It was inevitable it was going to happen sooner or later, even given the vast number of participants in Yuletide. For all of our weirdo fringe fandoms that the other doesn't know anything about, we still overlap in too many places. So this year, I was assigned to write for
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
eudaimon.
So as you know, Bob, that means you automatically have two stories you have to write--your real assignment, and the assignment you say you have because you can't talk about your real assignment to the person you normally talk to about every single thing you write.
It kind of snowballed from there.
This year I wrote seven stories in six fandoms, and I think the only overlap with a fandom I've written for Yuletide before is Twin Peaks, which was actually my first ever Yuletide assignment so that has a pleasing kind of symmetry for me.
AssignmentsStuck in a Moment for
eudaimon [Whitechapel, Chandler/Kent]
Things often don't quite work out the first time around. Or the second. The trick is to get back on the horse, no matter how many times it takes. [8006 words]
NGL, when I first got this assignment I was thinking "Yes! Two months to write! I'm going to do a 50,000 word epic!", then I reminded myself what
else I had to do in those two months and scaled it back a little. The trick was writing something she wanted, but that she wouldn't suspect was from me, which eliminated all the stories we'd talked about with each other. I knew she was more interested in established relationship than getting together, when it came to Chandler/Kent, so I thought, well, what about mid-way through the process. What if the first time didn't take. And of course everything they are to one another is tied up in the work.
The One of Us To Survive for
notkingyet [Ripper Street, Fred Best]
Fred has always been a little bit angry. One cannot be a man of his proclivities, in his position and coming from where he has, without possessing a righteous anger to drive his action, fire to help him rise. [2076 words]
This request came up right after I'd seen "Threads of Silk and Gold", which was Fred Best dynamite. He deserves a happy ending as much as anyone, but more than that he's just so interesting to start to explore.
Sweet Little Lies for
Neotoma [The Constantine Affliction - T. Aaron Payton, Freddie & Pimm]
Freddy doesn't put any stock in those rumours, even if they are becoming more persistent, no matter how many of Pimm's sources are beginning to verify them. The Constantine Affliction is surely a myth. [2565 words]
I love writing in Yuletide fandoms where you know the fandom pretty much just consists of you and the recipient. And I was really into this request, exploring how the characters found out about the affliction and how it affected their lives (which, in Freddie's case, was not enough).
And It Looked Just Like You for
gala_apples [I Want To Go Home! - Gordon Korman, Rudy/Mike, explicit]
Mike has no idea what Pierre actually thinks of the photos that Rudy sends him for his birthday, but he's pretty sure they've always had more to do with Rudy and him than Pierre anyway. [2721 words]
This was my favourite book when I was a kid. Little did I know that many years later I would be writing porn about them. Except I think maybe I did...not the porn part, but even then I think I knew Rudy and Mike were meant to be together.
Diane, I Am Now Upside Down for
omnishambles [Twin Peaks, Cooper/Bryson]
Things in Twin Peaks were always more complicated than they at first appeared. Both Denise Bryson and Dale's feelings for her were no exception. [2100 words]
Somehow my fannish life always comes back around to Twin Peaks. And I was delighted by this request, which was specifically interested in Denise and the changes to hers and Dale's relationship.
TreatsOnly Girl in the World for
eudaimon [Whitechapel, Erica Kent/Emerson Kent, explicit (sibling incest)]
It felt like the worst cliché to say that they were two halves of a whole, but he'd never been the poet of the two of them and he didn't know how else to say it. [1499 words]
It's become sort of tradition that I write a treat for
eudaimon, but this year it got to serve triple duty. Not just a treat, but a mask for the actual assignment I wrote her, and an opportunity to write one of the stories we've talked about that I couldn't write for my main assignment. Even if she hadn't half-known I'd be writing something, there's no way Ruth wouldn't have guessed this one was me.
World's End for
fenellaevangela [Rewind, Priya Bristol]
Priya doesn't know the name of the child in the photograph, the girl with her mother's smile, with her uncle's single dimple. She doesn't know her name and she feels a moment of maternal terror, because this child is her daughter and she's never met her before in her life. [1332 words]
I nominated this fandom but didn't end up finding room for it in my requests, so I was
delighted that someone else did. I didn't have much time for writing left on Christmas Eve, or I think I would have written something much longer and more involved, but I'm very glad I managed to squeeze this little morsel in at the eleventh hour.
And of course, thank you so much to
okayokayigive for writing me the Cabin in the Woods story
Tahiti Sounds Good, which you should all read if you haven't already.
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bigbang_mixup again this year, and as is my apparent tradition arrived at the eleventh hour and suddenly thought "You know what? This would be so much better if I ______!" and ended up frantically rewriting up to the last minute. But it is up! This was inspired by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
suchaprince's mix, and I know there's some discussion on the subject but I believe there's a real art to putting together a narrative or thematic mix and I'm really pleased this challenge exists and that I had such an inspiring mix to work from.
