Author: darkhavens
Title: Nicotine Fix
Fandom: Pairing: Buffy: Spike/Xander
Rating: PG
Words: 200
Concrit: Please. If you spot a typo, please feel free to tell me in comments. I want you to!
Disclaimer: Not mine, never will be. No harm, no foul, no money made.
Summary: Set just after the events of S5E20, Spiral, wherein Spike is a wounded hero and Xander pockets his lighter.
Notes: Written for slashthedrabble challenge #162: Old Challenges Revisited: #161 - Drag

( Nicotine Fix )

Author: darkhavens
Title: The Man Who Stole the Heart of William The Bloody - Exclusive!
Fandom: Pairing: Buffy: Spike/Xander
Rating: Text: G, Graphics: Shirtless
Disclaimer: Not mine, never will be. No harm, no foul, no money made.
Summary: Xander gets interviewed by the "No.1 Magazine for demon-human relationships"
Notes: The picture on the cover of the magazine has been identified by tabaqui as the insane heavy metal band Gwar reidentified as Lordi by tonicat. I can't remember where I found the pics of Xander or Spike, it was so long ago. (The photo credit in the following images is fake, just like everything else.)
This artwork was viewed and critiqued at varying stages by literati, tabaqui, reremouse and outsideth3box. My undying thanks to you all.

Created for my day at spring_with_xan.

( The Man Who Stole the Heart of William The Bloody - Exclusive! )

rounds_of_kink is still looking for prompts. Get yourselves over to the prompt page before the end of April 15th and prompt your hearts out! There's no obligation involved - you don't have to claim any prompts, you don't have to write anything, though you might find a fic you just have to write. ;)

Any Fandom
Any Pairing
Any Kink

Go! Prompt! Now!

1. I'm still not dead!

2. I'm also still meaning to post the pictures I took of the London Eye when I was there with Kitty. I will. I promise. Soon...

3. Work today sucked. How come all the idiots with the dumb questions turn upon my shift? Today's prize-winning idiot walked all the way round our (very small) store and then came up to ask me if we sell Swing Tennis sets. For those of you not in the know, that's a 6ft tall metal pole attached to a tennis ball by a long piece of string. Hardly something we'd keep under the counter out of sight. *headdesk* The answer, btw, was a very polite "...No."

4. I am currently eating frozen raspberries. Yum!

Now, on to the 'entertain me' portion of the post. I have spent the last couple of days pondering on what my favourite characters would list as their top 5 (or 3 or 7 or 20 etc) movies. (Yes, I have been that bored.) Anyway, I want to know what you think John Sheppard would list, or Rodney McKay, or Xander, or Spike, or The Mayor, or Lorne, etc etc.

This is open to any character in any fandom! You can justify your choices - or not. Think Xander's #3 favourite movie is Y Tu Mama Tambien but don't want to say why? Go right ahead!

I did write up a list of Xander's five favourite movies but then I decided that, hey, expanded to twenty, with Xander-voiced justification (and maybe an aside or two from Spike), this would be perfect for one of my posting days at spring_with_xan, so stay tuned for more on this subject soon! Then I started on a Rodney McKay list and it got ficcy, so... I have no lists to share right now. Give me yours instead!

Thank you to everyone who sent me birthday greetings, and a special thanks to staranis for my bottle of virtual bubbly and to entrenous88 (and Xander!) for my musical ecard and the lust for doughnuts it inspired. *drools*

I've just spent 4 wonderful days in the delightful company of kitty_poker1 and two other flisters ( to be named later. )

My fic brain is still in a coma, so for my commitment to 14valentines I will be posting icons of purple things. These things will include beads, fabrics, teddybears, dice, fruit, flowers, scenery, lightning strikes and other fun purple stuff.

Today's collection of icons is all about cushions and/or pillows. Today's essay at 14valentines is all about Body Image.

Be comfortable in yourself and with yourself. {{{big squishy hugs from big squishy me}}}

01. 02. 03.

(  18 more inside  )

A lot of you already know about stop_plagiarism, the comm that handles reports of text-based plagiarism and maintains a list of known plagiarists, but did you know about their new sister comm dontstealvideo, which has been set up to handle reports of video-based plagiarism?

If you watch and/or make vids, this is a comm that should be on your flist (just like all you readers and writers should be watching stop_plagiarism), because you never know when you might be able to help identify a stolen piece of work - it could even be yours.

dontstealvideo + stop_plagiarism

don't let them get away with it

*snogs you all under the mistletoe*

Author: darkhavens
Title: What's In The Box?
Fandom: Pairing: Buffy: Spike/Xander
Rating: PG-13
Words: 1039
Concrit: darkhavens @ slashverse.com. If you spot a typo, please feel free to tell me in comments.
Disclaimer: Not mine, never will be. No harm, no foul, no money made.
Summary: Xander receives an unexpected parcel.
Notes: Written for lazuli_kat's Christmas Cracker mini-fest on the Excessant mailing list.


( What's In The Box? )

Horbling IV was a resounding success! There was much fine food, good company, new fic, and copious amounts of booze. Together we managed to traumatise one waiter, terrify one chef, repeatedly abuse one caped monkey and several anatomically correct knitted men, and communicate in multiple fandoms with only minor disorientation and repeated 'Who did what? I don't know him, what does he look like? Ooh, nice! Carry on!'s.

I am going to try and tackle my monster flist, but feel free to link me to the good stuff in comments so I don't miss it all. :D

*twirls you all*

On Friday morning I shall be making my annual pilgrimage to Horbling, a tiny town in the wilds of Lincolnshire, where I and anyasbuttmonkey, esmerelda_t, vic_amy_z, bouncymonkey, eatenbyweasels, lonelybrit, madders, princess_s, vampirefever, and gingerpig will revel in three days of fine food, copious amounts of booze, various fandoms, bad porn, good fic and lots and lots of fun.

Out of curiosity, I googled Horbling to see if there were any pretty pictures I could share, but a Youtube link caught my eye instead.

( embedded link inside, plus coded link for those, like me, for whom embeds do not work )

The clip is entitled 'HORBLING to BILLINGBOROUGH' and it means what it says. Horbling lasts for about 38 seconds, and the remaining minute and a half is the journey to the centre of Billingborough.

Horbling is a tiny, tiny, very pretty town! :D

mini_nanowrimo final total (edited because I apparently can't use my word brain and my number brain simultaneously) : 15139 words.

I swear, I haven't written that much in the last two years! *feels all accomplished*

Author: darkhavens
Title: Five Scars Xander Got Paid For
Fandom: Pairing: Buffy: Spike/Xander
Rating: PG-13
Words: 2300
Concrit: darkhavens @ slashverse.com. If you spot a typo, please feel free to tell me in comments. I want you to! (Unbeta'd because OMG!So!Late!)
Disclaimer: Not mine, never will be. No harm, no foul, no money made.
Summary: Xander had always been prone to possession. There was something about him that attracted demons and trouble like ants to sugar, and something in his physical or psychological makeup that left him much more open to picking up hitchhikers of the non-corporeal persuasion.
Notes: Written for fall_for_sx, for mini_nanowrimo and for the 4th anniversary of bloodclaim.

This can be read as a standalone but is also set in the Protected!verse, where Spike and Xander are in an established relationship and have decided that they want to be together for as long as possible, but without turning Xander. Xander bears scars and tattoos and other markings of spells and protections gifted to him by various demons. Each fic tells the story of one or more of these markings.

( The Hitchhiker )



mini_nanowrimo running total: 14987 words, in 30 days

Word count: 1239 - in various bits and pieces that might one day see the light of day.

mini_nanowrimo running total: 12687 words, in 28 days

There are probably quite a few of you sitting out there staring at all the cookie cutter 'adult content' lj cuts on your flist and wondering wtf has happened, so here it is: LJ has instituted some age-appropriate adult content flagging and you have to go and change your settings to get rid of all the silliness.

If you scroll down that page to 'Adult content options', you need to set 'Viewing Adult Content' to 'Do not collapse' and then set 'Safe Search Filtering' to your preferred level, which is most probably 'Do not filter my results'.

NB: This only works if you are an adult in the eyes of LJ - ie, if you gave an appropriate DoB when you set up your account, or (if you set up your account before they added that requirement) if you have an appropriate DoB listed on your profile. (You can set that to be hidden from view.)

The explanation for all this can be found here in lj_biz. I advise you to read the comments carefully as some rather important/obvious questions have been answered there but not edited into the main post because, hey, that would be too easy, right?

Look out for replies by marta (also known as pheret1) - she's joined the LJ Team to help out with customer service and community issues, so her word is, or should be 'gospel'.

I see a sudden spate of new 18+ LJs being created by all those tweenies who didn't lie about their age when they created their first LJ and now suddenly find themselves cut off from all their favourite comms.

Author: darkhavens
Title: Power
Fandom: Pairing: Buffy: Spike/Xander, reference to Angelus/Spike
Rating: R for violent imagery
Words: 100
Concrit: darkhavens @ slashverse.com. If you spot a typo, please feel free to tell me in comments. I want you to!
Disclaimer: Not mine, never will be. No harm, no foul, no money made.
Summary: Spike learns about power.
Notes: Written for slashthedrabble prompt #146 - Power, and also for mini_nanowrimo, day 28. Can be read as a standalone, though in my head it is part of the baby!vamp!Xander 'verse.

( Power )



mini_nanowrimo running total: 11448 words, in 28 days

Author: darkhavens
Title: Meaningful Numbers
Fandom: Pairing: Stargate Atlantis: Slightly John/Rodney, mostly teamfic
Rating: PG-13
Words: 1445
Concrit: darkhavens @ slashverse.com. If you spot a typo, please feel free to tell me in comments. I want you to!
Disclaimer: Not mine, never will be. No harm, no foul, no money made.
Summary: "...the lush lower curves of Rodney's ass are screaming out to be decorated with Pi - he knows Rodney would appreciate the punnish humor."
Notes: Written over several days for mini_nanowrimo and also because someone somewhere, ages ago, made a post asking for John writing on Rodney and the idea lingered. Posted for mini_nanowrimo day 26. (+267 words today, none yesterday.)

( Meaningful Numbers )



mini_nanowrimo running total: 11231 words, in 26 days

No update yesterday because I produced no words at all. :(

Today I did a little better. 210 (ish), shared just about equally between the unending McShep thing and the Supernatural Wolfpack'verse thing. All words will probably be deleted once I wake up and can actually read what I've read. (So very very tired and so very very emo whining struck out for emo whininess.)

mini_nanowrimo running total: 10964 words, in 24 days

257 new words added to the McShep that refuses to end (but doesn't want to grow either), though I did edit a chunk out so the word total is still about the same as yesterday. Bah.

mini_nanowrimo running total: 10754 words, in 23 days

Barely a hundred words added to the McShep mentioned yesterday after editing and tidying up, and I still don't have an ending for it. Hopefully that will come tomorrow.

mini_nanowrimo running total: 10497 words, in 22 days