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Dear Yuletide Writer
Oct. 20th, 2015 09:34 pmThank you so much for writing me a story! I'm super easy to please, I promise. Just having heard of/wanting to write one of my fandoms wins you a million points, so I'm sure I'll like whatever you write. All optional details really are optional - if none of my ideas are working for you or you already have a story you are dying to write, I'm sure I'll like that too! But here are some ideas to get you going, anyway. :)
Things I like: slash, femslash, OT3s, gen, complicated, intense, and fucked up relationships (romantic and otherwise), non-conventional romance, plotty adventures and casefic, character studies, team-as-family, dub-con, consensual hate-sex, aaaaaall the hurt/comfort. I am always okay with porn, plotty or otherwise.
Things I don't like so much (any exceptions noted below): non-con, extremely graphic violence or gore, character bashing (especially female characters), BDSM, humiliation, non-canonical deaths/deathfic
More fandom specific thoughts:
The Grass King's Concubine - Kari Sperring - any character
I read this book as part of the FFA book club, and instantly fell in love with both worlds - the unsettling weirdness of the WorldBelow, the intricate court politics mixed up with messy personal politics, the budding industrial and social revolution in Aude and Jehan's city - and more or less all the characters. I'd love something about any of the nominated characters, by themselves or in any combination. Something about Sujien and/or Liyan set in the court before it fell apart would be great - I found myself really wanted to see more of the Cadre's dynamic, how they interacted and bounced off each other, and something that got more into Sujien's (kind of messed up) headspace would be great. Or something after the book about Liyan, getting into trouble and causing explosions and exploring all of the exciting innovations that the new world has for him. Or Aude and Jehan going back to the city and being rabble-rousers with the labor movement. Or world-building fic about the court and how it worked/works would be great too. I'm not overly invested in any ships for this book, but I would not say no to Aude/Jehan/Liyan, or to Sujien/someone unrequited and ill-considered. Bonus points for ferrets.
Bedlam's Bard - Mercedes Lackey - Eric Banyon, Beth Kentraine, Korendil
Eric, Beth, and Kory were my OT3 before I even understood what that meant, and I think they will always be the OT3 of my heart, as silly and trope-y and oh-so-90s as these books are. I love everything about their relationship, how cute and affectionate they are in San Francisco, how Eric and Kory are there for Beth when her fearlessness fails her, how Beth and Eric help Kory find more of a purpose, how Eric finally has people who love him but also make him grow the fuck up. I'd love something set right after book one and the bus station, when they've just gotten their feelings out in the open and are still trying to figure out what that means and how they fit together as a three-way relationship, especially if it involves Eric being insecure/unsure of his place, or struggling to deal with wanting Kory. Or domestic-y OT3 shenanigans in San Francisco would be pretty great too. Or just threesome porn, that is also fine. I found the no-homo retcon of their relationship in the later books very frustrating, so I'd prefer fic that takes place before those (although an AU where they don't break up and Beth and Kory go to New York with Eric would be pretty fun. So if you want to try that, have at it!). Bonus points for hot-tubbing and Eric and Beth playing with Kory's ears.
Doctrine of Labyrinths - Sarah Monette - Felix Harrowgate, Malkar Gennadion
So, these books are basically the pure distillation of my id, and Felix and Malkar's relationship is kind of the pinnacle of that. I hesitate to say that I ship it, as such (okay, no, I totally do, sorry), but I do find it absolutely fascinating - completely and utterly toxic and abusive, but fascinating - how much of an influence Malkar has on Felix, the way he acts and thinks about magic and other people and himself, the ugliest parts of his personality he can't stop himself from showing, even down to little gestures and ways of speaking he copied from him. I'd really love any fic that explores more of their relationship. I'm going cheat and link to the conversation that I had right after I read Melusine: this is something I would love to see - more of the little cult of personality Felix built around himself at the court, and how Malkar disrupts that, tormenting him in innocuous, horrible ways that Felix can't explain to anyone else. Or something set further in the backstory - more of Felix's daily life with Malkar in Arabel and how he trained him and broke him, or about how Felix decided/managed to (somewhat) break the Oblige d'Sange, or Felix's introduction to the Mirador under Malkar's patronage. Given that their relationship involves canonical child sexual abuse and rape, I'm fine with non-con for this canon, but I'm more interested in the psychological abuse than very graphic physical abuse. However, bonus points for creepy non-con touching, especially face-touching.
Escort Mission - Cracked.com - L33t (Escort Mission), N00b (Escort Mission)
I really was not expecting to fall for this series as hard as I did - I'm not more than a casual gamer - but the slightly-antagonist-friends dynamic between Leet and Noob kind of hooked me, Michael Swaim is somehow always funny even when he shouldn't be, and then they started getting all slashy and cuddling and yeah, now I ship it. I'd love get-together fic for the two of them - something where they've mostly accidentally ended up basically dating without realizing it, or courtship via video games, or courtship via video game tactics which goes somehow horribly, horribly wrong (but then right). Gen is also fine with me, as long as they are still roommates/friends - anything in the tone of the series would be great. Or throw them in the middle of a zombie outbreak! I'm not familiar with a ton of video games, but I still like reading about games I don't know, so feel free to throw in some video game commentary/jokes if you'd like. The weirder the better - visual novels, dating sims, obscure indie games, whatever you like/seems likely to be funniest in context. Bonus points for couch-cuddling.
Swordspoint Series - Ellen Kushner - Katherine Talbert
I just - KATHERINE IS GREAT I LOVE HER. I was prepared not to love her - I read The Fall of the Kings before I read this, and she is not the nicest person in that book. And then I got to this one and, she's still a Tremontaine through and through, so difficult, and a bit of a terrible person. But she's so dashing and romantic and loyal to her friends and unwilling to put up with fuckery, I really do love her a lot. I found the ending to the book a little frustrating, since between the ending and the epilogue it skips over all the most interesting stuff I wanted to see. I'd love a fic set right after Alec and Richard left about her taking over the duchy, building up her powerbase in the city, winning over the loyalty of Alec's staff, swordfighting sexist jerks, etc. And making out with girls, that would also be good. Or a story where she and the actress playing the swordsman in the play have sex while roleplaying as boys? More about the duality of her identity as a swordfighter in general would be pretty interesting. Bonus points for ridiculous romantic literature.
Things I like: slash, femslash, OT3s, gen, complicated, intense, and fucked up relationships (romantic and otherwise), non-conventional romance, plotty adventures and casefic, character studies, team-as-family, dub-con, consensual hate-sex, aaaaaall the hurt/comfort. I am always okay with porn, plotty or otherwise.
Things I don't like so much (any exceptions noted below): non-con, extremely graphic violence or gore, character bashing (especially female characters), BDSM, humiliation, non-canonical deaths/deathfic
More fandom specific thoughts:
The Grass King's Concubine - Kari Sperring - any character
I read this book as part of the FFA book club, and instantly fell in love with both worlds - the unsettling weirdness of the WorldBelow, the intricate court politics mixed up with messy personal politics, the budding industrial and social revolution in Aude and Jehan's city - and more or less all the characters. I'd love something about any of the nominated characters, by themselves or in any combination. Something about Sujien and/or Liyan set in the court before it fell apart would be great - I found myself really wanted to see more of the Cadre's dynamic, how they interacted and bounced off each other, and something that got more into Sujien's (kind of messed up) headspace would be great. Or something after the book about Liyan, getting into trouble and causing explosions and exploring all of the exciting innovations that the new world has for him. Or Aude and Jehan going back to the city and being rabble-rousers with the labor movement. Or world-building fic about the court and how it worked/works would be great too. I'm not overly invested in any ships for this book, but I would not say no to Aude/Jehan/Liyan, or to Sujien/someone unrequited and ill-considered. Bonus points for ferrets.
Bedlam's Bard - Mercedes Lackey - Eric Banyon, Beth Kentraine, Korendil
Eric, Beth, and Kory were my OT3 before I even understood what that meant, and I think they will always be the OT3 of my heart, as silly and trope-y and oh-so-90s as these books are. I love everything about their relationship, how cute and affectionate they are in San Francisco, how Eric and Kory are there for Beth when her fearlessness fails her, how Beth and Eric help Kory find more of a purpose, how Eric finally has people who love him but also make him grow the fuck up. I'd love something set right after book one and the bus station, when they've just gotten their feelings out in the open and are still trying to figure out what that means and how they fit together as a three-way relationship, especially if it involves Eric being insecure/unsure of his place, or struggling to deal with wanting Kory. Or domestic-y OT3 shenanigans in San Francisco would be pretty great too. Or just threesome porn, that is also fine. I found the no-homo retcon of their relationship in the later books very frustrating, so I'd prefer fic that takes place before those (although an AU where they don't break up and Beth and Kory go to New York with Eric would be pretty fun. So if you want to try that, have at it!). Bonus points for hot-tubbing and Eric and Beth playing with Kory's ears.
Doctrine of Labyrinths - Sarah Monette - Felix Harrowgate, Malkar Gennadion
So, these books are basically the pure distillation of my id, and Felix and Malkar's relationship is kind of the pinnacle of that. I hesitate to say that I ship it, as such (okay, no, I totally do, sorry), but I do find it absolutely fascinating - completely and utterly toxic and abusive, but fascinating - how much of an influence Malkar has on Felix, the way he acts and thinks about magic and other people and himself, the ugliest parts of his personality he can't stop himself from showing, even down to little gestures and ways of speaking he copied from him. I'd really love any fic that explores more of their relationship. I'm going cheat and link to the conversation that I had right after I read Melusine: this is something I would love to see - more of the little cult of personality Felix built around himself at the court, and how Malkar disrupts that, tormenting him in innocuous, horrible ways that Felix can't explain to anyone else. Or something set further in the backstory - more of Felix's daily life with Malkar in Arabel and how he trained him and broke him, or about how Felix decided/managed to (somewhat) break the Oblige d'Sange, or Felix's introduction to the Mirador under Malkar's patronage. Given that their relationship involves canonical child sexual abuse and rape, I'm fine with non-con for this canon, but I'm more interested in the psychological abuse than very graphic physical abuse. However, bonus points for creepy non-con touching, especially face-touching.
Escort Mission - Cracked.com - L33t (Escort Mission), N00b (Escort Mission)
I really was not expecting to fall for this series as hard as I did - I'm not more than a casual gamer - but the slightly-antagonist-friends dynamic between Leet and Noob kind of hooked me, Michael Swaim is somehow always funny even when he shouldn't be, and then they started getting all slashy and cuddling and yeah, now I ship it. I'd love get-together fic for the two of them - something where they've mostly accidentally ended up basically dating without realizing it, or courtship via video games, or courtship via video game tactics which goes somehow horribly, horribly wrong (but then right). Gen is also fine with me, as long as they are still roommates/friends - anything in the tone of the series would be great. Or throw them in the middle of a zombie outbreak! I'm not familiar with a ton of video games, but I still like reading about games I don't know, so feel free to throw in some video game commentary/jokes if you'd like. The weirder the better - visual novels, dating sims, obscure indie games, whatever you like/seems likely to be funniest in context. Bonus points for couch-cuddling.
Swordspoint Series - Ellen Kushner - Katherine Talbert
I just - KATHERINE IS GREAT I LOVE HER. I was prepared not to love her - I read The Fall of the Kings before I read this, and she is not the nicest person in that book. And then I got to this one and, she's still a Tremontaine through and through, so difficult, and a bit of a terrible person. But she's so dashing and romantic and loyal to her friends and unwilling to put up with fuckery, I really do love her a lot. I found the ending to the book a little frustrating, since between the ending and the epilogue it skips over all the most interesting stuff I wanted to see. I'd love a fic set right after Alec and Richard left about her taking over the duchy, building up her powerbase in the city, winning over the loyalty of Alec's staff, swordfighting sexist jerks, etc. And making out with girls, that would also be good. Or a story where she and the actress playing the swordsman in the play have sex while roleplaying as boys? More about the duality of her identity as a swordfighter in general would be pretty interesting. Bonus points for ridiculous romantic literature.