Yuletide reveals

[kindkit]

I wrote one Yuletide story and one little treat this year.

Ghosts of Ettersberg (3101 words) by kindkit
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch
Rating: Mature
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Thomas Nightingale, Peter Grant
Summary: There's more than one kind of ghost, and more than one kind of absence.

Anyone who likes Thomas Nightingale in RoL (does anyone not like Thomas Nightingale? what a sad thought) wonders what happened at Ettersberg. Aaronovitch has been dropping hints of something catastrophic through three novels; this is my take. Fortunately sineala liked it even though it's a bit grim as Yuletide gifts go.


Rewritten (234 words) by kindkit
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: T. E. Lawrence
Summary: Lawrence creating himself.

This was written for Skazka, whom I don't know, but whose mention in their prompt of Lawrence possibly being transmasculine haunted me. This is the first time I've ever written a trans* character. I kind of stopped at the happy ending; there's another story to be written of Lawrence's later loss of confidence (tied in both to the events of Deraa--even more awful if Lawrence is a trans* man--and to the way the Arab independence movement was outmaneuvered by the colonial powers) and how he continued to try out new names without ever quite finding a self to be comfortable in.


I can also now publicly thank the amazing halotolerant, who for the second year in a row (!!!) wrote me a fantastic Yuletide story. This time it was How Many Strawberries Grow in in the Sea?, which you don't need canon knowledge to enjoy and which I hope I can eventually convince everyone to read. (ETA: Halo also beta-read "Ghosts of Ettersberg" and helped make it better than it had been.)

I'm working on a set of Yuletide recs for the first half of the alphabet, but the wheels of reccing grind slowly.

Comments

*chuckles*

[halotolerant]

OK, now I have read my email with the LJ comments! (so it's working for you then? It seems to be working for a few people but not for me and clearly many others as it's listed as having issues on the status page)

I couldn't resist adding Harry - maybe it was too much of a giveaway but I thought you'd probably guess anyway given the miniscule nature of the Wooden Horse slash fandom!

I like your improved explanations for Sean, and I think interaction between him and Steven would be fascinating - not least for the very interesting element where they are very, very different but treated by those around them as basically the same thing ('queer' men rather than one homosexual man and one trans* woman)

Going to the quote, it looks intriguingly like Sean and Steven are both 'real':

'Of all the female impersonators, two names still have the ability to produce an affectionate smile from all Far Eastern POWs. When...Arthur Butler of the Royal Artillery transformed himself into Gloria D'earle she [Gillie's italics] became 'exquisite'. She moved and spoke just like a woman. Butler was a professional female impersonator. [...] Anckorn remembers Bobby Spong as the best female impersonator he'd ever seen. 'He was a very, very nice chap who worked hard the hospitals, always on the go but at night there he was. He really was absolutely just like a woman. He was I suppose what you'd call gay now'

These are both men who were in Changi. It seems that Spong is the one who is remembered for always wearing women's clothing, underwear, padding etc, so possibly he 'is' Sean and Steven is another person not talked about because he was more directly homosexual rather than an impersonator?

Re: *chuckles*

[kindkit]

Well, I was morally certain you'd written the story long before I got to the mention of Harry. I'd been debating whether to make some kind of "yes, mystery author, I recognize you!" comment, and had decided against it on the off chance I was wrong and it hurt the feelings of whoever the writer actually was. And then there was headcanon!Harry and I knew it couldn't have been anyone else.

Thanks for the excerpts about Spong and Butler. I don't think I've read the book you're quoting from, yet.

Re: *chuckles*

[halotolerant]

It's the 'Barbed Wire University' book, which I think I told you I wasn't massively excited by because it didn't add much new and there was the old 'men were too hungry to have to sex except some did but that was different and anyway it wasn't anyone who'll admit to it' line... But then it did have this bit so, I dunno, maybe worth a look?

Re: *chuckles*

[kindkit]

Spong is briefly mentioned in Surviving the Sword, too, along with the sad information that he was killed during the war. He was being transported to a POW camp in Japan and his ship was torpedoed.

Re: *chuckles*

[halotolerant]

Ah yes, that's in 'Barbed Wire' too but I didn't want to think about it because I'm such a wimp... (I know, a lot of people died in the war, but when you think of a specific person with a personality that you can really imagine, it's more upsetting)