Yuletide reveals

I wrote two stories for Yuletide, a drabble and my assignment. The drabble came first, in one afternoon, the same day I finished reading Air Logic, and it's a little sketch of one of my favorite relationships in the books:

this country of original fire (100 words) by Eccentric_Hat
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Elemental Logic - Laurie J. Marks
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Medric/Emil Paladin
Characters: Medric (Elemental Logic), Emil Paladin
Additional Tags: Yuletide Madness Drabble Invitational
Summary:

They're parallel lines.

Title from Mary Oliver's poem "Humpbacks."

My assignment was for Greater Boston, a podcast I love but got stalled on reviewing because the municipal politics in it felt too real. The fic does not contain any municipal politics. It took me a while to get it into shape, because I was trying to write about the giving of advice, and the content of the advice was distracting. Also it took forever to start, because I kept thinking I was going to go back and finish my canon review! I wrote the second half of the story on a train and in a train station, appropriately enough for the canon, and posted it from my brother's basement, and then polished it over the following week. I'm pretty happy with how it ended up:

a small live letter that says only Stay (3181 words) by Eccentric_Hat
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Greater Boston (Podcast)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Leon Stamatis & Michael Tate
Characters: Leon Stamatis, Michael Tate
Additional Tags: Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism
Summary:

It's important to give advice in the correct way.

...and a few recs

I have read only a little of the Yuletide archive this year, but I really liked these:

And then I'll finally be // Stalagmighty (1084 words) by dalia
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Galilei Galaxy - Let's Make a Music (Album)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: The Crystal Goblin (Galilei Galaxy)

This is my gift! It's a fic for the absurd and wonderful Galilei Galaxy EP from the podcast Let's Make a Music, which I hope returns from its hiatus sometime soon. It's very nice to see the little crystal goblin from that story (story?) making his way in the world.

The Top 9 Trends To Bring Back In 2022! (1115 words) by Lanna Michaels
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Additional Tags: Yuletide 2021, Clickbait, Worldbuilding, Future Fic
Summary:

The last one won't shock you!

This is just a DELIGHT.

four poems by archy (1446 words) by CenozoicSynapsid
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Archy and Mehitabel - Don Marquis
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Archy (Archy and Mehitabel), Mehitabel (Archy and Mehitabel)
Additional Tags: Poetry, Literary References & Allusions, Blues, Cockroaches, Beowulf (sort of), Non-graphic Animal Death (background character only), Canon-Typical Child Neglect
Summary:

in fact i did recently
come across a poet s
soul in the body of a
silverfish he was picking
out the words of his latest
composition by biting them
out of a disused
encyclopedia

I'm not super familiar with archy and mehitabel, but I have fond memories of the time I read some of it, and the voice, format, and insight in this fic are absolutely spot-on.

at dusk through narrow streets (1427 words) by raven
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme Season 9
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Susannah Noone/Gally Nightingale | Gally Midnight
Characters: Gally Nightingale | Gally Midnight, Susannah Noone, Oswald "Newt" Nightingale, Vanessa Noone
Summary:

Newt, Susannah and Gally, on one winter's day in 1923.

This is a lovely, bittersweet slice of life for Newt and his family in the early days.

Four Misleading Visions Of Emil Paladin, And One That Was Simply True (1587 words) by spiritinthespacebar
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Elemental Logic - Laurie J. Marks
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Medric/Emil Paladin
Characters: Medric (Elemental Logic), Emil Paladin
Additional Tags: Divination, Prophetic Visions, Co-Parents, Books, Enduring love, Mentions of Canonical Substance Abuse, Angst with a Happy Ending, Spoilers, covers events in all four books, Second Person, third person, Future Tense, Past Tense, Nonlinear structure, aka A Fic Only A Water Blood Could Love, Minor Character(s), Zanja - Freeform, Gabian, Leeba - Freeform, garland - Freeform, Norina - Freeform, 5 Times
Summary:

Medric and Emil were walking back from town when the vision caught up with him. Some visions arrived only once, but occasionally the same one would follow him about for days, sneaking the same scene into the edges of his mind.

I think this is the only Elemental Logic story in the main collection. If we could only have one, it's an excellent story to have. The narrative structure is lovely, as is the depth of the relationships within.


I beta-read the following two:

Once and Future (5004 words) by phoenixflight
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Dark Is Rising Sequence - Susan Cooper
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Bran Davies/Will Stanton, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Characters: Bran Davies, Will Stanton (Dark is Rising), Jane Drew (Dark is Rising)
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, First Kiss, Yuletide Treat, Memory Alteration, Fix-It
Summary:

“Will!” Bran seized Will in a quick, hard embrace, crushing Will against his warm, bony body. Will felt all his senses, human and otherwise, light up at the contact. “Duw, Will, did you walk from the station?” Bran pulled back, holding his shoulders. “That’s miles! I was waiting for your call. Wondering what was keeping you, but I thought it must be British Rail.”

This one is an artful, atmospheric, deeply felt story about one way things might go, after.

et lux in tenebris lucet (4288 words) by kangeiko
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Terra Ignota - Ada Palmer
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Mycroft Canner, J.E.D.D. Mason
Additional Tags: Perhaps the Stars spoilers, Worldbuilding
Summary:

I wonder, if the Wish List were to be resurrected, what name would be at the very top.

Actually, this one is also a deeply felt story about one way things might go after; but the things being felt deeply are quite different, and do some solid pushing-back on the source material.