antediluvian

I kept meaning to make a post to rec the amazing gifts I got for Yuletide 2016, but politics has been such a show of disaster that I just didn't manage to do it in any kind of timely fashion. Which is v. bad of me, as the gifts I got were amazing. I spent my Christmas Day sneakily re-reading them on my phone in between playing Tomb Raider (2013) and stuffing my face with mushroom vol au vents and chocolate.

My Yuletide gifts were:
The Faces of Helen (3028 words) by SlowMercury
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Iliad - Homer, Hellenistic Religion & Lore
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Ἑλένη | Helen of Troy/Μενέλαος | Menelaos | Menelaus (Hellenistic Religion & Lore), Ἑλένη | Helen of Troy/Πάρις | Paris (Hellenistic Religion & Lore), past Ἑλένη | Helen of Troy/Theseus (Greek and Roman Mythology), Ἀγαμέμνων | Agamemnon/Κλυταιμνήστρα | Clytemnestra (Hellenistic Religion & Lore)
Characters: Ἑλένη | Helen of Troy (Hellenistic Religion & Lore), Κλυταιμνήστρα | Clytemnestra (Hellenistic Religion & Lore), καστωρ | Castor ( Hellenistic Religion & Lore), πολυδευκησ | Pollux | Polydeuces (Hellenistic Religion & Lore), Μενέλαος | Menelaos | Menelaus (Hellenistic Religion & Lore), Κασσάνδρα | Cassandra (Hellenistic Religion & Lore), Ἀγαμέμνων | Agamemnon (Hellenistic Religion & Lore), Ἰφιγένεια | Iphigenia (Hellenistic Religion & Lore), Πάρις | Paris (Hellenistic Religion & Lore)
Additional Tags: Trojan War, vengeance, Mortal Siblings & Divine Siblings
Summary:

Several views of Helen of Troy by the people around her.

This was a gift of the calibre I never expected to receive when I added the Iliad to my requests - I've loved the Hellenic classics for so, so long, since reading the Iliad and the Odyssey as a small Rae, and this fic was just beautiful. I couldn't quite believe that someone who has never met me could write a fic so perfectly tailored to my tastes and it was such exquisite prose. ;_;<3

Watch me request ancient Greek fandoms every year now.

And then my lovely blindmadness wrote me an absolutely lovely (and long and PERFECT) Demon's Lexicon treat. As I was reading it on Christmas Day I was like, wow this is the prompt I would always be worried to give because I would be so particular about how I would want Sin/Mae and Nick/Mae to work and yet this person has handled it perfectly. Then, of course, it turned out to be Maja - who gets to hear so many of my TDL ramblings.

I am merely embarrassed I didn't KNOW it was Maja until reveals.

sweet to mouth and low to sigh (9815 words) by blindmadness
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Demon's Lexicon - Sarah Rees Brennan
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Mae Crawford/Cynthia "Sin" Davies, Mae Crawford/Nicholas "Nick" Ryves | Hnikarr, Cynthia "Sin" Davies/Alan Ryves
Characters: Cynthia "Sin" Davies, Mae Crawford, Alan Ryves, Nicholas "Nick" Ryves | Hnikarr, James "Jamie" Crawford, Lydie Davies, Matthias (The Demon's Lexicon), Sebastian "Seb" McFarlane, Toby Davies, Jonathan (The Demon's Lexicon)
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Weddings, Non-Linear Narrative, Polyamory, Polyamory Negotiations
Summary:

Sin and Mae, seven years later, at a Market that will change their lives (and of six Markets in between).

It was a very good year. *_*

Every year, I wonder if I will do Yuletide. I find it hard to do NaNoWriMo and Yuletide and I always end up against the wire for both. And then every year I receive such stupendous gifts that I can't imagine NOT doing it. <3 Thanks, authors, for doing such a bang-up job of delighting me.

Oh, and I wrote some stuff! My assignment was for dolorosa_12, who wrote a wonderful Yuletide letter for The Demon's Lexicon. I had already bookmarked it for treats so I was utterly delighted to get it as my assignment.

Tell me in the glance of a hand (6270 words) by antediluvian
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Demon's Lexicon - Sarah Rees Brennan
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Mae Crawford/Nicholas "Nick" Ryves | Hnikarr
Characters: Mae Crawford, Nicholas "Nick" Ryves | Hnikarr
Additional Tags: Post-Series, Developing Relationship, Non-Graphic Violence, Mild Smut
Summary:

“This is fine," Nick said. "It’s defensible.”

“Ah yes,” Mae said. “That was obviously top of my list of qualities for a first date.”

And I also wrote a treat - my first ever, despite always having good intentions to do them every year.

The art of survival (4525 words) by antediluvian
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 28 Weeks Later (2007)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Doyle (28 Weeks Later)/Tammy Harris
Characters: Doyle (28 Weeks Later), Tammy Harris
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Post-Canon Fix-It, Mild Sexual Content, Yuletide Treat
Summary:

"You know," Tammy said, after they'd got a fire going. "We could boil some water and actually wash properly." She was half-curled up on one of the kitchen chairs, her bad leg stretched out and propped on another, smiling at them. Andy was sitting by her feet, his temple against her thigh, eyes already half-closed.

Doyle had to look away from her, because he didn't want to. Her smile was as bright and fragile as spun glass.