Dear Yuletide

Dear Yuletide Writer,

My Yuletide Tradition is to write Way Too Many Words in my letter. Feel free to ignore these ideas and use your own — I love seeing how other people think about my favorite fandoms, and I love seeing interpretations that are different from mine (some of my favorite fics are the ones that made me look at things in a new way). Also, please don't read anything into the amount of stuff I have written for each fandom; I would be extremely pleased to receive anything for any of these, otherwise I would not have requested them. :D

I am happy to receive treats!

General (including things I love and DNWs)

:
I am open to most things! I am a fan of gen, but I'm totally open to het/slash/femslash. I very much welcome alternative ways of telling stories -- IF, epistolary fic, text messages/tweets, poetry, DW-thread-comments, what-have-you, yes please!! Crossovers would also be more than fine between these fandoms. Darkfic/character death is great and even encouraged for at least some of these fandoms (though please tag and check the fandom-specific DNWs). I absolutely love fork-in-the-road type AUs for any fandom. For setting-changed AUs, I would adore them for the RPF categories, but not for the others. Basically I'm okay with most things as long as you tag for it so I know what I'm getting into!

Things I love: (I don't expect all of these by any means, this is just a sampling of Things That Make Me Happy): I love worldbuilding fic and plotty fic. I love character-driven fic that thinks hard about the ramifications of characters' choices. I love most of all for there to be some sort of character arc, or characters (and/or the reader) coming to a greater understanding of something or someone during a fic. I love and adore deep friendship/partnerships, especially platonic ones, of all gender-variety. I love loyalty and duty bonds (and I have a special place in my heart for physical expressions of fealty bonds, like kneeling or ritualized oath-swearing). I love it when all the characters are understandable rather than straight-out villainous or malicious, or where expectations of malice are subverted. I love when something or some implication is clear to the reader that is not clear to the characters, or some subset of the characters, because we have knowledge (about the actual canon, for example) that they don't have.

DNW: PWP; unrequested noncanon poly; graphic gratuitous violence/gore; infidelity involving characters whose fidelity is an important part of their character (e.g. Consort Jing, Brother Thomas) or involving characters who plausibly or canonically have faithful romantic relationships (like Jeff/Dicey). (I have no problems with infidelity that plausibly occurs in canon, like the Emperor.) For tragic/dark endings: Please check the canon-specific DNWs, as for some of my requested fandoms/characters I don't want them to hvae an unhappy ending, or an ending with no hope. But if I don't have a canon-specific DNW about it, then tragedy/death/whatever is fine -- and encouraged! -- if tagged. Please no references to current politics/current events.

Tillerman Cycle - Voigt (Any)

I am blown away by how amazing these books are in terms of depth of character, thematic development of love and friendship and growing up and holding on and letting go and community and how we give to each other… I would love anything for these books. Any character. What you want to write, what interests you, that's what I want to hear about! I requested some I love, and I have a couple of prompts I'm super interested in, but really any character at all would be wonderful, and in the spirit of how Voigt is always thinking about the humanity of all the characters. What does Jeff's college roommate think of the events of Seventeen? What is Mr. Lingerle's perspective? Can Johnny Tillerman, whom we never saw but who from Bullet's memory rather looked like he was going to follow in his father's toxic footsteps, figure himself out and have healthier relationships? Other minor characters? Toby? Brother Thomas? I have gotten some amaaaaazing fic for this fandom, and I am greedy so I want more :D

I nominated Brother Thomas specifically because I reread A Solitary Blue last year, and I already loved Brother Thomas because of his cheerful snarkiness, but then he broke my heart with his crisis of faith -- the part where he keeps on his habit because he's not sure he would put it on again if he took it off? Oh, Thomas <3 Horace Greene seems to think it's an issue of living in love, which clearly harks back to his own experiences; is he being perceptive or is he projecting? I would just love to read more about this. I totally see Brother Thomas, Horace Greene, and Jeff Greene as a family; whether you want to write Thomas/Horace as a ship or not is up to you (and certainly it is complicated by Thomas' vows), write this in whatever way is true to your conception of the characters and I will love it -- I'd just request that Thomas not break his vows, so if there were a sexual relationship it would have to be after giving up his vocation. I only care very much that all three of them are bonded by love. (And the different kinds of families bonded by love, of course, is a major theme of the Tillerman books.) I think that there is some textual evidence that he remains a monk -- at the end of Come a Stranger, years later, he's referred to as Brother Thomas -- but I'm happy to read about it either way and I think either way could be super interesting; I would like you to tag if he doesn't remain a monk :)

And Mina Smiths! I just madly adore Come a Stranger and its moving depiction of her family and community, and how they are a whole entity. <3 What happens to Mina? How does she find law school? I imagine it will be interesting for her trying to juggle her career ambitions and romance; how might this play out? I kinda ship her and Tamer's son Samuel in a "if they met again as grownups they might really understand each other well" kind of way -- what would it be like if they met again as grownups? How does her friendship with Dicey progress? Does it change as they pursue their careers and their lives with their families and communities (however that looks)?

Maybeth never got a book! If she had gotten a book, what would it look like? Gram thinks she needs an older man to take care of her -- okay, I must admit that I have a veeeeery low opinion of Gram's romantic picker in the books, and I would LOVE for her to be proven wrong about this. Does Maybeth even need a romantic relationship at all? Does she stay at the farm as a beloved unmarried matriarch at the center of a ton of siblings and friends and nieces and nephews (and chickens?? hee) who are always making life interesting? In general, how does she strike a balance between listening to her more-intellectually-capable family and making her own heart-capable decisions? Given that her upbringing had so much more support than her mother's, can she avoid her mother's fate? (Yes. The answer here should be yes. :P :) ) (I got TWO amazing Maybeth fics, but what I'm saying here is that there is no such thing as too much Maybeth, y/y??)

I love Jeff Greene very much, and would love to read anything you would like to write about him. What was Jeff thinking during the events of Seventeen Against the Dealer — how does he deal with being at college, having a new separate group of friends, seeing Dicey drift away from him, what is he thinking when she suddenly says she wants to marry him? He's so empathic, he probably knows something of what's going on with her — but how much? And clearly his past family relationships affect the way he thinks about all of this… does he ever talk to the Professor about what's going on with him and Dicey? Or Brother Thomas? What do they think of it? (In general, I'm super curious about both of them as well and the surprising depths that are revealed in them. What happens to them?) Does he ever talk to the other Tillermans about Dicey? We know that he talks to them about other things, and I'd love to see those conversations too, the way he keeps up his relationships with them even while it seems his relationship with Dicey is imploding.

I have a whole lot more words about these books (with a lot more prompts) in the series of posts here.

Canon-specific DNWs: My no-infidelity DNW also includes infidelity of Thomas with respect to God, as mentioned above. I really, really want a Tillerman story to have a good ending, by which I don't mean an unalloyed happy ending — what I guess I mean here is I need a fic where the characters grow and learn, and where they're able to keep their family together, and I'm assured they're going to be OK together, even if bad things happen in the meantime. Gram dies and the adult kids come together to figure it out as they've always figured it out? Great! Alternate-universe fic where Verricker meets James and Sammy and absolutely crushes them but Maybeth sees right through him and puts her brothers straight in the end? Bring it on! Alternate-universe fic where the kids never make it to Gram in Homecoming and get separated into orphanages forever? Or fic where Johnny propagates his father's ways without changing? Please no. Thank you!

琅琊榜 | Nirvana in Fire (TV) (Consort Jing)

This show, wow. All the complicated characters and plot twists and identity shenanigans, and deep deep bonds of loyalty and friendship and family, and private vs. public duty, the wonderful ensemble scenes, and awesome female characters and awesome moms of both the good and evil persuasions. And of course the most awesome mom of them all is Consort Jing. She's super nice, super smart, super perceptive, is playing the long game -- but can be ruthless when that's called for. She is just the best.

I basically want anything with her! Some ideas (but write whatever you would like with her!):

-I never got over the throwaway line where she went into the palace to doctor Consort Chen and then she never came out again, gahhhh. Surely she, even years back, was canny and thoughtful enough to get out of having to marry the Emperor, and it doesn't sound like the sort of life she'd choose -- so what happened? Did the Emperor threaten/blackmail her in some way? Was she trying to protect Consort Chen?

-Anything about her navigating the tricky politics of the Inner Court. Consort Jing and Consort Chen solving mysteries together? Go for it!!

-The last scene with her and the Emperor is one where she finally shows her true feelings about the Chiyan case and he is angry with her -- and we know he dies a while later -- but what happens in between? (My headcanon is that she nurses him through that -- but what would that have been like? What is their relationship like then? Gosh.)

-Post-canon fic where she takes a break from being Empress Dowager (or whatever her title would be after the Emperor dies) and wanders around as the itinerant doctor she was before she was a concubine, and at some point runs across Fei Liu or perhaps Lin Chen. (And/or, if you wanted to make it a fix-it AU, Lin Shu...)

-...actually, now that I think about it, anything with Consort Jing and Lin Chen together, set at any point during, pre, or post canon, would be hilarious and I am so up for that!

-I don't think Consort Jing gets to talk much to Nihuang or Xia Dong in canon, but wouldn't that be amazing?

Canon-specific DNW: I do not want Consort Jing to have an ending of death or despair. I would like her to live, and even if terrible things happen to her or those she loves, let her move toward grace and acceptance as she's so good at doing in canon. (Character death for anyone else is fine.)

The Scholomance (Li Shanfeng, Olivia Rhys-Lake) this is an OR request. There are SPOILERS for Golden Enclaves within this cut!

I love these books, and I love El's determination to do the right thing -- but also it was Li Shanfeng and Olivia Rhys-Lake who captured my attention in Golden Enclaves, because they were the ones who did the horrible realpolitik calculations. They were the ones who, with their eyes wide open, did terrible, awful things -- for what they thought was the greater good. For what even might have been the greater good. It gets glossed over a bit, but it's clearly a thing that El was able not to have to make hard unethical decisions because Ophelia and Shanfeng (and Deepthi!) did. I want more about how complicated it all was for them! Or, for another prompt: sprocket said to me, what about the AU where Li Shanfeng applies his energies to breaking the enclave-building secrecy spells instead of making forty new maw-mouths?? What kind of world does that look like?

18th Century CE Frederician RPF (Fritz, Voltaire, Heinrich)

I would prefer all three characters; however, I am aware that some of my prompts don't lend themselves to all three showing up in a major way, so I'm happy for one of the three to have a more cameo role. This includes Voltaire showing up only in snarky quotes (real or made-up is fine!), which I am more than happy with :D

I got pulled into this fandom a while back and have been finding myself totally enthralled by the relationships between this set of characters. I am fascinated by Fritz' brother Heinrich, who had an extremely dysfunctional love/hate relationship with his brother (where Fritz treated him in a way that was strongly reminiscent of the way that his father treated him, and Heinrich alternately fought against it and knuckled down to it).

And then there's Voltaire, who is just awesome in the way that he Could Not Let Things Go (which had both good and bad consequences), and his hateship-can't-live-with-him-can't-live-without-him with Fritz is just hilarious :D

Some thoughts/prompts, but don't feel restricted to these:

-Voltaire has to rescue Frederick the Great from being taken captive (by Maria Theresia??) by the power of his pen, which Fritz is NOT happy about! (About being beholden to Voltaire, that is, who is obviously neeeeever going to let Fritz live this down.) Meanwhile, Heinrich is regent...

-This fandom in SPAAAAACE, can you imagine the space battles between Maria Theresia and Fritz, and Heinrich as a SPAAAACE general :D (SPAAACE Abbess Amalie, y/y??) Or really any AU! Time-traveling? Corporate? Magic with dragons? Magic AU European history in Scholomance world?? Yes please!

-Anything with Heinrich and Catherine the Great/Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst being BFFs, I think it is hilarious and awesome that this is canon. Really, anything! I would particularly love the AU where Heinrich has to marry Sophie and this devolves into them double-crossing and back-stabbing each other, as long as they were able to remain friends and enjoying each other's company even while plotting against each other :D

-Fritz Freaky-Friday bodyswitch! Fritz/Heinrich? Fritz/someone else, like Fritz/Mme Pompadour?? Can you imagine how Voltaire would react?! assuming he didn't die of laughter Would it be great for Fritz to have to depend on Émilie Du Châtelet, of all people, to be the architect of figuring out how to get them to switch back, y/y? :D

The Instrumentality of Mankind - Cordwainer Smith (Any)

I have just gotten the most amazing stories for this fandom, and as long as someone keeps nominating it I will keep requesting it :) What I would really, really love to get is essentially a new Cordwainer Smith story, but write me what you would like. If you need prompts — tell me more about the Lords and Ladies of the Instrumentality. How did Santuna become the Lady Alice More, and what does that even mean? (I got an absolutely wonderful story for this, but that doesn't mean I am not a greedy person who would love to see other takes as well :D ) The Lords Jestocost one through six, how did they lay the foundation for the seventh of that name? Or tell me about the underpeople: more about the eagle people, and E'Telekeli? What is the mystery and the power of Space3? Or tell me about the exploits of Dita of the Great South House after she became the greatest of the Go-Captains! What happened to the cat-people that Sudzal made? There are hints CS was going to do something with the robots — how do the robots fit in into the Rediscovery of Man?

And then there are all the tantalizing throwaway lines… what was the great cat scandal referenced in "Golden the Ship Was"? If you've read the later "On the [X] Planet" stories (and if you haven't that's fine, I don't like them as well anyway), what did the Robot, the Rat, and the Copt find in Space3, and how does the Old Strong Religion of the God Nailed High relate to CS's mythology? If it's not clear, a story with original characters would be totally wonderful, and so would a story with one of the established characters.

In general: I absolutely adore the far-flung, totally-imaginative, across-the-stars-and-time, so-over-the-top-it-comes-back-around mythology that gathers up humans and underpeople and robots and I-don't-even-know-what in its nets; I love the way these stories evoke this amazing sense of a destiny for all of us that reaches across space and time; I love the way he examines questions of happiness and free will and equality; I love all the allusions and callbacks; I love the way his prose is almost more poetry than it is prose. Anything that can speak to some of that, even the tiniest part of it, would be SO AWESOME.

(I'm not totally in love with Casher O'Neill or with Norstrilia-the-planet (or the novel) in general, or with the pinlighters, and I'd rather not have AU for this one, but hey, if that's where your muse takes you, I will love to see what you come up with!)

I have more thoughts about these books here.

Canon-specific DNW: Dark is fine -- canon can get very dark -- please tag (if only so I can get excited for the dark content! :D ), but also I don't want utter rocks-fall-everyone-dies despair, thanks! (I guess rocks-fall-almost-everyone-dies describes "Under Old Earth," lol, so that would be fine, but it doesn't end in despair...)

The People - Zenna Henderson (Any)

I adore Zenna Henderson's People stories and always have, and just want more! The thing I love most about it, I think, is the effervescent joy, the childlike wonder, that permeates each page. But also... the moving depictions of familial and mentoring relationships; the utter sense of belonging: to a people, to a community, to a family (and which also plays into the teacher-child relationships she depicts); the drive to make things whole; the lovely understated way she's constantly drawing from Biblical imagery and quotations and tropes for the themes and images of the stories.

If you need ideas... I'd love to know what Shadow's story is; she's always been in a secondary role as Bethie-too or Remy's Shadow; how does she step into her own rightful place? Did Dr. Curtis learn anything from Dita? What's up with the Kroginolds' story -- they were always troublemakers; I imagine there's a story in how they grew up? I will say that I tend to be more interested in the Earth stories than in Home or New Home, and I didn't like "Return" as well as some of the others (I guess I just don't like whiny narrators?), but hey, if your muse takes you there, go for it. I have a strong preference for a story that is at least mostly gen, but I'm open to either het or slash as long as canon pairings are respected (e.g., Valancy/Jemmy as a long-standing relationship is canon, and I'd rather Valancy didn't run off with Karen or something).

But really anything with any character. Or none at all! A new story with original characters would be AMAZING. If it has some of that joy and wonder in it, some of that exuberant borrowing and flavoring with Biblical tropes and quotes, it will be totally lovely and I will love it.

Canon-specific DNW: Please no unhappy endings for this canon!

Where to find canon / How much canon:

The Tillerman series is seven books, but they're fast reads. Available at most libraries/bookstores.

I don't know where to find Nirvana in Fire currently, but I'm sure the folks at nirvana_in_fire would know and be more than happy to help! It's 54 episodes! but they go very quickly :)

The three Scholomance books should be available at your local bookstore :D (The first two should also be available at your library, but the last one is probably on hold at the library...) Fast reads!

Frederician RPF now has its own community at rheinsberg, and if there's any character that you are interested in, clicking on the tag for that character will give you a wealth of information. Note that the tags are by the Anglicized name, so Heinrich, for example, comes out as "Prince Henry of Prussia."

Cordwainer Smith are short stories, and just a couple of them would probably suffice to get the general idea, but they are certainly quite a bit harder to find. I'd very much recommend We the Underpeople as the best introduction that's easily available in the US and cheap. If you happen to be in the UK, my favorite Smith anthology is The Rediscovery of Man. (I'd recommend "The Dead Lady of Clown Town," "Under Old Earth," "Alpha Ralpha Boulevard," and "The Ballad of Lost C'Mell," or some subset thereof, to get a sense of it.)
If you live in Canada, many of Smith's stories have been uploaded to gutenberg.ca! including all the ones mentioned above except "Alpha Ralpha Boulevard.

The People is a large canon of work, but the stories are a fast read, and you could probably read a couple of them ("Ararat" is probably a must, and perhaps "Shadow on the Moon" to get the second-gen perspective) and get the feel of it pretty quickly -- I don't think Henderson herself worried too much about keeping everything strictly canon-compliant detail-wise. The complete People stories are available on kindle for $9.99 (and cheaper for a used copy).