"You look Time Lord."

I'm not sure if it's a sign of improving mental health (less hoarding/control tendencies!) or a sign of worsening mental health (lack of interest/care about things) in that after discovering that, no, even logging in with my RSS reader to ao3 won't make archive-locked fics show up in RSS feed, my reaction is: eh, that's the author's problem that I never see their fic, not mine.

I fully disagree with a lot of the reasons people lock their fic on ao3 (especially the way many people on tumblr frame it as them being "forced" to do so) but hey, it's their decision.

Once upon a time, if you wanted people to see your fic, you would do things about it. Maybe you'd send it to a mailing list. Maybe you'd post on a LJ community.

And now what people seem to do a lot of is just post it to ao3 and never crosspost about it anywhere. Their assumption is, you'll see it on Ao3.

But I don't. Because a small one fandom archive, sure, I could look at it every so often and see the what's new.

But I'm following a lot of ao3 tags and I am not checking ao3 for 1) any locked fics, which don't show up in RSS, 2) any fics posted to collections which, because of changes ao3 made years ago, do not show up in the feed if there are 20 fics posted since that was posted.

And once upon a time, I was like "I need to see all these fics, especially ones in tiny fandoms I'd never see otherwise!"

And now I'm just like. Meh. That's their problem that I'll never see their fic, not mine.

Possibly this is because my "to read" list is so very very long and so is my author subscription emails that haven't been read yet.

But also it's like. If you make it hard for me to find your fic. Then you're just like those people back on LJ who would post a fic to a community with a note that they were going to friends-lock the fic after 3 days, and if you want to see previous ones in the series, you have to get them to add you to their friends list.

Because honestly why bother. If you're going to make it hard for me to read your fic, then clearly you don't want me personally to read it, and that's okay. There's plenty of others, from people who aren't making it hard.

Because, no, I am not going to be checking every single ao3 tag even monthly for archive locked/collections fics. I'm sure some people are checking them frequently. Those people will read your fic. And that's fine, honestly.

But I'm not putting in the work. And if I miss the world's great fic because I don't see it, then yeah, okay. That's fine. Go with god, do your own thing. Not my problem.

Today I learned that the Japanese word for reference (as in bibliographical reference) is 参照 (sanshou). Breaking it down by kanji, it means "nonplussed" (参) "illumination" (照). So if you're nonplussed by what the author said, checking the reference should give you some illumination!

Our Inca Trail holiday actually started with three days spent in and around Cusco, the ancient Inca Capital. Our first day started with a walking tour of Cusco. Because of the various mix-ups with permits, this was with a guide called Arturo who should have been our guide for the whole trip, but wasn't.

( Photos under the Cut )

Title: i've been wanting to ask you out
Length: 200 words
Fandom: ダンジョン飯 | Dungeon Meshi | Delicious in Dungeon
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Marcille Donato/Falin Touden
Characters: Marcille Donato, Falin Touden
Additional Tags: POV Falin Touden, Post-Canon, Love Confessions, Getting Together, hints of arospec falin touden, hints of autistic falin touden, (as in there's a few lines that can be taken as evidence for either/both of those things), Cheek Kisses, Kissing, Girls Kissing, Romantic Fluff, Double Drabble, Seasons of Drabbles Exchange Spring Round 2025, Gift Fic, Gift Exchange
Summary: “Falin.” She turned around to see a very nervous Marcille. “Um, I need to- I think you should know that, that I-”
Notes: Written for worldunbent in the Spring 2025 round of seasonsofdrabbles . Originally posted 3 May 2025

“Falin.” She turned around to see a very nervous Marcille. “Um, I need to- I think you should know that, that I-”

Falin tilted her head and asked, “What?”

“ThatI’mInLoveWithYou!” came out all in a rush.

“Oh, really?” Falin asked. She hadn’t noticed before, but looking back it wasn’t exactly a surprise either. “For how long?”

“I, well, I’m not sure when it started, but I only realized when we were bathing together after we rescued you the first time,” Marcille admitted. “I was still trying to figure out what to do when, well…”

Falin nodded in understanding. “I’ve been a little in love with you for a while, myself,” she said. She’d actually thought about asking Marcille out beforehand, but had decided against it - they were already quite close and happy with each other, as friends, so what would dating really change that much about their relationship? She wouldn’t mind being proven wrong now, however. “So, if this is your way of asking me if you want to date…?”

“I- yes! Absolutely!” Marcille grabbed Falin’s hand. “I, Marcille Donato, would absolutely love to be your girlfriend!”

Falin grinned and kissed Marcille’s cheek. She blushed, but happily returned the favor.

End Notes: Bonus info/headcanons that I couldn't figure out how to fit into the fic: Senshi, Chilchuck, and Laios all managed to figure out Marcille's feelings (I'm basing Laios being able to figure that out on the changeling section). Chilchuck told Izutsumi right after she joined, but she probably wouldn't have figured it out on her own even if given time

Then Wilbert showed us around Machu Picchu.

( Photos )

The story of Machu Picchu, as Wilbert told it to us, was that it was under construction as a district capital when the Spanish arrived. Intimating that things were going badly with the Spanish, the Inca moved 700 people and all their gold from their capital of Cusco along the Inca trail to Machu Picchu, destroying the roads behind them with landslides. They remained there for 80 years but were aware that the Spanish, in search of the gold, were getting closer aided by a generation of half-Peruvian, half-Spanish collaborators. After 80 years, therefore, they hid the gold in the surrounding hills and some moved back towards Cusco where they were captured by the Spanish and others moved east into the Amazon where their descendents were briefly encountered by archeologists in the 1970s. The Spanish eventually reached Machu Picchu but found no gold. This story does not appear anywhere else I've looked (but, as noted, information at the level of detail I'm accustomed to for historic sites is much harder to find for Machu Picchu), but it wouldn't surprise me if it isn't the legend as told among the local Andean people.