And I'm sorry that I forgot that binders don't go in the dryer
Oct. 29th, 2025 01:55 amfic recs: MST3K, HHG, Rocky Horror
Oct. 28th, 2025 09:55 pmFandom: MST3K
Characters: Joel, Crow, Tom, GPC
Rating: General
Words: 2238
Author's summary: Joel's first moments on the satellite and the five stages of grief.
Author's notes: Takes place during the first few weeks Joel is in space.
Author's warnings: None
Additional tags: Five Stages of Grief, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Character Study
My comment: "I like the device of the stages of grief. Neat idea."
Quote:
Joel sits on the floor in the center of the bridge and decides he won't cooperate. He'll wait until everything returns to normal. He'll wait till Dr. Forrester explains exactly what's going on. There has to be an explanation.
-----
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Transexual, Transylvania by
Fandom: Rocky Horror Picture Show, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Pairing: Frank N. Furter/Everyone, Frank N. Furter/Arthur Dent
Rating: Teen
Words: 2523
Author's summary: Arthur Dent meets an alien he can actually sort of relate to.
Author's notes: i doubt this appeals to anyone except myself. it doesn’t really matter though, because myself is who i wrote it for. (also i haven’t brushed up on my h2g2 knowledge in quite a while so apologies for any inaccuracies or mischaracterization! frank on the other hand i have no excuse for i’m just not that great at writing him i think)
Author's warnings: None
Additional tags: Post Rocky Horror-Canon, Except Frank didn’t die, Crack Crossover, Crack Treated Seriously, Light Angst, Hurt/Comfort, but only kind of, Unexpected Bonding, I don’t know what this is, Frank is Zaphod’s ex-situationship, Bisexual Freak Ford Prefect, Frank just went back to Transexual instead of being killed
My comment: "Neat concept. I quite like it. From what I remember of Rocky Horror, I think you nailed Frank's tone of speaking, like that he made Arthur's name sound "thick and sticky"."
Quote:
Arthur perked up, not unlike a dog upon hearing the front door opening. “I’m sorry, did you say Earth?”
“Yes.” Frank looked at him. “Tiny blue-green planet. Fun little people with all these silly rules. Fascinating culture, really, because it’s ridiculous how-“
-----
On the 125th Story by
Fandom: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Characters: Arthur, Benjy Mouse, Frankie Mouse
Rating: General
Words: 2439
Author's summary: Arthur Dent has another encounter with Benjy and Frankie Mouse shortly after arriving with his group at Milliways. I don't own these characters, and even if I did I would still follow good advice and Don't Panic. Written as my 125th story (at the time).
Author's notes: For my 125th story, a tale that ends up ON the 125th story, with a few stops at earlier stories along the way. The building has a bit of inspiration from the Heinlein story "...and He Built a Crooked House".
Author's warnings: None
My comment: "Good one, very Adamsesque tone!"
Quote:
"That's the easy part. We've brought you to a special building; you're in the basement of a building 125 stories tall" Benjy explained. "Actually, none of the floors exist together but thanks to an extension into the fourth spacial dimension…"
"…it's amazing what you save on property tax by doing it that way…" Frankie interjected.
Write Every Day: Day 29
Oct. 29th, 2025 05:28 pm"…if you have a fear of failure, you’re never going to learn how to cook. Cooking is one failure after another. That’s how you learn. You’ve got to have what the French call ‘Je m’en foutisme’, or ‘I don’t care what happens.’ The sky can fall, and omelettes can go all over the stove… If you’re not going to be ready to fail, you’re not going to learn."
– Julia Child
My day 29: I added 558 words to a WIP. And then the sun was out, so I went for a walk along a shared pedestrian/mountain biking trail through the trees. (Posting this a bit earlier because my sister's coming over for Fringe tonight. :-)
The tally
( Tally )
Day 27:
Day 28:
When you check in, please say what day(s) you’re checking in for. You can join in or take a break at any time; you’re always welcome back. And please let me know if I’ve missed you.
(no subject)
Oct. 28th, 2025 08:40 pmI laughed, because it sounded like a joke, but then he left and the bossman told me I was indeed in charge. Because, well, I knew what was going on and how it was supposed to be done and the bossman had been told that I was capable of being in charge.
So I was.
idk, like, I don't find it particularly hard to be in charge of two people (one of my cohort-mates and a fifth-year apprentice) (my cohort-mate kept getting pulled by the boss to do other things) who are perfectly content to listen to me since I did in fact know what's going on and have the specific subject knowledge. It takes more energy and effort and thought, sure, but it's not hard. It means fielding calls from the boss and calling him more when there are questions, and that's annoying, and it means keeping track of people and what's going on and what needs to be done next, which is... I dunno, I have a sense of that anyway? I just usually don't need to care?
Yesterday was the last day that I was in charge and we spent most of it in three different areas working alone because the boss had three things he wanted us to do. But also, like, in the afternoon I went and bothered the carpenters until they took down a sheet of drywall that they shouldn't have put up yet, put up the plenum that should've been put up earlier, and then got the carpenters to put their drywall back up with just enough time in the day to put up the vent that goes there.
And that's... dunno, it's not a thing I'm incapable of at other times, but it's not something I would've put as much effort into doing if I were not The One In Charge and therefore the one who is responsible for bothering other trades when necessary.
Yesterday I also heard like half a sentence of a conversation between my foreman and the electricians' foreman while I was heading to break, and then, after break, talked to the fifth-year apprentice who I was technically in charge of and who had been asked to fix a thing for the electricians. Told him what I'd learned from the electricians' foreman the week before when we'd talked about it and I'd gone "yeah, ask my boss about that". Flagged down the electricians' foreman, since I know him by sight now, got him to talk to the other apprentice and explain what needed to be done.
(Talked to that guy again today. He asked me how long I'd been growing my hair out, and said it was good to see more queer people on the jobsite. I signal that pretty visibly, since one of the few stickers on my hard hat is like "a queer person's place is in the union" sticker, but he's like the second person to mention it to me. Seems like a cool dude.)
just, idk.
Odd to think about how the framing of responsibility changes what I am and am not willing to do? I can enter this mindset easily once it's asked of me; I just usually don't if I don't have a need to.
There's something in there about rising to expectations but, like, it's more... It's easier to be confident when the people around you explicitly tell you that they believe in your skills and trust in your ability to do shit. The vibe of ~rising to expectations~ is different, to me. People say that more often in contexts where it feels like someone is below the standard or going above and beyond or something. This is more... "I know you are capable of this, you've proven that already, so I will continue to give you responsibilities commensurate with your demonstrated ability".
And if that comes with the bossman being amused by my willingness to talk back and correct him on shit, that's fine. xD He likes me because I listen, retain information, and do what he asks. He seemed pleased by how the last week went and how much got done, and so does my journeyman partner, who came back from work today and was like "yeah I really did tell the boss that you should be in charge while I'm gone, because you know what's going on and that's more important than that you're a third-year apprentice."
(also the bossman has finally proven what I have suspected for weeks: that we're missing some of the pieces we need for the finish work he's got me and my journeyman doing. and also the two apprentices I was given, who haven't yet been taken from us again, so I think we get to keep them and have a four-person crew on this piece of the work? that's nice. things will go faster with more hands.)
One more possible birthday gift
Oct. 28th, 2025 04:40 pmSherwood and I managed to release it on possibly the second-worst date we could have, which was October 2024. (The worst would have been November 2024). So a little belated publicity would be nice. I'd be happy to provide a review copy if you'd like.

Fic title meme
Oct. 29th, 2025 12:21 amHow many letters of the alphabet have you used for starting a fic title? One fic per line, 'A' and 'The' do not count for 'A' and 'T'.
I picked my favourite title for each letter, not necessarily my favourite fic:
A - Absent Heart (But My Body is Here)
B - A Bitter, Better Truth
C - A Cruelty of Harpies
D - Darkness Spilled Before Our Bed
E - Echoes Woven Into Light
F - Farshalah'kiah for the Modern Orion Woman
G - Glass on the Ground
H - Hindsight From the Dinner Table
I - In This Fading Hour
J - none
K - Kreisverkehr
L - Listen (it's late, it's late, but listen)
M - Make Answer to the Clock
N - Not To Be Repeated
O - Out of the Water
P - Pull/Recoil
Q - Quiet Bower
R - R'lyeh Is Not an Empty House
S - Summer's Turns
T - A Thread as Red as Blood
U - (un)forced, (un)happy
V - Volcano Day
W - Why Should You Linger
X - none
Y - none
Z - Zone F: Fandom Primer
You can tell I have a preference for a certain style of title, LOL!
The most represented fandom here is, unsurprisingly, Guardian (with 6 titles); second is Griimm with 3. My most-written fandom (Doctor Who) only has 2 on this list; either my title preferences have changed or Guardian inspires me for better titles. *g*
And the missing X and Y are probably not surprising, but I didn't expect J! I guess I'll have to do something about that at some point ... *g*
FIC: scale to feather, skin to skin (Ya Qing/Zhu Hong) [M]
Oct. 29th, 2025 12:09 amscale to feather, skin to skin (997 words)
Rating: Mature
Relationships: Ya Qing/Zhu Hong, Zhu Hong & Zhao Yunlan
Characters: Zhu Hong, Ya Qing
Content tags: Yashou transformation, non-human sex, Post-Canon, Post-Fix-It, Enemies to Lovers, background implied Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan
Summary: Ya Qing, half-transformed, had feathers down the side and back of her neck. They covered her shoulders and arms, curving along the sides of her bare breasts.
[ SECRET POST #6871 ]
Oct. 28th, 2025 06:53 pm⌈ Secret Post #6871 ⌋
Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.
01.

( More! )
Notes:
Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 21 secrets from Secret Submission Post #981.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.
FIC: scale to feather, skin to skin (Guardian: Ya Qing/Zhu Hong) [M]
Oct. 28th, 2025 11:43 pmscale to feather, skin to skin (997 words)
Fandom: 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018)
Rating: Mature
Relationships: Ya Qing/Zhu Hong, Zhu Hong & Zhao Yunlan
Characters: Zhu Hong, Ya Qing
Content tags: Yashou transformation, non-human sex, Post-Canon, Post-Fix-It, Enemies to Lovers, background implied Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan
Summary: Ya Qing, half-transformed, had feathers down the side and back of her neck. They covered her shoulders and arms, curving along the sides of her bare breasts.
And Now For Some Light Relief
Oct. 28th, 2025 09:45 pmI pinched this one from
A - Another Day, Another Disaster (Good Omens, Aziraphale & Crowley, Adam & The Them)
B - Between Stimulation and Reaction (Leverage, Eliot Spencer/Parker/Alex Hardison, Eliot Spencer/Sophie Deveraux, Eliot Spencer/Others)
C - Cola, Bleach and Other Dangerous Chemicals (Birds of Prey, Harley Quinn, Cassie Cain, Joker)
D - Done Deal (Leverage, Eliot Spencer/Parker/Alec Hardison)
E - Eilean a 'Cheo (Rivers of London, Beverley Brook/Peter Grant, Abdul Haqq Walid, OCs)
F - Four Meals (Good Omens, Aziraphale/Crowley)
G - Gold Standard(The Thing in the Tunnels Wants Rather More) (The Thing In The Walls Wants Your Spare Change, Caro, Aly, Dragons)
H - Hiding in Plain Sight (Captain Marvel, Carol Danvers/Maria Rambeau)
I - If Wishes Were Spaceships (Wolf 359, Doug Eiffel/Hera)
J - Joined By The Westering Wind (Pacific Rim, Rayleigh/Mako)
K - Knives Out of Context (Leverage, Parker/Alec Hardison)
L - Like the Arms of the Ocean (Birds of Prey, Cassandra Cain & Harleen Quinzel)
M - Midnight Special (Leverage, Eliot Spencer/Mr Quinn)
N - No Happy Ending (Forest 404, Pan/Daria)
O - Of Salt and Candles (Good Omens, Aziraphale & Crowley)
P - Practical Arrangements and Practical Jokes (Ghostbusters, Jillian Holtzman/Abby Yates)
Q -
R - Robots Need Hugs Too (Wolf 359, Doug Eiffel, Hera, Alana Maxwell)
S - Someone You Couldn't Lose (Ocean's Eight, Daphne Kluger/Debbie Ocean/Lou Miller)
T - Taking The Shine Off The Stars (The Mummy, Ardeth Bay/Evy Carnahan O'Connell/Rick O'Connell)
U - The Universe Is Drifting Apart (Ghostbusters, Jillian Holtzmann/Patty Tolan)
V - A Voice From The Stars (Wolf 359, Doug Eiffel, Hera, Mr Cutter)
W - Weapon of Choice (James Bond Movies, Bond/M, Bond/Q, Bond & Moneypenny)
X -
Y - You Wear It Well (Captain Marvel, Carol Danvers/Maria Rambeau)
Z -
23/26 from 200 fics on AO3. Unsurprisingly no Q, X or Z - I did wonder if I might have a Q somewhere, but if I do it must be a drabble or comment fic that never got archived. I thought it was going to be a much worse turn out as after a strong start there was a lot of repetition in first letters but my Wolf 359 fic did me a solid with I, R and V after nearly two pages of nothing but Cs, Ls, Ms, Ss and Ts it felt like.
rave: The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst
Oct. 28th, 2025 03:08 pmRobert Bringhurst's remarkable reference work, The Elements of Typographic Style, provides a full semester of type history in less than 400 pages. It's not just the book's elegant design nor well-chosen exemplars that so thrilled me I read both the 2nd and 3rd edition, dropping more than 50 stickies along the way. The current edition, version 4.3, is out of print and still focuses exclusively on printed material.
Bringhurst is a poet and translator. That last vocation has brought him into regular contact with non-Latin alphabets, and the Elements of Typographic Style provides the best advice I've ever seen in English regarding how to set type with accents, diacritics, and other "analphabetic characters."
( Archived links )
I drafted this review a decade ago, and I still believe it, so it’s a proof of life post.
October Link List
Oct. 28th, 2025 11:35 amOn the YouTubes (and a Podcast)
Probably not a lot of new information on the Blake Lively piece if you've been following the case, but it's well laid out. The first section is largely about trying to detect bot campaigns, and he has some really interesting thoughts there. Also, he's an entertaining presenter, and am adding him to my subs.
This is a bit dated as it's about the topic du jour from a couple months ago, but I really like how Ali can take the discussion of the moment and expand it into a video about the wider cultural context. Very well done.
Great video about thought-terminating cliches and how they affect the way we talk about media.
Can we stop running to cling
Search Engine Podcast: A Dubai Chocolate theory of the internet (0:47hr, no transcript?).
If the medium is the message, and the medium is algorithmically-driven short-form video, what messages are we dealing with right now? Thoughts on Gen Z, and the world they're stuck in.
I Failed to Think of a Theme, and Failed, so Random Shit Posted in Order Bookmarked:
Kyrianna: Portraits.
Surrealist watercolour portraits of people with disabilities, manifesting symptoms of pain and restriction on their bodies. Really beautiful and affecting.
The Tyee: Unifor Undaunted as Amazon Ramps Up Its Anti-Union Fight.
"A union leader says newly certified workers are keen despite the company’s legal counteroffensive."
Tom's Guide: How to disable Copilot in Windows 11.
This was quite easy, and I wish I'd done it months ago.
TGEU: International Day of Action for Trans Depathologisation 2025.
I thought the demand list was really well laid out. These folks are doing such important work.
Spitfire News: Survivors deserve better storytelling.
A call to improve how journalists and content creators talk about violence and abuse.There's an open letter linked, and Kat also helped set up
CBC: 'A healing event': Heiltsuk doctor performs rare delivery of Heiltsuk baby in own homelands.
An early labour in Bella Bella, B.C., where the hospital isn't equipped to deliver babies, had a happy ending.
The AV Club: Spotify stands by ICE recruitment ads despite artist backlash.
A growing number of artists have boycotted the service over its founder's investment in military AI.
2025 Requests + How and Where to Post fics + Author Question Update
Oct. 29th, 2025 07:29 am-at karanguni's app
-at the Yuletide 2025 collection on AO3
-in a spreadsheet
-in a text doc
Please check back later for pinch hitter prompts.
Enjoy!
Both the main Yuletide 2025 collection and the Yuletide Madness 2025 collection are open for posting works. Before posting your assignment, or posting a treat to either collection, please read the notes below.
( Posting, and to Which Collection )
Bonus!! Decoy questions/author questions
A few weeks ago, we made a post about the questions we send to recipients when authors need to clarify something about their recipients' preferences.As a result of that poll, in a situation where an author has a fandom-specific question, we will now send questions for at least 3 fandoms in a person's requests, but will not generally make up extra/decoy questions for their full set of fandoms.
You suggested that curious authors could make up (some of) their own extra questions. While that could be helpful - if you want to - we ask you to keep the following things in mind.
- Clear questions are the best questions. Several times in the past we've received extremely confusing questions and it turned out a participant thought they needed to disguise what they were asking from the mods. Please do not.
- Avoid excessive detail, especially about plots you don't plan to write. Don't ask your recipient "Would you be interested in a story where they time-travel to meet five different generations of their ancestors, and also there are capybara zombies?" unless you are contemplating such a plot (and maybe not even then) - because you may make your recipient hopeful about something that won't arrive.
- Avoid being disingenuous about things that are actually clear to you. Try to ask about points of reasonable ambiguity. If you ask your recipient things like "You said you don't want any mention of hospitals, but is it okay if a character has a headache?" you could stress them out by making them wonder if they need to re-write their DNWs, or by making them wonder if you have wildly misinterpreted other parts of their requests. Decoy questions require a little creativity… but not too much. Save most of your creativity for the actual writing.
And again - you are not obliged to provide decoy questions! If you need to ask your recipient something, all we need from you is: 1) what information you need, and 2) who you are. That's great! We can take care of the rest.
Please either comment logged-in or sign a name. Unsigned anonymous comments will be left screened.

