karanguni | Reading

I’m excited we matched on one of these small fandoms! I look forward to reading whatever you come up with. Some general guidance for writing a fic for me is below along with fandom-specific details. I’m also delighted to receive treats if you happen to be browsing my letter and aer inspired. (FYI: I'm Rhea on AO3)

Things I like in general:
• Competency
• Identity shenanigans (transmigration, radio dj aus, and camboy aus often fall under this for me)
• Self esteem issues/poor self-worth (imposter syndrome, self-sacrifice, and suicidal ideation often fall under this for me)
• Xeno/xenophilia/xenobiology

DNWs:
• rape
• member of a requested pairing shipped with someone else, or otherwise breaking up the listed OTP (references to past relationships are fine)
• non-consensual possession, hypnosis, mind control, and programing
• age-regression/de-aging
• epistolary, texting, or social media fic i.e. anything solely/primarily based in messages (it is fine to include messages/letters/posts within a fic as long as that’s not the main structure/majority)
• 1st and/or 2nd person POV as primary form of the narrative
• infidelity
• derogatory/denigrating language used in sexual situations, particularly use of the word slut in such contexts
• changes to a character's canon gender or race
• miscommunication as a primary driver of plot
• regency au
• illness-related sickfic
• crossovers

For all of the fandoms I’m requesting this year I’m fine with porn for my ship (e.g. any rating G to NC-17 is fine). 
The 'some general ideas/prompts' I list are for spring-boarding off of if you need/want it, please don't feel you have to write to-prompt, I'm happy to read wherever your inspiration takes you!
( fandom details for Famiresu Iko, Frenemies: Thicker Than Blood, I Delayed My Death Because of a Will, I Ship My Rival x Me, The Disabled Tyrant’s Beloved Pet Fish )

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The MultiLingYule mini-challenge is for works in languages other than English.

Maybe there are very few fanworks in your first, second, etc language, and you'd love to connect with a fellow speaker who's also a fellow fan.

Maybe you're learning a new language and getting a gift in it would be a delightful way to improve your fluency.

Maybe you just want to talk about how much you love conlangs and invite someone to incorporate conlangs into your gift.

The possibilities are multi-ple!

MultiLingYule is an opt-in challenge similar to Crueltide and Interactive Fiction. Comment here to let people know

-if you are interested in receiving gifts in languages other than English
-what languages those are
-what you're prompting (link your letter; if you don't have a letter, you can link your prompts on the app after requests are revealed)
-any other useful notes.

With a Mod Hat On

On the requesting side: if you would be happy if a gift in a different language were your only gift, please also note this in the optional details of your sign-up form. This prevents mod panic when we go to check assignments and need to figure out if someone can actually read their gift!

On the creation side: unless someone has clearly indicated that a non-English work would suit as their only gift, gifts of that kind need be posted in Yuletide Madness, regardless of length. Works can only go in the main collection if they fulfil all the same requirements as an assigned gift.

Similarly, someone may be delighted to get a gift in a language you've just started to learn, and connect with you over enthusiasm for that language, but if you're posting a gift in the Main rather than the Madness collection, it should probably either be in a language you're fluent in or in a language you can call on fluent help for.

On the (tangential) beta side, people who can check text snippets, lines of dialogue, etc, in multiple languages are extremely valuable and appreciated, and if you can offer this service, please consider doing so when the beta post goes up.

ailelie

The people tell of a cliff on the edge of the world. Beyond it is only mist, an endless white blank.

If you stand on that cliff's edge, the blankness stares back.

The people say you have a choice you must then make.

Some choose to leap into the void. Whether they fly or they fall, none survive unchanged.

Some choose to turn their back to the void and wander back down the mountainside to what is known and safe. Yet their dreams will never forget the winds they felt on the edge and the possibilities they denied. To some this is a comfort, to others an accusation.

Some choose to remain at that edge and stare into the nothing. Maybe they make meaning. Maybe they see themselves reflected. Maybe they try to make friends with the unknown, forgotten, desired, and regretted.

Change, certainty, or wisdom: these are the gifts offered by the cliff, but only those who choose well receive them.

Those who choose poorly are broken, haunted, or faded.

Of course, as the people say at the end of every story about the cliff, you have a fourth choice.

Do not climb the mountain. Not everyone needs a test to seize life, know themselves, or learn.

Choose well.

snickfic

The Secret of Chimneys (1925) by Agatha Christie. An adventurous fellow arrives in England set on delivering a manuscript and a batch of illicit love letters and ends up in a wild plot involving a murder, a stolen jewel, and a Ruritanian country in Eastern Europe.

This is one of Christie's light-hearted romps. I definitely read this at some point 25+ years ago but had forgotten basically everything, including how much fun Christie is when she's in this mode. (Aside from the ambiant xenophobia, classism, antisemitism, and some unexpectedly central pro-monarchial sentiments.) I had a great time.

--

Eiger Dreams: Ventures Among Men and Mountains by Jon Krakauer. A collection of essays spanning a wide range of topics at least tangentially related to climbing. As the title suggests, not many women in this book. Overall a mixed bag, as an essay collection is liable to be, and sometimes Krakauer's voice wears a bit thin, especially when he's trying to be funny. OTOH, in the midst of "Tentbound," an otherwise tediously humorous essay on being stuck in your tent for days at a time, we get this passage, the end of which delights me more than I can even articulate:

Boredom presents a very real, if insidious, peril. To quote Blaine Harden from the Washington Post: "Boredom kills, and those it does not kill, it cripples, and those it does not cripple, it bleeds like a leech, leaving its victims pale, insipid, and brooding. Examples abound . . . Rats kept in comfortable isolation quickly become jumpy, irritable, and aggressive. Their bodies twitch, their tails grow scaly." The backcountry traveler, then, in addition to developing such skills as map and compass, or the prevention and treatment of blisters, must prepare mentally and materially to cope with boredome, lest his tail grow scaly.

My favorites out of the bunch are probably "Valdez Ice," about climbing frozen waterfalls; "Club Denali," about people attempting to climb Denali; and "Devil's Thumb," about him randomly deciding at the age of 23 to go to Alaska and solo climb a particular peak. You will notice all of these are about difficult, hazardous climbing in very cold temperatures, aka sort of similar to his Everest book.

In addition, usually Krakauer gives kind of mixed messages about his own climbing, on one hand saying it's an addiction and the only thing he's good at, and on the other hand only talking about how uncomfortable it is and how much he would rather be doing something else, So Devil's Thumb in particular was nice for a story of him actually doing some major climbing and only making a little bit of fun of himself over it.

nnozomi

Just after I wrote up Makiko Vories at senzenwomen, Y said “let’s go out to Omi-Hachiman and see some Vories buildings,” entirely coincidentally. So we took a two-day trip, stayed in an inn by the lake with a hammock on the balcony, saw a lot of beautiful buildings in both Japanese and Western styles (they all have big windows everywhere, which I love), went on a punt trip down the river, took a cable car up the nearest mountain to see the site of an ex-castle, and enjoyed ourselves in general.

I’ve been working on one of those awful software translations—I hate software stuff, give me machine tools, screws and bolts, or motion control any day of the week—and it has various This Units and That Units, which is at least mildly amusing because it keeps bringing to mind Murderbot. I wonder if the SecUnits ever came with manuals and if anyone had to translate them.

I’m volunteering with a Japanese class for Chinese teenagers, eight fifteen- or sixteen-year-olds with only very rudimentary Japanese; tiring because they are reluctant and easily distracted compared to my Saturday juku kids (who vary hugely in motivation but are remarkably well-behaved and 乖乖), but a fun challenge, everything from a girl who looks like an aspiring idol (hair to her hips, very slim, very well-dressed) to a kid on the autism spectrum who sticks firmly to his OWN pace in everything to a shy little anime otaku to a smart-mouthed young man who tries to use his fluent English to get away with things with me (I resorted to 这小子! to put him in his place). I can follow maaaybe half their talk among themselves, it’s too fast and too slangy, but it’s good practice for me (although I’m so used to “Speak English! Not Japanese!” that deliberately trying to shift into Japanese and make them speak it too is a real challenge). Haven’t yet had a chance to ask any of them if we have any fannish interests in common.

So when I bought my bassoon it came with a repair contract at the store, a large, high-end-ish musical instrument chain store; I’ve taken it back a few times for tuning up, always with the store clerk who sold it to me in the first place, a helpful, personable young man I’ll call S here. Last week I got a letter from the store in very formal terms: “we would like to inform you that [S] has resigned under the provisions of Employment Regulations Article ###. If you have any concerns about his work with you, please contact either the woodwind department or the accounting department as below…”. I took this to Y to see if he had any ideas and he’d never seen anything like it either; we concluded that S must have embezzled something??? but I certainly wouldn’t ever have guessed at such a thing, and I kind of feel bad for him. Need to check and see if my bassoon teacher knows anything more (all bassoonists have about 1.5 degrees of separation). I feel like I’ve brushed up against the first scene of a detective story. (Also, who am I going to get to fix my bassoon now if I need it?)

Jiang Dunhao song of the post: 最好的我们, a duet from some years ago with Zhou Shen (they are close friends). Apart from being musically lovely it’s kind of amusing visually: the two singers are rather similar in features and coloring to begin with, and on this occasion they had almost identical haircuts into the bargain, so there’s a kind of 水仙 effect an octave apart.

Photos: Just a few, I haven’t been taking that many lately. Might add some of Y’s Omi-Hachiman photos later on. Lake Biwa, decorations on a mountaintop shrine, and a striking evening sky seen from a train.

Be safe and well.

lightreads

The Hexologists and A tangle in Time

3.5/5. A pair of fantasy mysteries set in an industrializing city and featuring a married couple detective duo.

These are fun, a little briskly funny, and correctly not pretending to have any real there there. The mysteries are twisty, the world building is interesting, the jokes are decent, and the protagonists have an entertaining dynamic (she does the magic and most of the mystery solving, he does the cooking and carries her bag and occasionally punches someone).

I did get annoyed with the metronomically predictable action scenes, which arrive every few chapters whether they are needed or not. It has that vibe where the author doesn’t trust the reader to stay interested without some running about and shouting and getting into plot-irrelevant peril. I think he would be better served by putting just the tiniest scrap of there in here, problem solved.

Also, I think the villain in the second book is ( spoiler I guess ) but YMMV on that.

james

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Pinch hits

Pinch hits are a major part of Yuletide. Pinch hits are writing assignments that need to be claimed by volunteers, and pinch hitters are the writers who claim and fulfil them. Currently, we publish pinch hit details on

yuletide_pinch_hits, but we also send out notifications of new pinch hits to members of the Yuletide Discord server who have taken on the "yulephs" role, and to anyone subscribed to the Google Group for Yuletide pinch hits.

If you're interested in helping out by taking on extra assignments, please check that you're signed up to receive notifications by one of these methods! We'll send a test message out soon.

Sign-ups

We've introduced some new features this year! You can now request up to 8 fandoms, and you may fill out a form (linked from the sign-up form) if there are people you would prefer not to match to. Beginning in 2023 we have also included an additional tag checkbox where you can specify whether you want all of your requested characters to appear, or if you’d be happy with particular combinations you specify, or any combination your writer chooses.

If you have questions about any of these, please email us at yuletideadmin@gmail.com! We'd like to make sure things go smoothly for you.

Requesting characters can be a tricky aspect of Yuletide, so just in case, here's a refresher:

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If you select no characters in a request, that means your writer may write about any nominated character or about the fandom world in general. Please only do this when you'd genuinely be happy with a story about any nominated character, or the world.

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luzula

I roasted the following in the oven with olive oil and salt: parsnips, parsley root, potatoes, carrots, yellow beets, acorn squash. To go with that, I took the baby summer squash and baby butternuts and put them in an oven pan, covered with a mix of bread crumbs, butter, basil, hazelnuts run in a blender, and grated parmesan cheese (I almost, but not quite, reinvented pesto there...). On the side, there was baba ganoush, and also fresh shelled beans in butter, chopped parsley, salt, and juice from flowering quince (which I use as a lemon replacement). Can recommend!

There were four vegetables from the garden in this meal that we tasted for the first time:
- Parsnips (I generally like parsnips, but hmm, ours were not top notch somehow. They were also a bit small and skinny, so perhaps a little more manure for them next year.)
- Parsley root (I had never had this before--it does taste of parsley, but also a bit earthy and mealy. I wasn't a huge fan, and as it also didn't sprout well, we might not grow this again.)
- Acorn squash (Yes! I loved the rich and nutty taste, and this was one I picked because I thought it didn't look quite mature, and it was still delicious. Will grow again, and more of it.)
- Greek Gigantes runner beans (Yum! Huge white beans, creamy and buttery and tasty. I thought at first that they hadn't been that productive, which is true in terms of number of beans, but they're so huge that if you go by weight they were still cropping well.)

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Edit: all services are running as of 16:12 CDT, but there is definitely still a backlog of notifications to get through.

Edit 2: and at 18:20 CDT everything's been running normally for about the last hour.

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beatrice_otter

I use the same name everywhere so I am

beatrice_otter on AO3. Treats are awesome.

I would rather get a story you were happy with than "well, she said she liked x, so I guess I have to do x even though I don't like x and/or am not inspired that way." This letter is long with lots of suggestions and preferences if you find it helpful, but feel free to ignore it if it is not helpful. I'm fairly easy to please; I've been doing ficathons for a long time and am usually very happy with my gifts.

The most important thing for me in a fic is that the characters are well-written and recognizably themselves. Even when I don't like a character, I don't go in for character-bashing. If nothing else, if the rest of this letter is too much or my kinks don't fit yours, just concentrate on writing a story with everyone in character and good spelling and grammar and I will almost certainly love what you come up with.

I have an embarrassment squick, which makes humor kind of hit-or-miss sometimes. The kind of humor where someone does something embarrassing and the audience is laughing at them makes me uncomfortable. On the other hand, the kind of humor where the audience is laughing with the characters I really enjoy.

General Likes and Dislikes

Other things to keep in mind:

I like stuff that takes side characters and puts them center-stage, especially when the characters and/or actors are marginalized. I enjoy seeing them come to life.
I don't like it when marginalized characters get relegated to the sidekick/supporting/helper role so that it can be All About The White Dude.
I like it when female characters are more than just the Strong Female Character(tm) or The Nurturer.
I like fluff
I like angst with a happy ending
I like stories that make me think about things in a new way.
I like to know that culture matters to people, and to see how different cultures interact and where the clashes are.
I like unreliable narrators.
I like acknowledgment that different people can have different points of view without either of them being wrong.
I like stories that engage with problematic aspects of the source, and which deal with privilege in one way or another instead of sweeping it under the rug.
Worldbuilding is my jam, I am pretty much always up for explorations of why the world is the way it is. I love hearing about the economics, the politics, the religion, the clothing, the history, the folklore, all of that kind of stuff. And I want to know why it matters--how is all this cultural background stuff affecting the characters, the plot, everything. You don't have to do deep worldbuilding, but I'll enjoy it if you do.
I don't like it when plots hinge on characters being selectively stupid, or selectively unable to communicate. Like, if they are stupid or a himbo or whatever in general, or have problems communicating in general, that's fine! Or if they canonically have a blind spot in that area, again, it's fine. But if it's just "the only way I can think of for this plot to work is if the character spontaneously and temporarily loses half their intelligence and competence," then I'm going to spend the rest of the fic wondering why the character didn't just ____?
I like AUs, but not complete setting AUs (i.e. no highschool or college or coffee shop AUs, and especially not mundane AUs--nothing where you keep characters but drop most of the worldbuilding). I like fork-in-the-road type AUs, where one thing is different and the changes all result from that one thing, and you explore what might have been if such-and-such happened.
I like the concept of sedoretu marriages.
I like historical AUs, but only when the author actually knows the history period in question and does thoughtful worldbuilding to meld actual culture of the time with the canon.
Crackfic is really hit and miss for me, sometimes I love it and sometimes I can't stand it. Basically, if it's the characters we know and love in a ludicrous situation, that's great. If they're OOC or parodied in order to make something funny ... it's not funny to me.

I like plotty, gen stories, and plotty stories in general. I don't care for explicit sex, particularly when it's just thrown in for teh porn. I'm asexual; a lot of the time I don't even bother to read the sex scenes. Romance is awesome (as long as both are in character and the romantic plot doesn't hinge on one or both of them being an idiot). I love it when friendship is held up as important and not secondary to romantic relationships and blood ties.

Please no incest or darkfic. I define "darkfic" as stuff where there's a lot of suffering and no hope even at the end and all the characters are terrible. Angst with a happy ending is fine, I enjoy it, but there's gotta be a payoff. Even an ambiguous ending is fine! But there has to be some note of grace or redemption or hope somewhere, it can't just be "people are awful and the world sucks, the end." I define incest as siblings and/or parents, cousins don't count.

I love outsider perspectives and academic takes on things. In-universe meta (newspaper articles, academic monographs--especially with the sort of snarky feuding common in actual real-world academia, social media feeds in current day or future worlds) is awesome.

Also, I'm picky about European historical clothing details. You don't have to talk about it at all! In fact, if you don't know much about historical clothing, I would prefer if you didn't mention it at all. My pet peeve is corsets: no, they weren't a restrictive tool of the patriarchy, no, they didn't interfere with most women's daily lives, no, most women weren't wearing them so tight they couldn't breathe.

I like religion but I'm picky about it. Basically, Christianity is deeply weird compared to most other religions, and a lot of people whose only experience with religion is living in a culturally-Christian nation assume that what they know about Christianity is some sort of universal principle of What Religion Is Like, and that's just not the case. For example, in Christianity what you believe is more important than what you do. This is not to say we Christians don't teach and practice Christian ethics or have rituals we are very attached to, but rather that if you don't believe in Jesus Christ, it doesn't matter what rituals you participate in or what ethical things you do, you are not a Christian (although you may be a "cultural Christian"). Every Christian group has at least a minimal core theology that members must affirm, but participation in ritual is far less rigidly a requirement. Most other religions rank what you do (both ethically and ritually) as more important than what you believe, and it is often quite possible to be a member in good standing if you participate in the practices and rituals even if you believe none of the teachings. Anyway, point is, if you are doing worldbuilding for a fantasy or SF or otherwise non-Christian religion ... unless it is explicitly a Christian-analogue, it should be different from Christianity. Question your assumptions and see where that leads you, and I will be fascinated and thrilled.

Yuletide Challenges
I am opening this up to the following challenges: Wrapping Paper, Chromatic Yuletide, Transtide, Queering the Tide, Two For One, Three Turtledoves, and Yulebuilding. With Two For One and Yulebuilding, feel free to expand beyond what I've suggested here. I am always up for worldbuilding, and for crossovers with fandoms I've written or requested before.

( Fandom for Robots )

( Peter Wimsey )

( Rivers of London )

( Moana )

( Bruce Springsteen RPF )

( Caprica )

( Sense8 )

( Oh My General )
.

ailelie

One of my favorite dialogues comes from Derek Kirk Kim's comic "Same Difference." While I love the writing throughout, the first dialogue section as the restaurant is one of my touchstones for when I want to remember how to write friends chatting.

This conversation has the same loose flow as conversations I had in college, while also establishing characters. I'm not going to transcribe the whole thing, but I want to share part.

Note: You do lose a lot without the pictures, even just the dialogue bubbles and how they affect the overall pacing. Still, I think it is worth reading.

( Dialogue behind the cut )

Simon then falls silent because he sees Irene, a woman he knows and feels regret toward, across the street at a bus stop. This leads to him explaining how he once lied to the woman back in high school.

Now, this dialogue might seem entirely pointless, but it actually sets up Simon and Nancy's emotional plots in the comic.

Nancy received love letters in the mail for a previous tenant. She has responded to these letters as the previous tenant, saying she wants to get back together. To Simon, though, Nancy talks about how over-the-top Ben (the letter writer) is and how she bets the previous tenant moved just to avoid his letters.

Her comment about the nobility of flies is directly connected to the guilt and shame she feels over this action. She pretends it is noble, but she knows it's shitty.

Meanwhile, Simon fears he's not moving forward like his former high school classmates are. His complaints about the world not living up to the promises of sci-fi directly connect to his personal anxiety. Just as the world is stagnant, so is he.

This opening dialogue establishes the primary issue each is managing, without explicitly calling either out.

The dialogue also establishes the characters and their dynamics well. Would it surprise you to know that Ian is just Simon's housemate? Friends, but not the same way as Simon and Nancy. But, the other important thing to note is how Simon and Nancy push each other. Not only is this great chemistry, but it is reflected in their later actions. Simon's reflection and moment of growth pushes Nancy into her own. He does not tell her to do anything, but she decides to take action after talking with him about his regret and anxiety.

I also really love how the dialogue starts in one place, travels, and then circles back. They follow tangents, but then return to the touchstone of the future. Also, his comment about being unable to improve pho is later reflected in the end of the comic when Nancy reassures Simon that she likes him for who he is. ("The day you stop...").

I know I'm babbling, but I absolutely adore this comic and this opening. It sets the tone, establishes the characters and their dynamics, touches on the primary emotional issue for each main character, and manages to capture the rambling tone of college student conversations.

Yes, this dialogue wouldn't work as well in plain prose, but even so, I return to it over and over.

yhlee

Look, my country is messed up so have some salutary shitposting while I attempt to cope with health/life/everything.

No particular order, define "best" as you please - I mean "somewhat plausible-sounding-ish and fun to read about."

Rated from VERY SCARY, Scary, unconcerned in terms of, hrm, threat level.

Baru Cormorant from Seth Dickinson's books: Scary.
High INT, low WIS. Scary, but doesn't achieve VERY SCARY due to too many emotional vulnerabilities.

Hanse Davion and Ulric Kerensky from BattleTech. I just don't want to be in the same universe they're scary. I'm MORE scared of Hanse Davion than Thrawn because I get the possibly illusory sense that Thrawn is civilized as a default and the vibe I get from Hanse Davion is that civilization, cruelty, courtesy are all just tools, he will do whatever it fucking takes to burn you to the ground if that's the way to win.

Hanse Davion: VERY SCARY
Ulric Kerensky: Scary, but also, clanner honor.

Ari I and II from CJ Cherryh's Cyteen: SCARIEST.
Justin: unconcerned, honestly, give him research funding and pizza and Grant and he's happy, he'll leave you be.

Conrad Mazian from Downbelow Station: Scary and they lucked out he was undone.

Flamme from Frieren: SCARIEST. I almost rate her

Scary not because she's not a terrifying genius but because she has ironclad ethics. Probably the single person on this list I'm MOST afraid of except she's also UNAMBIGUOUSLY GOOD. So she's a rarity: a female chessmaster (or anyway, they're incredibly rare in English-language USAn sf/f) and unambiguously a "good guy."

Lelouch Lamperouge from Code Geass: Scary. Possibly shading into SCARIEST if you add the mind control, but make Nunally cry and he segfaults.

Vladilena Milizé from 86, and how. Scary.

Thrawn: ???
Thrawn from Star Wars Extended Universe is frequently cited but I bought the Timothy Zahn book where he first? appears? extendedly? as a military? genius? for Kindle and I refuse to use Kindle anymore so I'm going to have to suck it up and buy a print copy if I can even remember the title. Anyway, I haven't read books with Thrawn doing stuff so I can't comment further.

Lord Vetinari from Terry Pratchett's Discworld: SCARIEST.
Doesn't generally come up in these discussions because bureaucracy is "boring" and Vetinari wasn't a main character in any of the Discworld books I read. (I binged them for a couple months twenty years ago, then never went back, sorry.) He's a fucking EFFECTIVE BUREAUCRAT. I don't mess with those.

Maomao from Apothecary Diaries. Unconcerned ONLY because she's easily bribed with bezoars. :3

Miles Vorkosigan: Scary.
Honestly one of the most plausible military geniuses BUT ALSO a disaster for all his subordinates. I don't want to be within a galaxy radius of him.

Hiruma from Eyeshield 21. Unconcerned mainly because I don't have ANY involvement in Japanese high school instantiations of American football and FORTUNATELY his domain of interest is VERY SPECIALIZED. :)

Both Seondeok and Misil from The Great Queen Seondeok: Scary to Unconcerned.

Laurent from C. S. Pacat's Captive Prince books. Unconcerned mainly because Good But Not Nice.

Red from The Blacklist: Scary by way of UNHINGED.

Lady Char from Mobile Suit Gundam: Witch from Mercury: Scary. Sorry, I can't focus my eyes enough to dig her name out of the walls of text on various wikis. :]

Beth Harmon from The Queen's Gambit. So very unconcerned. I'm not a chess player. I don't have anything to worry about.

Ikari Gendou from Neon Genesis Evangelion: SCARIEST and also worst dad of the millennium.

Ted Lasso and Keely (sp?) from Ted Lasso: unconcerned, but could well become Scary in an AU. Somewhat uncommon double example of people who are brilliant socially AS WELL AS being good people; Ted Lasso or Keely with that skillset using their powers for EVIL would become horror rapidly.

Asshole Protagonists from K. J. Parker's books are generally Scary. Asshole Genius is pretty much the shtick.

That Guy from The Usual Suspects. Probably SCARIEST but I haven't watched that movie in two decades.

There are going to be comicverse examples that I'm just not familiar enough with to comment further. /o\ Or multiple characters from Re: Zero but thinking about details is too traumatic (complimentary).

cahn

( Mostly about the kids. )

james

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petra

I have been writing and posting Star Wars limericks for Kinktober, all of which up to today's are indexed below. The main theme is Obi-Wan Kenobi/Anakin Skywalker feat. Padmé, but there are other guests as well.

( The first 19 days of Kinktober )

Current Mood: verse is my vocation
Current Music: There once was a man from Verdun

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ara ara ara?

Dear Yuletide Author

MultiLingYule 2025

With a Mod Hat On

Just pinning down a thought / the void looks back

books

a trip to the heart of the world

The Hexologists by Josiah Bancroft

Why

Pinch Hits & Mid Sign-Ups Notes

Pinch hits

Sign-ups

Today's dinner

AWS outage

X-Files zine - reaching out to authors from the 1990s

Dear Yuletide Author

Dialogue in "Same Difference" by Derek Kirk Kim

shitposting: personal scariness rating of genius fictional characters

(no subject)

Fictional diets

Kinktober 2025: Limericks of Jedi gettin' it on - index through 10/19

Tvmovie20in20 • Round 21

Disney_20in20 • Round 14

due South/C6D Big Bang Complementary Claims Open!

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