I'm signing up for the Yuletide fic exchange this year; looong Dear Yuletide Writer letter below.
Dear Yuletide writer, hi! This is my first time writing one of these letters, although I’ve read Yuletide fic for many years. I’m excited about whatever you write for me and I hope this makes it easier. I’m thereinafter (isyche) on AO3.
I will be delighted if you write me something shippy for characters I ship (and I’m entirely cool with that being explicit if you’re so moved), but I am also delighted by gen fic, especially building on/exploring aspects of the world or backstory. I am the kind of person who enjoys Tolkien’s appendices and songs and reads all the codex entries in video games. I’ll always love something that’s like a bit more of the canon.
I suggested prompts in case that helps you, but feel free to mix them up or come up with your own idea.
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General likes:
Canon divergence AUs
Time loop stories, and other kinds of variations on a theme, generally (I do like “five times” fic)
Casefic for canons where there are cases or missions
Epistolary or “found documents” stories
Unconventional story structures
Worldbuilding/exploration of the canon world
Stories set around holidays and festivals, and balls, masquerade or not
Relatedly, characters doing things in disguise, whether they’re good or bad at it (and bodyswap, as a subcategory of this and forced intimacy)
Heists and rescues/jailbreaks
Court plotting, intrigue, spying
Road or sea trips/wilderness survival
Forced intimacy tropes like fake dating, bedsharing, huddling for warmth, marriage of convenience
Hurt/comfort (generally in the sense of one character in a pairing enduring hurt from external forces and the other saving and/or tending them)
Swordfights, training for all kinds of fighting, feats of arms
Characters creating things for others
In-universe stories, songs, mythologies, histories
Scenery and costume porn in the “rich description” sense
Lighthearted fluff and humor
Angst with happy endings
Us against the world pairings
Pining and extended UST, especially between work partners who are busy with saving the world or some other important task
Longtime friends to lovers, old friends meeting again, old enemies who aren’t really anymore, rivals who respect each other
Ascetic/hedonist or repressed/libertine or inexperienced/more experienced pairings
Stoic women who have a lot of hidden feelings
Characters who are very good at what they do (but may be awkward or lost in other contexts)
Loyalty/dedication/faithfulness/devotion, knight/queen dynamics (either one-way or where both consider themselves the knight to the other), love conflicting with other loyalties
People who know each other so well they can read each other wordlessly or sense each other across distances
Noble self-denial and sacrifice
in sex scenes: cuddling, laughing, eroticized hands and voices, clothed/semi-clothed sex, complicated undressing, extended making out, enthusiasm/eagerness/desperation, first times or first times in a while, talking whether emotional or joking or dirty, having to keep silent or hold still, interruptions and delayed gratification, sex against walls, mutual roughness, spontaneous/informal kink, magical or magic-enhanced sex in contexts where that exists
DNWs:
Coffeeshop/high school/other mundane AUs, soulmate/soulmark AUs, issuefic, non-canonical polyamory, non-canonical nicknames, non-canonical pregnancy and kids, A/B/O, formalized D/s, sexual violence/noncon, male dominance in het ships, daddy/mommy kink, incest
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Fandoms I requested (in alphabetical order):
Alpennia Series - Heather Rose Jones
Barbara, Margerit, Jeanne, Antuniet (I requested all four but any one or two or three of them is also fine)
In this series I love the canon ships as they are (don’t want them broken up or reconfigured), the women finding happy endings together despite their society’s prejudices, the Regencyesque setting with balls and seasons and duels, the way the magic works (especially Antuniet’s alchemy and how we see mysteries constructed through music and art), the way Margerit’s house becomes a refuge/salon for queer and intellectual/artistic women.
Prompt suggestions:
one of Barbara's adventures pre-Daughter of Mystery? Her first efforts at being a duelist?
if you’ve read “Three Nights at the Opera” it says it's the story of Barbara’s glorious imprudence but in fact leaves most of it untold, so you could tell me more about her affair with Jeanne?
In DoM after Barbara and Margerit kiss the first time, a lot of the romance is off-page in the same way; you could show me one of the undescribed scenes from, e.g., their time in the convent with all the feelings and details.
Domestic fluff in one of their households as of Mother of Souls? a holiday celebration? Margerit creating another private mystery for Barbara? an elaborate ball or secret party thrown by Jeanne?
Some kind of magical accident or student mistake results in a time loop or amnesia or h/c?
A road trip leaves one of the couples stranded in the mountain wilderness (Antuniet’s harsh practicality and Jeanne being used to luxury could make this interesting for them)?
One of them is kidnapped by one of their political rivals and the others have to rescue her?
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The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe - Kij Johnson
Vellitt Boe, Clarie Jurat, Gnesa Petso, Reon Atescre | Nasht (here, I also requested all of them but you don’t need to include all of them; see prompts)
This is a novella that turns Lovecraft’s Dreamlands inside out and subverts him delightfully while retaining the weirdness/horror/atmosphere I do like about his stories. I absolutely love the setting, the descriptions, Johnson’s extension of the existing worldbuilding, and the character of Vellitt Boe herself (an older woman with a past life of adventures who leaves her settled academic life to set out alone on a new one). I’d love anything that shows more of this version of this world. If you want to bring in more elements from the Lovecraft stories and treat them the same way, fantastic.
prompt suggestions:
It seems like Vellitt and Dean Gnesa Petso have a long history, did they know each other or travel together before working together at Ulthar Women’s College? (and you could make that a romantic history if you want). Did Gnesa convince her to stop adventuring and start teaching there?
We know she used to travel with Reon Atescre before he became the high priest Nasht; I like their friendship. “They had parted ways in the infamous demon-city Thalarion for no reason but the restlessness that is in the young”—what were they doing there?
“In her far-travelling days, she had walked in god-blasted wastelands …” what did she encounter there?
Why did she finally leave Randolph Carter and what happened after she did? Why did she change her name?
One prompt without Vellitt: Clarie Jurat returns home to fight the gods; I’d love to see how she does it.
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Elemental Logic - Laurie J. Marks
Zanja na’Tarwein, Karis G’deon
I fell pretty hard for these books, especially Fire Logic, about which I love so many things; I feel like Marks has some kind of direct connection to my personal id. All the circumstances of the way they meet with Karis breaking Zanja out of the prison, all the h/c, all the pining and angst, all their rescuing of each other, Karis’s eventual healing of herself and rediscovery of feeling, give me an absurd amount of feelings. I also love how the books are overall about the struggle to establish and hold a peace more than fighting a war, and the fact that Karis uses her amazonian strength to be a healer and creator/fixer of things while Zanja is the fighter, and all the other opposing elemental/mystical traits that mean they are often baffled by each other.
To sum up, I very much love them as a ship and would like a story focused on the two of them (Emil and Medric are fine characters, but I’d rather not focus on the whole group family; that said, if you write something that needs secondary characters, I’m fond of Norina and Clement and Seth and Garland too, and I love the ravens).
Prompt suggestions:
The two of them keep getting separated and almost dying or symbolically dying and then reuniting/bringing each other back. Which does work for me every time, so if you want to write something plotty that continues that pattern, I would be here for it.
We’re told Karis loses her powers over water and thus avoids it, but we don’t ever see much of that; what would it be like if she had to sail somewhere? (I could see this going in a light funny or fraught angsty direction.)
I’m intrigued by the implications of Karis sensing what happens to objects she forges, as with Zanja’s knife.
A little mission/case they decide to handle together? There must be a lot of problems around Shaftal to fix still.
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Sunless Sea
Presbyterate Adventuress, Brisk Campaigner (you could focus on either or both)
I've been in love with the Fallen London/Sunless Sea world for a long time and I will adore anything you write that evokes the atmosphere of the games. I'm fascinated with the story possibilities of every port (while not having managed to discover all of them even with my luckiest captains). I'm requesting the Adventuress and the Campaigner because I’m intrigued by their possible canon relationship, but if you want to bring in other characters too, go for it.
prompt suggestions:
Backstory! What were their lives like before they joined the crew? Had they ever met before?
Tell me about an adventure onshore when the ship is in one of the ports and the captain is busy (for one or the other of them, or them together).
Or an adventure on the zee, fighting creatures or dealing with crew madness in the dark.
Medical situations in this world could get very weird; what kinds of things does the Campaigner deal with as ship’s doctor?
Abbey Rock particularly fascinates me; you could tell me more about the Adventuress’s deal to fight the Sisters’ Adversary for them, and her battle (and leave it tragic or fix it somehow after her victory if you choose).
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Tam Lin
Janet, Tam Lin, The Queen
I’m a big fan of the Child ballads and traditional folk/story songs in general. My favorite sung version of “Tam Lin” is probably Fairport Convention’s [lyrics]. There are many retellings, but I’d love another one or a story that spins off of it or fills in some of the blanks.
The thing I love most at the heart of the story is Janet’s courage and steadfastness in enduring the fairy queen’s test to rescue her beloved. But I’m also fascinated by the darkness surrounding that, like the warning away from Carterhaugh at the beginning, the queen owing a tithe to hell, and the body horror of the transformations and having to hold on to these things. You could keep the pregnancy in or leave it out, whichever works best with your story.
Prompt suggestions:
An f/f retelling would be very my thing, but not required.
An AU in a very different setting, like space or virtual reality or another historical period or a culture with a different mythology around fairies/spirits (for an extra challenge, it could also be interesting set in one of my other requested fandoms, if you know them)
Something from Tam Lin’s POV or the queen’s that fills in their backstory together?
Something that elaborates more on Janet/Tam Lin’s initial and subsequent encounters between the lines of the ballad?
Something set after the end that deals with the repercussions or further consequences? (are there permanent effects on Tam Lin? if there’s a child, is the child affected in some way?)
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