lunabee34

Moths by Ouida

At Last to That Celestial Thought
Nadine/Fuschia
Space AU

This is my gift, and it is glorious. Whoever wrote this, and I have my suspicions :D, does a marvelous job of translating Nadine, Fuschia, and Corrèze into this new setting. Excellent world-building and excellent piece of speculative fiction that demonstrates a deep love of the source material. When I first nominated Moths for Yuletide, I never thought I'd get anyone to even read the book, much less write fic for it, much less write fic for it multiple years in a row. I am so happy this Christmas morning. <3

Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake

Mutually Assured
Vampire World Princess Bubblegum/Vampire World Marceline

More of a hopeful ending than what the show gave us for these two.

Greek Mythology

Palímpsēstos
Cassandra/Clytemnestra

Metatextual, nonlinear, gorgeous prose.

Fairytales

Time is a space and space is a time
Bluebeard

A much more satisfying ending for this fairytale.

Dusty Hands From Graves Forgotten
Beauty and the Beast

I'm not familiar with the version of B&tB on which this fic is based, but wow. This has many of the beats I'm familiar with from Perrault, Grimm, and Disney but also elements that make this story fresh and surprising. Gorgeous prose.


Bob's Burgers

Ice Cream Party At My House Please Come Over
Louise-centric gen

Pitch-perfect dialogue and very much the sort of hijinks I could see happening on the show.

Moby Dick

Both post-canon, both featuring whalefalls, both gorgeously written and complementary takes on a similar situation:

The Fall of Valour in the Soul
Ahab-centric

Full Fathom 5,000
Ahab-centric

Fairy Tales

The Nature of Love
The Little Mermaid

From Yuletide Past

Homesick by thedevilchicken
Event Horizon
Miller after the end of the movie.

Emma has been doing a deep dive into this video game she likes, and the creator said Event Horizon is one of his inspirations for the game, so we re-watched this weekend with her. It really holds up, and this fic was the perfect dessert to watching the movie.

Bonus Present for Me!!

Bones Explains It All by corvidology
Trek Reboot
Double drabble in which Christmas is explained. <3

1. While we were away for the holidays, I got more Christmas cards. Thank you, lyr, leesa_perrie, and chelseagirl!

2. I got the best story for Yuletide! It's Kalr Five/Dishes, just like I always wanted! Everybody go read Fleet Captains and Dishes (Imperial Radch series by Ann Leckie).

3. Have some more Yuletide recs:

Cthulhu Mythos

The Glade
A family thinks they're offering up their daughter to appease the gods and gets a wee bit more than they bargained for.

The Life and Afterlife of Richard Upton Pickman
This is written as if it's the museum guide to an exhibit of Upton's work, and it is so brilliantly written. I'm deeply jealous. LOL

Deadwood

Four Weddings, No Funeral
Alma/Al, Sol/Trixie, Joanie/Jane, Seth/Martha
Featuring Alma and Al as the King and Queen of Deadwood. I love it! I also have a suspicion about who wrote this. *wink*

Paw Patrol

Man's Best Friend
I absolutely adore the Yuletide trend of taking the beloveds of childhood and rendering them creepy and wrong.

Alien Prequels

Two fix-it fics in which Walter survives and Daniels survives (and Tennessee, too!). Each is just the right amount of hopeful and angsty.

One Day
The Lone and Level Sand

Alien Resurrection

Of All She Surveys
Ripley/Call
The crew of Serenity the Betty out there on the raggedy edge.

Maleficent

Building a Home of Hair and Straw
Maleficent/Diaval
Character study of Diaval, really. Love all the stuff about embodiment (human vs. raven).

Die Hard

Saving the World, One Bad Guy at a Time
McClane/Farrell
I thought when I was watching the latest movie that falling into a radioactive pool of water at Chernobyl is a great way to make a crossover with Marvel happen; I was not wrong.

Lilo and Stitch

Endless is the Good
Nani watches Lilo grow up (and away and apart from her and back together again). Needs at least two hankies.

And now for my favorite fic I've read so far in the archive:

Fairy Tales: 12 Dancing Princesses

So Come Home
This is the fairy tale re-imagined as a mystery about 12 female astronauts. It's on the long side for Yuletide, and so is full of all this exceptional world-building; it feels like a fully realized universe packed with space stations and alien worlds and kick ass women. I would read a whole novel of this fic; I can't wait to find out who read this so I can go read everything they've written. I think if you like Ann Leckie or Jeff Vandermeer, you'll like this fic.

The Larks, Still Bravely Singing, Fly
The Secret Garden
This story is so beautiful--Mary and Colin and Dickon during the World War and coming again together at the end to heal. Lovely.

Owls in the Garden
The Secret Garden XOVER with Harry Potter
This is one of my favorite stories so far in the archive this year. I don't want to spoil it too much, but it is just sniffly goodness.

The Sensible Approach
Sense and Sensibility
In this wonderful post-canon fic, Elinor struggles to reconcile Edward with his horrid family.

Years Out
A Separate Peace
Gene/Finny
How does Gene deal with Finny's death years after? This is really beautifully written and haunting.

Eldest
Sleeping Beauty
Oh my, this is awesome. I have always wondered why Maleficent behaves the way she does, and this imagines a thoroughly unexpected reason for her doing so.

toast and tea, sunshine and shadow
Sleeping Beauty
This is another of my top picks so far this year. It's an AU setting that reads like J.K. Rowling by way of Patrick Rothfuss; the story explains why Maleficent curses Aurora, and I really like the explanation the author comes up with. This is a great story.

Ghost Hunters
Northanger Abbey
Catherine, some several months older and wiser, is determined to school her neighbor against her flight of fancies to hilarious results.

An Unlikely Heroine
Northanger Abbey
In which Catherine learns more than she ever wanted to know about murder. I love how clever Catherine is here and how brave.

Nobody Cared by etherian; HP; gen-mostly; long long long long gloriously long
This is a classic "Snape discovers that Harry is really a pitiful and abused little boy and becomes a father to him" story. I really liked seeing the way the first book might have played out under this scenario and the ways that Harry's relationships stayed the same or changed. Love the Malfoys in this.

A Night in the Ruins by natlet; Deadwood; Sol/Seth; short; Adult
I think this fic captures so nicely the tension that I imagine for this pairing--a deep need and friendship between them and also a very clear sense of the danger of caring for each other erotically and of the other obligations of their lives which would prevent such a union. Beautifully, achingly written.

Getting to Know You by miss_pryss; Die Hard; McClane/Farrell; Adult; medium
This author is a seasoned Die Hard writer, turning out consistently awesome stories in this fandom. I'm not a huge fan of established relationship stories in this fandom because for me the whole delicate getting together process is the draw for me. This story more than delivers. Nice humor as well.

Wicked Wiles by blue; Snow White; Grumpy-centric gen really; short
I love the insight into the lives of dwarfs, their rituals and their lore. I love the gender exploration the fic engages in. I love that this is a bit of an Anne Sexton take on the notion of the happy ending which is in turn turned on its head. Nothing not to like here. Very thinky.

China in Your Hand by shewhoguards; Discworld; Tiffany Aching and Granny Aching gen; short
I think the Tiffany Aching books are the finest things Prachett has written and this story very much belongs with those books. It just a slice of life, Granny thinking about Tiffany and a gift she's given her. It's quite delightful, tinged with just a bit of melancholy and then the most wonderful sense of joy.

Invisible by miss_lanyon; Beauty and the Beast; OC/Beast; medium
This is told from the perspective of the invisible servants who must attend the beast. Really interesting look at the original fairy tale. Deftly written and perceptive.

For Kathy by alpheratz; Never Let Me Go; Kathy/Tommy(Ruth); short
I just finished reading this book like a day before Yuletide went live and I was ecstatic at finding a story. I don't want to spoil the book because it's one long mystery that slowly unravels, but this fic captures the angst and the injustice and the weary resignation and the futile dreaming that characterize the novel. Really, really nicely done.

So this is the part where I admit I've had Yuletide bookmarks on my laptop for over a year and it's time to set those puppies free. That's right. *Last year's* Yuletide recs coming right up.

( Too Many to Properly Rec, Alas )

Brotherly Affection by Bangles; Importance of Being Earnest; Earnest X 2
This is so funny and the voices are so authentically Wildean.

Cloak and Dagger by Adaptation Decay; Fairy Tales
Y'all know how much I love reworkings of fairy tales and I love what the author has done here with this version of Little Red Riding Hood. It is many things at once: cutting commentary on gender roles and on urban encroachment, creepy as fuck, and infinitely sad. Excellent read.

Cold Dawn by GrayCardamon; Dark is Rising;
When thelastgoodname and I read this series, one of the things I liked the least was the way that Will must be alone at series' end. He has to bear everything alone. This is the ultimate fix it fic and an interesting twist on what the end of the series really means.

Dirty Laundry by Curtana; Venture Brothers
I don't want to give away the emotional crux of this fic, but I will say that a long forgotten secret comes to light. I will also say that this fic made me laugh out loud and that I could see the action happening in an actual episode of the show.

Fanfare, Fanfiction and the Fourth Wall by Casey; Boston Legal
I freely admit that I've only seen one or two episodes of this show; at some point I want to Netflix and watch them all from the beginning. But even with very little familiarity with the source material, I found this hysterically funny.

Five Kindnesses Charles Emerson Winchester III Performed (but would never acknowledge) by Amilyn; M*A*S*H
Just what it says on the tin. *sniffles*

Five Ways Omar Remembers Brandon by Rustler; The Wire
I am currently slogging my way through The Wire (one disc into season 4) and I am so impressed with the way this fic has captured the voice and the tone of the show. This is gritty and raw and oddly sweet, as Omar always is. What I love most about this show is that it makes you care about and sympathize with these people who are absolute shitheads (on both sides of the law) and when an episode is done you are angry and amused and your heart hurts and you can't wait to pop another one in. That's how this fic makes me feel.

Five Deals the Robot Devil Almost Made by Sionnain; Futurama
Didn't this happen on an episode? Tales of Interest, anybody? LOL

In His House at R'lyeh (Squid of the Baskervilles) by Scott; Neil Gaiman's A Study in Emerald
This story is in Gaiman's Fragile Things and is one of the best pieces in that collection. It is perfectly evocative of the Victorian period, of Sherlock Holmes, of the Cthullu mythos and of Lovecraft all at once. It is at once the most wonderful homage to horror's antecedents and an intriguing story in its own right. This fic is more light hearted than the source and is a wonderful read.

In Which Worlds Collide and Eeyore Investigates a Terrible Crime by Torch; Winnie the Pooh and Discworld XOVER
Do I even need to say anything about this? Dude, read.

It's A Nice Day (For A White Wedding) by Livia; White Christmas
I love this movie. I love it. I have watched it every Christmas since I was in the womb and I love the music and all the dancing and the clothes and yeah. I'm a sap for this movie. This fic reminds me of all the reasons why.

Learning is Fundamental by Kweevil; HLOTS
Baltimore's finest are asked to make presentations to the cadets at the academy. Hijinks ensue.

Left Behind by Karabair; HLOTS
I love Megan Russert; she is an amazing character who is serverly underutilized in the series. This is a quiet throwaway moment between Tim and Megan in the diner that is incredibly revealing and insightful.

Man and Legend by Lady Sarai Robin McKinley's Outlaw of Sherwood
I loved this book growing up; it's such an interesting version of the Robin Hood story. What I love about this fic is that it gives us Marion's POV in a pivotal moment in the book. This is powerful.