estee

New one-shot story: Hoofticuffs Day

Added 2019-12-28 04:13:11 +0000 UTC

I wanted to do a holiday story.

I didn't write one this year, which meant I missed being part of the flood of Hearth's Warming tales which saturated the New column for days on end. But I felt like I just didn't have much to say about the holiday. This hasn't exactly been my personal year for Peace On Anything, and when it comes to talking about the darker side of such things... well, I'm not in a good position to write a Homecoming/Thanksgiving story either.

But there's more to the holiday than the celebration itself. There's the day after. And having already posted one retail-themed story -- well, it turned out I was in the right emotional place to redirect the general idea towards the more personal impacts of the Boutique.

Roughly 8200 words on this one, for a story which moved from base concept to posting over the course of nineteen hours. And originally, I thought (up to) a pair of updates might close the month -- but this piece just wanted to be written.

(Just watch. I've been getting 'too much worldbuilding filler' complaints at 4chan. And now they might turn into 'So where's the ten paragraphs on the origins of the fabrics?')