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Well well well, look who got to write Jack Aubrey/Stephen Maturin for Yuletide this year! :D :D :D

(Spoiler: it me)

Below the waves, the ocean (8273 words) by Dorinda
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003), Aubrey-Maturin Series - Patrick O'Brian, Master and Commander - All Media Types
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Jack Aubrey/Stephen Maturin
Characters: Jack Aubrey, Stephen Maturin
Additional Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Injury, Angst, Drowning, First Aid, Trust, Feelings Realization
Summary:

How long since the bubbles had died? It felt too long, a deadly eternity. But Stephen couldn't count, and didn't: he simply rolled himself over the edge of the gaping hatchway and fell.

It was like an early present just for me, to get to write Jack/Stephen hurt/comfort slash feelings realization etcetera, with a focus on protectiveness, guilt, and who gets to sacrifice himself for whom (Jack: "Me, duh" Stephen: ">:["). I mentioned to some friends that, as happens so often in the hurt/comfort I write, especially for these guys, the physical injury is really the least of anybody's problems. ♥

I'm grateful to

marycrawford for her cheerleading and beta help, and to

the_shoshanna and

msmoat for discussions and cheering-on! The whole process was such a pleasure, even when I was having my typical late-story "OPE, DIDN'T THINK THROUGH HOW THIS BIT IS ACTUALLY SPOSED TO HAPPEN" feelings.

For

chocolateboxcomm this year, I was assigned the Aubrey-Maturin books, which itself was a gift right back to me--Jack/Stephen (book, movie, or both) is one of my bulletproof comfort pairings. ♥

I chewed on my recipient's signup and letter for a while, and bounced thoughts off some friends. And then,

mollyamory just up and handed me a premise. Handed it right over! It was just what I was looking for! (I highly recommend this as a writing process, btw, getting

mollyamory to give you things.)

So I gleefully submerged myself in Jack/Stephen world, and brought along Killick and also a bird (based on the Long-Billed Corella), and wrote this:

Most Musical, Most Melancholy (8514 words) by Dorinda
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Aubrey-Maturin Series - Patrick O'Brian, Master and Commander - All Media Types
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Jack Aubrey/Stephen Maturin
Characters: Jack Aubrey, Stephen Maturin, Preserved Killick
Additional Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Pining, Birds, Injury, Worry
Summary:

Would he die? Was he in fact dying right at this moment? And Jack not there?

Jack forcibly steadied himself. He thought of Stephen's heart beating beneath his hand. Rapid, straining, like a—

—like a trapped bird. He looked up. At once he saw, tangled in a line, a pale and blotched little bundle, feebly thrashing.

I wrote a story for the

perfect_duet comm's Advent 2019 challenge! I'd been daydreaming about this premise for a while, but it took the challenge to actually get me off my duff, as often happens to me.

It got a little longer than I had anticipated, as a 'quick' (heh) challenge story, but hey, whaddya gonna do. :D

Adhémar de La Mothe is a character from the novel The Surgeon's Mate, and I find him fascinating. We hear a lot about him--French obviously, an old friend of Stephen's, canonically gay, very fashionable, has concerts in his huge place every week. Most of the rest of his family was killed during the Revolution, so he lives in that huge place by himself. He's connected to a wide network of gay friends and allies, which protects him (and ends up aiding Stephen indirectly).

But we never do see La Mothe directly on the page! So here's a version of him that I like to think about, festive and faelike and a bit melancholy, and with certain Plans for Stephen.

Huge thanks to

marycrawford, for setting me a deadline, and for cheerleading and beta duties! Also

mollyamory, who cracked with ease a story problem I was having.

A kiss slowly rising to the eyes of the sea (13934 words) by Dorinda
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Aubrey-Maturin Series - Patrick O'Brian, Master and Commander - All Media Types
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Jack Aubrey/Stephen Maturin
Characters: Jack Aubrey, Stephen Maturin, Adhemar de La Mothe
Additional Tags: Angst, Canon Gay Character, Matchmaking, Misunderstandings, Sharing a Bed, Feelings Realization, First Time, Party, everything is very fancy oh my
Summary:

In the heart of the enemy’s country, Jack is guest of honour at an elegant night in the grand home of Adhémar de La Mothe. La Mothe is a strange and marvelous host, and he certainly seems very fond of Stephen...

Could it all just be cover for one of Stephen’s secret missions? Or is there some deeper truth to be revealed?

I wrote a little contribution for the

perfect_duet Advent Challenge, for the prompt "surprise":

In the Doldrums ( words) by Dorinda
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003), Master and Commander - All Media Types
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Jack Aubrey & Stephen Maturin, Jack Aubrey/Stephen Maturin
Characters: Jack Aubrey, Stephen Maturin
Additional Tags: Trapped, Surprises, Unexpected Visitors, Reconciliation
Summary:

He braced himself and turned, dreading another row, wishing there were something he could do. Anything. Could he have turned his fiddle into wind and both epaulettes into lemons, by now he would have done so, and laid it all in Stephen's lap.

And

mekare kindly did a piece of art for it! Which is here:

Art: Doldrums (0 words) by mekare
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Aubrey-Maturin Series - Patrick O'Brian, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003), Master and Commander - All Media Types
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Jack Aubrey/Stephen Maturin, Jack Aubrey & Stephen Maturin
Characters: Jack Aubrey, Stephen Maturin
Additional Tags: Fanart, Illustrations, Watercolors, Stephen and his creatures, excited Stephen, Whales, two men in a boat, excuse me Jack, two men in a skiff
Summary:

Jack and Stephen find something surprising during the doldrums. But really, this is a fic illustration (see endnotes).

I got all caught up in this, that, and the other, especially work-type things, but here is my belated Yuletide reveal. This year I wrote:

And on the seventh... (11039 words) by Dorinda
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003), Master and Commander - All Media Types
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Jack Aubrey/Stephen Maturin
Characters: Jack Aubrey, Stephen Maturin
Additional Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Desert Island, Angst, First Aid, Christmas, Overworking, Birds
Summary:

This decision might be considered the luckiest, as standing near Jack meant that Stephen was not alone in his fall overboard.

Or it might be considered the unluckiest, as standing near Jack meant that Stephen was foremost in the splinters' path, when the ranging shot abruptly found its range.

Jack/Stephen, with hurt/comfort and a desert island and UST turned RST and maybe there is angsty kissing and perhaps more WHO IS TO SAY. :D

Also, there is a very handsome bird. With video evidence.

I had a good time this year! And like last year, I also wrote another shorter M&C piece for

perfect_duet's Advent challenge, which will go up on AO3 in the near future.

I got a Master and Commander Jack/Stephen story for Yuletide this year!:

Man Overboard (2139 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Jack Aubrey/Stephen Maturin, Jack Aubrey & Stephen Maturin
Characters: Jack Aubrey, Stephen Maturin, Tom Pullings, William Mowett, HMS Surprise
Additional Tags: Yuletide 2017, For Dorinda, Hurt/Comfort, Friendship/Love, Gen or Pre-Slash, hints of slash, Jack's POV, Stephen is BAMF, Becalming, The Royal Navy, Slice of Life
Summary:

A becalmed sea. An explosion. A concerned doctor. A wounded captain. Or, a typical Thursday on the HMS Surprise.

Fun and sweet, with hurt and comfort and a line about Stephen's heartbeat that made me siiiigh with the heart-eyes. ♥_____♥

I had a good time writing my story this year, which I will keep to myself until after reveals. :D And I hope other participants had fun as well.

Yet another of the commentfics from More Joy Day 2017, this one written for

msmoat's prompt "quiet".

(There are a few new lines added to this posted version... I felt like the kissing could use just a little more time. Shocking, I know. :D )

Calm in the Storm (1470 words) by Dorinda
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003), Master and Commander - All Media Types
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Jack Aubrey/Stephen Maturin
Characters: Jack Aubrey, Stephen Maturin
Additional Tags: Worry, Injury, Sharing a Bed, Kissing
Summary:

Another near-miss for Jack. And Stephen finds the night too quiet for his peace.

The authors & artists for Night On Fic Mountain have been revealed! And here is mine, a shocking revelation I am sure:

The Fever of the World (8487 words) by Dorinda
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003), Master and Commander - All Media Types
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Jack Aubrey & Stephen Maturin
Characters: Jack Aubrey, Stephen Maturin
Additional Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Prison, Delirium, Worry, suspiciously intense gen
Summary:

And everywhere the fire, lighting sky and sea, dappling across the small bobbing faces lifted to the heavens.

He had seen Stephen swimming, hadn't he. He had known Stephen would remember how to float, the way Jack had taught him. Feeling sure, he had floundered past, to get about saving as many as he could. After all, he had seen Stephen swimming.

Hadn't he?

I was assigned

lynndyre and waved my hands gleefully in the air; we share a lot of common interests in the Master & Commander universe for sure. \o\ /o/ \o\

She asked for Jack & Stephen and mentioned "suspiciously intense gen" among her likes, so that's the note I tried to hit. It's about worry and need and fever dreams and tender hands-on medical care and Stephen having a plan. And I borrowed Captain Christy-Pallière from the books, because I love him so and why not. :D

I also killed an offscreen OC or two who I actually feel kind of bad about. Nothing to them really, but I'm still like, aw.

And now that I don't have to wriggle about trying not to reveal my own story, let me say that I recommend everything in NofM 2017's Master & Commander tag. There's the examination of canon events through the lens of a full-on soul bond, there's high adventure with giant enslaved sea serpents, there's an underplayed moment in time in which Stephen willingly sacrifices great things for Jack, and to top it all off there's this!:

A Slothful Interlude (0 words) by lynndyre
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Master and Commander - All Media Types
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Jack Aubrey & Stephen Maturin
Characters: Jack Aubrey, Stephen Maturin, A sloth
Additional Tags: Friendship, Napping, Art, Ink
Summary:

Stephen finds Jack sleeping.

AUGH SO ADORABLE. So warm and relaxed, with perfect little touches of detail. Recommended for a nice bit of visual therapy.

Duuuudes the Night On Fic Mountain 2017 collection is open, and I got THREE PRESENTS. \o/ Almost Human, AND Rejseholdet, AND a Jack & Stephen treat! Check this out:

...oh wait, huh, weird. I only just now noticed that two of these pieces have no "Share" button at the top. But it shows up on the third one. So the 'share' function can be disabled? I've never seen that option. What's that about, I wonder?

Anyway, no biggie, I shall share the first two the old fashioned way, uphill both ways in the snow:

First, a really lovely romantic piece of John/Dorian art called "Halfway Till Bliss". I adore the differing expressions, and the subtleties of their faces, and Dorian's eyelashes, and John's hair. And KISSIN. <3

https://archiveofourown.org/works/11205894

Then, a wonderfully grounded and real-feeling Rejseholdet story, "The (Irregular) Right Direction": it's set ten years post-canon, with Fischer permanently settled in EU law-enforcement bureaucracy, but with something unsettled and restless humming deep within him. Hmmmm, I wonder what he's still missing? :D

https://archiveofourown.org/works/11209839

And finally, a touching and nuanced Master & Commander (and/or O'Brian books) Jack & Stephen story, "Why Darwin Discovered Evolution", which has a Share button, thusly:

Why Darwin Discovered Evolution (1113 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Jack Aubrey & Stephen Maturin
Characters: Jack Aubrey, Stephen Maturin
Additional Tags: London, Evolution, Moths, Night On Fic Mountain 2017, Night on Fic Mountain 2017 Treat
Summary:

1815: Napoleon surrenders, and is exiled to St Helena. The British Navy, after seventeen years of war, retires ships, crews and captains. John Barrow, Second Secretary to the Admiralty, begins a programme of exploration which will last until 1845 and will include, in 1835, Charles Darwin's five year voyage of discovery in the Beagle.

In England, Jack Aubrey languishes on the Captains’ List, and Stephen Maturin chases moths.

Oh, Stephen. He loves Jack SO MUCH. ♥____♥ (And vice-versa, of course. Sigh!)

While Yuletide was in full swing, I also signed up to contribute to the holiday season Advent Calendar in the

perfect_duet Jack Aubrey/Stephen Maturin community. I was nervous about it, but I figured I'd be done with my Yuletide story by then and my writing engines would hopefully still be revving.

And luckily, that's how it turned out! So right after finishing my Yuletide Jack/Stephen, I was able to turn to another Jack/Stephen, this time more specifically drawn from the books:

Salt Water Unbounded (2770 words) by Dorinda
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Aubrey-Maturin Series - Patrick O'Brian
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Jack Aubrey/Stephen Maturin
Characters: Jack Aubrey, Stephen Maturin
Additional Tags: Age of Sail, Hurt/Comfort, Swimming, Trust, Aftermath of Torture
Summary:

In the aftermath of the torture at Mahon, with Stephen injured and Jack kept at a distance, how can they both recover?

It's set during the third novel, HMS Surprise, between chapters 4 and 5. After my first full read-through of the books, I was visiting friends, and kept talking to them about how amazing that part of the book was. Stephen is rescued from terrible torture in chapter 4, and then there's a time gap, and in chapter 5 we see that he is much better and now goes swimming with Jack. We get some mentions in hindsight of what the recovery period was like, but we don't get to see it happening.

And I was fascinated, because we are both shown and directly told that Stephen hates to be helped, and yet it was during this very vulnerable time while he was so badly injured that he was willing to let Jack teach him to swim. It felt like an amazing gift of trust on his part--trusting Jack with his wounded body and his pride both, and finally letting Jack help him, which we know Jack longs so much to do. It seems like a potentially healing time for the both of them, after such trauma.

(I highly recommend the book HMS Surprise, one of the prime Hurt-Stephen books in the series. It has the torture and rescue, it has Stephen being shot in a duel and operating on himself as in the movie, it has him in emotional anguish...kind of a Stephen-shaped piñata. :D )

Happy New Year! Now everybody peels their masks off and goes boo. :D

For this year's Yuletide, I wrote:

The Fragile Skiff Attains the Shore (13362 words) by Dorinda
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Jack Aubrey/Stephen Maturin
Characters: Jack Aubrey, Stephen Maturin, William Mowett, Preserved Killick
Additional Tags: Age of Sail, Action/Adventure, Hurt/Comfort, Worry, Whipping, Cuddling & Snuggling, Angst, Boats and Ships
Summary:

Stephen's letter, folded inside his jacket, pressed against his heart like a hot poker.
To Captain Jno. Aubrey, R.N., HMS Surprise:
I ask you to sail on as scheduled. Do not come looking for me.

This was the first time I offered Jack Aubrey/Stephen Maturin--I only offered the movie this year, to get my feet wet more manageably and keep my canon review under control, although I have now read all the books at least twice. (hugs books) My recipient said she likes hurt/comfort, and I like hurt/comfort, so I gladly gave Jack a bit of a physical going-over along with some worry & angst for both parties (poor Jack. But he's so physically robust! I'm sure the worrying and angsting hurt him worse.). And a happy ending, of course, because I am not currently my own evil clone or wearing a sash in the Mirror Universe.

I flapped about over some tangles in the throughline, but in the end I really enjoyed writing it. I intend to write some more Jack/Stephen--in fact I have written something else , which I'll be posting a little later in the new year.

As for my cornucopia of gifts, get this! The big Sinbad story, AND the Sting pretend-couple story, were BY THE SAME PERSON,

damkianna!! CAN you even believe it. I am amazed all over again--it's like she spelunked into my brain, and look at all the words she wrote while she was in there! *confetti*

The Rejseholdet story is by

halotolerant, and this is the only one I actually (tentatively) guessed. Chatting with

sakana17 in email I was like, hmmm, I wonder if that was halotolerant--she's such a fantastic writer and also I know she loves Fischer/La Cour... WELL LOOKY HERE. :D :D :D

And the Shetland story is by an author new to me,

idareu2bme. I love all the new discoveries Yuletide helps me make!

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Page Summary

Yuletide reveal: "Below the waves, the ocean" (Master and Commander)
STORY: "Most Musical, Most Melancholy" (Jack Aubrey/Stephen Maturin)
STORY: "A kiss slowly rising to the eyes of the sea" (Jack/Stephen, Aubreyad)
STORY: "In the Doldrums" - Jack/Stephen, Master & Commander
Yuletide reveal: Master & Commander, "And on the seventh..."
Yuletide present for me!
STORY: "Calm in the Storm" - Jack/Stephen, Master & Commander
Night on Fic Mountain reveal: "The Fever of the World" (Master & Commander)
Fic Mountain gifts, triple!
STORY: "Salt Water Unbounded" - Jack Aubrey/Stephen Maturin
Yuletide reveal: Master & Commander, "The Fragile Skiff Attains the Shore"

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