Dear Yuletide Author
Hi! Thank you very much for writing a story for me! :D
Things I like:
* I love friendship/team fic. Characters who grow to like each other, trust each other, and eventually would do many things for each other, yes please. Especially when they're in slightly different positions/places/etc. and their friendship is rather unexpected.
* Related to that, navigating relationships: how do they deal with daily life, how do they support and comfort each other at the end of the day, how do they solve conflicts, what happens if there are conflicting loyalties? I'm a big fan of loyalty, betrayal, sacrifice, and related tropes.
* Plot is great. Stories where they stay at home and play boardgames are also great. 5-things/times-fic is fun. I like stories that span an hour and stories that span years.
Things I don't like for Yuletide:
* Stories with a very dark or hopeless ending, explicit rape, child abuse
* Stories focused on romance tropes or explicit sex
* Different world AUs. I love the canon worlds of all these fandoms so I'd prefer to read fic taking place there. Exceptions are things I mention in prompts.
Have fun! The prompts below are just guidelines, I hope they help you think of ideas.
Soviet Hockey Players RPF
Characters: Alexei Kasatonov, Slava Fetisov
If you don't know what it is: The original "Russian Five", or the "Green Unit" (so called sometimes in the US) or "пятерка Ларионова", the five-man unit of Krutov-Larionov-Makarov-Fetisov-Kasatonov, was the best hockey unit in the USSR in the 1980s and many say probably the best in history. They played for the Red Army club (part of the military) and for the national team under head coach Viktor Tikhonov and were extraordinarily successful.
At the end of the 1980s several players of the team, first and foremost Fetisov and Larionov, expressed dissatisfaction with their very harsh training conditions and a desire to play professional hockey in the NHL. Krutov, Makarov, and Larionov supported Fetisov, who was stripped of the captaincy and thrown off the team for that reason, while Kasatonov publicly supported Tikhonov. Many years later his teammates still said that they're unable to forgive a betrayal like this.
Eventually all five of them were allowed to play in the NHL. Kasatonov and Fetisov both played for New Jersey for a while, still barely speaking to each other. Fetisov and Larionov were later reunited in Detroit, where they won two Stanley Cups (as part of the Detroit Russian Five: Kozlov-Fedorov-Larionov-Fetisov-Konstantinov.) Larionov played until the age of 44, the last season in New Jersey, where Fetisov was then an assistant coach. Kasatonov came back to Russia to work with Tikhonov again.
Fetisov later became the Russian minister of sports. Kasatonov became general manager of the Russian national team, which made it unavoidable that they work together. They claim their conflict is in the past.
For a good overview I recommend the documentaries "CCCP Hockey", "Red Army" (my review), and "Of Miracles and Men." I think some of them are available on Netflix, or they can be found at ~various places on the internet.
Prompt: They were such a close group, until it all fell apart. I would absolutely love a story that deals in some way with Kasatonov's betrayal. Kasatonov in some ways seems like a tragic figure: torn between loyalty to his coach, to whom he felt he owed everything, and to his D-partner and his teammates, with whom he was close as brothers; and torn between loyalty to the Soviet Union, that he grew up with and believed in, and the criticism coming from Larionov and Fetisov and others and what he could himself see were imperfect conditions.
Some ideas:
- I'd love to read about how he came to the decision he did, or the aftermath and Fetisov's reaction to the shocking betrayal. Did they even talk about it, did one of them try to? Was Kasatonov aware what his decision would cost him?
- Fetisov and Kasatonov at the Olympics in 1988 after the split, or together in New Jersey: it almost feels like before on the ice, but off the ice everything is different.
- Fetisov and Larionov in Detroit, playing with younger Russians, and Fetisov can't help but think of his former teammate(s). Meanwhile Kasatonov stays in almost daily (!) contact with Tikhonov, not admitting that he seeks constant reassurance that he did the right thing.
- Fetisov and Kasatonov's first meeting in their new management/political roles, working together with so much going unspoken. Do they finally talk, or at least attempt to? Do they try for actual reconciliation or just civility for the sake of their jobs?
- Anything in that general direction basically, about these two and their complicated relationship. I'd also enjoy seeing other players if you want to include them, especially the rest of their unit and/or people from the 90s Wings,
I prefer either gen or unrequited (or believed to be unrequited) feelings. Please no "everything about the Soviet Union was bad/everything about the US is better."
The Steerswoman series - Rosemary Kirstein
Characters: Rowan, Bel, Willam
If you don't know what it is: The Steerswoman series is a SFF series written by Rosemary Kirstein. Currently there are four books, and two or three more are planned. The Steerswomen are a predominantly female order whose members travel and collect knowledge of all kind. A steerswoman has to answer all questions she is asked, except by those who refuse to answer her questions. The counterpart to the Steerswomen are the wizards, who protect their secrets that give them power.
The books follow the journey of the steerswoman Rowan. She finds something that leads her to making important discoveries and puts her in opposition to the wizards. Her companion is Bel, a warrior and poet from one of the tribes from the Outskirts.
I found the first book to be too slow, but I liked the others very much: I like the characters and the plot and worldbuilding are fascinating. I wrote more detailed reviews: Book 1&2, The Lost Steersman, The Language of Power.
All the books are available as ebooks (currently still cheap because the author didn't yet set the prices back after a recent sale.)
Prompt: I'd love (post-)book 4 fic, either canon-compliant or AUs. I absolutely loved the character dynamics in "The Language of Power" and I want more of every relationship we get to see between Rowan, Bel, and Willam: Willam and Rowan's two-sided student-teacher relationship, for example (I love how much Willam admires Rowan in particular), or Willam and Bel's now damaged friendship. I'm also interested in Willam and Corvus and their ambiguous student-teacher relationship.
Ideas:
- Maybe Rowan and Bel occasionally take the Graceful Days for travel and spend some time with Willam. They could have adventures together! Willam and Rowan could continue teaching each other.
- Epistolary fic: Rowan and Willam writing while Willam is on the ship. Willam surely knows a lot more about wizards that Rowan wants to know, and he would like to know what Rowan and Bel are up to. - Willam betrayed Bel's trust. Does he ever manage to win it back?
- Willam must miss magic. Does he experiment and theorize on his own? Does Corvus smuggle him materials, or even ask him for help? Does he ask every steerswoman who travels with them to teach him what they know? (He could become friends/penpals with Zenna!)
- Book 4 AUs: Willam gets out undetected after all. Does he return to Corvus? Does he keep traveling with Rowan and Bel?
- If you like dark stories: how about an AU where Jannik kills Rowan? Now Willam feels even more obligated to continue her work, working together with Bel.
I would prefer that the focus of the story not be a romantic relationship. I'm fine with hints of Rowan/Bel or Bel/Willam or Willam/Rowan if you want to include it (would prefer only attraction (maybe one-sided) and no relationship yet for all of these, but flirting is fine), pretty much anything with Willam/Corvus, or any/OC.
Krabat | The Satanic Mill - Otfried Preußler
If you don't know what it is: In this adaption of the Wendish myth Krabat is a beggar boy who is called to the mill at Schwarzkollm, where he begins an apprenticeships. He soon finds out that the miller is a sorcerer and teaches all the journeymen magic. Krabat becomes good friends with the senior journeyman Tonda, who dies after one year under mysterious circumstances. It becomes clear that the miller doesn't have their best interests at mind and Krabat tries to find a way to get out from under his thumb.
(There are also two movies - an older animated one and a live-action version from 2008 - but I haven't watched them because I'm afraid it would overwrite the images I have in my head.)
Prompt: I read the book in high school (in German) and loved it. I like the atmosphere, the characters, the writing, and the plot. I would love a story for this fandom dealing with the theme of sacrifice, and/or friendship(/love) under such oppressive circumstances. I'm interested in backstories (especially Juro and Tonda), canon-divergent AUs or AUs where the magic works a bit differently, and literal and figurative huddling for warmth.
Ideas:
- Juro: he's been at the mill for years and has seen so many of his friends die, a story exploring that would be great. Does he always know who is going to die? Does he blame himself every time - especially for Tonda's death? Juro and Tonda as good friends would be lovely, or even Juro with a crush on Tonda. Does Juro hate himself for being a coward, and for hoping each year that one of his friends will die so it won't be him? Is he afraid of living the rest of his life on the mill?
- Worschula died before New Year's, why did Tonda survive that year? If it's because he wasn't a threat anymore, why did he die the next year?
- The AU where Krabat meets miller!Tonda. Tonda accidentally ended up as the miller and he can't just leave, the Goodman won't let him. The first New Year's the miller died, but the next one? He won't sacrifice anyone else. He has one year left.
- Or the AU where Krabat accidentally becomes the miller. He has one year to find a solution with Juro's help.
- The one where Krabat sort-of accidentally resurrects Tonda. Oops.
- The one where the Kantorka is not as pure and innocent and selfless as she appears to be. Does she go along with Krabat's plan not because she loves him, but to get rid of the miller? Is she maybe even a witch or sorceress in her own right? And/or the Kantorka's outsider PoV on the mill/the journeymen.
- After they escaped from the mill: what do they do next? Who stays together? How do they deal with their memories?
Crossposted from Dreamwidth.
comments there.
Things I like:
* I love friendship/team fic. Characters who grow to like each other, trust each other, and eventually would do many things for each other, yes please. Especially when they're in slightly different positions/places/etc. and their friendship is rather unexpected.
* Related to that, navigating relationships: how do they deal with daily life, how do they support and comfort each other at the end of the day, how do they solve conflicts, what happens if there are conflicting loyalties? I'm a big fan of loyalty, betrayal, sacrifice, and related tropes.
* Plot is great. Stories where they stay at home and play boardgames are also great. 5-things/times-fic is fun. I like stories that span an hour and stories that span years.
Things I don't like for Yuletide:
* Stories with a very dark or hopeless ending, explicit rape, child abuse
* Stories focused on romance tropes or explicit sex
* Different world AUs. I love the canon worlds of all these fandoms so I'd prefer to read fic taking place there. Exceptions are things I mention in prompts.
Have fun! The prompts below are just guidelines, I hope they help you think of ideas.
Soviet Hockey Players RPF
Characters: Alexei Kasatonov, Slava Fetisov
If you don't know what it is: The original "Russian Five", or the "Green Unit" (so called sometimes in the US) or "пятерка Ларионова", the five-man unit of Krutov-Larionov-Makarov-Fetisov-Kasatonov, was the best hockey unit in the USSR in the 1980s and many say probably the best in history. They played for the Red Army club (part of the military) and for the national team under head coach Viktor Tikhonov and were extraordinarily successful.
At the end of the 1980s several players of the team, first and foremost Fetisov and Larionov, expressed dissatisfaction with their very harsh training conditions and a desire to play professional hockey in the NHL. Krutov, Makarov, and Larionov supported Fetisov, who was stripped of the captaincy and thrown off the team for that reason, while Kasatonov publicly supported Tikhonov. Many years later his teammates still said that they're unable to forgive a betrayal like this.
Eventually all five of them were allowed to play in the NHL. Kasatonov and Fetisov both played for New Jersey for a while, still barely speaking to each other. Fetisov and Larionov were later reunited in Detroit, where they won two Stanley Cups (as part of the Detroit Russian Five: Kozlov-Fedorov-Larionov-Fetisov-Konstantinov.) Larionov played until the age of 44, the last season in New Jersey, where Fetisov was then an assistant coach. Kasatonov came back to Russia to work with Tikhonov again.
Fetisov later became the Russian minister of sports. Kasatonov became general manager of the Russian national team, which made it unavoidable that they work together. They claim their conflict is in the past.
For a good overview I recommend the documentaries "CCCP Hockey", "Red Army" (my review), and "Of Miracles and Men." I think some of them are available on Netflix, or they can be found at ~various places on the internet.
Prompt: They were such a close group, until it all fell apart. I would absolutely love a story that deals in some way with Kasatonov's betrayal. Kasatonov in some ways seems like a tragic figure: torn between loyalty to his coach, to whom he felt he owed everything, and to his D-partner and his teammates, with whom he was close as brothers; and torn between loyalty to the Soviet Union, that he grew up with and believed in, and the criticism coming from Larionov and Fetisov and others and what he could himself see were imperfect conditions.
Some ideas:
- I'd love to read about how he came to the decision he did, or the aftermath and Fetisov's reaction to the shocking betrayal. Did they even talk about it, did one of them try to? Was Kasatonov aware what his decision would cost him?
- Fetisov and Kasatonov at the Olympics in 1988 after the split, or together in New Jersey: it almost feels like before on the ice, but off the ice everything is different.
- Fetisov and Larionov in Detroit, playing with younger Russians, and Fetisov can't help but think of his former teammate(s). Meanwhile Kasatonov stays in almost daily (!) contact with Tikhonov, not admitting that he seeks constant reassurance that he did the right thing.
- Fetisov and Kasatonov's first meeting in their new management/political roles, working together with so much going unspoken. Do they finally talk, or at least attempt to? Do they try for actual reconciliation or just civility for the sake of their jobs?
- Anything in that general direction basically, about these two and their complicated relationship. I'd also enjoy seeing other players if you want to include them, especially the rest of their unit and/or people from the 90s Wings,
I prefer either gen or unrequited (or believed to be unrequited) feelings. Please no "everything about the Soviet Union was bad/everything about the US is better."
The Steerswoman series - Rosemary Kirstein
Characters: Rowan, Bel, Willam
If you don't know what it is: The Steerswoman series is a SFF series written by Rosemary Kirstein. Currently there are four books, and two or three more are planned. The Steerswomen are a predominantly female order whose members travel and collect knowledge of all kind. A steerswoman has to answer all questions she is asked, except by those who refuse to answer her questions. The counterpart to the Steerswomen are the wizards, who protect their secrets that give them power.
The books follow the journey of the steerswoman Rowan. She finds something that leads her to making important discoveries and puts her in opposition to the wizards. Her companion is Bel, a warrior and poet from one of the tribes from the Outskirts.
I found the first book to be too slow, but I liked the others very much: I like the characters and the plot and worldbuilding are fascinating. I wrote more detailed reviews: Book 1&2, The Lost Steersman, The Language of Power.
All the books are available as ebooks (currently still cheap because the author didn't yet set the prices back after a recent sale.)
Prompt: I'd love (post-)book 4 fic, either canon-compliant or AUs. I absolutely loved the character dynamics in "The Language of Power" and I want more of every relationship we get to see between Rowan, Bel, and Willam: Willam and Rowan's two-sided student-teacher relationship, for example (I love how much Willam admires Rowan in particular), or Willam and Bel's now damaged friendship. I'm also interested in Willam and Corvus and their ambiguous student-teacher relationship.
Ideas:
- Maybe Rowan and Bel occasionally take the Graceful Days for travel and spend some time with Willam. They could have adventures together! Willam and Rowan could continue teaching each other.
- Epistolary fic: Rowan and Willam writing while Willam is on the ship. Willam surely knows a lot more about wizards that Rowan wants to know, and he would like to know what Rowan and Bel are up to. - Willam betrayed Bel's trust. Does he ever manage to win it back?
- Willam must miss magic. Does he experiment and theorize on his own? Does Corvus smuggle him materials, or even ask him for help? Does he ask every steerswoman who travels with them to teach him what they know? (He could become friends/penpals with Zenna!)
- Book 4 AUs: Willam gets out undetected after all. Does he return to Corvus? Does he keep traveling with Rowan and Bel?
- If you like dark stories: how about an AU where Jannik kills Rowan? Now Willam feels even more obligated to continue her work, working together with Bel.
I would prefer that the focus of the story not be a romantic relationship. I'm fine with hints of Rowan/Bel or Bel/Willam or Willam/Rowan if you want to include it (would prefer only attraction (maybe one-sided) and no relationship yet for all of these, but flirting is fine), pretty much anything with Willam/Corvus, or any/OC.
Krabat | The Satanic Mill - Otfried Preußler
If you don't know what it is: In this adaption of the Wendish myth Krabat is a beggar boy who is called to the mill at Schwarzkollm, where he begins an apprenticeships. He soon finds out that the miller is a sorcerer and teaches all the journeymen magic. Krabat becomes good friends with the senior journeyman Tonda, who dies after one year under mysterious circumstances. It becomes clear that the miller doesn't have their best interests at mind and Krabat tries to find a way to get out from under his thumb.
(There are also two movies - an older animated one and a live-action version from 2008 - but I haven't watched them because I'm afraid it would overwrite the images I have in my head.)
Prompt: I read the book in high school (in German) and loved it. I like the atmosphere, the characters, the writing, and the plot. I would love a story for this fandom dealing with the theme of sacrifice, and/or friendship(/love) under such oppressive circumstances. I'm interested in backstories (especially Juro and Tonda), canon-divergent AUs or AUs where the magic works a bit differently, and literal and figurative huddling for warmth.
Ideas:
- Juro: he's been at the mill for years and has seen so many of his friends die, a story exploring that would be great. Does he always know who is going to die? Does he blame himself every time - especially for Tonda's death? Juro and Tonda as good friends would be lovely, or even Juro with a crush on Tonda. Does Juro hate himself for being a coward, and for hoping each year that one of his friends will die so it won't be him? Is he afraid of living the rest of his life on the mill?
- Worschula died before New Year's, why did Tonda survive that year? If it's because he wasn't a threat anymore, why did he die the next year?
- The AU where Krabat meets miller!Tonda. Tonda accidentally ended up as the miller and he can't just leave, the Goodman won't let him. The first New Year's the miller died, but the next one? He won't sacrifice anyone else. He has one year left.
- Or the AU where Krabat accidentally becomes the miller. He has one year to find a solution with Juro's help.
- The one where Krabat sort-of accidentally resurrects Tonda. Oops.
- The one where the Kantorka is not as pure and innocent and selfless as she appears to be. Does she go along with Krabat's plan not because she loves him, but to get rid of the miller? Is she maybe even a witch or sorceress in her own right? And/or the Kantorka's outsider PoV on the mill/the journeymen.
- After they escaped from the mill: what do they do next? Who stays together? How do they deal with their memories?
Crossposted from Dreamwidth.
comments there.