mayhap | Network

I am getting this done ! I am completing the task!

What I Read

The Other Bennet Sister – Janice Hadlow – What an excellent book! Really well constructed story and deeply enjoyable arc. I think the romance was nicely done, but the center of the book was reflection – Mary the least loved Bennet sister gets to really take her time and observe the people in her life and know them deeply. It felt slightly self-indulgent (Mary is indeed going to the garden to eat worms) and yet I am here as the self and I am being indulged.

The Ancient Magus’ Bride Vols 1, 2, 3 – Kore Yamazaki – A fun read! Interesting world building and a slow burn romance between Chise and Elias Ainswroth, a horse/deer-skulled maybe human magus who bought her (not from One Direction!) in order to save her life and also marry her, maybe, at some point? It’s also deeply indulgent to the exact kind of big symbolic magic that I love, and gives a lot of time to the slow unfolding of their connection and what Chise’s magical powers will do. The story with the cats has been my favorite so far, but the Succubus in love with the random farmer who can’t see her at all is also a sweet tragedy. Really enjoying it.

I will say, I feel some conflict about one of the villains (so far) being revealed as the folkloric character of The Wandering Jew. Particularly because he’s a villain, and secondarily because I have no concept of how this character is understood by the author or by a Japanese audience, who are largely not dealing with the kind of hegemonic pressures to be Christian that shaped the folklore around that character. I weirdly adored the way that character trope was used in A Canticle for Leibowitz, because he was so very much Just Some Guy, and in particular, still identifiably, cantankerously Jewish in the face of being immortal, in a world where we only otherwise see Christians. So. I'm putting in a pin in that character for now.

AMB is interesting to read in context of My Happy Marriage, which also features a young woman with hidden magical powers escaping an uncaring/abusive family to a Perfectly Arranged Marriage. In the context of what Spouse is reading, this led to a discussion about the nature of isekai (a favorite Spousal genre) and the idea of different kinds of escape. Romance the genre often has an element of escapism baked in, and it’s sort of odd to think that some people in these novels are getting a Person to whisk them away to another magical world where they are treasured and important as a bride, and other people are getting hit by a bus.

What I’m Reading
The Everlasting by Alix E Harrow – A romantic and Romantic story. I love Sir Una Everlasting and I love Owen Mallory and the loving depiction of his flaws and how he becomes a useful idiot to a certain kind of patriotism that he also clearly sees thru and yet and yet and yet.

Platform Decay – Martha Wells – New Murderbot! No spoilers! I’m having a good and also bad time!

What I’ll Read Next
SciFi/Fantasy Book Club
Tomb of Dragons Katherine Addison - reread

Necromancy Book Club
The Everlasting Alix E. Harrow
The Isle in the Silver Sea Tasha Suri
Platform Decay (murderbot 8) Martha Wells
Ancillary Justice Ann Leckie

Hugo nominations!

Novels
A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett (Del Rey; Hodderscape) - read, it was great
Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor (William Morrow; Gollancz) - know the author, know nothing about this
Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Tor UK; Orbit US) - haven't read this, looking forward to it
The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow (Tor US; Tor UK) - already on the to-read list
The Incandescent by Emily Tesh (Tor US; Orbit UK) - read, it was great (tho a bit obvious)
The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson (Orbit US; Hodderscape)- never even heard of this one

Novellas
Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz (Tordotcom)
Cinder House by Freya Marske (Tordotcom; Tor UK) - read it, very interesting
Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite (Tordotcom)
The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar (Tordotcom; Arcadia UK)
The Summer War by Naomi Novik (Del Rey US; Del Rey UK)
What Stalks the Deep by T. Kingfisher (Nightfire; Titan UK) -read it, solid, not a standalone without the first two novellas

The other categories also merit attention but the funny thing is just the movies - I have already seen all of them except Mickey 17.

senmut

5300 works on AO3.

Can anyone imagine how high it would be if I hadn't grouped ficlets and drabbles back when I archived all my old fic?

azurelunatic

norabombay is visiting! We hung out yesterday afternoon and had dinner. Additional dinner plans for tonight.

petra

Time to update your AO3 password. It can now be 72 characters long.

Here, have a website that counts characters.

So far my favorite possible maximal password I won't use is:
Little pig little pig let me in! Not by the hair on my chinny-chin-chin!

(Sorry about the lack of vocative commas, but 72 is a harsh mistress.)

If you like poetry, there's always:
Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village though

Bring me your favorite 72-character phrase that you Won't use as an AO3 password!

Current Mood: coded
Current Music: He will not see me stopping here to watch his woods fill up with snow

beccaelizabeth

I have been relistening through 8 and Charley starting from the beginning, though I don't have Stones of Venice or Invaders from Mars loaded on the device I'm using so I skipped those for now. ... getting out of bed to grab a CD or use my other computer seemed like Effort. And I'd listened to Minuet in Hell a while ago and did not feel the need to do so again.
Storm Warning is good, Sword of Orion is pretty good, Chimes of Midnight is tedious and annoying and I don't get why it's so popular.
Seasons of Fear did a good ending from a redemption point of view but the paradox of it all is a lot.
Embrace the Darkness was proper creepy and doing audio correctly, and I like the resolution.
Time of the Daleks likes Shakespeare more than I do, and yet does nothing with him. Also just saying that none of the time travel should work doesn't make it less irritating. Even if time travel through mirrors is perfectly acceptable in other episodes so I suppose I also might not have minded if they didn't keep saying it doesn't work.
Neverland is in the right place because I was getting *really* fed up with Charley being inexplicable magic.
Zagreus did at least make a sufficiency of sense on this relisten, but I still can't actually like it.
Scherzo is a level of messed up about dying for each other that makes me vaguely worried about the author, even before you get to the cannibalism, and while it uses audio correctly in many respects, with the terror of not having any sense but hearing, it makes itself full of bad noises deliberately uncomfortable to listen to, so I would on the whole rather not. I understand many people like it and find it the right kind of messed up shippy. I just make wrinkly forehead when I think about it and consider it horror all the way down.

So today I relistened to Creed of the Kromon.
... I see a lot of posts on tumblr pass by referencing
the author's very specific ...interests
and the level of body horror applied to Charley as a means of getting her to breed
after mind control talking her into eating until she can't move
is just
uncomfortable
on more than one level.

It is a bit more dark than I expect from Doctor Who.

I can see why this story had several of its story elements but it also only had two women and the other existed to get fridged by her husband. So I think probably someone should have poked it with a stick a bit more. And maybe done something different instead.

I don't know if I'll keep listening these tonight but they're definitely solid audios even if they are over twenty years old now.

troisoiseaux

Since my last update in War and Peace (yesterday), I'm back to The Great Comet of 1812 territory with the scene that's the source for "No One Else"— interestingly, it's Natasha's song in the musical but Andrei's experience in the book, after seeing Natasha for the first time while visiting the Rostovs on business and feeling the first stirrings that life might be worth actually living again, post-Austerlitz and post-Lise: First time I heard your voice / Moonlight burst into the room vs.

As soon as he opened the shutters the moonlight, as if it had long been watching for this, burst into the room. He opened the casement. The night was fresh, bright, and very still. . . .

His room was on the first floor. Those in the rooms above were also awake. He heard female voices overhead.

"Just once more," said a girlish voice above him which Prince Andrei recognized at once.

(On the other hand, the lyric I feel like putting my arms around my knees / and squeezing tight as possible / And flying away is an almost verbatim quote from Natasha, and the differences might only be in translation.)

I also forgot to mention that I've turned back to China Miéville's Three Moments of an Explosion, a collection of short stories that mostly take either a frog-in-boiling-water approach—you'll start out reading about a couple on vacation, or a therapist who's kind of unhealthily overinvested in one of her patients but in a normal way, and then halfway through it slips into folk horror, or a world where therapists are also assassins ("Sometimes the externalized trauma-vectors in dysfunctional interpersonal codependent psychodynamics are powerful enough that more robust therapeutic intervention is necessary"); I very nearly laughed out loud on the metro at the latter twist— or a peeling-the-onion one, where it starts out in a world that is overtly not our own and the parameters reveal themselves, slowly, as you keep reading. ( ... ) I'm a little over halfway through, although I did end up skipping one story after very quickly realizing that it was not a flavor of horror I had the stomach to read.

musesfool

Wednesday reading on a Thursday:

what I've just finished
Saint Death's Daughter and Saint Death's Herald by CSE Cooney, which I enjoyed. The first book is A Lot in terms of both worldbuilding and plot, but it's a fun ride and Lanie Stones is a fantastic character - a necromancer who has an allergy to violence. Her growth as a necromancer is really well done, especially when set against the various members of her family she tells you about over the course of the books. The second book is a lot more straightforward in terms of plot, which I found less enthralling, but the character work and worldbuilding remain fascinating. I couldn't find any info about whether there's going to be a third book, but I would read it if there were!

what I'm reading now
The Last Contract of Isako, the new book by Fonda Lee. I'm only 20 pages in so I can't say much about it one way or another yet, but Isako is a middle-aged lady contractor (possibly also an assassin?) in a far future world. I imagine this is going to be a "one last job" kind of thing? I don't remember the blurb, but I found Lee's Green Bone trilogy* excellent so I have high hopes for this.

*Second world East Asian-style mob story where the made men have what basically amount to Force powers. Very violent and most of the characters are morally gray at best, but I enjoyed it a lot.

what I'm reading next
Dungeon Crawler Carl book 8: Parade of Horribles. Tuesday! I AM EXCITE!

*

Current Mood: okay
Current Music: Canes vs Flyers on tv

kaberett

One: bread/avocado/scramble breakfast exactly as good as I had been looking forward to, with bonus realisation that we currently have some plum jam open so I got to finish with the rye-caraway-poppy (still mostly white wheat but those were the flavours) + butter + plum jam and this, too, was magnificent. (Bonus food excellence: ASPARAGUS that is now in season; some brownie bar + strawberries.)

Two: gym!!! I made the decision that the traffic was awful enough that buses would be a bad idea so I got bonus admiration of some excellent front gardens I have been otherwise oblivious to, and also observed More Coot Eggs.

Three: Murderbot is apparently managing to occupy a sweet spot in terms of complexity and degree of emotional engagement that means I'm actually managing to read the new one. (Bookshop.org very much does NOT have the ebook in the UK store so I even don't feel bad that I forgot it existed until after I'd given Kobo money.)

Four: post-therapy treat was Completing The Speedrun Achievement for the arcane library game, thereby sorting me out with All achievements, so I am now probably ready to contentedly move on.

Five: spent a chunk of the evening removing labels from the Child's clothing, and it is very very nice to know that his life will be materially improved as a result.

spiralicious posting in

endings

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pauraque

A pair of Rose-breasted Grosbeaks have been visiting our feeders for the last couple of days. This was a new addition to our yard list and a lifer for

sdk! I've seen them in the woods before but never such close looks.

I think the male looks like he's on his way to a vampire LARP event. (He has a black cape, though you can't see it here.) The female reminds me of a female Purple Finch with the white eyebrow, but much bigger with a more prominent bill.

I didn't update about local birds before the Rhode Island trip, and spring migration is now in full swing for us, so my year list has a bit of a backlog to clear out here.

( More additions to the year list since last update )

So that's 103 species for me in 2026 so far.

james_davis_nicoll

Seen in email:

(QWOP)

Free League Announces Legends of Stormbringer RPG Based On Dragonbane Mechanics

Elric returns to the tabletop in an officially licensed RPG powered by the award-winning Dragonbane system
Hello!

Today, we are thrilled to announce Legends of Stormbringer, a new officially licensed tabletop roleplaying game based on the iconic fantasy works of Michael Moorcock, planned for release in 2027.

Legends of Stormbringer will carry you into the Young Kingdoms – a world of dying empires, warring gods, and doomed heroes – and bring Moorcock’s richly imagined setting to the tabletop using rules mechanics based on our award-winning Dragonbane RPG. The game will feature the same accessible, dynamic, and deadly approach that has made Dragonbane one of our most celebrated titles.

Returning to the Young Kingdoms as setting writer is Richard Watts, whose work on previous Stormbringer RPGs helped define how generations of roleplayers have experienced Moorcock’s world.

“This has been in the works for several months and we’re thrilled to finally share the news,” said Tomas Härenstam, CEO of Free League Publishing. “We are honored to bring Elric and the Young Kingdoms to the tabletop once more.”

Further details – including crowdfunding plans and additional creative team announcements – will be revealed at a later date.

Seen online:

Goodman Games secures official Elric of Melniboné license for 2027 release

rachelmanija

An advance copy of a new book by Lois Lowry, author of The Giver and other classics. It is unfortunately basically the bad version of The Giver. In fact what it mostly reminded me of was

telophase's YA dystopia generator, which produces gems like Tweak: Sickness has been banned and the government controls shopping and Whimper: Cats have been banned and the government controls dancing the hustle. In the case of Building 903, books have been banned and the government controls popsicles. Yes, really.

In a future America ruled by a 200 year old dictator, books (ALL books), fiction, art, music, storytelling, playgrounds, live pets (robot pets are OK), free elections, religion, tattoos, matches and other fire-making tools, congregating in groups, iconoclastic clothing, travel, and eating meat or fish are banned. Old people, marriage, and popsicles are controlled by the government. Yes, really.

She leaned over, pushed the button that dispensed a frozen snack, and made a face when she saw it was green; she liked the orange ones better. But she peeled the covering from the green one and licked at it. I bet anything, Tessa thought, I could get Dad to invent a selector button so they wouldn't come out at random; I could choose orange. Or red: the red ones aren't bad. Then, though, the green ones would pile up, and it would be wasteful, I suppose, because no one would ever eat them.

To be fair, I'm just assuming the frozen snacks are popsicles. For all I know she's licking a piece of frozen broccoli.

Tessa's father and twin brother are supergeniuses. Tessa and her mother are just average. I did not care for this. Anyway, Tessa's brother vanishes and the book goes on and on and ON with nothing much happening. I skipped to the end.

( Read more... )

askamanager_feed

Posted by Ask a Manager

https://www.askamanager.org/2026/05/how-should-i-handle-an-openly-hostile-job-interviewer.html

https://www.askamanager.org/?p=37879

A reader writes:

I’m returning to the job-searching arena after several years and will be interviewing over the next few weeks.

A few years ago, I was interviewed by a panel who were quite hostile and clearly not impressed with my resume or my responses. Up until that point, I’d never come across any interviewer who was aggressive, disrespectful, or rude, so the nastiness directed my way was unexpected:

• belittling of my resume
• verbal expressions of frustration at my lack of specific experience (and then giving me a nasty look)
• patronizing remarks made about my responses to questions
• aggressive facial expressions, no smiles, and no basic civilities (not even hello, just a curt instruction to “sit down!”
• questions being asked in a hostile tone with a patronizing remark at the end
• I think I was told at one point, “You aren’t very good, are you?”
• Practically throwing a resume at me for me to refer to during the interview
• Eye-rolling and groaning at my responses

All of the above sounds like something from a movie, but it really happened.

Surprisingly, I was offered the job, and as I had few choices at the time, I accepted it. I think I lasted about eight weeks before leaving for a better opportunity.

If I were to be interviewed by a hostile, aggressive interviewer again, what is some wording I can use to quickly take myself out of the running and leave the interview with my dignity intact? Since my prior experience taught me that a hostile interviewer is indicative of employer culture, I’d rather give them a wide berth.

If an interviewer is just a little unpleasant but not openly hostile, much of the time it makes sense to stay and finish the conversation — since who knows, you might want to apply again there in the future for a job with a different manager and ideally you’d preserve the relationship with the employer generally (even if you’d never work for this manager).

But if an interviewer is openly hostile, you’re not required to just sit there and take it. If someone is flagrantly rude or antagonistic, there’s no reason you can’t say, “As we’re talking, I’m realizing this job isn’t quite what I’m looking for, and I don’t want to take up more of your time. I appreciate you talking with me, and I wish you the best in filling the role.”

If you think you’d have a tough time saying this, it helps to remember that your interviewer isn’t in charge of you — which I say because the power dynamics of interviews can make people forget that. While it’s true that the interviewer is deciding whether or not they want to offer you the job, that assessment is a two-way street: you are also deciding whether or not you’d want to work with them. You aren’t a supplicant waiting for them to bestow their blessing on you. Particularly once you’ve decided that you don’t want the job, you are peers in a business conversation, and you are allowed to decide to wrap up and leave. In fact, I’d argue the best interviews always feel like peers in a business conversation and that’s not a shift that should only come about after you’ve decided you don’t want the job.

Interview conventions tend to steer candidates away from feeling they can cut an interview short but you absolutely can, the same way an interviewer could also decide to do that if a you were clearly not the right match.

If you ever need to want to end an interview early and you’re worried about how your interviewer will react, it can help to put yourself in the headspace of other types of business meetings and how you would handle those: for example, if a prospective vendor was rude in a meeting, you’d probably have a much easier time ending the conversation. The power dynamics are different in interviews — but they’re not so different that you have to tolerate abuse.

The post how should I handle an openly hostile job interviewer? appeared first on Ask a Manager.

https://www.askamanager.org/2026/05/how-should-i-handle-an-openly-hostile-job-interviewer.html

https://www.askamanager.org/?p=37879

askamanager_feed

Posted by Ask a Manager

https://www.askamanager.org/2026/05/things-i-like-4.html

https://www.askamanager.org/?p=38005

Years ago, I used to do occasional round-ups of things I like, just for fun. I haven’t done one in years, so here’s a new one.

1. Alyssa Limperis’s mom videos. Hilarious.

2. Riki Lindhome’s take on So Long Farewell from the Sound of Music. Also hilarious.

3. Catalog Choice. They unsubscribe you from catalogs and I love them.

4. This chicken and her kittens.

5. The charity Undue Medical Debt, which buys and erases the medical debt of people who can’t afford to pay it.

6. This illustrator.

7. The Bloggess’s mortification series.

8. Alley Cat Allies, which is an excellent charity helping cats without homes.

Feel free to share your own random sources of joy in the comments.

The post things I like appeared first on Ask a Manager.

https://www.askamanager.org/2026/05/things-i-like-4.html

https://www.askamanager.org/?p=38005

oursin

A further trail of thought more or less kicked off by this comment by flemmings on yesterday's post about Ursula as an anthropologist's daughter and the way that inflected her fiction -

- and then I went, hey, wasn't he part of that whole Franz Boas group that I read that book about at the beginning of 2020 (Charles King, The Reinvention of Humanity) and would she not have been aware of Significant Lady Anthropologists and their work (not just her own ma) -

Like, Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict?

(Maybe the forthcoming biography will shine some light there???)

Or was that going on in some entirely different compartment to the requirements of fictional narrative? (thinking of my 1920s gals and the gulf between what they were up to with their affairs and abortions and propagating birth control and what the protags in their novels were permitted to get up to.)

Or was there a whole generational thing going on there, which I sort of touched on in commenting about Mitchison on this post, though I think I could make a larger case about that generation that had had to fight for a lot of rights that were already accepted as given by UKleG's day even if there were still major constraints.

(Seem to recollect that I did not think Julie Phillips in that book on writers and motherhood quite brought out the extent to which she was writing of a very specific generation/time-period. With some exceptions.)

otw_news_feed

Posted by therealmorticia

https://www.transformativeworks.org/world-password-day-keeping-your-account-secure/

https://www.transformativeworks.org/?p=284382

Today is World Password Day, and we’d like to take this opportunity to remind everyone of some best practices to keep your accounts secure.

Last year, AO3 saw a rise in users who lost access to their AO3 accounts due to reused or insecure passwords that were found in data breaches from other sites. In response, our Policy & Abuse committee alongside our Accessibility, Design, & Technology, and Systems committees took steps to recover, secure, and notify the owners of over 10,000 at-risk accounts.

Over the past year, we released many new features to proactively make AO3 accounts more secure, including:

Automatic confirmation emails notifying you when your username, password, or email has been changed
Adding a verification step to the process for changing the email associated with your account
Notifying you if your current or new password matches a password that was discovered in a data breach from another site
Preventing users from choosing new passwords that are extremely short
Increasing the maximum password length from 40 to 72 characters
Requiring you to provide the email address associated with your account in order to reset your password
Updating the layout and wording of how you change or reset your password

How To Protect Your AO3 Account

The best thing you can do to protect yourself on AO3 and other sites is ensure your passwords are strong, unique, and secure. In general, for both AO3 and elsewhere, we recommend that you:

Regularly check haveibeenpwned.com to see if your emails, passwords, or other information has been exposed in data breaches or whether your passwords have appeared in known data breaches.
Change your passwords for any breached websites and any accounts on other sites where you may have used the same password.
Set a unique, secure password for each and every one of your accounts on all platforms.
Use a password manager. This will help you to set unique, secure passwords for each of your accounts without worrying about forgetting them. Many browsers have a free, built-in password manager if you would prefer to avoid third-party software.
Make sure to check your email regularly. Don’t use a temporary, school, or work email for any personal accounts. (If you need to update the email associated with your AO3 account, go to your Preferences page and click on the “Change Email” button in the top right. Follow the instructions on that page to update your email address.)
Keep your antivirus software and operating system up to date, and set them to scan for malware regularly.
Log out when you’ve finished using devices that others have access to, and don’t share your personal devices with other people.
Never reuse passwords or share your passwords with anyone for any reason.

Future Changes

Keeping AO3 safe for all our users is one of our highest priorities. We continue to remain on the lookout for other ways we can help you protect your account.

We encourage you to follow us on our official platforms and sign up for OTW News by Email to keep track of important announcements and updates to AO3. If you’re specifically interested in learning about new features, security updates, and bug fixes, we recommend that you pay attention to our release notes.

https://www.transformativeworks.org/world-password-day-keeping-your-account-secure/

https://www.transformativeworks.org/?p=284382

askamanager_feed

Posted by Ask a Manager

https://www.askamanager.org/2026/05/how-can-i-get-to-know-coworkers-betters-when-were-remote.html

https://www.askamanager.org/?p=37125

It’s the Thursday “ask the readers” question. A reader writes:

I have been with my current employer for 20 years. We have been fully remote since 2020, though we do have in person meetings roughly once a quarter. And I travel for business frequently so also often spend times with colleagues this way. I have very close friends at my current role, but that is a reflection of my long-term tenure and the old days of lunch in the cafeteria and chats by the photocopier.

I’m starting a senior manager level position next month at a new company and I’m looking for advice on how to develop relationships with coworkers. I will lead high profile cross-functional projects and will need to have strong relationships with various teams (marketing, sales, product, etc.). And on top of that, I know I will be more successful if I have coworkers who I can call work friends, and I know I will enjoy my work environment if I have friendly relationships with coworkers. I’m not looking for friends to hang out with outside of work or looking for a new bestie, just colleagues I can chat with socially sometimes during the work week here and there.

I don’t know if that is a realistic expectation in this WFH world. I know there are many who prefer not to be social at work and that’s totally fine — I wouldn’t want to intrude. I just want to be able to say, “Hey Susie, how are the kids?” or “Hey Susie, how did your last marathon go?” The idea of not having a friendly chat once in a while seems so isolating.

In my current role, I have found that new joiners struggle because they feel very isolated not knowing anyone very well and feel like they are an outsider because there are others at our work that know each other very well. I worry this will be the case me.

Any advice on how to fit in (or reality check that I’m expecting too much)?

You aren’t expecting too much. Lots of us want to have warm, friendly relationships with colleagues and be able to talk about things besides work. Readers, what’s your advice?

The post how can I get to know coworkers better when we’re remote? appeared first on Ask a Manager.

https://www.askamanager.org/2026/05/how-can-i-get-to-know-coworkers-betters-when-were-remote.html

https://www.askamanager.org/?p=37125

princessofgeeks

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james_davis_nicoll

Humans discover ancient and extremely enigmatic alien relics around the Solar System. On inventing plot-enabling As Fast As Light starships (PEAFAL), humans determine pretty much any system old enough has relics from the Whoever They Were (WTW). The WTW showeed up in the early Proterozoic, did their thing for 300 million years--although not on Earth, as far as anyoe can tell--and then vanished seemingly overnight for reasons that at as yet unclear.

They seem to have been interested in smaller terrestrial worlds, many of which now have life forms whose last common ancestor was six billion years ago. So probably they were xenoforming worlds? But apparently only barren worlds, for some reason. Also, if they used the PEAFAL drive, there's absolutely no evidence of it.

Age is one reason why the WTW are very enigmatic. 2.5 billion years of radiation and micrometeorites has turned all their artificial stuff into scrap. Sometimes, into subtle chemical traces in regolith. Nobody has ever reverse-engineered WTW relics into something novel to us. In fact, nobody is sure what the WTW even looked like (there are a couple of candidate remains of things that might have had big brain analogues). So, they make a nice Rorschach test for scientists to project their issues onto.

Added later:

Opinions on the WTW vary from "they were nigh-gods" to "they weren't actually intelligent at all" to "they are a Satanic plot."

PEAFAL ships interact with the interstellar medium (ISM) in ways that piss off astronomers specializing in the ISM. PEAFAL wakes could be detected at galactic distance but no non-human wakes are visible. The deal with the ISM means the longer the journey, the more likely it terminates in an energetic event somewhere in deep space. Effectively, this means there's a 1% chance per light year traversed of an unplanned terminal energetic event, which can be reduced somewhat by sending ships in pairs: one (presumably automated) trail blazer and one survivor. This is just annoying for robot probes but is an inhibiting factor for crewed starship recruitment.

PEAFAL ships are sufficiently expensive nobody builds huge ones. As well, nobody knows how to make closed cycle life support systems (LSS): the longest anyone has gone before an isolated ISS fell over and died is 20 years. Efforts to establish colonies on other planets have been very educational.

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mayhap

My Fic

April 2026

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
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Page Summary

kitewithfish - Wednesday Reading Meme for May 7 2026 which is a Thursday
senmut - so that's a number
azurelunatic - Proof of life
petra - Happy World Password Day!
beccaelizabeth - (no subject)
troisoiseaux - Reading Wednesday 2: Thursday Boogaloo
musesfool - quick trigger deflected wide
kaberett - some good things
spiralicious in endings - (no subject)
pauraque - new visitors in the yard
james_davis_nicoll - What fascinating timing
rachelmanija - Building 903, by Lois Lowry (DNF)
askamanager_feed - how should I handle an openly hostile job interviewer?
askamanager_feed - things I like
oursin - Further Le Guin thoughts
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askamanager_feed - how can I get to know coworkers better when we’re remote?
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arcaneauzine in fandomcalendar - Arcane AU Zine | Interest Check Open
james_davis_nicoll - Another seed I will put down to get it out of my head

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Page generated May. 11th, 2026 05:04 am

mayhap's friends

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Wednesday Reading Meme for May 7 2026 which is a Thursday

so that's a number

Proof of life

Happy World Password Day!

(no subject)

Reading Wednesday 2: Thursday Boogaloo

quick trigger deflected wide

some good things

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new visitors in the yard

What fascinating timing

Building 903, by Lois Lowry (DNF)

how should I handle an openly hostile job interviewer?

things I like

Further Le Guin thoughts

World Password Day: Keeping Your Account Secure

How To Protect Your AO3 Account

Future Changes

how can I get to know coworkers better when we’re remote?

Heated Rivalry universe feature

Arcane AU Zine | Interest Check Open

Another seed I will put down to get it out of my head

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April 2026

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