betaplease | Member Posts

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.

Commented on

common_nature.

Commented a fill on

threesentenceficathon. Omg it's so intimidating to do the first time, even when you were EXPLICITLY BAITED XD Though that probably does help a bit with the nerves :D Obviously, K-9 Made Me Do It.

Posted and commented on

getyourwordsout.

Promoted

fanifesto, basically the squee community for canon etc promo :D

delphi

✓

kingstoken's 2026 Book Bingo: An Author's Debut/First Book

Oxford Soju Club by Jinwoo Park is a 2025 spy novel about six people forced to examine their loyalties and choices over the course of an eventful 24 hours or so in Oxford. Several of the principal characters have more than one moniker, but at a high level they include a North Korean spy, his mentor, their handler, a Korean-American spy, and the owner and cook at a Korean restaurant that finds itself the site of a post-assassination rendezvous.

The story starts with a bang, with the killing of a veteran spy who falls victim to the foreseen "clean-up" of a regime change, and while it very much keeps its forward momentum throughout, its focus is more on identity than espionage. It plays with the overlap between the tropes of being a spy and the experience of being an immigrant, drilling into what it means to be an individual, a citizen, a member of an ethnicity, or a member of a family.

I found this a highly satisfying and engaging read, and while I can see why it didn't make the Canada Reads shortlist this year (there being no connection to Canada in the book, only through the author), I'm very glad the longlist put this on my radar. This is a great debut, and I hope it's one of many novels for Park if he's so inclined.

( An Excerpt )

highlander_ii

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Crossposts: https://highlander-ii.insanejournal.com/470853.html http://highlander-ii.deadjournal.com/296676.html

linky

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Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: Sukeban Deka 1 Ost

unfeathered

This evening I finally got round to watching the live action version of Disney's Aladdin, which I rather enjoyed despite the somewhat lacklustre performances. Will Smith as the Genie was as engaging as always but I wasn't impressed by his singing, and Mena Massoud as Aladdin was sweet but didn't blow me away, but I found myself captivated by Naomi Scott as Princess Jasmine. I don't think I've ever seen her in anything but I thought she was lovely, and all the way through she kept reminding me of SMG as Buffy. That wide-eyed, shocked, almost-about-to-start-crying look. She was really, really lovely.

So afterwards I decided to watch OMWF, for the first time in forever. I've barely watched any Buffy or Angel in the last decade or so, except a couple of episodes when I was role-playing Giles. I found myself feeling too grown up (finally!) for the rather childish behaviour of all the characters, and hesitated over whether to watch OMWF again in case I'd finally fallen out of love with what used to be my absolute favourite episode of any television ever.

It still is. Still as perfect as ever. One hell of a piece of storytelling, with gorgeous music that carries the story along brilliantly, incredible performances from the whole cast and inspired direction and camera angles, and just something that it way, way more than the sum of its parts.

P.S. I posted about some of the things I love about OMWF here in 2018 (which may well have been the last time I watched it)

P.P.S. Yes, I know this icon isn't from OMWF. Turns out I don't actually have one that is.

malurette

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autobotscoutriella

Snowflake Challenge: A mug of coffee or hot chocolate with a snowflake shaped gingerbread cookie perched on the rim sits nestled amidst a softly bunched blanket. A few dried orange slices sit next to it.

Challenge #13: TALK ABOUT A COMMUNITY SPACE YOU LIKE. It doesn’t need to be your favorite, or the one where you spend the most time (although it certainly can be). Maybe it’s even one that you’ve barely visited. But talk about that space and how it helps support fannish community.

This one took me a while - not because I couldn't think of a community, but because I had too many in mind! I bounce around a lot across Tumblr, Discord, and Dreamwidth, because there's fun stuff for my fandoms scattered everywhere and I've never been good at consolidating it all to one single site. And then, as I was making my list, it occurred to me that half my usual hangouts are anonymous, and at that point I started wondering, well, do anonymous kink memes count as fannish community?

I think they do, actually! They've kind of fallen out of favor these days (partly because a lot of the newer sites fandom has migrated to don't really have support for fully anonymous spaces), but I got my start in fandom lurking on anonymous Livejournal kink memes. It's a fun low-pressure way to start writing fic for a new fandom, because hey, if the fic doesn't turn out good, you can just move on and get better at writing it! So, here's a shout-out to

pw_kink_meme, for being lovely and welcoming when I unexpectedly got into a new-to-me fandom after years of being only into Transformers where I knew how everything worked. (And also for being old enough to drive and almost old enough to drink in the US, which is very cool.) If you're into Ace Attorney, come check it out - there's still new prompts and fills coming in!

(And I am absolutely not using this as motivation to finally finish the one I've been working on for weeks, shh, if a suspiciously Riella's-interests-relevant fill pops up over there tonight it definitely wasn't me. Plausible Deniability.)

yarnofariadne

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Current Mood: stressed
Current Music: The Delicious Legacy podcast

fardell24

At the same time, Norman Osborn was being released from the hospital.

Fields met him as he entered the Lobby.

“There you are, Fields,” he said.

“You were given a clean bill of health?”

“Not exactly, but more than healthy enough to no longer need observation.”

“I see,” Fields said quietly.

They were silent until they got in the car. “Home first,” Norman said to the driver. He then turned back to Fields. “What is the reaction to the delivery so far.”

“Subdued. There hasn’t been much online chatter yet.”

“That’s to be expected, but with the clothes out, Operation rooftop can proceed.”

“But there was also a leak about the Alchemax operation,” Fields added.

Osborn gauged Fields. ‘Did she also leak additional information, or not?’ he wondered. “Of course, how else to draw out the vigilantes for a confrontation?”

Fields thought about that. ‘Of course. He’s expecting both SpiderGirl and the fourth vigilante to show up and maybe have that long delayed confrontation.’

Stacy left the Mall after Quinn had dashed off saying that she would talk to Daria about the clothes. ‘She’s dashing off a lot lately.’ But that had been the case since before the Fashion Club had dissolved. She headed home, as she wanted to get a start on something Mr. DeMartino had assigned that day.

SpiderGirl got home after patrolling the area between the Mall and her neighborhood and entered the basement through the backyard hatch. She then went into the hidden room and took off her mask as she glanced at the clutter of the maps of Lawndale on the wall. She grabbed a post it and wrote Delivery of Costume Knock-offs to Cashmans before sticking it on the Mall on one of the maps.

“But, what about other stores in town?” she wondered. “Like, Angie’s mother’s boutique?”

( Read More )

vriddy

I went to bed at a reasonable time yesterday evening and started a new book with delighted anticipation. "Reading time! I'll get to fall asleep peacefully with my brain tummy full of stories <3" I thought. The way my tbr pile works is that I add recs to my library queue and most of the time by the time the book gets to me 1) I've completely forgotten what it was about and 2) there's a good chance I'll enjoy it because I did add it based on a rec that intrigued me to start with.

To set the scene further: in winter, the cat often climbs onto my stomach while I read because the blankets are thicker and fluffier.

ALAS! The book I started was Skye Falling by Mia McKenzie!!! I'm only about 70 pages in AND I LAUGHED SO HARD!! SO HARD!!!! Poor cat quickly abandoned me since it must have felt like a rodeo machine thing up there, but I was nearly crying and my non-existent abs were aching by the time I stopped reading.

Not the most restful way to fall asleep, I'll be honest. But oh my god. As much as I sometimes wince with some of her specific choices, Skye's internal voice is just. Just. Incredible. I'm not finished yet so no spoilers please :D But I'm fairly sure I picked up the rec from someone here so thank you to whoever mentioned it on their journal :D Wow. Like I laugh and cry and gasp often when reading, but I can't remember the last time I was non-stop guffawing like this from a book.

Edit: Finished the book and I stand by my rec! (The cat had to endure another round of stomach rodeo but I'm sure given time she will find it in her generous (?) heart to forgive me.) The book jacket says the story is about the complexities of family, queerness, race, and community. Definitely! It felt like a love letter to Philadelphia as well (I've never been). Impeccable narrator voice. Black queer woman protag. Many excellent relationships between women. And did I mention how much I laughed? I did. Though it doesn't mean the story isn't poignant or painful, sometimes even while laughing.

beatrice_otter

I use the same name everywhere so I am

beatrice_otter on AO3. Treats are awesome.

I would rather get a story you were happy with than "well, she said she liked x, so I guess I have to do x even though I don't like x and/or am not inspired that way." This letter is long with lots of suggestions and preferences if you find it helpful, but feel free to ignore it if it is not helpful. I'm fairly easy to please; I've been doing ficathons for a long time and am usually very happy with my gifts.

The most important thing for me in a fic is that the characters are well-written and recognizably themselves. Even when I don't like a character, I don't go in for character-bashing. If nothing else, if the rest of this letter is too much or my kinks don't fit yours, just concentrate on writing a story with everyone in character and good spelling and grammar and I will almost certainly love what you come up with.

I have an embarrassment squick, which makes humor kind of hit-or-miss sometimes. The kind of humor where someone does something embarrassing and the audience is laughing at them makes me uncomfortable. On the other hand, the kind of humor where the audience is laughing with the characters I really enjoy.

( General Likes and Dislikes )

( Notorious (1946) )

( Enola Holmes movies )

( Elementary )

( Terminator: tSCC )

( Goblin Emperor )

( Peter Wimsey )

( Crossovers )

( Rivers of London )

( DS9 )

linky

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Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: Anything Goes!

yarnofariadne

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Current Mood: good
Current Music: "K.K. Chorinho" Animal Crossing: New Horizons

lightbird

two log cabins with snow on the roofs in a wintery forest the text snowflake challenge january 1 - 31 in white cursive text

Challenge #14

In your own space, create a promo and/or rec list for someone new to a fandom. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it and include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Continuing the theme from Day 13, Shakespeare! And by the way,

socialshakespeare, which I recced yesterday just posted their sign-up for the next play they're reading Antony and Cleopatra, for those who might be interested in getting involved.

For those of you who appreciate The Bard of Avon and would like to get back into reading his plays and/or watching performances of them, or dive deeper in, I've got sources of all kinds!

Folger Shakespeare Library, of course, where you can download all of his works for free.

Links to Video Performances!
YouTube Shakespeare Network

Twelfth Night: 2025 Shakespeare in the Park production starring Lupita Nyong'o and her brother Junior playing the twins Viola and Sebastian. You need a PBS sign-in to watch online, but this is a particularly great production of this play and well worth it. Sandra Oh plays Olivia, Peter Dinklage plays Malvolio.

Fandom!
Here is a link to all posts in my #shakespeare tag on Tumblr, which includes all kinds of goodies, including: the usual fandom works (art, mood boards, gifsets, etc. for different plays); reprints of his sonnets; links where you can watch recorded performances of various plays; descriptions of performances that people have seen; descriptions from teachers of their students' class projects; fantastic meta on the various plays, including short clever posts, and even shit-posts that manage to speak volumes.

Some excellent recent posts include:

Meta: The Role of the Plague in Romeo and Juliet

Meta: Macbeth and Parental Grief

Student Projects: some highlights from my students’ romeo and juliet modern interpretation projects

Excerpt from Professor David Daiches' A Critical History of English Literature, Vol. 1: this is a screenshot with image ID by me. A fantastic excerpt on Hamlet and Othello, and moral outrage.

So much good stuff to explore!

Previous Days
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
Day 11
Day 12
Day 13

tropicsbear

💀 The self-inflicted psychic damage of reading old journal entries and seeing one where I talked about lending my EHD to a coworker and forgetting that my doujin folder was there. I have no idea what she saw and she never mentioned anything, so. A memory I'd like to lose to the sands of time.

💼 A work meeting went around an hour over the allotted time. It was definitely past my end of shift by the time we wrapped up, but I can at least claim the time as credits for time off in lieu. I ended up having to cancel my gym session, though, because my stomach was screeching at me and I could feel the creeping fingers of an impending headache.

📺 Finished SPY×FAMILY S02! I need to set aside some time and gather my thoughts about the first two seasons, but they can be summed up as, "TWIYOR RAAAAARGH SO CUTE," "Why does Anya have so many weird faces lordt," and "I will stab anyone who attempts to hurt Bond."

👧🏽 While on the way home, my tricycle drove past a family on a motorcycle (little girl squished between her parents). With a complete deadpan face and her mouth slightly open, the little girl waved at me. I decided to wave back. The mom blinked at me in surprise then smiled when she realized her daughter was waving at me and I was returning the gesture.

malurette

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merrileemakes

I was recommended Go Bag by Chris Scott from Matt Kendrick's Mondettes newsletter.

Go Bag is a list-based flash fiction that has a real punch to it, a great example of the form. It reminds me quite a bit of Joseph Fasano's Words Whispered to a Child Under Siege, which is another hundred words or so that will rip your guts right out. Words for our modern agony.

mossy_bench

Here be updates on fannish goals and other ramblings. (●'◡'●) It just struck me that I wouldn't have had the wherewithal/courage to write and publish a post like this a year ago, so I'm pleased as a recovering lurker!

Fic talk
I finished a draft of my fic! The one I complained about it in my last post. It is currently a bit over 6k. One of my goals this month was to get it done, so that is fantastic. :) The quality is pretty acceptable. Only minor revisions left, I believe/hope. And then I can finally start on this other fic I promised to write for a friend! My other writing goal this month was to write a total of 7k words, which I haven't, but the milestone above matters more to me.

I've also been trying to read (and ergo comment) more on fic. I'm making progress on my bingo cards (see here for links), but haven't gotten a bingo yet. I feel like I could've read more. Still, some is better than none.

A great podcast, except...
I also finished listening to Midst (well, the first storyline anyway). It was great and I'm very satisfied, except. EXCEPT. I was let down by the episode where Weepe (scumbag extraordinare) has to watch his former business partner and beloved friend expire because of his actions. I was so excited to see him go to pieces, and to wallow in his unrequited worship for this woman who represents everything he believes he can't be.

Unfortunately, the actual episode felt rather stilted, sluggish, and forced, in my humble subjective opinion. So close, but not quite there. I hope there is good fic, though it is a tiny fandom. It's like, the one itch that feels terribly unscratched.

Where is the toxic fic? (cw: talk of dubcon)
I did fulfill my goal of reading some Beyond Evil fic on AO3. I'm afraid there were slim pickings since I seem to want something different from most others in the fandom. The main ship has so much toxic potential but the fics are kind of wholesome—often in a believable way, to be clear. I'm not criticizing their quality.

However, I just want for Juwon and Dongshik to regress and be terrible in new and interesting ways. I want hate sex, breakdowns, toxic vows, insane bids for attention, unhealthy repression and self-denial, dubcon fucking, a mix of dread and attraction, desperate misplaced efforts at atonement. They're both WEIRD and they should fuck weird. The disappointment I felt when I filtered for Dubious Content and only found 22 complete works was immeasurable, haha. And of those, only a handful actually applied to the ship.

Still on my Hello From the Magic Tavern bullshit
Loved the most recent episode. The premise? Immaculate. The hosts are basically reenacting Orpheus and Eurydice as they try to escape (pizza) hell, except they've got 3+ escapees holding onto a rope behind them like toddlers, and one of the most annoying recurring characters from the show keeps trying to tempt them into turning around to look at something cool. They nearly got defeated by a revolving door. It was great.

yuuago

fandomtrumpshate is running again this year, and signups are open! Details here

Signups end on February 08th.

I'm really looking forward to seeing what the offers are this year. This is the 10th year it's run, and I have a feeling it'll be a big year.

In case there are any who don't know what it is: FTH is a multifandom charity auction in which people sign up to offer fanwork (art, fic, beta reading, etc). Others bid on them. The money raised is donated directly to charity.

linky

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Current Mood: tired
Current Music: CHEMY×STORY

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A beta-reader, if you please!

January 2026

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11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30	31

Page Summary

vriddy - Community Thursday
delphi - What I'm Reading: Oxford Soju Club by Jinwoo Park (2025)
highlander_ii - Snowflake Challenge #13
linky - Tokushipping Week Works Done!
unfeathered - Aladdin (2019) and OMWF (once more)
malurette - [livre] Toutankhamon l'ultime secret ~Christian Jacq
autobotscoutriella - Snowflake Challenge 2026: Prompt 13
yarnofariadne - Snowflake Challenge #14
fardell24 - Spider Quinn 20 The Imitation Tempest Part 2
vriddy - Reading and laughing
beatrice_otter - Dear Casefic Author
linky - Snowflake Challenge 2026 #14 (+ Fannish Fifty #7)
yarnofariadne - Snowflake Challenge #13
lightbird - snowflake_challenge 2026: Day 14
tropicsbear - Sometimes I'm Slightly Okay with kids
malurette - [meme] snowflake_challenge - days 12&13
merrileemakes - Flash fic rec: Go Bag by Chris Scott
mossy_bench - Fandom miscellany as January wanes
yuuago - FTH Charity Auction Signups Open
linky - Snowflake Challenge 2026 #13

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