Dear Yuletide Writer 2020
This letter is for Napkins, which is my name on AO3 as well!
First off, thank you so, so much for signing up and for offering one of the fandoms we matched on! This is my sixth year doing Yuletide, and hopefully this letter will be useful to you! I’m generally really easy to please; I like the whole gamut of fiction and a whole mess of tropes in there.
Continuing with my trend, as requesting femslashy canons resulted in some beautiful work that I loved the past few years, I thought why stop a good thing! Some returning fandoms, some new, but again with the theme of close female friendships that could easily hint at something more but for Reasons the canon didn’t go there (or did!). There's a ship in each request that I would be so thrilled to get shipfic from, but at its core are nuanced friendship dynamics that are fascinating to me if you want to keep it platonic that I would be equally thrilled to receive fic about.
My dislikes are pretty few, so let’s start off with them: character death/permanent injury, pregnancy/kidfic, and serious issues not already brought up in canon (think homophobia, political stands, self-harm, abuse, trans headcanons, etc). I am all for sexual content, and rough sex is fine, but none of these relationships should be antagonistic, so no dubcon/noncon or sex with violence at its core, please. Also no bodily fluids that don't have a standard place in sexual encounters, please.
I’ll talk about the fandoms I requested and some specific prompts below, and please feel free to ignore or add anything as you want, but here are some general tropes and prompts I enjoy:
AUs of all shapes and sizes, fake dating, taking care of someone while sick, Christmas/other holidays, winter or other cold-weather activities, domesticity, hurt/comfort - especially with illnesses, character introspection/exploration, friends to lovers, banter that can easily accidentally slip into hints about actual feelings, and found family. I really will love anything that you write, this is more to give you an idea of my likes and reasons for them, so thank you so much again!
Atelier:
Requested characters: Any
The perfect balm to a week spent at home sick! Like Devil Wears Prada but where everyone is actually a decent person and the side characters all get attention and good storylines and their own growth, it gave my feverish mind beautiful, lingerie-filled distractions and more. I love Mayu’s journey to finding herself and concentrating her passion from being someone who was originally only interested in new fabrics and creating new fabrics to someone who put that knowledge of fabrics and their best uses to expressing her own brand of comfort and beauty and personality. I love her friendship with Sarii and was screaming at my television in joy when she sent the coffee shop owner to forget the coffee beans and pick up her girlfriend from the airport instead so she could be in the big fashion show. Their friendship, while a side thread, was so charming every time it showed up, and I love that Sarii got to see all of Mayu’s frustrations and first ventures into sewing her own lingerie, which no one else ever did. Even after becoming an international supermodel, she does her best to come back and walk the finale of the show, joking that her price is merely a date with Mayu.
And then there’s President Nanjo, who has an amazing depth. I love that at the start we’re prepared for her to be harsh and critiquing and stubborn and for her to be a sort of antagonist against Mayu’s journey to find her growth in this industry, but instead she’s harsh and critiquing, and stubborn, but also supportive, as she also finds ways to grow and learn new things from Mayu, with whom she seems to share more than just a similar name.
Ice Princess
Requested characters: Gen and Casey
You know you’ve grown up when you rewatch a movie you enjoyed as a teenager, but now side with the adults and their decisions. But there’s so much heart to this movie that I hardly mind. Most of what I got out of a rewatch of this movie was that I wanted more of Gen and Casey and their friendship and how they see what they want out of life in each other’s positions. Casey is fascinated with Gen and her skating and can’t understand why she’d ever want to give it up and Gen is entranced with Casey and her “normal” life and is devastated when her mother costs Casey her chance at sectionals. It’s clear that she doesn’t feel the same way towards the other girls who train at the rink, that the way that Casey loves skating in a way she doesn’t catches her attention. I’d love to see something set later - it’s implied that Tina would continue to be Casey’s coach in any continuing skating career, so there’s plenty of opportunity for Gen and Casey to continue to be in each other’s lives. Maybe Gen helps out with choreography for some of Casey’s programs or has to take over as the coaching crew during a competition if her mother can’t make it. I do ship it, but I would absolutely be fine with something focusing more on the skating.
Emelan:
Requested characters: Lark and Rosethorn
This series has been one that I’ve returned to time and time again, even though I get a different enjoyment out of it as an adult than as a preteen/teenager, obviously. Since the kids are the focus of the series, there’s a lot left to the imagination when it comes to their mentors! I’m especially drawn to the relationship between Lark and Rosethorn, whether you want to interpret their relationship as a deep platonic friendship or something more. I will eat up with a spoon anything having to do with the two of them and their relationship and feel like I will always want things with them. I love how both of them embody strength and discipline in very different ways and how they are very much at the core of this found family, even as the kids start to split off and have their own adventures and apprentices. How’d this all start? I'm absolutely fascinated with the tidbits about Lark's early travels and adventures - maybe their paths crossed long before Winding Circle! How’d they decide that they wanted to stay at Discipline? How much changed after Rosethorn’s stroke? Did Lark have to find out the hard way how particular Rosethorn is about her garden? How do they find a moment’s peace/spend that moment together when the kids are around? This could be set any time in their friendship/relationship, really I just think it would be something neat to explore! If you do want to go shippy, I am all for sexual content here.
Fate/Stay Night: Heaven's Feel
Requested characters: Sakura Matou, Rider
I realize I'm breaking a little here as this is considerably darker in tone than the rest, but I still really love the dynamic between Sakura and Rider and feel like even if I'm stretching the theme, it still works. With the reveal that Sakura is Medusa's true master, a lot of the protectiveness and possessiveness really comes into play and I think their relationship is really interesting. Both of them have had their lives shaped and controlled by the men around them and tried to grab freedom in different, semi-doomed ways and to various destructive effect. A lot of what Medusa does is for Sakura, and I feel that Sakura realizes that Rider is one of the people who has actually been there for her, regardless of Medusa's generally aloof nature.
I'm most familiar with the recent Heaven's Feel movies, but know most of the other Stay Night properties tangentially, and know that Hollow Ataraxia is also very good ground for them, so if you want to set it after the Grail War, please go right ahead! I don't really ship Shirou and Sakura at all, so don't feel like you have to figure some way around that.
Enola Holmes
Requested characters: Eudoria Holmes, Edith Grayston
What a great movie! Getting to take a wider look at the Holmes family as well as the societal issues of Britain at the time was great and I loved Enola herself, but what really fascinated me was Eudoria and Edith. They're both women who have worked to make something of the broken system they've been handed in any way they can and while they're more background for Enola, I'd love to see them brought to center stage! We know Edith was Enola's first teacher, so her friendship and association with Eudoria has to go back years and years - how did they meet? Did they form their secret society together? Did Edith teach Eudoria ? What was that friendship like throughout the years? It seemed like Edith knew about Eudoria's movements in London even if she wasnt' willing to tell Enola - did Eudoria ever use Edith as a safe house? Again, I am all for shippy content here, as well as sexual content!
First off, thank you so, so much for signing up and for offering one of the fandoms we matched on! This is my sixth year doing Yuletide, and hopefully this letter will be useful to you! I’m generally really easy to please; I like the whole gamut of fiction and a whole mess of tropes in there.
Continuing with my trend, as requesting femslashy canons resulted in some beautiful work that I loved the past few years, I thought why stop a good thing! Some returning fandoms, some new, but again with the theme of close female friendships that could easily hint at something more but for Reasons the canon didn’t go there (or did!). There's a ship in each request that I would be so thrilled to get shipfic from, but at its core are nuanced friendship dynamics that are fascinating to me if you want to keep it platonic that I would be equally thrilled to receive fic about.
My dislikes are pretty few, so let’s start off with them: character death/permanent injury, pregnancy/kidfic, and serious issues not already brought up in canon (think homophobia, political stands, self-harm, abuse, trans headcanons, etc). I am all for sexual content, and rough sex is fine, but none of these relationships should be antagonistic, so no dubcon/noncon or sex with violence at its core, please. Also no bodily fluids that don't have a standard place in sexual encounters, please.
I’ll talk about the fandoms I requested and some specific prompts below, and please feel free to ignore or add anything as you want, but here are some general tropes and prompts I enjoy:
AUs of all shapes and sizes, fake dating, taking care of someone while sick, Christmas/other holidays, winter or other cold-weather activities, domesticity, hurt/comfort - especially with illnesses, character introspection/exploration, friends to lovers, banter that can easily accidentally slip into hints about actual feelings, and found family. I really will love anything that you write, this is more to give you an idea of my likes and reasons for them, so thank you so much again!
Atelier:
Requested characters: Any
The perfect balm to a week spent at home sick! Like Devil Wears Prada but where everyone is actually a decent person and the side characters all get attention and good storylines and their own growth, it gave my feverish mind beautiful, lingerie-filled distractions and more. I love Mayu’s journey to finding herself and concentrating her passion from being someone who was originally only interested in new fabrics and creating new fabrics to someone who put that knowledge of fabrics and their best uses to expressing her own brand of comfort and beauty and personality. I love her friendship with Sarii and was screaming at my television in joy when she sent the coffee shop owner to forget the coffee beans and pick up her girlfriend from the airport instead so she could be in the big fashion show. Their friendship, while a side thread, was so charming every time it showed up, and I love that Sarii got to see all of Mayu’s frustrations and first ventures into sewing her own lingerie, which no one else ever did. Even after becoming an international supermodel, she does her best to come back and walk the finale of the show, joking that her price is merely a date with Mayu.
And then there’s President Nanjo, who has an amazing depth. I love that at the start we’re prepared for her to be harsh and critiquing and stubborn and for her to be a sort of antagonist against Mayu’s journey to find her growth in this industry, but instead she’s harsh and critiquing, and stubborn, but also supportive, as she also finds ways to grow and learn new things from Mayu, with whom she seems to share more than just a similar name.
Ice Princess
Requested characters: Gen and Casey
You know you’ve grown up when you rewatch a movie you enjoyed as a teenager, but now side with the adults and their decisions. But there’s so much heart to this movie that I hardly mind. Most of what I got out of a rewatch of this movie was that I wanted more of Gen and Casey and their friendship and how they see what they want out of life in each other’s positions. Casey is fascinated with Gen and her skating and can’t understand why she’d ever want to give it up and Gen is entranced with Casey and her “normal” life and is devastated when her mother costs Casey her chance at sectionals. It’s clear that she doesn’t feel the same way towards the other girls who train at the rink, that the way that Casey loves skating in a way she doesn’t catches her attention. I’d love to see something set later - it’s implied that Tina would continue to be Casey’s coach in any continuing skating career, so there’s plenty of opportunity for Gen and Casey to continue to be in each other’s lives. Maybe Gen helps out with choreography for some of Casey’s programs or has to take over as the coaching crew during a competition if her mother can’t make it. I do ship it, but I would absolutely be fine with something focusing more on the skating.
Emelan:
Requested characters: Lark and Rosethorn
This series has been one that I’ve returned to time and time again, even though I get a different enjoyment out of it as an adult than as a preteen/teenager, obviously. Since the kids are the focus of the series, there’s a lot left to the imagination when it comes to their mentors! I’m especially drawn to the relationship between Lark and Rosethorn, whether you want to interpret their relationship as a deep platonic friendship or something more. I will eat up with a spoon anything having to do with the two of them and their relationship and feel like I will always want things with them. I love how both of them embody strength and discipline in very different ways and how they are very much at the core of this found family, even as the kids start to split off and have their own adventures and apprentices. How’d this all start? I'm absolutely fascinated with the tidbits about Lark's early travels and adventures - maybe their paths crossed long before Winding Circle! How’d they decide that they wanted to stay at Discipline? How much changed after Rosethorn’s stroke? Did Lark have to find out the hard way how particular Rosethorn is about her garden? How do they find a moment’s peace/spend that moment together when the kids are around? This could be set any time in their friendship/relationship, really I just think it would be something neat to explore! If you do want to go shippy, I am all for sexual content here.
Fate/Stay Night: Heaven's Feel
Requested characters: Sakura Matou, Rider
I realize I'm breaking a little here as this is considerably darker in tone than the rest, but I still really love the dynamic between Sakura and Rider and feel like even if I'm stretching the theme, it still works. With the reveal that Sakura is Medusa's true master, a lot of the protectiveness and possessiveness really comes into play and I think their relationship is really interesting. Both of them have had their lives shaped and controlled by the men around them and tried to grab freedom in different, semi-doomed ways and to various destructive effect. A lot of what Medusa does is for Sakura, and I feel that Sakura realizes that Rider is one of the people who has actually been there for her, regardless of Medusa's generally aloof nature.
I'm most familiar with the recent Heaven's Feel movies, but know most of the other Stay Night properties tangentially, and know that Hollow Ataraxia is also very good ground for them, so if you want to set it after the Grail War, please go right ahead! I don't really ship Shirou and Sakura at all, so don't feel like you have to figure some way around that.
Enola Holmes
Requested characters: Eudoria Holmes, Edith Grayston
What a great movie! Getting to take a wider look at the Holmes family as well as the societal issues of Britain at the time was great and I loved Enola herself, but what really fascinated me was Eudoria and Edith. They're both women who have worked to make something of the broken system they've been handed in any way they can and while they're more background for Enola, I'd love to see them brought to center stage! We know Edith was Enola's first teacher, so her friendship and association with Eudoria has to go back years and years - how did they meet? Did they form their secret society together? Did Edith teach Eudoria ? What was that friendship like throughout the years? It seemed like Edith knew about Eudoria's movements in London even if she wasnt' willing to tell Enola - did Eudoria ever use Edith as a safe house? Again, I am all for shippy content here, as well as sexual content!