quihi

I have not managed to reply to comments on dreamwidth that I mean to, yet. I really do want to get into using dreamwidth, but I suspect it'll take awhile before I truly get into the habit of it. I had a long comment mostly finished and I lost it when my laptop shut off on me, so I'll have to start over and hope I can remember or rewrite it. (My laptop is several years old and periodically, it decides the battery is dead and it shuts off and won't turn on until I plug it in, upon which it realizes it's actually fully charged.)

I've been busy for the last couple weeks—honestly, it's hard to say what I've been busy with, since there's no big thing. There's some major work getting done on my parents' house, so I was staying at my sister's house which messed up my schedule, and I was mostly online on my phone and not doing the stuff that I do at my laptop, like writing moderate to long comments. (Maybe I should just do it on my phone anyway.) Now I'm traveling and visiting a friend I haven't seen in person in a few years which, again, is great, albeit awkward at moments, but I have little time to myself where I can really relax and write anything than a few discord messages, except by staying up late. (I've still been reading some fic, when I wake up or in an attempt to relax, so maybe I'm just making excuses. It's hard to say.)

Reveals for the Rigel Black Remix just happened! I was scrambling to write just before the deadline, unfortunately (I totally meant to be on top of it sooner! and procrastinated anyway), and only finished my edits about fifteen minutes before reveals, but I did finish, and I think I'm happy with it. I got two awesome gifts/remixes, one art and one fic, for the same fic, and I'm super excited that people liked that relationship concept of Archie/Hermione & Harry, with Harry right along with them for life but not quite involved in the romantic aspect of the relationship, enough to explore it more.

I'm still not entirely confident in my ability to write remixes, even though I wrote one. I can generally come up with ideas for fanfiction, recursive or based directly on regular canons, and remixes seem to involve a little different approach, balancing how much of the source fic to keep and what to keep the same or not. I don't remember reading across any before a few months ago. I'm looking forward to reading more and getting more familiar with the concept and what people do with it!

Hello, Yuletide Writer! I'm Quihi on AO3 as well as here. Thank you for writing for me!

General Information

DNW: smut, M- or E-rated sexual content; alternate universes that remove the fundamental setting of the canon (i.e. please keep the appliances in Unauthorized Bread, the doors in Exit West, the doors and worlds in Wayward Children, the Emergency and telepathy stuff in MBS.)

In general, in addition to/regardless of my canon-specific details, I like fics about people becoming friends, alternate perspectives on canon events, and any sort of slice of life or gapfiller/missing scene! I'm also open to asexual/aromantic headcanons, original characters, and winter/holiday/Christimas fic.

Optional details are optional and I hope you don't feel restricted by my prompts. I'm just excited to see more fic for any of these canons!

---

I'm not expecting any of these things, but if you're interested in these topics:

I am happy to read about original characters, whether alongside canon characters, or in fic with only OCs where I have requested "Any" or "Worldbuilding" for the characters.

I am open to atypical formats of fic, including (but not limited to) fic written in first person, in non-sequential order, poetry, or any in-universe document such as news articles or blog posts. However, I would prefer not to receive fic written in second person or interactive fiction.

Some of these characters are religious, either explicitly or implicitly. Feel free to write about that! I like to read about characters' religion. However, please do not condemn any religion as a terrible thing or focus on any character leaving their religion. I would prefer it be treated respectfully and as a generally accepted part of the character's life, or simply not discussed in the fic.

Either way, I am happy to receive any sort of Christmas or holiday or winter-y/seasonal fic!

Unauthorized Bread - Cory Doctorow

Character: Any (nominated: Abdirahim, Salima, Wyoming, Worldbuilding)

I would also be happy to read fic about Nadifa, who I did not have space to nominate, or any other characters or OCs in the pursuit of Worldbuilding.

Online version found here

I love this world with the almost-real dystopian aspects and all the strong, problem-solving characters! I'm hoping for gen rather than shipfic here, romance limited to a minor point if covered at all.

Some prompts:

Abdirahim: We know he coordinates the kids in the building with jailbreaking, and he generally seems like an awesome kid. I would love to read about how he coordinates the kids with all the jailbreaking, or some sort of character study on him, or a day in his life with school and his family, or details about how he coordinated and ran the thing where they kept one elevator to themselves.

Salima: I would love to read a fic about her friendship with Wyoming or Nadifa and how that plays out, or more detail about how they become closer, or how she settles into Dorchester Towers. I would also be excited to read more detail about her baking, or her bookkeeping work. Or else, more about her life trajectory before or after the bulk of Unauthorized Bread.

Wyoming: Oh, Wye. She's almost certainly the character I have the most in common with, and she annoys me more than any other major character. I would love to read more about her, and how she makes the decisions she does, taking a job at Boulangism and not understanding Salima's refusal to engage in the affiliate program, but coming to the point where she has to make a decision when Salima is going to be caught. Or, what she does around that time or after—does she start spending time on the message boards, or make any effort to share corporate information more widely, or help anyone else? Does she try to stick to her life, staying as uninvolved as possible other than befriending Salima?

Nadifa: I would be happy to see more about her life, either before, after, or during Unauthorized Bread. Or her family, Abdirahim, Idil, and Yasmiin. It's also said that she's a seamstress and I am always ready to read about sewing.

Worldbuilding: How do people in other buildings cope with the appliance failures and find workarounds; do they find similar solutions? Do any buildings manage to get new appliances in their apartments?

Are there news reports about these companies, or internal documents or press releases about the new programs they're rolling out, or people helping to cover up that they're all jailbroken and little-to-no income is coming in from Salima's (and possibly others') building?

Exit West - Mohsin Hamid

Characters: Worldbuilding

Worldbuilding! I think the world he creates in this book is fascinating; for all that the doors are essentially a plot device, it's an interesting world where people are forced to accept and figure out how to handle immigration and refugees on such a large scale.

I'd prefer a story that's not entirely about romance, but as long as there's some worldbuilding and some details about how they're adapting to the changes in society, that's fine too.

Some prompts:

More on the government response!

[some specific prompts to be added]

There are a lot of minor characters who are never given names–I am always interested in learning more about them.

[some specific prompts to be added]

Wayward Children Series - Seanan McGuire

Characters: Eleanor West, Kade West

I am happy to receive fic that focuses on only Eleanor or Kade and not both, or instead on Layla!

Eleanor and Kade:

I like these two a lot. I'd love to see more of their relationship! Whether that's fluff, like something with Kade's tailoring and clothes collecting or relaxing on a nice day; or something more serious, like dealing with one of the problems the school faces and deterring officials and pretending nothing abnormal is happening. Like, what do they do after a student returns to their world and they have to explain it and manage the aftermath?

I'd also be interested in a fic about Eleanor starting the school or Kade taking over running the school later. Or elaborating on their pasts such as when they returned from their respective worlds, or Eleanor going to her world.

Layla:

The girl who showed up briefly at the end of ! I liked the worldbuilding for Confection. I'd like to see something about Layla and how she got there and what she does as Baker. Or, I'd like to read about when she returns to Earth, if she goes to Eleanor's school!

The Mysterious Benedict Society - Trenton Lee Stewart

Characters: Worldbuilding

I am also happy to receive fic that focuses the non-nominated characters Tai or Claire Li, instead of worldbuilding.

Book-verse only, please!

These books are nostalgic, and they also have some really cool worldbuilding, particularly with the Emergency and the Institute. And the characters are delightful! Kate, Reynie, and Rhonda are favorites of the main eight, but I am happy to read about any of them or villains or OCs or anyone else in pursuit of worldbuilding.

Some prompts: this is far too many prompts. I have many questions about Stonetown, so I hope one or two of these topics interest you. Worldbuilding is a broad category. These are mostly around the first and fifth books since I've read those most recently, but please feel free to go and expand off the second or third too!

The Emergency and the Whisperer! What's going on with that? How did Mr. Benedict stop being trusted in government? What are all the news articles like before and after the events of the first book? How does it all influence kids, or what is it like when the Emergency ends and everyone apparently feels lighter?

L.I.V.E.! What are some of the other messages encoded in the Whisperer, and what do the LIVE lessons that back them cover? What's it like to be a regular student there? Or one of the Helpers or Executives? Do they think much about the rules, or the weird lessons, or the four kids on a mission? How does it actually work when they erase a kid's memory and send them off Nomansan Island? What's it like for LIVE students after the first book ends? I'd like a look at what one of them does and how they switch to a normal school.

Riddle of Ages! Maybe some background about building the prison or planning the trap? Or given that there's so many telepaths now, I would love to read about how they experiment or mess around or have fun with telepathy. How does telepathy work in this otherwise more-or-less-realistic (in terms of technology, at least) series? Or what's it like when Constance is influencing someone?

Tai and Claire Li: My alternate, non-worldbuilding request. They weren't nominated, but they were one of my favorite parts of Riddle of Ages, and I was glad Tai found his aunt at the end. I'd love to see more about Claire, before, during, or after Riddle of Ages, or about the two of them forming a family together and settling in with the MBS afterwards!

Long John Moore (Traditional Ballad)

Character: King's Daughter

Recording | Lyrics

This is the recording that was on the Music post and the lyrics are slightly off from the recording, but close enough. None of the versions I saw were substantially different, anyway.

I first listened to this when I was going through the list of songs nominated and listened to it over and over again. It's all over a fun story!

Prompts:

What's the king's daughter's perspective on the events of the song?? She seems to be willing to run off with him very easily. I'd love some sort of retelling that's more focused on her.

She's promptly married off to him and dragged back north to a new life. Is it hard for her to settle in with the giants, in a new town? Does she befriend the boy that carried the message north and is potentially the only other person from London living there? Or her new sister-in-law, Jean of the Sign, whose brother suddenly shows up one day with a wife she never met?

Yesterday, I came across this userscript for a floating comment box on AO3, so you can work on comments as you go. My first thought was, "Can I do it with a site skin?" And you can! It's not exactly the same, it looks a little odd where the comment box usually is, and it can't save to local storage or anything, but it's completely possible to have the comment box hovering to write while you read or scroll back through. All it takes is this bit of code in a site skin.

Floating Comment Box Code

textarea.comment_form.observe_textlength {
  position: fixed;
  bottom: 10px;
  right: 10px;
  width: 50%;
  z-index: 10;
  opacity: 5%;
}

textarea.comment_form.observe_textlength:hover {
  opacity: 20%;
}

textarea.comment_form.observe_textlength:focus {
  opacity: 90%;
}

Separate Mobile Skins

Instructions for Mobile Skins

My next question was: can I format it differently on my phone? One of the reasons I generally prefer site skins to userscripts is that they apply on my phone, too. I know I saw a reference to using a different skin on my phone, and it turns out it's simple.

To create a separate skin on mobile, you need to have two skins: the "regular" skin and the mobile-specific skin. The mobile skin is the one that you have "in use", and its parent skin should be the regular skin. Then, you select "only screen and (max-width: 42em)" for "Media", and those settings will be used only on mobile.

Anything that you want on desktop should go in the regular skin. Anything you want only on a phone, or settings you need to add to "revert" the desktop changes goes in the mobile skin. The mobile skin is essentially appended to the desktop skin, so it will take priority on mobile devices.

Personally, I like a larger font size so I can read stories on my phone more easily:

#workskin p {
  font-size: large;
  line-height: 1.3;
}

I prefer the floating comment box to look a little different on mobile. This stays translucent on hover, because I'm always "hovering" when I scroll. It also goes across the whole width of the screen, because half the screen is very narrow on a phone.

Mobile Floating Comment Box Code

textarea.comment_form.observe_textlength {
  left: 10px;
  right: 10px;
  width: auto;
}

textarea.comment_form.observe_textlength:hover {
  opacity: 5%;
}

textarea.comment_form.observe_textlength:focus {
  opacity: 90%;
}

Site skins are great!

I also just discovered how AO3 allows you to search for specific tags that are synned to other tags by simply typing them into the "Additional Tags" box and hitting enter, even if it doesn't auto-complete.

The Rigel Black Chronicles Masquerade: In which I poured a horrific amount of time over two weeks trying to identify who wrote which of 45 fics, with quite a bit of success. I didn’t want to admit to all my reasoning before seeing the results, but a lot of it worked! I didn’t take notes while I was guessing, so this is all from memory and my spreadsheet. I imagine it’s not very interesting to read my rambling, but it’s probably a decent guide to how to disguise yourself on the punctuation side. Featuring: lots of grammar, HTML, and mostly unsuccessfully, trying to get a sense of how people write.

If anyone wants me to delete anything I write about you here, message me and I will!

Here’s my spreadsheet; click to go to a slightly redacted copy of it where you can read the text that’s cut off by the narrow columns.

( Read on to see the reasoning about my guesses... )

This whole event was a lot of fun! Thank you so much to Rime for organizing it. It was really interesting to study fics that closely. I’m gradually regaining the ability to read a fic without mentally making notes on the formatting!