skygiants

I woke up this morning after three or four hours of sleep, dazedly packed my bag, and then even more dazedly went to check the Yuletide archive.

Guys! When I saw that I'd gone out to the pinch-hit list last-minute, I was feeling guilty because I was convinced I was going to be the awful and difficult-to-match person who would hold up Yuletide for everyone else. Instead I got not one, BUT TWO stories, and BOTH OF THEM AMAZING:

Finding Aid, "The Provenance Game"

Amateurs would tell you “Oh, it’s just bits of paper.” Archivists knew better. The critical difference between an archive and a pile of documents was that in an archive, you knew where things were.

GUYS. SOMEONE WROTE ME ARCHIVES PORN. (In the metaphorical sense.) I mean, "The Provenance Game" as a short story is archives porn in and of itself, which is one of the things that makes it so delightful, but this is EVEN MORESO. I'm so delighted! And political archives intrigue, to boot. >:D I'm about 90% sure that whoever wrote this is an archivist themselves -- the reference to authority controls is what convinces me -- and if not, congrats, mystery author, you did an AMAZING job of faking it.

The Queen's Award, The Summer Prince

It's music of a sort, rough and wild but music all the same. The true anthem of our city, though almost no one has heard it, being sung here in the isolated reaches of Tier Ten.

AND THEN I GOT FEELINGS AND ART AND FEELINGS ABOUT CITIES PORN. (Um, and a little actual femslash porn as well.) Someone wrote me the June/Bebel postcanon fic I have been craving, and it's everything I could have asked for. Perfectionist ladies! Artistic partnerships! Finding the balance between politics and art! IT'S SO GREAT, everyone should read it.

WHAT A GOOD YULETIDE. I'm about to go to the movies with the family for the traditional Jewish Christmas ritual so I won't get to dive into the archive properly until later, but I'm super excited to do so!

I also, for the record, received one present from my dad for Christmas -- despite the fact that we don't ACTUALLY CELEBRATE it, he decided to get gifts for us all ANYWAY and surprise us. Which is unfair and we shouted him down vociferously! Then I opened my gift.