Dear Yuletide Writer
I love all of the fandoms and characters I'm requesting, so if one section seems longer or shorter than another, it's due to how much I had to say, not how much I love the request. They're ordered in reverse alphabetical order, and there's a fair amount of copy-pasting from previous letters. They are all fandoms of my heart, and I'm excited at the possibility of receiving any of them.
Also, this letter is super long, so please don't feel obligated to read it all. If you already have an idea of what you want to do from just the AO3 requests, go for it! This is all to (I hope) make it easier on you, and I am a big believer in optional details being optional. There being fic for my fandoms will make me happy. Everything else is icing for delicious, delicious cake.
This year I'm requesting three video game fandoms, and one quest game: Don't Starve, (Wickerbottom, Willow), Dwarf Fortress (Any), and Long Live the Queen (Arisse, Briony, Charlotte, Elodie), as well as Rubyquest (Red, Ruby). If you're really not feeling the request you matched on, here's hoping you know one of the others! I'm including links for where you can find and/or acquire them all.
Also, these are almost all fandoms I've either requested in other ongoing exchanges (DF & DS) or have received fic for in Yuletides past (DF & LLtQ). Please don't feel like you have to compete with anyone past or present! I love these fandoms a lot, and there is not a lot out there for them, so while I loved everything I've received so far, I'm sure whatever you write me will be a delight to me, too!
Fair warning: this letter will contain spoilers, so if you haven't played or read something and want to go into it with fresh eyes, you'll want to skip that section.
For ease of stalking: tuesday on AO3, everysecondtuesday on tumblr
General Likes:
I'm happy with gen or romance. If you go the romance route, I'm good with f/f, f/m, m/m, poly, and ace.
I like both long and short fic, so go where the story leads you!
A list of some tropes and themes I adore, the gen version:
AUs (modern, regency, historic, magic, college, cyberpunk, steampunk, canon divergence, everyone lives, end of the world, all the AUs) worldbuilding IN SPACE friendship & found family political machinations, negotiations, intrigue, & alliances of convenience time travel, time loops, & character has the chance to re-do/relive events mysteries & case fic prank wars slice of life & character study aliens, robots, mermaids, & monsters ghosts, magic, & dragons reincarnation comedy of errors competence & communication codas & future fic crossovers & fusions
A list of some shippy tropes and themes I adore (in addition to all of the above):
arranged marriage & marriage of convenience soulbonds & soulmates pining first times friends to lovers didn't know they're dating woke up married wooing, extended courtships, & whirlwind romance plot & pwp developing relationships/friendships matchmaking trapped together
Feel free to go as dark or fluffy or creepy or cracked out as your heart desires. I'd prefer a happy, hopeful, bittersweet, or ray of light in the distance ending, even if it's just a where there's life there's hope situation.
DNWs:
Literally the only things that could keep me from reading a gift fic are non-con and rapeplay.
Because I listed AUs above, I feel like I should mention there are AUs I'm just not into anymore (though I have enjoyed some fic with them in the past) - slavery, serial killer, mafia, prison, and sex worker AUs.
I'm not really into infidelity (poly or marriage only as an arrangement is fine! I just prefer everyone involved to know and be okay with what's going on), underage, incest (my exceptions are not in any of these fandoms), or eye trauma.
As said above, I usually like even my unhappy endings to come with a grain of hope, so please no permanent major character death unless otherwise indicated. I'll go into this more (including talk of canon character deaths) in each fandom section, though I'll note here that there are options for where I'll happily roll with some or a lot character death in several fandoms.
Rubyquest (Red, Ruby):
Short summary/promotion: Rubyquest is a quest game that follows the eponymous Ruby, an anthropomorphic bunny with a mean right hook and no memories of life before she wakes up in a metal coffin in an underwater facility overrun by eldritch abominations. Though the game is finished, the glory of /tg/'s run lives on.
Links:
Rubyquest (the entire comic/game on one page)
Wiki (includes links to the original archived threads)
General talk: I love Weaver's work so, so much (still disappointed that he seems to have disappeared in the middle of a new quest) and watching Rubyquest unfold was amazing. I loved all the characters, so anyone you want to include, I will be all over. Ship-wise, canon was everything I wanted for Ruby/Tom; what I would really like from fandom is Red/Ruby. If you don't ship it, that's okay! I am good with Ruby & Red gen adventures, or ensemble fic, or whatever it is that catches your interest.
Exceptions to my Likes/DNWs:
If you're going with canon, obviously Red dies, and I'm okay with that. Of course, if you want to do something with reviving Red via means of his severed hand/cell regrowth via the whole eldritch abomination thing, I would also be delighted. Same if you want to go canon-divergent branch AU. Point is, canon permanent character death is perfectly fine with me! As is canon (or otherwise) non-permanent character death.
Prompts:
Something gen: What was the Glen like before everything went pear-shaped? Were Red and Ruby friends? Did the company have doctor-patient group picnics? Or maybe something post-game, in which a fourth survivor appears via hand-growth resurrection. How would Ruby et al deal with that?
Something shippy: I am not sure I can be coherent here, but pretty much anything Red/Ruby would make me clap my hands in excitement. Canon-divergent AU in which there is a Red/Ruby romance instead of/in addition to a Tom/Ruby one? (See my note about being down with poly.) Post-canon resurrection scenario, but with additional Red/Ruby? Pre-canon fic in which Red and Ruby had a thing before she gave him that Glasgow smile? Complete AU? This is me making grabby hands and not being picky in the least.
Something dark: Eldritch abominations! Body horror! Unethical medical experimentation! Murder! Glasgow smiles! Rubyquest is full of the dark and disturbing, and it is delightful. Whether you want to document the Glen's (and Ruby's) slow slide into madness, to tell me about a much less successful Rubyquest run, five ways Red and Ruby die, or something else entirely, I am here for it.
Something explicit: If you want to write me Red/Ruby porn, I'd prefer it to be a human AU. Of course, feel free to keep the third eye/pointy smile that never ends/assorted body horror stuff . . . unless you don't want to, in which case, yes, sure, humans without horrifying extras.
Long Live the Queen (Arisse, Briony, Charlotte, Elodie):
Short summary/promotion: You play (and plot the development of) Elodie, Nova's princess and soon-to-be queen, recalled from boarding school with the death of her mother. Elodie has one year of tutors before she's crowned and takes on full-time duties, but she's still expected to make major decisions that will determine the shape of Nova's future (and her own). This game is a delightful mix of cracky and serious, with political intrigue galore. It's entirely too easy for Elodie to go on to her grave instead of to rule, but there are any number of vastly different play styles that can see her through, and the game lets you know what skill checks it makes, so you'll have an idea of what you might want to work on in future playthroughs. It's a quick game if you're concerned just with beating it, but if you're curious about the world and the possibilities, it can eat up a lot of time, as there are a ton of options for both how to win and how Nova (and Elodie) turns out.
Links:
LLtQ Dev site
LLtq on Steam
LLtQ Wiki
General talk:
If you're hoping to write ship fic this Yuletide, among the characters I requested, I ship Elodie/Briony. If that doesn't appeal, pretty much any femslash combo between a character I requested and someone else where they're not related is probably something I would be all over (e.g. Elodie/Brin, Briony/Gwenelle, etc). Alternately, if you'd like to explore any of the canon relationships or any of the romance options, I'd be up for it.
Also, this is your permission to not include all four characters - or, if you want, to not include all four equally. Feel free to write me a story about Charlotte and Elodie growing up, or Arisse and courtly machinations, or Briony giving the forest a second go as an adult lumen who knows what she's getting into. What I'm saying is, for this fandom, you can treat it like an alternate universe in which Yuletide works with "OR" matching. Not something I'd usually be into, but LLtQ, yes, absolutely, focus on the character(s) you're most enthusiastic about/work best with what you're writing. And if that's all of them, I am happy with that, too!
Exceptions to my Likes/DNWs:
Kill everyone! Okay, no, wait, that came out wrong. What I'm saying here, though, is that this is a game where no one is safe, and I am cool with that. Want to write "Five (More) Ways Elodie Died"? Go for it! Interested in an "Elodie the bloodthirsty tyrant" story that explores how the other characters deal with that? So am I!
Prompts (by character, then by category):
Arisse: Arisse has so much going on! All the bits revealed by intrigue are just, well, intriguing! What's going on with her family? Oh, man, and the variety of relationships you can have with her - from a great ally to out to oust you. I pretty much fell in love with her, though, when Elodie danced with her at the ball. Also, the needlepoint cushion! Did she make that herself?
Briony: Briony's boredom and love for adventure made me fall for her. First I was excited about Elodie getting letters from someone, but then I got to go into the forest and be a daring knight! *___* Uh, and then I got a million death endings during my daring rescue, because I was too stubborn to go to the wiki for far too long. But seriously, Briony and adventure, whether with Elodie or others, is something I am all over. Also, man, her family - how does she deal with those revelations?
Charlotte: If Brin is adorable, Charlotte is adorable squared. She is such a good cousin and such a good person. She strikes me as really tenderhearted and kind of sheltered (almost as much as Elodie when you first start the game) - how did that happen with how sharp and delightfully scheming her mom is? Her relationship with her parents, her relationship with Elodie, her discovery of her Lumen powers (and how it works that she can use the healing side of them without her mom's crystal - is this like with what you find out about Elodie's extra powers if you have high enough Lore?), there is just so much about her I'd like to see explored.
Elodie: Elodie has my love in all her incarnations. My favorite playthroughs involve her being a Lumen, but wow was it satisfying to go all "softer" options and still win the day through the power of singing and words. Whether you write Elodie kind or cruel, intensely militaristic or into intrigue, a lumen or looking to win the day without magic, I'm sure I'll enjoy it.
Bonus: Not feeling any of these characters for some reason? There is always worldbuilding! Lumens and Nova's history both fascinate me. What exactly happened with the last capital? How do other countries treat Lumens? Are there other lurking horrors like the kraken, sleeping deep beneath and all too easy to wake? (Are there people who want to wake them?) There's a lot of interesting stuff that comes up in the flavor text and that's inherent to the setting. Feel free to explore any of it!
Something gen: What is court like? What's the average day in the life for [character of your choice]? What are their motivations, and what are they willing to do to achieve their goals?
Something shippy: How do [f/f ship of your choice] deal with the practicalities of line of succession/the need for an heir? The Elodie end option of openly taking a companion? The Elodie end option of arranging marriages in name and for progeny, but done in such a way as to more easily facilitate their preferred relationship? Naming a relative as successor and ignoring marriage entirely? Something else altogether?
Something dark: Lumen powers gone wrong! Assassins and intrigue! A monarch with a taste for blood! Roaming monsters and horrors in the deeps! I feel like there's a lot both in the setting and with the characters that can be made (or already is) as creepy or horrifying as anyone could ask for.
Something explicit: Lumen powers used for pleasure, stolen moments at a royal ball or in tents on the march, throne sex - whatever strikes your fancy.
Dwarf Fortress (Any):
Short summary/promotion: Dwarf Fortress is a (free!) simulation game with a steep learning curve, but a huge pay-off in highly entertaining emergent story-telling and weird dwarven decisions. This can include anything from new mothers in the military taking their babies into battle to use as shields to tantrum-throwing dwarves (upset that their babies are now full of arrows) destroying the whole fortress and killing everyone in it by hitting the lever to your "magma solves everything" doomsday device.
I'm including in the links several comics that illustrate many of the best things about DF.
Links:
Dev site (includes download)
DF Wiki
Tim Denee's illustrated tale of Bronzemurder (includes transcript of comic's text)
Tim Denee's Oilfurnace (no transcript, spoilers for hidden fun stuff)
Three Panel Soul, "Bug Fix" (Illustrated patch notes, e.g. "Stopped vampires from pinning their crimes on children.")
Losing is fun!
General talk: I will never not love this game. When I first started playing it, it was a very different game than it is now, but it has only gotten better. I have embraced the mantra that losing is fun, discovered all the hidden fun stuff, and even managed attempts at mega projects and tried my hand at silly dwarf tricks. (Few survived the first several attempts at a magma-fall through the main dining room, but those few left were delighted at how neat it looked! . . . For however long they lived after the ensuing grief stricken tantrum spiral. Apparently a magma fountain can only do so much.)
Whether you want to write about one of the races and their civilizations, a fortress, a lone adventurer, what a Forgotten Beast does when not ravaging fortresses, a necromancer's attempts at self-publishing, an anthropomorphic representation of an evil biome . . . whatever I nominated (or even something else entirely!), I am excited for fic in this fandom.
Exceptions to my Likes/DNWs:
Death, death and despair! Feel free to kill any and everything (or re-kill, in the case of any undead you wish to include) by any means. I have an exception to this exception, that being cats, as I'd prefer dwarves not to be the direct cause of cat death. (Indirect, okay, because KITTEN MINES.)
Prompts (by character, then category):
Dwarf | Dwarves (Dwarf Fortress): Tell me about a fortress! Is it well-run, with plenty of booze and food, peaceful surroundings, and a highly competent military to take care of any problems? Is it located in a hellscape (perhaps even literally if they colonized hell), with no beds, saltwater, and rampaging undead elephant skeletons clambering at the gates?
Or for a single dwarf, maybe something with the last dwarf of the fortress, walled in without escape? Or for another single dwarf prompt, tell me about a dwarf crafting their masterpiece, whether they're finally delighted to make that metallic cheese figurine that came to them in a dream, or have been struck by a fell mood, and they know just the perfect dwarf for that femur throne that haunts their darkest nightmares.
Fortress Overseer (Dwarf Fortress): Tell me about a good, bad, or incompetent overseer! Why have they made the decisions they have? What decisions have they made? Do they grow frustrated with their population and the creative interpretation of orders, or do the various and unexpected consequences amuse them? What mega-project are they determined to create, and why?
Necromancer (Dwarf Fortress): Tell me about a necromancer and their books and tower! Do they keep all those undead around to protect their libraries? Maybe that invasion of undead is simply because they're unhappy with their new dwarven neighbors and they're just trying to protect their peace, quiet, and property values. Feel free to go as creepy or cracky as you like. Necromancers.
Cat | Cats (Dwarf Fortress): Two cat. Two cat. Um.
I would like to note that while I recognize solving the two cat problem by means of meat, leather, and soap industry is definitely a thing, I could never do that. Usually, the only way a cat would die would be by brave military action (their hatred of goblins was legendary), including the occasional kitten landmine - in which all of the extra kittens were loaded into one cage that had been constructed in a building destroyer's path, and when it inevitably destroyed that, dozens of kittens with tiny bodies and small hit boxes would strike at once, leading to high casualties, but also adorable, fuzzy victory - or by old age. As female cats in cages can't breed, I usually put all but the breeding female(s) in a cat zoo, where my dwarves would throw parties and delight in all the fuzzy kitties. What I am saying is - if you want to include cat death, please don't let dwarves murdering them be the cause.
Anyway, tell me about cat adventures! Maybe a cat adopts a dwarf? Maybe a cat recognizes that none of these dwarves are worthy and simply wanders the map, murdering every fluffy wambler unfortunate enough to cross its path. Maybe a cat adopts a necromancer dwarf, who keeps it alive - or "alive" - through darkest magic and the deep desire to never let Sir Fluffington go. Maybe something about a squad of cats and their determination to take down bigger game, like that goblin that blundered through the traps and is making their bleeding way directly into the cats' path.
Something gen: Someone (the overseer, the dwarves, a necromancer, a particularly eccentric cat) is determined that no longer will unicorns be limited to the steed of elves. Whether they have to buy it, catch it, breed it, or just jump on top of it (or order others to do so for them), they will ride a unicorn, and it will be glorious. Whether this ends in actual glory or just gory death is entirely up to you.
Something shippy: The necromancer grows lonely in her tower, but fortunately, just the next tower over is another necromancer. They can share books and tips for raising the undead and razing fortresses! The overseer has assigned a mega-project to build a glass tower, but only they know that it's because their crush mentioned she dreamed about sleeping among the stars. When it's done, they'll confess their love by giving said crush the whole top floor as her bedroom. Two dwarves find love on the battlefield, bonding over the severed arm of that bronze colossus they just took down. . . . I've got nothing for cats, sorry.
Something dark: Experiments in necromancy! Evil biomes! Tantrum spirals! Traps and invasions! Mining and mega-projects gone wrong! Kitten mines! There's no food, so they're forced to eat vermin! Worse, they're out of booze!
Something explicit: How does sex work in a world where everything apparently reproduces by means of spores? What is dwarven (or whatever race you wish to go with if you're writing a necromancer) anatomy even like? These are questions that haunt me. Maybe you can answer them.
Don't Starve (Wickerbottom, Willow):
Short summary/promotion: Don't Starve is a game in which your character has been tricked into getting stuck in a new dimension. Balance sanity and hunger, explore forests, caves, and deserts, guard against wolves, spiders, and angry trees, gather minions and allies, and above all, don't starve.
Links:
DS Wiki
DS on Steam
Klei's (the creators) DS page
General Talk: There is so much I love about this game, including all of the characters. If you want to bring in anyone else to interact with Wickerbottom and Willow, whether nominated or not, I would be fine with that! My trick or treat letter would have more on various different characters (like Chester, Charlie, and Webber!; also, it has some trick or treat specific stuff I cut for Wickerbottom and Willow), but if you want to stick with just Wickerbottom and Willow, I'd be more than happy with that, too. I just want to give you extra options. So long as they're both included, I will be one delighted tuesday.
Also, because I've done so for almost all of the above, plus it's mostly copying over from my letter, I'm including some prompts by character here, too, and if you want to mix and match (or just figure out how to shoehorn one into another's character prompts), you can do that, or just completely ignore those two paragraphs in favor of the by category prompts.
Exceptions to my Likes/DNWs:
If you want to write a story using game mechanics for temporary character death, I would be fine with that! I would just prefer not to have Wickerbottom or Willow (or any other playable character you might wish to include) die permanently. Meanwhile, if you want to kill off pig men, spiders, wolves, treeguards, rock lobsters, bun men, giants, tentacle spikes, etc etc, go for it!
Also, I'll take this moment to reiterate that I'm not into underage, so if you want to write ship fic, feel free to either age up Willow or pair one (or both!) of them with someone more age-appropriate. If you want to write something explicit, though, aged up is definitely the way to go.
Prompts (by character, then by category):
Wickerbottom: I was so delighted when Wickerbottom was introduced, you don't even know. A librarian! One who has the power to summon Cthulhu tentacle spikes! Why does she never sleep? (Other than, y'know, the options being uncomfortable.) Perhaps she actually does summon Cthulhu (or some other eldritch abomination) one day. What happens when the lack of sleep catches up with her? Maybe a good day in which Wickerbottom plays with one of her pet birds, or gathers a huge self-published library that she maintains in the hopes of teaching the pigmen literacy, or finally finds a super-comfortable bed and is able to catch up on all that missed sleep.
Willow: So I played Don't Starve from very early in the beta, and it was really great when Willow came out and could set everything on fire when it was dark out. Her pyromania has endeared her to me forever, even now that it's kind of inconvenient at times with the way the game developed. I feel like you could write a thousand words about her love of fire. If you wanted to write an AU, I think she could've been either a super hero or villain with her immunity to fire, but especially the latter with the way she sets fires at random when low in sanity.
Something gen: Adventures in a new world! Trying new food! Everything is on fire! Meeting rock lobsters and pig men for the first time! Building things! Eating things! Killing things! Tentacles!!!
Something shippy: Wickerbottom and Wigfrid's nice picnic date among the trees is interrupted by a forest fire. In Willow's defense, TREEGUARDS. Or an adult Willow tries to figure out how to get Wickerbottom's attention. She can't self-publish the way Wickerbottom does, and Wickerbottom doesn't seem to appreciate a really good fire the way Willow does, but maybe a nice new pet bird, the color of flames? What does a proper date in the Don't Starve world look like, anyway?
Something dark: Adventures gone wrong in a scary new world! Trying new food, only to discover it's poison! Everything is on fire (and for once, it is not all according to plan)! Meeting rock lobsters and pig men for the first time! Spiders, wolves, and giants! Rains of frogs! Tentacles!!!
Something explicit: Temperature play. Adult Willow wants to re-enact a scene from one of Wickerbottom's smutty novels. (I am so tempted to end this with "Tentacles!!!")
If you've made it this far, I'd like to thank you for participating in Yuletide. This is my favorite yearly challenge, and I am ridiculously excited for and about it.
My number one hope for my gift fic is that my writer has a good time with it, so let me emphasize again that I'm just happy that there will be more fic for one of these fandoms. This monster of a letter was mostly an excuse to enthuse about tiny fandoms, and I truly hope it doesn't put you off or make you worry about whether you can make any of the prompts work. Whatever you end up writing, I'm hoping it's something you enjoy about the fandom and have fun writing.
Have a happy Yuletide! ♥
This entry was originally posted at https://everysecondtuesday.dreamwidth.org/104969.html. If you'd like, comment there with openID.(DW comment count:
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Also, this letter is super long, so please don't feel obligated to read it all. If you already have an idea of what you want to do from just the AO3 requests, go for it! This is all to (I hope) make it easier on you, and I am a big believer in optional details being optional. There being fic for my fandoms will make me happy. Everything else is icing for delicious, delicious cake.
This year I'm requesting three video game fandoms, and one quest game: Don't Starve, (Wickerbottom, Willow), Dwarf Fortress (Any), and Long Live the Queen (Arisse, Briony, Charlotte, Elodie), as well as Rubyquest (Red, Ruby). If you're really not feeling the request you matched on, here's hoping you know one of the others! I'm including links for where you can find and/or acquire them all.
Also, these are almost all fandoms I've either requested in other ongoing exchanges (DF & DS) or have received fic for in Yuletides past (DF & LLtQ). Please don't feel like you have to compete with anyone past or present! I love these fandoms a lot, and there is not a lot out there for them, so while I loved everything I've received so far, I'm sure whatever you write me will be a delight to me, too!
Fair warning: this letter will contain spoilers, so if you haven't played or read something and want to go into it with fresh eyes, you'll want to skip that section.
For ease of stalking: tuesday on AO3, everysecondtuesday on tumblr
General Likes:
I'm happy with gen or romance. If you go the romance route, I'm good with f/f, f/m, m/m, poly, and ace.
I like both long and short fic, so go where the story leads you!
A list of some tropes and themes I adore, the gen version:
A list of some shippy tropes and themes I adore (in addition to all of the above):
Feel free to go as dark or fluffy or creepy or cracked out as your heart desires. I'd prefer a happy, hopeful, bittersweet, or ray of light in the distance ending, even if it's just a where there's life there's hope situation.
DNWs:
Literally the only things that could keep me from reading a gift fic are non-con and rapeplay.
Because I listed AUs above, I feel like I should mention there are AUs I'm just not into anymore (though I have enjoyed some fic with them in the past) - slavery, serial killer, mafia, prison, and sex worker AUs.
I'm not really into infidelity (poly or marriage only as an arrangement is fine! I just prefer everyone involved to know and be okay with what's going on), underage, incest (my exceptions are not in any of these fandoms), or eye trauma.
As said above, I usually like even my unhappy endings to come with a grain of hope, so please no permanent major character death unless otherwise indicated. I'll go into this more (including talk of canon character deaths) in each fandom section, though I'll note here that there are options for where I'll happily roll with some or a lot character death in several fandoms.
Rubyquest (Red, Ruby):
Short summary/promotion: Rubyquest is a quest game that follows the eponymous Ruby, an anthropomorphic bunny with a mean right hook and no memories of life before she wakes up in a metal coffin in an underwater facility overrun by eldritch abominations. Though the game is finished, the glory of /tg/'s run lives on.
Links:
Rubyquest (the entire comic/game on one page)
Wiki (includes links to the original archived threads)
General talk: I love Weaver's work so, so much (still disappointed that he seems to have disappeared in the middle of a new quest) and watching Rubyquest unfold was amazing. I loved all the characters, so anyone you want to include, I will be all over. Ship-wise, canon was everything I wanted for Ruby/Tom; what I would really like from fandom is Red/Ruby. If you don't ship it, that's okay! I am good with Ruby & Red gen adventures, or ensemble fic, or whatever it is that catches your interest.
Exceptions to my Likes/DNWs:
If you're going with canon, obviously Red dies, and I'm okay with that. Of course, if you want to do something with reviving Red via means of his severed hand/cell regrowth via the whole eldritch abomination thing, I would also be delighted. Same if you want to go canon-divergent branch AU. Point is, canon permanent character death is perfectly fine with me! As is canon (or otherwise) non-permanent character death.
Prompts:
Something gen: What was the Glen like before everything went pear-shaped? Were Red and Ruby friends? Did the company have doctor-patient group picnics? Or maybe something post-game, in which a fourth survivor appears via hand-growth resurrection. How would Ruby et al deal with that?
Something shippy: I am not sure I can be coherent here, but pretty much anything Red/Ruby would make me clap my hands in excitement. Canon-divergent AU in which there is a Red/Ruby romance instead of/in addition to a Tom/Ruby one? (See my note about being down with poly.) Post-canon resurrection scenario, but with additional Red/Ruby? Pre-canon fic in which Red and Ruby had a thing before she gave him that Glasgow smile? Complete AU? This is me making grabby hands and not being picky in the least.
Something dark: Eldritch abominations! Body horror! Unethical medical experimentation! Murder! Glasgow smiles! Rubyquest is full of the dark and disturbing, and it is delightful. Whether you want to document the Glen's (and Ruby's) slow slide into madness, to tell me about a much less successful Rubyquest run, five ways Red and Ruby die, or something else entirely, I am here for it.
Something explicit: If you want to write me Red/Ruby porn, I'd prefer it to be a human AU. Of course, feel free to keep the third eye/pointy smile that never ends/assorted body horror stuff . . . unless you don't want to, in which case, yes, sure, humans without horrifying extras.
Long Live the Queen (Arisse, Briony, Charlotte, Elodie):
Short summary/promotion: You play (and plot the development of) Elodie, Nova's princess and soon-to-be queen, recalled from boarding school with the death of her mother. Elodie has one year of tutors before she's crowned and takes on full-time duties, but she's still expected to make major decisions that will determine the shape of Nova's future (and her own). This game is a delightful mix of cracky and serious, with political intrigue galore. It's entirely too easy for Elodie to go on to her grave instead of to rule, but there are any number of vastly different play styles that can see her through, and the game lets you know what skill checks it makes, so you'll have an idea of what you might want to work on in future playthroughs. It's a quick game if you're concerned just with beating it, but if you're curious about the world and the possibilities, it can eat up a lot of time, as there are a ton of options for both how to win and how Nova (and Elodie) turns out.
Links:
LLtQ Dev site
LLtq on Steam
LLtQ Wiki
General talk:
If you're hoping to write ship fic this Yuletide, among the characters I requested, I ship Elodie/Briony. If that doesn't appeal, pretty much any femslash combo between a character I requested and someone else where they're not related is probably something I would be all over (e.g. Elodie/Brin, Briony/Gwenelle, etc). Alternately, if you'd like to explore any of the canon relationships or any of the romance options, I'd be up for it.
Also, this is your permission to not include all four characters - or, if you want, to not include all four equally. Feel free to write me a story about Charlotte and Elodie growing up, or Arisse and courtly machinations, or Briony giving the forest a second go as an adult lumen who knows what she's getting into. What I'm saying is, for this fandom, you can treat it like an alternate universe in which Yuletide works with "OR" matching. Not something I'd usually be into, but LLtQ, yes, absolutely, focus on the character(s) you're most enthusiastic about/work best with what you're writing. And if that's all of them, I am happy with that, too!
Exceptions to my Likes/DNWs:
Kill everyone! Okay, no, wait, that came out wrong. What I'm saying here, though, is that this is a game where no one is safe, and I am cool with that. Want to write "Five (More) Ways Elodie Died"? Go for it! Interested in an "Elodie the bloodthirsty tyrant" story that explores how the other characters deal with that? So am I!
Prompts (by character, then by category):
Arisse: Arisse has so much going on! All the bits revealed by intrigue are just, well, intriguing! What's going on with her family? Oh, man, and the variety of relationships you can have with her - from a great ally to out to oust you. I pretty much fell in love with her, though, when Elodie danced with her at the ball. Also, the needlepoint cushion! Did she make that herself?
Briony: Briony's boredom and love for adventure made me fall for her. First I was excited about Elodie getting letters from someone, but then I got to go into the forest and be a daring knight! *___* Uh, and then I got a million death endings during my daring rescue, because I was too stubborn to go to the wiki for far too long. But seriously, Briony and adventure, whether with Elodie or others, is something I am all over. Also, man, her family - how does she deal with those revelations?
Charlotte: If Brin is adorable, Charlotte is adorable squared. She is such a good cousin and such a good person. She strikes me as really tenderhearted and kind of sheltered (almost as much as Elodie when you first start the game) - how did that happen with how sharp and delightfully scheming her mom is? Her relationship with her parents, her relationship with Elodie, her discovery of her Lumen powers (and how it works that she can use the healing side of them without her mom's crystal - is this like with what you find out about Elodie's extra powers if you have high enough Lore?), there is just so much about her I'd like to see explored.
Elodie: Elodie has my love in all her incarnations. My favorite playthroughs involve her being a Lumen, but wow was it satisfying to go all "softer" options and still win the day through the power of singing and words. Whether you write Elodie kind or cruel, intensely militaristic or into intrigue, a lumen or looking to win the day without magic, I'm sure I'll enjoy it.
Bonus: Not feeling any of these characters for some reason? There is always worldbuilding! Lumens and Nova's history both fascinate me. What exactly happened with the last capital? How do other countries treat Lumens? Are there other lurking horrors like the kraken, sleeping deep beneath and all too easy to wake? (Are there people who want to wake them?) There's a lot of interesting stuff that comes up in the flavor text and that's inherent to the setting. Feel free to explore any of it!
Something gen: What is court like? What's the average day in the life for [character of your choice]? What are their motivations, and what are they willing to do to achieve their goals?
Something shippy: How do [f/f ship of your choice] deal with the practicalities of line of succession/the need for an heir? The Elodie end option of openly taking a companion? The Elodie end option of arranging marriages in name and for progeny, but done in such a way as to more easily facilitate their preferred relationship? Naming a relative as successor and ignoring marriage entirely? Something else altogether?
Something dark: Lumen powers gone wrong! Assassins and intrigue! A monarch with a taste for blood! Roaming monsters and horrors in the deeps! I feel like there's a lot both in the setting and with the characters that can be made (or already is) as creepy or horrifying as anyone could ask for.
Something explicit: Lumen powers used for pleasure, stolen moments at a royal ball or in tents on the march, throne sex - whatever strikes your fancy.
Dwarf Fortress (Any):
Short summary/promotion: Dwarf Fortress is a (free!) simulation game with a steep learning curve, but a huge pay-off in highly entertaining emergent story-telling and weird dwarven decisions. This can include anything from new mothers in the military taking their babies into battle to use as shields to tantrum-throwing dwarves (upset that their babies are now full of arrows) destroying the whole fortress and killing everyone in it by hitting the lever to your "magma solves everything" doomsday device.
I'm including in the links several comics that illustrate many of the best things about DF.
Links:
Dev site (includes download)
DF Wiki
Tim Denee's illustrated tale of Bronzemurder (includes transcript of comic's text)
Tim Denee's Oilfurnace (no transcript, spoilers for hidden fun stuff)
Three Panel Soul, "Bug Fix" (Illustrated patch notes, e.g. "Stopped vampires from pinning their crimes on children.")
Losing is fun!
General talk: I will never not love this game. When I first started playing it, it was a very different game than it is now, but it has only gotten better. I have embraced the mantra that losing is fun, discovered all the hidden fun stuff, and even managed attempts at mega projects and tried my hand at silly dwarf tricks. (Few survived the first several attempts at a magma-fall through the main dining room, but those few left were delighted at how neat it looked! . . . For however long they lived after the ensuing grief stricken tantrum spiral. Apparently a magma fountain can only do so much.)
Whether you want to write about one of the races and their civilizations, a fortress, a lone adventurer, what a Forgotten Beast does when not ravaging fortresses, a necromancer's attempts at self-publishing, an anthropomorphic representation of an evil biome . . . whatever I nominated (or even something else entirely!), I am excited for fic in this fandom.
Exceptions to my Likes/DNWs:
Death, death and despair! Feel free to kill any and everything (or re-kill, in the case of any undead you wish to include) by any means. I have an exception to this exception, that being cats, as I'd prefer dwarves not to be the direct cause of cat death. (Indirect, okay, because KITTEN MINES.)
Prompts (by character, then category):
Dwarf | Dwarves (Dwarf Fortress): Tell me about a fortress! Is it well-run, with plenty of booze and food, peaceful surroundings, and a highly competent military to take care of any problems? Is it located in a hellscape (perhaps even literally if they colonized hell), with no beds, saltwater, and rampaging undead elephant skeletons clambering at the gates?
Or for a single dwarf, maybe something with the last dwarf of the fortress, walled in without escape? Or for another single dwarf prompt, tell me about a dwarf crafting their masterpiece, whether they're finally delighted to make that metallic cheese figurine that came to them in a dream, or have been struck by a fell mood, and they know just the perfect dwarf for that femur throne that haunts their darkest nightmares.
Fortress Overseer (Dwarf Fortress): Tell me about a good, bad, or incompetent overseer! Why have they made the decisions they have? What decisions have they made? Do they grow frustrated with their population and the creative interpretation of orders, or do the various and unexpected consequences amuse them? What mega-project are they determined to create, and why?
Necromancer (Dwarf Fortress): Tell me about a necromancer and their books and tower! Do they keep all those undead around to protect their libraries? Maybe that invasion of undead is simply because they're unhappy with their new dwarven neighbors and they're just trying to protect their peace, quiet, and property values. Feel free to go as creepy or cracky as you like. Necromancers.
Cat | Cats (Dwarf Fortress): Two cat. Two cat. Um.
I would like to note that while I recognize solving the two cat problem by means of meat, leather, and soap industry is definitely a thing, I could never do that. Usually, the only way a cat would die would be by brave military action (their hatred of goblins was legendary), including the occasional kitten landmine - in which all of the extra kittens were loaded into one cage that had been constructed in a building destroyer's path, and when it inevitably destroyed that, dozens of kittens with tiny bodies and small hit boxes would strike at once, leading to high casualties, but also adorable, fuzzy victory - or by old age. As female cats in cages can't breed, I usually put all but the breeding female(s) in a cat zoo, where my dwarves would throw parties and delight in all the fuzzy kitties. What I am saying is - if you want to include cat death, please don't let dwarves murdering them be the cause.
Anyway, tell me about cat adventures! Maybe a cat adopts a dwarf? Maybe a cat recognizes that none of these dwarves are worthy and simply wanders the map, murdering every fluffy wambler unfortunate enough to cross its path. Maybe a cat adopts a necromancer dwarf, who keeps it alive - or "alive" - through darkest magic and the deep desire to never let Sir Fluffington go. Maybe something about a squad of cats and their determination to take down bigger game, like that goblin that blundered through the traps and is making their bleeding way directly into the cats' path.
Something gen: Someone (the overseer, the dwarves, a necromancer, a particularly eccentric cat) is determined that no longer will unicorns be limited to the steed of elves. Whether they have to buy it, catch it, breed it, or just jump on top of it (or order others to do so for them), they will ride a unicorn, and it will be glorious. Whether this ends in actual glory or just gory death is entirely up to you.
Something shippy: The necromancer grows lonely in her tower, but fortunately, just the next tower over is another necromancer. They can share books and tips for raising the undead and razing fortresses! The overseer has assigned a mega-project to build a glass tower, but only they know that it's because their crush mentioned she dreamed about sleeping among the stars. When it's done, they'll confess their love by giving said crush the whole top floor as her bedroom. Two dwarves find love on the battlefield, bonding over the severed arm of that bronze colossus they just took down. . . . I've got nothing for cats, sorry.
Something dark: Experiments in necromancy! Evil biomes! Tantrum spirals! Traps and invasions! Mining and mega-projects gone wrong! Kitten mines! There's no food, so they're forced to eat vermin! Worse, they're out of booze!
Something explicit: How does sex work in a world where everything apparently reproduces by means of spores? What is dwarven (or whatever race you wish to go with if you're writing a necromancer) anatomy even like? These are questions that haunt me. Maybe you can answer them.
Don't Starve (Wickerbottom, Willow):
Short summary/promotion: Don't Starve is a game in which your character has been tricked into getting stuck in a new dimension. Balance sanity and hunger, explore forests, caves, and deserts, guard against wolves, spiders, and angry trees, gather minions and allies, and above all, don't starve.
Links:
DS Wiki
DS on Steam
Klei's (the creators) DS page
General Talk: There is so much I love about this game, including all of the characters. If you want to bring in anyone else to interact with Wickerbottom and Willow, whether nominated or not, I would be fine with that! My trick or treat letter would have more on various different characters (like Chester, Charlie, and Webber!; also, it has some trick or treat specific stuff I cut for Wickerbottom and Willow), but if you want to stick with just Wickerbottom and Willow, I'd be more than happy with that, too. I just want to give you extra options. So long as they're both included, I will be one delighted tuesday.
Also, because I've done so for almost all of the above, plus it's mostly copying over from my letter, I'm including some prompts by character here, too, and if you want to mix and match (or just figure out how to shoehorn one into another's character prompts), you can do that, or just completely ignore those two paragraphs in favor of the by category prompts.
Exceptions to my Likes/DNWs:
If you want to write a story using game mechanics for temporary character death, I would be fine with that! I would just prefer not to have Wickerbottom or Willow (or any other playable character you might wish to include) die permanently. Meanwhile, if you want to kill off pig men, spiders, wolves, treeguards, rock lobsters, bun men, giants, tentacle spikes, etc etc, go for it!
Also, I'll take this moment to reiterate that I'm not into underage, so if you want to write ship fic, feel free to either age up Willow or pair one (or both!) of them with someone more age-appropriate. If you want to write something explicit, though, aged up is definitely the way to go.
Prompts (by character, then by category):
Wickerbottom: I was so delighted when Wickerbottom was introduced, you don't even know. A librarian! One who has the power to summon Cthulhu tentacle spikes! Why does she never sleep? (Other than, y'know, the options being uncomfortable.) Perhaps she actually does summon Cthulhu (or some other eldritch abomination) one day. What happens when the lack of sleep catches up with her? Maybe a good day in which Wickerbottom plays with one of her pet birds, or gathers a huge self-published library that she maintains in the hopes of teaching the pigmen literacy, or finally finds a super-comfortable bed and is able to catch up on all that missed sleep.
Willow: So I played Don't Starve from very early in the beta, and it was really great when Willow came out and could set everything on fire when it was dark out. Her pyromania has endeared her to me forever, even now that it's kind of inconvenient at times with the way the game developed. I feel like you could write a thousand words about her love of fire. If you wanted to write an AU, I think she could've been either a super hero or villain with her immunity to fire, but especially the latter with the way she sets fires at random when low in sanity.
Something gen: Adventures in a new world! Trying new food! Everything is on fire! Meeting rock lobsters and pig men for the first time! Building things! Eating things! Killing things! Tentacles!!!
Something shippy: Wickerbottom and Wigfrid's nice picnic date among the trees is interrupted by a forest fire. In Willow's defense, TREEGUARDS. Or an adult Willow tries to figure out how to get Wickerbottom's attention. She can't self-publish the way Wickerbottom does, and Wickerbottom doesn't seem to appreciate a really good fire the way Willow does, but maybe a nice new pet bird, the color of flames? What does a proper date in the Don't Starve world look like, anyway?
Something dark: Adventures gone wrong in a scary new world! Trying new food, only to discover it's poison! Everything is on fire (and for once, it is not all according to plan)! Meeting rock lobsters and pig men for the first time! Spiders, wolves, and giants! Rains of frogs! Tentacles!!!
Something explicit: Temperature play. Adult Willow wants to re-enact a scene from one of Wickerbottom's smutty novels. (I am so tempted to end this with "Tentacles!!!")
If you've made it this far, I'd like to thank you for participating in Yuletide. This is my favorite yearly challenge, and I am ridiculously excited for and about it.
My number one hope for my gift fic is that my writer has a good time with it, so let me emphasize again that I'm just happy that there will be more fic for one of these fandoms. This monster of a letter was mostly an excuse to enthuse about tiny fandoms, and I truly hope it doesn't put you off or make you worry about whether you can make any of the prompts work. Whatever you end up writing, I'm hoping it's something you enjoy about the fandom and have fun writing.
Have a happy Yuletide! ♥
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