Stuff and Moonshine

(The story I wrote for Yuletide 2025):
Dog Hamlets (3241 words) by moon_custafer
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Lord Peter Wimsey - Dorothy L. Sayers
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Lord Peter Wimsey, Harriet Vane, Mervyn Bunter
Additional Tags: casefic

Dear Yule Writer— Thanks for volunteering to write a fic for me. I am moon_custafer on AO3 as I am here. Repeating the first part of this letter from past years:

General likes— Hurt-comfort. Conversation. Period-specific details. Ghosts or supernatural. Found family. Casefic or plotfic. I don’t mind explicit sex scenes, but I’m usually indifferent to them. OTOH kissing or touching hands, foreheads, stroking hair, etc, are great, as are descriptions of the characters’ appearance.

General DNWs—AUs that deviate from canon to the point of being a completely different premise/setting, i.e. high-school/coffee-shop/ABO dynamics.

My requests for this year:

Мастер и Маргарита - Михаил Булгаков | The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov
Hella, Behemoth, Margarita Nikolayevna
I’d love to know more about Hella, beyond “she’s a sexy vampire”; I’d like to see how she interacts with Margarita; and Behemoth is always a delight to read about.

The Moonstone - Wilkie Collins:
Ezra Jennings, Mr. Candy
My favourite character in the book has always been Ezra Jennings, the mysterious mixed-race doctor with a clouded past and a terminal illness. His only friend is his colleague, the flamboyant Mr. Candy who unwittingly contributes to the mystery. I’ve shipped these two for years. Pre-canon would be nice, but feel free to write whatever you want.


Decoy (1946)
Margot Shelby, Sergeant Joseph "Jojo" Portugal, Frankie Ollins, Dr. Lloyd Craig.
This movie packs a lot (including SF/horror) into its runtime. Margot is the most gleefully evil femme fatale I’ve ever seen. I wouldn’t mind a little of Frankie’s PoV after he’s returned to life by the dose of methylene blue.

The Green Man (TV)
Maurice Allington, Rev. Sonnenschein, Joyce Allington, Amy Allington
Maurice is a somehow-endearing absolute trash-fire of a man. Also I love that he and Rev. Sonnenschein successfully exorcise the ghost even though the Reverend doesn’t personally believe in the ritual he’s doing. Possible prompts: Maurice reconciling himself to the fact that his wife and his mistress have dumped him for each other. Maurice and Rev. Sonnenschein teaming up to investigate another supernatural event. How much does Amy remember about what happened, and how does it change her relationship with her father?

Get Crazy (1983)
Toad, Reggie Wanker, King Blues, Auden 
The ending of this movie leaves plenty of room for further adventures for any or all of the characters. Reggie and the band’s new direction? King Blues and his band and their adventures in the Motor City? Auden’s new album? Or anything you wish.

Been reading all morning and can particularly recommend: Hot Buttered Rum (1578 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Timothy "Squashy Hat" Stedding/James "Captain Flint" Turner
Characters: Timothy "Squashy Hat" Stedding, James "Captain Flint" Turner
Additional Tags: Pre-Canon, Pre-Slash
Summary:

As the winter cold deepens in the Lake District, Jim Turner decides to return to Beckfoot in the hope the lake will indeed freeze over completely.

For the Love of Tea (1088 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Arthur Dent & Ford Prefect, Ford's Towel & Arthur Dent, Ford's Towel & Ford Prefect
Characters: Ford's Towel, Ford Prefect, Arthur Dent
Additional Tags: Tea, or lack thereof
Summary:

Oh, what Arthur would do for a cup of tea…

not going anywhere (1813 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Harold and Maude (1971)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Dame Marjorie "Maude" Chardin/Harold Chasen
Characters: Harold Chasen, Dame Marjorie "Maude" Chardin
Additional Tags: Angst, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fix-It, Dreams, Suicide Attempt, Moral Ambiguity, Unconventional Marriage Proposal
Summary:

Maude survives. Harold reckons with what it meant to almost lose her.

ritornello (1787 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Hauntings - Vernon Lee, A Wicked Voice - Vernon Lee
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Zaffirino/Magnus
Characters: Magnus (A Wicked Voice), Balthasar Cesari
Additional Tags: Dream Sex, Orgasm Edging, First Person, Canon-Typical Musical Consent Issues, Castrati
Summary:

If this account of my sufferings is destined for the fire, there can be no harm in going further.

Chance Encounter (1730 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Charioteer - Mary Renault
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Andrew Raynes, Ralph Lanyon
Summary:

Andrew at work.

What if We Kissed at Morquinda’s BBQ and We Were Both Called Jim? (1619 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: "Australian Soap Opera" sketch, A Bit of Fry and Laurie
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Stephen Fry's character/Hugh Laurie's character
Characters: Owen | Clark | Jim, Bradley | Craig | Shane | Finley | Declan | Jim, Javelina
Additional Tags: Comedy, Getting Together, Australia, Parody, Cruising, Barbecue, Yuletide
Summary:

After the bombshell revelation that they've been having an affair, two fan favorite characters on Australian Soap Opera must face each other again at the barbecue to celebrate the opening of Morquinda's new executive fitness center and garage. Sparks will fly. Sausages will sizzle. Tune in primetime. Only on Ao3.

Marty Hong Faces the Terror Tank! (1587 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay - Michael Chabon
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Sam Clay, Rosa Saks
Additional Tags: Post-Canon
Summary:

It was the first thing Sam had told him: “You trade in your leverage, those guys’ll eat your lunch.”

And I got two gifts this year: But Never Jam Today (3267 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Night of the Jabberwock - Fredric Brown
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Relationships: Elsie Minton / Doc Stoeger
Characters: Doc Stoeger, Elsie Minton
Additional Tags: Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Racism
Summary:

We’d been engaged for four years by then, but Doc Minton— he was the other kind of doctor— was dead set against us setting a date. First I wasn’t good enough for her. Now that I had a degree and a steady job, it was her health, or so he claimed.

Doc and Elsie, 25 years before.

A Skyscraper Condemnation Affiliate (3356 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Village Green Preservation Society - The Kinks (Song)
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Additional Tags: folk horror, Kinks lyrics, Village Greens
Summary:

Alex is just doing his job, attempting to acquire 5.37 metres of village green for his property developer boss. But something about the Village is not quite right …

The Yuletide fic exchange heaves into view, which means that in a few weeks I’ll likely have to put both Spooked!...in Soho and Gentleman of the Shade on hold for a couple of months (tbh, Spooked!already stalled out a couple of months back), and also that I need to start thinking about what fandoms to nominate. Iirc you can only nominate fandoms that already have at least one fic on Ao3, and fewer than one thousand, I think?

Here’s the assignment I wrote:
An Endless Ring of Fire (4520 words) by moon_custafer
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Kolchak
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Carl Kolchak, Miss Emily Cowles (Kolchak), Original Characters
Additional Tags: Fire, opera - Freeform
Summary:

The whole area was choked with vehicles, people and smoke. The tv hadn’t been kidding about the heat from the flames, either, but I tried to go in for a closer look only to be pushed back by a cop.

“Back off pal, the story’s not worth throwing away your life—”

Had a 1-hour Zoom call with my parents and brother early this afternoon. They seem to be ok; some of my other relatives have tested positive but I’m hoping their cases are mild (I think all involved had had the first two shots, but I’m not sure any of them had had booster shots). Dad continues to be barely-audible (Parkinson’s), and I guess that’s going to be his new normal for the rest of his life, but he looked fairly responsive to the conversation.

I’ve stepped up my mask game and switched to three-layer disposables, buying a package of ten in black this past week. Thanks to internal wires they seal better across the bridge of my nose than the cloth ones, and I can wear glasses without fogging. They don’t fit as closely to my jawline, but I can fold a dart in them and duct-tape it in place. They do get uncomfortably damp on the inside after about an hour’s wearing, but that’s probably a sign that they’re doing the job.

On a happier note, my Yuletide gift was a Kolchak the Night Stalker casefic and I enjoyed it very much:

The Cemetery Dwellers (12,307 words)

(more will no doubt be added as I read through the collection)

You're Wrong About Misericorde (8097 words)
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: You're Wrong About Podcast RPF, Undisclosed Fandom

Sarah tells Mike about the lost horror movie that became an urban legend. Digressions include the chemical formula for mescaline, Sarah imitating Ethan Hawke imitating a Yorkshire prop witch, and where the fat goes after it gets vibrated out of your body by a $19.99 girdle sold on late-night TV.

^ Really good if you happen to like handful_ofdust’s Experimental Film: A Novel.

A Long Way Back to the Light (2917 words)
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: God's Own Country (2017)
Rating: Explicit

The son is going to be a problem.

The Cloud Mirror (1460 words)
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Where the Sky is Silver and the Earth is Brass - Sonya Taaffe, Undisclosed Fandom
Rating: Mature

The first time she saw a demon, Chaye had been on the lookout for the whole world trying to kill her.


ETA—There’s a second one!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/27356677

Dear Yule Writer— Thanks for volunteering to write a fic for me. I am moon_custafer on AO3 as I am here.

General likes:
Mild hurt-comfort;
Cuddling and conversation;
Period-specific details;
Friendship;
Small, reserved gestures of affection (kissing or touching hands, foreheads, etc.);
Ghosts or supernatural;
Found family;
Casefic or plotfic.

General DNWs:
Fusions;
AUs that deviate from canon to the point of being a completely different premise/setting, i.e. high-school/coffee-shop/ABO dynamics.


( Read more... )