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Assignments out!
Navigation: Rules/General Info | AO3 Collection | Posting Guidelines | Medium Rulesets | Google Forms (Defaulting, Extensions, Assignment Summary Requests) | Mod Contact: ficinaboxmod@gmail.com OR Screened Mod Contact Post
Assignments are out! Thank you very much for your patience. Please refer to this part of the rules for an in-depth refresher on assignment minimums and expectations, but the short of it is: 10k of complete fic (or equivalent opt-in) is due on October 19 at 10:00 EDT (countdown). Email us immediately if you cannot create anything your recip has requested.
Default/Extension/Assignment Summary forms: These aren't quite up and running yet; they'll be ready by tomorrow night.
Rule reminders/clarifications:
- All gifts are required to hit at least one of the recipient's relationship/character/worldbuilding tags and it should be reasonably clear which tag is being hit. What this means will obviously vary by medium; tarot cards have very different expectations than a capella filk. This applies to all gifts, including treats, unless the recip has said something to opt themselves out or has requested something else in their details.
- If your DNWs directly contradict your opt ins they will be unenforceable. We tried to email everyone affected by this, but if we missed you and it comes up later, this still applies to you. This was issues like DNWing 1st person while requesting epistolary or requesting an "Any" tag while DNWing a medium that clearly falls within that tag.
- Remember that works will be anonymous for two weeks after work reveals! Even if you're making something that is inherently unanon in some way, you still may not link to your outside social media on the work until after author reveals.
- For recursive works: Your work still must fill your recip's requested relationship tags (unless your recip has opted out of that). The work you are recursing does not need to originally hit those tags.
- If you have a question for your recip email us so we can pass it on to them anonymously. Do not ask them any other way, including passing the question through someone else, asking an anonymous question on their tumblr, etc. This is so that if they give you a DNW or medium exception or something we can keep track of that!
If you are creating multiple works:
- Each work must fulfill one of your assigned recipient's requests, but they do not need to be the same request and do not need to be connected. Filling all 10k of your assignment using the same request is also fine.
- If you choose to create multiple gifts, you should fill the first one using the Fulfill button on your assignment page! The other ones will need to be posted directly to the collection by going to the profile, clicking "Post to Collection", and manually adding your recipient on the "Gift this work to" line.
If you cannot complete all or some of your assignment:
- If you have not yet posted any works, you can default by hitting "Default" on your assignments page. This will remove the assignment and release you from any obligation.
- If you have completed part of your assignment and wish to default on the rest, please email the mods and let us know! You will still be guaranteed up to the amount of approved works you submitted rounded down to the nearest 1k (e.g. if you post 3.5k, then default, and then your creator defaults on their entire assignment, you will go out to PH for 3k). If you posted multiple works, those wordcounts/equivalents are added together before the total is rounded down.
- If you have defaulted on all or part of your assignment, you may "earn back" the amount of gifts you are guaranteed by submitting works to your original assignment or by picking up pinch hits. Please check the "Defaulting" section of this post (link) for more information.
Posting
- Everyone is requesting fanfiction, in addition to their medium opt ins.
- All works must be at least 1k or equivalent unless the recipient has opted into a lower amount, in which case they must be 1k or equivalent or fill a length opt-in tag.
- You can find extended posting guidelines here (link).
- If you are filling a Worldbuilding or Original Works tag and don't wish to tag your work with that exact tag, please mention in your top author's note what tag you're filling.
- All medium tags have a prefix telling you what ruleset they follow, which will tell you the minimum and the wordcount equivalents of that medium. Any non-fanfiction mediums must fit into one of those rulesets or they will not be accepted into the exchange. "Unique Rules" means that a medium has unique minimums and equivalents which are also on the ruleset page. You can find the rulesets here (link).
- If you believe that how you're tagging your work may be confusing for the mods when they check, please just make a note in the top authors note! This also goes for any other information you think may be useful! We will post an all clear notification here on DW a few days before reveals reminding everyone to swap their work from "helping the mods out with notes" mode to "looking nice for reveals" mode.
Treating
- Treating is encouraged!
- Any treats posted to the exchange should meet the assignment requirements! This means that they should be at least 1k or equivalent (unless the recip has opted into lower) and must fill their requested fandom, tags, and medium opt ins if not fanfiction.
- If you have treated your recipient prior to picking up their pinch hit, any treats you have given them that meet the assignment requirements will be automatically counted towards your assignment! This is a side effect of how we're automating the tracking for this exchange. If you have given your recipient a treat that you do not want to count towards your assignment, please let us know when you post to the DW to claim the pinch hit.
Other reminders:
- If you post any part of your assignment from an account other than the one you signed up with, we need to know in order to count that work towards your 10k. We'd super prefer you post from the account you signed up with and transfer the work after we've processed it, though.
- You must remain anonymous until creators are revealed. This means you should not contact your recipient or state who you are creating for. If you have any questions for your recipient, you should contact the mods and we will pass those on.
- Those of you hoping to create works with complicated HTML may find this collection of workskin and HTML guides helpful for creating things like twitter, mission reports, etc.
- If you create an AO3 workskin/tutorial for something that doesn't already exist you can post it to the collection for others to use! We will reveal it immediately. If you need to earn back minimum after defaulting a community workskin/tutorial counts for 2k. If you'd like to confirm if what you're making will count prior to making it, please contact us!
- Don't miss the post about Assignment Swaps!
- Initial pinch hits will be out after swaps.
- If you're confused about anything at all, hit us up!! Email ficinaboxmod@gmail.com OR comment on the Screened Mod Contact Post
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The two most protagonist-y protagonists are Saira, the band's lead singer/guitarist, who is at all times extremely punk rock, and Amina, a stressed-out trad-Muslim scientist with terrible stage fright, who really has to work to access her inner punk rock. The cast is rounded out with Ayesha, the angry lesbian drummer; Bisma, who plays the role of maternal peacemaker until she starts to chafe at it; and Momtaz, the band's go-getter manager. The first season focuses mostly on the question of whether Amina can conquer her own inhibitions enough to contribute her excellent guitar skills and huge Disney eyes to the band after Saira press-gangs her into joining them. The second season brings the whole band up against the music industry more generally, and the various ways that the public pressure of moderate fame starts to push each of them into re-examining their self-image and relationships to their music and identity. It's a good show! I liked it very much!
Also, like everyone else in the world, we have recently watched KPop Demon Hunters. Also a very good time featuring banger music tracks -- I'd seen it described as 'a series of really good music videos' and broadly I agree with this assessment -- plus twenty pounds of fun kdrama tropes stuffed into a five-pound bag. Probably would not have felt compelled to write anything about it except for the fact that by an accident of timing, we ended up watching the season finale of Lady Parts the day after we watched KPop Demon Hunters which made for a very funny accidental wine pairing. Both funny and telling to go from ( high-level spoilers for both KPop Demon Hunters and Lady Parts )
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Daily Happiness
2. I have had bad neck issues from sleeping for years and things got somewhat better after I bought a pillow that was specifically for stomach sleepers, but it's several years old now and I've been thinking about replacing it anyway, plus it's also never been perfect and I still do have a lot of neck pain, though thankfully not constantly. I saw a list of best pillows on Wired a week or so ago and have been thinking about the one they recommended for back and stomach sleepers and finally bit the bullet and ordered it the other day. It arrived today and while I haven't slept a full night on it yet, it feels amazing to lie on, both back and stomach, so I have high hopes. It was pricey, but if it helps my neck, it's worth it.
3. Having a three day work week was so nice! It's the weekend again already!
4. If only I could sleep this comfortably!

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Fannish Friday
So the Hershey Haul....I haven't eaten it all yet because there's only so much candy a diabetic should eat (none) but here are my thoughts
Chocolate Lava Peanut Butter cups - so it's supposed to have ooey gooey chocolate lava. Bag #1 (since PB cups are my favorites) Dad got one and I got one that oozed into the packaging. The rest were just normal cups with super soft centers making it hard to get it out of its paper panties. Bag two had a thin layer of what might be chocolate lava, barely noticeable.
Verdict - get normal ones. they're cheaper than this rip off
Hazelnut kisses - I'm still not a fan of nuts in chocolate even if I like the nuts
Brownie Bites Kisses - tasted like brownies. Pretty good
Pumpkin Spice Latte treasure nugget - tastes like its name. wee bit artificial but not bad
Caramel Machiatto latte treasure nugget - um...no caramel, no coffee, just tastes like milk chocolate which is nice enough but this is one of the Hershey store only special chocolates so I wanted more flavor, more specialness
Cafe Espresso treasure nugget - strong coffee taste, yummy (another special)
special bars, salty caramel and strawberry creme. I should have looked closer. They're both white chocolate. I'm not a fan of white chocolate. That said. Salty caramel tasted more like coconut (looked like toasted coconut) good but not quite caramel. Strawberry creme tastes like strawberry quick.
Caramel special nuggets, large (expensive as fuck compared to the rest), bigger about two inch cubes, very good caramel, gooey.
I still have more to try.
Actually wrote something
Title: Pushing Up the Ante
Fandom: Hazbin Hotel
Summary: All Husker wanted was a friendly game of Texas hold ‘em to entertain his fellow overlords. One of them doesn’t get the message and in his attempts to take out Husker, the ante gets bigger until they’re all in.
Rating: teen
Author Note - This was inspired by
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This is set some time before Husk lost it all so probably a handful of years before Charlie’s plans for the hotel. And there will be a few alterations to how Texas hold ‘em is played (you’ll see what I mean)
Also written for spikesgirl58’s six word challenge and the six words were Wake, Statement, Generate, Franchise, Strap, & Candidate and for the allbingo prompt of no quarter
Also written the lyrical titles bingo 2025 . This one is for the prompt a fast song Ace of Spades by Motorhead
( story at the link above or under here )
Fannish 50 fan recs
Manoeuvres Under Fire. The Jacobite Trilogy | The Flight of the Heron Series
Heading to Bed Stargate Atlantis
Training Torchwood
Disobedience. Stargate SG-1
strange friends in familiar places
魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù陈情令 | The Untamed (TV)Marvel Cinematic Universe
Strangers Instead of Friends Stargate Atlantis/Stargate SG-1
Searching Torchwood
Breakfast Plans FAKE
Dr. and Mrs. The Owl House
Is it Soup Yet? Stargate Atlantis/Stargate SG-1
Upcycling Stargate Atlantis
Cherish Bloom The Murderbot Diaries
Storytime Stargate Atlantis
Kid Hazbin Hotel
Ianto Jones Regrets Torchwood/Doctor Who
The Full Experience FAKE
A Tale for All Hallow's Eve Grimm/Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Silent Nights Barry
Most People The Murderbot Diaries
Not Soft Hazbin Hotel
Learning the Lay of the Land Teen Wolf
Pumpkin Carving Buffy the Vampire Slayer
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Watching "Kpopped" on Apple TV.
Yesterday I started watching Kpopped, the new song competition show that blends K-pop and Western artists. I watched the first two episodes last night, and I'm really enjoying it. I think the format is really great — everyone has fun because the stakes are so low. Each episode follows the same format:
- A K-pop group is split in half.
- Each half of the group works with a Western artist to create and perform a "K-popified" version of one of that artist's songs.
- The in-studio audience votes on the winning group.
- Immediately after the winning group is announced, the two halves of the K-pop group are reunited to perform one of the group's songs along with the Western artists.
There are no penalties for losing, no prizes for winning. Just performance and comradery between musicians.
The two episodes I've watched so far are:
- Half of Billlie performs "Savage" with Megan Thee Stallion, the other half performs "Lady Marmalade" with Patti LaBelle.
- Both halves of Itzy perform with Emma Bunton and Mel B from the Spice Girls. One group performs "Wannabe" and the other performs "Be As One."
A recurring theme is the Western artists having trouble learning the K-pop choreography. (Except for Patti LaBelle — out of respect for her age, they had her stay still and everyone danced around her.)
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Today's Adventures
Arcola is a nice town with several favorite shops that we like to visit. The old buildings are colorful with beautiful architecture. Most of the streets along the festival are still brick. There are benches along the sidewalks. Several places had picnic tables set up for the event, too.
( Read more... )
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fests and exchanges
In order of reveals:
- There's
rarepairexchange, which has its deadline a little over two weeks from now, though reveals aren't until October. I've been poking at my assignment, and I have a bunch of things I know I want to be in it, but so far I haven't managed to pull it all together into a coherent narrative. Hopefully once I've conquered this one, things will be flowing again!
- Then there's
guardian_wishlist, for which I just finished my sign-up last night - and we've only just posted the first batch of wishlists. (Mine is here; I'm requesting Guardian drama and RPF, as well as Guardian/Grimm and Guardian/Stargate crossovers.) And there are so many tempting prompts already! Reveals are on 6 October, and I hope to make a bunch of stuff before then.
- Next comes
ficinabox, with a deadline in October and reveals in November - assignments aren't out yet, but should come soon. I won't seriously tackle that one until after Rarepair Exchange, though. Plenty of time if I brainstorm and have a plan by then!
- There's also the Guardian Bonus Bingo grace period in November, for which I hope to finish at least some of the things I started and didn't finish so far. *g*
- Yuletide is of course gearing up again as well, so that's what I'll be working on in December. Can't wait to find out which rare fandom I get to write this time!
- Then, hopefully
fandomtrees will also run again this year, and I'll get to make a bunch of stuff for that too! Reveals are genearally early to mid-January.
- And finally, there's
fffx which doesn't have its deadline until the second half of January. I still need to finish my sign-up for that (planning on doing that this weekend), but that deadline is so far away, there'd still be plenty of time even if I didn't start thinking about it until after Yuletide ends. (Though I hope to have a plan before then!) Of course, an idea might grab me right away and I might be working on this in parallel to everything else, you never know! *g*
What fests or exchanges is everyone else doing?
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LBCF: Episode IV
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Guardian Wishlist: First 12 wishlists are live!!!
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Wishlists are tagged for fandoms and media. Previous years' tags are labelled with their respective years, so check the plain fandom and media tags at the bottom for this year's wishlists.
We've also put together a spreadsheet for your convenience, and we'll be updating it as more wishlists go live.
All gifts must be posted in or linked in comments. Gift comments can be anonymous or signed in. Comments are screened until reveals. The AO3 collection is also open for posting.
And remember, sign-ups are open until 15 September. The sooner you sign up, the more time people have to make fills for your prompts!
Come and join in! The more, the merrier!
Rules/FAQ/schedule | Sign-up post | AO3 collection | Fandom and media tags | Spreadsheet | Promo text and graphics
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Collection Opening Soon!
One last thing: if you happen to see/read/admire/ogle/drool over a fanwork in the collection that you like, please consider leaving kudos and comments (random emojis and keysmashes work great too!) We love it when you tell our amazing creators that all their hard work was appreciated. Some of the creators worked for over 3 months on their beautiful pieces. Kudos and comments are the best things to make them smile and create more lovely works for our fandom!
- The (somewhat tired) TRSB25 Mod Team
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September's Bingo
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bounty | plunder | shark bait | dead men tell no tales | briney deep |
shipshape | becalm | rum | rapscallion | belay |
broadside | abandon ship | FREE SPACE | three sheets to the wind | old salt |
cannon | scuttlebutt | no quarter | run a shot across the bow | swashbuckler |
black spot | deep six | devil to pay | pillage | lookout |
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Music Friday
This live show is great, also. Low-key looking at tickets for when they're on the coast next month.