Dear Yuletider Letter
INDEX NOTE:
Requests:
Leo Tolstoy -- War and Peace (Theodore Dolokhov)
Leo Tolstoy -- War and Peace (Anatole Kuragin)
Brideshead Revisited (Charles Ryder/Sebastian Fyte)
Alexander Pushkin -- Eugene Onegin (Eugene Onegin/Vladimir Lensky)
Dear Yuletide Writer,
Firstly, I would like to say thank you for the time and effort that you are willing to put in to make me a wonderful winter-holiday gift :)
So then, I assume you’ve come looking for details and I’m happy to provide :)
GENERAL
SLASH = LOVE. I thrive on boy!love so I give an enthusiastic YES to slashyness. On the other hand, genfic is wonderful and cute/sweet boy!friendship is always wonderful.
Conversely, I don’t hate het, I do have some fave het paring (if you’re into het and we matched on War and Peace, that’s the jackpot right there.) I don’t think any of my requests lean this way naturally but just as a precaution: I’m fairly lukewarm toward femslash.
On ratings and such - I’m not squeamish, I really am not. The only thing is PWP. I don’t write or read them, generally, so graphic sex is in no way necessary or preferred. I also know that some people suffer from the fear that anything shippy below a PG-13 rating would be too lame/tame. No need to worry, I’m not looking for either a high or low rating; it’s not a matter of principle here :) As for other dark themes, again, if it’s needed for the story for there to be a rape, abuse, violence, what have you I’m very open-minded of these things. It’s not so much a matter of principle but rather how the story works with/around the dark theme/event.
Hurt/Comfort - Love this genre and it will just about always gain you bonus points (mostly with slash) :D
On humor/crackfic/parody/etc: Humor is good; we all need some positive-ness sometimes. On the other hand, I don’t tend to be a huge fan of the crazy-humor/crackfic*/parody genres.
*I don’t consider unusual parings (ig Dolokhov/Ippolite, Dolokhov/Natasha, umm…Snape/Karkaroff) as necessarily crackfic.
Flat character - I tend to believe that no person(character) has ONLY a good side or ONLY a bad side. I think characters are human, and attempts to show sympathetic/empathetic human motives for even misguided/immoral actions is always very appreciated.
OOCness - I tend yo like characters to stay true to canon personality wise, given, of course, that characterization is a fairly personal thing and AUs usually require at least some OOCness as do unusual ships, etc.
BDSM -- Simply put, I'm really not into BDSM and extreme kink.
Character bashing -- please don't bash any of my requested characters....I mean, I don't see why you'd offer to write a character you hate but, yea, just in case...
IF YOU MATCHED WITH ME ON WAR AND PEACE
The reason the only thing in my “optional details” for these requests was a link here is because I really have a lot of things to say here, not in a restricting manner but most likely in the opposite of such.
Theodore Dolokhov
I really would love just about anything with him. Character stuff is great here, I think he’s a much more complicated character than it might seem at first. I’ve always been convinced that there was a lot of “soft spots” behind his hard exterior.
Family/Childhood fics are great. His father is obviously out of the picture. Did he die? Theodore is obviously close to his mother and sister; I’d love to see some family dynamics there.
Slash: Dolokhov/Anatole - OTP!
Dolokhov/Nicholas - Summer of Love? Nicholas did stay that summer after the duel in Moscow when the rest o the Rostovs went to the country.
Dolokhov/Pierre - Pierre adores him? Does Theodore envy him for his sudden wealth? Is it love or self-interest? I’ve always thought they’d be somewhat messed up, lol.
Dolokhov/Petya - This could be so cute. The whole scene at the partisan camp and the “expedition” to the French camp that Theodore and Petya take just screams slash. If you need a refresher here’s a link to Book 14 (online text) where the scenes are (starts on chap 13 I think): http://www.magister.msk.ru/library/tolstoy/wp/wp14eng.htm
Dolokhov/Andrei Bolkonski - Oh boy. If you have a way to make this one work, I’d be interested to see what you come up with. Admittedly, I do typically see this as a dark!paring with Bolkonski being an abusive/manipulative boyfriend, generally set pre-book…
If you’ve got some other guy that you’re dying to pair Dolokhov with - go for it (Though, admittedly, I don’t particularly see him with Boris or Hippolite.)
Het: Dolokhov/Sonya - I’ve always thought those two deserved a happy ending together. Though, they make a cute couple either way you turn it.
Dolokhov/Helene - I think they work great on the whole spectrum, from fluff to angst, from passionate affair, to tender mutual love long before Helene’s marriage, to something complicated, selfish, and possibly unrequited.
Dolokhov/Natasha - if you’ve got a plausible way to make this work, go for it! (Bonus points for a triangle with Anatole)
Genfic: Dolokhov-Anatole friendship is love :)
Anatole Kuragin
I really do love this one. I’ve never seen him as some big bad villain douchebag or whatever… Rather, I think he’s more of someone who has clung on to his childhood, not wanting to grow up, not wanting responsibility. Which isn’t admirable per say, but the point it that I never thought of his intentions as evil, just that his reactions, decisions, etc are often hasty and immature. But otherwise, he seems to be quite sweet and harmless. A sort of 19th century Sebastian Flyte (w/o the drinking problem and obsessive catholic mother)
Genfic: Kuragin family dynamics are fun to explore, I think. Anatole’s the baby of this family, which could effect him in several ways. Vasili seems to be quite the manipulative father… I’ve always thought Helene and Anatole were really close so a brother-sister fic with them would be awesome! If you’re more into brothers dynamics then Hippolit-Anatole brothers fic would be interesting.
Slash: Anatole/Dolokhov - OTP!
Anatole/Pierre - I’ve always kind of thought of them as boyhood friends (lovers) whose friendship (relationship) falls apart when they got older. Whatever spin you wanna put on it though is just as interesting. A love triangle with either Dolokhov or Andrei Bolkonski is intriguing as well ;) (Though I would prefer an Anatole/Pierre/Andrei triangle told from Anatole’s POV)
Het: Anatole/Natasha - Missing scene from their romance? A successful elopement AU?
Anatole/Mlle Bourienne - I think her first name is Amalia. Maybe a romance that sparks later on between them, once Anatole has already left the Bolkonski household?
Incest: I’m really, generally, not into incest but Anatole/Helene are almost canon so if this is a paring that catches your attention…
If we matched on BRIDESHEAD REVISITED
Sebastian/Charles is the cutest couple EVER. This fandom is perfect for hurt/comfort and I would really love to see a hurt/comfort scenario like Charles taking care of a sick or overly drunk Sebastian. Otherwise, I would really really love to see these two end up happy and together…at least together. A sort of AU ending. Bonus points if the world drowns in sweetness and fluff ;) I understand that religion is a large theme and in a way the point of this fandom but I tend to see religion as sort of the enemy in this context so…I would appreciate it if the “operation of divine grace” or whatnot was not highly glorified and such in the fic.
If we matched on EUGENE ONEGIN
I don’t have much to add to what I’ve already said in the “details.” I would love slash but friendship is great too. Hurt/confort, as stated above, will earn bonus points, especially in an AU where Lensky survives. An exploration of Onegin’s feelings for Vladimir (either romantic love or protective platonic affection) would be wonderful. I would greatly appreciate if the Larin sisters were included to a minimum.
Plot Bunny note: If you want to do a cross-over between W&P and Onegin and pair Dolokhov with Onegin, please! Be my guest!
Hugs and happy writing!
~Alley