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Yuletide recommendations
I gather this is also a part of the Yuletide experience, so here are a dozen good stories from this year's collection that were written neither by nor for me.
To begin with, the one that I've been recommending to pretty much everyone who stands still long enough:
Four Things that Weren't Adequately Covered in Mulan's R.A. Training (4540 words)
Mulan is a Resident Assistant on a dormitory floor at a college. Gosh, some of the students on her floor come from really screwed-up families.
In which the Disney Princesses are translated into modern college students sharing a dormitory, supporting each other as they deal with weird health problems, annoying acquaintances, and a variety of screwed-up family histories.
Fortunately, Belle has a Doctorate in the University of Googling Everything and after Aurora fell asleep in the middle of a conversation about last week's Dr. Who, she said, "You know what I bet you have? I bet you have NARCOLEPSY."
American Gods
...And Substitute My Own (3550 words)
Deliberately changing one god's words into the exact opposite of what they had said was an act of war, attacking the god in the present and any believers the god might have in the future. It was, in divine terms, a threat to go thermonuclear. So, of course, it could not be ignored.
In which Saint Nikolaos and his friend Yuşa decide something must be done about Right-Wing Conservative Jesus.
Arm Joe
Five Time Enjorlas Dropped a Barricade On Someone (1590 words)
Dropping barricades from the sky is not a skill that is mastered in just one day, nor is it one to be taken lightly.
Arm Joe is a very strange video game loosely based on Les Miserables (Aa Mujou in Japan), which takes the Les Mis characters - along with a few extras, including the anthropomorphic personification of Judgement, Jean Valjean's robot double, and a rather ugly cartoon rabbit - and puts them in a fighting game similar to Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat. Each character has an idiosyncratic special move - Enjorlas (that's how the game spells it) causes fully-formed barricades to fall from the sky and land on his opponent.
This fic makes a valiant attempt to imagine what kind of world all this could be taking place in, and presents five vignettes of life in that world.
Asimov's robot stories
A Woman's Touch (2290 words)
When a U.S. Robots employee is caught trying to steal a prototype robot, Susan Calvin is asked to find out what had caused the man to become so emotionally attached to a machine.
It reads like... put it this way, like something one would like to think Asimov might have written. The style is there, and the problem Susan Calvin faces is certainly one that might have arisen in the setting he established, but one suspects that if it had occurred to him he might not have handled it quite the same way.
Black Books x Harry Potter
Noble and Most Ancient (7990 words)
Bernard's past catches up with him - by owl post.
In which Bernard is one of those Blacks, and things go as well as they ever do in Black Books, especially once Fran finds out he has an inheritance coming his way.
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
I'll Be Right Here (3930 words)
Years after E.T. went home, Elliot still remembers.
Gets a bonus point from me because it coincidentally includes one of my E.T. headcanons, but it would still be a really nice story even without that.
The Fifth Element
Life Important
"Hey," Leeloo says, "can we go get burgers?"
Six vignettes from Dallas and Leeloo's life together. The cameo from the President is an early highlight.
Galaxy Quest
SMOF (3230 words)
In this fandom, there are things you don’t talk about.
Life after the notorious GalaxyCon '99, from the point of view of a fan who "started watching with the New Adventures, right as LJ was taking off". Like the original movie, it's also a story about fandom.
Indiana Jones
Tiamat and Abzu (1700 words)
Indiana Jones isn't made for paperwork.
In which Indiana Jones lasts nearly a year as a respectable married college professor before lighting out for a new mystery, and everybody else is like "The only thing about this we find surprising is that it didn't happen sooner".
Sneakers
Gathered Round a Tree
“Christmas is just a big capitalist conspiracy,” Mother said. “Are you or have you been experiencing any sickness, dizziness, headaches or other indications that you have been exposed to radio-active material?”
A Christmas gathering, some time after the movie. No plot, just the characters hanging out and being beautifully in character.
The Ten Stupidest Things I've Heard Since Richard III's Remains Were Identified
Tudor Spies and Perfidy (750 words)
A meeting of the University of Leicester excavation team.
Fewer Than Ten Scenes From the Second Coming of Richard III (5500 words)
The discovery of Richard III's remains in Leicester brings a number of visitors to the city, most of them dead. Tourism may suffer. A handful of vignettes from this critical turning point in English history.
First you need to read the blog post, if you haven't already. There were quite a few "what if some of these things were true?" stories in Yuletide this year, but these are two of my favourites.
"Tudor Spies and Perfidy" is short and hilarious. "Fewer Than Ten Scenes" is longer, also funny, with a poignant turn at the end.
To begin with, the one that I've been recommending to pretty much everyone who stands still long enough:
Four Things that Weren't Adequately Covered in Mulan's R.A. Training (4540 words)
Mulan is a Resident Assistant on a dormitory floor at a college. Gosh, some of the students on her floor come from really screwed-up families.
In which the Disney Princesses are translated into modern college students sharing a dormitory, supporting each other as they deal with weird health problems, annoying acquaintances, and a variety of screwed-up family histories.
Fortunately, Belle has a Doctorate in the University of Googling Everything and after Aurora fell asleep in the middle of a conversation about last week's Dr. Who, she said, "You know what I bet you have? I bet you have NARCOLEPSY."
American Gods
...And Substitute My Own (3550 words)
Deliberately changing one god's words into the exact opposite of what they had said was an act of war, attacking the god in the present and any believers the god might have in the future. It was, in divine terms, a threat to go thermonuclear. So, of course, it could not be ignored.
In which Saint Nikolaos and his friend Yuşa decide something must be done about Right-Wing Conservative Jesus.
Arm Joe
Five Time Enjorlas Dropped a Barricade On Someone (1590 words)
Dropping barricades from the sky is not a skill that is mastered in just one day, nor is it one to be taken lightly.
Arm Joe is a very strange video game loosely based on Les Miserables (Aa Mujou in Japan), which takes the Les Mis characters - along with a few extras, including the anthropomorphic personification of Judgement, Jean Valjean's robot double, and a rather ugly cartoon rabbit - and puts them in a fighting game similar to Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat. Each character has an idiosyncratic special move - Enjorlas (that's how the game spells it) causes fully-formed barricades to fall from the sky and land on his opponent.
This fic makes a valiant attempt to imagine what kind of world all this could be taking place in, and presents five vignettes of life in that world.
Asimov's robot stories
A Woman's Touch (2290 words)
When a U.S. Robots employee is caught trying to steal a prototype robot, Susan Calvin is asked to find out what had caused the man to become so emotionally attached to a machine.
It reads like... put it this way, like something one would like to think Asimov might have written. The style is there, and the problem Susan Calvin faces is certainly one that might have arisen in the setting he established, but one suspects that if it had occurred to him he might not have handled it quite the same way.
Black Books x Harry Potter
Noble and Most Ancient (7990 words)
Bernard's past catches up with him - by owl post.
In which Bernard is one of those Blacks, and things go as well as they ever do in Black Books, especially once Fran finds out he has an inheritance coming his way.
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
I'll Be Right Here (3930 words)
Years after E.T. went home, Elliot still remembers.
Gets a bonus point from me because it coincidentally includes one of my E.T. headcanons, but it would still be a really nice story even without that.
The Fifth Element
Life Important
"Hey," Leeloo says, "can we go get burgers?"
Six vignettes from Dallas and Leeloo's life together. The cameo from the President is an early highlight.
Galaxy Quest
SMOF (3230 words)
In this fandom, there are things you don’t talk about.
Life after the notorious GalaxyCon '99, from the point of view of a fan who "started watching with the New Adventures, right as LJ was taking off". Like the original movie, it's also a story about fandom.
Indiana Jones
Tiamat and Abzu (1700 words)
Indiana Jones isn't made for paperwork.
In which Indiana Jones lasts nearly a year as a respectable married college professor before lighting out for a new mystery, and everybody else is like "The only thing about this we find surprising is that it didn't happen sooner".
Sneakers
Gathered Round a Tree
“Christmas is just a big capitalist conspiracy,” Mother said. “Are you or have you been experiencing any sickness, dizziness, headaches or other indications that you have been exposed to radio-active material?”
A Christmas gathering, some time after the movie. No plot, just the characters hanging out and being beautifully in character.
The Ten Stupidest Things I've Heard Since Richard III's Remains Were Identified
Tudor Spies and Perfidy (750 words)
A meeting of the University of Leicester excavation team.
Fewer Than Ten Scenes From the Second Coming of Richard III (5500 words)
The discovery of Richard III's remains in Leicester brings a number of visitors to the city, most of them dead. Tourism may suffer. A handful of vignettes from this critical turning point in English history.
First you need to read the blog post, if you haven't already. There were quite a few "what if some of these things were true?" stories in Yuletide this year, but these are two of my favourites.
"Tudor Spies and Perfidy" is short and hilarious. "Fewer Than Ten Scenes" is longer, also funny, with a poignant turn at the end.