creatures!
Apr. 30th, 2026 10:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kaberettWent into town this afternoon to post some things, and observed Several Creatures. The blue butterfly around the lilac near the top of the hill was very welcome; the Egyptian goslings are starting to look almost grown up, with eye markings and a general reduction in fluff and increase in sleek!
(Elsewise today: SLEEP, post-gym Spatzen, more free electrons and therefore more laundry; both social and solitary wiggles; good therapy; and some Tentatively Positive Communication re Admin: the LRP.)
Persuasion, A Book, Two Movies, and a Fic Rec
Apr. 30th, 2026 03:05 pmmuccamukkPersuasion (2007)
This is the one with Sally Hawkins and Rupert Penry-Jones, which was that generation's attempt to adapt Jane Austen to Appeal to the Youth! I have no idea if it appeals to the youth, but its honestly always been my favourite version, aside from a few quibbles.
Both the leads are perfect. I know Penry-Jones is probably too pretty, but he's also very pretty, so I can't complain, and he sells being impulsive and set in his ways so you can see why he's 50% of the idiots in love brigade. Sally Hawkins is selling quiet misery, occasionally broken by being one of the few people with her head on straight. It's great. It's also really fun to get Tony Head as Sir Walter, Alice Krige as Lady Russel, and Tobias Menzies as Mr. Elliot.
I also really like the soundtrack, which sells a relentless, almost oppressive, urgency of forlorn hope.
It's only 92 minutes, so chop chop chop to get through it, which mostly works. What they cut generally makes sense, and the story holds together as its own thing. Is throwing in a sub plot where Anne thinks Wentworth is engaged to Louisa gilding the lily? Probably! But I very much enjoy the extra angst, so no complaints here.
My three quibbles are: 1) It's part of the '00s War on Colour. Why is Anne's shawl the only visible colour in almost every scene? What did colour ever do to ITV? 2) I'm not sure Medic!Anne was needed to show that she's the only one who can handle a crisis, naval officers included. 3) WHY DID THEY CUT THE LETTER WRITING SCENE!? OMG! It's the most iconic scene in the book, and they cut it.
Persuasion (1995)
I'm sorry, roommate I had fifteen years ago, this version isn't actually the best one :(
For some reason, I thought this one was much longer, but it's actually only 105 minutes. However, that's enough time to include more scenes from the book, which shows off the Crofts' marriage being the best, how much Wentworth basically moved in to Uppercross, and we get the letter writing scene at the end. We also get a bit more Mr. Elliot, to show off why Anne was even vaguely interested him when he doesn't look like Tobias Menzies. Colour is also allowed! Yay! Colour!
This version is hilariously invested in the Royal Navy aspect, so everyone wears their uniforms at all times, which... IDK if accurate? It also includes scenes from a HMS Bounty movie. They want all the boats! Which I can live with. I like boats.
I'm not as hot on the casting though. Amanda Root is luminous, and a lot more interior as Anne, which I appreciated. Nenya thought she looked too '90s (maybe makeup?), but I didn't notice. Both Lady Russel and Mrs. Cross did look off puttingly '90s though. I said, "They have faces that have seen a smartphone, which is impressive in a show made before they had smartphones!" I did like Corin Redgrave as Sir Walter. But Wentworth. Oh, man. I really hate to say this, because I adore Ciarán Hinds, and he's very beautiful when he's sad, but I think he was terribly miscast. He's fifteen years too old for the role, off the bat, which makes such a difference because it makes so much less sense that he's 50% of the idiots in love brigade. And he has too much gravitas; I just don't buy him as having that mix of inexperience and intensity that makes Wentworth make all his bad decisions.
Anyway, got some good points, didn't really come off for me? I wish I could graft the missing scenes and some colour into the 2007 one, which would then be perfect.
Incidentally: they both have an added scene where Wentworth shows up to ask if Anne's going to want the house back, pretending to be asking for his sister, when he really wants to double check if she's marrying Mr. Elliot. I assume one copied from the other? Is there some alternate version of the book? What is happening?
Persuasion (1817)
Still great! Absolutely platonic ideal of mutual pining. Also very funny, and incredibly economic pacing and style.
I do wonder, though, if Austen had more time to edit it, if she'd have smoothed out some of the second half. There's never any real danger that Anne is going to marry Mr. Elliot, because she never really trusts him, which makes needing a full chapter to explain why he's The Worst feel a bit out of left field?
I was then toying with the idea of a fic wherein Mr. Elliot had somehow gotten Anne to marry him, because more pining! Why not!? I went see if there was one, and found this absolute gem:
Murder by Mischance by
Fandom: Persuasion
Word Count: 28,000
Rating: Teen
Summary: Mr Elliot, through some minor scheming, has secured himself Anne Elliot’s hand in marriage. Unfortunately ‘death do us part’ comes around much faster than anticipated, in the form of a dagger swiftly separating him from his life. His Majesty’s Coroner Mr Edmund Simpson investigates the foul murder and quickly finds that most people in Bath prefer Mr Elliot dead to alive. But who did them all the favour in bringing it about? The not-so-bereaved widow? The dashing and very angry rival? The jealous sister? Or someone else entirely with a motive yet to be uncovered?
Notes: This is very funny, and grabs the absolute chaos of the novel, where you need a chart to figure out who everyone is and how they're related. It's also got an enjoyable outsider PoV some very nice angry pining from both Wentworth and Anne. Not sure why minor Discworld crossover, but Sure! Why not!? It's tagged with a major archive warning for rape, which refers to an off-page sexual assault. There's a sequel which I haven't read.
May not completely scratch the itch, but probably enough that I don't need to write another version of basically that plot.
Any adaptations I missed? I'd be happy to continue to splash around in the feels.
Black belt
Apr. 30th, 2026 05:01 pmpegkerrI have been decluttering, and I finally threw out my old karate bag this week, with all my old, moldering sparring equipment. I will clearly not use it again.
But I am grateful for what karate brought to my life--even if my knees and hips are not.
BRs: Family Matters, Private Adoption Handbook, Sicilian Mafia, Gang Leader..., Fighter's Heart
Apr. 30th, 2026 02:12 pmjuushikaTitle: Family Matters: Secrecy and Disclosure in the History of Adoption
Author: E. Wayne Carp
Published: Harvard University Press, 1998
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 320
Total Page Count: 569,310
Text Number: 2154
Read Because: as above, borrowed from Open Library
Review: In a sentence: "How many and how quickly adoption professionals embraced the practice of open adoption, however, is impossible to calculate, given the lack of accurate statistics on adoption in America." This is American adoption history, particularly 1900s American adoption history, which means it's pure vibes in both practice and coverage, a pendulum of trends that reflected larger social changes more than adoptee needs, messy in recollection, period sources and Carp's analysis supported by "just trust me bro." Frustrating! But insightful, particularly for the vibes, if you're content with the 1998 cutoff, which I am.
Title: The Private Adoption Handbook: A Step-By-Step Guide to the Legal, Emotional, and Practical Demands of Adopting a Baby
Author: Stanley B. Michelman, Meg F. Schneider, and Antonia van der Meer
Published: Villard Books, 1988
Rating: 1.5 of 5
Page Count: 220
Total Page Count: 569,530
Text Number: 2155
Read Because: as above, borrowed from Open Library
Review: I wanted a period insight into what potential adoptive parents were thinking and facing and doing circa 1988; this is that in all its glory, the ugliness of choosing a child laid bare by every -ism and questionable practice of the period. Sure wish I could give my brain a deep-clean after reading, but I appreciate it as a resource, even if, and I say this emphatically, ew.
Also read the pertinent (adoption-relevant, not how2baby) sections of Our Child: Preparation for Parenting in Adoption: Instructors's Guide by Carol A. Hallenbeck (1984). It's so hard to find (from the comfort of my couch) parenting & adoption guides of this era. Everything's been updated, because, as Carp writes, the conversation around adoption has changed a lot: telling, chosen child, and the basic mechanics of open and closed adoptions... Anyway, a useful, glancing view of where the conversation was in upper middle class Pennsylvania 1984, which probably can't be generalized but which is better than nothing.
Title: The Sicilian Mafia: The Business of Private Protection
Author: Diego Gambetta
Published: Harvard University Press, 1996
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 75 of 345
Total Page Count: 569,605
Text Number: 2156
Read Because: as above
Review: Peaceable DNF at 30%, although I skimmed the next third. I don't actually care about the mafia; I'm reading a couple books about organized crime to understand how structures overlap and differ. This frontloads theory, positing the mafia as a business, specifically supplying protection in an environment of distrust. The rest of the book applies that framework to the Sicilian mafia up until the 1990s. Dry, not interwoven or narrativized, and so not a pleasure read; but for giving me what I wanted upfront and no frills, I appreciate that approach.
Title: Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets
Author: Sudhir Venkatesh
Narrator: Reg Rogers, Stephen J. Dubner, Sudhir Venkatesh
Published: HarperAudio, 2008
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 300
Total Page Count: 569,905
Text Number: 2157
Read Because: as above, audiobook borrowed from the Timberland Regional Library
Review: The title is catchy but deceptive; this is about a grad student's hands-on study of the residents of Robert Taylor Homes, a public housing project in Chicago. Successfully narrativized, it reads fluidly and roots investment in the subjects of study as people rather than statistics; and invites judgement and centralizes the unresolved mental gymnastics of being adjunct to questionable practices. The human angle means minimal theory and data, and frankly I could have done with more, but minimal surprises: the how what why of gangs and social networks in the projects is explicable when it's people making do, perhaps to the point of simplification. This is fine—it's readable and got me to look at stuff I hadn't looked at before, so, thanks.
Title: A Fighter's Heart: One Man's Journey Through the World of Fighting
Author: Sam Sheridan
Published: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2007
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 320
Total Page Count: 570,225
Text Number: 2158
Read Because: as above, borrowed from Open Library
Review: People sure are out there living lives. Full disclosure, I skipped all references to dog fighting; I don't need to anger myself. This is strongest when it's most personal, one man's journey through the world of fighting; weakens when it diffuses to become this book, tackling the subject from a diverse perspective, the cast of characters unwieldy and focus scattered, uniting in underwhelming philosophizing on the theme: why fight? It's a by-the-book (ha) resolution to a question more sincerely answered when the answer is less forced. But for what I wanted, a glimpse into the rising arc of MMA, into the interdisciplinary world and the lingo of fighting, I can't complain. I mean, I can, I just did (here's another: a sexism so persistent it's almost quaint), but I still got what I came for.
Requiem for a Back Deck
Apr. 30th, 2026 08:58 pm![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
scalziwhatever_feed
After 30 years of existence, our back deck is no more… at least for the few days it will take to build the new one. The previous deck had given good service, but over the years it had become splintery and a bit rickety (when the contractor was pulling it up, he pointed out to Krissy the places where the house’s original owner had clearly cut some corners) and it was time to swap it out with something able to withstand the next few decades. On top of that, Krissy wants the deck covered, to make it more comfortable on hotter summer days.
As noted earlier, we already needed our front porch railing redone, so why not get it all taken care of in one swoop. So here we are. It’s still mildly shocking to see the lack of a deck, and I imagine the cats, who are used to wandering around on the back deck, are going to be befuddled for a bit. Fortunately, the new deck will not take too long to put up (knock on the wood that will go into making it).
In the meantime, here’s some dirt! There used to be a deck on it! And there will be again. Soon.
— JS
[Challenge #193: Élan] Friends: 'Ragged'
Apr. 30th, 2026 02:19 pmbut_can_i_be_trusted posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
vocab_drabblesFandom: Friends
Author:
but_can_i_be_trustedRating: G
Word Count: 100
Characters/Pairings: Rachel Greene, Monica Geller
Warnings: None
Notes: Crossposted to
anythingdrabbleSummary: “Oh. You scared me,” she breathed
( Ragged )
Location cues on social media can change how people judge posts
Apr. 30th, 2026 04:40 pmphys_social_feedFanatical Kodansha manga bundle
Apr. 30th, 2026 04:57 pmmythicmistress posting in anime_mangaAdmittedly, this isn't as good as buying from Humble Bundle (no charities involved), but the first tier here does include the first volume of each for just $1.00 total. The total 54 volume bundle (tier 3) is $24.99.
(please let me know if I'm overstepping...)
Tired brain
Apr. 30th, 2026 07:58 pmcosmolinguistBefore he left for his date this evening, D asked me "after dinner, why don't you ask [local pal) if they want to go for a pint at [place]?
It is wonderful weather for a beer in the sunshine (still 67°F!) so I can see why he asked this.
But I already had such a busy day of meetings, most of which actually involved thinking really hard, that I was already tired of thinking and talking before my counseling session started.
Some very thinky meetings today: a small group trying to wrap our heads around a proposed new train ticketing system which we have to understand well enough to anticipate what barriers it poses to disabled people, and more internal meetings which have been pretty navel-gazey lately. Last year's restructure means we're working on revising our Purpose (which needed doing, the last one was terrible, but while I love this abstract stuff it's something a lot of people struggle to engage with. And we're doing a theory of change to a new model which I actually think is worth what we paid for the consultant who brought it to us, because it's getting us to ask questions like "how will we know if our campaign has been successful?" but also that's very hard to answer sometimes when you're dealing with things that resist easy measurement or even baselining. And also there are just so many things I don't know, nobody here knows: how do various processes internal to a local/combined authority work? Who is responsible for the Scottish cycling guidance?
So yeah. It's been nice to just spend the evening eating my pizza and listening to chill ambient music and reading my library books.
Harry the spy
Apr. 29th, 2026 09:16 pmcosmolinguistI have so far enjoyed the podcast Be Gay Solve Crimes, where three trans women assert that all detectives are transgender.
I love the premise (I'm even paying for the bonus episodes!), but after a dozen or so episodes I'm increasingly unsettled that these fictional male detectives are mostly talked about as "eggs" (a word some trans women use for their pre-transition selves; the moment of coming out to themselves is described as "their egg cracking"), and these fictional women are mostly talked about as fully-formed trans women.
The occasional background character is claimed to be transmasc, so it's not exactly erasure I'm complaining about. Feels more like a version of "the only good thing a man can do is transition,"* which is a possibly-unkind* shorthand I've adopted for the feeling I get from online spaces or statements that position themselves as universally trans but then end up being about things specific to (white) trans fems/women.
I've been telling myself I'm being unfair and too sensitive. But today's episode about Nancy Drew is making me sad. (Partly because it makes me wonder if Harriet the Spy is a certainty for a future episode as I'd initially thought it'd be; is that also a literary fixture only for USians?)
There's nothing wrong with knowing your audience, but to hear early in this episode "If you're a boy -- which, I imagine, that's not many people listening! you might find out something really important real soon!" in this episode about a girl I related strongly but differently to when I was a kid reading all these books. I can understand wanting to identify with a girl who's strong and clever and who barely even has a boyfriend and who's a bit odd -- this is the premise of the podcast really: the kind of detectives you get in fiction are of course very different from the people they're surrounded by, and once you feel (at least) one kind of difference it's easy (or easier) to feel affinity with other people who don't fit in.
And while there certainly are -- and, I hope, more all the time! -- fully-realized trans women who are in the vague older-teenager age range that Nancy Drew is, fully au fait with the Online touchstones that indicate a woman is trans (whether that be a disinterest in male partners or what the hosts perceive as an old chunky laptop which would've been cutting edge when the movie they're watching, from 2007, was made but they're all such infants that they were in elementary/primary school then so only know such things as hallmarks of retrocomputing and/or poverty), this isn't what I was expecting from the podcast.
I expected some of the assigned-female-at-birth characters to be pre-transition men. I expected their reading of Poirot to be transmasc -- he's short, he's dapper, he's obsessed with his mustache... he's right up there with Gomez Addams in this feels like an exaggerated stereotype except I also know people who are literally like this levels of transmasc representation.
And it's not just characters but their reading of characteristics that baffles me sometimes.
- They mention Trying to Make the Hat Work as "deeply egg-coded behavior," but I only had to work so hard on that pre-transtion! There was some allusion to this in an earlier episode too, like if cis men think they can pull of a hat they not only can't, they aren't even really men. Which might have been these women's experience but I think they're overgeneralizing: a lot of men (cis and trans!) can Make the Hat Work! I find them way more fun now than I used to.
- The podcast host I like the best says that any "quote unquote guy" who wears (US English)suspenders/(UK English)braces is an egg, and they're not just a wardrobe staple for me but a godsend because I'm so short but also because they help hide my wide hips (by wearing (US)pants/(UK)trousers that fit my hips but sit at my waist, suspenders keep them there without having to cinch my torso in half, which is less comfortable and also draws unwanted attention to the shape of my body. Suspenders also distract a bit from the way my chest looks in a binder (I won't wear them without one, of course), and break up the lines of my torso in a useful way.
- And then (UK)waistcoats/(US)vests! (Why does this have to involve all the clothing items that I have bilingual terms for?? Or is that just all of them? Hm...) Which is so funny because immediately when I started my new job I was like "what if I became a waistcoat guy?" and the first time I needed to dress up fancy, I went to Slaters and bought one. It's still as dressed up as I get, because suits are the wrong shape for me (without paying for bespoke tailoring, which isn't an expense I can justify when I don't really need to wear a suit ever). And anyway testosterone has made me too warm all the time -- I'm not quite a shorts-all-year-round kind of guy but I'm way closer to that than I ever thought I would be. And, again, it helps hide the binder! And hips!! Whichever old English king it was who was too fat to button the last button on his waistcoat so the whole court had to start wearing them like that and now we all do...that guy was such a trans ally; I don't think I could button that button on mine! But I'm not supposed to! Marvelous.
Anyway, that's more than enough sartorial commentary from me, far more than I ever thought I'd do. But the point is, it's really odd to have stuff that's so obviously one way for me described as so obviously in a venn diagram circle that doesn't really overlap with that at all.
Writing this all out did make me feel better: I enjoyed the podcast episode more, and in talking about this on fedi I ended up wiht two new library books: Harriet the Spy and a recommended book with a transmasc Watson (The Affair of the Mysterious Letter by Alexis Hall), which I'm looking forward to.
*: Though, potential unkindness aside, it seems I'm not even exaggerating: a Black transmasc activist that I know has told me that he's heard people say this in as many words: the only good thing a cis man can do is transition. Oof.)
come closer and see
Apr. 30th, 2026 08:38 pmwwdn_feedI want to take a moment and say thank you for all the messages of comfort and support that so many of y’all have shared with me since Marlowe passed. I haven’t ever felt this kind of grief, for this long, in my life. When I am feeling the most sad, when I’m sobbing until I can’t breathe, I feel closest to her, so all I can do is go through it, honor it, and embrace her memory.
There’s a dog on Instagram called Wesley the Chicken Nugget. I adore him, and I love it when his person shares photos and video of him being a dog, so I completely understand how we can love animals we’ve never met. I know that lots of you loved Marlowe, and that comforts me every day.
So thank you, from Anne and me, for choosing to be kind.
I had to take a couple weeks off from recording stories for It’s Storytime (I’ve come to believe that four or five weeks of bereavement leave isn’t unreasonable) but we’re back to work and there’s a new story this week that I wanted everyone to know about.
It’s called To Carry You Inside You, by Tia Tashiro. Here’s my intro:
I grew up in the entertainment industry, not by choice, so I had a front row seat to the abuse and exploitation of child actors like myself. I grew up absolutely terrified of upsetting anyone on the set, robotically doing whatever I was told, so I could just get through it and have one of the precious and rare hours of my childhood where I got to just be a kid, before I was ripped out of childhood and thrust back into a place I never wanted to be.
Today, we are going to visit a future where child actors are still exploited, still used up and discarded, facing an adult life without purpose, that they were never prepared for, because nobody cared what happened to them past an arbitrary age.
We will meet a young woman who is doing her best to assemble the pieces of a stolen childhood into a fulfilling adult life. It isn’t what she wanted, or would have chosen for herself, but she’s doing her best, which is all any of us can do.
This is one of those examples of speculative fiction that I point to when I talk about the power of storytelling that lands on different people for different reasons. This story isn’t about me, but holy shit is it about me. In fact, when I reached out to Tia and asked for permission to do the narration, I mentioned that she captured the experience of being a child actor so perfectly and honestly, she must have some firsthand experience … imagine my surprise when she told me that she didn’t, that she used her imagination to create those moments.
Holy shit. That’s incredible. Please let me know what you think, if you listen.
Anyway, I’m doing my best to promote the show and just let people know it exists, but I keep getting crushed by the algorithm. On Threads, the posts before and after I talked about the podcast have thousands of views and hundreds of interactions, but my post about this episode has like 20 interactions and has only been seen by about 2000 of the 5000000 accounts that follow me. That seems … odd. And honestly, it’s kind demoralizing that one of the few direct ways I have to tell people this exists seems to work against supporting that. I’ve tried letting Bluesky know, and the 13 people who tend to notice me there are excited about it, I’m sure, but it just doesn’t seem to get traction there at all. If anyone reading this has experience bringing something to an audience who will probably love it, but just don’t know about it, I’d be grateful to hear anything you have to say about it.
Last thing, that is explicitly in service of promotion: If you listen to the podcast, you can help me out by rating and reviewing it wherever you are subscribed. The show’s audience is growing slowly but steadily, and I know it isn’t because of me; it’s because listeners are recommending it. That means so much to me. Thank you.
![[admin post]](//www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/entry/admin_post.png)
Admin Post: Community Check-In for April 2026
Apr. 30th, 2026 04:48 pm![[admin post]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/entry/admin_post.png){kind=small}
goss posting in drawesome
Did you sign up for or take part in any fandom activities in April, or have you been working on any personal art projects? Are you currently trying to meet a deadline? Feel free to share upcoming art challenges that have got you excited, any frustrations you've been experiencing, possible goals for the next month, and so on.
Reminders:
- MerMay begins tomorrow!
- Our community Challenge #77: Windows and Openings continues until the end of May. :)
pictures for April (vacation edition)
Apr. 30th, 2026 04:01 pmpauraque
There were three beaches in very close proximity to where we were staying, one of which was a three-minute walk away (I timed it). That one is called First Beach.
( more beach pics [9 photos] )
( Sachuest Point [5 photos] )
( Norman Bird Sanctuary [3 photos] )
( Newport Art Museum [3 photos] )
( miscellaneous [4 photos] )
( all birds observed on the trip (text only) )
Fortunate son
Apr. 30th, 2026 02:37 pmbill_schubertTwo lunches this week. On Saturday I met with two of my previous employees. We still get together on occasion. One of them has a fiance who also comes to the lunch. On reflection I'm the only one without PTSD and all the resultant symptoms. We talked about that. It is an open group. The couple are both refugees from Johova's Witness families and have been excommunicated and no longer have any relationship with their families. The other two had bad childhoods. Really bad. Everyone's gotten to the point they can talk about it over lunch but it is a bit weird for me.
Then there is today's lunch. Polar opposite. It is with the three business people I met at networking years ago. We meet every month and discuss business and families. The three of them are wildly successful and the same age as my two kids. An insurance agent who has enough money to throw a bunch into another business, which will also be successful, just so his wife can have her own business. They are just taking off and learning what they need to know about the food product business but it will be a million dollar business soon enough.
Then there is the pest control guy whose multi million dollar business is growing by 30% per year. He no longer really needs to do anything with it now as he's done all the work to make it operate on its own, the way business should be He does the marketing and some sales because he wants to buy will soon be staying home more. He has three adopted children in addition to the natural ones. The three adopted ones need some more hands on so he's going to do that more. He's got all the choices he could ever want.
Then there is the woman who owns her own bookkeeping service with half a dozen employees and enough income to employee a consultant, me, to help her grow and get more of her businenss as a process than it is now.
All the people of both lunches are happy, growing, and doing good things in their own area.
And I get to hang out and watch and applaud and enjoy and occasionally make some pithy comment. Their token father figure Buddha.
I received a paycheck today from the bookkeeper. The first half of our agreed upon first initial project pay. There might be more projects but I said let's just go this far for this much and see what we thing. And so I received way too much, of course, for what I feel like I contributed but she's happy and I'm motivated to do more. And it is fun.
If I were one of those people who walked on eggshells waiting for the floor to collapse when things are going well I'd be terrified now. But I'm not. I lean into good fortune and opportunity so I'm pretty happy right now.
And very grateful.
I came home from lunch, opened the door, and was greeted by Beaux galloping towards me in his happy dance to see I'm home.
Icing on the cake.
Updates to “No Fandom” Additional Tags, April 2026
Apr. 30th, 2026 07:34 pmotw_news_feedAO3 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 overviews some of these upcoming changes.
In this round of updates, we continued to adjust existing canonical “No Fandom” tags to add or remove new subtag and metatag relationships. We also continued to streamline creating 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:
- Accidental Confessions
- Accidental Love Confessions
- College | University Students
- Corruption Kink
- Coworkers to Lovers
- Lovers
- Teammates to Lovers
- Dark Academia
- Date Nights
- Drooling
- Fingers in Mouth
- Spitting in Mouth
- First Time Being in Heat
- First Time Being in Rut
- Hard Vore
- Soft Vore
- Hyper Penises
- Implied/Referenced Suicidal Thoughts
- Passive Suicidality
- Suicidal Behavior
- Suicidal Characters
- Medical Malpractice
- Marijuana | Weed Edibles
- Musk Scent
- Political Intrigue
- Slick | Self-Lubricant
- Soft Smut
Subtag/Metatag Revisions
Additionally, we continued to adjust existing canonical tags to add or remove new subtag and metatag relationships, which help users find related content and filter in/out content as they browse works on AO3.
- Cat/Human Hybrids is now a subtag of Hybrids
- Blood and Gore is now a subtag of Gore
- Non-Consensual Oral Sex is now a subtag of Oral Sex
- Trans Female Character is now a subtag of Female Characters
- Canon LGBTQ Character has been removed as a subtag from Canon Sexuality
In Conclusion
While some of these tags may be tags and concepts you’re intimately familiar with, others may be concepts you’ve never heard of before. Fortunately, our fellow OTW volunteers at Fanlore may be able to help! As you may have seen in the comments sections of previous posts, Fanlore is a fantastic resource for learning more about these common fandom concepts, and about the history and lore of fandom in general. For the curious, here’s a quick look at a few articles about concepts related to this month’s new canonical tags:
- Alpha/Beta/Omega Mating Cycles
- College AU
- Dark Academia
- Love Confession
- Smut
- Suicide in Fanworks
- Vore
While we won’t be announcing every change we make to No Fandom canonical tags, you can expect similar updates in the future about 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:
- Past “No Fandom” Additional Tags Updates and 5 Things Said by Wrangling Volunteers
- Past Fandom-Specific and “No Fandom” Tag Wrangling Change Posts
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.
Please keep in mind that discussions about what tags to canonize and what format they should take are ongoing. As a result, not all related concepts will be canonized at the same time. This does not mean that related or similar concepts will not be canonized in the future or that we have chosen to canonize one specific concept in lieu of another, simply that we likely either haven’t gotten to that related concept yet or that it needs further discussion and will take a bit longer for us to canonize it as a result. We appreciate your patience and understanding.
Lastly, we’re still working on implementing changes and connecting relevant user-created tags to these new canonicals, so it’ll be some time before these updates are complete. 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 three months from now to give us adequate time to do so.
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Apr. 30th, 2026 03:00 pmphys_social_feedOdyssey Team Celebrates on a Global Map of Mars
Apr. 30th, 2026 06:19 pmearthobservatory_iod_feedOdyssey Team Celebrates on a Global Map of Mars
Description
Team members past and present from NASA’s 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter mission gathered on April 15, 2026, to celebrate 25 years since the spacecraft’s launch, which took place April 7, 2001. For the occasion, the team rolled out a giant global map of Mars created using imagery from Odyssey’s THEMIS (Thermal Emission Imaging System) infrared camera. The celebration took place at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, which leads the mission.
The post Odyssey Team Celebrates on a Global Map of Mars appeared first on NASA Science.