yuletide 2016!
Dearest Yule Fairy,
So I’m going to copy wholesale from my past Yuletide letters here, and start by saying that if you're as excited about any of these fandoms as I am, I'll love what you write me no matter what. That said, I'm a fan of giving more information in the hopes that it will give you greater freedom in your writing, and because I know I'm going to want to know as much about the person I'm writing for as possible and figure I should give what I hope to get. :D So here are some paragraphs of perhaps tl;dr-level specificity, and please feel free to ignore all of it if there's a story in any of these fandoms that you really, really want to write. I trust you.
I like slash or het or gen as long as the ship is relevant to the story and the world it's set in. Characterization is my weak spot; show me the nuances of a character I love, a secret side of them I've never seen before, and I'm sold. I love worldbuilding, expanding on the setting and the world as it’s described in canon. If you write sex, awesome; it’s definitely not a requirement by any means, but I certainly don't mind it. And to borrow a clarification phrase straight from someone else's letter, When I say "explicit" I mean "I have a good idea who's doing what to whom," and not so much paragraph-long descriptions of penises. I'm all about the emotions; as you'll see if you explore my pinboard, any fic that packs an emotional punch is guaranteed to win me over.
As far as genre goes, it's kind of up to you. I love action and mystery, I like ship-centered fic as much as fic where the ship is a sidebar to the plot, I like happy or serious or funny or sad. I would definitely prefer a hopeful ending to whatever you write, if an actual happy ending isn't appropriate or fitting; however if your story is leading you toward a waterfall of angst that'll end with an emotional sucker punch, go for it! Wow me with UST, show me just how evil the bad guy really is, scare the crap out of me if you want. Some of my all-time favorite fics are pieces that I would never have guessed I'd enjoy, so please surprise me!
stuff i love in fic / kinks :
slash, femmeslash, interesting het, worldbuilding / strong sense of the world, strong friendships/partnerships, snarky partnerships with lots of ust, angst with a happy ending, angst with sex and a we-don't-ever-talk-about-it ending, hurt/comfort, stories where they've been sleeping together and not talking about their feelings but they secretly love each other (♥), snarky banter, collective / ensemble badassery, women being awesome, friendships between awesome women, friendships with ust between awesome women, fight scenes, people bandaging each other up after a battle, surprising each other with badassery, forbidden attraction, old friends and inside jokes, past history, magic, illusion spells, misunderstandings / misdirection through magic, travel, spy/undercover deception, crossovers, cross-genre AUs, pastiche AUs, college or bookstore or coffee shop AUs, basically any AUs, long plotty stories where the ship is a slow build (though definitely not expecting a long fic, just saying I do enjoy them), plot twists, long-suffering irritation (especially as a mask for growing fondness or attraction), stories where person a can't have person b so they start something up with person c to distract themselves (and either make person a jealous or actually end up falling for person c), physical altercations that highlight attraction, origin stories, flashbacks, first times, emotional first times, power play / bdsm fun, wit and snark and people being smart, flirting, drawn-out seduction, happy endings.
squicks : mpreg, hardcore fetishes and heavy bdsm, daddy kink, humiliation, rape/noncon, extreme gore (though, I watch Hannibal, so I guess artful gore is OK? lol...).
and now onto the specific requests!
fandom : the expanse series (bobbie, avasarala, naomi, clarissa)
details : I love this series and am ready for whatever you want to write. Backstory, futurefic, AU, whatever. Crossovers with other space fandoms (see my letter for other fandoms I follow) would be rad. I love "getting the gang back together" kinds of stories, so if you want to bring the Roci's crew back with any of their former partners, or bring together people who've never met each other (Bobbie and Elvi spring to mind) I'd be really into that too. Basically I just love this world, I love the characters, and anything more in this universe will make me happy.
There's so much to explore in this world that I don't want to say too much in fear of restricting you. The worldbuilding is really what has me hooked on these books, especially the clash of issues-- there are mundane human problems like racial tension and corrupt governments and family drama, and there are sci-fi/space horror problems like the protomolecule and the various lethal aliens on the new worlds they discover, and there's this overarching humans-are-tiny-specks-in-the-universe plot of the entire world changing faster than the characters can blink-- and the way these things interact is just so well done and so fascinating.
I picked these 4 women to focus on because I want so badly to know more about them, where they've been and where they might go. I would love to see more of Bobbie and Avasarala kicking ass and taking names, more of Bobbie being a superhero, more of Bobbie and Alex flirting, just, more of Bobbie. Clarissa, same; I'm absolutely riveted by her new partnership with Amos and where on post-cataclysmic Earth they'll end up. If you write about Naomi, my only request is that you not break up her and Holden. A crossover AU with any of my other fandoms (my list here) would be so cool-- either porting a character from another fandom into the world of the Expanse, or running into a ship/planet/race from another fandom through one of the space gates...
If you haven't read the series, it's currently five books, and they're not short, BUT they are fast reads that are so super worth it, and as long as you read the first two you'll have met all the characters I requested. I've zipped them all here.
fandom : the checquy files (felicity, odette)
details: The sequel to The Rook didn't disappoint, except that it left Felicity and Odette's relationship sadly hetero-platonic. Dear Yule Fairy, these ladies are MFEO, and I want to read all about it. Make it any genre you want-- action/adventure, where they realize their attraction and feelings while beating up monsters? Office politics, where they become each other's first line of defense against centuries of ingrained prejudice while the two organizations merge? Awkward romcom, where they go on a series of dates that are hilariously bad while they continue to work like a seamless machine in other areas of their lives? All of the above??? The sky's the limit-- just give me my girls being badasses near and for each other, and finally realizing their hopeless attraction.
This is a rare fandom where I am much less interested in AUs than in an exploration of canon. I am SO HERE for every interaction these two have, and I'm dying to see how their relationship develops. My prompt basically says it all, but I will add that there's so much great humor in these books (do they start a Days Without Incident clock for Odette making it thru a day w/o ruining a suit?) I would love to see this get as tropey as you like with the ludicrous scenarios-- AMTDI, stuck together, amnesia, pretending to be married, all the classic fanfic tropes are prime candidates for mishaps these two could fall into.
If you haven't read them, I just cannot endorse these books enough. You can read Stiletto as a standalone, though I highly recommend reading The Rook as well; the ebook for Stiletto is here.
fandom : a year and a day in old theradane (any)
details: Like everything Scott Lynch writes, this story sucked me in immediately. I want to know everything-- what happened before, what's going to happen next, what happened in the span of the story that we didn't see? Flesh out one of the crimes that made Amarelle and her crew infamous-- show me a missing scene during the story-- what happens now that they're unretired? Also, I'm dying to read the love story of Sophara and Brandwin, as I'm sure it's suitably full of sexy snark and one-upmanship and taunting. But anything that strikes your fancy, I'm going to love.
All I need to add to the above is that since reading the story I've been obsessed with Amarelle and her crew, and the wild hope that at some point in the series they will meet up with Locke and his crew. So if your brain, like mine, immediately turned to the inevitable clash of the titans-- the Thorn of Camorr versus the Duchess Unseen!-- and the potential for Jean Tannen and Amarelle to soothe their heartaches in each other's arms (with a similar amount of sexy snark and one-upmanship and taunting that I imagine characterized Sophara and Brandwin's courtship) then you are speaking my language. But I love these women so much I will read literally anything about them.
This is the easiest of my fandoms to pick up by far-- it's one short story, available here, and a riot of a good time start to finish.
fandom : captive prince (damen, laurent)
details: Literally my only gripe with these books is how abrupt the ending is. I want 3 more books about Damen and Laurent's road to ruling and everything they have to go through before they can relax-- because I can't imagine everything is smooth sailing after Kastor and the Regent's deaths, or even once they're crowned and trying to negotiate peace between two countries who violently hate each other. There are so many questions about what the future holds, and I'd love a story that answers some of them. But I'd be just as happy with fluff as plot-- they deserve it, dammit-- or any combination of the two.
I listed only Damen and Laurent because if I'm going to get a shippy story, they're who I want, BUT you should feel free to bring in Jokaste, Nicaise, Nikandros, Paschal, etc because aside from Kastor and the regent I'm basically here for more of everyone, even poor stupid Aimeric. I love the intricacy of the books, the plot threads and the politics, Damen's status as an unreliable narrator, the way we never see inside Laurent's head, and how 300% done Nikandros is with everyone. I find the totality of Laurent's self-control, and the degree to which he can't release it even when he wants to, fascinating. I'm really interested in the intersection between the people D&L are as kings/in public, and the people they are in private/with each other. Like I said in my prompt, not everything is immediately going to turn into sunshine and roses, and they have a lot of unlearning to do before the rockiness goes out of their relationship, and a lot of work to do before it's okay for them to stop looking three steps ahead where the political stuff is concerned.
However my love of AUs continues fiercely here; please feel free to pastiche this with any of my other fandoms or any type of AU you can imagine. I'd love to see Nik and Nicaise and Jokaste get fleshed out a bit more, in canon 'verse or an AU. I love AUs where Auguste isn't dead, and I especially love AUs where Nicaise isn't dead (;__;). I live for any world in which Damen can court Laurent "in the fashion he deserves". Auguste and Damen as dumb bros in any 'verse is A+++++. Also this canon does contain things that are borderline squicks for me, basically anything graphic about the regent's abuse of Laurent, Aimeric, Nicaise, etc.-- Laurent/whoever can talk about it if the story calls for it, but no flashbacks or anything like that, please and thanks. :)
If you haven't read these books… omg, read them. They're zipped here, and I read each of them in a day because I literally could not put them down.
fandom: the wicked + the divine (lucifer, cassandra/urdr)
details: I just reread volume 1 of WicDiv and was struck powerfully hard by how fraught Luci and Cassandra's relationship is, and how much I wish there were more of it on the page. Dark, twisty, intense-- this ship is pure subtext, but boy is it loaded. How long does their association go back; maybe to before Luci became a god? What else happens during The Faust Act that we don't see? I'd love a sneak peek into their relationship, all the intensity and possibility, and what it does to Cassandra when Luci dies. Also, how does that relationship bleed into their godhood? What do a past or future Lucifer and Urdr have to say to each other? As long as they're both always women, I'd be into seeing them in multiple incarnations. Basically I want something that explores all the darkness and beauty and pain that each of them holds in herself, and what is created when those aspects come together.
What it says on the tin; no further details needed. If you haven't read this comic, it's stunning. You can find them at your local comic shop, or possibly your local library; there are currently 3 (almost 4) trade volumes out, but Lucifer only appears in the first one, The Faust Act.
For the record, I also love, love, love AUs and crossovers, so if you want to tie any of these into any of my other fandoms (which you can find a list of here) that would rule. Put them in space, put them in a noir, put them in college, put them in a jaeger, I'll read it all.
Despite the verbosity of this, I will (again!) paraphrase my past yuletide letters and say that if we got matched on any of these fandoms, and you love any of them as much as I do, whatever you write will make my yuletide. I'm already so excited to read whatever you come up with. XD
<3 emily
So I’m going to copy wholesale from my past Yuletide letters here, and start by saying that if you're as excited about any of these fandoms as I am, I'll love what you write me no matter what. That said, I'm a fan of giving more information in the hopes that it will give you greater freedom in your writing, and because I know I'm going to want to know as much about the person I'm writing for as possible and figure I should give what I hope to get. :D So here are some paragraphs of perhaps tl;dr-level specificity, and please feel free to ignore all of it if there's a story in any of these fandoms that you really, really want to write. I trust you.
I like slash or het or gen as long as the ship is relevant to the story and the world it's set in. Characterization is my weak spot; show me the nuances of a character I love, a secret side of them I've never seen before, and I'm sold. I love worldbuilding, expanding on the setting and the world as it’s described in canon. If you write sex, awesome; it’s definitely not a requirement by any means, but I certainly don't mind it. And to borrow a clarification phrase straight from someone else's letter, When I say "explicit" I mean "I have a good idea who's doing what to whom," and not so much paragraph-long descriptions of penises. I'm all about the emotions; as you'll see if you explore my pinboard, any fic that packs an emotional punch is guaranteed to win me over.
As far as genre goes, it's kind of up to you. I love action and mystery, I like ship-centered fic as much as fic where the ship is a sidebar to the plot, I like happy or serious or funny or sad. I would definitely prefer a hopeful ending to whatever you write, if an actual happy ending isn't appropriate or fitting; however if your story is leading you toward a waterfall of angst that'll end with an emotional sucker punch, go for it! Wow me with UST, show me just how evil the bad guy really is, scare the crap out of me if you want. Some of my all-time favorite fics are pieces that I would never have guessed I'd enjoy, so please surprise me!
stuff i love in fic / kinks :
slash, femmeslash, interesting het, worldbuilding / strong sense of the world, strong friendships/partnerships, snarky partnerships with lots of ust, angst with a happy ending, angst with sex and a we-don't-ever-talk-about-it ending, hurt/comfort, stories where they've been sleeping together and not talking about their feelings but they secretly love each other (♥), snarky banter, collective / ensemble badassery, women being awesome, friendships between awesome women, friendships with ust between awesome women, fight scenes, people bandaging each other up after a battle, surprising each other with badassery, forbidden attraction, old friends and inside jokes, past history, magic, illusion spells, misunderstandings / misdirection through magic, travel, spy/undercover deception, crossovers, cross-genre AUs, pastiche AUs, college or bookstore or coffee shop AUs, basically any AUs, long plotty stories where the ship is a slow build (though definitely not expecting a long fic, just saying I do enjoy them), plot twists, long-suffering irritation (especially as a mask for growing fondness or attraction), stories where person a can't have person b so they start something up with person c to distract themselves (and either make person a jealous or actually end up falling for person c), physical altercations that highlight attraction, origin stories, flashbacks, first times, emotional first times, power play / bdsm fun, wit and snark and people being smart, flirting, drawn-out seduction, happy endings.
squicks : mpreg, hardcore fetishes and heavy bdsm, daddy kink, humiliation, rape/noncon, extreme gore (though, I watch Hannibal, so I guess artful gore is OK? lol...).
and now onto the specific requests!
fandom : the expanse series (bobbie, avasarala, naomi, clarissa)
details : I love this series and am ready for whatever you want to write. Backstory, futurefic, AU, whatever. Crossovers with other space fandoms (see my letter for other fandoms I follow) would be rad. I love "getting the gang back together" kinds of stories, so if you want to bring the Roci's crew back with any of their former partners, or bring together people who've never met each other (Bobbie and Elvi spring to mind) I'd be really into that too. Basically I just love this world, I love the characters, and anything more in this universe will make me happy.
There's so much to explore in this world that I don't want to say too much in fear of restricting you. The worldbuilding is really what has me hooked on these books, especially the clash of issues-- there are mundane human problems like racial tension and corrupt governments and family drama, and there are sci-fi/space horror problems like the protomolecule and the various lethal aliens on the new worlds they discover, and there's this overarching humans-are-tiny-specks-in-the-universe plot of the entire world changing faster than the characters can blink-- and the way these things interact is just so well done and so fascinating.
I picked these 4 women to focus on because I want so badly to know more about them, where they've been and where they might go. I would love to see more of Bobbie and Avasarala kicking ass and taking names, more of Bobbie being a superhero, more of Bobbie and Alex flirting, just, more of Bobbie. Clarissa, same; I'm absolutely riveted by her new partnership with Amos and where on post-cataclysmic Earth they'll end up. If you write about Naomi, my only request is that you not break up her and Holden. A crossover AU with any of my other fandoms (my list here) would be so cool-- either porting a character from another fandom into the world of the Expanse, or running into a ship/planet/race from another fandom through one of the space gates...
If you haven't read the series, it's currently five books, and they're not short, BUT they are fast reads that are so super worth it, and as long as you read the first two you'll have met all the characters I requested. I've zipped them all here.
fandom : the checquy files (felicity, odette)
details: The sequel to The Rook didn't disappoint, except that it left Felicity and Odette's relationship sadly hetero-platonic. Dear Yule Fairy, these ladies are MFEO, and I want to read all about it. Make it any genre you want-- action/adventure, where they realize their attraction and feelings while beating up monsters? Office politics, where they become each other's first line of defense against centuries of ingrained prejudice while the two organizations merge? Awkward romcom, where they go on a series of dates that are hilariously bad while they continue to work like a seamless machine in other areas of their lives? All of the above??? The sky's the limit-- just give me my girls being badasses near and for each other, and finally realizing their hopeless attraction.
This is a rare fandom where I am much less interested in AUs than in an exploration of canon. I am SO HERE for every interaction these two have, and I'm dying to see how their relationship develops. My prompt basically says it all, but I will add that there's so much great humor in these books (do they start a Days Without Incident clock for Odette making it thru a day w/o ruining a suit?) I would love to see this get as tropey as you like with the ludicrous scenarios-- AMTDI, stuck together, amnesia, pretending to be married, all the classic fanfic tropes are prime candidates for mishaps these two could fall into.
If you haven't read them, I just cannot endorse these books enough. You can read Stiletto as a standalone, though I highly recommend reading The Rook as well; the ebook for Stiletto is here.
fandom : a year and a day in old theradane (any)
details: Like everything Scott Lynch writes, this story sucked me in immediately. I want to know everything-- what happened before, what's going to happen next, what happened in the span of the story that we didn't see? Flesh out one of the crimes that made Amarelle and her crew infamous-- show me a missing scene during the story-- what happens now that they're unretired? Also, I'm dying to read the love story of Sophara and Brandwin, as I'm sure it's suitably full of sexy snark and one-upmanship and taunting. But anything that strikes your fancy, I'm going to love.
All I need to add to the above is that since reading the story I've been obsessed with Amarelle and her crew, and the wild hope that at some point in the series they will meet up with Locke and his crew. So if your brain, like mine, immediately turned to the inevitable clash of the titans-- the Thorn of Camorr versus the Duchess Unseen!-- and the potential for Jean Tannen and Amarelle to soothe their heartaches in each other's arms (with a similar amount of sexy snark and one-upmanship and taunting that I imagine characterized Sophara and Brandwin's courtship) then you are speaking my language. But I love these women so much I will read literally anything about them.
This is the easiest of my fandoms to pick up by far-- it's one short story, available here, and a riot of a good time start to finish.
fandom : captive prince (damen, laurent)
details: Literally my only gripe with these books is how abrupt the ending is. I want 3 more books about Damen and Laurent's road to ruling and everything they have to go through before they can relax-- because I can't imagine everything is smooth sailing after Kastor and the Regent's deaths, or even once they're crowned and trying to negotiate peace between two countries who violently hate each other. There are so many questions about what the future holds, and I'd love a story that answers some of them. But I'd be just as happy with fluff as plot-- they deserve it, dammit-- or any combination of the two.
I listed only Damen and Laurent because if I'm going to get a shippy story, they're who I want, BUT you should feel free to bring in Jokaste, Nicaise, Nikandros, Paschal, etc because aside from Kastor and the regent I'm basically here for more of everyone, even poor stupid Aimeric. I love the intricacy of the books, the plot threads and the politics, Damen's status as an unreliable narrator, the way we never see inside Laurent's head, and how 300% done Nikandros is with everyone. I find the totality of Laurent's self-control, and the degree to which he can't release it even when he wants to, fascinating. I'm really interested in the intersection between the people D&L are as kings/in public, and the people they are in private/with each other. Like I said in my prompt, not everything is immediately going to turn into sunshine and roses, and they have a lot of unlearning to do before the rockiness goes out of their relationship, and a lot of work to do before it's okay for them to stop looking three steps ahead where the political stuff is concerned.
However my love of AUs continues fiercely here; please feel free to pastiche this with any of my other fandoms or any type of AU you can imagine. I'd love to see Nik and Nicaise and Jokaste get fleshed out a bit more, in canon 'verse or an AU. I love AUs where Auguste isn't dead, and I especially love AUs where Nicaise isn't dead (;__;). I live for any world in which Damen can court Laurent "in the fashion he deserves". Auguste and Damen as dumb bros in any 'verse is A+++++. Also this canon does contain things that are borderline squicks for me, basically anything graphic about the regent's abuse of Laurent, Aimeric, Nicaise, etc.-- Laurent/whoever can talk about it if the story calls for it, but no flashbacks or anything like that, please and thanks. :)
If you haven't read these books… omg, read them. They're zipped here, and I read each of them in a day because I literally could not put them down.
fandom: the wicked + the divine (lucifer, cassandra/urdr)
details: I just reread volume 1 of WicDiv and was struck powerfully hard by how fraught Luci and Cassandra's relationship is, and how much I wish there were more of it on the page. Dark, twisty, intense-- this ship is pure subtext, but boy is it loaded. How long does their association go back; maybe to before Luci became a god? What else happens during The Faust Act that we don't see? I'd love a sneak peek into their relationship, all the intensity and possibility, and what it does to Cassandra when Luci dies. Also, how does that relationship bleed into their godhood? What do a past or future Lucifer and Urdr have to say to each other? As long as they're both always women, I'd be into seeing them in multiple incarnations. Basically I want something that explores all the darkness and beauty and pain that each of them holds in herself, and what is created when those aspects come together.
What it says on the tin; no further details needed. If you haven't read this comic, it's stunning. You can find them at your local comic shop, or possibly your local library; there are currently 3 (almost 4) trade volumes out, but Lucifer only appears in the first one, The Faust Act.
For the record, I also love, love, love AUs and crossovers, so if you want to tie any of these into any of my other fandoms (which you can find a list of here) that would rule. Put them in space, put them in a noir, put them in college, put them in a jaeger, I'll read it all.
Despite the verbosity of this, I will (again!) paraphrase my past yuletide letters and say that if we got matched on any of these fandoms, and you love any of them as much as I do, whatever you write will make my yuletide. I'm already so excited to read whatever you come up with. XD
<3 emily