Steel and Fic

[Commissions: Open] [Trades: Art for fic or art for art: Open] [Collabs: Open] [Prompts: Conditionally open] [Requests: Closed] I am queer, married, white, a feminist and left of liberal. Very pro-union. My pronouns are she/her. My name's Steff. Currently working in public service. My fandoms are Star Trek: The Original Series, due South, older SPN, Star Wars (mostly prequels) and some others. I'm totally a member of the Darth Maul Defense Squad. I also do some original work. Sometimes I post art, sometimes fanfic, sometimes meta, sometimes antifascist and other angry leftist stuff. I'm also apparently now associated with guillotines, and I can't bring myself to mind that legacy at all.

[sl-walker]

Current Status

Commissions are open.

Trades are open: Art for art or art for fic.

Collabs are open: My main strength artistically is less in posing and more in very dynamic coloring and detail work. In terms of writing, obviously I know what I'm doing. XD

Prompts are conditionally open: No guarantees.

Requests are closed.

My policy on commenting, responding to comments and inbox memes:

I participate in fandom so that I can interact with others.  If I was interested in an echo chamber, I wouldn’t bother posting my works or participating in social media.

If you take the time to comment to me, I will almost always respond by thanking you. (Sometimes, admittedly, it can take up to a year, but I always get there in the end!)  I figure that if you’re willing to give of your time and effort to tell me what you think of my writing, I should at least express gratitude for it.

Conversely, I don’t tend to comment on things when the author doesn’t respond in any way.  That’s absolutely the author’s right!  But, it’s also my right to decide not to comment.  Sometimes I will despite the fact I likely won’t receive a response, but don’t count on it.  I only have so much energy and throwing it out into the void isn’t on my agenda.  Again, I’m here to participate, and it takes two people to do that.

If you do comment to me, I’ll often go seek out your works to see what they’re about and comment on them, too!  Depending on how much time I have, anyway. <3

Probably if you don’t ever signal boost my creative works, I will stop doing it for yours.  It’s not mutual if it’s one-sided, after all.

Probably if you send me ask memes, I will send them to you, too!  Since I cut my teeth on this site in the RP community, reblog and meme etiquette is something I got lots of practice in.  Conversely, if you reblog off of me but don’t bother to send anything, I’m not gonna bother sending anything to you.

Basically, I believe in fair play and mutuality. <3  I am highly encouraging and I often do what I can to support others creatively, but my energy for non-reciprocation is pretty non-existent these days.  So, if you want interaction with me, offer it.

And if you want my Discord, DM me, I’m almost always easier to reach there.

[sl-walker]

hey! nice to meet you! i added a link to yr site on fanfic.lol, cheers!

Hey! Nice to meet you, too! Next time I get into the code, I'll add yours to CFAA and Ad Astra.

[bk-poetry]

Announcing Fanfiction.lol !

hey all! i've built a new ao3 fork called fanfiction.lol 🤙🏽 key differences:

🚫 no invite queue: sign up and start posting immediately. no waiting, no velvet rope.

🏳️‍🌈 expanded content warnings: added ableism, homophobia/transphobia, racism, rpf and more. plus relationship tags for aro/ace spectrum, qpr, non-binary/genderqueer focus, poly/ensemble, and more.

🏷️ all tags are canonical: everything you tag goes into the searchable record. no volunteer wrangling bottleneck.

💜 fandom-agnostic moderation: i care about the writing, not fandom politics or discourse. write whatever you want, tag it honestly.

it's a small personal project but fan communities deserve independent infrastructure.

if you enjoy fandom, i'd love for you to sign up and poke around. tell me what breaks. the source code is at source.tube/brennan/fanfiction.lol.

find me at brennan.day/accounts or email [email protected].

write whatever the hell you want! 💜

[bk-poetry]

More Information

Hi, I wanted to add some more info about fanfic.lol based on some replies. I was trying to keep the original post short and have done write-ups elsewhere but I'll reiterate here.

The admin/webmaster: I'm Brennan! I'm a Queer Red River Métis writer and webdev and huge advocate for the IndieWeb. You can get to know to me on my site, brennan.day

I made this for fun, and it's running using a homelab server in my basement. I don't make money or anything else. I'm just doing it for the love of ball.

fanfic.lol is meant to be a small, independent alternative for fanfic and fandom that prioritizes joy and fun. No aims at trying to replace AO3!

I am anti-genAI and so is the site. You can read more about my stance on AI here.

Archive warnings, like everything else, are under construction! I do have to adhere to the laws of my country (Canada). Please be patient.

I am pushing straight to production, which is to say the entire site could explode at anytime, so please do not use it as the only place you put things! :)

I forsee only a handful of people using this site, it def isn't for everyone. If you don't like it that's okay! Whether you want to give me input or just ignore it entirely.

I did a longer write-up here. Thank you everyone for the kind, warm reception of my silly little project. <3

[olderthannetfic]

I love the longer write-up. It gives me a much better sense of where you're coming from and why people should trust you—or which users would be a good fit.

I was there for the start of AO3, and we really did think we were going to usher in the next age of archives a la eFiction. It took too long for AO3's code to be in that kind of shape and the internet changed radically around us. We did not mean to create a behemoth. We just wanted venture capital bros to stop disrespecting us.

As a side note, all the comments you're getting like "There already is a fanfiction website. Wtf" are exactly what people said about AO3/OTW in 2007. There was a ton of bitching about us stealing FFN's idea. (Never mind that there were older archives.) There were frequent complaints about how there was already "an archive" and we didn't need another. Most of that discussion got deleted when FFN decided to nuke all of its inactive social spaces one Thanksgiving weekend while nobody was around to object or save their data. But I was there and I remember it and it sounded exactly like these comments now.

The oldschool core of AO3 was into the age of archives. We liked there being lots of different little spaces run by different fans. It's nice to see that energy floating around in 2026. Go indieweb!

I wish you a hundred invested users who want to form a community and nobody else.

[snakussy]

havent checked it out personally yet but just a super important note that since op says hes obeying canadian laws:

canadian laws are very different then most countries, ergo, if you want to post underage/gruesome stuff, it would be safer for op if you posted on that on ao3 instead. obscenity laws do in fact exist here and op get in legal trouble depending on what you post. so you know, be nice to op.

someone already asked op "is dead dove and proship content allowed here" and he said "yes if its legal" but didn't clarify what that meant, but basically in canada its

"if it can be interpreted as obscene, you can get in trouble"

so while you can get away with sfw content of lets say an adult/minor, it can bring things into outright illegal territories if you make it nsfw. but its not JUST that. our obscenity laws ALSO apply to violent sexual horror. so if your kink is lets say, woundfucking, a person can get op in legal trouble for hosting it, even if everything is all consensual.

people don't often get in trouble for obscenity laws because its So Much Effort, but from a hosting perspective thats different. a user posting content on ao3 isn't really gonna get tracked down, but a canadian hosting a website could be.

in conclusion: make sure to check out your kinks on canadian law sites before you do anything here. genuinely a nice project, just be careful for ops sake

[olderthannetfic]

Yup. Good point. That's something to look out for in most archives, whether from owner preference or local laws. I'd say the US is more of an outlier than Canada; we just exert an undue influence on internet culture.

A return to an Age of Archives means reading the rules of each more carefully. There used to be a lot more variability, not just because of laws but also in terms of focus.

In general, if you post a lot of underage, violent kink or noncon, AO3 is probably going to remain the right choice for hosting. A number of countries, not just Canada, go after a lot of things in text that the US does not.

I want to emphasize that this isn't a stance on OP's part any more than AO3 having to comply with US trade embargoes represents AO3 staff's personal opinions on Cubans. This is just the reality of running a site.

[reckless-glitch]

[ramblingandpie]

[Video description: Gritty is turning the crank on a flagpole to raise the Progress Pride Flag. He gesticulates angrily that the flag is not blowing in the wind, then gestures offscreen. The flag begins blowing. As Gritty begins raising the flag more, the camera pans out to show a man in a suit and sunglasses, looking like a stern Secret Service agent, is holding a leafblower that points at the flag. End description.]

[fipindustries]

ok this looks ultra mega based, are you kidding me? can you imagine the bullshit i could get up to with this bad boy? fuck yes i want ten

[mint-corset]

Wait are iPhone bros coping because Apple has to be more universal? Lol.

[such-justice-wow]

Boo hoo i'll be able to add more physical storage to my phone and be able to change out batteries if they degrade as well as all these other optional features I won't have to touch

[lectorel]

Continuing in the trend of political cartoons depicting milquetoast moderate positions seem so much cooler and more badass than they are

[domina-honoribila]

I love how they add totally absurd things no one is asking for to make the idea look crazy. And still, I must emphasize, failing to make this look like a bad idea.

[teaboot]

"Is this what you want? Is this ugly stupid bullcrap what you want??" the biggest loudest idiot in the room asks, holding up a picture of the hottest looking shit I've ever seen

[depsidase]

[seymour-butz-stuff]

Time to feed unprofessional managers what they’ve been dishing out for far too long.

[beaniebaneenie]

Couple things here, for when you do this to people: 

1. if you get the “answer my call” text, NEVER ANSWER THE CALL. 

They are calling you because they want to have the conversation verbally, and be able to lie later about what they said or didn’t say. Force them to continue via text or email- force them to continue the conversation in writing or not at all. 

2. “Lack of 2 weeks notice is unprofessional!” or the other version, “Not providing notice is illegal!”

No it isn’t. Neither is true. 

And in the US, all states except Montana are “at will” employment (though you may hear an employer refer to it as “right to work” to make it sound better, it’s the same thing). Sure, at-will employment means they can fire you without cause, BUT! It also means that you are not legally required to give a reason for quitting, or to give notice of any kind. 

Is it polite to give notice when you can? Sure. Do bosses expect it? Absolutely. But that does not make you legally required to provide it. 

3. The only thing I would change in the worker’s interaction here was their response when initially asked to come in. 

Employee: “Hey Mark. Sorry I’m unable to cover the shift tonight because I’m studying for my exam tomorrow.” 

Don’t give a reason for your lack of availability. It may be tempting to. You may feel rude if you don’t. 

DON’T DO IT.

You do not owe your boss any information about what you do off the clock, and any reason you give will only ever be used against you. 

Boss: “Hey I need you to cover Jasper’s shift tonight.”

Employee: “Sorry, I’m not available.”

And leave it at that. 

Do not elaborate. 

Do not offer additional information. 

When you boss asks you to elaborate, because they will, be polite but firm. “With respect, that’s personal. I’m sorry, but I’m unavailable to cover this shift/work late/come in early/etc.”

Be a broken record- you’re unavailable. That’s the only information they need to know, and it’s the only information they have a LEGAL RIGHT to know. 

Please stop giving your bosses information they don’t need to know and don’t get to have, because they’re only going to try and use it to fuck you over later. 

[reasonandempathy]

My job is HR. The above is completely accurate.

[morningmightcomebyaccident]

Replied to a recent comment on a fic that I wrote years ago and then took the time to revisit previous comments and I say this with complete sincerity:

Leaving a comment on a fic provides compounding delight. Authors will love initially receiving a comment, will love later recalling this and that particular aspect of a comment, and they will love rereading comments and being reminded how readers enjoyed the work.

Comments are not a one-time act of kindness and consideration. They keep giving.

Thank you to those who take the time to give a nice word, describe an excited reaction, point out favorite parts, and generally let it be known that not only has the work been read but it had some effect. :)

[estro-boi]

we gotta get back to torrent distribution, i just watched someone eat eight grand in bandwidth charges because they ran a direct-download piracy site with local file hosting through cloudflare. torrents were invented literally for this exact reason

[estro-boi]

torrents work like this

i have a file or folder on my pc that i want to share with other people. let's call it gayshit.mp3

unfortunately gayshit.mp3 is 750mb and im not paying for discord nitro so i need another way to send it

i put it into qbittorrent and it makes a torrent file. this is essentially a very small file that points to gayshit.mp3 so other computers can find it. kinda like a treasure map

i send this tiny file to my friend, who loads it into qbittorrent. their computer takes a moment to find mine over the vast expanse of cyberspace and then (as long as my pc is running and the file is still where it should be), it gets copied from my hard drive to theirs

this is the cool part: if somebody else loads that tiny file, they can download it from both of us. if i'm offline but my friend is on, the third person can still get it. this also means that if two people have separate halves of the file, they can download the other half from each other. as long as some combination of people have the pieces between them, they can all have the whole thing.

crucially this does not require a server!!! you can just upload the file to a few people and as long as they keep it, it's still accessible. as long as somebody, somewhere is still connected, it's available forever. the only way it goes away is if everybody disconnects from it.

please learn to torrent

[macleod]

How to Use Torrents (with Pictures) - wikiHow

An expert guide to get started using torrentsTorrents are one of the most popular forms of file sharing on the internet, accounting for over

always use qbittorrent, do not use bitorrent or utorrent.

[dduane]

If you don't want LinkTree putting your imagery into AI... get out now

Just canceled my account (not that I used it that much). But I won’t permit this. Via @unaminh.bsky.social:

IMPORTANT: For any artists/writers/etc etc, using Linktree to point people to their work, from 5 July, they'll be feeding all imagery you use on your landing page into DALL-E by OpenAI.

…Just so you know.

[supushan]

nothing bad ever happens to them

[cheridraws]

The last character you drew/wrote about is now stuck in the last game you played. How screwed are they?

[beardedmrbean]

Scientists invented a fake disease. AI told people it was real: Nature.com

I'm a bit frightened for the time when someone less ethical than the person that did this decides to repeat the experiment but leave out the part where they come in later and announce that it was fake and people wind up diagnosed with the fake condition and all kinds of wacky hi jinks ensues.

[sl-walker]

Hi! I was looking to compile a list of the different fanwork archives but idk all of them and I know you’re one of the few people that has wrangled the open source code into working. So far I know of:

Supernova

Sunset

Squidgeworld

Ad Astra

Your comic focused one (im sorry I forget the name)

Are there more? Thank you!

The Comic Fanfiction Authors Archive. cfaarchive.org. And that would be all of them so far!

[sl-walker]

sdfsgsgsghdhdth

[nightwingthebooty]

DC be like “if we don’t relate every character and event back to the batfam in some way we WILL go out of business”

[nightwingthebooty]

I think some of you are under the impression that I’m saying “DC inserts the batfam into everything (affectionate)” when I’m really saying “DC inserts the batfam into everything (derogatory)”

[waterisntreal]

[cbk1000]

As a society, we need to go back to understanding that strangers on the internet are, you know, strangers. I feel lately that I'm seeing a rise in 'An author I love blocked me because they took my comment the wrong way' posts on the ao3 subreddit, and then the comment is them calling the author a fucking bitch or something like that.

Don't do this. Tone doesn't translate well in text, and if you don't have a rapport with that author, they are not going to interpret, 'You're a fucking bitch' as, 'Author I hate you for being so talented and making me feel so keenly.' They're going to interpret it as you being an asshole. You can shit talk with your friends because you have an established relationship with them and can distinguish between playful banter and genuine anger. You do not have this with a stranger, no matter how much you like their fics. You will have a much more pleasant time in fandom and not get cockblocked from interacting with your favorite writers if you remember this.