Yuletide Letter of 2024 (Updated)

[slowmercury]

Dear Yuletide Author,

I'm always delighted at this time of year, and I'm really excited to see whatever you do.  I'll tell you why I like each of my sources and then give you a whole bunch of prompts - I think it's usually better to over-suggest than not give enough guidance for writing - but you don't have to take these suggestions seriously at all.  If you've got an idea of what you want to write and it's completely different from anything I've prompted, please go with your idea instead.  Please keep my DNWs in mind, but other than that?  Go nuts.

Thank you and good luck!

Do Not Want: Non-con; infidelity; RPF, with exceptions for people who've been dead for 50+ years and for people who've played themselves onscreen like 50 Cent; tragic or terrible endings, but bittersweet is fine; contextless smut

Do Like: Plotty stories; character studies; hidden moments from canon; pre- or post-canon stories; romance; worldbuilding; case fic; gen fic; alternate universes where one small change spirals canon off-course; crossovers (feel free to use any fandom I've ever dabbled in); humor

Better Living Through Algorithms - Naomi Kritzer (short story)



Characters: Any

This Nebula finalist and Hugo winning short story can be found for free at https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/swanwick_10_16_reprint/

I was a little wary that this would turn out to be a bleak "technology is bad and people are stupid sheep" story, but it really isn't.  I loved that the AI turns out to be pretty benevolent, and that it isn't an all powerful cheat code for happiness/life, and that individuals' choices matter - but that people were encouraged to focus on choices that mattered to them, instead of what they (or society) thought they should care about.

Whatever you want to write is great, but here are some prompts if you need them!

Prompts

• Please tell me about after the app failed.  Did anyone ever successfully make another app like it?  What did the researchers who built it and studied it learn?  Did they publish somewhere, or go into wellness, or video game creation?
• I loved the ending, where Linnea accepts an invitation from her Abelique community even after the app is gone, and then chooses to extend that sense of belonging and trying new things to another person.  What happens to the Abelique community? Do they manage to keep going? (I want the answer to be yes.) Do they branch out into other activities? 
• What were the experiences of other Abelique users?  Was there a difference in the experience of early adopters versus people who joined later?  What about people who joined after the tell all article came out?
• How did Margo figure all of it out?  What did she investigate, how did her interview with the programmer go?  How did she sell it to her bosses?  It sounds like the articles were very successful; did Margo write follow up articles?  How did this effect Margo's career?

Time of Iron Series - Sarah Rees Brennan



Characters: Any (Alice, Emer, Eric | The Golden Cobra, Key | The Villain of the Cauldron, Lia Felice, Marius Valerius | The Last Hope, Rae | Rahela Domitia, Worldbuilding)

Okay, confession: I haven't quite finished the book yet so I can't make requests based on the ending.  If I have new prompts or ideas, I'll update my lj.  If you don't want to look there, though, no worries! Write whatever you want and I'll probably love it.

This book is so meta, and I want all the meta!  I loved that opening scene where Rae and the mysterious oraculous woman debate the nature of reality and Rae completely shuts down any argument that she isn't real and Eyam is (and Rae's wrong).

And I want all the character studies, and the villain speeches, and heists, and the relationships, the friendships and romance, and the snark.

Update: I did finish the book!  I'm adding some more prompts, because some of my suggestions don't quite seem correct anymore and because I've got more thoughts and questions.  If none of it appeals to you, feel free to ignore it (just like you can ignore any and all prompts and suggestions if you've got a different idea).

Prompts

• Tell me what happened in the original story, before people started transmigrating in and changing things.  I'm particularly interested in whatever Key was doing in earlier timelines that made the Cobra so wary of him, since I get the feeling Key kicked Marius' ass at least once
• The outside book seems to update without any fans noticing the differences - and as far as I know, no one's commented on the Cobra's pop culture references, either.  I'd love to see that explored.   Give me fans' analyses of character arcs, and then compare it to the same fans' analyses of the same characters but using the latest version of the Time of Iron.  Or give me fanfic and commentary based on the different versions of the book 
• The abrupt personality transplant in the Beauty Dipped in Blood and her sudden deep bromance with the Cobra all sort of came out of left field for the readers, so what do they make of it? Do they look back at the text for early hints about Rae's true nature? Do they complain about her being wildly out of character, or do they think she really had a vision and it made her reevaluate her relationships with the king, her sister, etc?
• Tell me more about that ridiculous musical based on Game of Thrones, whoops, I mean Time of Iron, or other merchandise based on it
• Rae promised Alice to tell her sister the greatest story she'd ever heard tomorrow.  Notably, Rae did not promise to be alive tomorrow. What will happen? Has Alice noticed the ripples Rae's made in their favorite book? 
• The Golden Cobra built himself up from a nobody street rat to a lower class folk hero.  He employs a wide variety of people including a huge spy network, he arranged the rescue of kidnapped slaves, he gives charity to the impoverished, he can wander through the dangerous slums wearing expensive jewelry and no one bothers him - practically, he seems to be singlehandedly running all of Eyam's antipoverty initiatives.  Tell me what his rise to power looked like, or what the lower class think of him compared to the rich, or what his daily life is like
• I love Rae's villainous speeches and villainous team building.  Her positive outlook on evildoing is hilarious to me, and I enjoyed seeing her draw the disparate people into a single unit (for evil), even when she screwed up.  I'd love to see this group fight together against: the king|emperor, the government, ghouls, monsters, fate and/or the gods.  It'd be great to see them win, but even if they lose, their spite, rage and determination to never submit could be inspiring
• Worldbuilding!  Tell me about what it's like in the stratified world of Eyam.  I want to know about what people eat, why they don't just leave for non-cursed countries, how often ghouls happen, where the closest neighboring kingdoms are, where does magic come from, how do nobles make their money?
• Marius Valerius has an unbending code, holds honor in high esteem, and he hates liars.  He takes things at face value.  His nominal worst enemy, the Cobra, is a shameless, cowardly liar, but actually a very good person and a good friend, and Marius has only sort of noticed.  Marius also seems unaware that he's pretty much in love with the Cobra.  What I'm saying is that this is one confused guy.  I'd love to see this relationship explored, from either perspective
• I like Rae a lot.  She's fundamentally a protector, but she's also very pragmatic and her long sickness and all the betrayals in that (her parents, her former friends, her own body and mind) left her even more cynical than she was originally.  Throughout the whole book, Rae denies that she's interacting with real people, because then she would have to care about what happens to them and her own actions will have moral weight.  Furthermore, Time of Iron requires ruthlessness to survive.  I'm not sure where Rae's at by the novel's end, but I'd love to see this question in depth
• What parallels, if any, are there between Alice and Lia?  Is there more to it than them just being Rae's sisters?  They're both sweethearts who aren't complete doormats, but Lia is much more manipulative than Alice.  How else are/aren't they alike?
• Give me a character study of Lia.  Her only form of self defense in the original novel was attracting protectors, and she was very good at that, but it turns out that was not at all her preferred tactic if she could do almost anything else.  She's genuinely kind, merciful, and very bright, and it looks like she's making real friends who accept her for herself for the first time in her life (excepting Emer, who was actually betraying her).  Is this why she got over Rahela's assassination attempt and years of abuse so quickly?

More Prompts

• So apparently all of Marius's men were just waiting for the word to commit  sweet, sweet treason: what's their opinion on the kingdom, government, king and/or the Last Hope?  What are their thoughts on the Cobra, and do those thoughts change during the evacuation?
• The obvious prompt: what happens next?  There are a lot of problems, some of them literally on fire, and people are going to have to deal with that soon.
• Eric | the Cobra is very confused by Marius's actions.  What's his opinion on things?  What do the fans reading the book think?
• Talk to me about the original bond of sisterhood between Emer and Rahela - it's pretty interesting to me that Rahela had a (step)sister in Lia, but still bonded with the lower class Emer instead - or tell me about the bond between Rae and Emer.  Maybe compare the relationships? 
• On the outside: the Cobra is outed  as a bodysnatcher from another world.  Does that show up in the new version of the novel?  It wasn't revealed in the version that Rae read, so it might still be a secret, but if it isn't, has anyone drawn a connection to the Rahela situation?
• And Key! Rae thinks he's much worse off morally because he was learning from a den of vipers instead of the angelic Lia, but is she right about this?  Lia didn't actually like Key and Rae does.  Lia was overtly caring and sweet but manipulative underneath that, whereas the vipers are all overtly selfish and manipulative and hiding their kindnesses beneath that.  Key's understandably furious at Rahela in a way he presumably never got with Lia, but if he gets more information he may change his mind.  Rae really did tell him secrets she never told anyone else, and now that the truth about bodysnatching worldjumpers is out Key may realize that.  The vipers all tried their hardest to save Key, in their own manipulative ways, and were each devastated by their failure; that might cheer Key up, too.
• What was the trajectory of the final novel that Eric read (known plot points: fewer main character deaths), the novel in Rae's timeline (known plot points: too many deceased, Rae losing hope for a happy ending), and the new one which the world outside is presumably reading now (no Rahela death, early emperor, early invasion, etc)?

Witch King - Martha Wells



Characters: Kaiisteron, Ziede Daiyahah, Sanja, Dahin Stargard - please use at least one, preferably Kai or Sanja

(I liked all the characters, though, so please feel free to write about any of them, including characters who weren't nominated, like Kai's extended demon family or enemies.)

The Rising World is wonderful; it feels like there's a lot going on in the background we don't get to see directly but which still casts ripples into the main narrative.  All those different nations that don't get along and can't agree on how to govern themselves but who do at least all know they hate the Hierarchs.  The different types of magic, from the natural witches to the expositors and the demons.  I'd love to see this explored more.

Prompts

•  Imperial Arike seems to think they're the right group to benevolently rule over all the nations; they've definitely got xenophobic and imperialist leanings.  Avagantrum is where Kai and his fellow survivors of the war live; it seems much more cosmopolitan, home to various magical peoples with an emphasis on education.  What's it like to live in these places? What happens post-story in global politics? 
• I'd love character studies.  Kai is my favorite, he's had so many awful things happen to him but he still manages to have hope for people.  Sometimes, anyway.  What gets him up in the morning?  His friends seems like a major source of support for him, and vice versa.  What other friends has he made, over the years?  He's probably already outlived many people he met even after the end of the war with the Hierarchs and the death of his entire culture.
• Tell me about Ziede and Tahren.  Was their wedding a diplomatic nightmare, or a small ceremony? Do they have kids? How does visiting each other's families go?  Dahin can't always handle being with Tahren anymore, but he's still got a great relationship with Ziede (and Kai).  How does Tahren feel about that?  ...for that matter, how do Ziede and Dahin feel?
• Please tell about me adventures people had, during or post the Hierarch war.  Maybe one of the battles required a strike team with the magical firepower of a demon and a couple of witches.  Or tell me about how much effort it was to keep Bashasa un-assassinated, or about an archaeological dig that Dahin took Kai and Ziede on, or about the various expositors who tried to make Kai their familiar, or maybe a moment of calm once they had peace 
• Sanja's life took some serious upsets over the course of the book.  She started as a street kid who got sold to as a sacrifice to evil sorcerers, and she ends as the personal student to a bunch of near mythical, powerful leaders with a home in a new country with a witchy best friend in Tenes.  She's very resilient, but that's still a lot.  How's she coping?  What's her day to day life like now, as opposed to before? What does she want to do now?
• Tahren notes that Arn-Nefa | Arnsterath was the first person who betrayed Kai.  What was she like before, and how exactly did she become what she is?  What does she want now? She seems to have been imprisoned in one place or another for most of her recent life.  We last see her locked in combat with Viar, the expositor who tried to enslave her but whom she enslaved instead - how'd that fight go?  For that matter, what's Viar's perspective on everything?
• What was Ramad's perspective on the events of the novel? He seems to have started out absolutely sure he was in the right, then gained regrets as the story progressed.  Did Kai telling him his idol Basasha's last words have an effect on him?  Does he attempt to make amends, and if so, is he successful? Does he make any changes in his life based on this experience?  Or, tell me about previous jobs Ramad has completed for Bashat.
• As for Bashat, do Kai, Ziede and Tahren take revenge? If so, how? Does Bashat try to justify his actions?  Does he understand how big a betrayal it was, and how close at least Kai and Ziede came to dying or being enslaved? 
• By the end of the book, Bashasa and the rest of the group have only known each other for a couple of days tops and they've already started to form a supportive, capable group of friends.  How tight is that friendship in a month, or a year?  In ten years?
• Someone commented somewhere that Bashasa and Kai both seem to think the other one can do anything.  They have a strong connection and deep faith in each other.  Please tell me about their bond, platonic or romantic, and how it pushes both of them to be wilder and better and less predictable people.

Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro



Characters: Any (Godai Shinobu, Katsuragi Yako, Nougami Neuro, Sasazuka Eishi)

This is mostly a repeat of a previous ask; feel free to use any character from the manga and not just the ones nominated this year.  For that matter, feel free to use no characters and just worldbuild.  Ditto the prompts.

Fandom Specific DNW: Please don't pair Yako and Neuro romantically

I read this a long time ago, but it’s still one of my favorite manga. It’s ridiculous in all the best ways, and it spoofs a lot of fun tropes too. And for a series with such wildly unhinged and silly characters, it’s got surprising depth and character growth. It made me laugh, but the darker character beats rang true, too. I was really surprised by Sasazuka’s ending in particular.

Neuro and Yako’s relationship growing into respect and understanding was very well done. Somehow the abuse actually reads as affectionate, since Neuro had such a weird set of morals, and Yako seemed to understand that. She complained sometimes when Neuro did crazy and/or horrible things, but she was surprisingly tolerant of it, too. I’d love to see an exploration of this.

Prompts
Yako is my favorite. I love her kindness, her clear insight into people’s vulnerabilities and cruelty and how she remains compassionate in the face of it. I love the way she’s a normal schoolgirl while also being incredibly tough and incisive. I love how, after some initial protest, she always just rolls with whatever the latest weirdness is. I love how much she eats.

Or tell me about Higuchi. He’s incredibly smart and determined, and he is on the police force so he’s forced to stay on the up and up. Give me details on his childhood, or his current life as a paid police informant, or how being brainwashed into having perfect manners is ruining his life. He did not at all seem like someone who wanted to be fit into society by being polite, and now he doesn’t really have a choice about it. Or tell me about how since he’s the only person who figured out how to mitigate the electronic virus brainwashing, he’s also the only person who’s responsible for what he did under its effects-does he feel guilty about that?

For worldbuilding, if you don’t want to deal with the characters, how is Japan coping post-series? Or what is hell like? How jaded is the average guy on the street? What do other police departments think about everything, or even what does the Tokyo department think?

What adventures does Neuro drag Yako (and Godai) on after his return? For that matter, what problems has Yako solved as a negotiator in the time skip?

What ludicrous things has Yako eaten? Where did she eat them? (The eating underwater anecdote still makes me laugh.) Has she ever handled a problem like poison by eating it?

I enjoy the friendship between Yako and Godai. They’re such unlikely looking friends, but they really do get along, and they’re both the victims of Neuro’s whims. They both *survive* Neuro’s whims. What do they do when they hang out? Does Godai help with Yako’s negotiator work? Does Yako ever help Godai’s shadier work?

How about a character study of Sasazuka? What does he really think about Yako and the rest of Neuro's circus?  What do his police colleagues think of him?  What would it have taken for him to survive? Or else tell me about bizarre cases he had before canon that taught him to deal with the strangeness.

Or tell me more about the villains! I’m especially interested in Asia Aya. She gives great advice to Yako, but that doesn’t really make her seem less crazy. Aya loves Yako but has thus far refrained from attempting to kill her. What happens if she changes her mind? Or maybe if Aya makes new loved ones, will she kill them?

The Dark Is Rising - Susan Cooper



Characters: Barney Drew, Jane Drew, the Lady, Will Stanton

This series is an old favorite of my childhood.  I liked how the magic in this series was both wonderful and terrifying, even or the Light stuff.  I liked the complexity, how even the Good side was sometimes cruel or callous in pursuit of their greater good goals, and how that sometimes came back to bite them like with the Black Rider, and that the best of the Light's representatives tried to be kind anyway.  I liked the bittersweet end, when the victory still felt a bit like a loss.  I liked the characters, but especially Jane Drew and Will Stanton.  I'd love a story that touches on any of that!

Feel free to use any combination of characters you want, including characters I didn't ask for, characters you made up, or even none of the characters I requested.  Same goes for the prompts

Fandom Specific DNW: Please don't pair Will and Bran romantically.  You can pair Bran with anyone else, or with Will polyamorously, but please not just the two of them.

Prompts

• A lot of Dark Is Rising stories set after the end of the series are pretty angsty, because Will is Alone Forever and everyone else is missing a vital piece of themselves when they forgot the events they took part in.  This is plausible and valid, but I'd like to see a happier alternative where even though almost no one actually remembers what happened they still all know it.  They've still got all the character development they earned, and the friends they made, and the weird skills and knowledge they picked up on their various quests, and maybe those skills include a little bit of magic still
• The magic is fascinating, and I get the feeling there was a more going on than we saw in the books.  Where does the Dark hang out when they're not kicking puppies and attempting world conquest/destruction?  Will learned magic from a book; how do you learn Dark magic?  On the other end, what does Wild Magic actually do? Does it have a purpose, or does it just exist?  Is there more Wild Magic than Dark and Light?  What about Wild Magic practitioners? At the end, Wild Magic (and Will) are all that are left.  What does that look like for the world?
• Wild Magic seems to favor Jane - the Lady always liked her, and Jane was the Greenwitch's first and only friend.  It'd be great to see that continue after the series.  Maybe whenever Jane visits the ocean, the waves listen and welcome her back or show her lost undersea treasures, because the Greenwitch still loves her.  Can Jane rely on good weather whenever she wants a picnic?  Can she slip through cracks in time or the world when she's late for class?
• Will was the youngest and last of the Old Ones.  Does he stop aging, and if so, when?  Do clerks check his ID every time he buys alcohol?  Does he have to frequent TikTok now to blend in with his look-alike peers?
• Or give me worldbuilding about The Lady.  She's a strong force for the Light, and a kind one, but perhaps not a very aggressive or offensive one.  What did/does her day to day look like?  Where did she come from?  Has she always been there?  Did she change over time?  Is she a person at all or more a force of nature?  Or tell me more about her relationship to Jane, or Will, or Merriman and all the other Old Ones.
• Does Barney go to art school? He'd be attending with a bunch of students who don't share his background in world-saving.  What does he have in common with his fellows, and how does he differ from them?  Maybe some mundane but dangerous situation arises at school, and Barney surprises everyone by remaining calm, unfazed, and practical
• After the battle, when the Light has won and the Dark's been banished, the Wild Magic is still around. Part of Will's job as the last Old One is to mediate the Wild Magic. What exactly does that entail? Does he have to spend a lot of time in faerie Underhill, or is he constantly tripping through time, or does he have to spend a lot of time soothing sentient weather patterns or mountains out of temper tantrums that could flatten civilization? Do any of Will's friends ever tag along? Maybe Will's made entirely new friends since the near end of the world
• I'm also curious about all those Old Ones running around who never quite come into focus during the books.  How many Old Ones are there? What was it like when they came into their power?  What do they do, magically or professionally, and how old are they anyway?

Everything Everywhere All At Once



Characters: Any (Evelyn Wang, Waymond Wang, Alpha Waymond, Alpha Evelyn, Joy Wang | Jobu Tupkai)

Request largely repeated from previous years:

This film had everything: humor, action, cool special effects, heartbreaking family issues, and a wide variety of fascinating characters, from minor background bystanders in dimensions we only saw once, to people we saw different facets of in a kaleidoscope of different universes.

To me, this is a movie about hope in the face of an infinite uncaring void, and how the bonds people build are the only things that matter when ultimately nothing matters.

My favorite character is Evelyn. She wants what’s best for her family, but she doesn’t listen to what they’re telling her they need and want. She doesn’t respect her family’s decisions, and she doesn’t respect herself because she believes she’s a failure (and later many people also come from other dimensions to point out how cool she could’ve been and how much of a waste she really is). It’s really significant to me that the super-successful AlphaEvelyn was no happier with her kid than LaundryFailureEvelyn is.  Evelyn has to mad-dimension travel to learn to accept and love herself before she could listen to, accept and love the people around her, too.

I'd be interested in getting a story tying all the facets of the multiverse into one narrative, like the movie does.  I'd also be very interested in getting a story with a deeper focus on only one universe's story.  Whichever catches your fancy!

Prompts
I loved the glimpses of all the Evelyns out there, and I’d love to learn their stories (even the rocks). Tell me more about Alpha Evelyn pushing her kid so hard that Joy broke, or how cook!Evelyn’s raccoon prison break turned out, or old movies the actress made.

Or tell me how the Wang family is doing post-film! Has business picked up at the laundromat? Is Deirdre a family friend now? Does Becky get along with Gong Gong, and can she handle Evelyn’s abrasive criticism-affection?

Now that Evelyn is cosmic-brained and multi-skilled, is she going to change the way she runs the laundromat? Will she change other things about her life or local community instead? Like, maybe now that she has the skills, she gives cooking lessons or she and Waymond have spontaneous tango sessions or she invents gadgets that slow global warming or she joins an underground fight club.

Joy|Jobu Tupaki has been trying unsuccessfully to cope with existential despair for what appears to be a very long time. How much did AlphaJoy’s despair bleed over onto the other Joys and how much were the other Joys already hurting? What else did Jobu try before she gave up and made the bagel? What makes Joy happy now? What does LaundryJoy know about the events of the film?

Waymond is charming and delightful the whole film; he tells Evelyn that he has always been a warrior, but she doesn’t recognize it since he’s not fighting the same way. I’d love to see this manifest in Waymond’s dimensional counterparts. Did even AlphaWaymond still have these characteristics? Or tell me how Evelyn and the rest of the family’s vision of him has changed or renewed by the film end.

Or give details of the hotdog fingers life! How did Evelyn and Deirdre meet, and what did they argue so badly about? Was it spillover from LaundryEvelyn’s hatred for IRS Deirdre?

What’s Becky’s own family like? Does she have neurotic, other dimension counterparts, and what are they doing? What does Becky think about the insanity she has almost married into? Does she have any bonding activities with her new family?