finished "Best Served Cold" on wednesday and I want to say, damn, it was an excellent book, I think it's really interesting and almost unusual how over the course of the book, the energy with which Monza kills the 7 men on her list almost..decreases, instead of amping up. The context in which she kills them amps up from a simple grabbing a guy off the street situation to a siege, but the kills themselves go like this: 1. beats Orso's bodygoard to death with a hammer, 2. has Orso's guy in the bank poisoned but Morveer contaminates the whole building because he's Morveer, 3. Stabs Orso's eldest son in the throat, then shoves him out a window, 4. while fighting Ganmark, a statue falls on him, 5. she gets second thoughts about killing Faithful Carpi, but his cloak gets caught in the waterwheel and he drowns, 6. wants to spare Foscar, but Shivers kills him and in the end, 7. runs Orso through calmly.
This all happens in parallell with flashbacks of Monza's past, from her time as captain general of the Thousand Swords, and her childhood and youth: what events shaped her into who she is now. Through these moments we gradually find out that Monza has had to project a more violent version of herself as a public image of sorts, and her discussion with Cosca before the end gives us the line "child of a blood time", which I think perefctly sums up her life. Years of Blood and everything, after all..
World Cup Challenge 2026 is a football RPF prompt challenge to encourage and inspire football fans to create fanworks during the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Creatives and football fans are encouraged to use the prompt list provided to write fanfics, create GIFs and art, and make other works about their national teams and favorite players.
Submissions begin June 14th, 2026 and end July 25th, 2026.
The challenge is broken down into six weeks. Each week has seven prompts: six words and one dialogue prompt. The challenge is to use the prompt in your work. You can create a work per day (each word/phrase corresponding with each day of the tournament) or you can create a work per week (using one or more of that week's prompts).
After you create your work, post onto Tumblr and/or Ao3, and tag @worldcupchallenge or #WorldCupChallenge2026, and we will reblog/share your work here!
If you have any questions, check our FAQs. Our askbox is open for further questions about how the challenge works or what the prompts mean.
Prompts:
Week One: Qualifying (June 14th - June 20th): Call up, Transfer window, Host Nation, Qualify, Home/Home base, Fan signing, “I’ve never seen/heard/tasted/felt that before.”
Week Two: Group Stage (June 21st - June 27th): Points, Yellow card, Hat trick, Striker, Handball, Kit/Uniform/Jersey, “Please don’t put that on social media.”
Week Three: Round of 16 (June 28th - July 4th): Park the Bus, Top bins, Clean sheet, Defender, Pitch invasion, The beautiful game, “[Player name] has just broken [record].”
Week Four: Quarter Finals (July 5th - July 11th): Red card, Corners, Offside, Midfielder, Nutmeg, The last dance, “The medical team says I can/can’t play.”
Week Five: Semi-Finals (July 12th - July 18th): Winger, Club vs. Country, VAR/Virtual Assistant Referee, Score, Tradition, Rivalry as old as time, “Today isn’t just about winning.”
Week Six: Final (July 19th - July 25th): Golden boot/glove, Winner/Loser, Penalty shootout, Panenka, Trophy, Champions of the World, “Win, lose, draw: it’s you and me.”
Optional/Bonus Prompts: (Can be swapped with any prompt)!
[Player does a special/meaningful celebration]
Goalkeeper
“Now what?”
Locker room/dressing room
“Don’t let them see you cry. Because today, we didn’t lose.”
Quick Guidelines:
Some prompts are vague to give creative freedom. Others are specific to help guide creatives. You do not have to take them literally, and you can interpret the prompts however you like!
There is no word minimum or maximum.
There is no submission limit.
There are no content restrictions. SFW/NSFW works, reader inserts, are allowed.
You can write about a previous world cup!
We are not associated with FIFA.
⚽ What is World Cup Challenge 2026? ⚽ Prompts ⚽ FAQs ⚽ Ask ⚽ Ao3 ⚽
Hi all! Opening the artist's sign-up form for the Reverse Bang event now!
Click here to sign up
The form will ask you for a sketch (just a sketch! your piece does not need to be finished), a description of what the finished piece will look like, and any thoughts you want to share with potential authors.
The form will be open until 22 June, then I'll put together the responses into a presentation for authors to rank their choices. You can submit up until then, and you can submit multiple times. If you submit and need to change something, shoot me a DM @anyboli
Thanks to everyone who participates, and look forward to seeing your sketches!
the best fanfiction you've ever read was written by a woman in her 40s before she made dinner for her kids. it was written by a teenager after school when they should've been studying for a history test. and a barista came up with the idea while they cleaned the espresso machine and busser fact-checked it on their break and the post-doc edited between writing grant proposals and the nurse apologized for typos in the notes after a long shift and behind every drabble and one-shot and multi-chapter fic there is a person with a wonderful and interesting and chaotic life and it is such a privilege that we get to be apart of it because they decided to do this thing we all share, for fun.
I've been a fan since before this season started. Sometimes I feel sad that I didn't get to know this team sooner, but the good thing is that I had the opportunity to see them and get to know more of the players
I love this club sm. I'm really happy to see them celebrating! ^_^ COYG
Well, and I made some drawings that took me 5 days (sorry if I missed drawing others!)
I’m kinda in love with the idea that Luna wanted to control Real Madrid’s next scion and found his puppet in an empty, orphaned Bunny. Then Bunny befriended Sae and regrettably crushed his dream before moving to Barcha. He seems to lack individuality, Luna be talking way too crazy in PWC to be irrelevant, and Barcha is all about freedom. But it’s hard to be free.
Aka the bunny pjs stay ON during the mental breakdown.
blakekathryn
ellievsbear
kianamaiart
