Yuletide recs (edited Jan. 1 to add authors' names!)

[sophinisba]

I meant to come up with a bigger list of Yuletide recs before I posted, but the reveal is coming later tonight and I just haven't had a chance to read much yet, so I'm just going to post what I have now.

The Circle Game, Saved!, Dean-centric, PG, by carolinecrane
This is fic for a favorite movie of mine in a favorite genre of mine: genfic about gay people. Dean is a character who's absent from most of the movie but still a really important part of it and completely charming in the few scenes he has. It's great to see his life continuing here in a realistic way that includes Mitch, Roland, Cassandra, Mary and Patrick and the baby, all as good, caring people but not in an idealized, happily-ever-after way. This bit about the Unitarian church some of them start going to also warmed my heart and made me think of some of you:

At first it doesn't even feel like church. There's no one jumping up and shouting whenever the spirit moves them, no conditions attached to salvation or promises that Jesus secretly loves them more than anyone else. But there are bake sales and volunteer opportunities, and there are people who welcome him and his weird family without even blinking, and after awhile he starts to think that this is what church should feel like. Like a community, where people love each other and celebrate their differences.

Ten Sephirot, Nine and a Half Fingers, Eight Nights, 44 Presidents, RPF, Barack Obama/Rahm Emanuel, NC-17, by vulgarweed
The sex at the end of this is very hot but for me the most exciting part was really in the middle with the lead up to the election and carrying through that incredible night in Grant Park. The language throughout is gorgeous. Here is a sample from one of the early sections:

He feels vertigo almost all the time now, separated somehow from his own strangely slow-moving body; he watches his own long legs walking down long backstage hallways and climbing podium steps as if they belong to someone else, as if he is a child about Sasha's age, riding piggyback on some mysterious Great Important Man whose face he cannot see.

Also I think a lot of people on my f-list will appreciate the Lord of the Rings references. :)

Goes Marching, To Kill a Mockingbird, PG, by Weatherwoman
This is a very moving short story in which Scout's son, a college student, tells her he's going to join the civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery.

Before You Understand, Little Miss Sunshine, PG, by ediblestars
Frank and Richard's relationship as it develops after the events of the movie. Olive's POV on this is what really makes the fic; I recommend checking this out even if you don't normally go for kidfic.

Everything Else Is Homicide, Homicide: Life on the Street, PG-13, by twoweevils
One of the things that was so great about Homicide was the real sense of place they got from filming in Baltimore and working with so many details of how the real homicide unit of the Baltimore PD functioned. This fic also gave me that feeling, like watching an extra episode as an epilogue to the series, and it was very satisfyingly long.

Learning Is Fundamental, Homicide: Life on the Street, PG-13, also by twoweevils
I had never realized that I wanted Homicide humor fic, but this was awesome! The author really has all the characters' voices nailed.

Derived from Crenshaw, Meaning Inquisitive, Akeelah and the Bee, PG-13, by sugargroupie
The one written for me omg! Okay, first of all, it's the only fic I've ever seen for that delightful movie. This keeps that wonderful warm feeling of the movie, with Akeelah's sweetness and her toughness and her uncertainty and her relationship with her mom and her friends and her community, but it also goes on to show her at age fifteen and again at eighteen in her first semester of college, as Javier goes from being a boy who's her friend to being her boyfriend. Akeelah is so smart and awesome and I loved seeing this future for her. I've seen other people reccing it and squeeing that Akeelah and the Bee fic finally exists, and that makes me feel so proud that this was written for me! It was really a great gift that made me happy on Christmas morning. :)

Oh and also here is a challenge I'm stealing from oxoniensis: Six of the 2430 stories in the archive are by me. "If you guess one story correctly, I'll write you a drabble in one of the fandoms. If you can guess two of the stories, I'll write you a ficlet. If you guess three, I'll write a story. If you guess four, well, I think they used to burn people for that kind of thing." (People who betaed for me and Hanarobi are disqualified, sorry.)