Dear Yuletide Writer
I’m sorry I didn’t leave any optional details, but this is my first Yuletide and it’s taken me a while to figure out how to do this and what my optional details are! I know you will be writing something that I love, so don’t worry. But if you’re reading this I hope adding the details will help.
What I see all of my requests having in common is the meeting and conflicts between two completely alien cultures. I picked all three because I love the worlds inhabited, and any exploration of those worlds will make me very happy!
There can be nothing quite so strange as alternative 1920s Ancelstierre contrasted with the magical Old Kingdom, and I picked Sameth and Nicholas because they both have a stake in each world, Old Kingdom and Ancelstierre, and Sameth feels in some way an alien in the Old Kingdom as well.
There are lots of ideas I’ve love to see explored: What exactly can Sameth do, as the - apparently - only heir to the Wall Builders? What is Nicholas going to do on his return to the Old Kingdom? (I hope you have read "Across the Wall" and the story "Nicholas Sayre and the Creature in the Case".) How do Nicholas and Liriel get on together? Do they? Sameth and Nicholas are more peripheral to the happenings in the books, but both are crucial to the functioning of the worlds; what is their ultimate role?
I’m not interested in slash, but in the similarities and differences of two characters who started out on the wrong foot and need to find themselves and their balance.
Antryg and Joanna also cross between worlds, and I would love to see either set in our world or Antryg's.
For Antryg and Joanna, I'd be happy with anything about their life together, during or after the books. That life isn't going to be easy, no matter what! His world isn’t safe for them, and I’d love to see that explored. Anything deeper about how Joanna sees Antryg’s world, or how he sees hers (and ours) from his perspective I’d be happy with.
Last of the Mohicans interests me for what might Hawkeye and Alice do after the end of the movie. They don't belong in the "civilized" colonies any more, yet the world of the Native Americans will begin to pass bloodily away in their lifetimes, and that idyllic moment where backwoods settlers and Indians can be allies is destined not to be. Despite her upbringing, Alice seems to fit more naturally in the frontier world than she did in the genteel one, and that ruthlessness in her could lead to interesting places.
So, if you can explore any of these themes in any of my requests: fish out of water, culture clash, uncertain futures, or the like, please do! As you can see, I'm very much a "what happens after the end?" kind of reader/writer.
As far as story style, I like character driven adventure, or just character driven revelation. I’m not particular about slash or gen (though I don’t think my requests are really feasible as slash) or explicit or not, as long as the characters behave like adult human beings. I don’t demand happy endings, but gratuitous grim for it’s own sake isn’t appealing. Life’s not fair, but people do the best they can, and the working out of that can be very satisfying. Also, show-not-tell, hurt/comfort, wordless communication, competency, and equal and complementary partnership. No power imbalances!
But all the above aside, it will make me very happy with your story just to be able to visit again and explore those fictional worlds I love.