Yuletide 2023 Reveals Post

[magpiecastiel]

Welcome welcome! This was my first ever Yuletide, and I wrote a grand total of !!61k words!! across five fics. Those included my assignment, two pinch hits, and two treats. Not too bad for my first time out!

Here are all the fics I wrote this Yuletide, alphabetical by fandom:

i stand where you stood (come out of the woods) (6,855 words)
Arkham Horror (Card Game), Calvin/João
for Croik
Rating: E
Tags: GDV, Body Horror, Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship

I knew from the moment I saw this letter that I was going to force myself to write a treat for it, no matter what. I've been obsessed with Eldritch Horror for years and have a very strong attachment to Calvin's character, so I jumped at the chance to write for him and his lover. I wasn't entirely sure which direction I wanted to take at first, but in the end I decided to keep it simple and follow one of the prompts: João tracking Calvin down and refusing to let him do the heroic sacrifice, 'i'm leaving you to keep you safe' thing, with a side serving of some horrifically fun body horror.

Fun fact: Yes, I did sneak in a tiny mention of Finn Edwards there at the end. What can I say, he's my boy.
Fun fact x2: Looks like we treated each other, Croik! Clearly we both have great taste :P


keep me in your glow (10,006 words)
Frostpunk, F!Captain/OFC
for egelantier
Rating: T
Tags: NAWA, Hurt/Comfort, Hypothermia, Amputation, Found Family, Pining

Before even seeing any of the requests for it (except for my own, haha) I knew that I wanted to try to write Frostpunk fic this Yuletide. Despite that, it almost didn't happen! I finished all my other fics before the posting deadline, and then I was exhausted from having written 50k words in a month and a half. I think I ended up writing this all in like 3 or 4 days in the interim between posting deadline and reveals. I wasn't expecting it to be 10k, but it really just wrote itself! Plus it gave me an opportunity to write some F/F and platonic F&M, with plenty of hurt/comfort.

Fun fact: I played through both the Arks scenario and A New Home in preparation for writing this, and I think that's the best run I've ever had on ANH. Maybe I should graduate to trying to survive in hard mode...


all of your colonies and continental divides (32,722 words)
National Treasure, Ben/Riley
for cmdonovann
Rating: E
Tags: NAWA, Didn't Know They Were Dating, Emotional Slowburn, Friends With Benefits, Dom/sub Undertones, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Pining

This one got away from me. I truly had never considered this ship until seeing it on the app, and then I watched National Treasure like three times in a row and went a little bit wild with it. For some reason, the idea of Ben and Riley having met as a one night stand years before the events of the movie really gripped me. I figured, sure, I can write a pre-canon building of their relationship as friends with benefits with a healthy dash of mutual pining. I set out expecting it to be 20k MAX, and look at me now.

Fun fact: I had That's So Us - Allie X on repeat while writing this, because it's somehow the perfect song for this fic.


if i wanted to bleed (4,859 words)
Outlast, Eddie & Dennis
for videodrome
Rating: M
Tags: CNTW, Unreliable Narrator, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Non-Explicit Internalized Homophobia

I think I finished this within...I wanna say the first five days of assignments going on? I took a day to let my ideas percolate but this one jumped out at me right away! I love love love Eddie as a character in all his traumatized, terrible glory, so I wanted to explore that. Splitting it into the Before/During/After was both a way to give myself structure and an excuse to explore Eddie's mindset during the time we see him in the game, severely affected by the morphogenic engine.

Fun fact: I kinda wish I'd been able to include more gore, but delving too deeply into the details just didn't fit with the structure, unfortunately.


to you i'm just a man (6,765 words)
Outlast, Eddie/Waylon
for kalika_999
Rating: M
Tags: NAWA, Mentions of Jeremy Blaire/Waylon Park, Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Feral Behavior, Violence, Mutual Pining, First Time

This one actually gave me a bit of trouble! I cycled through a few different ideas that I really liked, but that were giving me trouble when I actually tried writing them (there are a couple different hockey AU concepts and a ghost hunters AU concept on the cutting room floor for this assignment, lol). Eventually I snagged the feral werewolf concept and the words flowed so easily! I honestly wasn't really sure where I was going as I was writing it, but in the best way possible, where I get to discover the characters and the story as I go.

Fun fact: The werewolves in this 'verse were lowkey inspired by the Teen Wolf werewolves, with my own touches. Sorry, TW, but the caveman brows are NOT allowed in my sexy werewolf fic.



I still can't believe that I wrote 60k words worth of fic. This was such a fun experience and I can't wait to come back for my sophomore Yuletide next year. We'll see if I can maintain this wordcount output by then, haha.