Yuletide Letter
Dear Yuletide Writer,
I can only apologise for taking so long with this letter. However that said, as in the sign up, if you have already started writing, please don’t worry at all! If it avoids my DNWs and has a story that you want to tell, I am already invested in reading it. Everything requested here is loved - any differentiation in the length of the requests is just usually to do with how much I have to say about it, nothing to do with how much I love it.
I'm more than happy to read explicit fic or G fic (or anything in between). Any story you'd like to tell with these characters is one that I would like to read. I've tried to give a taster feel for what I like about the canons - all prompts are merely if you prefer to have something to work with. Since this is character matching, I will note that any characters I've nommed together, I ship together as well, but I am equally happy to read character fic for individuals - don't feel like you have to include both!
DNWs: non-con, underage (under 16), polyamory, feminisation, eye injury, pregnancy, slavery, kidfic, prostitution AUs, sanitized depictions of canons/characters, mental illness headcanons, gender/sexuality headcanons or fixed BDSM roles. Please also no set top/bottom dynamics if you do write sex (and no universes that have fixed sexual dynamics - A/B/O or BDSM universes etc).
General Likes: (none of these need to be combined and some of them are contradictory, if it’s in the list I love it.)
Us against the world is a favourite dynamic of mine as is finding connections in strange places. I'm very fond of closeness between characters (friendship, honourable enemies etc). Apocalyptic and wartime settings are big for me. I'm a big fan of tough people doing hard things, especially if they have to sacrifice things of value. I’m also a fan of humour and banter, of mentally strong characters who battle through against all odds, of love that isn't fluffy or necessarily spoken.
I like brittleness which isn't fragility, love/friendship that is prized above everything else, sacrifices, fighting and ambition. I also like funny things and veneers of casualness that conceal a lot. My taste runs strongly to stoic individuals who can take and deal out a lot of pain. Competent people who are really good at what they do are A+
I like epistolary fic, third person, lush writing, sparse writing, most things inbetween, details of a person or place that makes me feel like I know them, plot and character pieces both. Weather references, dark brooding tension/atmosphere, light breeziness, secrets between two people. Oh yeah, and explosions.
Porn likes: switching, comeplay, slightly more than comfortable penetration (toys, large cocks etc), sex pollen or other fuck-or-die scenarios, blowjobs/cunnilingus, scar touching, hair tugging, choking/breathplay, shaving (anywhere, but especially face), shower sex, fight/sparring sex where they're both into it, biting.
Absolutely Fabulous
Edina Monsoon
Patsy Stone
Pretty much the only thing that it is invaluable to know for this canon, is that it is gleefully, ridiculously and proudly unapologetic for both Edina and Patsy being absolutely terrible people. That’s what makes it so funny and (I think) so enduring. Women getting to be exactly as nasty as sitcom men and still getting rewarded for it is a rarity and it’s one of the reasons I treasure this canon. I love everything about it, but most of all I love that it lets Eddie and Patsy just be monsters on their own time.
I will love whatever fic you create for this, my only preference is that there isn’t any redemption/morality tale at the end of it, just let them be happy and boozed up together. They’re awful people, but it’s funny to watch. So slather on the Bollinger and VC jokes, have them lose Saffron’s baby in Islington somewhere, or send Bubble to space completely unwillingly, or crash LaCroix’s opening for his bottled water brand. I will read anything for this at all that captures that canon spirit of expensive chaos.
The key thing I find for this canon bar the above is the relationship between Patsy and Edina. I love it and it’s a massive draw, whichever way you choose to go with it. I love their weirdo friendship, and how when the chips are down, they are always there for each other. I like their dynamic in all sorts of ways - both best friends, and if you wanted to develop that into lovers (or past lovers) I would be incredibly happy to see that take as well. Feel free to throw in Saffron being Saffron, as she is the perfect straight woman to their mania.
I really will be happy with anything you write - I've included some prompts below, but these are only for if you'd rather something to be prompted with - they're in no way essential at all.
Any escapade at all with Patsy and Edina fucking things up and still walking away at the end of the day, jobs intact and clutching a glass of Bolly in their hands. Patsy’s already blown up Edina’s kitchen, what other havoc can she wreak?
We’ve seen them in Istanbul, we’ve seen them in France, where else can you send them on holiday?
A long past fling...what happened...how did it end?
Saffron has to rescue them from the consequences of their own mistakes (arrested? stranded? )
Hilary Tamar Mysteries - Sarah Caudwell
Selena Jardine
Julia Larwood
I don't really have words to describe how much I flat out enjoy this canon. I love everything about it - I love the attention to detail, I love the beautifully over the top nature of it. Hilary's narratory voice and Julia's letters are what I want buried with me as a Viking grave good. I enjoy the casual approach to sex, and the way letters (and telexes) get used. I've requested Selena and Julia not because I don't love Hilary, Cantrip and Ragwort (I do!) but because I had to narrow it down somehow when it came to describing all the things that I like. This is blanket permission for you to include anybody you'd like, in any combo you like, including focus away from the requested characters (as long as it stays within the main group). So if what you really want to write is Cantrip cheerfully attempting to seduce people while somehow accidentally solving a case and telling the others about it, you are completely covered.
For this particular canon, I'm absolutely fine with crossovers, especially with people who are hanging about at the same time (or who can wander in from other detective canons regardless of time - Harriet Vane on Hilary Tamar action? H2 could be the ship name). On the AU front, I'd rather it stayed within the book world, but I'm also very prepared to enjoy the story where the world's only 4-person Jaeger saves the world, with instructions from Marshal Hilary Tamar.
As regards Hilary's gender if they are included within the story, I really prefer the gender-neutral narration of the books and how that's maintained throughout, but if you'd particularly like to gender them, then my slight preference is towards being a woman.
As above, feel free to include Cantrip, Hilary and Ragwort in whatever capacity you like, including Julia's hopeless passion for Ragwort's face. Shipping wise, I'm particularly fond of Julia/Selena if you can work it as a foreground relationship, and Hilary/academia (or rather, Hilary/avoiding academia), but this is not a canon where ships are essential in the least - I will happily read any background relationships involving the main 5, though I would rather the same tone was kept as the series - sex/relationships as something lighthearted and fun, rather than something serious and angsty.
I really will be happy with anything you write - I've included some prompts below, but these are only for if you'd rather something to be prompted with - they're in no way essential at all.
Mystery fic, of any scale that you like at all - from a full on mystery to the mystery of who drank the last bottle of Nierstein.
Canonically, Selena's idea of cutting loose and indulging all her deepest held desires, is to read Pride and Prejudice at an orgy. Is there anything Julia can do to tempt her away from that paperback? Perhaps telling her she's got a new copy of Persuasion back at her place? Alternatively, the other way round...what will Julia do to save her Finance Act?
Holiday fic, canon style! One person away from the group, sending a letter back (in fact epistolary fic of any kind would be awesome)
Anything that features reactions to Julia's truly incredible scattiness. You cannot beat a joke too hard into the ground with this canon. A story about Julia tracking a lost comb through the wild streets of London? Interrupting a drug deal gone bad?
Consider the terrifying thought of Selena losing her voice to an awful cold.
I can not tell a lie, the Cambridge jokes in canon give me a great deal of pleasure. Maybe any one of the crew has to set foot there, whether for a mystery or for any other reason, just how does that go down?
any codas to any of the books, involving any requested character (or all of them) enjoying the pleasures of the Corkscrew.
Top Gun (1986)
Pete "Maverick" Mitchell
Tom "Iceman" Kazansky
Quick note here - I was lucky enough to get not just one, but two amazing fics for this last year. I loved them to pieces and I’m trying my luck again.
Rarely has a canon achieved ultimate nostalgia status for me, but this is one of them! I enjoy the flat out ridiculousness of this film, the way it's been crafted to be an (un)intentionally homoerotic masterpiece, standing alone by itself (with maybe the Lost Boys for company). I actually enjoy a lot of things about this film even apart from that chemistry between Maverick and Iceman, I like the detached feel of the small world of the base, the inherent tensions and sliding loyalties in the group, the friendships that make up a lot of the backbone of the film.
I like the planes, and the feel of time and place that lingers, especially the Americana feel of those motorcycle rides, and anything that touches on the flying aspect of canon would be particularly amazing. I enjoy the extremely not subtle push and pull of Iceman and Maverick, the sense of something electric, that spurs each of them on in different ways, and I absolutely ship them. That said, if you find yourself drawn to Maverick/Charlie or to writing gen fic about either/both of them, that's awesome as well, but I would ask that you don't ship Iceman with anyone who isn't Maverick.
As regards crossovers, I know plenty of '80s action films, so if that works for you, I'm more than happy to read it. AUs are also fine - what would it be like to shift them from one potential war to another? What would an updated canon look like? Please no AUs that remove the airforce/flying element though - AUs where they're actually piloting small spacecraft in a war are excellent, AUs where they're 18th century bandits or working in a coffee shop are not so much my thing.
I really will be happy with anything you write - I've included some prompts below, but these are only for if you'd rather something to be prompted with - they're in no way essential at all.
Anything with Maverick/Iceman would be fantastic. During the film, post film, ten years later, flying side by side, a one night stand that scared them both to pieces but left them wanting more. Anything that maybe deals with how flying might always be the number one thing in their life (or how maybe gradually that changes). Them on holiday, free from the strictures of their job, or wrestling with the guilt of their decisions. Meeting each other in a civilian setting and the different structure that gives to their interaction. Any of these things
Iceman's relationships with people on/off the base. He's not quite a loner in canon, but he gives off an air of immense self sufficiency. Does he have friends or just people he trust and works with, but has nothing in common with? What does he want to do post-canon? Is there a backstory for him and who he is? How does he handle not just being a great flier, but potentially being a leader?
Maverick in any capacity - does the thing with Charlie last? Does he (or she) want it to? Anything that deals with him post-Goose or healing from that a little - perhaps engaging with Goose's family?
I'd find it really fascinating if his decision at the end of the film got poked at a little bit. Does he still have doubts about his capacity to lead, and his capacity to make the right calls?
A Traveller In Time - Alison Uttley
Penelope Taberner Cameron
Francis Babington
Anthony Babington (A Traveller in Time)
Another nostalgia canon! I loved this book to pieces when I was a child, and when I was an adult I was delighted to come back and still love it. The key thing after all these years that I remember, is that sense of gorgeous atmosphere and history. I loved everything about Penelope’s past world, I loved the details of her slipping sideways through time, that her relatives in the past recognized her from her face and never questioned the strange absences. I loved the great sense of history that pervaded the whole book, and all of the detail to it - the food described in such careful and exquisite ways, the clothing, the ways that the smallest of things are so different between one world and the next - Penelope being unable to read Latin, but being able to read in general and do sums.
Even without knowing all the history as a child, I loved what the book did with Mary, Queen of Scots, the doomedness of the enterprise, and all of the sad, vivid descriptors of her and retinue, and of the people who gave their life for her. Apart from that, Penelope and Francis were a joy both individually and separately. I love how from the first they are friends, before anything else, and how the key thing for both of them is the preservation and enjoyment of the house and the people in it. Anthony was thrown in as a wild card - I loved his devotion to the Queen, and the kindness that he has for the people around him even in little ways.
When it comes to shipping or gen, go wild. Honestly the characters are just suggestions, I will be more than happy with a history of the house, or a description of how Penelope’s sister and brother see her change. Any worldbuilding or world development is fair game, with the exception that I’m not really interested in seeing the magic explained any further than it was in the book as that is part of the charm of the novel. Bar that though, anything! If you want some sweet Penelope/Francis - go ahead! If you would be intrigued with Anthony/Francis and feel you could make it work...I am here for it. Anything at all.
I really will be happy with anything you write - I've included some prompts below, but these are only for if you'd rather something to be prompted with - they're in no way essential at all.
More house description, marchpane decorations, curtains, Book of Hours, secret Catholic masses, crushed herbs in the garden, Penelope’s great-great-great grandmother up to her elbows in dough, Anthony’s mother in her parlour, precious sugar sweets. This is your prompt for just that feel of immersion into the world.
Penelope comes back once again - is it to the same time? Maybe earlier, in a secondary time loop? I would love that. Or maybe she slips sideways into a different era and a different heartbreak?
The course of history is altered, Mary, Queen of Scots escapes that night to the house, Anthony spirits her away - what changes happen due to it?
Francis falls forward in time to meet Penelope in the (then) modern day, even if it is only for a short while.
Freier Fall | Free Fall (2013)
Marc Borgmann
Kay Engel
This is the fandom I have the least to say about, but I love it just as much as the others. I really adore the atmosphere of it - it’s a film that makes me think of rainy days, going hard at the gym, the utter frustration and agony of falling for someone you shouldn’t fall for. I love the sense of futility within the film, the ways in which Marc and Kay fuck each other up and over, and the way that those choices hurt other people as well. I deeply appreciated the frustrated emotion in it, the way that words are so difficult to find and actions so easy to misinterpret.
There’s so many moments in the film where something could have been different and that’s something that really interests me about it, as well as the powerful and undeniable attraction between them.
There’s loads of ways this canon can be taken and I’m open to all of them! However please don’t bash Bettina or have Kay and Marc raise her child - kidfic is a major no. I hardcore ship Marc/Kay, but I am also very open to gen pieces about either of them. Please don’t ship them with anyone else bar each other (past references to relationships are more than fine however) but equally, I really will be happy with gen for this as well.
I really will be happy with anything you write - I've included some prompts below, but these are only for if you'd rather something to be prompted with - they're in no way essential at all.
Canon divergence where they met before Bettina got pregnant?
Post-canon! All the post canon fics where Kay and Marc meet again and work through their shit
Backstory for Kay. We get so much less of him in the film, and I’m really curious as to his past and how he came to be where he is.
Future fic for Marc. Does he manage to carve out a newer, truer life?
Whatever you write, I am sure I will love it. Thank you very much in advance!
Happy Yuletide
Stripy
Also on dreamwidth