Far away and long ago

I am failing in reading yuletide in any sort of organised fashion, mainly due to not wanting to break the site, and wanting to leave feedback for the stuff I have read. So it's been slow going. But I did manage to read some pretty awesome stuff, so -

Firstly, let me tell you all about being a jammy git. Being a jammy git is receiving not one, not two, but THREE of my four requests. I nearly wet my pants with excitement. And they are all so bloody good, I squeked for quite a while in pure happiness.

Group Work and Earrings is a beautiful Breakfast Club fic that fixes one my main issues with the film, and that's how much of a crappy teacher Vernon appears to be, and how little work he seems to put into looking out for the troubled kids under his care. This is a wonderful fic that doesn't try to excuse his beahviour in the film, but instead acknowledges it, and moves it forward, to give all three characters (Vernon, Claire and Bender) a heart-warming but still realistic next few months. It doesn't promise that everything is going to turn out ok, but it doesn't sweep things under the carpet either (which is my issue with most Claire/Bender fics, tbh), and it really, really made me very happy indeed. GO READ IT NOW!

The Missing Letter is 17th CE RPF and an unexpected gift. You guys, LISELOTTE ON HER WEDDING NIGHT! My head exploded from the awesome. If you love the court of Louis XIV and all the intricacies and politics, and ever wondered what a practical, sensible, awesomeness-personified German princess would do if she was plopped in the middle of it... go and read it immediately.

and then, a few days later, I received a completely unexpected Madness gift:

Absolution is Seafort Saga - David Feintuch Nick/Edgar slash. The fact that this fic even exists I DON'T EVEN KNOW, MY BRAIN, IT IS DEAD FROM AWESOME. I have requested this fic for years and finally, FINALLY, someone has written it. YOU GUYS, MY WORLD, IT IS COMPLETE. For extra amazing bonuses, it reads like a missing scene from the book, pitch-perfect characterisation, and it is, of course, now my personal canon. I know that no one other than me has even read the books, but go and read the amazing hotness (and I have nearly all the books, I shall force you to read them immediately afterwards, this is gonna be great).

Other awesome fics I read:

Monday, Monday [Mad Men]: Post S4. “Oh, Monday morning, you gave me no warning of what was to be.”
Peggy and Joan have a chat the following Monday morning. If S4 had shown one additional episode, this scene would have been in it.

Whatever You Want to Call It [The Kingmaker (big finish audio) / Orlando - Virginia Woolf / 16th & 17th CE RPF / Doctor Who]: This is a sequel to a fantastic Doctor Who audio story called Kingmaker, which ends up with William Shakespeare dying at the battle of Bosworth Field, and Richard III being whisked off to Elizabethan England, where he writes the works of Shakespeare from Henry IV Part 1 onwards. Or does he...?
OK, so I only know normal DW, and haven't listened to the Kingmaker. But you don't need to know it, this story stands up on its own. It's hilarious and witty and sharp, and a must for any Shakespeare/Kit Marlowe/Queen Bess fan.

et in hora mortis nostrae [15th CE RPF]: Lucrezia mourns her brother's passing.
Well, we all know that I have a major weakness for the Borgias, particularly Lucrezia. This is a lovely portrait of Lucrezia mourning Cesare, her brother (while not forgetting Cesare Borgia, the monster). Brilliant.

And then some not!Yuletide2010:

Jackie and Marilyn [Mad Men]: There's no crying in the break room.
For yuletide 2009, wonderful Joan fic.

O tower not of ivory [Mad Men]: Having mono at Princeton was the best thing that ever happened to him.
For yuletide 2009, strong portrait of Paul Kinsey (who is, let's be honest, a bit of a pretentious git).

The case of the unwelcome owl [Sherlock/Harry Potter]: "So," said John, feeling out of his depth once again. "An owl." It was the same mild, politely curious tone of voice with which he had previously found himself uttering such things as: "So – three bags of frozen AB negative," and "So – a selection of human ears."
THIS IS THE BEST THING EVER. One day, Sherlock receives an owl inviting him to his cousin Luna's wedding. OF COURSE HE DOES. OF COURSE. It's one of those things you read and go, "these fandoms mesh so seamlessly, why does this not exist in canon?"

Spark [Harry Potter]: She hasn’t seen Arthur for days.  The clock on the wall tells her he’s only away working, neither bleeding nor dying.  But.
Molly is a mother, and a soldier. Sometimes both at the same time.

When you least expect it

So, if you've had the misfortune to be anywhere near me during the last five years, you may have been subjected to one or more of the following:
1) complaints that I am tired,
2) complaints that I can't breathe properly,
3) complaints that I can't hold my alcohol,
4) complaints that I am in a permanent bad mood,
5) complaints that I feel stupid.

I spent quite a bit of Xmas in hospital being prodded by an ENT specialist, who was able to tell me within ten minutes that this is entirely due to a chest infection I had five years ago that closed off several important pieces of my innards (including sinuses, airways, all optional stuff like that) and that I have lived the last five years with the oxygen intake of someone at the top of Kilimanjaro. THIS MAKES SO MUCH SENSE. It explains the giddiness, the tiredness, the mood swings, the breathlessness, the susceptibility to infection, every bloody thing. It even explains why my alcohol tolerance disappeared entirely for no apparent reason, and why my energy levels dropped dramatically and never picked up again. SO. Now that I have a diagnosis, I also have a treatment plan (FUCKING STRONG ANTIBIOTICS to combat stuff - I remember these fuckers, they pumped me full of the stuff when I had pneumonia - and three other things all designed to open an airway). I have to take all of this for a month (it's a pain, bc it takes half an hour to do everything, morning and night), and then, hopefully, I will have... air. AIR, YOU GUYS! The first kick of the drugs left me oxygen-drunk, I sat around giggling to myself and inhaling all the way down to my toes.

The bad news is, if they don't work (i.e. if things revert after a couple of months) I'm gonna need to have surgery to reconstruct an airway. BUT THAT'S OK BC THEY WILL WORK AND EVERYTHING WILL BE FINE.

You have no idea of the relief I felt at being told all this. I'd convinced myself it was all in my head, that it was psychosomatic and I just had to get on with it. I got more and more frustrated that I had no energy, that I couldn't sleep well, that I couldn't even inhale properly. AND NOW THERE IS A REASON! IDEK, my head exploded from relief.

*

Uh, other stuff. itinerant_vae told me I'd been recced, which was v flattering, especially as I wrote that fic on a whim and fully expected everyone in fandom to hate it. (Why, yes, I did write dark!fic for a sitcom, what's your point?)

Other writing I have done - 3 yuletide fics, which I found a struggle considering that my lungs were really packing up by that point. I'm glad that I perserved, though, even if they are a bit random.

Uh, I also found an old Angel/Spike fic I wrote eons ago and never posted, so that's up at AO3 now. [ Oubliette ] It occurs to me that once I finish importing all my fic to AO3, I will have c. 350 fics. This is weird. I don't feel like I've written much stuff, but I guess I must have. Well, I'm signed up to 3 separate fanfic 100 challenges (Londo, Arvin/Jack, and 100fandoms), so there's plenty of fic to come from those. Anyway, it just feels a bit weird.

Finally, I've written the first second third fourth draft of the Sherlock fic I owe for help_pakistan . I have the final beta notes now, and will be working on finishing that up before the New Year. It's not quite what I intended to write when I started out, but then again these things rarely are.