December 2025

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21	22	23	24	25	26	27
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Page Summary

owlectomy - (no subject)
osprey_archer - Picture Book Advent, Week Three
umadoshi - Slightly belated Yule/solstice wishes + a very low-key update
james_davis_nicoll - Bundle of Holding: DIE the RPG
sanguinity - (no subject)
heresluck - monday poem #336: Susan Cooper, "The Shortest Day"
sabotabby - solstice
fox - well done, everyone
cimorene - Who knew that aging also produces cramps in the arch of the foot?
mrissa - 2025 short stuff rec list
yuletidemods in yuletide_pinch_hits - ALL CLAIMED - PHs #226-227
sanguinity - Fic In A Box Reveals
minoanmiss - The shortest day
skygiants - (no subject)
fic_in_a_box_mod in ficinabox - 2025 Wrap Up/Stats!
fic_in_a_box_mod in ficinabox - Medium Explanations and Examples
james_davis_nicoll - Assume the existence of superpowered teens
mrissa - Fourth Quarter Stuff I've Enjoyed
fox - happy birthday dad
james_davis_nicoll - I was today years old

Style Credit

Base style: Tectonic by daemon @ LJ and momijizukamori
Theme: Memory of Flowers by momijizukamori

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owlectomy

Hildy the Cat is currently Extremely Upset about my new CPAP mask. She sat on my bed for a good fifteen minutes sniffing it, with her eyes as wide as dinner plates, and then she ran away.

These are the facial expressions of somebody whose dead best friend came back from the underworld, but Came Back Wrong. These are the facial expressions of somebody who is exploring the spaceship looking for their partner only to find their partner half transmogrified into a cyborg creature. These are the facial expressions of someone who has just come face to face with some really gnarly body horror and can't quite deal with it yet.

Poor kitty!

osprey_archer

I’ve been enjoying Picture Book Advent so tremendously that I considered extending it with Twelve Days of Christmas Picture Books, but then I decided, no, better to quit while I’m ahead. Already looking forward to Picture Book Advent next year, though!

The Night Before Christmas, by Clement C. Moore, illustrated by Tasha Tudor. Pace the documentary Take Peace, Tudor illustrated this poem as a picture book THREE times (besides including it in her Christmas collection Take Joy!). I have the 1999 version with the most recent illustrations. (Am I planning to track down the others? Maybe.) Like Corgiville Christmas, this has a looser, sketchier style than her earlier books, but I thought it worked better here, possibly because the subject matter didn’t invite direct comparison to The Corgiville Fair.

Becky’s Christmas, written and illustrated by Tasha Tudor. A book with pictures rather than a picture book; an account not merely of Christmas itself but the weeks of preparation leading up to it. Baking cookies, twisting cornucopias for the tree, making presents, singing carols with the neighbors, harnessing the horse to go chop down the perfect Christmas tree…

Gingerbread Christmas, written and illustrated by Jan Brett. This is so cute! Matti bakes a gingerbread band to play music with the gingerbread baby, and the whole village is enjoying the concert in the bandstand when one perceptive little girl realizes that the instruments are delicious gingerbread cookies. The gingerbread baby leads the villagers on a merry chase as the instruments sneak away.

The Doll’s Christmas, written and illustrated by Tasha Tudor. One of the many Tudor family holiday traditions was to have a Christmas party for the dolls, featuring a tiny doll-size dinner (including cookies cut out with a thimble and a miniature cranberry jelly!), doll presents, and a marionette show, all of which were designed to keep the children busy as Tasha put together the full-size human Christmas.

Christmas in the Barn, by Margaret Wise Brown, illustrated by Barbara Cooney. A spare, poetic retelling of the Nativity story, with illustrations by Barbara Cooney that really draw out both the pathos and the strangeness of the story by setting it in storybook New England. There’s just something about taking it out of Biblical times and setting it in a land of plaid flannel shirts, one-horse open sleighs, and red brick inns that really draws attention to the fact that, let’s face it, a baby who is spending his first night on earth asleep in a feed trough is facing a rough start in life. Not to mention his poor mother who just had to give birth in a barn.

The Christmas Cat, by Efner Tudor Holmes, illustrated by Tasha Tudor. An abandoned cat is ALONE and COLD on Christmas until a kindly man (probably the father of the two boys in the book but also metaphorically Santa Claus) takes him home as a pet for his two sons. The boys find the cat curled up on a chair by the fire on Christmas morning. HAPPY END.

The Church Mice at Christmas, written and illustrated by Graham Oakley. My mother’s contribution to Picture Book Advent, based on a recommendation from our children’s librarian who is from England, where these books are apparently quite famous. Love a book where the text tells one story and the illustrations change the meaning, like the bit in this where one of the church mice is yelling his Christmas wishes at Santa… who is in fact a burglar in a Santa suit.

Tags:

umadoshi

Blessed Yule and solstice, friends. May this next turn of the year be better to all of us than the one that's just ended.

Impressively and unexpectedly, we didn't lose power on the weekend (so many people did!); not really coincidentally, Bucky remains undecorated. We also haven't put up any lights or the wreath outside (probably just as well, given the winds), and I didn't even think of that until maybe yesterday. Oh, well.

(I no longer have any real hope of finishing a draft of this rewrite before Christmas, since I'm getting such a late start on work today and we have plans for much of Christmas Eve once

scruloose's half-day of work ends. It's fine. I've been doing other things. *shrugs*)

A few nights ago I guess I ~slept wrong~, as I woke up Saturday with a very unhappy neck. Yesterday was better, and today is better again, and I'm lucky to not have this kind of thing happen more often (*knocks wood*), but it's so annoying as well as painful. Body, if you're taking damage while sleeping, why don't you move to a better position?! Does the conscious brain need to handle everything around here? (Thankfully no.)

Current Mood: sore
Current Music: Tori Amos - Star of Wonder

Tags:

james_davis_nicoll

The DIE roleplaying game designed by the Image comic's creators, Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans, plus three volumes of adventures for an unbeatable bargain price!

Bundle of Holding: DIE the RPG

Tags:

bundle of holding

sanguinity

candyheartsex nominations are open!

Anyone want to coordinate?

I'm considering ( fandoms and ships under the cut )

Let me know if there's anything else you want me to slip in to an empty spot (or anything you're particularly relying on my including!)

heresluck

sheafrotherdon reminded me of this poem yesterday.

The Shortest Day

So the shortest day came, and the year died,
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive,
And when the new year's sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, reveling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us—listen!
All the long echoes sing the same delight,
This shortest day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, fest, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.
Welcome, Yule!

— Susan Cooper
from The Shortest Day

(NPR did a lovely little story a couple of years ago about the process of turning the poem into an illustrated children's book.)

Tags:

monday poems

sabotabby

I am drowning in unfinished and partly finished tasks so this will not be as detailed or vivid as my usual solstice descriptions. Also I have very few good photos because my hands were occupied and I didn't have a proper camera, so you'll have to make do with blurry impressions, I'm afraid.

The Longest Night was cold as balls, but tradition is tradition, and actually more of my friends made it out than is usual. We had the lanterns I made and they went over very well, which meant that basically we got drafted into the parade itself. There were new giant puppets (one in particular that I'll comment on in detail) and for the first time in years, the fire sculpture has returned to Alexandra Park. Giant puppets and lanterns are very important to me, but is it really solstice without a big art project that people worked very hard on getting lit on fire? I don't think so, and the fact that this happened again feels hopeful for the year to come.

( pictures but they're not great )

I'm hoping to have better pictures to share that other people took, as it was pretty well photographed. I do have one of me that

rdi took but this is a public post.

You can get a decent idea of the vibe (and how the fish and Mari Lynd looked in action!) in this video, if you have Instagram.

This post has photo and video of the Fire Finale.

As always, it was a beautiful night, and it looks like the sun is up, so we did a good job.

Tags:

fox

We're halfway through the dark.

cimorene

I'm not a stranger to cramps in the arch of my feet! That's part of the reason that I stopped wearing high heels. I wore some knee-high leather boots that came to just below the knee as a young woman, shortly after the year 2000, usually in the fall and winter (purchased in the US, before moving to Finland was on my radar, so they were kind of for warmth but in a climate that wasn't cold enough to necessitate purchasing actual winter boots). They only had like a 2-3" heel, a chunky one, as was fashionable at the turn of the millennium, so they weren't a challenge to balance or particularly uncomfortable for ordinary walking around. But I soon noticed the pattern of cramps in the arch of my foot after days when I wore them, and that made me want to stop.

But I haven't had much of that problem since then. ( Read more... ) However, just in the last few years I've occasionally noticed a twinge or mini-cramp that goes away after a few seconds specifically in the arch of my left foot. It's never lasted beyond a moment or two until like... last week once when I was walking up the stairs and then yesterday in the grocery store, when it suddenly twinged so hard into a cramp that I spent a minute and a half limping and whispering "Ow, ow, ow!" until it subsided.

It doesn't have to be caused by age, of course, but I don't know what else could have caused it, unless it is protesting the fact that I have not been walking enough in the last year. I used to have a tennis-sized hard rubber ball to roll on the arch of my feet, when I was working on my feet a lot in retail. But I can't remember where I put it.

Tags:

health

mrissa

Of course I hope you've enjoyed my short fiction and poetry (and nonfiction!) this year. But other people have been absolutely lighting the place up as well, and here are my recommendations for speculative short fiction and poetry for 2025. Even I can't read everything, so please do not take this as a comprehensive list! I'm sure there's great stuff out there I've missed, and if you want to comment with it, that's great. Spread the joy.

Heritage/Speaker | Hablante/Herencia, Angela Acosta (Samovar)

The Witch and the Wyrm, Elizabeth Bear (Reactor)

Thirteen Swords That Made a Prince: Highlights From the Arms & Armory Collection, Sharang Biswas (Strange Horizons)

Biologists say it will take at least a generation for the river to recover (Klamath River Hymn), Leah Bobet (Reckoning)

Watching Migrations, Keyan Bowes (Strange Horizons)

Bestla, James Joseph Brown (Kaleidotrope)

Mail Order Magic, Stephanie Burgis (Sunday Morning Transport)

With Only a Razor Between, Martin Cahill (Reactor)

As Safe As Fear, Beth Cato (Daikajuzine)

And the Planet Loved Him, L. Chan (Clarkesworld)

“To Reap, to Sow,” Lyndsey Croal (Analog Mar/Apr 25)

Atomic, Jennifer Crow (Kaleidotrope)

Flower and Root, J. R. Dawson (Sunday Morning Transport)

Six People to Revise You, J. R. Dawson (Uncanny)

The Place I Came To, Filip Hajdar Drnovšek Zorko (Lightspeed)

Understudies, Greg Egan (Clarkesworld)

All That Means or Mourns, Ruthanna Emrys (Reactor)

Holly on the Mantel, Blood on the Hearth, Kate Francia (Beneath Ceaseless Skies)

The Jacarandas Are Unimpressed By Your Show of Force, Gwynne Garfinkle (Strange Horizons)

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Gorgon, Gwynne Garfinkle (Penumbric)

The Otter Woman’s Daughter, Eleanor Glewwe (Cast of Wonders)

In the Shells of Broken Things, A.T. Greenblatt (Clarkesworld)

In Connorville, Kathleen Jennings (Reactor)

Michelle C. Jin, Imperfect Simulations (Clarkesworld)

What I Saw Before the War, Alaya Dawn Johnson (Reactor)

The Name Ziya, Wen-yi Lee (Reactor)

Barbershops of the Floating City, Angela Liu (Uncanny)

Kaiju Agonistes, Scott Lynch (Uncanny)

The Loaf in the Woods, David Marino (Beneath Ceaseless Skies)

One by One, Lindz McLeod (Apex)

10 Visions of the Future; or, Self-Care for the End of Days, Samantha Mills (Uncanny)

Everyone Keeps Saying Probably, Premee Mohamed (Psychopomp)

Liecraft, Anita Moskát (trans. Austin Wagner) (Apex)

The Orchard Village Catalog, Parker Peevyhouse (Strange Horizons)

Lies From a Roadside Vagabond, Aaron Perry (Beneath Ceaseless Skies)

Last Tuesday, for Eternity, Vinny Rose Pinto (Imagine 2200)

The Horrible Conceit of Night and Death, J. A. Prentice (Apex)

The Girl That My Mother Is Leaving Me For, Cameron Reed (Reactor)

Ghost Rock Posers F**k Off, Margaret Ronald (Sunday Morning Transport)

Regarding the Childhood of Morrigan, Who Was Chosen to Open the Way, Benjamin Rosenbaum (Reactor)

No One Dies of Longing, Anjali Sachdeva (Strange Horizons)

Laser Eyes Ain’t Everything, Effie Seiberg (Diabolical Plots)

Orders, Grace Seybold (Augur)

Unbeaten, Grace Seybold (Beneath Ceaseless Skies)

After the Invasion of the Bug-Eyed Aliens, Rachel Swirsky (Reactor)

“Holy Fools,” Adrian Tchaikovsky (Of Shadows, Stars, and Sabers)

A Random Walk Through the Goblin Library, Chris Willrich (Beneath Ceaseless Skies)

“An Asexual Succubus,” John Wiswell (Of Shadows, Stars, and Sabers)

Phantom View, John Wiswell (Reactor)

~~Brooklyn~~ Beijing, Hannah Yang (Uncanny)

Unfinished Architectures of the Human-Fae War, Caroline Yoachim (Uncanny)

Tags:

short story glory

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

Tags:

due 2025-12-23

sanguinity

I picked up three pinch-hits for

ficinabox!

Still Here Together for Shinzuku206
Temeraire - Naomi Novik
Laurence & Temeraire
Hurt/Comfort, Hospitalization, Plushies, Recursive Fic

After his injury, Laurence is confined to the hospital for many weeks. Temeraire bears up bravely — then Laurence, too, learns what it is to worry.

Direct sequel to

shinzuku206's story, With You By My Side, in which Laurence is hospitalized with a broken leg, and Temeraire is very sweet about it.

I, of course, had to make it worse. ;-)

(Don't worry: despite it all, Laurence and Temeraire are still very sweet together.)

Privileges of the Purse for StableState
Doctor Odyssey
Max, Avery, Tristan, Original Character
Worldbuilding, Humor

Most people wouldn't put a CT scanner on a cruise ship. The owners of the Odyssey aren't most people.

Or: Max meets Hugh "Doc" Laurent.

StableState prompted:

Who put a full-sized CT scanner on a cruise ship? Not to mention the HGTV feature wall of unlabeled medication in glass bottles (on a boat. With waves.) or the gene sequencer. Even the usual equipment is oddly gold and sleek. They have to be custom-ordered, or medical design is very different in our world.

I read that prompt, laughed, and immediately grabbed the pinch-hit. "Privileges of the Purse" is my best crack at the first three questions.

(The final question is unaddressed in the story, but I assert there is a medical supplier out there who does fake-gold-plated medical equipment for a few select customers overly invested in faux-opulence; chief among them is the Trump Organization.)

What Does the Spleen Do? for stablestate
What Does the Spleen Do? ft. Harvard Medical School Class of 2016
Cryptic Crossword

A splenic (but not asplenic!) cryptic criss-cross.

Just after I finished my Temeraire story, a second pinch-hit came up for StableState. After I confirmed with the mods that my "excess" 600 words from the first pinch-hit could be applied to this one, I picked it up. After all, there had been a second prompt of theirs that had interested me: one for a music video about spleens.

Fic In A Box has options for non-traditional fills: in addition to stories and art, it's possible to create works that fit various format or media opt-ins, one of which is cryptic crosswords. Which StableState had opted into for the spleen prompt! And what a lucky coincidence, I had just that week downloaded a course on how to do cryptic crosswords! I had read the first three chapters! Surely that was enough knowledge to design my own cryptic crossword??

(

grrlpup laughs and confirms that I have always been like this.)

So I sailed in and did my best. It was fun! My grid was sub-standard (and I need to figure out how it is that people make up good grids), but it was neat to try to make up clues.

Happily, I had the wisdom to ask

seekingferret, who is well-versed in all things puzzles, to beta. He warned me off the worst of my errors, kindly informed me that what I had created is called a criss-cross and not a crossword, and confirmed that it was in fact solvable.

(I am... not sure that anyone has solved it who isn't Ferret? But the recip left a nice thank you, and I shall be content with that.)

minoanmiss

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

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 )

Tags:

fic_in_a_box_mod posting in

ficinabox

2025 Wrap Up/Stats!

Thank you all for participating this year! It's been a lovely year, with a lot of amazing gifts given! We're looking forward to coming back again in 2026! We hope to see you there!

Stats!

We have a few stats for you this year! We've linked screenshots of some overall stats below, and you can also check this spreadsheet (link) for a view of those stats as well as all of the fandoms and mediums!

General Stats

The last PH has been picked up and we should be at 100% by the end of the year!

Ruleset Stats

Largest Single Work Per Ruleset

Mediums by Number of Works (Top 10)

Mediums by Wordcount Equivalent (Top 10)

Fandoms By Number of Works (Top 10)

Fandoms By Wordcount (Top 10)

Tags:

2025,
wrapup

fic_in_a_box_mod posting in

ficinabox

Between now and the 2026 round we're going to be going through all the mediums in the collection and setting up explanations of what each medium is with links to examples! While we're expecting to do most of this work ourselves, we wanted to put out a call for volunteers and opt-outs for those of you who would like to be involved or uninvolved with this sort of documentation!

For example works we will be pulling from all past rounds of FIAB! We will prioritize volunteered works first, then look for past FIAB works, then look for outside resources that are meant to be used as references.

2025 Tagset Link

Volunteering Your Works As Examples Of Mediums

If you would like to volunteer your works as examples of mediums please let us know the following:

Your AO3 Name
The work link
The 2025 FIAB medium tag(s) the work is an example of

Please only offer up examples if they are your own work, or if they are something that was created with the intention of being referenced such as a wikipedia or fanlore article.

Deadline: There is no deadline for offering up examples but we will prioritize any posted prior to March 1st.

Help Us Explain Mediums

If are a creator of a medium and would like it explained in a certain way, or just want to help us out with writing up all these explanations, you can post explanations for us to use! Please let us know the following:

The 2025 FIAB Medium Tag
Option 1: Short explanation of what the medium is, to be included in the spreadsheet
Option 2: Information about the medium that you think may be useful to us in writing an explanation of what it is
Option 3: Both of the above
Your name and if you'd like to be credited if we use your written explanation.

Deadline: Explanations are due by March 1st, as that's when we'll begin writing our own. In some cases we may not use provided explanations or may use the information from your explanation as the basis for writing it a different way.

Opt-Out of Medium List

We know some of you would prefer to not have any of your works linked from elsewhere, so we wanted to make sure you could easily opt out of this. If you would like to opt out please comment on this post (which is screened) or email us with with:

Your AO3 Name
A statement that you are opting out

Deadline: There is no deadline to opt-out. Even if you see this after the whole list is public, you may always contact us to ask us to not use your work as an example and we will remove the link. If you've already opted out of reading lists in 2025 we've marked you as opted out of being an example.

This post is screened and will only be seen by the mods.

Tags:

2025

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?

mrissa

Coming up on the end of the year, and here's what I've enjoyed in short fiction and poetry! Year end summation post to come.

Heritage/Speaker | Hablante/Herencia, Angela Acosta (Samovar)

Bestla, James Joseph Brown (Kaleidotrope)

Atomic, Jennifer Crow (Kaleidotrope)

Flower and Root, J. R. Dawson (Sunday Morning Transport)

The Place I Came To, Filip Hajdar Drnovšek Zorko (Lightspeed)

Understudies, Greg Egan (Clarkesworld)

All That Means or Mourns, Ruthanna Emrys (Reactor)

Michelle C. Jin, Imperfect Simulations (Clarkesworld)

The Loaf in the Woods, David Marino (Beneath Ceaseless Skies)

Liecraft, Anita Moskát (trans. Austin Wagner) (Apex)

The Orchard Village Catalog, Parker Peevyhouse (Strange Horizons)

The Horrible Conceit of Night and Death, J. A. Prentice (Apex)

Regarding the Childhood of Morrigan, Who Was Chosen to Open the Way, Benjamin Rosenbaum (Reactor)

No One Dies of Longing, Anjali Sachdeva (Strange Horizons)

A Random Walk Through the Goblin Library, Chris Willrich (Beneath Ceaseless Skies)

Phantom View, John Wiswell (Reactor)

Tags:

short story glory

fox

My dad (R) would have been 78 today. ❤️

james_davis_nicoll

When I discovered Olivia Newton-John's father took Rudolf Hess into custody during World War II.

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2025 Wrap Up/Stats!

Stats!

General Stats

Ruleset Stats

Largest Single Work Per Ruleset

Mediums by Number of Works (Top 10)

Mediums by Wordcount Equivalent (Top 10)

Fandoms By Number of Works (Top 10)

Fandoms By Wordcount (Top 10)

Volunteering Your Works As Examples Of Mediums

Help Us Explain Mediums

Opt-Out of Medium List