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Challenge #02: Loosely defined! Post about your pets, pets from your canon, anything you want!

After thinking on this one, I decided to tweak this prompt a bit and focus on animal companions from fictional stories that I love.

( My favorite fictional animal companions. )

ormolu [awr-muh-loo]

adjective:
1 Any of several copper and zinc or tin alloys resembling gold in appearance and used to ornament furniture, moldings, architectural details, and jewelry
2 an imitation of gold.

(click to enlarge)
Examples:

Clars had described the clocks in its auction catalog as 'a rare pair of Chinese ormolu bronze automaton clocks' manufactured in a workshop in the southern port city of Guangzhou. (Steven Lee Myers and Graham Bowley, They Look Like the Emperors' Clocks. But Are They Real?, The New York Times, December 2018)

No gilded ormolu appears, certainly, but pieces are not without decorative flourishes. (Antonia van der Meer, Hemingway’s Homey Cuban House, The Wall Street Journal, June 2016)

He claimed almost 100 items had been stolen, including a Persian rug worth £35,000, valuable antiques and clocks, and a 19th century red marble rococo fire surround, with ormolu inserts. (Nina Morgan, St Albans fraudster who staged burglary and committed £1m mortgage fraud jailed, Herts Advertiser, January 2019)

He was rather sorry he had come, till Lady Narborough, looking at the great ormolu gilt clock that sprawled in gaudy curves on the mauve-draped mantelshelf, exclaimed: "How horrid of Henry Wotton to be so late!" (Oscar Wilde, The Picture Of Dorian Gray)

Origin:
1765, 'an alloy of copper, zinc, and tin resembling gold,' from French or moulu, literally 'ground gold,' from or 'gold' (from Latin aurum, from PIE aus- 'gold;' see aureate) + moulu 'ground up,' past participle of moudre 'to grind,' from Latin molere 'to grind' (from PIE root mele- 'to crush, grind'). The sense of the word before it reached English began as 'gold leaf prepared for gilding bronze, brass, etc.,' then shifted to 'gilded bronze,' then to various prepared metallic substances resembling it. (Online Etymology Dictionary)

Challenge #9

Talk about your favorite tropes in media or transformative works.

In fic, I'll pretty much always give wingfic, superpowers, and mpreg a try. I rarely turn down outsider POV or post-canon explorations. Fics that peer around the corners of the canon to look at what's lurking there are usually worth checking out. There's not much else that I'll click on pretty much every time I come across it - what I want in Top Gun fic is very different from what I want in Scrubs or Deep Space Nine, and there's certain tropes that I'll deliberately seek out in some fandoms and work to avoid in others.

In terms of general media, some that I always get a kick out of are a bunch of people from very different backgrounds thrown together, which I generally see ensemble casts, but not always - it depends on the circumstances, with less of it in The Wire than MASH. Urban fantasy is something where my tastes are pretty narrow, so I'm willing to check it out fairly regularly in the hopes I've found something new in that narrow range. I enjoy extreme competence and awesome Jews are always welcome.

Challenge #9: Talk about your favorite tropes in media or transformative works.

Y'know, there are a lot of tropes that I like in theory, but which have a tendency to fall flat because the idea is cool but the characterization isn't there. I bring it up because my first thought when I read this prompt was "Megastructures! Progenitors! A megastructure built by a progenitor race!" The problem is, too many stories lean on the coolness of the idea and forget to do character and relationship work and so I get bored as soon as the initial "oooh, neat!" factor wears off.

The tropes I really love in practice and not just in theory are the ones that involve jiggling the characters around and seeing what falls out. Some of the cliche common fic tropes like amnesia and body swap are great for that. Seeing two characters trying to handle each other's bodies--especially if there are powers and alien biology involved--or having one character act without the weight of memory while the other is crushed by it, that stuff is gold for playing with character and relationship dynamics.

Time-travel fix-its, where one or a handful of characters wake up in the past and are given the chance to fix something that went wrong in canon, are also a lot of fun, for similar reasons. The time-traveling character knows things that the people around them don't, and usually they have to keep it a secret. Although these sorts of fic are most satisfying when you are specifically mad at something in canon. I was pondering what a TNG time-travel fix-it would look like, and while there are things the characters would like to fix, there is nothing in the show that I as the viewer would specifically want changed ... at least not enough to care about a time-travel fix it. But MCU fix its that undo some of the dumber PTB decisions? DC fix its that fix Bruce's relationship with Jason without heaps of unnecessary angst? Yes please and thank you.

AUs are good--specifically canon-divergence "want of a nail" style AUs where one big thing went differently, or close-canon parallel universes where some things are different, but the setting is broadly recognizable are good for that too. I like them both as self-contained stories, and as stories where two universes meet and compare differences.

I like competency porn, and my definition of competency encompasses emotional intelligence. Give me two people having a hard conversation in good faith and I am there for it. I also like stories that highlight quiet competencies, especially domestic labor, emotional labor, or admin work--basically female coded stuff that'd not even enough respect. It doesn't have to be female characters, though. Anyone doing hard, unglamorous work that's shown to be important will get me, especially if it's respected in story.

I like unconventional heroes, but also conventional ones. Stories where the two team up and actually get along and respect each other are great. I'm thinking of Miss Marple and the police inspectors who know she can run circles around them and listen carefully to her advice, or Jessica Fletcher when the cop of the week is working with her rather than against her.

Ugh. I know the moment I hit post, I'll think of half a dozen more tropes I love, but I've rambled long enough.

Challenge #9

Talk about your favorite tropes in media or transformative works. (Feel free to substitute in theme/motif/cliche if "trope" doesn't resonate with you.)

This is not the best question for me, because I don't really think in terms of tropes very much. I'm a characters first, tropes second kind of person, so my approach to tropes is always "how does the trope provide a framework for exploring the character or relationship?" rather than "I have a favourite trope that I want to read/write".

Any trope can be good for this, except for tropes that impose characterisation from somewhere else onto the characters. So stuff like A/B/O is not for me.

Mostly, I like tropes that force intimacy onto the characters, or make them lose their inhibitions, so fake relationships, soulbonds and sex pollen (generally not all at the same time - but hey, it could work 😂) are up there as tropes for me.

Title: Lady of Grace
Original (or) Fandom: Octopath Traveler 0
Rating: PG-13
Notes: Heidne/Tatloch, spoilers

( You're about to view content that a community administrator has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

I think most of my problems can be traced back to the fact that I am not a capitalist. I like making money, I like having enough to feed myself and to enjoy a few nice things here or there; but I’ve never loved money. Money just made me feel safe.

Kat Blaque on money.

Leave a comment.⁺

threesentenceficathon has started! The first post is here.

I have written a little something! For the prompt any, any, defeated by a horde of small children - my fill is "Final Fantasy XI, G, nameless female adventurer and the Tarutaru trio from Chains of Promathia"

I would fill more but it's streaming night! In about an hour from this post, I'll be going live on Twitch with some Arcadion raids in Final Fantasy XIV (we're on the second tier) plus roulettes as Viper. I'm still learning Viper so don't expect wondrous DPS, but I should do decent, I think? You are welcome to come cheer me on! Or lurk, lurkers are always welcome.

January 17 - 'If you could wave a magic wand and get a new season of a show or new book (or movie) in a series, what would it be? And why would you pick it? (i.e. did it end on a cliffhanger, or you always wanted more, etc)' for donutsweeper

( Read more... )

(there are still slots open for the January Talking Meme here)

Ooooh fandom_trees got revealed, I went looking for a needy tree over the holidays, found one looking for Edge of Tomorrow and thought ‘oh I have that, I should rewatch it’ and wrote this. It was my last watched film of last year and my first finished fic of this year which is pleasing to me. A nice end to my film rewatch project from last year where I pretty much wrote a fic for each film I re-watched.

Possibly/Probably (The Best Friend You've Never Met) (1599 words) by Glinda
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: William Cage/Rita Vrataski, William Cage & Rita Vrataski
Characters: William Cage, Rita Vrataski, Dr. Carter (Edge of Tomorrow)
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Pre-Relationship, Friendship, final 'first' meeting
Summary: It’s a cliche often repeated, that you never get a second chance to make a good first impression. Cage tries all the same.

Hardy Canadian me looked at the sorta clear sidewalks from my window, looked at the weather forecast (3C now, temps dropping rapidly this evening), and put on her boots to go to the supermarket. Going was easy enough, even over the slush of the houses that had removed most but not all of Thursday's snow. Only had to detour once into the street, because the corner house at the end of the block was completely untouched. Suspect the Greek gardener is in Greece or something. But the opposite corner was passable and the Baptists, somehow getting their act together at long last, had cleared the whole width of the sidewalks on both sides of their lot. I'd say snowblower but there were no mounds of blown snow to be seen, so where they put it all is a mystery. Am grateful they did, whatever.

So now I have potatoes and swiss cheese and eggs to make omelets with, and lime juice to make peanut sauce for the cabbage (napa) and carrots I have from the greengrocer. Must boil the carrots first because they don't cook otherwise. 

I did scrape the remains of the snow from my walkway and sidewalk this morning. Hope it dries before it freezes but I have salt and sand even if it does. Next door M (age 9) came out to try to shovel his front walk with minimal success because neither if their shovels has a metal edge, which is what you need for icy slush. I lent him my ice scraper which seems to have worked. But their front path has paving stones that makes it difficult to shovel things completely flat. There are benefits to mundane concrete aftercall.

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

I went to another interesting theatre experience this evening. This time there were four pieces, all small cast or single person, and all partial shows.

The first was about a boy/man who is angry at the prospect of going bald like his father.

The second was about pollution and about the woman who was trying to help being perceived as a witch. Probably the least advanced, and rather loose, but with potential

The third showed a boy/man who learned how to become invisible. The actor created his childhood self, who was given a magic set but wasn't very good at magic, his adult self who could get the magic right, and his teenage self, with a bully. Lots of audience interaction.

The fourth was a woman character doing improv for the first time. Lots of physical comedy and a long stretch with no dialogue at all—very brave!

There was an online survey asking us to fill in three words to describe each piece, two words to describe how I felt after watching it, and giving an opportunity to ask a question.

Afterwards, we were offered a drink and an opportunity to discuss anything of interest with cast members. I did compliment the improv woman, but did not convey my thoughts (although I had them) to anyone else from the cast! However, it was again very interesting.

*

Snowflake, er...#7 LIST THREE (or more) THINGS YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF. They don’t have to be your favorite things, just things that you think are good. Feel free to expand as much or as little as you want.

I like my ability to write. I learned to read when I was three and always had my head in a book if I possibly could, so I absorbed the rules of English without ever thinking about them. I very rarely get tripped by the technicalities of constructing coherent prose, so I can concentrate on writing the story. Or the newsletter, or the email, whatever.

I said to my husband just yesterday that my life would be a lot less organised without him in it. And his would be a lot less varied without me in it. I like my ability to feed us a reasonably interesting, healthy and varied diet by buying ingredients and being able to open the fridge, see what's there, and figure out what to cook. That's not the only kind of variety I bring to his life, but I'm happy that my Beast is not doing what he used to do (ie eating the same things all the time because food is just fuel). I like my butterfly-mindedness, that prods me into doing something different. I can provide variety in entertainment, too, not just food, but food is every day and important.

I like my artistic ability. I'm not a great artist, or even particularly skilled—I'd love to be better at drawing or painting what is in my head, but I find it very hard. However, I can produce interesting, tasteful things, whether those be cards, shawls, pictures or something else, that benefit from having 'a good eye' involved in the production. As I say, I'm not a great artist, but I can usually produce something a bit more enjoyable to look at than someone without 'a good eye' would produce. I like that.

And, while I'm at it, Challenge #8: Talk about your creative process.

My creative process is mostly 'let's see what happens'.

I've never been a planner. Stories do not get planned in advance. They just grow. Some discipline is imposed eventually, but not until I know what the story *is*. It starts, usually, from an idea. If I get a scene, or a moment, or a phrase, or a plot, or some kind of notion in my head that wants to be a story, that's a good enough germ for the story to start from. It might be "Lance and Adam are two different kinds of gay", for example (see Bouquet). Or, a scene in which Chris has injured both his hands and is wearing some kind of foam protective mittens and Lance goes to him and how exactly do they figure out how to have sex? (That one was particularly interesting because it spawned an entire story of which I am very proud, but did not actually happen in the story (The White Room). That's my 'this is how to write a story' brain taking over from my 'this is how to write fanfic' brain.)

Mostly I just start writing. I've been working on a romance lately, and I just started writing, and my viewpoint character emerged as I wrote and I liked her very much.

Prompts, therefore, are good. I wrote so many stories to prompts on LiveJournal's fic_requests community, because there they were, and they sparked a ficlet, and that was all I needed.


It's mostly the same with more artistic/crafty creations. I used to make quite a lot of LJ icons, and it was just a matter of doing a crop that I liked and then experimenting in Photoshop to see what happened. Sometimes I'd have an idea, but mostly I'd see what tools and resources came to mind, and proceed from there.

With knitting, it's a bit different, because I'm frequently working from a pattern. Frequently not, though—I make quite a lot of impromptu shawlettes and scarves which just involve me picking a bunch of colours that work together, and getting on with it.

Card-making, too, depends more on what mood I'm in and which of my seventeen thousand crafty bits and pieces is top of mind/closest to hand at the time. There might be layers of different papers, or shiny bits, or a glasspainted 'window' or a glasspainted topper for a stack of papers, or lace, or whatever. I don't generally set out with a plan. Which is sometimes a bit of a shame, as I would do better to get the ingredients together first and make something for a specific card and a matching envelope, but hey. I have fun exploring/experimenting.

Event: A Hand in the Hole Flash Exchange
Event link: A Hand in the Hole
Pinch hit link: Fandoms Requested: Creator's Choice of Fandoms
Due date: 6 PM CST, January 19th

If claiming, please email the mod at themonstersoflove@gmail.com.

Posted by xeno

https://www.transformativeworks.org/ivd-2025-volunteer-qa-tag-wrangling-spotlight/

https://www.transformativeworks.org/?p=275847

Last November we asked the community to submit questions to our OTW volunteers in celebration of International Volunteer Day. In this series of posts we will spotlight some of our committees’ responses.

The Tag Wrangling committee sorts, organizes, and connects tags used on the Archive of Our Own (AO3) website, according to Tag Wrangling guidelines, to make them more easily filterable by users. They work, for example, closely with the Support committee to handle user requests for sorting and connecting tags, and the Open Doors committee to “map” tags used in other archives.

We asked the Tag Wrangling committee for replies to your questions, and received a lot of feedback! Below you can find a selection of their answers:

Tag Wrangling Committee Specific Questions

Question: First, thank you for all the work you’ve been doing on the No Fandom Freeforms this year. I and many people I know are very happy about the newly canonized tags. I have been following developments on another Wrangling Policy, fandom metatags, with interest for several years, and I was excited to see an update about it in the June 2025 Newsletter. Is there anything more you can tell us about that process, like what ‘phase two of three’ means or what sort of timeframe we can expect to see changes to the publicly accessible Wrangling Guidelines or fandom tags?

Committee answer:
Thank you for the kind words! For major changes to the Guidelines, we have a three phase process that we work through.

• Phase 1 – Discussion and Brainstorming – The time where the initial issue to be addressed is laid out, and committee members bring forward concerns and potential solutions.
• Phase 2 – Compromise – Different fandoms have different needs and priorities, so it’s not always possible to find a solution that suits everyone. During this phase, we select the solution that will work best in the widest range of cases, and discuss how the proposal can be incorporated into existing guidelines.
• Phase 3 – Drafting – Language and relevant examples are written and brought to the committee for feedback.

In terms of a timeframe, it’s very dependent on how complex the initial issue is and how quickly we are able to find a solution that addresses most major concerns. While we understand that a long wait can be frustrating, making sure we take adequate time to fully understand and address all aspects of an issue should minimize negative unintended consequences and prevent the need to revisit guidelines too frequently.

Question: A couple times now, I have advised other AO3 users dealing with fandom tags that haven’t been canonized, sometimes for months. I’ve told them to use the Support Form to raise the issue and hopefully get a wrangler designated to manage the fandom. Do you have specific advice for what to information put on the support form that would help Support and Tag Wrangling process the request?

Committee answer:
Thank you for directing users with questions or concerns to Support! That is exactly the right strategy for these situations. If a fandom tag has had a work visible on it (i.e. not in an unrevealed collection) for more than a month, you are welcome to fill in the Support form to request its canonization, using their contact form.

It’s fine to include multiple tags in the same request that you would like to have reviewed.

When you submit a Support request, it can be helpful to provide links to information on the the sources of canon as this will aid the fandom bin wranglers in identifying and actioning the fandom tag, especially if it’s difficult to search for or could easily be confused with another fandom (say, a movie with the same name released in another country).

Links to sources provided can include information databases, official websites, and places where the canon source can be purchased. They do not need to be in English, particularly if the source material is non-English (where we may need to refer to non-English sources as part of actioning the tag!) though including non-English sources may increase the number of volunteers who need to review your request.

Question: What’s the process for moving an unofficial/freeform tag into a proper one you can filter with?

Committee answer:
Great question! Here is a very brief description of the life cycle of a tag.
A user adds a tag on their work. A wrangler then reviews tags in the “bins” assigned to them and determines whether the tag is fandom-specific (Example: The Force from Star Wars) or a general concept (Example: planets). If the former, the tag is “wrangled” to the particular fandom. If the latter, the tag is assigned to “No Fandom”.

What happens from this point is dependent on the type of tag (Character, Relationship, or Additional). There are specific criteria for whether a tag should be made a “canonical” or a “synonym”. (You can find definitions for all of these wrangling-related terms in our Tag Wrangling Guidelines). Some tags require a minimum level of usage before they will be canonized/appear in the autocomplete/filters.

General concept tags stored in No Fandom typically need to go through a special process of review and discussion by the Tag Wrangling committee before they can be canonized. This process is in place to ensure tags are organized, easily understood by users, and do not duplicate existing canonicals.

General Questions

How many hours a week do you spend on your OTW volunteer work?
This answer varies a lot in Tag Wrangling depending on what projects people are working on and their chosen self-assigned workloads. In general, many wranglers prefer not to track the specific time spent, with some of the joking answers shared including: “I reserve the right to to be silent”, “more than I probably should” and “that’s between me and the hyperfixation gods”.

The reality is like Cascade says: “It varies! Sometimes just an hour or two to clean up small fandoms, other times I get into the zone and will spend 10 or more hours in busier fandoms or working on a large project.”

How do you manage your volunteer time, and do you do the same thing every day like with a day job?

• Dean makes a dollar, I make a dime, so I wrangle your tags on university’s time. (For academic purposes this is a joke.) Some smaller issues (especially with smaller fandoms) can be easily resolved by taking 5 minutes away from what you’re doing, but bigger jobs (big fandoms, confusing canons, loads of tags, especially untranslated tags, etc.) need plenty of time and attention, so I usually wrangle them at home in the evenings or on my days off. And not everyone wrangles every day, unless they want to and have time to do it. Every wrangler works at their own leisure (this is volunteering, after all), but we are required to work through our tag bins at least once every 2 weeks. (Ravenna)
• I have a bit of a routine of things I do most days (check small fandoms for tags, send off tags that need translations, send off tags that belong to other wranglers, and clear a few pages of tags from the active fandoms), but apart from that it varies! Some days I’ll look for freeform tags that I can canonize, sometimes I’ll work on internal reference pages, or sometimes I might contribute to other ongoing projects. There’s always something that can be done! (Tag Wrangling volunteer)

What’s your favorite part about volunteering at the OTW?

• As a tag wrangler, it amazes me just how…creative some authors can be. I have seen tags that never in my mind I could come up with, and browsed fics that I would not normally read just to see the context of those tags lol (LaReveuse)
• I love how unconventionally fun the volunteer team is. I used to assume that the OTW was all stone-cold strict behind the scenes, but, really, our wrangling work mostly consists of giggling at tags and cheering when our favorite fandoms get canonized. (Bowekatan)

What’s the aspect of volunteer work with the OTW that you most wish more people knew about?

• I think more people should know about co-wrangling. Wrangling seems pretty individual, but with larger and/or more complicated fandoms, one person isn’t enough and you need a team of people to take care of the fandom. There is that teamwork aspect where teams discuss new changes and ask each other questions, not to mention you can divide the work up in a configuration that works for the team. Depending on what different people prefer to handle, you might even get to avoid the kinds of tasks you don’t enjoy as much if one of your co-wranglers really enjoys doing those tasks. I personally really enjoy co-wrangling and have made friends with a lot of people who I’ve co-wrangled with, and I don’t think that aspect of wrangling is spoken about enough. (Tag Wrangling volunteer)
• I wish more people understood the sheer volume of fic posted, and therefore the astonishing number of tags we wrangle. (Jmathieson)

What does a typical day as an OTW volunteer looks like for you?

• It depends on the week, and can vary based on the workload at my real life job, my social commitments, and the volume of works in the fandoms I wrangle! I generally try to do a clean up of my smaller fandoms every day, which takes about 5-10 minutes. Since I wrangle a number of popular fandoms and mega-fandoms as well, I try to set aside at least an hour when I want to jump into those. On average, I’d say I spend at least five hours a week on wrangling, but that can greatly increase! Sometimes you just get really into the zone, and somehow five hours in one sitting have already passed! (Kenn)
• I usually do a tiny bit of wrangling every weekday so I keep my bins low on tags, and then do longer wrangling projects on the weekends. I keep an ongoing list of projects I have in mind so I don’t get sucked into them during my work week. (ellexamines)

What is your favorite animal? Alternatively, do you have a favorite breed of cat/dog?

• Some favourite animals from wranglers include dogs, horses, foxes, moths (specifically domestic silkmoths), dolphins and various varieties of big cats!
• One wrangler, Loxaris specified: “Even though I like all animals, my favourites are dogs, closely followed by horses – their ancient, mutually beneficial connection with humans is what most fuels my love for them. For dog breeds, although I have a very marked preference for larger ones, I am currently captivated by the zerdava (kudos to you if you know it); a somewhat wistful dream of mine is to own one someday.”

Do you enjoy reading fanfic? If so, what’s your favorite work on AO3?

• Overwhelmingly wranglers enjoy reading fanfic and it’s a regular point of discussion in social chats. Lists of fanfiction recommendations are regularly shared and swapped amongst wranglers.
• I love reading. I love it so much that I currently have 4 library cards in my wallet. While the right book can be great, fanfiction is also a lot of fun! I love the unique stories that are told and seeing the creativity and humour that so many creators share with us! When I’m not ready to say goodbye to another world just yet, it’s great to have fanfic to turn to, to continue playing with that world. My favourites will change, but right now I’m quite fond of and re-reading Tossawary’s Stepping up. (Tag Wrangling volunteer)
• I love it, and read it so much I don’t get around to reading published books much, RIP. My favourite is the Halo Effect series. (spacegandalf)
• Some favourites from the team include a sugar coated pill and a pick me up by whomstisthis, While Mighty Oaks Do Fall by WitchofEndor, Desert of Ghosts by rednightmare, as well as mosaic broken hearts and this is me trying by hanville, but there are many, many more favourites amongst the team!

Do you write any fanfic yourself? What do you enjoy about it?

• One of my favorite things about writing fic is posting a work for a fandom I wrangle and immediately wrangling my own tags! Writing fic is definitely a creative outlet for me and I think it’s very interesting to have both a writer and wrangler perspective on fanfic. (Xylia)
• I do! Most of the fanfic I write is not fanfic that I will ever share with the public, but I enjoy writing it for myself to get the plot bunnies out of my brain. Occasionally I will get a burst of inspiration and post a fic that I have written. One thing that I really enjoy about fanfic writing is how freeing it is. There is no obligation to be good at it, and you can write whatever you want, with no expectations aside from what you allow yourself to be held to. I don’t consider myself a fantastic writer but it doesn’t matter, because the point of fanfic isn’t to be good at it, it’s to have fun! (Tag Wrangling volunteer)

What fandoms are you (currently) in?
Wranglers are in many fandoms that are constantly changing, but a few of the current ones that were volunteered include but are not limited to:

Ooe (Visual Novel), Digimon Adventure, Kingdom Hearts, Kanto Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Helluva Boss, Malevolent (an Eldritch Horror podcast), Jurassic Park/World, Spider-Man, The Pitt, Batman, Heated Rivalry, Critical Role, Scum Villain and Aurora (Webcomic) in fact – many webcomics both large and small have wrangling fans currently in them!

Do you feel glad or proud to see fanfiction in your mother tongue?

• Yes, absolutely! It’s a delight to see works in my language (and to have tags sent to our translation team to be translated into English 🤭). It’s one of those overlooked parts of language (and thus culture) preservation, making things in your mother tongue and putting them out there for everyone to see. There are so many benefits! It helps language learners to absorb culture and writing/speaking conventions, translations into mother tongue help people whose english isn’t up to the level of reading comfortably, they create an environment that goes against the notion of anglocentrism and helps people from all cultures feel more welcome, and so much more! Seeing fics in my mother tongue and other languages besides English always makes me happy 🥰 (Ravenna)
• I used to be indifferent to reading in Indonesian, but when we reached 1 million Chinese/Mandarin works in the archive this year, I thought “I want my mother tongue to do that too!”, so now I try to support fanfic written in Indonesian as much as possible! (Tag Wrangling volunteer)

Thanks so much to every volunteer who took the time to answer!

(For more answers from Tag Wranglers, check out this work on AO3, where we collect additional replies to each question!)

https://www.transformativeworks.org/ivd-2025-volunteer-qa-tag-wrangling-spotlight/

https://www.transformativeworks.org/?p=275847

Challenge #9 at  snowflake_challenge 


Talk about your favorite tropes in media or transformative works. (Feel free to substitute in theme/motif/cliche if "trope" doesn't resonate with you.)

I cheated and read an article online that listed a bunch of tropes and these are my findings. I like hidden worlds and secret societies, but I strongly dislike chosen one stories. And I don't read a lot of fantasy, so I don't tend to encounter hidden worlds much. I guess I just like the idea of their being a secret mirror of our society. I've written a couple of fics where various pantheons of gods intersect with modern society and with each other because I like imagining what might be going on that we don't see. 

I LOVE me an amateur sleuth. That's why Miss Marple has always been my absolute favorite, closely followed by Jessica Fletcher. Right now I'm reading Three Bags Full where the sleuths are the ultimate amateurs - a flock of sheep whose shepherd has been murdered! I also like amateur spies like Tommy and Tuppence and Mrs. Pollifax.

If I like the source material, I will try almost any type of AU. The only kind I tend to bounce off of are set in school; as a teacher, I find them so unbelievable that I can't suspend my disbelief.

I'm also very fond of crossovers. Sometimes I'll see someone bigging up a crossover on the AO3 subreddit and, even if I know nothing about either canon, I'll give it a try. I also really enjoy writing crossovers; it's like weaving together two different fabrics or putting together a puzzle. 

And while we are on the subject of things I like, I love writing and reading drabbles. I enjoy a fic where someone has provided a link to a playlist. I like when people play around with form and experiment, even when it doesn't quite work. I like an author with audacity. 

A new baihe live action drama, Candy (糖果, pinyin: tangguo), has started airing on GagaOOLala. Here's the official synopsis:

Top actress Lin Can plummets overnight after a devastating PR crisis. Wen Nuannuan—the girl she once left behind in her youth—reenters her life as an assistant. Under the pressure of fame and public scrutiny, the two escape the city to join a rural reality show. Meanwhile, veteran manager Si Han and superstar Jiang Wan are locked in a fierce game of love and power, entangled in workplace rivalry and unresolved past feelings. Between tenderness and cruelty, sincerity and calculation, two GL love stories unfold against the unforgiving reality of the entertainment industry.

And here's the trailer:


The main page for the drama is here. Each episode appears to be about 30 minutes long (judging by the first one), and I vaguely remembering on Chinese social media that there are eight episodes in total (but am not 100% sure). The first episode is free-to-view.

First, a quick announcement before I get into the challenge: threesentenceficathon  IS LIVE! Go and leave prompts, fill prompts, it's a ton of fun! Even if you don't think you'll like it, you may surprise yourself. It's also a great, low pressure, quick and easy way to get the creative juices flowing (which fits in with Snowflake Challenge #8, the creative process).

Challenge #7

LIST THREE (or more) THINGS YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF. They don’t have to be your favorite things, just things that you think are good. Feel free to expand as much or as little as you want.

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