Dear yuletide writer
It is Yuletide again. Yay! And this year I have two book requests, two songs and two short pieces of interactive fiction, so hopefully something to suit everyone. Details beneath the cut
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I have a few big Do Not Wants (DNWs). No character death, gore, non-con, incest, infidelity please.
I would also prefer not to receive crossovers, pwp or kink (unless it's there to demonstrate some other facet of the relationship), total AUs (though I don't think there's anything in the songs that would make any particular setting AU), soul bonds or omegaverse.
General things I like are: happy endings; complex paths to get there; unexpected kindness; people being smart and competent; triple-crosses; second chances; characters wresting grace out of chaos; lovers who value, trust and like each other; gen het or slash; families of choice.
I dislike "love" that really needs a restraining order and characters who are too stupid to live.
The Riddle - song by Nik Kershaw here
charcters - any
Okay, this is a song is my childhood/youth's contribution to Yuletide and I'm still very fond of it 30+ years on.
I know that Nik Kershaw said that there was no deeper meaning to this song, but that doesn't stop me really wanting to know just what is going on. I'd be happy with any direction you take this one - fantasy, steam punk, this world or AU, though please do note my DNWs above. I'd also love to see who some of the characters are - the old man? The wise men's child?
Harvey - song by Electric Swing Circus here
Harvey - character
I discovered Electric Swing Circus when I saw them at a festival this summer and I've fallen for their music in a big way. I love its bounce and life and combination of genres that really shouldn't work together but do. (You can hear most of their music at their youtube page via the link above).
The song Harvey is not quite typical of their music, but I love its slight creepiness and mysteriousness but overall positivity. I really just want a story about a Pooka who might be a horse or a pet octopus, the unpicker of seams who will be a friend in the circus of your mind. What happens when that Pooka chooses me or you or the song's narrator? Again, please take this one in any direction.
(I should note that from discussion on the Yuletide comm this is almost certainly based on the 1950 film Harvey featuring a giant invisible rabbit. I want to be clear that I'm requesting the song and I'm not particularly interested in the film.)
Magical Makeover - play it here
Player Character
Amherst
Fairy
So this is interactive fiction, though rather less interactive than most - you make three choices near the start and the rest of the story unfolds from there. It's quirky and offbeat and frivolous, with more depth than you would necessarily initially think. The author describes it as "An interactive story inspired in part by fairy-tales, and in part by terrible "makeover" Flash games targeted towards girls." I strongly recommend it!
Once you've played it through once there is a author's note page which will give you a crib sheet of how to get the different endings. I particularly like the option b endings which have the extra interaction with the fairy, the endings with Amherst and the final ending in the fairy library with access to all the different worlds. When I come back to the game I'm always surprised how strong the characters are and how much I like them.
I really like the protagonist, the way her apparent incompetence mixes with a sense that of course she'll do the right thing and a back story that is full of genuinely wild travels, adventures, astral projection etc. I'd be particularly interested in seeing her shipped with the fairy or with Amherst though preferably not with Mildred. (Although I don't think her gender is technically specified, I read her as strongly coded female and given her canonical relationships are all with women, if you make her female please keep her a lesbian). I'm fine with Mildred in the story though and I like the Cassowary a lot. And I don't mind you only including either Amherst or the fairy if it's to ship the protagonist with that character.
First draft of the Revolution - play it here
Juliette
Henri
Alise
Another piece of interactive fiction. Again nontypical as you don't so much "play" the story as create it - it's told in epistletory format and I don't think the player can change the outcome. What you do change is the words the characters use and by seeing the different things they consider writing - and the things they don't - you create their exact characters. The finished work is probably short story length, though it feels somewhat longer because you have seen the different thoughts which go into the finished letters.
Juliette is a young wife in an alt!18th century France whose husband has banished her to the country. Now they - and a few other characters - correspond through enchanted letters...
I really liked Juliette and her character arc pushes a lot of my buttons - I love the way she grows during the story, that being young, pious, obedient and somewhat naive doesn't actually stop her seeing political necessities and making it happen. I love the way she has far more strength of character than someone looking at the externals would expect. I'd love to see more of her functioning in society and as a member of Henri's family after the story ends - I particularly liked the way she dealt with Alise in alise's last letter.
The Queen's Thief - Megan Whalen Turner
Philologos
Hilarion
Okay, I ship these two like burning and would love to see them get together. I know that might be disconcerting to anyone who offered "any", but I really do, to the extent that a couple of years ago I made a post for Yuletide detailing their every interaction. I feel that although we don't see much of either of them individually, what we do see hints at all sorts of interesting things going on not just between them and the King, but between the two of them.
So I'd love a shippy story. I'd also love to see the machinations of court and the interaction of the attendants with their king illuminated through the eyes of these two minor characters. And everything in book four about Ion's feelings towards the King, hard-won loyalty and desire to be trusted seems that it would apply also to these two, even though Ion's specific storyline wouldn't.
When the King Comes Home
Queen Andred
King Julian
Istvan
Again, I just adore this trio and the ending of their story presses all my buttons as they sail away, the three of them together. I'd love to know what happens next, either naturalistally in world or as they drift into legend, though backstory would also be okay.
For this request, I'd be really good with either OT3 or a rocksolid couple plus a friend who is entangled every bit as deeply with both of them as they are with each other. The thing that really pushes my buttons is them as a trio, with confidence and loyalty and trust and commitment almost tangible things between them, whatever the form their individual bonds take.
.
I have a few big Do Not Wants (DNWs). No character death, gore, non-con, incest, infidelity please.
I would also prefer not to receive crossovers, pwp or kink (unless it's there to demonstrate some other facet of the relationship), total AUs (though I don't think there's anything in the songs that would make any particular setting AU), soul bonds or omegaverse.
General things I like are: happy endings; complex paths to get there; unexpected kindness; people being smart and competent; triple-crosses; second chances; characters wresting grace out of chaos; lovers who value, trust and like each other; gen het or slash; families of choice.
I dislike "love" that really needs a restraining order and characters who are too stupid to live.
The Riddle - song by Nik Kershaw here
charcters - any
Okay, this is a song is my childhood/youth's contribution to Yuletide and I'm still very fond of it 30+ years on.
I know that Nik Kershaw said that there was no deeper meaning to this song, but that doesn't stop me really wanting to know just what is going on. I'd be happy with any direction you take this one - fantasy, steam punk, this world or AU, though please do note my DNWs above. I'd also love to see who some of the characters are - the old man? The wise men's child?
Harvey - song by Electric Swing Circus here
Harvey - character
I discovered Electric Swing Circus when I saw them at a festival this summer and I've fallen for their music in a big way. I love its bounce and life and combination of genres that really shouldn't work together but do. (You can hear most of their music at their youtube page via the link above).
The song Harvey is not quite typical of their music, but I love its slight creepiness and mysteriousness but overall positivity. I really just want a story about a Pooka who might be a horse or a pet octopus, the unpicker of seams who will be a friend in the circus of your mind. What happens when that Pooka chooses me or you or the song's narrator? Again, please take this one in any direction.
(I should note that from discussion on the Yuletide comm this is almost certainly based on the 1950 film Harvey featuring a giant invisible rabbit. I want to be clear that I'm requesting the song and I'm not particularly interested in the film.)
Magical Makeover - play it here
Player Character
Amherst
Fairy
So this is interactive fiction, though rather less interactive than most - you make three choices near the start and the rest of the story unfolds from there. It's quirky and offbeat and frivolous, with more depth than you would necessarily initially think. The author describes it as "An interactive story inspired in part by fairy-tales, and in part by terrible "makeover" Flash games targeted towards girls." I strongly recommend it!
Once you've played it through once there is a author's note page which will give you a crib sheet of how to get the different endings. I particularly like the option b endings which have the extra interaction with the fairy, the endings with Amherst and the final ending in the fairy library with access to all the different worlds. When I come back to the game I'm always surprised how strong the characters are and how much I like them.
I really like the protagonist, the way her apparent incompetence mixes with a sense that of course she'll do the right thing and a back story that is full of genuinely wild travels, adventures, astral projection etc. I'd be particularly interested in seeing her shipped with the fairy or with Amherst though preferably not with Mildred. (Although I don't think her gender is technically specified, I read her as strongly coded female and given her canonical relationships are all with women, if you make her female please keep her a lesbian). I'm fine with Mildred in the story though and I like the Cassowary a lot. And I don't mind you only including either Amherst or the fairy if it's to ship the protagonist with that character.
First draft of the Revolution - play it here
Juliette
Henri
Alise
Another piece of interactive fiction. Again nontypical as you don't so much "play" the story as create it - it's told in epistletory format and I don't think the player can change the outcome. What you do change is the words the characters use and by seeing the different things they consider writing - and the things they don't - you create their exact characters. The finished work is probably short story length, though it feels somewhat longer because you have seen the different thoughts which go into the finished letters.
Juliette is a young wife in an alt!18th century France whose husband has banished her to the country. Now they - and a few other characters - correspond through enchanted letters...
I really liked Juliette and her character arc pushes a lot of my buttons - I love the way she grows during the story, that being young, pious, obedient and somewhat naive doesn't actually stop her seeing political necessities and making it happen. I love the way she has far more strength of character than someone looking at the externals would expect. I'd love to see more of her functioning in society and as a member of Henri's family after the story ends - I particularly liked the way she dealt with Alise in alise's last letter.
The Queen's Thief - Megan Whalen Turner
Philologos
Hilarion
Okay, I ship these two like burning and would love to see them get together. I know that might be disconcerting to anyone who offered "any", but I really do, to the extent that a couple of years ago I made a post for Yuletide detailing their every interaction. I feel that although we don't see much of either of them individually, what we do see hints at all sorts of interesting things going on not just between them and the King, but between the two of them.
So I'd love a shippy story. I'd also love to see the machinations of court and the interaction of the attendants with their king illuminated through the eyes of these two minor characters. And everything in book four about Ion's feelings towards the King, hard-won loyalty and desire to be trusted seems that it would apply also to these two, even though Ion's specific storyline wouldn't.
When the King Comes Home
Queen Andred
King Julian
Istvan
Again, I just adore this trio and the ending of their story presses all my buttons as they sail away, the three of them together. I'd love to know what happens next, either naturalistally in world or as they drift into legend, though backstory would also be okay.
For this request, I'd be really good with either OT3 or a rocksolid couple plus a friend who is entangled every bit as deeply with both of them as they are with each other. The thing that really pushes my buttons is them as a trio, with confidence and loyalty and trust and commitment almost tangible things between them, whatever the form their individual bonds take.