Yuletide recs 2023

[regshoe]

It's Yuletide recs time!

First of all I will reiterate the recs for my own gifts, for NTS Kidnapped and Flight of the Heron. They really are very good :D

There are two more excellent Flight of the Heron stories in the collection besides my gift! Firstly, this fic in which Lachlan and Keith team up to save Ewen; it's a great adventure story and also, largely following Lachlan's POV, it's a lovely exploration of his character and his relationship with Ewen, as well as the... slightly fraught... allyship with Keith:

The Marrow of His Heart (12491 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 3/3
Fandom: The Jacobite Trilogy | The Flight of the Heron Series - D. K. Broster
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Lachlan MacMartin, Keith Windham, Ewen Cameron
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Murder, Revenge, Siblings, Enemies to reluctant allies, War, Minor Character Death
Summary:

When Lachlan comes back to the shieling at Beinn Laoigh to find Ewen gone, he must do everything he possibly can to track him down and help him to escape—with the help of an unlikely ally along the way.

And secondly this excellently tropey fic in which Keith fails to escape at Fassefern, and in the house crowded with Jacobites he and Ewen... have to share a bed! Further development of the 'Keith dealing with his feelings by being deliberately annoying, Ewen trying to be a perfect gentleman' theme follows, and it's very funny:

As Little Irksome As He Can (4813 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Jacobite Trilogy | The Flight of the Heron Series - D. K. Broster
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Ewen Cameron/Keith Windham
Characters: Keith Windham, Ewen Cameron
Additional Tags: Only One Bed, Fassefern, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence
Summary:

In which there is a mishap with a stolen philabeg, and Captains Windham and Cameron have to share a bed after all.

The author of this one a) is very good, both in general and with these characters, b) has a wicked sense of humour and c) is probably American, so I'm going to say I think it's sanguinity. :D


It has been a particularly good Yuletide for femslash! I was delighted to see that someone had written luzula's request for Bonnie Dundee femslash, and it's a lovely fic—very Sutcliffian in its sense of joy, longing and lost might-have-beens all mingled:

Joy Enough for the Both of Us (1310 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Bonnie Dundee - Rosemary Sutcliff, Unspecified Fandom
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Darklis Ruthven/Lady Jean (Bonnie Dundee)
Characters: Darklis Ruthven, Lady Jean (Bonnie Dundee), John Graham 1st Viscount Dundee (Bonnie Dundee)
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Mention of Canonical Character Death, Yuletide Treat, Yuletide 2023
Summary:

When in 1684 Lady Jean Cochrane married John Graham, then 7th Laird of Claverhouse, her Convenanter family were Presbyterian rebels and he one of the King's Sheriffs in Scotland. By 1689, after the overthrow of King James VII, he was a Jacobite rebel and she had fortified his house at Glen Ogilvie against King William's armies in Scotland. Rebellion divided clan and family, set HIghland Scot against Lowland Scot, and echoes to this day in the empty glens and military roads of Scotland. But, loyal and loving, through joys and sorrows, Lady Jean's companion Mistress Darklis Ruthven was by her side.

And this fic for Jill is great fun—it's an inspired idea to drop the straightforward, daring, resourceful Jill into a Gothic novel plot, and the result is a really enjoyable read, with especially good canon voice and a lovely reconciliation for Jill and Kitty:

Jill Makes an Exit (8704 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Jill - E. A. Dillwyn
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Kitty Mervyn/Gilbertina Trecastle | Caroline Jill
Characters: Gilbertina Trecastle | Caroline Jill, Kitty Mervyn, Original Characters
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gothic, Canon-Typical Classism, Genre-Typical Plot Reliance on Coincidence, Original Character Death(s)
Summary:

In which Jill leaves her employment with the Torwoods under very different circumstances, and finds subsequent employment in an odder establishment than any she has known.

This was not written by luzula or edwardianspinsteraunt, the only people who've written the fandom before, and so it's one for which I'm especially curious to learn the author's identity!


Worrals and Frecks in a boarding school story is another really excellent idea, and this fic is just lovely—it combines a classic school story atmosphere with spot-on Worrals and Frecks characterisation, and adorable pre-femslash:

pleasant pastures (1379 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Worrals Series - W. E. Johns
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Betty "Frecks" Lovell & Joan "Worrals" Worralson
Characters: Betty "Frecks" Lovell, Joan "Worrals" Worralson, Rex Lovell
Additional Tags: Pre-Canon, Yuletide Treat, Fluff
Summary:

Worrals had by now stuffed her French prep back into her satchel and instead taken out a map, which she unfolded and studied for a few minutes. Frecks left her to it, and went to find a convenient stile to get into the next field.

“I’d rather not get run over if it’s all the same to you,” she said, once Worrals had noticed her absence and came to find her. “And this way we can see the sheep.”

And a final f/f rec: I love crossdressing historical lesbians, and I enjoyed this Carmilla fic very much—it's an AU ending which blends the fun of the premise with the darker side of the story especially well:

if on a winter's night two travelers (1335 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Carmilla - J. Sheridan Le Fanu
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Carmilla | Mircalla Countess Karnstein/Laura
Characters: Carmilla Karnstein, Laura (Carmilla - J. Sheridan Le Fanu), Original Male Character(s)
Additional Tags: POV Outsider, Crossdressing, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence
Summary:

A young couple arrives at an inn on a bitterly cold night, traveling out of remote Styria. But there's something unusual about them...

I don't know whether these two Piranesi fics were written by the same author, but they complement each other wonderfully, both exploring transitions in the narrator's life—respectively, the process of Matthew Rose Sorensen becoming Piranesi, and that of Piranesi becoming the person he is by the end of the book. They're also both beautifully written, reflecting the book's mood of quiet comfort amidst horrible events and with lovely canon voice:

The Sixth Statue (1890 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Piranesi - Susanna Clarke
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Piranesi | Matthew Rose Sorensen, The House (Piranesi)
Additional Tags: Exploration, Diary/Journal, Survival, Animals, Amnesia
Summary:

Matthew Rose Sorensen explores the House.

Beloved Child (1101 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Piranesi - Susanna Clarke
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Piranesi | Matthew Rose Sorensen
Additional Tags: Missing Scene, Epistolary
Summary:

Matthew Rose Sorensen has his Homecoming.

I picked up The Love Child by Edith Olivier from a rec at the beginning of Yuletide, and was very pleased to see a fic for it. This fic explores the story from Helen's point of view, showing an outsider's and a servant's perspective on the weird events throughout, and is beautifully written:

Out of Thin Air (2239 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Love Child - Edith Olivier, Unspecified Fandom
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Clarissa Bodenham, Agatha Bodenham, Helen (The Love Child)
Additional Tags: POV Outsider, Canon Compliant, 1920s, Servants, Imaginary Friends, Loneliness, Period Typical Attitudes, very brief mention of institutionalisation, Yuletide Treat, Don't Have to Know Canon, Supernatural Elements
Summary:

“Really, it’s almost as if Miss Agatha conjured her out of thin air,” Helen said to Sarah.

But she did not truly believe this. Once or twice, she recalled Miss Agatha’s old imaginary friend named Clarissa, but she drew no connection between her and Clarissa the living, breathing child. Why should she? The idea couldn’t be entertained seriously for a moment. Children didn’t come to life simply because you wished them to.

Between the lovely prose, the choice to write about servants and the historical detail—besides the obscurity of the canon—I am going to guess that this one is by edwardianspinsteraunt :)


Now a very obvious one for my tastes :D Bede's parable of the sparrow is an excellently interesting Yuletide fandom, and I loved this fic—which takes off from the original story to explore a wide view of history from a thoughtfully written bird's POV, and is full of lovely wildlife details:

historia naturalis gentis anglorum (1015 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum | Ecclesiastical History of the English People - Bede
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: The Sparrow (Bede), The Staffordshire Hoard
Additional Tags: Blood, POV Animal, Nature, Battle, Ecohistory, the passage of time, unnecessary Latin
Summary:

A sparrow's life may be short, but her memory is long.

And finally, a Madness drabble for the folk song 'Lyke-Wake Dirge', which is a favourite of mine—this is an intriguing and lovely take on a possible context for it:

Through the Candlelight (100 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Lyke-Wake Dirge (Traditional Song)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Additional Tags: yumadrin, Afterlife
Summary:

Words of church doctrine and long-lost lore mingled in the dying scholar's mind.