Fluke of the Universe

Whether you can hear it or not, the universe is laughing behind your back. Queer fandom old - 18+ interaction only please, online when I'm conscious, tired all the time. 

[lysimachias]

❌ Is this ship well supported by canon

❌ Does this ship make any sense whatsoever by any reasonable metric

✅ Does the thought of these characters standing next to each other make you want to chew concrete and then break apart a nearby automobile with your bare hands

[flukeoftheuniverse]

#marcus x methos#the highlander ship me and exactly one other person cares about idgaf

Look, we built this ship and we will ride out to sea on it.

[zennihilation]

keeping it afloat single handed for twenty years 🙂‍↕️

[flukeoftheuniverse]

Twenty years is nothing. Look how old both of them are.

[zennihilation]

when you're right you're right. they're the old ones, obviously.

[flukeoftheuniverse]

We are but youths in comparison! Practically toddlers! We're so young! YOUNG!

[lysimachias]

❌ Is this ship well supported by canon

❌ Does this ship make any sense whatsoever by any reasonable metric

✅ Does the thought of these characters standing next to each other make you want to chew concrete and then break apart a nearby automobile with your bare hands

[flukeoftheuniverse]

#marcus x methos#the highlander ship me and exactly one other person cares about idgaf

Look, we built this ship and we will ride out to sea on it.

[zennihilation]

keeping it afloat single handed for twenty years 🙂‍↕️

[flukeoftheuniverse]

Twenty years is nothing. Look how old both of them are.

[lysimachias]

❌ Is this ship well supported by canon

❌ Does this ship make any sense whatsoever by any reasonable metric

✅ Does the thought of these characters standing next to each other make you want to chew concrete and then break apart a nearby automobile with your bare hands

[flukeoftheuniverse]

#marcus x methos#the highlander ship me and exactly one other person cares about idgaf

Look, we built this ship and we will ride out to sea on it.

[radiqueer]

Human relationships are not transactional but they are reciprocal, which I think many of you with your ‘i don’t owe anyone anything’ shtick are too happy to forget

[aromanticduck]

Transactional: everything has to be exactly 50/50 all the time, pay me back for the £5 sandwich or buy me something worth exactly £5, I refuse to make an effort for you if there’s nothing in it for me

Reciprocal: you were there for me when I needed help, and I’m going to do the same for you, it doesn’t matter if one of us needs more or is capable of less, because the point is not equivalent exchange but mutual care

[poolsidescientist]

If there's one thing I will never understand it's Lord of the Rings fans wanting to be an elf in Middle Earth. I mean, sure they're graceful and pretty but they live too damn long and having to witness an eternity of stupidity from the species around them. Like, imagine being Elrond and basically witnessing a cringe compilation of the human race. Nope. No thanks.

[attackfish]

I've been witnessing a cringe compilation of the human race my whole life. Elrond is not special.

[flukeoftheuniverse]

When I was young I wanted to be an elf: Mysterious, tragic, unknowable, ethereal, lives forever, etc. Now that I am firmly middle-aged, I just want to be a hobbit: Comfortable, well-fed, cozy in my home, down for a party but also down for a good night in with no visitors. The high AF is optional and I don't partake but it's there for anyone who wants it.

[lizardsfromspace]

Star Trek fans, 2026: "Ugh, I hate Starfleet Academy! We need real Trek like we had in the 90s, like Voyager."

Star Trek fans, 2000s: "God these internet reviews are right, Voyager was literally unwatchable! It wasn't real Trek, like DS9!"

Star Trek fans, 1990s: "They don't even go anywhere! This oddly joyless book about Trek bloopers literally said the show should be called Bajor: Terek Nor! It wasn't real Trek, like TNG!"

Star Trek fans, 1980s: "TNG isn't even real Star Trek. Only the original is real Star Trek."

The world's largest Lost in Space Fan, 1966: "This upstart program will never displace Lost in Space in the hearts and minds of the people! Lost in Space will be the number one space opera show FOREVER!"

[dykebeckett]

[flukeoftheuniverse]

I've got some pretty strong texture aversions when it comes to food. Like, I can stare down a thing that I know will taste good and never manage to actually try it because I just know the texture is "wrong" for me.

Oatmeal is one of those texture things. I just cannot fathom being able to stand the texture. At all. Same for cream of wheat. But also, warm breakfast grains! Don't warm breakfast grains sound good on a cold winter morning in New England? They sure as fuck do!

And then it occurred to me: Wheat and oats are not the only grains one can make warm and tasty. What about barley? I fuckin' love barley. The texture is ideal and the flavor is delicious. So I made myself a pot of barley over the weekend and added milk and pecans and sunflower seeds and cinnamon and allspice and nutmeg and cardamom and I have been reheating portions of it for breakfast all week and let me tell you, that is perfect. I could eat it all day every day.

My point isn't hey, try barley (though you certainly can if you want), it's that if you have texture or flavor aversions to common foods, there are often alternatives out there and it's worth trying to find them.

[zennihilation]

you've heard of an unreliable narrator but what about an unreliable reader who sometimes forgets where they are or what just happened or who the characters are or where they put the book down or sometimes just gets really sleepy

[flukeoftheuniverse]

I've been slowly but surely cleaning up the little room that I am going to be using as a WFH/craft/alone time space and today I got rid of a bunch of stuff that got beached in there and I folded all my fabric and stacked it nicely and it's actually going to be a usable space. Amazing.

[is-that-sand-in-my-waffles]

How many people has your current blorbo killed?

0 (their hands are clean)

1-3 (they can have a little murder, as a treat)

4-6 (well once they got their hands dirty, they might as well keep going)

7-9 (they needed enrichment in their enclosure)

10+ (it's basically their hobby at this point)

Voting ended onFeb 23

[notanupstandingcitizen]

people who learned about greek mythology due reasons that DONT involve having read percy jackson at 12 freak me out, like what the FUCK was going on in your life that you found out that zeus turned into a pigeon to woo his wife like HOW

[sickjacket]

[flukeoftheuniverse]

Like. Some of us are old enough the Percy Jackson came out when we were already adults who had been obsessed with Greek mythology as kids.

Also, DID YOU KNOW that the D'Aulaires wrote a book of Norse myths too? They did! Take a look at the cover and endpapers and tell me it's not also fab: https://archive.org/details/daulairesbookofn0000daul/page/n183/mode/2up

[hlh-shortcuts]

Happy Holidays, Merriman!

Hakobore by Anonymous for merriman Category: Gen Characters: Duncan MacLeod, Methos, Midori Koto, Original Characters Summary: Duncan takes his damaged katana to Japan for repair.

[flukeoftheuniverse]

This was my gift! Yes, different name, whatever, it's my AO3. Anyhow, this story was everything I could have wished for and I adore it.

[isagrimorie]

MTV Music officially ends its broadcasts with the song Video Killed The Radio Star

MTV, the channel that revolutionized the music industry, has today said its final Goodbye by moving to a digital-only model. Its 24-hour music channel has ceased to be officially its transmissions.

The end came with a nod to its beginnings, the last broadcast was the iconic videoclip of “Video Killed the Radio Star” by The Buggles, the same one that inaugurated the history of MTV on August 1, 1981. In this way, the channel closed after 44 years, with the same song that defined its birth

RIP 1st Aug 1981 - 31st Dec 2025

[justgot1]

Gen X out here like

[tzikeh]

You were the first one /

You were the last one

[flukeoftheuniverse]

This legit makes me intensely sad. MTV and music videos were my very tame teen rebellion (my parents had locked the channel on our cable box but never changed the default pass code so I could unlock and relock it at will) and I discovered so much fantastic music, so many amazing videos, and so much pop culture that I had been sheltered from by my well-meaning parents. To have it be born in my lifetime, and then shutter the thing that made it special to begin with in my lifetime is sad indeed.

[flukeoftheuniverse]

Things That Happened in 2025

This is not about the world, this is about my life and things that happened in it:

I got a temporary promotion, running two branch libraries for, in theory, the remainder of the fiscal year.

I got an actual promotion, moving from branch (x2 temporarily) manager to department head of youth services for all locations in my city.

We started construction on an addition to my parents' house (where my husband and I are living) to allow my parents to move back in and have a safe space for my father.

I went to ALA Annual in Philly and had to educate my coworkers on how to survive Reading Terminal Market at lunchtime. During this time, a member of my team who had been the source of a lot of toxicity resigned. I celebrated with a Thai iced tea and cucumber maki.

I completed a several-months-long project at work, shifting almost every part of the collection in the main library children's room to make for better spaces for parts of the collection and an easier flow for patrons.

My father had a Type B aortic dissection, landing him in the hospital for a week and rehab for three weeks, complicating his Parkinson's treatment and therapies.

I started working with a new therapist the same week as the above. Excellent timing.

I helped to set up and run the Garden Club's annual Greens Sale, apparently endearing myself to several older members.

We completed construction on the addition and my parents moved back into the house when my father was discharged from rehab.

My mother and I contributed The Most Interesting Plant to the Garden Club annual members plant swap (a 50 year old Haemanthus Albiflos). Several members asked if we could propagate the one we still have, so that's a project for 2026.

I got the house cleaned and decorated and baked a ton of cookies in less than a week before Christmas.

I also managed to finish three fics for Yuletide and HLH Shortcuts.

I turned 47.

I hosted Christmas and it went great and felt extra special having my parents in the house with us.

And that's why, random fic reader on AO3 who left a comment on an unrelated fic, I haven't been around to write more about Hackers.

[flukeoftheuniverse]

What was your first Fanwork?

Tagged by @zennihilation because I'm sure he knew I'd have a "good" one.

"So, what was the first thing you made beginning to end. Not like a coloring book or whatever, but like a drawing of a ninja turtle or a backstory or whatever? How early was it and how into that thing were you? Not fandom, you don't need to have shared this with anyone. Just a thing for you because you wanted it in that universe."

I know I was tinkering around in other universes well before this but this is the first thing that came to mind:

When I was around 10 years old I discovered the X-Men thanks to a comic book left behind by a family friend after a week-long visit. I was immediately hooked. Sadly for me, while my mother grew up on comic books, she saw them as beneath me because I was already a voracious reader and therefore shouldn't I be reading something more challenging? Anyhow, I loved the X-Men on sight. This was the late 1980s, so the internet wasn't a thing in the average home, but we sure as hell had the library and I made the best use of it that I could. Alas, this meant very patchy reading material and I had to glean what I could from classmates and the like. This wasn't enough, I felt, to write a story. I needed to have more information first.

So I made a spreadsheet. All the characters I could find, their powers, which side they were on, if they were related to other characters, notes, etc.

I still love the X-Men and I still have weirdly encyclopedic knowledge of random characters and storylines. Making a fannish database is probably one of the most on-brand-for-me things I have ever done.

[flukeoftheuniverse]

Tagged by @zennihilation Tagging anyone who wants to do it.

1. origins of your blog’s name: There's a poem from the 1920s called Desiderata, and it contains the line "You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here." There is a satirical parody of this poem called Deteriorata, which can be found as a spoken word/song track on National Lampoon's Radio Dinner. It contains the line "You are a fluke of the universe, you have no right to be here, and whether you can hear it or not, the universe is laughing behind your back." While I don't hold with the "you have no right to be here" part, I'm all in on being a fluke, a coincidence, and to be honest? For a lot of my life it felt like everyone and everything around me was taking the piss as my expense.

2. My ‘I’ll always order this food’: I'll go ahead and agree with @zennihilation on this one: Fries.

3. Overused emoji: I don't tend to use emojis that much, tbh.

4. Current comfort movie, show, and book: Movie: Erin Brockovitch. Show: Criminal Minds or The Avengers. Book: LotR.

5. Song on repeat: LIFE by HEALTH

6. My current hyperfixation: Current and constant: radiological and chemical disasters.

7. Oddly specific thing that brings me joy: Placing a decal precisely where it should be on a LEGO on the first try.

8. What smell makes me happy: A pot of tomato sauce cooking on the stove when I walk in the door of the house.

9. Something I loved as a kid and secretly still do: I don't make a secret of anything I loved as a kid and still love. I still love Star Trek, LEGO, rubber stamps, stickers, swords.

10. Phone wallpaper right now: My cats. Always my cats. I've got one on my lock screen and one as my wallpaper.

11. Are you an early bird or a night owl: Night Owl. Mornings are for sleeping or staring blearily at my tea until I feel human enough to interact with other humans.

12. If you work, what is your profession and do you like it: Children's librarian, currently managing a team of children's librarians for four libraries in my city. I love it and am very lucky to be doing something I love so much.

[gengario]

[flukeoftheuniverse]

While I support the concept of this, alas, it is not universally true. This was a topic of much discussion when I was in grad school in my YA lit class. While no, your reading experience in a book is not going to be interrupted mid-sentence with an unskippable ad for something you don't need or care about, there may well be something less intrusive but more insidious. There are companies out there churning out material and taking product placement money to put brand names into the text. Much like product placement in movies and TV, once you start noticing it, you never really stop.