Yvi

Hello, friends! It's about to be December again, and you know what that means: the fact I am posting this actually before December 1 means karzilla reminded me about the existence of linear time again. Wait, no -- well, yes, but also -- okay, look, let me back up and start again: it's almost December, and that means it's time for our annual December holiday points bonus.

The standard explanation: For the entire month of December, all orders made in the Shop of points and paid time, either for you or as a gift for a friend, will have 10% of your completed cart total sent to you in points when you finish the transaction. For instance, if you buy an order of 12 months of paid time for $35 (350 points), you'll get 35 points when the order is complete, to use on a future purchase.

( The fine print and much more behind this cut! )

Thank you, in short, for being the best possible users any social media site could possibly ever hope for. I'm probably in danger of crossing the Sappiness Line if I haven't already, but you all make everything worth it.

On behalf of Mark, Jen, Robby, and our team of awesome volunteers, and to each and every one of you, whether you've been with us on this wild ride since the beginning or just signed up last week, I'm wishing you all a very happy set of end-of-year holidays, whichever ones you celebrate, and hoping for all of you that your 2026 is full of kindness, determination, empathy, and a hell of a lot more luck than we've all had lately. Let's go.

I am reading Retrograde, an Old Guard story, off a recommendation from the Rec Center newsletter. It is charming, and I am more than happy to forgive it its comma splices for the well-told tale of Nicky waking up at a different point in his own history every time he dies.

What made me pause to cry laughing was actually a footnote in the fic that "'Snails" is a minced oath for "God's nails," as cited in Green's Dictionary of Slang from 1599.

I haven't giggled this hard at something snail-related since the Barricades Con did a snéance (a snail séance) to ask Victor Hugo a few burning questions.

I am also sad all over again that they didn't name the sequel 2 Old 2 Guard, and that it wasn't good, but that is a Doylistic set of concerns, and when I am enmeshed in the story, I don't care so much.

I ended up going to the family gathering today. Sleeping for close to ten hours last night helped sway my decision considerably this morning. It went okay, and leaving when I was ready to leave - peeling off from the group and taking the subway back - was something that didn't get any pushback I could pick up on.

I'm not so much glad I went as I'm relieved I did. There were still the usual frustrations with conversation, and I'm slowly coming around to accepting that I'm probably always going to have to deal with them.

Also open to people for whom it is Not Dark Outside in the Southern Hemisphere.

Let me know if you'd like a holiday card, with or without short verse or prose, or a short piece of fiction in your inbox.

Even if you know I have your address, if you want a physical card, I would appreciate your leaving it in a comment on this post -- all comments are screened -- so I don't have to hunt for it. I'm in the US and have a pile of domestic and international stamps just waiting to come see you.

Please format your request like so:

I would like [a physical card/just a physical card, no fiction/just a piece of fiction or verse sent digitally], please.

If you want a physical card:
Envelope Name
Address formatted the way your country likes them done

Card Name (if different from envelope name):

If you want some words:
Please write me a [drabble or poem], [silly or serious or smutty or author's choice], for [one or more of these fandoms (the fandoms I know)] on the theme of [my favorite trope(s)]. Please avoid mentioning [winter holidays I don't celebrate].

Optional if you want to reciprocate:
I'm planning on sending holiday cards and don't have your address. Please provide it [at this link or in a reply comment].

There is currently a meme going around Tumblr of looking at the AO3 to see which of one's fanworks has the fewest hits. Mine is currently a drabble of Shakespeare/Marlowe titled from Stephen Sondheim.

As Jack points out, said fanwork could only be more on-brand for me if it involved mentor/student or one person/everyone else.

BRB, contemplating Kit/everybody and/or Will/everybody.

Oh thank goodness, I have the right icon for this post!

It is definitely time for the ceremonial Watching of the Comfort Movie.

RIP, Tom Stoppard. And may you not have to do it all over again and again and again, because life is neither a rehearsal nor a play.

I posted 10 drabbles to the Wanksgiving fest, which is currently anonymous. If you didn't get me to write for you, and you spot something in there that you think was me, leave me a comment with an "I think you wrote this!" and a request and I will follow up with you when I am not mid-giving-thanks.

Pick a thing or two that sums up how you're doing today, this week, in general, and tell me about it in the 5-7-5 syllables of a haiku.

=

Signal-boosting much appreciated!

It's my dad's birthday this Friday. It's my family's plan to have a small get-together about it. It's been my family's plan to do it in Brooklyn with bagels and cake. It's the assumption I'll make the cake. I'm good with making the cake. I'm happy with making the cake. I'm unhappy with being told I'd make the cake without being told I was invited to the get-together. That the invitation was implicit was lost on me. Nobody told me I was invited until I was told there was an expectation I'd provide a cake.

I'm going on a hike with my parents tomorrow, and having dinner alone with them on Friday. I'm presently on the fence about a Saturday get together on the grounds that I really don't know how I'll feel about spending three consecutive days with them. I know if I don't tell them that with those specific words, in more or less that specific way, there won't be any effect on their behavior. I know that and I'm also wondering about staying quiet and observing what they say and how they act in regards to my presence as a litmus test they're not aware of. I'm fairly certain that'd backfire just as much as telling them I want to feel comfortable around them. I might go with the "not saying anything until I have no choice" strategy, or I might go with the "talk about it with someone on Friday to get my feelings out" strategy. I worry I'll have to buy more bourbon and rum in any case.

In folding laundry, I found I'd lost a wash cloth. In going down to the laundry room to check, I found the woman who only had bills, no quarters, hadn't seen it either. In talking her through my decision making process and to not waste an elevator trip, I take her up to my apartment with me to trade her a roll of quarters for the appropriate amount in small bills.

In checking what I'd already put away, I found the missing wash cloth.

One of those strings of events where I can't find it in myself to be upset about the inciting inconvenience.

I'm postulating the necro/cav AUs again, so I still might throw that AU fest, Locked Tomb fans. There's no release date on Alecto as of this writing, so that's not a useful target. But if instead I aimed for a y'all-come-create fest to release on May Day, as the opposite cross-quarter day from Halloween, that might work.

Postulate with me! Anyone who has a clever idea for a fest name is welcome, or a pair they want to see do this dance, or anything.

*

You know it's a good day when you get to use the phrase, "L'Engle-accurate cherubim."

Angels, shmangels -- I want Progo with blue hair and pronouns.

This afternoon, out on the subway, someone complained about an unpleasant smell. I looked them in the eye and didn't say anything, letting my mask do the talking. There's so many reasons to keep them on in enclosed spaces, especially enclosed spaces where people take off their shoes, and I don't see a reason to go back to breathing unfiltered subway air.

It's looking to be a family hike this Thursday, and I still don't know how to feel about it.

Leave me a comment with a fandom I know + pair/group + kink, or just a kink, and I will write a Wanksgiving IV: A New Hope drabble (or more) of smut for you, to be revealed this coming Thursday.

Extra bonus points for scenarios having to do with this year's Wanksgiving theme. But you knew that, didn't you?

Mayor-Elect Mamdani was asked whether Trump is a fascist, and Trump's response to his hesitation was to say it was fine, and he could say it.

On the same day a bunch of Democrats in the House voted to condemn socialism.

I'm glad this timeline has you in it, dear reader, because the political side of things is driving me bananas.

I'm also glad the timeline has people in it who see this as a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor of a hot new RPS ship. I have zero desire to read the stories, but I love that they exist.

I have more than the minimum word count of my Yuletide story and a vague ambition for how it will go from here. It is not done, but it is well and truly begun.

Here is your friendly reminder, especially for people in the US coming up to Thursday's Big Eating Day, that if you donate 25 USD worth of cash or food to a food bank or food pantry, you can prompt me to write for you: fanfiction, fanpoetry, or original poetry, anywhere on the sliding scale from staid, metered verse to filthy limericks.

This applies to recurring donations too!