Catching Up + Yuletide Meme

[peasina]

Gah, I'm behind on deliving my promised ficortreat gifts. It's been a mixture of my hosting being down (thanks to the ongoing Internet Archive attack) and other excuse-shaped things, but I have more than half of them recorded. They are coming and I'm sorry! Once I'm all caught up, I plan on making a post with my haul of gifts from this lovely event. I got so many pretty things and I want everyone to see them :)

jocundasykes asked me the other day what I currently owe in exchanges (events, auctions, Triple Crown prizes, etc.) before the end of the year, and when I sat and wrote it out, the minimum was 50k, just for podfic. Oh dear. I'm going to have to calm down in 2025 I think. I must remember that when I have more than one assignment at a time, I get panicked. 

In other news, I saw this morning that I was an 8k ficinabox pinch hit, then an hour later it was down to 5k 🎉 I'm so excited to see what I get. 

Stolen from straightforwardly, here's a Yuletide meme! Tagging anyone else who'd like to do it. This is only my 9th year participating in Yuletide, so to make it less of a stretch I opted for four works instead of five for each of the below categories. This was a fun trip down exchange memory lane ^^

Four Most Popular Yuletide Fics (by kudos)

1. Finishing Touches (Night at the Museum, Jed/Octavius, 4.2k)

After escaping Kahmunrah's hourglass, Jedediah has a problem that's worse than non-functional guns: as it turns out, sand baths exfoliate more than a hand-painted miniature cowboy can afford. Octavius takes it upon himself to make everything better.

I've never had a work get 1,000+ kudos before, and to this day I'm still stunned and delighted by how many people like this fic. What's even better is someone, out of the blue, illustrated it! The illustrations make my day every time I look at them. Having aphantasia means I can't visualise what I write, so the priviledge of seeing scenes I wrote brought to life is just the best. 

Something else about this fic that makes me happy is that it isn't the fandom I matched on. I had a panic in DMs to a friend halfway through the writing period like, oh god, I don't think I can write for [fandom I matched on], it's too hard. She suggested I try consuming one of my recip's other fandoms, so I watched these films and instantly fell in love with this pairing. I ended up offering and matching on it the next year too :)

Unfortunately, I didn't get recip acknowledgement for this fic, but the response from others has been amazing, so no complaints here!

Kudos: 1,662

2. On Every Horizon (Night at the Museum, Jed/Octavius, 15.5k)
After discovering how lucrative ‘publicity stunts’ are for the museum, McPhee organises a series of art exhibitions in the museum’s gallery. The installations are refreshed weekly, leaving Jed and Octavius only brief windows of time to explore each one.

My favourite parts of the NatM movies is when they go inside artworks, so I got a bit carried away with this one. Some of the comments I've gotten on this one are the "print out and stick on the wall" kind and make me so happy. This is such a generous fandom for comments and I count myself lucky!! (Again, no recip comment or kudos. Oh well!)

Kudos: 452

3. Stages (Reservoir Dogs, Orange/White, 12.5k)
Thanks to Joe’s rules, White’s the only one he’ll be able to get to know any better before the heist. His character’s more formed in White’s company anyway, and there’s already a connection there. Can’t hurt to strengthen it.

I was super into Reservoir Dogs this year, so it was the kind of Yuletide assignment dreams are made of. A friend who lived in LA in the 90s helped me with some of the vibes and I had so much fun writing it. I also read so many essays at the library about the queer subtext (text? lol) of this film and appreciated the perfect excuse to go and do that.

My recip deleted their account not long after Yuletide, hence why it looks like it was rejected. It wasn't!

Kudos: 388

4. What Is Yours Is Mine (Black Mirror, Kelly/Yorkie, 4.6k)
While exploring San Junipero’s limits and possibilities, Kelly and Yorkie realize their definition of heaven differs in one small but significant way.

I don't really remember much about the writing process of this one XD

Kudos: 185


Four Personal Favorite Yuletide Fics

1. On Every Horizon (Night at the Museum, Jed/Octavius, 15.5k)

Here it is again! At the time of writing this one, I was flat sharing with a guy who was an expert in Roman history. Yes, I did ask him a lot of questions, and yes, I told him it was for a Night at the Museum fanfic on AO3. He was very supportive, paha.

2. Swimming Upstream (Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, 10.2k)
The salmon mousse isn’t the only thing summoning Death to dinner.

This was written for one of my best IRL friends while I lived with her, so I had to be super quiet about it while writing. I did a really good job of disguising it because even after she read it, she didn't think it was me, hehe. A funny thing about this one was that we were watching her favourite Nicolas Cage film together early in the writing period and it influenced the plot. There she was enjoying Face/Off, and there I was, frantically tapping out "research ketamine poisoning" on my phone XD

3. Stages (Reservoir Dogs, Orange/White, 12.5k)

I have a bit of AO3-based PTSD with this fic! After it had been live for... maybe two years, and become my most popular fic ever at the time, I noticed a big fat typo in the summary. Upon trying to edit it, I discovered that--long story short--this fic was glitched within AO3's server. I couldn't edit any part of it (from the publish date to the body text) and AO3 support couldn't work out how to fix the issue or edit from their end. Their suggestion was to delete and reupload, which uh, was the very last thing I wanted to do!! Eventually, someone did some behind-the-scenes magic and I was able to edit it again about a year later, but oh dear. Very glad to get rid of the typo eventually though ^^'

4. I never sleep (but with you I can get some rest) (Chernobyl, Boris/Valery, 2.6k)

Valery isn’t sure why he asks Boris for the time. A glance at his watch would have his answer faster, but perhaps he desires the satisfaction of simplicity: a question with an easy answer.

“Nearly three,” Boris says. “Is there a reason you’re still awake?”

This one has grown on me. Not that I didn't like it at the time, but I was in a pretty low place, so had very little confidence it was enjoyable in any way. Well, enjoyable is probably not the best word for this fandom, but I hope you know what I mean! I was super surprised and delighted to get a really long recip comment, someone let me know it had been rec'd in a fandom podcast, and looking back, I think getting to write some hurt/comfort for a very sad fandom helped me find comfort when I needed it too. It has a special place in my heart now.

Comments

[straightforwardly]

I must remember that when I have more than one assignment at a time, I get panicked. oh, hard same! I do Not handle the pressure well.

Jed/Octavius...! I have not seen those movies since I was a teenager, but I remember quite liking that ship back then <3 I'm glad that you did this meme; it was fun to see your lists and read your thoughts.

[peasina]

There's so much FOMO though, especially with all the exchanges that are happening all over the place, haha.

Thank you for bringing this meme to my attention and for your lovely comment :D

[chantress]

This was a lot of fun to read; it's always so fascinating to see people talk about their works and the backstory behind them. :D

And no worries about the Fic or Treat fill here--I'll look forward to a delightful and unexpected surprise whenever you're able! <3

[peasina]

I'm glad it was fun! :D Me too! I love it when people talk about their fic process :)

Thank you so much for your patience <3

[estirose]

Life happens! Post the podfics when you can, we're patient.

[peasina]

Thank you for understanding <3

[nonesensed]

Best of luck with finishing your gifts and I'm looking forward to seeing your haul! 🩵

Finding a good balance for what one signs up to do is always a tricky challenge 😅 I have to be soooo stern with myself or I'd overclock myself constantly, signing up for this and that gift exchange. I hope you find a balance that suits you best too!

Definitely snagging this Yuletide meme to do later 😁 And huzzah for your many Yuletide works! 🥳

[peasina]

Thank you :) I've set myself a hard deadline for the end of November, so my haul should be up soon too!

I'm definitely going to be stricter with myself next year for what I sign up to. Gift exchanges are just so much fun and I get so much FOMO when I don't take part haha.

I look forward to seeing your Yuletide meme answers! <3

[nonesensed]

Yuletide meme answers are finally up on my journal, huzzah! And yes, there are soooo many fun exchanges to sign up for and far too little time to participate in them 😅 I wish us both the best of luck finding a good exchange-sign-up balance in 2025!