A few months (?) ago, Discord updated on my computer and promptly stopped working. [It would technically launch, but the program window was just a blank rectangle.) Subsequent updates (which happen pretty much every time I relaunch my browser) installed cheerfully enough and made no difference. I grumpily chalked it up to not having updated my OS in ages (I'm very resistant, but usually enough things eventually get creaky or stop working that I give in and get

scruloose to update the system), and since Discord was still working on my phone, I figured that was that for the foreseeable future.

Then a couple of days ago, I let Discord install its newest update...and suddenly everything worked again. o_o I certainly wasn't going to complain, but it surprised me enough that I mentioned it to Kas on the weekend, and having just dealt with some Discord shenaniganry himself, he had an answer: Discord has decided it doesn't play nicely with some VPN locations, and I had happened to change my location setting to one it liked.

I mostly lurk on Discord, but there are a couple where I make tentative attempts at being social, and my dislike of typing more than a sentence or two at a time on my phone meant I was even quieter than usual for a while there, so this is a good development. But also, WTF, Discord.

Did I forget to mention the new-to-me Christmas ice cream here? It looks like I did.

A local ice creamery (Dee Dee's) does Advent calendars, which I had largely forgotten about until I saw mention of it on Bluesky, at which point I was safe from ordering one (too late!), but it got me to look at their seasonal flavors. Next thing I knew, I was asking

scruloose to stop at a local-groceries shop that carries their ice creams, because I had to know what the chicken bones* flavor was like.( more about that, plus a cheese stash )

Current Mood: blank
Current Music: Blackmore's Night - Christmas Eve

oursin

Had not been seeing these lately, but over the past few days have been spotting several out of the back windows.

Which is one cheering thing among various niggles and peeves -

Yesterday I was informed that my order from Boots was being delivered, and then got two texts saying they had tried to deliver it but no-one answered. WOT. There was somebody here all the time.

Also a text that my other package (fresh yeast via eBay) had been delivered (this comes through the letterbox) - no sign of this so presume it has gone to the wrong door, and so far nobody has come round to pop it through ours.*

However, at least the Boots parcel turned up today: address label had street number blurred so reasons for mistaking, usual postperson recognised name, possibly yesterday was a seasonal worker?

Other annoyance: Kobo ereader running very sluggish - though this does not seem to apply across all books, which is weird?? Anyway, I connected to wifi in order to update the software, as possibly bearing on the matter, and dash it, it synced a whole load of things I had already downloaded and I have been obliged to clean up the duplicates.

I am, though, grateful that Christmas grocery orders have been nothing missing and no substitutions except for 1 thing which was not at all critical. Also oops, the pudding I ordered was rather smaller than I anticipated, but I feel one can have too much Xmas pud, and there are mince pies, brandy butter, etc.

In further happy news, the Lincolnshire Wolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty has been saved from oil drilling.

^ETA: somebody from 2 doors down brought it round this evening. The address on the package was perfectly clear.

yourlibrarian posting in

tv_talk

Laptop-TV combo with DVDs on top and smartphone on the desk

Are there things you miss about TV technologies gone by? What about things you definitely don’t?

Alternately, how meaningful is the term "TV" these days given the changes in both method and content?

linky posting in

pimpmethis

( You're about to view content that a community administrator has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

tetralogy

After a very intense last few months scrambling to get everything prepared, I successfully defended my thesis at the beginning of December and have finished my PhD.

It feels weird.

I was kind of a mess in my late teens and early twenties. I had no direction, no drive, and no idea how to be an adult. I dropped out of college twice and then fumbled my way through a series of minimum wage jobs until I found one that seemed okay—this gave me some much-needed stability, but at some point I was staring down the barrel of the rest of my life and just thought, "I can't keep doing this."

On little more than a whim, I decided I would go back to school to get the highest degree in a field I had absolutely no natural aptitude for.

That was over 12 years ago.

As I went through the process—community college to undergrad to grad school—I never really had the end goal in mind. I had to keep working full-time for six years until I got to grad school, so I didn't have the time or mental energy to even think about where I was going, beyond "forward." I was just trying to get to the next homework assignment, the next exam, the next semester. I'm still not sure how I got here.

I think that's probably why I'm still trying to sort through my emotions about all of it. At some level I'm proud of myself, and conceptually I understand that I accomplished something monumental, but I haven't been able to bask in that feeling at all. And a big part of that is because I was fortunate enough to land a job halfway across the country, so I've been trying to prepare for all of that. And I'm sure another big part is the lingering adrenaline rush of slapping together a 300+ page dissertation in a matter of months—I know that's not going to disappear overnight. But it's led to this persistent low-grade tension for the past three weeks. I want to properly enjoy this time before my new job, but I just feel off, like there's a constant hum of anxiety trying to convince me I have more to do, I must be forgetting something important, what if the UHaul breaks down on the way to New York, maybe I should have bought the insurance for it, I need to send more emails and make more phonecalls and keep packing, I have to see my family for Christmas and I don't want to, oh my god what do you MEAN I have to go grocery shopping AGAIN?!

I guess I thought graduating would feel more definitive, like the end of a very, very long book. Maybe moving to a new city will give me the sense of closure I'm looking for? I don't know.

letzan

High-level stats for week of 2025-12-09 - 2025-12-15

Total works categorized F/F on AO3: 9906 (-145 from last week)

Works I classified F/F: 5442 (-128 from last week) (2335 new, 3107 continued)

0.56% of all 968749 AO3 works I've classified F/F were updated this week

A few callouts this week:

Web series The Amazing Digital Circus returns to the chart after a couple of months away, replacing Honkai: Star Rail.
Hazbin Hotel celebrates 100 consecutive weeks on the chart. Owl House reaches 280 consecutive weeks.
I'm tracking a lot of exchanges that reveal on Christmas, and I'll try to flag any that have a reasonable number of F/F works in my post next week. If there are any exchanges you particularly recommend, let me know about them and I'll make sure to mention them!

( Full top-20 table and description of methodology after the jump )

trobadora

My second

ficinabox story! This one is Grimm, because how could I resist when someone (*cough*

miss_ingno *cough*) requests my tiny OT3? :D

The prompt was, "canon divergence where Juliette copes better with her transformation into a Hexenbiest" - and when I thought about where to branch off and rewatched some episodes, I realised I could start right at the beginning, with her very first woge. Derail it all before it gains any ground! No secrecy to come between Nick and Juliette, no losing control, no shocking reveal in the aftermath of violence ... and if Nick was there for her first woge, she'd see his Grimm eyes, too!

Of course Nick still has issues, and Juliette is still struggling - but that's where Renard comes in, because when the two of them turn to him together, magic happens. *g*

(And so much happens in that one night that I managed to derail some other plot as well, just from having Juliette woge in front of everyone! I had so much fun with that. :D)

**

Farewell to the Monsters (10,183 words)
Fandom: Grimm (TV)
Rating: Mature
Relationship: Nick Burkhardt/Sean Renard/Juliette Silverton
Characters: Juliette Silverton, Nick Burkhardt, Sean Renard, Rosalee Calvert, Monroe, Hank Griffin
Content Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Episode Related, s04e08 Chupacabra, Hexenbiest reveal, Hexenbiest Psychology, Hexenbiest Sexuality, UST, Developing Relationship

Summary:

Juliette almost wished Nick didn't know what was happening to her. She could quietly deal with it on her own, get rid of it, go back to normal before anyone found out.

That would have been so much easier. Instead, she'd woged in front of everyone. And there was no turning back.

mific posting in

fanart_recs

Fandom: Heated Rivalry
Characters/Pairing/Other Subject: Shane Hollander/Ilya Rozanov
Content Notes/Warnings: none
Medium: digital art
Artist on DW/LJ: n/a
Artist Website/Gallery: catandcrown on tumblr
Why this piece is awesome: A very nice digital painting imagining the boys at a club with Ilya pulling Shane in by his tie. I like the two versions, and the intensity between Shane and Ilya.
Link: coloured version, and grayscale version

mific posting in

fancake

Fandom: Game Changers series (Heated Rivalry)
Characters/Pairings: Hayden Pike & Shane Hollander, Shane Hollander/Ilya Rozanov, Hayden Pike/Jackie Pike, Montreal team ensemble
Rating: Mature
Length: 5450
Content Notes: no AO3 warnings apply
Creator Links: gurlsrool on AO3
Themes: Friendship, Five things, Humor, Outsider pov, Established relationship, Canon LGBTQ+ characters

Summary: “I don’t hate him!” Hayden says, which is only true because hate doesn’t quite capture it. No, he despises Rozanov. In his defense, everyone with a pulse and without the last name Hollander does.

Or: 5 times Hayden doesn’t get Shane and Ilya’s relationship, +1 time he does.

Reccer's Notes: This is set just after the end of the Heated Rivalry book so I guess mild spoilers for ep 6 follow (it's really not very spoilery). In the fic, Shane and Ilya have acknowledged their feelings and are exclusive, and Shane's told Hayden, his best friend on the Montreal team. The story focuses on Hayden's incredulity and his conviction that Ilya Rozanov is a giant dick (which Ilya delightedly feeds into). The more Hayden learns about Shane's relationship with Ilya, the more horrified he gets (the bottoming, their mild D/s dynamic). Then, in the sixth part, he sees another side of Ilya entirely. The story's very well written and extremely funny, with brilliant characterization of Hayden, Ilya, and Shane. A ton of fun!

Fanwork Links: fresh out of any good judgment

badly_knitted posting in

fan_flashworks

Title: Sacrifice
Fandom: Babylon 5
Author:

badly_knitted
Characters: Delenn, Neroon, Lennier.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 400
Spoilers/Setting: Moments of Transition.
Summary: Neroon accepted his role in Delenn’s plan because it showed wisdom. The rest was the calling of his own heart.
Content Notes: None needed.
Written For: Challenge 501: Amnesty 83, using Challenge 419: The Last Word.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Babylon 5, or the characters. They belong to J. Michael Straczynski.
A/N: Quadruple drabble.

( Sacrifice... )

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my desk

oursin

Happy birthday,

cassandre!

yuletidemods posting in

yuletide_admin

We're so close! This year, Yuletide reveals are at 9pm UTC on 24 December - that has changed since last year.

COUNTDOWN TO REVEALS

Tips

Formatting

Getting your story up on AO3 is the main thing. But, now it's there, please check it over again before reveals - especially to see if you've left in any bits you're going to replace like [xxx]. But also please check for legibility - check for text with no gaps between paragraphs, or text with massive gaps between paragraphs. Click/tap for more information...

Issues often arise when posting from Google Docs. You can use this Google doc or this extension to help convert your document to HTML for a better copy/paste experience. The problem with italics and punctuation can also be solved by including the punctuation inside the italics tags.

If your story has no space between paragraphs, check to see if you pasted your story into the HTML tab instead of the Rich Text tab. Paragraph spacing occasionally gets added to places like summaries when you edit them, so you might want to double-check that also!

( Below the cut are examples of spacing that’s too big, too little, and juuuuust right. )

If the spacing in your work is wacky, we recommend editing it to avoid putting off potential readers.

Your comment settings

In recent years, AO3 changed the default settings for comments on your work. If you want to allow comments from guests/readers who aren't logged in, check your work. Click/tap for info...

Before July 2024, the default setting for comments allowed on your work was "Registered users and guests can comment." In July, AO3 changed that so that the default setting is "Only registered users can comment." That means that if you posted your Yuletide work without changing the settings, no one can comment on your work without logging into their account.

If that matches your preferences, that's great. If you'd like to make it possible for anyone who reads your work to comment, please edit your work and change the setting. This setting is directly above the Work Text field.

Tagging and "Unspecified Fandom"

Please tag your work accurately, including warnings. We encourage you to use "Unspecified Fandom", alongside a specific tag, to help users find a fandom that isn't wrangled yet. Please reach out if you're not sure how to tag a new or non-canonical fandom. Click/tap for info...

For warnings, Choose Not to Warn is a valid warning tag. You may wish to use the end notes if there is content that you don't want to spoil with specific tags.

If your fandom is completely new, please use the tag that was approved into the tag set. These tags were formulated to meet archive guidelines and will be more quickly canonized, so that your work can be found from the Fandoms page of the collection. We recommend you also use "Unspecified Fandom", because this will show up in the fandoms list immediately, even if the actual fandom tag isn't wrangled straight away. Please do not tag your work with Unspecified Fandom as the only fandom tag. Instead, tag with both Unspecified Fandom and the actual fandom tag.

If your fandom is a subset of a canonical tag (like an RPF fandom that belongs in Actor RPF, or a season of a Let's Play fandom that has an overarching canonical), we recommend tagging with the parent fandom. Please reach out to mods if you're not sure that's what you should do.

Your author's notes

Please keep these positive. Please don't identify yourself - no social media links! Also, please don't apologize for your work, tell your recipient all about what a tough time you had writing, or otherwise ask your recipient to accept a negative sentiment along with their gift.

Treats!!

Additional works are warmly welcomed for participants signed up to Yuletide* and all additional pinch hitters.

Please check these guidelines for whether to post treats in the main Yuletide collection (closes Dec 24) or the Yuletide Madness collection (closes Dec 25). Unlike in some exchanges, Yuletide's treating period does not continue indefinitely. Please get your treats in before reveals - or you'll need to wait until next year.

Not all users accept treats

Please do not create treats for: Arsenic, BluebirdCT, Budouka, couch1141, theblakery, Witgifu. This list is subject to change, as you can change the setting to accept treats (or not) at any time. Check with mods if unsure.

hamsterwoman

I was watching/reading a bunch of CoC IV-related content in the lead-up, and I’m going to post about it before posting about the episode itself, though I’ve obviously watched it as soon as that was an option. ( Askmaster and interviews )

Which reminded me that I should revisit my quantitative ranking of the series, because I’d fallen a couple behind, and some of the more recent ones were worth re-scoring.

original post

( Revisiting s15-17, scoring s18-20 )

OK, and the main event:

Tasmkaster CoC 4 – So, I did end up going and spoiling myself for the winner and the scores before sitting down to watch, which was the correct decision. ( SPOILERS )

I’m just really sad we don’t get more than one episode with this group. This was a really good line-up (even if one of them is someone whose comedy I don’t enjoy that much).

*

There’s some kind of weird thing with me and the Penric books, where I’ll read a bunch in a row, then not read any of the new ones coming out for a couple of years, until I have a bunch in a row to read again, repeat. So, like, the last time I read Penric, it was to read 6 in quick succession in late 2022, and meanwhile she’s released 4 more, that I’m finally getting around to reading. (I think it’s that the novella length is not quite long enough to be worth re-immersing myself in the world and the growing cast for just one of them.)

7. Lois McMaster Bujold, Demon Daughter (Pen & Des #12) – I was intrigued by the premise of this one, and enjoyed it, even though it was very, very domestic – much more so than I expected from the dramatic cover. ( More, with spoilers )

8. Lois McMaster Bujold, The Adventure of the Demonic Ox (Pen & Des #14) – I skipped Penric and the Bandit semi-accidentally – by which I mean that I finished Demon Daughter on the plane to Oregon, went to see what else was openable on my Kindle, and it was the ox one, so I figured it had to be the next one. Then when I realized it was not, because there was a significant time-skip and it referenced an incident with bandits, I figured I’d just keep reading. (And later it turned out I did have ‘Bandit’ on my Kindle, I just couldn’t call it up for some reason, in offline mode.)

This was a weird one… I found the first half of it slow and fairly boring, and found myself skimming, which I pretty much never do with LMB’s books. ( But then it picked up some (spoilers) )

I’m presently catching up on reading Penric and the Bandit, so we’ll see if I make it through all of the currently-out Penrics (that one + one more) before I run out of reading steam…

luminousdaze posting in

iconthat

Challenge 200
The new theme is...
Icon Pass It On 6:
✨ Holidays Edition ✨
For this challenge we can play next picture icon "pass-it-on". Make an icon using the previous person's screen capture or picture, and post your icon and then provide a new image of your own.
Holidays edition, means this round there will be no voting on the icons.
But, as always, anyone may leave people comments & compliments on their icons.
At the end of the challenge, I'll make a show case/icon collection post.
If are not familiar with next picture pass-it-on, see how it works the other times we played it, tagged here.

Starter Screen Cap

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

[screen cap via fancaps.net]

( Please read all Info & Rules behind the cut..... )

Current Mood: sleepy

bluapapilio

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

Current Mood: drained

torachan

1. We finished another puzzle already. This was a super cute design but I think it's too easy for us. We did both work on it a fair bit (often it's mostly me with Carla only doing a bit here and there), so it went fast, but also having each cat so distinct made it very easy to separate out pieces. It was fun, though!

2. Carla wanted to make spritz cookies but we don't have any almond extract. After trying two stores earlier today with no luck, we were finally able to get some tonight at a third store. And bonus, that store had McConnell's peppermint ice cream, which is one of the best peppermint ice creams I've ever had, so we got some of that, too.

3. I went in to work this morning and meant to stay through my afternoon meeting at 3:30, but then another meeting got put in from 4-5 and I didn't want to be driving home that late as it would take longer, so I came home earlier in the afternoon and took both meetings from home (they were both web meetings anyway).

4. We fiiiiinally got confirmation that we can pick the car up tomorrow morning! It's been two and a half weeks! D:

5. I got my new shoes today and they fit, so that confirms the original ones I bought in the store were a wide. It's very frustrating that it doesn't say that anywhere on the tag, but I will remember for next time for sure now.

6. Spotted this cutie Molly in the cat house the other night. She usually doesn't go in there!

kingstoken

Introducing the 2026 Book Bingo Card!

Don't forget if you are having trouble filling some of the squares you are allowed two substitutions and two wild cards, substitutions are substituting one category for another, I'll post a substitution list below, wild cards can be any book you want, including fanfiction, the fanfiction should be over 50,000 words and fanfiction can only be used once for a wild card square.

Substitution list:
*Over 300 Pages
*Book in Series
*LGBTQ+
*Recommended
*POC Author
*Multiple POVs
*Classic/Retelling
*Sci-fi/Fantasy
*Free Space
*Anthology/Collection
*Biography/Memoir
*Friendship
*Name in the Title
*Movie/TV Tie-in
*With a Woman Protagonist
*From the Library
*Thriller/Suspense
*Set Somewhere You've Been
*Non-Human POV
*Fairy Tale or Fairy Tale Retelling
*Under 100 Pages
*Romance Plot or Sub-plot
*Translated
*With a Blue Cover
*Horror or Paranormal
*Colour in the Title
*Seasonal Read
*Number in title
*Three word title
*Craft, Hobby or Cookbook
*Written by an author from your state or country
*Animal on the cover
*Disability or Mental health
*Read a book from the year you were born
*Mythology
*Title begins with first letter of your name
*Dystopian
*Book mentioned in another book
*Diverse reads
*One word title
*Award Winning/Bestseller
*Disabled Author
*Non-western Setting
*Set in your state/country
*Title is at Least Five Words Long
*Indigenous author
*Has illustrations (but not a comic or graphic novel)
*Re-read

luminousdaze posting in

iconthat

Challenge 199 is now closed. ⏰ I will post the the holiday pass-it-on soon and the voting by tomorrow.

Thank You! animation in cartoon style with stars GIF by Rory

igenlode posting in

writethisfanfic

The longest night is over! Time for things to get moving again...
How is it going?

Profile

got_quiet

December 2025

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
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21	22	23	24	25	26	27
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Page Summary

umadoshi - Discord weirdness | Holiday dairy foods
oursin - In the bleak midwinter - parakeets!
yourlibrarian in tv_talk - TV Tuesday: Changing Eras
linky in pimpmethis - Tokurecs December 2025 Monthly Self-Reccing Period
linky in fandom_on_dw - Tokurecs December 2025 Monthly Self-Reccing Period
tetralogy - That's Dr. Tetralogy To You
letzan - Femslash week in review: 2025-12-09 - 2025-12-15
trobadora - FIC: Farewell to the Monsters (Grimm: Nick/Renard/Juliette) [M]
mific in fanart_recs - Ilya pulling Shane in by catandcrown (SFW)
mific in fancake - Game Changers (Heated Rivalry): fresh out of any good judgment by gurlsrool
badly_knitted in fan_flashworks - The Last Word Challenge: Babylon 5: Sacrifice
oursin - (no subject)
yuletidemods in yuletide_admin - 36 Hours to Reveals
hamsterwoman - Taskmaster CoC 4 and reading roundup (Penrics)
luminousdaze in iconthat - Challenge 200: Icon Pass It On 6
bluapapilio - Anime Check-in: "Fairy Ranmaru" ep. 3-4 (rewatch)
torachan - Daily Happiness
kingstoken - 2026 Book Bingo Card!
luminousdaze in iconthat - challenge closed ⌛
igenlode in writethisfanfic - CHECK IN: DAY 22

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got_quiet

Network

Discord weirdness | Holiday dairy foods

In the bleak midwinter - parakeets!

TV Tuesday: Changing Eras

Tokurecs December 2025 Monthly Self-Reccing Period

Tokurecs December 2025 Monthly Self-Reccing Period

That's Dr. Tetralogy To You

Femslash week in review: 2025-12-09 - 2025-12-15

FIC: Farewell to the Monsters (Grimm: Nick/Renard/Juliette) [M]

Ilya pulling Shane in by catandcrown (SFW)

Game Changers (Heated Rivalry): fresh out of any good judgment by gurlsrool

The Last Word Challenge: Babylon 5: Sacrifice

(no subject)

36 Hours to Reveals

Tips

Formatting

Your comment settings

Tagging and "Unspecified Fandom"

Your author's notes

Treats!!

Taskmaster CoC 4 and reading roundup (Penrics)

Challenge 200: Icon Pass It On 6

Anime Check-in: "Fairy Ranmaru" ep. 3-4 (rewatch)

Daily Happiness

2026 Book Bingo Card!

challenge closed ⌛

CHECK IN: DAY 22

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December 2025

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