Madness!

Fanfiction
Title:	Madness!
Author(s):	fawatson
Date(s):	26 December 2011
Length:	1401 words
Genre:	Alternative Universe
Fandom:	Mary Renault
External Links:	"Madness!" on A03 [2]
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"Madness! " is a short story written by fawatson for queen_ypolita as a treat for Yuletide 2011.

The named recipient’s request was: “What would Elsie's story look like if the character in the Peter role had been a woman; how would have it been similar and/or different?” In addition, the author of this fanfiction also included two other unfilled requests for Renault-verse novels (one from heartofoshun asking forThe Last of the Wine with a prompt for Phaedo/Lysis/Alexias slash, and one from fawatson asking for The Mask of Apollo with a prompt for Thettalos and Nikeratos as spies for Alexander the Great).

The story itself is set in the ITOWverse and was written in tongue-in-cheek style. The maryrenaultfics community moderators my_cnnr and trueriver arrive at the clubhouse to find the characters have decided to fulfil the unfilled prompts by performing a series of tableaux as their gift to the community. Reference is made within this story to previous fanfiction written by Greer Watson and fawatson. Each of the prompts used is, in some way, twisted, leading to the story’s punchline as the moderators turn to one another saying, “it is Madness!” Although posted to the Yuletide Madness archive on AO3 and open to any to read, the story was clearly an 'in-joke' meant for maryrenaultfics community members.

Comments on the story included :

• Hee! I've been giggling over this for the past few minutes and hoping that my mum doesn't start asking what I'm laughing about as I'm not sure I could explain it. This is fab and really apt for Yuletide Madness. I really, really like this--thank you for writing this treat for me!—queen_ypolita

Note: This story was clearly a joke; but the same prompt from queen_ypolita made the next year led to a more serious story by another author: Girl Land