regshoe

A few Yuletide recs, getting in before the now-later author reveals :)

This Moby-Dick story is an absolutely chilling, very clever and somehow also genuinely cute exploration of a possible post-canon fate for Ishmael and Queequeg, written with an excellent canon Ishmael voice:

stave my soul (2737 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Moby Dick - Herman Melville
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Ishmael/Queequeg (Moby Dick)
Characters: Ishmael (Moby Dick), Queequeg (Moby Dick)
Additional Tags: Ghosts, POV First Person, Post-Canon, Crueltide
Summary:

On the second night I floated in the sea, a ship sailed out of the darkness to me.

Or, what became of me after the sinking of the Pequod and how I came to find Queequeg again.

Yuletide is often a good time for Piranesi, and this year just as much as ever: this excellent fic extends the idea introduced at the end of the book that the statues depict real people from the world, developing it in really thoughtful and creative ways:

Be comforted! (3569 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 2/2
Fandom: Piranesi - Susanna Clarke
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Piranesi | Matthew Rose Sorensen, Sixteen | Sarah Raphael, Original Characters
Additional Tags: Chronicles of Narnia References, Worldbuilding, Historical References, Chromatic Yuletide
Summary:

"Then I revisited all my favourite Statues: the Gorilla, the Young Boy playing the Cymbals, the Woman carrying a Beehive, the Elephant carrying a Castle, the Faun, the Two Kings playing Chess. Their Beauty soothed me and took me out of Myself; their noble expressions reminded me of all that is good in the World."
- Piranesi

I looked at this Crazy Ex-Girlfriend fic and thought, 'Greg/Nathaniel? ...Sure, why not?', and then the fic itself not only completely convinced me of the pairing but also made me laugh very, very much. The author nails the canon voices (for Rebecca as well as the main two, I must mention) and the canon-typical completely absurd situation, absolutely brilliant:

rival romance (2923 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Nathaniel Plimpton/Greg Serrano
Characters: Nathaniel Plimpton, Greg Serrano, Rebecca Bunch, Paula Proctor
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Greg Stays in West Covina AU

And continuing the subject of fic for a TV comedy canon where the author nails the canon voices and the canon-typical completely absurd situation and it's absolutely brilliant!—All of that is also worth saying about this Blackadder Goes Forth fic, which likewise had me in stitches:

General Inspection (2035 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Blackadder
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Edmund Blackadder/Kevin Darling
Characters: Edmund Blackadder, Kevin Darling, Baldrick (Blackadder), George Colthurst St. Barleigh, Anthony Cecil Hogmanay Melchett
Additional Tags: Yuletide Treat
Summary:

Baldrick attempts to bring some Christmas cheer to the dugout with a touch of greenery. Well, brownery.

Speaking of comedy fic, I was kind of expecting this to be one—Lego fic, what a fun idea!—and it kind of is, but in fact the absurd premise (Lego and Duplo as neighbouring/rival Ruritanian countries, through the years from the 1848 revolutions to Eurovision, framed through a peppy tourist advice article) is taken completely seriously and done amazingly well. And the author actually designed Lego builds to go along with the fic, and they're so impressive! I am in awe!

Hit the Bricks! Four Things Not to Miss in Lego City Old Town (2897 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: LEGO Botanical Garden, LEGO Natural History Museum
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Additional Tags: Worldbuilding, Easter Eggs, lego ruritania, diagetic documentation, Illustrations
Summary:

Four moments in Lego-Duplo relations.

I was interested to see the poem collection Flower Fairies in the tagset—that's one with potential to explore how it relates to the darker side of fairy folklore, thought I—and indeed the two fics written have done exactly that really well, in different ways. This half-poetic story is properly chilling, beautifully written and constructed with brilliant attention to the details and effective use of language:

Gifts (1212 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Flower Fairies - Cicely Mary Barker
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Additional Tags: Fae & Fairies, Bargains With Fae & Fairies, Unwise bargains With Fae & Fairies, Becoming a real boy, or otherwise - Freeform
Summary:

Humans, give a little something. Give me something, get a present. Humans, give me, just a small gift —

And in Madness, this outright poem is also chillingly weird, and blends the twee flower-fairies of canon together with something much more sinister in a particularly interesting and clever way:

Flower Fairies of the Gone Woods (193 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Flower Fairies - Cicely Mary Barker
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Additional Tags: Fae & Fairies, Botanical accuracy, Biographical liberties, Poetry
Summary:

The berries are not to be eaten
She says in a marginal note
Miss Barker, she asked you to listen
So what’s that bright thing in your throat?

And a bonus rec—this is not actually a Yuletide fic but it was posted at the same time and I must rec it because it is very very good:

The Narrow Squeak (4472 words) by Lilliburlero
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Raffles - E. W. Hornung, Raffles (TV 1977)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Bunny Manders/A. J. Raffles, A.J. Raffles/Original Male Character
Characters: Bunny Manders, A. J. Raffles, Nab (Raffles), Original Characters
Additional Tags: Sex Work, Pre-Canon, Boarding School, Bunny in Drag, Accidental Voyeurism
Summary:

'Yet it was whispered in the school that he was in the habit of parading the town at night in loud checks and a false beard. It was whispered, and disbelieved. I alone knew it for a fact; for night after night had I pulled the rope up after him when the rest of the dormitory were asleep, and kept awake by the hour to let it down again on a given signal. Well, one night he was over-bold, and within an ace of ignominious expulsion in the hey-day of his fame. Consummate daring and extraordinary nerve on his part, aided, doubtless, by some little presence of mind on mine, averted the untoward result; and no more need be said of a discreditable incident. [...]

' "I've been thinking of that night we had the narrow squeak," he began.' - 'The Ides of March'

A version of the 'discreditable incident', as a Christmas present for my dear disenchanted.