This year, both my assignment and the treat I wrote were based on historical novels but, I hope, manage to work outside of them (while doing their canon justice). Though last year I discovered with Stella Duffy*s Theodora duology two more novels about the Byzantine Empress I liked, Gillian Bradshaw's The Bearkeeper's Daughter is still my uncontested favourite. Aside from Theodora herself, the most intriguing character in it is for me is probably Narses, so I was delighted to get an assignment where one of the recipient's prompts asked more about him, which resulted in this story:


Of What is Past (3255 words) by Selena
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Bearkeeper's Daughter - Gillian Bradshaw, 6th Century CE RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Narses & Theodora, Justinian I Emperor of Byzantium/Theodora I Augusta of Byzantium, Narses & Anastasios, Narses & Belisarius, Narses & Justinian
Characters: Narses (The Bearkeeper's Daughter), Theodora I Augusta of Byzantium, Justinian I Emperor of Byzantium, Anastasios (The Bearkeeper's Daughter)
Additional Tags: Character Study, Backstory, Canon Backstory, Yuletide
Summary:

As he rises from castrated slave boy to one of the most powerful men in the Empire, Narses knows about prices - and worth.

As for my treat: It's a tough contest, but Stealing Fire (set in the aftermath of Alexander the Great's death; our hero fictional Lydias goes from suicidal traumatized soldier to starting a new life and new relationships healed survivor while teaming up with Ptolemy Soter and leading the most audacious bodynapping heist ever as he steals AtG's corpse for his boss) might be my favourite of the Numinous World novels Jo Graham wrote, though last year I via the audio version which I hadn't known before did a rehear/retread of Black Ships (based on the Aeneid, from the pov of the Sybil) and it's certainly up there. Anyway, one of the most interesting characters in the novel is Thais, a historical character, a hetaira from Athens who joined Alexander's campaign and was the long term mistress of Ptolemy with whom she had several children. Settiai had asked for more about Thais, what life with with Alexander had been like, how she reacted when Ptolemy eventually fell in love with another woman (as opoposed to political marriages), etc, and I swear I originally had more of a romantic mellow character piece in mnd. But then I actually read the ancient sources on Alexander. And thought: he must have been absolutely hell to live with at times, especially in his final years. I can't imagine a more dangerous combination than all powerful, depressed, hard drinking and already having killed friends in a rage before. Thinking this, I got an idea, and the tone of my planned story changed completely. With this result:


Her Last Confession (6796 words) by Selena
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Numinous World Series - Jo Graham, Stealing Fire - Jo Graham, Classical Greece and Rome History & Literature RPF, Ancient History RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Ptolemy I/Thais, Alexandros III of Macedon | Alexander the Great & Thais, Thais & Berenike I. of Egypt, Thais & Chloe (Stealing Fire), Alexander III of Macedon | Alexander the Great & Ptolemaios Soter | Ptolemy I of Egypt, Alexandros III of Macedon | Alexander the Great/Hephaistion of Macedon
Characters: Thaïs the Hetaira (c. 4th Century BCE), Alexandros III of Macedon | Alexander the Great, Ptolemaios Soter | Ptolemy I of Egypt, Berenike I of Egypt | Berenice, Chloe (Stealing Fire), Demosthenes (c. 384-322 BCE), Kleitos ho Melas | Cleitus the Black, Callisthenes of Olynthus
Additional Tags: Character Study, POV Female Character, Talking To Dead People, Complicated Relationships, War, Angst, Reveal, Yuletide Treat
Summary:

Thais has always guarded her secrets well. It kept her alive in the years that saw her go from Athenian Hetaira to joining Alexander's campaign to conquer the world to settling down in Egypt where her lover Ptolemy became Pharaoh. But it also cost her. And now she is about to confront her past one more time...

For some Darth Real Life reasons, I had less time than usual during the holidays to delve into the Yuletide archive, but I did have some chances, and here are some early results. ;)



Akhenaten - Glass

The lone and level sands stretch far away: or, Egptian historical fiction. Based on the opera, but can be read without having heard it yet knowing who Akhenaten was. Poetic and intense.


Greek Myths:

Mothers of the Brazen Spear: Andromache and three of her sisters-in-law after the Trojan war. Based on Euripides.

Homophrosyne: Penelope through twenty years.


Born with Teeth:

To Bite the World: in which Will and Kit talk and role play Richard III and Anne Neville. Matches the play really well.



Bride of the Rat God - Hambly :

A closer kinship: the crucial moment from the novel's backstory when Christine shows up in England to whisk Norah away. This is one of my favourite Barbara Hambly novels, and the characterisation of both women is perfect.


Copenhagen - Frayn:

Quantum Game Theory: Four alternate timelines where the Copenhagen meeting never happened, and one where it did. Clever, moving and profound.


Farscape:

Look after the Princess: in which Katralla from s2's Princess trilogy wakes up post- Peacekeeper Wars (there are plot reasons) to find herself in a mad adventure with Aeryn Sun. And Aeryn's baby. And the usual Farscape insanity. Really feels like an episode in the best way, and fleshes out Katralla to boot.


Also, there are still free spots if you want me to ramble on something on the January meme.

Dear Yuletide Writer,

we share at least one fandom, which is great, and I'm really grateful you take the time and trouble to write a story for me. All the prompts are just suggestions; if you have very different ideas featuring the same central characters, go for them. Also, I enjoy a broad range from fluff to angst, so whatever suits you best works fine with me.



DNW:

- bashing of canon pairings or characters in general. By which I don't mean the characters have to like each and everyone - a great number of those I've nominated can be described as prickly jerks, among other things, and it would be entirely ic for them to say something negative about people they canonically can't stand - but there's a difference between that and the narrative giving me the impression to go along with said opinions.

- Alpha/Beta/Omega scenarios, watersports, infantilisation. Really not my thing, sorry.


Likes:

- competence, competent people appreciating each other

- deep loyalty and not blindly accepting orders

- flirting/seduction via wordplay and banter (if it works for you with the characters in question)

- for the darker push/pull dynamics: moments of tenderness and understanding in between the fighting/one upman shipping (without abandoning the anger)

- for the relationships, both non-romantic and if you like romantic, that are gentler and harmonious by nature: making it clear each has their own life and agenda as well

- some humor amidst the angst (especially if the character in question displays it in canon)


The question of AUs: depends. "What if this key canon event did not happen?" can lead to great character and dynamics exploration, some of which made it into my specific prompts, but I do want to recognize the characters. Half of those I nominated are from historical canons, and the history is part of the fascination the canon has for me. ) However, if you feel inspired to, say, write Cecily Neville, space captain, and manage to do it in a way that gives me gripping analogues to the historical situations: be my guest!

How much or how little sex: I'm cool with anything you feel comfortable with, from detailed sex to the proverbial fade out after a kiss. Or no sex at all (given that most of my prompts are non-romantic in nature), as long as the story explores the emotional dynamics in an intense way.

( Cecily Duology - Annie Garthwaite )

( Foundation (TV) )

( Alien: Earth )

My Yuletide recipient has commented, phew. This was a new-to-me person, so unlike the last few years, I had no idea what their reaction would be, and they wrote lovely, detailed feedback. Hooray! Have a few more recs:

A Dangerous Man: Lawrence after Arabia:

Not for this Age by Five: a elegantly written "Five things...." about T.E. Lawrence and Prince (later King) Feisal. (BTW, accessible even if you're unfamiliar with the movie it's invoking, but if you are, remedy that, because it stars a young Ralph Fiennes as Lawrence and a young Siddig el Fadil as Feisal (this was the gig that got him the role of Dr. Bashir on DS9), and they're both superb.

The Expanse:

Fraternization: a Drummer pov on five of her relationships. Excellent.

For All Mankind:

Gimbal Lock In which Margo in s4 tries very hard not to reach conclusions when musing on both Sergei and Irina. Very intense look on Margo's emotional life in the USSR.

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell:

The Stars not seen before: post-book tale featuring in addition to our sort-of-heroes the definitely heroic former Stephen Black; the mixture of social awkwardness, humor and magic is wonderfully evocative.

Watership Down:

Blackavar‘s Apprehension: Blackavar backstory, very plausible and a great take on life in Efrafra.

The Wire:

Fairy Tale of Baltimore: in which Stringer Bell is contemplated and contemplates through the years. Intense and superbly written, worthy of the show.

Willow (TV):

The Wizard King of Galladoorn: since this charming tv show was cruelly canceled, we shall never now how Graydon extricates himself from the situation he ends up in in the s1 finale, and this story doesn't say, either, but it provides a lovely take on the likely aftermath, the character, and the ensemble interaction.

Yuletide has gone live, and I'm very much looking forward to all the stories waiting. My gift was just what I wanted: messy, complex siblings relationships, via a look at Elizabeth Seymour, from that other ambituos family in Tudor England. I love it!



The Other Seymour Girl (2724 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 16th Century CE RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Elizabeth Seymour Lady Cromwell, Jane Seymour Queen of England, Thomas Seymour 1st Baron Seymour, Edward Seymour 1st Duke of Somerset, Dorothy Seymour, Henry Seymour (c. 1503-1578)
Additional Tags: Siblings, POV Multiple
Summary:

Elizabeth Seymour, through the eyes of her siblings.

If this year's Yuletide stories written by yours truly had a theme, it was "comedy with dark undertones". I had originally planned something else as my main gift to write, but then firstly a lot of real life stuff happened, and secondly I wanted to cheer myself up while writing, so I continued my quest to throw the most unlikely outrageous tropes at Frederick the Great. This time, it was babysitting comedy. Not involving an actual baby, but his ten years old brother, whom no one tries to eata, but it was still an eerie feeling to watch this year's Doctor Who Christmas Special and see that RTD had gone for babysitting comedy tropes as well. With my thing for messy family relationships in general and siblings relationships in particular, I always enjoy writing Frederick and the brother who was way too much like him for them to get on, and Frederick with my favourite of his long term boyfriends, Fredersdorf.


The Sitter (5885 words) by Selena
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 18th Century CE RPF, 18th Century CE Frederician RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great & Friedrich Heinrich Ludwig von Preußen (1726-1802), Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf/Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great
Characters: Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great, Friedrich Heinrich Ludwig von Preußen | Henry of Prussia (1726-1802), Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf
Additional Tags: Siblings, Dysfunctional Family, Slice of Life, Queering The Tide, Family, Humor, Established Relationship, Yuletide 2023, Yuletide
Summary:

Tragedy is behind him, glory ahead: Crown Prince Friedrich of Prussia is about to enjoy the best years of his life. At least that's what he thinks when fate inflicts what might be his harshest trial: having to take care of his brat of a younger brother...

Otoh, this story is another example of my tendency to get drawn into a fandom and emerge being primarily interest in not the juggernaut pairing and/or the characters the friend who tried to get me interested in. Not that the Third Century Crisis followed by the Tetrarchy in the late Roman Empire is a megafandom, and thus does not have a juggernaut pairing. But if there was one, it surely would have been the Emperors Diocletian/Maximian, who are the guys mildred_of_midgard wants to hear/read about. But while I do find them interesting, I am even more interested in the women around them - and one woman who started out really low on the social scale but ended up not just on top but surviving the various changes in power which had much of the remaining cast drop off like flies was Helena. Yes, the mother of Constatine (the Great). No, she wasn't a British princess. Why not more people fictionalizing her used her actual origins as a barmaid which are way more interesting at least from the 20th century onwards is a mystery to me, but hey: all the more fun to write about her for me, and to provide her perspective on the late Roman Game of Thrones:



Invicta (4566 words) by Selena
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 3rd Century CE RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Helena (Mother of Constantine)/Constantius, Helena (Mother of Constantine) & Diocletian, Emperor Diocletian/Emperor Maximian, Diocletian & Maximian & Constantius
Characters: Helena (Mother of Constantine), Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus | Emperor Diocletian, Flavius Valerius Constantius "Chlorus" | Emperor Constantius I., Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maximianus | Emperor Maximian, Constantine the Great (d. 337 CE), Aurelia Prisca (d. 315 CE)
Additional Tags: POV Female Character, Game of Thrones-esque, Yuletide Treat, Yuletide, Yuletide 2023, Origin Story
Summary:

Tell me if you’ve heard this one before: three future Emperors walk into a bar. The one who’s going to end up with the Empire is the barmaid.

 

Or: Helena, history has its eyes on you....

Emerging dazedly with my first bunch of reccommendations:.


Roman History

Something Familiar, Something Peculiar, Something for Everyone: Julia, the daughter of Caesar Augustus, has just learned that her father plans to marry her off to his best friend, Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa. She is unexcited by this prospect. Agrippa convinces her of the potential mutual advantages of this alliance.

(I've always had a soft spot for these two separately and together, and written about them myself, so it was lovely read this different and delightful take on Agrippa convincing Julia they can actually be a good match.

The Last Unicorn:

An Autumn Dirge: And so the unicorn left her forest for the second time.

(Heartbreakingly beautiful and poetic at the same time. Just like the original.)


Matthew Shardlake Mysteries

De Humani Nexus Fabrica (On the Fabric of Human Connection): A collection of short pieces in a variety of genres about Guy, Matthew, and their friendship.

Guy Malton is probably my favourite supporting character in this series of books, and the relationsohip beween him and the novels' hero, Matthew Shardlake, one of my favourite elements. I loved this layered take on them.

Sweeney Todd

Walking with a Ghost Johanna goes to see her father's grave.

(Johanna is one of the few characters still standing at the end of Sondheim's musical, and she has had an incredibly messed up life so far. This story gives her the chance to learn the truth about her parents and (start) to come to terms with what has happened.)

Willow (tv)

I liked this short lived tv series, cancelled after only one season. For me, it had great charm and a similar mixture of humor and heart than the movie had. So I was delighted to see all the fanfic this Yuletide:

Pierced through the heart (but never killed): Thraxus Boorman grows up.

(In which we find out his backstory, how his connection with Madmartigan happened, and it's a fun growing up tale with a heartbreaking ending.)

Making Magic: They could do with another wizard. Elora thinks Bavmorda's granddaughter would be perfect but Kit disagrees.

(The way the series wrote both Elora and Kit against expectations, reversing tropes, as it were, was great, and their relationship one of the most interesting in the tv show to me. This story is a good illustration of why.)

Wheel of Time (tv)

The Truth You Think You Hear: Nynaeve manages to channel when Liandrin leaves them with the Seanchan, and her weave interacts unexpectedly with the Waygate.

(Liandrin is a character who on paper could have been one dimensional but who, especially in the second season, as played by Kate Fleetwood is absolutely fascinating. So was the way she sparked off Nynaeve on the show, and here in this story.)

Dear Yuletide Writer,

we share at least one fandom, which is great, and I'm really grateful you take the time and trouble to write a story for me. All the prompts are just suggestions; if you have very different ideas featuring the same central characters, go for them. Also, I enjoy a broad range from fluff to angst, so whatever suits you best works fine with me.



DNW:

- bashing of canon pairings or characters in general. By which I don't mean the characters have to like each and everyone - a great number of those I've nominated can be described as prickly jerks, among other things, and it would be entirely ic for them to say something negative about people they canonically can't stand - but there's a difference between that and the narrative giving me the impression to go along with said opinions.

- Alpha/Beta/Omega scenarios, watersports, infantilisation. Really not my thing, sorry.


Likes:

- competence, competent people appreciating each other

- deep loyalty and not blindly accepting orders

- flirting/seduction via wordplay and banter (if it works for you with the characters in question)

- for the darker push/pull dynamics: moments of tenderness and understanding in between the fighting/one upman shipping (without abandoning the anger)

- for the pairings, both romantic and non-romantic, that are gentler and harmonious by nature: making it clear each has their own life and agenda as well

- some humor amidst the angst (especially if the character in question displays it in canon)


The question of AUs: depends. "What if this key canon event did not happen?" can lead to great character and dynamics exploration, some of which made it into my specific prompts, but I do want to recognize the characters. Half of those I nominated are from historical canons, and the history is part of the fascination the canon has for me. ) However, if you feel inspired to, say, write Maria Theresa, space captain, and manage to do it in a way that gives me gripping analogues to the historical situations: be my guest!

How much or how little sex: I'm cool with anything you feel comfortable with, from detailed sex to the proverbial fade out after a kiss. Or no sex at all (case in point: several of the non-romantic relationships I prompted), as long as the story explores the emotional dynamics in an intense way.

( Josephus Trilogy - Lion Feuchtwanger )

( 18th Century Fredericians )

( Byzantine Empresses )



( Foundation (TV) )


( Lost in Space )

( Vikings: Valhalla )

May 2023 be a good year for you. I celebrated with my APs, and a good tiime was had by all, though also some sadness due to various illnesses in the wider family. Now, about Yuletide: my assignment was a story for cahn. Originally, I had planned to write her another trope combined with history - body switching, to be precise, but when I plotted and pondered, the irresitable idea occured to me to do a time loop story instead. Less Groundhog Day than Russian Doll, though, starring Frederick the Great as Nadia. (The personalities completely match, trust me on this. I now propose Natasha Lyonne to follow Katharina Thalbach's footsteps and be the next female actress playing Frederick.) Incidentally, I went back and thro as ato whether to list this story as a fusion rather than an "inspired by", but ultimately went with the later, because while, Nadia/Frederick identity aside, I took another key twist from Russian Doll - ( which is spoilery - ), I abandoned others, such as the fact that in the Russian Doll universe, said verse is shrinking and more people are disappearing the longer the loop goes on. As it was iimportant for my story that Frederick should be seriously tempted at one point to stay within the loop (which is more Nadia s2 than Nadia s1), this could not be the case.

Anyway, next I had to figiure out when to set my story, and since I wanted it to be more funny than not as a present, setting it during one of the wars was out. Also, cahn had wished for Frederick, Voltaire and Frederick's younger brother Heinrich/Henry to be all in the story, and without going (more?) AU about this, this meant the 1750 - 1753 era when Voltaire was actually living in Prussia was the ideal time frame. Moroever, the repeating day should be a bad one for our antihero, but not "gets his boyfriend executed in front of him by father when he's 18" level of bad. Thankfully, there were a less than thrilling couple of days in the autumn of 1753 that came to mind, what with the ongoing hilaribad trainwreck of the Frederick/Voltaire relationship at that point and, not completely unrelatedly, Frederick's long time companion Fredersdorf wanting to get married. Not a day you want to get stuck in even if you have less issues than Prussian!Nadia, err, Frederick the Great. I thus had my premise and plotted this:


Prussian Doll (12290 words) by Selena
Chapters: 6/6
Fandom: 18th Century CE Frederician RPF, 18th Century CE RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great & Friedrich Heinrich Ludwig von Preußen (1726-1802), Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf/Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great, Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf/Karoline Marie Elisabeth Daum, Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great/Voltaire (Writer)
Characters: Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great, Friedrich Heinrich Ludwig von Preußen | Henry of Prussia (1726-1802), Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf, Karoline Marie Elisabeth Daum, Comte de Saint-Germain (d.1784), Elisabeth Christine von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel-Bevern | Elisabeth Christine Queen of Prussia, Voltaire (Writer)
Additional Tags: Time Loop, Groundhog Day, Inspired by Russian Doll (2019), Dysfunctional Family, Siblings, Character Study, Established Relationship, Queering The Tide, Yuletide, Yuletide 2022
Summary:

His lover announces his intention to marry, his feud with his favourite writer keeps escalating, and then there's his pest of a younger brother: all in all, the 14th October 1752 isn't one of Frederick the Great's better days. And that's before it starts repeating itself....

A first crop of Yuletide stories I loved:

Historical Fiction:

And flies with Swallow's Wings: Scenes from a London cookshop. This is a great take on one of the more intriguing anecdotes re: Anne Neville and Richard III, and to say more would spoil the story.

Periapsides: Five things Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn could have been to each other.

An action for reclaiming an inheritance: in which Terentia hires a lawyer, young Cicero, to represent her in a lawsuit, and I absolutely adore this take on her - and everyone else who shows up in this tale set in the last years of Sulla's reign.

Andor:

All Blue and Gold and Glittering:
In search of a present for Mon Mothma, Tay Kolma pays a visit to an antiques shop he’s been told she’s fond of.

There is a World beyond this Place: Twelve things Cassian Andor misses most in prison.

The Body/Stand By Me:

Summer in the City In the summer of 1964, Chris gets Gordie to come with him on a different kind of adventure.

A Christmas Carol:

The Price of Salvation: The fate of his old partner who after all saved Scrooge is not something Scrooge just accepts. Especially since the ghost of Jacob Marley keeps coming back...


The Expanse:

A Fresh Start: in which Drummer and Avasarala learn to deal with each other.

Ten Lullabies: great ensemble portrait through the theme of lullabies.