Gnine

State of Whumptober:
7/31 (24 to go)
2 Biggles, 4 Murderbot, 1 Babylon 5

They're definitely not all whump or even h/c; some of them are just using the day's prompt for a general ficlet. Because it's my journal and I say so.

Turns out writing short h/c snippets for Babylon 5 is extraordinarily hard (at least with the characters I want to write about) due to

spoilers.

the incredibly short window of everyone being happy and getting along before it all goes to hell. You pretty much either need 20K of fixit beforehand, or somehow fit all your little hurt/comfort tropes into like 4 months of canon. (Obviously this pertains primarily to Londo.)

I also did sign up for Out of Order Flash. (Nominations are still open if the thing you want isn't in there.) I currently have no matches; I don't suppose any Biggles people (or Murderbot! or B5!) are around to be ~tempted~.

In other news, it is definitely early fall. Leaves are turning gold and falling! The air smells like autumn! I love this time of year best of all times of year, and yet .... help.

I won't sign up for more exchanges, she said, before being tempted by exchanges. Although this is more a broad smorgasbord of things I'm currently being tempted by.

I'm probably not signing up for Sex Pollen Exchange despite being very tempted. I love the trope, but I suspect signing up to write it for other people would be a great way for my brain to decide it had never seen a sex pollen in its life. (Signups close Aug. 31.)

I'm definitely not doing ficinabox this year (signups 'til Aug. 31) because I'm definitely not up for 10K right now, but I wish the best to all who are throwing themselves on that pyre!

One thing I actually am seriously thinking about signing up for is Out of Order Exchange, a semi-flash exchange for non-linear fic. Currently taking nominations, and the signup window is tiny (Aug. 29-Sept. 1), then there's a 2-week writing period. I just think it sounds like a fun challenge (300 word minimum, 1 fandom minimum for requests/offers).

I also did sign up for fandomgiftbasket, which is taking signups until Sept. 5. This one has no requirement to create anything; you can simply leave prompts (3 fandom minimum) and receive gifts. They do have a tendency towards delays if they have trouble filling all the baskets.

And this year's Whumptober prompts are out! (There is also a Whumptember challenge, because of course there is.) This is like the WORST year to try to write all the Whumptober days, because I have a lot going on that month, but I am so tempted to at least give it a try.

Hide and Seek (5088 words) by Sholio
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Murderbot (TV)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Murderbot & PreservationAux Survey Team (Murderbot Diaries)
Characters: Murderbot (Murderbot Diaries), Dr. Mensah (Murderbot Diaries), Dr. Gurathin (Murderbot Diaries), Dr. Ratthi (Murderbot Diaries), Pin-Lee (Murderbot Diaries), Dr. Arada (Murderbot Diaries), Dr. Bharadwaj (Murderbot Diaries)
Additional Tags: Friendship, Post-Canon, Banter, Fluff, Team Bonding, Hide and Seek, background tv-verse canon pairing (pin-lee/arada)
Summary: Murderbot thinks its humans need more practice not dying under field conditions. The answer is obviously a staged war game, modified for Preservation concerns. (TV-verse with a few minor book elements.)

Apparently I need to write something like this in every fandom I'm in that has some kind of organized team.

I haven't read Hardinge in ages, so I'm catching up some of her books I missed. I started with this one, and really enjoyed it! Although it's not specifically similar to it, I was reminded of Fly By Night in its general vibe - not as dark as some of her books (... I say this about a book in which

slight spoiler

one protagonist's brother ate her sister and that's not even the worst trauma of her life),

with entertainingly unhinged worldbuilding including a kingdom partly ruled by spiders, and kid protagonists caught up in adult politics in which they're not sure which of the various morally gray adults around them they can trust.

( Basic setup/characters/etc )

( Spoilers )