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Happy Sunday!

+ Yuletide Exchange's fics have been revealed. 1027 fandoms, whoo! Holy shit, this thing has been going on for 20 years, what?!!

There's 17 works for Nirvana in Fire, and I'm really looking forward to those. It's probably going to be over the rarity limit next year.

+ Multifandom Doodle has revealed artworks for this round. This exchange is great, lots of fun and creative stuff typically - I find I love looking through all of it, even when I don't know the fandoms.

+ Candy Hearts Exchange* is in the nomination stage* until the end of the 27th. This is a one-off stand in for Chocolate Box Exchange, which won't be running for 2023. Looks like I'll have to figure out my requests! (Maybe I'll have a fanart-only slate this year? I dunno.)

+ Had Thanksgiving supper yesterday. Did not murder anyone. Everyone liked the fancy green beans that I cooked. Got very drunk because apparently my alcohol tolerance has gone way down since I moved out and don't usually have wine with supper any more. Mom sent me home with a ton of leftover turkey that I'm going to use to make a totally boss curry. Not bad!

+ Spent about an hour this weekend with gloves and a garbage bag, picking up trash in the park. Hooray, there is a noticeable improvement! (But fuck all those assholes who just throw their litter everywhere.)

+ Finished the draft for my second FTH fic! Hooray! ...Now I have to type the damn thing up. Eew. But we're clipping along according to schedule, so I'm pretty pleased. It's going to take some work to get it to turn out the way I want, but I think it'll be all right! It's Hetalia SE/DE, which I haven't written at length before, but there's some interesting possibilities with that pairing, I will admit. (TBH usually I prefer it as like, very late 19th century SE/DE/NO, but that did not fit the request.)

+ Had a conversation about Hetalia with Tik today, and we realized that it's been published as Hetalia World Stars since 2014. Both of us boggled - we thought it had been... not as long as that. How does time pass so fast? How is it 2021? How have I been in this fandom for 12 years, still actively writing fic for it? It is a mystery.

+ I went for an hour-long walk twice today, and I feel GREAT. I really wish I could do this every day.

+ The Yuletide 2021 tagset is up. I wasn't planning to participate in this exchange, but not going to lie, looking through the options make it rather tempting, because a lot of fandoms that I like were added to it - and I didn't even add any myself! Poldark AND Anno 1790 are both in the tagset, and while I've never written either, the latter is a quick canon review and I've certainly seen enough of the former to give it a go... Ah, well, I'll resist the signup temptation and just wait to see what the requests are like. ;) Do any of you see anything that excites you? Any feelings about Worldbuilding being added as a requestable option?

☆ Brrr, it's starting to get cold! Stepped outside to go for a run this evening, and I had to go right back inside and get my gloves. Awful.

☆ Thanksgiving this weekend. I really would rather not, but y'know. It is how it is. Let's get this over with!

☆ Yesterday, was reading through a draft that I'd set aside for a while. Found myself thinking, "You know, this is actually pretty good". Which is a relief, because when I finished writing that thing, I hated it! Looks like it's time to work on it again now.

☆ Thinking about taking a day off next week. Just a random one in the middle of the work week. I need to get through all of this vacation time somehow. :|a

☆ Looks like the Yuletide tagset is visible now. What the heck, I had no idea that Promare is still eligible! Looks like there are lots of other neat things in the list, too. Are any of you thinking of participating? I'm going to have to sit it out, but if I get all of these auction fics done early, then treating maybe....

I'll probably have a longer list of recs from Yuletide Exchange in a few days, but for now, I suggest taking a look at the Vatican Miracle Examiner stuff, for those familiar with that canon. Both are Roberto & Hiraga gen, and both are lovely in different ways. One is sweet, and the other has buckets of h/c. Definitely worth taking a look. :D

01: let nothing you dismay (1400 words)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Hiraga Josef Kou & Roberto Nicholas
Characters: Hiraga Josef Kou, Roberto Nicholas
Additional Tags: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Nightmares, Sharing a Bed, Platonic Life Partners, Yuletide Treat
Summary:

If he wakes Roberto up, he knows, Roberto will surface apologetic, self-deprecating, embarrassed. It's one of those inescapable frustrations: Hiraga knows Roberto like he knows no one else, save maybe Ryota, and Roberto, in turn, knows Hiraga so clearly - so fully - and yet he's still unable to believe, deep where it matters, that this tragic history does not make him tainted in Hiraga's eyes. He'd avert his eyes, and lie about his dreams, and carry the weight of those lies with him into the next morning, ashamed and heavy with guilt, and find a way to stay awake as late as possible the next time they share a night.

02: The Crimson and the Wool (2674 words)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Relationships: Hiraga Ryouta & Roberto Nicholas
Characters: Hiraga Josef Kou, Roberto Nicholas
Additional Tags: Hurt/Comfort
Summary:

Hiraga had always though he preferred the cold, fresh air of the snow and the mountains.
Now, he would give anything for the warmth of a summer day.

☆ I've been a total mess lately. Man, this funk I'm in is such a pain in the ass! I've also been sleeping way too much this weekend, and that's bad. (As in, going to bed at a reasonable-ish time, but then sleeping in past 9 AM anyway... Not good at all.) But! I tidied things up here a bit, at least. There are a lot more things that need to be taken care of, including (ugh) dusting, but I already feel a lot better.

☆ I had to default on my Yuletide assignment. My recip was lovely, and had great prompts, but this case of the blahs shows no sign of going away any time soon. So, it's better to do this, rather than risk giving them extruded fic product. I'm sure that when the pinch hits go out (hopefully there will be a batch in the next couple of days?) they will get snatched up right away. Still going to try to write them a treat, but I'll be able to breathe a bit easier without the deadline hanging over my head.

☆ Trying to decide on a new reading challenge for next year... Usually I decide to read X number of books, and then have subcategories inside of that (poetry, nonfiction, etc). Think I'll add a few for the 2018 list, so it'll be:
-10 Nonfiction
-10 Poetry
-10 Works by First Nations/Inuit/Metis authors
-10 works by Canadian authors
-10 works by authors from outside of Canada, USA, and England
The only question is whether I should allow overlap. xD Usually I do, but, if I didn't... HMM... filling every category would be more challenging. :D Fun!

☆ Looks like I've come down with a cold. Oh, goody. I wish I knew which motherfucker passed these germs to me. Grumble, grumble, grumble.

☆ Seems I'm going to be doing Yuletide Exchange this year, even though I thought I wouldn't. I was jotting down some fic ideas, and it turned out to be enough for a letter, so... why not! But aside from signups, I'm not going to worry about it much until ToT is over.

☆ Inktober starts tomorrow! *_* I have a pad of cheap scratch paper... somewhere... which I will be using for this. Going to try to mostly draw OCs, but if I get frustrated with that, I might just default to drawing objects again. (And knowing me, that'll mostly be coffee mugs). Since I'm going to be doing it in ballpoint on scraps, I'll hopefully be able to relax and have fun with it, and not take it too seriously.

☆ State of the Long Smutfic: just started the 15th handwritten page. Oh dear. Estimate is that it'll finish at 20. I'm going to hate revising this story so, so much. (But it'll be worth it.)

Thanks for the kind words, guys. I'm still kind of a mess right now, so it might take me a day or two to respond properly to comments/pms/whatever. Ah, well. ...Let's concentrate on some nice things instead.

☆ Yuletide fics were revealed, and there are a lot of good ones! I haven't had time to read everything relevant to my interests yet, but here are some historical RPF that I liked: First, A Change of Season, Tang dynasty RPF with Wu Zetian and Shangguan Wan-er, 3.4k, VERY nice use of language and structure etc, gooo read it! Secondly, sheep in the plain, about the Battle of Tollense River (c. 1250 BCE), 4.4k and absolutely beautifully written. <3 And also of course there are my lovely gifts, which I have linked over here; all are based on a music video and can be read as original fiction. One of them is nice and long if you're looking to read something plotty. <3

☆ I have some beautiful new deerskin moccasins. <3 They're SO PRETTY, with tooled detailing over the tops and floofy rabbit fur edging. I keep wanting to feel up the leather, it's so amazingly soft.

☆ My brother really loved his gift. <3 Which is good, because it wasn't exactly something "exciting", since it's equipment for his job. I'm, uh, actually not entirely sure what I bought him, to be quite honest. (Some kind of Thing that will allow him to do really small welding work? I think.) But it's exactly what he asked for, so... yes. Just glad to see that he was so happy with it.

☆ Actually, to be QUITE honest, I will say that I have the best bro ever, because he gave me some really niiiiice eye makeup remover and nail stuff, and I didn't even have to ask for it. I was expecting a gift card or something, but somehow he just KNEW, what the hell. So thoughtful, wtf.

☆ I was able to take a Nice Long Walk for the first time in a couple days - hadn't been able to get out of the house yesterday or the day before, ugh - and it was SO REFRESHING. Well, maybe a little bit too refreshing, because it was -28C. But, it still felt good. However I would recommend against trying to single-handedly take down a level 9 pokemon gym full of Vaporeons when it's that cold out. (But at least I managed to knock it down to level 6 before I gave up because my hands were FREEZING.)

☆ I started writing a new fic! ...I probably shouldn't have, considering I have so many wips already, and an exchange assignment due soon. BUT oh well. I'm just noodling around, anyway. It's some YOI stuff, a little bit of long-distance Guang Hong/Leo because that's... just what I feel like lately, heh. I decided to borrow anon's idea and set it in Harbin (because ahhh the snow and the lights...) Hopefully they won't mind. :V If they do happen to see it after I finish it. Which they probably won't.

☆ I don't have to work tomorrow! Score. <3

☆ Nice little things: Coffee with egg nog in it. Cookies with pistachio and fig. Having a moment to sit down and paint my nails for the first time in two weeks. <3 Feels good.

☆ I came home to like 60 Yuletide Pinch Hit emails in my inbox. Scrolling, scrolling, scrolling through them, and - "OH WOW, This person has amazing taste! And I know all of their requested fandoms. I should see if I can snag this one! Hold on, these prompts sound familiar - " ...Guys, it was me. xD Would have helped if I'd looked at the subject/requester more clearly. Ah, well. Good luck to whoever picked me up as an assignment. <3

☆ It was cold out, but not so cold that I couldn't go outside. So, I did. Ended up rolling on down to the library. Holed up for a while to play PokeGo, which was nice. Totally demolished the Valour gym there, and then trained Mystic up to level 4 - would have done more, but I was running out of charge. I hope some Mystic players managed to take advantage of the open slots before someone kicked my Flareon out of there. Did a lot of hatching today too, but haven't managed to hatch any of the new pokemon yet. Hopefully in the next batch. Picked up another 10KM egg, too! Surprising, but good. Maybe this one will be a Lapras or a Scyther....

☆ Library haul consisted mostly of poetry collections: Partially Kept by Martha Ronk, Undercurrent by Rita Wong, and The Quiet by Anne-Marie Turza. I don't know anything about any of these poets, so, we'll see! Also picked up Paris Vagabond, by Jean-Paul Clebert, which is... some kind of nonfiction memoir-ish thing, I think? (Haven't actually looked through it.) Has a ton of photographs inside it. Looks pretty neat. I love making somewhat random choices about what to check out... It means that I end up reading a lot of interesting things that I probably wouldn't come across if I were more choosy.

☆ Four more days, and then... break! From 23rd-27th! I'm so glad. :D

☆ Trick or Treat Ex fics are revealed. Yay! Too tired to link individually right now, so, my gift page is here, 3 SSSS & 1 Ex Machina. They're all wonderful, and I'm very happy with them. I highly suggest reading them if you like those fandoms. And also suggest browsing through the collection in general, honestly. Lots of good stuff this year.

☆ There was a Russia/Norway during time of the Pomor Trade fanart on my dash and it made me very happy.

☆ I received my assignment for Silent Night Ex. This is something that I can definitely work with, and I have an idea already, so I'm happy with it. Looking forward to starting it - probably not until weekend, but who knows. Treats might happen, but after ToT, I'm a little bit treated out, so we'll see.

☆ I also finally have a somewhat solid idea for my Yuletide assignment, or at least something to hang an idea on and develop it, so that's something. Hopefully will get to that this weekend as well. I thought I might have to review the entire canon, but it looks like I might be able to avoid that, which is nice.

☆ SSSS's latest update is family trees for all the main characters. We have a lot of new names for character background, hooray. The fandom's going nuts. It's nice to see. :D (And now I finally have official names that I can use if I ever want to follow my dreams and write stuff about Sigrun's parents, yesssssss)

☆ I am very tired. So tired. The tiredest. And also it's cold.

☆ NaNo started today but I'm too braindead to write a single sentence of fiction, fml.

☆ Why am I incapable of finding a black nail polish that doesn't chip like a motherfucker. WHY. Is there a solution to my woes? ...The answer is probably "Illamasqua", and to that, I stare dead-eyed and say, "Conversion rates and international shipping".

Things I need: More long-sleeved t-shirts to layer under regular t-shirts. Especially in bright colours. Or with stripes. I know that this look is kind of... dated, and often associated with like, teenage boys, but I love it. And in some ways I can't believe it took me a long time to be comfortable wearing clothes this way, but then again... yeaaah. So glad that I eventually came around/stopped giving any fucks, though. It's so comfortable. And WARM.

Things about Exchanges: I've already seen like, four Yuletide letters that I want to treat. This means that I should probably Not Look At the letters post until my Trick or Treat exchange fic is done. Yyyep. Upside is, I'm writing it by hand, so if I can't possibly resist, I could just do the unthinkable and... take a break from the internet! Until it's finished. Wow, what a scary thought.

Things I want out of PokeGo fandom: Less wank about Blanche's gender, and more wanking to Blanche, if you know what I mean. (Actually, I'm not even into nsfw stuff for this fandom, but it would definitely be a better alternative. Eesh.)

Speaking of that game: I had to give up the borrowed phone again, and I'm basically foaming at the mouth because I can't walk my eggs, pffff. (Just need to wait until Monday, just need to wait a while, argh). Also my Team Mystic t-shirt has disappeared AGAIN. WHERE IS IT?! ....I'm going to tear apart my bedroom in an attempt to find it, and then will probably discover that it was mistakenly mixed in with my father's clothes. Again.

On Pokemon Sun & Moon: I've decided that if I can manage to 1. rack up 3k worth of coins on Habitica, and 2. finish playing Pokemon X, then I will allow myself to buy Pokemon Moon in addition to asking for Pokemon Sun for Christmas. ;V The games sound like they'll be different enough to justify having both. And managing this will be quite a challenge. So, we'll see how it goes. Maybe I'll be lucky.... You know, I used to not use Rewards on Habitica at all, because they weren't great motivation, but then I discovered that they work really well for expensive things like this. Delayed gratification! :D