An unlocked post, that rarest of beasts!
This year has been my first ever Yuletide, and I'm absolutely delighted with my gifts -- I'm linking to them here because they deserve all the praise I can offer, and you should absolutely go and read both of them.
Recurring Dreams: Whispers of Immortality, which is an Echo Bazaar fic detailing nightmares of vivisection and flowers, curious red bottles and creatures with wings that haunt the darkness. It is perfect. It's an absolutely delicious pastiche of the game's own style, right down to the Eliot reference in the title (and the little dream cards that divide the scenes, oh goodness). The narrative, such as it is, is intricate and understated, told almost entirely in symbolism and implication, and -- honestly, it's just exquisite. I can't recommend it highly enough.
The best of it is that I didn't even announce my slightlycreepy interest in vivisection in my letter, and my writer included it all the same~
Nightmares is Increasing, which is another Echo Bazaar fic in response to the same prompt -- I'm amazed and delighted, though, that each story took that prompt in a very different direction. Here, the player slowly succumbs to the lure of the quest for the Name. It's a story of fragments and unanswered questions, of the tricks that madness plays on memory; it's a story in which that one burning impulse echoes under all else and will never go away, even if for a time it permits you to forget. (Obsession stories are the best. I may have mentioned that before.) Again, I can't recommend it highly enough; it's a wonderful, atmospheric story and I adore it.
I have one Madness treat still waiting to be revealed, and no doubt I will come back to babble about that when I can read it -- for now, though, heartfelt thanks to my wonderful writers. I hope your own Yuletide has been as joyful as mine.
Originally posted at http://acrossthefloors.dreamwidth.org/10150.html -- comment here or there according to your preference.
Recurring Dreams: Whispers of Immortality, which is an Echo Bazaar fic detailing nightmares of vivisection and flowers, curious red bottles and creatures with wings that haunt the darkness. It is perfect. It's an absolutely delicious pastiche of the game's own style, right down to the Eliot reference in the title (and the little dream cards that divide the scenes, oh goodness). The narrative, such as it is, is intricate and understated, told almost entirely in symbolism and implication, and -- honestly, it's just exquisite. I can't recommend it highly enough.
The best of it is that I didn't even announce my slightlycreepy interest in vivisection in my letter, and my writer included it all the same~
Nightmares is Increasing, which is another Echo Bazaar fic in response to the same prompt -- I'm amazed and delighted, though, that each story took that prompt in a very different direction. Here, the player slowly succumbs to the lure of the quest for the Name. It's a story of fragments and unanswered questions, of the tricks that madness plays on memory; it's a story in which that one burning impulse echoes under all else and will never go away, even if for a time it permits you to forget. (Obsession stories are the best. I may have mentioned that before.) Again, I can't recommend it highly enough; it's a wonderful, atmospheric story and I adore it.
I have one Madness treat still waiting to be revealed, and no doubt I will come back to babble about that when I can read it -- for now, though, heartfelt thanks to my wonderful writers. I hope your own Yuletide has been as joyful as mine.
Originally posted at http://acrossthefloors.dreamwidth.org/10150.html -- comment here or there according to your preference.