why are there so many posts about asexuals being immune to sirens. people. sirens don’t lure you in with sex (necessarily). they sing about whatever it is that you want most. they could sing about mothman or cinnamon toast crunch and guess what then your asexual pirate is fucking dead
Congratulations! Odysseus! You’ve been selected as a winner for the free $1000 Amazon Gift Card, Apple iPhone X 256G or Samsung Galaxy S8! Claim your prize now!
Mystrade Sacrifice May Collection is now created! Please visit this COLLECTION PAGE for Info and FAQ.
Intro:
A collection of stories posted for the Mystrade Is Sacrifice event in May 2026. Originated and maintained by @paialovespie, with collaboration by @ewebie and @meansgirlwrites.
This event is intended to inspire new works in the Mystrade fandom on the theme of Sacrifice.
FAQ:
Can I post a WIP? : Yes, as long as at least one chapter is added to the collection by July 1, 2026.
What do you mean by "Sacrifice"?: This theme is up for interpretation. Your submission should include some element involving a sacrifice by one or both characters, or a plot centering around a sacrifice that affects them. Definition: sacrifice (noun): the act of giving up or losing something of value for the sake of something else.
Can my story have other relationship pairings?: Yes, but Mycroft and Greg must be the primary romantic pairing featured in the story.
Can I post crossovers with another fandom?: Yes, but all other rules must be followed.
I added my story - Why don't I see my story in the collection?: All stories added to this collection are moderated, meaning they must be confirmed by a collection moderator before they are added. Stories will be confirmed within 24 hours - please be patient :)
I finished my story early - can I add it to the collection now?: The collection will not be open for new story submissions until May 1, 2026.
Rules:
1. This should be a new work that hasn't been posted anywhere else yet. (if you want to post early, or late, just let me know - we can be flexible.) 2. The main pairing should be Mycroft Holmes and Greg Lestrade. 3. The story should feature a main theme or element of Sacrifice 4. All maturity ratings are welcome. 5. The minimum word count for acceptance is 2,000 words. 6. Collection opens May 1, 2026.
This collection was conceptualized and has been traditionally maintained by @paialovespie. This year, @meansgirlwrites and @ewebie are also pitching in, so please feel free to reach out to us with any questions.
Greg chuckled to himself as he dried his hands and walked to where the obviously drunk customer was leaning heavily against the bar.
“Sorry, mate. I think you’ve had enough. Besides,” Greg continued. “You finished off the last bottle of my best scotch.”
Mycroft’s eyes widened. “Excuse me? Do you know who I am?”
“Yeah, you told me. You're Mycroft Holmes, assistant secretary to the Minister of Transportation or something like that. You need me to call you a cab, or does one come with the title?”
“What I need,” Mycroft snarled, “is another drink!” He slapped a £50 note in front of Greg.
“Look. I’m legally required to stop serving you. Section 141, Licensing Act of 2003 - it’s a criminal offence to knowingly sell alcohol to a person who is drunk. I’m not about to risk my license - or my bar. Besides,” Greg leaned in and lowered his voice. “I’m not in the habit of serving anyone who says they need a drink. Been there, done that. Sober 10 years now.”
Mycroft blinked slowly, registering what Greg said. “I’m not an alcoholic,” he said, stern but quiet.
“I know. I’m not either. But it sure is a convenient crutch, ain’t it? Especially when you spend a lot of time in the spotlight.”
“I thought you looked familiar.”
Greg nodded. “I was a decorated police officer. A detective inspector, actually. Spent a lot of time in front of cameras, dealing with the public, that sort of thing. But behind the lights… my life was going to shit. Wife left me, landlord evicted me. I needed that crutch.”
Mycroft shifted to sit on the nearest barstool. “But why?”
“Because I needed someone to make me feel human.”
“So you quit your job and bought a bar?”
“Yep. I pour the stuff for London all night, but not so much as a sip for myself.”
“Did you find what you were looking for?”
“Every night. Right here in this bar. Sometimes, I get to talk someone else out of the bottle," Greg smiled. "Can I buy you a cup of coffee?”
Mycroft’s hand firmly covered Greg’s mouth, silencing him. “Quiet,” he hissed, removing his hand only when he felt Greg nod in compliance.
Greg shifted uncomfortably, pressed together in the dark space as they were. He lowered his voice to a whisper. “Look, you don’t really think – “
The elegant hand covered his mouth again, just as they both heard footsteps rapidly coming down the hallway in their direction, stopping near the door.
“Are they gone? We’ve looked all over the house,” John said when he caught up. He leaned heavily against the closet door as he caught his breath.
Sherlock huffed. “Of course not, John. Lestrade’s car is still here. They have to be here somewhere.” He grabbed John by the arm. “The garden! Let’s go!” A minor stampede of footsteps faded into silence.
Mycroft slowly removed his hand. “He knows we are here. I estimate we have about 8 minutes before the two of them return and fling this door open.”
"He wants to literally catch you coming out of the closet, does he?" Greg smiled. “So we should be somewhere else before he gets back here, yeah?”
“It is always entertaining to confound my brother’s antics, so yes.”
The Beekeeper's Picnic has been nominated for Best LGBTQ+ Indie Game at the Gayming awards!
and
Tobias Weatherburn (aka Toby III 🐶) has been nominated for LGBTQ+ Voice Actor of the Year!
The nominations are the result of submissions by the public, so I know that this was definitely because of you chaps writing what I assume must have been really convincing recommendations. This means I owe you a great big thank you!
Much like Eurovision, 50% of the score is down to the public, so all of you can head to gaymingawards.com/nominees/ and get voting!
Also if you haven't picked up the game yet...
Beekeeper (and former world’s greatest detective) Sherlock Holmes is arranging a surprise picnic for his friend Watson. Unfortunately pesky
Mystrade tropes that will require legal action to stop me writing them (and then I will just write them in secret):
They’ve spoken one (1) time and Anthea has booked a band for their wedding
Mycroft runs the entirety of England except for his own feelings, which have been outsourced to a more qualified expert (i.e., Greg)
Greg loves cooking (especially curries) and is extremely good at it
Mycroft has a praise kink roughly the size of Asia
Drunk/intoxicated Greg slurs his speech and gets very slushy
Mycroft loses track of his thoughts when he sees Greg all dressed up in a really nice suit
Greg lives in a messy two-room flat; Mycroft soon prefers it to every single posh hotel in London
Mycroft’s hair goes a little bit curly when he doesn’t put product in it
Mycroft is a dear old friend of the Queen; when she finds out about Greg, she demands to meet him
Greg is completely unfazed by Mycroft’s power when they first meet (Mycroft is annoyed but also extraordinarily aroused by this)
Mycroft realises Greg is trustworthy when he sees Greg risk his own safety without a thought for the sake of someone else (esp. Sherlock)
Greg realises Mycroft is starting to trust him when Mycroft sleeps, removes his jacket and/or eats something unhealthy in Greg’s presence
Mycroft only ever says ‘please’ for his Greg (he says it a lot)
Mycroft is ridiculously proud of his Greg’s achievements and rank (”And this is my husband, Chief Detective Inspector Gregory Lestrade of Scotland Yard…”)
“Do not call me baby” (lasts for six chapters, then squirms happily when addressed as baby)
Even though he’s now married a posh boy, Greg insists on doing the weekly grocery shop and other domestic tasks himself
The Very Sincerely Yours Kickstarter is now live!🎉
Very Sincerely Yours is an anthology dedicated to Sherlock Holmes, Dr. John Watson, and the idea of home. It is over 150 pages of illustrations, comics, and fiction from a team of 46 creators around the world, and it's now ready to become yours!
The anthology will be printed as an 8.5 x 11 softcover, perfect bound book, with full colour artwork, comics, and illustrated stories. The stories—written specially for our anthology—explore themes of home, belonging, and family. 🏡
Our merchandise bundle will include 6 vinyl stickers, 3 postcards prints, 2 sticker sheets, 1 bookmark, and a sticky notepad! We're offering 2 additional pieces of merchandise as add-ons: a cotton tote-bag, and a hinged wooden charm.
Our Kickstarter will only be running until December 21st, 11:59PM EST, so please help us spread the word and buy your own copy while you have the time! 📢💕
Link to our Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/haedraulics/very-sincerely-yours
I have a comic in this zine (a new one! full color! a pre-Reichenbach moment!) and there's so much other stunning art and writing, kickstarter is live NOW!
Copyright class actions could financially ruin AI industry, trade groups say.
Further, some authors may never even find out the lawsuit is happening. The court's suggested notification scheme "would require class claimants to themselves notify other potential rightsholders," groups said, overlooking the fact that it cost Google $34.5 million "to set up a 'Books Rights Registry' to identify owners for payouts under the proposed settlement" in one of the largest cases involving book authors prior to the AI avalanche of lawsuits.
If you're an author, please use this database to see if you could qualify for that sweet GenAI lawsuit money.
Millions of books and scientific papers are captured in the collection’s current iteration.
I have never ever ever in my life asked someone to blaze my posts.
But if you want to throw me some pennies blaze this. I want ALL OF THE AUTHORS to know that they have the opportunities to get some sweet sweet GenAI lawsuit money.
Like to charge. Reblog to cast that Anthropic will have to pay out the ass.
Interestingly, I reblogged this thinking it might be interesting for my followers - but as I’m not an author I didn’t think further.
Then I did think for a second. I realised I had fallen into the classic tumblr trap of believing that Authorship Equals Fantasy Fiction Writer. It’s amazing how that gets into your own head.
I went back and found a clutch of my scientific papers on there.
Not something that’s worth me pursuing any farther - and a lot of those works are very openly open access, and so they are honestly the exact sort of content that SHOULD be used to train responsible models. But worth remembering that it’s very common on tumblr to think of all writing as, like, genre fiction, and there are other types of writing too.
This is an announcement of the European Fic Writers' Retreat that is very likely going to take place in Germany from 7-10 August 2025.
Following in the footsteps of the amazing Canadian Fic Writers' Retreat that has been taking place for many years courtesy of the wonderful @hubblegleeflower, there will now finally be a similar event in Europe this summer, namely in Germany!
Here are the details:
-Arrival from 4pm on 7 August.
-Checkout at noon on 10 August.
-Price: max. 360 euros, possibly less (see below). This includes accommodation and food (which we'll still have to cook ourselves, however).
There will be 2 or 3 workshops/activities each day. The rest of the time is for writing, hanging out and making new fandom friends.
Also there will be daily walks to the supermarket (10 mins) to get all the food we need. :)
There is place for 8-16 people, depending on how many people are willing to share a room. (There are 8 separate bedrooms with two separate beds in each.)
The location is in the Eifel region, in the very west of Germany. You have to arrange your own transport there, although there might be a possibility of getting a ride from Koblenz to the accomodation, if enough people travel by car.
N.B. If you are willing to share a room with one fellow writer, and at least one other person is also willing to do this, the price is 130 euros lower for each of you who are sharing a room! (i.e. the costs will be max. 230 euros per person)
Be aware that this retreat isn't anything fancy or well-organised; it's just me (@shirleycarlton) having made a reservation for a large holiday house in hopes of finding enough fellow fanfic (slash) writers who would like to attend and spend some quality time together.
Originally, this concept arose from the Sherlock fandom, and I (Shirley) personally exclusively write johnlock. However, a lot of Sherlock writers have (understandably) moved on to other fandoms, so whether you're currently into Good Omens, Our Flag Means Death, or RWRB, it's all fine, as John Watson would say.
If you are interested in attending and would like to stay updated, please fill out your details in this form (even if you're not at all sure yet, as you can indicate this also on the form).
This way, I can gauge interest and also contact you with more information once I have it.
The deadline to register properly will be around 1 June, but keep in mind that there's only place for a limited number of people.
Tagging a few fic writers who I know or suspect are in Europe who might be interested (below the cut):
@alexaprilgarden @the-reading-lemon @atlinmerrick @shiplocks-of-love @frodosweetstuff @lisbeth-kk @totallysilvergirl @johnlockismyreligion @atikiology @constancecream @swissmissing @miadifferent @notallthosewhowander @raina-at @vanimelda4 @khorazir @fluffbyday-smutbynight @kettykika 78 @the-reading-lemon damn why won't tumblr let me tag you
