betaplease | Member Posts

Starting to process my backlog of links. Originally, I started collecting this particular list when the allegations about Neil Gaiman surfaced last year (if you've been lucky enough to miss that, but want to learn more, muccamukk's round-up post is still an excellent overview).

It's always hard when stories, songs, shows, etc that made a difference to you turn out to be created by someone who's done or is doing horrible things. I always find it hard when it's followed by a demand to just stop liking whatever it was, as if that's as easy as snapping your fingers to remove the impact of sometimes formative stories from one's life.

Here are a few links that helped me navigate this, whenever it happens, since it happens often. If you only have energy for one link, I'd recommend making that the first one. It's nuanced and practical.

Dealing with Authors Who are Jerks, Bastards, or Downright Evil in Real Life by writinginthedarktw. "But how should we react when a writer we admire, or who we have a personal relationship with, turns out to be a not-so-good person? The short answer, of course, is you can react any damn way you wish. There’s no right way. But I can share with you how I attempt to navigate these rough waters."

( 4 more links: 1 for library workers, 2 on how putting people on a pedestal does no one any good, 1 on a specific fandom )

svgurl

julybreakbingoevent is a multifandom bingo challenge with customizable cards (link goes to the

fandomcalendar post). Sign-ups close on July 7th.

sunshine_revival is a community set to revive the Sunshine Challenge, a companion to the

snowflake_challenge, that will run through the month of July.

allbingo is running a Pride Fest through the month of June. There are premade cards or you can create your own based on the available prompts.

justmarriedexchange, a marriage-themed multifandom exchange for marriage tropes of all kinds: convenient, accidental, undercover, arranged, forced, etc, is open for nominations until June 10th, 11:59PM UTC.

land_of_art is a landcomm challenge for graphic lovers. There are two teams and the first round is in progress and will continue until January 18th, 2026. Sign up for a team HERE.

fourormore, a community to promote and celebrate ships with four or more people, is running a Bingo Event. Cards will given until December 31st.

smallfandomfest is open for prompt claiming for its Small Fandom Fest. Submissions may be posted until July 31st.

fancake's theme of the month is: female relationships. Click on the banner below to learn more! :)

Photograph with added text: Female Relationships, at Fancake. Four old Nepalese women sit together on a low brick wall, their feet dangling, most of them barefoot, their shoes kicked off below them. They're dressed in loose patterned fabrics in various shades of red and the mood is relaxed.

scifirenegade

The Internet Archive was down for about 7 hours yesterday, due to a power outage in San Francisco. Of course, there are conspiracy theories smh. They should invest in some backup servers elsewhere.

sovay recced Gwynne Garfinkle's The Last Word, a poem about the 1935 film Mad Love.

Laridian on Pillowfort posted an assortment of couple photos from the first half of the 20th century (het warning, lol). They make for great pose references.

Ethel Vance's Escape, which I heard is worse then the film. Boy.

Helen McInnes's Above Suspicion, and it appears good ol' Hassie is a movie-only character :(

J. Storer Clouston's The Spy in Black, which does not have the Pressburger touch, but I quite liked the first chapter. Simple, but it paints the picture nicely.

Current Mood: hyper

autobotscoutriella

Re-reading my own fic to get myself in a good writing headspace, and you know, Sonata may have taken more time/effort/plotting and gets more attention for good reasons, but until I bring you home absolutely slaps. I wrote it in something like six days on an average of five hours of sleep a night, and it still might be the best emotional arc I've ever written.

(I really need to learn enough photoshop to make a Klavdar icon.)

linky

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Current Mood: contemplative

militarypenguin

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jenab

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arcanetrivia

I've been sitting on these for a while, oop. Putting the extended info like author's notes, my comments, and quotes from the fics behind cuts, as this is gonna be kinda long anyway.

Fire & Ice by

jen-kollic
Characters: Morgan LeFlay, Jugbender, Dante Dragotta
Rating: Teen
Words: 18,083 (abandoned WIP)
Author's summary: So, what exactly is Morgan LeFlay's backstory, and how did she become a Mighty Pirate Hunter? We get a lot of vague details in 'Lair of the Leviathan', but how to put them all together is anyone's guess...( Read more... )

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A Tale of Two Dread Pirate Zombie Captains by

Emerald-Embers
Fandom: Monkey Island/Pirates of the Caribbean
Pairing/Characters: Guybrush, Jack; references to Guybrush/Elaine and Jack/Anamaria
Rating: K+
Words: 2720
Author's summary: Monkey Island/Pirates of the Caribbean crossover; the importance of pirate training.( Read more... )

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The Road to Monkey island by

Threepwillow
Fandom: Monkey Island/The Road to El Dorado
Pairing/Characters: Guybrush/Elaine, LeChuck, Miguel/Tulio
Rating: Teen
Words: 15,351
Author's summary: What do an irritated governor, two fast-talking Spaniards, and a voodoo MacGuffin have in common? Guybrush Threepwood is stuck on a ship with all three of them, on another adventure to the dubious Monkey Island.( Read more... )

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Largo LaGrande Meets LeCrew by

MinMinGood
Characters: Largo LaGrande, LeChuck, Iron Rose, Flair Gorey, Apple Bob, Gullet, Putra, Flambe
Rating: Teen
Words: 4224
Author's summary: Somehow, Largo LaGrande has ended up on LeShip, and LeChuck is willing to give him another shot at being on the crew. But he needs to find a job to do, and he needs to not irritate everyone around him.( Read more... )

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In the Cards by

thedevilchicken
Characters: Guybrush, Voodoo Lady
Rating: Teen
Words: 2149
Author's summary: A Yuletide gift for tahanrien! A little slice of backstory for Guybrush, and the Voodoo Lady. She's always there, just like she's always been.( Read more... )

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The Search by

the_angst_alchemist
Pairing/Characters: Elaine/Guybrush, Original Characters
Rating: General
Words: 1631
Author's summary: Elaine has been at sea for a few weeks now, and her crew is starting to worry about her and how she keeps looking around the ship for something that isn't there. ...Or, rather, someone.( Read more... )

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Symbiosis by

MinMinGood
Characters: Flambé, Iron Rose, LeChuck, Largo LaGrande mentioned
Rating: General
Words: 701
Author's summary: Flambé appears to have actually done his job, for once. Surely this can't be right?( Read more... )

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Pinchpenny by

MinMinGood
Characters: LeChuck, Largo LaGrande, Original Character
Rating: Teen
Words: 2224
Author's summary: LeChuck needs money, so he heads to Pinchpenny Island to meet with someone who might be able to help. He also has a back-up plan if they can't.( Read more... )

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I Am Afraid of Eternity Too by

RandomArceus
Characters: Largo LaGrande
Rating: Mature
Words: 2384
Author's summary: You have died. And you find that, with there being nobody around to bury your body, you have to do it yourself.( Read more... )

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May-Hem #1: 28, Volcanic Eruption, Curse of Monkey Island by Laridian
Characters: Guybrush, Griswold Goodsoup, Madame Xima
Rating: Not rated; maybe Teen
Words: 742
Author's summary: Things go a lot worse here than they did in the game. For those who haven't played, Guybrush has just dropped some cheese into the caldera of Mount Acidophilus, home to a volcano god with very strict dietary rules.( Read more... )

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Multi-Faceted by

the_angst_alchemist
Pairing/Characters: Elaine/Guybrush
Rating: Teen
Words: 8891
Author's summary: The legend of the Devil's Mirror has been told a thousand times, but when Elaine and Guybrush go to retrieve such a treasure, it's obvious that something much weirder has to happen-- it wouldn't be one of their adventures otherwise! When Guybrush accidentally looks into it, splitting himself into multiple fragments, it's up to Elaine to get her husband back together.( Read more... )

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Vagabond by

CaptMickey
Characters: Guybrush, Original Characters
Rating: General
Words: 47,149
Author's summary: Before he became a husband and father, before he became a Mighty Pirate, before he washed ashore to Melee... he was just a lost child looking for a place to call home.( Read more... )

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Much Ado About Monkey Island by

introsquirrel
Pairing/Characters: Guybrush/Elaine, Morgan LeFlay
Rating: G
Words: 1355
Author's warnings: Kind of a love triangle situation, but not really; this is unedited( Read more... )

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Portrait by

RandomArceus
Characters: Largo LaGrande
Rating: General
Words: 200
Author's summary: LeChuck's gone. And you're still thinking about him.( Read more... )

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There Is No Escape by

MinMinGood
Characters: LeChuck, Largo LaGrande, Iron Rose
Rating: Teen
Words: 3250
Author's summary: Largo never wanted to try and find Big Whoop. And he was so over hearing about Elaine Marley. So, he ran. But someone wasn't far behind him.( Read more... )

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Current Mood: tired

arcanetrivia

And There Will Be A Reckoning by (Anonymous)
Fandom: Discworld
Pairing/Characters: Tiffany Aching, Granny Weatherwax
Rating: General
Words: 1420

Author's summary: It was the sort of cold where - if you were out in it for too long - you went right around in a circle and started to feel warm again.
Author's warnings: Chose Not To Use
Additional tags: Implied/Referenced Character Death, In that it is the apocalypse and most people are dead by this point (Fic was written for Apocalyptothon 2014)

Quote:
She was distracted from these thoughts by a "Caw!" from high above. She had barely seen the raven before her hands were out in front of her.
"Thunder on my right hand. Lightning in my left hand. Heat above me. Frost below me."
As she stole its heat, a curl of warmth sprang up inside her chest.
The raven fell dead from the sky. She never saw where it landed.

-----

The Case of the Vanishing Vampire by (Anonymous)
Fandom: Discworld
Pairing/Characters: Reg Shoe, Visit, Vimes, Vetinari, Carrot, Angua, Cheery Littlebottom, William de Worde, Otto von Chriek, Rufus Drumknott, Death, George Pony
Rating: Teen
Words: 19,552

Author's summary: Reg and Visit are drawn into a mystery at the heart of Ankh Morpork's undead community. Why would a lifelong black-ribboner suddenly try to kill his landlady? And why have his ashes mysteriously disappeared? With the rest of the Watch focused on a threat to the new underground rail network, Reg and Visit will need to work together to solve the case, because if the two of them can't manage to put aside their differences, somebody's going to get away with murder...
Author's notes:
Q. Why is this fic like the Ankh-Morpork coat of arms?
A. They were both supported by hippos.
This fic is dedicated to the good people of #Yuletide: Doranwen and Fran who dropped ropes when I fell into my own plotholes, SteelNeko who came up with one of the OCs, Kurushi who agreed to beta-read despite an impossibly tight deadline and TL whose gentle command of "This is never going to be finished on time, you need to start writing an alternate fic NOW" is the only reason I'm not perma-banned from Yuletide.
But most of all it's dedicated to my recipient, who has the patience of the saint and whose prompt basically amounted to "One's an evangelist, the other's a zombie; together THEY FIGHT CRIME!" which is clearly the most awesome prompt in the history of Yuletide.
Author's warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Additional tags: Complete, Action/Adventure, Bechdel Test Pass, Blood, Canon Compliant, Case Fic, Crimes, Drama, Friendship, Gen Fic, Gift Fic, Humor, Minor Canonical Character(s), Mystery, Mystery Stories, Past Tense, Photography, Police, Politics, Post-Canon, Prompt Fic, Religions, Teamwork, They Fight Crime!, Trains, Yuletide, Vampires, Whodunnit, Zombies, #Yulechat Challenge 2010

My comment: (Chapter 5) "I don't suppose the dwarf symbol for "mine" resembles a circle with a horizontal line through it, by any chance?"
(Chapter 8) "Kinda love that Visit now basically has one of those things you get by laying a penny on a railroad track. (Don't do this, kids.)"
Quote:
'We're in the middle of a heatwave and Detritus has never been particularly swayed by debate even when his brain's at a reasonable temperature.'
'Yes, but we can't just walk away.'
'No.'
'Oh.'
'Yeah.'
'Stoneface is going to go absolutely Bursar.'
'Well, if you want to let a murderer get away because you were afraid of getting in trouble.'
'Oh shut up.'
'No, you shut up.'
'No, you shut up.'
The two corporals turned to Detritus and smiled.
"Fair enough, Sarge. Can you just move to one side for a minute so we can turn the cart around?"

dani_meows

So we went to the vet on Wednesday to discuss Jasper's whole health with our primary vet. We trust him a lot because he's been our vet for 13 plus years now.

Our vet said that with Jasper's kidney disease (early stage 1) he wouldn't recommend going to an oncologist for treatments as both radiation and chemo may put to much strain on our boys kidneys.

He sent an email to our optometrist who did Jasper's surgery about the risks of going in again to try and remove the additional melanoma cells. And got back to us that day recommending the surgery to hopefully be able to remove the additional melanoma.

Apparently diffuse iris melanoma doesn't grow back often and it's risk of moving elsewhere is also low.

So next Thursday, Jasper goes back in for surgery.

Hopefully they can save him.

I want to have hope. I'm never ready to say goodbye to my cats. And I want Jasper to live as long as he can. To beat kidney disease and Cancer for as long as possible.

At the vet's office I also got to meet a five week old kitten, that our vet rescued! Omg she was the tiniest little thing.

Jasper than bit me in jealousy! I have my hands full with Jasper, Boo, Bitsy and Nori though!

Current Mood: hopeful
Crossposts: https://dani-meows.insanejournal.com/382893.html

malurette

Title: The whipping boy
Author: Sid Fleischman
Language: french translation from English
Type: children's novel
Genre: adventure

1st release:
Publisher:
Length:

(got it probably at a secondhand book fair couple of years ago with the idea of whipping boys has something homoerotic--but no not in this one)

The blurb says the author was born in Brooklyn so i doubt the depiction is historically accurate, but whatever!
Jemmy is a whipping boy to a lazy, bratty prince Horace and hopes to get fired and go back to his old life as a rat catcher. But when the prince decides to run away he gets whipped--no pun intended--into going with him.

Funny enough, but i won't keep it

"Le souffre-douleur" ; comme on ne fouette pas les princes c'est un jeune bouc émissaire qui reçoit les punitions à sa place, soi-disant que ça lui fera éprouver des remords... ouais. Jusqu'à ce qu'il fugue, en étant trop bête pour se débrouiller tout seul.

yuuago

I managed to score a ticket to see Sigur Rós in Edmonton later this year! They're going to be performing with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.

This is super exciting. They're one of those bands that I've enjoyed for a long time, but never thought I would be able to see perform live. I remember seeing Takk in the store and buying it based on the album design, completely unaware of what their sound was like, and then getting my mind completely blown.

I've never actually been to Edmonton - like, I've gone around it plenty of times on the way to visit family down south, but we never stopped anywhere other than Costco. So, I'll probably take an extra day or two to go to the Royal Alberta Museum and the Art Gallery of Alberta. Maybe will also do some shopping and whatnot.

If anybody has suggestions of Fun Things To Do in Edmonton while I'm there, I'm open to ideas. I'll probably be taking the intercity bus to get there.

Ahhh I'm super excited for this concert. <3 <3 <3

logans_girl2001

Yesterday's bad mood has carried over to today. And I don't see that changing at all today because I used the last of the milk yesterday and now I have to have toast for breakfast.

There was one point yesterday when I thought it was earlier in the week because it did not feel like a Thursday.

fardell24

tielan

1. Have you ever been to summer camp?

No. But 'summer camp' is not a thing here in Australia the way it seems to have been in the USA. There were camps, yes, but they were very directly related to school - a week is the longest that I remember and I was 12. After that, it was school excusions, yes, or band camps, and a couple of times Beach Mission (yes, literally, Christian mission in the middle of summer at a beach).

2. Have you ever made a s'more?

Yes! Back visiting some friends in upstate NY in the early 2000s when their sons were just born. Her family had a holiday house on a lake and we went and stayed there, and they taught me about making s'mores.

3. Have you ever slept under the stars (no tent/tarp)?

Possibly, depending on how you take it. I've slept on a wooden porch, huddled up with a bunch of other people. We were doing an "all nighter" purely for the sake of doing it. It wasn't fun.

Actually, wait yes, I have slept under the stars. At a 'B&S' (Bachelors' and Spinsters' ball) out west, in the tray of a utility truck. We'd tossed a bunch of mattresses in, and there were about a half-dozen of us all sprawled out to sleep after the ball. It wasn't terrible. We were young, and that makes a difference!

4. Have you ever had a member of the opposite sex sleep over at your house?

Only after I became an adult. House-sharing in Sydney means you have housemates who have all sorts of people staying over.

5. What type of bed do you have (queen, twin, bunk, etc.)?

Twin. I had a queen-size at our last house (and had a queen-size pretty much since I was 24) but when we moved out into this place, there wasn't space for a queen-sized bed, so I downsized to an IKEA twin with an under-bed storage space. And, as it turns out, the queen-mattress fitted sheets fit on the twin-size when you have a super-thick mattress.

delphi

Cloudward, Ho! is the newest Dimension 20 campaign of actual-play D&D with its classic cast of comedy improvisers. This one is an aeronautical adventure set in a steampunk universe, about a motley crew who set out on a quest in search of a lost continent and the expedition that disappeared before them. The first episode just came out yesterday, and I really enjoyed it!

Watch on YouTube

( Some Notes About the Premise (Moderate Spoilers) )
I'm looking forward to seeing where the campaign goes from here! Anyone else watching or planning to watch?

annathecrow

Inspired by fred_mouse, I'm working through Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way. A lot of it speaks to me, but the Christian spirituality of it all is a struggle. I'm fine with skipping things over, but the Basic Principles are an integral part of the process - so I decided to write my own version, one that I could actually accept. Here they are:

Basic Principles, for a non-believer

Humans are a creative species.
We have a deep, innate instinct to make things.
It might be an accident of evolution, but it is a brilliant one: it benefits ourselves, our communities, our entire species.
Every human is creative; every human can create.
Our creativity makes the world a better place.
To deny ourselves the freedom to create is cruel - just like it would be cruel to deny a bird to fly or a horse to run.
When we open ourselves to exploring our creativity, we accept what we are and what we can be.
As we let ourselves to follow our creative instinct, many gentle but powerful changes are to be expected.
It is safe to follow our creative instinct, however far it may lead us.
We are creators. If we let ourselves create, we turn a random side-effect of biology into a power strong enough to change to world.

(The original, for reference).

A bit arrogant to think I can do better, maybe, but I needed them so I made them. I really enjoyed writing them up.

I'm posting them here because I'm proud of them - and maybe someone else could find them useful?

alexcat

Fandom 50

Kind of late for a first entry but here is one.

Has fandom changed or have I?

I was never in a fandom until the 2000’s. I did not know what a ‘zine was. I did not know what a con was. I never heard of fanfiction. I was a Star Wars fan from way back.

I got into the LOTR fandom right after the first movie came out. It was quite hostile, to be honest. There were wars between character writers and real person writers, between shippers of different pairings, between hetters and slashers. It was ugly. There was gatekeeping then, too.

I decided early on that I came into this not to fight but to enjoy and I did. I had my own website and ran a Yahoo group that hosted at least 100 stories a week in its heyday. I welcomed all. It wasn’t perfect but it was good.

Is today different?

I think so. I think we have a reflection of our divisive society in fandom. There are things we’re not ‘allowed’ to write now because they might upset someone. There are people who want to police Ao3 to make sure it doesn’t hurt their feelings and that it does reflect their ‘moral’ codes. An example is someone once complained because characters were eating meat and I did not warn for it.

Ao3 was born to combat gatekeeping and censorship in fandom. Other sites caved. Fanfic dot com made their site completely shite when they kicked all the adult stories out. I never bothered with them again. Livejournal was sold once then again to some Russian oligarch who decided to purge all adult anything, because there were rumblings of kiddie porn, and by that, I mean stories with underage fictional characters. Ao3 was born out of frustration over these events and others like them.

So what do you do about these things?

As of today, we do still have freedom of speech here in the US, where Ao3 is based. I say let people write what they will, as long as they are not inciting specific violence. Writers write violence, rape, child abuse out of a need for catharsis many times. Or maybe they are angry and rather than take it out on a real person, they write something violent. Let it be. We write for our own reasons and we don’t owe any explanations of those to anyone.

Oddly enough, the young seem to be the ones who want to gatekeep. Life is hard, kids. If you don’t want to read certain kinds of fiction, then DON’T CLICK ON IT. It’s that simple.

Fandom has changed but not that much. There will always be those who want more rules and to control others. That’s life. We must guard against that and keep fandom and fans free to express themselves.

*Crossposted at

fandom50challenge

autobotscoutriella

Three hundred and eighty-five unread emails. I'm never taking a two-week vacation again.

(Okay, I might, but still.)

Current Mood: busy

logans_girl2001

I have such a big case of the "i don't wanna's" today. I did not walk this morning and I don't feel bad about it. That is how much I do not care today. Really wish I did not have to work.

I need your guy's help. The story I'm working on (the one that I HATE) needs an ending. For reference, this is set in the Dark Blue (TNT show from 2009-2010) fandom.

Dean grew up rich but ignored. His parents disowned him when his father caught him kissing another boy. After a few years he landed on his feet as a police officer in LA. He had changed his name by then and firmly shut the door on his past.

Now his father has died and Dean received a letter explaining that he is mentioned in his father's will and if he doesn't attend all the 'events' prior to the reading of the will, then no one will receive their inheritance.

He goes but is far from happy about it. His mother tries to pretend they were a happy family.

My question is: what, if anything, should Dean inherit?

I'm leaning toward him getting more than his mother feels he should. And by that I mean, she thinks he should receive nothing because the last time Dean saw her he told her that she's dead to him. Plus, he got married without inviting her and refuses to tell her his wife's name. What she doesn't know is Dean is married to Carter, who accompanied him to his father's funeral. His exact inheritance would be his father's shares of the family company (60% (which makes him the new chairman of the board)) as well as the apartment in Manhattan.

There's also the option of Dean getting nothing but being specifically mentioned as further insult from a man who considered him a burden.

Or he could get everything and have to decide if he leaves his mother penniless and homeless.

So, dear friends, which would you chose? My daughter suggested Dean receiving an inheritance from a family member who is/was more powerful than his father but I'm not sure how to work that into his father's will.

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[book] The whipping boy ~Sid Fleischman

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