knight_tracer | Reading

trobadora posting in

Unwritten (3,017 words) [Teen]
Relationship: Ya Qing/Zhu Hong
Characters: Ya Qing, Zhu Hong, Ying Chun, Snake Tribe's Fourth Uncle
Content Tags: Post-Canon, Post-Fix-It, Guardian Treaty, Yashou Worldbuilding, Yashou History, Fu You's Legacy, High Chief Zhu Hong, Pre-ship, First Kiss

Summary: It's foolish to have a quarrel with a dead woman, but Ya Qing does. She's had it for years, ever since she began to realise how much the Guardian Treaty and Yashou neutrality were holding her people back. Fu You's legacy looms large among all the Yashou tribes, and everything Ya Qing did was to try and escape it.

denise posting in

dw_maintenance

It's been a while since we've done a full code push rather than just hotfixes for bugs, so we are well overdue! Depending on availability, we're aiming to do one sometime soon; we'll let you know specifics once we've worked out good timing for everyone who needs to be available.

However! The reason it's been so long is we kept trying to get some of the stuff that's pending to "really finished" instead of just "mostly finished", and then we once again looked around and went "oh no, this is a really big code push with a lot of changes". Those make us nervous, because while we do a lot of testing ourselves, y'all are really creative in how you use the site and we inevitably find a bunch of edge cases when we let you loose on new code with your real-world data!

So, if folks have some spare time in the next few days, it would be a huge help if you could spend half an hour or so using the site the same way you normally do but with the "Site-Wide Canary" beta features flag turned on. Canary mode is a sort of "live testing" mode: it's your real data, but running the most up-to-date code.

Canary mode always does have a few glitches -- there may be missing text strings or errors about missing database properties, which is a limitation of how we run it. We don't need to know about those, but anything else weird that you run into, leave a comment with what you were trying to do and the error message you got.

I'll repeat that the "here be dragons" caution that's on the beta features page: some things may be broken, so don't use it for when you're doing something important. But a few more eyeballs on it before the push will help the push go more smoothly for everyone.

For folks who want to concentrate on what's changing, we haven't finished the second code tour of what's going to be in this push, but the ffirst one has a good chunk of what's going to be going live. (We'll get the second half done ASAP!)

paradisedinermod posting in

paradisediner

Our usual half-yearly round-up of fave tracks is here! You can make your case for your faves in the comments and if we missed something, you can do a write-in vote in the comments.

Poll #34660 Favourite releases of January 2026

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 16

View Respondents

What are your favourite releases of January 2026?

View Answers

1verse - WABIF (Wide Awake Before I Fall)
0 (0.0%)

8TURN - Bruise
2 (12.5%)

Alpha Drive One - Freak Alarm
2 (12.5%)

Apink - Love Me More
2 (12.5%)

AxMxP - Pass/Thereafter
0 (0.0%)

Billlie - Cloud Palace
2 (12.5%)

can't be blue - should be you
2 (12.5%)

Catch the Young - Amplify
0 (0.0%)

ChRocktikal - Peace
3 (18.8%)

Chuu - XO, My Cyberlove
2 (12.5%)

CNBLUE - Still, a Flower / Killer Joy
0 (0.0%)

Comma - Toxic Sugar
0 (0.0%)

DIA - Dance!
0 (0.0%)

DK x Seungkwan - Blue
1 (6.2%)

dodree - Just Like A Dream
2 (12.5%)

Enhypen - Knife
0 (0.0%)

EXO - Crown
3 (18.8%)

Forestella - Nella Notte
0 (0.0%)

H1-KEY - 세상은 영화 같지 않더라
2 (12.5%)

Ha Sungwoon - Tell the World
0 (0.0%)

Hwina - Hello, Sara
0 (0.0%)

i-dle - Mono (feat. Skaiwater)
2 (12.5%)

Illit - Sunday Morning
2 (12.5%)

Inseong - Mute is Off
0 (0.0%)

ISH, E. SO - Between You and I
0 (0.0%)

Joohoney - The Sting
1 (6.2%)

Katseye - Internet Girl
1 (6.2%)

Kiiikiii - Delulu / 404 (New Era)
7 (43.8%)

La Poem - Meant to Be
1 (6.2%)

Latency - It Was Love
0 (0.0%)

Lee Jiham - Forever Mine
0 (0.0%)

Lightsum - Beautiful Pain
1 (6.2%)

Lngshot - Moonwalkin'
1 (6.2%)

Lola - TATz
0 (0.0%)

M.O.N.T - History
0 (0.0%)

MISAMO - Confetti
0 (0.0%)

Momoland - White Spring
0 (0.0%)

n.SSign - Funky Like Me
0 (0.0%)

NCT Wish - Hello Mellow
1 (6.2%)

Oneus - Grenade
2 (12.5%)

Onewe - Ferris Wheel
0 (0.0%)

POW - Come True (feat. Shin Onyu)
0 (0.0%)

Re:Hearts - Persona
1 (6.2%)

Shin Soohyun - Gray.
0 (0.0%)

TNX - Call Me Back
0 (0.0%)

Waker - Like That
1 (6.2%)

WHIB - Rock the Nation
2 (12.5%)

XG - Hypnotize
3 (18.8%)

yesweare (idntt) - Pretty Boy Swag
1 (6.2%)

Young Posse - Visa / Pilot 3 / Lose Your Shxt
1 (6.2%)

Zerobaseone - Running to Future / Roses
1 (6.2%)

mific posting in

fancake

Fandom: Heated Rivalry
Characters/Pairings: Shane Hollander/Ilya Rozanov, OMC
Rating: Explicit
Length: 10,048
Content Notes: no AO3 warnings apply
Creator Links: LavenderProse on AO3
Themes: Journey and travel, Mutual pining, Established relationship, Huddling for warmth, Missing scenes

Summary: He crowds Shane into the hood of the car, hands up under his shirt and jacket again. October is getting cold; nights are getting colder. The places where Ilya is touching him are the only parts of Shane’s body that are warm right now. Maybe that’s why he wraps his arms around Ilya’s neck and clings to him, though he doesn’t necessarily surprise himself with it. They don’t even kiss for a moment. Ilya busies himself breathing into the crook of Shane’s neck, trying to regain control. Shane opens his eyes and gazes over Ilya’s shoulder at the dark field and realizes that an utterly foreign feeling has risen up in him. It’s Ilya’s broad shoulders and beautiful hair between Shane and the world and he feels — small. Protected.
“Oh my God,” Shane whispers, completely ashamed of the feeling and hungry for it. It curls warm in his stomach. His toes arch inside his shoes. Something about being so close to this man, something about Ilya putting himself between Shane and — the world. Whatever lurks in the deep night. It’s a feeling like a ghost, something that Shane isn’t allowed to look directly at except for moments like these. Quiet and dark.

Shane, Ilya, Vermont. Meeting in the middle.

Reccer's Notes: This is set during the episode four montage of hook-ups, with Shane and Ilya driving some distance (and in Shane's case, crossing a national border) to meet up a couple of times in Vermont, midway between Montreal and Boston. At this stage they still haven't admitted their feelings, but the logistics, and an unexpected interruption, lead to them spending more time together than usual. Excellent writing, amusing and poignant, with lovely intimacy and hotness. Great sense of place in both locations where they meet (surprisingly outdoorsy for city-boy Ilya, especially given the weather). Recommended!

Fanwork Links: I Was Raised Out in the Cold

paradisedinermod posting in

paradisediner

What are you working on? Stuck on a plot point and want to talk it out? Have a canon question or looking for a resource? Anything and everything about your WIPs is welcome. Any kind of WIP counts, including fic, fanart, graphics, meta, icons, etc.

Optional questions are below. If there's something else you want to say about your WIP, please add it and we can update the meme.

You can contribute to the post until we put up the next WIP Wednesday! We are embracing the slower pace of Dreamwidth.

[ New Music Monday | Rec Something Wednesday | Monthly General Chat | Comment Fest ]

mific posting in

fancake

Fandom: Heated Rivalry
Characters/Pairings: Shane Hollander/Ilya Rozanov, Scott Hunter/Kip Grady, Cliff Marleau, Eric Bennett, Carter Vaughn, Yuna Hollander, David Hollander, Greg Huff, JJ Boizeau, Hayden Pike, Jackie Pike, Gloria Grey, Svetlana Vetrova
Rating: Teen
Length: 6606
Content Notes: no AO3 warnings apply
Creator Links: Cricket_Writes on AO3
Themes: Journeys and Travel, Road Trips, Friendship, Teams, Families of choice, AU: Fork in the road, Pining

Summary: “Holy shit,” Carter says from the stall next to Scott, also staring at his phone. “Did you all see about Rozanov and Hollander?” The way Vaughan says it, it doesn’t sound like good news. Carter thrusts his phone in Scott’s face, and he takes it, pulls it back so the headline will focus. HOCKEY STARS CAUGHT IN STEAMY AFFAIR, the headline proclaims, and Scott skims through it quickly. Rozanov and Hollander, years—years?!—worth of videos and photos leaked. Scott is in an NHL locker room, watching his worst nightmare happen to someone else. Holy shit.

Reccer's Notes: This is a reversal of canon, as Shane and Ilya are outed much earlier and that kick-starts Scott into coming out and resolving things with Kip. After the public outing, Scott, Carter and Eric embark on a long (there and back) road trip from New York to Shane and Ilya's very suddenly organised wedding in Montreal. It's a lovely fic told from Scott's POV, in which Shane and Ilya are crucial but largely in the background, and are overwhelmed by the support of their friends, teams, and family, while Scott finally gathers the courage to love Kip openly.

Fanwork Links: Scott Hunter's Life-Changing Road Trip

full_metal_ox posting in

fancake

Fandom: Mo Dao Zu Shi
Pairings/Characters: M/M; Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji/Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian
Rating: General Audiences
Length: 57 words; 26:47
Content Notes: No AO3 Warnings Apply; winter weather as relentless atmosphere and adversary; public transportation as a liminal zone; possible unreality—the situation is open to interpretation.
Creator Tags:
Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Podfic, Podfic Length: 20-30 Minutes, Audio Format: MP3, Audio Format: Streaming, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending
Creator Links: (AO3)

flamingwell, (Tumblr)

flamingwell
Theme: Journey & Travel, Hurt/Comfort, Inspired Work, Modern AU, Non-Fic Recs: Fanart, Non-Fic Recs: Podfics

(Image description (Cut for length): ( Continue. )

Summary: When he came to, the bus was on the freeway. The windows were dewed with drops of melted snow that shone with captured light. Outside, traffic was at a standstill. Dingy slush covered the roads, gradually accumulating as snow drifted down from the woolen sky, the flakes picked out in sharp contrast where they plunged into the light of streetlamps and headlights. Wei WuXian laughed softly to see it. When he turned away from the window, he saw that the beautiful man from earlier was still sitting next to him, watching him with an expression that might, optimistically, be called inquisitive.

“The snow,” Wei WuXian said, gesturing outside. “It looks like champagne bubbles, only going the wrong way.” He laughed again, and rubbed his head. “Have you ever felt drunk, but been pretty sure you weren't drinking? Haha, no, never mind me. I'm just tired.” He rubbed a hand over his face, wanting desperately to sleep.

Podfic of Night Bus by Suspicious_Popsicle.

Author’s Notes: (Cut for length): ( Continue. )

Reccer's Notes: Suspicious_Popsicle’s tale of an encounter between a sore-pressed traveler and a mysterious benefactor in an isolated and enveloping environment, with the ambiguity of possible supernature in play and a twist ending that leaves room for continuing speculation, has many of the elements of a classic Old-Time Radio drama, in the fashion of Quiet, Please or Lights Out!

flamingwell understood the assignment. Her delicate and hushed narrative voice is a perfect vehicle for the subject, animated by Wei Wuxian’s nervous chatter—gradually devolving from restless to febrile to fading—and punctuated by Lan Wangji’s dark temple-bell solemnity.

Fanwork Links: [Podfic] Night Bus, by

flamingwell: https://archiveofourown.org/works/77059901
Collections:
Mic-bearing Podtriarchs
Voiceteam Mystery Box 2025

paradisedinermod posting in

paradisediner

The regular weekly post for us to talk about any and all of our thoughts about the week's new releases.

Jung Seunghwan - As If
AND2BLE - Curious (debut)
Boyfriend - Starlit Voices (밤하늘을 수놓던 우리 목소리)
Alpha Drive One - OMG!
J.seph - Easy
XLOV - Serve
Jinsol - Too Cool to be Grown-Ups
IDID - Fly!
IVE - Lucid Dream (Japan)
Soran - ceremony (feat. Miyeon (i-dle))
H//PE Princess - One Day (debut)
Onewe - Icarus
Heart of Woman (H.O.W) - How not to lose myself (lost in proof)
Ahn Yeeun - Deny
Queenz Eye - Y2K
aespa - Lemonade
Krystal - PWLT
BoA - Ain't No Hard Feelings

New MVs are also added to an ongoing Youtube playlist.

Last week's MVs: 18 May

Feel free to add new comments in the replies for songs/MVs we missed.

[ Rec Something Wednesday | WIP Wednesday | Monthly General Chat | Comment Fest ]

birdylion posting in

fancake

Fandom: Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, The Silmarillion
Pairings/Characters: Belladonna Took
Rating: General Audiences
Length: 11440 words
Creator Links:

Thimblerig
Theme: Journey & Travel, Action/Adventure, Backstory, Epistolary, Female Characters, Gen, Pre-Canon

Summary:
Gandalf exclaimed once: 'That I should live to be 'Good morninged' by a son of Belladonna Took!' Bilbo's mum has a story to tell and this is it. Holidays by the Sea, Elves, and much Falling in the Water.

Reccer's Notes:
This is such a lovely story about Belladonna Took, an adventurous hobbit herself. We read/hear it as she writes it down while pregnant with Bilbo, and she tells the story of a journey she took when she was younger and "less respectable". It's an action adventure and quite fun to read and listen to, a really nice background for her.

Fanwork Links: My Adventure, by Belladonna Baggins nee Took on ao3
Podfic of My Adventure, by Belladonna Baggins nee Took read by the author

birdylion posting in

fancake

Fandom: Lord of the Rings
Pairings/Characters: Boromir; Faramir, Aragorn, OCs
Rating: Teen and Up Audiences
Length: 95,516 words
Creator Links:

Scribbler
Theme: Journey & Travel
Previously recommended by

beatrice_otter for the themes pre-AO3, fixit AU, plotty fic, novel-length, family (link to rec)

Summary:
Against all odds, Boromir survives Amon Hen. Ashamed and filled with remorse, he goes on a quest for redemption. Bound by his promise to a sick man, Faramir keeps the secret of his brother's survival. But as secrets are wont to do, the truth comes out eventually and Aragorn journeys north to bring Gondor's prodigal son home.

Reccer's Notes:
Although previously recommended for other themes, this fic is perfect for Journey and Travel as we follow Boromir's travels through Gondor and beyond while he tries to regain the honor he feels he lost on Amon Hên. Again and again he meets new people and sees how the war impacted their lives.
The story encapsulates the aspect of "wandering" that first drew me to LotR: how immediate the surroundings are when you're out by yourself, how much shelter and food matter for this kind of travel, or weather and season. The story spans over a few years, during which he sometimes stays in a place for a few months, often out of necessity. I love how the story shows the physicality of Middle Earth, so to speak. You can feel the distances.

Content Notes

Among other things, this story contains
- canon-typical violence
- death of a beloved pet

Fanwork Links: The Long Road Home on ao3

mific posting in

fancake

Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Characters/Pairings: John Sheppard/Rodney McKay
Rating: Teen
Length: 5473
Content Notes: no AO3 warnings apply
Creator Links: trinityofone on AO3
Themes: Journeys and Travel, Road trips, First time, Friends to lovers, Pining

Summary: “Don’t be silly,” John says. “You’re Bob and I’m Bing; now get in the car and let’s go find ourselves a Dorothy.”

Reccer's Notes: A classic road trip fic, with John and Rodney meandering across the USA toward California. Eventually, after some pining on John's part, the inevitable happens and the trip becomes a metaphor for them wandering towards each other.

Fanwork Links: Looking for Lamour

trobadora posting in

sid_guardian

Guardian Reverse Exchange 2026. Image shows Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan facing each other, gripping the Sundial between them.

The collection is live!

Your gift should be visible in the collection, or on your own AO3 page under "Gifts". Thank you all for another wonderful year of reverse exchanging and glorious fanworks! And thanks especially to our fabulous pinch-hitter

facethestrange, who came to our rescue. ♥ ♥ ♥

We hope you enjoy your gift and the collection as a whole. Please remember to comment on your gift and thank your creator! If there are any problems, let us know ASAP.

Feel free to re-date your entry: edit the work, tick "Set a different publication date" and choose today's date. That way, your work will appear on AO3 as if posted today, rather than when you actually posted it.

Now have fun reading and looking and listening - go admire and enjoy!

*** Happy 520 Day! ***

full_metal_ox posting in

fancake

Fandom: Mo Dao Zu Shi
Pairings/Characters: M/M; Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji/Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian
Rating: General Audiences
Length: 3,343
Content Notes: No AO3 Warnings Apply; winter weather as relentless atmosphere and adversary; public transportation as a liminal zone; possible unreality—the situation is open to interpretation.
Creator Tags: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting
Creator Links: (AO3–locked)

Suspicious_Popsicle, (Dreamwidth)

suspicious_popsicle,(Tumblr-locked)

suspiciouspopsicle

Theme: Journey & Travel, Hurt/Comfort, Modern AU

Summary: When he came to, the bus was on the freeway. The windows were dewed with drops of melted snow that shone with captured light. Outside, traffic was at a standstill. Dingy slush covered the roads, gradually accumulating as snow drifted down from the woolen sky, the flakes picked out in sharp contrast where they plunged into the light of streetlamps and headlights. Wei WuXian laughed softly to see it. When he turned away from the window, he saw that the beautiful man from earlier was still sitting next to him, watching him with an expression that might, optimistically, be called inquisitive.

“The snow,” Wei WuXian said, gesturing outside. “It looks like champagne bubbles, only going the wrong way.” He laughed again, and rubbed his head. “Have you ever felt drunk, but been pretty sure you weren't drinking? Haha, no, never mind me. I'm just tired.” He rubbed a hand over his face, wanting desperately to sleep.

Author’s Notes: For firesonic152.
For my friend, who got stuck on a bus and sent me photos. XD

(See the end of the work for other works inspired by this one.)

Reccer's Notes: A modern AU account of a snowy night when Lan Wangji serves as Public Transit Guardian Angel to an exhausted, dissociating, and hypothermic Wei Wuxian—who has been in far more trouble than he realizes.

(Until the summer of 2023, shanks’ mare and Dayton, Ohio’s city bus system were my primary modes of transportation. This hazy grey winter ghost-story-or-is-it? is anchored in Suspicious_Popsicle’s concrete lived-in detail, nailing the experience of looping interminably around just to shelter from the elements, waiting for the next opportunity for a stop or transfer (better hope you have at least a day pass and a sympathetic driver, and that you don’t drowse off again!) And of trudging wearily forward through the hostile frigid weather in sodden Vimes’ Boots! Boots! Boots!

Suffice to say that the idea of rescue by a steadfast, devoted, and ethereally handsome Saint Bernard held a profound appeal.)

(This hits similar narrative pressure points to

willowcatkin’s Guardian fic The White Umbrella, recced here.)

Fanwork Links: (AO3-locked): Night Bus, by

Suspicious_Popsicle : https://archiveofourown.org/works/16792465
Collections: fics that cured ser’s depression
Inspired Works:
Little Talks, by

firesonic152.
[Podfic] Night Bus, by

flamingwell.

trobadora posting in

sid_guardian

We expect to open the 520 Day Reverse Exchange collection tomorrow at or shortly after 9pm UTC!

If you're like us, that means it's time to get some last-minute edits in. (You can find your entry via your Statistics page on AO3.) If you're not like us, congrats, and what's your secret? *g*

Only one more day to wait! *gets ready to break out the champagne^[1]*

^[1] Or water, or other non-alcoholic alternatives, for Shen Wei and other non-drinkers!

renay posting in

ladybusiness

It’s SFF awards season again.

Many of us are looking at the novella short lists for the popular awards (Hugos, Locus, Nebula) and going, “Ah, another Tor sweep!” When I first got into the Hugo Awards, the short fiction finalists were the magazines: Asimov’s, Fantasy & Science Fiction, and Analog. It also included pieces from short fiction collections from when publishers still let editors put those together, with a smattering of other, lesser known (to me) outlets. I remember the Tordotcom announcement, too! We were excited and we’ve come a long way. Now I get the pleasure of paying almost $30 for a hardcover novella, which I’m not excited about. I'm not made of money, Macmillan! ( Read more... )

sasheneskywalker posting in

fancake

Fandom: Bungou Stray Dogs
Pairings/Characters: Dazai Osamu/Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Dazai Osamu & Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Length: 57,127 words
Creator Links:

valleykey
Theme: journey & travel, trans & non-binary characters, ambiguous relationships, non-sexual intimacy, road trips, hurt/comfort

Summary: Fyodor’s weak heart thuds violently within its cage of flesh and bone, ba-thump. Dazai’s knife kisses cold on the skin of their throat. They swallow, and the bob of their Adam’s apple against it draws blood.

“Alright,” Fyodor decides, “let’s find a way to die.”

// In the Decay’s aftermath, Fyodor and Dazai quietly slip through the cracks, and set on a journey.

Reccer's Notes: After Fyodor’s defeat, Dazai agrees to a double suicide instead of killing him and the two set off on an unexpected road trip. It’s a fantastic exploration of Dazai and Fyodor’s characters and their relationship. The themes of recovery, philosophy, religion, disability, gender, mental health issues, codependency, and intimacy are handled beautifully, and the writing is absolutely gorgeous <3

Content Notes: suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, self harm, right to suicide stuff, progressive & disabling genetic condition, religious elements, codependency, more detailed content notes in the author's notes

Fanwork Links: tell me we do not live in vain

birdylion posting in

fancake

Fandom: Schitt's Creek
Pairings/Characters: David Rose/Patrick Brewer
Rating: Mature
Length: 30758 words, 2:56h podfic
Creator Links: written by

MoreHuman, podfic available by

Amanita_Fierce
Theme: Journey & Travel, Canon LGBTQ+ characters, AU

Summary:
It’s an attractive thought, that changing your life could be as easy as doing a hard thing.

Instead of moving to Schitt’s Creek, Patrick decides to hike fifteen hundred miles of the Pacific Crest Trail, through the wilderness, alone. He ends up meeting someone else with something to prove.

Reccer's Notes:
This someone, obviously, being David Rose. The story has them meeting while both solo-hiking the PCT and running into each other again and again. The "Journey and Travel" part is not just a backdrop for a different first meeting and getting together. Instead, the difficulties they face on their journey feel true to my experience of long distance hiking in spirit if not in detail, loving and awe-inspiring descriptions of the landscape included.

The fic also inspired a very well produced podfic that is 100% worth listening to if you like podfics.

Fanwork Links: Fifteen Hundred Miles on ao3
podfic of Fifteen Hundred Miles on ao3