Dear Yuletide 2024 author
Oct. 8th, 2024 05:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolorosa_12Thank you for writing for me!
I'm pretty easygoing about what type of fic you want to write for me. I read fic of any rating, and would be equally happy with plotty genfic or something very shippy. I read gen, femslash, het and slash, although I have a slight preference towards femslash, het, and gen that focuses on female characters. I mainly read fic to find out what happens to characters after the final page has turned or the credits have rolled, so I would particularly love to have futurefic of some kind. Don't feel you have to limit yourself to the characters I specifically mention — I'm happy with others being included if they fit with the story you want to tell.
Feel free to have a look around my Ao3 profile, as it should give you a good idea of the types of things I like to read. You can also look at my Yuletide tag, which includes past letters, and recs posts of my previous gifts and other fic I've enjoyed in previous Yuletide colletions.
I have treating enabled on Ao3 and would be delighted to receive treats for any of my requests.
General likes
Found families and 'us against the world' dynamics
Human/non-human pairings
Relationships with power imbalances
Hurt/comfort and trauma recovery
People with vastly different backgrounds, perspectives, or life experience working together - especially grudging enemies/antagonists-to-allies/lovers stories
Explorations of characters' religious/philosophical beliefs, especially if they clash with the beliefs of other characters
Fairytale, folktales or mythology being incorporated into fic
Characters with a strong sense of home and place (whether that 'home' is a city, or other people)
Characters who are migrants, exiles or refugees, and for whom this is an important component of their identity
DNWs
Fusions and crossovers
AUs, apart from canon-divergence AUs (basically, please don't change the setting)
Incest
Unrequested ships involving my requested characters (background pairings involving unrequested characters are fine though)
No death of requested characters
Several fandom-specific DNWs, which I will outline below
Fandom-specific prompts:
The Bone Season — Samantha Shannon
Requested characters: Warden | Arcturus Mesarthim, Paige Mahoney
What I like about the series
The intricate alternate world, particularly Scion London, with its underworld of criminal clairvoyants trying to eke out an existence in the face of oppression, the uneasy shifting alliances, and all the little details about the urban geography and history of Soho, Covent Garden and so on.
The pervasive sense of threat and menace that permeates the series, and the choices this forces the characters to make.
Paige and Arcturus's relationship — the initial mistrust, the power imbalances, the secrets they keep from each other, the way they share dreams, and the way Arcturus makes Paige a bit more supernatural and she makes him a bit more human.
The hurt/comfort potential for the Paige/Arcturus relationship — I absolutely loved The Dawn Chorus, since it was one whole novella of Paige/Arcturus hurt/comfort!
The tensions and contradictions in Paige's existence — becoming a criminal mollisher for Jaxon Hall gives her a measure of safety, but also puts her in greater danger, and in some ways the series represents her slow shift from pragmatism to risk-taking revolutionary leadership.
Prompts I'd love to see
Any fic that explores Paige and Arcturus's relationship, particularly the power imbalances, cultural differences, and the ways in which their relationship forces them to reflect on their respective identities as human and Rephaite. I really love hurt/comfort fic, and would be particularly delighted to see more scenes of hurt/comfort with this pair of characters. Missing moments from when Paige was in hiding in London would be most welcome. I'd also love to read futurefic set just after the end of events in The Mask Falling — is Arcturus really dead? How do they find each other again, and how do they rebuild trust after the events of the most recent book caused Paige to doubt her own reality? I'd love to read fic set in another part of Samantha Shannon's alternate world — so far we've seen Scotland, England, Ireland, and Paris but nothing of the rest of the world. What are other Scion countries like? Alternatively, a fic that takes place entirely within shared dreamscapes would be absolutely amazing! Given this series is a retelling of the myth of Prometheus and Pandora, any fic that really leans into this premise could also be really interesting.
Fandom-specific DNWs
I'm happy for other characters from the series to appear in any fic you write, but I would prefer it if your fic didn't focus on Jaxon Hall.
The Pagan Chronicles - Catherine Jinks
Requested characters: Babylonne Kidrouk, Isidore Orbus
What I like about this series
The found families — this whole series is just one long story of hurt/comfort within found families, and I love it!
I love that it's this multigenerational story of broken, damaged orphans finding each other, healing each other and making each other whole.
The strong sense of history, and the way it makes forgotten episodes in world history come alive.
The fact that the series doesn't shy away from its characters' religious faith, but shows that their observance and understanding of religion was more flexible and pluralistic than is generally portrayed in popular fictional depictions of the Middle Ages.
The compassionate, empathetic, and forgiving way the characters deal with the realities of their world — they expect people to be flawed, and the strong to hurt the weak, but this doesn't stop them being kind, and imaginative, and skilled at talking their way out of difficult situations.
Prompts I'd love to see
I would be eternally grateful for futurefic set after Pagan's Daughter in which Isidore and Babylonne have adventures in Bologna. I ship the two characters, so would particularly enjoy fic that pairs them up romantically. (I don't mind if you don't ship them, however, and if you prefer to write about their relationship from a gen perspective I would be equally thrilled!) I love the series' emphasis on religious pluralism, scholarship and learning, and good-faith engagement with people with different religious and cultural backgrounds, and any fic that explored these ideas would be fantastic. I would especially like to see a continuation of the religious discussions we saw between the two characters in Pagan's Daughter, emphasising the differences between Isidore's normative Catholicism, Babylonne's Cathar upbringing, and the flexibility their own religious certainties show when confronted with the imperfections of lived reality. I'd also love to see the pair travelling elsewhere, having adventures, and meeting (and reacting to) new people and ideas. I love how clever, talkative, argumentative and downright wordy all the characters in this series are, and any fic which gave free rein to their loquaciousness, differing religious perspectives, or similar ideas would be absolutely marvellous.
Fandom specific DNWs
None
Space Demons trilogy
Requested characters: Elaine Taylor, Mario Ferrone, Ben Challis, Andrew Hayford. I am happy for all, or the below specified combinations of these characters to appear in your fic.
If you only want to include some of the characters, I would be happy for your fic to involve the following combinations:
Elaine and Mario
Elaine, Ben and Mario
I am also very happy for other characters from the series (especially Midori Ito and Toshihiro Toda) to feature in your fic — I would have nominated and requested them as well if I'd had more nomination slots available in this fandom.
DNW: Fic that only includes the following combinations of characters:
Individual character studies of single characters
Elaine and Ben
Elaine and Andrew
Ben and Andrew
Ben and Mario
Mario and Andrew
Please feel free to reach out via the mods if you are unsure about which characters from this fandom to include in your fic.
What I like about this series
Its emphasis on people from vastly different backgrounds working together to solve individual and collective problems, and the intense bonds this forged between the characters as a result. I love how much empathy and love the characters have for one another by the end of Shinkei.
I also appreciate how technology is woven into their lives, almost like another character.
I also really like the strong sense of place in the series, particularly the Australian locations, which are vividly realised.
Prompts I'd love to see
I would be very interested in reading any fic that shows us the characters' lives several years after the events of Shinkei. How are Andrew and Midori dealing with their international relationship? Is Ben more confident after the events of the series? How does Elaine's relationship with her mother unfold? What does an adult Mario look like? Do the characters stay in touch, and if so, how? It would be great to read about them coming together to deal with a new technological threat. How does the ubiquity and speed of the internet (as compared with what we saw in Shinkei) affect their ability to combat new sentient technology?
Tech in general plays a huge role in the trilogy, and I'd love fic that played around with that, interweaving the characters' experiences and relationships with 1990s computer and arcade games, the 1990s internet (bulletin boards! early chatrooms!), or their experiences of technological developments between the canon era and the current day.
One other aspect of the series that I don't think was explored as fully as it could have been was the near-telepathic connection between the characters. I'd be thrilled to read about them in a Sense8-like scenario, sharing memories and experiences, jumping in and out of each others' heads. This could be something that they can control, or not, as the fancy takes you.
In terms of shipfic, I only really ship canon pairings, or pairings that are hinted at as potential in the canon: so Andrew/Midori, and Mario/Elaine. I can also see Mario, Elaine and Ben ending up in some kind of complicated polyamorous scenario (either Mario/Ben/Elaine, or Mario in relationships with both Ben and Elaine with the consent and knowledge of all involved). I'd be happy to read any fic that focused on the pairings I've outlined in this paragraph. Alternatively, if you wanted to take the Sense8 prompt and run with it, I'd be happy to read fic that paired all four requested characters (with cameos from Midori and/or Toshi), with however much angst and awkwardness you feel is appropriate!
Fandom-specific DNWs
AUs which move the events of the series into the present day (present-day futurefic with the characters as adults is fine, but if you write fic set during canon with the characters their canonical teenage ages, please keep it in its 1990s Australian and Japanese settings)
Fic which does not include my specified combinations of characters (i.e. it needs to include all four nominated characters, OR just Elaine and Mario, OR just Elaine, Ben and Mario) — if this DNW is unclear, please reach out via the mods
Don't feel you have to stick rigidly within the bounds of my prompts. As long as your fic is focused on the characters I requested, I will be thrilled to receive anything you write for me, as these really are some of my most beloved fandoms of the heart, and the existence of any fic for them will make me extremely happy.
I'm pretty easygoing about what type of fic you want to write for me. I read fic of any rating, and would be equally happy with plotty genfic or something very shippy. I read gen, femslash, het and slash, although I have a slight preference towards femslash, het, and gen that focuses on female characters. I mainly read fic to find out what happens to characters after the final page has turned or the credits have rolled, so I would particularly love to have futurefic of some kind. Don't feel you have to limit yourself to the characters I specifically mention — I'm happy with others being included if they fit with the story you want to tell.
Feel free to have a look around my Ao3 profile, as it should give you a good idea of the types of things I like to read. You can also look at my Yuletide tag, which includes past letters, and recs posts of my previous gifts and other fic I've enjoyed in previous Yuletide colletions.
I have treating enabled on Ao3 and would be delighted to receive treats for any of my requests.
General likes
DNWs
Fandom-specific prompts:
The Bone Season — Samantha Shannon
Requested characters: Warden | Arcturus Mesarthim, Paige Mahoney
What I like about the series
Prompts I'd love to see
Any fic that explores Paige and Arcturus's relationship, particularly the power imbalances, cultural differences, and the ways in which their relationship forces them to reflect on their respective identities as human and Rephaite. I really love hurt/comfort fic, and would be particularly delighted to see more scenes of hurt/comfort with this pair of characters. Missing moments from when Paige was in hiding in London would be most welcome. I'd also love to read futurefic set just after the end of events in The Mask Falling — is Arcturus really dead? How do they find each other again, and how do they rebuild trust after the events of the most recent book caused Paige to doubt her own reality? I'd love to read fic set in another part of Samantha Shannon's alternate world — so far we've seen Scotland, England, Ireland, and Paris but nothing of the rest of the world. What are other Scion countries like? Alternatively, a fic that takes place entirely within shared dreamscapes would be absolutely amazing! Given this series is a retelling of the myth of Prometheus and Pandora, any fic that really leans into this premise could also be really interesting.
Fandom-specific DNWs
I'm happy for other characters from the series to appear in any fic you write, but I would prefer it if your fic didn't focus on Jaxon Hall.
The Pagan Chronicles - Catherine Jinks
Requested characters: Babylonne Kidrouk, Isidore Orbus
What I like about this series
Prompts I'd love to see
I would be eternally grateful for futurefic set after Pagan's Daughter in which Isidore and Babylonne have adventures in Bologna. I ship the two characters, so would particularly enjoy fic that pairs them up romantically. (I don't mind if you don't ship them, however, and if you prefer to write about their relationship from a gen perspective I would be equally thrilled!) I love the series' emphasis on religious pluralism, scholarship and learning, and good-faith engagement with people with different religious and cultural backgrounds, and any fic that explored these ideas would be fantastic. I would especially like to see a continuation of the religious discussions we saw between the two characters in Pagan's Daughter, emphasising the differences between Isidore's normative Catholicism, Babylonne's Cathar upbringing, and the flexibility their own religious certainties show when confronted with the imperfections of lived reality. I'd also love to see the pair travelling elsewhere, having adventures, and meeting (and reacting to) new people and ideas. I love how clever, talkative, argumentative and downright wordy all the characters in this series are, and any fic which gave free rein to their loquaciousness, differing religious perspectives, or similar ideas would be absolutely marvellous.
Fandom specific DNWs
None
Space Demons trilogy
Requested characters: Elaine Taylor, Mario Ferrone, Ben Challis, Andrew Hayford. I am happy for all, or the below specified combinations of these characters to appear in your fic.
If you only want to include some of the characters, I would be happy for your fic to involve the following combinations:
Elaine and Mario
Elaine, Ben and Mario
I am also very happy for other characters from the series (especially Midori Ito and Toshihiro Toda) to feature in your fic — I would have nominated and requested them as well if I'd had more nomination slots available in this fandom.
DNW: Fic that only includes the following combinations of characters:
Individual character studies of single characters
Elaine and Ben
Elaine and Andrew
Ben and Andrew
Ben and Mario
Mario and Andrew
Please feel free to reach out via the mods if you are unsure about which characters from this fandom to include in your fic.
What I like about this series
Prompts I'd love to see
I would be very interested in reading any fic that shows us the characters' lives several years after the events of Shinkei. How are Andrew and Midori dealing with their international relationship? Is Ben more confident after the events of the series? How does Elaine's relationship with her mother unfold? What does an adult Mario look like? Do the characters stay in touch, and if so, how? It would be great to read about them coming together to deal with a new technological threat. How does the ubiquity and speed of the internet (as compared with what we saw in Shinkei) affect their ability to combat new sentient technology?
Tech in general plays a huge role in the trilogy, and I'd love fic that played around with that, interweaving the characters' experiences and relationships with 1990s computer and arcade games, the 1990s internet (bulletin boards! early chatrooms!), or their experiences of technological developments between the canon era and the current day.
One other aspect of the series that I don't think was explored as fully as it could have been was the near-telepathic connection between the characters. I'd be thrilled to read about them in a Sense8-like scenario, sharing memories and experiences, jumping in and out of each others' heads. This could be something that they can control, or not, as the fancy takes you.
In terms of shipfic, I only really ship canon pairings, or pairings that are hinted at as potential in the canon: so Andrew/Midori, and Mario/Elaine. I can also see Mario, Elaine and Ben ending up in some kind of complicated polyamorous scenario (either Mario/Ben/Elaine, or Mario in relationships with both Ben and Elaine with the consent and knowledge of all involved). I'd be happy to read any fic that focused on the pairings I've outlined in this paragraph. Alternatively, if you wanted to take the Sense8 prompt and run with it, I'd be happy to read fic that paired all four requested characters (with cameos from Midori and/or Toshi), with however much angst and awkwardness you feel is appropriate!
Fandom-specific DNWs
Don't feel you have to stick rigidly within the bounds of my prompts. As long as your fic is focused on the characters I requested, I will be thrilled to receive anything you write for me, as these really are some of my most beloved fandoms of the heart, and the existence of any fic for them will make me extremely happy.