ysabetwordsmith

The little manger scene on the coffee table. At one point Andy wagged his tail and sent everything flying but I set it back up later and took this pic. There was a lot of chaos while people were opening presents and there was wrapping paper all over the place. Andy kept busy ripping it into tinier pieces. Afterwards I thought, why had I been concerned before about getting the house clean and the floors swept? Skye spent the whole day on the couch, getting petted by people. I don't think she'll be here next year at this time so it's good that her last year has a lot of love in it.

One, Two, Three.

I had a weird pain in my right wrist yesterday. It started in the morning and got worse as the day went on. In a way it was good because it allowed me to ask for help with preparations. It's better now since I've slept a bit. I was exhausted and went to be early last night - 8 pm. Woke up at 1.

Jules gave me a cool tarot deck that I'd been wanting. The Grim Tales deck. Lots of strange images that will be good fodder for future art.

alisanne posting in

adventdrabbles

Prompt 26 is from

digthewriter! Sorry for the late post!

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Last call to leave any inspiring prompts at our 2025 prompt idea post!

dine

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but_can_i_be_trusted posting in

100words

Title: 'December's Joy'
Fandom: Original Fiction
Rating: G
Notes: Crossposted to

drabble_zone. Merry Christmas from

but_can_i_be_trusted.

( December's Joy )

sovay

In the afternoon there was eggnog, in the evening there was roast beef, and after dinner with my parents and my husbands and

nineweaving, there was plum pudding with an extremely suitable amount of brandy on fire.

At the end of a battering year, it was a small and a nice Christmas. There was thin frozen snow on the ground. In addition to the traditional and necessary socks and a joint gift with

spatch of wooden kitchen utensils to replace our archaically cracked spoons, I seem to have ended up with a considerable stack of books including Robert Macfarlane's Ghostways: Two Journeys in Unquiet Places (2020), Monique Roffey's The Mermaid of Black Conch (2020), and the third edition of Oakes Plimpton's Robbins Farm Park, Arlington, Massachusetts: A Local History from the Revolutionary War to the Present (1995/2007) with addenda as late as 2014 pasted into the endpapers by hand, a partly oral history I'd had no idea anyone had ever conducted of a place I have known for sledding and star-watching and the setting off of model rockets since childhood. The moon was a ice-white crescent at 18 °F. After everything, as we were driving home, I saw the unmistakable flare of a shooting star to the northwest, a stray shot of the Ursids perhaps after all.

Current Music: The Mountain Goats, "Your Bandage"

jbwoodford posting in

girlgenius_lair

...but that doesn't mean you should!

james

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yuletidemods posting in

yuletide_pinch_hits

The following pinch hit (1k words, focusing on requested characters, avoiding DNWs) is due as soon as you can post it - please contact yuletideadmin@gmail.com with your best offer!

This pinch hit has been claimed, but you are still welcome to post treats! Please contact the mods for instructions on how to post them now that reveals have occurred.

CLAIMED - EPH #1: Nine Worlds Series - Victoria Goddard, Лето в пионерском галстуке - Елена Малисова и Катерина Сильванова | Pioneer Series - Elena Malisova & Katerina Silvanova, The Paris Express - Emma Donoghue

Request 1 by Shizuku206
Nine Worlds Series - Victoria Goddard
Characters: Cliopher ""Kip"" Mdang (Nine Worlds), Artorin Damara | Fitzroy Angursell (Nine Worlds)
My gift must feature all of my chosen character tags (if 0: any from tag set)

I have read HotE, Petty Treasons, Portrait of a Wide Seas Islander, RoFA, and AtfotS. Please NO SPOILERS for books I haven’t read.
I definitely want Kip & HR to be a focus but please feel free to also include additional canon characters!
HotE ate my entire brain. I LOVE Cliopher. I love his devotion and love for his Radiancy, his desire to make the world a better place, his stubbornness and determination, his deep connection to his family, home and culture despite his long years so far away, his utter competence and unshakeable ethics… I love HR and his humor and mischief and longing to escape the confines of his position. I love the special bond they obviously have and which obviously means so much to them both, and my god the pining, I want them to be able to be together in all the ways they want to. I obviously ship them romantically, but if you are more moved to write about their love platonically, that is completely welcome as well. I am absolutely on board with canon divergence of the flavor ""Kip is sexually attracted to HR"" OR canon-level aroace Kip. I would adore fic that has the five friends living in Kip’s house in Gorjo City after they retire, something slice-of-life or working out who they are apart from their jobs. I’m imagining some silly roommate fluff/humor like HR making nothing but fruit salad every time it’s his turn to cook (because he loves fresh fruit!! And he doesn’t know how to cook anything) and everyone else is like “again?!”
General likes: hurt/comfort, pining, mutual pining, friends to lovers, enemies to lovers, couples who super dislike each other on first meeting, alt-POV canon scenes, missing scenes, fix-it, whump, smut, fluff, cuddling and snuggling, helping lovers recover from past trauma, neurodivergence (canon or headcanon), lovers accommodating characters’ neurodivergence especially when the ND character doesn’t even have to ask/assumes they don’t deserve accommodations/doesn’t know what accommodations they need, neurodivergent traits celebrated and loved (e.g. infodumping, special interests, hyperfocus), characters oblivious to the fact that they’re in love, tender caretaking, wearing each others’ clothes, sleeping together, only one bed/forced proximity due to circumstances, crying, crying on each other, angst and comfort, anxiety and reassurance, rescuing each other, taking revenge on someone who wronged their partner, found family, love declarations, commitment declarations, sweet gestures of affection especially from normally reserved/prickly characters, “mom friend override” (normally anxious/nonconfrontational character going in guns blazing because someone they love has been threatened), background characters being queer, happy endings, waking from a nightmare and their partner is there, grief/mourning and partner helping them cope, catharsis, trying to come out but whoops the person already knows you’re queer, supporting characters accepting and affirming the canon ship as a matter of course especially if MCs were trying to hide it, queer culture/safe queer spaces to escape period homophobia & be openly affectionate.
Smut likes: Experienced partner/inexperienced partner, gentle first time, explicit consent, enthusiastic consent, negotiating, ongoing communication about consent & likes/dislikes, trying new things, role play and dressing up, hurt/comfort sex, normally anxious/reserved character finding their voice in bed/taking charge, height difference, partially clothed, undressing each other, caring for each other as foreplay/afterplay (e.g. hairwashing, baths, etc.), nipple play, orgasm delay, blindfolds, lots of buildup, characters desperate and begging, so horny they can’t wait/semi-public sex, not conventionally attractive character being desired, rewrite of canon scenes full of sexual tension to instead be ‘what if they just went for it’, restraint, light pain play, sharing of fantasies & then partner planning to fulfill them, disability/neurodivergence accommodation during sex, use of magic during sex, consensual somnophilia.

General DNWs:
-AI-generated content
-Noncon/dubcon
-Scat/watersports/vomit/blood kink. (Blood in general is ok, just not as a kink.)
-Guinea pigs being eaten or abused
-Under age 16 sex
-Time/setting change AUs
-Infidelity, breakup, heartbreak/sad ending, MCD
Canon divergence and AUs that add elements to the canon setting are welcome.
Treats are welcome!!

No letter

Request 2 by Shizuku206
Лето в пионерском галстуке - Елена Малисова и Катерина Сильванова | Pioneer Series - Elena Malisova & Katerina Silvanova
Characters: Yuri Konev, Vladimir Davydov
My gift must feature all of my chosen character tags (if 0: any from tag set)

Oh these boys!! I have only read book 1 and I want to see them have happy times together, it could be either in the original camp time, maybe they agree/decide to have sex before they part, or when they meet again, figuring out how to be together as adults.
General likes: hurt/comfort, pining, mutual pining, friends to lovers, enemies to lovers, couples who super dislike each other on first meeting, alt-POV canon scenes, missing scenes, fix-it, whump, smut, fluff, cuddling and snuggling, helping lovers recover from past trauma, neurodivergence (canon or headcanon), lovers accommodating characters’ neurodivergence especially when the ND character doesn’t even have to ask/assumes they don’t deserve accommodations/doesn’t know what accommodations they need, neurodivergent traits celebrated and loved (e.g. infodumping, special interests, hyperfocus), characters oblivious to the fact that they’re in love, tender caretaking, wearing each others’ clothes, sleeping together, only one bed/forced proximity due to circumstances, crying, crying on each other, angst and comfort, anxiety and reassurance, rescuing each other, taking revenge on someone who wronged their partner, found family, love declarations, commitment declarations, sweet gestures of affection especially from normally reserved/prickly characters, “mom friend override” (normally anxious/nonconfrontational character going in guns blazing because someone they love has been threatened), background characters being queer, happy endings, waking from a nightmare and their partner is there, grief/mourning and partner helping them cope, catharsis, trying to come out but whoops the person already knows you’re queer, supporting characters accepting and affirming the canon ship as a matter of course especially if MCs were trying to hide it, queer culture/safe queer spaces to escape period homophobia & be openly affectionate.
Smut likes: Experienced partner/inexperienced partner, gentle first time, explicit consent, enthusiastic consent, negotiating, ongoing communication about consent & likes/dislikes, trying new things, role play and dressing up, hurt/comfort sex, normally anxious/reserved character finding their voice in bed/taking charge, height difference, partially clothed, undressing each other, caring for each other as foreplay/afterplay (e.g. hairwashing, baths, etc.), nipple play, orgasm delay, blindfolds, lots of buildup, characters desperate and begging, so horny they can’t wait/semi-public sex, not conventionally attractive character being desired, rewrite of canon scenes full of sexual tension to instead be ‘what if they just went for it’, restraint, light pain play, sharing of fantasies & then partner planning to fulfill them, disability/neurodivergence accommodation during sex, use of magic during sex, consensual somnophilia.

DNWs:
-AI-generated content
-Noncon
-Scat/watersports/vomit/blood kink. (Blood in general is ok, just not as a kink.)
-Guinea pigs being eaten or abused
-Under age 16 sex
-Time/setting change AUs
-Breakup/sad ending/MCD
-Focus on internalized homophobia/conversion therapy (brief mention of canon stuff ok)
Canon divergence and AUs that add elements to the canon setting are welcome.
Treats are welcome!!

No letter

Request 3 by Shizuku206
The Paris Express - Emma Donoghue
Characters: Victor Garnier (The Paris Express), Guillaume Pellerin (The Paris Express)
My gift must feature all of my chosen character tags (if 0: any from tag set)

The Victor/Guillaume relationship was by far the most compelling part of this book for me. What's it like for them to be the loves of each others' lives, but with so much unspoken?
General likes: hurt/comfort, pining, mutual pining, friends to lovers, enemies to lovers, couples who super dislike each other on first meeting, alt-POV canon scenes, missing scenes, fix-it, whump, smut, fluff, cuddling and snuggling, helping lovers recover from past trauma, neurodivergence (canon or headcanon), lovers accommodating characters’ neurodivergence especially when the ND character doesn’t even have to ask/assumes they don’t deserve accommodations/doesn’t know what accommodations they need, neurodivergent traits celebrated and loved (e.g. infodumping, special interests, hyperfocus), characters oblivious to the fact that they’re in love, tender caretaking, wearing each others’ clothes, sleeping together, only one bed/forced proximity due to circumstances, crying, crying on each other, angst and comfort, anxiety and reassurance, rescuing each other, taking revenge on someone who wronged their partner, found family, love declarations, commitment declarations, sweet gestures of affection especially from normally reserved/prickly characters, “mom friend override” (normally anxious/nonconfrontational character going in guns blazing because someone they love has been threatened), background characters being queer, happy endings, waking from a nightmare and their partner is there, grief/mourning and partner helping them cope, catharsis, trying to come out but whoops the person already knows you’re queer, supporting characters accepting and affirming the canon ship as a matter of course especially if MCs were trying to hide it, queer culture/safe queer spaces to escape period homophobia & be openly affectionate.
Smut likes: Experienced partner/inexperienced partner, gentle first time, explicit consent, enthusiastic consent, negotiating, ongoing communication about consent & likes/dislikes, trying new things, role play and dressing up, hurt/comfort sex, normally anxious/reserved character finding their voice in bed/taking charge, height difference, partially clothed, undressing each other, caring for each other as foreplay/afterplay (e.g. hairwashing, baths, etc.), nipple play, orgasm delay, blindfolds, lots of buildup, characters desperate and begging, so horny they can’t wait/semi-public sex, not conventionally attractive character being desired, rewrite of canon scenes full of sexual tension to instead be ‘what if they just went for it’, restraint, light pain play, sharing of fantasies & then partner planning to fulfill them, disability/neurodivergence accommodation during sex, use of magic during sex, consensual somnophilia.
General DNWs:
-AI-generated content
-Noncon
-Scat/watersports/vomit/blood kink. (Blood in general is ok, just not as a kink.
-Guinea pigs being eaten or abused
-Under age 16 sex (reference to canon instances ok)
-Time/setting change AUs
-Breakup/sad ending/MCD
Canon divergence and AUs that add elements to the canon setting are welcome.
Treats are welcome!!

No letter

genarti

This is just a quick drive-by post to say: hello! I hope that those of you who are celebrating Christmas have had a lovely one, and that those of you who aren't have had a nice Thursday.

We're at my parents' place having a pleasantly low-key celebration (lots of joy! but also, us plus two elderly people = a lot of lying around on the couch reading, and not a lot of impetus to go all-out for the decorations and feasting), and meanwhile the weather is giving us scenic snow all around.

And also! I got an INCREDIBLY GOOD Yuletide fic!

The Villainous Princess Saves Her Kingdom is a note-perfect post-canon story for Jeongnyeon: The Star Is Born. I mostly enjoyed the heck out of that kdrama, in which everyone is a dramatic lesbian who cares deeply about their all-female melodramatic theater, but the heroine makes many incredibly stupid choices and there were various things that frustrated me about the ending. This story focuses on Seo Hyerang, a secondary character who does not care at all about our beloved stupid heroine (and that's beautiful to me), and it deftly and delightfully fixes almost all of my complaints, and made me cackle several times. It's everything I hoped and dreamed for in a Jeongnyeon fic! I'm so happy!!!

I think it's readable without canon knowledge, but you'll have to do a certain amount of piecing things together as you go, and the emotions won't hit as hard. I had many emotions, though. What a treat, what a delight!

skygiants

I am not allowing myself to dive into the Yuletide archive this year until after reveals due to a bunch of other reading commitments that have to get done by early January, BUT! I obviously made an exception for my own

THREE

INCREDIBLE

GIFT

FICS:

The Knight Under the Apple Tree

“Our crop is well tended,” Celia protested, despite all evidence that it was not. “It grows copiously out yonder.”

Oliver turned his head to look out the window. “Indeed, the grass outside does grow most mightily.”

“It is a sheepcote, sir; as the name suggests, it is for the keeping of sheep. Thus grass is essential.”

“And yet I do not see the sheep.”

I asked someone to sell me on As You Like It's Celia/Oliver side ship and I have completely received my wish: this fic is SO cute and does such a lovely job filling out the relationship between these characters until it feels like something that fully exists and that I want to root for

A rainbow-stripe in another proper world

“None of it ever happened,” said Uncle Nirupam in his precise way, “and so we have no memories of it, of course. But the instincts remain. I felt the same way when I first visited this world. I thought, is this where they burn people like us?”

The first of two excellent Witch Week fix-it fics -- this one is a short little outsider-POV gem in which Janet Chant and Nan Pilgrim are married, which is not something I would have ever thought of in a million years but which delights me deeply! galaxy brain!

Remember, Remember

“To produce the required crispiness, the mandrake is dipped in wallpaper paste, dredged in sawdust, and then pan-fried until it is completely burnt on all sides,” Nan recited obligingly. “It is served with a side of slugs poached in their own slime. Their chewy texture provides a perfect complement…” Estelle was howling with laughter by this point. Nan, as always in such moments, felt as though she were being carried along by an inexorable flood of words quite independent of herself. A rhyme was pushing insistently at the inside of her head, and she let it out without the least idea where it was going to finish up:

“Crispy mandrake, extra fancy,

Bring me something

Chrestomanci!”

and THIS one is a luxurious and voice-perfect THIRTEEN THOUSAND WORDS spent with my beloved terrible children as their memories are returned by way of an encounter with the TRAGICALLY ABANDONED SENTIENT GARDEN IMPLEMENTS. ABSOLUTE GALAXY BRAIN AGAIN ... I'm so happy ...

and having been Yuletided well beyond my deserts, I now leave the archive for now but I look forward to reading everyone's recs on the other side!

sonia

I don't know canon, but I loved this story.
Halfway to Sky by Anonymous in Almost Brilliant (Singing Hills Cycle) by Nghi Vo. "Up in the hills there was a goatherd, who could spin the dark out of the sky or the soft light of stars."

The comments at the end of the story are delightful too.

silverusagi

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Current Mood: good

andersenmom

TFN (Try for New) were originally called T1419 (Teenager 14 19), under MLD Entertainment. There were nine of them, a mix of Korean and Japanese, and they debuted in 2021 (rough time to do that). Their predebut single, Dracula, caught our ear in another of those save one, drop one videos. Sadly, they disbanded in early 2024.

Watch on YouTube

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Love is Dead - Purples Kiss

bluapapilio

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Current Mood: hot

mecurtin posting in

fandom_checkin

This is your check-in post for today. The poll will be open from midnight Universal or Zulu Time (8pm Eastern Time) on Thursday, December 25, to midnight on Friday, December 26 (8pm Eastern Time).

Poll #34007 Daily check-in poll

Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: Access List, participants: 15

How are you doing?

I am OK
12 (80.0%)

I am not OK, but don't need help right now
3 (20.0%)

I could use some help
0 (0.0%)

How many other humans live with you?

I am living single
5 (33.3%)

One other person
6 (40.0%)

More than one other person
4 (26.7%)

Please, talk about how things are going for you in the comments, ask for advice or help if you need it, or just discuss whatever you feel like.

senmut

goddess47 posting in

adventdrabbles

Title: Wedding of the Year
Author:

goddess47
Character(s): Harry Potter, Severus Snape, Draco Malfoy, Hermione Granger
Pairing(s): Harry/Severus
Rating: PG
Length: 300

Summary:

"Do you wish we had done something grand like this?" Severus asked Harry softly.

Notes:

For

adventdrabbles prompt Day 25 - Yule wedding

(Yay! I'm caught up. Well, except for today's prompt! LOL!)

Picture Perfect on AO3

bluapapilio

Libro.fm

Goodreads

StoryGraph

Basic summary: Adam has just moved to the small town of Springville. His first day there, he meets Sally, who tells him the town’s real name is Spooksville because of all the spooky things that go on. Adam doesn’t believe her - until they go in search of the Secret Path, a magical path that leads to other Spooksvilles.

Join Adam, Sally, and their friend Watch as they take the Secret Path and pass through a dark doorway. On the other side you’ll find a terrifying Spooksville where there are huge spiders, living skeletons, evil black knights, and a witch who just loves to make dolls...out of kids!

My thoughts: Short and easy listen to at around 2 hours, I thought the part after they went through the gravestone was quite fun and the children missing parts of their bodies was spooky.

I kinda feel like the book was more for boys in the way Adam interacted with Sally but idk since I'm not that age anymore how I took it when I read it the first time.

I wonder if the characters in this book will be in any of the future books? They all take place in Springsville/Spooksville since that's the series name. Bum did say that depending on the person, you could end up in different places.

The narrator's voice was fine. I really like the cover of the physical volume I had:

CWs:

-Witches = bad/evil
-Children kidnapped and body parts taken (there's just skin where the parts were) - when the characters go back to free them, they're already gone and it's not certain if they made it back out and what happened to them after...
-Claustrophobic scene where Adam gets stuck in a hole in the tree
-Homelessness

My rating: 3.5/5

Current Mood: tired

goddess47 posting in

adventdrabbles

Title: Picture Perfect
Author:

goddess47
Character(s): Harry Potter, Teddy Lupin
Pairing(s): Harry/Severus
Rating: PG
Length: 100

Summary:

Harry eyed the picture, suspicious.

Notes:

For

adventdrabbles prompt Day 24 - a puppy and a kitten in santa hats

Picture Perfect on AO3

mistressofmuses

I hope that everyone who celebrates has had (and is still having) a merry Christmas! (And if you don't celebrate... I hope it was a great Thursday!)

Maybe it's our record-breaking heat (71° today!), but it really hasn't felt terribly Christmas-y. Last year I got hit with the Christmas spirit atypically hard, but not so much this year. Not feeling un-Christmas-y or anything, just... not feeling a ton of hype.

Even so, I had a lovely day. I never sleep well the night before Christmas (or the night before any big event, like vacation, or a big show we're going to, etc.), even though I'm well beyond the "kid at Christmas" excitement phase, haha. I especially can't say I sleep well on my mom's tiny loveseat, though Jaspurr was a pleasant sleeping buddy, and even let us sleep in until there was light in the sky!

Mom and Taylor and I exchanged gifts: I mostly got books, haha. (I also mostly gave books.)

Alex came and joined us a few hours later, and we all hung out for a while. He made some delicious chocolate crinkle cookies and a pan of gingerbread blondies, which are SO GOOD.

Alex and I then came home and exchanged our gifts. Then I fairly quickly fell asleep. Just as I was waking up from my nap, Alex fell asleep, haha.

Highlights of my received gifts. <3

I got lots of books from my mom and Taylor! All are books I'm very excited to read. What Moves the Dead (which I did have an ebook of, but wanted a physical copy), What Feasts at Night and What Stalks the Deep. The Scholomance trilogy. Hell Bent. The Strange Bird. The Ballad of Black Tom.
From Alex, I got Sinners and Late Night With the Devil, which were two of my favorite horror movies from the last couple years, and that I wanted copies of. He also got me a couple nice blank notebooks. (I'll have to psych myself up to use the nicer of the two, haha.) He also got me some candy, the cute spider plush keychain, and the fluffy blanket that everything is sitting on.
Not pictured: A shirt, some hot chocolate, and some bubble bath stuff from Alex. My mom bought us a seat cover for the truck.
And of course, Bella got a million treats, haha.

Our remaining plans for the evening are eating a frozen pizza (er... we will bake it first), since we're both very tired of making food, and then maybe some sort of holiday movie. We meant to try and watch a few before today, but never got around to it. My vote is for The Muppet Christmas Carol, but Christams Twister (sic) is truly our longest movie tradition, and he's more likely to vote for A Christmas Story or It's a Wonderful Life. So we'll see which one we land on!

ETA:

Christams Twister is the winner again! A misspelled title card is truly the best indicator of quality that I can imagine.

Current Mood: content
Current Location: my apartment

The Wordsmith's Forge

The Writing & Other Projects of Elizabeth Barrette

friday

Prompt 26, 2025

I was born like this, don't even gotta try

[Challenge #474: Welcome] Original Fiction: 'December's Joy'

And those who can remember when the night sky was a tapestry

Friday's Comic

o.o

Post-Reveals PH #1 - CLAIMED

Yuletide!!

(no subject)

Story! Happy Yuletide

Reading

Fannish50 #39: TFN (T1419) - Dracula

Manga Check-in: "Daydream ★ Nightmare"

Daily Check-In

Yuletide (Main) Recs

Wedding of the Year - Harry Potter (PG)

🎧 Audiobook Check-in: "Spooksville #1: The Secret Path"

Picture Perfect - Harry Potter (PG)

Merry Christmas!

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