magid

That night Mr Muller brought home a Christmas tree. Even though the Mullers were to spend Christmas Eve at Grosspapa Muller's and Christmas Day at Grosspapa Hornik's there had to be a tree in their own home. Unlike Santa Claus, Christmas trees seemed to be very important in Milwaukee. The older people were as excited as the children when Mr Muller carried in his huge fragrant bundle.

The next afternoon, which was Christmas Eve day, all of them trimmed it. They put on candles and carved wooden toys and cookies hung on ribbons, and little socks with candles in them, as well as the usual bright balls. They draped the strings of cranberries around the spiraling branches and placed a star angel on the top.

Tib and Fred were very artistic and it was a beautiful tree. They had fun trimming it too, but it seemed strange to Betsy to be hanging the Mullers' balls and angels and to think that at home a tree was being trimmed with the dear familiar ornaments... some that she and Tacy had bough on their Christmas shopping trips.

ao3_news_feed

https://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/33921

Spotlight on Tag Wrangling

AO3 Tag Wranglers continue to test processes for wrangling canonical additional tags (tags that appear in the auto-complete) which don't belong to any particular fandom (also known as "No Fandom" tags). This post overviews some of these upcoming changes.

In this round of updates, we continued to streamline creating new canonical tags, prioritizing more straightforward updates which would have less discussion compared to renaming current canonical tags or creating new canonical tags which touch on more complex topics. This method also reviews new tags on a regular basis, so check back on AO3 News for periodic "No Fandom" tag announcements.

None of these updates change the tags users have added to works. If a user-created tag is considered to have the same meaning as a new canonical, it will be made a synonym of one of these newly created canonical tags, and works with that user-created tag will appear when the canonical tag is selected.

In short, these changes only affect which tags appear in AO3's auto-complete and filters. You can and should continue to tag your works however you prefer.

New Canonicals

The following concepts have been made new canonical tags:

Angst with a Bittersweet Ending
Angst with a Hopeful Ending
Angst with a Sad Ending
Angst with No Happy Ending
Characters Yelling or Screaming
Cheek Kisses
Hand Kisses
Domdrop
Farming and Ranching
Figure Skating
Flower Symbolism
Ghost Stories
Giant/Tiny Relationships
Internalized Victim Blaming
Long Chapters
Short Chapters
Mating Cycles
Near Drowning
Non-Sexual Spanking
Pining While Fucking
Platonic Yandere
Pumpkin Carving
Rapid Pregnancy
Right Person Wrong Time
Robot Gore
Ruined Orgasms
Soft Dom Characters
Throuples | Triad Relationships
Wank and Tell | Creator is Open to Comments about Masturbating to This Work
Will They Won't They Relationships

In Conclusion

While some of these tags may be tags and concepts you're intimately familiar with, others may be concepts you've never heard of before. Fortunately, our fellow OTW volunteers at Fanlore may be able to help! As you may have seen in the comments sections of previous posts, Fanlore is a fantastic resource for learning more about these common fandom concepts, and about the history and lore of fandom in general. For the curious, here's a quick look at a few articles about concepts related to this month's new canonical tags:

While we won't be announcing every change we make to No Fandom canonical tags, you can expect similar updates in the future about tags we believe will most affect users. If you're interested in the changes we'll be making, you can continue to check AO3 News or follow us on Bluesky @wranglers.archiveofourown.org or Tumblr @ao3org for future announcements.

You can also read previous updates on "No Fandom" tags as well as other wrangling updates, linked below:

For more information about AO3's tag system, check out our Tags FAQ.

In addition to providing technical help, AO3 Support also handles requests related to how tags are sorted and connected. If you have questions about specific tags, which were first used over a month ago and are unrelated to any of the new canonical tags listed above, please contact Support instead of leaving a comment on this post.

Please keep in mind that discussions about what tags to canonize and what format they should take are ongoing. As a result, not all related concepts will be canonized at the same time. This does not mean that related or similar concepts will not be canonized in the future or that we have chosen to canonize one specific concept in lieu of another, simply that we likely either haven’t gotten to that related concept yet or that it needs further discussion and will take a bit longer for us to canonize it as a result. We appreciate your patience and understanding.

Lastly, we're still working on implementing changes and connecting relevant user-created tags to these new canonicals, so it’ll be some time before these updates are complete. If you have questions about specific tags which should be connected to these new canonicals, please refrain from contacting Support about them until at least three months from now to give us adequate time to do so.

The Organization for Transformative Works is the non-profit parent organization of multiple projects including Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Open Doors, OTW Legal Advocacy, and Transformative Works and Cultures. We are a fan-run, donor-supported organization staffed by volunteers. Find out more about us on our website.

https://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/33921

alobear

The Marble Collector by Cecelia Ahern was one I was looking forward to reading as it looked like one of her heartwarming, contemporary tales of quiet family drama - and it probably was!
But I really disliked the female protagonist (she's introduced in a chapter where one of her charges at a nursing home has a heart attack and her only reaction is disappointment that she didn't get to pull the emergency cord...) and I found the scenes about her father's childhood dreary and distressing.
So, while I expect the way everything eventually came together was probably very sweet and (hopefully) involved some growth for the daughter, I found myself not invested enough to stick it out to find out.

The Forgotten Tower by Lulu Taylor is one of a specific type of book I've read a lot in recent years - split timeline, charting a family history in the past with events that have some kind of impact on a young woman's personal development in the present. Taylor does have a sometimes overly unpleasant focus on domestic violence and abuse of women, which did feature here, but didn't tip over the line into detracting from the story for me this time.
I wasn't overly keen on some of Georgie's attitudes and responses to situations early on, but her growth over the course of the book was satisfying, and I appreciated the way her background informed her actions and was eventually overcome.
Some aspects of the historical narrative were a bit over-the-top, and the ultimate explanation of some things seemed a bit tacked on at the end. But overall, it was a well-structured and absorbing read.

vriddy posting in

getting_started

The FAQ entry about renaming a journal is very helpful to understand what happens and the options when renaming, but I'm not sure what happens to the image links?

Do image links also get redirected automatically ? Or do you need to update your old posts referencing those images, since the username is in the URL too??

yuletidemods posting in

yuletide_pinch_hits

All claimed! These pinch hits are due at Tuesday 23 December at 9pm UTC.

Comments are turned off for this community. To claim a pinch hit, please email the mods at yuletideadmin@gmail.com and:

Include the pinch hit number in the subject line
Include the recipient's AO3 name in the subject line
Include your AO3 username in the body of the email

For example, if your AO3 username is yuletidehippo and you want to claim Pinch Hit #42 for AwsomRecip, you might email us with the subject line "PH 42 for AwsomRecip" and "I'm yuletidehippo on AO3" in the body of the email. As was the case previously, if you don't receive a reply you did not get the pinch hit.

Also, remember our pinch hitters' prompts post! If you weren't signed up and you're pinch hitting, your rare fandom prompts are very welcome!

If the pinch hit you're interested in has been claimed, you are still welcome to post treats!

claimed - PH #226: Lancer (Roleplaying Game), 蟲師 | Mushishi (Anime & Manga), とんがり帽子のアトリエ | Tongari Boushi no Atelier | Witch Hat Atelier (Manga), Mystery Flesh Pit National Park - Trevor Roberts, Pressure (Roblox), 悪魔城ドラキュラX 月下の夜想曲 | Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

Request 1 by SailorSpellcheck
Lancer (Roleplaying Game)
Characters: Terror (Lancer RPG), Mirth (Lancer RPG), Endeavor (Lancer RPG), Worldbuilding (Lancer RPG)
My gift must feature one or more of my chosen character tags (giver's choice)

Treats OK!
Please see my letter for more canon-specific prompts and likes!
General DNWs
- Sexual or explicit content (however, violence and gore and body horror are A-OK)
- Excessive or gratuitous violence and gore for no narrative reason
- Major themes regarding the heat-death or otherwise non-supernatural end of the universe
- Major homophobia, transphobia, acephobia, arophobia, or racism (canon typical, if present, is fine)
- Major real-world religious themes (canon-typical is okay though)
- Death or violence to pets, especially cats
- Crushing of snails or crabs or other small creatures
- Very major plot points centered around protagonists infighting/misunderstanding each other. Basically just please go light on misunderstanding-based conflict. Should be fine as long as it doesn't last too long and it gets resolved. (Please contact the mod if you need clarification from me on what's okay or not!)
- Permanent Major Character Death
- Characters losing their powers permanently, if relevant
- Unrequested gender and/or sexuality headcanons
- Unrequested AUs or major setting changes
General Likes
- angst
- fluff
- missionfic/casefic
- gore
- body horror (especially of the fishy variety)
- the ""fucked up escaped lab experiment"" trope
- mermaids
- aliens
- psychics
- political intrigue
- strong platonic bonds and nonsexual intimacy
- detailed imagery and scene-painting
- asexual/aromantic headcanons
Canon-Specific DNWs:
- Union-bashing (pointing out Union's flaws is fine, such as the unethical material foundation of the post-capital purported utopia, but just please don't bash Union)
- Corpro apologia. It's fine to write from corpro POVs so long as this is not presented as a genuine attempt to absolve any corpros of wrongdoing
- Machine apologia (as in, the Machine, from Wallflower)

Letter:
https://write.ellipsus.com/edit/860c76c2-b82b-40c6-8a5b-7102a224fe89

Request 2 by SailorSpellcheck
蟲師 | Mushishi (Anime & Manga)
Characters: Ginko (Mushishi), Worldbuilding (Mushishi)
My gift must feature one or more of my chosen character tags (giver's choice)

Treats OK!
Please see my letter for more canon-specific prompts and likes!
General DNWs
- Sexual or explicit content (however, violence and gore and body horror are A-OK)
- Excessive or gratuitous violence and gore for no narrative reason
- Major themes regarding the heat-death or otherwise non-supernatural end of the universe
- Major homophobia, transphobia, acephobia, arophobia, or racism (canon typical, if present, is fine)
- Major real-world religious themes (canon-typical is okay though)
- Death or violence to pets, especially cats
- Crushing of snails or crabs or other small creatures
- Very major plot points centered around protagonists infighting/misunderstanding each other. Basically just please go light on misunderstanding-based conflict. Should be fine as long as it doesn't last too long and it gets resolved. (Please contact the mod if you need clarification from me on what's okay or not!)
- Permanent Major Character Death
- Characters losing their powers permanently, if relevant
- Unrequested gender and/or sexuality headcanons
- Unrequested AUs or major setting changes
General Likes
- angst
- fluff
- missionfic/casefic
- gore
- body horror (especially of the fishy variety)
- the ""fucked up escaped lab experiment"" trope
- mermaids
- aliens
- psychics
- political intrigue
- strong platonic bonds and nonsexual intimacy
- detailed imagery and scene-painting
- asexual/aromantic headcanons
Canon-Specific DNWs:
- Ginko dying
- Modern-day worldbuilding

Letter:
https://write.ellipsus.com/edit/860c76c2-b82b-40c6-8a5b-7102a224fe89?theme=ultraDark

Request 3 by SailorSpellcheck
とんがり帽子のアトリエ | Tongari Boushi no Atelier | Witch Hat Atelier (Manga)
Characters: Coco (Tongari Boushi no Atelier), Euini (Tongari Boushi no Atelier), Olruggio (Tongari Boushi no Atelier)
My gift must feature one or more of my chosen character tags (giver's choice)

Treats OK!
Please see my letter for more canon-specific prompts and likes!
General DNWs
- Sexual or explicit content (however, violence and gore and body horror are A-OK)
- Excessive or gratuitous violence and gore for no narrative reason
- Major themes regarding the heat-death or otherwise non-supernatural end of the universe
- Major homophobia, transphobia, acephobia, arophobia, or racism (canon typical, if present, is fine)
- Major real-world religious themes (canon-typical is okay though)
- Death or violence to pets, especially cats
- Crushing of snails or crabs or other small creatures
- Very major plot points centered around protagonists infighting/misunderstanding each other. Basically just please go light on misunderstanding-based conflict. Should be fine as long as it doesn't last too long and it gets resolved. (Please contact the mod if you need clarification from me on what's okay or not!)
- Permanent Major Character Death
- Characters losing their powers permanently, if relevant
- Unrequested gender and/or sexuality headcanons
- Unrequested AUs or major setting changes
General Likes
- angst
- fluff
- missionfic/casefic
- gore
- body horror (especially of the fishy variety)
- the ""fucked up escaped lab experiment"" trope
- mermaids
- aliens
- psychics
- political intrigue
- strong platonic bonds and nonsexual intimacy
- detailed imagery and scene-painting
- asexual/aromantic headcanons
Canon-Specific DNWs:
- Coco joining the Brim Hats
- Character death of any of the main girls (Coco, Agott, Tetia, Richeh), but injury is fine

Letter:
https://write.ellipsus.com/edit/860c76c2-b82b-40c6-8a5b-7102a224fe89?theme=ultraDark

Request 4 by SailorSpellcheck
Mystery Flesh Pit National Park - Trevor Roberts
Characters: Worldbuilding (Mystery Flesh Pit), Permian Basin Superorganism (Mystery Flesh Pit)
My gift must feature one or more of my chosen character tags (giver's choice)

Treats OK!
Please see my letter for more canon-specific prompts!
General DNWs
- Sexual or explicit content (however, violence and gore and body horror are A-OK)
- Excessive or gratuitous violence and gore for no narrative reason
- Major themes regarding the heat-death or otherwise non-supernatural end of the universe
- Major homophobia, transphobia, acephobia, arophobia, or racism (canon typical, if present, is fine)
- Major real-world religious themes (canon-typical is okay though)
- Death or violence to pets, especially cats
- Crushing of snails or crabs or other small creatures
- Very major plot points centered around protagonists infighting/misunderstanding each other. Basically just please go light on misunderstanding-based conflict. Should be fine as long as it doesn't last too long and it gets resolved. (Please contact the mod if you need clarification from me on what's okay or not!)
- Permanent Major Character Death
- Characters losing their powers permanently, if relevant
- Unrequested gender and/or sexuality headcanons
- Unrequested AUs or major setting changes
General Likes
- angst
- fluff
- missionfic/casefic
- gore
- body horror (especially of the fishy variety)
- the ""fucked up escaped lab experiment"" trope
- mermaids
- aliens
- psychics
- political intrigue
- strong platonic bonds and nonsexual intimacy
- detailed imagery and scene-painting
- asexual/aromantic headcanons
Canon-Specific DNWs:
- Insinuating that the pit has some evil eldritch higher purpose and wants to end the world or something
- Anything related to the aphrodisiac properties of ballast (usage or mention of ballast for its other properties is fine, though)

Letter:
https://write.ellipsus.com/edit/860c76c2-b82b-40c6-8a5b-7102a224fe89?theme=ultraDark

Request 5 by SailorSpellcheck
Pressure (Roblox)
Characters: Sebastian Solace (Pressure), Worldbuilding (Pressure)
My gift must feature one or more of my chosen character tags (giver's choice)

Treats OK!
Please see my letter for more canon-specific prompts!
General DNWs
- Sexual or explicit content (however, violence and gore and body horror are A-OK)
- Excessive or gratuitous violence and gore for no narrative reason
- Major themes regarding the heat-death or otherwise non-supernatural end of the universe
- Major homophobia, transphobia, acephobia, arophobia, or racism (canon typical, if present, is fine)
- Major real-world religious themes (canon-typical is okay though)
- Death or violence to pets, especially cats
- Crushing of snails or crabs or other small creatures
- Very major plot points centered around protagonists infighting/misunderstanding each other. Basically just please go light on misunderstanding-based conflict. Should be fine as long as it doesn't last too long and it gets resolved. (Please contact the mod if you need clarification from me on what's okay or not!)
- Permanent Major Character Death
- Characters losing their powers permanently, if relevant
- Unrequested gender and/or sexuality headcanons
- Unrequested AUs or major setting changes
General Likes
- angst
- fluff
- missionfic/casefic
- gore
- body horror (especially of the fishy variety)
- the ""fucked up escaped lab experiment"" trope
- mermaids
- aliens
- psychics
- political intrigue
- strong platonic bonds and nonsexual intimacy
- detailed imagery and scene-painting
- asexual/aromantic headcanons
Canon-Specific DNWs:
- Postcanon human Seb
- Painter, if you choose to write him as receiving/having a motile body, with a body that has guns
- I'm fine with mentioning Seb has a wife but please don't mention Zerum as that wife. Otherwise, please no shipping Seb with anyone.

Letter:
https://write.ellipsus.com/edit/860c76c2-b82b-40c6-8a5b-7102a224fe89?theme=ultraDark

Request 6 by SailorSpellcheck
悪魔城ドラキュラX 月下の夜想曲 | Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Characters: Alucard (Castlevania: Symphony of the Night)
My gift must feature all of my chosen character tags (if 0: any from tag set)

Treats OK!
Please see my letter for more canon-specific prompts!
General DNWs
- Sexual or explicit content (however, violence and gore and body horror are A-OK)
- Excessive or gratuitous violence and gore for no narrative reason
- Major themes regarding the heat-death or otherwise non-supernatural end of the universe
- Major homophobia, transphobia, acephobia, arophobia, or racism (canon typical, if present, is fine)
- Major real-world religious themes (canon-typical is okay though)
- Death or violence to pets, especially cats
- Crushing of snails or crabs or other small creatures
- Very major plot points centered around protagonists infighting/misunderstanding each other. Basically just please go light on misunderstanding-based conflict. Should be fine as long as it doesn't last too long and it gets resolved. (Please contact the mod if you need clarification from me on what's okay or not!)
- Permanent Major Character Death
- Characters losing their powers permanently, if relevant
- Unrequested gender and/or sexuality headcanons
- Unrequested AUs or major setting changes
General Likes
- angst
- fluff
- missionfic/casefic
- gore
- body horror (especially of the fishy variety)
- the ""fucked up escaped lab experiment"" trope
- mermaids
- aliens
- psychics
- political intrigue
- strong platonic bonds and nonsexual intimacy
- detailed imagery and scene-painting
- asexual/aromantic headcanons
Canon-Specific DNWs:
- Alucard with no baggage about his vampire lineage
- Shipping Alucard with anyone (I know this is games canon but I will nonetheless make an exception for background/implied/mentioned trephacard)
- Dracula as an entirely perfect father, or conversely, Dracula as a completely awful father
Letter:
https://write.ellipsus.com/edit/860c76c2-b82b-40c6-8a5b-7102a224fe89?theme=ultraDark

CLAIMED - PH #227: Nana (Anime & Manga), Lamb - Christopher Moore, Tenkuu no Escaflowne | The Vision of Escaflowne, The Godfather (1972 1974 1990), Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (Movie 2022)

Request 1 by 1candyangle
Nana (Anime & Manga)
Characters: Oosaki Nana, Komatsu Nana | Hachi
My gift must feature one or more of my chosen character tags (giver's choice)

Nana likes: devotion, support, consequences to addiction, multiple types of love, good or bad relationships. Make up, break ups, opening/closing relationships to new partners.
General likes: when characters are given a reason to cry, possessiveness, feral behaviour, action,
fucky/toxic relationships, power dynamics, food, music, loving each other too much to function, and humor (puns, ridiculous situations, dark irony)
Smut is welcomed. No preference in dynamics or omegaverse designations.
Go wild, go unhinged, have fun.
General soft dislikes: sissification, non-canon age differences, pet-like animal-human hybrids (werewolves, cursed creatures and monsters do not count as hybrids)
DNW: heavy recreational drug or alcohol use in a positive light (non-con drugging is fine, same with a passing glass of wine, just no drunk or high shenanigans please. Dealing with the aftermath of a binge session is more than okay in the context of addiction), cheating, sexual content under age 13, graphic eye trauma

No letter

Request 2 by 1candyangle
Lamb - Christopher Moore
Characters: Biff (Lamb), Maggie (Lamb), Josh (Lamb)
My gift must feature one or more of my chosen character tags (giver's choice)

Lamb likes: theology (insane and standard), world building, the Implications, unconditional love, conditional love, AUs of all flavours
General likes: when characters are given a reason to cry, possessiveness, feral behaviour, action, fucky/toxic relationships, power dynamics, food, music, loving each other too much to function, and humor (puns, ridiculous situations, dark irony)
Smut is welcomed. No preference in dynamics or omegaverse designations.
Go wild, go unhinged, have fun.
General soft dislikes: sissification, non-canon age differences, pet-like animal-human hybrids (werewolves, cursed creatures and monsters do not count as hybrids)
DNW: heavy recreational drug or alcohol use in a positive light (non-con drugging is fine, same with a passing glass of wine, just no drunk or high shenanigans please. Dealing with the aftermath of a binge session is more than okay in the context of addiction), cheating, sexual content under age 13, graphic eye trauma

No letter

Request 3 by 1candyangle
Tenkuu no Escaflowne | The Vision of Escaflowne
Characters: Van Fanel, Kanzaki Hitomi, Dilandau Albatou

Escaflowne likes: Van and Hitomi saving each other, or little quiet moments when their guards are down and they show their genuine affection. Mecha battles are always fun, same with world building. For Dilandau, his brain and crazy intrigue me, I love him.
General likes: when characters are given a reason to cry, possessiveness, feral behaviour, action,
fucky/toxic relationships, power dynamics, food, music, loving each other too much to function, and humor (puns, ridiculous situations, dark irony)
Smut is welcomed. No preference in dynamics or omegaverse designations.
Go wild, go unhinged, have fun.
General soft dislikes: sissification, non-canon age differences, pet-like animal-human hybrids (werewolves, cursed creatures and monsters do not count as hybrids)
DNW: heavy recreational drug or alcohol use in a positive light (non-con drugging is fine, same with a passing glass of wine, just no drunk or high shenanigans please. Dealing with the aftermath of a binge session is more than okay in the context of addiction), cheating, sexual content under age 13, graphic eye trauma

No letter

Request 4 by 1candyangle
The Godfather (1972 1974 1990)
Characters: Any
My gift must feature all of my chosen character tags (if 0: any from tag set)

Godfather likes: nitty-gritty mafia life, fun with tropes (conventionally playing it straight or turning a common mafia trope on its head), real world implications, generational trauma, violence to make statements, poor life choices
General likes: when characters are given a reason to cry, possessiveness, feral behaviour, action, fucky/toxic relationships, power dynamics, food, music, loving each other too much to function, and humor (puns, ridiculous situations, dark irony)
Smut is welcomed. No preference in dynamics or omegaverse designations.
Go wild, go unhinged, have fun.
General soft dislikes: sissification, non-canon age differences, pet-like animal-human hybrids (werewolves, cursed creatures and monsters do not count as hybrids)
DNW: heavy recreational drug or alcohol use in a positive light (non-con drugging is fine, same with a passing glass of wine, just no drunk or high shenanigans please. Dealing with the aftermath of a binge session is more than okay in the context of addiction), cheating, sexual content under age 13, graphic eye trauma

No letter

Request 5 by 1candyangle
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (Movie 2022)
Characters: Any
My gift must feature all of my chosen character tags (if 0: any from tag set)

Weird Al likes: absolute insanity and crackfic would be fun, or lean into the ridiculousness of everything and play it straight. Feel free to experiment with unconventional formats if you like to (1st person pov, outsider, songfic, poetry, etc)
General likes: when characters are given a reason to cry, possessiveness, feral behaviour, action, fucky/toxic relationships, power dynamics, food, music, loving each other too much to function, and humor (puns, ridiculous situations, dark irony)
Smut is welcomed. No preference in dynamics or omegaverse designations.
Go wild, go unhinged, have fun.
General soft dislikes: sissification, non-canon age differences, pet-like animal-human hybrids (werewolves, cursed creatures and monsters do not count as hybrids)
DNW: heavy recreational drug or alcohol use in a positive light (non-con drugging is fine, same with a passing glass of wine, just no drunk or high shenanigans please. Dealing with the aftermath of a binge session is more than okay in the context of addiction), cheating, sexual content under age 13, graphic eye trauma

No letter

mific posting in

fancake

Fandom: Heated Rivalry, Game Changers book series
Characters/Pairings: Shane Hollander/Ilya Rozanov (background relationship), Jackie Pike, Original Characters, Background & Cameo Characters
Rating: Teen
Length: 2407
Content Notes: no AO3 warnings apply
Creator Links: Ravenesta on AO3
Themes: Hurt/comfort, Canon LGBTQ+ characters, Women being awesome, Female friendship, Unconventional format and style, Humor, Teams

Summary:

Sarah
Does anyone have the number for Shane's girl from Boston? I feel bad that they've been seeing each other for this long and we've never added her here.
Jackie
Oh good point! Let me ask Hayden.
Jackie has added Lily to the conversation
Lily
what
what is this

Or: Ilya Rozanov is, apparently, one of the girls.

Reccer's Notes: This stems from the pseudonyms Ilya and Shane use over the years to text each other (Lily and Jane). The Montreal WAGs (Wives & Girlfriends) grouptext realizes that Shane's "girl", Lily, hasn't been added, partly as Lily is based in Boston not Montreal. So Ilya gets added to the grouptext and (of course) fits right in. The fic's probably more enjoyable and easier to figure out if you know canon, and I also found I picked up more of the humor and details on a second reading. It's an amusing fic, but also about (largely) female support systems, and shows that NHL partners are not unlike military wives. Very well done. (Check out the sequel and "inspired by" links as well - it's becoming a whole WAGs 'verse)

Fanwork Links: please leave a message

mific posting in

fancake

Fandom: Heated Rivalry, Game Changers book series
Characters/Pairings: Shane Hollander/Ilya Rozanov, Yuna Hollander, David Hollander, Hayden Pike, Zane Boodram, Evan Dykstra
Rating: Explicit
Length: 26,873
Content Notes: contains depictions of homophobia and slurs, state-sanctioned and from individuals
Creator Links: pucksandpower on AO3
Themes: hurt/comfort, angst (with a happy ending), established relationship, canon LGBTQ+ characters, character development, au: fork in the road

Summary: One security camera. One leaked video. One choice that changes everything.

Ilya Rozanov loses his country, his team, and his shot at Olympic gold in a single night. But he doesn’t lose Shane, and that makes all the difference.

A story about finding home in a person, not a place. About choosing love over legacy. And about winning the medal you never knew you needed, standing next to the one person who matters most.

Reccer's Notes: Time to emerge from my Heated Rivalry obsession, with... Heated Rivalry recs! This goes au after the book (after season 1 of the show), so I guess it's a little spoilery if you haven't read the book or seen season 1. The plot takes a very different turn at the 2018 Korean Winter Olympics in PyeongChang. It's told from Ilya's point of view after what initially seems an utter disaster following which he has to flee the Russian authorities. Although it starts with trauma, most of the story is about how Ilya's life is rebuilt, with Shane being central to that, as are his teammates, and Shane's parents. It's an engaging story with great characterization and fun banter between Ilya and Shane, Ilya often being his usual in-your-face, snarky self. A heartwarming story with plenty of comfort to offset the initial hurt.

Fanwork Links: when the world sees (we run toward each other)

kelkyag posting in

girlgenius_lair

YES WE SHALL!

merriamwebster_feed

https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day/temporize-2025-12-22

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 22, 2025 is:

temporize • \TEM-puh-ryze\ • verb

To temporize is to avoid making a decision or giving a definite answer in order to have more time.

// Pressured by voters on both sides of the issue, the congressman temporized.

See the entry >

Examples:

"The question is, Did you eat the last piece of pie? And the politician who ate the last piece of pie doesn't want to say yes, because they might get in trouble. Doesn't want to say no, because that's an outright lie. So they waver, they equivocate, they temporize, they put things in context, and they talk like a politician." — David Frum, The Atlantic (The David Frum Show podcast), 21 May 2025

Did you know?

Temporize comes from the Middle French word temporiser, which in turn likely traces back via Medieval Latin temporizāre, "to delay," to the Latin noun tempus, meaning "time." Tempus is also the root of such words as tempo, contemporary, and temporal. If you need to buy some time, you might resort to temporizing, but you probably won't win admiration for doing so, as the word typically carries a negative connotation. For instance, a political leader faced with a difficult issue might temporize by talking vaguely about possible solutions without actually doing anything. The point of such temporizing is to avoid taking definitive—and possibly unpopular—action, in hopes that the problem will somehow go away.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day/temporize-2025-12-22

dialecticdreamer

Exceptional Return
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 1568
[21 December 2016]

:: An hour after Summer left the diner, the teleporter returned. She couldn’t have predicted that, so everything that followed was utterly flabbergasting, in the best of ways. Part of the Polychrome Heroics universe, and written for the December of 2025 Giftmas event. This is a gift for the solstice, on the solstice. This is for all those readers who hate getting lumped in with “Well it’s almost Christmas anyway.” ::

Summer Longacre was still trying to wring the water out of her hair after her fifteen-minute shower, when the distinctive z-z-z-zziiip echoed through the front door. She peered through the peephole at the broad concrete landing where snow and ice clung to the black enameled railing made of common square stock. The winter breeze pushed through the area so fiercely that no one was allowed to leave outdoor gear next to the entryway.

She looked down, checking her long teal caftan and nodded. Someone rapped on the door just as her fingers brushed the knob, making her jump back. “Right here,” she called through the door. Her breath whistled in the back of her throat.
( Read more... )

Current Mood: exhausted

draconis

So far, so good. I've started taking Mondays as a rest day, and Friday I slipped up a little bit -- looked up and it was 11:00 and I hadn't done my pushup set for the day. I decided no, doing them that late would rev up the system enough that I wouldn't sleep as well, and that wouldn't be doing myself any favors.

I still certainly can't claim that they're EASY, or even just routine, but I can tell they're getting better. Thank goodness, because I've only got 10 more days before I have in increase the count again!

fauxklore

I left out a couple of people on the non-celebrity death news in my last post. I never met Dovster in person, but I followed his posts on Flyertalk. In particular, he was a good source of news about Israel from an on-the-ground perspective.

I knew Eric Berman from the National Puzzlers’ League (NPL), where his nom was Ember. I particularly associate him with a trivia game called Trash, which focused on pop culture instead of the more highbrow trivia many other people use. (And I must confess that I am generally better at the highbrow stuff.) But he did include enough Broadway-related questions for me to not feel completely useless. And, more to the point, even the things I was clueless about were clever and amusingly presented. One of th email reasons I love the NPL is the level of creativity I see every year at con and his games were a fine example of that.

In other news, I think I have finally figured out what I am doing between two events in early January. I’m also starting to develop plans related to a few of my life list items.

What I didn’t manage to do was write holiday cards and go grocery shopping. I guess I know what I'm doing tomorrow.

draconis

Some deep thoughts at this darkest time of the year, as I try to find the path with the greatest amount of Light to deal with a situation, and to do my best to navigate in accordance with two philosophies which both make excellent sense.

A bit long-winded, I'm afraid.

One philosophy says to always remember that the spear which pierces the Other's heart is the spear which also pierces yours, for you are he.

A somewhat martial way of expressing one which charges us to do unto others as we would have done to us, or not to do to another that which we find hateful.

The other points out that there is a point where turning the other cheek becomes indistinguishable from condoning the violence the other is doing to you.

Having boundaries, maintaining and defending them, is a good thing. Those who don't want us to have them are almost always those who have something to gain by violating them, and who intend to do so.
Both of these philosophies are valid.

I think I must fall back on a conversation from many years ago with a man who had lived most of his life as a monk. He had just mentioned a core tenet of the monastery: the importance of respecting all living things.

When asked if that applied even to such creatures as mosquitos, he adopted what I think of as "Teacher Face." (You know the one, and many of you have seen me wearing it.)

Holding his open hand palm down at about chin level, he told this story.

Let's say a mosquito lands here on the back of my hand. I may let him take a little bit, then give him a puff of air hard enough to send him on his way. He's fed, and I am unharmed.

But let's say he comes back. I might let him take a little bit more, then use my other hand to thump him away.

If he comes back a third time? At that point, I might swat him.

Because you see, it is important for the mosquito to respect me, too.

hudebnik

Saturday we had reserved tickets to the M museum in Leuven, to make double-sure we didn’t miss the Leuven Chansonnier exhibit. So we took a train to Leuven (a 20-30 minute ride) and walked to the museum.

We needn’t have worried: the museum wasn’t crowded. M Museum is all about juxtaposing old and new: every room seemed to have Renaissance art alongside 20th or 21st century art on the same theme, or commenting on the Renaissance works. The first floor was given over to permanent collections (an impressive collection of Renaissance stuff, and I have no idea how impressive the modern collection was), while part of the second was “The Pursuit of Knowledge”, an exhibition about the 600-year history of KU Leuven that includes the Chansonnier.

I was uncertain how the museum would go about presenting the Leuven Chansonnier, which is after all a single object the size of a large wallet. The installation, entitled "Forty-Nine", set up a darkened room, with speakers on all sides and The Book partly open in a lit display case in the center, and played a recording of piece 49 from the Chansonnier (one of its 12 unica, pieces not known from any other source). On the front wall, five spots of light became the five performers on the recording — two singers, two lutes, and a vielle — with various digital manipulations done on their images. Effective.

Anyway, we saw a bunch of other stuff from the University’s collections -- fossils, 19th-century lab equipment, etc. -- before leaving the museum.

Stopped at the nearby Sintpieterskeerk, which houses Dietrich Bouts's famous and influential Last Supper, as well as a couple of other Bouts pieces.

Obligatory visit to the modern statue of a student having knowledge poured into its head, then walked back to the station for the train to Brussels. Got take-out Thai food and ate it in the room.

hudebnik

As planned, took a morning train from Tournai to Brussels (most of the stops were Not Silly).

As soon as we got out of the station,

shalmestere spotted a poster with medieval drolleries advertising a museum exhibit. She took a photo of it, but we were more immediately concerned with finding our hotel. Which we did without much trouble; it involved walking past some homeless people and the like, but it was a straight shot from the station.

Then looked at the photo again, looked up the museum (KBR -- the Royal Library of Belgium) online, concluded it was an exhibition of medieval manuscripts around the theme of music, and decided this was What We Should Do Today.
Walked back to the station and just a bit past it to the exhibition. Which was indeed awesome.
The KBR's permanent collection includes 279 medieval manuscripts from the Dukes of Burgundy, including most of the famous collection of Queen Marguerite of Austria, and many of them were on display. Some of the musical connections were a stretch — "this is a really cool manuscript, and if you look at the drolleries in the inner margin of the recto page, one of them is an animal playing a harp" — but an excellent collection.

	Here's a page from the famous "Brussels" black-paper basse-danse manuscript, from which much of our knowledge of early basse-danse choreography (and a little knowledge of musical ornamentation) comes. I suspect this is actually a facsimile: the real manuscript is in this library, but I've been told it's extremely fragile (the dyes that turn paper black aren't good for its longevity), and what's in the display case is in excellent condition.
	Neumatic chant notation from the 8th century Antiphonary of Mont Blandin
	Neumatic chant notation from the 12th century Sacramentarium of Stavelot Abbey
	Marginal picture of a transverse-flute player (?)
	Marginal picture of a man pushing another man in a wheelbarrow (from Breviary of Louis de Male, 14c)
	A treatise on music, with drawings of musical instruments (14th century, Park Abbey). Includes a straight trumpet ("tuba" or "basoun"), a horn ("corn&o" or "horn"), a harp ("cithara" or "harp"), something that might be a citole, two recorders ("fistula" or "floyt"), and a snare drum ("tympanum" or [indecipherable]).
	Shepherds playing bagpipe, entertaining the hounds and the sheep
	An opening from (one of) the Chansonnier of Queen Marguerite of Austria
	A young 15th-century nobleman being shown the error of his lascivious ways (including music, hounds, everything that makes life fun)
	A 15th-century representation of the Guidonian hand
	A banquet scene, with alta capella playing from the gallery, from the Histoire de Charles Martel (1465)
	Another banquet scene, with alta capella playing from the gallery, from the Chroniques de Hainaut (1465)
	A tournament with an alta capella playing from the gallery (15c)
	A royal procession, with holy relics and an alta capella at the front, from Fleur des histoires, 15c
	Not a "manuscript", technically, but a four-part piece printed on a tablecloth for Marie of Hungary, 1548.

Back to the room. I took a bag of dirty socks and shirts to a nearby laundromat and, while waiting for the wash cycle, hunted for nearby grocery stores. Didn’t find much, but got some yogurt for breakfast-in-the-room. And we both have enough clean clothes to get through the end of the vacation, even if our flight is delayed.

skygiants

Sometimes I hit a romance in media and I'm like well. I don't know that I'd say that I ship this. I wouldn't be sad if these people broke up. But unfortunately I do actually believe that they are in love and find it compelling to watch what happens about it ....

anyway that's how I felt about the central relationship in The Legend of ShenLi, which is a xianxia cdrama about ✨ The Greatest General Of The Demon Realm ✨ and her epic romance with -- well. For the first five or six episodes ShenLi, the Greatest General of the Demon Realm, is trapped on Earth in the form of an angry CGI chicken, in the care of a sickly human scholar who has discovered that his angry CGI chicken is in fact some sort of supernatural entity and thinks the whole situation is very funny.

Here, for the record, is angry chicken ShenLi:

and here is ShenLi and her love interest when nobody is a chicken:

This whole introductory arc is really charming. Incredibly happy for that sickly scholar and his angry bird wife. But alas! all things must end, the lovers are parted, and ShenLi The Greatest General of the Demon Realm grimly returns home to confront her upcoming political marriage to a playboy from the Divine Realm, in the full assumption that she will never see her sickly scholar again because even aside from the political pressures one day in the Demon Realm equals a year in the human realm so the time difference is not workable.

However! then some monster nonsense starts happening in the Demon Realm, and so the Divine Realm sends its last surviving actual factual god to help out -- who bears a Mysterious Resemblance to ShenLi's sickly human boyfriend .... ( spoilers )

But enough about the leads! ( Here's a short list of my other favorite people in the drama, cut for some images as well )

james_davis_nicoll

Can they use their abilities in the course of their mandatory voluntary community service? Or maybe, the question is, how to use them without running into the bar on endangering other people or themselves?

ysabetwordsmith posting in

birdfeeding

Today is sunny and cool.

I fed the birds. I've seen a few sparrows and house finches. Some birds are singing in the south hedge.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 12/21/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 12/21/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 12/21/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

I am done for the night.

Current Mood: busy

languagelog_feed

Posted by Mark Liberman

https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=72392&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=name-transcription-slop

https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=72392

Friday's On The Media, "Deep Fakes, Data Centers, And AI Slop — Are We Cooked?" has some linguistically-interesting discussion, especially the part about the rise of AI-generated trolling — more on that later. But this post is just a quick note on a widespread symptom of current end-to-end speech-to-text technology, where the text end of the process is letter-sequence tokens of obscure origin, yielding some peculiar spelling errors.

The show signs off like this

…which YouTube's "auto-generated" transcript renders as:

Checking the show's website, we see that a couple of these names are correctly spelled: Molly Rosen and Katya Rogers.

A few others are spelled wrong, but in a more-or-less plausible way: Candice Wang becomes "Candace Wong", Eloise Blondiau becomes "Eloise Blondio", and Micah Loewinger becomes "Michael Owinger".

Rebecca Clark-Callendar entirely loses her post-hyphen syllables, to become "Rebecca Clark".

Then Jennifer Munson becomes unpronounceable as "Jennifer Mnson", and to top it all off, Brooke Gladstone become "Broo Gladstone"…

In the YouTube post-closure closure, Ira Flato loses his 'l':

And I continue to be puzzled about YouTube's failure to even try to do phrase division and speaker diarization — but again, that's a topic for another day…

https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=72392&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=name-transcription-slop

https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=72392

$mdlbear: blue fractal bear with text "since 2002" (Default)$

mdlbear

Damned if I know how to summarize this week. Mixed?

Embarrassingly, I managed to confuse two deliveries (see Monday) -- I think because they had the same last digit or so in their package numbers -- so I had to delete a couple of annoyed-sounding posts. Hopefully before anyone noticed. The Roamate (combo rollator/powered wheelchair) arrived less than an hour later. Karma, I guess. The device itself seems pretty good, modulo some wierd design decisions, but will take some getting used to before I can write a proper review.

On the other hand, Bronx has been becoming an absolute cuddle-bug. He likes to be picked up and carried, which can be very useful. He doesn't always settle down into my lap after that, but when he does he has a nice rumbly purr. And my medication is still being adjusted; I seem to be getting into somewhat better shape. It's still not great, but I'm not complaining.

On the gripping hand, (covered mobility scooter)Scarlet the Carlet is broken, with a circuit breaker that doesn't want to stay reset. N, G, and j managed to push her home (under a kilometer, and NL is basically flat) -- we'll call for repairs tomorrow sometime.

In the links: MIT physicists peer inside an atom’s nucleus using the fact that Radium monofluoride's electron cloud extends inside the Radium's somewhat pear-shaped nucleus. Wild. Both the technique, and the fact that that compound exists at all. At least it's nowhere near as unstable as FOOF.

The Star Gauge is fascinating. (m sent us a link on the family Discord, but it was to tumblr -- the wikipedia article is less problematic.)

( Notes & links, as usual )

Current Mood: calm
Current Location: Schildhaven in Den Haag
Current Music: some

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magid

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Page Summary

antisoppist - Advent calendar 22
ao3_news_feed - Updates to "No Fandom" Additional Tags, December 2025
alobear - Marbles and Towers
vriddy in getting_started - Do images also get redirected when using a rename token?
yuletidemods in yuletide_pinch_hits - ALL CLAIMED - PHs #226-227
mific in fancake - Heated Rivalry: please leave a message by Ravenesta
mific in fancake - Heated Rivalry: when the world sees (we run toward each other) by pucksandpower
kelkyag in girlgenius_lair - Monday's comic
merriamwebster_feed - temporize
dialecticdreamer - Exceptional Return (part 1 of 1, complete)
draconis - Milestone birthday goal, status update, week 3
fauxklore - I Forgot Some Things
draconis - Thinky thoughts at the dark of the year
hudebnik - Leuven
hudebnik - Brussels
skygiants - (no subject)
james_davis_nicoll - Assume the existence of superpowered teens
ysabetwordsmith in birdfeeding - Birdfeeding
languagelog_feed - Name-transcription slop
mdlbear - Done Since 2025-12-14

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Advent calendar 22

Updates to "No Fandom" Additional Tags, December 2025

New Canonicals

In Conclusion

Marbles and Towers

Do images also get redirected when using a rename token?

ALL CLAIMED - PHs #226-227

Heated Rivalry: please leave a message by Ravenesta

Heated Rivalry: when the world sees (we run toward each other) by pucksandpower

Monday's comic

temporize

Exceptional Return (part 1 of 1, complete)

Milestone birthday goal, status update, week 3

I Forgot Some Things

Thinky thoughts at the dark of the year

Leuven

Brussels

(no subject)

Assume the existence of superpowered teens

Birdfeeding

Name-transcription slop

Done Since 2025-12-14

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December 2025

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