Yuletide 2024

Not sure how it's NYE 2025, but here we are. This year's Yuletide was the year of the 10K+ fics (!!) for me, starting off with my own brilliant gifts:

Variations on the Theme of Family (Watchmaker of Filigree Street/Bedlam Stacks), 11K.

A wonderful look at Keita and company throughout the years, including Merrick adopting basically everybody – as he well should. Everyone finally gets a break, and we get Thaniel's par for course slightly bewildered outsider perspective on Keita and Merrick's relationship and history.

A Game of Chess (Dreamlands Express, Cthulhu Mythos), 14K.

An incredibly constructed fic with some of my favourite Mythos figures (Randolph! Walter! Nyarlathotep!) on the Dreamlands Express, with pitch-perfect worldbuilding for the train (Henri!) and in general. Toss in some delicious pre-slash and it's delicious from beginning to end.

Some recs:

charles wallace murry vs the middle school time loop (Kairos Series - Madeleine L'Engle), 11.8K

Charles Wallace gets stuck in a loop of horrible Wednesdays in school, unable to make friends or feel like he fits in. A story of Charles Wallace, but also of the universal story of how hard it can be to make a place for yourself when you feel utterly misunderstood, and of grit, and then the child-like wonder at finding that there's a spark in everyone. Just incredible. A fic I really needed this year.

Away with the Fairies (Time Team, Shakespeare-y Fae), 8K

Just a HILARIOUS romp and pastiche perfect episode of the Time Team trying to do their 3 days in the middle of a fae ring with a group of slightly thirsty (you read that right) fae who want them elsewhere.

Body of Knowledge (Ghost in the Shell), 1.5K

The Tachikomas discuss Batou's crush on the Major, and then try to set him up. Wildly good character voices, philosophical thought experiments, and then hilarious downloading of what miiiight just be the Archive into their brains. For research purposes.