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☆ Didn't manage to get my glasses this weekend. Turns out that the office was closed, even though they're usually open on Saturdays... grumble, grumble. Looks like I'm going to have to leave work early on some day this week in order to go pick them up. What a pain in the ass. I just want my glasses, man. :(

☆ British Columbia is dealing with kind of a craptastic wildfire situation right now, mainly in the Cariboo region*. The Red Cross is taking donations*; I'm not sure which other organizations are involved. The situation isn't comparable to what happened in my city last year - 8k evacuees here, vs 80k last year - but it still really sucks. Seeing this stuff on the news is... hard.

☆ YiH: So, it looks like we're getting an update this upcoming Friday*. I'm assuming it will be the start of actual regular updates again, considering Karo has the rest of Ch05 done, but we'll see. I'm really, really looking forward to it, at the very least. When I was checking a detail today, I ended up just re-reading a huge chunk of it, and now it's so hard to wait. xD ...Speaking of which, while I was sifting through my WIP pages, I came across that fic I started a while back, and to my astonishment it doesn't suck terribly badly. So, I ended up finishing the draft of it. Turned out very differently than what I initially wanted, but that's fine. (It was initially going to be much longer, for one thing.) Wonder if I can get it finished before the update? We'll see.

☆ I finished that long SSSS OC fic I was working on! HOORAY! ...It is 9 pages. I do not want to type it up and edit it. At all.

Don't ask me how my rare slash exchange fic is going. >.o

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

greatandgrey

The news story of British Columbia broke my heart. Thank you for those links.

I'm really excited for YiH! I wonder if we'll be getting a bulk update to celebrate the end of hiatus or it'll be just one page, but either way I'm not complaining. :) I was requesting so much stuff for this for GenEx this morning and getting super excited (but also super tongue tied because we simply don't have much to go on but I want all the Siiri and Sampsa stuff and--) I should also reread the comic in preparation for Friday!

And congrats on the writing success. What seems to be the trouble with RMS? (you are always free to vent privately!)

From:

yuuago

<3

A bulk update would be super cool! But I'd be happy with one page + return to regular schedule. xD Either way, it'll be good. I know what you mean about how it's hard to request - the times I've requested it, I've wanted literally anything, and it's so hard to think of specifics... or at least, specifics that won't take many, many pages to write.
(Here is where I confess that the fic I mentioned was originally going to be a NoFM treat for you, but I had to put it aside because getting Jaako and Veeti to the point where they'd even hold hands would probably take about 20 pages, AT LEAST, and I couldn't manage with the time constraint. xD Something tells me that figuring out how to shove them together will be easier once we get the rest of the current chapter....)
/GOES TO SNOOP YOUR EXCHANGE LETTER

With RMS, it's mostly... Recip was very sparse in their details, which is usually not an issue. But the pairing they requested is one that I've written many times, so I'm kind of low on my own ideas at the moment. BUT I think I've figured out what to write for them! It's mostly just a matter of sitting down and doing it (and... not allowing myself to get distracted by other writing projects. xD)

From:

greatandgrey

Indeed! :) I'm finding the Twitter and Tumblr exchanges format a little better, at least with the sign up part. You just declare what you want on your wishlist and that's it. No stressing out in giving prompts. And I like that since I'm all "I want Thing! That's it, that's your prompt!" (And I feel my prompts suck anyway. XD I mean, giving DNWs and general likes wouldn't hurt for these exchanges, but I guess this crowd knows not to overstep certain boundaries.)

Oooo, treat! :D Well, my giftbox is always open! :D (and I requested them again for RMS and for Rare Pair. And if I decide on Yuletide this year, that too! XD I can't wait to see it! Let me know when you're done! :D )

Ah, okay! :) I know the feeling! I think taking a break might help you. Looks like you're just run out of steam for the pairing and need to reenergize, so working on other things in the meantime should help. :)

From:

yuuago

Hmm, I've tried tumblr exchanges a couple of times, and they didn't go so well, but that was Hetalia fandom, which is its own special type of clusterfuck. So I'm glad you're having a much better experience with it in... Voltron, is it? There is a nice kind of simplicity in just dropping a basic wishlist and calling it done. xD Though I've found your prompts good; you always give plenty to work with.

Since I decided to cut down the 20 pages of slow burn, this YiH thing ended up gen, alas. But maybe you will still like it. xD It just means I need to write them MORE so that pairing fic of them can, like, exist. ...Aside from that AU thing. (Did you see the AU thing based on the Odie panel? The coffee date thing. And the part 2.)

(Also you should try writing them too, since you have so many good ideas! ...In your... non-existent vast amounts of free time... well okay maybe not xD )

Looks like you're just run out of steam for the pairing and need to reenergize

That might very well be the biggest problem here.

And... I think another part of the problem is that I like this pairing (and many, many others) portrayed as very, well, low-key. And I keep running into big long wanks where people are like "IF THEY DON'T KISS, IT'S NOT SHIPFIC". It's been making me feel so self-conscious! Which is STUPID because those people are obviously WRONG but aslkdjfkkkkguh. I don't want to accidentally give my recip something that they will interpret as smarm, I guess.

From:

greatandgrey

Yep, Voltron! :) Once you tiptoe past the minefield of antis, there's a whole lovely utopia full of fluff and crack and femslash and people who will deliver with the most indulgent whump and...yeah. XD

Oh, I see! :D And OMG, somehow I completely missed the fics! I'll read them tomorrow for sure! :D THANK YOU! <3

(Yes I should try to write them. XD There's got to be space somewhere in my schedule! XD I do have one idea, but it's not with them as the focus. It covers a whole bunch of pairings where they are all soulmates, and it's about how in each lifetime they find each other again.)

Oh, dear. I agree, that's really stupid. There is WAY more to romance that just kissing. :\ You know, just thinking back to the NoFM fic you wrote me, if there was a kiss between Reynir and Lalli I don't remember it (not that it's anything against you!) What I'm still thinking about now was how intensely I felt like I was in their home. That really stayed with me, being part of their lives and just amazed at how they fell into this easy rhythm, these two very different people being able to coordinate their very different lives and needs near perfectly. I was so happy and drunk on that all day. And still am, I guess! XD And in your fic for me last year for Rare Pair, when Reynir was writing that letter about seeing someone on the streets and thinking they were Lalli, it hit me so hard I actually began to cry. That's shippy. :') I love it!

If your recip thinks what you write is smarm then...they're missing out.

From:

yuuago

OH I remember you mentioning that soulmate one! I hope you'll get to it eventually, that was a great idea.

Aw, you say the sweetest things. I'm glad you enjoyed those stories so much; Reynir and Lalli are just so much fun to write in cozy established-relationship type settings. <3

I think I'm less worried now that we've had this discussion... I just need to pay less attention to weirdos with Very Strong Opinions, and more attention to just getting the story written. xD If the recip cared either way, they would have specified, after all.

From:

straightforwardly

Hopefully you don't mind me dropping into the conversation, but low-key romance is the best romance! ...Though I can understand why you feel pressured; I've been seeing those wanks and worrying a little about it too.

From:

yuuago

Dripping in is always welcome. ;)

Yesss low-key romance is AWESOME romance. Especially because it seems very suited to a lot of the characters I write. I guess the only things to do in situations like this is realize that the people getting into petty arguments about it are outliers and shouldn't be counted. Right?

From:

dhampyresa

"IF THEY DON'T KISS, IT'S NOT SHIPFIC"

Who was it that said that if you had to write a kiss to show two people are in love, you're not writing a convincing romance?

From:

yuuago

I'm not sure who it is who said that, though I've definitely seen that quote before. IT'S SO TRUE.

From:

zimena

The wildfire sounds horrible, and even more so after what you experienced last year :(. I can imagine that seeing it on the news would bring back memories. Sending you many warm thoughts from here.

Duh, shops and offices with inconvenient opening hours... Grrr. Good luck getting your glasses soon! I hope you'll be very happy with them!

From:

yuuago

Thank you. <3 It's really far away, so at least there's no risk over here, but it still sucks to hear about.

I'm totally looking forward to getting my glasses. xD It'll be so nice to see! (And then I won't need to worry that I'm always accidentally glaring at people...)

From:

laufeyknits

Good luck and success on your glass hunt!

Wildfires are awful. -.- Russia has a few every year, but they're usually in areas where no one lives, so the only end result is south Finland occasionally being wrapped in weird, unsettling smog.

FRIDAY FRIDAY GOTTA GET DOWN ON FRIDAY