Kantayra can tie Ra. Can't I, Ra?

Let's get right into writing (whee, for homophones!):

• Femslash Salad Bar: In the most shocking and surprising twist of all time, I did not somehow complete 6 whole fics and post them in under a week, all while I had a pounding period headache. I know everyone else is as agog as I am. I did, however, complete 3 more, so I had a total of 7/10, which ain't horrible. Links to all that I finished are above. My original plan was to split the 10 fics with 2 each across 5 OTPs (Alana/Margot from Hannibal, Bedelia/Miriam from Hannibal, Eve/Villanelle from Killing Eve, Franziska/Maya from Ace Attorney, and Persephone/Maggie from Whyborne & Griffin). However, it was immediately obvious that my Alana/Margot and Bedelia/Miriam ideas would go way longer, and my Persephone/Maggie ideas were much shorter and also (so I thought) my Franziska/Maya ones, so I realloted. The shorter ideas inevitably got written faster, though, so of the 3 outstanding fics, 2 are Alana/Margot and 1 is Bedelia/Miriam. I hope to finish those up this March. But also! 3 fics is not enough for my whole Bedelia/Miriam idea, so I'm going to be expanding that series into more fics, and also I'd kind of like to add more chapters to my Franziska/Maya fic, so my goal is to do those 2 things in time with the schedule for Femslash Big Bang (which I did not sign up for), just to give myself a sort of deadline. I hope to knock out at least 1 of the 3 pending fics this week. So more news pending!


• worldbuilding_exchange, wickedloveex, smut4smut: I'll be working on these assignments this week and hope to finish at least 1 (although ideally 2) this week.


• unsent_letters_exchange & hurtcomfortex: I've already signed up for these, and am offering some slightly more unusual fandoms (along with my regular staples), so there will be some added suspense when assignments go out! I already have multiple matches across different fandoms for both, so no guarantees what I'll get.


• the_mane_event: I posted my nominations for this, and need to sign up this week. This one has a quick turn-around time, so I'll probably write it as soon as assignments go out. Should be fun!


• I did skip all the flash exchanges over the last week. I realized belatedly that I had scheduled all my volunteer hours at my figure-skating club last weekend, and also my synchronized skating team skated our routine at an exhibition, so I had zero free-time this weekend. Oops! But good that I remembered before I signed up, right? 🫠


• There are 2 new exchanges starting their nominations process, both of which I'm sorta considering: fluffityfluffexchange for fluff (obviously) and fangfrenzyficexchange for vampires. Neither of which are super relevant to my fandoms at the moment, so I might skip them, but I'm watching what other people nominate just in case.


• Rare Kink Buffet is currently in prompting mode, and I'm watching for anything in my fandoms, but nothing is catching my eye so far. I am not super big on 'any fandom' type prompts. My brain just works 'characters/fandom first, then prompts from there'. Hence why I don't do a lot of things like bulletproof, etc. But maybe something will pop up that's in one of my fandoms and directly relevant to my interests. I won't be super disappointed if I sit this one out. I have more than enough to do otherwise.

In other news: I've finished Killing Eve! I have thoughts!

( My Thoughts )

Goals for Next Week: (This is a new section I'm trying!) Complete 1 sign-up. Complete 2 fics (stretch goal of a 3rd). Next weekend I have a synchro competition, so no writing anticipated then. Wish me luck!

ETA: My total 2025 word count as of the end of February was 72K words. Looking good for 100K this year, woo-hoo!

I posted all the things I was procrastinating posting last week! I am very proud of myself for this. I think one of the thing I like about exchanges is that I can post-dump my draft onto AO3 when I'm tired, and then ignore it for a while because it's not yet reveals, and then come back later and do my 3+ read-throughs to fix any wonkiness. For some reason, this doesn't fill me with the dread of impending deadline the way posting a draft to AO3 does. Why not? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Brains are weird!

candyheartsex gets it own bullet list this week:

• OMG, I have an adorable fanart gift! Seriously, look at Phoenix and Pess! They are adorable together, and I am in love! 😍 I have requested art many times in the (far-distant) past, and this is the first time I've gotten it, and it's better than I could ever have imagined! I am so in awe of people who can draw such good art.


• I am currently reading my way through the collection and commenting/kudosing everything I like. My plan goes like this:
  
  1. Go through every fandom I know enough to understand what's going in, in alphabetical order, and open up all the works where I even remotely comprehend the characters/summary.
  
  
  2. Except in the previous, I skip Original Works because there are too many. I do Original Works next.
  
  
  3. Sort by word count with lowest first to find all the art, and comment on all of that that I haven't already.
  
  
  4. Sort by lowest hits, and try to find things I can read canon-blind to comment on those.
  
  I'm currently halfway through the S's on #1. There are a lot of big fandoms that start with S, lol.


• You know how I said I wanted to write 14 treats, but I'd only gotten 1 done, but I was hoping to get at least a couple more? Well, I didn't write 14, but I did write a lot of treats this last week. I feel very accomplished. 😊

Other stuff I've done:

• Now I'm behind on Femslash Salad Bar again, because I spent all last week on Candy Hearts. So that will be my top priority this coming week. I don't have any other fics due this month, so I'm feeling good about my odds for finishing this (infamous last words).


• There are a couple prompts I could write for valentines_boxes and femgiftboxes, although not as many as I was hoping for. Those aren't currently in a time crunch, though, so I have time to noodle on some of the fandoms I'm less comfy with. I did end up sitting out a couple of the flash exchanges, because I would've only been able to match on OWs, and I have enough fandoms that I'm excited about right now that OW doesn't appeal to me as much.


• worldbuilding_exchange: I signed up, and there are already a couple of other recips I'd be excited to write for! I am looking forward to this one. I do enjoy a good world-build. 😊


• wickedloveex: I need to sign up for this soon, in the next day or so. I just have to line up all my offers, since there were a bunch of interesting nominations that were not mine.


• smut4smut: I really need to do some work on my freeforms for this, because sign-ups are going to sneak right up on me, and it always takes me way longer to sign-up for exchanges with freeforms.


• hurtcomfortex: I've got my nominations in, and it looks like other people in my fandoms are nominating too, so high hopes for this one!


• unsent_letters_exchange: Getting ready to nominate for this one. I love experimental fic formats, so I'm really looking forward to this exchange, too.

So far I am enjoying S3 of Killing Eve, maybe more than S2 (or, at least, the end of S2). I should finish this sometime next week, and I have to think of what series I'll watch next.

Ugh, my building has a mouse infestation. I've caught 10(!) in my traps already. D: And my neighbors all have hefty tallies, too. Exterminator is coming on Wednesday. Mice in my kitchen is now my new DNW.

Stuff I wrote this week:

1. My goreswap assignment! I had so much fun writing this one, and it's a pairing I'm definitely going to be writing again.


2. 2 PHs, for 2 different exchanges. Both fandoms I wouldn't have thought to write outside of the prompts, so I was very glad to see these come up and poke at my brain.

Exchanges/Sign-Ups/Etc.:

• Nothing popped up for highadrenalineexchange that I could write, so I'm sitting that one out. Which gives me some capacity for:


• Femslash Salad Bar! I have several femslash pairings that aren't be requested as often as I'd like, so I figured this would be a good way to focus some time on them.


• I also signed up for Lunar New Year's Wood Snake Exchange, which is scary because there are a lot of art prompts, and I think I might offer some art, since many prompts are animal-only (namely snakes), and that's something I can actually make a go at. I do love cute snakes! 😍🐍


• au5k - I still haven't finished that treat I desperately want to write. I should hurry up on that, since there's not much time left, and lots of other things coming up.


• candyheartsex - I haven't written as many treats as I would have liked. (Largely because the number I would have liked - 14 - was absurd. We'll see if I fit any others in. I'd like to get at least 1-2 more!


• threesentenceficathon - I haven't written anymore for a while. I might pop in before prompts close, if I feel like it, or not. I felt like I got a good few days out of this one, so I'm okay if that was my one burst of inspiration.


• worldbuilding_exchange - I've got my nominations in and am planning my sign-up. This one will be fun! And I have loads of prompts that are more worldbuilding focused, so I'm really excited to see what I'll get for this one, too.


• wickedloveex - My nominations are in for this one too, so just waiting for sign-ups, which aren't for a while yet.


• fffx - I have all my fics in for this one, and there are no more pinch hits, so I should be safe, right? I'm excited for this collection to go live. There are some interesting-looking fandoms/tags in there.


• Still noodling on Femslash Big Bang. I'm thinking about getting a Tumblr account, just because I do have some art, now that I've started drawing up again. TBD!

Non-exchange stuff:

• Still loving Killing Eve! I'm near the end of S2 now.


• Lots of progress on 'How to Survive Camping' this week, and it has gotten so gooooooood!


• I've started up drawing again. Focusing mostly on animals for now, and having loads of fun. I need to figure out how I want to do coloring. I've been doing the line drawings on paper, then scanning, and then trying coloring both on paper and of the scan. It's more fun to color on paper for me, but that doesn't scan as well (loses a lot of vividness) as opposed to digital coloring. Decisions, decisions...


• I've started up origami again too. I'm doing mostly flowers at the moment. Nothing too rigorous or difficult, just enjoying having another fun distraction for my brain. Also: whoa boy, do some sites have lousy instructions! I've ended up on sites with overkill instructions instead, just to stay on the safe side. The former technical writer in me weeps at some of these.

Right, so, in a conclusion to the epic saga that will surprise absolutely nobody, I ended up claiming the fffx pinch hit that I promised myself I wouldn't look at, wrote it, and posted it. My only hope is that no more PHs get posted that I can claim, because I clearly have zero will power.

People did end up signing up for things I could write for goreswap, yay! So I signed up for that, got my assignment (which is a FANTASTIC prompt I noticed last-minute and added another offer to game for it!), and currently am writing my way through that. It is tons of fun to write so far! I'm maybe 1/3 of the way through, hoping to finish up this week.

No one has requested any of my fandoms yet for highadrenalineexchange, so the jury's still out on that one. There's one Original Work prompt I like that was requested (and I nominated the prompt in the first place, as a safety in case I signed up), but I'm not sure if I'm hyped enough about writing it yet that I would sign up if that was my guaranteed match. I'm still noodling on it (and hoping for more requests to show up that I could choose from).

I've started the au5k treat that I knew I had to write the moment I saw the prompt. I'm hoping to finish this one up this week too, and then I'm wondering if I should just post straight-up or wait to double-check that this recip doesn't come back as a Post-Deadline Pinch Hit, in which case I could easily claim them. Decisions, decisions... Oh well, I still have time.

A couple of new things on the horizon: I threw in my nominations for wickedloveex since it's a new exchange and the theme is basically "every single pairing kantayra has ever loved". worldbuilding_exchange is also starting back up, and I have several fandoms where I care about worldbuilding waaaaay more than I care about ships (and some fandoms where I care about both!), so I'm excited for that one. I am also debating creating a Tumblr account solely so that I can participate in Femslash Big Bang, because there is a bang-length femslash fic for a super rare pair that I absolutely want to write, and I know that I will never make the time to write it if there's not a challenge motivation for it. On the other hand, not so hot about having to create a Tumblr account. :/ Maybe one isn't required? But I can't find any way to ask the mod that doesn't presume I already have a Tumblr account, lol. I'll think about it... Also, maybe I'll ask around if there are other challenges I could write this for that are DW- or AO3-based.

I am now wondering if I should set a goal of writing 100k this year. I say this only because it's not yet the end of January, and I've already written 30k. :P The last time I hit 100k (and it was almost 200k) was back in 2020. Yay, Covid, I think? o.O In any case, this reinforces my opinion that I tend to write a lot during stressful times. So I have no idea how long this'll last, but it's great escapism for the moment!

Fandom-wise:
- I didn't read any more on How To Survive Camping this week. I will finish at some point, but I'm not super invested, especially when compared to...
- Killing Eve! I started watching this and am through the first season. This show has been on my radar for some time, because Eve/Villanelle clicks all my shipping boxes. I'd heard spoilers for the final season, though, and that kind of turned me off, since I do not like character deaths in my pairings. And also I heard people say it was "basically a comedy", and I'm not sure why that discouraged me, because I think exactly the same thing about Hannibal TV, but there you are, my brain is not logical. However, S1 was amazing, and I love Eve/Villanelle so much, and I continue to think that comedic gore/murder is incredibly funny, so Villanelle is absolutely my fave! ♥ Also, I had been pronouncing Villanelle's name wrong in my head this whole time: turns out it's "Villa Nell" not "Villain Elle", oops! Not sure if I'll watch the final season when I get to that. Decision pending!
- I grabbed a bunch of my old art supplies out of storage. Every so often, I do this thing where I think "I should get better at drawing!" but then I end up only drawing animals and plants, which I am already pretty good at, and not people, which is where I need the most work, because I honestly don't want to stare at people for that long, even if it's my own drawing, lol. So this time I'm thinking I'll just let myself draw cool animals and plants, since my fingers have clearly made their decision on this subject. Also, it seems like it would be fun to learn how to create digital art, since that didn't become a thing until well after I was out of art class, so I might research how to do that. (Beyond, y'know, mouse doodles in MS Paint during boring meetings at work, which are fine for random doodles, but drawing with a mouse is so grossly inferior to drawing with a pencil/pen, it's not even funny.
- I'm thinking of playing around with origami again. This idea came to me after reading The Neuroscience of Navigation and how origami helps train your brain for 3D rotation of objects. I haven't done it in...probably decades now? I can't even remember! So it should be fun to play with for a bit.
- I'm also thinking of taking up juggling again. Spoilers: I am not good at juggling. At my best, I could juggle three balls maybe 5 or 6 times, and 4 balls 1-2 times if I was SUPER lucky. I was better at contact juggling and used to have a pretty cool butterfly, but last time I tried that, I had totally forgotten it, so I might start that up again too. (Where are my old balls for this? Fuck if I know!)
- I also need to sign up for my spring skating competitions, blargh! So much money for so much stress! (Competitions are fun at exactly one time: the moment of elation as you step off the ice, when you crazily think "whee, I want to do this again!") I've got all my jumps back after my bout of Covid over New Years, though, so I don't really have any excuses.

I've been filling more prompts and PHs. There are two more I want to write for fandomtrees, which will now for sure make the reveal date of January 18, since everyone has 2 fills. So, uh, wish me luck on getting that done in time.

I've been meaning to join threesentenceficathon, but other priorities have prevented me from doing so, so far. Maybe when I finish everything else I want to write. So...like...May? 🤣

I need to buckle down and write my candyheartsex assignment. My idea is half-formed, and I wish it were shorter, but it's not, so I still need to let it percolate a bit before I can do my recip's request justice. There are a bunch of treats I want to write for this exchange, too. I completed 1 treat while it was still nominations period, but ideally I'd like to fit in another 5-6. (I may have a problem with wanting to write too many treats.)

Speaking of which, there's an amazing prompt in au5k, and I absolutely want that fic to exist, and I want to write it as a treat, but goddamn it, there are so many exchanges already! 😭 (And I'm refusing to look at one of the fffx PHs that just dropped. I have already done enough for that exchange; I do not need to write another 5k...or 10k... (Help!))

I did finish 'Murder After Christmas', which was an enjoyable enough ride. I found it a bit dither-y in the middle, and there were far too many characters who would, like, confess to random shit they didn't do. But I liked the ending, and it was a good light-weight, over-Christmas read. People who are hardcore into mysteries would probably be more the target audience than me.

So far, this is just a safe shelter, in case I need an account at some later date. All my entries are still on My LiveJournal and all my fic is on My Fic Journal. Toodles!