lostinthewanderingblue
Greyspaces on ao3. dc blog is everythingandthekitchensink
299 posts
Latest Posts by lostinthewanderingblue
Winter Soldier + Widows
we have to write poems in my creative writing certificate program, so I pieced something together from Belphie's medical reports
A small list of random ass sites I’ve found useful when writing:
Fragrantica: perfume enthusiast site that has a long list of scents. v helpful when you’re writing your guilty pleasure abo fics
Just One Cookbook: recipe site that centers on Japanese cuisine. Lots of different recipes to browse, plenty of inspiration so you’re not just “ramen and sushi”
This comparing heights page: gives you a visual on height differences between characters
A page on the colors of bruises+healing stages: well just that. there you go. describe your bruises properly
McCormick Science Institute: yes this is a real thing. the site shows off research on spices and gives the history on them. be historically accurate or just indulge in mindless fascination. boost your restaurant au with it
A Glossary of Astronomy Terms: to pepper in that sweet terminology for your astrophysics major college au needs
There was a young man from Peru
Whose limericks stopped at line two
most important part of the writing process actually is when you loop a single song on max volume and stare at the word document and imagine the characters doing things for 14 hours. this is known as getting in the zone
messy but here he is! a request! so if you have any cool hawkeye month prompts send me an ask :D
How to recover fic deleted from AO3 that’s NOT on the Wayback machine
Sharing this because I just found out about this and it blew my mind.
The short version of it is: The Wayback Machine is not the only backup/archive of AO3 content out there. It’s just the most user-friendly and immediately browsable.
THIS database on Archive.org contains most AO3 fics as text files, including plenty that are not Waybacked: https://archive.org/details/AO3_final_location
What you’ll need: A browser for .sqlite3 files such as DB Browser for SQLite, an archive manager (e.g. WinRar or 7zip), good internet download speeds, and potentially a LOT of free GBs in storage space.
Not needed but heavily recommended: A download manager such as HTTP Downloader (so you don’t lose the entire download the second your internet stutters).
1. Click here to get to the archive’s files. It’s going to look something like this:
ao3_current.sqlite3 and ao3_old_files.sqlite3 are metadata files. The .zip files contain fic, most of them in simple .txt format. The metadata files tell you which fic is in which zip.
The “current” metadata file is recent backups. The “old” metadata file seems to be fics archived until 2020ish.
2. First, download either ao3_current.sqlite3 or ao3_old_files.sqlite3. Now launch DB Browser for SQlite, then File > Open Database Read-Only > open the sqlite3 file. Now click on the Browse Data tab.
3. It’s going to look like this.
4. The “Filter in any column” field can be used for keyword searches in, well, any column of this table. Be warned, it takes a while to update, give it time, it’s indexing.
5. Here I searched for all fic which gets a hit for the “Avengers” keyword (usually fandom). You can also search for a specific title, author, description, etc.
Let’s try to locate the first fic on the list. Click on the field on the left - row 1, column 1.
On the right you’ll see the full content of that cell. The most important thing here is the start - ao3_01. This means that the fic is located in ao3_old_files_part01.zip.
6. Download ao3_old_files_part01.zip and open it with your archive manager. It’s 5.5 GB. This will take some time.
7. There are multiple ways to find the fic within the zip file. Probably the easiest way is to use your archive manager’s search/find function to locate the fic by keyword - author is a good bet here, or title if it’s unique enough - and extract that. This way you don’t have to extract the entire archive. Be sure to add a wildcard operator (*) on either side of the keyword.
8. Extract the file and you’re done. Note: It will probably be in .txt format, and might be in one giant block of text. Just select-all and paste it to a proper word processor to restore the paragraph formatting.
+ I suppose if you’ve got like a free TB of space you could just skip the metadata step and download all the zip files and unzip them and use a command line search tool for keywords, too. This will work with keywords like title, author and fandom that are part of the file title. The metadata file just contains additional info, like character fields, description, etc.
This isn’t a perfect remedy, there are still fics that got deleted before they could get archived here. But it seems more complete than the stuff on the Wayback Machine on average.
I envisioned Gwen listening to “Fix You” as I painted this. Been going through a lot, but I always find solace in my friends and in painting.
When a piece of media's title consists of the names of its two leads, I feel like it makes a difference whether those names are conjoined with an ampersand, or whether they write out "and" in full. "A & B" versus "A and B" – these are fundamentally different species.
Having mc2 design thoughts
@oh-tobeafrog thank you for inspiring me with this galaxy brain take on my two favorite marvel heroes :)
original post here
why are time loops always only like 1 day long?
the real horror is a months or years long time loop. no speedrunning your torture here. you have to sit with the consequences of your actions for a loooong time before the release of knowing the consequences and actions have been erased.
but oh, all the actions and consequences are gone. those relationships you built? empty. you can never build them again without the constant guilt of knowing that it's not as real the second, third, thirtieth time when you already know all their secrets and they none of yours.
but you can't hide. you can't isolate yourself because what if this is the time the loop breaks and then what? years gone by of missed chances with people who have changed you a thousand times and now circumstances have changed. you can never build back what was washed away by your own inaction. they'll never be able to meet you like they did the first time if you don't choose to meet them the first time every time
if 2024 sam wilson met 2014 sam wilson i fear it would be one of the funniest things ever
2024 sam: “so yeah, we help save the world and overcome many challenges as well as become captain america and go on to inspire millions despite the odds. also steve is lowkey dead and nat sacrificed herself”
2014 sam:
2014 sam: and the guy who ripped out the steering wheel on the highway?
2024 sam: congress
If trench warfare were made-up, it would be the most on-the-nose anti-war satire ever created. Bunch of young men shooting at each other from inside open graves, slowly rotting even as they fight to stay alive. Every so often, they get to move a few hundred metres to dig a new grave for themselves somewhere else and this is called a victory.
equal rights for women will never truly be achieved until we have more female noir detectives
jury-rigged. even keel. by the board. three sheets to the wind. loose cannon. son of a gun. pipe down. taken aback.
