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.

The first draft of my Yuletide story is done and off to be beta'd, phew. This time, I intended to write nothing but frothy fun, but then I thought about the basic premise some more and it turned into, well, not an angst fest, but there sure as hell is angst and emotional slaughter along for the ride.

Speaking of slaughter: I watched more Star Wars, to wit: The Book of Boba Fett, as I had liked the two seasons of The Mandalorian released so far. The Book of Boba Fett is basically three shows in a miniseries - one that covers the time between Boba Fett getting swallowed by a Sarlaac in Return of the Jedi and his showing up remarkably undigested in the second season of The Mandalorian, one that covers what happens next with him, Fennec and various new characters, and season two and a half of The Mandalorian in its last three episodes, in which the Mandalorian & Grogu duo is absolutely central.

Like The Mandalorian itself, The Book of Boba Fett is blatantly a Western, if at times more by way of Kurosawa than Sergio Leone, and having fun with all the tropes. Also, Dave Filoni gets to make another of his animated Clone Wars characters into life action canon. I mean, given the Western of it all, it makes sense they picked this particular one to show up next, but I'm not sure how said character works for new viewers who encounter him here for the first time. I guess he's trope-familiar enough to work without knowing the backstory?

All in all not a bad way to pass the time, and between The Clone Wars and The Mandalorian I had come to care about Boba Fett (who'd have thought), but otoh it's also nowhere near the league of Andor in quality, and definitely not a must. Except for Mandalorian watchers, because I guess if you go from the end of season 2 to however s3 starts without having seen these events, it must be very confusing.

This year, I wrote three stories, two of whom weren't 18th Century but 16th, i.e. Renaissance instead of Rokoko, and a result of me getting fascinated with several of the (mostly female) 16th century Habsburgs. Mind you, I ended up not writing about the Margaret of Austria I'd been tentatively eyeing as a subject, but about her great niece Margaret of Parma (also of Austria, because "Parma" was a later life aquisition) instead. This was because cahn's prompt about teenage detective Margaret trying to figure out the murder of her (first) husband, Alessandro de' Medici, was irresistable to me. Presto:

Murder in Florence (8977 words) by Selena
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 16th Century CE Hapsburg RPF, 16th Century CE RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Alessandro "il Moro" de' Medici/Lorenzo "Lorenzino" di Pierfrancesco de' Medici, Alessandro "il Moro" de' Medici/Margherita di Parma | Margaret of Parma, Margherita di Parma | Margaret of Parma & Taddea Malaspina, Taddea Malaspina/Alessandro "il Moro" de' Medici, Margherita di Parma | Margaret of Parma & Charles V Holy Roman Emperor, Alessandro "il Moro" de' Medici & Ippolito de' Medici
Characters: Alessandro "il Moro" de' Medici, Lorenzo "Lorenzino" di Pierfrancesco de' Medici, Taddea Malaspina, Cardinal Innocenzo Cibo, Cosimo I. de' Medici, Françoise de Lannoy, Charles V Holy Roman Emperor, Margherita di Parma | Margaret of Parma, Caterina de' Medici, Ippolito de' Medici
Additional Tags: Murder Mystery, Coming of Age, Arranged Marriage, Illegitimacy, POV Female Character, Politics, It's Not Paranoia If They're Really Out To Get You, Male-Female Friendship, Misses Clause Challenge, Chromatic Yuletide, Renaissance Era, yule be first, Yuletide, Yuletide 2021
Summary:

When Alessandro de' Medici is murdered, his teenage bride Margaret of Austria may be one of the few people sincerely mourning him - and determined to find out the truth. For the killer is one of Alessandro's closest friends, and Alessandro, the first Duke of Florence, both a bastard of uncertain parentage and a black man, had more than his share of enemies...

Incidentally, anything you need to know about the background is mentioned in the story itself, so even if you don't know your Medici from your Farnese, enjoy (I hope).

While I was at it, I wrote cahn a treat in the same fandom. Margaret (of Parma) had been the product of her father the Emperor Charles V.'s younger years; whereas his last mistress, Barbara Blomberg, happened decades later, which is why she's around relatively young and definitely not willing to retire when the Duke of Alba becomes the terror of the Netherlands. The working title for this was "Barbara Blomberg vs Spain", and I had a blast writing it.

Bad Reputation (2778 words) by Selena
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 16th Century CE Hapsburg RPF, 16th Century CE RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Barbara Blomberg & Fernando Álvarez de Toledo III Duque de Alba, Fernando Álvarez de Toledo III Duque de Alba & Felipe II de España | Philip II of Spain
Characters: Barbara Blomberg, Fernando Álvarez de Toledo III Duque de Alba, Luis de Zúñiga y Requesens, Felipe II de España | Philip II of Spain, Juan de Austria | John of Austria
Additional Tags: Yuletide Treat, Character Study, Dark Comedy, Winning at life
Summary:

The Duke of Alba might be King Philip's most feared general and the terror of the Netherlands, but even he is an utter loss on how to deal with one woman: Barbara Blomberg, former lover of the late Emperor Charles V., mother of Spain's latest national hero - and determined to live her life exactly the way she wants to.

Now, just because I got intrigued with 16th century Habsburgs doesn't mean I said goodbye to 18th century Prussians. But I was really really busy in December, so I didn't know whether I'd manage to finish my third story in time. (As it was, I literally finished it at Christmas Eve.) If I hadn't managed that, it would have gone to Yuletide Madness and been dedicated to mildred_of_midgard instead. Of course I could have done that anyway, but: a) this is actually a Christmas story. As in, it mostly takes place on December 26th (1731). There are two theories about how and when Frederick the Great met his future valet, counciller, treasurer, spy master, unofficial PM and basically life partner Fredersdorf, and cahn and mildred_of_midgard had already written me a beautiful version of the first one two Yuletides ago, so I've always been meaning to thank them by writing a version based on the second theory. And b) This way, both Mildred and Cahn got the story on Christmas. So here it is, the meeting between one traumatized Prince and budding magnificent bastard with the guy whom he was arguably closest to in his life:


A Prussian Christmas Tale (7430 words) by Selena
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 18th Century CE Frederician RPF, 18th Century CE RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf/Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great, Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great & Wilhelmine von Preußen | Wilhelmine of Prussia, Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great/Hans Hermann von Katte
Characters: Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great, Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf, Curt Christoph von Schwerin
Additional Tags: First Meetings, Grief/Mourning, Character Study, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Christmas, Yuletide Treat
Summary:

Having survived a year of imprisonment and haunted by the death of Katte, Crown Prince Friedrich of Prussia is determined to focus on nothing but ambition, and shut out all sentiment. But the Christmas of 1731 has a surprise in store for him: Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf...

Yuletide Madness has gone live as well, and as it turns out, I got a treat there together with my two fellow Frederician Salonnières mildred_of_midgard and cahn, and (wittty and touching) poetry, no less: Thirteen Ways of Looking at Frederick.

Meanwhile, my three Yuletide tales have all received lovely comments by their recipient, and I've been busy exploring all the others. An early selection of those which caught my eye so far:



The Americans:


Motherland: post-show, Elizabeth and Martha.

Stand in the place where you are: also post show, Stan and Oleg.


Frankenstein (Mary Shelley's original novel):


Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge: AU in which the second Creature lives, and a very different story unfolds.


Galaxy Quest:


Boys go to Jupiter: in which the Feds want to know what exactly happened at that Convention, and Gwen deals with it. Superbly.


James Asher Vampire Series - Barbara Hambly:

The Road Home: The WWI era story I didn't know I wanted but so much did. James Asher (undercover, of course) has been too long with his small German bataillon not to feel responsible for them, and Simon Ysidro feels responsible for James Asher. (The title happens to be that of a Erich Maria Remarque novel, the sequel to All Quiet at the Western Front.)


The Last Kingdom:

A Lady To Guide Him: in which Hild, warrior nun extraordinaire, is mentoring young Athelstan.


The Lion in Winter:

Zeal Now Melted: How being a son of Eleanor of Aquitaine worked out for Geoffrey.


Midnight Mass:

Sundowning: can't be well described unspoilery for a rather recent show, so I'll just say it's a John Pruitt character portrait.


Cut and Run: whereas this one is shows Sarah in the show's backstory, at the moment of her graduation.


Much Ado About Nothing:

Skirmish and Retreat: which takes Beatrice's cryptic answer to "you have lost the heart of Signor Benedick" and comes up with a plausible backstory for these two.