(
apod_feed Dec. 26th, 2025 06:07 am)
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!
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!
Tags:
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!
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!
Tags:
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).
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.
Poll #34007 Daily check-in poll
This poll is closed.
Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: Access List, participants: 23
Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: Access List, participants: 23
How are you doing?
I am OK
16 (69.6%)
I am not OK, but don't need help right now
7 (30.4%)
I could use some help
0 (0.0%)
How many other humans live with you?
I am living single
7 (30.4%)
One other person
9 (39.1%)
More than one other person
7 (30.4%)
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.
Tags:
(
ride_4ever Dec. 25th, 2025 06:24 pm)
No-stress Multimedia Multifandom Microbang! No sign-ups, no check-ins, and optional addition to AO3 Collection. This looks to me like a lot of fun -- AND YAYS FOR NO STRESS -- and a lot of creative options.

Click here to see the comm's DW page and get more details.

Click here to see the comm's DW page and get more details.
⌈ Secret Post #6929 ⌋
Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.
01.

( More! )
Notes:
Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 08 secrets from Secret Submission Post #989.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.
I've updated my Kdrama list, and because I had such a wonderful year of dramas in 2025, I decided to invent a meme.
Note: I'm not counting Guardian for this; that lives in a category of its own. <3 And most of my answers are about the dramas that were new to me this year, though obviously I love and adore the shows I rewatched, too.
( Kdramas I watched this year )
The Meme
Total number of dramas watched: 22 Kdramas, 1 Kmovie, 1 Jdrama, and 1 Cdrama.
Number of rewatches: 7: Sell Your Haunted House (with Pru), Semantic Error, Tale of the Nine Tailed (with Andrew), Family by Choice (with Pru), Good Manager, Nothing But Love, While You Were Sleeping (ongoing)
Number of dramas watched with Andrew: 7 dramas and a movie: Undercover High School, Tale of the Nine Tailed, Aema, Low Life, Bon Appétit Your Majesty, Typhoon Family, Jeongnyeon: The Star Is Born, Bogota: City of the Lost (movie).
Percentage of new-to-me dramas that were awesome: I watched 15 new-to-me dramas (and the movie, which was fine but not really my thing, so I'll set that aside). I loved 9 of them. That's 60% -- an amazingly high percentage! I had a really good drama year. (Of course, there were dozens that I started and didn't get beyond episode 1 or 2, and a few I watched more of but didn't finish; I'm only counting one of those.)
( The meme, continued. )
Note: I'm not counting Guardian for this; that lives in a category of its own. <3 And most of my answers are about the dramas that were new to me this year, though obviously I love and adore the shows I rewatched, too.
( Kdramas I watched this year )
The Meme
Total number of dramas watched: 22 Kdramas, 1 Kmovie, 1 Jdrama, and 1 Cdrama.
Number of rewatches: 7: Sell Your Haunted House (with Pru), Semantic Error, Tale of the Nine Tailed (with Andrew), Family by Choice (with Pru), Good Manager, Nothing But Love, While You Were Sleeping (ongoing)
Number of dramas watched with Andrew: 7 dramas and a movie: Undercover High School, Tale of the Nine Tailed, Aema, Low Life, Bon Appétit Your Majesty, Typhoon Family, Jeongnyeon: The Star Is Born, Bogota: City of the Lost (movie).
Percentage of new-to-me dramas that were awesome: I watched 15 new-to-me dramas (and the movie, which was fine but not really my thing, so I'll set that aside). I loved 9 of them. That's 60% -- an amazingly high percentage! I had a really good drama year. (Of course, there were dozens that I started and didn't get beyond episode 1 or 2, and a few I watched more of but didn't finish; I'm only counting one of those.)
( The meme, continued. )
19 recs in 16 fandoms (Mahou Sentai Magiranger, American Girl, A Christmas Carol, Dirty Dancing, The Great Mouse Detective, The Haunting, Home Alone, Home Improvement, The Last Unicorn, The Lottery, Magic Knight Rayearth, Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel, Mork & Mindy, The Odd Couple, The Secret Garden, Revolutionary Girl Utena)
Tags:
(
autobotscoutriella posting in
purimgifts Dec. 25th, 2025 04:39 pm)

Eight days out from signups, we're celebrating with our 2018 banner! Purimgifts 2026 will be here before you know it, so don't forget to mark your calendars for next week when signups start!
DEADLINE 23 Feb (anywhere in the world)
REVEALS 2-4 March
Find us on Dreamwidth, Livejournal, tumblr, and the Archive of Our Own.
I’m between waffles at my dad’s, which was lovely, and dinner at my brother’s, which will be delicious. It is raining raining so much! Though now with the sun out, which is weird. Wishing you all the best today and the rest of the holiday season, whatever you celebrate.
At push of button, this year's Madness collection has 227 works in 183+ fandoms.
AO3 wranglers have processed a lot of new fandoms; in the main collection, the 992 that appeared on the fandoms page at reveals have become 1065! Thanks to everyone who has helped make wranglers' jobs easier by using canonical tags, tags from the tag set, or other recommended tags, as appropriate in each case.
If you've written in a new fandom that isn't wrangled yet, we encourage you to use Unspecified Fandom as a tag to help people find your work; many works originally tagged this way now have wrangled fandoms, in which case, you can take the tag off if you wish.
As in the last post:
Commenting
Please comment on your gift(s) to let your writer know you appreciate them. Please also comment on anything else you enjoy!
Recs
Making work recommendations is a tradition. Please see more information at the participant community about where you can post your recs.
Problems
If there is something wrong with your gift or you have another concern, please contact the mods at yuletideadmin@gmail.com.
Anonymity
Yuletide is designed to be an anonymous exchange until January 1. Please don't give away what you've written. When logged in, you can, if you want, reply to comments on your own works, and you will show up as Anonymous Creator until the authors of the collection are revealed.
The Yuletide event concludes at 9pm UTC, 1 January 2026. At that time we will reveal creator names at both the main and Madness collection, and also open the new New Year's Resolution collection.
Schedule, Rules, & Collection | Contact Mods | Participant DW | Participant LJ | Pinch Hits on DW | Discord | Tag set | Tag set app
Please either comment logged-in or sign a name. Unsigned anonymous comments will be left screened.
Madness collection
Main collection
AO3 wranglers have processed a lot of new fandoms; in the main collection, the 992 that appeared on the fandoms page at reveals have become 1065! Thanks to everyone who has helped make wranglers' jobs easier by using canonical tags, tags from the tag set, or other recommended tags, as appropriate in each case.
If you've written in a new fandom that isn't wrangled yet, we encourage you to use Unspecified Fandom as a tag to help people find your work; many works originally tagged this way now have wrangled fandoms, in which case, you can take the tag off if you wish.
As in the last post:
Commenting
Please comment on your gift(s) to let your writer know you appreciate them. Please also comment on anything else you enjoy!
Recs
Making work recommendations is a tradition. Please see more information at the participant community about where you can post your recs.
Problems
If there is something wrong with your gift or you have another concern, please contact the mods at yuletideadmin@gmail.com.
Anonymity
Yuletide is designed to be an anonymous exchange until January 1. Please don't give away what you've written. When logged in, you can, if you want, reply to comments on your own works, and you will show up as Anonymous Creator until the authors of the collection are revealed.
The Yuletide event concludes at 9pm UTC, 1 January 2026. At that time we will reveal creator names at both the main and Madness collection, and also open the new New Year's Resolution collection.
Please either comment logged-in or sign a name. Unsigned anonymous comments will be left screened.

My parents have a lot of issues, but they always send me a care package every year with various Southern foods in it that I can't easily get up here. One of them is country ham. It's delicious but very difficult to cook because it smokes so much, so I ended up giving away the ham they sent me last year because I couldn't make it without setting off the smoke alarm in the hotel.
I tried something new thing this year, though, and apparently cooking country ham in the air fryer works pretty damn well.
Tags:
Tags:
Fandom: Metal Gear Solid
Pairings/Characters: Snake/Otacon
Rating: G
Length: 13,779 (1:33:04)
Creator Links:
thelonebamf
Theme: Amnesty, Ambiguous Relationships, Angst (With A Happy Ending), Hurt/Comfort, Non-Sexual Intimacy, Trauma & Recovery, Pre-Canon
Summary: Snake returns from Operation N313, lauded a hero and finds the latest shipment of Foxhound recruits already at the camp. Still struggling to sort out his thoughts about the mission, he finds his attention drawn to one rookie in particular, a scrawny, unassuming runt who can't seem to stay out of trouble.
Reccer's Notes: This just works so damn well as an alternate first meeting for these two! It's such a dismal, pessimistic setting - as expected with this canon - but the way these two forge a connection, finding some degree of comfort and caring and hope - makes me really emotional! And I love the use of the book, as well!(Also somehow even though I always knew the Hal connection to 2001: A Space Odyssey I never noticed how Dave fits in to it, too?! 🤦)
Fanwork Links: Rat in a Foxhole [podfic], Rat in a Foxhole
Pairings/Characters: Snake/Otacon
Rating: G
Length: 13,779 (1:33:04)
Creator Links:
Theme: Amnesty, Ambiguous Relationships, Angst (With A Happy Ending), Hurt/Comfort, Non-Sexual Intimacy, Trauma & Recovery, Pre-Canon
Summary: Snake returns from Operation N313, lauded a hero and finds the latest shipment of Foxhound recruits already at the camp. Still struggling to sort out his thoughts about the mission, he finds his attention drawn to one rookie in particular, a scrawny, unassuming runt who can't seem to stay out of trouble.
Reccer's Notes: This just works so damn well as an alternate first meeting for these two! It's such a dismal, pessimistic setting - as expected with this canon - but the way these two forge a connection, finding some degree of comfort and caring and hope - makes me really emotional! And I love the use of the book, as well!
Fanwork Links: Rat in a Foxhole [podfic], Rat in a Foxhole
Unexpected bonus Christmas extract from Son who doesn't really do fiction.
Wishing you all a happier time than being stuck in Antarctica, whether or not you celebrate Christmas.
After an hour's rest, they struggled on until noon. The tents were pitched and supper was issued: cold seal steak and tea - nothing more.
On the same night exactly one year before, after a festive dinner on board the Endurance, Greenstreet had written in his diary: 'Here endeth another Christmas Day. I wonder how and under what circumstances our next one will be spent.' That night he failed to even mention what day it was. And Shackleton recorded briefly all that really needed to be said: 'Curions Christmas. Thoughts of home.'
Wishing you all a happier time than being stuck in Antarctica, whether or not you celebrate Christmas.
Tags:
(
22degreehalo posting in
fancake Dec. 25th, 2025 09:12 pm)
Fandom: The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System
Pairings/Characters: Luo Binghe/Shen Qingqiu
Rating: T
Length: 4,491
Creator Links:
boomchick
Theme: Amnesty, Established Relationship, Hurt/Comfort, Magic, Mythical Creatures: Demons, Non-Sexual Intimacy, Spells & Curses, Trauma and Recovery
Summary: Luo Binghe's healing powers falter in the shape of the wounds Xiu Ya once gave him. He does the only logical thing--HIDES IT.
Shen Qingqiu knows something is wrong with his husband, but finding out what is going to hurt...
A sweet little post-canon fic about healing, plotted with and illustrated by the incredible Falcities for the SVSSS Gotcha for Gaza
Reccer's Notes: This is such a sweet, thoughtful fic! Binghe always tries so hard to be strong, and never really quite escapes the trauma reaction that he doesn't deserve help or that suffering is just something to be endured. In this post-canon fic, his husband gets the opportunity to tell him otherwise and show him just how much he loves all parts of him, including the demonic parts!
It also has quite possibly my favourite (and very appropriate to the themes!) no beta tag ever: No beta but we live regardless
Fanwork Links: blood, leave no stain
Pairings/Characters: Luo Binghe/Shen Qingqiu
Rating: T
Length: 4,491
Creator Links:
Theme: Amnesty, Established Relationship, Hurt/Comfort, Magic, Mythical Creatures: Demons, Non-Sexual Intimacy, Spells & Curses, Trauma and Recovery
Summary: Luo Binghe's healing powers falter in the shape of the wounds Xiu Ya once gave him. He does the only logical thing--HIDES IT.
Shen Qingqiu knows something is wrong with his husband, but finding out what is going to hurt...
A sweet little post-canon fic about healing, plotted with and illustrated by the incredible Falcities for the SVSSS Gotcha for Gaza
Reccer's Notes: This is such a sweet, thoughtful fic! Binghe always tries so hard to be strong, and never really quite escapes the trauma reaction that he doesn't deserve help or that suffering is just something to be endured. In this post-canon fic, his husband gets the opportunity to tell him otherwise and show him just how much he loves all parts of him, including the demonic parts!
It also has quite possibly my favourite (and very appropriate to the themes!) no beta tag ever: No beta but we live regardless
Fanwork Links: blood, leave no stain
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