Yuletide recs

[regshoe]

Having already recced my own gifts, here are a few more recs from around the collection.


Canon knowledge not required and/or very short canon

Folk song fic :D This is a gorgeous, atmospheric story about a selkie in love with a fisherman, a great take on selkie legends, lovely and mysterious:

The Finest Catch (1274 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Cargill - King Creosote (Song)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Cargill (Cargill - King Creosote)/Singer (Cargill - King Creosote)
Characters: Cargill (Cargill - King Creosote), Singer (Cargill - King Creosote)
Additional Tags: Selkies, Celtic Mythology & Folklore, Fairy Tale Elements
Summary:

On the Long Beach, as the sun began to pick at the edges of the Holy Isles, a young man stood and gazed upon the smoothly shifting surface of the sea.

And this one for the same song (I was going to say 'featuring a more mundane interpretation of the same song', and there are no selkies, but you can't call writing like this mundane) is beautifully written, sharp and dreamy by turns, atmospheric and romantic:

All the strands of my heartstrings (1145 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Cargill - King Creosote (Song)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Singer (Cargill - King Creosote), Cargill (Cargill - King Creosote)
Additional Tags: POV Alternating, Non-Linear Narrative, Secret Relationship, LGBTQ Themes, Fishing, Seaside, Inspired by Music, Yuletide Treat
Summary:

We stand here, in the embrace of the wind, heart against heart against the sea and the sky. And my hands and the tide and the salt water draw patterns upon your skin. And you lean on my shoulder, so close, your heartbeat within me, like the sudden thrill of the sea. And I want to tell you.

I didn't know the ghost of Sheridan Le Fanu did Yuletide, but here this fic is—a brilliant pastiche of a late nineteenth-century gothic ghost story, with some properly spine-chilling plot twists and imagery:

The Strike of Eight (3406 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Spirit - George Roux (Painting 1885)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Ghost, Man - Character, Man's friend
Additional Tags: old style prose, Purple Prose, ghost story, Horror, POV First Person, fleeting depictions of violence
Summary:

The woman appears every night for the same music, the same motions and to the same end. She may not intend the torment she inflicts, but there are few who would be able to withstand it forever.

Canon knowledge required

Beautiful Sarah Raphael character study, featuring backstory, Sarah's developing relationship with the House (which, as ever in this fandom, is to say with the living world of magic) and some really lovely, evocative writing:

Left To My Own Devices (2498 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Piranesi - Susanna Clarke
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Sixteen | Sarah Raphael, Piranesi | Matthew Rose Sorenson
Additional Tags: Character Study, Introspection, liminal spaces, parallel worlds, Portal Fantasy, Misses Clause Challenge, Missing Scene
Summary:

"She distrusts high places and open plains. She loves caves, hollows, and shadows; she is fascinated by deep clear pools and flowing water."

As the Smiths song goes: "There is another world / There is a better world / Well, there must be". Sarah Raphael has known this since childhood.

Another Piranesi fic, this one exploring the academic backstory of the novel—very impressively researched, and contains some beautiful character development for both the intriguing figure of Angharad Scott and an OC who brings a new perspective on the House:

A Dreaming Art (5426 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Piranesi - Susanna Clarke
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Original Female Character(s), Angharad Scott, Piranesi | Matthew Rose Sorenson, Sixteen | Sarah Raphael
Additional Tags: Chromatic Yuletide, Epistolary, Quotations, mostly gen with just a hint of romance, counter-hegemonic historiography, Post-Canon, Correspondence, Yuletide
Summary:

A collection of fragments from Angharad Scott’s research and correspondence. In which another, less familiar, world is revealed, and stories are told.

I have stood in the shadows of the lamassu. I have explored a Palace of unending rooms, utterly silent beyond the rushing of waters below and the caw of birds above. Your stories are true — and more than that, they are only a fraction of the stories that can be told.

Some JSMN worldbuilding—an in-universe review of the TV dramatisation of the events of the Revival of English Magic. Absolutely nails the style and details, and very funny:

"The Revival of English Magic" Brings Joy and Wonder to the Airwaves (1071 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Fake Television Show Review, Worldbuilding, Treat
Summary:

The Guardian's cultural critic Leslie Shoemaker analyses the first few episodes of "The Revival of English Magic," a new BBC One television drama focusing on the life and times of esteemed magicians Jonathan Strange and Gilbert Norrell.

Article originally published on Oct. 23, 2019.

Carmilla gets a chance to tell Laura her story in her own words. Intriguing backstory, absolutely lovely writing and spot-on characterisation—darkly romantic in just the way Carmilla is:

Lacunae (4137 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Carmilla - J. Sheridan Le Fanu
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Relationships: Carmilla | Mircalla Countess Karnstein/Laura
Characters: Laura (Carmilla - J. Sheridan Le Fanu), Carmilla | Mircalla Countess Karnstein, Mother of Mircalla Karnstein
Additional Tags: Canon Compliant, Epistolary, Suicide, Vampire Turning, alas poor villain
Summary:

"I will tell you the truth now. In writing, where my mother cannot hear it. In the dark, where your father cannot see it. I will write it all down for you, and I will give you all the truth you thirst for, because you must know—you must know—the truth, if you are to take me hand in hand through that fateful door. I have loved girls fast and slow, sweet and burning, I have loved girls for summers and for fortnights, but all love so far must pale in comparison to you, for you and I were arranged by that deathless bridemaker, Fortune.

You have known me as Carmilla, but my first name was Mircalla."

Two very different BBC Ghosts fics! This one is a canon-style adventure—it gets the character voices for all the ghosts perfectly spot-on, is both very funny and heartwarming just in the way of a good sitcom episode and, most importantly of all, makes Kitty happy, which made me happy:

lost and found (3017 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Ghosts (TV 2019)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Alison (Ghosts TV 2019), Mike (Ghosts TV 2019), Kitty (Ghosts TV 2019), Lady Fanny Button, The Captain (Ghosts TV 2019), Thomas Thorne, Julian Fawcett, Pat (Ghosts TV 2019), Robin (Ghosts TV 2019), Mary (Ghosts TV 2019)
Additional Tags: Slice of Life, Fluff and Humor, Found Family
Summary:

Kitty goes missing.

And this one takes the world of Ghosts in a new yet utterly appropriate direction featuring queer history and Child ballads (two of my favourite things!), and gives the Captain and Havers another chance to resolve their feelings (...sort of). Brilliant amounts of evocative detail, fascinating historical research and, unless I'm mistaken, a stealth crossover which delighted me:

The Ballad of Sweet William and the Ghost (10123 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 6/6
Fandom: Ghosts (TV 2019)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Major Character Death
Relationships: The Captain/Lieutenant Havers (Ghosts TV 2019)
Characters: The Captain (Ghosts TV 2019), Lieutenant Havers (Ghosts TV 2019), Robin (Ghosts TV 2019), Humphrey's Head (Ghosts TV 2019), Mary (Ghosts TV 2019), Kitty (Ghosts TV 2019), Thomas Thorne, Lady Fanny Button, Pat (Ghosts TV 2019), Original Characters, Julian Fawcett
Additional Tags: 1990s, Backstory, Pre-Canon, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canonical Character Death, Period Typical Attitudes, Sex Work, References to Drugs, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Internalized Homophobia, Sexism, Oral Sex, Dream Sex, Queer History
Summary:

In 1994, Havers returns to Button House. It turns out to be a rather fateful weekend.

This is an amazingly creative take on The Ladies of Grace Adieu which combines the story with the history of a painting by Raphael. Some beautiful, dreamy and evocative writing, and gets the nature of magic in LoGA/JSMN absolutely right:

From the dark and dreaming heart (1914 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Young Lady With Unicorn - Raphael, Ladies of Grace Adieu - Susanna Clarke
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Jane Tobias, Catherine of Winchester, Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino), Young Lady (Young Lady With Unicorn), Unicorn (Young Lady With Unicorn)
Additional Tags: Story within a Story, Magical Realism, Alternate History, Dreamscapes, Magic, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Inspired by Art, Yuletide Treat
Summary:

Paintings, and dreams within dreams, and meetings in a shimmer of ruby and pearl.

(Or: a missing footnote in "The Ladies of Grace Adieu".)