I've finished both my fics for pokepodproject! The first one (Xatu) is already submitted to the collection, while I want to give the second one (Sneasel) another going-over before I submit it.
I also managed to finish an extra short about Smeargle; I'm waiting to see if Smeargle needs a pinch hit before I submit it anywhere. If Smeargle's covered, the fic will still go up as a Rare Candy.
Title: From All The Spaces Between Times Chapter:Chapter 54 — When the Sun Sets, the Hope of the Night Rises in Me Author: elrhiarhodan / elrhiarhodan / elrhiarhodan Fandom: Star Wars, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars — Obi Wan Kenobi (TV), Star Wars — Jedi Apprentice Books Characters Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon Jinn, Shmi Skywalker, Anakin Skywalker, Watto, Quinlan Vos, Padmé Amidala, Sabé, Darth Maul, Yoda, Mace Windu, Adi Gallia, Quinlan Vos, Professor Huyang, The Force, Plo Koon, Vokara Che, Siri Tachi, Aayla Secura, Bant Eerin, Bruck Chun, Xanatos du Crion, Sheev Palpatine | Darth Sidious, Hego Damask II | Darth Plagueis, Komari Vosa, Bail Prestor Organa, Bail Antilles Prestor, Rael Averross, Nim Piana, Ahsoka Tano, Sifo-Dyas, Reva Sevander, Lene Kostana (mentioned) Original Characters, Other Characters To Be Added Pairings: Obi-Wan Kenobi & Shmi Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Qui-Gon Jinn, Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan/Qui-Gon Jinn (yes, we’re arrived) Word Count: ~ 8200 this chapter Spoilers: None Warnings/Enticements/Triggers: None
Summary: Obi-Wan Kenobi has never known it, but he has always been the Force’s Champion, destined to suffer infinite sadness in defense of the Light. On his last turn on the wheel, responsibility for The Chosen One, the false child of prophecy, had been thrust upon him with no warning, and Darkness held the upper hand.
But this time, the Force has marshaled its power and will protect its Champion until the time is right, no matter how long Obi-Wan has to wait and how much he has to suffer.
Or,
Obi-Wan is reborn as a twelve-year old.
He wakes up on a slavers’ ship, with all of his prior life’s memories intact, and he’s bound for Tatooine with a Force-inhibitor collar around his neck, a bomb implanted in his spine, and no way of knowing what state of the Galaxy is in.
Just another day in the life of the Force’s Champion.
Chapter Summary: Pieces begin to fall into place.
Mace is on the trail of the Sith master, or at least the master of the Zabrak Sith that Qui-Gon and Anakin had killed on Tatooine eight years ago. Obi-Wan is still tormented by evil dreams, but an old friend tells him that he needs to take a trip. And Master Yoda is finally back at the Temple, and he gets some potentially unwelcome news.
It’s time for the return of our franchise wrangling post! Please make sure to look at our previous franchise nominations guidelines and see if they still work for you and your fandoms, as well as get a general sense of how a franchise is likely to be split or nominated.
What is this post for?
Is one of your fandoms part of a large franchise? Do you have a case for why your fandom should appear in the tagset in a specific way? (All Media Types, Split by Specific Movie and TV Show, Some Combination of These?)
Please comment below to let me know how you and other fans of this franchise would like your fandom to appear in the tagset! (If there's already a thread for your fandom please comment there.)
I will be taking suggestions until October 31st 11:59 PM EDT so the new franchise nominations guidelines for the 2025/2026 round can be updated well ahead of nominations opening. Thank you all so much for helping to crowdsource this resource that keeps our tagset organized!
Okay, so the bit where I'm falling down on the holiday is sleep.
Air-con is too much. Bed is too soft. Pillows are too hard. Not warm enough.
AAAAAAAUUUUUUGGGGGHHHHHH
Last night, I woke up at 3:30am and...didn't really manage to get back to sleep until around 6am. And even that was only for about half an hour.
I'm travelling okay, though. COVID has cleared up, although I sometimes feel a bit stupid lately, trying to work out what I'm saying and how to say it, and thinking "I'm sure I used to know how to phrase this".
Forging Ghost was a Yahoo! Group dedicated to fanfiction for Spike/Angel from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel: the Series. Ghostsforge, the moderator, preserved Forging Ghost when Yahoo! Groups was shut down in 2019 and asked Open Doors for assistance in importing its works to AO3.
The purpose of the Open Doors Committee’s Online Archive Rescue Project is to assist moderators of archives to incorporate the fanworks from those archives into the Archive of Our Own. Open Doors works with moderators to import their archives when the moderators lack the funds, time, or other resources to continue to maintain their archives independently. It is extremely important to Open Doors that we work in collaboration with moderators who want to import their archives and that we fully credit creators, giving them as much control as possible over their fanworks. Open Doors will be working with Ghostsforge to import Forging Ghost into a separate, searchable collection on the Archive of Our Own. As part of preserving the archive in its entirety, all fanart currently in Forging Ghost will be hosted on the OTW’s servers, and embedded in their own AO3 work pages.
We will begin importing works from Forging Ghost to the AO3 after September. However, the import may not take place for several months or even years, depending on the size and complexity of the archive. Creators are always welcome to import their own works and add them to the collection in the meantime.
We will send an import notification to the email address we have for each creator. We’ll do our best to check for an existing copy of any works before importing. If we find a copy already on the AO3, we will add it to the collection instead of importing it. All works archived on behalf of a creator will include their name in the byline or the summary of the work.
All imported works will be set to be viewable only by logged-in AO3 users. Once you claim your works, you can make them publicly viewable if you choose. After 30 days, all unclaimed imported works will be made visible to all visitors.
Please contact Open Doors with your Forging Ghost pseud and email address(es), if:
You’d like us to import your works, but you need the notification sent to a different email address than you used on the original archive.
You already have an AO3 account and have imported your works already yourself.
You’d like to import your works yourself (including if you don’t have an AO3 account yet).
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You are happy for us to preserve your works on the AO3, but would like us to remove your name.
You have any other questions we can help you with.
Please include the name of the archive in the subject heading of your email. If you no longer have access to the email account associated with your Forging Ghost account, please contact Open Doors and we’ll help you out. (If you’ve posted the works elsewhere, or have an easy way to verify that they’re yours, that’s great; if not, we will work with the Forging Ghost mod to confirm your claims.)
We’re excited to be able to help preserve Forging Ghost!
– The Open Doors team and Ghostsforge
Commenting on this post will be disabled in 14 days. If you have any questions, concerns, or comments regarding this import after that date, please contact Open Doors.
Forging Ghost was a Yahoo! Group dedicated to fanfiction for Spike/Angel from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel: the Series. Ghostsforge, the moderator, preserved Forging Ghost when Yahoo! Groups was shut down in 2019 and asked Open Doors for assistance in importing its works to AO3.
The purpose of the Open Doors Committee’s Online Archive Rescue Project is to assist moderators of archives to incorporate the fanworks from those archives into the Archive of Our Own. Open Doors works with moderators to import their archives when the moderators lack the funds, time, or other resources to continue to maintain their archives independently. It is extremely important to Open Doors that we work in collaboration with moderators who want to import their archives and that we fully credit creators, giving them as much control as possible over their fanworks. Open Doors will be working with Ghostsforge to import Forging Ghost into a separate, searchable collection on the Archive of Our Own. As part of preserving the archive in its entirety, all fanart currently in Forging Ghost will be hosted on the OTW's servers, and embedded in their own AO3 work pages.
We will begin importing works from Forging Ghost to the AO3 after September. However, the import may not take place for several months or even years, depending on the size and complexity of the archive. Creators are always welcome to import their own works and add them to the collection in the meantime.
We will send an import notification to the email address we have for each creator. We'll do our best to check for an existing copy of any works before importing. If we find a copy already on the AO3, we will add it to the collection instead of importing it. All works archived on behalf of a creator will include their name in the byline or the summary of the work.
All imported works will be set to be viewable only by logged-in AO3 users. Once you claim your works, you can make them publicly-viewable if you choose. After 30 days, all unclaimed imported works will be made visible to all visitors.
Please contact Open Doors with your Forging Ghost pseud and email address(es), if:
You'd like us to import your works, but you need the notification sent to a different email address than you used on the original archive.
You already have an AO3 account and have imported your works already yourself.
You’d like to import your works yourself (including if you don’t have an AO3 account yet).
You would NOT like your works moved to the AO3, or would NOT like your works added to the archive collection.
You are happy for us to preserve your works on the AO3, but would like us to remove your name.
You have any other questions we can help you with.
Please include the name of the archive in the subject heading of your email. If you no longer have access to the email account associated with your Forging Ghost account, please contact Open Doors and we'll help you out. (If you've posted the works elsewhere, or have an easy way to verify that they're yours, that's great; if not, we will work with the Forging Ghost mod to confirm your claims.)
We're excited to be able to help preserve Forging Ghost!
- The Open Doors team and Ghostsforge
Commenting on this post will be disabled in 14 days. If you have any questions, concerns, or comments regarding this import after that date, please contact Open Doors.
The Organization for Transformative Works is the non-profit parent organization of multiple projects including Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Open Doors, Transformative Works and Cultures, and OTW Legal Advocacy. We are a fan-run, entirely donor-supported organization staffed by volunteers. Find out more about us on our website.
Hello to all members, passers-by, curious onlookers, and shy lurkers, and welcome to our regular daily check-in post. Just leave a comment below to let us know how your current projects are progressing, or even if they're not.
Checking in is NOT compulsory, check in as often or as seldom as you want, this community isn't about pressure it's about encouragement, motivation, and support. Crafting is meant to be fun, and what's more fun than sharing achievements and seeing the wonderful things everyone else is creating?
There may also occasionally be questions, but again you don't have to answer them, they're just a way of getting to know each other a bit better.
This Week's Question: Share your favourite crafting tip, if you have one.
If anyone has any questions of their own about the community, or suggestions for tags, questions to be asked on the check-in posts, or if anyone is interested in playing check-in host for a week here on the community, which would entail putting up the daily check-in posts and responding to comments, go to the Questions & Suggestions post and leave a comment.
RL is meh. I don’t feel well lately, probably because of menopause. But I did go to my cardiologist just in case. And my heart is fine, but my blood pressure is too high, and I have to start taking a pill for that, too. As if I didn’t have enough health problems as it is. *sigh* And I have five mosquito bites on my face. Ugh... There were no mosquitos here all summer, maybe because we had a swallow nest on the top of our apartment building and there were a lot of swallows around in previous months when they were teaching their young ones to fly. It was so entertaining to observe as they were zooming outside our window like teeny tiny grey planes. But now there are no swallows and a lot of mosquitos. Just go away, you little bloodsuckers. 😠
On the positive fannish front – I bookmarked five wishlists from this year’s Guardian Wishlist. There is no way five fics are happening, but I hope at least two might. I already started writing them, and here is hoping they will get finished. My last Guardian fic was written in 2023, and I forgot how fun it is to write Zhao Yunlan bickering with Ye Zun, or Chu Shuzhi and Guo Changcheng saying ‘I love you’ and kissing a lot. 😊
And now my drama watching report.
I finished:
Love is for the Dogs
It was a lovely and adorable drama with a sweet happy ending. I was trying very hard not to get my hopes up about this drama ending with a proper threeway, because the finale teaser was very suggestive IMO. And it is a Japanese drama, so it could happen. Well, it didn’t, but even without it I enjoyed this cute, little drama a lot.
The Winning Try
It was fine and I enjoyed it. It was the best when the drama focused on the students and an underdog rugby team, and not on the school politics and disappointingly boring villains. Sometimes there was too much of the latter and not enough of the former IMO. But it was good when it was about the bonds between the rugby players, and about Ga Ram being an unconventional and inspirational couch. The romantic relationships were very much in the background in this drama, and I liked that, too. And I even ended up enjoying a cute budding romance between two students, and a mature and complicated exes-to-lovers relationship between Ga Ram and Bae I Ji.
I’m still watching:
Kill to Love
It finished airing, but I still haven’t see the last four episodes, because something happened in episode 8 that dampen my interest. Don’t get me wrong, it is entertaining. And everyone is so pretty. But I guess I wasn’t very deeply invested after all.
Major spoilers here.I found the main couple fine, but nothing special. Even if on paper it does sound like my kind of thing. But I was much more interested in the secondary pairing that gave me heaps of loyalty kink. And it’s a dark and fucked up flavor of loyalty kink. I loved it. I was also very much into a complicated and intense relationship between two princely brothers. And the death of the Crown Prince in episode 8 meant no more of my two favorite things in future episodes.
I do plan to watch those four episodes soon. But mainly because I want to have the knowledge of the whole canon in hope I will have a fix-it fic with the Crown Prince being alive to read in the future. 😊
Shine
Episodes 5 and 6 were excellent. But I’m so anxious about the last two episodes. I’m preparing for a lot of angst and heartbreak.
More with spoilers here.Wow, switching in a BL drama, that’s something you don’t see often. 😊 Or like at all. They only allude to it sometimes. I haven’t seen a BL drama explicitly showing it yet. Although apparently it happened in Suntiny, too, which I still haven’t watched.
After it happened I thought that it would be so cool if they went with ApoMile instead of MileApo for Trin and Tanwa’s first time. And they did. And it was hot and perfect. ♥
About more serious matters - I’m so scared for Naran. He says to Krailert that he cares more about fighting for change for the country than his own safety. It’s obvious that Naran was torn between his love for Krailert and his morals and doing his job as a journalist right. And at the end, as we see in episode 6, the latter won.
And after what happened to Win, I think Krailert is terrified that the same thing will happen to Naran now.
Also I was pretty sure that Trin and Tanwa would get their happy ever after, but after these two episodes I’m not so sure anymore. It probably won’t end happily for them, either.
Also I dipped briefly into tumblr’s Shine tag and I’m so amused by majority of fans being so invested in Shine’s background het couple (just like I am), and urging Dhevi to just have an affair with Veera already.
Affair
My newest love and obsession. I love Harmony Secret a lot, but this drama speaks to my id even stronger than Harmony Secret. And I have only one last episode left to watch. And then I think I’ll start a re-watch. And write at least one fic. Probably more. 😊
A bit more with mild spoilers here.Wan is like a character made exactly for me. I love her so completely. I love that Wan isn’t simply in love with Pleng, she’s obsessed with Pleng. That love is Wan’s reason for living, for doing what she’s doing all her life, even for becoming a doctor.
And Wan’s love is possessive and controlling. Ahhh, that scene when Wan gets angry and drags Pleng home just because Ek tried to kiss Pleng’s hand. And then she says: “I don’t like anyone touching you.” Her intense jealous possessiveness pushed my buttons so hard.
This kind of possessive and controlling love interest doesn't work for me at all in M/F pairings, and only rarely and in special circumstance works for me in M/M pairings. But give me F/F version and I will eat it up with a spoon every time. 😊
And wow, Lookmhee and Sonya’s NC scenes are hot, hot, hot. I would make gifs, but I still prefer not to strain my elbow too much. Even writing this post took me three days. But the official playlist on youtube have an uncensored version, so you can see it for yourself in episodes 5 and 6, if you want to. 😊
I dropped:
Twelve
I watched the first two episodes. It was mildly entertaining, and Park Hyung Sik makes a very sexy villain with those beautiful black wings. But I feel like the plot should move a bit quicker when they have only 8 episodes. But no, in these two episodes a lot of time was dedicated to, frankly speaking, not even very good fights instead of character development for our main characters. At the end of episode 2 I realized I didn’t care for any of the heroes, and that the villain was sexy, but also rather boring. So I don’t plan to watch the rest.
Doctor’s Mine
I rarely anti-rec things. But this is an anti-rec from me.
I take back everything I said about this drama being surprisingly good about consent issues. I dropped it after episode 5, and I haven’t watched the next episodes, only read discussions on reddit and tumblr, because I was so disappointed. And I’m glad I didn’t watch them. Because even reading about it was infuriating. It ruined Mon and Pak’s storyline for me, too.
Here is a good post on tumblr explaining what happened in episodes 5 and 6, if you want to know more.
First off, thank you so much for agreeing to create something for me! I hope you have fun doing so. :)
Second, I know that different people like different levels of detail in their creator letter, and that for some people, TOO much detail can feel stifling. So I’ve divided this post into two parts - a short roundup of things you absolutely NEED to know, and then, under cuts, a crapton of babbling and prompts.
The more detailed notes aren’t meant to be demanding or scare you away; it's just that, given the expected wordcount, I thought you might like more than a list of likes/dnws. If they inspire you, great! If not, feel free to ignore - I would much rather a fic about X that YOU are excited by rather than you seeing Y in my letter and struggling through it because you think it’ll make me happy (as long as my DNWs are respected, of course). Please also note that the fandoms are in alphabetical order, and that length isn't really indicative of how much I want a particular one; some canons just lend themselves more easily to prompts :) If you want even more ideas, please feel free to look at my dear author letters tag.
Treats are welcome and squeezed and hugged and called George :)
So, on to the absolute basics!
General DNWs:
AI generated content | dystopias | universes darker than canon | darkfic | stories where characters react to the books/movies/TV shows they are featured in | stories that have the same plotlines/characterizations/deaths as canon despite being AU, especially genderbends | female-to-male genderbends unless specifically requested | kidfic (fic with child characters as well as de-aging) with the exception of Daisy from the Kingsman movies | change of setting AUs unless requested (chars making different choices in the canonical setting is fine) | bigotry (homophobia/racism/sexism) or issue fic | character/ship bashing | unhappy/open/bittersweet endings | unrequited feelings between main ship or one of them still being into someone else/"settling" with other half of main ship | fake relationship or marriage of convenience stories without pining/(eventually resolved) UST/romantic feelings between the characters | someone under 18 with someone over 21, or more than a 20-year age gap if they're both adults | love triangles (perceived is fine- like a thinks b is into c) | first or second person POVs | Reader inserts | omegaverse | mpreg | stalking/stalker stories | explicit violence/torture or body horror (dealing with the aftermath is fine) | cheating/adultery | Bad/awkward sex | sexual assault/rape or domestic abuse/violence between requested pairings (recovery from assault by someone else is fine) | bodily waste, vomit, watersports, scat, graphic descriptions of injury | major power differences (eg: student/teacher or boss/secretary, unless in roleplay) | villain AUs/good guys are the bad guys (or vice versa) | Hero/villain pairings - eg: Order Members/Death Eaters in Harry Potter (Draco or Narcissa is fine), Avengers/Hydra members in MCU | Mentions of COVID or a fictionalized version of same | betrayal by canonical friends/family (exception for a specific Numb3rs plotline)
General Likes:
fix-it fic/AUs | Worldbuilding (esp fashion, food, and magical theory) | fake dating | marriage of convenience | pining | only one bed | male-to-female genderbends (cis or trans) | friends to lovers | female friendships | complex, fleshed-out female characters | found families and families of choice | casual queerness/diversity | smut | happy endings | non-verbal declarations of feelings | requested pairings being protective of each other | pining | non-sexual intimacy | stoic characters being vulnerable with loved ones | different first meetings
Smut Likes:
begging | orgasm delay/denial | double penetration | edging | spanking/flogging | dirty talk |public/semi public sex | rough sex | cock cages | fucking machines | bondage/being held down | sex toys | sensation play | possessive sex | markings | D/s
Now, on to the canon-specific info! My apologies for not doing individual cuts for each fandom – DW does something really weird when I try.
Superbat was one of my first OTPs, and I still adore them. I grew up with the comics as well as the Timm/Dini animated series (BTAS, STAS, JL/JLU) so incorporating things from cartoon canon or vice versa is fine by me, although I'm not a fan of the movies. My favourite characterization of Bruce leans more towards the toon version, but I don’t mind Brucie being a loveable himbo so long as the second-hand embarrassment isn’t too bad. I definitely want Gotham absolutely loving their dumbass well-intentioned playboy son who pours so much money into their beloved city, even if it is in sometimes very (outwardly) dumb ways.
I love these two so much. I love that they're two such different men who come to trust, respect, and admire each other. I love their bone-deep friendship and their certainty that together they can do anything.
For genderbends, feel free to make Clark female but please keep Bruce his cis dude self.
- Casefic, ideally with Clark's investigative talents used too. I really hate the characterization of him as dumb or naïve just because he’s a small town farmboy.
- Confessions when they think they're about to die but oops they survive
- Hurt/comfort, with the other fussing over the hurt one
- shameless smut
- Fake dating while pining for each other. Bonus if all their superhero friends sigh at their obliviousness.
- Bruce is pleasantly surprised by the dirty mind behind Clark's farmboy facade
- Kryptonian culture, especially anything to do with courting rituals
- Fic where Gotham and Metropolis have distinct personalities, and bonus if the people of Gotham have to defend Brucie or Batman somehow until Clark can get there
- Allies to friends to lovers
- Battle couple; completely in sync, kicking ass and taking names
- Outsider POV: what does their relationship look like to the public? A gossip columnist who doesn’t know the secret would be fun for this, I think, or two random civilians arguing about ships in some online forum (you know Bruce Wayne/Batman is popular in Gotham)
Canon-specific DNWs:
Bruce or Clark being bad fathers | a focus on the Batkids (background is fine, but please keep the story about Bruce and Clark) | Clark portrayed as a naive virgin ingenue | Red Hood (please set the story before Jason's death or have him come back as Jason) | Oracle going back to being Batgirl/no longer needing her wheelchair | Lois, Diana, or Selina bashing | Clark and Lex being childhood friends | evil/colonizer Jor-el and Lara
Ah, HP. Even with all of JKR’s Nonsense, the first four books are still gold to me. I love the magic and whimsy of them, love the boarding school setting and all the fun ways it can be played with. HP is where my id comes to play.
Solo Harry Potter (this wasn't in my sign-up on account of user error, but I will be a VERY happy Tam if you write me any of these!):
- Harry finding out about an inheritance that's been kept from him, especially if it involves a title/estate. This can include secret wills, blood tests to determine inheritance, wizarding politics... any kind of inheritance-related shenanigans, basically.
- Shopping sprees and finding out that magical London is more than just the Alley, and magical Britain is more than just what the books tell us (come on, Hogwarts is not a breeding population! Regardless of what Remus says in DH.)
- Harry realising that the magical world is more complex than he first thought, and that there are things about pureblood culture that are not tied to blood supremacist bullshit and are worth keeping. Bonus points for purebloods working to make their culture more inclusive and less bigoted.
- Dumbledore being a manipulative bastard who's happy to sacrifice Harry for the Greater Good (this can include spelling Harry and/or other people to keep things DD doesn't want them knowing to come to light)
- EWE where Harry gets the fuck out of England after the final battle and explores what it's like to not be the Boy Who Lived
- Rule 63 Harry: What would the Girl-Who-Lived's life have been like? Especially since canon tells us the wizarding world is in many ways LESS sexist than our own?
- Harry making friends not Hermione and Ron. (Let him remain friends with them, though!) Bonus points if he and Neville bond, or he makes friends with people from Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw.
- Harry doing something other than being a wizard cop, ditto Ron.
- Harry discovering magic we don't see in canon - ritual magic, non-Latinate magic, stereotypically 'feminine' magic like fibrecraft
- Some kind of Peggy Sue time travel fix-it fic where Harry takes shameless advantage of his foreknowledge
Worldbuilding:
One of the things I love most about HP, at least the first four books, is the potential for worldbuilding. There’s so much scope for fun and whimsy and I would love a fic that leans into that.
- I’ve mentioned it in my DNWs, but the ‘robes’ in the movies that have since infected book!fic drive me absolutely crazy. In the books, wix wear floor-length robes that bear some similarity to nightgowns. I think a fic that shows Harry (male or female) adjusting to magical fashion would be very interesting. (You can find what the books say about the robes here and a sketch from JKR here.)
- Speaking of! The WW separated before Beau Brummell and the pervasive homophobia of the Victorian era made men’s fashion hideously boring. Given that, the WW probably isn’t afraid of colour or embellishment on their men – what does that look like? Especially since Apparition, Floo, and Portkeys exist and so influences from Africa and Asia should be easier to obtain. (Also colonialism, but I am of the firm belief that magic is as much of an equalizer there as canon says it is for gender, so. Please don’t focus on that very much if at all)
- Magic used in fun ways - robes with moving designs, magic-powered automatons, color-changing hair dyes, whatever. Go wild!
- I am a sucker for a good Diagon Alley scene, as mentioned above. A genderbent Harry would be even more fun, just because I don’t think the original cared about fashion, lol.
- For queerness in the wizarding world, I would love a vibrant queer scene that is much more progressive than the Muggle world, given that magic exists. Please make your magical world trans inclusive, because fuck JKR’s nonsense.
- One of my great sorrows with the last two books is that we never got more of the DA. I’d love fic that has Harry (or others) actually fighting! Bonus for unconventional uses of magic - can’t you see Molly Weasley being absolutely deadly with household spells, or the Quidditch teams figuring out how to use their brooms in combat?
- Re: communication in the WW. Presumably most parents of muggleborns and halfbloods love their kids and want to stay in touch, and owls are… noticeable. How is communication between them managed? Is there some kind of mail forwarding service? Did some enterprising halfblood see a need and set up a business facilitating communications between the two worlds?
- For food in the WW, it always bothered me that although we got some really fun sweets/junk food, all the meals were depressingly British Muggle. Given that the WW separated in 1692, when food was actually quite different than it is now, not to mention that magic probably makes travel to Europe and North Africa much easier, I’d love to see a different magical cuisine. (Maybe all the food mentioned is Muggle because that’s all Harry recognizes?) I’d also love to see uniquely magical crops, dishes made from transfigured foods, and how Hogwarts deals with students with different dietary needs.
Harry/Bill:
I have no idea how I fell in love with Harry/Bill, but it's absolutely one of my favorite HP ships. I love the idea that after some time away from the WW post the final battle, Harry finds himself a sexy cursebreaker.
Prompts: (feel free to genderbend Harry, but please keep Bill cis male)
- post-war, EWE: Bill runs into Harry a few years after the war and realises his little brother's best friend has grown up very well indeed. Bonus if Harry's spent the past few years travelling the world and/or their meeting is outside of England.
- post-war, EWE: Harry and Bill fall in love while restoring Number Twelve together. Bonus points if you include magical worldbuilding lore.
- post-war, EWE: Harry and Bill bond over scars, visible and invisible.
- shameless smut would also be great. Harry deserves to be thoroughly railed, lol.
- for any BDSM fic, I would love Dom!Bill taking care of sub!Harry. The poor boy could use it.
Hermione Granger/Viktor Krum
Man, I have loved this pairing for over twenty-five years now. Geek girl and jock boy is SUCH a classic, and add to that that he saw her as a girl when nobody else did… yeah, Tam!bait. My characterization of Viktor is very heavily drawn from the works of Miss Yetigoosecreature, which you can find here.
Prompts:
- Tell me more about their romance at Hogwarts! How did he ask her out? What did they do for dates? Were there any funny misunderstandings thanks to the various language/culture differences? (While I don’t mind some awkwardness, I have a bad second-hand embarrassment squick, so I ask that you keep the general awkwardness level low.)
- Hermione decides she needs a break from Britain after the final battle and visits Viktor in Bulgaria. (The kiss with Ron never happens or they break up amicably.)
- Give me a fic with the Taylor and Travis dynamic: Hyper-succesful woman has had string of relationships with intellectual art bro types who want her to make herself smaller for them; finds love with actually smart sportsball type who loves and supports her being her awesome self.
- Viktor travels with Hermione to Australia to retrieve her parents.
- Hermione and Viktor unexpectedly run into each other years after the final battle. They're both single and the sparks are as hot as they ever were. (Please no fic where either of them are parents.)
- Fake dating for whatever reason. Bring on the pining!
- Hermione and Viktor have to work on a project together and decide to give their relationship another shot.
Harry Potter/Viktor Krum:
I've always thought that it was such a missed opportunity for Harry and Viktor not to better friends in GoF. Well, good thing we have fic, lol.
Prompts:
- Viktor is intrigued by the person crazy enough to fly against a dragon and makes it his mission to get to know Harry better.
- Harry rescues Viktor from the Viktorias and a friendship (and more) forms.
- In an AU where Winky got Hermione's wand and Harry knows more spells than Expelliarmus, he gets separated from his friends... and winds up helping Viktor rescue Muggles from Death Eaters. Hey, there are odder meet-cutes.
- Harry is travelling after the war and runs into Viktor. Sparks fly.
Canon-specific DNWs:
Snape as good guy or major character | Magic in North America/only 11 schools worldwide/FB movies/Pottermore as canon (please feel free to worldbuild more diversely) | AUs with the same deaths as canon | Accents written out phonetically for Fleur or Viktor | Wizard Cop Harry or Ron | the magical world being less progressive gender- and race-wise than the Muggle world; relatedly, Hermione or other Muggleborns 'civilising' the benighted backwards magicals (a historical fight for rights is fine) | gender specific magic that is not trans inclusive | movie canon (specifically Ron's characterization, Mudblood being carved into Hermione's arm, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang as single-sex schools, pureblood wix wearing Muggle clothes/robes being basically bathrobes over Muggle clothes) being privileged over the books
Ah, Numb3rs, the show of my heart. My favourite thing about this show is that nobody was an asshole. (Well, except Ian, occasionally, but we forgive him.) I love that the agents get to be smart, too, that everyone is kind, and they're all clearly family.
Colby is my fave character. Really, I'm easy for anything Colby-related, especially fics that show us the layers he has. I would also love h/c, either from a canonical event like in Primacy or new shenanigans.
- Rule 63! I feel like a female Colby would see a legacy of five generations of duty and honour very differently. And a female math genius would be such fun (and probably have sharper edges than her canonical counterpart. Bonus: she and Amita would be amazing friends). (If you're doing Ian/Colby for this, please only genderbend Colby - f/f as a main pairing does not work with my brain, alas.)
- Speaking of that five generations legacy. I would love to see fic where Colby grapples with the toll it took on him, especially if he's thinking about fatherhood. (He doesn't have to decide on children; I would ADORE more childfree rep.) Colby/Ian and Colby/Charlie would both work for this.
- Casefic! Especially with Ian involved. I love a good old-fashioned casefic. Bonus if one of the requested pair is in danger and has to be rescued.
Ian/Colby:
I adore Ian/Colby. They have such a fun dynamic, even the show sees the chemistry. Prompts:
- I would love Ian standing up for his man. Give me all the fic where Ian delivers a set-down to people who think Colby isn't good enough.
- For genderbends, I think a female Colby dealing with the bastard son of Clint Eastwood and Yoda would be delightful. She wouldn't give him the time of day.
- Relatedly, Colby only plays the dumb jock - write me fic where Ian is charmed, and turned on, by his brain rather than that admittedly delectable ass.
- Ian/Colby: I would love to see the effect of a certain event in S3 on Ian’s opinion of Colby. (Please do not have Ian not believe him; I would love a fic where Ian is emphatically on Colby's side.) I would also love to see Ian helping Colby deal with how that must have fucked him up both mentally and physically.
- If you're a younger fan, it's hard to understand just what a big deal DADT being repealed was. I would love a fic that dealt with its impact on Colby and Ian, or the repeal being an impetus for one to come out to the other.
- For smut, give me all the sub!Colby, please. He just looks like he would be so much fun to play with.
Charlie/Colby:
The geek and the jock! Especially when the heart-eyes are practically canon, lol. Prompts:
- I’d love fic set during/post Rampage and Colby helping Charlie deal with the trauma of the ep.
- Fic that explores why Charlie believed Colby over the math would be awesome. Ditto post-freighter fic.
- Teaching someone to shoot is practically an LEO fic cliche at this point. I’d also love a fic that explores the aftermath of Charlie having to kill someone.
- For genderbends, I’d love a female Charlee Eppes falling for a surprisingly smart Army jock who drinks his respect women juice.
Canon-specific DNWs:
Charmita even as a background pairing | 6.08 Ultimatum as canon | Fic focused on Colby and David's friendship (I adore them but I'm in a mood for shipfic)
Pride and Prejudice:
Tags: Jane Bennet/Colonel Fitzwilliam, Elizabeth Bennet/Colonel Fitzwilliam/Fitzwilliam Darcy
While I love Elizabeth and Darcy, in fic I prefer exploring other pairs.
Jane Bennet/Colonel Fitzwilliam
Jane and Bingley are well and good, but I've always had a soft spot for Jane and the good Colonel.
I would love a fic where they meet and fall in love - maybe an AU where Jane has enough money that she can marry the Colonel? (Bingley leaves Jane a well-left widow, perhaps, or the Bennet parents actually step up?) Or he decides that straightened circumstances are worth it for such a wife. Either way, I would love it if Colonel F falls in love with Jane for something other than her beauty. Extra bonus points if it's her brains.
- I would love a fic where Elizabeth and Darcy bring the Colonel into their relationship - maybe he's recovering at Pemberly after being injured in the war? Bonus points for there being a pre-existing more-than-cousinly affection between Darcy and the Colonel. Please no love triangles.
- Context for this prompt: There is plenty of mention of male homosexuality in ancient Greek texts, some of which Darcy and the Colonel would undoubtedly have come across at school. And Elizabeth's father did teach her both Latin and Greek. After perusing certain sections of her husband's personal library, Elizabeth has questions for him and the Colonel. Darcy, for his part, can only laugh and say this is what comes from having a clever wife. Bonus points for someone saying, roughly, "If they did not want men having sex with each other, they should not have taught us Greek." (In a more period-appropriate way, of course.)
Canon-specific DNWs:
the Bennet parents or any of the sisters as actively malicious/evil, or Georgiana for that matter | good Lady Catherine | Collins bashing (he is canonically a pompous toadying oaf but not a bad man) | Bingley bashing | compromises or forced marriages | fic where it's a V not a triad| jealousy | homophobia crossovers with other Jane Austen books
Thank you for reading! Please feel free to reach out to me via the mods if you have any questions.
In the afterward to Max in the Land of Lies, Adam Gidwitz mentioned Melita Maschmann’s Account Rendered: A Dossier of My Former Self as one of the most important sources for the book, and also a book that he would urge everyone to read. Of course I had to try it, especially given that Gidwitz’s Melita Maschmann is one of the most likable characters in Max in the Land of Lies, for all that she is a true believer Nazi who, moreover, gets only very limited pagetime.
Now I realize some people may object to the idea of a likeable Nazi true believer, but I believe in order to understand evil one of the things we have to let go of is the belief that there’s any clear relationship between likability and goodness. If you will excuse a digression into quadrant theory, likability and goodness are two separate axes, and most of us are happiest with the “likable and good” quadrant and the “unlikable and bad” quadrant. Neither of these create cognitive dissonance. We want the people whom we like to be good and the people we hate to be bad.
But “unlikable and good” and “likable and bad” can both be a torment. You know that you should like so-and-so, because they’re so useful and helpful and have all the right opinions, but really you would climb out a window rather than spend an hour alone with them because they just grate on you. Or, you like so-and-so a lot, because they’re so funny and charming, and when other people say they’ve done bad things it’s probably lies, or jealousy, or a failure to understand the complexity of their character, or… oh God what if they are bad. You like them so much and they’re bad?? What does that say about you??? NO the accusations of badness are LIES.
(Or else, you insist that you never really liked them THAT much, like my friend with the Harry Potter tattoo who insists she was never THAT into Harry Potter.)
So: Melita Maschmann, likable Nazi true believer, who very slowly after the war began to look back on her former self and say, “What the fuck was I thinking?” This book, written in the form of a letter to her former best friend, a Jewish girl who had to flee Germany, is Maschmann’s attempt to figure out what, in fact, she was thinking.
The idea of the book as a letter is sometimes slightly alarming (can you imagine handing someone a book-length manuscript and saying “This is why I was a world-historically bad friend”?), but as a literary device it’s useful, because it gives Maschmann an imaginary interlocutor to pull her up short whenever she reaches a particularly “But didn’t this make you rethink your choices?” moment. Kristallnacht? The starving Poles when you were first posted to Poland? The time the local German army didn’t have enough troops to evict the Poles from their village to make way for German settlers, so you had to help? Maybe the time that you drove a truck around stealing furniture from the local Poles to give it to a German family that had settled in one of these newly emptied villages?
This last in particular was not merely wrong but also illegal even at the time, but rather oddly it’s also the only one that Maschmann didn’t have a single qualm about when she did it. The rest of these events did give her pause, but at the end of the day there’s a vast gulf between being taken aback and actually rethinking the ideology that has shaped your entire life.
Maschmann turned to National Socialism because she was an idealist who loved the idea of the National Community that cuts across classes and binds everyone together and fixes the poverty and shame that have crippled her country since the Great War. It was a way of rebelling against her parents that nonetheless embraced many of their beliefs: not only the sense that democracy had failed, but also the belief that violent competition among countries is inevitable, so although you might flinch from things you saw while invading Poland, if you didn’t invade Poland then Poland would assuredly invade you.
By this point you, my imaginary interlocutor, may well be asking, “But what part of this is likable, you monster?” Well, part of it is the fact that Maschmann had the strength of character to look back afterward and try to make sense of what she had done. This is something that most human beings seem to find almost impossible even when there aren’t war crimes involved.
Her account is clear-eyed, both in the sense of sheer observation - there’s tons of interesting detail here about life on the ground during the invasion of Poland, for instance - and in the sense that she’s trying to look at these events squarely, to explain without justifying, to say “this is what we were thinking” and hope that this might help turn other people aside if they find themselves straying into a similar path.
But even in Maschmann’s younger self, there are many appealing qualities. She was an indefatigable worker with a yearning to help people, an idealist who latched onto absolutely the wrong ideal. If she had latched onto a different ideal –
Well, the twentieth century was not short on ideals that led to mass destruction, so if Maschmann chose a different ideal, she might have been just as destructive in a different direction. Why do I find something so appealing about idealists, when ideology is used to create and justify so much suffering?
Open captions my brief audio descriptionAsian man faces camera, sitting at laptop with white earbuds and animated face. Another person's back enters the screen. "This motion" is him pointing to his ear then the laptop and nodding. The picture on his desk is just the words "food" and "healthcare"
When you want to view a YouTube short in the classic YouTube screen (with the controls you're familiar with!) you replace the word "shorts" in the link with the word "watch"
Unfortunately I need to take a preemptive (and hopefully temporary measure): screening all comments made by people not on my access list on most of my journal posts. This is because the level of filters available for comment screening are none, all, or non-access list only.
I'm hoping that this will only need to be a temporary thing and I can revert back to normal, unscreened settings, but I thought I'd take the opportunity to check if anyone subscribed to me, but not on the access list wanted to be granted access.
The vast majority of my posts have always been public, and I want to keep things that way, and I tend to defer to other people's preferences when granting access (i.e. if someone adds me as the result of e.g. a friending meme, if they subscribe only, I reciprocate, and if they grant access, I reciprocate in that way as well). But I'm not precious about this, and don't expect reciprocity.
If you're already on my access list, nothing should really change and you should be able to comment on most posts as normal. If you would like to be granted access, please comment on this post (here all comments are screened) or send me a message. If you're happy with things as they are, do be aware that future comments of yours may be screened, but I'll try to unscreen them at the point at which I reply.
I hope this makes sense — feel free to ask for clarification in the comments if you're not sure what I'm explaining here.
My poor cleric, Siân, has had a really bad couple of weeks in-game. Over the course of the last not even a full two weeks, she has:
- woken up from being held captive by mind-controlling plants for a week - found herself in a prison camp in the middle of a warzone - watched a friend die while trying to escape said prison camp - failed to resurrect said friend - watched the resurrection fail again when someone else attempted a higher level spell - found out that her family has been accused of treason and placed under arrest - found out that a bunch of powerful nobles want to make her father emperor - saw the instant destruction of an entire town via a weapon of mass destruction - watched the friend who died come back to life separate from his still-dead corpse - given up the very last gift her deceased mother ever gave her - had a bunch of ancient knowledge magically dumped in her head - had her right arm chopped off - found out that her father named her his legitimate daughter due to obvious coercion - had her right arm unexpected regrown by way of alchemy - almost been killed by malfunctioning golems - almost watched her entire group be killed by a shadowspawn beholder - been publicly seen with magic users in an empire where magic is illegal - been involved in a very bloody battle - joined a pirate fleet - found out that the empire-wide newspaper has been smearing her name - almost been killed by assassins - found out an assassins' guild with a reputation for never quitting has been hired to kill her - been involved in another very bloody battle - found out that she's one of the most wanted people in the entire empire - almost been killed by lightning - almost drowned - died instantly from a magical trap while in a shadow plane surrounded by enemies
Considering the circumstances of her death, I'm honestly not sure what's going to happen. Resurrection may or may not be on the table, especially considering the rest of the group is about to go into a pretty massive bit of combat without a healer.
Next week, I'm planning on basically just being off camera the entire night unless something very unexpected happens. I'll figure out future plans after I see what happens in-game over the next, uh, 60 seconds or so.
They do technically at least have access to an item that will let them cast unlimited Gentle Repose, but said item is on their ship which is currently shrunk and inside a bottle. Plus said item is being used on the dead body of the group member who came back to life by other means and therefore has both a mostly-alive body and a corpse sitting on the ship, so... yeah.
This year's Book I Read Because Multiple People Raved About It in the Worldcon Discord. The first book in a secondary world fantasy series with lots of complicated political intrigue, the rave reviews were extremely enthusiastic but also quite vague. And now that I have read it, I understand the vagueness. It's a hard book to describe. It's constantly shifting and transforming, with twist after twist leaving you constantly unsure what the book is actually about and where it is going. But the twists are solid and well supported and never pull you out of the world of the book. But it was an exhilarating read and I highly recommend it.
Title: First Things First Fandom: Miss Marple/Spooks Pairing/Characters: Jane Marple & Lucas North Content Notes: No warning needed Prompt: September 11th - weaving
Last October, I posted about how the new CEO looks like Laura Roslin from Battlestar Galactica. Now that I have met her in person (for a certain value of 'met' -- I was officially greeted and then saw her in passing several times), I can report that it is EVEN MORE TRUE in person.
So far I have managed not to say this to the CEO's face. I feel like that would be rude? Or maybe not? I don't know; I don't look like anyone famous, so no one has ever said 'oh hey, you look like [that person]' to me. I'm already a little embarrassed that they apparently know my name; I'm not sure I want to do anything to draw more attention to myself.
But it ABSOLUTELY gives the entire workplace experience a way more surreal vibe. Like, office culture under corporate capitalism is already pretty weird. With a BSG flavor, it becomes even more 'high concept inevitable tragedy, but with space opera stakes.'
Crossposting an entry from communal_creators, if that's alright. Some background: I've participated in a lot of zines of varying organization and polish, mostly fandom, and also have helped organize a zine jam every July since 2023. I am working on a TTRPG sourcebook project with friends later on next year, so I'm doing a zine for my own worldbuilding project as a warmup.
To be frank, unformatted worldbuilding is not very interesting for anyone to read. It also isn't very interesting to work on, at least for me. My ongoing project is to lay out my low-fantasy, Chinese alt history setting in the format of a museum exhibition. There be fantastical beasts and nitty-gritty cultural stuff. My setting is not associated with any particular project other than I wanted an excuse to draw lots of gryphons and research early Zhou dynasty. I like the scaffolding of metafiction and in-universe media: ie. creating subway maps and tourist brochures for a completely fictional setting. For this project, it means multimedia with writing and art in the form of artifacts, diagrams, and information plaques. Hopefully this is enough structure to keep me interested and I can (in the future) print if I want. The particular exhibit inspirations I'm drawing from are Guanghan's Sānxīnduī and Chongqing’s Three Gorges Museum.
I'm not a historian or a curator. This made me a little nervous to start this project, but fuck it. You can just do things. For the duration of the next month, I am planning to finish the art and writing for the displays on:
information on 3 key historical figures
setting, including the specific archaeological site
4 artifacts from this specific era.
I'll be treating it as a zine with deliverables. Feel free to ask about it.
But really, visit the Sānxīngduī and Three Gorges museums if you ever get a chance. They are both engaging and excellent at telling a narrative. Particularly pay attention to the way halls are laid out to introduce audiences to a concept.
I had a chiropractic appointment and a pedicure this morning. I had no plans to shop, but Pip needed shoe laces for his work shoes and since I wasn’t certain we had any at home (he tells me this when I’m dropping Grant off, so I wasn’t able to check before leaving the house), I wanted to pick up a pair just in case.
So I ended up hitting Walmart while I was downtown (and picked up a few other things while I was there) and I got in a walk around the park. I stopped at the farm stand and at the veterinarian (for Ti’s special dog food) on the way home. Later in the afternoon, on my way home from mom’s, I checked at Sunnycrest and they finally have the beef sticks Pip likes back in stock!
I dried and folded mom’s load from yesterday, hand-washed dishes, cleaned off another portion of counter, swept the bathroom, went on several walks with Pip and the dogs, baked chicken for the dogs’ meals and cut up said chicken for said meals, and scooped kitty litter.
Once again, I read fanfic.
Temps started out at 42.3(F) and reached 72.3. It felt hotter, but it was sunny and lovely.
Unloading the dishwasher in my parents' house this morning, I heard my mum calling from upstairs. I went to see what was up.
There was a robin in my childhood bedroom?? Perching on the curtain rod??? Fluttering around the room??? At one point it landed on a toy elephant; at one point it buzzed the top of my head. I hadn't realised that robins were able to hover, but I got a very close-up look at one hovering today!
I wasn't able to get great pictures - I didn't want to spend too much time messing around with my phone camera when I suspected the robin would prefer to leave immediately - but here are a couple of shots that will hopefully convey some element of the 'holy shit, there's a bird in the house' experience I just had:
An extremely confusing and magical experience! More magical for me than for the robin, I suspect. It's now flown safely out of the window.