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Entry tags:

fandom: tolkien

Osgiliath by Matěj Čadil (SFW)

Fandom: Tolkien: Lord of the Rings
Characters/Pairing/Other Subject: Osgiliath
Content Notes/Warnings: none
Medium: traditional art (watercolour)
Artist on DW/LJ: n/a
Artist Website/Gallery: Matěj Čadil's own website, Matěj Čadil on DA
Why this piece is awesome: An intricate watercolour with delicate colours and lots of great detail - I love worldbuilding and this recreates Gondor's old capital, which was in ruins by LotR times. I love the contrast between this beautiful, spacious city on the river Anduin, compared to Minas Tirith which was very much a fortress (as it needed to be).
Link: Osgiliath the pic on a Tolkien wiki.

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Crossworks - Crossovers/Fusions - Due Oct 22 - Post-Deadline

crossworks

Crossworks is a gift exchange for fusion or crossover fic or art, where a gift must combine two fandoms from one of a recipient's requests (participants make several sets of requests).

Our main deadline has passed and pinch hits are urgently requested. Works are due 11:59pm EDT 22 October, or negotiable. Works must be complete, 1,000 words+ or a piece of complete artwork, must depict a combination of two canons from the same section of the recipient's requests, must stand alone, and must be wholly the creator's own work.

Please contact me at the

crossworks community to claim!

PH #2

Art/Fusion, Fic/Fusion: Keeper of the Lost Cities Series - Shannon Messenger, Bionicle - All Media Types
Art/Crossover, Art/Fusion, Fic/Fusion: Ghost Rider (Marvel Comics), Transformers: Prime
Art/Crossover, Fic/Crossover: Tetsuwan Atom | Astro Boy, Portal (Valve Video Games), Metroid Series
Art/Fusion, Fic/Fusion: Ghost Rider (Marvel Comics), Tron - All Media Types

PH #5

Fic/Crossover: ONE - Cheesy Hfj (Web Series), ねこあつめ | Neko Atsume: Kitty Collector, Toy Story (Movies), Solaris - Stanisław Lem
Fic/Crossover: To the Moon Series (Video Games), Inside Out (Pixar Movies), Mindplayers - Pat Cadigan, Solaris (2002)
Fic/Crossover: The Greengage Summer - Rumer Godden, Monsieur Spade (TV), Song of the Sea (2014), Trouble With Lichen - John Wyndham

PH #6

Fic/Crossover, Fic/Fusion: 盗墓笔记 - 南派三叔 | Daomu Biji | The Lost Tomb - All Media Types, 太岁 | Tài Suì - priest
Fic/Crossover, Fic/Fusion: 盗墓笔记 - 南派三叔 | Daomu Biji | The Lost Tomb - All Media Types, 叛逆者 | The Rebel (TV 2021)
Fic/Crossover, Fic/Fusion: 镇魂 | Guardian - priest, His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
Fic/Crossover, Fic/Fusion: The Stars My Destination - Alfred Bester, 盗墓笔记 - 南派三叔 | Daomu Biji | The Lost Tomb - All Media Types
Fic/Crossover, Fic/Fusion: 镇魂 | Guardian - priest, KPop Demon Hunters (2025)
Fic/Crossover: 盗墓笔记 - 南派三叔 | Daomu Biji | The Lost Tomb - All Media Types, X-Men - All Media Types

PH #8

Fic/Crossover, Fic/Fusion: モノノ怪 | Mononoke (Anime & Manga), 蟲師 | Mushishi (Anime & Manga)
Fic/Crossover, Fic/Fusion: Lancer (Roleplaying Game), Infinite Revolution: Overdrive (Roleplaying Game), I Was a Teenage Exocolonist (Video Game), Wayfarers Series - Becky Chambers
Fic/Crossover, Fic/Fusion: Pressure (Roblox), Lancer (Roleplaying Game), Mystery Flesh Pit National Park - Trevor Roberts, Carrion (Phobia Game Studio Video Game)
Fic/Crossover, Fic/Fusion: Psychonauts (Video Games), Dandadan (Manga), CAIN (Roleplaying Game)
Fic/Crossover, Fic/Fusion: Norfolk Wizard Game (Web Series), Columbo, Deltarune (Video Game)
Fic/Crossover, Fic/Fusion: Kill Six Billion Demons (Webcomic), Lancer (Roleplaying Game), CAIN (Roleplaying Game)
Fic/Crossover, Fic/Fusion: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga, とんがり帽子のアトリエ | Tongari Boushi no Atelier | Witch Hat Atelier (Manga)
Fic/Crossover, Fic/Fusion: 悪魔城ドラキュラ暁月の円舞曲と蒼月の十字架 | Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow & Dawn of Sorrow, Death Note (Anime & Manga)
Fic/Crossover, Fic/Fusion: Any Other Fandom I've Requested in CW2025, Any Other Fandom I've Requested in CW2025 (Select ONLY In Combo With AOF Tag & No Other Fandoms)

If anyone would like to distract me by giving me opportunities to talk about hyper-fixations

that would be greatly appreciated.

Currently trying to support a friend in a Very Bad Situation and it's desperately anxiety-inducing and my brain is trying to eat itself, which also makes me less useful as support, which is bad.

So if anyone would like to ask or discuss anything about Prophet or Dark Souls or IWTV or climbing or, you know, any of the somewhat cheering topics I sometimes ramble about, PLEASE DO. "More of a comment than a question" questions also very welcome.

I cannot guarantee replies in a timely or consistent manner (because of the Situation and also the bad state of my brain) but it would be deeply appreciated nonetheless.

Entry tags:

mini-challenge

Unconventionyule

Unconventionyule is a mini-challenge to help people who like unconventional formats find one another's requests, whether that’s poetry, epistolary, spreadsheets, social media, puzzles, or other unusual mediums. Please remember that works in the main collection must still be at least 1000 words, but shorter works can be submitted to the Madness collection!

To participate, simply copy-paste the following into a comment:
AO3 Name:
Letter Link:
Requested Fandoms:
Format(s): (e.g. epistolary, poetry, spreadsheets, social media)
(Optional) Prompts:

Tag your work with Unconventionyule and/or Unconventional Format to help others find your works!

Entry tags:

mini-challenge

Chromatic Yuletide 2025

Chromatic Yuletide is a collection post for Yuletide requests that include characters of colour. Posting here doesn't obligate you to do anything, but it helps writers find your requests and treat you.

Posting requirements:

Your request centers around at least one character of colour.

(I acknowledge there are some shortcomings with the "person of colour" descriptor. I'm also not going to police who is or isn't a character of colour; please just use your best judgment.)

To participate, simply copy-paste the following into a comment:

AO3 name:
Letter link:
Fandom:
Characters:
What is it? description of canon or a link to a canon promo (optional)
What kind of thing am I requesting? also optional

AO3 name: Letter link: Fandom: Characters: What is it?</stong> description of canon or a link to a canon promo (optional) What kind of thing am I requesting? also optional

If you post a fic for Yuletide with one or more POC characters, tag it with Chromatic Yuletide so people can find it easily!

Current Music: Wet Leg - Angelica

Entry tags:

music

My life in music

When I have disposable income, I spend it on concert tickets.

So back in January I went to see Irish country-pop singer CMAT live. My friends and I were the oldest people in the room and we all got covid, and it was absolutely worth it. In terms of "best gigs I've been to", I'd put it on par with Florence + the Machine as The Actual Best, only at a fraction of the scale and price.

Her new album came out at the end of August, and I have an embarrassing number of feelings about the title track. Embarrassing because I was a fully grown adult and also Australian when the Celtic Tiger collapsed, but growing up in suburbia and feeling like your whole generation has been fucked over by neoliberalism is A Mood.

Watch on YouTube

She's touring early next year, and I have tickets secured and a note in my planner to get a covid booster three weeks before the date.

( This got long and has more embeds, so... )

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fandom type: webcomics

Webcomic fandoms you can offer/request in Yuletide 2025

A roundup all the webcomic fandoms in the 2025 tag set (plus all the characters you can request for each one), including links to where you can read them online. Fandoms are in the order/format AO3 puts the tags in.

I tried to flag everything that was (a) NSFW and/or (b) at least partly paywalled. If I missed any examples of that, please let me know!

( Comics, on the web, (mostly) free to get and easy to read )

Entry tags:

fandom: music

Music Thursday

Watch on YouTube

Entry tags:

mini-challenge

TransTide 2025

What is TransTide?

Since trans headcanons and the portrayal of trans characters can be personal for many people, writers might be nervous to write trans headcanons without invitation. This mini challenge is for people to signal that they would love to receive trans headcanons, as well as to showcase their requested fandoms with canon trans characters.

Note that this exchange is open to nonbinary characters as well.

To participate, simply copy-paste the following into a comment:

AO3 name:
Letter link:
Likes and DNWs:
Fandom:
Characters:
Details:

If you post a fic for Yuletide with one or more trans characters, tag it with TransTide so people can find it easily

Entry tags:

fandom type: poetry

Poems and Ballads in the 2025 tagset

Here’s a list of all poems (including ballads and traditional songs) in the 2023 tagset, with links to texts as best I can find, and a notation of original language if not English. Please let me know of any additions or corrections.

Allison Gross (Traditional Ballad)

Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came - Robert Browning

Flower Fairies - Cicely Mary Barker

The Epic of Gilgamesh [Akkadian]

Goblin Market - Christina Rossetti

Heer Halewijn (Traditional Ballad) [Dutch]

Her strong enchantments failing - A.E. Housman

Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight - Anonymous (Song)

Nibelungenlied [Middle High German]

The Odyssey - Homer [Ancient Greek]

The Romance of Silence [Old French]

Summoned By Bells - John Betjeman

Tam Lin - Anonymous (Song)

Two Loves - Lord Alfred Douglas

The Waste Land - T. S. Eliot

Wulf and Eadwacer [Old English] (original, modern English translations one, two, three)

赠答诗 - 金车美人 (弘农) | Poems Composed in Reply - Beautiful Woman in a Golden Carriage (Hong Nong) [Classical Chinese]

Bonus: poets for RPFing in the tagset include:

Richard I of England (in 12th Century CE RPF)
Lord Byron, John Keats, Percy Shelley and Herman Melville (in 19th Century CE Literary RPF)
Enheduanna (in Mesopotamian RPF)
Christopher Marlowe (in 16th Century CE RPF and in Shakespeare RPF)
Ben Jonson and William Shakespeare (in Shakespeare RPF)
Edna St. Vincent Millay, Emily Dickinson, Gertrude Stein, and Sappho (in Women's Literary RPF).

Entry tags:

mini-challenge

Yuletide Madness Drabble Invitational

It is time once more for the Yuletide Madness Drabble Invitational!

Are you going through the tagset, thinking about your signup, and getting lured down plotbunny holes?

Well, if you are entranced by tiny canons, luscious fandom promos, or letters with prompts that you absolutely adore, and you've got to do something to appease the itty bitty plot bunnies that are nibbling at your ankles, the Yuletide Madness Drabble Invitational is back to meet all your "I don't have time or brain enough to do 1000 words, but that idea is still keen" needs.

How does it work?

Write drabbles or drabble series for Yuletide Madness. Proper ones, where the text of each drabble is exactly 100 words, please. Ficlets are fun, but not all ficlets are drabbles in just the same way as not all poems are sonnets. (You can, of course, post a 1000 word tale told in drabbles, where each chapter/bit is exactly 100 words to the main Yuletide collection, if you like. Just be sure that it is eligible to fulfill the main gift rules for that recipient.)

Give them to people.

Add "yumadrin" or "Yuletide Madness Drabble Invitational" to the tags.

That's it!

*******

As of the start of Yuletide 2025 we have created 939 drabbles, the oldest ones from 2013 when the Invitational. We are so close to a thousand! These little mini-gifts are a lot of fun to give, and to get, and they're fun to create as well. Check out the tag to see what we mean!

https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Yuletide%20Madness%20Drabble%20Invitational/works

Entry tags:

mini-challenge

Queering the Tide 2025

There are many ways of queering texts and characters. This challenge is for any and all of them! The widest possible definition of queering is used here. If you think your prompt counts, then so do we.

To participate, leave a comment on this post linking to your letter, so anyone interested in queering your canon for Yuletide can find you. Tag any fics for this mini-challenge with Queering The Tide. (I suggest you tag both Queering the Tide and TransTide if the two happen to overlap.)

You can copy/paste this form below for your comment.

AO3 name:

Letter link:

Fandom:

Any specific fandom details, preferences, comments, etc:

Text copied from the 2024 post.

Entry tags:

fandom: star trek discovery

Aggressive Negotiations by laughingpineapple (SFW)

Fandom: Star Trek: Discovery
Characters/Pairing/Other Subject: Keyla Detmer & Joann Owosekun
Content Notes/Warnings: Star Wars Fusion, i.e. Keyla and Joann as Jedis
Medium: digital art
Artist on DW/LJ:

laughingpineapple
Artist Website/Gallery: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laughingpineapple/profile

Why this piece is awesome: Really fun art style! I love their back-to-back fighting poses, the warm colour palette, and the design choices for their clothes and hair.

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29159499

A poem for today

I have got a headache
I do not know the reason.
A headache is annoying
And always out of season.
I have got a headache,
It will not go away,
I wish it would and never ever
Come another day.

Entry tags:

mini-challenge

Siblings Mini-Challenge: Family Matters 2025

What is Family Matters?
Unrelated to the sitcom (or anything else, actually), Family Matters is a mini challenge focused on sibling relationships. Whether that be traditional, half, foster/adoptive, or step siblings, siblings of all kinds are welcome. For the purposes of this mini challenge, I am excluding found family (unless there are sibling relationships within) and “I see them as a sibling” relationships (unless, of course, that statement is meant to be literal.) As I won’t be policing anything, please use your best interest and feel free to ask me any questions in the comments.

What about incest?
This is NOT the incest mini challenge. Someone made one last year and I'm hoping, for all interested, that it's continues on. However, nothing and no one is stopping you from signing up to both if that’s what you want.

What if [character]’s sibling isn’t in the tagset?
Good news! As long as at least one sibling is in the tagset (and you’re requesting them), this won’t be a problem.

How do I participate?
Leave a comment with the following details:
AO3 Username:
Letter Link (if applicable):
Fandoms & Requested Characters + Their Siblings (not necessary, but it might help to put if they’re in the tagset or not/if you’re requesting them):
Prompts (optional):
Any Other Details:

How do I tag for this?
The challenge, specifically? Yuletide Family Matters
But in general, try some of these, if applicable: Siblings, Sibling Rivalry, Brother-Brother Relationship, Brother-Sister Relationship, Sister-Sister Relationship, Adopted Sibling Relationship, Step-Siblings

Entry tags:

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (1962)

My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had. I dislike washing myself, and dogs, and noise. I like my sister Constance, and Richard Plantagenet, and Amanita phalloides, the death-cup mushroom. Everyone else in my family is dead.

If that opening paragraph hasn't sold you, I'm not sure what else I can say. Shirley Jackson is a writer who makes me almost furious with love and envy; I know I'll never be that good, but at least I get to read someone who is.

The narrative proper begins with Merricat and Constance and their uncle Julian living in a large house on the outskirts of a small New England village where everyone loathes and fears them for reasons that aren't initially clear. Constance is agoraphobic and unable to leave their property, and Julian has cognitive and mobility impairments and requires constant care. Merricat seems obviously autistic, but is the family's only connection to the world outside their home, so she bears the brunt of the villagers' hateful stares and cruel comments when she ventures out for groceries and library books. Nonetheless, their life together is stable and predictable (as Merricat needs it to be)—until their estranged cousin Charles shows up and threatens to tear that stability apart.

I had this book under horror on my list, but it might also be categorized as a gothic mystery. What happened to the rest of the family? We hear one story of their demise early on, but the more we learn, the less it adds up. If it's not horror, though, it's at least horror adjacent, and one thing I loved about it is how it turns its horror tropes on their heads, using them to emphasize the power of the esoteric feminine and to align the narrative's sympathies with people who have been ostracized and rejected as monstrous.

spoilery thoughts

The villagers think Constance poisoned the other family members, but I never believed that. The fact that Merricat killed them and Constance covered it up is... I mean, it's barely even a twist, everything points to it. Means, motive, opportunity. But until it's spoken aloud, we don't really know, just as it seems it isn't quite real to Constance either until she says the words.

I see this book as a subversion of misogynist horror tropes—it's folk horror from the point of view of the witches. You see the townsfolk creating their myth of the murderous woman, complete with a Lizzie Borden-like playground rhyme and a dilapidated house that the kids dare each other to go near. Merricat uses magic of her own devising to protect herself (or she tries to) and Jackson names the image out loud, casually describing the sisters as looking like witches when they return from cleaning carrying their broomsticks. They represent contrasting feminine archetypes, with Constance as the tame and domestic caretaker who does not leave the home, and Merricat as the wild girl of magic and nature, accompanied by her familiar, Jonas the cat. Merricat's psychological and magickal battle to cleanse her home of the presence of greedy Cousin Charles is a battle to exert her will, to maintain female control and banish patriarchy once again.

Another angle the book takes on the ostracism of those seen as abnormal is that of disability. All three protagonists are disabled—Julian in his very visible wheelchair, Constance with her agoraphobia, and Merricat so clearly neurodivergent. I realize this was written in 1962 so this may not have been exactly how Jackson would have described her intentions, but for me as a reader the theme is very strong. To me it's the key to the sister's relationship. Why does Merricat love Constance, why did she spare her? Because Constance accepted her differences instead of punishing her for them. I loved that Julian got his moment of power too, telling Charles off so satisfyingly and refusing to be dismissed or controlled.

The horror of the book is in the proverbial villagers with pitchforks, coming for the ones they see as monsters, to kill them with fire. But the triumph of the book is that they fail. The sisters' happy ending isn't to conform to the norms of the outside world, it's to make their own world together even it's not one that others would understand. And in the end the villagers capitulate to it, even leaving gifts at their door which are framed as shamefaced apologies, but reading more like superstitious offerings to keep the witches' wrath appeased. These women are not nice, they're not safe, they're not under society's control—but they've won, even if to accomplish that they've had to go to unthinkable extremes.

Dear Yuletider!

AHHHHHHHHHHH! I'M SO EXCITED! This is a placeholder! I will be back shortly!

Entry tags:

Yuletide 2025

( Letter under the cut )

Entry tags:

mini-challenge

Yuleporn 2025: Fuck This Year in Particular

What is Yuleporn?

In an exchange as large and diverse as Yuletide, it usually turns out that a lot of people would love to write or receive explicit stories but aren't comfortable asking for them or writing them without a little more information. Yuleporn is a mini-challenge that exists to help unite Yuletiders in requesting, writing, and reading the porn of their Yuletide dreams. Have no Optional Details fear, Yuleporn is here!

How Do I Participate?

Leave a comment on this post linking your letter if you are interested in getting an explicit fic for YT.
Add any optional details you want in the comment – additional prompts, favourite kinks, DNWs, &c..
If you don't have a letter or are a pinch-hitter, you can still leave prompts here, but make sure to include your AO3 name, your fandoms, and the characters you requested
When it comes time to upload, tag your fics with "Yuleporn" on AO3 so other interested parties can easily find all the good stuff when the collection opens.
Enjoy.

Here's a totally optional copy-paste form if you like forms!

AO3: Letter link: Likes: DNWs: Fandom specific details:

As always, you don't have to participate in Yuleporn to write or request porn - it's just here to make things easier - and Yuleporn is 100% open to all kinks (or lack thereof).

(This post is mostly copypasta from time immemorial; please comment if anything should be updated! Credit to Morbane for this year's title.)

Entry tags:

mini-challenge

Two for One - Crossover and Fusion Mini-Challenge

Two for One is an annual mini-challenge to help people who like crossovers and/or fusions find one another's requests.

To participate, simply copy-paste the following into a comment:
AO3 Name:
Letter Link:
Crossover Type: (ie. crossover, fusion, or either)
Applicable Requested Fandoms:
Potential Crossover Fandoms: (you may list specific combinations you're interested in, ex. Megamind/Treasure Planet, or generally request any of your Yuletide requests with each other, or list additional fandoms you'd be happy to have crossed with any of your requests)
Prompts/Optional Details: (as many and as detailed as you like)

One of the fandoms in each crossover or fusion prompt must be one you are requesting for Yuletide; however, the other doesn’t have to be. It doesn’t even have to be in the tagset at all!

Some clarification about crossover types:
Crossovers tend to involve Fandom A's characters interacting with Fandom B's characters or worldbuilding, with everyone retaining their canon backgrounds. Ex. Aurora and Red Riding Hood team up to defeat a villain, or Clark Kent falls into a portal that takes him to Tortall.

Fusions tend to be AUs in which Fandom A's characters have always existed in Fandom B's setting instead of their own, often replacing Fandom B's characters. Ex. Pacha and Kronk as contestants in the Hunger Games, where Kuzco and Yzma are referees. (A fic like this in which Hunger Games characters also appear would be a hybrid between a fusion and crossover.)