The Wordsmith's Forge

This poem was written outside the regular prompt calls. It fills the "Accident" square in my 6-1-22 card for the Cottoncandy Bingo fest. It has been sponsored by a pool with fuzzyred. This is the second poem in the series Crystal Wood; it follows "Trees of Glass."

Warning: This poem is dark science fiction along the lines of ecological horror.

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Today's theme is Joss Whedon.

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Today's theme is Hannibal.  See my Follow Friday Master Post for more topics.


capspiration -- Multi-fandom daily screen caps.
[Active with multiple posts in April.]

comparatives -- Hannibal comparatives
A community dedicated to making NBC Hannibal comparatives.
[Dormant with last post in April 2022, but posting is open to all members so this should be revivable.

hannibal_fans -- A fan community for Hannibal.
[Low traffic with last post in August 2023.]

smallbatchicons -- small batch icons
Multi-fandom icon community, 5 icons on a theme.
[Active with multiple posts in April.]

terror_sffa -- Horror, SFF, Animation, Myth, Spec Fic
Panfandom and multimedia.
[Active with multiple posts in April.]

This caterpillar wears the body parts of insect prey

Dubbed the “bone collector,” this caterpillar species sports remains of prey as camouflage while it stalks spider webs for trapped bugs, researchers report in the April 25 Science. The carnivorous caterpillar, found on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, is the first known by scientists to live in spider hunting grounds and fully decorate itself with body parts.


Overall, the strategy greatly resembles that of the caddisfly larvae who live in water and make sheathes out of sticks or gravel. But the use of inedible insect parts for building a suit of armor seems to be unique.

Those of you currently running a roleplaying game could have fun dropping this into it -- especially if your game already has giant spiders.

Alternatively, if you make Tolkien fanworks, this just begs to go in Mirkwood. Both giant spiders and giant moths are already canon! Need a lever to get Thranduil off his stubborn arse? Have someone drag in a larva covered in armor fragments and elf bones. "NOW do you believe us that something is seriously wrong with this forest?"

Today's theme is Goth.  See my Follow Friday Master Post for more topics.


allbingo  -- All Bingo
Share your creative bingo activities and discussions here.
[Active with multiple posts in April.]

jrock_trans  -- Japanese Rock Translators
Translating japanese blogs, lyrics, magazines and so on can be difficoult and obscure sometimes. A helping hand can solve many problems and make a day ^^.
If you own a translation community or you translate for a community, feel free to join.
This community wants to help cooperation among translators.
Any doubt, advice, trick, discovery, request of help, can be shared with others.
どうぞおはいりください。
[Claims to be active, but posts may be locked to members only.]

terror_sffa  - Horror, SFF, Animation, Myth, Spec Fic
Panfandom and multimedia.
[Active with multiple posts in March.]

thefreaksclub  -- TheFreaks.Club
Everything related to darker alternative subcutlures. Discussion on books, the occult, music, & more.
[Active with one post in March.]

vc_media  -- A Vampire Chronicles community.
[Active with one post in March.]

Actress Michelle Trachtenberg has passed away. She is best known for playing Dawn Summers in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and more recently two episodes of the Gossip Girl reboot.

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This poem came out of the August 1, 2023 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by discussions with dialecticdreamer and siliconshaman. It also fills the "Red Shoes" square in my 8-1-23 card for the New Adventures Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by callibr8. It belongs to the series Polychrome Heroics.

WARNING: This poem contains intense and controversial material that may disturb many readers. Highlight to read the warnings, some of which are spoilers. It includes canon-atypical violence, events that are historically embarrassing for Canada and the United States of America, racism, racial injustice, graphic descriptions of genocide, kidnapping, child harm, cultural abuse, death camps falsely described as missionary boarding schools, mass murder, widowhood, child death, frank sex talk, orphans, hiding in the woods, and other mayhem. WARN ALL THE THINGS! If these are sensitive issues for you, please consider your tastes and headspace before deciding if this is something you want to read.

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I got to talking about when fans love an entry that you didn't expect to be super popular, and how to identify with reasonable accuracy which things probably will be popular. And I oopsed an article again, so here it is.

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This is a horror story.  It is entirely too plausible. O_O 

Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology
Paperback – September 19, 2023
by Shane Hawk (Editor), Theodore C. Van Alst Jr. (Editor)

Many Indigenous people believe that one should never whistle at night. This belief takes many forms: for instance, Native Hawaiians believe it summons the Hukai’po, the spirits of ancient warriors, and Native Mexicans say it calls Lechuza, a witch that can transform into an owl. But what all these legends hold in common is the certainty that whistling at night can cause evil spirits to appear—and even follow you home.


For your seasonal reading or 50books_poc list.