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There is not a shred of doubt in my mind that somewhere in Ankh-Morpork, Sam Vimes has a drag king impersonater

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nona the ninth

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🛸👽scully was abducted and all I got was this stupid sweater🙄✌🏼

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for the past two years i have been sponsoring a tuberculosis detection rat in tanzania, her name is carolina. she sniffs sputum samples & alerts her handlers when she detects TB. recently she turned 8 & aged out of the program, so they held a retirement party for her & sent me photos.

while carolina moves on to live a life of rest & luxury in the retirement kennels, her role is being passed on to her successor, tamasha. she is 2 years old & was named after the grandmother of one of her handlers.

(with her handler priscus)

here is a description of tamasha:

"Tamasha is also quite playful! She enjoys jumping, climbing, and sometimes does a joyful little dance when placed in the TB evaluation enclosure – as if celebrating her enthusiasm for the work ahead. She’s also a big fan of avocado, her favorite treat for a job well done."

im not afraid to admit that this email made me cry like a stupid baby. you can sponsor your own big beautiful TB- or landmine-detecting rat through APOPO HeroRATS. they send you an update on how your rat is doing each month, including photos.

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things you DO NOT need to be a man

1) a dick

2) he/him pronouns

3) xy chromosomes

things you DO need to be a man

1) a mind that is stronger than iron, that shines like a light in the dark

2) a body that could wrestle a lion, and then deal out a witty remark

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Locked tomblr: haha on the 999th day of no locked tomb news what if instead of killing ourselves we pretended there were book updates and made a lot of memes

Tor.com, seeing the chance to do the funniest cover reveal of all time: Oh? 👀 https://x.com/torbooks/status/2085201523518811918/

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Announcing Alectopause the Ninth: A Collaborative Fic Project

Still waiting for news about Alecto the Ninth? Stop waiting! We're writing our own!

In honor of Alectopause Day 999, @carys-the-ninth and I are announcing our plans for a collaborative, fan-created version of "Alecto the Ninth," inspired by the game "exquisite corpse." This event will be an AO3 collection in which creators work from chapter prompts, and the whole is revealed to everyone at once. We plan to release the collection on Sep 13th, 2025, the third anniversary of the Alectopause.

You can sign up to be a part of the event here! The best way to stay updated is through our discord, but we will be announcing everything on tumblr as well, tagged "alectopause the ninth 2025." You can also view the prompts, rules and deadlines, and AO3 collection. @carys-the-ninth, @wifegideonnav and I will be the main mods, but we would be remiss not to thank @theriverbeyond and @arithmonym for their help in putting together this event! We hope to eventually release this "book" in a limited-run, non-profit zine format as well.

Happy Alectopause Day 999, everybody! Let's keep making things weirder and more incomprehensible from here ❤️

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At the breaking of the chains and of the bones, one of the children there offered violence to her, appearing on the altar and raising her weapon high.

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Alecto was your cavalier

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I think we should throw a party for 999 days of Alectopause

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Happy Alectopause Eve! Don't forget to leave bread in a drawer and soup in your tummy for Gideon and Harrow tonight :) don't worry about the soup :)

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Happy alectopause eve to all those that celebrate. I've just uploaded my sad kiriona gaia and ianthe fic to the collection! feat: the chussy, gideon being big sad, and ianthe consistently girlfailing

https://archiveofourown.org/works/66279292

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the severed floor, part 1

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With how much we as a fandom discuss what will happen to John in AtN, it's kind of surprising how little I've seen on what the future has in store for Alecto. Since I already love her, I've decided that won't do. So here's a bunch of possible endings for Alecto:

1.) Alecto dies (alongside John): We know that neither of them can die while the other one is alive, so if John dies in AtN the most likely result would be that Alecto does, too. There are several ways I could see this going down. To the subsections!

1.1) The cycle of violence: Alecto is killed unwillingly as collateral damage by someone who wants John dead more than they want her alive. This ending mirrors how John killed Alecto the first time trying to get revenge on the billionaires. I really hope this doesn't happen. Not only does Alecto deserve better, it also doesn't bode well for everyone else's future.

1.2) The self sacrifice: Alecto dies willingly so John can be killed. Slightly less horrible for her than replaying the trauma of her death and birth to the letter, but still pretty damn sad. We know from Nona that Alecto at the very least has the potential to love being alive. I want her to get that chance. But at least this ending gives her some agency.

1.3) The peaceful rest: In this version Alecto wants to die. Something something necromancy as a violation of the natural order, something something everyone John wanted to keep around died 10000 years ago and his desire to hold onto them only caused everyone pain, and so on. A more bittersweet ending. However, I still struggle to believe that the entirety of Nona didn't mean anything about Alecto's will to live. Nona accepts her death, but that's for the lack of a better option. I firmly believe that Nona is still a fundamental part of Alecto and I want her to have the chance to live and be happy again. The odds of survival for Gideon don't look good in this ending either. If keeping someone alive via necromancy is meant to be categorically bad, the only way we're getting a happy ending for griddlehark is on the other shore of the river.

2. Alecto stays alive as Alecto: We know Alecto doesn't like her current body, so this goes square in the middle for me.

2.1) The survivor: I know I was just talking about how John and Alecto live or die as the world's worst package deal, but to be fair, their situation is entirely unique. There could still be some way for Alecto to survive John's death. There's an entire book left to find loopholes. Alecto would probably have some kind of feeling about whatever ends up happening to John, but I don't think we've seen enough of her yet to know what these feelings would be. Not to mention, part of her soul is stuck in John, and I suspect it's a tad optimistic to think she'd get those parts back if he died. Killing him would leave her with a literal hole in her soul. My girl deserves better. In any case, I dont think this ending is likely. It's too neat and basic for a series like tlt. And besides, why have a 'perfect' solution when it's so much more fun to make characters choose between flawed options?

2.2) The wanderer: This one's not tied to Alecto remaining in a humanoid form, but I'm putting it here anyway. This ending sees Alecto leave the Houses behind to travel the universe. Possibly with someone else. John? Paul? Pyrrha? Varun? Who knows. This ending is pretty open and feels more like a new beginning, but it's also rather hopeful. I could live with that.

2.3) The probation officer: This would be a version of events where John survives and is sentenced (by anything from court to the narrative) to some version of restorative justice. In this ending Alecto finally gets to see John use her powers the way she intended. This is basically the antithesis to the cycle of violence ending. Whoever chose this weighed saving the innocent (Alecto/humanity) against punishing the guilty (John/the billionaires) and decided that Alecto's life matters more than revenge. While I'm not entirely happy keeping Alecto in a body she hates, I think it would be an otherwise satisfying, hopeful ending for her. And hey, maybe someone can give her a necromantic makeover.

3.) Alecto lives, but not as Alecto: I don't think it's unreasonable to think that the planet who became a girl, who became a different girl and then became the first girl again might end up going through another transformation.

3.1) The Resurrection Beast: What it says on the tin. I'm not sure if Alecto technically is one already, but who says she can't turn into an eldritch being even larger than the planet she used to be? Unless this is combined with a wanderer ending (probably alongside Varun), I see this more as a temporary step that happens during the finale. In this case, I am incapable of imagining as anything other than an even messier version of the Steven Universe future finale. John being eaten by RB Alecto would also be one of the few ways I can think of to achieve a John dies, Alecto lives ending.

3.2) The planet: I feel like I'm daying 'hopeful ending' too much, so I won't do so again. It's a good one, though. I picture Alecto walking into the sea and dissolving into foam like the Hans Christian Andersen version of the little mermaid as the planet comes back to life. I like this ending a lot, not only because it would be a happy ending for Alecto (but bittersweet enough for those who loved her to still be exquisitely painful), but also promises a chance of healing for the rest of the cast.

3.3) The Paul: Short version: Alecto and John do a Paul, but since John's just a guy and Alecto is literally the world, it's not an equal fusion like, well, Paul. This post already says everything about John's side of this better than I could, but I have some additional thoughts on what it would mean for Alecto. Because part of her is in John, right? Doing a Paul would return these parts to her and (hopefully) heal the damage John did when he ate part of her and stuffed the rest in her barbie form. I think this ending has a high potential of going into the planet ending as well.

And that's all the endings I can think of right now!

For everyone who read through this entire thing, please tell me which one of these endings you're hoping for. Here's a poll!

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currently reading private rites by julia armfield (who wrote our wives under the sea) and it's insanely good so far. It's got lesbians! It's got sisters! So far it has 0 men except for the complex and very dead father! It has speculative climate fiction! And of course, like any self respecting julia armfield book, it has a lotttt of water

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Murderbot's state of the art anti-eye contact technology

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just gonna leave this here ..