Phoebe and Her Unicorn - 2025-12-23
Dec. 23rd, 2025 12:00 am![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
phoebeandherunicorn_feedComic strip for 2025/12/23
36 Hours to Reveals
Dec. 23rd, 2025 10:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yuletidemods posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
yuletide_adminWe're so close! This year, Yuletide reveals are at 9pm UTC on 24 December - that has changed since last year.
COUNTDOWN TO REVEALS
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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.
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.
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.
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.
Schedule, Rules, & Collection | Contact Mods | Participant DW | Participant LJ | Pinch Hits on DW | Discord | Tag set | Tag set app
Please either comment logged-in or sign a name. Unsigned anonymous comments will be left screened.
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.Please either comment logged-in or sign a name. Unsigned anonymous comments will be left screened.
Cards! (Emergency printmaking)
Dec. 22nd, 2025 10:49 pmradiantfractureThank you, james for the excellent dinosaur card!
I've been too exhausted to do any of the semi-bespoke painting I half-promised over the summer, but I had a last-minute compulsion to make hand-printed cards because anything that looks like work went into it makes me appear marginally better.
You see? the cards say. An Effort.
I don't mind how they turned out. Sort of "the Dove of Peace is pissed and wants you to get your shit together."
§rf§
james for the excellent dinosaur card! I've been too exhausted to do any of the semi-bespoke painting I half-promised over the summer, but I had a last-minute compulsion to make hand-printed cards because anything that looks like work went into it makes me appear marginally better.
You see? the cards say. An Effort.
I don't mind how they turned out. Sort of "the Dove of Peace is pissed and wants you to get your shit together."
§rf§
Recipes for Hugo (part 1 of 1, complete)
Dec. 22nd, 2025 11:30 pmdialecticdreamerRecipes for Hugo
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only):1653
[A few days before Christmas 2016]
:: Heron has assembled a complicated gift for his cousin Hugo. It sparks a surprising reaction in the younger man. Part of the Finn family and the Shiv/Omaha story arcs in the Polychrome Heroics universe, the story was written in the December 2025 prompt fest, with my deep thanks to the reader who suggested it. ::
“Recipes for Hugo.” The period at the end of the sentence grew irregularly, creeping from beneath the tip of the gel pen. Heron stared at it with a flat, narrow-eyed glare, and capped the pen silently before dropping it into the black fireproof trash can labeled, “Test to Destruction” with a strip of duck tape and red permanent marker.
That tiny noise nearly woke Mallory, asleep on the sofa.
( Read more... )
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only):1653
[A few days before Christmas 2016]
:: Heron has assembled a complicated gift for his cousin Hugo. It sparks a surprising reaction in the younger man. Part of the Finn family and the Shiv/Omaha story arcs in the Polychrome Heroics universe, the story was written in the December 2025 prompt fest, with my deep thanks to the reader who suggested it. ::
“Recipes for Hugo.” The period at the end of the sentence grew irregularly, creeping from beneath the tip of the gel pen. Heron stared at it with a flat, narrow-eyed glare, and capped the pen silently before dropping it into the black fireproof trash can labeled, “Test to Destruction” with a strip of duck tape and red permanent marker.
That tiny noise nearly woke Mallory, asleep on the sofa.
( Read more... )
Yuletide
Dec. 22nd, 2025 07:08 pmsettiaiNow that we're getting closer and closer to golive, I've been narrowing down my bookmarks on the app for potential treats to try to get written. I'd originally included some fandoms that I could write for if I found the time to re-read/re-watch/etc. the fandom in question, but the odds of me finding the time to fit any more canon reviews in is slim to none at this point.
So I've taken out those fandoms and left the ones that I know that I'd be able to write without having to do a proper review beforehand. Because, you know, that would get it down to a reasonable number of options to choose from, right? Right?
... yeah, it's still at 161. I'm way too multifannish even with rare fandoms. 🙃
So I've taken out those fandoms and left the ones that I know that I'd be able to write without having to do a proper review beforehand. Because, you know, that would get it down to a reasonable number of options to choose from, right? Right?
... yeah, it's still at 161. I'm way too multifannish even with rare fandoms. 🙃
(no subject)
Dec. 22nd, 2025 06:43 pmflemmingsShe has turnèd, she has turnèd, she has turnèd (everyone to her own way)-- I mean, for the first time in 75 years I am actually *glad* for the solstice. Sympathetic magic: may the returning light bring a lightening to this dark world, and may I soon read that big, beautiful obituary. Why yes, I have frequently wished someone dead, whatever it does to my karma, and still do.
Lie-in dream today was of being at a spa/ onsen of sorts which was also the family cottage but enlarged, with my cousin F but also my sister, and an unpleasant woman I was supposed to share a room with. Decided I couldn't hack this, I was going back to TO, but couldn't find the owner/ o-kamisan to tell her this and the mostly Asian staff didn't know where she'd got to. Told my sister but she couldn't help. Told F, who was in a bathing suit, who said something about her dad (dead 50 years this month) taking me back but he was at their real-life cottage, two over from ours. Did I make it home? I think I may have-- vague memory of counting the cars on the 401 highway, which is not the way you get to the cottage, that's the QEW, a sink.
Hit the LCBO and have vodka and Kahlua to see me through the hols. Many white russians in my future, since the black ones rot my guts. Gov't money comes in early so I splurge on alcohol and food banks, though am accablée that the Muslim one seems to operate only on the west coast. Will no one think of the Toronto delivery guys?
Lie-in dream today was of being at a spa/ onsen of sorts which was also the family cottage but enlarged, with my cousin F but also my sister, and an unpleasant woman I was supposed to share a room with. Decided I couldn't hack this, I was going back to TO, but couldn't find the owner/ o-kamisan to tell her this and the mostly Asian staff didn't know where she'd got to. Told my sister but she couldn't help. Told F, who was in a bathing suit, who said something about her dad (dead 50 years this month) taking me back but he was at their real-life cottage, two over from ours. Did I make it home? I think I may have-- vague memory of counting the cars on the 401 highway, which is not the way you get to the cottage, that's the QEW, a sink.
Hit the LCBO and have vodka and Kahlua to see me through the hols. Many white russians in my future, since the black ones rot my guts. Gov't money comes in early so I splurge on alcohol and food banks, though am accablée that the Muslim one seems to operate only on the west coast. Will no one think of the Toronto delivery guys?
A Year of Reading Challenges (long)
Dec. 22nd, 2025 06:19 pmonepageatatimeSo, this year, I chose two reading challenges for myself, and I tried to choose them advisedly, so they would affect my year's reading, but not control it.
( Starting with recapping my 2025 reading challenges… )
I also found that this was a year where I was changing. And… there were times I resented the challenges that Early 2025 Me chose, because Current 2025 Me wanted to read other things but also wanted to complete the challenge she'd set for herself previously.
I suspect that I may not do any structured reading challenges next year. Or, maybe if I find some shorter-term ones. They aren't something I've traditionally done: 2025 was a first time. And I enjoyed it, despite my grumbling here. But… I also think I need less pressure on my reading life going into 2026. Let my interests take me where they will and push myself to make the decisions, rather than letting those choices be influenced as much by previous decisions.
( Finishing with reading streaks and page count goals )
( Starting with recapping my 2025 reading challenges… )
I also found that this was a year where I was changing. And… there were times I resented the challenges that Early 2025 Me chose, because Current 2025 Me wanted to read other things but also wanted to complete the challenge she'd set for herself previously.
I suspect that I may not do any structured reading challenges next year. Or, maybe if I find some shorter-term ones. They aren't something I've traditionally done: 2025 was a first time. And I enjoyed it, despite my grumbling here. But… I also think I need less pressure on my reading life going into 2026. Let my interests take me where they will and push myself to make the decisions, rather than letting those choices be influenced as much by previous decisions.
( Finishing with reading streaks and page count goals )
44
Dec. 22nd, 2025 11:07 pmcosmolinguistThanks for the nice comments on the previous entry. They, along with just writing it out in the first place and D holding me tight (normally I am the big spoon but he did a great job at it last night!) helped me have an okay night.
D had asked me, after we turned the lights off, if there was anything I wanted to do today -- the family had no real plans beyond making the homemade vegan wellington for my birthday dinner that D's sister had suggested and I'd gotten excited about before I remembered quite how much work it was last year, oops. But D and I helped and it felt a lot less of a production this year.
Anyway, before that we had no plans and I thought it might be nice to get out of the house and see something of Birmingham. We didn't actually make it as far as the city centre but the local high street allowed D to browse charity shops while I got a long-overdue haircut (I went from the longest hair I've had in quite a while to the highest skin fade I've maybe ever had, so it feels like a dramatic difference!), and we went for a very nice birthday lunch.
My birthday present from D might still be trapped in DRM hell but he told me what it is, and The Feminist Art of Walking by his old pal Morag goes very nicely with the birthday present I've already gotten from angelofthenorth, of short walks/hikes around Greater Manchester. I also got a bookshop.org voucher from D's mum, which can be added to the one that comprised the other part of my birthday present from Miriam, so I have to decide what to get there too, which is so fun.
Weirdly, my birthday also marks a year since Gary died. It feels so long ago but also I can still conjure him so clearly in my memory, and there probably hasn't been a day all year that I haven't thought of him. I still miss him so much.
I've had a much better day, and I'm looking forward to being home tomorrow.
Write every day: Day 22
Dec. 22nd, 2025 02:55 pmluzulaDay 22: 300 words of longfic, yay! Oh, this is a fun bit. How about you?
Tally:
( Read more... )
Day 21:china_shop, trobadora, badly_knitted, sylvanwitch, chestnut_pod, chanter1944, goddess47, sanguinity, cornerofmadness
Bonus farm news: Both housemates now gone away over Christmas. I'm away over the night, too, which means asking neighbors to feed the ducks and the cat, as we have helped out the same neighbors in the past with their cat, hens, and sheep when they were away. I am very happy to have established some good neighbor relationships!
Tally:
( Read more... )
Day 21:
china_shop, trobadora, badly_knitted, sylvanwitch, chestnut_pod, chanter1944, goddess47, sanguinity, cornerofmadnessBonus farm news: Both housemates now gone away over Christmas. I'm away over the night, too, which means asking neighbors to feed the ducks and the cat, as we have helped out the same neighbors in the past with their cat, hens, and sheep when they were away. I am very happy to have established some good neighbor relationships!
Fitness Fellowship 2025: Check-in 51
Dec. 22nd, 2025 03:33 pmsylvanwitchWhew! We're almost there! Time has moved so strangely for me this year. It doesn't feel like any time at all has passed, yet here we are with only a handful of days left.
I'll save the retrospective questions for next week. For now, as usual, please do share how your week has gone, fitness-wise and/or otherwise. We're here to listen, cheerlead, and not judge. :-)
( My Week in Review )
I hope the holidays have been going and/or do go easy on you, friends!
I'll save the retrospective questions for next week. For now, as usual, please do share how your week has gone, fitness-wise and/or otherwise. We're here to listen, cheerlead, and not judge. :-)
( My Week in Review )
I hope the holidays have been going and/or do go easy on you, friends!
Check-In Post - Dec 22nd 2025
Dec. 22nd, 2025 07:03 pmbadly_knitted posting in get_knittedHello to all members, passers-by, curious onlookers, and shy lurkers, and welcome to our regular daily check-in post. Just leave a comment below to let us know how your current projects are progressing, or even if they're not.
Checking in is NOT compulsory, check in as often or as seldom as you want, this community isn't about pressure it's about encouragement, motivation, and support. Crafting is meant to be fun, and what's more fun than sharing achievements and seeing the wonderful things everyone else is creating?
There may also occasionally be questions, but again you don't have to answer them, they're just a way of getting to know each other a bit better.
This Week's Question: Does anyone have any plans for making Christmas gifts or cards?
If anyone has any questions of their own about the community, or suggestions for tags, questions to be asked on the check-in posts, or if anyone is interested in playing check-in host for a week here on the community, which would entail putting up the daily check-in posts and responding to comments, go to the Questions & Suggestions post and leave a comment.
I now declare this Check-In OPEN!
Just one thing: 22 December 2025
Dec. 22nd, 2025 12:46 pmjazzyjj posting in awesomeersIt's challenge time!
Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.
Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished!
Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!
Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.
Go!
Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.
Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished!
Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!
Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.
Go!
Probably not going to leave the slightest trace in the wake when it's my turn
Dec. 22nd, 2025 11:52 amsovaySince the light is officially supposed to have returned in my hemisphere, it is pleasing that my morning has been filled with the quartz-flood of winter sun. I could not get any kind of identifying look at the weird ducks clustered on their mirror-blue thread of the Mystic as I drove past, but I saw black, blue, buff, white, russet, green, and one upturned tail with traffic-cone feet.
On the front of ghost stories for winter, Afterlives: The Year's Best Death Fiction 2024, edited by Sheree Renée Thomas, is now digitally available from Psychopomp. Nephthys of the kite-winged darkness presides over its contents, which include my queer maritime ice-dream "Twice Every Day Returning." It's free to subscribers of The Deadlands and worth a coin or two on the eyes of the rest.
For the solstice itself, I finally managed to write about a short and even seasonal film-object and made latkes with my parents.spatch and I lit the last night's candle for the future. All these last months have been a very rough turn toward winter. I have to believe that I will be able to believe in one.
On the front of ghost stories for winter, Afterlives: The Year's Best Death Fiction 2024, edited by Sheree Renée Thomas, is now digitally available from Psychopomp. Nephthys of the kite-winged darkness presides over its contents, which include my queer maritime ice-dream "Twice Every Day Returning." It's free to subscribers of The Deadlands and worth a coin or two on the eyes of the rest.
For the solstice itself, I finally managed to write about a short and even seasonal film-object and made latkes with my parents.
spatch and I lit the last night's candle for the future. All these last months have been a very rough turn toward winter. I have to believe that I will be able to believe in one.