#crossposted from dreamwidth

[buttons-beads-lace]

Currently I am coping with all online conversations about Palestine and Israel by reminding myself that 99+% of the people who are talking about this situation do not have any direct control over what happens. And thank goodness for that! The people I see posting on tumblr most likely have not killed anyone. They do not have guns or rockets or tanks and they have not personally destroyed anyone's homes. The things they say probably don't even have any influence over the people who actually are holding guns and giving orders- not more than the tiny dust speck of influence any individual person can have on a government. The level of concern that I have over things people say should be proportional to the chance that their words will actually make a life-or-death difference for someone. comments via https://bit.ly/3tibFBR

[actiaslunaris]

A NaNo challenge for vidders, y'all.

[Copied in whole from the original post on Dreamwidth (https://actiaslunaris.dreamwidth.org/565916.html), with slight alterations for readability on Tumblr.]

Many, many thanks to simplecoffee, who brainstormed with me and helped me design these challenges. All my love for her support and creative ideas!

Two ways to approach -- an easy mode and a hard mode -- for four different challenges, but pick one to do.

On easy mode, you do all your planning in the months preceding November, starting whenever you feel most comfortable. On hard mode, you do your planning only in the month of November, with a few exceptions.

I've tried to design these to be accessible to new vidders, while still presenting a challenge to more experienced vidders. New vidders can also use the Vexercises Challenge prompts to help generate different ways of creating fanvids (https://vexercises.dreamwidth.org/12201.html). There are others there, so poke around.

All these, whichever you choose, must be finished in the month of November.

The four challenges:

The Back of Your Hand

Take a fandom you've vidded to death, meaning you know where all the clips are you want to use, and vid a thirty-second vid for every day of the month. If you think you can't match this, make a one-minute vid for each seven-day week.

Anything goes, to the limit of your inspiration.

New vidders, get to know your source using this challenge. Do start your planning before November.

The DJ Mixer -- courtesy of simplecoffee

Make a fanmix, and then vid that fanmix. Bonus feature to the challenge -- invite someone to create you a fanmix and vid that. Your challenge here lies in creating a fluid mix, where you choose how much of each song to use. This is for those who want to make a long narrative, or play with audio mixing, or anything else this might spark for inspiration. Your finished project should have a run time of at least twenty minutes, because you are creating a set.

See the conversation between myself and simplecoffee on how you can approach this for a more clear example. (https://actiaslunaris.dreamwidth.org/558508.html?thread=522412#cmt522412)

If you think you can't match this, create a shorter set, around ten minutes.

Some audio editing resources that make creating mixes easier: Sound Forge (trialware), Audacity (free), Tonium's Pacemaker Editor (specifically designed for DJs and free; has some bugs when used on Windows 10, but nothing severe).

Simple mix example: "Diamond" by imbir, Hotel Del Luna, (https://archiveofourown.org/works/29056350).

The Extended Play of Your Fave

Choose a musical artist whom you love. (Optionally, in addition to the musical artist, focus on a favorite actor.) Mix and match four to five songs from their body of work. You are not allowed to cut these songs. Create a thematic set of videos, your pick of topic. For instance, think tropes, or other commonalities, like for supercut visuals. Choose a recently consumed and previously unvidded source, only.

For a bonus approach, go multi-fandom. For less difficulty, do only three songs. The Vidder in the Booth

Your challenge here is to show us your process. For this one, you must only work during the month of November. You choose only one piece of music, but it must be four to six minutes long. You choose only one source.

Now, get hold of a screen recorder and other methods of recording your progress. For instance, if you work on paper to take notes before you start your vid, take photos. Log your progress visually, from the beginning stage up through the finished project. You'll then edit all these into two videos: your process and your project. You must share both.

Your process video can be in "Let's Play" style, including everything without cuts, and you can fast-forward process, whatever fits with your sensibilities. If you cut out what you consider to be boring or repetitive, keep track of the time spent there and log it in your process video.

The "I Have a Type, Don't I?" -- concept courtesy again of simplecoffee

Fanvids can be many genres. Some common ones are angst, fluff, alternate universe, and constructed narratives. Fanvids can also be meta, utilizing music and source to comment on the source in some way meant to provoke thought (for example, a vid could comment on toxic couples).

So, this challenge is to exercise your ability to create several of these genres, but with two little requirements. This is for multi-fandom vidders with a shipper's focus. Examine your fandom history. What ships are you most drawn to? Do they have commonalities?

As you’ve noticed, each challenge also has an easy, as well as a more difficult way, to accomplish creating several fanvids. For this, the easy way would be to pick and choose two from the given genres -- angst, fluff, AU, constructed narrative, metavid – and make two videos for each genre. For the more difficult challenge, pick four, and make two videos for each.

Each video should be one to two minutes long.

Please note -- there can be a lot of overlap between AU and constructed narrative, but to my understanding, an AU is if characters who are not werewolves in the original source are all now werewolves in your vid. A constructed narrative is something like if you chose to retell the story of a popular film but using the characters of a different source, or repurposed source and cut it to also tell a different story than what exists in the source.

Meta example: "Cosmic Love" by lola, multi-fandom, (https://lola.dreamwidth.org/96907.html).

Constructed narrative example: "【汤薰衍生】因为我的另一半是你" by 翼翼酱, Galileo, (https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Pe411W7Di/).

AU example: "【浪客剑心现代衍生|斋藤一X比古清十郎】雨系列之一" by rainnorth, Rurouni Kenshin, (https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1is411S7Mk/), contains flashes.

This is a multi-fandom challenge specifically to allow you to compare and contrast, and also, to borrow from other sources, so you can be as wide or narrow in your focus as you like. Go wild. (Break a few rules from all these guidelines if you want.)

The goal is to have fun. Show us what you can do!

[fractoluminescence]

February 2024 Monthly Writing Wrap-Up

Originally posted to Dreamwidth on March 6th 2024

This month has been very productive. I've worked on my writing on more days out of a month than I ever have before, I think. My GYWO counter says I worked 18 days in February, which continues to baffle me.

I did hit a wall or two. My muse wasn't working with me for a while, and I wondered if it was because I was working it too hard, but I read some fics and it got right back up it seems, so.

I finished going through The Tempest around the beginning of February - then came the moment to write. I struggled a bit - pretty much like I had for my story for the Madness & Malice zine, but I knew for a fact that I could write a story without my muse coming up with it first this time around. Yet I was worried - what was I so worried about? Looking back, it all feels so blurry. Perhaps it was more of an emotional than a reason-based reaction - maybe that's why I'm unable to recall what led me to worry in the first place.

At any rate, since things weren't kicking off in my mind on their own, I took some time to brainstorm the goal, want and need of the different characters, as well as try to figure out the structure of the story. Turns out, the timeline of Ichigo's character arc might be larger than the rest of the narrative, and the latter would hence happen within it rather than contain it. I also broke down the story into sections that will most likely have time skips in between.

It wasn't in February, but since I'm writing this at the beginning of March, I can say I've already managed to finish drafting the first section - which ended up right around the 2k mark, just as I had predicted. Everything seems to be going according to plan thus far.

Regarding Isolated, I finally tackled the renaming of Lydia's Zanpakutou, Motoakaze. I'd named her years ago, back when I wasn't clear on what Lydia's powers did. Her character has changed a lot since then, and the name I had picked no longer made any kind of sense.

Hence, her name is now Tougumo, with the kanji for winter and spider (冬蜘蛛), which is derived from her name in Bankai, Tougumo Kasou, meaning winter spider, summer grass (冬蜘蛛夏草).

I also decided to fuse the two volumes of the series that I had nicknamed Runes and The Hirakos. When I first learned to plot years ago, I had broken up Isolated into several books - but I cut several of the plot points that had led me to divide it that way some time ago now, meaning several parts of the story either lacked an emotional drive or a plot. Hence the fusing.

What was nice is that it allowed me to reorder the books so as to have YODT and the newly renamed Winter Spider, Summer Grass (which I previously referred to as 'Lydia Stuff') right next to each other, solving the issue of having a part of Lydia's storyline broken up by a piece of Ichigo's in which she doesn't feature.

So, overall, I drafted the first section of the story for the IchiBowl and switched some stuff around for Isolated. Productive month :)

[sqbr]

Dreamwidth Crosspost: Fiction which is not m/m romance

These ended up dividing neatly into some specific subgenres. I really have been mostly into m/m romance lately, huh... Non-romance Anime: Bocci the Rock Play it cool guys m/f romance manga and webtoon: Sweat and Soap Busu ni Hanataba wo Everyone wants to get married Another Typical Fantasy Romance m/m but not romance manga: The Summer Hikaru Died f/f romantic fantasy novel: Earthcast ( Read more... )

[silveraspen]

2024 resolutions

Communication, crossposting, and my new year's resolutions for the first time since 2020 where so many things went off the rails: let's go.

[eldritchcuddles]

April Wordcount Tracking

Total April Wordcount: 8204 words

Posted: There's a place I've seen where the soul burns clean, Chapter 7: Nocturne

(Naruto founders era, self-indulgent Izuna Lives AU featuring plot-device characters getting fleshed out some. Because if Kishimoto won't tell us then I will make it up myself, so there)

IN PROGRESS:

There's a place I've seen where the soul burns clean: 8204 words

(oops all one fic!)

>Sneak Peek<

Madara had learned since then. He had said he’d let the ceasefire expire if Haruka didn’t live up to her word, yes, but that was on the assumption that he’d have a formal truce offer from Hashirama by then, at least.

It had seemed like a safe bet at the time, with Senju Butsuma long since out of the way (and good riddance). Based on Izuna’s analysis, Tobirama seemed either loyal enough to follow where his clan head led or at least too smart to move against him openly, so he could likely also be dismissed as a potential rabble-rouser.

Madara would take his brother’s insight over the pet theories of the rest of their spy network put together, anyway. And to be fair, their intel on the internal dynamics of the Senju main family was spotty at best, so Izuna’s semi-regular personal contact with the Senju’s so-called demon gave him a better perspective than most. Madara was aware a number of his shinobi still insisted that Hashirama was a puppet ruler who Tobirama would someday depose so he could rule openly and wreak bloody terror on all enemies of the Senju, for example.

He usually managed not to snicker when any of them tried to win him over.

(That theory relied too much on Hashirama being as stupid as he acted.)

He may have changed over the years, as Izuna often reminded him (unnecessarily) at great length and volume, but Madara knew what it was to be isolated by power that still was never enough to keep his most precious people safe. Hashirama dealt with it by playing the fool, the same way he did when they were brats splashing in the river. It was obvious to anyone who had seen him like that.

Aside from Madara, that group probably included Senju Tobirama and very few others.

It made for a valuable object lesson in how confirmation bias impaired information gathering, and a joke he couldn’t share with anyone.

“...Nii-san?”

Madara shook himself and looked over to find Izuna leaning back on his hands, head cocked and a measuring look on his face as he looked him over. “Nothing.”

[wipbigbang]

2024 WIP Big Bang Schedule & FAQ!

Schedule

All times are by 11:59pm PST. Convert time zones.

Sign-ups Begin- April 15th Sign-ups Close- May 21st Check In #1- May 22nd Check In #2- June 15th Snippets Due- July 1st Art Claims Begin- July 17th Check In #3- July 22nd Check In #4- August 6th Rough Drafts Due- August 15th Posting Claims Begin- August 23rd Posting Claims Ends- September 1st Final Drafts/Art Due- September 7th Posting Starts- September 8th

FAQ

What is the WIP Big Bang? Good question! This is a Big Bang with one goal in mind: to clean out your fanfic drafts folder. These are stories that were unfinished for whatever reason, that authors returned to and completed, and the art that goes with them!

Do I need a Livejournal/Dreamwidth/AO3/etc. account to participate? No! You don’t have to have an account on anything to participate, though you will need to have somewhere to post your finished work. Having one or more accounts will help for you to follow what is going on with the bang (we crosspost to Dreamwidth and Tumblr and heavily use our Discord server at the moment), but they are not required to participate. You can always leave comments anonymously or with an opensource ID.

How many fics can we sign up for? We absolutely don’t mind multiple sign-ups. I know one year someone submitted 50 fics to finish, and got at least half of them done. We just ask that when you sign up with more than one fic you give each fic a unique user ID (please do not use the same ID for all your fics...it’s important to have different IDs for the check-ins).

Will I get emails about the bang? We do send out some emails, mostly for snippets and art claims and to ensure communication between authors and artists, but please do NOT rely on getting an email to remind you of due dates. We currently do not keep an updated email list of participants, so we only send individual emails as needed rather than mass emails.

However, email is the fastest way to communicate with the mods. If you have any questions or are having trouble communicating with your artist/author, please do email us! We will do our best to respond quickly.

What do you mean by minimum word count to enter? This is a WIP Big Bang, therefore we ask you to have at least 500 words of your story drafted when you enter.

Can an outline count towards those first 500 words that are needed at sign up? We have admitted work on an outline before so yes, if your outline is fleshed out enough to cover a 7,500 word+ fic, we’ll allow it.

Are multi-chapter fics allowed? Yes, multi-chapter fics are allowed and even more so encouraged if your fic is lengthy.

What about fics that are already posted on ao3 in part? Do those qualify for the bang? It's okay if you have posted a few chapters of your fic already (you never know when the muse deserts you, after all), we just require you to refrain from posting more until posting begins here. All we ask is that you not post any public updates to the fic until September 1st (or August 1st with the mod’s okay). We don’t want you to lose kudos and comments so don’t worry about pulling the fic down, just hold off on updates for now.

Is there a minimum word count? 7,500 words for each finished fic, but the sky's the limit, right?

I see that the fic minimum is 7500 words and that published WIPs are acceptable - but what if the WIP I’m considering is already more than 7500 words? Is the expectation to add an additional 7500 to it? No. You can add as much or as little as you need to finish the story, though we do expect at least 1,000 or so new words if your WIP already meets the word count.

What happens if an author finishes the fic they signed up with but it’s less than 7,500 words? The intent was to go over the minimum but once they got into it the story was shorter than they thought and stretching it out would make it less good. Do they have to drop out at that point? By all means, we want your stories to feel as natural as possible, and if it’s under 7,500 words you may have two options:

1 - Drop the fic for the main BB event, post it now, and wait to post it to our AO3 collection in February when we run our International Fanworks Day celebration of finishing fics that are less than 7,500 words when finished. There’s no art for the fic, but bragging rights are posted to the communities for a week.

2 - If there are enough fics that fit that category, we can do a special day of posting the fics, but you’ll have to forgo art for the fic. I, as a mod, would probably pick November 30th for the posting day, as it’s the last day of posting for the bang and I don’t think anyone will mind more than one fic that day. You can post bragging rights to the community and share the fic with everyone.

Is there anything not allowed? As long as you wrote it and you want to finish it, you're welcome to participate. RPS/RPF is fine. Incest pairings are fine. Things like that I know have been hinted at in questions asked and as long as you tag for them, we’ll allow it. Also, canon settings with mostly OCs is allowed. We just ask that it be tagged properly with any content warnings you would deem fit and be given the appropriate rating for the level of sex/violence there is in the fic. Just bear in mind that while original work is allowed you may not get art for it.

I have a fic I wrote a few years ago, but only the first couple chapters are posted on AO3 because I was never happy with the rest of it and knew it needed major revision. Is that something I could use for WIP Big Bang? The entire fic has been posted, but only on one platform, and it would be rewritten for AO3 and WIPBB. I think revising a fic for posting would work, as long as you have at least 500 words done, will have 7,500 words at a minimum when it’s done, and are planning to add more to the fic. Simply rewriting what you have would be a gray area, but if you’re going to take stuff out and add new scenes, either in the old scenes place or on its own, you should be fine.

What's the etiquette around OC-centric stories? Ones that are set in a well known fandom and use several characters, but still lean a lot on original characters? Are they discouraged, or fine? Based on my own personal experience making art for a story that had a heavy OC presence, it’s not something we discourage at all, but be forewarned when it comes to the art accompanying your fic your artist may not be able to incorporate the OCs into your art. Not everyone makes art of a hand-drawn or digitally drawn nature, so it helps if you have people for face claims ahead of art submissions, and you and your artist communicate regularly. You can also end up with art not featuring the OCs at all, just the canon characters, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Your other options are to bring in an artist you trust with your vision of your OC or to make your own art (we do allow that, we just need to be told during the check-in before art that you’re bringing in your own artist if you go that route, or that you’re doing your own art…there will not be a need to sign up in the artist’s sign up, however), or to opt-out of art entirely. So there’s plenty of options to call on when it comes time for art.

What are 'check-ins’? These are a way for us to see what you've been up to and for you to make sure you're still on track. It will give you a little nudge/reminder if you need it, but they are not compulsory. Basically a form is posted that you fill out with your user ID (unique for each fic) and a checkbox to let us know you’re still participating, plus a section for any notes for the mods.

How are the check in IDs used? They are solely for the mods organizational purposes. Each ID being for a separate story allows us to keep all the information you submit during check-ins and for snippets in one line on our spreadsheet. You don’t have to share your check in IDs with anyone else if you don’t want to.

How much progress should authors be making between each checkpoint? (Percentage-wise from our estimated total wc, I guess?) Ideally, with each check-in, you should be at least 25% closer to finishing. The end word count only really matters in that the fic needs to be at least 7,500 words when done, so it’s more your progress towards finishing that should be measured, not so much the word count.

What are the snippets requirements? In order to allow the artists to make art for the story they claimed, we require you to supply three snippets from your fic, between 500 – 1500 words each. The snippets will be sent to the artist after they have claimed your story. They're to help the artist match your story for artwork the best way he or she possibly can. It’s helpful to choose scenes or parts of scenes that you feel best represent your fic, but don’t feel like they have to be perfect to be submitted. Along with the snippets, we will send your artist the basic fic info and your email, so the two of you can collaborate more if you would both like.

What are the rough drafts requirements? For the rough drafts, stories should be at least 80% complete. You will not have to turn them in to us, just assure us that you are at that point. Anything less is at the discretion of the mods and those authors should speak to one of the mods asap.

What is, and do I need, a beta? A beta is basically a person who goes over your work to make sure that there are no spelling/grammatical errors and they can even be of assistance in helping you with story lines, etc. It is highly recommended that a beta looks over your work before posting. If you are having trouble finding a beta, try this post.

Where can I post my fic/art? Stories and art can be posted to your own personal journal, Tumblr, ff-net, AO3, or wherever you like. For those of you with AO3 accounts, we will set up a collection that will go live on the day of the posting. If you don’t currently have an AO3 account but would like one, you can contact the mods for an invitation code to see if they have any available. You can also add yourself to the AO3 Invites Request queue.

What does posting look like? Do we have to post the whole thing on the day, or can we stretch it out between when posting starts and our date? I’ve had a few longfics get killed by big bangs forcing posting to happen on a given day, and would prefer to avoid that if possible. For most fics, posting to AO3/FF.net/other places will be allowed to start in September and you can stretch it out as many posts as you want as long as the complete fic is up by your posting date (and posting dates go from September 8th to November 15th with two weeks for emergency posting). However, you can send us an ask/e-mail about posting as early as August if you have an extremely long fic/something with a long posting schedule. Mostly what we want is the fic to be completely up on the website of your choice by your posting date, and I know some people don’t want to overwhelm their readers. So we want to work with writers to give them ample time to post the story up to their posting date.

Now, as for posting to the communities, you get to choose which day your link to the story and bragging rights are posted, and as I said, we have a range of dates from September 8th to November 15th with two to three stories posting a day. If for some reason you miss your posting date, you have until November 30th to post to the community, during the two weeks of emergency posting, with a possible extension after that due to the amount of participants needing to post later. So hopefully there should be plenty of time to get a longfic up and posted to the website of your choice and our BB.

Will the three snippets per story we have to send in be the ones we want the artist to make art for? Or can it just be random snippets and then later the artist and I can check together to see which scenes would work best for art? So ideally, you and the artist will be communicating once you’re each sent each other’s contact information, and you’ll give your artist a chance to read all that you’ve written at that point. That’s what happens in most cases. If your fic gets picked by an artist and they don’t work with you, then the snippets you sent will be what the artwork will be based on. It’s a good idea to know that, while most of the time the artists work closely with the authors, there are a few exceptions to that.

How do I know when to post? Posting will be tiered; you'll each get your own posting date that you and your artist will decide on together. There will probably be four fics, plus art, posting per day between September 8th and November 30th. The post with date claims will go up on August 23rd and you'll have to choose your date by September 1st.

Posting of chapters on AO3 or your own blog (or wherever you usually post) generally starts September 1st, but you can post earlier (as early as August 1st) if you let us know you have a long story. However, posting has to be finished by your chosen posting date to the comm. One of the things we're hoping to do with the posted dates is to give everybody on the comm a little bragging time in the spotlight. You know, "this story was incomplete for this long, but I finished this sucker." If you don't have time to post your bragging rights to the communities on your chosen posting date, you can queue up a post ahead of time and we can post it on the date you picked or you can email us your bragging rights and we can post by proxy for you. Either way works for us. Art will be due on the chosen posting date to the comm.

What am I posting to the Livejournal/Dreamwidth/Tumblr community if I’m posting the fic elsewhere? You’ll be posting what we call bragging rights. It’s a small form you fill out and post to the community with a link to your fic (we’ll enable moderated posting to the Tumblr, Livejournal and Dreamwidth communities for members on August 8th). We will post a template for posting artwork and stories to the comm closer to the posting date.

Is there a minimum/maximum requirement for my art? There is no strict minimum, but we do ask artists to remember that the authors are writing a minimum of 7,500 words and your artwork should reflect that. You can do anything you like, including banners, wallpapers, icons, mixes, vids, gif sets, picspams, etc. Suggested guidelines for art are 500x500px (or equivalent of smaller pieces like banner + spacers, cover + icons, etc.) for traditional art, digital art, and manips; 2 minutes for vids; 10 songs + cover art for mixes; and 6 images for gif sets and picspams. We also ask that when you are in contact with the author, you work with them to see if there is anything specific they would like (i.e. a wallpaper, book cover, etc.). The art is your work, but having ideas doesn't hurt!

What are 'art claims'? The claims are when anonymous summaries of the story go up for artists to choose from. Artists sign-ups and art claims are the same thing; we use one form for both things, and that way the authors don’t have to sign up for an event they may not end up participating in. It is based on a 'first come, first served' basis and artists may choose up to three potential stories (in case their first choice is unavailable). If there are more stories than artists, there will be a second round of claims wherein artists may choose a second story to work with. And on until all stories are claimed for art.

If a fic up for claiming is rated explicit (R, NC-17, etc.), please only claim the story if you are over 18 years of age. Some authors may be uncomfortable working with underage artists on explicit works. We do not verify ages in any way for the bang, so this is solely on the honor system.

What do I do if I have problems or concerns about my author/artist? Sometimes authors and artists do not get along and this may cause problems with working together. If this happens to be the case with you, please email the mods and we will try to do what we can so that everyone has a chance to have fun at WIP Big Bang!

If you have not heard from your author/artist in some time after trying to contact them, you can reach out to us via email and we will try to get in touch with them for you.

Can I get an extension? Community extensions may be given in the event that the majority of the authors/artists need one. They may also be given individually under certain circumstances, but this must be discussed with the mods and will only be a short extension for posting. If you are certain that you won’t be able to finish your story in time, please let us know by July 13th.

Can I swap out a fic if my muse abandons it again? When you sign up, you give us the information on the potential fic(s) you want to write. If, say, one fic isn’t working but one you didn’t sign up for is, you can switch them out while letting the mods know if you need to change a user ID you used. It is absolutely okay to switch fics all the way up until snippets are due. By then, we hope you’ll have however many fics you plan on doing to at least 80% completion since rough drafts are due not much later. Just drop an email to the mods at wipbigbang@gmail.com with the new information (title, fandom, etc) and if you want a new sign in ID or plan to use the same one for the fic you’re replacing it with.

Can I drop out? We have high hopes that everybody who signs up can actually finish the round and share in the joy of the reveal with us, but real life can unfortunately get in the way and we completely understand! If you feel like you just cannot finish in time and no amount of assistance from us can help you, just let us know by August 13th (if at all possible).

Is it possible to be banned? We do have a banned users list. We hope to use this to encourage participants who are having issues to communicate with the mods. We want to help you! The way the ban works is that participants, either authors and artists, will be banned for dropping out without notifying a mod. This means that anyone who has not posted or talked to a mod by the time the posting period ends will be banned. Dropping out is not in and of itself a banning offense, so please do not panic if you have to drop out! We understand that there are many reasons you may need to drop, and we want to work with you.

Bans will last one round or until the issue is resolved, whichever comes first. To resolve a ban, authors will have to finish and post the story they signed up with and artists will have to finish and post the art for the story they claimed. Three bans will result in a permanent ban from the bang.

Are we allowed to participate without joining the Discord? Absolutely! The Discord server is optional, as just another way to interact with your fellow writers and get updates on important dates. It’s not mandatory you join, however.

I was just wondering if there’s any way to enter the bang anonymously? Like would it be okay to put our work in an anonymous collection on ao3 or something? Unfortunately, I can’t think of a way for that to work. The collection that we use is moderated but it’s not anonymous, and there are the bragging posts that you post on your posting day, which you would have your username on whichever platform you use.

I was just wondering whether I'm sworn to secrecy on which fics I'll be finishing up, or if I can shout it out to the world? No one is sworn to secrecy once they’ve signed up (aside from posting new parts to fic that’s already up somewhere…we ask that you refrain from doing that until at least July 1st)! We will be running Word Wars, where you can add more to a fic in a certain amount of time, and Whine Bars, where you can complain or ask for help or whatever else you feel like talking about when it comes to struggling with a fic, all after sign-ups end on a weekly basis, plus there’s the Discord server for chatting with your fellow authors and artists.

I have a question/concern that’s not mentioned here. If you need help, you can always contact a mod and we will do our best to make sure that you get your story/art finished. The best and fastest method of contact is through our email, wipbigbang@gmail.com.

[a-dragons-journal]

Chicken or Egg: Causes of Fictionality

This post was crossposted to the Fictionkind Dreamwidth (linked above).

One of the questions I hear a lot about fictionfolk from outside observers, though less than I used to, is about whether a fiction-based identity can really predate the media it's based in. The answer, of course, is observably that yes, it can; many fictionfolk report that the experiences that lead them to a fiction-based identity long predate exposure to the media that finally made it all "click" and gave them a name. The other answer is that it doesn't matter - even if the identity wasn't present before exposure to the source media, it's still just as real and important as if it had been.

I don't think, however, that I've often or maybe ever seen discussion of the fact that sometimes it's just impossible to tell. I don't know whether my hearthome predates my exposure to Avatar. When I first watched Avatar, you see, I was young enough that I don't really have any recollection of it - a few vague impressions, and the fact that we watched it the first time on my aunt's brand-new widescreen TV (very exciting), and the fact that I immediately integrated a version oftsaheylu (the neural bond that Pandoran creatures can make with each other) into some of my worldbuilding projects afterward, and that's about it. I have a poor childhood memory (a poor episodic memory in general, for that matter); the only reason I know that my draconity is as old as it is is because I have childhood friends with a far better memory than I who remember me talking about feeling a tail when we must have been only eight or nine years old. I simply do not remember whether or not any experiences linked to my hearthome predate my exposure to Avatar, or whether Avatar caused them wholesale.

The fact of the matter is, it's probably a mix of both. On the one hand, Avatar is a piece of media infamous for creating hearthome feelings in people - there was a whole phenomenon called "post-Avatar depression" or "the post-Avatar blues" when it came out, where people worldwide got so invested in the world of Pandora that they fell into a legitimate depression episode because it wasn't real. (Real thing, look it up. News outlets reported on it and everything.) It is, in all honesty, almost designed to do so - the hearthome feelings, I mean, not the depression. Pandora is designed from the ground up to get people to fall in love with the world, and to then transfer those feelings to Earth and environmental efforts here. That's Avatar's mission statement - and it does it well. There's a reason literally half of the first movie is dedicated to just exploring and experiencing Pandora, and a reason that the game Frontiers of Pandora spends so much time and resources on the details of the world around you.

On the other, realistically, one must assume that Avatar hit me so hard because it was tapping into something that was already present to some extent. People connect to fiction because it speaks to something already inside them, as well as teaching them something new. What exactly that was in my case, however, I can only guess. Maybe it was the wildness and green beauty of the world; maybe it was tsaheylu and the intimate and complete connection that it provides; maybe it was the specific creatures and plants and some pre-existing connection there. I just don't know, and realistically never will.

And you know what? I'm okay with that. I don't know why Eywa'eveng is hearthome to me, and I'm fine with that - it is, and that's what really matters. I don't know what's chicken, what's egg, and what's the evolution that happens over cycle after cycle of both. Maybe I would have longed for something undefinable even if I'd never seen Avatar, or maybe I wouldn't, or maybe it would have latched onto some other fictional world (or real place, for that matter) instead. There's no telling now - there is only what is, and I find myself satisfied with that.

[anneapocalypse]

I am actually going to use the Dragon Age fandom's predictable reheating of stale wank from ten years ago like it's brand new to remind people to crosspost and archive your meta. I'm serious. Crosspost and archive and back up your fanworks generally, but I think meta is a particular place where people don't bother or think it's not worth the trouble.

Part of the reason fandom seems to have such a miserably short memory is that the centralization of it on social media platforms causes information decay at a staggering rate. Twitter is one of the worst offenders, as it's basically useless for any kind of archiving and near impossible to find something that was posted ten days ago, never mind months or years. But tumblr has its own problems, with the ease of changing urls making link rot almost inevitable. Unless a post is still in active circulation or someone is doing a tag dive on an old fan's blog, posts from when Inquisition was fresh out and we didn't even have Trespasser yet (for example) might as well be at the bottom of the sea.

Did you know you can post meta on AO3? You can. There are tags for it and everything ("nonfiction" and "meta" being two popular ones). Dreamwidth exists and isn't a bad place for archiving. Hell, set up a Wordpress blog if that's more your speed.

Maybe you want to help preserve access to other people's meta posts! Consider a meta rec list. Reblog their posts and include links to the reblog as well as the original in case of deletion or link rot.

These are just a few ideas. I just want to encourage fellow fans, at a time when fandom and information online generally moves so fast and things get buried so quickly, to give some thought to archiving and preservation. Ten years from now, will our fandoms remember what we were talking about today?

[heliopauseentertainments]

Relentless Optimism

Part of MegOp Week 2024 Prompt - Day 2: Secret/Sacred Continuity: IDW1

Rating: General

Relationships: Megatron/Orion Pax

Characters: Megatron, Orion Pax

Warnings: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, AU of an AU, Xenoreligion, Weddings

Summary: In which Orion proudly takes up the mantle of Lord Protector. Precursor and canonical to An Unfamiliar Battlefield, but can be read alone.

Crossposting: AO3 | Dreamwidth Fic under cut. See AO3 for complete notes.

The music in the sanctuary wasn’t joyous, but rather somber, not unlike attending a funeral or a public execution. The notes were slow and low, occasionally undercut by a gentle drum beat. A very strange choice for a wedding, in Orion’s opinion.

He waited in an antechamber, the priests—all current or former military officers—polishing and perfuming his armor, not unlike preparing a body for the smelter.

Cameras watched in the corners of the room.

This ought to have been a happy occasion, but the high priest, unfortunately named Valve, had insisted that it was the traditional atmosphere for this particular temple. While being the Lord Protector of a Prime, any Prime, was an honor, ascension for the Fallen was a punishment.

Orion would likely die and it would likely be at the Fallen’s hands, as Valve had reminded him that morning. This would be his first funeral and the start of his sacred duty to tether a monster.

“Purported monster,” Orion silently reminded himself. His spark spun dizzyingly in his chest, but not from fear.

The last vessel of the Fallen had slain his lover, but this was different person now. They weren’t reincarnations, not like the other Primes.

The dirge continued to play outside. It was beautiful, even if tonally dissonant.

No guests had been invited. Only the priests, the jailers, were present to witness the formalizing of the union. He had never wanted a big wedding anyway; too much hullabaloo.

Orion had met Megatron before, briefly. A long time ago, when Megatron had been briefly in custody for alleged involvement in a bar fight. Orion had been the one to authorize his release.

He doubted Megatron remembered him. If he did, he likely only remembered Orion as the police captain that had taken mercy on him. At least they weren’t complete strangers.

Back then, Orion had read some of his writings, found them intriguing, but had failed to keep in touch like he had planned to and then Megatron had disappeared. After the miner’s riot and a report of a stolen transport, his whereabouts were unknown. Orion had always wondered what had become of him… until the news announced the installation of a new incarnation of the Fallen.

And there on the screen… the mild-mannered mech whose friendship Orion had sorely regretted missing out on. How he had gotten here, however, Orion couldn’t begin to imagine.

On impulse, Orion had applied for the open role of Lord Protector. He had long-since become discontent with his work in Rodion, like the holding cells were merely revolving doors. At least he could undo one regret.

The priests packed away their supplies and led him out into the dark sanctuary. It was lit only by small lamps, the thin blue beams of targeting lasers, and a powerful searchlight trained on a gray figure in the center of the room, standing next to Valve in his regalia, a shawl and robe—black save for purple geometric embroidery.

Megatron had also been polished for the occasion, but his wrists were bound in cuffs. Orion wasn’t sure if those were ceremonial or if they truly believed there was a risk.

Orion could hardly imagine Megatron hurting anyone, let alone doing anything to earn a place here. They could talk soon….

This looked far more like an execution than a wedding, though they were missing a headsman.

Spark spinning wildly in his chest, Orion was made to stop next to Megatron.

Megatron glanced at him out of the corner of his eyes but said nothing. Perhaps it was too much to expect that the excitement was mutual.

Valve began to recite the liturgy in one of the old tongues that Orion didn’t recognize, holding something small and shining high over his head. A key maybe, perhaps to the cuffs. Orion had never been religious enough to bother learning the liturgical languages, but the sounds were familiar, comforting rhythms, even if the meaning was lost on him.

Unfortunately, ever since Orion had arrived and won his place by challenging Megatron to single, unarmed combat—Valve had, regrettably, forbidden it—he had hardly had a chance to see or talk with Megatron. Months of combat training, refreshing the skills he already had and adding some new, had taken the place of any sort of courtship.

No more though, no more would he be prevented from rekindling their acquaintance and… maybe… hopefully more. Not after today, not after it was all official.

Valve instructed him to hold out his hands.

The item Valve had presumably blessed was placed in Orion’s palm, a lightweight metallic object. Cool to the touch.

A key.

“Repeat after me,” Valve ordered.

The words that followed formed a vow, but a very strange vow, one Orion could never have imagined.

Nodding, he turned and cautiously took hold of one of Megatron’s bound wrists.

“By removing these restraints,” he said, the words heavy in his mouth, “I take their place.”

The cuffs fell to the floor with an echoing thud as Orion clasped their now free hands together.

He had failed to help Megatron before; he would not fail again.

[fyeahghosttrick]

Ghost Swap announcements! imaaayhavewrittenthedatewrong + how to post + retroactive fills

Almost there, almost there! June 12th, our posting day, is almost upon us. Which brings me to my first point... out of all the possible growing pains of Gswap's new format, this one I was not expecting... the thing is... the anniversary... the anniversary for Ghost Trick, the date chosen especially to release Ghost Trick, Ghost Trick's anniversary. That anniversary? Is on the 19th. So that was a super fun typo to go unnoticed for two months! I am not going to change dates two days out, especially with no means to contact all participants, which means:

A FULL WEEK OF PARTYING.

Nothing like it, as someone would have it! The event will still open on the 12th, but all Ghost Swap works posted throughout the week, until June 19th, will be fully part of the initiative and will be included in the final masterlist. This might even come in handy for last-minute finishing touches, as well as for posting more than three things (as Tumblr tends to show three posts per person per day in a tag).

Now onto regular modly business:

HOW TO POST.

We're opening the floodgates on June 12th and, as always, the official ruling on what constitutes "June 12th" is as lax as can be. Follow the time zone of your heart. Whenever it’s June 12th somewhere in the world.

Here’s the deal:

   Post your  work (or works, if you made extra treats!) AT ANY POINT OF THE WEEK THAT GOES FROM JUNE 12TH TO JUNE 19TH, any time zone.

   You are free to crosspost  your work anywhere or even post somewhere else (for example, fic on  AO3, fanart on deviantArt) and have your Tumblr post be a link to it. All I need is the  existence of a post on Tumblr and no additional logins required in order  to access the work (for example, no links to friend-locked dreamwidth posts, no archive-locked AO3 fics)

   Tag the prompter if the prompt you picked was signed, #ghost trick and #ghost swap in addition to whatever else you tag your stuff with (this is the important one so people can find your work)

   @ your prompter if applicable and maybe acknowledge the exchange in the work’s  description. Anything conveying the general sentiment of “made for  @prompter for @fyeahghosttrick‘s Ghost Swap exchange” would be nice. If you want to copypaste or summarize the prompt, that’s cool too.

   FOR THE PROLIFIC TREATERS: please don’t let Tumblr eat your work. Any tag only shows 3 of your posts per day; when you post another one, the oldest one won’t be featured anymore. If you plan to post more than 3 works, I recommend to spread out your posts throughout the week. If you don’t want to do that, give me a shout so I’ll know to look through your blog for FYGT’s closing ceremonies

It  should go without saying, but please show appreciation for your gift -  and for any other work that catches your eye! Likes, reblogs, comments,  if you like a work make yourself be heard!

And a final surprise:

THE RETROACTIVE FILLS LIST.

Scrolling our wonderful prompts, did you perchance see something so up your alley that you already drew it in 2013? The same exact idea that ate up your groupchat in early 2021? Odds are that the person who requested that doesn't know that in some odd recesses of the internet there's already a fanwork that gives life to their idea. And I think that they might want to know! So come self-rec! Reply to this post with the prompt you're referring to and a link to your work, and on June 19th I'll post all replies in a Retroactive Fills List to give them visibility!

[buttons-beads-lace]

Today I learned how to do a crochet "magic ring" to cast on this ornament (a gift for one of my new coworkers) and thought about how angry I still am at my old boss. ( Read more... ) comments via https://bit.ly/48kjupB

[actiaslunaris]

Answering questions from two writing memes as wrap-up for the year, over on Dreamwidth:

End of Year Fic Navel-Gazing 2023 (Ficwip Edition)

End of Year Fic Navel-Gazing 2023 (Leitmotif Edition)

[fractoluminescence]

January 2024 Monthly Writing Wrap-Up

Originally posted to Dreamwidth on February 4th 2024

I don't really know how to start this, since it's my first time writing anything like it. I did make a first post when I created my journal, but this feels different - and while I have a habit of briefly journaling during my writing sessions, I rarely reflect on what I've accomplished beyond a couple of days back. I thought this would be as easy as any entry - but now that I'm here, I hesitate, I dread to look back - which is so unlike the writer part of me.

Well, here I am. And I've got a month of entries to go through, and a lot to say, so I'll be alright.

I've had several things going on this past month - as I usually do. What was new was the Dreamwidth account - I'd never used a traditional blogging platform before, so it took some adjusting. I took some time to figure out how the website worked - am still figuring it out, to be fair - and what I wanted to do with it, because it looked fun and wouldn't it be a shame to leave it be now that I have access to it. And wouldn't it be a good opportunity to have a neat archive of my writing journey - not a messy day-by-day journal like I have set up on Notion, and not the what-am-I-even-doing-with-these journal entries that I've got all over pretty much any account and paper journal that I use.

I guess I'll find out if it's meant to be soon enough.

GYWO is going well. I worked on my writing on 12 days in January - the minimum my pledge had me aiming for being 10 days. It's a good thing, of course - especially since I know there are months during which I tend to write significantly less, so (like November, ironically enough).

There are two writing projects I'm focusing on right now, the first of which is the story I'm writing for the IchiBowl event. It's a tough one for me - I'm not really used to writing short stories, because most of the stories I come up with instinctively are at least novella-length. It trips me up - there was no already-existing plunny I could use, and I've got a minimum of 5k words to write in a couple of months total, which is longer than the short stories I'm used to writing (when I write any at all). And I can't even tell if it's going well - I got myself into a bit of a pickle because I realized when I started the second scene that some of the themes and symbolism were reminiscent of Shakespeare's The Tempest, so I decided to take some time to read through it while taking notes. For inspiration purposes.

I had miscalculated how long this was going to take me, of course. It's early February though, and I'm finally done with it. I've still got roughly two weeks until the next check-in, so as long as I don't run into a wall of some kind (I always do, but most walls I can climb over fairly easily), things should go fairly smoothly.

The second project I've got ongoing - well, it's the first project out of the two really, becauseI've had it ongoing for years and it's been the love of my life - is whatever the fuck what I used to call Isolated has become. It was meant to be a single story - but now that I've learned to outline and I know it's SEVEN FREAKING BOOKS (probably), things have started making a lot more sense - and looking a lot more messy now that I know what a mess looks like.

That's where my writing progress this past month comes in - but first, some more context. I'm mostly focusing on the first book - or what I currently think of as the first book, the order may change since different books follow different characters - which I've temporarily titled You Only Die Twice (a title that has ironically come to downright contradict elements of the wider story since I first picked it). And I've been having this issue with it...See, originally - back when this story was meant to be one book, and was a crossover - back when its main character Lydia was as two-dimensional as a sheet of paper and the genre was supposed to be romance - back then, I introduced a subplot about the second lead. Or - I mean, I guess I'm not sure if he's the second lead in this particular volume anymore - maybe he is. At any rate, I introduced a subplot because of the crossover aspect - and when I removed that aspect just a couple of months into writing the story, I kept the subplot, because it was fun.

Yeah, except it didn't fit with the rest of the story at all. It didn't fit with the themes that the story developed over time - nor with the worldbuilding, nor with the character it was supposed to be centered around. I spent years trying to make it work - and a year or two trying to remove it, because it was starting to impede my story and made it so much harder to write. The worse part is, it didn't even have any impact on the rest of the books - but it had been there for so long, and was so deeply anchored in the whole original concept I had for YODT, that removing it was genuinely really hard.

Well, guess what. I've removed it. I've finally found a way of extirpating it from the story. It felt like removing a bunch of supporting beams, and now I've got holes to patch all throughout the 20 or so chapters I've already written, but I roughly know what to fill them with. And the character development for the second lead makes a lot more sense now. The story seems...so much more in harmony with itself - and with me. Now that it's removed, the pattern is re-knitting itself together in a way that works and it look so much better.

Other than that, I've worked on the worldbuilding for Isolated a bit. It's mostly just fanwanking, but this story specifically is too interlaced with the worldbuilding for me to take it lightly, lest I awkwardly tread on eggshells trying to make it make sense to the reader without revealing I have no idea what I'm doing.

In short, I've spent the month reading through The Tempest to get inspo for my story for the IchiBowl event, as well as figured out how to get rid of that one subplot that has been plaguing YODT for years. It has been a productive month.

[ds30below]

ride_4ever's meta recs

Crossposted from Dreamwidth with permission

A fun list of meta/resource recs below the cut. Some of them have been shared before, all of them bear citing again. Personally, I am deep into backreading ds_workshop, which is extremely fun and helpful when it comes to writing.

"For Canon Appreciation Week of the due South 30th Anniversary "30 Below Fest," one of the suggestions was to rec some meta of canon.

Earlier this month, shade_nightwalker wrote a sweet bit of meta called "You Must Remember This". Read it at DW's due South Virtual Bar.

fox did a time-and-labor-intensive gift of love to due South fandom by creating an annotated transcript of every episode of the show. See fox's "Return to due South: index of annotated transcripts" at fox's DW.

dS meta by truepenny was originally on LJ. That account has been deleted and now appears on DW as truepenny: entries tagged with due south. It covers the pilot episode through the second episode of the last season. (Do note that truepenny stopped short of going to the end of the final season. And perhaps new comments on those posts might inspire her to complete the meta for that season?)

For a meta-specific dS comm on LJ, there's ds_meta.

Additionally, somewhere you'll have to hunt around a bit because they contain meta but also contain other dS topics, are these two LJ comms: ds_discourse and ds_workshop."

[heliossecretdeskdrawer]

Workflow Interruption

Continuity: IDW1

Rating: Explicit

Relationship: Rodimus/Megatron

Characters: Megatron & Rodimus

Warnings: Sticky sexual content, cock warming, blowjobs, masturbation, fingering, not beta read

Summary: In which Megatron tries to discreetly enjoy himself while helping Rodimus with paperwork.

Crossposting: AO3 | Dreamwidth

Fic under cut. See AO3 for complete notes.

It wasn’t that Rodimus didn’t do any work on the Lost Light, no. It was more that the amount of administrative burden was… ridiculous. Often to the point where it could easily become overwhelming. While great strides had been made over the years in reducing the burden through various means—expanding the command staff, delegating some approvals to other, more appropriate units, taking a hands-off stance to some menial procedures, setting a daily messaging limit for Minimus, and otherwise streamlining workflows—there were often still mountains of things to review and approve. Never mind coming up with executive action plans.

Unfortunately, some things required Rodimus’s approval only, due to separation of duties on the ship.

Megatron, therefore, had to get creative to assist him in actually hacking away at the pile of things that couldn’t otherwise be delegated. He couldn’t remove some of the work, but he could remove some of the stress associated with it, making the task hopefully more bearable. Rodimus would even get a reward out of the whole thing.

It had taken some careful maneuvering and minor mass shifting to fit under the desk, but he’d done it, now wedged in the limited space available. These desks were not made with the intent that large mechs climbed under them.

“And you’re sure this is going to work?”

Rodimus’s chair was already pushed all the way in, his legs jammed against Megatron’s body. There was no way for him to see what would be going on under the desk, but he wouldn’t need to. If anything allowing him to see would pose more of a distraction.

“No,” Megatron said, keeping his hands on Rodimus’s knees, lest they slam shut on his head. Again. “That’s why this is a test.”

 “I mean, sure, a test but even if it works, that doesn’t mean it’s going to pass an ethics audit.”

“Perhaps not, but you are working and I’m not on the clock, so we’re not wasting salary hours.”

And the backlog would, at any rate, be smaller if Rodimus managed to finish even one thing in that stack.

“There is, you realize, one crucial thing you need to do for this to work.”

Rodimus made a confused noise quickly followed by “oh.”

A panel retracted and a flaccid spike emerged from the housing. Not immediately useful but a problem. Still a step in the right direction.

Rodimus must have been nervous. A work situation wasn’t the usual time for this sort of activity, so perhaps it would take a little goading to get the plan in motion.

Then again, the goal was to relieve some of the stress of an overwhelming pile of paperwork by making Rodimus more comfortable, not necessarily actively pleasing him. A stiff spike would be convenient, but not necessarily required. Besides, it would react on its own before long.

With an easy lean forward, he took the head into his mouth. The taste was familiar, but clean. Thankfully someone had decided to take hygiene into account before showing up to the office today. There was even the faint, pleasant fragrance of mid-grade polish wafting from the thighs.

Already the internal pressure was rising, but for now he just held the spike this way. There was no need to rush and he was fulfilling his end of the agreement.

All he had to do was keep the spike warm until Rodimus either gave up or made headway in the stack on his desk. Anything else he chose to do was extra.

Strictly, he wasn’t even obligated to give Rodimus release at the end if he didn’t feel like it.

Rodimus shifted, leaning back in the chair and sighing.

If he wanted to get too comfortable there and do nothing, that was his business, but Megatron wouldn’t move. He could stay here, unmoving, with the head of a spike in his mouth for as long as necessary.

The spike continued to stiffen, pushing more into his mouth. Megatron simply leaned back to keep it at the same depth. For the moment, he ignored the tension building behind his own paneling.

There was a whine, followed by a clattering of datapads above him as Rodimus clearly remembered what was supposed to be happening.

He could hear the scrabbling of a light-pen across the surface of the forms. The pace was slow, like Rodimus was already leaning against his elbow, frowning at the poorly formatted blocks of text. The way the paperwork was organized was not always easy or comfortable to parse, especially under time pressure.

Megatron lightly flicked his tongue over the newly dripping slit in the head of the spike as encouragement. Just to ease the tension, not enough to be an additional distraction… ideally. If Rodimus was less stressed, his work would hopefully be less arduous.

Another sigh and more scrabbling.

Was this even helpful?

Hard to say.

He let the spike sink deeper into his mouth, about halfway. It slipped easily along his tongue before being allowed to rest squarely in the middle, a comfortable weight.

The warm pulsing between his own legs grew, a new distraction as he was tempted to simply let the spike reach all the way to his throat. Denying himself that was an act of discipline.

Unfortunately, with his mouth understandably full, Megatron was unable to ask Rodimus for feedback. Instead, he gave the spike a quick, gentle suck, as though that counted as posing a general question.

Rodimus groaned, but whether it was from frustration or pleasure or both was unclear without being able to see his face.

“Are you teasing me or helping me?”

At this point, probably a bit of both.

But, so be it.

If Rodimus didn’t want him to move, then he wouldn’t. There were other ways to keep busy while he waited for Rodimus to either give up or complete his tasks.

Megatron himself wasn’t on duty and the tension in his own array could have stood to be dissipated.

He let one of his hands leave Rodimus’s knees, sliding it down to where his own legs joined his trunk.

A panel clicked open beneath his finger and he pressed the tip against the swollen, rubbery node. It wasn’t lubricated yet—though he would shortly remedy this—but he allowed himself to poke and press gently, not quite circling it while still ensuring it was ready for more robust personal attention.

Inconsistent little blooms of weak pleasure popped across his circuits as he brushed against the dry node.

Rodimus probably hadn’t even heard his panel open over the mad writing spree on the desk above. The clattering of datapads and frustrated grumbles dominated the soundscape.

If Megatron were careful, there wouldn’t be any noise at all to catch Rodimus’s attention while he sought his own relief. Not that it would matter if Rodimus noticed or not—No, on second thought, that would probably be a greater distraction to his ability to focus than anything else.

Best to be discreet.

Keeping his head still, he let a finger slip backward between his legs, towards his valve to steal some of the escaping lubrication. He coated his finger in just enough to allow the tip an easy glide over his node. This, with the smaller motions and more localized fluid spatter, would be a far less disruptive avenue than what using his own spike would be.

For now, he just circled the node in slow, lazy motions. He had all the time in the world for this while Rodimus scrambled to get work done.

The spike in his mouth twitched, leaking a tiny volume of saline prefluid onto his tongue. He didn’t care for that particular flavor but it a tolerable necessity, easily overcome by everything else.

On instinct, he gave the spike another light suck, only for Rodimus’s legs to shake.

Megatron still wasn’t sure if this was actually helping Rodimus accomplish anything or if the chosen method of stress relief was actually getting in the way of the goal. The writing and complaining were the only tells that anything was happening up there. Would the reports being reviewed even be looked at critically or would they need another eye?

Of course, given the situation, he said nothing, as his frame relaxed, coaxed by the idle rub of his slick finger against his node.

No need to rush. Rodimus’s spike wouldn’t be going anywhere for some time, even as it wobbled and dripped in want.

Rodimus surely had no idea that he was the only one suffering, unable to hear even the small, soft noises of the lubricant’s surface tension occasionally breaking as the finger moved.

A calm pace was the key to remaining undetected. Being unhurried also allowed him to thoroughly massage every side of his node, including the small places that generally went overlooked when only seeking overload, like the almost hidden shaft under the hood. No part would be ignored while he let the charge gradually build.

His empty valve began to tense as the prickling tingle of charge grew in his node; it wouldn’t be long now. It was almost a shame that he couldn’t have warmed the spike in there instead but the positioning would never have worked… and Rodimus would have undoubtedly begun to notice by now what he was doing. For now, he just let the weight of the spike rest comfortably on his tongue.

Every now and then, Rodimus even canted his hips forward like he was trying to get relief, but Megatron just matched the motion to keep the friction minimal.

The only real stimulation for Rodimus probably came from the flexing of Megatron’s cheeks when he had to occasionally swallow down the build up of prefluid in his mouth.

Even the slightest slide of the interlocking metal plates across the sensors in his mouth sent charge straight south, adding to what was generated by the easy motion of his fingertip.

Lubricant, cooling as it met the brisk office air, flowed away slowly down the sides of his legs.

No, not long now at all.

There would be no way to hide what he had been doing after he and Rodimus were done here, but that would be alright. The worst that would happen would probably be Rodimus accusing him, rightfully so this time, of being selfish. And then Megatron would make it up to him, perhaps in private quarters and—

He tensed, trying, somewhat in vain, to prevent the spasms of overload from obviously shuddering his body under the desk. His legs shook, but he managed to keep his upper body steady. It took all of his will to not force the spike further back towards his throat and swallow hard.

The most damning evidence if Rodimus was paying attention was the soft gasp that escaped his mouth, muffled by the spike, as his finger‘s rubbing of his node slowed to a stop.

For several seconds after the wave of overload ebbed, his valve continued to clench in time to the weak, twitching pulses of the oversensitive node pressed under his finger.

Rodimus said nothing, the continued clattering of the datapads implying that perhaps he hadn’t noticed. He hadn’t even attempted to thrust into Megatron’s mouth in response.

Megatron almost wondered if he was actually getting anything done up there or if he was just making noises to sound like something was being accomplished.

For now, he continued to wait for a few minutes. He knelt in place as the lubricant on his thighs and the outside of his valve began to congeal, turning sticky while he allowed his node to recuperate.

As soon as the pressure from his fingertip no longer caused his node to twitch almost painfully away, he resumed circling it slowly. The old lubricant was still sticky, less useful for its original purpose after being allowed to dry out but fresher lubricant would soon replace it. Charge began to build again and Megatron dipped his fingertip just into his valve to replenish his stock.

His valve twitched again at the touch, a reminder that it too wanted attention.

Later, he reasoned, returning his finger to its smooth, steady pace over his thrumming node.

Rodimus thrust forward in frustration again, his range limited by his posture.

After another few minutes elapsed, with Rodimus’s behavior above him not changing, ideas for how to make this a little more interesting popped into Megatron’s processor alongside the simmering charge in his circuits.

While, of course, he could continue to overload as much as he wanted from discreetly massaging his node until Rodimus was finished with his paperwork, surely that wasn’t all he could do.

Emboldened by his earlier victory, he tilted his head forward, gradually sliding Rodimus’s spike further towards the back of his mouth, nestling the rounded tip against the membrane leading to his throat.

Rodimus whined, but didn’t say anything else.

Tempting fate, Megatron let his hand leave his node, instead slipping two fingers downward until the tips pressed against the rim of his valve.

Just how much could he get away with before Rodimus caught on?

Another soft gasp left his lips as he leisurely pressed those fingers inside. If he went slowly, surely it wouldn’t make a sound.

Once fully inside, Megatron rested there a moment, enjoying the pressure as he let his valve clench around the small intrusion. A spike would be preferable, reaching more deeply and spreading more widely, but fingers, inserted up to the furthest knuckle, would do nicely in a pinch. He even brushed the thumb of that hand against his node.

Everything from here on out would have to be perfect. The slightest misstep in motion could make an unmistakable sound, giving the game away.

He flexed his hand, carefully testing how much he could easily move before slowly withdrawing it, a tingle of pleasure of the clenching valve walls in the fingers’ wake.

Without thinking, he thrust them back in as the spike threatened to slip past the membrane in his throat.

The resulting loud squelch was audible from under the desk.

The clattering stopped and Megatron froze, fingers buried deep in his valve as he was caught in the act.

“I knew it!”