Reading

Current Mood: amused

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fandom: baldur's gate

Baldur's Gate 3

I freely admit that I cackled a little when I saw this conversation happening in one of my D&D Discords. Especially since I was literally in the middle of playing Baldur's Gate 3 at that very moment. I feel like I'm being judged, but I can't really blame them when it's, you know, true.

Speaking of which, my gnome sorcerer/bard was very busy doing important things tonight:

In related news, I love the poly mod. Also? It works surprisingly well when combining these two romances specifically. Karlach and Wyll's relationship makes it very much come across as two Vs working towards a triad.

Updates to "No Fandom" Additional Tags, August 2025

https://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/32291

Spotlight on Tag Wrangling

AO3 Tag Wranglers continue to test processes for wrangling canonical additional tags (tags that appear in the auto-complete) which don't belong to any particular fandom (also known as "No Fandom" tags). This post will provide an overview of some of these upcoming changes.

Previous Tag Wrangling updates can generally be found on the @ao3org Tumblr and, for No Fandom tags, AO3 News. While No Fandom tag updates are generally announced on AO3 News as well as the @ao3org Tumblr, this may not be true of all wrangling updates. Some updates may remain solely distributed via Tumblr, especially those that only affect one or two fandoms. The way we distribute updates is subject to change as we work through new processes.

In this round of updates, we continued a method which streamlines creation of new canonical tags, prioritizing more straightforward updates which would have less discussion compared to renaming current canonical tags or creating new canonical tags which touch on more complex topics. This method also reviews new tags on a regular basis, so check back on AO3 News for periodic "No Fandom" tag announcements.

None of these updates change the tags users have added to works. If a user-created tag is considered to have the same meaning as a new canonical, it will be made a synonym of one of these newly created canonical tags, and works with that user-created tag will appear when the canonical tag is selected.

In short, these changes only affect which tags appear in AO3's auto-complete and filters. You can and should continue to tag your works however you prefer.

New Canonicals

The following concepts have been made new canonical tags:

Biting Kink
Co-Parenting
Platonic Co-Parenting
Fangs
Fighting as Foreplay
Forced Proximity
Friends to Enemies to Lovers
Lovers to Enemies
Strangers to Friends
Strangers to Friends to Lovers
Incontinence
Kabeshiri | Stuck in a Wall
No Use of Y/N for Reader-Insert
Praise
Purring
Phone Sex Operators
Alternate Universe - Sex Cam Workers
Sex Cam Workers
Sexual Free Use
Soft

Other Updates

While all these new tags have already been made canonical, we are still working on implementing changes and connecting relevant tags, so it’ll be some time before these updates are complete. We thank you in advance for your patience!

While we won't be announcing every change we make to No Fandom canonical tags, you can expect similar updates in the future on the tags we believe will most affect users. If you're interested in the changes we'll be making, you can continue to check AO3 News or follow us on Bluesky @wranglers.archiveofourown.org or Tumblr @ao3org for future announcements.

You can also read previous updates on "No Fandom" tags as well as other wrangling updates, linked below:

Got Questions?

For more information about AO3's tag system, check out our Tags FAQ.

In addition to providing technical help, AO3 Support also handles requests related to how tags are sorted and connected. If you have questions about specific tags, which were first used over a month ago and are unrelated to any of the new canonical tags listed above, please contact Support instead of leaving a comment on this post.

Lastly, as mentioned above, we are still working on connecting relevant user-created tags to these new canonicals. If you have questions about specific tags which should be connected to these new canonicals, please refrain from contacting Support about them until at least two months from now.

The Organization for Transformative Works is the non-profit parent organization of multiple projects including Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Open Doors, Transformative Works and Cultures, and OTW Legal Advocacy. We are a fan-run, entirely donor-supported organization staffed by volunteers. Find out more about us on our website.

https://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/32291

Current Location: Ann Arbor, MI, USA

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📸 photo: katydid

A large grasshopper-like insect clinging to a window screen. Its legs are stretched out and it has a long wing trailing behind it. The photo is taken from inside the house and the insect is outside (thank goodness).

Much larger IRL than I expected… [Wikipedia]

Crossposted from Pixietails Club Blog.

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Star Wars: Dreamwars, a DW community

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The PokéPod Project: Gen Two - Signups Open

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Current Mood: accomplished

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d&d: titansfall

Titansfall D&D: Summary for 8/10 Game

In tonight's game, ( the rest under a cut for those who don't care. )

And that's where we left off.

Multifandom - Word Crimes: A Problematic Exchange!

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weeknotes (august 3-9)

Life Updates

I can’t believe another week has gone by already! I’ve been enjoying myself immensely here, sitting in the garden and harvesting handfuls of cherry tomatoes. I haven’t even made it into town proper yet and I’m coming up on my third week in this housesit. Whoops!

🐈‍⬛ Cats are doing well, and the shyest one even let me pet him (once) when he saw his siblings in the same room with me. They’ve also started coming to wake me (at 6am) which I’m taking as a sign that they like me.

Media Consumption

🎧 Too Many Tabs podcast has started their Quack Month, where they focus on quacks in August. It’s one of my favorite months for their podcast, partly because Mrs. P is the one researching and explaining everything, and she’s great. (Mr. P is also good but his shtick is shouting enthusiastically about everything which can be tiring. Also if you’re looking at the thumbnails– only Mr. P is onscreen because Mrs. P doesn’t want internet fame.)

The first episode was about Liver King, who I’ve only seen on the periphery on TikTok from people talking about how horrible he is.

📺 I watched The Producers (1967) which I think I’ve seen before– but I don’t remember the entire last half of the film, so basically it was like watching it for the first time. I enjoyed seeing where they changed things for the musical (which I love) and what things they kept. I much prefer the characters in the musical, as they have a bit more depth.

I also watched The Wiz (1978)! I loved the actors/singing/music, but the empty urban pseudo-NYC streets freaked me out (maybe it was supposed to do that?) and some of the musical numbers went on way too long (the intro to Oz scene where they change colors over and over). I’m planning on watching the Live production of the musical whenever I can track it down, as apparently the stage version is much better.

📖 Finished reading Moby-Duck (reading log + review), which I overall enjoyed but I do think it needed a bit more tightening up.

Also finished Seasons of the Wild (reading log + review), which was underwhelming.

Currently reading Climate Resilience (reading log), which is a good topic and has some great tips for getting more involve with climate activism, but some of the language feels…idk…over-the-top? I’m not sure how to describe it. Like, instead of just saying “I met this person and it was great,” it’s written more like “I had the honor of being in the same room as this amazing activist who has done 50 million things and is a mother, daughter, sister, aunt and earth goddess.” :/ Also they’re edited/compiled essays from interviews and everyone ends up sounding the same because of that, which is a shame.

I think I may temporarily swap over to my Kindle and read a fantasy/romance book as a palette cleanser.

Food & Dining

I harvested enough cherry tomatoes to finally be able to make a soup, which I did. (I used this recipe.) Of course as soon as I made it, I didn’t want to eat it, so it’s in the fridge for later.

The next batch of tomatoes are going to be made into a pasta sauce. I have some non-cherry ones ripening in a paper bag, and they’re nearly ready to use. I just need to track down some jars so I have somewhere to store it all!

Web Updates

New on the site:

Added a new note to my Commonplace Notebook on the Notes about AI page

Posted on the blog:

I also did a lot of theme customization, which I outlined here on this page.

Looking Forward

My usual goal to write here and on my site. I’m nearly done with a guide to customizing the look of your Calibre library, I just need to finish the formatting.

I’d also like to get in the habit of leaving comments on other people’s blogs (or emailing them), especially if I link them in a linkspam post. Right now I do it sporadically and I think if I make it more of a habit then it’ll stick better.

Crossposted from Pixietails Club Blog.

Current Mood: tired

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pets: garrus

=^.^=

Look at this sweet, innocent child who definitely wouldn't do something like piss all over my bed at 1am.

Oh, Garrus. It's a good thing he's cute. And that I know it was because of lingering issues from what led to the vet trip on Thursday rather than anything else.

Current Mood: drained

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pets: garrus

Oh, Garrus...

Welp. Garrus definitely just had an accident on the bed a few minutes ago. 🙃

I'm pretty sure it's stemming from the same issue that led to the vet trip a few days ago, so I can't really be mad at him. His timing is about as horrible as it could be, though, because I very much don't have the money to go wash multiple loads of clothes right now. Plus, you know, it's 1am which isn't great either.

My sheets and comforter are currently in the bathtub, and I'm going to see what I can do via handwashing to try and remove as much of the smell as possible. I'm trying to raise the $20 that I'll need to cover two loads over on Bluesky, so I'm hoping that throwing them in the bathtub will at least work as a stopgap.

August is, uh, certainly shaping up to be a month so far. That's for sure.

ETA: Okay, I have the money to wash and dry two loads, so I'm going to go get them in the washer now (and hope that there's nobody in the suite to the laundry room right now who I'll be disturbing). Hopefully I'm washing them fast enough that the scent won't have a chance to sink in at all. 🤞🏻

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Multifandom Exchange: AspecEx

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Multifandom: No True Pair's 2025 Eight-Character Challenge!

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July 2025 Newsletter, Volume 202

https://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/32286

Banner of a paper airplane emerging from an envelope with the words 'OTW Newsletter: Organization for Transformative Works'

I. UPCOMING BOARD ELECTION

The 2025 OTW Board Election will be held on August 15-18, a week from today.

Elections, Communications, and Translation worked together to announce candidate and voting information. Voting instructions have been emailed to all eligible OTW members, and translated versions of voting instructions are available on the Elections website. Candidate answers to Q&A questions can also be found on the Elections website, and a live Candidate chat was held on August 2 via Discord.

II. ARCHIVE OF OUR OWN

Legal has been closely monitoring legal developments and proposals about internet age verification in the US, UK, and around the world and taking steps to ensure that the AO3 user experience will not change. They also responded to a number of user queries and dealt with a commercial company that has been using the AO3 trademark in a confusing way.

In early July, Accessibility, Design, & Technology resolved some issues and downtime related to creating bookmarks on AO3. They also deployed several releases of bug fixes and improvements, including a performance improvement for the page that administrators use to search for user accounts. Lastly, in conjunction with Systems having installed and set up new servers, they finalized some Elasticsearch upgrades. You can refer to the recent release notes for more details.

In June, Support received 3,348 tickets, while Policy & Abuse received 3,738 tickets. Their TOS Spotlight news post series has now concluded; if you missed it, we encourage you to look it over and contact Policy & Abuse if you have any further TOS questions.

Tag Wrangling continues to test processes for wrangling canonical tags in "No Fandom"—tags that aren't specific to any particular fandom—and announced some new canonical tags on July 14. More tags will continue to be canonized and announced on a regular basis.

In June, Tag Wrangling handled over 526,000 tags, or over 1,200 tags per volunteer! \o/

III. OPEN DOORS IMPORTS CONTINUE

Open Doors finished importing all fanfiction from the Harry Potter archive FictionAlley and is now processing fanart hosted on the site. You can find all imported works in the FictionAlley collection. Unclaimed works are currently restricted to logged-in AO3 users, but per Open Doors' agreement with the archivist, they will be unlocked 30 days after the import is fully completed.

All FictionAlley creators should have received one or more emails with links to claim, orphan, delete their works, or prevent the import of any additional works of theirs in the future. If you were a creator and did not receive this email, please contact Open Doors for assistance. You can also contact Open Doors if you would like to prevent future imports of your Harry Potter works specifically.

The import process for HarryPotterFanFiction.com and MuggleNet Fan Fiction are also underway. If your email address has changed since you were a member of either archive, or you would like Open Doors not to import your works, please contact Open Doors. Please refer to the import announcements for a full list of how Open Doors can assist you.

Elsewhere, Open Doors has continued their importing work on My Mongoose, an archive for The Sentinel.

IV. ELSEWHERE AT THE OTW

Communications' Con Outreach team wrapped up Capital City Comic Con in Lansing, Michigan, USA—thank you to everyone who tabled and who said hi to us! You can check out con attendees' fanwork recommendations in the convention's AO3 collection.

Fanlore's themed month for July, Fandom in Color, was a big success! They're now planning their next editing challenge, Stub September, which will be themed around animals with swords this year. Check out Fanlore's social media (Bluesky, Twitter/X, and Tumblr) for announcements about the challenge, which will run from September 8-21.

Transformative Works and Cultures is finalizing their upcoming general issue, volume 46, which will be published on September 15. Their upcoming Latin American Fandoms and Music Fandoms specific issues are still accepting submissions until January 1, 2026. Lastly, they collaborated with Communications on an OTW website page about the TWC committee, outlining the team behind the publication and spotlighting TWC's Fans of Color research prize.

V. GOVERNANCE

Board held the quarterly Board meeting on July 20 on Discord. There were 44 attendees, and minutes will be available soon on the OTW website.

Alongside preparing for the Board meeting, Board and the Board Assistants Team collaborated across the OTW and made progress on several goals, including the OTW Crisis Management Plan, OTW Procurement Policy, Cybersecurity Report, Paid Staff Transition, and researching nonprofit training resources.

Finance is wrapping up 2024 reconciliations and working with auditors for the 2024 audit.

VI. OUR VOLUNTEERS

Volunteers & Recruiting conducted recruitment for three committees this month: Communications, Fanlore, and Policy & Abuse. Volunteers & Recruiting also closed out all projects carried over from previous years and plan to start new projects this year in accordance with their 2025 roadmap goals.

From June 23 to July 22, Volunteers & Recruiting received 175 new requests, and completed 124, leaving them with 102 open requests. As of July 22, 2025, the OTW has 926 volunteers. \o/ Recent personnel movements are listed below.

New Communications News Post Moderation Volunteers: Deniz (News Post Moderation Volunteer)
New Open Doors Volunteers: Kriti S (FCPP Intern)
New Support Volunteers: moonlithic, SlantedKnitting, and 23 other Support Volunteers
New Translation Volunteers: 1 Translation Volunteer Manager and 1 Translation Task Assistant

Departing Communications Volunteers: 2 Fanhackers Volunteers
Departing Communications News Post Moderation Volunteers: 2 News Post Moderation Volunteers
Departing Policy & Abuse Volunteers: 1 Policy & Abuse Volunteer
Departing Support Volunteers: Jennifer D2 (Liaison to User Response Translation), Geraldine and 2 other Support Volunteers
Departing Tag Wrangling Volunteers: demilyver, Goodwin, Ratty, and 11 other Tag Wrangling Volunteers
Departing Volunteers & Recruiting Volunteers: Ducky (Volunteers & Recruiting Volunteer) and 1 Tool Implementation Lead

For more information about our committees and their regular activities, you can refer to the committee pages on our website.

https://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/32286

Current Mood: exhausted

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One of those IRL updates...

I wasn't able to pay the hotel before the front desk closed at 11pm last night like I'd hoped, but thanks to some help that I appreciate more than you can imagine, I was able to get enough together to cover it before I crashed for the night. I got up early this morning and went to the front desk first thing, before they had a chance to start going through the overdue list, which I definitely think helped. Honestly, I think that C probably assumed I'd been sick and that's why I hadn't come to pay yesterday, because she asked several times if I felt okay which makes me think that I must have looked like death warmed over.

Anyway, the hotel is covered through next Thursday, when I get paid again, so that's one less thing to worry about. I don't have any bills due between now and then, so the fact that I only have a few dollars left in my checking account shouldn't be an issue as long as nothing else explodes. The only potential issue is that I'm not going to be able to wash clothes until I get paid next week, but I think that I have enough clean ones to get me through until then if I'm careful. Towels are the only thing I'm definitely going to run out of, but I should be able to get a few from the hotel to get me through until I can use my own again.

Garrus seems to be doing okay. He's still a little off, but that's to be expected all things considered. It usually takes him a couple of days after a trip to the emergency vet to get back to normal. Keyleth at least has stopped hissing and spitting at him, so that's good. She's never appreciated whatever he smells like after a trip to the vet. They're both currently curled up asleep on opposite ends of my bed, which is a definite step up from yesterday.

That said, today is going to be hellish. I didn't get much sleep yesterday because of the whole "getting up at the crack of dawn to take Garrus to the vet" thing, and then I didn't really have a chance to take a nap or go to bed early because I was panicking about the hotel bill. And then this morning I got up early to go pay said bill as soon as possible. I'm really hoping that I can manage to fit in a short nap during my lunch break today, and then I can maybe take another one after work if needed, because it's barely past 10am and I can feel myself starting to fade.

Now if the universe will just throw me a bone and let me have a break for at least a while. Please. Please, universe.

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MULTIFANDOM - Cuppa JOE: Jealousy & Obsession Exchange

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Current Mood: drained

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. . .

Oh, this has been a day already, and it's only mid-afternoon. 🙃

Garrus seems mostly back to normal at this point. He's still a little groggy from the meds they gave him, and there are some lingering issues from the problems that led to the vet trip in the first place (blood where there shouldn't have been blood again), but based on past experience he'll be as good as new in another day or two. So that's good at least. I'll take every little win I can get.

I'm still working on the "paying the hotel" part of my to-do list, but I technically have until 6pm to get it paid and probably won't get in any trouble if I pay a little later than that (as long as I pay at some point today) since they know I sometimes end up working late. That means I have at least a few hours to try to come up with the rest of what I need, which is something at least.

Honestly, I'm just so fucking frustrated with the universe at the moment. I was supposed to have about $100 left over after paying my various bills with last week's paycheck, which was great because I could finally start building a little bit of a cushion again. Except, no, Lynn's not allowed to have good things happen. Only bad. So instead of having $100 extra in my checking account, I'm now in the hole again because the vet requires immediate payment before leaving the building. Because that's just how my luck goes.

Not to mention I'm absolutely exhausted right now, which is really making things even more fun. Garrus at least waited until it was a semi-reasonable hour this time around (if you call 5am a semi-reasonable hour, which I do compared to the usual 2-3am), so I managed to get a little sleep before everything went down. It wasn't nearly enough, though, so I'm flagging fast which is less than ideal.

Current Mood: tired

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pets: garrus

Re: my last post

It's a good thing he's cute. And also on some drugs at the moment.

Current Mood: frustrated

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. . .

Why is it that whenever Garrus has something come up that requires an immediate trip to the vet, it *always* has to happen in the middle of the night? Or, at least in this case, the wee hours of the morning?

Every. Single. Time. 🙃

He's going to be fine. It looks like it's related to the problems he's had in the past where, if he gets too stressed, then he has issues that can potentially be serious if ignored (hence the early morning trip to the vet). But still, there goes any chance of me actually have some extra money left over from this paycheck.

Thank you, universe. Thank you. And by thank you, I mean fuck you.

I have to do some math and see just how bad it is, since I'm supposed to pay the hotel today and, you know, my checking account's total just dropped by several hundred dollars. I basically made it back this morning just in time to throw myself at my work computer, though, so I have to take care of a few things on the job front first.

Happy Thursday, huh?

Current Mood: accomplished

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daggerheart: aurendor

Aurendor Not!D&D: Summary for 8/6 Game

In tonight's game, ( the rest under a cut for those who don't care. )

And that's where we left off.

The OTW is Recruiting for Board Assistants Team Volunteers, Development & Membership Volunteers,

https://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/32281

OTW recruitment banner

Are you a detail-oriented and highly organized individual interested in assisting the OTW Board of Directors with administrative and project management tasks? Do you have skills with graphic design, fundraising, or customer service? The Organization for Transformative Works is recruiting!

We're excited to announce the opening of applications for:

Board Assistants Team Volunteer - closing 13 August 2025 at 23:59 UTC or after 60 applications
Development & Membership Volunteer - closing 13 August 2025 at 23:59 UTC or after 30 applications
Development & Membership Graphic Designer - closing 13 August 2025 at 23:59 UTC or after 30 applications

We have included more information on each role below. Open roles and applications will always be available at the volunteering page. If you don't see a role that fits with your skills and interests now, keep an eye on the listings. We plan to put up new applications every few weeks, and we will also publicize new roles as they become available.

All applications generate a confirmation page and an auto-reply to your e-mail address. We encourage you to read the confirmation page and to whitelist our email address in your e-mail client. If you do not receive the auto-reply within 24 hours, please check your spam filters and then contact us.

If you have questions regarding volunteering for the OTW, check out our Volunteering FAQ.

Board Assistants Team Volunteer

Are you detail-oriented, highly organized, and passionate about supporting meaningful work behind the scenes? The Board Assistants Team (BAT) is looking for volunteers to assist the OTW Board of Directors with essential administrative and project management tasks.

As a BAT Volunteer, you’ll play a key role in ensuring smooth operations by:

Moderating and coordinating Board meetings on Discord
Editing and drafting Board communications, documentation, and public statements
Supporting internal projects and cross-committee collaboration
Offering valuable feedback to improve workflows and communications

We're looking for volunteers who are proactive, driven, and committed to the OTW's long-term success.

You must be 18+ in order to apply for this role. In addition to the initial application, you will be emailed a part two to help us understand how well you understand and can complete the committee's tasks.

Applications are due 13 August 2025 or after 60 applications

Apply for Board Assistants Team Volunteer at the volunteering page! If you have further questions, please contact us.

Development & Membership Volunteer

The Development & Membership committee (DevMem) coordinates the OTW's fundraising and membership-building activities. Our primary responsibility is coordinating our biannual fund drives, although we are also responsible for communicating with donors, exploring new fundraising opportunities, and managing the voter roll for OTW elections. If you have skills or interests in fundraising, membership database management, creating promotional OTW graphics, eCommerce, or customer service, consider applying to join our committee!

Applications are due 13 August 2025 or after 30 applications

Apply for Development & Membership Volunteer at the volunteering page! If you have further questions, please contact us.

Development & Membership Graphic Designer

The Development & Membership committee (DevMem) coordinates the OTW's fundraising and membership-building activities. Our primary responsibility is coordinating our biannual fund drives, although we are also responsible for communicating with donors, exploring new fundraising opportunities, and managing the voter roll for OTW elections. If you have skills or interests in creating promotional OTW graphics for our fundraisers, membership gifts, and donor communications, consider applying to join our committee!

Applications are due 13 August 2025 or after 30 applications

Apply for Development & Membership Graphic Designer at the volunteering page! If you have further questions, please contact us.

https://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/32281