Yuletide recs 2019: part 1

[wakeupnew]

HELLO HELLO, WELCOME TO MY CAVE ANNUAL YULETIDE REC LIST (part 1).

(Apologetic note: I am the slowest commenter alive and still need to comment on many of these AND I WILL, I just strongly suspect that if I don't start posting my recs posts now, I'm never going to actually finish them.)

3 WILL BE FREE
need something bigger than the sky by chronoshift
(This is my gift and it is INCREDIBLE. If we have spoken at all in the last few months, you've probably heard me wax rhapsodic on this falling-in-love-while-on-the-run-from-the-mafia Thai drama. It is completely bonkers and I love it, and the deepening relationship between the central trio -- who are a trio in every sense of the word -- kept me hooked. This fic is an incredible expansion on where the show left off. The character dynamics are perfection, it answers most of my biggest lingering questions from the series finale, and it is so funny and bittersweet and romantic and heartwarming. WHAT IS THIS SORCERY. I've been losing my mind over it all day [note: I wrote this on Christmas but it's STILL TRUE]. You should watch the show and then read this fic.)

"I meant how are you," Neo says, touching Shin's knee. His hands are big, his palm entirely covering Shin's knobbly bones and the scars of bruises he'd picked up on the run.

Shin just shrugs. When he doesn't expand on it, Mew shifts closer, hooking her ankle over Shin's. He'd missed this, the way that, by the end, their bodies naturally intertwined like this, overlapping until Shin could no longer tell where his ended and theirs began.

"Don't say you're fine if you're not fine," Mew says.

4TH MAN OUT
Swipe Right by Glitterpig
(I cannot even tell you how hard I laughed reading this. Chris is beautiful here. His determined obliviousness was sad in the way that internalized homophobia is, but also extremely funny because he's an idiot, which is extremely on brand and in-character. And the dating app misadventures! I howled.)

The next page asked for a username. He wiggled his thumbs, willing a good name to come to him, then typed BBall_Bro24

He paused, wondering if that sounded too straight. He was trying to blend in here.

He deleted it and changed course.

BBall_Bro24 SalamiFootlong

Yeah, that was more like it.

9-1-1
real when shared by templemarker
(This fic made me make dying whale noises. It's so, so lovely -- Eddie and Buck and Christopher ten years on. I loved the bittersweet feel of Christopher growing realistically older while still being that sweet kid he always was, and Buck and Eddie both loving the hell out of him while also struggling to deal with him growing up, in their own ways. It's warm and funny, the character voices are on point, and I loved it so much that I got to the end, wailed NOOO, and then immediately texted it to like three people.)

"What?" Buck asks, pretending to be offended. "What is that look? You're a handsome guy, Christopher, just like your dad: you need a sharp suit to make your date look good. Whoever your date is. Who is your date, by the way?"

Eddie just shakes his head, turning his laughter into the kitchen as if both Buck and Christopher don't know all his tells.

THE ADDAMS FAMILY
Don't I Deserve Love (and Jewelry) by faithfulcynic
(This is a DELIGHTFUL AU in which everything goes down with Debbie very differently. I honestly found myself very quickly forgetting that this wasn't how things went -- the Addams family details, and Debbie's matter-of-fact POV, are screamingly funny and weirdly heart-warming.)

The plan to win Wednesday’s friendship did not start well. She shared her admiration for the girl’s blowtorch then hinted about her own childhood affinity for matchsticks and fire accelerants, but Wednesday was unimpressed.

“Do better,” she said before lowering her hockey mask and stalking after Pubert.

An Addams Family Contract (Written in Secret, Signed in Blood) by Kansas42
("She wants revenge and she wants diamonds, and not necessarily in that order" is an incredible line. I love Debbie as the homicidal family ghost and her ongoing war with Wednesday.)

It’s ridiculous. The whole Addams family knows they’re being haunted. Three weeks ago, Debbie had tried to dump boiling hot water on Pubert’s head; she’d missed, and the water splashed harmlessly on the counter instead. Morticia had cooed over it. “Oh, Gomez,” she’d said. “Look! We have a ghost!”

Infuriated, Debbie had thrown a kitchen knife at Morticia’s head, but it went wide by six inches. Gomez, playing cards with Thing nearby, positively beamed. “It’s adorable. Look how hard it’s trying.” Then, raising his voice, “Good show, old man! Keep it up!”

THE ADVENTURE ZONE: AMNESTY
Lease on Life by Phlyarologist
(Ned is a ghost! This is a wonderful Ned character study with great voices for everyone, from Deputy Dewey to our heroes. Ned's narration was perfect. It's bittersweet and funny in all the ways that the podcast is; the feels of Aubrey and Ned having a chance to talk, followed immediately by pizza-Billy joke that made me laugh out loud! I also really enjoyed the bits and pieces of world-building about Amnesty ghosts!)

Ned followed his gaze around the inside of the Cryptonomica. It looked subtly different now – small and dingy and kind of grotesque. Not even grotesque in the fun, intentional way, but just... cheap. The overhead lights buzzed fitfully and there were dead bugs trapped behind the window screens. This always happened – if you stayed somewhere long enough, one day you would wake up and suddenly see it the way it really was, and wonder what the hell you'd been doing all that time. The cure was easy: just chuck your bags in the car and step on the gas.

ANNE OF GREEN GABLES - L.M. MONTGOMERY
All I Really Want by rinadoll
(This is the loveliest slice of life fic about Diana and the Avonlea Village Improvement Society! It captures the spirit of the books perfectly -- it's so warm -- and I love Diana's point of view here.)

Anne stayed at the lectern directly after to present her own paper, and Diana caught sight of Gilbert’s face. It reminded her of the “Bingen on the Rhyne” performance--and of Fred’s face watching her speak. But Anne was not focused on Gilbert, as Diana had on Fred; Anne was instead wholly involved in her presentation, with her gaze moving about the audience members in equal measure. Once it landed on Gilbert, and lasted just a beat longer before flitting off.

Diana saw in that moment a future of the foursome happily married off, neighbors in Avonlea, a lifetime of friendship and camaraderie. A thrill rose in her chest, and she vowed to see it come true.

AUBREY-MATURIN SERIES - PATRICK O'BRIEN
Snowdon Duet by feroxargentea
(I loved this!! Jack and Stephen on the run together, with great voices and setting details.)

For a few moments longer, Stephen lay still, his chest wheezing against Jack’s, and their mingled breath a warm cloud condensing between them in the frigid air. Then he sat up all at once in a swift, determined motion, scratching at the bracken in his hair.

“I am none of your miserable weak puling makeweights, Jack,” he said. “You forget that I am hardened as much to the dank endless mizzle of a County Cork peat bog as to the dust of a Lerida summer, if not more so. I am born to the downpour: part bittern, part marsh harrier, not to say bearded tit.”

“No,” said Jack, rubbing at his unshaven chin. “Let us certainly not say bearded tit.”

BON APPÉTIT TEST KITCHEN RPF
Blame it on my wild heart by longnationalnightmare
(This is a Brad/Claire AU in which the whole gang are late-teens spending summers on the Cape, and it's unbelievable. I spent the whole fic reliving my own New England teenage summers; it evokes everything about its time and place so vividly. The romance is top-tier, the character voices are terrifyingly on point, there were more moments than I can recount where I physically gasped at some phrase or stopped dead to admire a brilliant writing choice made, and I literally cried at the end.)

There’s a pause, a little crackle of breath down the line. “Well, hop to it, babe,” Brad says after a beat. “Up and at ‘em. Can’t lie around in bed all day. Some of us’ve been up since five.”

Brad, Claire knows, will call anybody babe. People and objects she has personally heard him refer to as babe: his truck; his girlfriend—ex-girlfriend; every single one of his friends; a seagull, while he fed it little scraps of mortadella, cackling; his favorite tree. It is ultimately and objectively un-meaningful that Brad just called her babe, but that doesn’t stop her pulse from jumping at how warm and intimate it sounded, his voice low in her ear. If she were smart, she’d hop off this call quick, go take a cold shower and remind herself to keep her distance.

CAPTAIN MARVEL
Fly Me to the Moon by 7iris
(This is such great Maria/Carol with Monica.)

"Do you trust me?" Carol asks, like she knows what Maria is thinking.

Maria looks back at Carol, and the answer to that is the same as it's always been.

"Yeah."

"Good," Carol says, and grins, huge and dazzling. "Because this is going to be awesome."

Take my hand (and we'll march to the front lines) by masterofmidgets
(This is beautiful -- Carol slowly remembering what Maria was to her. The little things, like Carol wordlessly flipping Fury off in a key moment, are delightful, and man, while it's a happy ending because Carol's alive, are the parts about their grief and Carol's inability to remember heartbreaking.)

“After you and mom save everyone, we can take you out for ice cream,” Monica says. “That’s what we do when I win softball games.”

If she tries, Carol thinks she can almost remember ice cream, cold and sweet on her tongue like the taste of a dream, but maybe that's just wishful thinking. She squeezes Monica back. “You’re going to have to help me pick my favorite flavor.”

DERRY GIRLS
fish out of water by humanveil
(James, coming to terms with being a Derry girl. All of the vignettes are lovely and character voices are A+ excellent, but I especially loved EVERYTHING with Michelle and also the one where James buys the rainbow pins for everyone! It's the perfect mix of sad and screamingly funny.)

Michelle, for her part, seems to be handling it with her usual grace.

“Listen, ball-ache,” she says, standing in the doorway to the guest room. Now his room, James supposes. He has nowhere else to go. “Quit crying about it, will ya? You’re making the whole house depresso.”

GHOSTBUSTERS
Better than Roses by perpetfic
(This is such a great look at Janine!! From exploring her mom's philosophy in life and her early days to great cameos from each of the ghostbusters, she deals with bad dates and life. She's eminently practical and funny and great here, and it's warm and deeply satisfying.)

"I'm off in three minutes," she says to Egon. "You want that thing dumped in the containment unit, you do it yourself."

"What?" Egon asks, looking more owlish than usual behind his glasses. "This isn't--Oh, I see," he says, appearing to realize what the box looks like. "No. It's not a trap." He looks at Janine again, and there's a worried furrow between his eyebrows. "Ray mentioned you didn't have a taser, so I thought you'd like one."

GOD'S OWN COUNTRY
And My Heart Stops by torakowalski
(This is gorgeous - I spent so much of the movie terminally frustated with Johnny that it was so incredibly wonderful to read this, in which he is still The Most Johnny but gets his shit together in meaningful ways. The prose is lovely. IT'S ALL LOVELY.)

Johnny couldn’t think of anything to say. Denying it would be stupid, but admitting it suddenly felt like a bigger deal than he’d meant it to be. In the end, he just stared into Gheorghe’s happy eyes and hoped he’d understand.

“Thank you, iubițel.” Gheorghe sounded hoarse.

He didn’t kiss Johnny, which Johnny had kind of been expecting. Instead, he hugged him so hard that Johnny heard himself make an oof noise, and he didn’t let go until Bessie’s calf got curious and tried to eat his shoes.

Seized My Body Whole by theoldgods
(Johnny and Gheorghe's relationship moving forward, through sex -- again, it was so good to see Johnny's progression, to see him change, and I cracked up laughing at all of the apologies to his nan [you'll know it when you get there].)

Gheorghe hums, presses the tips of his fingers to Johnny’s cheek. Johnny, eyes closed, swallows around the lump working its way from his chest into the back of his throat, the heat trapped behind his eyelids, and jams his jaws closed before any noise can leak out. Gheorghe’s voice murmurs, something low and repetitive and not at all English, the intonation like a song, and Johnny tries not to think of anything at all.

镇魂 | Guardian (TV)
Get You a Man Who Can Do Both by marycrawford
(I never wanted this to end!! Da Qing is SUCH A CAT here, it's truly inspirational. I howled with laughter throughout at his judgment and self-interested interest in Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei's relationship.)

Like the utter, utter disaster he was, Zhao Yunlan had tried to court a perfect prospect like Shen Wei — a man who could cook, who could clean, who could keep up with Zhao Yunlan’s actual brains as opposed to the false front he liked to put up, and most important of all, who could take care of Da Qing in the way he deserved — and then thrown him over. And for what?

For a nightmare creature from another world who dressed in all black, who never showed his face, and who could literally fry him with lightning if Zhao Yunlan said something he didn't like.

Etched Into Bone, Into Heart by Trobadora
(NO. This is an AU where instead of losing his sight, Zhao Yunlan loses his memory. It's a beautiful way to explore Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan's relationship and what they are to each other, and it's all handled beautifully. Shen Wei's sorrow over Zhao Yunlan not remembering him and not trusting him hurts so good.)

His hand is already on the door when Zhao Yunlan calls out, "Wait! What aren't you telling me? Who are you to me?"

Shen Wei doesn't turn around. "No one, right now," he says. Zhao Yunlan can tell – how? – that he's aiming for coolly polite. He's can't hide the hurt beneath. Shen Wei looks over his shoulder then, after all, and the smile on his face is awful. "I'll wait. As long as it takes."

Come as you aren't by frith_in_thorns
(Oh NO this is so CHARMING!! Shen Wei is kidnapped and has to pretend he isn't the Black Cloaked Envoy. For a fic about a kidnapping, it's hilariously funny, though with love at its core, and the Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan voices are brilliant.)

"I think I know his real identity pretty well, as the SID chief," Zhao Yunlan snapped. "Why don't you start apologising for kidnapping my boyfriend, and tell me about your plans to release him immediately?"

There was a pause. "Your… boyfriend?" the man asked.

THE LION IN WINTER
by the wrath of god by damnedscribblingwoman
(This is such tremendous scheming-family Lion in Winter fic! I love the details adn the voices, and Eleanor's in particular -- sharp, grieved, brilliant.)

When Eleanor was a girl in her father's court in Poitiers, plays were performed at Christmas. She and her sister used to hide to watch the actors practise their lines and change into their costumes, and young Eleanor had marvelled at these strangers who made a living pretending to be other people. A peasant in a stole became a bishop; a washerwoman in a paper crown a queen. Eleanor had wondered what it must be like, to live life in such a way, always putting on masks, always performing for an audience.

She no longer had to wonder. All life was performance. That's what decades spent as Queen of France and Queen of England and Duchess of Aquitaine had taught her.

MATILDA
keep warm by Ede
(Matilda learns to knit. This is absolutely lovely -- it carries on the feel and legacy of the movie while also representing the characters as older, which is so hard to do!)

The white gloves are perfect on Miss Honey's hands, small hearts hidden at the inside of the wrist, and the wool is soft against Matilda's neck as Miss Honey pulls her into a gentle hug. Matilda sighs, relaxes into it.

“You are still spectacularly wonderful,” whispers Miss Honey. “And I will always love you, so very much.”

MIGHTY DUCKS
Comeback Story by marycontraire
(Adam gets traded to the Wild after a long career and buys a house in a familiar neighborhood. Charlie showing up at his door with lists of the ways in which his team's play sucked that night was extremely funny and an excellent touch. I loved the idea of him growing up to work in juvenile justice and public defending, and all of Adam's internal monologuing on what a charismatic great leader was and also how unfairly hot he is.)

Charlie looks nothing like he used to, and yet somehow exactly the same. He’s finally managed to find a flattering haircut, far shorter than Adam remembers his hair ever being before. He’s also grown a genuinely impressive beard. Adam would have thought it a terrible idea to cover a face like Charlie’s, but it’s undeniably working for him. It makes him look… grown-up. Masculine. When they were young, Charlie was cute. Now, Charlie is… handsome. Adam is so, so very fucked.

MULAN
A Matter of Honor by LJ_McKay
(This is so charming!!! Mulan and her family (and Shang) get ready for her wedding day. The character voices are all great, but are especially delightful for her mom and grandma.)

Mulan paused and Grandmother Fa could swear the entire room breathed in at once in nervous anticipation. Had she forgotten what to do next? Would her bad luck find her again, today of all days?

But the moment passed. Mulan gracefully handed the teapot to Shang, and Grandmother Fa wondered if anyone else noticed her ever-so-slightly exhale and smile. She was just as relieved as her granddaughter, feeling more like herself and beginning to enjoy the occasion. She winked at Shang as he approached to pour her tea. He blushed and fumbled slightly, but managed to pour her tea without spilling. Oh yes, she was going to enjoy having him around!

THE MUMMY
Travelers by Night by 20thcenturyvole
(This is absolutely fucking marvelous. Jonathan joins an ill-advised new dig. Mummy-style chaos ensues. The insights into Jonathan's character were fantastic-- I had never considered the possibility that he was of an age to have gone to war, and how that informed his choices here was fascinating and sad. This is astoundingly written. I loved it.)

The curators’ dinner went pretty well, considering that all three of them were in one way or another quite severely out of place. Jonathan spent large swathes of the evening enduring glowers from men who had once counted him a colleague, and ducking around pillars, plants, and conveniently placed statuary to avoid the gaze of Bosely, the head of the museum. O’Connell got more aggressively American as the evening wore on and ever more of Evy’s colleagues tried to engage him in conversation about the finer points of Egyptology, as if convinced he were the secret brains behind her discoveries; by midnight he had achieved a drawl so basso and laconic as to be virtually unintelligible. Evy was dealing with the fact that her very presence was a minor scandal by ignoring it entirely; her circle of chums, many of them the aforementioned scholar’s wives, had formed a sort of moving phalanx and seemed at every point to be engaged in a much livelier and more interesting conversation than anyone else around them.

Purely Theoretical by scintilla10
(Evy making friends with another female scholar and having hijinks with a bog body mummy is everything I needed this Yuletide. What delightful adventures!!)

“Jonathan,” Evy said firmly. “You had better tell us why you’re on this train. Is it … well --” She paused delicately. “-- you know ... again?”

“Gambling debts,” said Rick loudly.

Comments

[exceptinsects]

These are awesome, thank you!!