The Icebreaker Challenge 1/2/2026

[glitteringstars]

The Icebreaker Challenge: Introduce yourself. Tell us why you're doing the challenge, and what you hope to gain from it.

This is totally an excuse for me to make a new sticky

Hello, my name is Stars or Glittering or Lune!

My goals for this challenge are to use it as a way to make more friends on Dreamwidth, write more structured posts (I do a lot of silly rambling on whatever has taken my fancy), and hopefully use it as an excuse to share more of my hobbies (writing, sewing, crocheting, ttrpgs).

Current obsessions include Dragon Age. My enjoyment of Baldur's Gate 3 (and friendly peer pressure--thanks, L!!) caused me to pick up Dragon Age: Inquisition for cheap from a local game store. About one hundred hours in, I decided it would be cool to play the earlier games, so I dusted off my digital copy of Dragon Age: Origins I got from a steam sale forever ago, but never got around to playing. Now, over a month later, I've sunk another hundred hours into both Origins, Awakening, and the rest of the DLCs, and bought both DA2 and Veilguard. I'm deep into Act 2 of the second game, and I'm having a blast despite it being the black sheep of the family. I made an initial first impressions post, and it definitely deserves a follow-up now that I've gotten pretty far. The TLDR; I really love the characters and role playing my Hawke has been really funny.
 
I'm currently working on a play through of A Thousand Year Old Vampire, which has been a blast. It's backstory for one of my background antagonists for a story I've been toying with for a while. She's horrible, and I love her.

Current crochet projects include a kitsune I've been working on for ages for a friend of mine. The pattern is from this book. I've also finished a dinosaur for a family member using leftover yarn and scraps from my sewing project. It was incredibly serendipitous I had the exact colors she liked, and she absolutely loved it.

Writing-wise, I'm working on a...lot of things. My muse likes to be an asshole sometimes. IIRC, Ray Bradbury had a cute little essay waxing poetic on how muses are a fickle and skittish thing. Ten years after reading that, I'm still confident in my response that that idea is bullshit. Mine is fickle, but aggressive as hell. Think overcaffinated fairy with one of those squeaky toy hammers.  

Comments

[potentiality_26]

Oooh, I have been eyeing Thousand Year Old Vampire. I'd love to hear more about it! Do you recommend it?

[glitteringstars]

I do on multiple levels! Mechanics wise, it's a incredibly straight-forward game and the prompts are vague enough that it accommodates any time period you want to write in. Role playing wise, though, things can slow down depending on how much research you want to do. The game encourages it, for sure, but don't make my mistake of being persnickety about trying to find common Frankish names from the 600s lol

[potentiality_26]

I am in danger of going down research rabbit holes, for sure. It sounds very cool, though!

[royalblue31]

Ooooh, off I go to find that Ray Bradbury essay, it sounds very interesting!

[glitteringstars]

At least I'm fairly sure it was Ray Bradbury since I read it in an English class that mainly focused on studying his stuff.

[killaurey]

I just wanted to come say hi, since I saw your KKJ icon and went 'ohmygod someone else has one!'

So, hi! Love your icon! <3

[glitteringstars]

YESSSSS!! HIGH FIVE!!

[unholyghost]

ooh I've had Thousand Year Old Vampire in my to play list for a good while now, I might bump it up the list and try it soon. it's nice to see other people into solo rpgs!

I'm glad your family member enjoyed the dinosaur and good luck with finishing the kitsune! I've always wanted to start crocheting but I always get intimidated out of starting lol

also I gave your sticky a read, what symphonic metal songs/musicians would you recommend to someone unfamiliar with the genre? also any pop recs would be great too :D

[glitteringstars]

I always gotta start with the pillars of the genre: Nightwish and Within Temptation. Nightwish leans more in the rock. Within Temptation's earlier work (prior to The Unforgiving) leans more opera. Leaves Eyes is a bit more in the middle, but they're not as active anymore. And while they don't really count, I'm a big fan of adding Oceans of Slumber to the list as their songs flow in the same way a classical piece does.

[unholyghost]

thank you so much for the recs! :Dc

[tjs_whatnot]

Grrrr! Muses, man, what assholes! A million years ago, me and a friend started a writing community (on LJ that's how long ago it was) called Crackwhore Muses. 🤣🤣 I'm not even sure where that name came from, but it seemed appropriate at the time.

[mywitch]

overcaffinated fairy with one of those squeaky toy hammers
LOL!
I enjoyed your post, and I hope you have a blast with the challenge!