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That's right, over the past decade, as a community we have generated over HALF A MILLION DOLLARS in donations to progressive nonprofits!!

Yes, actually. We triple checked. Holy shit?!

Below you'll find the breakdown of how this year's donations were distributed across different organizations (this breakdown doesn’t include employer match donations, which is why the total is a little lower):

Advocates for Trans Equality  - $17,313.86

Disability Law United  - $4,019.01

Environmental Integrity Project  - $4,049

Fight for the Future Education Fund  - $3,388

Freedom to Read Foundation  - $8,689.54

Gaza Soup Kitchen  - $20,362

Global Project Against Hate and Extremism  - $5,306.27

Greenlight America  - $2,732

In Our Own Voice  - $3,052

National Immigrant Justice Center  - $16,675.24

Never Again Action  - $5,452

Open Secrets  - $2,706

Vote Beat  - $2,067

Other organizations:  - $1,548

Umbrella: anti-poverty direct aid orgs

Echo Food Bank  - $1,623

Madison Countians Allied Against Poverty  - $293.43

Peninsula Poverty Response  - $772

Sisters PGH  - $1,653

St. Louis Park Emergency Program  - $565

Womens Daytime Drop-in Center  - $910

Other anti-poverty direct aid orgs  - $4,266.17

So what's next?

Now is a great time to follow the @fth2026fanworks account. We'll use that blog to share any auction fanwork that gets posted to tumblr.

We urge you to keep up with the organizations you supported this year (and the others on our list!) Follow them on social media, subscribe to their newsletters, whatever works best for you. It will enable you to keep an eye on the good work you’ve helped support, and to find out quickly when these orgs need some extra help, financial or otherwise.

And if you’re looking out at the world and feeling the itch to do more, here are some possibilities:

Follow @fthaction, the meatspace activism wing of FTH. We relaunched FTHA last year with some reading lists, an individualized activism bingo card, a couple of AMAs with some talented organizers and activists on our dedicated FTHA discord server, and some stories from folks on tumblr, talking about how they themselves got more politically active. We're still figuring out the best and most useful things we can do this with project, but we'd love your thoughts and we hope you'll join us for the ride, on tumblr or on our discord server (linked above) or both.

Organize your own auction! We’ve put together a detailed playbook that contains as much information and as many resources as we can provide for getting an auction off the ground, including detailed guides. Almost everything in the playbook is fully public; there are a few forms that are access-locked because google has stupid ideas about sharing forms, but we’re happy to give you access to those, too: just drop us an email.

As usual, we the mods are pretty wiped out and will need to take some time away from our screens to recuperate. But also as usual, it's completely worth the effort. We're so deeply inspired by what we've accomplished together, and by all of y'all who keep showing up, year after year, to be lights for one another in dark times. We'll see you again next year.

Please go and check out the full listings for more information.

Written Fanwork:

Beyondtheclose (@beyondtheking): Length: 5 - 10k Ship: Andrew/Neil, Andrew/Neil/Kevin, Jean/Jeremy, Jean/Jeremy/Kevin Highest Rating: M Special: aro/ace, transgender, gen/platonic, poly

poetic_ivy Length: Less than 5k Ship: Any Highest Rating: E Special: ambiguous endings, f/f, genderswap, gen/platonic, poly, rarepair

foundinthedark (me! / @sunriseabram) Length: 5k - 10k Ship: Andrew, Andrew/Neil, Andrew & Aaron Highest Rating: E

agustsea Length: 20k - 50k Ship: Andrew/Neil, Jeremy/Jean, Neil, Jean Highest Rating: E Special: ambiguous endings, aro/ace, gen/platonic, non-white characters, poly, rarepair

boywonder Length: 10k - 20k Ship: Andrew/Kevin, Andrew/Neil/Kevin, Jeremy/Kevin/Jean, Kevin Highest Rating: E / 18+ bidders only Special: ambiguous endings, transgender, poly

sweetsanggyun Length: 10k - 20k Ship: Andrew/Neil/Kevin Highest Rating: E / 18+ bidders only Special: f/f, genderswap, poly, rarepair, unhappy endings, transgender

defractum Length: 10k - 20k Ship: Andrew/Neil Highest Rating: E / 18+ bidders only Special: genderswap, non-white characters, transgender

Podfic:

RainScrawl Length: 15k - 20k Ship: Any Highest Rating: E Special: ambiguous endings, aro/ace, transgender, gen/platonic, unhappy endings

aliteralgarbageheap (@aliteralgarbageheap) Length: 10k - 15k Ship: Andrew/Neil, Kevin/Andrew/Neil, Matt/Andrew/Neil, Jean/Jeremy, Jean/Neil, Jean&Neil Highest Rating: E Special: aro/ace, transgender, poly

iggygiraffe Length: 1k - 5k Ship: Andrew/Neil Highest Rating: E / 18+ bidders only

iggygiraffe (2) Length: 2k - 20k Ship: Andrew/Neil Highest Rating: E / 18+ bidders only

Fan art:

Linecrosser (@linecrosser) Ship: Any Scope: One fully coloured digital artwork Highest Rating: M / 18+ bidders only Special: aro/ace, gen/platonic

If I missed anyone's listing or @, please let me know, and I will add you! Thank you to everyone participating - you are amazing.

A hand wraps around his chin, just over his throat, tilting his head upwards with gentle pressure. 

“C’mon now, we had a deal. Eyes open.” 

He obeys. 

It takes a moment for Steve’s face to swim into focus above him, breathtakingly beautiful against the flickering, golden glow of the candles. Eddie blinks tears from his eyes and tells himself that it’s because he’s still adjusting to the light.

“There you are,” Steve praises. The tips of his fingers are warm as they caress the scar on Eddie’s jaw. “Can I get a color?” 

Eddie huffs. He's so goddamn polite. Like he isn't the one in control here. Like Eddie isn't bound and naked and helpless in front of him, utterly at his mercy, in so many more ways than one. 

Steve just holds him and waits. He's taken off his shirt while Eddie was spacing out, and the back of Eddie’s head is resting against his naked chest. His other hand has started playing with the tip of the braid he pulled Eddie’s hair into. To keep it out of the way. 

He's so fucking considerate, Eddie hates him for it. Hates himself more for how it makes him feel, how the knowledge of being cared for like that settles warm and heavy in his belly. 

“Hey, stay with me,” Steve mutters. His eyes sparkle as they watch him, and Eddie's heart skips a beat, but he tells himself it's a trick of the candlelight. “Still need that color.” 

Eddie exhales - a long, shuddering rush of air that rattles around the lump in his throat. 

“Green.” 

Steve smiles. “Alright. Eyes ahead, then. Want you to see how pretty you are.” 

Eddie gulps, swallowing against the nerves and the humiliation clogging up his chest, and does as he is told. 

Steve has outdone himself with the ropes today. They're black and shimmery and soft, forming a stark contrast with his pale skin and gnarly scars. They criss-cross over the mangled flesh and ruined tattoos on his chest in a complicated pattern of knots, forming an intricate harness and securing him to the backrest, wrap around his ankles where they are tied to the legs of the chair. 

“See?” Steve says. He's leaned forward to double-check the knots securing his wrists behind the backrest, his breath tickling the shell of Eddie’s ear. “Beautiful.” 

He's not. He's really not. 

He's a hideous, ugly thing - broken and bitten and ripped into a hundred shreds. Sure, they stitched him up at the hospital, but he knows that he's all twisted and wrong, like a shattered vase sloppily glued back together. 

Chrissy was beautiful, but she's dead and he's here, and isn't that the biggest fucking joke in the entire world?

But if Steve says he's pretty? 

Steve said you're not gonna die, dragging him back through the gate while holding his guts inside with one hand, so he didn't. 

Steve said you'll walk again, supporting his weight when own legs wouldn't, so he did. 

Steve said it was okay to feel guilty for having made it out when others didn't, that night Eddie broke down and sobbed into his chest. Steve said it was okay if Eddie didn’t wanna go home that same night, that it was okay if he stayed until morning. So he did. 

So if Steve says he's pretty? Maybe he can believe him, if only for a little while. 

Steve gives the ropes one last tug, and Eddie holds back a whine as he steps out of his space and takes that warmth with him. But then Steve picks up one of the candles and the whine turns into a punched-out moan. 

“Let's give this a try then,” Steve mutters. Eddie can feel the heat of the flame on his skin as he steps closer, can feel a similar heat pulsing low in his abdomen, but he doesn't dare turn away from the mirror. Steve said to keep his eyes on the mirror, so he will. “Want you to tell me exactly how it feels, right? So I can stop if it's too much.” 

“Right,” Eddie rasps, as if anything Steve does to him could ever be too much. As if he wasn’t the one who asked for this. “Right, I promise, just- … Steve, please.” 

“Okay,” Steve says, and drops to the floor. 

“What are you-” Eddie croaks, naked cock twitching at the feeling of Steve’s breath puffing over his skin, the sight of Steve on his knees in front of him, burning candle still in hand. Like a worshipper before an idol. One of his hands pulls on a knot, and just like that, Eddie’s right leg comes free. 

Panic grabs at his insides and twists. He can't be free, he needs the ropes. Needs them to hold him down, needs them to keep him together or he'll crack along the seams of his scars and shatter back into a thousand pieces. 

“Shhhh,” Steve says, voice rustling over his frayed nerve ends like a calming breeze. “I'm not untying you. Breathe.” 

Eddie does. Sucks in long, measured gulps of air through his nose just like Steve taught him. Feels how his chest strains against his bindings, releases the air through his mouth. Forces his muscles to go loose and pliant. Steve hums in approval, wrapping a firm hand around his ankle to pull it closer towards himself. 

“We're going to start here,” he explains, running his fingers over the smooth skin of Eddie’s leg. He made him shave it, to make sure there'd be no hairs in the way. “Let you ease into it. Make sure it isn't too hot, alright?” 

Eddie bites his bottom lip to keep in the reply sitting on the tip of his tongue. How he doesn't wanna be eased into anything. How he doesn't want to be treated like he's this precious, delicate thing. How he wants, needs, craves the pain, because it’s the only thing apart from Steve’s touch that will make him forget about himself for a while.

“Alright.” 

Steve smiles, and the grip of his hand around Eddie’s ankle tightens.

“Here we go then,” he says and lets the candle tip. 

Eddie hears the molten wax hit his skin more than he feels it. Then the heat registers, and for all that he’s been anticipating the moment, he finds himself crying out in pain and surprise. It’s sudden and intense - like his skin is melting away and all of his nerve ends are being set on fire. His leg jolts, the motion running through his entire body like a shockwave, but Steve shifts his grip from his ankle to his upper thigh, holding him down so he won’t tip over the chair and hurt himself. 

“Whoa, okay,” he breathes, and even though his body language projects nothing but calm and control, Eddie can hear the undercurrent of doubt in his voice. “Color? Should we-” 

“No! Green! So fucking green, please, I need- … I’ll hold still, I’ll be good, promise. Just please don’t stop.” 

It's strange, Eddie thinks. Five minutes ago, he would've been mortified at the way his voice comes out. A garbled plea, wet with tears and cracking with despair. Now, he couldn't care less. 

Because now that the initial shock has faded and the wax is cooling on his skin, he immediately finds himself craving more. 

He wants this.

Wants that sizzling pleasure-pain sensation. Wants the hot, liquid wax to seep into his cracks and fill them up, wants the pain and the heat to burn away all that is ugly and disgusting and wrong about him. Wants to be left raw and shivering and clean in the aftermath of it. 

Maybe that other, better, cleaner version of himself would find the courage to tell Steve that he wants so much more than this. Maybe that new Eddie wouldn’t be as much of a weakling or as much of a coward. Maybe he would be someone deserving of Steve’s love. 

Steve reties his ankle while he waits for more of the wax to melt, every motion careful and slow, making sure every knot is firm and secure without sitting too tight. Then, finally, he picks the candle back up and begins to work his way upwards. 

Eddie keeps his eyes on his mirror image, watching his own skin flush, his own lips quiver, his own cock twitch as Steve washes every part of his body clean with the hot, molten liquid. His shins, his outer thighs, his lower belly. He whines and wiggles in his bindings, trying to relieve some of the tension that's coiling behind his navel, taut like a rubberband ready to snap. Urging Steve to give him more. He wants the candle closer, wants to feel the fire lick at his skin, wants to feel that beautiful heat on the sensitive flesh of his inner thighs, but there’s nothing he can do. He’s tied and motionless and completely at Steve’s mercy, and forced to take whatever Steve deems fit to give him. He hates it. 

He loves it. 

He never wants it to stop. 

He must’ve spaced out again, because the next thing he knows is that Steve is no longer on his knees in front of him but behind him once again, picking up another dripping candle from the desk. 

“Doing so well, baby,” he whispers, flipping Eddie's braid over his shoulder to expose his neck, covered in goosebumps in spite of the heat eating away at his skin, the fire licking at his insides. If he hears the choked sound that tears itself from Eddie’s lips at the pet name, he ignores it. “Can you take one more?”

“Yes,” Eddie sobs, hips bucking in the chair, bound hands twitching with the need to touch, leaking cock bobbing against his own stomach, desperate for release. “Yes, please, anything.”

The look on the face of Steve’s mirror image is pure awe. 

“Good boy,” he whispers, and tilts the candle. Eddie feels the hot liquid pour down on his bare neck, feels it run down his back and shoulders, sees how his own face goes lax with pain and pleasure. Sees how Steve leans in to kiss the nape of his neck, lips soft and warm against the still burning trail of wax.

Eddie lets out a low, nasal whimper as his climax hits him, long ropes of white mixing with the cooling wax on his belly and thighs. It’s violent and humiliating and so, so gratifying, the room disappearing behind a curtain of white starbursts as his entire being is reduced to that hot, pulsing pleasure. And then Steve moans against his skin, teeth grazing the spot he just kissed, and Eddie swears he comes for a second time in as many minutes.

When the world slowly swims back into focus, Steve is in front of him again, undoing the ropes so that he can pull him out of the chair and into his lap. Eddie goes willingly, too spent and exhausted to even feel angry with himself, melting into Steve’s touch and allowing him to rub some feeling back into his tingling arms and shoulders. The cooling wax goes soft under his touch once more, mingling with the traces of Eddie’s relief.

“Ew,” he slurs into Steve’s neck, head too heavy to move. “Look this mess.” 

“I like it,” Steve hums, twisting his head so that he can press his face into Eddie’s hair. His lips tickle Eddie’s temple in a not-quite-kiss, and Eddie’s limp cock twitches between. “Messy is good.” 

When Eddie manages to lift his head, those lips are very close. Close enough to feel Steve’s breath on his own lips, close enough to lean in and- 

Steve’s nails scrape at the hardening wax on his arm, and Eddie hisses in pain. 

“We should probably clean this off you,” Steve murmurs, eyes locking on the reddened and irritated skin. “Go take a shower. I'll put some lotion on you after.” 

Eddie nods wordlessly, allowing himself to be pulled to his feet and nudged in the direction of the bathroom. It's only across the hallway, but the cool gust of air that hits him when he opens the door still makes him shiver. 

“Eddie.” 

He turns. Steve has started cleaning up and blown out the candles. Their scent still lingers in the room. His eyes are still sparkling. 

“It's alright to ask for what you want, y’know?” 

Eddie gulps, hand clenching around the doorknob. Steve watches him and waits, and even without the ropes, he feels secure under his gaze. Tethered and held. 

“Join me?” 

It's not what he truly wants, Eddie thinks a few minutes later, as Steve brackets him against the tiled wall with his own, naked body and starts to slowly fuck him under the warm spray of the shower. Maybe he’ll never grow into a version of himself that’s brave enough to ask for that.

But maybe he will. 

And maybe this can be a start.