Dear Yuletide Writer, 2015
Hello, lovely fellow Yuletider! I’m really happy that we’ve been matched. You obviously have excellent taste, since you’ve offered one of my fandoms. ;) But seriously, I’m really excited to see what you write. You’re awesome. ♥
Things I love: adventures, falling in love (especially when the characters don’t realise that’s what they’re doing), unreliable narrators, slow build, characters with plans, characters with plans that go wrong, characters in love who have difficulty making the first move (particularly if the person they're pining for is in love with them too and having similar troubles), epistolary fic, teasing, snark, established relationships (particularly the old-marriedness and cosy bits), kissing, thorough kissing, worldbuilding, magic, working through problems, laughter and derailments and affection during sex, cuddling, domesticity, happy endings. ( More porn likes, if that’s your thing.)
Dislikes and squicks: gore, scat, torture, bestiality, under-age sex, incest, non-con. Also, I’m a vegan. This isn’t a big deal usually - feel free to have people eating cheeseburgers in the background or whatever. It’s only a squick for me if the eating of animals is graphic, dwelt on at length, and/or raw.
On to the fandoms and ships!
♥ ♥ ♥
~//~
FANDOM NUMBER ONE:
The Goblin Emperor
Character: Csethiro Ceredin
Signup text: I love Csethiro! Pretty much anything you write about her will make me happy, except for the things on my DNW list. If you already have a plotbunny about her - or if any of my general likes inspire one - go for it! It'd be fun to be surprised with something. :)
Bonding, cats, worldbuilding, court manners, porn, adventures, outsider POV, canon-divergent AUs - anything and everything will make me happy! Some prompts in my letter, if you’re stuck, along with general likes and DNWs.
If you're stuck, here are some ideas from me:
• Cats are the symbol of House Drazhada, so tell me a story about cats! The time a cat adopted Maia. The time Csethiro’s cat had kittens and she gave one to her fiancée/found her husband up at night petting them/had to chase them out of state papers.
• Csethiro's outsider POV on an event from the books.
• What is Csethiro's reaction to Maia's accession? Being selected as his bride? Their first meeting (or the first time she saw him, before they officially met)? How does he compare to the young courtiers she knows?
• Csethiro has an adventure. It may involve going undercover.
• A time when Maia and Csethiro's different childhoods and upbringing meant they had a misunderstanding over something and had to sort it out.
• Csethiro teaching Maia something about court life/court people.
• Csethiro and Maia getting to know each other before the wedding (whether that’s completely innocent bonding time, or something a bit higher-rated).
• Csethiro meets Shaleän Sevraseched, Maia’s sea-captain aunt, who has come to court (with her wife?) on business (or just to see her nephew). How do they get along? What is Shaleän’s story?
• Csethiro solves a mystery.
• Csethiro talks to someone (family member? friend?) about what her expectations had been when she was chosen to be Empress, and how it's played out instead.
• Csethiro goes on a visit (with or without Maia) to the court of the Great Avar. Why does she go? Who does she meet? What happens there? Do things Not Go As Planned?
• Skip forward five/ten/fifteen years. What does Csethiro's life look like? What is she teaching her children about their family's history/how to be a proper royal/etc.? How does she incorporate Maia’s goblin heritage?
• Canon-divergent AU in which Maia does not become Emperor, and they meet in some other situation. (Maybe his father does die, but not his brother, and his brother brings him to court.) Romance or friendship, your choice.
• Or perhaps you don't want to write Maia at all! If so - what about Csethiro's relationship with any other character in the book? (Surprise me.) How does she relate to them? What does she think of their choices?
I am completely up for porn in this fandom as well. I do like my porn with characterization and/or plot involved as well as the porny bits. :)
I am equally up for worldbuilding, particularly anything involving Csethiro, her life, her role, her family, her pre-Maia experiences, etc.
♥ ♥ ♥
FANDOM NUMBER TWO:
Lord Peter Wimsey - Dorothy L. Sayers
Characters: Harriet Vane, Helen Duchess of Denver, Dowager Duchess
Signup text: First of all, this is one of my favorite fictional universes of all time. If you write me a story featuring one or more of my requested characters, you will already be making my Yuletide a very happy one. If you already have a plotbunny - or if any of the general likes in my letter inspire one - go for it! It'd be fun to be surprised with something. :)
A few prompts (more in my letter): What would a Wimsey Family Christmas look like? Does anyone else in the family ever try to write a mystery novel like Harriet, and to what success? What kind of an uncle is St George? How might Harriet and Peter meet and fall in love in a canon-divergent AU?
I have had a ridiculous amount of love for these characters for a very long time. Gaudy Night is usually the title I give when I'm forced to pick a favorite book (although it's like picking a favorite child!), and Wimsey is one of my favorite exchange fandoms. I just adore the universe and everyone in it. The mysteries! Harriet and Peter (and trusty Bunter)! Helen being so Helenish (I confess to a giant soft spot for her)! The Dowager Duchess and Miss Climpson being so fantastic!! St George and his hijinks! Photography and old books and poetry and falling asleep in a punt! It's all simply marvellous.
I am attempting right now to not be totally hopeless and just say "anything, dear writer!" It is hard. Some ideas, though, in addition to the ones in my signup text:
• Outsider POV is one of my favorites, so what does St George think of the events in Gaudy Night? What about an epistolary fic from Helen about Peter's idiocy in the Vane affair (or a non-epistolary fic about Helen's reaction to her husband being tried for murder)? The Dowager Duchess telling her diary about Harriet & Peter's wedding and all the commotion?
• Who does St George fall in love with, and what do his relatives think of this person? Slash or het are both fine.
• Anything Helen, hahaha. I love her. It strikes me that I don't really remember any interactions between St George & his mother in the books - you could correct this deficit! What does she think when he gets into one of his scrapes?
• What was it like for Helen to marry into the Wimsey family? To marry someone like Gerald, have a brother-in-law like Peter, and a mother-in-law like the Dowager? That's a pretty daunting prospect - was Helen ever daunted? Or was she always a battleship?
• The three first meetings that the Dowager Duchess had with her three children’s intended spouses, and what she thought of each of them.
• Does anyone else in the family ever attempt to try their hand at writing a mystery story, and what does Harriet think of their attempts? They'd each have unique styles, I'm guessing. ;) I'm cracking up imagining a Dowager Duchess one, or a St George one. (I can't even imagine a Helen one, though.)
• Family Christmas! Do they play parlor games? What are charades like in the Wimsey family? (Or would Helen disapprove too much for anything like that? Perhaps this is a Harriet-Peter get-together at their London house with St George, the Dowager, Mary, Parker, etc., without Gerald & Helen and all the pomp of Official Family Christmas.)
• Sort-of combining the two previous prompts, is one of the parlor games at Family Christmas something to do with deduction? Or telling a mystery story and challenging the others to guess the solution?
If you decide that you want to focus on one or two of the characters I’ve requested, it’s okay to minimize the presence of the one(s) you’re not focusing on. So if, for example, you were to write a story about the first time Helen met the Dowager Duchess (omitting Harriet), or about the first family Christmas Harriet and Peter held at their London House (with Gerald & Helen not invited), those would be completely okay with me. :)
♥ ♥ ♥
FANDOM NUMBER THREE:
Inda series - Sherwood Smith
Characters: Hadand "Arrow" Algara-Vayir (daughter of Inda and Tdor), Hadand "Captain Han" Tlen, Hadand Algara-Vayir, Tdor Marth-Davan
Sign-up text: I recently finished this series, and I love it! If you write me a story featuring one or more of my requested characters, you will be making my Yuletide a very happy one. If you already have a plotbunny - or if any of the general likes in my letter inspire one - go for it! It'd be fun to be surprised with something. :)
A few prompts (more in my letter): I would love to see a story about Hadand and Tdor’s friendship, whether that’s five-times fic, or their first meeting, or epistolary fic, or anything else you think of. Or, what does Arrow learn about/from her mother and aunt? Or how about a story centering around Captain Han’s new life in the capital and any adventures she might have (perhaps involving Hadand and/or Arrow?)
What else to say? This is a wonderful series, and I love all the Hadands (and Tdor too). Any story that involves one or more of them will be awesome. If you have your own plotbunny, go to town! If you don’t, here are some more ideas/prompts:
• I love five-times fic. How about five times Hadand and Tdor agreed, and one time they disagreed? (Or vice-versa.) Five times Hadand/Tdor met someone for the first time, and one time she met someone for the last time? Maybe five mysteries Captain Han solved, and one she was content to let stay unsolved.
• Outside-POV is something else I adore! If you want to stay solidly in the books-era, how about a scene/episode told from an alternative point of view? I love how different POVs can subtly change the whole dynamic of scenes, and add additional context. It’s like a remix!
• Since Arrow is separated from her mother at a young age, I think it’d be interesting to read epistolary fic between them. Or between Hadand/Tdor. Epistolary fic is one of my favorite things, and I think it’d fit this canon really well.
• Does Captain Han eventually become one of Hadand’s runners? What might their relationship look like? What is Captain Han’s experience as one of the first girls to train as a King’s Runner?
• One thing I’m interested in is how the Inda/Fox stories take on larger-than-life dimensions and are turned into myth. It seems to happen very quickly. A story that explored that process, through any combination of the requested characters, would be lovely. Each of them have different connections/perspectives to the stories.
• Any combination of the requested characters bonding, in whatever way you like. Over a practice bout, somebody’s bad cooking, going on a long ride, having a picnic, defending a castle, deciphering old manuscripts together, flurries of letters working on diplomatic/political maneuvering together - just about anything works for me.
• I would love to read a story about Hadand and Evred’s marriage, and how they make it work for them (as companions, monarchs, and parents), even though she’s in love with him and he’s in love with her brother. My fix-it desire for this pairing isn’t “make him love her”, it’s more “have him learn to value her and have sincere affection for her”.
I am definitely up for worldbuilding in this fandom as well. :) If that’s something you enjoy, I will love it!
♥ ♥ ♥
~//~
Hopefully this has been helpful! :) If you want more info, do check out my other fandoms for ideas, and/or my past letters (under the "exchange letters" tag). A lot of my beloved tropes and plotbunnies are panfandom (with variations, of course, for the different beloved characters), and can be stolen for other fandoms.
Thank you again for offering one of my favorite fandoms! I know I’ll love your fic. Happy creating! ♥ ♥ ♥
Things I love: adventures, falling in love (especially when the characters don’t realise that’s what they’re doing), unreliable narrators, slow build, characters with plans, characters with plans that go wrong, characters in love who have difficulty making the first move (particularly if the person they're pining for is in love with them too and having similar troubles), epistolary fic, teasing, snark, established relationships (particularly the old-marriedness and cosy bits), kissing, thorough kissing, worldbuilding, magic, working through problems, laughter and derailments and affection during sex, cuddling, domesticity, happy endings. ( More porn likes, if that’s your thing.)
Dislikes and squicks: gore, scat, torture, bestiality, under-age sex, incest, non-con. Also, I’m a vegan. This isn’t a big deal usually - feel free to have people eating cheeseburgers in the background or whatever. It’s only a squick for me if the eating of animals is graphic, dwelt on at length, and/or raw.
On to the fandoms and ships!
♥ ♥ ♥
~//~
FANDOM NUMBER ONE:
The Goblin Emperor
Character: Csethiro Ceredin
Signup text: I love Csethiro! Pretty much anything you write about her will make me happy, except for the things on my DNW list. If you already have a plotbunny about her - or if any of my general likes inspire one - go for it! It'd be fun to be surprised with something. :)
Bonding, cats, worldbuilding, court manners, porn, adventures, outsider POV, canon-divergent AUs - anything and everything will make me happy! Some prompts in my letter, if you’re stuck, along with general likes and DNWs.
If you're stuck, here are some ideas from me:
• Cats are the symbol of House Drazhada, so tell me a story about cats! The time a cat adopted Maia. The time Csethiro’s cat had kittens and she gave one to her fiancée/found her husband up at night petting them/had to chase them out of state papers.
• Csethiro's outsider POV on an event from the books.
• What is Csethiro's reaction to Maia's accession? Being selected as his bride? Their first meeting (or the first time she saw him, before they officially met)? How does he compare to the young courtiers she knows?
• Csethiro has an adventure. It may involve going undercover.
• A time when Maia and Csethiro's different childhoods and upbringing meant they had a misunderstanding over something and had to sort it out.
• Csethiro teaching Maia something about court life/court people.
• Csethiro and Maia getting to know each other before the wedding (whether that’s completely innocent bonding time, or something a bit higher-rated).
• Csethiro meets Shaleän Sevraseched, Maia’s sea-captain aunt, who has come to court (with her wife?) on business (or just to see her nephew). How do they get along? What is Shaleän’s story?
• Csethiro solves a mystery.
• Csethiro talks to someone (family member? friend?) about what her expectations had been when she was chosen to be Empress, and how it's played out instead.
• Csethiro goes on a visit (with or without Maia) to the court of the Great Avar. Why does she go? Who does she meet? What happens there? Do things Not Go As Planned?
• Skip forward five/ten/fifteen years. What does Csethiro's life look like? What is she teaching her children about their family's history/how to be a proper royal/etc.? How does she incorporate Maia’s goblin heritage?
• Canon-divergent AU in which Maia does not become Emperor, and they meet in some other situation. (Maybe his father does die, but not his brother, and his brother brings him to court.) Romance or friendship, your choice.
• Or perhaps you don't want to write Maia at all! If so - what about Csethiro's relationship with any other character in the book? (Surprise me.) How does she relate to them? What does she think of their choices?
I am completely up for porn in this fandom as well. I do like my porn with characterization and/or plot involved as well as the porny bits. :)
I am equally up for worldbuilding, particularly anything involving Csethiro, her life, her role, her family, her pre-Maia experiences, etc.
♥ ♥ ♥
FANDOM NUMBER TWO:
Lord Peter Wimsey - Dorothy L. Sayers
Characters: Harriet Vane, Helen Duchess of Denver, Dowager Duchess
Signup text: First of all, this is one of my favorite fictional universes of all time. If you write me a story featuring one or more of my requested characters, you will already be making my Yuletide a very happy one. If you already have a plotbunny - or if any of the general likes in my letter inspire one - go for it! It'd be fun to be surprised with something. :)
A few prompts (more in my letter): What would a Wimsey Family Christmas look like? Does anyone else in the family ever try to write a mystery novel like Harriet, and to what success? What kind of an uncle is St George? How might Harriet and Peter meet and fall in love in a canon-divergent AU?
I have had a ridiculous amount of love for these characters for a very long time. Gaudy Night is usually the title I give when I'm forced to pick a favorite book (although it's like picking a favorite child!), and Wimsey is one of my favorite exchange fandoms. I just adore the universe and everyone in it. The mysteries! Harriet and Peter (and trusty Bunter)! Helen being so Helenish (I confess to a giant soft spot for her)! The Dowager Duchess and Miss Climpson being so fantastic!! St George and his hijinks! Photography and old books and poetry and falling asleep in a punt! It's all simply marvellous.
I am attempting right now to not be totally hopeless and just say "anything, dear writer!" It is hard. Some ideas, though, in addition to the ones in my signup text:
• Outsider POV is one of my favorites, so what does St George think of the events in Gaudy Night? What about an epistolary fic from Helen about Peter's idiocy in the Vane affair (or a non-epistolary fic about Helen's reaction to her husband being tried for murder)? The Dowager Duchess telling her diary about Harriet & Peter's wedding and all the commotion?
• Who does St George fall in love with, and what do his relatives think of this person? Slash or het are both fine.
• Anything Helen, hahaha. I love her. It strikes me that I don't really remember any interactions between St George & his mother in the books - you could correct this deficit! What does she think when he gets into one of his scrapes?
• What was it like for Helen to marry into the Wimsey family? To marry someone like Gerald, have a brother-in-law like Peter, and a mother-in-law like the Dowager? That's a pretty daunting prospect - was Helen ever daunted? Or was she always a battleship?
• The three first meetings that the Dowager Duchess had with her three children’s intended spouses, and what she thought of each of them.
• Does anyone else in the family ever attempt to try their hand at writing a mystery story, and what does Harriet think of their attempts? They'd each have unique styles, I'm guessing. ;) I'm cracking up imagining a Dowager Duchess one, or a St George one. (I can't even imagine a Helen one, though.)
• Family Christmas! Do they play parlor games? What are charades like in the Wimsey family? (Or would Helen disapprove too much for anything like that? Perhaps this is a Harriet-Peter get-together at their London house with St George, the Dowager, Mary, Parker, etc., without Gerald & Helen and all the pomp of Official Family Christmas.)
• Sort-of combining the two previous prompts, is one of the parlor games at Family Christmas something to do with deduction? Or telling a mystery story and challenging the others to guess the solution?
If you decide that you want to focus on one or two of the characters I’ve requested, it’s okay to minimize the presence of the one(s) you’re not focusing on. So if, for example, you were to write a story about the first time Helen met the Dowager Duchess (omitting Harriet), or about the first family Christmas Harriet and Peter held at their London House (with Gerald & Helen not invited), those would be completely okay with me. :)
♥ ♥ ♥
FANDOM NUMBER THREE:
Inda series - Sherwood Smith
Characters: Hadand "Arrow" Algara-Vayir (daughter of Inda and Tdor), Hadand "Captain Han" Tlen, Hadand Algara-Vayir, Tdor Marth-Davan
Sign-up text: I recently finished this series, and I love it! If you write me a story featuring one or more of my requested characters, you will be making my Yuletide a very happy one. If you already have a plotbunny - or if any of the general likes in my letter inspire one - go for it! It'd be fun to be surprised with something. :)
A few prompts (more in my letter): I would love to see a story about Hadand and Tdor’s friendship, whether that’s five-times fic, or their first meeting, or epistolary fic, or anything else you think of. Or, what does Arrow learn about/from her mother and aunt? Or how about a story centering around Captain Han’s new life in the capital and any adventures she might have (perhaps involving Hadand and/or Arrow?)
What else to say? This is a wonderful series, and I love all the Hadands (and Tdor too). Any story that involves one or more of them will be awesome. If you have your own plotbunny, go to town! If you don’t, here are some more ideas/prompts:
• I love five-times fic. How about five times Hadand and Tdor agreed, and one time they disagreed? (Or vice-versa.) Five times Hadand/Tdor met someone for the first time, and one time she met someone for the last time? Maybe five mysteries Captain Han solved, and one she was content to let stay unsolved.
• Outside-POV is something else I adore! If you want to stay solidly in the books-era, how about a scene/episode told from an alternative point of view? I love how different POVs can subtly change the whole dynamic of scenes, and add additional context. It’s like a remix!
• Since Arrow is separated from her mother at a young age, I think it’d be interesting to read epistolary fic between them. Or between Hadand/Tdor. Epistolary fic is one of my favorite things, and I think it’d fit this canon really well.
• Does Captain Han eventually become one of Hadand’s runners? What might their relationship look like? What is Captain Han’s experience as one of the first girls to train as a King’s Runner?
• One thing I’m interested in is how the Inda/Fox stories take on larger-than-life dimensions and are turned into myth. It seems to happen very quickly. A story that explored that process, through any combination of the requested characters, would be lovely. Each of them have different connections/perspectives to the stories.
• Any combination of the requested characters bonding, in whatever way you like. Over a practice bout, somebody’s bad cooking, going on a long ride, having a picnic, defending a castle, deciphering old manuscripts together, flurries of letters working on diplomatic/political maneuvering together - just about anything works for me.
• I would love to read a story about Hadand and Evred’s marriage, and how they make it work for them (as companions, monarchs, and parents), even though she’s in love with him and he’s in love with her brother. My fix-it desire for this pairing isn’t “make him love her”, it’s more “have him learn to value her and have sincere affection for her”.
I am definitely up for worldbuilding in this fandom as well. :) If that’s something you enjoy, I will love it!
♥ ♥ ♥
~//~
Hopefully this has been helpful! :) If you want more info, do check out my other fandoms for ideas, and/or my past letters (under the "exchange letters" tag). A lot of my beloved tropes and plotbunnies are panfandom (with variations, of course, for the different beloved characters), and can be stolen for other fandoms.
Thank you again for offering one of my favorite fandoms! I know I’ll love your fic. Happy creating! ♥ ♥ ♥