The 2008 Snarry Art Games have begun!

To those of you who cannot see the post directly preceding this one as being a TEAM DRAGON ENTRY by twilightsorcery, it is because you have chosen to 'watch' or 'friend' this community only.

You must JOIN this community to see the locked rated NC17 art. You must also be 18 or older, and have an age statement posted in your user info.

Thank you, and enjoy the 2008 Snarry Art Games!

2008 Snarry Summer Games are about to begin!


The 2008 Snarry Summer Games will officially begin posting tonight, on October 12, 2008.


Starting tomorrow, we will post TWICE a DAY, one per team - DRAGON & PHOENIX, until all the entries are in: 50 total.

At the end of it all, we will allow approximately one week for the judges to have time to catch up on their voting for the Games entries. After that, we take the polls down, and the mods will begin the count. During the voting Hiatus, there will be more entertainment, stay tuned.

**There will be NO POSTS at our Livejournal community.

We have a Livejournal RSS FEED over there that people can watch. We thank you all for your support during our move to safer waters.



( Our 2008 Snarry Games Champions and their chosen Prompts and Genres )


( FAQs about the JUDGES POLL )



Any questions, comments or concerns? Please comment to this post. Thank you!


We wish both Teams the best of luck in their battle to win GOLD.


Remember: Alone, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.


You can support your favourite artists and teams by using our 2008 Art Graphics. ♥ Thank you to tripperfunster for the beautiful 2008 Art, and to swtalmnd for the graphics and banners, and to pervart and xingou for the icons!

Feel free to peruse our 2006 and 2007 and 2008 Snarry Games Entries, both Artist and artist, from Teams Romance and Angst, and Teams Wartime and Postwar.

2007 Summer Art Games can be found on insane journal here: Team Angst, and here: Team Romance.



On that note....

LET THE GAMES BEGIN!

Thank you, and enjoy!

Snarry Games Mod Squad.

Ten years ago today Matthew Shepard died.

If he hadn't died, he would be thirty-two.

I don't have any new words, but I did find some old ones.

I told myself I wasn't going to do this. I said I was done, finished. But I'll be damned if a trip to the library and five months later I haven't done it again.

Just a brief note to let everyone know I've uploaded a lot of new songs to the Snupin Soundtrack and Music Exchange on gmail. There's no particular order to the uploads and, looking back, I think I may have gone a bit overboard. Again. Twenty-four songs, in fact, making my contribution a total of 57 tracks...out of 106 in the account. Yikes.

( Cut for download information, tracklist, and random chatter. )

If you have any thoughts about the songs or want to add your own to the mix, please, don't hesitate to comment. :)

So I may have spent my afternoon taking screencaps and making a ridiculously large number of icons from the first four episodes of SPN s4, which are all free to good homes.

( a small sample under the cut )

There are too many to post here, so go to the gallery and check it out. I am not a talented icon-maker, but I can crop, brighten and sharpen okay. Comments are lovely, credit is not necessary, feel free to use as you like. I might have to switch some of mine out. Hmm...

~*~

Ten more FMA DJ to go and then I think I'll be done with them for the time being.

( 11 DJ today. Liked one, nearly liked two more )

What I done did:

I read through a bunch of recipes for apple pie and apple tarts, and pondered and considered, and then decided in the grand tradition of chefs everywhere to JFWI*.

I melted some butter and sauteed half of the fine-diced apples in it until they were soft, then added sugar, stirred, dumped it in a prepared tart tin (I used store-bought pie crust; I make a lovely pie crust but it's a lot of cleanup work) and covered it with a lattice of crust. Bland, I know, but I don't like cinnamon and it's mostly a test of how it works.

I added some more butter to the pan, heated it, and sauteed some chopped shallots in it, then added the rest of the diced apple and, after a while, some chopped pecans. I layered this mixture with shredded cheddar in two more tart tins, sprinkled on some salt and pepper, and added a top crust with slits cut in for steam. It's a sort of deconstructed stuffing in a crust.

(I didn't use the Good Cheddar that I've been eating on toast as a snack; rule one in Sam's Kitchen is don't use the good stuff in the experimental cooking.)

I'm baking them all now.

STAY TUNED.

* Just Fucking Wing It.

Shallots in an apple pie. Sweet and savoury! Y/N?

I mean I'm thinking N, big time, but your opinions sought! It could be good with some cheddar mixed in, maybe. The apples are Granny Smiths, good for baking!

I've taken to giving myself Saturdays off, because I need at least one day to detox from the week, especially a week like this. Sundays, however, it's all domestic-go. This morning I have done the laundry, taken the trash out, run the Roomba (EVERYBODY ROOMBA), cleaned off the couch and desk, and baked challah rolls. This afternoon it's apple tarts and crabless rangoon. There will be shallots in the rangoon, yes, precious. Possibly some sweet apple rangoon, we shall see.

I cleaned the Roomba's brush for the first time -- it needs it every 3-5 roombaings -- which is messy work but not more than five minutes' worth; they give you a little tool with a safe-razor on one side for slicing the lint away and a comb for pulling it off the bristles. Apparently in its peregrinations at R's it picked up a dryer sheet (can't have been here; I don't use them) and neatly wrapped it around one end of the brush. All better now, however.

I also assembled the shelf for the bathroom and what would have been the TV stand, except that it works way better as a coffee table. Plus my television weighs 30 pounds and the Ikea TV stand apparently only holds 20. All my furniture is very...skeletal, all mesh and black steel. I like it. In combination with the Roomba it gives the slight impression of living on a spaceship, especially when one takes into account the metallic silver paint on the radiators and the super-futuristic digital antenna. Add in the gorgeous wrought-iron candle sconces I got for my birthday and the various oddments I use for candleholders on the windowsill, and it's a very subtle, uncluttered form of steampunk. Not quite as Victorian as most would be, but a nice mix of primitive and sleek.

Next up: MOAR POSTER FRAMES. Disposable income is...really, really nice.

New fic!

I always post on a Sunday. Why, god, why.

This was actually a collection of flashback-interludes scattered throughout a totally different fic, but as they proved completely irrelevant to the rest of the plot I culled them out and polished them up into a fic of their very own. There is death and sexual metaphor and ice cream and also lots of Dickinson.

Title: It Was Not Death, For I Stood Up
Rating: PG
Summary: In the months leading up to Suzie's suicide, Ianto comes under her wing and learns from her example.

So, here are the halloween pumpkins I carved for this year. And this year, I made the patterns myself:



( Some details on making the patterns, behind the cut: )

The Snupin Prophet is posted on Livejournal and on Insanejournal.


Random Rec:
On Music, by Firefly Quill.


Fan Art:
Love Sees No Color, by say_lah. Mildly NWS.

Touch, by ghot. NWS.


Drabbles (200 words or less):
Fair Exchange, by drachenmina.


Fanfiction (complete):
Only the Ghosts of Love and Hope, by red day dawning. Rated NC17. Content: infidelity.
Summary: Haunted by old fears and insecurities, Severus finds it difficult to commit to his relationship with Remus…

Solaces Never Dreamd Of: A Domestic Romance, by McKay. Rated NC17. Content: wanking, public sex, rough sex, frottage.
Summary: When Severus wakes up after the Battle of Hogwarts and finds himself still alive, he decides it’s time to set his life on a different course.


Fanfiction (WIP):
The Amethyst Necklace: chapter 1, by hikari-kasumi. Rated T. Content: Remus/Severus/OC.
Summary: Heather Carlson is an auror who's also on probation. Now she's got a peculiar mission from Fudge, where she has to work with Umbridge at Hogwarts. But Hogwarts has a lot of bad memories for her, and they all come flooding back while she's there.

Angelinus: chapter 17, by Les Dowich. Rated T.
Summary: Book 4 in the Snape Cycle. When Severus inherits the guardianship of a cousin’s twins, it sets off a chain of events that drag the Lupin-Snapes, Malfoys, Potters and Weasleys into a head-on clash with fanatics, drug dealers and babysitters.

Follow Me: chapter 99, by Norische. Rated M+. Content: Draco/other male, mpreg, non-con, incest, under 18.
Summary: Severus Snape never knew he had a son, not until the boy showed up in Dumbledore's office. Severus calm orderly life soon became a mass of confusion and chaos, and it was all focused on one young man. A/N: This story is not canon, Sirius is alive and well (I never could kill that man, he is just too fun to play with.) The dates are based on current dates, (I could never get the coversion correct anyway).

Harry Potter and the Vampiric Inheritance: chapters 2-4, by Psychoduck. Rated MV. Content: Harry/Draco, mpreg.
Summary: His father was a small minded fool, Dumbledore is no better and the people he hated just became family. Being sixteen just got harder, you come into your inheritance and find you belong to a race that has been battling with wizards for centuries and you’re the one that has to save the wizarding world. Coming to grips with this new revelation is actually easier than it looks…especially since he doesn’t have any dumeling riddles to work out.


Potions, Defense, and Transfiguration: chapters 19-20, by MingIsRandom. Rated T.
Summary: It is Harry Potter’s 3rd year; Remus Lupin as Defense against the Dark Arts teacher, Severus Snape as the usual Potions Master & Sirius Black is out to get ‘Harry Potter’.

Three Words, Eight Letters: part 2, by whitestar. Rated R.
Summary: After the War, Remus awakes in St. Mungo's and finds that Severus is alive and was always working for the Order. Regret and desire create their own war within Remus as he tries to regain what he thought he once lost.


Fan Mix:
Crazy_celebrian has a RL/SS fan mix here.



Participate:
Snupin100 has posted Challenge #177: Ticklish.

Lupin100 has issued Prompt #216: It's Alive.

Pervy_werewolf has posted the prompts for Howl-O-Ween, week 2.


Update:
The Moonshadow archive has been updated with 1 story this week.



Send your Snape/Lupin news to snupin.prophet@gmail.com.

I was reading a fanfic about a "steam of consciousness" Severus had after the Shrieking Shack incident in PoA. At the very end of the story the author says this in her notes:

'Oh and it's even worse than that, of course, because Snape doesn't know - and probably will never know - that when he was knocked out in the Shrieking Shack, and bashed his head against the wall, nobody even bothered to check his pulse to see if he was OK - and Sirius took the opportunity to knock an injured and unconscious man around some more and nobody bothered to stop him.'

That made me think of other times Snape put himself into physical and emotional danger when shielding Harry, starting with the first book, when Hermione set him on fire, thinking she was saving Harry from falling. But the worst had to be, to my mind, in OotP, when Severus was teaching Harry Occlumency. For surely, since Voldemort could invade Harry's mind via the Horcrux in his head when looking at Dumbledore, he must have been able to see Severus teaching Harry how to resist him? Wouldn't it have been lethal to him to be found out? What do others on this site think?

Oh, btw, although it's not Friday, the story I was reading was "Yggdrasil" on White Hound Fiction: the link's below, and it's an excellent look at Snape's thoughts.

http://members.madasafish.com/~cj_whitehound/Fanfic/index.htm

Alison

Yay! I've finished the first of my LiveLongNMarry artses! I've just sent the high res images off to the winner and have a printout ready to pop in the mail.

As I warned prospective bidders, an artist I am not, but still, I'm reasonably pleased with the way it turned out, and I think I get a bit better with every sketch, so that's something, anyway. :-)

I'll ask the winner's permission to post it here, but I believe it was intended as a gift, so that may take a while.

Oh, and a quick PSA - LiveLongNMarry is having a last minute round of auctions, for another push at defeating Prop. 8, here in California. There are some amazing items offered - so you can do some holiday shopping and support a great cause at the same time!

*cluegirl: "Honey, we're going to the graveyard to get some brains. Be back soon!"
aquila_dominus: "Okay, see ya when you get back!"

*cluegirl: "Oh dear... all my wicker man bits are under the lumber pile. I hate when that happens!"

*dodging_fate: "Yeah, tie that off. It'll hold better with rope."
aquila_dominus: "Everything's better with rope."

*dodging_fate: "What a happy face those clippers have!"

*cluegirl: "It's not his fault he's awkward; he's got a stick up his arse!"
aquila_dominus: "He's got a stick FOR his arse!"
cluegirl: "Okay, he is a bit anal retentive..."
dodging_fate: "Or anal resentive..."

*dodging_fate: "Hey, Dominus, will you hand me the intestines? I've got a good spot to dangle them from."
aquila_dominus, with a bow: "Your dangling intestines."

*cluegirl: "This is the heart. It's full of wormwood, rue, and rosebriar twigs... don't squish it."

*botia: "Do you have any sage? If I'm going to wrap the government around this penis, I'll need to smudge my hands afterward."

*cluegirl: "We can too give him an arsehole -- we've got corncobs!"

* cluegirl: "Yeah, that's me; the rebel without a clue."
aquila_dominus: "No dear, you're the rebel with the clue-by-four."

*dodging_fate: "I gave him a perfectly adequate schlong, put down those clippers!"

*cluegirl: "Hey guys, look! I think I just found his head -- I'd forgotten that was even IN there!"

*dodging_fate: "Are you shoving it in his arse?"
cluegirl: "No, I'm shoving it in his ...side!"

*cluegirl: "Dodging_fate>, could you provide some upward thrust here? I don't quite have the leverage..."
dodging_fate: "I got your upward thrust right here, baby!"
aquila_dominus: "I've got the twine!"

*cluegirl, upon being offered the scissors by Botia's husband: "S'ok, I like to use my teeth. It's a thing with me..."

*cluegirl: "Hey Dominus, could you find me something nice and whippy in there please?"
aquila_dominus: "I can do whippy!"

*cluegirl: "Okay, I think he's done. Get the picture."
dodging_fate: "Wait, turn him around, that's his backside. I can tell from the prolapsed rectum."
cluegirl: "Oh, it's all about the prolapsed rectum with you, isn't it?"

And on that note...

Goodnight, boys and girls!
*MMMMWAH!*

The quickest way to get the internet back is to post about how it's out. Trufax.

So, R came over tonight and that was like, two weeks of R consolidated into two hours. There isn't enough memory in my head for all the Conversations with R I just had. I can't even tell you about his disastrous attempt at a one-night-stand because it requires visuals to appreciate the full hilarity (he told the girl he was leaving and over her shoulder she threw him the peace sign. You have to see him demonstrate to understand how funny this is).

First and foremost, however. The whole thing got started in fact because he was teasing me about being a recluse:

R: So, what're your plans for the night? Kingston Mines? I know you're a party animal.
Sam: Oh, yeah, the Kingston Mines for a start.
R: You and seedy blues bars, I don't get the appeal.
Sam: Well, I thought after I hit the Mines I'd do a bunch of coke with B, and then finish up the night by getting That Girl pregnant.
R: Oh, that reminds me, this just happened and I haven't told anyone.
Sam: Pick me! Pick me! I want to know!
R: So we're out last night, it's like two in the morning, and I get this text message from That Girl. Which says, "Hi, I've been thinking about you. Hope everything is okay with you."
Sam: Tell me you didn't text back.
R: No, no wait for it! So I text back and say, "I've been thinking about you too. How are you?"
Sam: WHY DID YOU TELL HER THAT. What is WRONG with you?
R: I KNOW. I WAS DRUNK.
Sam: Don't give her an opening!
R: And then she texts me back and says, "I'm fine. And I'm not pregnant."
Sam: WHAT.
R: THAT'S WHAT I THOUGHT.
Sam: Did she get an abortion? Was she lying?
R: I DON'T KNOW! And I'm dying to know because I KNOW she told people personally that she was pregnant. But I couldn't text her back. Oh god, how could I text her back?
Sam: No, no! Good call. Let the thundering silence speak for you.

We're thinking -- well, hoping -- that she lied about being pregnant, because the alternatives are that she lost the baby or got an abortion. And while I'm firmly pro-choice, abortions aren't always what you'd call easy on the psyche, and losing a baby is a terrible thing.

But what the hell, texting a random ex-boyfriend to tell him she's not pregnant? And if she had ever been, wouldn't she say "not pregnant anymore"?

I'm going to pay a call to M and B this week to see if they know more.

OH AND okay, let's not go into my mum going INSANE this evening, but I was telling him about her insanity and he was telling me about his mum's latest insanity and we had an epiphany.

R: You know how we joke our mothers are kind of alike?
Sam: Yeah?
R: I think if we put them in the same room together, like...
Sam: The world would implode?
R: It'd be like the gatekeeper and the keymaster from Ghostbusters.
Sam: ZOOL WOULD EMERGE.
R: THE MINIONS OF GOZER WOULD DEVOUR THE EARTH.

I don't miss him drinking all the milk or leaving his laundry everywhere or dating women with untrained pit bulls, but my life is so much more interesting when he's around.

Title: A Worthy Experiment
Author: alisanne
Word Count: 100
Rating: R
Written for snarry100's challenge: #131: Random Word Generator. Word: Center
Warning(s): Rather graphic sexual activities implied. ;)
A/N: Harry poses a question and Severus tries to answer.
Beta: sevfan
Disclaimer: The characters contained herein are not mine. No money is being made from this fiction, which is presented for entertainment purposes only.

A Worthy Experiment

Inspired by Veridian Dair's earlier Harry, They Are Doing It Again! crack art, Chrysos gifts us with what she imagines goes on with Harry and Snape's friends as they get ready for the abusefun that the Snarry Games Champions have twice a year.

Presenting:

Crack!Art Title: Hagrid and Dumbledore want to vote, too ...
Artist: Chrysos
Rating/Warnings/Kinks: G, none.







( Dragon Season! Phoenix Season! Dragon! Phoenix! )


Thank you, chrysos!



THE SNARRY GAMES BEGINS POSTING TOMORROW!


Stay tuned for some more opening Games stuff, including a special Opening Games Tribute to both teams.

Grah, I promised recs a week ago! Sorry – have been frantically busy with RL and fic writing, and haven't done much reading for a couple of months now. I still have a long list of stories I've been meaning to read that were posted ages ago. Rar. But! For now, some recs for a few I've enjoyed lately:

Make Your Own Bed by melusinahp (Draco/Albus Severus, NC-17: infidelity, 9K)
'The best-laid plans of mice and men, Go oft awry.' -- Robert Burns

I'm one of those readers who is intrigued by the idea of Harry/Draco's son or Draco/Harry's kids. *g* There are increasingly more of these pairings being written, which is great, and this is definitely one of the best of that genre that I've seen so far. The premise of Draco seeking revenge on Harry for a business deal gone wrong works well here, and the actual seduction of Albus Severus as part of that revenge, though of course we see it coming from the very header of the fic, happens in a completely plausible and compelling way. Albus himself is a captivating character, at once youthful naivete and brash teen confidence (he's 17 here, if age is an issue for you). It's fascinating to watch Draco's reactions to Albus's swerving between sexy lover and bratty teenager. There is also a nice resolution in this story, which goes in directions you might not expect. This is one of the strengths of Melusina's writing, I've found (and as I mentioned to her in my comment): she's got this great ability to make you think a story (or even just a scene or conversation) is going down a certain path, and then it veers off somewhere a bit different. Not anything as dramatic as full mindfuck, and not in the sense of erratic, inconsistent writing – but just in terms of always keeping the reader on their toes. I like that.

Obsession by betelin_notecor (Scorpius/various, R: incest, dub-con, 2K)
Scorpius has an obsession.

This story begins with a few things that irk me, to be honest. The header is a bit truncated, for one, and the author's notes bleed into the start of the fic. The other thing is the second paragraph, which launches into irrelevant backstory and sidestory about where other HP characters are right now: Teddy and Victoire are married and "are busy being the foremost experts in transfiguration in America." No. No no no. I almost hit the back button because of these things alone. BUT, I'm glad I didn't, because the story goes off into wonderful places after that. It's a series of vignettes, illustrating Scorpius's attempt to seek revenge on the Potter and Weasley families – his sworn enemies, according to Malfoy propaganda. And so he sets about sexually defiling all the Potter and Weasley children during his years at Hogwarts. I like the structure of this story, with each vignette separated by a snippet of dialogue or action from the seduction itself, and I love the ending. I shouldn't have been surprised by it, but I was. I was! And it was one of those things where my eyes widened and my jaw dropped and I went, "Oh, she didn't," with evil, cackling glee, and that is really what made this entire story for me, despite a few rough patches at the beginning.

The Arousal of Suspicion by eeyore9990 (Bill/Tonks/Kingsley, NC-17, 7K)
With everything else going wrong in the world, she'd finally found something very, very right.

This story has one of the best opening sequences I've read in a while. I think I read it about eight times, just for the pleasure of sinking into the action of it and feeling everything the characters feel. Tonks and Bill are undercover on an Order stakeout. Kingsley is giving orders in Tonks's earpiece. Even without being about sex – these are just colleagues working together for the Order – the scene is brimming with sexual tension. It's fabulously done. From there, the development of the relationship between Bill and Tonks, and eventually the three of them, slides perfectly into GoF canon. (GoF!! Who writes GoF canon anymore?! But it's my favourite, so I was thrilled with this). My only minor complaint is that I wanted it to be longer. The worldbuilding was so good, and the canon fits so complete, that I wanted to read it as a Bill/Tonks/Kingsley version of GoF and OotP canon. Novel-length! But of course, writers have limits and deadlines, I know, and this fest actually capped the length of stories, so I don't blame the author for it. :)

One More Time by abusing_sarcasm (Albus/Scorpius/Rose, NC-17: incest, 3K)
Albus/Scorpius/Rose. And that's all you need to know.

Oh man, I just reread this one again and am still giggling. It's got this fantastic narrative voice in Albus, and despite the ridiculousness of the situation, the narration saves the whole thing and makes it awesome. Here, have an excerpt. That will tell you much more concretely whether you want to read it than any of my attempted summaries could: ( See, here's the thing about Scorpius – he's sex on legs, and I’m not ashamed to admit it. )

A Simple Misunderstanding by trubbleclef (Neville/Harry, Neville/others, NC-17: discussion of watersports, 3K)
Neville likes Harry, he just doesn't want to get pissed on.

*crying with laughter* I don't care what you think about watersports – check this one out. The entire premise is that Neville keeps dating men who want to try that kink with him, and he's starting to get a complex about it. Even his friend Luna notices that he develops what she calls his "pee face" when he is confused or upset about something. The whole thing is ridiculous and brilliant and sexy and adorable, and the Neville/Harry romance under it all is incredibly sweet.

And... what? There was also supposed to be one by mnemosyne_1 here, but the journal is gone and with it the fic. :( I expect this is temporary? Better be. Shall try to remember to put it in the next batch of recs, then, when hopefully Syne will be back ♥

Note to self: I am not allowed to use the word "indistinctly" more than once in any given work, despite it being one of my favourite words. (I blame Eliot on account of "the host with someone indistinct / converses at the door apart".)

Also, as per spiderine's very justified scolding, I now do a search for semicolons after I finish a fic and replace as many as possible with something else. I have an unhealthy passion for semicolons.

Hey, you guys remember the Skyehawke omg!dontcensormychan wank from April 05? Is it seriously possible that it didn't make fandom_wank? I'm looking for the entry to link to context, in a post I made about it, and I'm finding a vast morass of nothing-about-chan-or-TOS. Not to make you relive that oh so exciting time in your life or anything, Tien.

ALSO, I found the I Am Thankful post. It was in 2006, hurrah! And just in time for Canadian Thanksgiving.

Right. cluegirl posted a meme that I couldn't resist.

If you read this, if your eyes are passing over this right now,(even if we don't speak often or ever) please post a comment with a COMPLETELY MADE UP AND FICTIONAL memory of you and me.

It can be anything you want - good or bad - BUT IT HAS TO BE FAKE.

When you're finished, post this little paragraph in your LJ and see what your friends come up with. (*Or don't, if you'd rather not. No skin lost, either way.*)

BTW, if you don't participate, I'm just presuming that you're writing/reading/making art/thinking deeply/in a level seven or lower crisis at the moment and can't be disturbed. Survive it, please, 'coz I'd miss you - 'kay? ♥