we're all stories in the end

Kick Off Your Sunday Shoes by leiascully is an adorable Steve/Natasha series in which there is dancing and making out, and by chapter 4 which is for meeee, there is a super adorable first time with Natasha introducing Steve to the wonders of sex, yay. *pets them*

Saving Me & You by purplefringe is an amazing vid that is a Saving Face/Imagine Me & You mashup that consequently makes me happy in my heart omg. She actually made it with my own DVDs without me noticing because she's sneaky like that.

It's gorgeous, and full of parallels and cuteness and Rachel and Luce and Wil and Viv and their FACES. Eeeee my two favourite lesbian romcoms in one adorable package, I shall watch it all the time.

♥!

+ It is sdwolfpup's More Joy Day tomorrow!

+ chromatic_podfic is a new community that is hosting a challenge for podficcers to record stories that are recordings of fics for fandoms with chromatic creators, recordings of fics featuring chromatic characters, recordings of fics in English dialects associated with chromatic cultural groups (including creoles, pidgins, ethnolects, etc) or recordings of fics in non-English languages associated with chromatic cultural groups. If you're a writer, there is also a post where you can leave permission for your stories to be recorded. (Though as it says on the top post of my journal, anyone's welcome to podfic anything I've written whenever they like.)

+ oxoniensis has a bunch of exciting news about the next Porn Battle. Prompts open on Monday!

+ I got back after a long stay with my family today, to an avalanche of post! Some boring, but most of it lovely shiny things from lots of you, so thank you so much! I shall have Christmas cards up for the next month and I don't care.

+ I keep going back to this Doctor Who tumblr graphic that juxtaposes something from A Christmas Carol with something from Season 4, and it keeps making my breath catch a little. Doctor Who: still giving me All Of The Feelings.

Thank you so much to everyone who's been sending birthday wishes my way via LJ and DW and Twitter and whatnot! I am having a lovely day, and later there will be cake and yummy Italian food.

Also, um, last night I was presented with a document marked 'Sekrit Project' containing messages from an awful lot of you. avendya got my live reactions, which involved a lot of keysmashing and also feelings (eta: now recorded for posterity), but I will attempt to be more coherent here.

Thank you, everyone who's taken the time to write a message in the last few days in response to avendya's missive. Some made me laugh, some made me cry, some made me do both in a somewhat undignified fashion, and all of them made me smile and smile. I do believe my heart has grown three sizes! And of course, special thanks to avendya for going above and beyond in order to organise this thing, and generally being amazing.

I am especially touched by the notes that came from self-described 'lurkers'. I hope no one ever feels obligated to comment on here, because I don't believe that a subscription is some kind of promise to comment or even read. I also believe that there are many valid ways of participating in a conversation, including watching, listening, reading and thinking, and I know that's the preferred mode of engagement for a lot of people. Also, lots of us just have busy lives! So it means a lot to me that you took the time to write me something and wish me well.

I feel very loved from many places today - from friends and family far away, from those I'm spending the day with, and from all of you. I am both humbled and grateful to be made to feel so welcome in such an expansive and amazing community. I'd like to thank you all for the joy, humour, support, compassion, creativity, thoughtfulness and fun that you share with me, every day.

♥

---

* title on account of how I can't stop watching kaydeefalls' latest vid, Stray Italian Greyhound, a gorgeous Amy Pond character study. Kaydee, can you please continue to vid all my favourite female characters for ever and ever, thx!

I'm about to start my favourite part of Christmas - a quiet little time I etch for myself on Christmas Eve when everyone else has gone to bed. I light candles, make a mug of something warm and stay up a little too late listening to King's College Choir sing Christmas carols. These days, I also write last-minute Yuletide stories.

And so, I wish everyone who celebrates an exceedingly Merry Christmas, a joyous holiday to all those celebrating in other ways, be it simply some time off, and an excellent day to all those who have nothing special on this week. And of course, may you have delightful Yuletide reading come tomorrow.

I'll be one of the many chalking up 2009 as not my greatest year - for my part, largely due to prolonged mental ill health - and I'll be glad to see the back of it. However, this year has been immeasurably better due to all of you, my fandoms and my friends.

eta: as I type this, a v-gift arrived from oxoniensis - thank you, sweets! ♥ :D

As a token of my affection - ( cut for hugspam (not particularly dial-up friendly) )

♥
To all, a good night.

It started with this:

Riding a Bicycle by cherryfeather
Jack/Ianto, R
Alien artifacts with unpredictable effects leave a highly amused Ianto with a female Jack.

Which is made of win and all things good. In the story, Gwen and Owen also get genderswapped, and I mentioned that hearing more about their adventures would be awesome. Sometimes, ask and ye shall receive!

Soap Bubbles by cherryfeather
Owen/Tosh with a side of Jack/Ianto, R
In this story, Jack and Ianto head out for a date while Owen and Tosh autopsy an alien and discover a very immediate reason why Torchwood Three needs more than one shower.

Highly enjoyable all round. Hormones! Shenanigans! Just awesome, thank you, Liz. :D

And, oh dear. I appear to be developing a thing for girl!Jack. I'm going to turn into one of those people in fandom, aren't I. Oh well! *adds to to-write list*

And now I'm off to delve a bit more into all the delightful stuff that's been posted for femslash08 - many fandoms! many pairings! much shiny! I kicked that fest off to a good start with this last night:

your mouth like an ocean by musesfool
Firefly, River/Kaylee, PG-13
River pretends Kaylee's the sun and she's the moon, and they are floating out in space.

Gorgeous.