Yuletide reveals

[dolorosa_12]

I mentioned in a previous post that I had a particularly successful Yuletide this year, in terms of both the gifts written for me, and how the fic I wrote was received. (I was completely overwhelmed by travel and visiting my in-laws, however, and didn't have a chance to read anything else in the collection besides my own gifts, so for the first time since I participated in Yuletide, I unfortunately won't be able to include recs from the collection here.)

This year, I received not one, but two gifts, which I can now see were written by the same author.

The main gift was Paige/Arcturus fic for The Bone Season — a pairing and fandom which I have been requesting for ten years in almost every single exchange in which I participated. I'm so delighted that someone chose to write it for me at last, and to have dug into so many things that I love about these characters and this pairing.

Adamant (1024 words) by cher
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Bone Season - Samantha Shannon
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Paige Mahoney/Warden | Arcturus Mesarthim
Characters: Paige Mahoney, Warden | Arcturus Mesarthim
Additional Tags: POV First Person, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Trauma Recovery
Summary:

Paige vs PTSD, with her usual feelings about battles.

Every year, I've hoped (while knowing that no one is entitled to such things) that someone might choose to write an additional treat for me, and for the first time in ten years of Yuletide participation, someone did! I feel very grateful and privileged, especially since the fic is for a tiny (even by Yuletide standards) fandom of which I thought I was the only person who felt fannish: Gillian Rubinstein's Space Demons trilogy. Again, the fic really got to the heart of what I love about this canon, characters, and pairing — right down to the nostalgic 1990s tech and internet!

futurism (1259 words) by cher
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Space Demons Series - Gillian Rubinstein
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: pre Mario Ferrone/Elaine Taylor
Characters: Mario Ferrone, Elaine Taylor, Ben Challis
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Yuletide Treat
Summary:

Mario in the aftermath, reaching for a future.

I ended up writing three fics this year — my main assignment, and two treats. When I was signing up, I was angling to be assigned to any of these three participants — their prompts really spoke to me — and intending to write treats for whichever two I did not get assigned, so that all worked out splendidly for me. I was also lucky in my recipients, all of whom seemed to like the same things in canon as I did, and all of whom left wonderful comments.

My main assignment was for vialethe, whose Winternight prompts included post-canon Vasya/Morozko, with a potential visit to her childhood home of Lesnaya Zemlya. I had a lot of fun with this, especially thinking about how Vasya's remaining siblings might react to their sister's relationship with an ancient death/winter god!

Take Me Home Before the Storm (3717 words) by Dolorosa
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Winternight Series - Katherine Arden
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Morozko/Vasilisa Petrovna
Characters: Vasilisa Petrovna, Morozko (Winternight Series), Irina Petrovna, Aleksei Petrovich
Additional Tags: Post-Canon
Summary:

‘There is a part of you — a small, fragile part buried under layers of bitter ice — that still looks north, and wonders.’

At Morozko's suggestion, Vasya returns to Lesnaya Zemlya.

I wrote an additional Winternight treat for buries, whose discovery of this series (and appreciation of the Vasya/Morozko pairing) was something I enjoyed witnessing and discussing this year on Dreamwidth. So I was delighted that buries included some Winternight requests in the Yuletide sign up, and keen to write something.

All a wild heart needs (1513 words) by Dolorosa
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Winternight Series - Katherine Arden
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Morozko/Vasilisa Petrovna
Characters: Vasilisa Petrovna, Morozko (Winternight Series)
Additional Tags: Yuletide Treat, Post-Canon
Summary:

Vasya has already transformed Morozko, but now her unpredictable magic has started to transform the world around them, as well.

Finally, I wrote a Dark Is Rising treat for SlowMercury, which can best be summed up as Jane Drew/bodies of water OTP. This is possibly the most self-indulgent thing I've ever written (my favourite thing to write of all is basically 'woman has emotions near (potentially supernatural) bodies of water'), so it was an utter joy to find a prompt that so matched my own interests that the story almost wrote itself.

I would have been happy if the recipient alone liked and commented on the story, but this fic seems to have been something of a hit in Yuletide, at least by my standards — an unexpected and much appreciated bonus for me. It was so wonderful to see the comments and kudos trickle in on this fic (particularly when they came from Dreamwidth friends!), and I'm so happy that this resonated with so many people.

through fog in grey horizons (2429 words) by Dolorosa
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Dark Is Rising Sequence - Susan Cooper
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Jane Drew
Additional Tags: Yuletide Treat, Post-Canon
Summary:

There's a special magic in bodies of water, and it always seems to make its presence felt when Jane Drew is around.

So that was my Yuletide. I have today and tomorrow remaining as holidays, before returning to work (from home) on Friday. I'm going to ease my way gently into 2025 with a long yoga class, doing the final bits of set up of my bullet journal, and starting a new book. I hope the first hours of the new year have been kind to you.

Comments

[gingicat]

I am glad I commented on the Dark is Rising story before reveals. :) It is quite excellent.

[dolorosa_12]

I'm so pleased to hear that you liked it!

[vialethe]

I've already said it, but I was so pleased to see you'd been my author! And it really made the 'returning home after making a life far, far away' theme hit that much harder - of course you know all about that! I had buries' prompts bookmarked myself though I didn't get to any treating this year, so I can't wait to read that one as well.

And I'm excited to read your gift! I've taken note of your Bone Season prompts pretty much every year since you started leaving them, but I've always ended up feeling too intimidated by the canon and Paige as a character to write anything. I'm glad someone did, finally.

[dolorosa_12]

And it really made the 'returning home after making a life far, far away' theme hit that much harder - of course you know all about that!

Yes indeed!

I've taken note of your Bone Season prompts pretty much every year since you started leaving them, but I've always ended up feeling too intimidated by the canon and Paige as a character to write anything.

It definitely has a lot of complicated worldbuilding, and I can see why that would be daunting (I'd be cautious in offering it myself), although to be honest what I really want from this fandom is something a bit like 'The Dawn Chorus' (the novella that Samantha Shannon wrote which is basically authorial missing moments hurt-comfort fanfic in which very little happens beyond character development) — and thankfully, my author this Yuletide delivered just that! It's lovely to know that you had considered writing for me, though.

I hope you like the Winternight fic I wrote for buries. We are also Dreamwidth friends, so I had the privilege this year of writing for two people I know, both of whom share pretty similar tastes/interests when it comes to this fandom.

[peaked]

Thank you again for the gift! Finding out you were my treat author was a wonderful surprise—I'm glad I could bait you with Winternight. ❄️💙

[dolorosa_12]

You're so welcome! I was very happy to be baited!