For the Day’s Work Done
There’s a really specific, really hard to define type of fic which I absolutely love. It’s fic which delves into the world building, which doesn’t prioritise the big fights and dramatic victories, which doubles down on the details of economics or building or managing a team or what it takes to build a home, peace, something that WORKS against all the odds.
Not because of victories
I sing,
having none,
but for the common sunshine,
the breeze,
the largess of the spring.Not for victory
but for the day's work done
as well as I was able;
not for a seat upon the dais
but at the common tableBy Charles Reznikoff
(Open, Moderated)
Recent works
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Nor Is He Early by ObliqueVion
Fandoms: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Generation One, The Transformers (IDW Generation One)
14 Dec 2025
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A Prime is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to… give or take that one small paracausal nudge.
Or, that time the Matrix got impatient and stole a truck...
It's only going to get more and more hazardous to binge all of this:
✔️ Optimus Prime being iconically wholesome
✔️ Cybertron being an exotic mechanical wonderland
✔️ Mystery, adventure, and intrigue
✔️ Not so much a slow burn as a long fuse
❌ Civil warSeries
- Part 1 of Nor is He Early and Adjacent Stories
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Tongfang by The Feels Whale (miscellea)
Fandoms: 人渣反派自救系统 - 墨香铜臭 | The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù
02 Oct 2021
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Shen Yuan is reincarnated as a cannon fodder character and eventual murder victim in one of the whodunnit arcs in Proud Immortal Demon Way. Things escalate quickly.
Or: that one where young Luo Binghe’s career goal is ‘Bride’.
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Shen Yuan shut his eyes as a young man waiting to die in a hospital and opened them again as a wrinkly infant covered in substances best left unimagined.
[Welcome to the System! The System is based on the concept ‘YOU CAN YOU UP. NO CAN NO BB.’ We hope to provide you with a rewarding experience. It is our sincere hope that during the course of your adventure, you can achieve your desire to transform a ‘Stupid Novel’ into a high-end and impressive classic. We pray for your happiness,] a mechanical and inflectionless voice announced over the general hubbub of the group of women handling him. Then it added, somewhat more worryingly, [Error.]
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Help! My Boss is a Bitch. by x_los
Fandoms: 人渣反派自救系统 - 墨香铜臭 | The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù
13 Feb 2021
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Shen Yuan was born to be Reviewer 2. Decades after his marriage, Empress Shen Qingqiu is living his best life at the entire demonic civil service's expense.
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Argus' life was a largely thankless one (unless you counted the thanks of the paintings he maintained), working on keeping a thousand year old castle from falling down around the ears of students who didn't care. He had his cat, his work, his books, and a constant boil of self hatred and resentment to get him by.
And then a sixth year handed him a letter from her aunt, thanking him for acting as conservator of Hogwarts and calling him Dr. Filch. It was the first time he had been called Doctor since he started at the castle. He had little choice but to write back, after that.
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It starts with a letter delivered by a bird.
(Or, Nie Huaisang’s Guide to
Seducing Your Fellow Sect LeaderRevitalising Local Economies After a Prolonged Downturn)
Recent bookmarks
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Meet me at the intersection by lildraws (azra899), tucuxi
Fandoms: Naruto (Anime & Manga)
01 Dec 2024
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Summary
Umino Iruka regarded the man standing before his shop counter with what was probably poorly-veiled irritation.
"Yes, thank you," he said. "I know how a triple-layered chakra lock works."
Long years of experience kept Iruka's tone even: losing his temper meant losing customers, even if there weren't very many people in Konoha who did what he did.
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The canon-divergent au in which Iruka graduates the academy, does 3 D-rank missions, and then retires, because his leg was badly crushed in the kyuubi attack—so he re-trains as a locksmith and makes chakra-manipulated locks.
A story about systemic structural power imbalances between shinobi and civilians and the various ways in which expectations of physical strength and implicit ableism are detrimental to community trust. In which Iruka finds himself stuck between worlds, all because Sharingan Kakashi demanded the impossible, and Iruka made him a quadruple-layered chakra lock.
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Food Scandal by Malicean
Fandoms: Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars - All Media Types
12 Aug 2019
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Governmental contracts usually go to the lowest bidder. Even in galaxies far, far away. And, here or there, you get what you pay for.
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Cicada Sings Amongst Bamboo by Shadaras for Tavina
Fandoms: 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV), 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù
19 May 2023
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Qin Su is given a second chance at life.
This time, instead of the sweet-faced soldier who rescued her during the war, she chooses the Cloud Recesses. And, to everyone's surprise, she chooses Lan Qiren.
Series
- Part 22 of Author's Favorites
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Summary
The shinobi of Konoha get mandatory dental and don't know what to do about it.
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And They Have Escaped The Weight of Darkness by cosmicmilktea
Fandoms: 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù, 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV)
27 Jul 2020
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In the aftermath of everything, the scars of thirty-three lashes heavy on his back, Lan Wangji walks.
He walks through a land ravaged by war, by hunger, by death and sheer neglect, walks through a land that the Cultivation world all but forgets in their own haste to rebuild. He upholds justice, protects the weak. Lives with his regrets.
And then, in a small village South of Qishan, he finds Wei Ying - Alive, smiling, and asking Lan Wangji for his name.