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runpunkrun) wrote2026-04-28 09:45 amworks in progress
In recent years, I've been on a mission where I pick a worthy WIP out of many volunteers and finish it. So far I've completed:
- A Hundred Hundred Bolts of Satin, SGA | July 2021
- stop. motion., SGA RPF | September 2024
- New Year Market, Star Trek Reboot | September 2024
- Condition Zebra, SGA | May 2025
- Maybe He's Born With It (Maybe It's GlaxosEpsilonYor), Star Trek Reboot | January 2026
- The Feast of St. Olaf, SGA | April 2026
That covers my entire output of the last five years, with only one absolutely new fic posted during that time, the 15 sentence fake fake dating Star Trek fic Strange New Worlds, Etc. that I wrote for OTW's 15 year anniversary in 2022.
All of these WIPs were abandoned in various stages of doneness. I do this. Not on purpose, but I start a fic and get thousands of words into it and then either get anxious about it (writing can be a trigger for me, though it's gotten better through careful practice) or life gets in the way and I have to stop working on it and then get scared (anxious) to pick it back up again. But past!me's problems are a boon for present me who doesn't have to come up with ideas and has a bunch of notes for all these stories that can either be used or discarded. And because they've sat for a while, undisturbed, I'm able to work on them almost as if it's someone else's writing that I'm improving. I can kill the darlings that need killing and get on with it.
A Hundred Hundred Bolts of Satin was probably more like two stories when I opened it after a long period away from it. The opening part and the rest of it. I had to stitch the two together, and the opening section was just murdering me before I finally, after a lot of work, figured out which parts were important.
stop. motion. was done and betaed, but Joe Flanigan had gotten a divorce (sorry, Joe) while it was sitting on my hard drive and I wanted to work that in, which changed the tone—and purpose—of the story significantly.
New Year Market was done and had even been through two betas. I had some sentences that were annoying me, so I fixed them, and I am as shocked as you are that it took me less than a month to do that.
Condition Zebra was a complete draft, but I'd finished it in 2013 and never looked at it again. (I wrote it and then Emily died, and these two things were not related, but also were.) It needed a lot of polishing, and I had made Rodney too emotionally mature. So I made Rodney a little messy and John, in a move that surprised me, responded by becoming more emotionally mature. It seemed he'd grown up, too, in the twelve years since I'd written it.
Maybe He's Born With It (Maybe It's GlaxosEpsilonYor) was not as done as I thought it was. Instead of being nearly complete, it was only a couple of paragraphs in the file and then several pages of handwritten story. I transfered the handwritten part to the screen, editing all the while, and then did a bunch of writing to finish it and then lots and lots of revising to get Jim's voice right. This was him after the first movie, still a selfish frat bro, but with the capacity to learn from his mistakes, and I didn't want to quash his worst instincts, but it was hard for me to just let him be the (almost) worst version of himself. I had to keep removing the guardrails I built around him. And his literal voice needed to be way more casual. I got there in the end, though, and in the process learned that this Jim didn't like hedging language, no "just" or "almost" or "kind of"; everything's flat out with him, no room for doubt.
The Feast of St. Olaf (my 60th SGA fanwork!!) was basically a complete story when I opened it up in February. It had all the important parts—a title and a last line; there was just some empty space between a joke (which I did not...get? despite having written it??) and the last sentence. So I erased the joke and just started writing from there. I began this fic for the "blades" square on my ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
kink_bingo card in 2011, but as I wrote toward the last sentence I had, using it as a guide, the focus of the story changed. It was no longer just about Ronon being good with knives; it became about loss and memory, a much deeper story. So I reworked the rest of it to match, and in the process the knives were no longer what the Kink Bingo mods refer to as the erotic focus of the story, and I didn't feel like I could add this fic to the Kink Bingo collection. (Sadly, because I adore posting G-rated kinkfic to the chat.)
Many of these WIPs went through similar changes as I finished them. Maybe He's Born With It came from a much lighter idea, less loss, more eye shadow. And stop. motion. lacked an emotional core before I worked Joe's divorce into it. So having these stories sit for a bit between their initial drafting and being completed benefited us both, in many ways. Though I'd honestly prefer if I could finish a story in less than ten years, it also lets me see how much I've grown as a writer, even in the last few years.
Next up is my Star Trek RPF from 2016, an extended version of my little Saturday Morning ficlet. As I recall it's completely finished, though the last scene needs some tweaking as I've never been happy with it. It has a title, but I've never been happy with that, either, and I've got a new one that should work. And of course, anything I haven't seen in ten years is going to need a polish as my writing sensibilities have changed somewhat in those years. I've been putting this one off because it's RPF from 2016, set in 2016, and stuff has changed! And I'm worried about it!! But it's not going to get any younger, and as I keep repeating to myself, it was the canon we had at the time. It's not like I could write it any differently today. Though I guess we'll have a chance to see.
scaramouche) wrote2026-04-28 05:56 pm
New experiences for 2026
- Anti-chafing tape feels like a spurious purchase if you're a filthy casual (me), but chafing is AWFUL and HURTS LIKE THE DICKENS, and anything that can prevent that is good. Soft, waterproof plasters are functionally similar, but comparatively more expensive.
- If one is wearing the run's official shirt, test said shirt out by wearing it in a pre-run, to check if it will chafe in new and exciting places. >:(
- Before: always remember to stretch. After: always remember to cool off. Even if they're for short fun runs.
- Bring a small towel to wipe yourself afterward. Sweat isn't as much a problem when running at home since you can shower immediately after, but when you have to travel from the run venue back home, might as well make the trip as comparatively pleasant as possible.
- Put the bib on before going to the venue (using a mirror), unless you have someone to help put it on at the venue.
- Wearing shades is great! They make me feel way less self-conscious about where I'm looking at, especially because of the photographers along the route.
- There are photographers! And you can search the database for your photos based on your race number! But you will never look as cool as you think you do, and that's okay.
- Do not be self-conscious about wearing a running belt, running pouch, or having bulging pockets if you're carrying stuff. Lots of people will be wearing/having the same. A backpack is also perfectly fine. (I don't know why I felt backpacks would be weird, like I assumed everyone would want to run as light as possible.) There will be people in full cosplay, for crying out loud. (I saw a Squid Game guard and a hijabi Loki.)
- Have fun, and don't be pressured to do more than you're willing or ready to.
scaramouche) wrote2026-04-27 10:38 am
Book Log: Empire of Refugees
Very new topic to me so a bit of a hurdle in there as well, though I have read about the Ottoman empire before and, well, Armenian genocide and the bad choices through WWI, but this book really delves into a specific topic I didn't know anything about. It's really interesting to look at a time as nation-states were developing and borders hardening, and how that influences choices in which refugees to take and which to reject, and how said refugees were accepted and integrated (well, or badly, or extremely badly) and the political considerations that have so many consequences to today.
Like, of course in the aftermath of various wars, the Ottoman empire would want to get rid of as much of its non-Muslim population and fill that gap with Muslim refugees (or muhajir, as some would describe), with Russia wanting the opposite by getting rid of its unwanted Muslim populations in trade for Christians. It's population manipulation on a grand scale, dressed up in promises of an Islamic empire (dar-al salam) accepting its needy co-religionists into their bosom, but also cold in its usage of those refugees to strengthen borders, improve its tax collection, put pressure on rebellious bedouin, and increase productivity of the land. The implication of the belief coreligionists will be more loyal to the state than not, and is a crucial factor along with ethnicity in actualization of a nation-state -- all elements that play out to painful conclusions through WI and WII, but here are elaborated on in their specificity. The book also argues that some of the mechanisms and lessons these population exchanges were used in later population exchanges after WWI, up to the India-Pakistan Partition.
The book also zooms down, to the human cost of these population exchanges, of what people sacrificed (if they went willingly), of what people did to survive and sometimes thrive, of the desperate attempts to hold on to family and cultural heritage through these upheavals, of those who fled their homelands but returned. Surviving letters are used to flesh these stories out, and the book specifically uses three case studies of North Caucasian refugee areas, with the Balkans representing an area that failed in many ways, and the Levant as an area that succeeded greatly, in part because of the Hijaz railway that allowed economic prosperity up to the future nation-state existence of Jordan (whose current capital is a former refugee site). Interesting stuff, though a little overwhelming in its newness to me.
runpunkrun) wrote2026-04-24 11:42 amFic: The Feast of St. Olaf [SGA, Team, G, 3800 words]
Author: Punk
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Characters: Team Sheppard
Rating: G
Content notes: No standard notes apply.
Size: 3,800 words
Summary: The hunting knife is twice the size of the fruit in his hand, but Ronon handles it with ease.
Read it on the AO3 or here »
( The Feast of St. Olaf )
sineala) wrote2026-04-22 07:14 pm
Wednesday Reading Meme
Naomi Novik, The Summer War: Fantasy novella about a girl who ends up unwillingly married to a fairy prince as part of a treaty and/or revenge. Is it petty of me to be annoyed that an author who got here by writing queer fanfic and then did not write anything queer professionally (as far as I know; I haven't read the Scholomance books yet) has decided that now there can be queer characters in the background but mostly in unflattering ways? And also that the main character still needs to basically be rescued by her brothers even though the story wants me to believe she is Smart and Independent? Yeah, probably.
Cat Sebastian, We Could Be So Good:
lysimache keeps telling me I should read the second book of this historical m/m romance series but unfortunately I am the type of person who has to Read The Whole Thing From The Beginning so I said, no, I was reading the first one first. So this is the first one. It was kind of meh. It had a great 1950s NYC setting but nothing really happened and then it just kind of ended. Also we all know exactly what books the author read about being gay in NYC because there are only two and everyone's historical gay romance regurgitates the same facts from them (seriously, you can go to places other than the Navy Yards, I'm pretty sure) so I was really confused that the author seems to have missed the part where "fairy" actually has a really specific meaning. I guess now I read the second one? The second one is baseball.What I'm Reading Now
Comics Wednesday!
( Captain America #9 )
What I'm Reading Next
I guess the second Cat Sebastian book in that series? Probably?
scaramouche) wrote2026-04-22 11:03 am
The Genius
Three episodes into season 4, and for some reason I'd convinced myself that Sangmin made it to the final four, but as it turns out he's gotten eliminated! Very surprising to me in the rewatch, and made worse by my sympathy pains for Taran who loves Sangmin more than I do, though I don't recall being that mad about this elimination when I watched season 4 the first time. Maybe because I was focused on Jinho then, though overall Jinho (and sadly, Hyunmin) don't make an impact on the season as much as I'd wanted. But Sangmin is so great to watch and it's true, the show will not be the same once he's gone. :(
sineala) wrote2026-04-21 10:19 pmBooks for me, by me!
So I talked with Zero about it -- mostly in the spring and summer of 2025 -- and we settled on doing two anthologies of my shorter Steve/Tony fic, split by POV. So there would be one Steve book and one Tony book. I know we talked about what stories should go in there and how to balance the word count, but this was also the period of time where I was getting 20-25 migraines a month for about five months straight, so I don't actually... remember... a lot of last year especially well, my capacity for coherent reasoning was at about 0%, and I figured whatever Zero wanted to do was probably going to be good and I would just be pleasantly surprised when Books Got Here.
(I am really sorry. It was a lot of migraines.)
Zero did also mention that she was additionally working on a fanbind of my Trek AU and would send me that too, and I thought that was really sweet of her. She commissioned additional art, also, which is definitely above and beyond. It's really nice art.
So I was expecting three books in the mail yesterday and opened the box and got FIVE BOOKS and my first thought, honestly, was, "Oh, my God, I have had so many migraines, and I don't remember talking about five books. Is this something we actually talked about that I was supposed to know about or is this supposed to be a surprise that I don't know about?" But it was in fact not a thing I was already supposed to know! It was a surprise! So that's good! I didn't entirely break my brain! Whew.
Yeah. It has been A Time.
(The two additional books, that I did not know about, are Thrust Issues and my Ults soulmate AU. The Ults soulmate AU has every occurrence of the word "soulmate" in red. Hooray for rubrication.)
Anyway, if you want to see them, I personally am terrible at taking pictures so nobody wants me to take any, I promise you, but Zero made a very nice masterpost on Tumblr with more detail about all of the books.
The Star Trek AU is black with SILVER SPARKLES. Like spaaaaace. Eeee.
maidenjedi) wrote2026-04-21 08:56 am
FIC: Cultivating a Greater Work (Star Wars: Andor, 1/1)
FANDOM: Star Wars: Andor
RATING: PG
PAIRING: Mon Mothma & Luthen Rael
CHARACTERS: Mon Mothma, Luthen Rael, Kleya Marki
SUMMARY: Mon Mothma and Luthen Rael in the earliest days of their collaboration.
NOTES: Written for
space_swap 2026.This story references a character and storylines from The High Republic novels, but it isn't necessary to have read those to read this story.
AO3 link
azurelunatic) wrote2026-04-20 07:30 pm
A Farewell to Draggon
So Belovedest draped it over the lounge chair on the porch, to dry out.
And there it sat.
I admit that I am short-tempered sometimes.
It's lounging season, I think a little early this year. So the dragon and I have been sharing the chair. And much to my annoyance, we have been sharing it with tiny black ants. Which have been using the deflated dragon as a pathway to climb up onto the chair's side tables (it's a retired infusion chair, so it reclines, has tables, and a place to attach an IV pole) and even on to my very person. I discovered this yesterday.
What losing my temper looked like this time was an enticing Craigslist ad for the salvage-condition dragon (free to the first to arrive), along with reviving my ad to get rid of the aftermarket KitchenAid beater that just barely didn't fit my mixer bowl. Which had been hanging around for months and was starting to develop lichen.
They were both gone by the time I got outside this afternoon.
scaramouche) wrote2026-04-20 02:45 pm
Aryana (80.4% completed)
Unfortunately I think that's over now that in episode 152 Megan revealed her hand by forcing Aryana's transformation into a mermaid and recording her on her phone. The merfolk storyline has come back in a relevant way, too, with Neptuna almost being captured by merfolk --> Neptuna is recorded being violent towards humans --> there's now an anti-mermaid hysteria --> Aryana WILL be caught by frightened and angry people if she's revealed as a mermaid. Consequences! Omg! We're heading into a climax, I would expect!
There's also been a turn to make Stella's ex Jason relevant, and I think the show had Stella accidentally confirm that Megan is Jason's daughter instead of Victor's? Unless that was Stella manipulating Jason, but I don't think so. But Stella finally discovered a use for Jason by triggering his protectiveness of Megan in order to target Aryana, which is sneaky fun.
All this excitement is great and Aryana gets to be at the center of the action in a good way, but I have to say it's come at a cost of flattening the other characters and relationships back to what they were near the start of the show. Stella and Megan are full-on manipulative villains again without the depth of the anxieties, vulnerabilities and surprising thoughtfulness we saw from them through the middle episodes. Victor is once again being drawn by the problem right in front of him with no consideration for his other responsibilities. Ofelia's only job is to worry about her daughter and panic whenever something goes wrong. At that sense, the show is fulfiling the promise it made at the start, but it is a bit of a shame after getting other points of view and relationship complications.
As a side note, I finally do not find Adrian annoying! Because we barely see him in these episodes, yes, but his blunt rudeness is pretty funny when he's using it to bitchily stand up for Aryana against Megan, unlike Hubert's too-gentlemanly waffling about. It'll stop being funny once the show tries to ship them again, but I'm enjoying it while I can.
beatrice_otter) wrote2026-04-18 09:12 pmFic: Learning the Steps
Author: Beatrice_Otter
Fandom: The Goblin Emperor
Pairing: Csethiro/Maia
Written for:
dontstophernow in fffx 2025Rating: Teen
Length: 10k
Summary: As the wedding day approaches, Csethiro and Maia get to know each other better
At AO3. On Squidgeworld. On Dreamwidth. On tumblr. On Pillowfort.
AN: The Tale of the Loathly Lady is a real story which crops up in Arthuriana and other places. It's the Wife of Bath's tale in the Canterbury Tales, and it was told on its own as Gawain and Lady Ragnell.
***
The original proposal—Csethiro did not know who had made it, whether her father or the Emperor or some nameless secretary—was for the wedding to take place on Nan'desazh, the spring lambing festival. This was the most auspicious date for a wedding in the whole year; unfortunately, it was also a mere three months after the contracts had been signed, and there was simply no way to arrange things in time. Csethiro was not often grateful to her stepmother, but she was in this; the Marquise Ceredaran had flatly refused to contemplate so early a date.
The spring equinox had been suggested instead; it was almost as propitious as Nan'desazh, and would give them an extra month to plan. Besides, there was a certain symmetry in it; Edrehasivar had been crowned just before the fall equinox, and his birthday was the winter solstice, and so to marry him on the spring equinox seemed to Csethiro (and many others at court) to be a harbinger of good fortune.
It was still ruinously short. The preparations for Csoru's wedding had taken a full year.
( Read more... )
beatrice_otter) wrote2026-04-17 01:36 pmFic recs from FFFX, AU5k, and Fic In A Box
Five Figure Fanwork Exchange is the most recent! I received two fics, both of them lovely:
a star or two beside (5070 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Goblin Emperor Series - Katherine Addison
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Maia Drazhar, Chenelo Drazharan, Shaleän Sevraseched, Shaleän Sevraseched's Wife, Ursu Perenched, Original Characters
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Chenelo Lives, Alternate Universe - Maia Has a Good Childhood, POV Multiple, sailing ships, References to Illness
Summary:
It is something out of a wonder-tale when a stranger arrives at Isvaroë and whisks Maia and his mother away.
Before, After, Always, Already (9151 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Kira Nerys/Keiko O'Brien/Miles O'Brien
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Post-Canon Bajor (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)
Summary:
Keiko was over Miles's shoulder in the video message. "Hi, Nerys!" she said. She looked the same, too, although her hair was up, and she was in uniform. "We're moving to Bajor!"
Other faves from FFFX include:
( Five Figure Fanwork Recs )
( AU5k Rec )
( Fic In A Box Recs )
elf) wrote2026-04-16 01:03 pmI ran a game!
...Brindlewood Bay is the first game I've actively wanted to run in decades. Played in someone else's game first to figure out the mechanics, and established that
1) Wow, I did not like how they ran the game
2) No, I mean... they ignored the base starting premise of the game, which is "you are retired old ladies." (They decided you can be retired old men instead. I very much do not like this; retired old men are treated very differently from old ladies. It changes how the cozy aspects of the game works.)
3) Aside from that, did not like the GM's call about what actions we were taking, and didn't like that he pushed us into some actions.
4) It was an entirely new experience for me to think "I could run this better."
5) So the next time one of my groups was kinda between games, I said "I, uh, have been kinda wanting to run a thing..."
( And I stole the plot from The Untamed )