Susan Sto-helit. Because in this world, after everyone panics,

Yuletide has revealed! (a bit more than intended, LOL, but everything appears to be back in order now, thanks to some swift manual workarounds by the mods! ♥)

I got two wonderful fics, which both really, really surprised me. I was convinced that I was getting a Rivers of London fic, because when my gift popped up, that was the only fandom I had requested with stories, and there was a RoL fic that fit what I had requested, which had recently appeared, so of course I figured it was mine. Then a treat popped up the night before reveals, and the fandoms were unchanged, so I figured it had to be another RoL fic… except Varvara wasn’t tagged in more than one fic, so I was very puzzled. Until I remembered/realized that Lady Eve’s Last Con would not have been wrangled yet, so, OK, my treat was probably that. But it never for a second occurred to me that my main gift could ALSO be Lady Eve’s Last Con, so I was completely blindsided by it:

Forgetting is Musical (1214 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Lady Eve's Last Con - Rebecca Fraimow
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Esteben Mendez-Yuki & Sol Mendez-Yuki, Esteban Mendez-Yuki/Jules Johnson
Characters: Esteban Mendez-Yuki, Sol Mendez-Yuki, Ruthi Johnson
Summary:

Intimacy is a name given to an infinite distance.
Esteban has a few more things to learn.

It is a set of Esteban-centric vignettes, pre- and post-canon, and through this format it manages to fit pretty much ALL of my letter prompts into a single elegant package (all the more impressive because I know it was a late pinch hit). I loved getting a glimpse of the roots (heh) of Esteban’s interest in soil, the light humor, complicated family stuff, the abiding but very sibling-y love of his relationship with Sol, and a hopeful ending, the whole of it very poignant and warm.

I also absolutely loved my treat, which was indeed also Lady Eve’s Last Con, but still surprised me because it was for the crossover prompt I never expected to get, because I’ve been prompting crossovers since my very first Yuletide, in every fandom, and have never gotten any, until now! And not just a crossover between fandoms, but the specific crossover prompt that had greatly amused me when I was reflecting on the book:

Natural Habitats (2161 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Lady Eve's Last Con - Rebecca Fraimow, Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Esteban Mendez-Yuki, Mark Vorkosigan
Additional Tags: Yuletide Treat
Summary:

Esteban escapes New Monte for an academic conference on Escobar, where he receives an intriguing business proposal.

This was such a fun fic! The crossover works perfectly, the universes blended seamlessly, the fun of the premise itself – but I’d posited it offhandedly, as a cracky plot idea, and my author took it deeper, into excellent character work where Mark and Esteban can relate to each other in interesting ways. And I love this Esteban’s POV, and his awkward flailing at an academic conference, and the uplifting win-win ending.

(It appears from the comments that it is entirely possible to enjoy this fic with only Vorkosigan Saga knowledge, so, y’all who are Vorkosiverse fans should go do that, and then you should read Lady Eve’s Last Con, and read the other fic too ;)

Anyway, so, both fics were a blast, in highly complementary ways. And I’m so pleased that Lady Eve fic now exists in the archive! :D

And I got a very nice comment from my recipient within an hour of the collection opening, so, Yuletide is being very good to me :D

Also, it’s nice to be able to read my gift(s) and comment immediately, instead of reading them either while falling asleep or still bleary pre-coffee, so I’m a fan of this new reveal time.

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In non-Yuletide news – Merry Christmas to friends who celebrate! Or actually, Merry Krysa-mouse!



(Backstory is that B made a joke, pronouncing "Merry Christmas" as "Merry Krysa-mas" and then L took it a step further to "Merry Krysa-mouse" [krysa = rat, for the non-Russian-speakers]. Of course, I embraced this new holiday, and was even compelled to illustrate it. You are looking at the pinnacle of my artistic ability, y'all. Drawn from "life" -- i.e. a rubber Halloween rat (which is no more, as it melted/disintegrated several years ago -- horrifying pictures available upon request) and a box of mouse finger puppets.)

We are having a quiet day after a very active Tuesday and before B’s return tomorrow, so I’m going to enjoy the peace and quiet for a bit :)

I was watching/reading a bunch of CoC IV-related content in the lead-up, and I’m going to post about it before posting about the episode itself, though I’ve obviously watched it as soon as that was an option. ( Askmaster and interviews )

Which reminded me that I should revisit my quantitative ranking of the series, because I’d fallen a couple behind, and some of the more recent ones were worth re-scoring.

original post

( Revisiting s15-17, scoring s18-20 )

OK, and the main event:

Tasmkaster CoC 4 – So, I did end up going and spoiling myself for the winner and the scores before sitting down to watch, which was the correct decision. ( SPOILERS )

I’m just really sad we don’t get more than one episode with this group. This was a really good line-up (even if one of them is someone whose comedy I don’t enjoy that much).

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There’s some kind of weird thing with me and the Penric books, where I’ll read a bunch in a row, then not read any of the new ones coming out for a couple of years, until I have a bunch in a row to read again, repeat. So, like, the last time I read Penric, it was to read 6 in quick succession in late 2022, and meanwhile she’s released 4 more, that I’m finally getting around to reading. (I think it’s that the novella length is not quite long enough to be worth re-immersing myself in the world and the growing cast for just one of them.)

7. Lois McMaster Bujold, Demon Daughter (Pen & Des #12) – I was intrigued by the premise of this one, and enjoyed it, even though it was very, very domestic – much more so than I expected from the dramatic cover. ( More, with spoilers )

8. Lois McMaster Bujold, The Adventure of the Demonic Ox (Pen & Des #14) – I skipped Penric and the Bandit semi-accidentally – by which I mean that I finished Demon Daughter on the plane to Oregon, went to see what else was openable on my Kindle, and it was the ox one, so I figured it had to be the next one. Then when I realized it was not, because there was a significant time-skip and it referenced an incident with bandits, I figured I’d just keep reading. (And later it turned out I did have ‘Bandit’ on my Kindle, I just couldn’t call it up for some reason, in offline mode.)

This was a weird one… I found the first half of it slow and fairly boring, and found myself skimming, which I pretty much never do with LMB’s books. ( But then it picked up some (spoilers) )

I’m presently catching up on reading Penric and the Bandit, so we’ll see if I make it through all of the currently-out Penrics (that one + one more) before I run out of reading steam…