Yuletide recs!

[raspberryhunter]

Invicta (4566 words) by Anonymous
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....

Just a really awesome fic, pointed and twisty, about Empress and later Saint Helena, the mother of Constantine, and her life and how it intersected with everything going on around her. Loved this! Don't need to know canon (though the more you know, the more you will appreciate).


The Sitter (5885 words) by Anonymous
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...

(my gift!) Hilarious historical fic where Crown Prince Friedrich of Prussia has to babysit his younger brother. Adventures in babysitting ensue! I don't think you need to know canon to appreciate the characters and plot.

Souls in the River (3430 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Debrief (Paracelsus Games Roleplaying Game)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Dora Clifford, Jean Clifford
Additional Tags: Twins, Coming of Age, Grief/Mourning, World War II, Background Relationships, Footnotes, POV Second Person
Summary:

"Twins are the same" is a cliché. Or, Dora* Clifford, the early years.

*and Jean

Debrief fic!! This fic fleshes out Dora and Jean Clifford, and rather cleverly keeps playing on that same heartbreaking theme of the difficulty of interpersonal knowledge <3 Need to know canon.


Forgotten Among the Lilies (1722 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Dialogues des Carmélites | Dialogues of the Carmelites - Poulenc
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Blanche de la Force, Sœur Constance
Additional Tags: Catholicism, Character Study, Gratuitous Bible references, Anxiety, French Revolution
Summary:

Blanche de la Force is afraid. Perhaps she always has been.

Gorgeous character study about the main character in the Dialogues of the Carmelites opera, which is an opera I absolutely love. Need to know canon.


All the Earthsea fics are deservedly getting a lot of attention and praise. This one I love a lot:

The White Ladies of the Ring (7901 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Earthsea - Ursula K. Le Guin
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Penthe/Tenar (Earthsea)
Characters: Penthe (Earthsea), Tenar (Earthsea), Ged (Earthsea), Ogion (Earthsea)
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Post-Canon
Summary:

There was a sorcerer imprisoned in the Labyrinth, and Arha had told Kossil that she would kill him—but she did not want to. Perhaps she needed to ask someone for help...

This is a lovely rumination of how it could be if Penthe escaped with Tenar, and additionally functions as rather a fix-it for Tenar (and presumably for Penthe too). Full disclosure: I betaed this fic. Need to know canon.


Prime Time (1613 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Pseudo-Edo SciFi Art - Yamaguchi Akira, Japanese History RPF, Unspecified Fandom
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Additional Tags: Time Loop, Time Travel, Worldbuilding, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Yuletide Treat, Alternate History, Edo Period, Edo Punk, Stealth Buddhism
Summary:

Everyone, please gather around – this will be the final briefing for the staff of the Kyuushuu Futuro-Historical Train Station prior to its official re-commissioning. Thank you very much for your kind attention.

Very cool and unexpectedly moving science-fiction time-travel story on these futuristic paintings (which are also very neat).

I think all the Some Desperate Glory fics are well worth checking out! But also, every year there's a Yuletide fic that just knocks my socks off, and this year this is the one.
no prayers nor bells (8460 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Some Desperate Glory - Emily Tesh
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Avicenna/Magnus "Mags" Marston, Magnus "Mags" Marston & Valkyr "Kyr" Marston
Characters: Magnus "Mags" Marston, Avicenna (Some Desperate Glory), Valkyr "Kyr" Marston
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Implied/Referenced Suicide, having a normal one about all the trauma you went through in another universe and also this universe
Summary:

Three sleepless nights in Raingold. Or, Kyr gets drunk with the worst person in the universe, Avi plays a game, and Magnus loses a fight with his sister.

This has pitch-perfect Kyr, Avi, Mags, and the combinations thereof, trying to come to terms with everything that happened in canon. Need to know canon.

There are two Tosca fics, both by the same author, both brilliant explorations of the world of Tosca both character-wise and historically. One is backstory for Tosca and the other is a fix-it, and they are both great. If you like Tosca these are wonderful! Don't need to know canon for "recondita armonia" (though you might want to then watch the opera!); do need to know canon for "sempre il sogno mio d'amore."
recondita armonia (5920 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Tosca - Puccini/Illica/Giacosa
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Mario Cavaradossi/Floria Tosca
Characters: Floria Tosca, Mario Cavaradossi, Vitellio Scarpia, Giulia Attavanti, Cesare Angelotti
Additional Tags: Backstory, But Also Lots of Roman History and French Revolutionary Wars Politicking, artists in love
Summary:

They should not be growing so close, Floria thinks. Famous though she has become, she and Mario are from different worlds and irreconcilable backgrounds. And yet somehow she feels they complement each other, balance each other out through some subtle harmony.

Floria and Mario, before.

sempre il sogno mio d'amore (7280 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Tosca - Puccini/Illica/Giacosa
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Mario Cavaradossi/Floria Tosca
Characters: Floria Tosca, Mario Cavaradossi, Spoletta (Tosca), Sciarrone (Tosca), Original Characters
Additional Tags: Improbable Fix-It, Blood and Injury, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Depression, recovering from trauma, Post-Canon
Summary:

Floria laughs softly, suddenly flooded with a delirious, dizzying relief. They are far from free of danger, but they are still alive, and the sky above them is blue and clear, and somewhere over the hills and sea lie France and safety.

Floria and Mario, after.

(my gift!)
seek a greater victory (1766 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Turandot - Puccini
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Liù/Princess Turandot (Turandot)
Characters: Princess Turandot (Turandot), Liù (Turandot), Ping (Turandot), Pong (Turandot), Pang (Turandot)
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, aftermath of canon-typical violence, Yuletide Treat, Historically Improbable
Summary:

Turandot makes a discovery, and sees a light. So does Liu.

I adored this Turandot fic which manages to be a clever revisionist fix-it and also gives some really intriguing insights into the opera and characters of Turandot and Liu. This is the way the opera should have ended!! Need to know canon, though reading the synopsis on Wikipedia would be enough, and you should read the synopsis and then read this fic!

Both the Waste Land fics are really interesting and in my opinion well worth reading; this one stuck in my head and won't leave.

The Cruellest Month (1131 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Waste Land - T. S. Eliot
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Madame Sosostris (The Waste Land - Eliot), Tiresias (The Waste Land- Eliot), Phlebas (The Waste Land - Eliot)
Additional Tags: Tarot, 2020, Cicadas, lockdown - Freeform
Summary:

It is March, and it will be March.

It's a rumination/reimagining of the Waste Land as it applies to the world today (especially in 2020), and is thoughtful and incisive and depressing, but with notes of hope. Note that, as you might expect, it contains references to COVID-19, current politics, etc.

Comments

[schneefink]

Thanks for the recs :)