A Quokka Dreeds its Weird

I read these offline and have not commented on most of them yet on AO3, but I wanted to rec them before reveals because they're great.

Don't need to know canon

"17776: What Football Will Look Like in the Future" - Jon Bois. I only know this canon from Yuletide stories, and all I really know is that in the very far future, it's a post-scarcity world where everyone is immortal. It reliably produces lovely stories that feel kind of like the more personal/emotional xckd comics. Here is another one.

What Rock Collecting Will Look Like in the Future. Funny, bittersweet, cool worldbuilding; I was surprised and delighted to learn that fordite is real!

James Hoffman's Coffee Videos (Web Series)/Cthulhu Mythos - H. P. Lovecraft/"A Study in Emerald." All you need to know is that a coffee guy reviews coffee online, and this is him reviewing eldritch coffee.

I'm ranking 5 coffees from beyond this world (literally). "I feel a bit as if the coffee tasted me and not the other way around." Hilarious, dead-on coffee notes, dead-on Lovecraft; makes me want to try some of the coffees despite the risk of growing gills or being possessed by Elder Gods.

Tower Wizard - Hourly updates on the life of a wizard who lives in a tower, like "The little cat plays with a leaf. The wizard carefully checks that it's not a dangerous reagent, then returns it to the little cat." His best friend is an ex-paladin, and they eat a lot of interesting food. That's it, that's all you need to know.

Ruins and Roads. A charming original fantasy story, magical and cozy and bittersweet.

True Detective - season one. All you need to know to read this story is that Rust and Marty used to be cops, and they were both seriously injured when they reunited to investigate a weird case that might or might not have supernatural elements.

burned in kind. An outstanding post-series casefic and get-together with a flawless Rust voice, A+ hurt-comfort, and a creepy maybe-supernatural maybe-not case. If you know the series, this is 100% not to be missed; if you don't, you might still really like it as a standalone spooky mystery with excellent characterization.

World War Z - Max Brooks. You just need to know that there are zombies.

little stone. Zombies in 9th century Latvia! An atmospheric story about grief and loss in a time far from us; the protagonist's emotions are raw and vivid. Note: child death.

Need to know canon

House of Hollow - Krystal Sutherland

You Live in a Hollow House. Creepy, unsettling horror with an excellent use of color and image embeds.

Meeting Halfway. Creepy, unsettling horror with a touch of sweetness.

The Yuletide collection is live!

Enjoy browsing the collection! Leave kudos and/or comments if you enjoy a story! Comment here to recommend stories, and/or recommend them at the yuletide comm!

I have three stories in the collection. Can you find them?

I shall now spend the rest of the day cuddling with my cats and reading Yuletide stories.

I wrote three stories this Yuletide!

Kushiel's Legacy - Jacqueline Carey

Fireblossom

Phèdre has an unusual, botanical assignation with Melisande Shahrizai.

I never tire of writing sexy stories for this fandom or those two. The prompt was great and I took enormous pleasure in filling it. Tagged for chemical play, Flowers, Language of Flowers, BDSM, Botany, Heavy BDSM, Whipping, Recreational Drug Use, kinks we don't even have names for, Worldbuilding, Clothing Porn, Boot Worship, Sensation Play, thorn play if that's a thing, Dildos.


Piranesi - Susanna Clarke

The Crystal Cave

James Ritter returns to the House.

I had requested a different minor character for Yuletide this year (Sylvia D'Agostino) so it was fun to match on a request for James Ritter. His time in the House went very badly for him and yet he clearly loves and misses it.


"Sandkings" - George R. R. Martin

WO. AND. SHADE. IMPORTERS. ARTIFACTS. ART. LIFEFORMS. AND. MISC.

Wo and Shade launch their shop.

I've been wanting to fill this prompt for a while, to focus on a pair of intriguing secondary characters in Martin's SF horror classic "Sandkings." Wo and Shade are the proprietors of the shop which sells the main character a set of interesting new pets. I also love them and was delighted to get a chance to fill in a bit of their backstory.

Here's the tag set.

I am especially taken by...

Nostalgia fandoms: Henry Reed, the Girl with the Silver Eyes, All of a Kind Family, The Borrowers, Damar - Robin McKinley, Dragonlance, The Face in the Frost

Current and forever favorites: New Mutants, The Fall of the House of Usher (TV), Earthsea, Watership Down, Chronicles of Prydain, The Dark Tower, Dragonriders of Pern, Finisterre - C. J. Cherryh.

I was just pleased to see this: Willy's Chocolate Experience - Glasgow Attraction, The Architect of Sleep - Steven Boyett (the one with intelligent raccoons), At Amberleaf Fair - Phyllis Ann Karr, Ask a Mortician - Caitlin Doughty, Late Bronze Age Collapse RPF.

What intrigues you from the tag set?

Here's the Yuletide collection.

If you're the sort of person who shakes presents, it's possible to shake Yuletide stories before they open. Here's how you do it.

First, click on the fandom tag. I'll use Dragonriders of Pern as an example. Then go to the sidebar on the left and click on the tags.

By clicking on "characters," I can see that Lessa, F'lar, and Menolly are featured in two stories (but I can't tell if it's the same two stories or different ones), and that Mirrim is in one story. You can click on relationships, which shows me that I can happily anticipate one story featuring Kylara/Lessa and one featuring Menolly & Mirrim (probably not the same story). And "Additional Tags" shows me that two stories feature canon divergence AUs, plus one tag each for hurt/comfort, future fic, and worldbuilding.

Have you shaken any stories? What are you happily anticipating in the collection? What wank do you anticipate will occur?

In addition to my gifts which look AMAZING, I am excited to see those seven Pern stories, Mr. Burns: an Electric Play, and stories for "Eleanor Rigby," Equus, Earthsea, Emelan, the Expanse, Everything Everywhere All At Once, and Jean Auel's Earth's Children - and that's in E alone!

Behold the glory of the Yuletide tag set!

Diana Wynne Jones has swept the author category, with ten separate nominations for her works: Archer's Goon, Eight Days of Luke, Fire and Hemlock, Hexwood,, and the Chrestomanci, Dalemark, Derkholm, Howl, and Magids series, plus the short story "Nad and Dan and Quaffy."

Agatha Christie also makes a good showing with nominations for Poirot, Miss Marple, Tommy and Tuppence, and And Then There Were None.

At least two non-speaking, non-superintelligent, non-magical dog characters have been nominated, Towser from Biggles and Popchyk from Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch. I really hope we get at least one story each starring them. Or possibly a crossover in which they team up.

In the blast from the past book nominations, I see Cat in the Mirror by Mary Stolz (okay, that was me), Cynthia Voigt's Tillerman Chronicles and The Callender Papers, The Chalet School, Macdonald Hall by Gordon Korman, the Baby-Sitters Club, and Baby Island by Carol Ryrie Brink, which I have not read but I gather is about girls stranded on a desert island with lots of well-behaved babies.

In the movies category, I was particularly pleased to see nominations for RRR, Red Eye, and Repo Man.

The reliably fun Other Media section includes a nomination for Caitlin Dougherty in her Ask a Mortician YouTube - really curious about that one - the Museum of Jurassic Technology, and various stitches in Bookbinding Techniques.

What looks tempting or intriguing in the tag set? What do you hope gets written? What works had you never heard of before they appeared in the tag set but you now plan to check out?

I wrote seven stories this Yuletide! (Two of them were short.)

Don't Need To Know Canon

Earthsea - Ursula K. Le Guin

What you need to know: Yarrow is a teenage girl who has a pet harrekki (a tiny dragon), Vetch is her older brother who's a wizard, and magic works by knowing a thing or person's true name.

Shelter From the Storm for kisatsel.

Tags: Spells & Enchantments, Comfort Food, Wizards, Bats. 3981 words.

Yarrow finds a lost creature in a storm.

Yarrow is one of my favorite characters in Earthsea. Toward the end of A Wizard of Earthsea, she shows up, a 14 year old girl with a pet miniature dragon and no magical skills though she's very good in the kitchen, and absolutely steals the show. I always enjoy writing about her, but I think this was the first time I've ever written her as a main character or from her POV. This story was inspired by raspberryhunter's wonderful Yarrow and Vetch story, The Minnow and the Dragon.

I really like bats. The bit about Earthsea bats not transmitting diseases to humans was necessary or the whole story wouldn't happen, but it was also a bit of wish-fulfillment. I once very carefully rescued a baby bat (it survived) but I never touched it. I would love to pet a bat.

Worrals - W. E. Johns

What you need to know: Frecks and Worrals are young female pilots who transport airplanes during WWII - when they're not parachuting into occupied France, uncovering traitors, and punching Nazis, that is. The books are extremely out of print, but you can download them for free at The Faded Page

I intended to write a full-length treat for each Worrals requester and uhh that didn't happen. But I did manage to write them each a short treat!

The Old Kit Bag, for cyphomandra. 619 words.

Tags: Wartime Romance, Dessert & Sweets, Mild Hurt/Comfort.

It was, Frecks thought gloomily as she lay between white hospital sheets, a deeply embarrassing injury. Not that there was anything terribly wrong with a broken ankle. That could happen to anyone. It was the manner in which she’d broken it.

Never Fight Alone, for cephyr. 556 words.

Frecks and Worrals share a chocolate bar and an intimate moment in the air.

Tags: Airplanes, Flying, World War II, Chocolate, Kissing.

I did an absurd amount of research on WWII airplanes, the WAAF, the ATA, British sweets during WWII, and food rationing for these stories, and a fair amount actually appears in it.

The big surprise I got was that the WAAF did not let women transport airplanes! The organization that did was the ATA (Air Transport Auxiliary). Johns basically combined them for the Worrals series. Eventually, female ATA pilots were allowed to transport fighter planes. One thing that was really interesting but not relevant to the story were the WAAF plotters, who were mostly women and basically did wartime air traffic control. There's a vivid first-hand description of them here - page down to Fighter Command Filter Rooms.

Troach drops are real.

Need to Know Canon

Dragonriders of Pern - Anne McCaffrey

An Unexpected Catch, for slashmarks. 3704 words.

Tags: Fishing, Cooking,Impression, Female Friendship, Traditions Fire Lizards, Beaches, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence.

Lessa and other Benden women visit Southern Weyr to help out with a fishing tradition; things don't go as planned.

This was a Pinch Hit of the Apocalypse that came up after the collection had closed. I missed the pinch hit, but asked the mods if under the circumstances, they would re-open the collection so I could post a late treat, and they kindly agreed. I spent the entire day writing it. If only I could write that many words in one day for my pro writing!

I think this was my first time writing Lessa as a main character or from her POV. It was a lot of fun, especially when I got to have her seethe over Kylara flirting (Lessa is very BEC about Kylara) while failing to notice exactly who Kylara is flirting with...

The Leftovers TV

IP, YEVRAG NIVEK, for myrtlebroadbelt. 2843 words.

Tags: Resurrection, Religious Imagery & Symbolism, Film Noir, Afterlife, Liminal Spaces.

Kevin Garvey makes another visit to the hotel.

This was my assignment. It will make NO sense if you're not familiar with canon. I rewatched a lot of the show, which was a great experience, and I packed it full of Easter eggs and references. My recipient had a fantastic request, which was that she wanted to see more of Kevin at the hotel which is a sort of bizarre afterlife/dream dimension. Those episodes of the show are fantastic, and I wanted to write a story where you could imagine the whole thing as one of those episodes, shot by shot and line by line, and so see it filmed in your head. I was very happy with how it came out.

The Long Walk - Stephen King

The Road, for scioscribe. 1180 words.

Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Hand Jobs.

scioscribe's prompts for this were so inspiring that I took two. One is "Garraty accepts the hand job that McVries canonically offers him, yes really." The other is more spoilery.

Smokescreen - Dick Francis

The Fabric Shears, the Plastic Chair, for sholio. 2237 words. Tags: Bathing/Washing, Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Post-Canon

Evan and Conrad take care of Link immediately after the events of Smokescreen.

The book is a mystery/thriller with a satisfying ending that leaves the protagonist in a good place overall, but... Let me put it this way, here's the prompt: "Really, any further aftermath in which Link finally TAKES A BATH and otherwise gets TLC would make me very happy!"

There were two Smokescreen stories this Yuletide. Both were tagged "Bathing/Washing." Great minds...

I did an absurd amount of research on luxury bungalows at Skukuza for this story. The only part that actually appears is the fact that they exist.

And also, what have you noticed in the collection that strikes your fancy?

Of particular interest to some of you: I see seven Biggles stories, two Worrals stories (one in main, one in Madness), and SEVENTEEN Nirvana in Fire stories!

Yuletide is open for signups! You have through October 22 to sign up - don't miss it!

Here is the tag set where you can see all the fandoms you can request. There's a huge variety!

Requestable fandoms that might be of particular interest include the Biggles and Worrals series by W. E. Johns, multiple intriguing side characters from Agatha Christie (under "Poirot" and "Miss Marple"), Revelator, Baahubali, multiple Octavia Butler works including "Bloodchild" and "Speech Sounds," the traditional ballads "John Barleycorn" and "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight," Double Indemnity, Annihilation, Us, Nope, and "Top 5 Rat Movies I Made Up."

Not to mention historical fiction about Hildegard von Bingen (12th Century German Mystics RPF), Crazy Horse | Tȟašúŋke Witkó (The Great Sioux War of 1876-1877 RPF), Rabbi Yochanan ben Nappachah (Rabbinic and Talmudic Judaism RPF), Zelda Fitzgerald (Jazz Age Writer RPF), and Willow | Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom's Dog (British Royalty RPF).

Here's what I'm requesting this year.

This year I wrote six stories for Yuletide.

The Darkangel - Meredith Ann Pierce

The Gift of Terrain, for edenfalling.

Eoduin should be certain that she’d be chosen as Harvest Maiden. Who but the syndic’s daughter should be the one to mount the stone step with her new kirtle swirling around her ankles and hold her giftfruit high for all to see?

But the syndic didn’t choose the Harvest Maiden. Terrain did.

I think all you need to know to read this is that Terrain is a land on a terraformed, magical Moon.

This was a pinch hit I was hoping to treat anyway. I specifically wanted to write about Eoduin - she comes across very vividly in a very few pages - and her complicated relationship with Aeriel, her slave who is also (sort of) her friend. edenfalling specifically wanted her relationship with Terrain, and a harvest festival came to mind. A magical one, because it's a magical world; a fairytale-type story, since that's such an element of the first book in particular, which is the one where Eoduin appears.

Chains of Iron, Chains of Pearl, for idleflower.

Erin and Aeriel set out to save the Sea-of-Dust, but that isn't all they save.

This is a post-canon story and I'm not sure how much sense it will make if you don't know canon. But if you want to read, here's some canon spoilers. ( Read more... )

idleflower specifically wanted to see how they actually do the healing of the world. I wanted to do a fix-it for the aspect of the ending that I found depressing. And I wondered what would happen to the parts of the land that had evolved a fully-functioning ecosystem that needed the drought.

The New Mutants

Demons, Doom, and Pink Jelly Shoes, for genarti.

I can always tell when a story about summoning demons is written by someone who’s never summoned a demon.

This story will make a lot more sense with canon knowledge, but just in case, Illyana is a traumatized teenage mutant sorceress who knew a version of Ororo in a horrifying alternate universe; the version of Ororo she's interacting with in the story doesn't know about the AU.

Last Yuletide I wrote Ororo giving Illyana a houseplant for genarti. This year I wrote her Ororo taking Illyana shopping at the mall. One of my favorite aspects of the comics is how ordinary teenage concerns co-exist with horrific trauma and also magic and mutant powers. The comics have a bunch of stories along the lines of "Rachel and Amara spend a night in New York," and I always loved those.

I will never get tired of writing about demons trying to "help" Illyana, but I may never surpass the party dress made out of the fabric used to make the tags on the backs of shirts.

Piranesi - Susanna Clarke

The Woman Who Watches the King, for eglantiere.

For some, the House is a prison. For some, it's a place of healing.

I don't think you need to know canon to read this story, and it doesn't spoil anything. All the characters are original.

I wrote this eglantiere and I am pleased and surprised that anyone else liked it, because it was tailored very specifically for her. Her prompt mentioned the House being deliberately used for religious or spiritual or ritual purposes, and I thought, "What if it was used as therapy?"

This is one of those stories that has a lot of thoughts that are better expressed in the form of the story than in any other way.

The image of the king carrying a corpse comes from Indian mythology - it's King Vikramaditya. In the story, it has another meaning.

Piranesi - Susanna Clarke & Grand Designs (TV)

Dorset: Portal to the House, for hangingfire

Maggie and Olabisi plan to transform a ruin containing a portal to the House into a cozy home with an artist's studio. But the ruin's status as a scheduled monument and the unique challenges of its proximity to the House endanger their project.

I don't think you need to know either canon to read this story. The House is a magical house. Grand Designs is a delightful British reality TV series which follows people building unusual homes.

I had never seen Grand Designs before I spotted hangingfire's Yuletide promo post for it. I checked out the show and was immediately addicted, having recently bought a house and nearly gone mad trying to do some renovations. I really identified with the hapless home-builders and the way everything inevitably took twice as much time and cost twice as much as they had planned for.

hangingfire wanted Grand Designs with a fantasy twist. I immediately thought of the House, but wasn't sure if they knew Piranesi, and it was too late to ask via the mods. Then I checked their AO3 history and discovered that they had requested it last Yuletide.

I had enormous fun writing this story, which packs in as many Grand Designs tropes as I could manage.

Piranesi - Susanna Clarke & The Magician's Nephew - C. S. Lewis

Flotsam, for gammarad.

Sarah Raphael finds an unusual object while exploring the labyrinth.

This story will make a lot more sense if you know both canons.

I matched with gammarad on two canons, Piranesi and a movie, The Endless. I originally planned to do the latter, and sent a mod query about that. I also provided a bait question asking if they'd be interested in a Narnia crossover with Piranesi. They said yes.

However, gammarad had also requested The Endless for another exchange, and got a story very similar to the one I have planned to write, only better. So I then reconsidered Piranesi, for which their request was a story about Sarah Raphael, with worldbuilding.

Piranesi has several Narnia references, and there's a suggestion that one of the main characters might be a descendant of a certain Narnia character. I was originally going to send Sarah Raphael to Charn, but the Wood Between the Worlds itself felt like a better parallel with the House.

We only ever see one guinea pig in the wood in The Magician's Nephew, and it does get left there as it seems happy there. But we do know that Andrew Ketterley did multiple guinea pig experiments, so it seemed completely possible that Polly and Digory only saw one guinea pig but the Wood contained at least two.

Thanks to scioscribe and sholio for helping me brainstorm some of these stories.