schneefink

Last year as a present to my roommate I made her an advent calendar of fic recs: she gave me a list of 24 of her favorite tropes and every morning she got a fic rec for one of them. It was a lot of fun, so I decided to do something like that again. This time I decided to ask you guys: tell me a favorite trope of yours and I'll look for a story to rec you in December :)

A few caveats: The order will be random. Restricting fandoms would make it more difficult to find stories that fit, so while I will try to find a story in a fandom that I think you're familiar with, it's not a guarantee (else I'll look for a story that doesn't require canon knowledge or an original fic.) Tell me your DNWs so I can avoid them.

Day 1, Arranged Marriage: Flag of Convenience (Hockey RPF)

Day 2, Magic: A Clear and Different Light (SGA)

Day 3, Food & Cooking: The CLASSIFIED British Bake Off (GBBO/various)

Day 4, Adventure: Old Man Taako Outruns Death* and Lives Forever** (The Adventure Zone: Balance)

Day 5, Faith & religion: like religion (Natsume Yuujinchou)

Day 6, Mpreg: Amphibious (Hockey RPF)

Day 7, Bad Guys Win: At The Hour When We Are Trembling (SGA/SG1)

Day 8, Immortality/Reincarnation: The Golden Spirit in the Dark Forest (Akatsuki no Yona)

Day 9, Transformation: The Roads Never Lead Where They're Supposed to Go (SGA)

Day 10, Secret/Mistaken Identity: Sass-Badger Versus Son-of-No-One (Assassin's Creed)

Day 11, Dark: Wit's End (SGA)

Day 12, Scheming: The Daring Win (HP)

Day 13, Rare Pair: to the sky without wings (Star Wars)

Day 14, Power Dynamics: Take Clothes Off As Directed (SGA)

Day 15, Switching Sides: Double Agent Vader (Star Wars)

Day 16, Armed Forces: Mutiny on the Reliant (Temeraire)

Day 17, Culture Shock: Divide 'verse (SGA)

Day 18, Genius: Moving On (DC)

Day 19, Class Differences: The Student Prince (Merlin)

Day 20, Space: the spaces between the stars (GK)

Day 21, Time Travel: The Fifth Act (FF7)

Day 22, Super(natural) Powers: There May Be Some Collateral Damage (HP/Bleach)

Day 23, Loyalty: Worth No Less Than a Brother (Queen's Thief)

Day 24, Crossover: Guardian Tadashi AU (Big Hero 6/Rise of the Guardians)

And that's a wrap! Of the 24 stories, a quarter are SGA. Apart from Stargate, only three fandoms had two fics: Hockey RPF, Star Wars, and Harry Potter. Overall, including crossovers, the list includes 19 fandoms (plus an additional 6 if I count all those from day 3).

I really enjoyed making this calendar, I think I might do something similar to this again. I often think to myself that I should do more recs and never get around to it. This format was easier because a) it was one per day and because of the format I never felt like one rec only didn't warrant a post, b) it was for DD and I knew she would check out the stories, so I didn't put pressure on myself to make the "why I like it" perfect or detailed, and c) I always got feedback from DD about the stories and we talked about them afterwards, which made it even more fun. It always makes me happy to hear that people enjoyed what I recced, so thanks for the comments! Which stories were your favorites?

Day 24: Crossover
Guardian Tadashi AU (Big Hero 6/Rise of the Guardians), by

PitViperOfDoom
Summary: The death of Tadashi Hamada was both the end of Hiro's world and the mark of a new beginning. Turns out it was one for Tadashi, too.
Another one I recced before, but that I always enjoy rereading. It has great character voices and a ton of emotions about grief, siblings, friends, with angst and h/c and redemption. The first story basically follows the plot of Big Hero 6, the second one has its own plot that I also liked a lot.

Almost finished!
Day 23: Loyalty
Worth No Less Than a Brother (Queen's Thief), by

petrichoral
Summary: Sophos makes a fatal mistake and his alliance with Gen lies in ruins. He is determined to repair it at whatever cost, though reparations may mean his title, his freedom or his life.
Yay idfic! This pushes so many of my buttons (or rather just a couple but these really hard) and once I accept the premise the characterizations are also great.

Day 22: Super(natural) Powerrs
There May Be Some Collateral Damage (HP/Bleach), by

metisket
Summary: Ichigo’s been ordered to go undercover at a magic school to bodyguard a kid named Harry Potter, and this would be fine, except that he’s about as good at bodyguarding as he is at magic. And he considers it a good day, magic-wise, if he hasn’t set anything on fire.
DD didn't know this yet, but I already recced this on DW two years ago so I'm just going to copy my rec from back then, when I put more effort into explaining why I like it than I do this advent:
This is so much fun. I don't know Bleach, but that wasn't a problem. Ichigo clearly has a very different perspective than the wizards, and it's hilarious. Hogwarts doesn't know what to do with him, and he doesn't really know what to do with Hogwarts, but he has a job to do and he improvises. There are explosions, and it's all very satisfying.
The crossover works very well (from what I can tell), I liked both the portrayal of the canon characters and became interested in the characters from Bleach. The writing is great, half of my comments were a list of my many favorite quotes from the story. Among all the funny moments there are also some that are genuinely touching (origami!) or both (dusting!)

I'm editing my Yuletide fic. As usual for me when it comes to exchanges, I'm flip-flopping between "I think this is going to be good, nice" and "aaaaah what am I doing", so that's going well.

Day 21: Time Travel
The Fifth Act (Final Fantasy VII), by

Sinnatious
Summary: Cloud has an accident with a Time materia, and finds himself in the middle of the Wastes at the start of the Wutai War. There are people to save... and for that, there are three people who need to die.
I was constrained in my choice here by the fact that DD doesn't like WIPs and doesn't know certain fandoms, so I decided on... a fic in a fandom she doesn't know, ahem. I also read it without knowing canon so it should be fine. This is a fix-it fic, but on the way there's a ton of very nice angst and h/c.

Day 20: Space
the spaces between the stars (Generation Kill), by

indigostohelit
Summary: Lieutenant Nathaniel Fick of the USS Devil Dog is returning to Earth with the weight of the world on his shoulders: his captain is incompetent, his crew is half in mutiny, and the mission to a distant star may have been more of a failure than anyone could have comprehended. But on the journey back, something in the ship goes terribly wrong—and Nate may have to bear far more than the weight of the world if he's going to keep his men safe.
The atmosphere here reminds me a bit of Aliens, Firefly, and similar canons: humans everywhere can be corrupt and incompetent, and space is big and dangerous and full of the unknown. And in the middle of that are people trying to live their lives.

Day 19: Class Differences
The Student Prince (Merlin), by

FayJay
Summary: A Modern day Merlin AU set at the University of St Andrews, featuring teetotal kickboxers, secret wizards, magnificent bodyguards of various genders, irate fairies, imprisoned dragons, crumbling gothic architecture, arrogant princes, adorable engineering students, stolen gold, magical doorways, attempted assassination, drunken students, shaving foam fights, embarrassing mornings after, The Hammer Dance, duty, responsibility, friendship and true love...
The summary says it all, really (except it doesn't mention the kraken.) This one is a lot of fun with a good amount of romance and angst on top. Another story DD already knew, because she had writing to do.

I have almost no Christmas presents prepared, and I'm running out of time. Why does this happen to me every year -.- I'm not good at finding presents, and today I was so tired I didn't get anything done. I still have a few days, hopefully I'll be struck by inspiration.

Day 18: Genius
Moving On (DC), by

astolat
Summary: What you do when there are no more worlds to conquer.
Conquering the galaxy for fun and profit! Kinda. I'm considerate, so since I knew that DD was busy today she got a rec for a not-very-long story she already knew. (I thought of doing the same thing for tomorrow but I don't think there are short fics left among those I planned, oops. Oh well.)

Day 17: Culture Shock
Divide 'verse (SGA), by

vain_glorious
Summary: They find the Runner on the planet with the deadly sun. He's thin and dirty, and not particularly interested in talking.
A canon-divergent AU with Runner!John ending up on Sateda, a great concept and very well done. There are different levels of culture shock involved here and, unlike the reader, the PoV character Ronon only knows about half of them, adding an extra layer. The series stands fine as it is, but I'm sad it never got to this 'verse's version of "Reunion".

Yuletide fic finished! More words than I expected, but I think it's okay. Now editing.

Tomorrow our new government will be sworn in and there will be protests. They start at 8:00am, terribly early for me, bäh. I'm going with LB and he's not even home yet, so we decided to meet up a bit later and then join the protest because it'll definitely go on for hours. I haven't been to a protest in ten years or so... I'll go because it's important, but I'm not really looking forward to it. I'll see how it goes.

Day 16: Armed Forces
Mutiny on the Reliant (Temeraire), by

WerewolvesAreReal
Summary: It's bad luck to have a dragon aboard a ship, and this tiny black creature can't be natural at all. Slowed by a gale and bad-luck, the Reliant mutinies and puts Laurence and Temeraire alone on the Amitié. The journey back to England is difficult, and on the way Laurence accidentally finds himself leading a small fleet of fighting ships. As one does.
It starts with one kind of armed forces, and later on - well they're definitely armed, and they can definitely be called a force, so. Fun! Actually I recommend all this author's Temeraire fics.

Austria has a new government: a coalition between the far-right and the basically-also-far-right. Ugh. Bonus: The far-right FPÖ holds the two ministries that include the police, the military, and all intelligence services, wonderful. Uuuugh. Reading what some of our new ministers have previously said about our country and democracy makes me sick, and worried.
For extra irony, at the same time blue-black #2 starts, the BUWOG trial started, featuring corruption at the highest levels during blue-black #1 (short summary; there has already been a partial confession by one of the accused, fun.)

Coincidentally, a thematically appropriate rec for day 15: Switching Sides
Double Agent Vader (Star Wars), by

Fialleril
Summary: The one where Vader turned double agent for the Rebellion about three years after ROTS, and Leia is now his primary contact with the Rebellion.
I love the concept for this AU, and it's brilliantly executed. The series is unfinished but there's plenty of great content already, and so much dramatic irony stemming from who knows what about whose identity. The worldbuilding is also great.

Day 14: Power Dynamics
Take Clothes Off As Directed (SGA), by

helenish
First sentence: "You can't make a sub the military commander of Atlantis," Ford said.
A fandom classic! DD was never in SGA fandom so she missed them. I was worried it wouldn't be as good as I remembered, but I still found it very good and interesting (with a bit more awkwardness than I recalled, not my favorite thing but it's John Sheppard, what can you do.) DD was also very impressed by the Fanlore page about the story and how much wank surrounded it. (Fortunately I wasn't really involved, but it was impossible to miss.)

Day 13: Rare Pair
to the sky without wings (Star Wars), by

leupagus
Summary: Poe dreams of a blue-green tree.
This fic has great UST and a political background for The Force Awakens that I like a lot, and I especially like how the two intersect.

Day 12: Scheming
The Daring Win (HP), by

Lomonaaeren
Summary: The year: 1987. The place: Muggle London. The situation: The Boy-Who-Lived is being treated horribly by his Muggle relatives. A young witch must take him in for the Ministry’s good and his.
The witch’s name: Dolores Umbridge.
Okay, so the premise sounds ridiculous: as the author puts it, "This will be an Umbridge-raises-Harry story. It will be pretty fucked-up because of that." No kidding, it's Umbridge, and as DD put it, she's beautifully evil. It works surprisingly well though! It's a story I like, not love, but it has a ton of scheming and Dumbledore-bashing and I knew DD would enjoy it :)

Day 11: Dark
Wit's End (SGA), by

greyias
Summary: Trust me, Colonel, when I do finally snap, I assure you, it's not going to be a pretty sight." -- Everyone has their breaking point, including one Dr. Rodney McKay.
More SGA fandom nostalgia. Time loops can be funny or they can be horrifying, and this is one of the latter.

Day 10: Secret/Mistaken Identity
Sass-Badger Versus Son-of-No-One (Assassin's Creed), by

Card_Slash
Summary: Malik did not hate Altair because he was rich, handsome, famous (for nothing), athletic or apparently charming (to women). No, Malik hated Altair because he was a sexist pig with a perpetual audience that was influencing a whole generation of tweens to think it was perfectly okay to say whatever dick thing came into their heads. That was why he started his blog; he just didn’t count on Altair finding it or becoming it’s number one fan.
I was pretty sure DD would like all the previous recs I sent her (and she did), but I'm nervous about this one, especially because I know she's not a huge fan of the set-up. (She hasn't read it yet because the main story alone has 624k words (it does get a bit long-winded at times.)) I really liked it, but I think it's a story you need to be in the mood for, and I can't rec it without warnings: it deals with people growing up, which includes them being assholes, being scared, and making stupid choices. If you don't have a high tolerance for that, this is not a story for you. It also includes a whole bunch of family drama, homophobia, sexism, religious themes, and topics like child abuse and serious injuries. Overall I really liked how it showed flawed people trying to do their best and to find their way, screwing up but getting back up again, with a little help from their friends and/or family. I didn't think I would like it at first, but it drew me in until I couldn't stop reading.

Day 9: Transformation
The Roads Never Lead Where They're Supposed to Go (SGA), by

eleveninches
Summary: A slightly different John and Rodney, in a slightly different Atlantis, fight Marines, dinosaurs, and each other.
The answer to the choose-the-road riddle is wrong. I just wanted to get that out of the way first. (The milk-and-chocolate one however is correct, to my surprise.)
This SGA AU had me grinning the whole way through. Transformation is admittedly not a huge part, but it's spectacular, I decided that balances it out.

Day 8: Immortality/Reincarnation
The Golden Spirit in the Dark Forest (Akatsuki no Yona), by

EHyde
Summary: A spirit has lain sleeping, unmoving, in the woods for longer than anyone can remember. For the girl who's by his side as he wakes, nothing will ever be the same, as she learns he is both far more kind and far more terrible than anyone in her village imagined.
Involuntary immortality is one of my favorite immortality tropes. I really like outsider POV, and here it works very well. The story fits well into the character's backstory, though it's imo not necessary to know canon to enjoy the story.

Day 7: Bad Guys Win
At The Hour When We Are Trembling (SGA/SG1), by

frostfire
Summary: The Wraith make it to Earth, and John and Daniel are left to pick up the pieces.
Really well done apocafic and a great take on both characters. This one is not only overall great but also has a lot of fantastic little details.

Sidenote, I recced the version on AO3 because it's easier to download and for screenreaders and stuff, but I originally read and reread this fic on LiveJournal and seeing it in a different format is odd. Also because it has so few comments and kudos on AO3 (compared to twelve pages of comments on Lj.)
I'm going through my old SGA bookmarks and I'll probably rec quite a few more of them to DD because odds are high she hasn't read them yet, and it makes me feel a bit nostalgic for that fandom. Good times. I got to show her the girl scout cookie fic, her face was great.

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Entries tagged with advent recs

Rec advent calendar prompts?

2017 Advent Calendar Recs Round-up

Day 24

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Day 17: Culture Shock

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Day 14

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Day 12

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