the_wavesinger | Yuletide 2017 Letter

Dear Yuletide Author,

It's my first year participating in this exchange, and I am ridiculously excited and all geared up and ready to go! I hope you have fun writing for me.

If you want to know more about me , I’m

The_Wavesinger,

the-wavesinger and The Wavesinger (Silmarillion Writers’ Guild) on my fannish haunts. You can also find me here on DW, and as

the_wavesinger on LJ, but I don’t frequent those places often. If you want more on my fic preferences (however unlikely that is, after this very long letter!), my fic rec tag on Tumblr and my AO3 bookmarks may be of some use. You may also want to poke through my previous exchange letters.

This letter has a list of DNWs and general likes (+ likes for darker fic and smut likes), and also fandom-specific prompts. However, please don't feel obliged to stick to my prompts—as long as you don't include my DNWs, I'm sure I'll love whatever you write (or draw, if you came here via the Wrapping Paper Challenge post!). In general, despite my long prompts and long list of likes, I'm really easy to please and my DNWs are basically the sum of things I don't like in fic. Anything else is perfectly fine!

The sections for some fandoms are longer than others, but this is not because I want the longer fandoms more than the shorter ones, it's just that I've requested more characters and I've also requested individual characters as well as specific combinations in addition to everyone together for some fandoms. I'd love to get fic for any of my fandoms equally.

p>DNWs:

Gore/guro/vore.
Necrophilia.
Torture of animals. (Humans/humanoids/other sapients being tortured is more than fine!)
Graphic descriptions of nausea/vomiting.
Reader inserts.
Mundane AUs.
Unrequested depowered/non-powered AUs.
Non-femslash A/B/O; femslash for this trope is fine!
Crossovers/fusions between fandoms I haven't asked for. (Crossover within any fandom in my letter or previous exchange letters, along with mythology and folklore, are more than fine!)
AUs with modern settings are no-no’s unless there’s a reasonable canon explanation (eg-: Tolkien, people cursed to be reborn again and again into mortal forms). Even then, please no high school or coffee shop AUs.
Please no age regression, de-ageing, or AUs in which one character is suddenly older than a previously older-than-them character (ageswap?).
Girl!penis. (Trans characters are fine, just please no inexplicable g!p.)
For smut, I'd prefer not to see bloodplay, scat, watersports, and age play, and any sort of permanent marking/scarring (scarring and permanent markings outside smut is perfectly fine) unless I've prompted these things for the specific pairing.
H/C fics centering on characters with depression and/or anxiety, and/or characters who self-harm or have eating disorders are not my favourite thing. (All of these things are more than fine in non-H/C fic, but not as things which can be hugged/cuddled better, please.)
Genderswap which makes F/F or M/M canon pairings or F/F or M/M pairings I've requested F/M.
Unrequested relationships as the main focus of a fic (side pairings/non-endgame relationships are fine).

General Likes:

Angst. Drama. Politics. Tragedy.
Philosophical ponderings!
I love canon divergence AUs, and other ‘what-if’ scenarios.
All the hard questions with no answers, characters trapped in unsolvable dilemmas, loss and grief and moving on.
Soulmates! Not necessarily soulmate AUs (although that'd be more than fine), but soulmates as in 'I knew you the moment I saw you', or 'I felt you in my soul' or any other version of that—the electric connection is something I adore. Soulmate things I love include in every version of every reality, in another life, fated to be separated again and again.
Fake dating within the canon setting.
Arranged marriage within the canon setting.
Time travel and time loops, especially timefuckery where everything is fucked up!
(For femslash only) A/B/O
In-world mythology.
Battle couples!
Lovers to enemies.
Enemies to lovers.
Trope subversions.
I have A Thing for sister/sister, and focusing on the sister aspects of the relationship—how they're alike and how they're different, and just how they're sisters.
Gallows humour, and humour in otherwise dark situations generally.
And just humour in general.
And if you want to go in the crack-y direction, I wouldn't mind that as well!
Cultural differences and clashes that occur due to cultural differences.
I adore OFCs and textual ghosts, for many, many reasons.
I'm more than fine with most side relationships, unless stated otherwise.
Genderbending! I always love Rule 63'd characters.
Open relationships! Threesomes! Moresomes! (Non-explicit) orgies!
Transgender characters would be amazing, as would non-binary characters and just fucking with and/or ignoring traditional gender roles in general.
I like relationships that are fated to end in tragedy, but I also like a pinch of humor with my angst.
All the things that could've happened, but didn't.
Characters who and relationships which fall just short of the mark, the almost-most-not-quite. I think the closest word to this would be hamartia in its original sense?
Again, canon divergence AUs, and For Want Of A Nail and what-if scenarios. I'd love both longer fic and snapshots of what could have been, all the things that could've happened, but didn't.
Hurt, and not necessarily comfort.
Fucked-up families and messy friendships which really, really aren't good for the characters, but they love each other very much anyway. I don't mind either characters finding ways to move past the fucked-upness and the relationships end up flourishing, or moving past fucked-up-ness and leaving what they don't want behind, but I also don't mind a constant cycle of messing up.
Found families!
Intense friendships which play a central role in the characters' lives.
For longer works, plotty fics are always welcome!
Stoic and/or emotionally incompetent characters
Characters finding ways to come to terms with themselves, with their pasts, and with their loved ones and/or finding their place in the world (think Circle of Life).
Characters who're broken, characters who're tired, characters who're lost, characters who refuse to be found, characters who're hurt over and over again, characters who never ever win, characters who've given up. And characters who love, characters who give, characters who're selfless and kind even after everything they've been through, characters who give their all and then some more to people they love, characters who never give up, characters who keep on hoping and keep on fighting even beyond the bitter end. And characters who're a mixture of both types.
I like all kinds of fic, so go wild—linear narrative, flashbacks, epistolary…whatever you think of is lovely, the more daring the better. I especially adore faux-historical documents and faux academia.
Relatedly, interactive fiction!
I love characters with flaws and unpleasant qualities! Awesome ladies can be awesome and flawed :).
Characters teasing and bantering with each other.
I don’t mind any type of POV (including second person!). In fact, POV switches and outside POVs on relationships would be lovely.
Competence porn!
I also adore people being messes and general failboats, because, uh, contradictions?
I have zero problems with fics dealing with misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, racism etc. I like realism, but not overly-depressing fics or fics centered on issues at the expense of characterization. (I define 'overly-depressing' as continuous angst focusing on Issues and Only Issues.)
Bittersweetness.
Characters dancing and spending time outdoors.
Characters in situations that shouldn't be funny, but are.
Characters who're comfortable around each other, and who tease and laugh with each other.
Slice-of-life fics and, for relationships, a look at all the quirks/annoyances of cohabitation.
Banter! I feel like I've repeated this a million times in this letter, but I adore banter!
Casual situations and everyday annoyances
Characters playing pranks on each other.
Generally over-the-top things played straight.
Drama interspersed with humor.
Characters sleeping on each other, making out for hours, drinking from the same cup, and generally being adorable!
Characters solving mysteries and going on journeys together!

Smut Likes/Yuleporn Prompts

I will always want F/F or M/M smut, even if I haven't explicitly requested it!
I prefer a balance between sensuality, emotions, and physical sensations. Anything from playful to creepy is more than fine (although there are a few things I'd prefer not to see, as outlined in the kink DNWs).
Helplessness and humiliation. These are the two main things I love in kinky smut, and everything else derives from there.
Bantering and laughing during sex is lovely, as is gentleness.
And banter between the dom and the sub in D/s scenes (which can edge towards slightly cruel on the dom's part!).
Angry sex/hatesex, smut that gives off vibes of slightly creepy but in a way that can't be pinpointed
Dubcon and emotional manipulation!
Explorations of power dynamics. I especially like service submission, and power dynamics based on the characters' titles/positions! (I do confess to having a kink for honorifics and titles!)
Doms having control over the sub's everyday minutiae (although for short periods of time—24/7/365 high-protocol D/s is a turn-off)
Punishment play, especially unusual forms of discipline! (I don't like erotic spanking in and of itself, but spanking as punishment is great!)
Tickling! Both playful tickling and tickle torture (bondage + tickling = yessss).
Gags and other ways to prevent speech. And weirdly specific, but fingers of one character in the other's mouth.
Groping, especially pulling breasts out of tops (and sometimes letting them just hang there, if you're into humiliation).
Orgasm denial, especially chastity devices.
Fuck-or-die scenarios.
Creative bondage (including predicament bondage. No, strike that, especially predicament bondage, and especially if the predicament is partly psychological).
Similarly, ordering a partner to stay still/hold a certain pose.
Incest kink.
Hairpulling.
Directed masturbation (one character instructing the other how to masturbate).
Dirty talk (including long distance dirty talk).
Navels, inner things, ribs, and kinks for these body parts.
(Not really a like, but I'm afraid my AO3 bookmarks won't say much about my smut likes, because I have a separate account for smutty bookmarks. Sorry.)

Darkfic Likes/Crueltide Prompts

Dark places and enchantments which entrap people without their knowledge
Getting lost in creepy surroundings
Corruption and decay
Explorations of the darker side of magic (or its equivalent), especially magic that's considered 'good'.
Exploration of the supernatural aspects of the canons.
Nature being eerily alive and dangerous.
Child soldiers, trauma, and really ugly, messy wars.
Characters trapped in vicious cycles.
Characters who think they're 'not good enough' for their partner(s).
Situations where characters are blackmailed/coerced into doing things they don't want to do.
Fucked-up families and friendships and relationships; people codependent to the point of almost-insanity, and far beyond anything healthy.
Looking into messed-up characters' thought processes.
Terrible things being done in the name of good by characters who see themselves as good.
Perversion of the 'good' side of magic to do evil things.
Mindfucks and powerplay.
Torture for the sake of torture, and characters being stoic through torture.
Noncon. I like both works focused on noncon and whumpu noncon aftermath.
Badtouch that doesn't lead to noncon, it's just there and creepy. (Especially when coupled with emotional fuckery and mindgames.)
Relationships where one characters is in love, but the other isn't.
Partners doing terrible things to each other.
Characters who hate themselves and lash out at the world and do fucked-up things as a result.
Really, really dark stories which end in the 'everyone dying' sort of tragedy.
AUs where everything goes wrong.
For darkfic especially, I love outsider PoVs—it makes everything 100% more terrible for me.

Wrapping Paper Challenge Prompts

I adore all kinds of jewellery—the more elaborate the better!
And elaborate hairdos! And elaborate clothes! And elaborate makeup!
I do, however, also enjoy seeing characters in their workaday attire, doing everyday things.
Characters with visible height differences from each other!
Elaborate weapons
In-universe art. (Famous portraits, posters for events, propaganda/health-and-safety leaflets, handwritten notes, maps etc.)
In-universe statues and tapestries and architecture
Court settings with pomp and circumstance or everyday life are both things I enjoy seeing.
I also enjoy seeing outdoor settings. Lakes, mountains, spooky forests, bustling cities, rivers, tiny hamlets, cottages, forests...
Specific canon locations (like the Withywindle for Tolkien, the Spirit World for A:tLA etc.)
Studies in opposites
Limited palettes
Non-traditional art mediums would be welcome.
Characters doing things they love together (I know this sounds very pairing-specific, but I'd lovelovelove this for friends and/or parents and children and/or siblings, too).
Ceremonies and events (coronations, balls, feasts, weddings etc.)
Picnics, garden parties, outdoor events, riding, hunting etc.
Characters arguing or debating with each other.
Starlight and warm colors and pastels.
Colour palettes that fit the character (golds and greens for Goldberry in Tolkien, for example, or shades of red for Natasha Romanov in MCU)
Characters passionate with and about each other and about things they love
Seasonal settings (falling leaves or snowed-over land or flower-filled meadows or golden fields etc.)
Characters fighting and having each other's backs, and, for A:TLA, bending!
Bloodied and bruised characters leaning on each other on on the nearest available upright surface after a hard battle
Characters facing each other across the battlefield (especially friends-turned-enemies)
Gift-giving, both literal and metaphorical
Characters reading or writing
Characters in libraries/otherwise surrounded by books
Characters who've fallen asleep (in bed, on a pile of books, sprawled across the sofa, on the floor, on another character—anywhere, any place, any time)
Characters in meetings/teams seated around tables or in lounges
For modern-era canons, airports!
Characters who look messy and/or rumpled and tired and way too fucking busy why is this my life
Characters in a private moment.
Casually intimate gestures, like handholding or hands on shoulders or arms around waists/on shoulders, or just reaching out to adjust the other's clothing
Kneeling and hand-kissing for pairings where I specify loyalty kink, or for gen or shippy combinations which involve a superior and subordinate in a setting where kneeling would work
Forehead kissing!
Tickling and playful tussling
Day-to-day activities (eating, bathing, morning rituals etc.)
Characters being cheesy or tender or dorky or awkward with each other (or all or some of these!).
All the smutty things I've indicated in the smut section! For art especially, a visual focus on power difference (standing/kneeling, clothed/unclothed etc.), looking well-fucked and/or humiliated, straining against bondage, decorative bondage.

Annie On My Mind – Nancy Garden

Requested characters:

Annie Kenyon
Eliza Winthrop
Isabelle Stevenson
Katherine Widmer

Fandom-Specific DNW: Please no het involving any of the characters I've requested unless they end up in a F/F relationship at the end of the fic. Also, please no gender/sexuality headcanons or genderswap for this fandom.

Character combos: I don't mind seeing these characters together or as Ms Widmer/Ms. Stevenson (and any subcombination of Ms. Widmer/Ms. Stevenson/Liza would be interesting too) or Liza/Annie.

Prompts

Ms. Stevenson/Ms. Widmer: I'm so, so curious about these two. I love what we saw of their relationship, and I want to see more. I love the companionship and affection between them, and I love the fact that they know each other very well, and I love how long they've been with each other (they must care for each other very much), and I'd love to see their relationship in any way or form.

Forgive me for quoting from the book wholesale, but this is my favourite bit about them, and I love so much of their interactions but I love this quote the most: ”This is the thing to remember: the very worst thing for Kah and me would be to be separated from each other. Or to be so worn down, so guilt-ridden and torn apart, that we couldn't stay together. Anything else...Anything else is just bad...But no worse than bad. Bad things can always be overcome.” I love that intense devotion to each other and the fact that they've been with each other through good times and through bad, and I love the us-against-the-world dynamic.

I'd love to see their first meeting (they met when they were 'girls', so high school or middle school, or childhood best friends?), and how they get together. I'd also love to see them sneaking around to visit each other, and just being with each other. If you're up for angst, I'd also love to see the moments when their parents discover them, or the moment when they were almost found out the way Annie and Liza were found out. How did that happen? I'd love to see both the good and the bad parts of the beginning of their relationship.

I'd also love to see Ms. Stevenson's time as a WAC. How do they deal with missing each other? Do they get jealous of each other sometimes, when they're so far away from each other? Perhaps something about the letters they send each other? I'd love to see the letters themselves, too! Or, again, the discovery and the court martial and all the angst related to that?

Or something about their careers, perhaps? How did they both manage to get jobs at the same school? Were there points at which they weren't working together?

Or maybe something set post-canon, in their house out in the country, with Ms. Widmer painting and Ms. Stevenson writing poetry and their big garden and chickens? Do they manage to make peace with the fact that they're never going to be able to teach again, or are there tensions? Do they get frustrated or annoyed at each other? Or maybe they do get to teach again, eventually, even if it's for a very short time?

Annie/Liza: I love how we see Annie and Liza meet and fall in love (and come to terms with themselves along the way), and I love both their personalities, and how well they balance each other out. I love both Annie's quirkiness and Liza's sense of responsibility, and how Liza makes Annie more steady and Annie brings out Liza's wilder side.

I'd love to see anything post-canon. The glimpse we got of their reunion was tantalizingly brief, and I want more. I'd love to see their reunion at the airport and them catching up with each other and being giddy with joy at being around each other and just generally everything about their reunion.

Or I'd love more angst, more about how they got from where they were in the final scene with Ms. Widmer and Ms. Stevenson to where they are at the beginning of the book—I'd love either angst or bittersweetness.

Or I'd love to see more about their first time—I love the suggestive fade-to-black scene in the book, but I'd also love to see more. (Or them having sex at any point, really, to be honest.)

Or maybe futurefic? I'd love to see what happens to Annie and Liza in the future. Do they go on to become politicians, teachers, lawyers, poets, musicians—what do they end up choosing to do with their lives? Or I'd love to see them get married, sometime far in the future, perhaps (or maybe, before it's possible for them to marry, promising each other they'll marry the moment they can or maybe having a ceremony anyway). I'd just love to see what direction their relationship goes in the future, whatever way you want to take it.

Or maybe something with their families, in the future, their parents learning and growing. Or maybe their old friends? Or maybe a high school reunion, where they both turn up (and one of them is the other's plus-one), and whatever leads from there?

I'd also love to see an AU where they meet in a different way. (I'd prefer it if you kept the time, as the period setting is one of the more interesting parts of the book for me, but I'd adore seeing different kinds of first meetings, and how those first meetings would affect the trajectory of their relationship. Or maybe a cycle of reincarnated lovers?)

For both relationship or all of them together, I love the period setting and I love all the homophobia-related angst, and Annie and Liza discovering themselves. I'd prefer it if you didn't apply modern views of gender and sexuality to whatever fic you're writing, though, please.

I also love the NYC setting and the details of the city and its people, and if that's your thing, I'd also love to see more setting porn, whether that's in NYC or wherever you choose to set your fic.

I'd love to see Annie and Liza meeting Ms. Widmer and Ms. Stevenson again, somehow. Do they go to visit Ms. Widmer and Ms. Stevenson? Are Ms. Widmer and Ms. Stevenson invited to Liza's high school reunion? Is it at a LGBT rights group/centre, or a protest? Maybe they run into each other accidentally, on the streets or in public transport?

Do Annie and Liza take Ms. Widmer's and Ms. Stevenson's words to heart and stop feeling guilty about Ms. Widmer's and Ms. Stevenson's dismissal, or can't they help the feelings? Does this make their next meeting awkward? Do Annie and Liza visit Ms. Widmer and Ms. Stevenson individually, but not together?

I'd also love to see more about how Ms. Widmer and Ms. Stevenson influenced Annie and Liza as role models and as teachers. Liza very much looked up to both of them—more on that, maybe? Or more on the fact that Ms. Widmer and Ms. Stevenson are both initially angry at Annie and Liza?

I also think Liza/Ms. Widmer or Ms. Stevenson (or both!) would be very interesting. Perhaps Liza's admiration of her teacher(s) turns into something more? Is she the seducer or the seduced? (And if Ms. Widmer and Ms. Stevenson are together in your fic, how does that impact their relationship?) How do the power differentials come into play here? Are they ever discovered? Or maybe Liza meets her old teachers after she's grown up and falls for (one of) them at that point? I'd love either dark and creepy and noncon- or dubcon-y, or something sweeter and fluffier.

Optional crossover prompts: The Prince of Salt/Carol? (I've both read the book and watched the movie.) Maybe Ms. Widmer and Ms. Stevenson know either Carol or Therese? Maybe Carol helped them out financially at some point?

Dark Is Rising Sequence – Susan Cooper

Requested Characters:

Jane Drew
The Lady

Fandom-Specific DNW: I would prefer not to see explicit smut if you're writing canon-era or pre-canon shipfic, although smut is more than fine for post-canon fic.

Character combos: Gen or shippy (I confess that I do have a slight preference for shipfic for these two, but I'd also be extremely delighted with gen), I'd love to see Jane and the Lady interact in any way or form.

Prompts

I love the atmosphere of this world, and the use of real-world mythology, and the vivid setting and how the magic is grounded in the English countryside. I'm also curious as to the manifestations that magic takes in other countries. I adore the Wild Magic/Old Magic/High Magic distinctions, too, and I'd love to see more about that, although the unexplainability of the magic is one of the things I love, so.

And I also love how the magic is dangerous and untameable even when it's being used by the Old Ones for their purposes, and anything about that would also be very interesting. I love the Old Ones (and I'd love to see more about them other than Will and Merriman, because we only see very little of the vast roles the Old Ones must have played through history), and I love the figures of power who we don't really get to hear much about, and I'd be very interested in worldbuilding about the Old Ones and the Dark, and about the Old Ones' powers and how they fought the Dark.

And the ending of Silver on the Tree—one one hand, it utterly destroyed me, and I wouldn't mind seeing canon divergence AUs, but on the other, it does seem kind of fitting, to me, for this book, so whether you go with the ending or make it not happen or have Jane (and possibly Bran and the other Drews) get their memories back at some point in the future.

I loved Jane's and the Lady's interaction in Silver on the Tree so much! Jane and the Lady are my favourite characters, and I love that they interact and I love that they have the connection they have!

I love the 'you and I are much the same, Jane, Jana, Juno, Jane' bit, and I'd love more about that! Perhaps an exploration of their similarities? Or maybe something about the differences in their experiences and in their natures (and maybe something about mortality and immortality)? (And if incest is your thing (or you're writing gen) take the mother and daughter undertones and run with them!)

I'd also be interested in an AU where Jane is an Old One—there are so many possibilities there! Perhaps the Lady is to Jane what Merriman is to Will in canon? Or maybe Merriman plays the same role and so does the Lady (I'd be very interested in the scene with the candles and the Rider in this AU—how does this play into Jane's and the Lady's relationship? Does Jane bear any guilt for this?)?

Or, Jane seems to be the most in-touch with Wild Magic of the main characters, while the Lady is purely of High Magic, so maybe something about that? Or maybe the Greenwitch takes Jane into Tethis' realm and the Lady has to intervene to save her? Or maybe the Lady makes use of Jane's connection to the Wild Magic somehow? ~~Wild, magic-induced orgies, anyone?~~

Or maybe somehow the Lady visits Jane post-canon, whether that's in the real world or in her dreams? Or maybe Jane is taken out of time for some reason, and that's how she meets the Lady?

I'd also enjoy seeing the other figures of power from canon. Jane and the Lady are my faves, but I also love most of the other characters and I'd love to see them, too, as side characters in whatever fic you're writing. I love Jane's relationship with her siblings in particular, as well as her friendship with will, and I also love what we see of Bran and Jane. The White Rider and the Black Rider are both interesting to me, as foes of the Light (and thus of the Lady), and I'd love to see them, too. And the Lady seems to occupy a special place among the Old Ones and I'd love to see more of that, too.

I would also be very much interested in a crossover where the Lady is/knows Xaphania from His Dark Materials, or any interaction with the Queen of Faery from Smith of Wootton Major or Varda from The Silmarillion, but, of course, that's completely optional. I'd also be very interested in, for example, a Smith of Wootton Major AU where the Lady is the Queen and Jane is Smith.

Smith of Wootton Major – J. R. R. Tolkien

Requested Characters:

Queen of Faery
Warriors Coming Back From the Marches

Character combos: I'd love to see the characters together or individually.

Prompts

The warriors coming back from the Dark Marches only appear for the length of one paragraph, but I am fascinated by them. I'm very, very interested in knowing basically anything about them. In particular, I'd love to see more about the female warriors (were there any female warriors?), though male warriors are also welcome!

Are they inhabitants of Faery, or do they come from another far-away land to the aid of Faery? Are they there of their own will or not? Where are they going to, 'into the echoing hills? What battles are they coming back from? (Do the bearers of the star become elves once they die, and go off to fight on the Dark Marches?)

What does navigating the Sea of Windless Storm and the Unlight entail? What battles did they fight on the Dark Marches, and why do men not know of them? Are the Marches a border between Faery and an even less benevolent land, or between Faery and the human world? Or are they something else? What kind of skills are needed to be an elven warrior, or is it something that's there from birth? Are the elves of Faery born, or do they just...exist, and come into being?

And the feyness of the mariners was very chillingly and beautifully described, and the song that struck fear in Smith's heart, and I'd love to see more of how dangerous they are (both to the mortals and to whatever/whoever they're fighting).

I'd love to see the mariners and the Queen of Faery interacting in any way or form. Do they get her blessings before they go, or report to her after they come back? Has the Queen ever fought in the Dark Marches alongside the warriors? Has she/does she lead them into battle? Or does she oversee her troops from where she is in Faery, because the limits of her power stretch far enough to do so? Or is she unconcerned with the battles of the mariners and the battles in the Dark Marches?

Or, if you want to write femslash, I'd love to see the Queen/a female warrior (or multiple female warriors). Does the Queen have to send her lover off to battle, or is her lover commanded/compelled to fight by someone else, or does choose to fight under someone else who isn't the Queen? If the Queen is the commander of the elven warriors, there's also plenty of room for loyalty and lady/knight dynamics here. Or I'd love to see two female warriors together! I love battle couples, so this

And it's...interesting that the mariners just happened to return at the same time that Smith was at the shore. Was it a coincidence, or did the Queen (or the land of Faery itself) or the mariners have any role in this, to prevent Smith from exploring further along the far edges of Faery? Or are there warriors who are always coming back from the Marches (and maybe time loops/curses)?

And the Queen of Faery—the Queen is a very fascinating character, too, and she's so very enigmatic and interesting, and I'd love to see anything about her, too.

I'd love to see more of how the Queen and Alf/the King communicate, because it's very clear that they do. Does the King travel into Faery from Wootton a lot? Do they have a way to communicate between the human world and Faery? Or do they just know each other that well?

And I'd love to see more of their relationship. Also, on their roles in Faery: do they remain King and Queen forever, from the beginning of Faery to the end? Or are they, like the bearer of the star, roles passed down from one person to another (though of course on a lager scale of time than with the star)? And I find it interesting that the Queen is the one in Faery while Alf is in our world.

And speaking of the star—did the Queen play any role in its origin? Did she forge it? Imbude it with its power? (Or was it completely unrelated to her, and did the first bearer take her by surprise?)

I also love that the queen appears in various forms (or, at least two forms) and if you want to go in the identity porn-y direction that'd be great! Alternately, I'd love any kind of fic about the Queen's appearances and the various guises she wears. (And Smith seeing the Queen as a young girl initially was very interesting, especially given Noakes' little, delicate doll on the cake, if you want to go in that direction.)

Or if you're interested in femslash, maybe Nell/the Queen, with Nell being the one who received the star instead of Smith? Or Nell meeting the Faery Queen somehow? (Maybe the Queen travels into the mortal world sometimes, like Alf only for shorter durations?) Or maybe female!Smith/the Queen (and I'd especially love to see the dancing scene with f!Smith)?

I love the dangers and pitfalls of Faery, and all its immense beauties, too—the Greater and the Lesser Evils, the King's Tree, the Wind. And I love that Faery and all its mysteries are unknowable to mortals and ultimately all we can have is the occasional journeys of the star-bearer and the flower that never dies (but, of course, I want to know more anyway). I love the fey tone of the story, and I love all the wild and dangerous things that aren't wild and dangerous in their nature, but are to mortals, if that makes sense. I love all the things that remain just out of sight, and the things that are different from what they're assumed to be, and generally I just love the tone of this story very, very much.

If you don't mind crossovers, perhaps a HDM crossover where the mariners are coming back from Lord Asriel's war on the Almighty (and/or Xaphania/the Queen)? Or a Dark Is Rising crossover where Faery is the place outside time? Or a crossover with the Silmarillion, with Erendis/the Queen, or where Erendis is the Queen? Or maybe a Lead by Niggle crossover where Faery lies beyond the Mountains?

The Dragonfly Pool – Eva Ibbotson

Requested Characters:

Johannes of Bergania
Julia Grantley

Matteo von Tarlenheim
Talitha Hamilton

Character combos: I'd love to see all four of them together (gen or with the M/M and/or F/F ships), or any of the following combinations: Julia/Tally (or Tally and Julia), Matteo/Johannes, Matteo and Tally, Matteo and Julia and Tally (again, gen or Julia/Tally).

Prompts

For all four of them together, this would probably have to be an AU (although I'd very much enjoy seeing anything where the four of them all interact together that's canon compliant). Maybe Matteo manages to unravel the assassination plot before it occurs, or the shot goes wild and misses Johannes (maybe Stilton is less competent than in canon), and the children get to meet the King? Maybe grown-up Tally and Julia visit Bergania after the war when its people are voting for their first President, and meet the former King? Maybe the German army invades Bergania, and Johannes has to flee with the aid of the children and of his people? Maybe Johannes sets up a government-in-exile in London, and when he goes down to Delderton to visit Karil and Matteo, Tally talks to him (and drags Julia along)?

I think Johannes and Tally especially would get along very well, because they both have a similar determination and dedication, and they both have iron wills. And I'd love to see what Matteo makes of Julia and Tally becoming closer to Johannes, or even just meeting Johannes—does it remind him of how much time has passed, or dredge up old memories?

I love Tally's admiration of Johannes, and the friendship between Julia and Tally and the two of them going along with each other's mad ideas, and Tally's and Julia's admiration of their teacher, and Matteo's bond with Johannes, so in seeing all four of them together, that's a lot of what does it for me, though I very much wouldn't mind seeing what your view of such a meeting would be.

Matteo/Johannes: I love the tragedy of how they meet again after so many years, but were torn apart mere minutes later. Matteo avoiding Johannes (and all that lost time—did he have regrets, later, after Johannes death?), but Johannes seeing him anyway, how dramatic Johannes was in dragging Matteo out of the crowd, their embrace (like there was no-one else there now that is a shippy moment if I ever saw one), the words they spoke to each other (and I am burningly curious as to what those were), Johannes looking the way he hadn't looked after his wife had died, the friend Johannes loved as a boy, Matteo's 'No!', 'everything' (everything), Matteo's promise, 'the man he had loved beyond all others', Matteo on his knees, just—everything. Everything about that scene. And later—everything about the dragonfly pool scene, too, Matteo's memories and how Karil saw that his father wanted to be with Matteo.

And after—I'd love to see Matteo grieving and trying to deal with Johannes death. We know that Matteo talked to Magda a lot about Johannes—maybe one of those conversations?And Karil—how does Matteo see him, entangled as Karil must be in Matteo's feelings about Johannes? And Matteo maybe finding a lover during/after the war, but everything about that lover reminds him of Johannes, or nothing does, and everything is messy and terrible?

And I very much wouldn't mind seeing a canon divergence AU where Johannes wasn't killed (not shot? Shot, but not fatally?), and they do get to ~~have sex~~ speak to each other later. How do they sort out all the painful things that must lie between them? Do they go back to their individual lives, or do they find a way to stay with each other? What would happen to their relationship during WW2, what with Matteo's work as an intelligence agent (although would that happen if Johannes hadn't died) and Johannes being King?

Or maybe something about their childhoods—I'd love to see Matteo and Johannes doing everything together, maybe including fumbling together as boys? Or the two of them at university, discovering that their care for each other extended beyond friendship? Or dealing with the fact that they can't be together fully, because Johannes is going to have marry (and maybe him actually falling for his wife feels like betrayal to Johannes, and it's very complicated there)? Or Johannes becoming 'cut off', and Matteo's feelings of betrayal at the pamphlet incident and him leaving? Or Johannes' feelings on Matteo leaving, and the two of them learning to live without each other? All the politics and/or angst, really, and the two of them figuring out their relationship together.

Tally and Julia: I'd love either gen or femslash for these two; either way, I love the relationship between them in the book and I'd love to see more.

I love all the hurt/comfort between these two in canon, and, gen or femslash, I'd love to see more. Maybe Tally becomes homesick and Julia comforts her, or maybe Julia loses an audition for a role? Or anything heavier would be fine, too. I'd just love all the H/C, please.

Tally doesn't like Golria Grantley at all (although she doesn't say this out loud for Julia's sake); what does she think of the fact that Golria is kind of sort of reaching out towards her daughter at the end of the book? (She's a very good judge of character; how does that factor into it?)

Maybe something about Julia's career as an actress? She probably didn't get roles fresh out of acting school and was probably rejected at auditions—how does she face these rejections, and does Tally's support help? Does she move to a place with a robust film industry? And does Tally follow her, or do they correspond from a distance? Does she go for stage acting, or does she become a movie star like her mother? And I love the play in the book, and the scene where Julia recites a poem in memory of Johannes, so I'd love to see more of that.

And what does Tally do with her Classics degree? Does she go on do postgraduate work and perhaps become a professor? Does she decide to teach, perhaps come back to Delderton? If you go for the femslash option, does the fact that she and Julia are far away from each other and in pursuit of their own careers become an issue?

The years Julia is at acting school and Tally is at Oxford! Do they write letters to each other? (And if so, I'd love to see those letters.) Do they get together with each other, and with the other Delderton students, in the holidays?

Tally was in London during the school holidays at Delderton, helping to clean up after the bombings during the Blitz—was Julia there, too? Were they involved in the rescue efforts? Had they ever been caught outside in an air raid?

And if you're writing femslash, I love friends to lovers, and I'd love to see the growth of Tally's and Julia's relationship into something romantic. Do they grow together slowly? Is there a sudden moment of realization? Do they get together when they're still in school, or afterwards (perhaps during the visit to Bergania)?

For Julia and Matteo and Tally, or Matteo and Tally, I'd love to see more of Matteo's role as a teacher. I love his teaching style, and I love how much he loves what he's teaching, so I'd love to see more of that. Perhaps an early-morning biology lesson? Or perhaps, just before Matteo's inauguration, they go on an early-morning tramp again for old times' sake?

I'd also love to see Matteo and Tally (and Julia) meeting during, or after, the war. Does Matteo tell them much of what he's done, or does he think it's too much for them, or is he not allowed to, because it's classified? Or maybe them in Bergania, just before Matteo's inauguration, catching up with each other?

And does Matteo work with Tally or Julia as President of Bergania, for fundraising or cultural events? Or do they visit him after his five years are up, and he's settled in the Berganian countryside or gone back to hiking across the world, or maybe become a diplomat and ambassador for Bergania?

Delderton and Bergania are both my favourite things, and I love the atmosphere of both places. I love Delderton for its quirkiness and its unusualness, and I love the grand, sweeping majesty of Bergania. And I love how much hope there is in both places, if that makes sense? Partly, of course, because we see things through Tally's eyes a lot and Tally is very much a hopeful person, but the descriptions of Delderton and Bergania are a lot more rich and vivid than, for example, of London (and I love the contrast).

Totally optional crossover ideas: crossover with anything of Ibbotson's. I especially love The Secret Countess and The Star of Kazan, but these are, of course, completely optional. Or a Dark Is Rising crossover where Tally fins out she's an Old One, or Merriman meets Tally and/or Matteo during the wartime. Or maybe a Chalet School crossover? (Or maybe, and this is a completely, completely optional, a crossover with Agent Carter, with Peggy meeting Matteo during his work for the SOE in the wartime, or meeting Julia and Tally after the war, or maybe Tally being requested for consultancy work at the SSR?)

The Shoes of the Fisherman – Morris West

Requested Characters:

Jean Télémond
Kamanev
Pope Kiril I

Character combos: I'd love to see the characters together or in the following combinations: Jean Télémond/Pope Kiril, Pope Kiril/Kamenev (either slash or pre-slash/slashy-but-not-explicit undertones is fine for both of these). I'd also love to see Kiril by himself.

Prompts

I love Kiril's relationship with Jean Télémond. I love the loyalty and the trust there, and I love the power dynamics, but most of all I love that they both respect each other, and I love the fact that there's so much caught up in the relationship between them. Jean's death was inevitable, but the impotency of their parting and 'even with loving, a man must die alone' utterly broke me. And I love, love, love that final scene with Jean when Kiril has to give him the news of the review board, and then the scene afterwards with Calitri, 'I love him in the spirit and in the flesh'.

I'd love to see basically anything for this, honestly. What would happen if Kiril met Jean before he became the Pope? Or, I'd love to see a gapfiller, a moment between them before the news of the review board. Or perhaps Kiril grieving for Jean. Or, what would happen if Jean was a younger man, closer in age to Kiril?

And Kiril and Kamenev! I love the complex dynamic between them, and I love Kiril's trust in his former torturer, and I love that the trust between them was created in the first place, and I love Kamanev's grudging respect that is said to have become not-so-grudging. There are so many hints at a story there, and I want to know more. I want to see their shared history, and I want to know what went on between them.

I'd love to see Kamanev's torture of Kiril, or perhaps the point at which he began to identify with/respect Kiril, and the same happened to Kiril. Or I'd love to see more of the correspondence between them, or maybe even Kamenev meeting Kiril at some point in the future. (Enemies to lovers and Stockholm/Lima Syndrome would be great.)

Jean Télémond, Kamenev, and Kiril all in one fic would be very interesting. You can do this as the two loves of Kiril's life, of course, and I'd adore seeing that. I'd also love seeing them actually in one room, too, though this would obviously have to be an AU of some sort (Jean Télémond living to some point beyond canon?). What would Kamenev and Jean Télémond make of each other? What would they make of each other's relationship with Kiril?

Kiril's idealism and his faith are one of my favourite things about this book, how he doubts and wavers but remains steadfast, how he's able to carry on and do what, to him, is the right thing despite his doubts. And I love that he's so very human and he has human flaws and weaknesses, but he's also very aware of his own faults, even if only in hindsight. And I love how wry and self-aware he is, and how he's humble but can also be very commanding if the situation necessitates, and above all I love his empathy.

I'd love to see him before he became Pontiff, back in his country or when he got the news that he was appointed Cardinal. Or I'd love to see more of him meeting the people living in the Vatican, going among the faithful. Or maybe something post-canon, world politics or Vatican politics? Or maybe him with the members of his Council?

I adore the theological discussions in the book, and I love that the characters' faith is tested throughout the book, and I love that Kiril especially struggles with his faith, and any exploration of that would be great. And I love that even when they're steadfast in their beliefs they encounter difficulties convincing others of their beliefs.

I love the loyalty kink and the tests of loyalty and all the powerplays throughout the book, and anything to do with loyalty and power dynamics would be great, honestly. I also love the politics and questions of trust and faith, and anything you do with that would also be great.

I find the Vatican setting very interesting as well. Very much optional, of course, but I'd also love a look at Vatican politics/world politics (and the fact that although it's a work of fiction West absolutely lets what exactly he thinks of world politics of that time shine through is great and I very much approve and love it). I also found the details of Vatican culture and the traditions of Catholicism very well-researched and portrayed, so if you want to go along those lines, that'd also be great.

In particular, the politics are very idealistic because the characters are very idealistic, but they're also very nuanced, and I love that! But I also love the manipulations and go-betweens and cloak-and-daggerness of it all. And I also love the theme of reconciling Catholicism with the modern world (and, in Jean Télémond's case, with science), and how that's not always successful, but also sometimes works.

Wonder Woman (2017)

Requested Characters:

Antiope
Hippolyta

Character combos: I'd love to see these characters individually or together, gen or shipp.

Prompts

I love any permutation of Antiope/Hippolyta/Diana, and also the gen versions of these, and also any permutation of Menalippe/Antiope/Hippolyta. Any other Amazon ship is also welcome, and I also don't mind Hippolyta/Zeus.

I don't mind whether you keep Antiope's death or fix it. On one hand, it was an emotional moment in the film and central to Diana's motivations and lovely and tragic, but on the other, Antioe is dead. So I'd love to see either the Amazons (or Hippolyta and/or Menalippe specifically) grieving for Antiope, but I'd also love to see a fix-it where Antiope lives.

I love the idea of an all-female band of warriors created specifically to bring peace to the world, so I adore the Amazons (although the pasting-on of some vaguely Hellenic trappings to a basically Judeo-Christian origin story kind of made me LOL). Anything to do with the Amazons would be wonderful!

Themyscira must be self-sustaining because it doesn't have any contact with the outside world, so it must have people other than warriors—farmers, weavers, potters etc. How does that work? Do the warriors do all of the above things, too? Or are there non-combatant Amazons? In which case, what are the attitudes from the warriors towards those non-combatants? And what role do Antiope and Hippolyta play in the organization of the everyday minutae of the island?

Something about their origins, maybe? Maybe something about their first battle against Ares and how they fought that? Or maybe something about Antiope and/or Hippolyta being created by Zeus? Or maybe something about the creation of Themyscira and the early days on the island, and the transition from peace to war? Or, does anyone ever get bored of Themyscira or restless to explore the outside world?.

For any variation on Antiope/Hippolyta/Menalippe(/any Amazon), I love the loyalty and power differentials at play. For Antiope and Hippolyta especially, I love the Queen and commander trope, and I'd love to see how their respective roles come into play in their relationship. Honestly, I love loyalty in gen too, and I'd love to see any Amazon kneeling to their general/Queen in any context, gen or shippy (perhaps with added hand-kissing).

And for any kind of Amazon relationship, gen or shippy, I love people having each others' backs in battle, and people in the aftermath of battles, bloodied and bruised and exhausted. And for romantic/sexual relationships, I love battle couples. (Also, I feel like the Amazons would be great for if you want to go in the army of lovers direction.)

Or if you want to ship Diana with either Antiope or Hippolyta (or both), that'd also be great (although I'd prefer it if Diana was an adult before the relationship starts). I'd also love gen of Antiope and Hippolyta with Diana. I love what we see of their relationships in the movie, and I want more. In the gen or shippy direction, I'd love to see Antiope training Diana and Diana hero-worshipping Antiope, or Hippolyta and Diana clashing more as Diana grows older but also getting to know each other as people instead of just in their roles as mother and daughter, and in general the three of them spending time with each other. For gen specifically, we know that the Amazons spoil Diana a lot as the only child on the island, and I'd love to see more of that with Antiope and Hippolyta, just the two of them and baby Diana being happy together.

Also, the strong hints towards the Amazons having sex with each other a lot are wonderful, and I'd love to see more about these arts of pleasure. Do they try out different instruments, try to hold of orgasming for some time (perhaps using certain devices to prevent self-pleasure), experiment with both rough and gentle sex? Do they invent sex toys? (Is there a whole trade in sex toys?)

With regard to incest, maybe the Amazons don't have an incest taboo? Or I have a huge thing for incest kink and the dirtybadwrong feeling and the shame that comes with it, so maybe they do? Or maybe 'sisters' is more in the sisters-in-arm sense? Or maybe, for the best of all worlds, they had an incest taboo in the beginning, but as time passed and they grew more and more disconnected from the mortal world, the taboo faded?

Crossovers—any Greek mythology crossover would be great, especially if the WW!Amazons meet their mortal counterparts. Or maybe a Silmarillion crossover and Antiope/Hippolyta/Haleth? Or maybe an Anne of Green Gables crossover, where Walter goes into intelligence instead of the regular army or Shirely is shot down over Themyscira, and they meet Antiope and/or Hippolyta?

Yuletide 2017 Letter

no subject