the_wavesinger | Yuletide 2021 Letter (Reply)

Dear Yuletide Author,

I’m so sorry, I didn’t realize this letter was still locked until now, but I’m very excited about all of my tiny fandoms, and I hope you have fun 😊.

If you want to know more about me, you can find me on AO3 The_Wavesinger, and Tumblr the-wavesinger. My previous exchange letters are all in this tag.

Some sections of this letter are longer than others, but I’d be equally delighted to receive fic for every single fandom I’ve requested.

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Muhteşem Yüzyıl | Magnificent Century

The Borgias

The Shoes of the Fisherman

DNWs:

Horror, or any kind of spookiness involving the supernatural.
Zombies, vampires, werewolves etc unless specifically requested.
Gore, necrophilia.
Torture of animals. (Humans/humanoids/other sapients being tortured is more than fine!)
Graphic descriptions of nausea/vomiting (i.e. anything beyond “X was feeling nauseated/threw up”).
Reader inserts.
Unrequested depowered/non-powered AUs, unrequested modern AUs.
A/B/O
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!)
Age regression, de-ageing, or, unless requested, AUs in which one character is suddenly older than a previously older-than-them character (ageswap?).
Girl!penis. (Trans characters are fine, but not cis women possessing penises.)
For this exchange, PWPs. (My definition of ‘plot’ is pretty broad—smut is great as long as there’s something else going on in the fic, whether that’s a noncon situation, a character coming to an emotional realization, etc. Basically, for this exchange I’d prefer not to get anything that’s purely smutty.)
Tentacles etc.
Extreme underage (pre-pubertal children), unrequested smut for underage relationships (i.e. no smut for any relationships below the age of consent in their culture, or below 15)
Anachronistic discussions of sexuality and other issues.

General Likes:
Tropes, Genres, Story Elements

Angst. Drama. Politics. Tragedy.
I love canon divergence AUs, and other what-if scenarios. In particular, I love one tiny change making waves down the road, and exploration of fall-outs of canon divergence.
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 and arranged marriage within the canon setting.
Time travel and time loops, especially make-it-worse versions of the trope.
M/M or F/F pregnancy! I’m especially interested in fic which explores pregnancy as body horror/being stuck in your own body and having something growing inside you/hating pregnancy but enduring it for Reasons/pregnancy as a result of rape/complicated feelings about pregnancy. (For the aforementioned tropes I prefer pregnancies in F/F and M/M to pregnancies in F/M.) I’d also be interested in fic where characters get an abortion, by their choice or as body horror (M/M only for the latter, please).
In-world mythology.
Cultural differences and clashes that occur due to cultural differences.
Lovers to enemies and enemies to lovers.
Trope subversions.
Competence porn! I also adore people being messes and general failboats, because, uh, contradictions?
I really like characters struggling with the mores and norms of the societies they live in, whether involving some form of societal bigotry or not, and characters struggling with morality and right and wrong, whether their own internal code of ethics or external expectations. Generally I love seeing how characters are shaped by the time and place they live in and how it interacts with the core of their identity.
Stylistically speaking, I like a broad range of thing, especially faux-historical documents and faux academia; if you want to play with stylistic stuff (including IF) please feel free!

Character and Relationships Dynamics

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.
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.
Characters who and relationships which fall just short of the mark, the almost-most-not-quite.
I love characters with flaws and unpleasant qualities!
I like relationships that are fated to end in tragedy, and bittersweet relationships where the characters know there’s an expiration date for the relationship.
Emotionally abusive relationships (not necessarily just romantic relationships).
Relationships where one characters is in love, but the other isn't.

Darker Likes

Child soldiers, trauma, and really ugly, messy wars.
Characters trapped in vicious cycles (cycles of abuse, time travel etc).
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, especially fic dealing with the emotional/psychological impact of noncon and the trauma afterwards (and especially if the trauma lingers and/or the noncon doesn’t end when the fic does).
Consent issues/situations where the character feels like they can’t say no.
Characters safewording out of BDSM scenes and the safeword being ignored.
Pregnancy due to F/F or M/M noncon.
Badtouch that doesn't lead to noncon, it's just there and creepy. (Especially when coupled with emotional fuckery and mindgames.)
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.

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Cousins’ War (TV Series)

Elizabeth of York
Elizabeth Woodville

Also fine with fic where only one of the characters appears!

Prompts for both characters together:

I actually found the witchcraft and foresighy and curses quite interesting in the show, especially the idea of curses growing beyond the spellcaster’s control; I’d be interested in seeing more magic-related worldbuilding.
(If you prefer to follow close to IRL history I’m also totally fine with that!)
Elizabeth of York ending up becoming queen regnant somehow would be interesting IMO, in many possible scenarios.
- Maybe Elizabeth Woodville doesn’t have any male children, so Elizabeth grows up as Edward’s presumed heir—what would happen then?
- Henry dies before Elizabeth has children, or even before they get married, and Elizabeth ends up being queen.
- Or maybe instead of casting their lot in with Henry VII, Elizabeth Woodville decides she’ll crown her daughter queen regnant; after all, she’s the only living heir of the last king as far as the public knows.
- Neither Henry nor Richard survive Bosworth, and suddenly Elizabeth is the only viable contender for the throne.
- Richard survives Bosworth and Elizabeth marries Richard, but they have no children.
- Either way, I would love to see how Elizabeth of York becoming queen regnant changes her relationship with her mother, and to what extent Elizabeth Woodville helps her.
- What would happen if Richard of Shrewsbury turned up again after Lizzie became queen?
If Edward lived longer, until his sons became adults, would things have changed?
On a different note, would Anthony Rivers being named Lord Protector have changed things at all? What if Edward broke tradition and named Elizabeth Woodville (or his mother) to the role, what kind of changes would that have wrought?
A moment from Elizabeth of York’s childhood, and being the oldest daughter of a king. What lessons does she learn from her mother?
What would have happened if Richard had won at Bosworth?
What if Lizzie didn’t stop plotting with her mother after Arthur was born?
What stories does Elizabeth of York tell her children about their grandmother? What memories, sweet or bitter, does she have of her after her death.

Prompts for Elizabeth of York alone:

I liked that her relationship with Henry in the show was tied up in politics and complicated, and it wasn’t love at first sight. I’d love to see more of them getting closer as king and queen.
What would happen if she hadn’t died in childbirth in TSP? Would things have changed for Catherine, and for Henry?
Anything playing around with the fact that in the show, Perkin Warbeck is Richard of Shrewsbury, and Elizabeth recognizes him. An AU where the deception works—how would that go? Or maybe Richard ends up winning somehow; how does that affect Elizabeth and her family?

Prompts for Elizabeth Woodville alone:

I ended up shipping her with her brother Anthony quite a lot (her reliance on him and his loyalty to and protectiveness of her hit my id in all the right places), and I would be very interested in seeing more, if that’s your thing. I’m also interested in all the F/F ships for Elizabeth Woodville! I would love to see any kind of fic involving Elizabeth and Anne Neville, Isabel Neville, Jane Shore, or Margaret of Anjou, Margaret Beaufort.
Her relationship with her parents, especially with her mother and especially related to the magic—how does Jacquetta Woodville pass on her knowledge to her daughter?
Elizabeth loving Edward to the end, despite the complications of their relationship after the first honeymoon period—I’d love to see more.

These are some very optional prompts wrt genderswap, because I feel like that’d be something interesting to play with, and I’d enjoy any combination of Elizabeth of York, Elizabeth Woodville, Henry Tudor, and Edward IV being genderswapped:

Elizabeth Woodville and Edward—I love the whirlwind romance but how does that happen if they’re both men or both women? For F!Edward, does King George romance Elizabeth and when Elizabeth comes to court she falls for the king’s sister? Or does she meet F!Edward while fighting for her husband’s lands back, or maybe Jacquetta gets her a place in F!Edward’s household? For M!Elizabeth, I imagine he’d be a Lancastrian partisan like his brothers—how do he and the king get along in light of this? How does history change if Edward marries Bona of Savoy (but keeps M!Elizabeth as his lover)?
For Elizabeth of York , changing one of their genders right change the outcome of the War of the Roses. If Elizabeth Woodville’s eldest child was a boy, none of the messiness of Richard’s regency and claiming of kingship and everything that followed would have taken place. Does M!Elizabeth welcome back the Lancaster partisans in a show of friendship once he’s become king? Or do they meet as enemies on the battlefield? And if Margaret Beaufort’s only child is a girl, are there other Tudor claimants who come forward, or is there no challenge to Richard’s throne, or does Elizabeth challenge him herself? What becomes of Lizzie and F!Henry in this universe—is F!Henry friends with Lizzie when they’re both growing up?

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Hiccup Series – Cressida Crowell

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third

For this fandom, fics shipping Hiccup with Grimbeard the Ghastly or any of his other ancestors (especially the other Hiccups, but excluding his parents and grandparents), Thuggory, Humungously Hotshot the Hero, and Snoutlout would be great. Otherwise, I pretty much prefer gen.

General stuff I like about the books:

I love the OTT ridiculous names! This is the very first thing on the list because the ridiculous names (and the worldbuilding in general) are my favorite.
Hiccup’s world is so vivid and colorful, and anything about that/playing with that would be great.
I love all the humor! OTT and tongue-in-cheek and wildly ridiculous and so much fun. It’s glorious and I love it.
But I also love that despite being so much fun, the books have an epic scale to them, too, and I love the tragedy and the hopefulness of the story, and the sad parts of the books thar are made so much sadder by the lightheartedness of everything else.
The framing device. Older Hiccup’s voice and notes and the wistfulness/sadness of them is a perfect foil to the adventures of the book.
And also, the OTT (I’m using that word a lot, but tbh it’s such a great description of these books and why I love them) adventures and quests and misadventures.
DRAGONS. Need I say more? (Well, I’ll say more. I love how the dragons have such distinct personality, and the snark most of them have and the byplay we see between dragons and how dragons and Vikings had more of a partnership than anything else even if it went kind of sideways.)
Even more-optional-than-everything-else thing I like/prompt: I have a soft spot for the illustrations of the book, if that’s what you want to play with. (And also, stick figures. Stick figure Hiccup!) Whether incorporating the text of whatever you write into that, or something else, if you want to create art I would like it.

What I like about Hiccup is multitudes

He’s sensible and intelligent but also brave and open-hearted and basically a big damn Hero and I love him so much!
I love that he’s kind of a runt and not the best at being a Viking but still manages to save the day through a combination of wits and accidents.
I love his openness and how he’s kind and always willing to give people a chance even when he has no reason to trust them, and that he keeps trusting over and over and over again.
All the connections he forms and the friends he makes—some of them (many of them) odd and outcasts (even if not Outcasts), and a pretty ragtag group, but all people he would do anything for.
His complicated relationship with his father and his mother and his family.
His dragon-whispering—how he knows dragons so well, his relationships with individual dragons as foes and friends and companions.

Some specific prompts:

Hiccup’s friendships and relationships with various people—missing moments or how they stand the test of time.
Hiccup + dragons! More on his relationship with Toothless and how he feels about how dragons grow more and more rare as he gets older.
Or maybe an AU where Furious doesn’t die—what happens? Does the Dragon Rebellion go on, or do they manage to hash out a peace? Or anything about Hiccup’s complicated relationship with Furious, really.
Hiccup building Tomorrow and ruling it, and all the ups and downs of that, and how Fishlegs and Camicazi are involved (or not).
Hiccup and Humongous meeting again in the future.
Grimbeard or one of the other Hiccups meets Hiccup, either through time travel or in a dream world or in the afterlife.
One of the things that caught my imagination is a line in the earlier books about how Hiccup hopes that one day everyone can have beautiful and dangerous things and use them wisely. Maybe something about that? If Hiccup time-travelled to the present-day world, what would his reaction be to our technology and our weaponry?
Do the dragons every come out of hiding and back into the world?
In general, just adventures and fun and Hiccup being a Hero.

I also have some even-more-optional-than-the-rest crossover prompts

Crossover with historical RPF fandom of your choice (especially if it’s set in the same era).
The dragons of any dragon-having canon I’ve ever requested in any exchange meet the dragons (and Hiccup) of the books. Especially the dragons in Tolkien’s Roverandom, that would be interesting.
I feel like you could do some interesting things with a Percy Jackson crossover.

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Mabinogion (Myths)

Branwen

Fandom-specific DNW: fix-its where the characters don’t die. (Fics set before the character(s) dying would be fine, as would fic where they’re resurrected or where they otherwise appear after dying (eg as ghosts/in dreams/their death only happens in this world and they’re transported to another world). Also, I’m fine with fics where the characters don’t die which are very much not fix-its.)

Prompts & general things I like about this fandom:

One of the things I love about Branwen ferch Llyr is the tragic ending. It’s not an inevitable tragedy either, it happens because of betrayals and choices and pride.
I love the mythological elements of the story, sending messages with birds and an army crossing through the sea like a forest with a giant at its head and the cauldron and the idea sof myth-building and nationhood and protections, and I’d love to see anything along those lines.
As far as I know (and correct me if I’m wrong), we don’t actually have any good information on the three chief matriarchs of Britain other than that Branwen was one of them, and I would love to see any kind of worldbuilding about what they are and what power (if any) they hold.
Is there someone other than Matholwch (and her son) who Branwen becomes close to in Ireland? Perhaps one of her handmaidens, or someone
Bendigeidfran and Branwen—I’d like to see more about their relationship. Bendigeidfran does go to war for her, and he’s genuinely angered by Matholwch’s treatment of her, but how much of that is care for Branwen and how much of that is political? How much influence does Branwen have over her brother? Does the fact that she can read and write and he can’t imply anything about their relationship?
I’d also love to see a role reversal where it’s Bendigeidfran who marries Matholwch, and/or Branwen who dies first.
And Branwen and Efnisien—was there anything between them, before Matholwch, whether platonic or romantic? Does Branwen learn of his final actions, and does that sort of redeem him in her eyes, or does that not help at all?
Anything playing around with bird/crow symbolism.
Resurrection fic! I would love to see either resurrection or reincarnation, or the events of the story playing out over and over again through history.
Also, Branwen as a (non-spooky) ghost, just hanging around and chilling (or being involved in greater historical/mythological events somehow).

I have several prompts for crossover(ish) stuff, because why not:

Blodeuwedd and Branwen would be super interesting; maybe the bird who’s Branwen’s messenger is Blodeuwedd, or maybe Blodeuwedd leads the bird carrying Branwen’s message astray for some plot reason? (Or any other mythological crossover, including with figures from different mythologies!)
I would love to see the story of Branwen play out in a Dark Is Rising setting? Branwen being one of the Old Ones, or a connected figure, would be interesting. Or something to do with Bran and him being the son of Arthur, and how that connects to Branwen and her family.
A Tolkien crossover! Especially with Smith of Wootton Major—who is the Queen that Smith meets, really, and does the battle Smith sees the warriors coming back from have anything to do with Branwen? Or Branwen/Finduilas.
I don’t have any concrete ideas for this, but Branwen or her story in a historical RPF (or historical/period drama) context would be interesting IMO.

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Muhteşem Yüzyıl | Magnificent Century (TV)

Hürrem Sultan
Mihrimah Sultan

Fandom-specific DNWs: focus on canon het relationships (background canon het is fine).

I’d love to see fic about Hürrem alone as well!

This is not a DNW, because I realize how hard this would be to actually gauge, but I’d like it if the fic wasn’t itself glorifying slavery. Examples of fics I’d like: Mihrimah and Hürrem going about their lives in a fic which doesn’t focus on slavery at all, fics which push back on the narratives of the show wrt slavery, fic where the main character doesn’t see anything wrong with the situation but there are contextual clues . Examples of fic I wouldn’t like: fic with a focus on slavery where, for example, a slave being punished for not accepting their circumstances is seen positively (not just by an unreliable narrator but by the fic itself), fic where the pop history “well Ottoman slaves led better lives than they would in their home” stuff is accepted uncritically and is a narrative theme. (Again, I realize this is really vague and hard to define! But basically, as long as the narrative of the fic isn’t outright a ‘here’s why IRL slavery is Good and the Ottoman Empire is Amazing, actually’ manifesto, it should be fine.)

For the two of them together and general plot things,

For this fandom, I like the politics and the plotting and the harem intrigue, and the complicated relationships between the two women I’ve requested.
Whether you want to stick to show canon or also incorporate elements of IRL history is up to you.
Their relationship as Mihrimah grows older is fascinating to me, how Hürrem went from vaguely ahistorically being disappointed to have a daughter to relying on and trusting Mihrimah so much.
Mihrimah never marrying Rüstem (because Hürrem kept her promise), or getting divorce when she first wanted to—what would have changed, both in the personal relationship between the two women and politically?
How would things have changed if Hürrem had died earlier, or later? If Hürrem lived, would the tension between Selim and Bayezid still have reached a boiling point, and would Mihrimah have supported Bayezid so openly? If she had died earlier, would Mihrimah still have plotted against Mustafa?
Mihrimah and her other brothers and Hürrem—they all seem very close, and I’d love to see family moments together (but also the inevitable looming tragedy of someone having to take the throne, if you like angst).
What would change if Mehmed hadn’t been poisoned,
Mihrimah and Hürrem doing political things together, or Mihrimah defending her mother from her enemies.
Mihrimah’s and Hürrem’s relationship in the show changes after Mihrimah’s daughter is born, and I’d love to see more of that
Mihrimah grieving Hürrem after her death (what propelled Mihrimah’s eventual reconciliation with Selim? What political power does she have after her mother’s death, and is it still dependent on her mother(‘s legend)?).

For Hürrem alone,

What would change if Hürrem had gotten closer to the other high-ranking women in the harem, especially Mahidevran, Hafsa, and Hatice, instead of them becoming enemies? Mahidevran and Hürrem would still work against each other . But Hafsa seemed to almost reconcile with Hürrem when Süleyman almost died, and Hatice and Hürrem actually had a kind of sweet relationship before it went off the rails, and I’d love to see explorations of AU scenarios based on those jumping points.
A situation where Mustafa and Hürrem work together (or an AU scenario based on their conversation, where they are on the same side somehow, eg if Hürrem ended up fostering him). I’d be into Hürrem/Mustafa or Mihrimah/Mustafa, or Mehmed/Mustafa seen through Hürrem’s or Mihrimah’s POV. Generally, I’d be into all the half-sibling incest.
Hürrem taking a more active role in state affaris, in addition to dynastic politics.
I’d be very interested in F/F, especially Hürrem with Nigar, Hatice, or Mahidevran. I’d love either complicated love-hate relationships or AUs where they grow closer and team up for whatever reason (Mahidevran doesn’t have children and thus has no reason to resent Hürrem? Something changes in the chain of events that lead Nigar to work with Hatice? Hatice isn’t married to Ibrahim, or doesn’t love him, or Hürrem and Ibrahim don’t become enemies?).

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The Borgias (Showtime TV)

Cesare Borgia
Rodrigo Borgia

I’m fine with fic where only Cesare appears! For the two requested characters, I am fine with either gen or shipfic.

Fandom-specific DNW: focus on Cesare/Lucrezia (the ship in the background/as a subplot is more than fine, just not a focus on it).

Cesare and Rodrigo:

I love their intense, complicated relationship, and how it changes over the course of the show, how fucked up it is, and I would love to see it turn into actual incest.
Rodrigo wants to keep Cesare tied to the Church, wants to keep him as a cardinal—is it only so he’ll follow Rodrigo’s footsteps, or are there ulterior motives?
I would love something exploring the tension between them, how Rodrigo is always demanding of Cesare, wants his absolute loyalty, has no qualms about manipulating him and is generally oblivious of what Cesare wants or needs, but, by the end of the show, he’s fearful of and for him too.
And Cesare doing what he must to protect his father and family, and his longing and craving for his father’s approval and trust and affection even when he strikes out on his own and carves his own path.
What Cesare wants most in the world is his father’s unconditional love and trust—is Rodrigo ever able to truly give that to him?
Reconciliation between them over Juan’s murder—how absolute and unconditional is the forgiveness Rodrigo offers at the end of the show?
And does Rodrigo ever offer apologies for the many times he’s been a massive dick to Cesare, or is that something that’ll always lie between them? (Does Rodrigo even realize he’s fucked up in more ways than just ‘my ambition turned you into a monster’?)
In general I love how fucked up and complicated their relationship is, and would love to see the incest being just another part of that fucked-up mess.
Post-canon where Rodrigo doesn’t die so quickly as he does IRL, maybe?
Fucked-up religious-themed imagery would be amazing! (Especially the ‘he is made in your image’, which I find really interesting because at the start of the show it feels to me like Cesare is actually more like Vanozza.)

Cesare alone & general Borgia things/prompts:

The creation of the Borgia myth! (The show itself is a continuation of the myth, tbh, which I actually find really interesting, what we know of what actually happened vs. what we see in the show, if that’s something you want to explore.)
Politics and stabbing! The politics and Cesare’s stabby solutions to politics were some of my favourite things about the show.
I would love to see a glimpse of what happens post-show, Micheletto returning and Rodrigo’s or Cesare’s death (or his last meeting with Lucrezia or his imprisonment) or Lucrezia outliving all of them.
Cesare’s relationships with the people he’s close to are so super intense, and he himself is really intense, and I would love to see an more of that.
AU ideas:
- Cesare's muderplan for Juan gets interrupted and Juan lives
- Lucrezia becomes regent of Naples as Cesare plans (which would change things up quite a bit post-show)
- Alfonso isn't murdered/doesn't commit suicide-by-Cesare
- Rodrigo dies from the poisoning
- Charlotte and Cesare reunite somehow (I ship Charlotte/Cesare quote a lot)
- Cesare isn’t the older brother, Juan is
- Cesare doesn’t get to quit being a cardinal at the end of season 2, for whatever reason
- The show itself is one giant AU of history so if you want to take that and run with it I'd love to see it general, especially if you want to diverge (even more) from history post-canon
Super optional, but if you are into genderswapped Cesare (either with Rodrigo, including genderswapped Rodrgio, or alone), I am very up for it:
- Genderswapping Cesare would change the dynamics of all of Cesare’s relationships and plots so much and I’m very interested in seeing where that goes
- I would like F!Cesare to still be ambitious, to want to fight and protect her family
- Does that happen more from the shadows, with politics and plots? Or is f!Cesare still determined to go to war and take on the world outright?

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The Shoes of the Fisherman – Morris West

Jean Télémond
Kamanev
Kiril Lakota

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.

General stuff for this fandom:

I would, for this fandom, prefer nothing along the lines of ‘Catholicism is the one true religion;’ that comes from the fic, rather than the character (eg, fic where all the characters know God exists, rather than believe in God, wouldn’t be my jam, but characters who are fervent believers is totally fine).
I like the theological discussions (but I am not religious At All and not from a Catholic culture, so whatever you want to do with that aspect is fine, feel free to play around!).
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.
I'd also love a look at Vatican politics/world.
I love the manipulations and go-betweens and cloak-and-daggerness of the politics (but also that some of the characters are idealists, and the clash between that and politics).

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'.
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.

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 alone:

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?

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Yuletide 2021 Letter

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