Book Log: No Dream is Too High

Sep. 25th, 2025 08:01 pm
scaramouche: Lens flares on a spock dreamwidth sheep (spock dw sheep)
[personal profile] scaramouche
Buzz Aldrin's No Dream is Too High: Life Lessons from a Man Who Walked on the Moon (co-written with Ken Abraham) was a spontaneous get from a clearance section, and when I picked it up I assumed that this was his memoir? It does have elements of a memoir, in that Aldrin tells little stories of his life experiences, but his actual memoir is titled Magnificent Desolation, which I will have to get another time. This book is more a presentation of neat little soundbites for the purpose of inspiring people, and especially younger people, who look up to him and want to pursue their dreams.

Aldrin clearly has a lot of feelings about doing as much as possible while he's still alive and able, and this book is part of the activism of trying to keep interest in science, space and space-faring activities alive. He wants to inspire excellence! Unfortunately that's not really what I'm interested in, speaking as someone whose dreams are much smaller, so reading this book was a case of "that's nice, but not really relatable" which is frustrating because not everything has to be relatable, but the book's prose is trying so hard to make ALL of it relatable, and urging the reader to Innovate! And Think Out of the Box! And Not Be Afraid of Rejection! Aldrin is so upbeat and positive, there's outright whiplash when he drops tidbits out of the blue, eg. how his mother died, before right on back to going, Surround Yourself With People Who Will Bring Out the Best in You! Don't Be Afraid To Think Out of the Box! Be Open-minded! Stand Up For Yourself!

I don't mean this to denigrate, and I totally get Aldrin's frustration that NASA stopped going to the moon, and efforts to get to Mars are taking so long, that he needs to pour that frustration into this book (along with other projects) to remind people of the best of humankind's accomplishments and capabilities and to be unafraid to pursue excellence even when times are hard... and have unfortunately become harder since the time this book was published almost ten years ago. For example, this book gets dated for his namechecking Musk and Bezos as innovators who make the world a better place.

For Aldrin's purpose, the book is what it is, a collection of anecdotes to inspire and encourage optimism, so there's a sense of flattening and simplification for that. There's only allusions to Aldrin's difficulties in and after NASA, his depression and alcoholism, or even his time in the Korean War -- which, as he writes it, he remembers that war fondly, and not much more than that.
yuletidemods: A hippo lounges with laptop in hand, peering at the screen through a pair of pince-nez and smiling. A text bubble with a heart emerges from the screen. The hippo dangles a computer mouse from one toe. By Oro. (Default)
[personal profile] yuletidemods posting in [community profile] yuletide_admin
Thanks for all your nominations so far! 4,429 fandom choices have been submitted so far (note that if two people nominate the same fandom, that counts twice towards that total). You can nominate at the tag set here.

AO3 has announced maintenance downtime from Sep 26, 07:30 5:30 UTC to (approximately) Sep 27, 03:30 UTC, which cuts a large chunk off the end of our planned nominations period. Because of this, we’ll extend nominations for an extra 16 hours, and instead close nominations on Saturday September 27 at 1pm UTC (What time is that for me?). However, we urge you to get your nominations in before the downtime begins, just in case AO3 doesn’t come back up in time for you to submit before we close nominations.

If your fandom requires evidence, please also submit it here on the Evidence Post by that time. We can't give a decision on all fandoms by close of nominations, but the sooner you make your case, the better your chances of a swift answer.

ETA: we have just been informed that the maintenance downtime has been rescheduled for two hours earlier, or 5:30 UTC. We won't alter the nominations schedule further, but we've updated the link above for maintenance time in your time zone to assist you.

Crime Scene Returns

Sep. 23rd, 2025 11:05 am
scaramouche: The Garnet logo from The Genius (Korea) TV show (the genius)
[personal profile] scaramouche
I was going to start watching Bloody Game season 3, but while browsing Netflix on my phone, I got a promo for Crime Scene Zero.

HUH, said I. Does this have anything to do with Crime Scene, the murder mystery variety show that I love? A quick click on the show's info (the show itself hasn't dropped yet) seemed to imply that it's a continuation of the same show????

I went to the show's wiki page to double-check, and sure enough Crime Scene Zero is mentioned there as a fifth season of the show.... but just before that, the article says that there was a fourth season LAST year, called Crime Scene Returns.

WHAT! Despite my acceptance that the show is labour intensive and difficult to set up and run, they've made another two seasons? I checked the usual places on reddit, and have now watched episode 1 and 2 of Crime Scene Returns, as it seems that this season has changed the format some by splitting each case into two episodes each.

Sure, the comments on reddit are more levelheaded, with criticism of the new episodes' pacing and the roleplaying skills of the cast, but meanwhile I'm over here watching episodes 1 and 2 while being gleeful, joyous, excited, grateful, delighted, ecstatic, and laughing until my asthma kicks in. (When ep 1 first started I went aww Park Ji-yoon didn't come back? But then she came walking in as the detective and I went YAY!!!!) I am so happy, I have to stop myself from bingeing the whole season, though I probably will.

Book Log: The Spiral Staircase

Sep. 22nd, 2025 03:36 pm
scaramouche: Roy Cheung as the Shaolin Monk from Storm Riders (hot monk is hot)
[personal profile] scaramouche
I got Karen Armstrong's memoir The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out of Darkness from a book fair ages ago, but kind of avoided reading it because although I knew that Armstrong used to be a nun and that informs her perspective of religion, I was nervous that knowing Armstrong better might make me enjoy her other books less. As it turns out, knowing a bit more about life experience has indeed changed the way I view her books that I've already read, but in ways I wasn't expecting, and most of the guesses I'd made from her style of writing turned out to be pretty close.

Cut for length. )

Anyway, great read, enjoyed myself even through the difficult parts, I have a better understanding (I think) of the ways that Armstrong thinks that differ from my own, but still illuminate routes that are useful to think about.

Fic meme from [personal profile] impala_chick

Sep. 21st, 2025 06:51 pm
muccamukk: Supergirl determinedly flying forward. Text: "Here we go again!" (DC: Here We Go Again)
[personal profile] muccamukk
Haven't done this one in a while. Following AO3, not the drabbles/ficlets only posted to DW. Also haven't written in a while, so most of these are a few years old.


Share the first and last lines of the last five stories you have posted to AO3.

The Fire and the Ember, Masters of the Air, Marge/Peggy

First: They didn't really need to climb in through Marge's bedroom window, it wasn't like her parents didn't know that Peggy was spending the weekend, but it was tradition at this point.

Last: She pressed her nose against the back of Marge's neck, and did just that.


A Fire in Arkansas, Band of Brothers, Johnny/Bull

First: Johnny figured that the old saw "smooth runs the water where the brook is deep" had been invented by someone who'd known Bull Randleman, but even he didn't expect what his corporal said as they sat in a meagre pool of shade half a mile out of Helena, Arkansas.

Last: He clapped Bull on the arm, Bull shoved him back, and they jogged forward towards the rising sun.


Natasha's Christmas Plans, Top Gun: Maverick, Natasha/Callie

First: "So here's the plan," Natasha said as she closed the hatch to the stateroom she shared with Callie.

Last: First chance she got, she was going to find some plastic mistletoe to tape to the bottom of her bunk, but for now they didn't need it.


Across the Waves, Across the Heather, Kidnapped! by RLS, Davie/Alan

First: Alan landed on the deck of the Covenant breathless and reeling, all those good men dead, and nearly himself as well.

Last: "Oh, I could kiss you!" Alan cried, and then did.


Every Time He Hears Their Voices (An End of the Affair Remix), Band of Brothers, Don/Skip/Alex

First: This is the moment Don has lived in since the tenth of January 1945: He's tucked back away from the line, catching a few minutes rest as he tries to choke down beans that half froze the instant Joe Domingo ladled them onto his plate.

Last: This is what does: all of the days after.
cap_ironman_fe: (Default)
[personal profile] cap_ironman_fe posting in [community profile] cap_ironman

Welcome to Cap-IM's 2025 Holiday Exchange and Community Gifts!

💙💌💛



The Holiday Exchange is Cap-IM's end-of-the-year fanwork exchange for SteveTony works. Everyone who joins will be matched, to secretly create a Steve/Tony fanwork for another participant. At the end of December, the gifts will be posted anonymously. Then in January, the creators will be revealed! All types of content and fanworks are allowed. All things SteveTony are celebrated.

💖 Join now to get a gift of your deepest Steve/Tony heart's desires! 💖

Or read the AO3 RULES section below for other relevant information.

Community Gifts is the annual gift giving event run in tandem with the Holiday Exchange. It is a way for participants to give gifts to the community without the pressure or commitment of the Holiday Exchange. Prompts are collected anonymously from anyone who wants to submit one, and after they’re published, everyone is welcome to fill them.


💝 Inspire a fellow SteveTony and submit your community prompts now! 💝
Or read more info on Community Gifts in the AO3 RULES section below.

 

 SCHEDULE 

  • September 18: Exchange sign-ups and Community Gifts prompt submissions open
  • October 9: Exchange sign-ups close at 10:00 PM EDT (what time is it for me?)
  • October 10-13: Matching period
  • October 14: Assignments sent out at the latest
  • October 24: Community Gifts prompt submissions close at 10:00 PM EDT (what time is it for me?)
  • October 25: Community Gifts prompts list is posted
  • December 17: Finished exchange assignments are due at 10:00 PM EDT (what time is it for me?)
  • December 25: Start of gift reveals
  • January 3: Community Gifts are due at 10:00 PM EDT (what time is it for me?)
  • January 7: Creator reveals
  •  
  •  

🎉 PARTICIPATION RULES 🎉

  • YOU MUST BE 18 OR OLDER
  • You must have an AO3 account. You can request one here. If you need help getting an account, reach out to Cap-IM mods
  • You will create a fanwork gift that focuses on Steve and Tony's relationship in one of the exchange's eligible universes
  • Gifts must:
    • be previously unpublished
    • completed specifically for this exchange
    • meet minimum fanwork type requirements
    • fulfill at least one of your giftee’s prompts
  • This is a secret exchange. All gifts will be a surprise. Do not reveal who you are creating for or discuss the specifics of your work publicly until after creator reveals

 

🎨 MINIMUM FANWORK TYPE REQUIREMENTS 🎨

  • Artwork (traditional or digital mediums, including fancomics): One polished work on an unlined surface.
  • Fanfiction: One fanfic of at least 1000 words, proofread by another person.
  • Fanmix: One fanmix of at least 5 songs, with cover art (which can be digital, traditional, an edit, etc.)
  • Fanvid: One vid of at least 1 minute with no gaps or missing footage
  • Gifsets and Edits/Manips: Two gifsets or manips, of a quality that you would be happy to receive as a gift. Do not use existing fanworks as the basis of your work, unless the creator has given permission/transformative blanket statement. 
  • Podfic: One podfic of at least 500 words if you are also writing the text for it. One podfic of at least 1000 words if you are recording a pre-existing work. Do not podfic someone else's work, unless the creator has given permission/transformative blanket statement.
  • Multi-media gifts must meet the minimum for at least one requested medium.

 

🎭 MINIMUM FANWORK CONTENT REQUIREMENTS 🎭

  • Completely fulfill ONE (or more) of your recipient’s prompts
  • Cannot include any listed "Do Not Wants"
  • Be posted and complete at the exchange deadline
  • Be newly created for this exchange.
  • Cannot be sequels to existing fic or part of a previously posted series. Art and fanvids cannot be based on other existing fanworks unless the recipient has specified otherwise in their request.
  • Fics must be proofread/beta’d. If you want to find a beta reader, there is a list of beta readers available here.

If you have any questions about signing up or need assistance with registration, please don't hesitate to contact the mods at cap.im.events@gmail.com. We'll be more than happy to provide any clarification and help you through the process!



 

 

 

Bloody Game

Sep. 21st, 2025 03:33 pm
scaramouche: The Garnet logo from The Genius (Korea) TV show (the genius)
[personal profile] scaramouche
It took me so long to finish Bloody Game season 2! (Looks like I started somewhere in July.) There was a stretch of a few weeks where I was three episodes from the finale and just couldn't get through, the pace and editing was SO BAD in the second half of the season. Made worse because at the same time I was watching Taran's The Genius season 1 commentary, which further made me appreciate how crisp the editing is in that show, even during its slower first season.

(Tangent: Taran paused his The Genius commentary to commentate over Survivor: Australia - Australia vs. the World, which I ended up watching because I figured that his commentary would be interesting enough to cancel out my general disinterest in Survivor -- speaking as someone who followed season 2 and 3 really closely back in the day. Taran had way less to say because he doesn't have as much game strategy to analyse, but it was fun to get a glimpse of Survivor fandom lingo and meta discussion about "player edits" and "social currency".)

I finally forced myself to finish Bloody Game's season 2, in the hopes of getting to the reportedly better season 3. It's been literal months since I first started season 2, and at one point I accidentally deleted my post on the earlier episodes when it was in a dreamwidth draft, so I'll try to recall what my thoughts were.

Why couldn't I have fastforwarded through season 2 the way I did season 1? Because Hong Jin-ho was a player. Dammit, Jin-ho! Though a lot of the time I let the show play in the background while I did other things. It is fun seeing Jin-ho, who "rescued" The Genius's debut season, appear almost ten years later in Bloody Game as a veteran (and thus letting go, fashion effort wise) in a mostly younger-than-him cast.

More thoughts about Bloody Game's season 2. )

A Poem

Sep. 20th, 2025 08:25 pm
muccamukk: A figure on a dune holding a lamp. Text: "Your word is a lamp." (Christian: Your Word)
[personal profile] muccamukk
"Beatitudes for a Queerer Church" by Jay Hulme
Blessed are the outcasts;
the ostracized, the outsiders.

Blessed are the scared;
the scarred, the silent.

Blessed are the broken;
for they are not broken.

Blessed are the hated;
for they are not worthy of hate.

Blessed are those who try;
those who transform, who transition.

Blessed are the closeted;
God sees you shine anyway.

Blessed are the queers;
who love creation enough to live the truth of it,
despite a world that tells them they cannot.

And blessed are those
who believe themselves unworthy of blessing;
what inconceivable wonders you hold.

Mid-Nominations Notes

Sep. 20th, 2025 11:40 pm
yuletidemods: A hippo lounges with laptop in hand, peering at the screen through a pair of pince-nez and smiling. A text bubble with a heart emerges from the screen. The hippo dangles a computer mouse from one toe. By Oro. (Default)
[personal profile] yuletidemods posting in [community profile] yuletide_admin
Thanks for all your nominations so far! 2732 fandom choices have been submitted so far (note that if two people nominate the same fandom, that counts twice towards that total).

Nominations will close at 9pm UTC 26 September. If your fandom requires evidence, please also submit it by that time. We can't give a decision on all fandoms on the Evidence Post by close of nominations, but the sooner you make your case, the better your chances of a swift answer.

We've seen some very large fandoms among the nominations! Yuletide is an exchange for rare fandoms. We will reject all of the fandoms below, so if one of them is your nomination, please choose again:
  • Baldur's Gate (Video Games) - I & II will be approved, as per evidence, but this label will be rejected

  • Actor RPF

  • Andor (TV)

  • Baldur's Gate (Video Games)

  • Black Sails (TV)

  • 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia (Anime & Manga)

  • Deltarune (Video Game)

  • Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (TV 2016)

  • Downton Abbey

  • Gravity Falls

  • Horizon (Video Games)

  • House M.D.

  • 전지적 독자 시점 - 싱숑 | Omniscient Reader - Sing-Shong

  • The Pitt (TV)

  • プロジェクトセカイ カラフルステージ!| Project SEKAI COLORFUL STAGE! (Video Game)

  • 斉木楠雄のΨ難 | Saiki Kusuo no Sai-nan | The Disastrous Life of Saiki K

  • Star Trek: Enterprise

  • Undertale (Video Game)

  • Warframe


We also won't approve "All Media Types" or "& Related Fandoms". If you've nominated any of the following fandoms, please either pick a specific piece of media, or argue your case on the evidence post.
  • Ender's Game - All Media Types

  • History Boys - All Media Types

  • Midsomer Murders - All Media Types


We've seen nominations for relationships, original characters, or Reader characters. Please only use the Character field to nominate specific characters who appear in a canon. For exceptions, see the eligibility post.

We've also seen many well-formatted nominations and nominations we are excited about! Please keep them coming.

We are happy to answer questions about nominations.

Schedule, Rules, & Collection [still being tweaked for this year] | Contact Mods | Tag Set | Community DW | Community LJ | Discord | Pinch hits on Dreamwidth


Please either sign in to comment, or include a name with your anonymous comments, including replies to others' comments. Unsigned comments will stay screened.

Very Done with Gen AI this week

Sep. 19th, 2025 09:04 pm
muccamukk: Bill and Twevle wearing forced smiles of distress. (DW: happyhappyhappy)
[personal profile] muccamukk

Content notes for suicide, self harm and grooming, on this one. I'd seen reference to this story, but hadn't realised how bad it was.

Music Wednesday

Sep. 17th, 2025 08:56 am
muccamukk: Elyanna singing, surrounded by emanata and hearts. (Music: Elyanna Hearts)
[personal profile] muccamukk

Anyone else remember this band? I was very fond of them.

Book Log: Rogue One

Sep. 17th, 2025 04:43 pm
scaramouche: Baze and Chirrut from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (star wars - space battle husbands)
[personal profile] scaramouche
I bought Alexander Freed's novelisation of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story back when the movie first came out and I was fannishly excited over it, but I didn't read it. I think it's because most of the time novelisations don't really work for me, either by overexplaining what I prefer to be open, or going for characterisation choices that I disagree with. This novelisation does both! But enough time has passed, and Andor has opened the world further into its own thing, that I can process the novelisation as a product of a specific point in time.

Also, good thing I didn't read it back then because it completely undoes my missing scene fic, in the usual ways that crack me up, eg. my thinking that the timeline as seen didn't make emotional or plotworking sense in order to accomplish all the things that film needed to do during the Yavin 4 interlude, but the movie script, and from there the novelisation, disagreed with me.

The novelisation itself was interesting, and I suppose scratches that itch for world details and setting the scene. But its blank spots are funny, eg. Cassian really has nothing going on emotionally, except (1) mission and (2) Jyn, with the second point overtaking the first pretty quick; no insight into Chirrut's headspace at all, since he only gets the one scene (where he dies) since everything else is given to Baze, I think due to limitations in being able to flesh out the Guardians of Whills lore; Bodhi really does not get his due for what he actually did and sacrificed in order to get the plans out. The movie's already a little waffly on the last part, and I get that the story is wholly Jyn's, but... the novelisation's Jyn is not the movie's Jyn either, so I couldn't really pin emotional investment there either. The broad strokes of the character are the same, but the novelisation (and the script's?) Jyn is way angrier, conflicted and traumatized that movie!Jyn's heartbroken stoicism. So there's that! But I did like the imperial bureaucracy and Orson Krennic parts, which I suppose are difficult to get wrong.
nostalgicatsea: (Default)
[personal profile] nostalgicatsea posting in [community profile] cap_ironman


Marvel Trumps Hate is back for another year! We're a fandom charity auction open to any and all Marvel universes, characters, and ships. Creators sign up to auction off fannish Marvel creations and services, with 100% of the proceeds going to nonprofit organizations working towards a more equitable and healthy planet. MTH successfully raised $47,000 last year and an incredible grand total of $262,652.53 since 2018. Please join us again—or for the first time—this year to raise funds for some amazing causes!

2025 Dates (ET times):
SEPT. 14–SEPT. 27: Creator sign-ups
OCT. 12–OCT. 18: Preview week
OCT. 19–OCT. 25: Auction week
NOV. 1: Donation receipts deadline

SEPT. 14–SEPT. 27: Creator sign-ups

OCT. 12–OCT. 18: Preview week

OCT. 19–OCT. 25: Auction week

NOV. 1: Donation receipts deadline



CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP AS A CREATOR


About | FAQ | Full Schedule | How to Participate | Supported Organizations | Contact


sineala: (Avengers: Steve/Tony: It wasn't worth it)
[personal profile] sineala
Moving to the Sun (26709 words) by Sineala
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616, Avengers (Comics), New Avengers (Marvel Comics)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Characters: Steve Rogers, Tony Stark
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Getting Together, Project Wideawake (Marvel), Extremis (Marvel), whatever the exact opposite of Body Horror is, Sexual Roleplay, Cuddling & Snuggling, Comic Book Science, Comic: New Avengers Vol. 1 (2004), Fix-It for Comic: Iron Man/Captain America: Casualties of War Vol. 1 (2006), Marvel Comic Event: Civil War (2006), Fix-It for Marvel Comic Event: Civil War (2006), Hopeful Ending
Summary: When Steve agreed to meet Tony at the mansion to talk, he never imagined that Tony would abandon Registration and join him. He never imagined that Tony would end up in bed with him, either.

Hi, Dreamwidth! I know I have not been around in a while -- I have been having a lot of migraines -- but, here, I finally finished a story for the Dodged A Bullet 616 Steve/Tony Civil War exchange. This was not actually the story I intended to write, because I did not finish that one -- once again, I have been having a lot of migraines -- but I did finish this one. Not the other one, so my WIP pile is at a net zero, but I tried.

Nomination Coordination Station 2025

Sep. 15th, 2025 06:14 am
serenity_ribbon: An image of the 13th Doctor, on a pink background with heart doodles (Default)
[personal profile] serenity_ribbon posting in [community profile] yuletide

WARNING: Do NOT submit nominations here. Post for coordination ONLY.


This post is where people declare what they have nominated, or ask other people to nominate for them. So if you do comment and/or add your nominations to the spreadsheet, that's great, because it helps other people decide what to nominate, but it WILL NOT result in your fandoms or characters being in the tagset. The only place to nominate is the Yuletide tagset. Use the comments on this post and the coordination Google spreadsheet to coordinate nominations with others.

  • For information about nominating fandoms and characters, what is eligible for nomination, and other important links and announcements, refer to [community profile] yuletide_admin.

  • Nominations run Monday 15th to Saturday 27th September. Nominations will be approved after that time.

  • Before tags are approved (after September 27th), you can only see your own nominations.

  • You can nominate up to 5 fandoms and up to 4 characters in each fandom.

Please copy and paste the following information to comment on this post. Every item is optional except fandom.

  • A nomination is something you plan to nominate. A request is something you're hoping someone else will nominate for you, because you ran out of slots.

  • View and edit the google sheet here: Yuletide 2025 Nomination Coordination Station.

  • If you can add your information to the spreadsheet yourself, please do! That would really help. PLEASE DO NOT SORT THE SHEET. If you want to view the list by nominated fandoms, use the autogenerated "sort by fandom" tabs.

  • During the nomination period, the spreadsheet will get re-sorted by username daily at (approx) 6PM GMT, to keep the data tidier.


Help Wanted


If you have a few minutes and enjoy a bit of data entry, please volunteer to update the spreadsheet with information the comments in this post! If you do, add the data from the comment to the spreadsheet and reply to the original comment with Added to spreadsheet.

(h/t to [personal profile] ashling for the original coordination station post text and spreadsheet!)

Yuletide 2025 Nominations Open

Sep. 14th, 2025 09:07 pm
yuletidemods: A hippo lounges with laptop in hand, peering at the screen through a pair of pince-nez and smiling. A text bubble with a heart emerges from the screen. The hippo dangles a computer mouse from one toe. By Oro. (Default)
[personal profile] yuletidemods posting in [community profile] yuletide_admin
Why should I nominate?
To create the pool of fandoms available for this year’s Yuletide. More at AO3.

What can I nominate?
Up to 5 rare fandoms and 4 characters you want to request or offer. See what’s eligible here.

When can I nominate?
From now until 26 September, at 9pm UTC. Please check the date and time in your own timezone! Until then, you can also edit your nominations.

Where can I nominate?
Tag set.

Who can nominate?
People with AO3 accounts who intend to take part in Yuletide. You may use only one account for nominations. If you don’t have an AO3 account, add yourself immediately to the invite queue or email the mods.

How do I nominate?
First, check what's eligible. Then go to the tag set on AO3, and make sure you're logged in. Click "Nominate" at top right, enter your fandom and character choices, and click Submit at the bottom. Check the results on the page to make sure you entered them correctly. You don't have to submit all your choices at once - you can change your mind and add or edit your nominations until nominations close.

If you need to explain or argue for your fandom, please make a case for it on the Evidence Post as well as nominating on AO3.

Do I have to use fandom tags that exist on AO3?
Please do, unless:
  • There is no tag for your fandom (it's totally okay to nominate something with no fic!). Make one up, following this guide.

  • The tag that exists on the Archive describes a larger fandom with many parts and your fandom is one distinct part or subset. In this case, instead of using the tag that exists already, please use a tag that describes your specific subfandom.

  • The tag that exists on the Archive has the words 'All Media Types' or '& Related Fandoms' in it. Please don't use a label that includes those words without arguing for it on the Evidence Post
  • .

Please label fandoms according to the Archive's wrangling style. If you’re not sure how to label your fandom, please ask.

When will I see what was nominated?
Not for a while, sorry! You can share what you've nominated and coordinate with other participants at [community profile] yuletide. Moderators will approve tags starting approximately 28 September, and will release the tagset in early October. We will post questions about nominations between now and sign-ups, so please keep an eye on this community.

The Additional Tags at the bottom of the tag set are a new feature from 2023. Here is a post explaining how they work and some background (1, 2).

Disambiguation
When a character name could appear in more than one fandom, or is common, or short, please put information in brackets after the name to show where it belongs. For example:
-Bonnie Parker (Bonnie and Clyde 1967)
-Robin Hood (Prince of Thieves)
-Tulku (The Shadow 1994)
-Leonardo da Vinci (Da Vinci's Demons)

Disambiguation will also solve your problems if you receive the error message: “This character was rejected because it was nominated in another fandom.” If that happens, add more information to the name and resubmit.

Worldbuilding "character"
In most fandoms, you may nominate worldbulding as a character tag, in the format Worldbuilding (Your Fandom Name). However, mods will not accept "worldbuilding" nominations for RPF fandoms or where it is nominated without explanation for a purely mundane canon - there should be a clear fictional element to worldbuild around. See 2021's discussion post about worldbuilding; you may also find recent requests helpful to see how people have used this option.

Other character tips
If you submit a character that is new or rarely used on AO3, a suggestion from AO3 may appear in bold and in brackets next to your nomination after it has been submitted. This is okay, and does not mean that your nomination will be automatically changed. However, if you don't have any disambiguation information in brackets after the name, you may want to add it, because there may be another character with that name. Even if your character has two names, such as “Harrison Chase” or “Elizabeth Burke”, that name may appear in multiple unrelated fandoms.

RPF and Anthropomorphic fandoms must be nominated with characters. Other fandoms will be approved without characters if none are nominated.

Superhero and similar names may belong to more than one character. For example, Batman’s Robin could mean Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, or Stephanie Brown, among others. Please make sure it’s clear which one you mean - in cases where it’s ambiguous, please use their “wallet” name.

We don’t accept group nominations if the group contains named, distinct characters (for example, under Chalion Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold, we wouldn’t accept The Five Gods as a character). However, we will allow distinct groups that do not contain individual, named characters. If it may be difficult for us to determine whether this applies to your nomination, please comment in the Evidence post.

Check your nominations!
After submitting, check that your nominations have gone through: click away from the tag set, click back, and, if still logged into the same account, you should be able to see "My Nominations" at top right. Check the spelling and formatting! You can edit your nominations until the nominations period ends.

Enjoy!

PS: as pre-approved nominations can only be seen by mods, consider discussing your nominations with other participants on [community profile] yuletide or at the Discord. In particular, please see this year's RPF discussion post.


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Reading Backlog for August

Sep. 13th, 2025 09:51 am
muccamukk: Two road signs pointing opposite ways reading "Safety" and "Death." A shrugging grim reaper stands between them. (Misc: Safety or Death!)
[personal profile] muccamukk
(The first of which I read in May, but it wasn't Hugo homework, so we're putting it here.)

Maybe this is a Story about Water by Jessica Wiebe Schafer
I posted one of these poems. Lovely collection reflecting on God, womanhood, family connections and connections to nature, and how they might all be the same. Local author I stumbled on in the library, which suggests I should randomly grab books from the library's poetry section more often. (Have I since done so? No, I have not!)


Rainbow heart sticker A Default World by Naomi Kanakia
Read this for queer book club, which I've been very bad at actually attending. Contemporary satire, I guess would be the easiest genre description.

A South-Asian trans woman ends up joining a San Francisco share house, which is full of bright young things, tech money, and hedonism. Our heroine is trying to figure out how to get someone to pay for the gender-affirming surgeries she desperately wants, but keeps getting sucked into whatever bullshit her housemates are on, namely planning a big kink party that's somehow for great justice.

Most of the book is about skewering the hypocrisies and double think embedded in the mostly white, mostly straight, mostly upper class twenty-somethings who want to think that their sex parties are going to bring about the liberation, but aren't really that interested in the day to day lives of actual real marginalised people. I would say this discordance is played up for effect, and that the space I've seen aren't quite that bad, but also SF is kind of its own beast, so I'd also believe it's not exaggerating reality. The core points certainly hit, though maybe got a little repetitive.

I had complicated feelings about the heroine, who loathes almost every other character almost as much as she loathes herself. It was admittedly difficult to spend that many pages with someone who's that crushed by dysphoria that much of the time. I did like how the book handled her getting sucked into the social scene, and how the tension kept ratcheting up in regards to whether she would make the moral choice or the self-interested one. I was very much rooting for her by the end, even if everyone in the book was kind of terrible.

Will keep an eye on this author.


The Ladies Road Guide to Utter Ruin by Alison Goodman
Grabbed this off the library's seven-day read shelf, not realising it was the second book in a series. I would, if possible, read them in order, as this is very much a serial adventure situation, with the action of the second book directly following on the first. However, it did explain the events of the first well enough to follow along with what was happening, and it was fun on its own.

A pair of spinster sisters in Regency London deal with a variety of crises events, including someone trying to kidnap their house guest, a gentleman's society maybe murdering women, one of their would-be lovers being a highwayman while the other's a Bow Street Runner, and various knock on effects of the previous book. It was fun! I wouldn't say there's a lot more to it than hijinks, though it seemed to be trying to take on serious topics, but I enjoyed the hijinks. There's a scene later on in the book where five or six groups with competing interests are chasing each other around the countryside in the dark, which I always love.

It ends on a slight cliffhanger setting up the next book, which I'm not that invested in, but might read on a rainy day.


Red Boar's Baby by Lauren Esker
This stands alone, more or less, but if you enjoyed the lore from the previous books, you'll see it again here! We get the return of the highly-motivated koala, which made me very happy.

This outing, we get a road runner who's a SAR pilot for the National Parks Service fake dating a wild boar who's running the local shifter police department. (If you're new to this genre, they're shape shifters who can turn into animals, but primarily have human forms. This is not Zootopia.) Together, they have to deal with a probably-kidnapped baby, the probable kidnappers, mad science, and there only being one bed. This series pretty much always hits for me, and as usual it balances the action adventure/mystery plot with the romantic tension, and doesn't base either on silly misunderstandings or anyone carrying the idiot ball. I really liked the backstory to how the fake dating started out, and the barriers to the main couple getting together felt real. They were very sweet together, which helped. Also, there's a fantastic action scene towards the end of the book, that really played with most of the characters involved being shape shifters, and we got a bunch of new lore.

Really enjoyed this, looking forward to the next one.

JUSTICE FOR MATEO! (Who was not mentioned in this book, which is why he needs justice.)

Fic | MCU | Hose Him Down

Sep. 13th, 2025 08:24 pm
scaramouche: Captain America's shield & Iron Man's arc reactor; Civil War artwork (steve+tony)
[personal profile] scaramouche
I've been working on this for more than a month, and I've been posting this as a WIP on AO3 with one chapter a day this week, which was fun and useful in finally getting myself to finish it.

But yesterday when I woke up and opened my doc to prep the final chapter, it had reverted to an earlier version where more than half the final chapter was gone. After sitting there for a second or two in horror, I scrambled through finding different solutions... and eventually realized that the latest file was still in the folder, but for some reason when I let my computer do a windows update the night before, it seems to have logged in to the dropbox cloud without my say-so and renamed the files due to the update conflicts. But at least the file was still there! Phew.

Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Pairing/Characters: Steve/Tony
Genre: Steve POV, Pining, Sexual Fantasies, Getting Together, First Time, Humor, Mild Angst
Rating: Explicit
Words: 13,000+
Crossposting: AO3
Summary:
“What are you thinking about?” Tony asks.

Steve knows that Tony expects him to say something mundane or boring. Propelled by the perpetual urge to throw Tony off-balance, Steve tells him the truth: “I’m thinking about sex.”


Hose Him Down )
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