Ultima IV, and started Machinarium; we also got Ghost of Yotei.
In other news, ( I wander in the wilderness no more. )
これで以上です。
59 days until the vernal equinox
Oana dabbles in drawing. I had thought she had hippie parents or parents way too enthused about Lilo and Stitch but I guess she just has Romanian parents.
For dinner, I had a chopped Lacinato kale salad, with frisee, chicory, wild rice, dried cranberies, sesame brittle, honey crisp apples, meyer lemon miso viniagrette.
( clickity )
Bella’s not an artist. She has a septum piercing
Layla and Amelia were too busy sleeping to chat. The train was apparently delayed 20 minutes and maybe that’s why it was so crowded but maybe it’s because while it was night and felt later than it actually was, it was Friday at 7 PM.
Shedrick is into film.
burning question: Wait. If Trump is president of Venezuela and Palestine, does that mean he can't be president here?
Oana dabbles in drawing. I had thought she had hippie parents or parents way too enthused about Lilo and Stitch but I guess she just has Romanian parents.
For dinner, I had a chopped Lacinato kale salad, with frisee, chicory, wild rice, dried cranberies, sesame brittle, honey crisp apples, meyer lemon miso viniagrette.
( clickity )
Bella’s not an artist. She has a septum piercing
Layla and Amelia were too busy sleeping to chat. The train was apparently delayed 20 minutes and maybe that’s why it was so crowded but maybe it’s because while it was night and felt later than it actually was, it was Friday at 7 PM.
Shedrick is into film.
burning question: Wait. If Trump is president of Venezuela and Palestine, does that mean he can't be president here?

Skipping #7 because both bragging and blatantly seeking compliments are go against moral code, and skipping #8 because if I even have a process, it clearly sucks TT I haven't completed anything in 87 years. So, my favorite tropes! Every time this question comes around I have to look up my favorite canons on TV Tropes and try to figure out why I like them.
This time I'm going with Defrosting Ice King. I like Ice Queens too, but due to what I like to read/watch my examples are mooostly M/F with the F as the main character, although there's platonic examples too. This is a really popular trope and I feel somewhat ashamed to be using it for this challenge, but I suppose I'm not so above it all. Even I feel moe when I see a gap </3 (Translation: Even I feel deep affection when I see someone do something very different from my initial impression of them.) But I like it best when it's an over-time thing! Finding out someone serious has a plushie collection at home has nothing on seeing someone serious cry over another person they swore they'd never give a hoot about later. Also the idea of someone caring about another so much that they stick with them even though they're cold or kind of mean, thus allowing them to open up, makes me :)
I like pictures, so you're getting pictures.
Exhibit A: Kamisama Kiss






- 25 or so episodes later (and do note the apron) -









(^just to be clear, he is removing the mushrooms here)

Rather than just being "cold," Tomoe is very decidedly an Ice King of the Jerkass variety. I'm not looking up how TV Tropes defines Jerkass though. I just know he is mean and rude and arrogant, which makes him seem awful to new people probably but it's in a comedic way I swear. Not a good person. Great househusband! 10/10, would tell him off again.
Exhibit B: The Legend of Hei
The subtitles were soft and the thing I was using to screenshot doesn't catch such subs, so I'm putting them under the images.


Wuxian (blue guy): "Saved me the trouble of finding you."
- ONE HOUR LATER -

Hei: "Can... Can I go with you?"

Wuxian: "Of course."

Wuxian: "You sure you want to wander with me? Don't you want a home?"

Hei: "Nuh-uh. I wanna be with you."

Wuxian: "Alright."
TV Tropes says Wuxian is the Ice Queen, but I don't buy that. Even if one may assume from the beginning he's just an agent/assassin and it's later proven he's pretty chill and deadpan-comedic, it's not that Hei changed him through the power of love. It's just that there's more to him than being good at his job. On the other hand, Hei is cold and tries to escape Wuxian many times but eventually ends up sobbing at the thought of being apart from him, and that's all because of Wuxian's kindness. Hei's like a widdle Ice Prince.
And look! I've got some "Not So Above It All" too!




"We also accept mobile payment."





"This is my jade pendant. Keep the change."




"DINE-AND-DASHERS!!"
Wuxian is kind of the king of that trope. To me.
Exhibit C: From Far Away
In case you don't know, Japanese comics are read from top to bottom (like English comics) and right to left (not like English comics).
My favoritest meetembarassing ever btw:







- You'll never guess what happens 6 volumes later -





Saved my favorite couple for last :33333333 I judge all love confessions by comparing it by the urgency in this one, I really do. And I like that Izark is kind and caring throughout, but still rather distant until the confession. Mean guys are funny, but nice guys are like french fries for the soul. (French fries are chicken soup to me.)
Izark has some Not So Above It All moments, but I imagined trying to find the page where he draws on the face of someone who lost a fight and sighed really deeply. Not, not today.
There's lots more examples I like, like Reika in Aim for the Ace, Michel from The House in Fata Morgana, Edmond from NU: Carnival, Sesshomaru of Inuyasha fame, Clavis (maybe Julious and possibly Lumiale too?) from Angelique, whom I really wish I could have included because he is SO funny but I can't do an entire Angelique run before the next challenge gets posted, Seung-gyu from Bad Boss in a 4D chess kind of way because Young-jo didn't even know she was defrosting an Ice King as he was Nice Guy-faking, probably Felix from Fire Emblem, and Utena has some crazy Defrosting the Ice Witch going on.
This trope has a lot in common with tsunderes, so why not just say I like tsunderes? It's technically true, many characters I like can be described as such, but I associate the word "tsundere" too much with girls who are unnecessarily abusive, not even in a hot way, so I'm not a fan of it. A tsundere done well is fun though. Kuuderes too!
If you have any ACG reccs with non-babyish art styles -- YMMV but compare Yamamori Mika's art with Playing Death Games to Put Food on the Table, which is the first example I could think of LOL -- let me know :] It can be any gender combination or any kind of love.
If the guy doesn't have long hair I don't care
i spent part of this weekend very cranky about not getting enough stuff done fast enough and then i realized i'm on track to finish four (4) giant projects in january alone (2 comics, tellius bg resource, gunter animatic) that have been on my plate since middle of last year.
... suddenly less cranky XD
anyway Very Cool Stuff is happening art-wise, i'm finally getting the clothes shipments/some sick doujin packages from last year and i feel like i can start for real celebrating the new year \o/
... suddenly less cranky XD
anyway Very Cool Stuff is happening art-wise, i'm finally getting the clothes shipments/some sick doujin packages from last year and i feel like i can start for real celebrating the new year \o/
Run your massage therapy practice so that people aren't relieved (as well as pissed) when you stand them up.
( Nope nope nope )
When we were first discussing schedules, she offered to refer me out, which I did appreciate, except one of her referrals was someone I've already seen who wasn't a great fit for me, and the other is someone I traded with over 20 years ago who's connected with my very estranged ex. Fortunately she's way up in the hills, so I could use that as an excuse for saying she's not a good fit.
( Nope nope nope )
When we were first discussing schedules, she offered to refer me out, which I did appreciate, except one of her referrals was someone I've already seen who wasn't a great fit for me, and the other is someone I traded with over 20 years ago who's connected with my very estranged ex. Fortunately she's way up in the hills, so I could use that as an excuse for saying she's not a good fit.
I am getting ready to delete my Livejournal. I haven't posted anything there since 2022, and all of the news about the data being sold off is making me super uncomfortable. I loved that website for such a long time, but maybe it's really time to say goodbye.
This Snowflake Challenge inspired me to go back through my memories/saved entries on LJ and pull out some notable ones.
•This is a list of all of the originals songs used in Roswell put together by Sweet_honeygirl. I think songs were changed/swapped when Roswell was put on Netflix. Originally posted 11-03-2007.
•Fic: A Love Like the Sea by andrealyn in four parts. Originally posted at camp_toccoa on 5-21-2009. WARNING for attempted suicide & suicidal ideation. I recced this fic and bookmarked it. I'm rereading it and I don't have the same love for it as I once did, but It's still worth noting how much the characterization of this fic likely influenced my future webgott fics.
Pairing: Liebgott/Webster
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 6,015
ETA This fic was posted on AO3.
•And then this is an html guide by inkvoices that is still usable if you use HTML on DW. I remember learning a lot from this post! I decided to copy/paste it under this cut so that I'd have it if the site went down. Originally posted 10-08-2012.
( HTML Guide )
This Snowflake Challenge inspired me to go back through my memories/saved entries on LJ and pull out some notable ones.
•This is a list of all of the originals songs used in Roswell put together by Sweet_honeygirl. I think songs were changed/swapped when Roswell was put on Netflix. Originally posted 11-03-2007.
•Fic: A Love Like the Sea by andrealyn in four parts. Originally posted at camp_toccoa on 5-21-2009. WARNING for attempted suicide & suicidal ideation. I recced this fic and bookmarked it. I'm rereading it and I don't have the same love for it as I once did, but It's still worth noting how much the characterization of this fic likely influenced my future webgott fics.
Pairing: Liebgott/Webster
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 6,015
ETA This fic was posted on AO3.
•And then this is an html guide by inkvoices that is still usable if you use HTML on DW. I remember learning a lot from this post! I decided to copy/paste it under this cut so that I'd have it if the site went down. Originally posted 10-08-2012.
( HTML Guide )
Public

353/365: Cyprus olive tree, Bewdley
Click for a larger, sharper image
Getting away from the latest Trump absurdities, not a lot was going on in Bewdley today. Yes, again. We're like that, you know. I did pop into Tesco Express, but that's unlikely to be of interest to anyone much! At least I remembered to take a photo, and here it is. As the plaque says, this was donated a year and a half ago by Action for Cyprus. From memory, I think the people who run the Merchants chippy are Cypriot in origin – it's quite common for chip shops to be run by Cypriots – and this olive tree is just around the corner from the place.

353/365: Cyprus olive tree, Bewdley
Click for a larger, sharper image
Getting away from the latest Trump absurdities, not a lot was going on in Bewdley today. Yes, again. We're like that, you know. I did pop into Tesco Express, but that's unlikely to be of interest to anyone much! At least I remembered to take a photo, and here it is. As the plaque says, this was donated a year and a half ago by Action for Cyprus. From memory, I think the people who run the Merchants chippy are Cypriot in origin – it's quite common for chip shops to be run by Cypriots – and this olive tree is just around the corner from the place.

