curator-on-ao3

[curator-on-ao3]

A new part in the @startrekpotluck saga I started last year, this time, we are in the middle of a celebration of New Years.

A Taste of The Present with a sprinkle of Future and a dash of Past.

[curator-on-ao3]

caffeinated captains

for @startrekpotluck 2025

[curator-on-ao3]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (TV) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Number One | Una Chin-Riley (Star Trek) & Tom Paris, Tom Paris & Q (Star Trek), Number One | Una Chin-Riley (Star Trek) & Q (Star Trek) Characters: Q (Star Trek), Number One | Una Chin-Riley (Star Trek), Tom Paris Additional Tags: food and utensils as both real and metaphorical, missing scene to two episodes, Episode: s01e01 Caretaker (Star Trek: Voyager), Episode: s02e02 Ad Astra Per Aspera (Star Trek: Strange New Worlds), a smidge of Kelvinverse canon, Strawberries, hot plain tomato soup, Starfleet, Trust, Hope, appreciation Summary: Una Chin-Riley and Tom Paris: two onetime pilots whose lives were flying off course … until they got some help from an unlikely friend.

Thank you to the @startrekpotluck​ organizers for everything you do. I’m excited to add this contribution to the 2025 fest! 🍓🥣🎉

[curator-on-ao3]

Being told to stop using em dashes in my writing because ChatGPT uses them a lot and people might think it's written by AI...

[curator-on-ao3]

Do you have any headcanons for Picard\Crusher?

It’s the morning after in Picard’s quarters. Beverly steps into the shower, radiating bliss and contentment. As the water runs down her face and saturates her hair, a cold realization hits:

there’s no shampoo.

[curator-on-ao3]

I beg you, please stop deleting your fics on ao3.

Please use the orphan function if you don't want to be connected to a fic any longer or if you want to delete your account.

Ao3 is an archive, please use it as such.

[curator-on-ao3]

I beg you to do whatever you want with your fics because you wrote them and your choice to share them can be changed or revoked at any time.

I beg you, please stop deleting your fics on ao3.

Please use the orphan function if you don't want to be connected to a fic any longer or if you want to delete your account.

Ao3 is an archive, please use it as such.

[curator-on-ao3]

I've seen a lot of ff writers apologize for their fic being "self-indulgent" which baffles me cause like is that not the entire concept of fanfiction?????

SAY IT WITH ME FOLKS, "FANFICTION IS SUPPOSED TO BE SELF-INDULGENT"

[curator-on-ao3]

*feels myself slipping* oh I NEED to write a fucked-up story

[curator-on-ao3]

you have to release yourself from the pressure of writing Blorbo from Your Shows in your fics because that's literally impossible. instead you are writing Your Portrayal of Blorbo. everyone has different interpretations and headcanons and focuses on different things when writing characters and that's beautiful.

[curator-on-ao3]

My 2025-entry for @startrekpotluck!

A Five Drinks Problem

Summary: Sometimes it takes five different beverages to get to that cup of coffee. (A post-Endgame -fic)

Fandom: Star Trek: Voyager

Relationship: Kathryn Janeway/Chakotay

Word count: 12593, 6 chapters

Rating: General Audience, No Archive Warnings Apply

Beta: The lovely @pc-corner

Cover Credit: Fic-cover layout by @highlywastedbluejeans and coffee image from foodiesfeed.com

[curator-on-ao3]

Five sentence fic: Margo x Sergei

Tear Down This Wall (Between Us)

Sergei would deny it if anyone asked, ridiculous, a man of science who believed in ghosts.

Except.

His grandparents would hug him and kiss him in his dreams, his childhood friends would pontificate on politics in the passenger seat of his Prius, long-dead people who visited him and helped him feel less alone in this country of Cool Whip and Cheez-Its and very bad borscht.

And Sergei would also deny, if anyone asked, his ache of confusion that Margo had never come to him in this way, her absence a vacuum—like space, he is cognizant of the terrible joke—until there she was in the flickering light of the television, alive, alive, his joy leaping and everything made sense.

Then, after he got to touch her again and he was denied his last hamburger, Sergei was where Margo had never been, learning what she didn’t yet know, and when she fell asleep, he went to her to find out if it would be all right to visit her in her dreams, to spend time together in this way, but he didn’t get a chance to ask because, when he appeared before her, she leapt forward with the spryness of her youth and held him close in an embrace.

[curator-on-ao3]

Chapters: 1/1 (5,926 words) Fandom: Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (TV) Rating: Mature Warnings: Major Character Death Relationships: Philip Boyce/Christopher Pike Characters: Philip Boyce, Christopher Pike Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - American Civil War, era-consistent religiosity, era-consistent heteronormativity, canon-consistent character depression, canon-consistent alcohol use, tent POV, Falling In Love, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Angst, the pain of war Summary: In their tent during the U.S. Civil War, Phil and Chris fall in love, seek respite from the anguish of battles, and almost find peace.

Almost.

[curator-on-ao3]

Insurrection Alpha

Chapters: 2/3 (oh, hello, Tuvok, did you really think I wouldn’t find your holoprogram?)

Fandom: Starfleet RPF (Training Mode), Maquis RPF, Cardassian Spy RPF

Warnings: Major Character Death

Relationships: Janeway & Paris, Chakotay & OC, Chakotay/Seska, Tuvok & the brig

Characters: Voyager ensemble, Maquis ensemble

Additional Tags: mutiny is a creative bounty, training for a maiming, choose your own ending, don’t be fazed by phasers, based on a perhaps-it-could-be-true story, self-insert (derogatory), Seska makes everything better, don’t leave unfinished projects Tuvok, phaser rifles from storage locker three have been malfunctioning

Summary: Chakotay wants to lead a mutiny. Janeway wants to retake her ship. Whose side are you on?

Choose wisely.

Can we talk about how Tuvok wrote a holoprogram fanfic about the crew of Voyager (Worst Case Scenario) and in it, he was a massive jerk who everybody hated? Like, man, are you okay?

[curator-on-ao3]

Hi, I just want to say I’ve been away from Tumblr to try to avoid SNW spoilers. (Filtering hasn’t done the trick in previous seasons.) I hope everyone is well. I’ll be back (to post my Potluck fic if not before). 😘

[curator-on-ao3]

How brilliant is @teitpp, y’all?? I sensed that the comment was most likely spam, but my buddy @teitpp did the analysis to prove it, and I am so darn impressed.

I want to add that a few hours after I got the comment, AO3 deleted the comment from the story and blanked out the user’s stories and most of the user’s profile information. So I’m especially glad that @teitpp got the information to help folks spot a scam while all that was still available—and that AO3 moved quickly to shut down this particular scammer.

Stay safe out there, my friends.

Spotting Spam AO3 Comments - Registered User Accounts Example

My friend @curator-on-ao3 gave me permission to post this example after she spotted this comment on her fic today and wondered if it might be spam or a real fan artist. It can be hard to tell, especially when the comment comes from a registered user account like this. After all, you like to give folks the benefit of the doubt.

What tips my friend off that it might be spam or even a spam bot is the generic comment type. And the way the commenter is leading into soliciting you to pay for art. But this is a somewhat clever spammer. On the surface, the account looks somewhat legit. The account is a year old. The username is not nonsense garbage, and it looks like the user has some fanfics posted. They even added a bio

But there are definitely clear indicators that something fishy is afoot.

1. Theres something off about these fics...

Note the similar (weird) character tags - "Character 5" "character 6" - and limited additional tagging. This author either doesnt want people to find their fics or they are filling in a few random fields at posting to increase the legitimacy of their account. Also note the dates. Despite the account being a year active, the fics are each posted within a few days of eachother - and within a few days of the comment activity. The fics are also each for different fandoms. You can also see that there is little to no activity on them, even the one that has been out for several days only has a handful of hits - this indicates the fics are not grabbing readers from those fandoms. It can be an indication that their content has little to no relation to the fandoms they are posted for.

One of these fics does have a kudo and a comment. So i also looked to see if the fic was resonating with the fandom after all. Amusingly - or tellingly - the comment and kudo are both from another spammer.

(2 girls names and a 2 digit number. Like VeronicaAkira00 hmm what an interesting similarity. Are these the same spammer trying to boost each accounts legitimacy?)

2. The next thing to check: can you find similar comments on other fics. AO3 doesnt have a native way to do this but a seach engine can still provide results.

(I used duck duck go bc google is useless)

Oh look - there are other fics that have been commented on!

(Note this can only search unlocked fics so i would suspect there are more comments that are on locked ones. But it is still notable that for a year old account, DuckDuckGo can only find 2 comments

So i look at each

Yup - not just painfully similar content and a suggestion of doing some type of art for your fic (for a fee) but both comments were posted in the last couple days. And both on Batman fics (I suspect this spammer is going around popular DC universe fandoms).

3. Finally, the sticking point

A link to a 3rd party sight where the spammer can try to scam you for a commission they either wont deliver, will use AI for, will over charge you for, or some combination of these.

Suffice to say this is either a misguided artist seeking commission work. Or a run of the mill spammer. And i lean heavy on the plain old spam side.

Just a reminder: there are real fan artists who do commissions in addition to the fan art they do for themselves. And they deserve your support.

A real fanartist who asks if you would be open to a commission will

be able to direct you not just to their portfolio but to work theyve done for other satisfied customers in their fandoms. Their searchable body of work is likely going to span more than just a year or a few months of time

Most likely (if theyre on AO3) have bookmarks or fics from your fandom - or other fan art done for your fandom.

Have clear guidelines for their commissions - what they will draw, for what price, anything the will not draw

Will do their promotion and marketing on the platforms where they have a following *not* on random fics ao3 comments

[curator-on-ao3]

For the fan fic ask game. # 1 - Do you know the ending of the story when you start?

Thank you for asking, @marymoss1971! ❤️

I actually answered question #1 here (but you know I love me some Number One, so the more the merrier!).

> ask game for fanfic writers <