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Yuletide 2026 sign-ups continue!! They close at 9pm UTC on Friday 23 October.

SEE COUNTDOWN

Some housekeeping
In the Assignments section of the AO3 FAQ, we've clarified our guidelines on unusual formats, such as poetry and interactive fiction. Those formats are opt-in - so if you're excited to get them, please mention them in your likes.

We've also expanded the Rules section to include standards that the mod team promises to uphold. These aren't new policies - however, it seems fair and reasonable that we should be transparent about our own guidelines while setting guidelines for participants.


If you don't have an AO3 account and you want to sign up, please email yuletideadmin@gmail.com directly! We have some invite codes to send out & you otherwise won't get through the invite queue in time.

If you're writing an OPTIONAL letter, please link it in the sign-up form, please ensure it's published in an accessible format (tips welcome in comments), and please ensure it's complete immediately after assignments go out. When you complete a letter, consider adding it to the letters post.


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.

Posted by Kip Manley

https://thecityofroses.com/story/June29thActIII

Dear Jo—

Of course I love you. How could I not love you.

I am not angry. I am

disappointed

I do not like this pen that I have borrowed from Sam, whom you do not know, whose family name I do not recall at the moment. She is a perfectly pleasant enough person who has been assigned by whom I’m not entirely certain to assist me with a thoroughly unnecessary process that has been imposed without my assent or, frankly, understanding, but that is neither here nor there, at the moment, this pen, this pen this blaste

THIS PEN

will always turn of a sudden in my fingers and decide quite suddenly to scrath scratchily impede the flow of its ink

It is frustrating.

I sit here.

I sit here, writing, I am writing, to you, with a borrowed pen on a stolen pad, outdoors, in a park, and the sun is shining, the air is pleasantly hot, I am neither hungry, nor especially thirsty, and I slept very well last night indeed, and yet. I took this pad of paper and Sam’s disappointing pen and came out here because I was suddenly seized by the desire to write, to you, but now that I am here and doing precisely that, I find I do not want to write, to you: I want to speak with you, to laugh with you, even to argue and fight with you, I want to seize your hand in my own and draw you close, I want to kiss your cheek even as you turn away, embarrassed, I want you to put your arms about me

I want you to hold me

I want to wake from sleeping very well indeed and hear and feel your sleeping, dreaming breath beside me, and all I have is this paper and this pen. Nor did I not bring the letter you wrote, and oh my heart I thank you so much for even such a meagre scrap of you, that I did not bring with me on this utterly unnecessary errand, and so I do not have it with me now, to read, once more, in the sun. I shall answer my memory of your questions, instead.

https://thecityofroses.com/story/June29thActIII

Well, as foretold, I ended up going back into my mechanical keyboard firmware and setting up a mirrorboard implementation that’ll work on any computer. (This sounds impressive, but a lot of the functionality I needed was already sitting there dormant; it was mostly a matter of figuring out how to wire it together and getting the feel right.) It’ll even theoretically work for the right hand, but it’s gonna be a while til I can test that. 💀

I also took the opportunity to improve some of my earlier hacks, and I added some LED logic to expose the current state (I used to have just two modes, but now there’s effectively eight, so...), plus I had to fix some existing firmware bugs and backport some key features from upstream. Classic sidequest behavior.

The situation here is that I have this keyboard called the Drop Alt; it has a lot going for it and can be programmed with an open firmware called QMK, but it turns out the (defunct) manufacturer sort of had a pattern of sloppy execution and deadbeat dad behavior. This means I have to do all my modifications on top of an outdated and abandoned fork of the firmware, because anything newer either lacks support entirely or might not fully account for the board’s shoddy voltage management. That puts me in, uh... whatever you call the converse of “you break it you bought it.” It’s broken, therefore it’s MINE; no worries about playing nice with main-line compatibility or trying not to carry patches. If I don’t like something, I’m free to go in with the loppers.

This is all in embedded C, by the way, which I would not exactly call my “comfort zone.” I’ve still got no idea how you’re supposed to get an editor’s language server to understand what the hell the effective visibility rules are in a large C project with a complex build system (so I’m basically flying with the windows fogged over), plus the level of preprocessor fuckery happening in this project is truly over the top. (Were you aware that the C preprocessor acts purely on lines of text, not on syntactical constructs? So you can throw a bramble patch of #ifdefs in the middle of the condition clause of an already bad else if statement? In the authors’ defense, this IS a multi platform embedded framework where some of the platforms have quite serious ROM size problems, but god damn.)

Anyway, this gave me a chance to nail down some more muscle memory with the new layout, and I learned one or two new things about C compilers. All told, not a bad diversion.

After the events of Gideon the Ninth, Harrow is amnesiac in a suspiciously specific manner, stuck on a space station with a truly terrible person from the last book, God, his hostile 10,000-year-old saints, a corpse that won't stay where it's put, a bunch of attacking cosmic horrors, and a sword that makes her throw up. She spends most of the first 40% of the book throwing up, passing out, bleeding, and being depressed and confused. I spent most of the first 40% of the book being confused.

There's another storyline which is a sort of AU of the first book. That is much less depressing and more entertaining, but also confusing though in a different way: less "WTF is even happening right now," more "WTF is this story actually and why is it in the book?"

At the 40% mark, I became marginally less confused. More importantly to my enjoyment of the book, Harrow starts taking actual action. For those who have read it, this is the part where she makes soup for a dinner party with God.

The memes were fewer THANK GOD but when they did appear, they felt even more obtrusive; there's one leading up to a play on "barista" that reminded me of those interminable old stories that lead up to a punchline like "And then the fit hit the shan."

This is an extremely weird book to read for the first time. I tried re-reading the basically incomprehensible first chapter and found that it made sense in light of having already read the book, so probably rereading the book is a completely different and more fun experience. The second half of the book, read for the first time, was still a very gripping experience with some great reveals and climactic scenes. I particularly loved the dinner parties (both of them), and...

Spoilers!

( Read more... )

I will now proceed to the short stories set in the same universe, and then to Nona.

I am raising money for a Tenth Life, a cat shelter run by a friend of mine in Bulgaria. I have personally visited it multiple times and can vouch for its good work. They raise money and lobby for neuter-and-release programs for feral cats, and arrange for adoptions anywhere in the world! (Want a cat or kitten? They can get it to you, no matter where you are.)

I am in Bulgaria right now, and TODAY, while on the way to visit the shelter, my friend and I personally rescued a kitten that had been trapped in a car engine for two days! I am not making this up. She is the little darling in the photo above. Will you help rescue her and many cats and kittens like her?

To sweeten the pot, if you make a one-time donation of $50+ OR sign up for a monthly donation of $15+, I will write a book review for a book of your choice, to be posted here within 1-3 months depending on how many people take me up on this.

If you sign up for a monthly donation of just one euro, I will enter you into into a lottery, and the winner will get a book review for a book of your choice. The "monthly donation of one euro" is extremely helpful despite the small amount. Please consider it!

Donate here. Page down for the one euro option.

Please feel free to link to this post.

The kitten, now named Fifi, is too young to be left at the shelter, so she is currently at the apartment. Once she's a bit older, she will be available for adoption. She is an absolute darling. Would you like to take her home?

Here she is immediately after being taken to the vet and then brought home, eating her first good meal ever.



Here she is the next morning, cleaned and warm and fed.



Click on the cut for more extremely adorable photos.

( Read more... )

Posted by Kip Manley

https://thecityofroses.com/story/June29thActII

“One zero aught naught hours on a Saturday morning, which means you’re on with Billy Breaks, your host who’s the toast of the coast on KOCC, ninety point five on your FM dial, listener-supported community radio, and we’re starting off the day with a genuine three-minute barn-burning banger, guaranteed, it’s Le Sserafim, which is supposed to be in all-caps, so let’s say you heard it that way, Le Sserafim, I’m fearless, with, it’s also in all-caps, so say it loud, Unforgiven!” Flick of a switch, punching a button that lights up white, he lifts off his headphones releasing a swelling whine from the cans that’s suddenly bent around the sneering licks of a Western-tinged guitar, unforgiven, I’m a villain, I’m a unforgiven, he hangs them from a hook on the front of the board before him. That plaid shirt of his hung open over a black T-shirt that says the Magnus Archives, rounded by the pot of his belly. A red light’s blinking, up at the top of the board, he sees it, and turns about in his chair to face the equipment across from the turntables, but hesitates, a moment, before hauling up a dull green Bakelite handset, and again, a hesitation, before he says, “Hello?”

And then, “Is it you?” Leaned forward, elbow on the board, handset against his ear. “It is you, isn’t it.”

And then, “You got the box,” he says. “I didn’t,” but then he takes in a deep breath, blows it out, a sigh, “you,” he says, “you want to talk. You call, you must want to talk. If you just, wanted to hear me say something, talk, I mean, all you’d have to do is turn on the radio. So. What is it? What’s up? How have you,” but he lifts the handset from his ear, looks at it in his hand. Drops it with a rattle back in its cradle. He snags the headphones from the hook, that sneering, bouncing guitar, presses a can to his ear, listening for a moment, looking to the turntables, the middle one, the disk unmoving on the platter, the angle of the tonearm, the needle set and waiting in a groove, his other hand now hovering over a switch there, waiting, waiting.

https://thecityofroses.com/story/June29thActII

Every year I see a number of requests for casefic (and yuletide fics tagged with it) and I thought it would be nice to have a mini-challenge to make these easier to find. Thus, here is a post for those of us who love casefic, either on the giving or receiving end.

Note that while there are a number of mystery canons where casefic is an obvious fit, it can work for just about any fandom, so don't feel limited by genre!

The game is afoot!

To participate

• Leave a comment on this fic with a link to your letter if you are interested in receiving casefic. Optionally, add any extra casefic 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 Yuletide Takes the Case and casefic 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 Yuletide Takes the Case in any way to give or request casefic for Yuletide, but this post is here to make life easier. Enjoy!

(Thanks to previous years' posters! It seems like this one bounces around in ownership, and I was excited for it this year, so I've gone ahead and posted it.)

Not every story is pleasant. Not every story has a happy ending, and not all happy endings come without a dark and painful journey. And sometimes, those are the kinds of stories that we really, really want to read.
If you're one of the many people interested in either writing or receiving darkfic or horror, then Crueltide is here to devour your soul for you!

The short version
Read the comments to find people to treat with darkfic.
Tag your Yuletide darkfic with 'crueltide'

The long version is beneath the (details) cut

Why Crueltide?

Because darkfic isn't to everyone's taste. By making it easier to identify darkfic prompts and people open to receiving darkfic in Yuletide, we can all indulge our preferences without placing undue pressure on our assigned writers or risking gifting unwelcome fics to our recipients. (And also: the name was the least cutesy of those being thrown around in 2014.)

What is darkfic?
Depends on your definition. But here's a (non-exhaustive) list of darker tropes to get you started:
(White text used as some content may be triggering to some - highlight to read.)
Addiction - Amputation - Animal Abuse - Apocalypse - Betrayal - Body Horror - Brainwashing - Cannibalism - Character Death - Child Abuse - Claustrophobia - Conspiracy - Degradation - Disease - Dystopia - Gaslighting - Hauntings - Humiliation - Hypothermia - Insanity - Invasion of Privacy - Lovecraftian Cosmic Horrors - Medical Experimentation - Mind Control - Monsters - Murder - Mutilation - Non-Con - Paranoia - Poisoning - Prison - PTSD - Sadism - Slavery - Suicide - Torture - Unhappy Endings - Violence


Does a darkfic story have to have an unhappy ending/some other specific trope?
No! Not at all. Just because a story is packed with darkfic tropes doesn't mean there's no light at the end of the tunnel. Also, just because you like one trope, it doesn't mean you like all of them. Feel free to specify your do-not-wants alongside your wants.

Great, how does it work?
-- If you end up writing a darkfic story, just tag it with Crueltide when you upload it to the collection, and that'll help readers find more of what they like. It would also be good to tag any particular tropes you've used, to help readers find/avoid them. That's all you need to do! If your recip requested dark or horror fic but didn't comment on this post, you can still tag it with Crueltide if it fits the theme! The Crueltide tag helps all of us darkfic and horror readers find more things to read.

-- If you would like to receive a darkfic story in one of the fandoms you've requested in your Yuletide sign-up, you can advertise that here by replying to this post. (The template below is merely a suggestion of what to include - the level of detail in prompts/tropes is entirely up to you. But please do limit yourself to fandoms on your Yuletide sign-up - the Yuletide mods need to be sure you get a fic in one of those, and a treat in an unexpected fandom could make that awkward.)

AO3: AO3 username
Letter: Dear Yuletide writer (URL)
Fandoms: Fandom details here
Happy Endings Preferred?: Yes/no/don't mind
Wanted tropes: List any of your favorite dark tropes, themes, or prompts here.
Unwanted tropes: List your darkfic do-not-wants here.

<strong>AO3:</strong> <strong>Letter:</strong> <strong>Fandoms:</strong> <strong>Happy Endings Preferred?:</strong> <strong>Wanted tropes:</strong> <strong>Unwanted tropes:</strong>

If you want to advertise your requested fandoms as being particularly dark and of potential interest to others, feel free to comment along those lines too.

Alternatively, if you only want your assigned writer to know what you're into, just make a mention of darkfic/crueltide in your optional details as part of your signup.

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!

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 2026 we have created 978 drabbles, the oldest ones from 2013 when the Invitational began. 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 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!

Posted by Kip Manley

https://thecityofroses.com/story/June29thActI

The room’s dark, but not silent, a wheezing pulse in, and out, in, and out, quiet but relentless until, a whistling hitch in the rhythm, a stirring, rustling, someone’s rolling over on one of those two so-similar beds, there’s someone also on the other bed, still, for now, and silent, as the tone of that quietly regular rhythm climbs, and shrills, then settles, a notch higher, perhaps, than before. In, then out, in, and out, a fluted draw, a whistling exhalation, until, a hork, another, briefer shift, the rhythm’s awry, overwhelmed by a single perpetual unstopped wheeze, much louder, out and out and out. That other figure, silent but no longer still, hitched up on an elbow, colorless hair a-sway, “Ma!” the whispered exhortation, and then, a bit louder, “Ma!” A shift, a whip, a shadowy pillow flung across the gap between beds but too hard, over and past, whump and whuffle against and down the wall on the far side, flump to the carpet, and still that exhaling wheeze.

“Ma!” Not so much louder, but much more exhortative, yet still that whining, wheezing outflow, and nothing flowing in. Shuffle scrumble out from under a comforter into the narrow aisle between beds to crouch, shove against the other mattress, bed-frame thump but still that incessant whining leak. A plastic housing on the nightstand between the beds, a separate, breathy whirr from it, along a corrugated plastic tube drooped toward the woman asleep, her cheek on the pillow, turned away, dark hair lankly spread, white comforter up to her chin, that tube laid over a mounded shoulder to a plastic mask loosely skewed over mouth and nose, and all the air that rushes from it. Jo leans over the sleeping figure, reaching gingerly to touch, adjust, that mask, to settle it more certainly, a high-pitched keening suddenly snuffed with a whuffing suck, the quiet rhythm resumed, in, and out, the whistled draw, the fluting exhalation, she draws back, but there’s a hitch, a hum, a cheek turning up from the pillow, “What, what?” the muffled mutter.

“Your mask, Ma. It was loose.”

https://thecityofroses.com/story/June29thActI

This mini-challenge is one way for those who enjoy writing poetry to find people who would like to have that for Yuletide.

IMPORTANT NOTE: In Yuletide, poetry is opt-in - only people who asked for poetry (here or in their signup or letter) should receive it.

To participate, please comment with your AO3 name and the fandoms you have requested for Yuletide for which you would like to receive poetry. You can also note what types of poetry you like most (free verse, sonnets, etc...) and any ideas you have in mind. It's a great idea to also link to your letter if you have one.

Writers, please remember that works shorter than 1,000 words go in the Yuletide Madness collection. Feel free to tag your poems "yulepoem" so that people can find them.

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

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

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!

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!

The Wrapping Paper art challenge for Yuletide is an opportunity for those who love art to opt-in to giving and receiving art treats! Comment here to request art, and/or read the comments to find someone to treat.

Please be sure to post your treats to the Madness Collection; art is not permitted in the main collection. Please respect your recipient's wishes as to whether they'd like art as a treat. Tag your treats with "Wrapping Paper" to help them be found!

If you want to receive art, please provide this info in the comments:

<strong>AO3 Handle:</strong> <strong>Letter Link:</strong> <strong>Fandom and character(s):</strong> <strong>Prompts:</strong>

Happy treating!

(Is this yet another copy/pasta from time immemorial? Yes! Do you want to be the one posting this in 2027? You need but say the word to become part of the Yuletide mini-challenge poster party!)

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 Everett Grove for this year's title. Again.)