Valentines Meet and Greet
Feb. 1st, 2024 05:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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allbingoI've been participating in snowflake_challenge, where lots of folks want to see more activity on Dreamwidth. While researching community activities, I came across the idea of thematic meet and greet events. That seemed like something which might work here, given a membership of several hundred people and a new theme each month. So I made one for this month's theme. It gives people a place to meet folks with similar interests, and to squee about the current theme.
Here is the basic outline. Fill in as much or as little of it as you wish, depending on your interests as they relate to the Valentines Fest.
Name: Whatever you wish to be known by.
Sex/Gender Identity: Share any descriptions you wish people to know about you, including pronouns.
Sex/Romance/Other Orientation: Who you connect with and how.
Find Me At: Your other blogs, services, or venues.
What I Love About Valentines Day: Favorite activities, traditions, decorations, stories, etc.
What I Hate About Valentines Day: Things you wish would go away, in real life or entertainment. Die, trope, die!
What I Love to Do By Myself: How do you treat yourself when you're alone? Self-love, self-romance, favorite sex toys, favorite snuggly things, places you like to visit alone, your One True Chocolate, whatever.
Heartbreak: Ways you enjoy breaking your characters, canonical breakups and betrayals, favorite fanworks about breakups, that time you got your heart broken, creative revenge ideas, horrible ex tropes, and such.
Romantic Favorites: Romance movies or novels, fandoms, tropes, etc.
Erotic Favorites: Sexyfuntimes in fiction, movies, art, or whatever. Slash all the things!
My Kink(s): In person, writing, or reading; favorite toys, pervertables, plausible deniability, kink-friendly fandoms, best kink scenes in movies, and the like.
Platonic Favorites: Nonsexual intimacies, situations. tropes, sex-free movies or books, ace/aro-friendly fandoms, and so on.
Favorite Blogs or Communities: Anything on Dreamwidth, or other venues, relating to the above topics.
About My Blog: A general description of your blog metaphor, what your blog contains, common formats / media, activity level, typical rating level, featured fandom(s) or original work, etc.
What I Create: Anything you make that relates to the Valentines theme or above topics; fandoms, formats, recurring motifs, and so forth.
What I'm Looking For: Things you would like to get from this activity; readers, comments, recommendations of fandoms or fanworks, new friends, wider representation of something, etc.
Feel free to copy this Meet and Greet into your blog as well as filling it out here -- you may catch some of the holiday traffic.
snowflake_challenge, where lots of folks want to see more activity on Dreamwidth. While researching community activities, I came across the idea of thematic meet and greet events. That seemed like something which might work here, given a membership of several hundred people and a new theme each month. So I made one for this month's theme. It gives people a place to meet folks with similar interests, and to squee about the current theme.Here is the basic outline. Fill in as much or as little of it as you wish, depending on your interests as they relate to the Valentines Fest.
Name: Whatever you wish to be known by.
Sex/Gender Identity: Share any descriptions you wish people to know about you, including pronouns.
Sex/Romance/Other Orientation: Who you connect with and how.
Find Me At: Your other blogs, services, or venues.
What I Love About Valentines Day: Favorite activities, traditions, decorations, stories, etc.
What I Hate About Valentines Day: Things you wish would go away, in real life or entertainment. Die, trope, die!
What I Love to Do By Myself: How do you treat yourself when you're alone? Self-love, self-romance, favorite sex toys, favorite snuggly things, places you like to visit alone, your One True Chocolate, whatever.
Heartbreak: Ways you enjoy breaking your characters, canonical breakups and betrayals, favorite fanworks about breakups, that time you got your heart broken, creative revenge ideas, horrible ex tropes, and such.
Romantic Favorites: Romance movies or novels, fandoms, tropes, etc.
Erotic Favorites: Sexyfuntimes in fiction, movies, art, or whatever. Slash all the things!
My Kink(s): In person, writing, or reading; favorite toys, pervertables, plausible deniability, kink-friendly fandoms, best kink scenes in movies, and the like.
Platonic Favorites: Nonsexual intimacies, situations. tropes, sex-free movies or books, ace/aro-friendly fandoms, and so on.
Favorite Blogs or Communities: Anything on Dreamwidth, or other venues, relating to the above topics.
About My Blog: A general description of your blog metaphor, what your blog contains, common formats / media, activity level, typical rating level, featured fandom(s) or original work, etc.
What I Create: Anything you make that relates to the Valentines theme or above topics; fandoms, formats, recurring motifs, and so forth.
What I'm Looking For: Things you would like to get from this activity; readers, comments, recommendations of fandoms or fanworks, new friends, wider representation of something, etc.
Feel free to copy this Meet and Greet into your blog as well as filling it out here -- you may catch some of the holiday traffic.
Hello!
Date: 2024-02-02 04:01 am (UTC)Sex/Gender Identity:
Sex/Romance/Other Orientation:
This stuff kind of all goes together, metasexual, genderqueer, if you combine all the spectra I have enough to make a tesseract.
Find Me At:
https://ysabetwordsmith.dreamwidth.org/
https://ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com/
http://penultimateproductions.weebly.com/my-work.html
http://greenhaventradition.weebly.com/writing.html
(WARNING: Flypaper for eyeballs.)
What I Love About Valentines Day:
Naturally colored pink to red foods and recipes for same. Taking extra time to invest in a valued relationship. Recs for hawt romance or nonsexual intimacy fics.
What I Hate About Valentines Day: Society's tendency to pick on people who are not with someone at the moment, or ace/aro, or not with an "acceptable" partner or whatthefuckever. >_< Commercialism.
What I Love to Do By Myself: Read, walk in nature, cook, gardening (which at this time of year mostly means shopping with plant catalogs), crafts.
Heartbreak: I love stories where a good character has been dumped by an awful partner, or society, and someone else comes along and appreciates them and picks them up. Sometimes a soulmate isn't your perfect sex partner, but someone who will sit and be sad with you. Grief is the sign of a healthy relationship at the parting point.
Romantic Favorites: Enemies to Friends/Lovers, Odd Couple (or moresome), Polyamory, Slow Burn, Emotional Intimacy, Smat (nonsexual smut), Picturesque Locations, Interspecies Romance, Soulbonds, Sedoretu, Troll Romance
Erotic Favorites: Guys who know where to find a clitoris and what to do with it, gals who know where to find a prostate gland and what to do with it, alien/fantasy sex toys, Alpha/Beta/Omega dynamics, alien sex/genders
My Kink(s): kink in general, societies where kink is the norm, pervertables, gloriously crafted sex toys (seriously you should see some of the ones made of gold, semiprecious stones, or art glass: sculptures you can fuck), women on horseback chasing fleeing men through fields, power exchange, trust edgeplay
Platonic Favorites: Five Moments of Intimacy, Nonsexual Intimacies, Intellectual Foreplay, Teamfamily, No Such Thing as "Just" Friends, Squishes, Zucchini, orientations not based on sex
Favorite Blogs or Communities:
About My Blog: I post almost every day, often several times a day. If you're looking for an active blog, this is a good bet; if you're easily overwhelmed, not so much. I post a lot about writing, some nature and current events, especially science news. I share my gardening and birdfeeding experiences, with photos in the warmer months. I'm an active supporter of crowdfunding and often link to other people's projects. My blog has folks from all over the QUILTBAG.
What I Create: I write primarily original work, and some fanfic for fun. I post a lot of poetry, some fiction and nonfiction. My most popular fanfic series is Love Is For Children (The Avengers). See my Serial Poetry page and How To articles. The first Tuesday of each month, I host a Poetry Fishbowl in blog; people give me prompts and I write poems based on whatever I get. Next up will be February 6 with a theme of "Twisted Genres." I also participate in the
Love Is For Children: mostly nonsexual, some Betty/Bruce-and-Hulk, past Tony/Pepper, new Clint&JARVIS as an ace couple
The Blueshift Troupers: Taylor/Zasha
Schrodinger's Heroes: Pat has a polyfamily, Quinn is the fandom bicycle, and other combinations vary by dimension.
An Army of One: The Autistic Secession in Space: mostly nonsexual with a few couples.
Daughters of the Apocalypse: whoops, running out of men, cue female relationships!
Eloquent Souls: all the ways a soulbond doesn't solve everything; orientations vary. "Soul Song" is the first, doesn't have a landing page yet.
Frankenstein's Family: queerplatonic Victor&Igor, a lesbian couple supporting characters, two werewolf couples, and a human couple with vampire third.
Hart's Farm: a free love commune with the whole QUILTBAG, one monogamous couple, and two aces.
The Origami Mage: ace/aro leads in an Asian fantasy.
Path of the Paladins: ace/aro leads in low fantasy.
P.I.E.: urban fantasy with a hot lady in a wheelchair and the several men interested in her.
Polychrome Heroics -- superhero fantasy with the whole QUILTBAG
* Antimatter and Stalwart Stan: Antimatter is a gay supervillain, Stalwart Stan is a demiromantic bisexual superhero, and they work it out somehow.
* Calliope is a transgender superhera with a supervillain platonic-bondmate. Oops.
* Cuoio and Chiara: Mobster romance.
* Officer Pink: Ansel/Janie + Turq as a platonic third.
* Pain's Gray: kinky gangsters. Gray is actually heterosexual but bisensual, other orientations vary. Hawt power exchange.
* Trichromatic Attachments: Tarnish is a gay supervillain. Cavalier is a bisexual gray hat. Princessa is a straight superhera. Won't this be fun? Hot mess is hot.
What I'm Looking For: I'm always interested in new friends and readers, or new things to read in favorite topics. I'd enjoy connecting with more artists.
no subject
Date: 2024-02-04 01:03 am (UTC)Name: Fleet, Fleet Sparrow/FleetSparrow
Gender Identity: Genderless brain trapped uncomfortably in physical form.
Sex/Romance/Other Orientation: Asexual, pretty much aromantic. Romance is one of those things that I strongly enjoy, but vicariously through fictional characters, much like how sexual attraction is a thing that I can understand exists, just not as it applies to me.
Find Me At: Here or on Tumblr (also FleetSparrow)
What I Love About Valentines Day: Honestly, it's my least favorite of the holidays.
What I Hate About Valentines Day: Specific to my life, but I have a coworker who hates Christmas (and reminds everyone of her hatred for it every chance she gets) because it's "so commercialized" yet loves Valentine's Day because she "loves love", as if this pseudo-holiday isn't basically a giant commercial.
What I Love to Do By Myself: Read, listen to music on speakers instead of headphones, write.
Heartbreak: I have been in two romantic relationships. The first ended with a mutual, amicable split due to distance and time. The second ended by being told by my girlfriend that we should split because I was too busy and she "deserved better" at the restaurant before we went in for my birthday dinner. I wasn't, strictly speaking, heartbroken, but jesus christ my man. I'd much rather have been broken up with via text, tbh.
Romantic Favorites: Extremely competent people absolutely losing their minds over their equally competent partners; emotionally damaged characters being 100% unhinged about each other; partners being so terrible together, yet so enamored of each other, that they can't function apart; male characters who realize only too late that their female ex-partner who they took for granted is not only fine without them, but better off, and they themselves are 10000% worse off for losing her; getting back together stories where the characters are older, maybe no wiser, but definitely changed.
Erotic Favorites: Physically smaller characters being more dominant and in control than larger ones; descriptions that focus on emotional states and reactions, especially when detachment or more intellectualized thoughts take a sharp left into hardcore smut.
My Kink(s): Characters losing control while knowing that they are, and either not caring about afterwards or being highly aware of how much they will care afterwards, but doing it anyway.
Platonic Favorites: Platonic casual physical intimacy, deep emotional intimacy between friends.
Favorite Blogs or Communities: Pour one out for Season of Kink, which is no longer active, but remains strong in my heart.
About My Blog: Honestly, it's a bit of a crapshoot what you're going to get. I'm only semi-active here during Snowflake and/or Sunshine Challenge. I'm very active on Tumblr, and that's just a random assortment of everything I like, think, or find interesting. Lots of memes, and DC Comics, and occasional politics/RL stuff. On AO3, it's about a 50/50 split between smut and gen fics.
What I Create: Fanfics, pretty exclusively. (My visual art skills are negligible at best.) I write a lot of stuff for DC Comics/Batman (most common ships are Bruce Wayne/Dick Grayson, Slade Wilson/Dick Grayson, and Bruce Wayne/Selina Kyle), half of which is sweet gen romance and the other half is fairly hardcore smut.
What I'm Looking For: Just interested in seeing what everyone's into!
Thoughts
Date: 2024-02-04 02:22 am (UTC)My sympathies. Bodies can be frustrating.
>>Asexual, pretty much aromantic. Romance is one of those things that I strongly enjoy, but vicariously through fictional characters, much like how sexual attraction is a thing that I can understand exists, just not as it applies to me.<<
Lots of things are more fun as fantasies than realities.
>> as if this pseudo-holiday isn't basically a giant commercial.<<
That's annoying.
*ponder* So now I'm imagining what it would look like if the holiday was actually about love. Free classes on communication and listening skills would make a great start.
Do you celebrate Half-Price Chocolate Day on February 15? It's a favorite of ours.
>> at the restaurant before we went in for my birthday dinner.<<
There is really no excuse for that timing.
... you deserve better, even if you choose that to be your own company.
>> partners being so terrible together, yet so enamored of each other, that they can't function apart <<
I ship Fox/Xanatos from Gargoyles. They're so evil, and yet, so adorable together.
>> Physically smaller characters being more dominant and in control than larger ones <<
So much this. \o/
My fans are very fond of my Picts. Diamonds and dynamite.
>> Platonic casual physical intimacy, deep emotional intimacy between friends.<<
Agreed! I have multiple pieces that fans read for vicarious touch.
>> Pour one out for Season of Kink, which is no longer active, but remains strong in my heart.<<
Folks could always revive that here. We've got a list of kink prompts over on the Bingo Card Generator. I think we've done at least one kinkfest in the past, plus of course it's an option for Valentines Fest.
no subject
Date: 2024-02-04 08:25 am (UTC)Name: luvbarryfefe
Sex/Gender Identity: she/her
Sex/Romance/Other Orientation: At my age, you would think I would know, but I'm still pretty confused by everything. I just know I prefer fictional relationships over real ones by far these days.
Find Me At: here, on dreamwidth, is probably the best place right now.
What I Love About Valentines Day: chocolate! and all the lovey-dovey fanfiction. all the romcoms. I love *fictional* romance.
What I Hate About Valentines Day: I guess when people act like if you don't have a partner on Valentine's Day it's the end of the world. I don't get that.
What I Love to Do By Myself: write! read! surf the internet! watch bad TV! make lists of things I want to do with my life that I usually don't do. oh and snuggle with my growing collection of Carebears.
Heartbreak: Such a good topic. Ways I enjoy breaking my characters? Every single way you can think of. The more I love them, the more hideously I torture them, it seems. I know it's wrong but I can't help myself. Angst is my thing. Make me cry, please, break my soul. There's one thing I won't do and that's kill any animals in stories. That's the one thing I cannot handle. That is too much heartbreak for me as an animal lover. The time I got my own heartbroken? Probably the less said about it the better lol
Romantic Favorites: I have a lot of favorites. I love romance novels, cheesy as some are. My favorite writers are too numerous to name but I've been enjoying Jasmine Guillory lately. She knows how to combine heat with fun dialogue and interesting plots. Favorite romance movies. That's another topic where there are too many to name but I recommend the underrated Mrs. Winterbourne if you're looking for 90's nostalgia this Valentine's Day.
Erotic Favorites: One of my favorite erotic, well, love scenes in TV was between Buffy and Angel back when I was a big shipper of theirs. I thought it was so well done and just really intimate. And though I didn't really watch the show much, some stuff on True Blood blew my mind! Oh, and there were some M/M scenes on How to Get Away With Murder that were smoking hot too.
My Kink(s): I like reading erotic femslash stories. Unfortunately, many of the fandoms I'm in there's just not a lot of femslash, let alone 'kinky' femslash. I need to branch out, seriously. As for writing erotic stories, I am not all that great at it. I used to like writing "smut" as they call it, but I just lost any talent I might have once had for it. Now it feels forced when I try. However, when I was writing it I liked writing any scene where the woman is riding her partner. TMI?
Platonic Favorites: I like watching something as simple as two people talking, having a deep, meaningful conversation. I feel like a lot of shows and movies now don't have involved dialogue between characters anymore and it takes away from the "realness" of the characters and their worlds. In real life, a one-minute interaction doesn't usually cut it with the people in your life even if you may want it to sometimes. I don't really know about any ace-friendly fandoms but I'd like to hear about them.
Favorite Blogs or Communities: There's a number of them but I am currently enjoying celebrating women in fandom with the
About My Blog: It's an chaotic mess of things right now. I wasn't sure what to do with it for the longest time so it was a hodge-podge of a dozen different things but lately, I've taken an interest in organizing it so I am adding a little fan fic, some graphics, TV show commentary, and stuff like that. There are also tons of lists of challenges I want to do someday or ones that are already in progress.
What I Create: For Valentine's Day, I usually try to write some fan fiction for one or two of my favorite ships. This year I am very focused on Gianna and Gallo from Chicago Fire so I might write a few drabbles about them. I also plan to make a few lovey-dovey-themed graphix.
What I'm Looking For: I am looking to make a few new friends on Dreamwidth, and get fandom recommendations, and comments on my works. Mostly, I'm just here to have a good time. TY for putting this up. I am sorry I wrote so dang much! lol
Hello!
Date: 2024-02-04 09:22 am (UTC)Go for it! Remember you can make a smaller card if the usual sizes are bigger than you find ideal.
>> At my age, you would think I would know, <<
Some people take a while to figure it out. Sex/gender is complicated.
>> but I'm still pretty confused by everything. <<
Arovague - Is someone whose status as an aromantic is uncertain or affected by mood.
Noviromantic - Is someone who experiences a complicated romantic attraction (or lack thereof) such that they do not feel it can be described in a single term
Quoiromantic - Is someone whose romantic orientation is on the aromantic spectrum that describes people who cannot differentiate between platonic and romantic attraction, cannot define romantic attraction and therefore are not sure if they experience it, experience attraction somewhere between romantic and platonic, or want to be in a queerplatonic relationship. It’s also known as WTFromantic or Whatromantic or Platoniromantic.
See, you're not the only one who finds it confusing.
>> I just know I prefer fictional relationships over real ones by far these days.<<
Autochorisromantic/Aegoromantic - Is someone who enjoys the idea of romance, but not wishing to be a participant in romantic activities (based off of autochorissexual / a disconnection between oneself and a romantic target or fantasy).
Fictoromantic - romantic attraction exclusively to fictional characters or people that aren't real, or being aromantic while feeling romantically attracted to fictional characters.
https://www.asexuality.org/en/topic/189399-only-attracted-to-fictional-characters/
>> I guess when people act like if you don't have a partner on Valentine's Day it's the end of the world. I don't get that. <<
Some people wrap up their whole identity in another person, so without that, they feel like they are nothing.
>>I like reading erotic femslash stories.<<
You might like
>>Unfortunately, many of the fandoms I'm in there's just not a lot of femslash, let alone 'kinky' femslash. I need to branch out, seriously. <<
Have you tried Wednesday? It has numerous female characters and thus lots of femslash, although a majority is Wednesday/Enid.
See also Femslash Top 100.
>>I don't really know about any ace-friendly fandoms but I'd like to hear about them.<<
Good Omens -- they're angels, so it follows that they may not be into rubbing squishy bits together like humans.
Sherlock Holmes, especially the Sherlock series -- generally Sherlock is married to his work, has a queerplatonic bond with John Watson, and a fucked-up kismesissitude with Moriarti.
>>I wasn't sure what to do with it for the longest time so it was a hodge-podge of a dozen different things but lately, I've taken an interest in organizing it so I am adding a little fan fic, some graphics, TV show commentary, and stuff like that. <<
Some people find recurring posts helpful in organizing their main topics.
>>There are also tons of lists of challenges I want to do someday or ones that are already in progress.<<
>> I am sorry I wrote so dang much! lol <<
No, it's great to get people talking!
no subject
Date: 2024-02-07 02:36 am (UTC)Name: NSFWords, Brandy
Sex/Gender Identity: Meh
Sex/Romance/Other Orientation: Bisexual Switch
Find Me At: Here on Dreamwidth and a mirrored site on Wordpress
What I Love About Valentines Day: Interesting chocolates and other confections
What I Hate About Valentines Day: Pressure to do something "romantic"
What I Love to Do By Myself: Read, nap, go thrifting
Heartbreak: I love Epic Pining. My favorite stories have a long drawn out time frame where one character WANTS so much, but can't have for some reason.
Erotic Favorites: BDSM in general, D/s in specific, and so many others. Pr0n is my jam.
My Kink(s): When I'm reading I'll search for D/s first, Sentinel/Guide next, and then Soulmate stuff.
Platonic Favorites: Hair petting!
What I Create: I'm over on my blog writing original ficlets that tend to form up into episodic series. Honest truth - Exploring what kinds of relationships I have in my various series currently is what convinced me to do this meet & greet, after I saw that Ysabet had done that!
The Earthen: They're very collaborative little beings, and I've explored their sexual/reproductive habits in 1 story so far, with Dezydery having attempted to make a baby with three different male partners. They're focused on fertility for mating, and not romantic partnerships per se.
Green Skies G.T.: G.T. is an AI apartment building. They have excellent discretion protocols and won't be telling you about all the sex the humans engage in within their walls. Two human couples have appeared by name in G.T.'s logs - Mr. & Mrs. Flores, an elderly heterosexual couple, and Mrs. & Mrs. Johnson, a younger Female/Female couple.
The OtherWorldly: Carnelle has an intense sexual hunger, as a succubus should, but is an Ethical Slut in her own estimation. She's been reluctantly paired with the Asexual Costa, a Dream being who perplexes and frustrates her, to solve a series of ghastly child murders. The series has a potential for some erotic stories, if I decide to write an interlude of Carnelle getting her freak on.
RePrint: This story is all ABOUT relationships, but about forming them in a healthy order for imprinting important moments and skills. Currently Althea is focused on building one solid, healthy, familial relationship with her Guardian Freddie. The RePrint process will eventually add in platonic friendship(s), and then sexual/romantic relationships based on Althea's preferences. Which she currently can't remember, on purpose.
Village Witch - Edwina: Edwina has a year to find a Village that will accept her as their Village Witch, so all her efforts and energy are going into trying to find a community where she belongs. She's been through two villages so far, and hasn't made any solid connections. She's feeling discouraged as she gets ready to head to the third village. While I think the series has the possibility to add a romantic entanglement for Edwina, I don't see one on the horizon soon. There is the story thread of Rowan/Engel, a gay couple who were run out of the first village, that I'm still weaving through Edwina's story, and I do intend to tie that up by the end.
The Witch's Kitchen: Lucia and Jeanette are best friends opening a magical Restaurant. There are also several important generational family relationships for Lucia: her Mother who taught her their FamTrad magic, her Father who she studied under to become a chef, and her Nonnetto who entrusted her with their ancestress Strega Nona's magical cauldron. I do intend to introduce love interests for both Lucia and Jeanette, but the series hasn't developed that far yet.
What I'm Looking For:
Reassurance that it is fine to have two Witch based series that I'm currently writing (+_+)