Organization for Transformative Works ([syndicated profile] otw_news_feed) wrote2025-06-02 03:26 pm

Five Things Mille K Said

Posted by Aditi Paul

Every month or so the OTW will be doing a Q&A with one of its volunteers about their experiences in the organization. The posts express each volunteer’s personal views and do not necessarily reflect the views of the OTW or constitute OTW policy. Today’s post is with Mille K, who volunteers in the Support Committee.

How does what you do as a volunteer fit into what the OTW does?

So, as the blurb said, I’m a volunteer for the OTW’s Support branch, which I’ve been doing since May 2024! I’m sure other Support volunteers have explained this far more eloquently in the past, but we basically help users with a wide variety of things. If you want to ask how to change your password, we’re the people to ask. If you run into some kind of error, shoot us a message. If a work has been tagged with the wrong language, that’s also us! Basically, we help the OTW-machine run smoothly.

What is a typical week like for you as a volunteer?
Personally, that depends from week to week! We don’t send out responses to users until another volunteer has read it over and given it the go-ahead (known as betaing), so some weeks I get a lot of my own tickets done, other weeks I prefer focusing on betaing for others! I like to work while I’m drinking something and listening to music, just to make it a bit more cozy. (My music of choice is Citypop and soundtracks to anime and games!)

What made you decide to volunteer?
To put it very simply, AO3/the OTW has done so much for me, and I wanted to give back. It’s been amazing for my personal growth to have a place to meet like-minded people, to post my works to, to read works that have moved me in some form… and then to get to help it run is an amazing experience!

What has been your biggest challenge doing work for the OTW?
Probably having to learn so many new things, like how to use all of our tools, or all of the internal phrasing. It’s definitely been challenging to pick all of that up, but it’s also been super fun, and everyone else has been incredible so far!

What fannish things do you like to do?
I mainly read and write fanfic! I also enjoy art immensely, although I can’t for the life of me make it myself. I also participate in online events from time to time, such as bangs, fests, exchanges, and online cons!


Now that our volunteer’s said five things about what they do, it’s your turn to ask one more thing! Feel free to ask about their work in the comments. Or if you’d like, you can check out earlier Five Things posts.

mistressofmuses: Image of nebulae in the colors of the bi pride flag: pink, purple, and blue (Default)
mistressofmuses ([personal profile] mistressofmuses) wrote2025-06-01 11:26 pm

(no subject)

I have got a LOT to catch up on, I feel like. I'm not even entirely sure how I got so far behind, except having a night devoted to the concert and a couple nights where all I did was fall asleep, ha.

I will try to get comments and posts caught up on tomorrow! (Though we also have a FastCAT with Bella!)
mistressofmuses: a stack of books in the colors of the bi pride flag: pink, purple, and blue, in front of a pastel rainbow background (books)
mistressofmuses ([personal profile] mistressofmuses) wrote2025-06-01 10:06 pm
Entry tags:

Books read in May:

Back up to six books read for the month!

Awakening Delilah by Abigail Barnette
M/M/F Paranormal (shifter) Romance - ebook novella
4/5

Delilah is a deer shifter, the only shifter in her family. Raised in Boston and told always to keep her "condition" utterly secret, she eventually takes a huge chance: moving to Glenn Close, a community in Michigan's Upper Peninsula dedicated entirely to shifters. It will be the first chance she's ever had to be around her own kind after a lifetime of hiding.
There she encounters Miguel, a wolf shifter, and Darius, a bat shifter. The two rescue her from a close call in the woods, and then all three end up sleeping together. Delilah is sure that this was a one-night stand between her and the couple, but Miguel and Darius feel differently; they're sure that she's intended to be their mate, a third member of their pack.


My thoughts, minimal spoilers:
I enjoyed this one! I think I bought it because I wanted to support the author (Jenny Trout; Abigail Barnette is a pen name) when I was reading some of her entertaining recaps of bad books. This was one that she was excited to get the rights back to, and republished for herself, so I bought a copy, since I like poly romance... but that was years ago, and it took me forever to get around to reading it, haha.
I was struck how similar the setup is to the M/M/F story that I didn't particularly enjoy from a couple months ago. ("Breaking the Rules.") The initial setup could sound almost the same: woman moves to a new area, has a minor crisis, and is rescued by a pair of men more established in the area, who are already connected to each other, and the three sleep together; after, the woman expects it to be a one-time thing, while the men want it to be more. The details were very different, but the broad summary is basically identical! Despite that, the the execution was not especially similar at all, and I think this one was a lot better.
I liked the characters better in this one. This is maybe just personal preference, but while Delilah still has some hangups about her past, her arc is a lot more about wanting freedom rather than escaping shame. (Maybe it's more that the other protagonist's escape from unhappiness also came with a push toward seeking conformity, which is probably really the part I didn't connect with.) I also liked that Miguel and Darius are an established couple, as opposed to the "we couldn't be a couple; we aren't gay! We just fuck sometimes" guys from the other book.
This also did not at all do the "oh no, a threesome is so dirty and wrong and forbidden!" thing. Like, Delilah does think a little bit about how it's a new thing for her, and there's a bit of "what would my mother think!", but not at all the same tone. The setting itself is fairly poly-normative, though I don't recall if there were any other background poly relationships portrayed, though there were other queer background characters. Miguel and Darius talk about how forming "packs" of more than two people is common for shifters (even though the species they shift into are all different).
I found the sex scenes less offputting, too. Fewer descriptions that made me wince, lol.


Lord of Souls by Greg Keyes
Fantasy - physical novel
Book two of a duology set in the Elder Scrolls universe; read with Alex
3.5/5

After their failed attempt to kill the master of Umbriel, Sul and Atrebus are cast back through Oblivion, and must go on a dangerous quest to find a monstrous, possessed sword that may help them succeed the next time. Annaig continues her ruthless climb through the ranks of the chefs of Umbriel, eventually gaining access to the lords. Her desire to entirely destroy the island puts her at odds with her long-time friend, Mere-Glim, who has grown to know and care for the ordinary servants and denizens of the island. Back in Cyrodiil, Colin thinks he has uncovered who is behind the plot both to kill Atrebus and to bring Umbriel into the world.


My thoughts:
Parts of this book felt a little bit more... video-game-y than the last book. (Particularly Atrebus and Sul's part, on their quest for the sword. It felt like a game objective.) This is a tie-in for a video game franchise, so that isn't a complaint, exactly, but parts of it felt like they'd be a better game than a book.
The first book felt a little more cohesive... there weren't really too many new characters introduced in this one, but it felt like the perspectives hopped around more. Annaig, Mere-Glim, Atrebus and Sul, Colin, the orc soldier (Maz Gar? I think she was new to this book, actually)... it's a lot of hopping between them. All of those perspectives added to the whole, but some were definitely more interesting than others, I thought.
I don't think I found anything in this book surprising. It was pretty straightforward in terms of what was happening, who was behind it, how they were going to be stopped, etc. The first book wasn't full of shocking twists, but it had a few: the reveal about Atrebus' reputation and heroism, how Umbriel-the-island was creating its workers, who Umbriel-the-being was before he was Umbriel, etc. In this book it felt like we already knew basically everything, and were just watching it play out the conclusion. It was satisfying to see how all the different characters finally got to interact with each other, though.


Aftermarket Afterlife by Seanan McGuire
Urban fantasy - physical novel
Book 13 of Incryptid; read with Taylor
4/5

Mary Dunlavy, ghost babysitter for the Price family, has been freed from her job as a crossroads ghost, leaving her duty to her family as the only job she has. Unfortunately, The Covenant of Saint George has escalated their attacks on the family and on the cryptids of North America, conducting coordinated assaults on various communities. The only thing the family can do is try to take the fight to them, to make the fight too expensive in terms of loss of life for the Covenant to continue. Mary may be happy as a ghost, but she will do anything she can to keep her family among the living.


My thoughts:
A reread for me, reading it with Taylor. This one is good! I enjoy Mary as a protagonist, and getting her perspective on everything, which is by necessity very different than the living family members'. The fact she's been with them so long lets us get little insights and memories of some of the characters we haven't seen in the series proper, like Fran (Alice's mother, who died young, but would be great-grandmother to most of the protagonists.) This was a much darker entry into the series in a few ways, and a bit of a downer at times. There are deaths, and they are tragic, largely for the ways in which they ended those characters' arcs, the things that will be left unfinished for them, as well as the grief left behind for the other characters. Which is good in terms of narratively making those deaths matter! But it sucks!
It also very significantly escalated the conflict with the Covenant. I said it when I read it last year, but I still appreciated the grappling with revenge and the fact that it's not a morally pure act, even when it's the good guys doing it, and even when it may be the best option there is.


Silver Under Nightfall by Rin Chupeco
Fantasy (background f/m/m) - physical novel
3.5/5

Remy is a member of the Reapers, an elite organization dedicated to fighting vampires in the country of Aluria, and he is very good at what he does. Unfortunately, the rest of the organization doesn't seem to agree, allowing political infighting and dislike of his father to affect how they treat him. Vampires Lady Xiaodan Song of the Fourth Court and her fiance Lord Zidan Malekh of the Third Court come to Aluria seeking a peace treaty. Remy is extremely drawn to Xiaodan... and a bit more reluctantly to her fiance, as well. When a bizarre new infection takes hold in the country, mutating its victims into horrific monstrosities, the three agree to work together to find the cause... and to stop the incursions from a group of vampires who are extremely disinterested in anything resembling peace.


My too-extensive thoughts, minor spoilers:
I wanted to love this book, but I couldn't quite get past some of the issues that I had with it, though I did still like it.

Good points:
I did really like the characters and their relationship. I always love poly ships, and canon ones are a joy to me. The characters themselves were all interesting, and I enjoyed their chemistry with each other. They each have their sad backstories, which also interact in interesting ways, and make for good tension. I'd love to keep learning more about all three of them!
It felt a lot like the sort of story I wanted to be able to write when I was a teenager. It reminds me of the sorts of things I'd imagine, now put to page, and that was extremely fun in a lot of ways. Though along with that (and perhaps showing some of the same influences?), this definitely felt like a story and a world where "rule of cool" gets to take precedence sometimes. That isn't a terrible thing, and I was glad it was established pretty early, so that I could read the rest of it with that mindset. Like... Breaker, Remy's super special vampire-hunting weapon, sounds wildly impractical if not impossible to actually use... but it also probably looks cool as fucking hell. Stylistically, it felt like the sort of rad-but-unlikely weapon I'd expect an anime or video game protagonist to have, but I'll willingly buy in because it's cool, even if I don't think it's realistic.
The places where it sort of blends genres are really fun... the setting is a sort of ambiguous historical fantasy, set in a fictional world, but clearly inspired a bit by historical-England-but-with-more-diversity. I thought it really stood out where it bordered on horror, and especially the parts that are essentially mad science. Having parts of the fantasy setting brushing up against in-universe scientific study was interesting. (Emphasis on scientific understanding being something that Malekh was interested in was also a cool aspect of his character.)
I did have fun reading it!

Unfortunately... there were a lot of parts that bothered me. (Mostly clustered in the first half.) The fact that I have so many things to mention here really isn't because I think it was bad... It's more like it was so close to being something that I would have LOVED, I wanted to dig into what kept it from being that.
I really think that most of the issues could have been fixed with stronger editing, both on the copyediting side and the developmental side. While the developmental stuff is more subjective, some of the objective errors absolutely should have been caught by an editor, and it frustrates me how much it seems those standards have dropped in professional publishing.
The parts that bothered me:
A few wrong word uses, which I think an editor should have caught. "It appears we were lapse in our investigation." Not the word you wanted!
There were also multiple incorrect plurals, which again... editing! ("Her hair was so long they brushed the floor behind her throne." There were at least three I noticed within a span of two chapters, but the other one I remember was minorly NSFW (it amounted to "her breasts was...") and I forget the third.) I try not to be TOO pedantic about errors like this, but these are things that should have been fixed, and they happened often enough that it didn't feel like just a random errant typo. It was frequent enough to be distracting.
There were some continuity things that bothered me, too, which I also think a round of editing would have really helped. I'm afraid this sounds like nitpicking, but it's more that these individual things are just examples of a trend that I felt throughout; like the book didn't lean into its own worldbuilding quite enough, and ended up unintentionally undercutting its cool ideas or significant details by not following through on them. (Which I fear is a weakness in my own writing, which may have made my reaction to noticing it stronger, too.)
One was fairly minor: there's a pretty big deal made about Remy sleeping with a noblewoman in exchange for information. She is able to get someone to copy documents that are given to her husband, and then she passes this information along to Remy. But then later, when he's looking at these copied documents, he says he recognizes a specific man's handwriting... The tech of the world would not support this being a photocopy; the implication is that her source copies them by hand, so am I supposed to think that source is accurately mimicking handwriting?? It super threw me out of the exciting intrigue plot.
Another I found confusing... we start with Remy getting a mysterious bit of information from an informant, about a string of killings that he plans to investigate. When he does go look into it, he encounters the first of the Rot-infected creatures, which seems like a big deal. He doesn't know what it is, he's shocked and horrified when he can't kill it, had no suspicion that something like this was the culprit... then they come back to the city, and suddenly it seems like everyone is aware of the Rot. I'll buy it from the Reapers, who are known to withhold information from Remy, but if random civilians are aware of it, he should have been, too. (I was also confused about what the victims of the Rot were supposed to be, since initially it seemed like it was vampires, then no, vampires were actually immune, so it was humans, then yes it was vampires, but only new ones, then maybe it was both new vampires and human victims? I think part of this was the back cover copy inaccurately calling it "a new breed of vampire" and that sticking in my head, so I won't lay that entirely on the writing.)
One other continuity thing isn't an error per se, but threw me off as a reader. We get some exposition about how the First Court—the terrible, evil, and extremely elusive vampires that Remy is personally invested in hunting down—are marked with a tattoo. Then it's explained that it is almost impossible to tattoo vampires (presumably their healing prevents the marks from taking), without one of the Ancient vampires getting their blood involved somehow. That way the characters (and by extension the readers) know the markings are legitimate for identification, since they'd be near impossible to fake. This was a fun detail that I thought was cool! 
A chapter or two later, we hear from an informant that there's a group of vampires killing villagers! They have a distinctive tattoo that the informant doesn't even want to describe! Oh ho, I think, we have our extra evil vampire group sighted! ...but nope. It's an unrelated group of vampires that just also happen to have tattoos, with no explanation given as to why. (It also wasn't even an actual red herring, as none of the characters assumed it was the First Court. But having just established the details about the tattoos, I'm not sure why the characters wouldn't have been suspicious. If it was meant to be hinting at this second group also having connections to an Ancient vampire, I would have expected that to be of interest to one of the characters as well.) Especially coming so close on the heels of the details about the rarity and special-ness of the tattoos, it just felt like it was undermining its own worldbuilding, because apparently that isn't actually a particularly distinct or unique detail after all.
Last bit I want to whinge about: consequences seemed super variable based on what was convenient for the plot. The second time we meet Xiaodan, she uses her special sun-bringer power to rescue Remy, and it leaves her unconscious and incapacitated. After that, they talk about it tiring her, but until [redacted spoiler] it never wipes her out that way again, even when she uses it more often and against bigger/stronger/more targets.
Another example: later in the book, they find out that Xiaodan and Malekh are no longer welcome in Aluria, and it's sort of a cliffhanger to a chapter... But then they have no trouble at all getting into the country. The vampires are turned away when they reach the capital... but the next we hear about them, they're meeting with the queen in the city. This isn't an "error"; I can believe they snuck in somehow, but them being barred from the country seemed like it was going to impede them in some way... and then just was zero barrier at all. It would feel more meaningful if they actually had to overcome the challenges that are set up, rather than just... breezing past them with no evident effort or consequence.

Overall, I did enjoy the book, but I wish so badly that some of the worldbuilding had just been made a little more cohesive. A lot of the ideas are really cool, but then something else sort of contradicts or undercuts them, which was always disappointing.
All that said, I've still added the second book to my TBR, though I don't know when I'll get there!


Where the Drowned Girls Go by Seanan McGuire
Book 7 of Wayward Children
Fantasy - physical novella
5/5

Ever since returning from The Moors, Cora has been haunted by the Drowned Gods she encountered there. They whisper to her from the shadows and in her dreams. They want her back, and the world they offer may be underwater, but it is not the beautiful world of the Trenches, where she was a mermaid. Fearful that their claim on her means she'll never be able to find the door back to her correct world, Cora asks to be transferred to another school, the Whitethorn Institute. This school is dedicated not to helping the children of the doors to make sense of their experiences, but to helping them forget them entirely. They promise that their graduates all become perfectly normal, and ready to integrate into regular society.
The students there are ostensibly there by choice... but it becomes clear that that may not always be true, and that there is something sinister behind the promise to help the students to move on.


My (brief) thoughts:
I really liked this one. I do love me a good evil boarding school. The quote from the school when Cora shows up, "Here, we don't require you to be sure. Here, we're sure enough for everyone." is just skin-crawlingly awful in the best villainous way.
I had enjoyed seeing how Cora got to interact with the Drowned Gods, that whole "something adjacent to the right world, but still wrong" thing, and having that bleed over for her was interesting and I liked it, even though Cora absolutely does not enjoy it in the slightest!
I was glad to see Regan again, our protagonist from the last book.
Fun implied cameo of a cuckoo child (from Incryptid), with a kid mentioned to be certain that they'll escape as soon as they "get the math right."
Overall, it was just a fun story, and the kind of "escaping a controlling evil" adventure that I really enjoy.
While the existence of another school has been mentioned before, it was always fairly neutral in the previous mentions; an alternative option for the students who find their memories of their adventures through their doors distressing or traumatizing, and would prefer to move on to something resembling a normal life. Considering how traumatic some of the experiences in the other worlds can be, that seems like a reasonable thing for some people to want... so finding out that there is something sinister behind that option is something I imagine will become an ongoing arc in the story.


Overgrowth by Mira Grant
Sci-fi/Horror (background m/f) - physical novel
4/5

When Anastasia Miller was a child, she went into the woods and found an alien flower. She never came home, but something that looked like her did. The new Anastasia has never hidden what she is - she is the vanguard of an alien species that plans to arrive on earth, a fact she is compelled to share with everyone she meets.
Even she isn't completely sure that she's telling the truth, and very few of the people in her life truly believe her. Then the signal comes, announcing the approach of the alien armada. Suddenly, people do believe there's an invasion impending, and they do not react kindly to the aliens already hiding among the human race. Stasia herself is torn: are her loyalties with the species she's always actually been, or the world that raised her?


My thoughts, minor spoilers:
I really enjoyed this one! I like Mira Grant (pen name for Seanan McGuire's more thriller/horror work, as opposed to her urban fantasy) and it was nice to have another book from her.
The thing I think I found most impressive, personally, was that I felt like I was going through the same arc as Stasia was, in terms of loyalties, and that was a believable conflict to me. Not that I think that a species that routinely and repeatedly destroys every other species it comes across is a good thing... but I found it was at least presented in a way that made it sympathetic as well. I can't say for sure which "side" I'd come down on were this situation to present itself... but I think ultimately I'd almost certainly make the same choice that quite a few of the human characters do.
(The mild twist, which I won't spoil, about how humans and/or any other species the aliens come to could have avoided their fate was very good, imo.)
I appreciated the ways in which Stasia and Graham complemented each other... while it's not at all a 1:1 comparison, the fact that they bonded over believing each other about their own identities (Stacia as an alien, Graham as a man) was a thing I liked about them.
I also liked that part of Stasia's early thesis about why her species sent infiltrators like her to live among their target species is that they want them to learn to hate the species, and that it is the lesson that some of them end up learning. But later there is the realization that a lot of the aliens, like Stasia, did end up finding relationships and loves within humanity as well, and that the range of emotions matters.
This did not latch onto my hindbrain the way Feed and the rest of Newsflesh did, but I had a good time the whole way through.


I am currently in the middle of four books:
Maeve Fly, my current main read
Buchanan House, my ebook side read
Duma Key, reading with Alex
Installment Immortality, reading with Taylor
hannah: (Spike - shadowed-icons)
hannah ([personal profile] hannah) wrote2025-06-01 08:56 pm

June the First.

I spent several hours today not knowing where my towel was. I knew I'd taken it down to the laundry room and brought it out from the washer, and somewhere between the dryer and my apartment, it disappeared. Couldn't be found. I went back and checked, and didn't find it. I figured it wasn't a huge loss, all things considered, and tried to move on.

I just went back to check to be sure, and somewhere between the washer and the dryer, it got misplaced without leaving the laundry room, because that's where I found it. Someone had tossed it into the garbage bin - not even hanging it over the sink, but tossing it out entirely, which has me irritated on the general principle of throwing out a good hand towel being a bad idea because hey, free towel.

It's also got me relieved because I again know where my towel is. I couldn't well go hitchhiking otherwise.
feurioo: (tv: the atypical family)
Sopor Baeternus ([personal profile] feurioo) wrote in [community profile] tv_talk2025-06-01 02:30 pm

K-Drama Update #15: June Releases


Squid Game: Season 3 | Release: June 27

A failed rebellion, the death of a friend, and a secret betrayal. Picking up in the aftermath, the final season finds Gi Hun, Player 456, at his lowest point yet. But the Squid Game stops for no one, so Gi Hun will be forced to make some important choices in the face of overwhelming despair as he and the surviving players are thrust into deadlier games that test everyone’s resolve. Will Gi Hun make the right decisions, or will Frontman finally break his spirit?
Click for more K-dramas! )
malinaldarose: (tardis_bright)
malinaldarose ([personal profile] malinaldarose) wrote2025-06-01 07:00 am
Entry tags:

Um...whut?

So I got half-spoiled for the ending of Doctor Who last night because I forgot the Cardinal Rule: Avoid YouTube on Saturday afternoons. Even if the poster of the video tries to avoid it, YouTube will always pick the absolutely most spoilerific image of the whole video as its preview image. On the other hand, from what I'm reading this morning, it may have been available here already at that point; I was waiting until 7:00 p.m., because that's when it's normally available.

The episode Read more... )

I'll probably rewatch both last week's episode and this week's, perhaps this evening.
mistressofmuses: Image of nebulae in the colors of the bi pride flag: pink, purple, and blue (Default)
mistressofmuses ([personal profile] mistressofmuses) wrote2025-05-31 09:37 pm

Thursday night: Beborn Beton at HQ

Thursday night we went to a concert! First one in quite a while.



Beborn Beton is a German synthpop band. Apparently the last time they were in the US was back in 2002, as support for Apoptygma Berzerk (Alex's five-ever favorite obsession.)

If you've ever heard of them, it's probably from their hit (within the goth scene) from 1997, "Another World."

-

I got off of work slightly early, having come in slightly early, which was good... but we still wound up running late. (Had to make a grocery trip that I assumed would be done before I was off of work, ha.)

It took a bit to find parking, though we wound up not too far away. Then of course it took a minute in the car to pre-game.


A very small ladybug landed on the car window as I was getting out.


Rainbow crosswalk.


I like the snake. And of course the queer stuff in the window.

We ran into PJ outside the venue and chatted with her a while. It sounds like she's doing well, which is good. She and Mark broke up last year, which was sort of a shock to everyone, I think, and then she also quit basically all social media (minus a wordpress blog that I never remember to check in on.) But sounds like she's happy in her new apartment, maybe has a new boyfriend, is doing well at work, etc.

Sadly we missed Faces Under the Mirror/Jake's set. ;_; We got inside just as he was finished and packing up. We did get to talk with him for a little while, though.

We were there in time for Voicecoil! (Mark) He played some things that are new to the live rotation, which was cool. Also the single off the album that will be coming out sometime this fall.



Got to chat with him for a bit after his set, as well. He's also doing well, it sounds like, minus some potentially-scary eye surgery stuff coming up.

Then Beborn Beton!


The struggle, even in a small venue, to get all the members of a band at least sort of in focus under stage lighting...

They did play quite a few favorites of mine. I'm a basic bitch who loves the singles, so I was very glad (if utterly unsurprised) that the single from a couple years ago, "Dancer in the Dark," got played (with a joke about whether we should go hang out at a nearby bowling alley, since the music video is, inexplicably, the band bowling.) A few others that I really like from that same album, like "I Watch My Life on TV" and "Last Chance."

Their intro to "Newborn King" was about how yes, it was 1997, and of course he was obsessed with Dana Scully... (the song being about aliens coming to earth.) I mean, same, bro.

And of course, "Another World" as the final encore. (With "yeah, I guess it would be a dick move not to play this one...") Afterwards, Alex said he had forgotten about that song entirely which was very funny to me. That's like... their one song that they're known for, lmao. I'm pretty sure that was one of the songs he sent me before we were dating!


Five more pictures + two youtube links:

Voicecoil! On keyboard is a new partner, Kat. I didn't get to meet her, but it seems to be going well.


One more of Voicecoil.


Beborn Beton, doing their introduction.




I do love catching everyone in a weird position, lol.


The "Dancer in the Dark" music video.


"Another World," definitely what they're still best known for.


At the end, I got one of the setlists!


Which I did get signed. <3

Mildly bummed that "Dr. Channard" (though a deeper cut) apparently replaced "Burning Gasoline," which is one of my faves, but it was fun to hear, too.

It was a very fun show, and I'm glad we had a chance to go out. We haven't been out since... last fall?

One more show coming up next week, too! We were really spoiled for a lot of excellent shows coming through between this and next week, but we had to be choosy, ha.
hannah: (Interns at Meredith's - gosh_darn_icons)
hannah ([personal profile] hannah) wrote2025-05-31 10:30 pm

Please cut the lights.

At present, settling into telling myself the story and figuring out how it's put together, is the important part. What the story's about, its purpose and intentions, can come later. Right now, I'm telling it to myself. Well, myself and the accountability readers. Mostly myself. Nobody else is thinking about it as much as I am.

Keeping to that tunnel vision of one word at a time, no matter how good the word happens to be or how much I like it, is where I'm at. I'm likely going to opt to stay in New York for most of the vacation my parents planned for upstate and that's only in part because I'm not sure how I feel about always automatically being included. It's a lot of complicated feelings, and what's not complicated is it's easier to keep writing when I'm in my apartment. All my stuff is here. My notes, my research materials. Also the practical momentum of sitting down and getting the words out.
silvercat17: Mummra, with his finger to his chin, saying "what a splendid opportunity!" (opportunity)
silvercat17 ([personal profile] silvercat17) wrote in [community profile] justcreate2025-05-31 06:45 pm
Entry tags:

Just Create - Sunburn Edition

What are you working on? What have you finished? What do you need encouragement on?

Are there any cool events or challenges happening that you want to hype?

What do you just want to talk about?

What have you been watching or reading?

Chores and other not-fun things count!

Remember to encourage other commenters and we have a discord where we can do work-alongs and chat, linked in the sticky
delphi: An illustrated crow kicks a little ball of snow with a contemplative expression. (Default)
Delphi (they/them) ([personal profile] delphi) wrote2025-05-31 04:11 pm

What's Making Me Happy Today: Old Skies

I spent the last two days playing Old Skies, the newest point-and-click adventure game from indie studio Wadjet Eye Games, and I ended up loving it!



You play as the employee of a time travel company in the 2060s who accompanies clients—wealthy people, or academics with grants—to the past for nostalgic or educational experiences. She is also often hired to change the past, within the company's algorithmically defined parameters for what can be changed while preserving the "important" parts of the present timeline. As a result of her job, the protagonist is one of the few people anchored in the timeline who is aware of the constantly flickering reality around her, in a world that's always rippling with the aftereffects of these commissions.

It's a way of living that the protagonist begins to have more questions about as some of the cases she's handling start to overlap with each other and with her personal life.

The game has a lot of elements that I tend to like in this studio's games, including many well-developed NPCs to meet, puzzles that are interestingly varied but not fiendishly challenging, a point of view to the story, and some clever mechanics. Wadjet Eye has always leaned toward having diverse casts of characters, but this is definitely the queerest game from them that I've played so far, which was a happy surprise.

My usual complaints about Wadjet Eye games persist on just two fronts: 1) the voice acting is generally great, but there's always one or two odd choices in the mix that sound jarring, and 2) they obviously care a lot about music when it comes to licensed or commissioned songs, but the background soundtrack often just loops around in ways that don't match what's going on in a scene. But those are obviously very minor issues, and this was overwhelmingly a well-made and thought-provoking game that I had a great time playing and couldn't put down once I'd started it.
lovelyangel: Fern from Frieren: Beyond Journey's End (Fern Smile)
lovelyangel ([personal profile] lovelyangel) wrote2025-05-31 10:47 am
Entry tags:

Tsundoku May

Tsundoku Stack, May 31, 2025
Tsundoku Stack, May 31, 2025

As I promised in April, I focused on working through the manga in the tsundoku stack, even as I added six and then four and then one (Frieren, vol 13) more manga volumes. I’m happy to say that by the end of the day yesterday, I had finished all the outstanding manga. By total height, that amounts to about half the tsundoku stack.

The Books I Read in May Below This Cut )
xandromedovna: purple unicorn with rainbow mane and text "usurpationcorn is pleased" (usurpationcorn)
Xavia ([personal profile] xandromedovna) wrote in [community profile] fic_rush2025-05-31 10:52 am

Round 151 Dates

*dramatic sting* Tiquy Boxx, the time has come for you to Rush for your life! *incomprehensible but eerily pretty dolphin music begins playing* Obviously it won't be this weekend because of who I am as a person, but thanks to the tie Round 151 shall be 13-15 June. Mods, please confirm your availability by claiming an anchor post, and if you've always wanted to be a Mod, now's your chance to shine!

 GMTEDT
(Boston)
CDT
(Chicago)
PDT
(Seattle)
BST
(London)
CEST
(Berlin)
AEST
(Brisbane)
Designated Mod
Hour -23midnight8pm Thu7pm Thu5pm Thu1am Fri2am Fri10am Frixandromedovna
Hour -176am Fri2am Fri1am Fri11pm Thu7am Fri8am Fri4pm Fri 
Hour -1112pm Fri8am Fri7am Fri5am Fri1pm Fri2pm Fri10pm Fri lullabymoon?
Hour -56pm Fri2pm Fri1pm Fri11am Fri7pm Fri8pm Fri4am Sat lullabymoon
Hour 011pm Fri7pm Fri6pm Fri4pm Frimidnight1am Sat9am Sat 
Hour 1midnight8pm Fri7pm Fri5pm Fri1am Sat2am Sat10am Sat 
Hour 65am Sat1am Satmidnight10pm Fri6am Sat7am Sat3pm Sat 
Hour 1211am Sat7am Sat6am Sat4am Sat12pm Sat1pm Sat9pm Sat lullabymoon
Hour 185pm Sat1pm Sat12pm Sat10am Sat6pm Sat7pm Sat3am Sun lullabymoon 
Hour 2411pm Sat7pm Sat6pm Sat4pm Satmidnight1am Sun9am Sun 
Hour 305am Sun1am Sunmidnight10pm Sat6am Sun7am Sun3pm Sun 
Hour 3611am Sun7am Sun6am Sun4am Sun12pm Sun1pm Sun9pm Sun lullabymoon
Hour 425pm Sun1pm Sun12pm Sun10am Sun6pm Sun7pm Sun3am Mon lullabymoon
Hour 4710pm Sun6pm Sun5pm Sun3pm Sun11pm Sunmidnight8am Monxandromedovna
Hour 4811pm Sun7pm Sun6pm Sun4pm Sunmidnight1am Mon9am Monxandromedovna
Round Endsmidnight8pm Sun7pm Sun5pm Sun1am Mon2am Mon10am Monxandromedovna


Organization for Transformative Works ([syndicated profile] otw_news_feed) wrote2025-05-31 01:01 pm

TOS Spotlight: Fandom, Language, and Other Tags

Posted by Caitlynne

The Policy & Abuse committee (PAC) is responsible for enforcing the AO3 Terms of Service (TOS). To help users better understand the TOS, we’re posting a weekly spotlight series about the TOS and our policies. We’ll also be reading comments and answering questions on this and our other spotlight posts.


Last week’s post was on ratings and Archive warnings. This week, we’ll discuss the other kinds of tags that we enforce, as well as the ones that we don’t. At the end of this post, we’ll provide details on the info that we need included in an incorrect tag report in order to be able to handle it as quickly and efficiently as possible. Although these are minor policy infractions, investigating them can take us a very long time to investigate if the report doesn’t contain enough information.

Don’t go looking for things to report.

Please do not start searching for incorrectly tagged works to report after reading this post. We know that incorrectly tagged works are a problem on AO3. However, when people deliberately search for works to report, we end up getting a lot of duplicate tickets about works that have already been reported. Every ticket we receive is reviewed by a PAC volunteer, so we only need one report in order to investigate an issue. We know it seems like sites only respond to mass reports, but on AO3, duplicate and mass reports increase the time it takes our volunteers to investigate.

Not all tags are required

Every work on AO3 must have at least one rating, Archive warning, fandom, and language tag. If these tags are used incorrectly, then PAC (or, as we’ll discuss below, the Support committee) may intervene. We discussed ratings and warnings in our last post, and we’ll explain what we mean by “incorrect” fandom and language tags below.

All other types of tags, such as category, character, relationship, and additional tags, are optional. Our rules for those kinds of tags are much looser. You’re not required to use them if you don’t want to, and PAC does not enforce the accuracy of these tags.

Fandom tags

Every work must have at least one fandom tag, and some may even have more than one. You are not required to tag every fandom that appears in your work. However, you should not use fandom tags for fandom content that does not appear in your work.

For example, if you’re planning a one-shot anthology for multiple fandoms, you should only add a particular fandom tag after the relevant chapter for that fandom has been posted. Please don’t include a fandom tag if you haven’t yet added any content from that fandom to your work.

We take a pretty broad view of what counts as “fandom content”, and we generally defer to the creator’s judgement. We don’t intervene in cases where franchise or sub-franchise tags have been used. For example, if Darth Vader shows up in your work, you’re allowed to tag it with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), even if your work is primarily about the Star Wars Original Trilogy. Similarly, if Cloud Strife appears in your work, you could tag your work with Compilation of Final Fantasy VII and/or Kingdom Hearts (Video Games) as fandom tags because Cloud is a character in both fandoms. If a fandom has both a movie and a comics version, we will defer to creators on whether to use the fandom tags for one or the other (or even both). It’s up to the work’s creator to use their best judgement about which fandom tags are most suitable.

However, we do have a few minimum standards. Generally, we don’t consider the following scenarios sufficient to mean a fandom is represented in a work:

  • A minor or off-hand reference to a well-known/pop-culture element from fandom A, such as an item, location, or the name of a character
  • The characters of fandom B are consuming the canon of fandom A, such as by playing a game or watching a movie
  • The characters of fandom B are roleplaying as the characters from fandom A

If a fandom doesn’t feature in your work beyond minor references such as these, you should not tag that fandom on your work. Instead, you can use an additional tag such as References to The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) or Inspired by The Great Gatsby.

RPF vs FPF

On AO3, we generally differentiate between RPF (Real-Person Fiction) and FPF (Fictional-Person Fiction). When you’re writing about a canon’s real-life actors (such as Chris Hemsworth or Mark Ruffalo), you should indicate that by using the “RPF” version of a tag (such as Marvel Cinematic Universe RPF). If you’re writing about the fictional characters (such as Thor or Bruce Banner), and not their actors, then you should use the tag for that fictional universe (such as Marvel Cinematic Universe). Even if you’re writing about a real-life actor on set, filming a movie, you should still only use the RPF fandom tag and not the tag for the fictional universe: the fictional character isn’t actually present in the work, it’s simply the actor doing their job.

Sometimes, fandoms have only RPF components, typically when the fandom is for a reality show or other non-fictional canon. For example, fandoms like Boys Planet (Korea TV) and My Favorite Murder (Podcast) do not involve any fictional characters, so the RPF-FPF divide does not apply to them.

A fandom tag that is an actor’s name, such as Pedro Pascal – Fandom, is automatically considered RPF. These fandom tags should not be applied to works that are only about the characters an actor portrays. Instead, you can use an additional tag such as Joel (The Last of Us) Played by Pedro Pascal. If you’re a fan of a specific actor or pairing and enjoy seeing them in the different roles they’ve played, you may also be interested in the Actor X/Actor Y Character Combinations additional tag format.

Generic fandom tags

Because we take a very broad view of how relevant a fandom tag is, it’s always OK to use a generic fandom tag such as Unspecified Fandom, No Fandom, or even Original Work. Just as you can always opt out of applying a specific rating (by instead using “Not Rated”) or a specific warning (by instead using “Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings”), you may opt out of using a specific fandom tag by instead using a generic or non-specific fandom tag.

You’re never required to use any particular fandom tag. If you want to tag all your fanworks with Unspecified Fandom instead of specific fandom tags, you’re free to do so. We may require a creator to remove an inaccurate fandom tag, but we will never require a specific fandom tag to be added.

Synonymous tags

AO3’s tag system relies on Tag Wrangling volunteers, who link synonymous tags to a canonical tag if both tags are the same type and have the same meaning. This is why you can click on Buffy the Vampire Slayer or BtVS – Fandom and the same set of results will pop up; these two fandom tags have both been made synonyms of the canonical fandom tag Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV). The Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV) works page will show works tagged with exactly “Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)” and works tagged with any synonymous fandom tags. If you want to learn more about how tag wrangling works, refer to the Tag Wrangling Work Description.

PAC does not handle issues relating to what tags are canonical, how tags are formatted, or which tags have been made synonymous with which other tags. We only look at the exact tag on a given work, not where it’s linked to. If you have concerns about a Tag Wrangling decision, please contact Support instead.

Language tags

Every work must be tagged with a language reflecting the language the work is presented in. If the work has multiple primary languages, or no language at all (e.g. artwork), we’ll defer to the creator’s judgement about which language to tag their work with.

In 2021, Support took over responsibility for handling language tags. If you find a fanwork that’s labeled with an incorrect language, please report it to Support, not to PAC. Support will contact the creator and ensure their work is labeled with a language that’s represented in the work.

Non-mandatory (optional) tags

Creators can use the category, relationship, character, and additional tag fields to provide more information about their work, but they’re not required to. Neither PAC nor Support will judge the accuracy or relevance of these kinds of tags.

However, all tags (regardless of type) are still subject to our general content policies. Tags can’t be used to engage in commercial activity or harass other users, because these are both not allowed on AO3. (Later posts in this series will discuss these kinds of violations and how we handle them.)

Harassment generally includes tags which insult or threaten other AO3 users. As mentioned above, inaccurate tagging is not considered harassment. Tags which express negative views of characters or relationships are also not considered harassment. AO3 is open to all kinds of fanworks, including ones that are critical, mocking, or parodies.

If you dislike the way a particular user tags their works, the TOS FAQ has some tips on how to avoid content you don’t want to encounter.

What happens if I’m reported for tagging an incorrect fandom?

First, we’ll review the reported work to confirm whether your fandom tags are actually incorrect. If you need to update them, we’ll send you an email telling you to fix the issue.

If you don’t fix it, we’ll remove any inaccurate fandom tags. If doing this means we end up removing all of the fandom tags on your work, we’ll add the “Unspecified Fandom” tag instead.

We don’t ever delete works for having incorrect tags. While we do require inaccurate fandom tags to be fixed, it is very rare for us to apply any penalties to a user’s account for incorrectly tagging a fandom. We usually only penalize a user if they revert the changes we made or required them to make, or if they are frequently mistagging their works despite repeated attempts from us to contact them.

However, tags are still subject to our Content Policy. If you violate our commercial promotion or harassment policies with your tags, penalties will be applied accordingly. We’ll discuss those policies in later posts.

What should I do if I encounter a work that has an incorrect tag?

You can give the creator a heads up by politely commenting on their work and linking to the TOS FAQ or this post. Alternatively, you can:

How do I report a work with the wrong fandom tags?

Although we ask that you do not deliberately seek out incorrectly tagged works to report, if you come across a work tagged with one or more incorrect fandoms, you can report it using the Policy Questions & Abuse Reports form, which is linked at the bottom of every page on AO3. If a work is tagged with multiple incorrect fandoms, please give us a list of all of the fandom tags you think are incorrect and should be removed.

Regardless of what type of incorrect tag you’re reporting, please don’t report more than one user at a time or submit multiple reports about the same user for the same reason. When reporting multiple works by the same user, please submit only one report with links to each work you’re reporting, so that all information about that user is in the same place.

For example, a report of a work with an incorrect fandom might look like this:

Link to the page you are reporting: https://archiveofourown.org/works/00000000

Brief summary of Terms of Service violation: Incorrect fandom tag

Description of the content you are reporting:
This work by USERNAME is tagged with “Star Wars” but it’s actually only about the Avengers, and the characters just watched Star Wars for movie night.

If you are reporting additional works, please include all relevant links and other information in your report description:

Description of the content you are reporting:
This work by USERNAME is tagged with “Star Wars” but it’s actually only about the Avengers, and the characters just watched Star Wars for movie night.

Some of their other works also have the wrong fandom:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/23456789 is tagged “The Avengers (Marvel Movies)” but it’s about Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr. which means it’s RPF and should be tagged with the RPF fandom tag. Steve Rogers and Tony Stark don’t appear anywhere in the work.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/34567890 This work tags “The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time” when the character’s sword only shapeshifts into the Master Sword for two sentences before turning into another sword.

You can add more details if you like, but this example provides the basic information we need:

  • Who posted the incorrectly tagged work(s): Tell us their username or if the work is anonymous or orphaned.
  • Where we can find the work(s): Enter one URL in the “Link to the page you are reporting” field, and (if applicable) include links to any other violating works in the description of your report.
  • What violates the TOS: Explain which fandom tag(s) on each work you’re reporting are incorrect. A brief list or description is fine; you don’t need to be very detailed or quote an entire TOS or FAQ section.

You’ll receive an automatic email confirming that we received your report, and our volunteers will investigate when they get a chance. Please be patient and do not submit another report about the same work. While PAC and Support investigate every report we receive, it can take several months for us to process a report, and not every report will receive a reply.

What if I have more questions about tags?

PAC follows a strict confidentiality policy. Therefore, while you are welcome to ask general questions in the comments of this post, we will not give information on specific cases, publicly rule on a work, or update you on the status of a report you have already submitted. Comments on this post that discuss specific works or users will be removed.

If you think you’ve found a work that is tagged with a fandom that doesn’t appear in the work, please report the work to us as described above. If you think you’ve found a work that is tagged with an incorrect language, please report it to Support instead. For more information, you can read our TOS FAQ on other tags.

If you are still uncertain, you can comment below or submit a question through the Policy Questions & Abuse Reports form.