Yuletart

Remember how my boyfriend from when I was 17 turned up out of the blue? Well, he dropped in again after doing his NZ tourist trip, and left me a bunch of memorabilia so I could scan it then mail it back to him. The letters (mine) are... written by an over-dramatic teenager with poetic delusions, so I quickly noped out of reading them. The pics are kind of fun, though, despite my terrible hairdo.

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The usual sample of some of my seasonal cards. Hopefully they've all arrived by now, or will very soon. This year I decided to paint people freehand (which means they're all a bit wonky) and then name them after less well known minor deities - it's called the Small Gods series. I had fun, anyway - it's always good to get back into watercolours again (although I use them more like gouache), after mostly working in Procreate the rest of the year. Embellished with metallic paint in various colours, gold, and silver, for a festive touch. Hopefully you can see the sheen a little in the way I've photographed them.

God of Circuses	God of Ink	God of Extroverts
God of Dramatic Entrances	God of Jump Scares	God of Drizzle
God of Sweaters	God of Naps	God of Woad
God of Flirts	God of Sparrows	God of Nostalgia

Two hot off the press HR recs, and an older GC one.

cut to the feeling - by Charlotte_Stant, one of my fave authors in HR and HR RPF. For magical realism reasons, 18 y.o. Shane wakes up in the body and life of himself at age 35, married to Ilya. It's brilliant, very funny and just the best "crack taken seriously" imaginable. Also hot as hell. So good.

Torture Me (With All I've Wanted) - by Toomuchplor, also an absolute fave author. 17 y.o. Shane and Ilya end up on a long bus ride together. Under a blanket. Yes, it's super hot but all the details are so lovely, the writing so good. I love it.

And so it's gonna be forever has already been reccd by people and is still a WIP damn it, but it's completely addictive. I just loooove fix-it fics, and in this, Ilya dies in the Centaurs' plane crash but is magically transported back to his teens again, reliving his life with all his future memories intact, determined to get it righter this time - and boy, does he make some changes. I could do without a few of the mystical bits but the majority of this fic is like pure crack to me.

Two hot off the press HR recs, and an older GC one.

cut to the feeling - by Charlotte_Stant, one of my fave authors in HR and HR RPF. For magical realism reasons, 18 y.o. Shane wakes up in the body and life of himself at age 35, married to Ilya. It's brilliant, very funny and just the best "crack taken seriously" imaginable. Also hot as hell. So good.

Torture Me (With All I've Wanted) - by Toomuchplor, also an absolute fave author. 17 y.o. Shane and Ilya end up on a long bus ride together. Under a blanket. Yes, it's super hot but all the details are so lovely, the writing so good. I love it.

And so it's gonna be forever has already been reccd by people and is still a WIP damn it, but it's completely addictive. I just loooove fix-it fics, and in this, Ilya dies in the Centaurs' plane crash but is magically transported back to his teens again, reliving his life with all his future memories intact, determined to get it righter this time - and boy, does he make some changes. I could do without a few of the mystical bits but the majority of this fic is like pure crack to me.

Okay, so this vid is wonderful (courtesy of a rec by dine). It's long, lushly romantic, and Jesus, why is the kissing montage in the middle so goddamn hot?

a thousand years by mybelovedismine

Thinking about why some vids work for me and others don't. First, I have to like the song. If I don't, no amount of clever editing will save it. Sometimes a really great song will carry me through average editing, but not vice versa. But a good song plus clever editing, so the vid's coherent and well-matched to the lyrics? That's the very best.

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And here are some maybe controversial recs: not everyone likes RPF, so dl;dr. It's damn hard not to be delighted by Hudson and Connor, though, with their obviously close friendship and the way they cheerfully talk about loving each other at the drop of a hat.

I hate it when people read more into that and make shit up, causing drama in public spaces like social media - as Jacob said, Shane and Ilya are for the fans, Hudson and Connor are private. But creating RP fiction about them in a fanspace like AO3 doesn't bother me at all as long as no one brings it to their attention. Fanwriters have created RPF for years and although I've never been in any of the big RPF sports fandoms like hockey or baseball, I've enjoyed Joe/David RPF in Stargate Atlantis, in particular. Plus there's the whole Jared/Jensen pairing in Supernatural.

There's some incredibly good Hudcon RPF. There's also some very mediocre stuff, so here are a few of my specially selected recs. The writing is top tier in all of these, and they're all rated explicit.

Carterhaugh, Ontario by charlotte_stant. After filming, the boys go back to Connor's room to hang out, and end up fucking. Gorgeous banter, funny and nuanced, just great characterisation. Hudson's pov.

"Ya Blew It!" with Jay and Dan & Obvious - a 2-part series by falsescience (YankingAwry). This features complex relationships as the boys inveigle Jacob into a throuple – the first one's in Jacob's pov, with Hudson seducing him at the TSN SportsCentre set. Brilliant insights into actors & directing, funny, and super hot. The second part is Connor's pov - Hudson and Connor hanging out, fucking, and talking about what happened with Jacob, with Hudson setting Connor up for his own encounter. Amazing characterisation, and the Jacob aspect wasn't off-putting for me as the Hudson/Connor relationship is so resilient and lovely. (Also, have you seen JT's IMDB pic from younger years? He was hot!)

for the sake of auld lang syne by twnkwlf. This is Connor's pov, while he's staying with Hudson in Vancouver for New Years. It's mostly them hanging out lazily and talking, then fucking, and like the other recs here the characterisation is funny, subtle and feels bang on target. Excellent stuff.

that indescribable feeling by thermocline. Six encounters, real or imagined, in their developing, complex relationship. Beautifully written, balanced on an aching edge of ambiguity, and fundamentally hopeful. Alternating POVs.

I get quite a few mailorder things delivered and the couriers know to just leave packages by my door if I'm not immediately available, but this morning I was right there, door open and all. So I was baffled, then annoyed, when the NZ Post courier van just sat in my driveway and tooted at me. What the fuck? I finally located my crocs and went outside and made a WTF gesture, and the driver reluctantly got out of his cab and thrust a package at me then quickly scrambled back in and took off.

I turned around and whoa, there was a stray dog behind me standing up looking over into my neighbour's patio which is edged by a short bit of picket fence. Then I heard it start yelping in distress and pain and realised its front legs had slid down between the pickets and gotten stuck with its paws being too wide to pull back horizontally through the gaps. It was a largish dog, what we call a huntaway here, and it was really worked up so I didn't feel safe approaching it from behind to try and lift up its legs, right next to its mouth - seemed like a good way to get bitten. But luckily while I was dithering and trying to figure out what to do it accidentally freed itself - it had been sagging down on its haunches which only trapped it worse, but it must have stood up again. I shooed it away and could see it had a white muzzle so quite an old dog. I hope it's ok, but I wasn't able to check its collar for owner details.

Having had a chance to look up what to do in that sort of situation in future, there really isn't anything*. It was too minor for the police and not a dangerous dog per se, and not an animal being mistreated so not the SPCA's area, although if it had stayed stuck I'd have called them for advice.

Another unexpected start of the day story!

*having calmed down and thought it through I should have got my broom and lifted its feet up that way, but I was in a panic-brain state at the time.