Discovered in a Livejournal

It is the 6th of January, and the end of our Winter-Solstice-Christmas-Celbrate-the-Light calendar for 2025 - sigh, as ever. It's always sad when I make the closing post like this - and especially because this year I have to say something very important, so please keep reading.

This might be the last Discovered in a Winter-Solstice-Christmas-Celebrate-the-Light calendar...

At first I thought it might be the last because I've been doing this for twenty years now and it's taking up more and more time the fewer of us there are, when I really need to do other Christmas-life things more efficiently (and I must admit I was a bit disappointed no one seemed to notice it was our twentieth Discovered in a Winter-Solstice-Christmas-Celbrate-the-Light calendar except me, even though I did announce it - and put it on the banner!) But then a few people messaged to say how much they look forward to the calendar each year, and being me I was relenting and thinking 21 sounded good too...

...and then the Dire Warnings of the End of Lj began popping up, which most of you have probably seen. There've been Dire Warnings before, but I think the world is possibly at a place where this time they're more likely to have some foundation. There is a rumour that Lj is splitting the (probably now very small) English-speaking side from it's much larger Cyrillic-speaking side prior to implementing other changes. There is a post here in the Russian Lj News comm about what seem to be pretty serious restrictions to users of the Cyrillic language site (Google translate seems to work pretty well on it). I must admit I can't see Lj continuing as a viable blog for them if those changes are actually effected - and some commenters seem to indicate that they have been. Could it all be a mis-translated ruse of some kind? Yup, not impossible - but it's hard to tell either way, and ironically enough Lj had a wee glitch as I came on to post this, which usually means something has been changed on the server. But who knows - it could have been a minor fix-an-issue thing.

That said - I have been/am updating the back-ups for ci5hq, my own Lj, and various other comms that I mod or co-mod to DreamWidth, and I will be running a final discoveredinalj back-up to Dreamwidth tomorrow. So all the Pros comms that we use and love will be available over there if Lj does go down, or vanish for us (some Dreamwidth links: CI5hq, Discoveredinalj, The Safehouse, CI5hq_dnoticed, ProsFicIndex, ProsFinder, Pros Records Room (Palelyloitering), and here's me too - bet you'd forgotten most of those existed! *g*) The Russian post linked above seems to suggest that content from before the changes will remain available even if everything else is different, and I'm crossing fingers because our comms (and my own Lj) are image-heavy, all hosted on Lj.

Basically: I don't know if we'll be here on Lj next year, and if we're on DreamWidth I'm not convinced it will be possible to run the calendar in the same format. Where ever we are, though, I hope we can all gather in a single agreed Pros-y place again, at least for next Christmas.

All of which is very heart-heavy, so - I'm going to open the rest of your day, in whatever time zone you are in, to posting any more little cheers-es that people might have from the Wassail Bowl, and as always remind people to archive their stories/images/creations elsewhere, although the calendar will remain as an archive for as long as it can be. (Did you know that if you click on a date on the calendar itself, it will bring up the posts for that day? This is true of all the archived calendars that you can find via the User Info page too! Go read the old stuff! Fill your boots! *g*) And...

...Wassail!

Posting on behalf of ubicaritas.

And To You Your Wassail Too

Part Two – Pray Think of Us Poor Children

Good master and mistress, While you’re sitting by the fire,
Pray think of us poor children Who are wandering in the mire.

“I don’t believe it.” Doyle shifted in his seat, stretching out his legs in a vain attempt to get comfortable, or, at the very least, relieve some of his growing discomfort.

“Believe what?” Bodie flexed his own knees and ankles in succession, hampered as Doyle hadn’t been by the steering wheel and pedals at his feet. “That Father would have us sitting out her, at the back end of nowhere, in the cold and dark… on New Year's Eve! Waiting for a third-rate nobody of a terrorist who likely has better sense than us to be out in this weather … and all while he and the rest of the Squad are conducting the other part of the investigation inside yonder stately country manor!”

( Doyle blinked )

( Trailer )

Happy New Year everyone! Let's hope it's much improved on the old one, and here's to it being full of love for everyone.

Today is open posting day in the Dialj Calendar, so please fill your boots spreading Pros joy to start the year! *g*

Posting on behalf of ubicaritas9 today - Pros fic! *g*

And To You Your Wassail Too
by Ubicaritas

Part One – Here We Come A-Wassailing

Here we come a-wassailing Among the leaves so green;
Here we come a-wandering So fair to be seen.

“I don’t believe it.” Ray Doyle shook his head and stuffed the single sheet of paper back into its official-looking envelope.

“Believe what?” Bodie raised an eyebrow at his own as-yet unopened envelope.

The lift pinged and deposited them onto the second floor at CI5 headquarters, just along the corridor from the rest room. Even before they reached the door they could hear the agitated buzz of conversation; when they entered, they found a dozen or so of their fellow agents gathered around the notice board on the wall, where a posted page seemed to be the centre of attention.

“Did you see this?” Murphy stepped away from the crowd to greet them, gesturing vaguely behind him.

Doyle squinted at the board in the distance, then waved his envelope at him. “It’s bureaucracy gone mad,” he said. “Vacation requests for December must be made before the middle of July?! All employees must take at least one week…?!”

“All government employees are required …” Bodie was reading his own letter now, and looked up in disbelief. “… required to take Christmas vacation…”

Murphy nodded mournfully. “Since when does CI5 ever get any time off around Christmas… every nutter in the country comes out to play in December!”

“The A Squad never gets Christmas vacation!” Anson’s lament was echoed by others still standing by the posted order.

Bodie began a slow look around the room, then his face brightened. “If the powers-that-be want us to take a Christmas vacation,” he said, “then we’ll just have to move Christmas to a month when we’re not usually so busy. Say … in August?”

Doyle was already shaking his head. “Move Christmas to August? You can’t do that! Besides,” he added. “Cowley would never let us all off in August… oi, what are you doing? Gerroff…”

Bodie grabbed Murphy’s arm with one hand and reeled in Doyle with the other. “Now, sing along with me, lads …”

“Here we come a-wassailing among the leaves so green…”

end of part one

o0o


( Trailer )

Happy Boxing Day! Must admit I neeeearly forgot I said I'd cover today, but phew, made it in time!

Some of you have seen this story, I'm afraid, in this year's FandomCards, but people who haven't... here's a wee fic. *g*


A Christmas Card for Ray Doyle
by Slantedlight
It was the worst kind of Wednesday. Grey skies drizzled grey rain, and the wind made it proper brass monkey weather. Doyle pushed himself away from their office window - tiny and cracked across one corner, but at least a window - and turned around to stare at his partner’s bowed head. He’d barely glanced up when Doyle burst in like a bored thunderstorm, and had given him the briefest of nods. He was writing what looked like a letter, which was strange enough, but he also had a pile of envelopes beside him, each one neatly addressed in Bodie’s oddly tidy handwriting. It almost looked like…

( Are you writing Christmas cards...? )