Just Create - Hacksaw Edition

Jan. 10th, 2026 09:22 pm
silvercat17: silhouetted figure of a person with raised arms, with icicles and snowflakes (success winter)
[personal profile] silvercat17 posting in [community profile] justcreate
What are you working on? What have you finished? What do you need encouragement on?
 
Are there any cool events or challenges happening that you want to hype? I've been neglecting Dreamwidth - tell me what I'm missing!
 
What do you just want to talk about?
 
What have you been watching or reading?
 
Chores and other not-fun things count!
 
Remember to encourage other commenters and we have a discord where we can do work-alongs and chat, linked in the sticky.

Fic: One Two THREE Force Born?!

Jan. 10th, 2026 09:58 pm
senmut: Padmé in simpler clothing (Star Wars: Padmé)
[personal profile] senmut
AO3 Link | One Two THREE Force Born?! (1609 words) by Merfilly
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Padmé Amidala, Anakin Skywalker, Mace Windu, Sheev Palpatine | Emperor Palpatine | Darth Sidious
Additional Tags: Crack Treated Seriously, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Kriffing Sith Plans
Summary:

It's Padmé with the nightmares, and a plan to head it all off.



One Two THREE Force Born?!

Padmé Amidala was a woman on a mission. Anakin might be completely in a panic over the pregnancy but she was going to head this off. It was just too convenient that she was now being plagued with dreams of her own death, the very night after an unavoidable dinner with the man she had a growing distaste for.

And, deep where she would never tell her husband, she had a nasty suspicion he was trying to shove Anakin off a cliff of irredeemable violence. The Chancellor might not have commented on her state, but his eyes were not as easily fooled by their shared heritage of concealing fashion.

Today, she was going to go enlist the aid of the Jedi, while Anakin was tied up being the poster boy of the GAR. She had all of her diplomatic shields in place, and had the perfect cover story to do this with.

After all, with Jedi having lost so many, surely the Force would be interested in adding a few more children to the future.





Vokara Che was every bit as imposing in her domain as Anakin had said. However, her status as a long time ally had convinced Master Fisto to bring her down to the Healer's Wing. She had pleaded with him, and the healer, that there could not be a father, not when she was a mature woman who knew how to guard against such!

"You were correct that the pregnancy is heavily Force-influenced," Vokara said after several minutes of making Padmé wonder if the healer was going to break her constructed version of events. "You are carrying two very healthy, very Force-active fetuses."

Two. TWO?!

She was not going to faint like the damsel of a holo-drama. "Thank you, Master Che. Given my precarious positioning within the advocates for peace, and past attempts, I could not, in all honesty, acquire medical aid in the typical fashion. Given how my dreams are affected, and having such strange hunches of late, I turned to your Temple in hope."

"A wise choice." For a long moment, Vokara held her eyes, and Padmé knew that the healer was not actually buying the spontaneous pregnancy. A twitch of the lekku, however, indicated the secret was safe. "These hunches, I believe that Master Windu should possibly help sort them out with you."

Oh. Well, that might be the right way to go as well.





Kit, even before the appointment in medical had ended, had gone to find his age-mate. He did so in one of the botanical rooms. "Master Windu," he began. "And Master Yoda," he added to be polite, despite the ancient peering at one of the plants intently.

"Hmm," came over top of Mace's cautious "Master Fisto", and Kit grinned a little that his creche-mate had already detected the mild mischief Kit was feeling.

They all needed a little bit of amusement.

"Senator Amidala has come, and is being tended to by Master Che," Kit began, and both men looked sharply at him. "I do wonder about that old prophecy that was discussed when Master Jinn found a boy on a desert world with no father… as she is here to see about a Force-induced pregnancy as well."

Yoda's ears went flat, Mace's eyes narrowed, and Kit merely smiled.





Mace looked at the woman who had been a solid ally, and the subject of not a small part of gossip. He did not, for a moment, believe the story of no father, but in her political setting, it was for the best to go along with it.

"Master Che said you have been plagued by hunches of late, ones that play out true."

He set a mild tisane in front of her, and took a second one for himself.

"I think the Force has concerns about the path we are on, despite recent developments. After all, if the Count has been neutralized, and Master Kenobi is on the trail of their general… who will keep the momentum up to line pockets with war money, and build such sizable powers through war-time legislation?" Amidala asked, meeting the man's eyes squarely. "I am all but certain you and your peers have had the same intuitions."

Was she — had she —

Maybe Skywalker had been more circumspect than Mace had believed. For all that Amidala was firmly an adherent of a peaceful resolution, her physical and vocal cues were running in tandem with the Council's own suspicions.

"Perhaps we are looking in that same direction," he said.

"If the other Sith, the one Dooku spoke of on our side, is out there, I am certain he would try to harm those touched so firmly by the Light Side as ones fathered by the Force," Amidala told him. "I shudder to think of what such a being might have done had they had access to your Knight Skywalker for all the years of this phantom menace over us."

That, Mace decided, was both accusation and… an invitation to look more closely at how the cards were laid out.

And he had to admit she had a point.





"Anakin!"

"Chancellor."

"I do hope the scandal hasn't harmed your friendship with the Senator."

"What scandal?"

The exchange, handled in the hearing of several itinerant reporters, brought their elder statesman up short, until someone added the right question.

"That she's pregnant with no father in sight," the reporter with blood money in his pockets called out.

"You really think Senator Amidala would stoop to such petty, low-brow nonsense?" Anakin asked them, in his best 'are you kidding me' voice, and he caught the frown on his old 'friend'. He was so glad Saesse Tiin had been able and willing to explore the past several years in his head. "She's having children as the will of the Force, and we Jedi take that kind of thing very seriously."

He then kept walking, leaving the Chancellor stewing, the reporters trying to digest how to spin this, and a feeling that he could not have handled it that way without the Council all suddenly intent on supporting him. He didn't know what had changed there, but he couldn't wait to tell Obi-Wan all about it.

And the Force Twins, because he had to admit, he really hadn't had a lot of time, and they both used precautions.





Chancellor Sheev Palpatine was in a fury. He had primed the well perfectly, and somehow… somehow every insinuation and control he'd put in place had been cut off in the Chosen One. All because of some insane story concocted by the woman that had long since outlived her usefulness.

Any day now, that wretched Kenobi would be returning, and Sheev would have to find a different way to acquire everything he wanted… unless he acted now? He went to his desk to find the comm unit. He needed to provoke the right circumstance, to make it clear he was saving them from the Jedi, but what would it take?

The comm lit up in his hand.

What?

With the Force, he flipped the hood of his cape up, securing it to conceal his features, and turned it on.

"What do you know, that frequency is picked up, Commander," came the very annoying, should-be-dead voice of the Togruta menace. He hastily turned it off, throwing it into the back of the locked drawers.

The knocking at the door that came next, including a call of 'Coruscant Security' sent chills down his back.

He wondered idly if his own Master had felt this the night Sheev had gleefully murdered him.





Mace pinched the bridge of his nose, then looked over at the newest Master of the Council who was pretending he didn't want to hurry out and see a certain Senator. He then looked at Kenobi, who was waiting to be briefed on how and why the Chancellor had been killed in the midst of being served with detention papers.

"A tip from an ally told us to double check Skywalker for undue influence," Kit said, looking entirely too merry in the telling.

"Padmé," Anakin offered cheerfully. "She's having Force twins."

Mace did not groan. It really did sound like Skywalker believed that.

"Removing that," Saesee said, "let us more clearly see the shape of a possible end game, orchestrated to cast us all as traitors."

"Meanwhile, Skywalker's commander had been working on another angle of the endgame," Agen said.

"Leading him and Tano to turning up a plan to make the man expose himself, using the very tools meant to kill us all," Kit said, "by triggering a comm device he should not have had while we were keeping him very securely under comm surveillance with Naboo's and CorSec's cooperation."

"How did you get CorSec to agree to such?" Kenobi asked.

"Amidala implied that she had noticed a malevolent presence while dining with the man, and could they please keep it under wraps that there could be such a threat near the center of government?" Shaak Ti said, eyes dancing with mirth.

"A very tidy end, I suppose." Kenobi then looked at Mace with a deadpan face. "So, how are those prophecies handling the idea of three Force-fathered children?"

Mace did not, as he wanted to, flip the man's hood over his head with the Force.





Padmé smiled, despite fatigue, as she held her daughter, and Anakin held her son. Eventually, they might admit the farce.

Then again, listening to Anakin telling Luke all about the wonders of what the Force could do…

… maybe it was better to leave it at this. What really mattered was that they were all saved from the Sith.

Me-and-media update

Jan. 11th, 2026 04:55 pm
china_shop: An orange cartoon dog waving, with a blue-green abstract background. (Bingo!)
[personal profile] china_shop
Previous poll review
In the Comfort food poll, 55.6% of respondents said their preferred comfort food is chocolate, and 46.7% said savoury carbs. In ticky-boxes, 'juicy intricate poetry words' and 'pushing on through' came second equal (40% each) to hugs (80%). Thank you for your votes! <3

Reading
I listened to half an m/m romance audiobook that I selected for one of its readers (Will Watt), but the overuse of "fucking" as an intensifier (and in particular, the repeated phrase, "he was so fucking hot") kept making me roll my eyes. It might be a faithful reproduction of the inner monologue of a first-year uni student, but I don't read romances for verisimilitude. So I switched to The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary, read by Carrie Hope Fletcher and Kwaku Fortune, seen mentioned on my flist. I'm halfway through and enjoying it immensely.

A little more Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain in hardcopy. Nothing in ebook.

Kdramas
Andrew and I have nearly finished The Guest. I want to ship the OT3, but I don't really care about the priest. (Sorry, priest guy! Alas, you are not my type.) Still, it is a great (gory/horror-y) show, and I've conveniently forgotten some of the developments. We just have one episode to go.

A bit more of While You Were Sleeping, a few episodes of Cashero (I'm not sure I'm in the mood for established relationship, but otoh, Junho! ♥), and a marathon-running BL called Mr. Heart, which was sweet but extremely slight.

Where is the next Love Scout/Family by Choice/whatever??

Other TV
Finished Stranger Things, which got so complex that I lazily stopped following the logic and just watched it as a collection of scenes. But I enjoyed those well enough. So glad they got their victory lap.

Three episodes of Heated Rivalry.
Minor spoilers; tl;dr not my thing. Wow, I'd heard it was fanficcy, but I wasn't prepared for the total absence of anything resembling an external plot. Like, not even a figleaf. Not even a hockey arc. How??

Anyway, my prediction that it's probably not for me has proven correct. Like, I can tell that the show is made of crack (in the addictive sense), but I'm not into super-buff dudes, and I didn't like the 'fucking but feeling kind of miserable about it' vibe I was getting from Hollander. He deserves better.

But I kept going for episode 3, and I'm really glad I did. There was the coffee smoothie shop not-AU and ♥Kip♥ and his friends and family. And Scott, who fell for Kip in 2.3 seconds like a parched man stumbling into an oasis and, okay, is messed up, but at least self-aware and ~able to communicate~ and ~say nice things~! They were such a breath of fresh air! All the "smoothies" for both of them!

So that (predictably) is me. And I'm actually kind of relieved, because while the show is compelling and well-acted, it's not what I want in a fandom, and anyway, I'm hardly even managing to keep up with my quiet corner of Guardian fandom atm.
I may watch the last three episodes at some point, idk. Wishing those of you who're into it all the very best with your new addiction!!

Audio entertainment
Writing Excuses, Cross Party Lines, Letters from an American, more of Our Opinions Are Correct (Charlie Jane Anders and Annalee Newitz's podcast) including the Murderbot episode, Tech Won't Save Us, the starts of a few other things.

Writing/making things
I've been practising drawing, and picking up art supplies in bits and pieces. The moldable eraser is magic.
Have a couple of sketches.



(Imperfect, but I think it's identifiable, which is not nothing. I darkened the linework a little in Paint.NET.)

For my future reference, this all started because I wanted to draw Bingo from Bluey!, which led me down a Youtube Art Videos For Kids rabbit hole. Then I bought new colour pencils and was noodling around with them, and people said nice things about some of my doodles... :-)
Art Youtube For Adults is also really lovely, btw -- full of super-talented people being encouraging and helpful.

I've written a treat for [community profile] fandomtrees, but I need to make some edits, and I have no attention span. Chances of my finishing it are about 90%, and chances of any further treats are more like 30% at this stage. Maybe one day I'll be able to make art gifts...

Life/health/mental state things
My arms are gradually improving, but I'm anxious about them. Andrew's having an operation this Thursday; I'll need to be able to bike and drive and cook and so on, and I'm still sore half the time. So I've started swimming again. (I stopped partly because I was avoiding public spaces where I couldn't mask, and partly because my long post-lockdown hair stays damp all day. But the outdoor pool is open for the summer, so I'm going for it.)

I just bought a small $2 desk at a junk shop so that I have a workspace to retreat to downstairs while Andrew's recuperating on the couch in the living room. I'll see how that goes.

I have a hand-me-down mini air fryer from my parents which I still haven't taken out for a spin. Quick/easy meal suggestions very welcome, especially if they're things I can throw together late at night, post hospital visits. (NB: I don't do onions or brassicas.)

Good things
Andrew, swimming, drawing, Kdramas, Guardian, Zhao Yunlaaaan, modern medicine. Cat:



Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 7


Do you meditate?

View Answers

yes, regularly
1 (14.3%)

yes, from time to time
1 (14.3%)

I used to
2 (28.6%)

I used to occasionally
1 (14.3%)

what you mean by 'meditate'?
0 (0.0%)

no
2 (28.6%)

other
0 (0.0%)

ticky-box of being squeamish about fingernail clippings
1 (14.3%)

ticky-box full of hockey show squee
0 (0.0%)

ticky-box full of feeling kind of zonky
5 (71.4%)

ticky-box full of skipping across treetops and dancing through the clouds
3 (42.9%)

ticky-box full of hugs
3 (42.9%)

dialecticdreamer: My work (Default)
[personal profile] dialecticdreamer
Breaking Bread and Breaking an Impasse
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 2, complete
Word count (story only): 1204
[Monday, May 11, 2020, late afternoon]]


:: The Teagues’ preparation for a dinner guest is interrupted. Part of the Edison’s Mirror universe. ::




Aidan smiled at the driver as he hefted the large plastic tote full of onions. He balanced the folded jacket that the younger man had given Aidan on his head, then put the bin atop the jacket. “Thank you for the ride, Persia.”

“Just bring a sample of those pickled onions that you were talking about. I’ve never had them.” She waved, then rolled backward down the driveway.

Aidan walked easily to the garage door, but had to set the bin down to let himself in.
Read more... )

Photos: Contorta Willow

Jan. 10th, 2026 05:11 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith posting in [community profile] common_nature
I took some pictures yesterday but didn't have time to upload and post them until today. The night before, a windstorm blew down the contorta willow sapling that used to stand between the house yard and the south lot, near the big maple tree.

Walk with me ... )
taiga13: (Calvin & Hobbes hug)
[personal profile] taiga13 posting in [community profile] poetry
The cashier at the gas station asks me where I'm from
and when I say Ohio, he says Go buckeyes
which I understand as a stranger offering
language that can be shared. The way starlings
roost on a power line, scooching over
so the other can sit, flocked and fanning
feathers against rain and never in my life
have I seen a football game, but still I reply
Go buckeyes
which is a way of saying: I accept.
I would root with you in imaginary stands.
Cheer at the same time in a darkened bar.
We are more alike than not, us two.
Here, let me shift, shuffle. Shelter a moment
beneath this wing. 

taiga13: (tree of life)
[personal profile] taiga13 posting in [community profile] poetry
For Renee Nicole Good
Killed by U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) on January 7, 2026


They say she is no more,
That there her absence roars,
Blood-blown like a rose
Iced wheels flinched & froze.
Now, bare riot of candles,
Dark fury of flowers,
Pure howling of hymns.

If for us she arose,
Somewhere, in the pitched deep of our grief,
Crouches our power.
The howl where we begin,
Straining upon the edge of the crooked crater
Of the worst of what we've been.

Change is only possible,
& all the greater,
When the labor 
& bitter anger of our neighbors
Is moved by the love
& better angels of our nature. 

What they call death & void,
We know is breath & voice;
In the end, gorgeously,
Endures our enormity.

You could believe departed to be the dawn
When the blank night has so long stood,
But our bright-fled angels will never fully be gone,
When they forever as so fiercely Good. 

Diary: Slim Pickings

Jan. 10th, 2026 05:10 pm
degringolade: (Default)
[personal profile] degringolade
Gonna be slow for a bit.  I got enraged when I started finding out just how intrusive and sneaky the tech companies have been in placing all sorts of tracking on my shiny new computer.  So I have been spending time first trying to strip out the tracking, then, after throwing my hands up because the rabbit hole keeps going down, I am re-configuring my hardware to stop this nonsense.

Just a word to the wise, the companies have come to the idea that the hardware is theirs, even if you think that buying it makes it yours.  They think such thoughts are nonsense.  I was told point blank that if I were to change anything that they larded onto the actual computer at the time of sale, I was effectively ending my warranty.  

I am good with that.  So I am stripping and re-configuring.  I do so love my shiny big screen and the changes I have been making haven't really changed how I work much.  But over the course of the next couple of weeks I will be spending time making sure that what I do ca only be minimally monitors to unknown actors.

Random Doctor Who Picture

Jan. 10th, 2026 02:24 pm
purplecat: Books. (General:Books)
[personal profile] purplecat

An image of red demons on a totem poll.  A tribe of native Americans with feathered headresses is in the background walking towards an English village.

This is the cover from Lawrence Miles' Christmas on a Rational Planet New Adventure. This was his debut novel. I recall very little about it. I think many people immediately recognised him as someone with an exciting suffeit of ideas, but sadly, I can not claim to have been among them.

SW:TCW Abandoned Work

Jan. 9th, 2026 10:56 pm
senmut: Fulcrum in background of TCW Captain Rex in Armor (Star Wars: Fulcrum and Jaig Eyes)
[personal profile] senmut
AO3 Link | Unfinished Citadel AU (510 words) by Merfilly
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Wars: The Clone Wars [2008] - All Media Types
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: CT-7567 | Rex, CT-27-5555 | ARC-5555 | Fives, CT-21-0408 | CT-1409 | Echo
Additional Tags: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued
Summary:

I had intended to write something for Rex/Fives/Echo. I got sideswiped by a set-up beginning at the Citadel. There is a character death mentioned, though it was going to prove not to have been one. However, the muses turned virulently against the entire concept. As always, feel free to run with it if you want.



Unfinished Citadel AU

"Promise me to get them out," she had said. "Something smells like a three day old rancor corpse."

What had his Commander seen? Rex nor his men had been able to recall anything that tripped their training, but General Kenobi had been caught unaware too.

Would he have pushed them to keep moving if General Skywalker hadn't been injured and unconscious from trying to save Ahsoka? It still felt wrong, no matter what the mission had been to not confirm the death. Echo still refused to talk about it, given he had nearly fallen with her.

"Should have been me, not the Jedi," Echo had said, once, on retrieval.

They all felt it. They were one of millions of clones and she had been who they were meant to protect.

Skywalker still wasn't talking to Kenobi. Rex didn't know how the Naboo Senator had headed off an outright mutiny. Fives thought she had promised to use her resources.

Rex still saw the flickers of destruction in his general's eyes, after, when he'd told the man.

"She commanded me to get you, all of us, out, minutes before we lost her and Tarkin."

If there was one fact of Rex's new life he hated, it was knowing that his general was barely holding onto sanity.





"What difference did the mission make? Dead brothers, both objectives dead, our Commander dead," Fives asked or maybe just rattled off to get it out of his head.

"Seppies didn't get the intel from either objective," Echo answered, weakly and by rote, as he'd been telling himself since they were retrieved.

Fives scowled. "Wish I knew what made her fall back."

Echo did too -- when he wasn't wondering why it had been her, not him, that fell.

"You need to worry about the General. Captain can't do it all, and he seems to like you."

Fives didn't answer that, because he was watching for Anakin Skywalker to lose his control, and hoping he was wrong.





Rex looked at Fives, then to Echo. "You both see it."

"Yes, we do," Echo answered for them.

"What do we do about it?" Fives asked.

"You stick to his six. He's taken to you well. Echo, I want you training with the slicers, give your brain a chance to do real intel."

"Seems odd, Captain, when we're talking about our General, sir," Echo told him.

Rex met his eyes. "Our unit keeps winding up in the deepest messes. That's half of why he's so volatile. You need to figure out the pattern, if there is one, so maybe we jump ahead of it."

"What's the other half?" Fives asked.

"If I knew, I might be the one who could actually head off the explosion," Rex admitted. "He came to us like that."

"Then maybe that's what I need to learn," Fives said softly.

"I think… I'm going to try and find what the Commander saw, that made her take Tarkin over the edge when she killed the Warden," Echo told them, and Rex nodded, thinking that was a good start.

Snowflake Challenge Day #5: Wishlist

Jan. 10th, 2026 12:36 pm
snowynight: colourful musical note (Default)
[personal profile] snowynight
Challenge Day #5: In your own space, create a list of at least three things you'd love to receive, a wishlist of sorts.

My wish list:

1. Recs for music with female vocallist, or music by female composers. I like a variety of music: metal, rock, Celtic, pop, bardcore, country, etc. Music in non-English languages are welcomed! A sampling of my favourite singers/bands: Loreena Mckennit, Dar Williams, Vienna Teng, Within Temptation, XG, etc.

2. Recs for interesting blogs to follow. Books, nature, history, cute animals, trivia, tabletop RPG, world building, art and craft, or anything you find interesting

3. Stolen from [personal profile] kingstoken : Go to arab.org and "click to help", it's free. All raised money goes to UN agencies. 



Snowflake Challenge: A warmly light quaint street of shops at night with heavy snow falling.

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