WIP Challenge Check-in, Day 29 -- Wednesday
Wednesday, 29 October 2025 10:23Hello on Wednesday! How are things going in the world of fic?
Did you write?
- Yes!
- No!
- Not yet!
If yes, what kind of writerly activity did you engage in? How do you feel about it?
If no, what were the obstacles/situations that affected your writerly pursuits? What will you do differently tomorrow to get more writing done?
If not yet, because the day hasn't gotten going yet, what kind of writing activity are you planning (or hoping) to accomplish?
Did you write?
- Yes!
- No!
- Not yet!
If yes, what kind of writerly activity did you engage in? How do you feel about it?
If no, what were the obstacles/situations that affected your writerly pursuits? What will you do differently tomorrow to get more writing done?
If not yet, because the day hasn't gotten going yet, what kind of writing activity are you planning (or hoping) to accomplish?
Family Challenge: The Fantastic Journey: Fanfic: Like Family
Wednesday, 29 October 2025 10:20Title: Like Family
Fandom: The Fantastic Journey
Author:
Characters: The travellers.
Rating: PG
Setting: After the series.
Summary: Travelling together for so long, they’ve become like a family.
Word Count: 200
Content Notes: Nada.
Written For: Challenge 495: Amnesty 82, using Challenge 89: Family.
Disclaimer: I don’t own The Fantastic Journey, or the characters. They belong to their creators.
A/N: Double drabble.
( Like Family... )
Blackout Bingo- Fall Fest
Tuesday, 28 October 2025 21:39Name: Kiramaru7
Bingo Community:
allbingo
Card Theme: Fall Fest
Prompts: Let's break stuff, Rain / Storm, Wine, Crow / Raven
My Card: My Card
( Read more... )
Bingo Community:
Card Theme: Fall Fest
Prompts: Let's break stuff, Rain / Storm, Wine, Crow / Raven
My Card: My Card
( Read more... )
2025 Requests + How and Where to Post fics + Author Question Update
Wednesday, 29 October 2025 07:29All Yuletide requests are now visible:
-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 )
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.
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.
Schedule, Rules, & Collection | Contact Mods | Participant DW | Participant LJ | Pinch Hits on DW | Discord | Tag set | Tag set app
Please either comment logged-in or sign a name. Unsigned anonymous comments will be left screened.
-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.
WIP Challenge Check-in, Day 28 -- Tuesday
Tuesday, 28 October 2025 09:17Hello on Tuesday! What kind of a writing day has it been so far today -- or if today hasn't gotten going yet, how did you fare yesterday?
- I thought about my fic once or twice
- I wrote
- I did some planning and/or outlining
- I did research and/or canon review
- I edited
- I've sent my fic off to my beta
- I posted today!
- I'm taking a break
- I did something else that I'll talk about in a comment
Tuesday Discussion: How do you compose your words for your writing -- handwritten on paper? Typed up in a document on your computer? On your phone?
- I thought about my fic once or twice
- I wrote
- I did some planning and/or outlining
- I did research and/or canon review
- I edited
- I've sent my fic off to my beta
- I posted today!
- I'm taking a break
- I did something else that I'll talk about in a comment
Tuesday Discussion: How do you compose your words for your writing -- handwritten on paper? Typed up in a document on your computer? On your phone?
Shinies Challenge: The Fantastic Journey: Fanfic: One Final Night
Tuesday, 28 October 2025 10:36Title: One Final Night
Fandom: The Fantastic Journey
Author:
Characters: Scott, Fred, Jonathan, Liana, Varian.
Rating: PG
Setting: Months after the series.
Summary: The small band of travellers have finally reached their destination.
Word Count: 200
Content Notes: Nada.
Written For: Challenge 495: Amnesty 82, using Challenge 80: Shinies - Waiting for the Gates to Open.
Disclaimer: I don’t own The Fantastic Journey, or the characters. They belong to their creators.
A/N: Double drabble.
New Year's Resolutions and Other Goals
Tuesday, 28 October 2025 01:46We talk about different goal systems, pros and cons of resolutions, arts and crafts for tracking goals, human psychology, and more. You can share your resolutions or other goals. There are weekly check-in posts in January, and monthly ones in the rest of the year, for folks to talk about their accomplishments. December-January is the most active period, and it starts ramping up in November as lots of people begin thinking about their goals for the next year.
2025 New Year's Resolutions and Other Goals is the guide post for this years goal-setting activities.
For more details on relevant topics, see "Things You Can Talk About Here."
( Read more... )
Newcomers
Tuesday, 28 October 2025 01:41Trouble is brewing at Bluesky. As a result, there's a wave of new users coming into Dreamwidth. Find your Bluesky friends here.
newcomers is a community for people who are just getting started on Dreamwidth, in the tradition of
twitter_refugees and
reddit_refugees. This community supports former users of other platforms who are moving to Dreamwidth because their previous platform has become untenable or has closed. As such, it will increase activity with each wave of new users, in hopes of helping them get settled in Dreamwidth so they want to stick around. It also serves previous users returning after a long hiatus, people who want to do more with a Dreamwidth blog that was only intermittent, or anyone else who wants help connecting and figuring out how to use this venue.
( Read more... )
( Read more... )
Bluey (TV), Original: art: Bingo and a kitten dragon
Tuesday, 28 October 2025 19:30Title: Bingo and a kitten dragon
Fandom: Bluey (TV), Original
Rating: G-rated
Notes: Two drawings I made following Youtube step-by-step art videos for kids: how to draw Bingo (from Bluey) and how to draw a mythical kitten dragon. (With minor futzing in Paint.NET after I uploaded them.)
Summary: Bingo and a kitten dragon.
( Bingo and a kitten dragon )
Fandom: Bluey (TV), Original
Rating: G-rated
Notes: Two drawings I made following Youtube step-by-step art videos for kids: how to draw Bingo (from Bluey) and how to draw a mythical kitten dragon. (With minor futzing in Paint.NET after I uploaded them.)
Summary: Bingo and a kitten dragon.
( Bingo and a kitten dragon )
Consolidated IPHs: #1, 13, 22, 38 - all claimed!
Monday, 27 October 2025 15:30This post is a round-up of remaining pinch hits from those posted earlier. These pinch hits are due at the main assignment deadline of Wednesday 17 December at 9pm UTC.
Comments are turned off for this community. To claim a pinch hit, please email the mods at yuletideadmin@gmail.com and:
For example, if your AO3 username is yuletidehippo and you want to claim Pinch Hit #42 for AwsomRecip, you might email us with the subject line “PH 42 for AwsomRecip” and “I’m yuletidehippo on AO3” in the body of the email. As was the case previously, if you don’t receive a reply you did not get the pinch hit.
Thanks to everyone who has claimed pinch hits so far!
Request 1 by 5_Paragraph_Essay
The Children Act - Ian McEwan
Characters: Fiona Maye (Children Act), Adam Henry (Children Act)
My gift must feature all of my chosen character tags (if 0: any from tag set)
Aww, Adam loves Fiona so much! I adore the tenderness of their age-gap relationship as well as its inherent eroticism. Go there, PLEASE! Dive deeper into their feelings for one another, perhaps focus on Adam’s elaborate sexual fantasies of Fiona (he’s a teenage boy; even though he’s ill he must have them) and/or Fiona daring to imagine what it would be like with a much younger man. Alternatively, make them earn that happily-ever-after for real.
No letter
Request 2 by 5_Paragraph_Essay
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous - Ocean Vuong
Characters: Trevor (On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous - Ocean Vuong), Little Dog (On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous - Ocean Vuong)
My gift must feature all of my chosen character tags (if 0: any from tag set)
This book and its elegiac prose moved me so much. I just want more of this tender first-love relationship! Outtakes from the farm, the barn, whatever. Even its bad ending, if you want to go there. I’m fine with treatment of drug addiction or excrement during anal sex, assuming that any of these more outré canon elements move you.
No letter
Request 3 by 5_Paragraph_Essay
Wraeththu - Storm Constantine
Characters: Abrimel (Wraeththu), Ponclast (Wraeththu)
My gift must feature all of my chosen character tags (if 0: any from tag set)
Ponclast has one of the biggest character arcs of anyone in this mythos, from early Uigenna, to militaristic overlord for the Varr, to black widow mother of monsters, to … a kind of redemption on another planet/dimension? And I love how Abrimel intervenes in Ponclast’s journey, first to be manipulated for strategic gain, later love and be loved in return. I’d love more of their darkly tender relationship, perhaps more about their reunion, after the author leaves them to get on.
No letter
This pinch hit has been claimed, but you're welcome to write a treat!
Request 1 by Fircoal
ジュエルペット ハッピネス | Jewelpet Happiness (Anime)
Characters: Sapphie (JewelPet), Lapis (JewelPet), Sango (Jewelpet)
My gift must feature one or more of my chosen character tags (giver's choice)
Prefer to see Sapphie and Lapis together, but in general I'm fine with stuff focusing on any of them I love them all. Would like them to be in character. Reading the few fics of them (mostly ones I wrote) might give an idea of what they're like. x3 I like fluff and silly stuff!
DNW: Gore, Character Death, Anything dark or too painful. Bits of angst is fine but not too much.
No letter
Request 2 by Fircoal
うらら迷路帖 | Urara Meirochou (Anime)
Characters: Chiya (Urara Meirochou), Tatsumi Kon
My gift must feature all of my chosen character tags (if 0: any from tag set)
Would like to see the two of them together and focusing on their bond. Prefer fluffy and silly stuff!
DNW: Gore, Character Death, Anything dark or too painful. Bits of angst is fine but not too much.
No letter
Request 3 by Fircoal
アイカツ! アイドルカツドウ! | Aikatsu!
Characters: Saotome Ako, Hanazono Kirara
My gift must feature all of my chosen character tags (if 0: any from tag set)
Would like to see the two of them together and focusing on their bond. Prefer fluffy and silly stuff!
DNW: Gore, Character Death, Anything dark or too painful. Bits of angst is fine but not too much.
No letter
Request 1 by MarsDragon
Psychic Force
Characters: Burn Griffith, Richard Wong, Keith Evans, Regina Belfrond
My gift must feature one or more of my chosen character tags (giver's choice)
I've asked for this all before. Here's a link to previous letters: https://marsdragon.dreamwidth.org/ and to previous requests: https://autoao3app.firebaseapp.com/#/everything/username/MarsDragon
No letter
Request 2 by MarsDragon
ジャイアント・ロボ - 地球が静止する日 | Giant Robo: The Day the Earth Stood Still (Anime)
Characters: Alberto (Giant Robo), Cervantes (Giant Robo), Genya (Giant Robo), Worldbuilding (Giant Robo)
My gift must feature one or more of my chosen character tags (giver's choice)
I've asked for this all before. Here's a link to previous letters: https://marsdragon.dreamwidth.org/ and to previous requests: https://autoao3app.firebaseapp.com/#/everything/username/MarsDragon
No letter
Request 3 by MarsDragon
Phantom Brave
Characters: Ash (Phantom Brave), Marona (Phantom Brave), Walnut (Phantom Brave), Worldbuilding (Phantom Brave)
My gift must feature one or more of my chosen character tags (giver's choice)
I've asked for this all before. Here's a link to previous letters: https://marsdragon.dreamwidth.org/ and to previous requests: https://autoao3app.firebaseapp.com/#/everything/username/MarsDragon
I haven't played The Lost Hero yet, do with that information what you will.
No letter
Request 4 by MarsDragon
Fatal Fury
Characters: Terry Bogard, Billy Kane, Kain R. Heinlein (Fatal Fury), Rock Howard (Fatal Fury)
My gift must feature one or more of my chosen character tags (giver's choice)
I've asked for this all before. Here's a link to previous letters: https://marsdragon.dreamwidth.org/ and to previous requests: https://autoao3app.firebaseapp.com/#/everything/username/MarsDragon
No letter
Canon promos/links: Psychic force: a post on DW, a post on LJ
Request 1 by Zabbers
The Philosophers Series - Tom Miller
Characters: Sarah E. Stewart (Philosophers Series), Janet Brock (Philosophers Series), Hortense "Teeny" Millen (Philosophers Series), Worldbuilding (Philosophers Series)
My gift must feature one or more of my chosen character tags (giver's choice)
There's so much fun worldbuilding in these books and many specific possibilities for more worldbuilding, with hints of other spheres of expertise and future and past developments not fully described. There's something about systematized, empirical magic-making that's so satisfying; I enjoy the organized, institutional, even hierarchical touches in this universe. I liked the in-universe quotes from books, and reading about how specific sigils are done and were standardized, and learning about how women discovered and developed magic first as a folk practice and then brought it into the public sphere, and how it complements (and to a light extent even how it clashes with) parallel technological and cultural developments over its history. (The worldbuilding aspect I'm not as interested in is the political, whether that's Washington politics, Trenchers, or coups.)
Some things I'd like to see explored: how hovering develops in the future of the books side by side with conventional aviation (especially post-WWII); traditions and history of the United States Sigilry Corps; the immediately post-canon, pre-WWII lives of the characters nominated; Empirical Philosophy academia and texts and home instruction; County Philosophers and other jobs for sigilrists; Eupheus-powered travel; the General's Cup endurance flight; fiction about sigilry; camaraderie, sisterhood, and love (whether romantic or platonic) between empirical philosophers.
Other characters beyond my request who I also like are Robert Weekes, Gloxinia 'Jake' Jacobi, Edith Rubinski, Missy Pitcairn, Lennox Murchison, Bertie Synge, Emmaline Weekes, Brian Mayweather.
Feel free to diverge from the future hinted at in the books if you have a different idea for how the future of sigilry could go. I'd love it if in the latter half of the 20th century, empirical philosophy is 'allowed' back into legitimate use in the States, or an AU in which its practitioners never go into exile works too. In fact, feel free to diverge from the events in the books if you'd like, as long as you keep the physical way it works and the sense of scientific inquiry and traditions of the Corps and the schools and the many types of work women do with their philosophical skill.
Outside of canon-divergence, I also opt in to any fusion or crossover in which John Sheppard from Stargate Atlantis gets to use the hover sigil (please make him at least eventually as good at it as early Robert, anyone who can make her living at it, or any of the other Threes). I'm signed up for the Two for One sub-challenge. I welcome treats.
- Danielle Hardin/Robert Weekes as endgame
- 21st-century politics and events; apocalypse, genocide, mass social and civil unrest, epidemics; physical disasters people can't escape; "crapsack world" dystopias; child/domestic/institutional abuse
- harm to civilian bystanders
- accidents with current-day civilian vehicles (e.g. private and for-hire automobiles; passenger planes, rail, buses, ferries)
- nuclear explosions (or threat of annihilation by nuclear explosion); doomsday devices/weapons of mass destruction; radiation sickness
- burns/fire: burns beyond 1st degree, including hot fluid/chemical (scars from past events ok, but no details of its being a burn-type experience); charred/on fire bodies/parts alive or dead (food ok, not people); out-of-control fire or aftermath (e.g. campfire ok); ashes from bodies or destructive fire; description of heat damage to materiel or being trapped with burning heat
- accidental discharge of chemical projectile weapon
- decapitation
- pregnancy, childbirth, related complications; parent-child relationships/issues, childrearing
- intergenerational incest
- de-aging to childhood/adolescence (flashbacks/memory of actual childhood ok)
- major character death
- major illness
- death of grandparents, parents, siblings, aunts/uncles, cousins
- funerary rites and objects; corpses
- negative 'ugh'; the words 'gross' or 'yuck' for non-physical disgust ("Sticky! Yuck!" ok, "I find that reprehensible. Yuck" no); the words 'daddy', 'mommy', 'titty', or 'niche' in any context
- intragroup social status struggle (power struggles not based on manipulating social opinion ok)
- weddings
- fungus, tumors, disordered organic growth
- readerfic
- smut
- if there is Stargate, DNW: onscreen Keller, Michael, Jackson, or Kavanagh; Atlantis' secession; the term 'AR-1'
Letter:
https://zabbers.dreamwidth.org/5221.html
Request 2 by Zabbers
Bluestone 42 (TV)
Characters: Nick Medhurst (Bluestone 42), Philip Smith (Bluestone 42)
My gift must feature all of my chosen character tags (if 0: any from tag set)
I just love this show, this unlikely comedy, with its clever humor in the face of very trying, high-tension circumstances, the rough and tumble camaraderie (bad jokes and terrible games to let off steam but also at the end of the day caring about and for each other's hurts and stresses in their awkward way), the fact that they actually are quite reasonably competent and responsible and professional (while acting like they're not) and well-trained even though you can really only be so prepared for something so difficult (and their weaknesses can get in the way), the jargon and protocols, the zippy and irreverent tone, the foibles and the insecurities and the quirks (you might say caricatures) and the way they face their fears.
I like to see them thrive, and for Bluestone 42 and the military in general to be somewhere that works pretty well for them each in their own way, somewhere they belong. They can be irreverent and jaded, but at the end of the day, it's a way of life they've all chosen. (Basically, I'm not looking for a critique or wider political picture beyond the tone of the show.)
This year, I especially have a hankering for Nick and the Colonel, their shared background that they know very well puts them kind of out of touch as much as out of reach, but that defines them for better and worse like any other culture, and they admit it and work with it; and the mentorship, which reflects that and also their personalities (wry and irreverent? perfectly willing to be self-serving sometimes and having to figure out how to turn that off when it's serious and the others' well-being becomes very important to them? reluctant to directly talk about things?). I love the mentorship, and the roundabout way it happens.
Other favorites include Mac, Rocket, and Bird.
I'm also always open to a Stargate Atlantis crossover in which the Bluestone 42 characters get deployed to the Pegasus Galaxy, or John Sheppard is seconded to Helmand, or these characters just know or meet each other. I'm signed up for the Two for One sub-challenge. I welcome treats.
- vehicular accidents involving current-world civilian vehicles (military vehicles ok, historical vehicles that still exist today but are uncommon, such as horse carts ok)
- nuclear explosions (or threat of annihilation by nuclear explosion); doomsday devices/weapons of mass destruction; radiation sickness
- burns/fire: burns beyond 1st degree, including hot fluid/chemical (scars from past events ok; but no detailing of its being a burn-type experience); charred/on fire bodies/parts alive or dead (food ok, not people); out-of-control fire or aftermath (e.g. campfire ok); ashes from bodies or destructive fire; description of heat damage to materiel or being trapped with burning heat
- accidental discharge of chemical projectile weapon, unless it's pointed away from any people
- decapitation
- pregnancy, childbirth, related complications; parent-child relationships/issues, childrearing
- intergenerational incest
- de-aging to childhood/adolescence (flashbacks/memory of actual childhood ok)
- non-canonical major character death
- major illness
- death of grandparents parents, siblings, aunts/uncles, cousins
- funerary rites and objects; corpses
- negative 'ugh'; the words 'gross' or 'yuck' for non-physical disgust ("Sticky! Yuck!" ok, "I find that reprehensible. Yuck" no); the words 'daddy', 'mommy', 'titty', or 'niche' in any context
- intragroup social status struggle (power struggles not based on manipulating social opinion ok)
- weddings
- fungus, tumors, disordered organic growth
- readerfic
- smut
- if there is Stargate, DNW: onscreen Keller, Michael, Jackson, or Kavanagh; Atlantis' secession; the term 'AR-1'
Letter:
https://zabbers.dreamwidth.org/5221.html
Request 3 by Zabbers
The Snopes Trilogy - William Faulkner
Characters: Jack Houston (Snopes - Faulkner)
My gift must feature all of my chosen character tags (if 0: any from tag set)
He's a side character, a device for what happens with Mink and ultimately Flem Snopes, but he's so vivid, both in small behavioral details during the main narrative that convey his personality and in the extensive digression into the side story of his life. I have a weakness for his kind of taciturn, uncompromising, stern, prickly, suffers-no-fools, island-like, stoic-yet-deep-feeling character. The sense that what happens with him is kind of inevitable and has a momentum as quietly forceful as he is, and that he knows it and tries to escape it, but can't, is really compelling to me. I especially liked him in the horse-shoeing scene, the way he accepts no nonsense and instead just does what needs to be done himself, but without making a fuss about it or nor any concessions to social lubrication.
I'd just like more of him! Whether in his school years, his years away from home, or after he comes back; if you'd like to see what happens in a canon-divergence AU or somehow extract him from the difficult context of Yoknapatawpha County into an AU or fusion/crossover that's far-flung but preserves what he's like at the core (while exploring the differences the historical and cultural context--and maybe personal history--makes or doesn't make), that'd be very interesting to me too. I'm signed up for the Two for One sub-challenge, though I don't have any specific suggestions for fandoms to pair with. I welcome treats.
- accidents with current-day civilian vehicles (e.g. private and for-hire automobiles; passenger planes, rail, buses, ferries)
- nuclear explosions (or threat of annihilation by nuclear explosion); doomsday devices/weapons of mass destruction; radiation sickness
- burns/fire: burns beyond 1st degree, including hot fluid/chemical (scars from past events ok, but no details of its being a burn-type experience); charred/on fire bodies/parts alive or dead (food ok, not people); out-of-control fire or aftermath (e.g. campfire ok); ashes from bodies or destructive fire; description of heat damage to materiel or being trapped with burning heat
- accidental discharge of chemical projectile weapon
- decapitation
- pregnancy, childbirth, related complications; focus on parent-child relationships/issues, childrearing
- intergenerational incest
- de-aging to childhood/adolescence (flashbacks/memory of actual childhood ok)
- major illness
- death of grandparents, parents, siblings, aunts/uncles, cousins (ok that some of these people did die at some point to allow current situations to happen, but please don't address it in your text)
- funerary rites and objects; corpses
- negative 'ugh'; the words 'gross' or 'yuck' for non-physical disgust ("Sticky! Yuck!" ok, "I find that reprehensible. Yuck" no); the words 'daddy', 'mommy', 'titty', or 'niche' in any context
- intragroup social status struggle (power struggles not based on manipulating social opinion ok)
- weddings
- fungus, tumors, disordered organic growth
- readerfic
- smut
Letter:
https://zabbers.dreamwidth.org/5221.html
Canon promotion: The Philosophers Series
Comments are turned off for this community. To claim a pinch hit, please email the mods at yuletideadmin@gmail.com and:
- Include the pinch hit number in the subject line
- Include the recipient’s AO3 name in the subject line
- Include your AO3 username in the body of the email
For example, if your AO3 username is yuletidehippo and you want to claim Pinch Hit #42 for AwsomRecip, you might email us with the subject line “PH 42 for AwsomRecip” and “I’m yuletidehippo on AO3” in the body of the email. As was the case previously, if you don’t receive a reply you did not get the pinch hit.
Thanks to everyone who has claimed pinch hits so far!
CLAIMED - PH #1: The Children Act - Ian McEwan, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous - Ocean Vuong, Wraeththu - Storm Constantine
The Children Act - Ian McEwan
Characters: Fiona Maye (Children Act), Adam Henry (Children Act)
My gift must feature all of my chosen character tags (if 0: any from tag set)
Aww, Adam loves Fiona so much! I adore the tenderness of their age-gap relationship as well as its inherent eroticism. Go there, PLEASE! Dive deeper into their feelings for one another, perhaps focus on Adam’s elaborate sexual fantasies of Fiona (he’s a teenage boy; even though he’s ill he must have them) and/or Fiona daring to imagine what it would be like with a much younger man. Alternatively, make them earn that happily-ever-after for real.
No letter
Request 2 by 5_Paragraph_Essay
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous - Ocean Vuong
Characters: Trevor (On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous - Ocean Vuong), Little Dog (On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous - Ocean Vuong)
My gift must feature all of my chosen character tags (if 0: any from tag set)
This book and its elegiac prose moved me so much. I just want more of this tender first-love relationship! Outtakes from the farm, the barn, whatever. Even its bad ending, if you want to go there. I’m fine with treatment of drug addiction or excrement during anal sex, assuming that any of these more outré canon elements move you.
No letter
Request 3 by 5_Paragraph_Essay
Wraeththu - Storm Constantine
Characters: Abrimel (Wraeththu), Ponclast (Wraeththu)
My gift must feature all of my chosen character tags (if 0: any from tag set)
Ponclast has one of the biggest character arcs of anyone in this mythos, from early Uigenna, to militaristic overlord for the Varr, to black widow mother of monsters, to … a kind of redemption on another planet/dimension? And I love how Abrimel intervenes in Ponclast’s journey, first to be manipulated for strategic gain, later love and be loved in return. I’d love more of their darkly tender relationship, perhaps more about their reunion, after the author leaves them to get on.
No letter
CLAIMED - PH #13: ジュエルペット ハッピネス | Jewelpet Happiness (Anime), うらら迷路帖 | Urara Meirochou (Anime), アイカツ! アイドルカツドウ! | Aikatsu!
This pinch hit has been claimed, but you're welcome to write a treat!
ジュエルペット ハッピネス | Jewelpet Happiness (Anime)
Characters: Sapphie (JewelPet), Lapis (JewelPet), Sango (Jewelpet)
My gift must feature one or more of my chosen character tags (giver's choice)
Prefer to see Sapphie and Lapis together, but in general I'm fine with stuff focusing on any of them I love them all. Would like them to be in character. Reading the few fics of them (mostly ones I wrote) might give an idea of what they're like. x3 I like fluff and silly stuff!
DNW: Gore, Character Death, Anything dark or too painful. Bits of angst is fine but not too much.
No letter
Request 2 by Fircoal
うらら迷路帖 | Urara Meirochou (Anime)
Characters: Chiya (Urara Meirochou), Tatsumi Kon
My gift must feature all of my chosen character tags (if 0: any from tag set)
Would like to see the two of them together and focusing on their bond. Prefer fluffy and silly stuff!
DNW: Gore, Character Death, Anything dark or too painful. Bits of angst is fine but not too much.
No letter
Request 3 by Fircoal
アイカツ! アイドルカツドウ! | Aikatsu!
Characters: Saotome Ako, Hanazono Kirara
My gift must feature all of my chosen character tags (if 0: any from tag set)
Would like to see the two of them together and focusing on their bond. Prefer fluffy and silly stuff!
DNW: Gore, Character Death, Anything dark or too painful. Bits of angst is fine but not too much.
No letter
CLAIMED - PH #22: Psychic Force, ジャイアント・ロボ - 地球が静止する日 | Giant Robo: The Day the Earth Stood Still (Anime), Phantom Brave, Fatal Fury
Psychic Force
Characters: Burn Griffith, Richard Wong, Keith Evans, Regina Belfrond
My gift must feature one or more of my chosen character tags (giver's choice)
I've asked for this all before. Here's a link to previous letters: https://marsdragon.dreamwidth.org/ and to previous requests: https://autoao3app.firebaseapp.com/#/everything/username/MarsDragon
No letter
Request 2 by MarsDragon
ジャイアント・ロボ - 地球が静止する日 | Giant Robo: The Day the Earth Stood Still (Anime)
Characters: Alberto (Giant Robo), Cervantes (Giant Robo), Genya (Giant Robo), Worldbuilding (Giant Robo)
My gift must feature one or more of my chosen character tags (giver's choice)
I've asked for this all before. Here's a link to previous letters: https://marsdragon.dreamwidth.org/ and to previous requests: https://autoao3app.firebaseapp.com/#/everything/username/MarsDragon
No letter
Request 3 by MarsDragon
Phantom Brave
Characters: Ash (Phantom Brave), Marona (Phantom Brave), Walnut (Phantom Brave), Worldbuilding (Phantom Brave)
My gift must feature one or more of my chosen character tags (giver's choice)
I've asked for this all before. Here's a link to previous letters: https://marsdragon.dreamwidth.org/ and to previous requests: https://autoao3app.firebaseapp.com/#/everything/username/MarsDragon
I haven't played The Lost Hero yet, do with that information what you will.
No letter
Request 4 by MarsDragon
Fatal Fury
Characters: Terry Bogard, Billy Kane, Kain R. Heinlein (Fatal Fury), Rock Howard (Fatal Fury)
My gift must feature one or more of my chosen character tags (giver's choice)
I've asked for this all before. Here's a link to previous letters: https://marsdragon.dreamwidth.org/ and to previous requests: https://autoao3app.firebaseapp.com/#/everything/username/MarsDragon
No letter
Canon promos/links: Psychic force: a post on DW, a post on LJ
CLAIMED - PH #38: The Philosophers Series - Tom Miller, Bluestone 42 (TV), The Snopes Trilogy - William Faulkner
The Philosophers Series - Tom Miller
Characters: Sarah E. Stewart (Philosophers Series), Janet Brock (Philosophers Series), Hortense "Teeny" Millen (Philosophers Series), Worldbuilding (Philosophers Series)
My gift must feature one or more of my chosen character tags (giver's choice)
There's so much fun worldbuilding in these books and many specific possibilities for more worldbuilding, with hints of other spheres of expertise and future and past developments not fully described. There's something about systematized, empirical magic-making that's so satisfying; I enjoy the organized, institutional, even hierarchical touches in this universe. I liked the in-universe quotes from books, and reading about how specific sigils are done and were standardized, and learning about how women discovered and developed magic first as a folk practice and then brought it into the public sphere, and how it complements (and to a light extent even how it clashes with) parallel technological and cultural developments over its history. (The worldbuilding aspect I'm not as interested in is the political, whether that's Washington politics, Trenchers, or coups.)
Some things I'd like to see explored: how hovering develops in the future of the books side by side with conventional aviation (especially post-WWII); traditions and history of the United States Sigilry Corps; the immediately post-canon, pre-WWII lives of the characters nominated; Empirical Philosophy academia and texts and home instruction; County Philosophers and other jobs for sigilrists; Eupheus-powered travel; the General's Cup endurance flight; fiction about sigilry; camaraderie, sisterhood, and love (whether romantic or platonic) between empirical philosophers.
Other characters beyond my request who I also like are Robert Weekes, Gloxinia 'Jake' Jacobi, Edith Rubinski, Missy Pitcairn, Lennox Murchison, Bertie Synge, Emmaline Weekes, Brian Mayweather.
Feel free to diverge from the future hinted at in the books if you have a different idea for how the future of sigilry could go. I'd love it if in the latter half of the 20th century, empirical philosophy is 'allowed' back into legitimate use in the States, or an AU in which its practitioners never go into exile works too. In fact, feel free to diverge from the events in the books if you'd like, as long as you keep the physical way it works and the sense of scientific inquiry and traditions of the Corps and the schools and the many types of work women do with their philosophical skill.
Outside of canon-divergence, I also opt in to any fusion or crossover in which John Sheppard from Stargate Atlantis gets to use the hover sigil (please make him at least eventually as good at it as early Robert, anyone who can make her living at it, or any of the other Threes). I'm signed up for the Two for One sub-challenge. I welcome treats.
(click for) DNWs:
- Trencher violence; smokecarving as chemical or biological warfare; bonekill- Danielle Hardin/Robert Weekes as endgame
- 21st-century politics and events; apocalypse, genocide, mass social and civil unrest, epidemics; physical disasters people can't escape; "crapsack world" dystopias; child/domestic/institutional abuse
- harm to civilian bystanders
- accidents with current-day civilian vehicles (e.g. private and for-hire automobiles; passenger planes, rail, buses, ferries)
- nuclear explosions (or threat of annihilation by nuclear explosion); doomsday devices/weapons of mass destruction; radiation sickness
- burns/fire: burns beyond 1st degree, including hot fluid/chemical (scars from past events ok, but no details of its being a burn-type experience); charred/on fire bodies/parts alive or dead (food ok, not people); out-of-control fire or aftermath (e.g. campfire ok); ashes from bodies or destructive fire; description of heat damage to materiel or being trapped with burning heat
- accidental discharge of chemical projectile weapon
- decapitation
- pregnancy, childbirth, related complications; parent-child relationships/issues, childrearing
- intergenerational incest
- de-aging to childhood/adolescence (flashbacks/memory of actual childhood ok)
- major character death
- major illness
- death of grandparents, parents, siblings, aunts/uncles, cousins
- funerary rites and objects; corpses
- negative 'ugh'; the words 'gross' or 'yuck' for non-physical disgust ("Sticky! Yuck!" ok, "I find that reprehensible. Yuck" no); the words 'daddy', 'mommy', 'titty', or 'niche' in any context
- intragroup social status struggle (power struggles not based on manipulating social opinion ok)
- weddings
- fungus, tumors, disordered organic growth
- readerfic
- smut
- if there is Stargate, DNW: onscreen Keller, Michael, Jackson, or Kavanagh; Atlantis' secession; the term 'AR-1'
Letter:
https://zabbers.dreamwidth.org/5221.html
Request 2 by Zabbers
Bluestone 42 (TV)
Characters: Nick Medhurst (Bluestone 42), Philip Smith (Bluestone 42)
My gift must feature all of my chosen character tags (if 0: any from tag set)
I just love this show, this unlikely comedy, with its clever humor in the face of very trying, high-tension circumstances, the rough and tumble camaraderie (bad jokes and terrible games to let off steam but also at the end of the day caring about and for each other's hurts and stresses in their awkward way), the fact that they actually are quite reasonably competent and responsible and professional (while acting like they're not) and well-trained even though you can really only be so prepared for something so difficult (and their weaknesses can get in the way), the jargon and protocols, the zippy and irreverent tone, the foibles and the insecurities and the quirks (you might say caricatures) and the way they face their fears.
I like to see them thrive, and for Bluestone 42 and the military in general to be somewhere that works pretty well for them each in their own way, somewhere they belong. They can be irreverent and jaded, but at the end of the day, it's a way of life they've all chosen. (Basically, I'm not looking for a critique or wider political picture beyond the tone of the show.)
This year, I especially have a hankering for Nick and the Colonel, their shared background that they know very well puts them kind of out of touch as much as out of reach, but that defines them for better and worse like any other culture, and they admit it and work with it; and the mentorship, which reflects that and also their personalities (wry and irreverent? perfectly willing to be self-serving sometimes and having to figure out how to turn that off when it's serious and the others' well-being becomes very important to them? reluctant to directly talk about things?). I love the mentorship, and the roundabout way it happens.
Other favorites include Mac, Rocket, and Bird.
I'm also always open to a Stargate Atlantis crossover in which the Bluestone 42 characters get deployed to the Pegasus Galaxy, or John Sheppard is seconded to Helmand, or these characters just know or meet each other. I'm signed up for the Two for One sub-challenge. I welcome treats.
(click for) DNWs:
- post-canon politics and events; apocalypse, genocide, mass social and civil unrest, epidemics; physical disasters people can't escape; "crapsack world" dystopias; non-canonical child/domestic/institutional abuse- vehicular accidents involving current-world civilian vehicles (military vehicles ok, historical vehicles that still exist today but are uncommon, such as horse carts ok)
- nuclear explosions (or threat of annihilation by nuclear explosion); doomsday devices/weapons of mass destruction; radiation sickness
- burns/fire: burns beyond 1st degree, including hot fluid/chemical (scars from past events ok; but no detailing of its being a burn-type experience); charred/on fire bodies/parts alive or dead (food ok, not people); out-of-control fire or aftermath (e.g. campfire ok); ashes from bodies or destructive fire; description of heat damage to materiel or being trapped with burning heat
- accidental discharge of chemical projectile weapon, unless it's pointed away from any people
- decapitation
- pregnancy, childbirth, related complications; parent-child relationships/issues, childrearing
- intergenerational incest
- de-aging to childhood/adolescence (flashbacks/memory of actual childhood ok)
- non-canonical major character death
- major illness
- death of grandparents parents, siblings, aunts/uncles, cousins
- funerary rites and objects; corpses
- negative 'ugh'; the words 'gross' or 'yuck' for non-physical disgust ("Sticky! Yuck!" ok, "I find that reprehensible. Yuck" no); the words 'daddy', 'mommy', 'titty', or 'niche' in any context
- intragroup social status struggle (power struggles not based on manipulating social opinion ok)
- weddings
- fungus, tumors, disordered organic growth
- readerfic
- smut
- if there is Stargate, DNW: onscreen Keller, Michael, Jackson, or Kavanagh; Atlantis' secession; the term 'AR-1'
Letter:
https://zabbers.dreamwidth.org/5221.html
Request 3 by Zabbers
The Snopes Trilogy - William Faulkner
Characters: Jack Houston (Snopes - Faulkner)
My gift must feature all of my chosen character tags (if 0: any from tag set)
He's a side character, a device for what happens with Mink and ultimately Flem Snopes, but he's so vivid, both in small behavioral details during the main narrative that convey his personality and in the extensive digression into the side story of his life. I have a weakness for his kind of taciturn, uncompromising, stern, prickly, suffers-no-fools, island-like, stoic-yet-deep-feeling character. The sense that what happens with him is kind of inevitable and has a momentum as quietly forceful as he is, and that he knows it and tries to escape it, but can't, is really compelling to me. I especially liked him in the horse-shoeing scene, the way he accepts no nonsense and instead just does what needs to be done himself, but without making a fuss about it or nor any concessions to social lubrication.
I'd just like more of him! Whether in his school years, his years away from home, or after he comes back; if you'd like to see what happens in a canon-divergence AU or somehow extract him from the difficult context of Yoknapatawpha County into an AU or fusion/crossover that's far-flung but preserves what he's like at the core (while exploring the differences the historical and cultural context--and maybe personal history--makes or doesn't make), that'd be very interesting to me too. I'm signed up for the Two for One sub-challenge, though I don't have any specific suggestions for fandoms to pair with. I welcome treats.
(click for) DNWs:
- 21st-century politics and events; apocalypse, genocide, mass social and civil unrest, epidemics; physical disasters people can't escape; "crapsack world" dystopias; child/domestic/institutional abuse- accidents with current-day civilian vehicles (e.g. private and for-hire automobiles; passenger planes, rail, buses, ferries)
- nuclear explosions (or threat of annihilation by nuclear explosion); doomsday devices/weapons of mass destruction; radiation sickness
- burns/fire: burns beyond 1st degree, including hot fluid/chemical (scars from past events ok, but no details of its being a burn-type experience); charred/on fire bodies/parts alive or dead (food ok, not people); out-of-control fire or aftermath (e.g. campfire ok); ashes from bodies or destructive fire; description of heat damage to materiel or being trapped with burning heat
- accidental discharge of chemical projectile weapon
- decapitation
- pregnancy, childbirth, related complications; focus on parent-child relationships/issues, childrearing
- intergenerational incest
- de-aging to childhood/adolescence (flashbacks/memory of actual childhood ok)
- major illness
- death of grandparents, parents, siblings, aunts/uncles, cousins (ok that some of these people did die at some point to allow current situations to happen, but please don't address it in your text)
- funerary rites and objects; corpses
- negative 'ugh'; the words 'gross' or 'yuck' for non-physical disgust ("Sticky! Yuck!" ok, "I find that reprehensible. Yuck" no); the words 'daddy', 'mommy', 'titty', or 'niche' in any context
- intragroup social status struggle (power struggles not based on manipulating social opinion ok)
- weddings
- fungus, tumors, disordered organic growth
- readerfic
- smut
Letter:
https://zabbers.dreamwidth.org/5221.html
Canon promotion: The Philosophers Series
Hamlet: Rosemary for Remembrance by Gehayi
Monday, 27 October 2025 17:05Fandom: Hamlet (William Shakespeare)
Pairings/Characters: Ophelia, Hamlet, Laertes, Polonious, Claudius (genderflipped to Claudia), Gertrude, Fortinbras, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (genderflipped to Rosie and Goldie), Claudia/Gertrude
Rating: Teen
Length: 11,174
Creator Links: AO3 profile.
Themes: Uncommon Settings, IN SPACE, Murder Mystery, Alternate Ending
Summary: Hamlet in space, starring sensible and heroic Ophelia, genderswapped Claudius, clones Rosencrantz and Guilderstern and alien Fortinbras. (Alas, there are no sharks in space riding motorcycles, nor is there a time machine.) (Taken from AO3)
Reccer's notes: This is just an extremely well-done sci-fi take on the classic play, with Ophelia as the protagonist. I really enjoy the species changes to certain characters, and the way the author plays with the well-known story beats to create something unique. The author's notes at the end also have some interesting insights into the writing choices they made.
Fanwork links: Rosemary for Remembrance
Pairings/Characters: Ophelia, Hamlet, Laertes, Polonious, Claudius (genderflipped to Claudia), Gertrude, Fortinbras, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (genderflipped to Rosie and Goldie), Claudia/Gertrude
Rating: Teen
Length: 11,174
Creator Links: AO3 profile.
Themes: Uncommon Settings, IN SPACE, Murder Mystery, Alternate Ending
Summary: Hamlet in space, starring sensible and heroic Ophelia, genderswapped Claudius, clones Rosencrantz and Guilderstern and alien Fortinbras. (Alas, there are no sharks in space riding motorcycles, nor is there a time machine.) (Taken from AO3)
Reccer's notes: This is just an extremely well-done sci-fi take on the classic play, with Ophelia as the protagonist. I really enjoy the species changes to certain characters, and the way the author plays with the well-known story beats to create something unique. The author's notes at the end also have some interesting insights into the writing choices they made.
Fanwork links: Rosemary for Remembrance
Blackout Bingo 2x2 Fall Fest - 2 cards
Monday, 27 October 2025 19:40Title: Hallowe'en at Holmes Hall
Fandoms: Sherlock (BBC)/Hamlet
Ratings: G
Pairings: Sherlock Holmes, John Watson, Greg Lestrade, Mycroft Holmes, Mrs Hudson, Jim Moriarty, Sebastian Moran, Horatio, Claudius, Gertrude, Ophelia, Laertes, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern, Hamlet, Polonius, Hamlet Snr
Prompts: Hay Ride, Frighten, Prank, Smarties (Generic table)
Hallowe'en at Holmes Hall on AO3
Title: A Capital Fog
Fandoms: Sherlock Holmes (ACD)
Ratings: G
Pairings: Dr Watson, Sherlock Holmes, Mrs Hudson
Prompts: Poisonous Atmosphere, Disguise, Fog, Beekeeping (Sherlock Holmes table)
A Capital Fog on AO3
Fandoms: Sherlock (BBC)/Hamlet
Ratings: G
Pairings: Sherlock Holmes, John Watson, Greg Lestrade, Mycroft Holmes, Mrs Hudson, Jim Moriarty, Sebastian Moran, Horatio, Claudius, Gertrude, Ophelia, Laertes, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern, Hamlet, Polonius, Hamlet Snr
Prompts: Hay Ride, Frighten, Prank, Smarties (Generic table)
Hallowe'en at Holmes Hall on AO3
Title: A Capital Fog
Fandoms: Sherlock Holmes (ACD)
Ratings: G
Pairings: Dr Watson, Sherlock Holmes, Mrs Hudson
Prompts: Poisonous Atmosphere, Disguise, Fog, Beekeeping (Sherlock Holmes table)
A Capital Fog on AO3
WIP Challenge Check-in, Day 27 -- Monday
Monday, 27 October 2025 09:10 Hello on Monday! How's the day going so far for fic? (If you haven't gotten started on your day as yet, how did yesterday go for writing fic?)
- Excellent!
- Terrible
- Somewhere in between
- Nothing doing
How much time have you spent on writing fic today, roughly?
- None
- 30 minutes or less
- 30-60 minutes
- 60-90 minutes
- More than 90 minutes
In five words or less, how do you feel about that?