I misunderstood the point of this ride

Hello, delightful person! Thank you for doodling for me! This exchange is just the best, and so are you!

The spirit of this exchange matters to me a lot. I hope participating will be super fun and low-pressure for you, regardless of your "skills" (SO relative!), experience, media of choice, or level out output you happen to be feeling like. I am honored that you're making me a thing, and I cannot wait to see it!

I enjoy prompts and the like, so I'm going to provide some in case you do too. That said, this will probably be a pretty inconsistent letter on that score. I'm a little all over the place right now, so in some cases you might see some detailed ideas, probably cobbled together from past exchanges; in others, some broader strokes. Preference should in no way be read into any of that, please! I'm excited about all my requests, just having a very busy time and feeling extra ADHD lately.)

I am absolutely open to treats - and always giddily grateful if you feel inspired in that direction!

( Onward! )

( Belated 2021 round-up )

In more current news, I'm reccing X-Men comics fanart over on fanart_recs this month! You should totally check it out, although I'll probably also do a roundup post of my recs once I'm done. (Done with this month, anyway. I've been collecting amazing fanart, on deviantArt and tumblr for so long ... I'm feeling the urge to share the love.)

One final thought, if anyone else who enjoys The Locked Tomb happens to be around: have you seen the summary for Nona the Ninth yet??? (Not sure when the update actually happened, but I only saw it the other day.) I'm going to die of suspense, JFC.

Happy New Year, friends. I really hope 2022 is an improvement!

I may do some kind of personal ramble/reflection thing later, but for now I thought I'd just go ahead and share some stuff I made, since we have Yuletide and Multifandom Doodle reveals today!



( Five doodles in four fandoms under here! )

That's a pile of art, and yet, just a FRACTION of the prompts I wanted to draw for. I have a whole list leftover, and I really hope this event runs again, because it was so much fun. I would heavily encourage anyone who likes to draw or doodle to join in if it does, regardless of whether you think of yourself as "good" or "an artist." It truly was for everyone, at every skill level, and was such a fun, open-hearted, enthusiastic experience across the board.

And then there's Yuletide.

narrative context
The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells
ART & Murderbot (subtext-y gen), G, 7.3K
"It gave me context for the emotions I was feeling, I managed not to say." -Exit Strategy

( A short ramble. )

Once again, I did not manage to treat, and was in fact writing furiously down to the wire on my main assignment. Perhaps by next year I will have figured out some better time management strategies? Or at least nailed down a better regimen of ADHD meds.

I've also only read a small fraction of what I wanted to from the archive, naturally. I hope to share some recs later on.

Anyway, more personal stuff later, maybe. I'm feeling jazzed up about working on my rarefemslashexchange assignment, and of course, my OTHER favorite exchange, chocolateboxcomm, opened for sign-ups today. Making things! It's the best part of every year, and seems like a great way to kick off this one.

Nearly at the end of the year at last. Happy holiday season, friends; I hope you're all cozy somewhere with people you love and/or good things to do.

It has been really wonderful to be home with my family again for Christmas, after the miserable isolation of last year. I feel incredibly lucky that we were able to swing it; that we don't live far enough apart to require flying, and that my brother and his girlfriend were willing and able to come get me in their car so I didn't have to carry the risks of mass transit home to my parents, both in their early seventies. It has been a mostly peaceful, occasionally very goofy time; certainly a respite from my life in the city (though I'm nearly ready to go back - I miss my cat).

I'm looking forward to reading some of the Yuletide stories I've set aside on the train and leaving lots of belated but heartfelt comments on the delightful variety of multifandomdoodle works! Speaking of which, if you haven't, you should seriously check out the Multifandom Doodle archive. This exchange is really living up to its promise of inclusivity and low-pressure fun and general goodwill. I don't suppose we could have it quarterly? ;)

I received a really lovely gift from each of those exchanges:

tingle, Sex Education, Lily-centric, 1946 words, M
A contemplative journey through Lily's creative inspiration and endeavors, from childhood viewings of Star Trek through a modest adult side career as a writer of delightfully weird and retro-futurism-tinged self-published erotica and cozy domesticity with Ola and their kids. <3

Poor Jody ..., The Locked Tomb, Judith/Coronabeth, G
Pre-series, an incorrigible Coronabeth flirts with a rigidly uncomfortable Judith at a Third House party. Sheer delight!

As ever, I want to keep this fandom train rolling a bit longer, so I'm signing up (to draw) for rarefemslashexchange and chocolateboxcomm (currently in sign-ups and nominations, respectively). My writing brain needs a rest ... I am pleased with how my Yuletide story came out, but I struggled with it more than I have in years.

Oh, and I finally saw Die Hard last night (yes, for the first time). Honestly, a bit bloodier than I'd have preferred, but it certainly had its moments.

Well hello! Thank you so much for writing for me this year!

Of note: I am a relatively detailed and prolific prompter! Some people really enjoy working from prompts; some don’t. ODAO, and if you’d rather strike out in a different direction, please know that I’ll be delighted by that, too. Not to go all nonbinary Pollyanna on you, but: for me, Yuletide is primarily all about everyone having as much fun as they possibly can and sharing their love of something with a like-minded fan (a rare experience, for many of these rare fandoms). I am genuinely more invested in your enjoyment than in any of my ideas below. They’re there for fun and in case you want them.

But enough of that. I’ve requested, as is my wont, a bunch of books (two series and two stand-alones--at least, so far), as well as a podcast and a Netflix show. Some I’ve requested before (many times, even), and a couple are brand new to me. I love them all. I’m on the edge of my seat, waiting to find out which one you love too! Happy Yuletide, and I hope you get the experience you want out of it. <3 Let's get to the good stuff!

You can find me at Lilith and reflectedeve if you like! (My twitter is locked and little-used.) And should it come up for some reason, my pronouns are they/them.

I am opted-in to these mini-challenges: Wrapping Paper, Make The Yuletide Gay, ... and a Partridge in a Pear Tree

General Likes | DNWs | The Girls I’ve Been | The Locked Tomb
Wayfarers | The Witch Family | Unwell | Sex Education

( All of the above! )

Hey there! First of all, I am so sorry that I flubbed the deadline and didn't get back to my AO3 sign-up in time to enter the link to this letter. (I misremembered the time! It was a very silly thing to do!) Hopefully, it's easy to find?

Anyway. Thank you so much for making something for me! All these multifandom f/f exchanges are making me feel positively spoiled, in the best way. <3

I tend to be an enthusiastic prompter; please don't feel locked in, as my ideas are mainly there to offer inspiration if it's needed (or desired). I'm going to love whatever you do, especially if you avoid my DNWs.

Regarding the fest's theme, I've mostly requested consensual sexual content, though in a few cases I've also included "Other M/E Content" for potentially dealing with topics like trauma and death/grief. I haven't requested "Violence," but canon-typical violence is always fine by me in the service of the story - I just am not interested in a heightened focus on it, if that makes sense. Also, I'm a fan of both plotty stories and PWP and would be thrilled with either (and with either an M or E rating, too).

General Likes | Art Likes | Smut Likes | DNWs |
Fingersmith | The Locked Tomb | Wayfarers | Sailor Moon | X-Men

( All the details are in here! )

chocolateboxcomm creator reveals were more than a week ago, but my pandemic brain fog/disjointed awareness of the passage of time has been a lot, lately. I had a ton of fun drawing for the exchange as usual!


( My contributions! )

My GIFTS, though. likeadeuce wrote me The Only Hell Ma Guthrie Ever Raised, a deeply delightful piece of classic New Mutants comics gen that was exactly the kind of balm I needed. The best kids! Shenanigans! Magneto and Emma Frost being, respectively, stern and snarky! And then there was this intriguingly tropey piece of Locked Tomb smut, Fingerbones, by DachOsmin. D/s-inflected necro/cav ritual sex set at the very start of Gideon the Ninth, my gosh.

Cabin fever shows some signs of breaking, as the weather has been warming up (I got to go back to commuting to work by bike last week, which was such a relief). At least, to a point. Semi-quarantine continues to be painful and lonely, and there was an awful scare in my family (non-COVID-related) last week that has me even more shaken right now, which I didn't even really realize was still possible. So I've buried myself in a reread of the Murderbot Diaries over the last few days. I'm excited to write my first fairy tale retelling in years for once_upon_fic (and my goodness, aren't I grateful for the generous writing period, in this time of deeply unpredictable creative energy/exhaustion). And the BFF has convinced me to try and take up Tumblr again, luring me with talk of upcoming The Expanse fic. I hadn't been back over there in three years, so it's a bit surreal.

Speaking of both Murderbot and tumblr, I'll leave you with this truly stunning Murderbot animatic/fanvid which gave me ALL THE FEELINGS, good lord. Made by a 20-year-old, I have wasted my life.

Happy 2021! Thank goodness. And I'm thrilled to be ringing in the new year with one of my favorite exchanges!

Thank you so much for creating for me. Chocolate Box is supposed to be a low-pressure exchange, so I hope you'll find this a fun exercise and not stress about it. As usual, while I am going to provide at least a couple of possible prompts for each request, they are strictly optional. Barring my DNWs, I'd be delighted to see anything you come up with in these fandoms!

Without further ado:

General Likes | Art Likes | Smut Likes | DNWs | DCU (Comics) | The Locked Tomb
Marvel (Comics) | Sex Education | Star Wars Sequel Trilogy | Crossovers

( All the details are in here! )

Hello! Thank you so much for being my writer this year. I always look forward to Yuletide, but this year is ... something else. Getting to participate in a big, creative gift exchange with a huge pile of other fans is exactly what I need right now, and I very much hope it's a fun and fulfilling experience for you, too. Seriously: if you have fun writing a story for one of these fandoms, you'll have given me what I want by definition.

I'm one of those people who gives you a giant pile of words about each fandom, which you're welcome to use if you want but are absolutely not expected to do. Optional Details Are Optional, and letters doubly so. You clearly have great taste (given that you picked one of these books) - write what you want to write! I can't wait to read it.

A note for intrepid letter-browsers: all of my fandoms this year are SFF books/series which were at least partially released in the last decade, and can be found in print, ebook and audiobook formats (availability from specific sources may vary).

General Likes | DNWs | Gamechanger | The Left-Handed Booksellers of London
The Locked Tomb | The Queen's Thief | Wayfarers

( Giant Pile of Words herein. )

Life has been a LOT lately (impressively understaffed at work, my metamour just had major abdominal surgery, my second niece was born a couple weeks ago), so I completely missed posting about chocolateboxcomm reveals!

First of all, I got two lovely gifts - fic and art, the best possible outcome! :D

borrowedphrases wrote me a lovely little OT3 hurt/comfort coda to Leverage S5E9, "The Rundown Job:" Nearly a Near-Death Experience (Hardison/Parker/Eliot, T)

And I received this gorgeous Labyrinth fanart from Syksy, Ascension of the Goblin Queen, featuring an appropriately 80s-glam Queen Sarah and a kneeling Jareth (unf).

Also, I drew five things - a new personal best! I am definitely going to have to make a point of more art treating for future exchanges where possible, because this was really satisfying.


( Art for: Runaways, Excalibur, Gideon the Ninth, She-Ra and Wayfarers! )

I must admit, I really love that Wayfarers is my top fandom on the AO3 now (with three whole fanworks). Gosh, that was fun.

And now, back to my job+, sigh.