a red dragonfly

thanks so much anon!! PQ did a show a couple of months ago in Adelaide. There’s a full video, but here’s the Stars only:

I have two tabs open. one is tumblr. I am 160 posts back on my dashboard - I have made it back to the place I left off the night before.

satisfied, I open the second tab to pull up a post-avengers fanfic. everyone lives together in stark tower - each of them has their own floor. for no explained reason, loki shares thor’s. no one questions that he has not been arrested. the team has friday evening movie nights. at breakfast, thor eats all of tony’s pop tarts.

Before fic tagging was common, fics weren’t tagged. You had a pairing, if applicable, an author’s note about genre or general content, and if they were feeling charitable, a vague content warning. There are even a few genres of fic where even vaguely tagging literally spoils the plot and impact (such as horror, psyche thriller, in which the likely content is implicit to the genre). As a result, there is a basic category tag that permits this, as a courtesy to “old-fashioned” writers.

“No Archive Warnings Apply” means the fic is PG13 at worst, probably fluff, totally safe.

“Choose Not to Use Archive Warnings” is the polar opposite. It’s a glaring Enter at Your Own Risk billboard. It means: a shitload of warnings apply but I ain’t telling because this story requires shock value. It’s very important to read the author’s notes for those fics because they might be using that older format from above.

NO NO NO NO This is 1000% percent wrong.

“No Archive Warnings Apply” means it contains none of the FOUR THINGS that AO3 requires you to warn for if you don’t pick Choose Not to Use Archive Warnings. Those four things are: underage sex, rape/non-con, major character death, and graphic depictions of violence.

A No Archive Warnings Apply story can damn well have a LOT of other things. Most of my EXTREMELY EXPLICIT PWPs have this label, because everyone in them is a consenting adult, they’re not that violent, and nobody dies. They are full of graphic kinky sex of all flavors, and my summaries and other tags reflect this. Probably the majority of E (explicit)-rated smut fics on AO3 have this. They are also not guaranteed fluff: there are very sad angsty stories, there are horror stories, there are suspense stories, manipulation and abuse stories, all sorts of potentially upsetting things etc that all have that label - as long as there’s no rape, underage sex, really graphic (like R-rated level) violence, or major character death, that’s totally legit.

(My fic titles lately: Mumford and Sons lyric, Mumford and Sons lyric, which Mumford and Sons lyric should I use?, oh here's one titled after a lyric that isn't from Mumford and Sons, gosh this one isn't titled after a-- oh wait it is it's just a lyric from the actual show, etc. etc.)

just one more thing…

…

I hadn’t ever thought about it as a comfort thing, though admittedly when I was younger and a really, REALLY restless sleeper, I slept without a top sheet because I would wake myself up tangling up in it. As I got older, into my late teens, that calmed down, but I was a lazy fuck and it was one more thing to wash, so I didn’t sleep with a topsheet for a long time.

I do think it should be noted that duvets aren’t really new or novel – my boomer parents had comforters/duvets since they were kids, and coming from cold climates my family often put a topsheet on top of the duvet as well, which is apparently an old Swedish trick. 

For a lot of people it’s a hygiene thing, and eventually for me it became that too – I don’t know about you but I wash my sheets way more often than my duvet, and everyone sleeps gross, we sweat and shed and all the rest, so it’s better to have the stuff touching your skin washed more often rather than less. But I don’t think it’s particularly stinky or a health risk to sleep just under a duvet, I’m just kind of fastidious about feet and armpits.

I use a top sheet now, for hygiene and because I find I like the layered feel of it – with a bit of an air layer between the sheet and the duvet, you trap more warm air and stay warmer in the winter, while in the summer sometimes I kick the blanket off and just sleep under the sheet. 

So I don’t know about important, but I do think it has some use. That said, utility does not mean necessity, so if you don’t want to use one I don’t see why you should. 

The Valvert Tarot has been proofed and published, and is available for purchase here! (It’s about $20 USD.)

https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/the-valvert-tarot1

This deck includes a total of thirty hand drawn black-and-white cards. Twenty-two are Major Arcana cards, and are eight interpretation cards, which have the Major Arcana listed by number, followed by a Brick quote and brief guide. 

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I am honored and humbled, @ao3tagoftheday. You are doing such good work within fandom and I read you all the time and I am pleased to be a tiny part of your glory. 

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