“you, you have your own special way / of turning the world so it’s facing / the way that i’m going”

[larryhammer]

This has been a Yuletide of abundance — five gifts in three fandoms, including a surprising amount of poetry. My matched gift was appropriately titled:

Gifts (1212 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Flower Fairies - Cicely Mary Barker
Additional Tags: Fae & Fairies, Bargains With Fae & Fairies, Unwise bargains With Fae & Fairies, Becoming a real boy, or otherwise - Freeform
Summary: Humans, give a little something. Give me something, get a present. Humans, give me, just a small gift —

A fae of dubious credibility asks the human models of several flowers (in alphabetical order) each for a gift, just a little thing, to help it become real. The tag “unwise bargains with fae & fairies” is accurate. Beautiful, seductive, and more than a little dangerous.

I also got a Flower Fairy treat, in this case a poem:

Flower Fairies of the Gone Woods (193 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Flower Fairies - Cicely Mary Barker
Additional Tags: Fae & Fairies, Botanical accuracy, Biographical liberties, Poetry
Summary: The berries are not to be eaten
She says in a marginal note
Miss Barker, she asked you to listen
So what’s that bright thing in your throat?

Homage and critique, with a nice sting in the end.

Then I got two treats for another fandom, again a poem and a story. The poem is amazing, giving backstory using the stanza of the original:

The Vigil (1056 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came - Robert Browning, Original Work
Characters: Childe Roland, Cuthbert, Giles
Additional Tags: Original Character(s), Backstory, Blank Verse, Time Loop
Summary: Upon this quest, there can be no release.
Unto that hallowed tower we must go...

I flail.

Three Knigths by the Dark Tower (2104 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came - Robert Browning
Relationships: roland/cuthbert, Cuthbert & Giles, Roland & Cuthbert & Giles
Characters: Roland (Childe Roland to the Dark Tower came), Cuthbert (Childe Roland to the Dark Tower came), Giles (Childe Roland to the Dark Tower came)
Summary: Giles and Cuthbert follow their friend Roland even to the threshold of the Dark Tower, hoping to help him on his quest.

Cuthbert and Giles have not in fact departed from the quest, as Roland (at the end of his rope) had thought.

And finally, a treat on the Housman poem “Her strong enchantments failing,” being a poem cycle expanding a bit on the backstory and worldbuilding:

ILLUC VOLAT (278 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Her Strong Enchantments Failing - A. E. Housman
Additional Tags: Poetry, Inspired by Poetry
Summary: A series of poems inspired by “Her strong enchantments failing” by A.E. Housman, which re-tell the story of that poem in a new way.

Yessssssss.

More links and recs later, after I’ve had time to explore more of the archive.

---L.

Subject quote from Your Own Special Way, Genesis.