Good Idea, Bad Idea

Wow, I only made one post last year? I'm here every day, reading, so I keep up with anyone still posting here.

I didn't put up the Yuletide polls this year. Just didn't have the oomph. It's been an oomph-sapping kind of year or so, hasn't it? (Fuck me -- just looked it up, and it's literally the one-year anniversary of that shitbag's inaguration.)

ANYWAY. Fun stuff. Things I have posted since...a while ago.

( 911 )

( Heated Rivalry )

The Pitt

Bet

So as you can see, I'm generally obsessed with those three things. Putting more silliness and gay porn into the world.

The joys of returning home for the holidays.

1) Watching your parents have the same argument you and your spouse have.

2) Your mother telling a story about some time she was upset about something and how you told her it would be okay, we'd figure it out, providing further evidence about why you have anxiety and a desperate need to fix things so people aren't mad or upset.

I kind of wish I'd had enough therapy earlier in life to have identified this stuff instead of the slow process of excavating it from my psyche in middle age.

Polyamorous Recs has updated!

Marvel at the sight of a new update! Watch as we work our way through fandoms new and old! Do not check behind the curtain to see how long it's been since the last update!

In a Disused Graveyard
Robert Frost

The living come with grassy tread
To read the gravestones on the hill;
The graveyard draws the living still,
But never any more the dead.

The verses in it say and say:
“The ones who living come today
To read the stones and go away
Tomorrow dead will come to stay.”

So sure of death the marbles rhyme,
Yet can’t help marking all the time
How no one dead will seem to come.
What is it men are shrinking from?

It would be easy to be clever
And tell the stones: Men hate to die
And have stopped dying now forever.
I think they would believe the lie.

In the House With No Doors
Sarah Kay

we have given up on knocking.
Incoming! we say, with our eyes lowered for modesty,
or, Hello! or sometimes, Sorry, sorry!
You have to pass through everyone’s bedroom
to get to the kitchen. We only have two bathrooms.
As a courtesy, nobody will poop while you are showering,
but they might have to do their makeup or shave
if they are in a rush, if we have somewhere to be,
so you can recognize every person by their whistle
through a wet shower curtain, you haven’t seen your own face
on an unfogged mirror in weeks. It doesn’t matter,
self-consciousness has no currency here.
If you were nosy, I suppose the little bathroom trashcans
would spill their secrets to you, but why bother,
privacy is a language we don’t speak.
Someone is always awake before you,
the smell of coffee easing you into a today
they have already entered,
a bridge you will never need to cross first,
and no matter how latenight your owl,
there is always someone still awake
to eat popcorn with, to whisper your daily report to,
to compare notes on what good news you each caught in your nets.
In bed, you say, Goodnight! in one direction
and someone says it back, then turns and passes it,
so you fall asleep to the echo of goodnights down the long hallway
’til it donuts its way back around to your pillow.
Someone is doing a load of laundry,
if anyone wants to add some extra socks?
Someone is clearing the dishes,
someone has started singing Gershwin in the backyard
and you can’t help but harmonize,
and for a moment what you always hoped was true
finally is: loneliness has forgotten your address,
french toast browning on the stovetop,
the sound of everyone you love
clear as the sun giggling through the window,
not even a doorknob between you.

Belated yuletide post:

(belated because I got food poisoning on the 31st and recovered just in time to catch a cold, which is some bullshit)

I wrote some post-movie Barbie!

In These Times of Change (1991 words) by Nestra
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Barbie (Movie 2023)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Margot Robbie's Barbie & Gloria (Barbie 2023)
Characters: Margot Robbie's Barbie (Barbie 2023), Gloria (Barbie 2023), Sasha (Barbie 2023), Narrator (Barbie 2023)
Additional Tags: Sisters are doin' it for themselves, Smash the Patriarchy
Summary:

She wasn’t quite sure what her job was supposed to be. She wasn’t a doctor or a lawyer. Or an architect or an entomologist or a dolphin trainer or any of the other jobs Barbies had.

The recipient asked for some Barbie/Gloria kissing, which I was totally on board with but couldn't quite reach. But they seemed pleased with it, regardless. I don't think I originally offered Barbie, and we matched on Galaxy Quest. But the prompt was the cast discovering omegaverse fic, which I'm sure would be hilarious written by someone other than me.


And my lovely gift, a Young Wizards future fic:

it's all dark blue (2006 words) by rewire
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Young Wizards - Diane Duane
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Nita Callahan/Kit Rodriguez
Characters: Nita Callahan, Kit Rodriguez
Additional Tags: Future Fic, Contemplation, Water (as a metaphor and also as a wizardly practice), thinking about the Gibraltar Passthrough wizardry
Summary:

Kit remembered Mars, then. How Nita had looked holding the Gibraltar Passthrough wizardry over her head, trembling with the strain of it. How she had looked magnificent. How she had looked tired.

Hello, yuletide writer!

Likes: Kissing, teasing, tension, banter, humor, character ambiguity, sacrifice, found families, pining, slow realizations, fast realizations, the slow burn of desire, explosive confrontations, wry self-knowledge, self-discovery, loyalty, love.

Dislikes: Death, bucketloads of angst with no balance, character-bashing (especially canonical female love interest bashing), incest, non-con, betrayal (including marital infidelity), mpreg, a/b/o, extreme kink unless you run it by me (anonymously) or someone who knows me well. I would prefer to avoid anything that's dark just for the sake of being dark.

Totally up to you: Presence or absence of smut or romance, level of explicitness, presence of additional or original characters.

Because all of these are repeat requests, I'm swiping this bit from dorinda:

(Also, let me say that you'll notice it's very common for me to ask for some of the same fandoms from year to year. If you've written for me previously, please do not ever think this is because I don't still love your gift! I do--it's just that I am still-and-always in the mood for more of these characters and I love them so much. And I am greedy. :D)

I am willing to receive treats!

If you have any question whether I might like something, you can ask shrift.

There's nothing under here that wasn't in my signup, but reproducing my requests for posterity/treats:

James Asher Vampire Series - Barbara Hambly

(Uh, on the off chance you're not current on all the books, spoilers ahead.)

Lydia and Ysidro are in America, great! James is stuck in the middle of a completely different content, not so great. I want the band back together!

The constant contradiction at the heart of the relationship has sort of been resolved, now that Ysidro doesn't need to murder people. But there were many, many years when they knew what he was and still chose to be his friends and allies, knowing that his continued survival meant more innocent deaths.

If you want to go the threesome route, I'd love that. I'm less interested in only James/Ysidro or Lydia/Ysidro, though if it's not framed as a betrayal of the other partner, that would help. But if the spirit moves you in that direction, go for it. For gen options, you could explore something of Ysidro's past, or James and Lydia's fear over parenting a child in a world where vampires exist.

Nero Wolfe - Rex Stout

Years ago, Yuletide kicked off my love for Archie/Saul, and each year, there are a few more stories (including some amazing ones written for me!). But I'm greedy.

Canonically, it's kind of fuzzy whether Saul has a wife and family, because it seems to depend on the book. I don't mind if a wife exists, but I would prefer it if Saul doesn't cheat on his wife. So if you're going for Archie/Saul (always good!), please either have them divorced/profoundly separated, or make her not exist. I can see how the pairing might not be your thing, and if it's not, I would be perfectly happy with a mystery kind of thing, or a poker-playing scene, or anything where those two guys interact. Because they're hot and competent. Also, feel free to go crazy, if you want to, in terms of the setting. Anywhere in canon is fine, present-day is fine (Wolfe vs. the Internet!), even the future is fine (Wolfe vs. artificial gravity!).

Young Wizards - Diane Duane

I love that Nita and Kit have reached the stage of awkwardly growing and fumbling their way through their changing relationship, and I'd love anything that focused on that.

Feel free to address the physical aspect, and age them as much as you need to to feel comfortable -- I wouldn't want to read anything explicit between them unless they're 17 or 18.

Otherwise, pretty much anything would be great -- them dealing with their families, with Ponch (I love Ponch!), or just taking a moment to be friends and not have to save the world. Don't feel any obligation to get into the more technical aspects of the magic unless that's something you enjoy.

Lynes and Mathey Series - Amy Griswold & Melissa Scott

I just want more of these two. Casefic, relationship stuff, vignettes from their school days, night out at the sex club, fighting and making up, anything.