Dear Yuletide Writer!
Hello!
I'm really excited about Yuletide this year. I've been eyeing it for years and years, but this time I felt like taking the risk and actually doing it. It's all a big adventure, haha. Here's to hoping tentacle monsters from the deep don't eat me before Christmas.
To make things a bit easier: my username on Ao3 is ljusclara.
Anyway, let's get down to business:
Likes: Worldbuilding! Character-driven plots. Humour, whether dark or utterly ridiculous. Women, genderbends (especially always-a-girl kind of things), femslash - I really Iike femslash, gen, lesbians. Mysteries, possession, the supernatural. Spookiness and ghosts! Smut, esp if awkward and adorable. Most kinks. Slight obsession with epistolary fic.
Dislikes: Noncon, kidfic, character studies (but there are always exceptions), fluff for the sake of fluff, misogyny, issuefic. Things that are dark for the sake of being dark. Suicide, self-harm, eating disorders, body hate. Emotional abuse - physical abuse is more of a greyzone.
Fandoms requested:
Fallen London | Echo Bazaar (Player)
Now, I've been playing Fallen London since it was Echo Bazaar and the content cap was at level 80, but I am a very sporadic player. I'm not even a Person of Some Importance yet, having to grind for everything makes me wander off, bored. With that said, I always come back to Fallen London. I love the atmosphere and the humour. I love the glimpses we see of the whole, and the little hints that add up to a bigger story. I love the Brass Embassy and the Devils. I love working with the detectives and solving crimes; the Great Game and the spying; the intrigue at the Palace. Escaping from New Newgate...
I've requested the Player as a way to get some worldbuilding in here. Write about a complete newcomer to Fallen London, creating a life in the Neath. Why have they come here, what is their goal. To make a new life, in pursuit of something, to spy? It doesn't need to be a grand thing, but make it seem real. Tell me about the smells and the sounds and the people this person encounter. What is it like to die for the first time? Do they end up siding with the Church or the Devils? With the Revolutionaries or the Masters?
Or have them be an old resident, trying to reestablish their life after imprisonment, far away from the old plots and mysteries going on in the city. Are they an archeologist or a poet, or a dockworker? What connections do they have and what are their plans right now? I want to know what the city feels like, living in it day to day.
A few things: I don't care which character you use - your own or something entirely new. Mine is very random, doing what I think sounds fun at the time (but I am closest to Hell and I worked really hard at selling my soul, and my Shadowy is depressingly low, if you want to know). I don't particularly care about spoilers, but I would prefer if you kept to content available below level 100 simply because I'm not familiar with the stuff above that. If you want to include other characters, I am especially fond of the Quiet Deviless and the Affectionate Devil, as well as the Secular Missionary.
Oh and just for this fandom: I really love sexual, loving, consensual murder. Especially since you don't die permanently in the Neath. Especially if it's not gentle. Anyway, it's just one of those things. I would adore you if you wrote it for me, but it's fine if you can't. It isn't the most usual kink.
Arthurian Mythology (Guinevere)
Arthurian Mythology is one of those things that, looking back, I can see what a big influence it has been on what kind of fiction I enjoy. Despite that, I don't know a lot about it (okay, I say this but I also have Wikipedia and I will use it). Wrong cultural background, I guess.
The thing that attracted me to it in the first place, is the sense of predestination and the prophecy. I love that Arthur is the Once and Future King, who will return again when his country needs him. I love the dramatic confrontation between Arthur and Mordred, that ends them both. There are just so many things that appeal to me about it.
Though obviously this request isn't about Arthur, because I've seen that already. What I haven't seen is a closer, fairer look at Guinevere. The affair with Lancelot overshadows everything, and the rivalry with Morgan le Fay (so I grew up watching Mists of Avalon, something that retroactively grosses me out). But I've never seen anything about Guinevere where she is a person in her own right. Where she is Arthur's Queen.
So you know. Tell me about her. About her life at court, as the queen without any heirs. About her loyalty and love for Arthur. Or something about Guinevere and other women - as friends or as lovers or as sisters. And is she a sorceress, like her name hints at? What are her own goals and motivations, as both daughter and wife of powerful men.
One thing: I don't like courtly love and I don't like Lancelot. Feel free to ignore him entirely, in fact, or make him not exist in this version. Unless you want to do something actually interesting with him, like making him be a woman because I am not exaggerating about my love for femslash (sorry). Also, I never ship Guinevere and Lancelot so much as when they both love Arthur and he loves them. Arthur/Guinevere/Lancelot is one of my OT3s... owo
Girl Genius (Agatha Heterodyne, Gilgamesh Wulfenbach, Tarvek Stormvoraus)
Speaking of OT3s... :D
I first got into Girl Genius a couple of years ago; I did a huge archive binge, read until my eyes bled, and I was sold. I mean, I caught up when Gil was outside the walls of Mechanicsburg, destroying an army. That's a pretty nice hook, as far as they go.
Now, I'm the first to admit that steampunk is Not My Thing, but apparently when you label it Gaslamp Fantasy and set it in Central Europe, I am all over it. I love the slight anchor to our world, but with a whole boatload of insanity and weirdness on top of it. Mad science! Makes everything that much more interesting! Just ask a jäger. The MAD SCIENCE is definitely a big draw. I love the Sparks, and I love how all Sparks are different. From insane genuises to just insane.
I want something that is just as insane and weird and over the top as the canon. Set it in a little pocket universe, away from the big plot at the moment, and write about Agatha and Gil and Tarvek being Sparky and doing science together. I mean, chances are it would end up an utter disaster, because they are three different Sparks with different interests, but that's part of the fun.
I don't want smut for this fandom. I'm happy with romance, though! Gil and Tarvek competing for Agatha's attentions warm my cold, shrivelled heart. But like I said - I ship this as an OT3, not a love triangle. Gil and Tarvek keep fighting with each other because the just can't stand for what the other represents if my favourite, because c'mon. It's hilarious. But in the end, they do care about each other...
Also, Agatha's Heterodyne genes and how to handle them. She has a worrying fondness for death rays, even if she is one of the nicest Heterodyne ever. Compared to her, the boys seem less dangerous somehow (well... depending on circumstances), even if Agatha's danger is slightly innocent.
I wouldn't say no to an AU for this either. Just keep the feel of canon - Space AU? Awesome! Coffee shop AU? Well, Agatha does make amazing coffee in canon! Go crazy with that if you want to, make me laugh.
Stand Still Stay Silent (Webcomic) (Any)
Oh my god, this webcomic! I picked it up because I saw it nominated, and the characters nominated had Finnish and Swedish names. Okay, I'll check it out, I thought. I read it all in one night - it's not very long, so far. Just under 200 pages, but by the time I had finished reading, I was so excited I just wanted more!
It's a post-apocalyptical canon, set 90 years after a strange disease ravaged the world. All that remains of human life is in the Nordic countries. Iceland is the biggest stronghold, and Icelandic is the lingua franca. The start of the plot is an expedition that is being sent into the unsafe areas, to explore and to try to learn more about the world before the disease. It's badly funded and the people who signed up for it at either way, way too young, or they have nothing else left to try. You can think what you want about the characters, but they're growing on me.
What I really, really want is worldbuilding, though. I just want to learn more about this setting! Like what's life on Iceland, for example? Have they ever had an outbreak, or was it so efficiently contained at the start? Or maybe tell me about life in the small enclaves in Norway and Finland. Or about Mora, the "capital of Scandinavia" (some things will never change)? What's it like to work outside the safe zones, destroying the nests of trolls and beasts? What's it like to be Danish and know your country is lost, just recently?
Or you know, stuff about the magic! Both the Icelandic system and the Finnish. Extra bonus if you can write in Kalevala meter, haha. Oh, and why exactly doesn't Sweden have mages?
Other things that would be cool: the engineers who keep the trains running in Sweden, and who maintains the ferries (Viking Line ferries turned into Viking ships... :D )? What has remained from before the outbreak? What knowledge still exists, which stories are still told, who are the famous people? Tell me about the skalds, and their work!
I am just so excited about this canon, and glad that Yuletide introduced me to it. I've always wanted a post-apocalyptic story set in Scandinavia, and here I have it! Even though it's only just got started, I want more more more and if you can write me this for Yuletide, I will be so incredibly happy.
And that's it. Good luck writing, I hope you have fun doing it and a nice winter aside from it!
I'm really excited about Yuletide this year. I've been eyeing it for years and years, but this time I felt like taking the risk and actually doing it. It's all a big adventure, haha. Here's to hoping tentacle monsters from the deep don't eat me before Christmas.
To make things a bit easier: my username on Ao3 is ljusclara.
Anyway, let's get down to business:
Likes: Worldbuilding! Character-driven plots. Humour, whether dark or utterly ridiculous. Women, genderbends (especially always-a-girl kind of things), femslash - I really Iike femslash, gen, lesbians. Mysteries, possession, the supernatural. Spookiness and ghosts! Smut, esp if awkward and adorable. Most kinks. Slight obsession with epistolary fic.
Dislikes: Noncon, kidfic, character studies (but there are always exceptions), fluff for the sake of fluff, misogyny, issuefic. Things that are dark for the sake of being dark. Suicide, self-harm, eating disorders, body hate. Emotional abuse - physical abuse is more of a greyzone.
Fandoms requested:
Fallen London | Echo Bazaar (Player)
Now, I've been playing Fallen London since it was Echo Bazaar and the content cap was at level 80, but I am a very sporadic player. I'm not even a Person of Some Importance yet, having to grind for everything makes me wander off, bored. With that said, I always come back to Fallen London. I love the atmosphere and the humour. I love the glimpses we see of the whole, and the little hints that add up to a bigger story. I love the Brass Embassy and the Devils. I love working with the detectives and solving crimes; the Great Game and the spying; the intrigue at the Palace. Escaping from New Newgate...
I've requested the Player as a way to get some worldbuilding in here. Write about a complete newcomer to Fallen London, creating a life in the Neath. Why have they come here, what is their goal. To make a new life, in pursuit of something, to spy? It doesn't need to be a grand thing, but make it seem real. Tell me about the smells and the sounds and the people this person encounter. What is it like to die for the first time? Do they end up siding with the Church or the Devils? With the Revolutionaries or the Masters?
Or have them be an old resident, trying to reestablish their life after imprisonment, far away from the old plots and mysteries going on in the city. Are they an archeologist or a poet, or a dockworker? What connections do they have and what are their plans right now? I want to know what the city feels like, living in it day to day.
A few things: I don't care which character you use - your own or something entirely new. Mine is very random, doing what I think sounds fun at the time (but I am closest to Hell and I worked really hard at selling my soul, and my Shadowy is depressingly low, if you want to know). I don't particularly care about spoilers, but I would prefer if you kept to content available below level 100 simply because I'm not familiar with the stuff above that. If you want to include other characters, I am especially fond of the Quiet Deviless and the Affectionate Devil, as well as the Secular Missionary.
Oh and just for this fandom: I really love sexual, loving, consensual murder. Especially since you don't die permanently in the Neath. Especially if it's not gentle. Anyway, it's just one of those things. I would adore you if you wrote it for me, but it's fine if you can't. It isn't the most usual kink.
Arthurian Mythology (Guinevere)
Arthurian Mythology is one of those things that, looking back, I can see what a big influence it has been on what kind of fiction I enjoy. Despite that, I don't know a lot about it (okay, I say this but I also have Wikipedia and I will use it). Wrong cultural background, I guess.
The thing that attracted me to it in the first place, is the sense of predestination and the prophecy. I love that Arthur is the Once and Future King, who will return again when his country needs him. I love the dramatic confrontation between Arthur and Mordred, that ends them both. There are just so many things that appeal to me about it.
Though obviously this request isn't about Arthur, because I've seen that already. What I haven't seen is a closer, fairer look at Guinevere. The affair with Lancelot overshadows everything, and the rivalry with Morgan le Fay (so I grew up watching Mists of Avalon, something that retroactively grosses me out). But I've never seen anything about Guinevere where she is a person in her own right. Where she is Arthur's Queen.
So you know. Tell me about her. About her life at court, as the queen without any heirs. About her loyalty and love for Arthur. Or something about Guinevere and other women - as friends or as lovers or as sisters. And is she a sorceress, like her name hints at? What are her own goals and motivations, as both daughter and wife of powerful men.
One thing: I don't like courtly love and I don't like Lancelot. Feel free to ignore him entirely, in fact, or make him not exist in this version. Unless you want to do something actually interesting with him, like making him be a woman because I am not exaggerating about my love for femslash (sorry). Also, I never ship Guinevere and Lancelot so much as when they both love Arthur and he loves them. Arthur/Guinevere/Lancelot is one of my OT3s... owo
Girl Genius (Agatha Heterodyne, Gilgamesh Wulfenbach, Tarvek Stormvoraus)
Speaking of OT3s... :D
I first got into Girl Genius a couple of years ago; I did a huge archive binge, read until my eyes bled, and I was sold. I mean, I caught up when Gil was outside the walls of Mechanicsburg, destroying an army. That's a pretty nice hook, as far as they go.
Now, I'm the first to admit that steampunk is Not My Thing, but apparently when you label it Gaslamp Fantasy and set it in Central Europe, I am all over it. I love the slight anchor to our world, but with a whole boatload of insanity and weirdness on top of it. Mad science! Makes everything that much more interesting! Just ask a jäger. The MAD SCIENCE is definitely a big draw. I love the Sparks, and I love how all Sparks are different. From insane genuises to just insane.
I want something that is just as insane and weird and over the top as the canon. Set it in a little pocket universe, away from the big plot at the moment, and write about Agatha and Gil and Tarvek being Sparky and doing science together. I mean, chances are it would end up an utter disaster, because they are three different Sparks with different interests, but that's part of the fun.
I don't want smut for this fandom. I'm happy with romance, though! Gil and Tarvek competing for Agatha's attentions warm my cold, shrivelled heart. But like I said - I ship this as an OT3, not a love triangle. Gil and Tarvek keep fighting with each other because the just can't stand for what the other represents if my favourite, because c'mon. It's hilarious. But in the end, they do care about each other...
Also, Agatha's Heterodyne genes and how to handle them. She has a worrying fondness for death rays, even if she is one of the nicest Heterodyne ever. Compared to her, the boys seem less dangerous somehow (well... depending on circumstances), even if Agatha's danger is slightly innocent.
I wouldn't say no to an AU for this either. Just keep the feel of canon - Space AU? Awesome! Coffee shop AU? Well, Agatha does make amazing coffee in canon! Go crazy with that if you want to, make me laugh.
Stand Still Stay Silent (Webcomic) (Any)
Oh my god, this webcomic! I picked it up because I saw it nominated, and the characters nominated had Finnish and Swedish names. Okay, I'll check it out, I thought. I read it all in one night - it's not very long, so far. Just under 200 pages, but by the time I had finished reading, I was so excited I just wanted more!
It's a post-apocalyptical canon, set 90 years after a strange disease ravaged the world. All that remains of human life is in the Nordic countries. Iceland is the biggest stronghold, and Icelandic is the lingua franca. The start of the plot is an expedition that is being sent into the unsafe areas, to explore and to try to learn more about the world before the disease. It's badly funded and the people who signed up for it at either way, way too young, or they have nothing else left to try. You can think what you want about the characters, but they're growing on me.
What I really, really want is worldbuilding, though. I just want to learn more about this setting! Like what's life on Iceland, for example? Have they ever had an outbreak, or was it so efficiently contained at the start? Or maybe tell me about life in the small enclaves in Norway and Finland. Or about Mora, the "capital of Scandinavia" (some things will never change)? What's it like to work outside the safe zones, destroying the nests of trolls and beasts? What's it like to be Danish and know your country is lost, just recently?
Or you know, stuff about the magic! Both the Icelandic system and the Finnish. Extra bonus if you can write in Kalevala meter, haha. Oh, and why exactly doesn't Sweden have mages?
Other things that would be cool: the engineers who keep the trains running in Sweden, and who maintains the ferries (Viking Line ferries turned into Viking ships... :D )? What has remained from before the outbreak? What knowledge still exists, which stories are still told, who are the famous people? Tell me about the skalds, and their work!
I am just so excited about this canon, and glad that Yuletide introduced me to it. I've always wanted a post-apocalyptic story set in Scandinavia, and here I have it! Even though it's only just got started, I want more more more and if you can write me this for Yuletide, I will be so incredibly happy.
And that's it. Good luck writing, I hope you have fun doing it and a nice winter aside from it!