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:

<strong>AO3 name:</strong> <strong>Letter link:</strong> <strong>Likes and DNWs:</strong> <strong>Fandom:</strong> <strong>Characters:</strong> <strong>Details:</strong>

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

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

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).

Yuletide signups are open!

Here's the tagset showing what's eligible to request and offer.

What intrigues you in the tag set? And who plans to participate this year?

Thank you for writing for me! If you have any questions, please check with the mods. I am a very easy recipient and will be delighted with whatever you write for me. I have no special requirements beyond what's specifically stated in my DNWs. I'm fine with all POVs (i.e., first, second, third), tenses, ratings, story lengths, etc.

My AO3 name is Edonohana. I am open to treats. Very open. I love them.

This year I have gone for a slate of obscure-even-for-Yuletide canons plus a few less obscure canons with obscure-even-for-Yuletide characters. Some of my prompts are longer than others, but I want everything equally.

I like hurt-comfort, action/adventure, horror, domestic life, worldbuilding, evocative descriptions, camaraderie, loyalty, trauma recovery, difficult choices, survival situations, mysterious places and weird alien technology, food, plants, animals, landscape, X-Men type powers, learning to love again or trust again or enjoy life again, miniature things or beings, magic, strange rituals, unknowable things, epistolary fiction, found footage/art/creepy movies/etc, canon divergence AUs anf alternate versions of characters. I particularly love deadly/horrifying yet weirdly beautiful settings, especially if there's elements of space/time/reality warping as well. And many other things, too, of course! That list is just in case something sparks an idea.

( General DNWs )

( Crossroad - Barbara Hambly )

( Earthsea - Ursula K. Le Guin )

( Fire Dancer Series - Ann Maxwell )

( Ki and Vandien Quartet - Megan Lindholm )

( The Last Hot Time - John M. Ford  )

( Lyra - Patricia Wrede )

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

 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:
<strong>AO3 Username:</strong>
<strong>Letter Link (if applicable):</strong>
<strong>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):</strong>
<strong>Prompts (optional):</strong>
<strong>Any Other Details:</strong>

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

Posted by Kip Manley

https://thecityofroses.com/story/GallowglasActI

Easing her coat the color of butter from her shoulders, down her motionless arms. Pausing as he takes the weight of it dragging the one side down in his hands. “What have you in your pocket?” he says. She doesn’t respond. He folds the coat over, careful of the weight of it, and lays it on one of the folding chairs there by the wall. “If you were to sit,” he says, “I might remove your boots.”

“Luys,” she says then, looking away from nothing to meet his eyes.

From out in the hall there’s Leo striding into the high-ceilinged room, white T-shirt tucked into houndstooth trousers and a paper cup in either hand. “Since dawn,” says the squat man following behind, a black leather vest over a black T-shirt, his long dark hair in a gleaming braid.

“So,” says Leo, gesturing with one of the cups at the lightening windows high and narrow that line the opposite wall. “Since now.”

“An hour or more. The first train got there at twenty of.”

Leo’s still looking out at the blue-grey light. “I have got to stop coming home so early,” he says.

“It’s the Prince, m’lord,” says the man in the vest, and over against the other wall Jo falls into one of the folding chairs, staring at him. “He means to sit the Throne. I’d stake your hoard on it.”

“All that?” says Leo, and a sip of coffee from one of the cups. A shrug. “Let him stand back up, Tommy. Then we’ll have a ball game.”

https://thecityofroses.com/story/GallowglasActI

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!

<strong>AO3:</strong> <strong>Letter link:</strong> <strong>Likes:</strong> <strong>DNWs:</strong> <strong>Fandom specific details:</strong>

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.)

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.)

This is an outstanding work of narrative nonfiction about the sinking of the merchant marine ship El Faro, with no survivors, on October 1, 2015. As far as anyone could tell initially, the captain inexplicably sailed the ship straight into the eye of Hurricane Joaquin, which he definitely knew was there.

Then the black box got retrieved. It had the complete audio recordings of everything that happened on the ship for 26 hours before it sank, right up to its final moments. Rachel Slade, a journalist, used the complete audio plus in-depth interviews with everyone who could possibly have any light to shed on the matter to write the book. She not only gives an analysis of what happened and why, she covers all the surrounding circumstances that led to it. It's an outstanding work of nonfiction disaster reporting that often reads like a suspense novel, it will teach you a lot about many things, and it will make you very angry.

The culprit, essentially, was capitalism. A company called TOTE took over the original company that owned the ship and put a business bro who knew nothing about shipping in charge. He fired a bunch of people at random on the theory that there were too many employees, and slashed maintenance because it was expensive. Everyone who was experienced, skilled, and not desperate who hadn't already been fired quit, leaving only people who were inexperienced, unskilled, undesirable for other reasons, desperate, or in low-level positions where they had no influence on general operations, on a ship in serious need of repairs and upgrades. TOTE put enormous pressure on the captain to get the ship to its destination on time, no matter what, to save money. Finally, there were multiple sources for weather reports, the one which was most current was more complicated to use, and not everyone understood that the other source could be nine hours behind.

The captain had been investigated for sexual harassment, had a history of poor judgment calls, and had the social skills of Captain Ahab; because of this, he knew he was on thin ice and if he got fired from the El Faro, he might not get another job as captain. The second mate was a young woman trying to make it in a men's world who had reported him for harassing her, and dealt by avoiding him as much as possible. The entire crew was operating under a system where the captain was basically God. The only way to contact the outside world, like if for instance a crew member wanted to report that the captain was set on sailing them into a hurricane, was a satellite phone that only the captain had access to.

Basically everyone but the captain was worried they'd sail into the hurricane, the captain was worried he'd get fired if he took the long way around to avoid the hurricane and didn't realize that his weather reports were not up to date, everyone was tiptoeing around or avoiding the captain because he was a giant asshole who was also the God-King, and no one had any way to overrule or go around him.

The culture of "never question the captain even if he's obviously wrong" has caused a number of plane crashes, and the aviation world responded by instituting a system of training to teach crew members to speak up forcefully if they think the captain is making a mistake, complete with exactly how to phrase it. If you're interested in this, it's called Cockpit/Crew Resource Management (CRM); the podcast "Black Box Down" has a number of episodes involving it.

CRM would have been helpful for the El Faro, as would giving the crew private access to the satellite phone or some other way of reporting on the captain. And, of course, so would not allowing companies to put workers in extremely unsafe conditions. Regulations are written in blood. Worse, the blood can spill and nothing gets written at all.

An excellent book. I recommend it to anyone with an interest in disasters, survival, or the failure mode of capitalism.

Please read this post even if you have signed up before!

After reading this post, please look at the tag set to see what fandoms are available this year, and make a shortlist of what you plan to offer and request. (The same fandoms can be on both lists, if you want.)

Then sign up at the collection. We recommend you allow at least half an hour to sign up. While you can edit your sign-up over the next week, you will not be able to make any changes after sign-ups close at 9pm UTC 24 October.

If you would like to avoid matching to up to three other participants, with limitations discussed here, you may do so by filling out a Google Form from a link within the AO3 form. If you want to use this feature but cannot use Google Forms, please email the mods. Do Not Match requests will close at the same time as signups.

Requests

• You can request 3-8 fandoms


• Each fandom must be different


• You can request 0*-4 characters in each fandom


• *Requesting 0 characters means "I am happy to receive any nominated character for this fandom. My author gets to choose which one(s)". That includes Worldbuilding for fandoms where Worldbuilding is nominated as a character tag. If no characters are nominated for the fandom, requesting 0 characters means “I am happy to receive any character or worldbuilding for this fandom.”


• "AND" matching means your writer must include every character you select. If you are happy with a subset of your selected characters, indicate this with Additional Tags, and clarify any exceptions in your optional details.


• You can only request characters from the tag set, though your optional prompts may mention other characters to appear too.


• In some fandoms, you can request Worldbuilding as a character. You can find guidance on that here.

AND matching and additional tags
Generally, when you select characters in your sign-up form, it means you want and expect your gift to include all of those characters. This is a key principle for matching and assignments. However, some people like to give their author further options. We are using the Additional Tags section of the form for this.

If you requested 0 characters, or you want all the characters you selected to appear, you will tick the first Additional Tag option, which says "My gift must feature all of my chosen character tags (if 0: any from tag set)". If you think your situation might be different, please read last year’s post about additional tags and select additional tags that are right for your requests. This information is also in the sign-up form.


Optional Details and Do Not Wants (DNWs)
"Optional details" = prompts, ideas, likes, explanations of how you see the canon. Optional details and DNWs can be recorded in the main text section of your requests.

Optional details are optional (ODAO)! Your writer doesn't have to follow your prompts, though they must avoid your DNWs. You don't have to give prompts here, either - though prompts and ideas may be a more inspiring first impression than a list of DNWs on its own. Prompts may be particularly useful if you are requesting a Worldbuilding tag.

See this 2020 post for some considerations when writing your DNWs. Last year, we also clarified our rules and guidance about DNWs.

The Optional Details section of your AO3 requests is especially relevant if you have selected option two of the additional tags, "My gift must feature all of my chosen character tags; or it may use exceptions I explain in the form". In that case, please use this section of the form for explaining how and when your writer is allowed to leave out some of the characters you selected.

Please use minimal html in the optional details field. No images, please.

Please also note in the form if you're able to receive treats - or if you don't want them! Yuletide has a long-established culture of extra gifts, but if you created your account recently, you may have extra gifts turned off by default. Please check your AO3 preferences, and then state in your sign-up form whether you do or do not accept treats.


Letters
You can write prompts and preferences in another space, such as Dreamwidth, Livejournal, Google Docs, or Tumblr, and put a link in your sign-up. This is known as a "letter". Some people write letters; some don't. DNWs and character subsets that are listed in a letter but not in the Optional Details AO3 textbox cause confusion and difficulty for creators, and will not be enforced by the mods. Otherwise, your letter is an extension of your optional details and is treated the same way.

Important: You cannot add a letter after sign-ups close.

Offers

• You can offer 4-10 fandoms


• Each fandom must be different


• You can offer 2-20 specific characters in each


• If you want to offer a fandom that has 0-1 characters available, tick the "Any" box


• If you are willing to write any combination of nominated characters, including Worldbuilding for fandoms where it is nominated, tick the "Any" box


• "Worldbuilding" can also be selected as a character for many fandoms. Please check here to see how we're using it.


• Offers are secret! Please don't declare openly what you're offering.

If you have several fandoms in which you want to offer to write Any nominated characters, you can make your last offer a "Bucket Offer". You can read about bucket offers in the Sign-ups section of the AO3 FAQ. This older tutorial has pictures!

Signing up!

The sign-up form is here.

• Signups will remain open - and editable - until 9pm UTC 24 October.


• You may only sign up to Yuletide with one AO3 account. You must be aged 18 or over to sign up.


• You can find more sign-up information at the Yuletide 2025 FAQ


• There is also specific guidance about how to use Additional Tags

Please check the tag set or the app when signing up. The autocomplete drop-down list in the sign-up form may not show all available characters. If they're in the tag set, you can enter them manually.

Sign-Up Summary

The list of requested/offered fandoms will be available after five people have signed up. Bucket offers do not show up in the list. Checking the sign-up summary for people you may be able to write for is a good idea - although many people sign up at the last minute. The sign-up summary says it updates hourly; in practice it may update less frequently.

Fandoms at 1-1 on the sign-up summary may mean that the same person is offering and requesting the fandom, not that there is a match.

Welcome to Yuletide!

Feel free to ask us questions.

Bonus! Yuletide advertisements

Thank you to crantz (who also made images for us to share in 2019 and in 2020). Please use these to encourage friends and other fans to take part!



To repost this image, copy this html:
<a href="https://archiveofourown.org/collections/yuletide2025/profile"><img src="https://www.yuletide.fandom.exchange/images/yuletidegraphic1.jpg" alt="Yuletide exchange promotional image using mountain forest scenery. Text says Write off the beaten path - Yuletide Rare Fandoms Exchange."></a>

---

To repost this image, copy this html:
<a href="https://archiveofourown.org/collections/yuletide2025/profile"><img src="https://www.yuletide.fandom.exchange/images/yuletidegraphic2.jpg" alt="Yuletide exchange promotional image using an image of an 1887 ice palace. Text says Travel the Worlds of Imagination - Yuletide Rare Fandoms Exchange."></a>

Schedule, Rules, & Collection | Contact Mods | Participant DW | Participant LJ | Pinch Hits on DW | Discord | Tag set | Tag set app
Please either comment logged-in or sign a name. Unsigned anonymous comments will be left screened.

Three Turtle Doves is a mini challenge to help people who like poly, threesomes, and more find one another's requests. Though the challenge title includes the word "three", moresomes are welcome to join in. The more the merrier!

If you are requesting these, please let others know by dropping a comment here. Interested writers can browse and see what's out there that they might not have known about. This is also a great place to discover new fandoms with poly possibilities.

To participate, simply copy-paste the following into a comment:
AO3 Name:
Letter Link:
Fandom(s):
Rating(s): (here's a good place to put your ideal and maximum ratings)
Groupings Requested: (list all combinations you're interested in in all fandoms)
Prompts!: (as many and as detailed as you like)

<strong>AO3 Name:</strong> <strong>Letter Link:</strong> <strong>Fandom(s):</strong> <strong>Rating(s):</strong> (here's a good place to put your ideal and maximum ratings) <strong>Groupings Requested:</strong> (list all combinations you're interested in in all fandoms) <strong>Prompts!:</strong> (as many and as detailed as you like)

Please tag any works you end up making for Yuletide with 'Three Turtle Doves' so interested people can find and enjoy your work!

Greetings and salutations! Yuletide contains multitudes, and a chunk of those multitudes would really like to request or write worldbuilding. Thus, here is a sub-challenge post for those of us who love worldbuilding, either on the giving or receiving end.

To participate

• Leave a comment on this fic with a link to your letter if you are interested in receiving worldbuilding. Optionally, add any extra worldbuilding likes and prompts you may have into your comment.
• If you don't have a letter, you can still leave prompts here! Please ensure your comment includes your AO3 username, requested fandoms, and any characters you're requesting.
• When uploading your fic to the archive, tag it with Yulebuilding and Worldbuilding so the rest of us can find it!

<strong>AO3:</strong> AO3 username <strong>Letter:</strong> Dear Yuletide Writer letter (URL) <strong>Fandoms:</strong> fandom details here <strong>Characters:</strong> requested characters, if any <strong>Prompts:</strong>

It's not necessary to interact with Yulebuilding in any way to give or request worldbuilding for Yuletide, but this post is here to make life easier. Enjoy!

Tagset corrections are in, and signups are opening soon! It’s just about time to decide what you’ll be requesting and offering.

This year, you can request eight fandoms! Previously, it was six. Because of that, we're reviewing our process for sending author questions.

Each year, we receive questions from authors about their recipient’s requests. These might include clarification on prompts or requests to understand how a DNW applies to a specific fandom–for example, does a DNW for character death include discussion of deaths that occur in canon?

We’re always happy to pass these questions along! Please always contact the mods directly rather than reaching out to the recipient yourself.

Traditionally, when we send these questions to recipients, we try to disguise the fandom the author plans to write for, so the gift is still a surprise. If the question is generic and applies to all fandoms, we can pass it along as-is. If the question is specific to one fandom, our team of volunteers writes decoy questions for the other fandoms and sends along the whole set.

This is fun for us to do, but it takes time. It's also extra work for the recipients to read and respond to multiple questions. This year, as we’re allowing up to 8 requested fandoms (which could mean up to 7 mod-created questions), it seems like a good time to check in and see if our participants find it helpful.

So, a poll! Going forward, which would you prefer mods do?



Keep in mind the question may be from a potential treat writer, so receiving questions for a particular set of fandoms isn’t a guarantee that your final gift will be in one of those fandoms.

We may not necessarily change our process this year based on community feedback, but it will be helpful in making our decision!

We'd also love to hear from you if you'd like to share a past experience with sending or receiving questions! If that has never happened to you, we hope you enjoy this peek behind the administrative curtain.


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This book contains several elements which I like very much: it's epistolatory, it has mysterious ancient sophisticated machinery, and it involves very big size differences. I love miniature things and people, but I also love giants and giant things. This novel is entirely in the form of interviews, and it begins with a young girl walking in the woods who falls into a sinkhole, and lands in the palm of a GIANT HAND. (I can't believe that image isn't on the cover, because it's so striking and is also by far the best part of the book.) The gigantic hand is metal, and it turns out that there are pieces of a complete ancient giant robot scattered all over the world! What happens when the whole giant robot is assembled?

It turns out that what happens is yet another example of a great idea making a bad book, largely - AGAIN - by failing to engage with the premise! WHY IS THIS SO COMMON????

To be fair, this book has many bad elements which do not involve failing to lean into its premise.

The entire book consists of interviews by an unnamed, very mysterious person with near-infinite money and power. He is hiring people to locate the robot parts, assemble them, and pilot it. He also conducts personal interviews with them in which he pries into their love lives in a bizarrely personal manner. It's clearly because the author wanted to have a love story (he shouldn't have, it's terrible) and figured this was the only way to do it and keep the format, but it makes no sense. The interviewers do object to this line of questioning, but not in the way that I kept wanting them to, which would have been along the lines of "Don't you have anything better to do than get wank material from your employees? Drop it, or I'll go to HR."

The girl who fell into the hand grows up to be a physicist who gets hired to... I forget what exactly, but it didn't make much sense even when I was reading it. Anyway, she's on the project. There's also a badass female helicopter pilot, and a male linguist to translate the mysterious giant robot inscriptions. All these people are the biggest geniuses ever but are also total idiots. All the women are incredibly "man writing women."

Most annoyingly, the robot does not seem to be sentient, does not communicate, does not have a personality, and only walks for like 30 seconds once.

Spoilers! ( Read more... )

I feel stupider for having read this book.

It's a trilogy but even people who liked the first book say the returns steadily diminish.

I normally don't think it's cool to criticize people's appearances, but in this case, this dude chose to go with this supremely tryhard author photo.

Posted by Kip Manley

https://thecityofroses.com/story/GallowglasOpening

A screaming cuts the silence of the car, right through the engine’s rumble, the hum of tires, the tocking turn signal. She’s kicking digging her feet into the backs of the seat ahead fighting to free her arms from the men on either side the car lurches, a grind, a thunk and to her right Leo winces, sparing a glace at the front seat, “Don’t do that,” he says. Streetlight flickering, flashes lighting his camel-colored coat, lost again in the gloom.

“Out of practice,” says Luys, up behind the wheel.

“Jo,” says Marfisa, leaning over the back of the front seat.

“Take me back,” says Jo, her quickly heaving breath.

“Jo,” says Marfisa again, reaching back and down for her hand, her knee, and “Look,” says Leo, and “Take me back,” says Jo, “right the hell now,” and Orlando’s hand snaps up to backhand her, she growls, kicks again, wrenching her arm from Orlando’s grasp, Leo’s holding grimly on, buffeted by blows as the car wobbles, wavers, Orlando’s hand coming up a fist and Marfisa lunging to grab at it, “Don’t!” cries Luys, gripping the wheel, ducking a flap of her sheepskin coat, and Jo’s screaming again. “Why,” bellows Leo, and the car is quiet, again. Engine-rumble, tire-hiss. Jo’s panting breath, too quick. Orlando’s hands, in his lap. “Why,” says Leo, “must we,” looking at her, past her, to Orlando, “what in blazes,” he says, and then, “what happened.”

“I was not told what happened;” says Orlando, and Jo’s saying, a burr in her breath, “You, you know,” as Orlando says, “merely where to find her.”

“And why were you asking where to find her,” says Leo, as Jo’s saying, “You know, she, she was,” and Orlando snorts. “Again, this,” he says.

“Let her speak,” says Leo.

https://thecityofroses.com/story/GallowglasOpening

It's letters time! If you're writing a letter along with your Yuletide sign-up, you can comment here with a link to your letter and also enter the details in the 2025 tagset app. For browsing convenience, the app also generates a google spreadsheet you can access directly. (Bookmarking will be available in the app once tag set corrections are complete.)

What's the deal with letters?
Letters are an optional tradition of Yuletide. When you sign up to the event, there's a space in the form for linking to somewhere in your own space (journal, public document, etc) where you can go into detail about what you like in fic and fandom. This post collects these links. The prompts on AO3 are hidden through sign-ups, but letters are visible as soon as you want them to be.

Letters are an optional extra in Yuletide. If you only post a letter here, you haven't signed up. To get an assignment and a gift, you need to sign up at the collection - NOW OPEN! (And see sign-up instructions at the admin comm.)

What makes a good letter?
Mileage varies. We encourage you, at minimum, to include your AO3 name, the fandoms and characters you're requesting, your Do-Not-Wants (DNWs), and whether or not you can receive treats. [This is a feature you can set in your AO3 preference settings. New accounts have permission to receive treats turned off by default, but participants with older accounts should check if they have not checked this in a while]. There are additional posts here and here discussing how to use DNWs.


How to post your letter

1. Finish your letter and make sure it's publicly visible. Here's the tagset to check what you can request


2. Enter it in the app*! You can edit your letter after submitting it - save the key, or ask the mods for the key if you lose it


3. Comment below! Include:
   • Your AO3 name
   
   
   • A link to your letter
   
   
   • The fandoms you are requesting (3-8)
   
   
   • The characters you are requesting in your fandoms (1-4, or Any)
   
   If you post to the app first, it will spit out a handy chunk of text with all these details for you to use when commenting.
   

*Please reach out here if you're having trouble with the app! Characters can be selected by clicking on them.

!!! We ask you to add your letter both places to make sure it gets to people who are excited to read it. If for whatever reason you can only comment on a post, then please include the following line in your comment:

Mods, please add my letter to the app.

We will sweep the post occasionally and add letters to the app.

Warning: Locked or placeholder letters will be removed. You can add your letter when it's done.

If you have a question, contact a mod on Discord or comment here


Mini-challenges
As mini-challenges are posted, they will be added below.
( See links to this year's mini-challenges under the cut. )


Sign-ups are open until 24 October. The closing of sign-ups will be announced at the admin comm.

Enjoy! And thank you to karanguni for the app!

Tag set housekeeping

• We've removed Mouthwashing (Video Game) as that was approved in error. Sorry for getting your hopes up, nominator!


• 烏は主を選ばない | Karasu wa Aruji wo Erabanai | Yatagarasu: The Raven Does Not Choose Its Master (Anime): It’s come to our attention that Nazukihiko and Wakamiya are the same person, so we’re merging those characters.


• Nominator of Luca (The History of Sound) - it looks like the Wikipedia page for this movie incorrectly listed Luca as the name of Lionel's lover in Rome; according to IMDB and the original stories this movie is based on, it's Vincent (who was also nominated), so we're deleting Luca.

Thank you for all the tag set issues you’ve let us know about so far! Please continue to check the tag set and let us know of further corrections we should make. Please tell us about these corrections before 9am UTC, Monday 13 October, so we can fix them before sign-ups.

Limited Do-Not-Match option

Most of the time, the person assigned to create for you in an AO3-based gift exchange, and the person assigned to receive a gift from you, are determined by the tags you select in the sign-up form.

Some exchange moderators also offer participants the option to say "Please do not match me up with [ExampleUserName] or [ExampleUserName2]. I don't want to receive a gift from them or create for them." This feature makes it easier, for example, to offer a fandom requested by six different people including someone you'd prefer to avoid, and have peace of mind that you can still avoid that person.

A Do-Not-Match option is difficult to offer flexibly in Yuletide because of the large number of participants and the large number of people who have only one possible creator or recipient. However, we see a Do-Not-Match option as a valuable tool to reduce friction and make everyone happier, so we intend to offer a limited version of this feature in Yuletide, on a trial basis. Please note that this is not an absolute guarantee you won’t receive a story from one of the people you list.

How it will work

When you sign up on AO3, the sign-up form will also link out to a Google form where you can list the AO3 names of up to 3 people you do not want to match to and can tell us if you want to avoid writing for a person, receiving an assigned gift from a person, or both. We will also ask for those people's AO3 ID numbers, which you can find on their AO3 profiles, and for the email associated with your AO3 name. We will not ask for the reason you wish to avoid a person.

After we run the matching process, we will check all matches against our master Do-Not-Match list. We will take the following actions:

• If your assigned recipient or creator is someone you asked to avoid, we will attempt to match you to someone else.


• If your only possible recipient is someone you asked to avoid, we will email you to recommend you expand your offers. However, we will leave the match in place if you do not respond in the first 24 hours following the close of sign-ups.


• If your only possible creator is someone you asked to avoid, we will send out your requests with initial pinch hits.


• If you are the only possible recipient for a creator you asked to avoid, we will leave the match in place, but will prioritize your requests for double-assignment to two creators. [Because of how matching works, there will always be Yuletide participants who start out with two assigned creators; generally we try to choose them at random.]

We will not take the following actions:

• We will not ask a creator to drop out or expand their offers if their only possible recipient is someone who would prefer to avoid them.


• We will not inform a participant that someone else has asked not to match to them. [This information will be restricted only to the core Yuletide mods, Isis, Morbane, and pendrecarc, and will not be shared with the larger pool of Yuletide assistants.]


• We will not review treats for unwanted matches. Putting someone on your Do-Not-Match list will not prevent them from creating a treat for you (but please see FAQs below for other tools to achieve this).


• We will not prevent someone on your Do-Not-Match list from claiming you as a pinch hit. We will check our master Do-Not-Match list when assigning pinch hits, so if the first person to claim you is a person you prefer to avoid, we will leave a short amount of time to see if another claim comes in. But we will not hold your pinch hit indefinitely or tell the first creator they aren't allowed to claim you.


• We will not ask you why you wish to avoid a particular match.

FAQs (foreseeable/anticipated questions)

Who am I allowed to put on my Do-Not-Match list?
Any three AO3 accounts you would prefer to avoid matching to. This can be for any reason, serious or unserious. Do not tell us the reason, please. If the reason is harassment or similar, we recommend reaching out to the Policy & Abuse team separately. You may only give specific names, rather than a description like "anyone who mostly wants porn".

Can't I just block people I don't want to match to?
No. Adding other users to your block list stops them from giving you a treat (see item AO3-6502 on this news post). It also stops them from being able to comment on your work. However, it does not affect challenge matching. A person you have blocked can be assigned to create for you, and you can be assigned to create for them.

Wait, am I allowed to block people in Yuletide?
Yes. Feel free to use the blocking feature to improve your AO3 experience. However, blocking someone and also matching to them could lead to unhappiness for both of you - so please consider using all the tools at your disposal to avoid matching to people you have blocked. This could mean choosing not to offer a fandom if you suspect it has been requested by a person you wish to avoid, or it could mean using the Do-Not-Match option for people you have blocked.

What other AO3 tools exist to manage my gift experience?
If you wish, you can choose to receive gifts only from assigned writers in a gift exchange or people who have claimed your prompts in a prompt meme. This is sometimes described as turning treats on and off. If you created your account after February 2022, please review this setting in your AO3 account preferences. If you select the setting "Allow anyone to gift me works", you can receive treats. If you do not select this setting, only an assigned author can give you a gift in Yuletide.

Will this be a feature of Yuletide going forward?
Maybe, maybe not. It will depend on how well it works out this year!

Schedule, Rules, & Collection | Contact Mods | Tag Set | Tag Set App | Community DW | Community LJ | Discord | Pinch hits on Dreamwidth

Please either sign in to comment, or include a name with your anonymous comments, including replies to others' comments. Unsigned comments will stay screened.

Posted by Kip Manley

https://thecityofroses.com/story/SunClosing

Laughter, a whoop of delight as they come across the darkly silent intersection, black parka, big green coat, hoodie over a nightgown leaping boots to clomp the last bit of snow in the gutter. On the wedge of sidewalk there across from the pizza place a mound of bicycles, tires fat and white, and skinny buff, ape-hanger bars over a comically tiny front wheel, banana seats glittering silver and gold, stumpy kid’s bikes in medicinal pinks and blues. Wound about and through a thick chain and also lengths of yellow plastic tape printed with bold black letters, CRIME SCENE– DO NOT CROSS. Hung on the front of the pile by chain and tape a door ripped from a car, white with letters that say ND POLICE and a rose stenciled near the bottom. The woman in the nightgown bangs a tattoo on the door, whooping again, as the man in the parka finds a padlock on the chain and fits a key to it. The man in the green coat leans over to catch a loosening hank of chain. The woman in the nightgown takes the weight of the car door, helping it down the pile clatter and scrape.

Backing out of the cabinet under the sink he’s hunched over rubbing the small of his back, grumble and whoof, settling on his knees on the lemon-yellow floor. He pulls from the cabinet a yellow tin that says Clabber Girl, and a white tin that says Guardsman Professional Strength, and a handful of rags. Reaching deep inside, thump and rattle, he pulls out a little red handheld vacuum cleaner, and then pulls himself to his feet, yawning, scratching himself under his loose blue shirt.

https://thecityofroses.com/story/SunClosing