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So, it seems @InBrightestDay and I have passed like ships in the night. My turn to blow the foghorn. From InBrightestDay on December 27, 2019 This was one of those stories that starts out as a simple idea – in this case, “reindeer orgy” – and then just gets away from you and becomes a whole thing. Much of the world-building is a result of that. Whoops, you’re quite right. Apparently, the main function of their UV vision is to avoid being crippled by snow-blindness. Wow, you’re the first person to catch that. Could be, yes. C’mon, how could I not reference that? I posted this story on Inkbunny, too, and of course the main complaint there was about the sex scene with the elf. Actually, it takes hours for the reindeer and days for Santa, because the reindeer aren’t aware of it when Santa stops time. You got me there; I didn’t think that one all the way through. I just thought of the “Nothing tastes like reindeer” line, then remembered a Swedish friend talking about eating reindeer, and I just stuck that line in there. Thanks for the review!

You’re not wrong! What’s going on is that, while the definition of albinism in mammals is pretty firm (it gets murky in other animals because melanin isn’t their only pigment) there are multiple kinds of albinism, medically speaking, differentiated by the genetic mutations that cause them. Oculocutaneous albinism is the most common kind and there are different types of that based on what genes are mutated. As for the red eyes, recall that I said Lady Aldreda has oculocutaneous albinism type 2. What you’re thinking of is type 1. OCA2 is caused by a mutation of the OCA2 gene (named after the thing the mutation causes!) on Chromosome 15, a gene that codes for melanocyte-specific transporter protein. I could explain the biochemistry a bit more, but what it amounts to is a drastically decreased production of melanin, but the body does still make some, and melanin gives the iris its color. Large amounts of melanin result in brown eyes, while very small amounts, like in OCA2, result in icy blue eyes. OCA2 is the most common form of albinism, occurring in either 1in 20,000 or 1 in 15,000 births (sources vary slightly) OCA1, on the other hand, is far rarer (1 in 40,000 births), but is probably the most iconic form of albinism, caused by a mutation of the TYR (tyrosinase) gene on Chromosome 11. People with OCA1 don’t make any melanin, not even in their eyes. As a result, the iris is transparent, and you can see the red blood in the retina through the iris, hence the red color. I actually wanted Lady Aldreda to have OCA1 in my initial planning stage, as I thought the red eyes would look cool, factor into the negative reactions to her and contribute to her exotic beauty (there probably would have been a bit during Elis’s description of Aldreda talking about her striking ruby-colored eyes) but I ran into a problem. You see, melanin doesn’t just color your iris or help keep your skin from being hurt by the sun. It’s actually important in the development of multiple parts of the eye, including the iris, retina, optic nerve and eye muscles, so a total lack of the chemical has adverse effects on vision. People with OCA2 may sometimes suffer from problems with bright lights, but people with OCA1 have it far worse. You’ve heard of 20/20 vision? Well, people with OCA1 can have 20/200 or even 20/400 vision. They’re not blind, but it’s a pretty severe impairment. This wouldn’t necessarily hinder Lady Aldreda’s melee capability (she could compensate for decreased vision with her other senses), but I also wanted her to be good with her crossbow, and she needs sight for that. Thank you again for the compliment, and I’m sorry for the biology lesson I just gave you above. Well, given that this is sort of a retelling of the story, when you mentioned the Great Fog of ‘64, I figured it might be a reference and did some research. By the time you mentioned ‘39, I knew what that was about. Oops! Had that backwards...

Maybe I could write a story next year about the unexpected sexual adventure of Greta’s twin sister.

Ah, okay. I had the idea that albinos have pink eyes, but apparently there isn’t a single, agreed-upon definition of “albino.” In any case, hats off again for a story that is both mentally and emotionally engaging.

Fun Fact: One of the names of Odin is Jölfuðr. Yule Father

Thank you for the review! I appreciate it entirely! That was absolutely what I was going for – introducing her as the old lady she is in spirit, and then revealing a little more until it is obvious she’s a vampire. Given the short word count I totally get how it can be a little rushed and confusing tho. I figure it would have been a bit of an internal conflict for her because while there’s a few things she likes about being a vampire on the whole she’d rather not have had to become one, and wouldn’t want to force it on someone else – and she’d probably have not really pushed it either. Made all the negatives clear, but also that giving him the option to avoid aging, and death from old age. If he knew the angels, knew for certain there was a good chance of avoiding Hell, I figure he decided he’d rather live and then wait for her, however long it took. She wasn’t just deciding “Ah, I can’t live without this man.” it was more, she’d existing for a life, she’d had a good one with someone she loved, and friends, and the rest, and having to keep going through losing people except for maybe a couple other immortals just didn’t appeal at all. So, yeah, he chose to live and then to die. Probably safe to say one of them isn’t that well dressed fellow who made such a splash in California. I have a pretty good idea who one of the other two was (...inky fingers), and a fairly solid idea on the third. Probably depends on how good Jude was at his job. I’m really happy you got that out of it! I definitely tried to go for something that could work for readers who don’t know my characters at all, since I figured there’d be more of ‘em than usual, so going in without names and with some wider/more general tropes like a tired old non-evil vampire, depression at Christmas, and so on. Didn’t quite land, but what the heck! It’s Christmas and it was short! The ol’ happy reununion with deceased loved ones in paradise trope – overly sentimental for centuries! Glad I touched ya tho’ Not like that. Thank you again for the review! I look forward to reading and reviewing yours tomorrow as I gotta go have an exhausted sleep soon (and I hope that amusing exchange from the extract made it in!)

Warm and cuddly is surprisingly hard. Will post soonish. Too many double shifts during and on Christamas week ruined my whole plan and feng shui Powdered Sugar

Heh, when Greta explained that "Elf magic" is what allowed her to do that – you know, the same way the elves in the shop could keep refilling Santa's sack – I imagined Rudy's cock popping out of some other elf girl's vagina; then maybe a third elf girl would tribb her so that Rudy had an elf-kabob thing going on. Yeah, I'm weird.

On an amusing note, @GeorgeGlass reviewed Moonlit Snow at almost the same moment I reviewed The Ninth Reindeer! Thank you so much! I did a lot of research for this, and by extension for the other stories that will feature Aldreda and Elis, and most of it centered on medieval and early Renaissance weapons, armor and combat, so learning about stuff like the different types of swords and armor and so forth. The sword training was based on stuff I learned there, including both Aldreda’s “hand behind your back” thing… ...and her advice about using shorter movements and not going for the big wide swing because it shows the enemy what you’re doing. the videos I watched referred to this as “telegraphing”, but since the telegraph obviously doesn’t exist in the setting, I had to explain it some other way. Finally, I also learned about both some swordplay (the bit where Aldreda alternates left-right-left-right-stab is an actual technique, meant to do just what it does in story: lock the enemy into a repetitive set of movements and leave him unprepared for when you change things up) and about how different weapons interact with different kinds of armor, such as how her plate armor would render Lady Aldreda pretty much immune to swords or axes, but weapons like maces and certain polearms could still really hurt her. Yeah, that was a joke that only emerged during research, with a number of medieval combat videos talking about it. Apparently it pops up in an old German treatise on sword fighting (starting with “to end thine opponent rightly...”), and since it, as you said, unbalances your sword and makes it more difficult to fight with, and since the pommel itself is unlikely to hurt someone wearing armor, pretty much everyone is certain it’s a joke. One video I watched suggested that this might have been, for all intents and purposes, trolling, an instructor giving his students a ridiculous idea because it would be freaking hilarious to see them try to do it during sparring. As you suspected, its inclusion here is Lady Aldreda playing a bit with Elis when he tries to rush his training, only for him to take it seriously and actually make it work! Thanks! I mention it during the overview of the dinner she goes to, but Lady Aldreda gets varying reactions to her condition, with one reaction being to make open, insulting jokes about her being a corpse or some sort of undead, and I imagine for that she tends to get bitingly sarcastic in her responses. That was definitely a challenge. Unlike After Party, which used the “like reality unless otherwise noted” idea, this took place in its own world. I could get away with certain things being similar to reality (a feudal system like medieval England, and hints of countries analogous to East Asia), but I had to craft a unique religion, and it was hard to figure out how much of that to explain. I should probably clarify that Lady Aldreda isn’t a vampire. That was just a mean-spirited jab Hopkin threw at her. I was trying to generate some level of mystery for the audience about what exactly her deal is, and I figured some people might assume she really is a vampire. I explained it to an extent during the dinner overview, stating that she was “born without color” and that her condition is rare, one out of tens of thousands of births. She’s not a vampire; she’s albino. The scientific term for this is “oculocutaneous albinism type 2.” OCA2 occurs in roughly 1 in 20,000 births, and the lack of pigmentation results in Aldreda’s distinct look as well as her problems. Her lack of melanin means that she sunburns at the drop of a hat, which is why she doesn’t really go outside during the day and covers her skin when she does. This also leads to her visual problem. Albino people often suffer from photophobia (sensitivity to bright lights) due to a phenomenon called ocular straylight, wherein light scatters inside the eyeball; it’s the biological equivalent of a lens flare in a camera (which even happens the same way, with light scattering inside the camera). Because of this, she operates better in softer light, like moonlight or starlight, and between the photophobia and the ease with which she sunburns, she does most of her work at night, and as a result has developed very good night vision. Thank you so much! Pretty much the entire story was written to lead up to that scene. I meant it to be sweet and romantic, and I’m really happy it seems to be working for people. Thank you for the review!

@Thundercloud gives Moonlit Snow its first review! I did briefly consider having Aldreda and Elis have sex, or at least share a kiss, but there were two reasons I didn’t do that. The first is that I wanted JayDee to be able to read this, and they don’t read anything with a character below sixteen, so Elis is just one year too young. Of course, I could have just made Elis sixteen, but that brings me to the second reason: as you guessed, I have plans for these two. Thank you! It’s a very G-rated romantic moment, but I felt like it could still be very sweet given what it means for the two of them. I’m very glad it worked! Also very glad that worked! I was trying to write Elis as believably feeling like a fifteen year old, not quite a little kid anymore, but not really a man yet either. Hold that thought… So I didn’t know about Lucky Luke, but I did figure something like this might happen. “Dalton” is from the Old English meaning “valley town” (a valley being called a dale, and thus “dale town”), but plenty of English names were derived from the place the person lived in, so I figured it might sound like somebody. Sorry about that. Thank you, and now we bring back that thought you were holding above. Much like After Party was an introduction for Yua and Cody as a couple, who will later have their own story, Moonlit Snow is one for Aldreda and Elis. There will be three more stories set in this world, one starring a human named Reynard and a giantess named Sigrid, and the other two starring Aldreda and Elis. The first one will take place when Elis is twelve and he first meets Lady Aldreda and, as you might expect, won’t feature any sex due to his age. The second, longer one will happen when Aldreda and Elis have to stop a huge supernatural threat. That one will take place when Elis is twenty and Aldreda 32, and that’s when the sexual relationship will happen. Since Moonlit Snow is in between these stories, I figured I could show them inching toward that eventual relationship, growing just that little bit closer to one another. Thanks for the review!

It may has to do with two things, the first being, as you suggested, the acting ability of your average porn star, but it may also have to do with the writing philosophy behind porn. I tend to think of porn as being like fast food: the goal is to get the product (the sex scene, in this case) to the customer as quickly as possible, and as such the story and character beats are reduced to the bare minimum to get to “the good stuff.” This is why I prefer written erotica: while there’s overlap, at its best erotica is less like fast food and more like a sit-down restaurant. You wait for the sex scene, but you spend time with characters you like and get buildup (appetizers, if you will), so that when your main course finally arrives, it’s more rewarding. Yeah, it can come across like Stockholm Syndrome if it’s done wrong. In fanfiction it can also bother me depending on what character it’s applied to, but that would turn into a rant if I discussed it, so I’ll just leave it at that. Thank you for joining the party!

From JayDee on December 25, 2019 I suppose she would know, given her legendary ability to make a man permanently hard. Thanks! I figured Rudy had enough to deal with without acrimony from his new teammates. And the "welcome orgy" scene wouldn't have worked under those circumstances. This story was partly inspired by artwork I've seen on Inkbunny of hot reindeer getting it on at the gym. I'm a lot more comfortable writing m/m stuff when it's about furries, and I figured this story was a good place to engage in some of that -- particularly given that, with the addition of Rudy, the guys outnumber the girls on the Team. I came up with that very early on in the planning of the story. It was what ultimately inspired me to write the Rudy / Greta scene at the end. I figured I couldn't do a story about talking reindeer without including some comedy. Well, you know, there had to be something to distinguish the Holiday collection from the Halloween one. Thank you!

I actually think that AFF is missing a story code that signal blackmail or similar non-consual sex. Considering how often this trope is used in porn it is clearly something that we can expect some people to be looking for. I will most certainly give it a thought. Both ideas have clear merit. The only thing holding me back will probably be limited writing time. Thank you.