Multifandom fic recs, 9/28 (Madoka + Murderbot + Leverage + Moon Knight)

Sep28
  • Murderbot Diaries | OCs | G | Ship’s Unit
    The ship that Murderbot hitches a ride with in Rogue Protocol decides it wants a SecUnit friend of its own, and manages to acquire one, with Ship itself listed as the client. With no humans on board, there’s nothing to stop them from watching media together until the contract is up.
    genfic,series:murderbot diaries,fic:one-shot,trope:outsider.pov
  • Moon Knight | Steven/Layla, team | T | Guerilla Gardeners
    Looking fixedly into the screen, Steven picks up the potted plant and takes Layla’s hand. If a plant could purr, this one one would be positively vibrating. The leaves immediately perk up, as if caught in a beam of sunlight, glowing with health.
    series:moon knight,pairing:layla_steven,fic:one-shot
  • Moon Knight | Steven, Reese | G | Home, Office
    Set mid-MacKay run.

    Steven Grant comes to the front for the first times in weeks to take care of their body, and to think about the things he misses from earlier versions of their life. He could really use having friends again.
    genfic,fic:one-shot,series:moon knight,trope:hurt-comfort

  • Moon Knight, Marvel | Marc, Khonshu, Clint | T | he left the house empty
    “You look…different,” Clint gestures at the emanating glow before him.

    Last he could recall, Khonshu’s head was not a bird’s skull. It didn’t have a face, sure, but it still had some semblance of being human. Now? Not so much.
    genfic,series:moon knight,series:marvel comics,fic:one-shot

  • Moon Knight | Marc and system, Khonshu, therapist | T | his shadow
    “You wouldn’t happen to be using me for revenge against your homeland or anything, right…?”

    She listened intently. “Is that what Khonshu is telling you?”

    “…Just something that’s happened before.”
    genfic,series:moon knight,trope:trauma,fic:one-shot

  • Moon Knight, Daredevil | Jake, Marc, Steven, Matt/Foggy, Karen | T | violence and other answers
    Behind the mask, his smile is wide and full of teeth. He can already hear a fight happening not far from them, though he knows from experience it’s the all bark and no bite variety. The deeper he goes, the more snapping jaws he’ll find. “I love New York,” he says, and then he jumps off the roof.
    series:moon knight,series:marvel comics,fic:chaptered,trope:hurt-comfort,pairing:matt_foggy

who turned off the summer?

Sep24

Seems like the whole weather flipped a switch the other night. On Wednesday I had the windows open, computer sitting on ice packs to help it not overheat, and wasn’t layering up at all to go to work…Thursday, wham, I’m closing the windows, pulling out extra blankets, wearing a sweater and a coat to go out.

Nothing against sweaters, but oof, me and my two smelly cats are gonna miss having a fresh breeze going through the house.

*

Just as I get comfortable with “Kickstarter’s not going anywhere with their Mystery Blockchain Protocol, at least not in the foreseeable future, it’s still safe to run a campaign there for now,” then Deviantart turns around and starts flirting with blockchain nonsense. Deviantart! You were the chosen one the only major site making an active effort to protect artists against blockchain fraud! What happened??

…okay, okay, we know what happened. Current holders of crypto can’t actually get money out of the system unless they can convince new suckers to put money in, which means “bribing sites like DA and KS to drag in new suckers” is a good long-term investment.

Still a nasty twist to wake up to.

I know no amount of comments that outline how NFTs are a predatory pit of scams is going to outweigh whatever check they’re cashing from the crypto industry, but I left one anyway.

*

Spent the past week or so in a real downswing of low energy and high executive-dysfunction. I have all these small, relatively simple tasks to do, but getting over the hump to actually start each one? Gonna need to go take a nap first.

(The Fluff thinks this is a great deal. He loves an extra snooze. And Fiddlesticks doesn’t hang out on the bed, which makes it a nice safe territory where Fluff doesn’t have to worry about defending his honor as Top Cat.)

I’ve been trying to put “have a nap” higher on the coping-strategy list than “chug another energy drink.” Probably healthier! Not as good a deal for the to-do list.

…also, not a great state to be in when you’re gearing up for a crowdfunding campaign. But it’s not like I work better without a deadline. So we’re moving right along.

*

True story, the one thing I can reliably-and-consistently focus on right now is “writing more Moon Knight fanfiction.”

Using incentives like “you can write another chapter of Fic X once you finish Task Y” has been…moderately effective.

(I like this show a normal amount, I swear.)

Multifandom works roundup, 9/21 (…yeah, it’s all Moon Knight + Marvel crossovers again)

Sep21

Leif & Thorn
Hunters Zikos (art | Pascentia, Dex | worksafe)
Sailor Boys (art | Leif, Thorn | worksafe)
Team Neinekura (art | Atarangi, Kallie, Kiki, Sandy, Pond Thing | worksafe)
Burnt Umber Dance (art | Stanczia/Imri | worksafe)
Wallpaper – Bottled Embassy Grounds (art | Thorn/Leif, Katya, Elisa | worksafe)
Time Sparkles (art | Acai | worksafe)

Moon Knight/Marvel Cinematic Universe
Cover of Knight, chapters 13-16 (fic | Steven, Marc, Jake, Ned, MJ, Hulk, Bruce, Bucky, Sam, Kate, Yelena | T)
Moon Knight studies 14 – Moon Landing (art | Moon Knight | worksafe)
Moon Knight studies 15 – Back Again (art | Moon Knight | worksafe)
Moon Knight studies 16 – Slam Knight (art | Moon Knight | worksafe)
Moon Knight studies 17 – Marc Chopper (art | Moon Knight | worksafe)
Moon Knight studies 18 – Right Hook (art | Moon Knight | worksafe)
moon-silvered, lunatic, cratered chapter 5 (fic | Steven/Marc/Jake, background Steven/Marc/Layla | T)
Cædmon’s Peanut Gallery , chapters 2-3 (fic | Steven/Jake, Marc, past system/Marlene | T)
Headmates in pajamas (art | Marc/Steven/Jake | worksafe)
Alter the Suit (fic | Jake & Khonshu | T)

General/Miscellaneous
Webcomic Woes 39 – Well, they TECHNICALLY fit (comic, G)

This Week in Leif & Thorn:
Step outside of time and space, have a deeply unnerving conversation with the Time Mage…

Multifandom fic recs 9/21 (Murderbot + Moon Knight)

Sep21
  • Murderbot Diaries | human OC | T | Running Process
    I was trying to imagine what Preservation’s covert operations organization would look like. Then I got to the line in Fugitive Telemetry about how “[b]eing the top Preservation expert in dealing with contract law in the Corporation Rim apparently made Pin-Lee like the CombatUnit version of a lawyer” and it clicked.
    genfic,trope:outsider.pov,series:murderbot diaries,fic:one-shot
  • Murderbot Diaries | Murderbot, Gurathin, Ratthi | G | Watch Party
    “Is he here for you?” Gurathin asked SecUnit. Ratthi glanced between them both.

    Its face worked through a complicated series of emotions. “I don’t know yet.”

    “What has he done since he arrived?”

    “Signed up for housing and wandered around. Now he’s ordering food.”
    genfic,fic:one-shot,series:murderbot diaries

  • Moon Knight | Steven/Marc(/Jake), Layla/Marc/Steven, Nat, Clint, Sam, Avengers | M | moon-scented knight
    Khonshu has Marc track down and steal his old bone charms from under the Avengers’s noses. Except the bone charms have an insignificant side-effect of making regular people handling them lose their minds. The Avengers decide Marc must be their next supervillain or something.
    series:moon knight,fic:chaptered,series:marvel comics,pairing:marc_steven,pairing:layla_marc,pairing:marc_steven_layla,pairing:marc_steven_jake,trope:polyamory,trope:hurt-comfort,trope:outsider.pov
  • Moon Knight | Layla/Steven, (Layla/Marc) | T | an invisible distance
    In her limited experience of the man before her, he always seems to be moving as if driven by a motor, the relentless tick-tick-tick of a wristwatch — brimming with eagerness; usually gesturing broadly while a flurry of words tumble out of him, monologues on history, poetry, language ….
    series:moon knight,pairing:layla_steven,fic:one-shot,trope:hurt-comfort
  • Moon Knight | Steven, Marc/Khonshu | T | These Sacred Rites
    He had been watching that old documentary on the Valley of the Kings last night and got a bit too involved in it. That was it, that had to be why this dream looked, felt, even smelled so real.
    series:moon knight,pairing:khonshu_marc,fic:one-shot
  • Moon Knight | Marc/Steven/Jake, Steven/gods | M | from these hands (your sins will bloom)
    “Very well, Steven Grant,” he said, as Steven started thrashing once he felt fingers sinking deep into his rib cage, reaching for a heart that didn’t exist. “I will let you play god for once, and in return, an eternity you cannot escape from.”
    series:moon knight,pairing:marc_steven_jake,trope:hurt-comfort,fic:one-shot,trope:trauma,pairing:steven_other
  • Moon Knight | Steven, co-workers, Marc | M | scanned
    The paramedics came to collect Steven about five minutes later. They kept the towel pressed against his head even as they fit him into the neck-brace and secured him onto the stretcher. They were nice, but had the same forced sense of ‘oh yes, everything’s fine, don’t be alarmed at all that you’re being loaded up into an ambulance to go to hospital because you’ve cracked your head open and possibly broken your back’. It didn’t really do much to calm Steven down.
    series:moon knight,genfic,fic:one-shot,trope:hurt-comfort
  • Moon Knight | Marc, Steven, Khonshu, Layla | M | Throwing the Voice
    Khonshu staggers to the (how do they function on such pathetic limbs) body’s feet and lumbers awkwardly to the nearest mirror. It isn’t hard, the narcissists have them all over.

    “No,” he says, as he pulls at flesh with squat, sausage-meat fingers. “No. This is an illusion. It is not real.”

    We don’t know what happened, either, Steven-him says, the voice still annoyingly like being hit over the head repeatedly with something he has no external frame of reference to truly compare it to.
    genfic,series:moon knight,fic:one-shot,trope:bodyswap,amazing

The latecomer’s link roundup of crypto crashing news

Sep6

“People with funds locked in Celsius Network have been sending letters to the judge presiding over the Chapter 11 bankruptcy case. These are excerpts from those letters.” Periodically updated with new excerpts, as new dockets get released.

““I couldn’t eat or sleep for two nights,” says Alla Driksne, a 34-year-old chef from London. “I got sick from the stress.” She has lost her life savings – a six-figure sum – in the Celsius freeze. “

A few months before Celsius went belly-up, one of their customers called in to Scam Economy — here’s a clip that includes both the pre-crash call, and some post-crash reflections. Notably, the guy isn’t a hype-man, or an enthusiastic crypto fan. He just seems sorta sad and anxious about his money, and he’s also pretty sad and anxious about Celsius’ drawbacks, but somebody convinced him that every other option is worse:

“The top #1 Google result for “blockchain production users” (and related queries) lists 34 individual “real world blockchain” projects. […] Looking into all 34, I found that 13 are already dead (including one that has been killed by the SEC), 6 are only useful within the crypto & NFT ecosystems and not in the “real world” and 14 use Blockchain in a way where removing the blockchain would not impact functionality at all, or make the product better.”

One of the big pseudo-success stories is IBM (backers of IBM FoodTrust, a system hyped by WalMart). At least, until early 2021: “IBM has cut its blockchain team down to almost nothing, according to four people familiar with the situation. “

Really enjoy this podcast interview with a climate analyst, who’s familiar with Crypto Nonsense but whose first area of expertise is fighting climate change, doing a well-informed deconstruction of the “Bitcoin is good for the environment somehow” arguments.

“The bug caused a misplacement of decimal points when refunding pavladiv.near’s USN. Instead of returning 4.9995 USN (about $5), the smart contract bug minted 4.9995 trillion USN for the user on both occasions, thus creating almost $10 trillion out of thin air.” Oooops. (These are the same people who will say “USD is unreliable because the government can just print as much money as they want”…)

“Power companies don’t take bitcoins or tethers. But the crypto trading system was running low on naïve retail suckers to supply fresh dollars. So the miners needed to do their part in propping up the price of bitcoin. Their solution was to avoid selling their bitcoins, and instead to hold them and use them as collateral against low-interest loans.”

“I left my easy six figure job in crypto because I couldn’t stand to market to such a deranged group of individuals and the toxic web3 workplace. Even though I even enjoy some aspects of crypto… the online crypto communities are extremely bizarre, mentally unwell, deranged, and socially inept. […] AMA in the comments! I need to vent.”

“A London-based software company has just launched CloneMyNFT.com which offers NFT owners the ability to “keep their NFT artwork forever” even after they have sold it. […] The system works by creating an exact digital copy of the artwork but with another unique contract on the block chain, effectively making it an almost exact clone of the original NFT.”

Note: this has been possible for as long as NFTs have existed! The only change is having a convenient site that’ll process all the code automatically.

“You don’t know anything about the metaverse but you want to do like all the best marketers around and write something on the web about it? Don’t worry, Tony is here for you and will give you all the advice you need to write the most impactful article about the metaverse ever. I have a structure that will make you jump ahead of all the competition. Follow me!” (This is so perfect, I love it so much.)

“The entire crypto space has been a Jenga stack of interconnected time bombs for months now, getting ever more interdependent as the companies find new ways to prop each other up.” The Latecomer’s Guide to Crypto Crashing.