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thisbluespirit) wrote2015-12-31 02:04 pm
Yuletide 2015 Recs (I)
It's a fairly random first pass of the archive. I tend to read shorter fics, and also have a terrible habit (faced with the chocolate box that is Yuletide) of reading only one or two fics out of a fandom with several in it before skipping to the next shiny thing, but still, an overview of some things I've particularly enjoyed so far, in the hopes that others might enjoy them too:
World Enough, and Time (5408 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Archer's Goon - Diana Wynne Jones
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Erskine, Awful Sykes, Howard Sykes, Hathaway (Archer's Goon), Torquil (Archer's Goon)
Summary: The journey of a thousand miles (starts with sending your siblings to Alpha Centauri).
Great look at what the remaining siblings did after the ending, with some fascinating backstory about that weirdest of families woven in.
'Tis the Season to be Murdered (4695 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Avengers (TV)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Emma Peel, John Steed
Summary: Emma decks the halls.
Steed's away with the fairies.
A missing adventure that's huge fun, with the right quirky/cracky touches for this canon.
A Train Journey (1168 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Chalet School - Elinor M. Brent-Dyer
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Nell Wilson, Hilda Annersley
Sweet little Chalet School fic, set just before Exile, focusing on Hilda and Nell's friendship, with exactly the right feel for the series.
Piqued (2908 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Devil's Cub - Georgette Heyer
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Dominic Alastair/Mary Challoner
Characters: Dominic Alastair, Mary Challoner, Timms & Fletcher
Additional Tags: Card Games
Summary: Mary and Dominic play a friendly game of cards on the road to Paris.
This reads like an absolutely pitch-perfect missing scene from the book, and with Heyer, it's difficult to offer a higher compliment to an author.
Entr'acte (1914 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Devil's Cub - Georgette Heyer
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Sophia Challoner, Canon Female Character
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Yuletide Treat
Summary: Sophia Challoner seeks--and finds--her fortune.
And in contrast, this is a wonderful romp of a fic about a minor character.
Bookmarks and Garlic Flowers (1061 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Dracula (TV 1968), Dracula & Related Fandoms
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Mina Harker/Lucy Weston/John Seward
Characters: John Seward, Mina Harker, Lucy Weston
Additional Tags: Post-Canon
Summary: On rational explanations.
My beautiful gift-fic! This is a gorgeous and subtle take on post-canon, with so many wonderful little details about folklore and medicine included along the way. Dr Seward endeavours to find some way of understanding recent events - or at least, that's what he tells himself...
The Benefits of a Stand-In Double (3714 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 4/4
Fandom: HEYER Georgette - Works, False Colours - Georgette Heyer
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Evelyn Fancot, Kit Fancot, Barbara Childe, Lady Denville, Cressida Stavely, Patience Askham
Additional Tags: Twins
Summary: A series of vignettes about the Fancot twins being twins. For morganmuffle as a present for Yuletide in 2015.
Sweet, fun four times type fic, of the twins standing in for each other. It's lovely, though my favourite bit is actually Lady Denville managing her sons in her own special way.
A Normal First Date (1742 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Fionavar Tapestry - Guy Gavriel Kay
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Kimberly Ford/Dave Martyniuk
Characters: Kimberly Ford, Dave Martyniuk
Summary: “Can we pretend," Kim Ford asked Dave Martyniuk, "just for a few minutes, that we are two normal people on a normal date?”
“No wizards and goddesses and children of the andain?” he smiled. “Sure.”
There was another moment of silence. “What do normal people talk about?” Kim asked.
Dave shrugged. "I have no idea."
It's been years since I read this trilogy, but I remembered enough to love finally getting a look at what these two characters actually did afterwards. It's excellent.
A Paragon of Tenacity (1980 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Forsyte Saga - John Galsworthy
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Characters: Irene Heron Forsyte
Additional Tags: Victorian, Trauma, Class Issues, Sexual Assault, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Summary: Irene has finally left Soames.
Thoughtful, well-written look at Irene, getting to define herself here, rather than being defined by various (male) Forsytes. (Book canon.)
A collection of small moments and tea (2742 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Frederica - Georgette Heyer
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Vernon Dauntry Marquis of Alverstoke/Frederica Merriville
Characters: Vernon Dauntry Marquis of Alverstoke, Frederica Merriville
Additional Tags: Tea, Family, Ceremonial Visits
Summary: After Frederica and Vernon's engagement, everything goes smoothly. Well, as smoothly as it can. Somehow, Frederica had not expected ceremonial visits to be one of the consequences.
Thoroughly enjoyable bit of nicely observed post-canon, as everyone gets to react to the news of Frederica and Alverstoke's engagement.
The Bootlegger (1904 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Highwayman - Alfred Noyes
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Bess/Highwayman
Characters: Bess (The Highwayman - Alfred Noyes), Highwayman (The Highwayman - Alfred Noyes), Tim (The Highwayman)
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Prohibition Era, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Poetry
Summary: Cool was the breeze in the evening, along the darkened street.
The city was retiring, closing shutters at every suite.
But even in that stillness, you could hear the faintest sound,
Of the music that was playing -
playing, swaying -
The music faintly playing from the jazz band underground.
The Highwayman, amazingly rewritten as a Prohibition Era AU poem.
The Terrible Doom That Came To Honeysuckle Cottage (2592 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Honeysuckle Cottage - P. G. Wodehouse, Cthulhu Mythos - H. P. Lovecraft
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Summary: There's a saying old says that love is blind
Still we're often told, seek and ye shall find
So I'm going to seek a certain lad I've had in mind.
Another amazing fic, in which PG Wodehouse's Honeysuckle Cottage plays host to a Lovecraftian hero and a Tentacled Thing and the result is obviously a touchingly happy ever after. This is just genius, and definitely one where you don't need to know canon.
A Visitor From the States (1120 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Cassandra Mortmain, Rose Mortmain
Additional Tags: World War II, Sister-Sister Relationship, Diary/Journal, Yuletide Treat
Summary: Cassandra's diary, ten years on.
Rose returns to visit Cassandra, and the two sisters get a proper chance to catch up. This is lovely, but even more so is the capturing of Cassandra's distinctive voice as narrator.
An Ass's Headgear (1335 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Inspector Alleyn Mysteries - Ngaio Marsh
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Roderick Alleyn
Additional Tags: Stealth Crossover, Humor, Backstory
Summary: Police Constable Alleyn runs into difficulties on Boat Race Night.
I don't want to spoiler the stealth crossover, but since I think anyone reading that summary who knows a certain fandom and the fact that this would be taking place in the Twenties, will already have worked it out. And, yes! Indeed it is - poor Alleyn is the victim of an expert snatch-and-run on Boat Race Night! It's a joy. (Well, maybe not for Alleyn, but for us lucky readers it is.)
Tinseltown (913 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Indiana Jones Series
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Henry "Indiana" Jones/Marion Ravenwood
Characters: Henry "Indiana" Jones, Marion Ravenwood, Original Male Character(s)
Additional Tags: Post-Movie(s), Fourth Wall, Humor, Action/Adventure, Hollywood
Summary: Indiana Jones has made many mistakes in his life.
Signing an air-tight contract that greenlights a biopic based on his life just might be the worst one yet.
Indiana Jones agrees to let Hollywood make a film of his life. Just as much fun as you'd expect from the premise.
A Gift of Trust (1130 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Jane Eyre/Edward Rochester
Characters: Adele Rochester
Additional Tags: Epistolary, Christmas, Coming of Age, Women Being Awesome
Summary: It's Christmastime in Paris, and Adele Varens de Rochester is thinking about her future. And writing to her dear (step-)mother.
Rather lovely and plausible look at what happened to Adele when she grew up.
#Rogeliban (3817 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 2/2
Fandom: Jane the Virgin (TV)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Rogelio de la Vega, Jane Villanueva, Xiomara "Xo" Villanueva, Esteban Santiago, Michael Cordero Jr.
Additional Tags: Metafiction, Work Contains Fan(s) or Fandom(s), warning: excessive silliness, In-Universe RPF, Fandom Allusions & Cliches & References
Summary: Reply from @feministfaolan
god they would be the cutest couple #Rogeliban
Reply from @RogelioDeLaVega
Wait what????
Rogelio discovers he's been shipped with his arch-rival and, everything is predictably hilarious from there on. With graphics and (for once totally canon-appropriate) fandom-meta and everyone behaving pretty much as you would expect.
And in Trying, Become (610 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Arabella Strange/Jonathan Strange
Characters: Arabella Strange, Jonathan Strange
Summary: Jonathan tries. Oh God, does he try.
Sharp and witty look at Jonathan and Arabella, growing up. Excellent.
Now We Don Our Grey Apparel (8524 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Maid Marian and her Merry Men
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Maid Marian, Sheriff of Nottingham
Additional Tags: Zombie Apocalypse, Humor, Socialism, Witches
Summary: It was Wednesday afternoon, early closing day in Worksop, which meant - as usual - the entire village was dead. Only this Wednesday afternoon it seemed that the inhabitants of Worksop were taking the 'dead' thing a little more literally than usual.
This was brilliant and hilarious and reads exactly like a missing episode, which of course means you don't need to me to tell you it was brilliant and hilarious. If you don't know canon, then 'cracky 1990s CBBC Robin Hood as written by Tony Robinson, with a useless Robin and a Maid Marian who does all the work', should suffice for you to also now hasten off and enjoy the fun as the zompie apocaplypse hits Worksop. And it's all the fault of Capitalism and a bloke named Dave.
More to come later today! (Hopefully! But definitely including my shiny Madness Treat when it does. \o/)
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I applaud your Yuletide dedication! I downloaded mine & they'll stay author anonymous on my kobo that's my excuse for tardy reccing. I know what you mean about fandoms with lots of fic. Miss Fisher has over 25+ my mind partially melted and downloaded only a couple. What's wrong with having a couple of fics like the other fandoms?;p
Thanks for the Lovecraft/Wodehouse rec because it's def one I wouldn't have found otherwise.
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Well, it was something I could do. I must only have read a tiny fraction of the archive! It's amazing how much stuff there is and how often you go back and: look, no, really, that fandom couldn't have been there before! And, ha, I don't think I looked at any that had much more than 4, so I give up really easily.
And there's no hurry for recs (or need to make them, indeed), but I thought it might be something I could do today & while it was a little tiring, it was okay, so I did! Tomorrow we will all be able to talk again, phew.
And, yay, because that one was just genius; I adored it. I have a suspicion about its author, together with the Alleyn one, but I don't know. (I am fairly sure I have guessed yours, but we'll see tomorrow! I suspect I wasn't all that difficult to find either... /o\)
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And, yep, you will probably have realised what I wrote now. (And, in other instances where I was hard put to hold back comments, you were my assigned recipient, wonder no longer about which fic was your 'official' gift! (Some people won't mark a treat as a treat, if they feel it stands well enough to be your gift fic if your original writer falls through - if I had defaulted and you'd already had that Shakespeare fic, you wouldn't have gone on the pinch hitting list. And then the 'Treat' tag would have given that away. I always mark my treats as such, but wait until the recipient already has a gift to post it.)
I laughed a lot when I got my assignment - it was kind of inevitable; I'm only amazed you didn't get me in return! (And my grumbling in the writing process was entirely to do with me being ill and running out of time and spoons: I loved your letter, your requests, enjoyed rewatching AAL! even more than ever and actually had fun with the fic once the idea turned up - it was trying to get an ever-expanding fic done in the time left while feeling as if my brain was porridge & being more than usually flat that was the only bit I didn't like. AAL = ♥ ♥ and thank you for making me write a full length fic for it, even if I despaired of my own ability to do so a few times along the way!)
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Thank you *g* The Avengers fic was sooooo obviously me: I always write them more drunk than they in canon (if that's possible) not even revising canon could cure me of this habit! I blame that on them drinking more than I remembered! Steed doesn't drink as much in the Tara era.
Hoorah! I guessed on balance that the longer fic would be my proper gift, as it was long (move over Sherlock) and the second was shorter and posted later, which made me think it might have been a second fic by the same person, until one of my suspects commented on your fic!
You did manage to fool me, because the fic was long and you talked about having to revise canon so I thought it was something you hadn't watched for years and not having time to write and I thought you'd write something shorter. I thought you'd written Maid Marian until I actually read it. I did think the house burning down was highly suspicious of being something a f-lister would put in.
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And I think length doesn't guarantee anything, but, in this case, you were right. And I'm glad I managed to baffle you a little there. (The house burning down, though, was honestly something random that happened at the end literally while writing Simm's little action scene. I didn't even think till you said that it fitted in with the genre, because I'm so horror-ignorant!)
Nooo, I wish I was capable of writing that Maid Marian fic, but on the other hand, it was much more fun just to be able to sit here and read it!
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Think of all the Peter Cushing you're missing out on and Martin Jarvis being attacked by lady (yawn Hammer, for having Christopher Lee hide behind a bush) vampires;)
Ah, now that ain't true!
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