Yuletide

[cyphomandra]

Yuletide recs! I have actually managed to read quite a lot of Yuletide fic this year, and it's been great wallowing happily in some amazing stories.

My gift is for KJ Charles' Think of England series, and is a cracking adventure/undercover moment on a train (in the snow!), as well as having some great Archie/Daniel moments (and Pat & Fen in a cameo).

Taking Initiative (2299 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: England Series - K. J. Charles
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Archie Curtis/Daniel da Silva
Characters: Archie Curtis, Daniel da Silva (England Series), Patricia Merton, Fenella Carruth
Additional Tags: Post-Canon
Summary:

Archie takes matters into his own hands while Daniel is undercover.

I have also loved:

The Desperados Don't Want to Come to Their Senses (6963 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Utopia Avenue - David Mitchell
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Jasper de Zoet, Elf Holloway, Peter "Griff" Griffin, Dean Moss
Additional Tags: Social Media, Mixed Media, Post-Canon, POV Outsider, Character: The Entire Internet, can the story still be a comedy if one of its protagonists has been dead since the beginning
Summary:

allie! allieshouldbewriting · December 13
people act like it’s so poignant/whatever that jasper de zoet gave up music after his bandmate died to go into psych but what nobody acknowledges is that man had PATIENTS. tragic gay yearning is not a victimless crime. there’s rpf about my psychologist and i have to live with it
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(The social internet dissects Utopia Avenue, November-December of 2025.)

I read Utopia Avenue two years ago and loved it, and I keep meaning to go back and re-read it as well as read all the other related Mitchells I haven't gotten to yet. This is a fantastic story via internet media, about the fans of Utopia Avenue and of those who ship Jasper and Dean in particular (the "Despers/Desperadoes" of the title). It is very funny, extremely on point, and it does all this by being about how you go on after someone you love has died.

#footscraygoose (4249 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 2/2
Fandom: Soulmate Goose AU Suggestion - shitty-check-please-aus (Tumblr Post), Original Work
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Original Characters, Original Soulmate Geese
Additional Tags: Soulmate Goose of Enforcement, Twitter, Emails, Work Skin In Use, Social Media, Australia, biosecurity, Government Regulation, Crack Treated Seriously, Birdwatching, Public Servants Trying Their Best
Summary:

barb's cooked
bowerbirder
everyone is giving jennyjennyaus shit but i can confirm, LESSER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE IN FOOTSCRAY?????????? not pictured: the poor woman the goose started harassing for her sandwich after this lol.

Dr Tom March
fungustom
bowerbirder Have you added it to iNaturalist yet? Absolutely bonkers that there's a vagrant this far south. Climate change maybe?

Another formatting masterpiece (as someone who did two fics requiring workskins for the 2024 Yuletide and STRUGGLED I am in awe of these) only with 100% more Australianisms and a justifiably ticked-off goose, this takes the soulmate goose troop and runs with it (unfortunately without checking in with biosecurity first). Fantastic.

Hit the Bricks! Four Things Not to Miss in Lego City Old Town (2897 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: LEGO Botanical Garden, LEGO Natural History Museum
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Additional Tags: Worldbuilding, Easter Eggs, lego ruritania, diagetic documentation, Illustrations
Summary:

Four moments in Lego-Duplo relations.

I had not thought of Lego and Duplo as uneasy European neighbours with rich historical interactions but reading this fic made that seem like a terrible oversight. This even has build kits to go with the different scenes.

There's No Discharge in the War (12369 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Long Walk - Richard Bachman
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Characters: Stebbins (The Long Walk), Ray Garraty
Additional Tags: Time Loop, Temporary Character Death, Canon-Typical Violence, Ambiguous/Open Ending
Summary:

He's been walking for a very long time.

Stebbins on a timeloop. I keep meaning to write up my impressions of the movie of The Long Walk, which I saw earlier this year (tldr: I loved it) and I keep meaning to re-read the book, which is in a box somewhere as part of the Bachman collection. This is horrifyingly effective, tension without relief, and it's also a fantastic sideways look at the source.

in the place of the friends I love (10770 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Oxford Time Travel Universe - Connie Willis
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Kivrin Engle & Father Roche, James Dunworthy & Kivrin Engle
Characters: Kivrin Engle, James Dunworthy, Colin Templer, John Bartholomew, Lupe Montoya
Summary:

She woke in Heaven, as Roche had thought she must.

I love The Doomsday Book despite having issues with Willis' later works, and this is a brilliant, painful take on Kivrin's immediate recovery post-drop, and the (missed) communication theme so common to Willis is heartbreakingly appropriate here. Great characterisation and a very touching story about loss and grief, and what they leave behind.

said the spider to the fly (1484 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Dredge (Video Game)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Fisherman & Travelling Merchant (Dredge)
Characters: Fisherman (Dredge), Travelling Merchant (Dredge)
Additional Tags: Canon Compliant, Angst, Weirdness, Friendship, Card Games, Canon-typical eldritch horror, Yuletide Treat, Yuletide 2025, she's normal and he..... isn't
Summary:

Trapped in the bay at Gale Cliffs during a storm, the fisherman and the travelling merchant talk, eat supper, and play a couple of games of cards.

I loved playing Dredge (horror fishing game with a disturbingly effective madness mechanic) and this is a surprisingly cozy quiet moment for it, between the most sensible character in the game and the one you play as. It's vivid and affecting.

Snow on Snow (14591 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Miss Marple - Agatha Christie
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Jane Marple, Raymond West
Additional Tags: Murder Mystery, Case Fic, Christmas, Queer Character
Summary:

It is December 22nd, 1962, and one the coldest winters in living memory is about to freeze Britain over. On the insistance of her nephew Raymond, Miss Marple spends the night in a remote village rather than risk going all the way to London by train. But when a man is found dead in the snow outside the cozy guest house in which she is staying, it is up to Miss Marple to save Christmas... and finish reading the draft of Raymond's latest book.

Nothing says (northern hemisphere) Christmas like a snowed-in manor house and a murder mystery, with Miss Marple there to solve it while critiquing her nephew's latest manuscript. This is also a more tolerant and accepting Miss Marple than Christie sometimes wrote, as well.