Dear Yulegoat 2023
Oct. 20th, 2023 11:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meretriculaHappy Yuletide and thank you in advance for writing for me! I really hope you'll have fun. This post has some prompts and general info about my preferences, but Optional Details Are Optional so if there's a story of your heart that you've been waiting to write about the characters I've requested, don't worry about sticking too close to my prompts: write the story you're into! So long as you respect my DNWs I'm sure I'll love it if you loved writing it. I'm meretricula on the AO3 (and Tumblr), if you need to find me! Treats are very welcome, if you should be so inspired.
Yes, Please!
-Happiness. I want everybody to be happy or at least not overtly miserable at the end of the fic. They can suffer and be angsty in the beginning or middle but please please please let the ending be sunshine and rainbows or the promise of sunshine and rainbows on the not-too-distant horizon. I'm also happy to get a fic that's 100% fluffy sunshine and rainbows all the way through.
-Characters having lots of feelings about each other. I'm a big fan of tropes where characters have a lot of history between them -- friends to lovers, childhood sweethearts, best frenemies, sibling relationships, etc. I'm not a big fan of porn for porn's sake but if you want to write about people expressing their feelings via sex, that's great! If you don't want to write shipfic, something focusing on friendship or family bonds is great too.
-Gen, het, slash, femslash and poly (including poly relationships where A is romantically involved with both B and C but B and C are not romantically interested in each other) are all good with me.
-tropes and cliches (if you want to write "snowed in at the hotel and there's ONLY ONE BED", sedoretu, unexpected baby acquisition, genderswap, somebody inexplicably has wings, etc., but are worried that it wasn't specifically prompted, please know that I love that kind of stuff and follow where your muse leads you -- only exceptions are I'm not too keen on soulmarks, A/B/O, or other "fated mates" universes when they're done straight)
-subverted/inverted tropes and cliches (including soulmarks and A/B/O if they strike your fancy)
-lots of dialogue; limited third person POV; epistolary/mixed media/documentation fic
-canon settings (feel free to throw in some worldbuilding!)
-canon divergences (i.e. fork in the road AUs)
-alternate universes (the wackier the better; personal faves include Regency settings, Star Trek or similar space settings, magic, and "bring your fandom to work" AUs; it is TOTALLY OKAY to give me an AU even if I didn't ask for one specifically)
-food; competence; found families
No, Thanks!
-unhappy endings
-unrequited love
-major character death (as in, this character is gone and not coming back; death followed by resurrection or altered form of existence is fine so long as the character is still around)
-humiliation; intense angst; graphic violence and gore
-noncon and dubcon; kink involving bathroom functions or vore
-first and second person POV, UNLESS (as with Shadows and Spinning Silver) the canon is written in first person POV, in which case matching canon is fine
-fics that center around dealing with discrimination or identity issues (it's fine if these things are addressed in the course of the narrative but I don't want it to be the point of the story)
-AUs that change the nature of characters' backstory together (e.g. if two people have known each other since childhood I'd rather not have an AU where they meet for the first time as adults, and if they've been best friends their whole lives I'd rather not read an AU where they're enemies instead) -- I do not mean no complete change-of-setting AUs, I love AUs, just try to translate the essential nature of the canon relationship to whatever setting you pick
-writing my requested characters in relationships with other, unrequested characters (if you don't vibe with my ships, please just write friendship fic!)
-I seriously doubt that this will be an issue for these fandoms, but just as a note, I spent many years of my life studying Latin, so please don't throw random Google-translated Latin into the fic or use it for a title.
This year I have requested...
Shadows - Maggie, Takahiro
I really enjoy both the world-building and character development in Shadows, but I always get to the end and go, wait, THAT'S IT? We just got to the good part! (Both in terms of the revolution and Maggie and Taks' relationship.) I'd love to know what happens next, or maybe something in Taks' POV, or both!
If you'd like to write from Takahiro's perspective I would love to know what he's thinking at any point before, during, or after the events of the book. Did he develop romantic feelings for Maggie as suddenly as she realized she liked him like that, or was it more of a slow build for him? Is he less clueless about the political environment than Maggie? Gonna be honest here, if you wanna go full-on paranormal shifter romance about Taks being a werewolf and having Feelings About His Mate or whatever I would eat it up with a spoon. If you'd rather do outsider-POV, what does Val think about these teenagers going all gooey-eyed in the middle of the revolution? I really like Maggie and Takahiro as a couple (friends to lovers and childhood sweethearts are some of my favorite tropes) so I'd be happy with straight-up shipfic, or something else with them being cute in the background if that's more your speed, although I would prefer that things stay PG-13 or under in this fandom. (Make-outs are fine; teenage stressing about how to stage the perfect first time while trying to overthrow the government is fine; parental destruction of perfect first time planning with well-meaning "chats" about prophylaxis is fine; please don't actually describe Takahiro and Maggie's first time in explicit detail.) As a side note, I absolutely adored the level of detail that McKinley put into the animal characters of the book, and if you wanted to include Majid and his inexplicable fondness for Takahiro (and/or Maggie's relationship with Mongo or any of the other Family members) that would be amazing!
Spinning Silver - Wanda Viktus, Miryem Mandelstam
Spinning Silver is one of my favorite books of all time, but I have to be honest: I do feel it would be better if it was less heterosexual. The intensity of Wanda's devotion to Miryem (she pulls the full Janet from Tam Lin and holds her fast to win her back from the fairies! like DANG!) slays me every time, but I don't think we ever get to the point in canon where Miryem understands or reciprocates that level of feeling. I would love to read a story where she does!
I'm fine with an AU where Miryem never goes back to the Staryk lord, some kind of time-sharing system where Miryem is his wife in the summer but Wanda's wife in the winter, or if you just want to handwave his whole existence, but I would prefer not to read a story where Miryem is cheating on him in order to be with Wanda. I would also be very happy with a story in a completely different setting, whether it's modern, historical-but-no-magic, or space! I'm not very knowledgeable about Judaism, but if you are, absolutely feel free (obviously) to bring that into your story. I've always wondered if Wanda and Stepon would eventually choose to convert after being adopted by the Mandelstams. And please feel free to include Wanda's brothers and the Mandelstams, if you're so inclined!
The Cabots - Tommy Cabot, Everett Sloan
This book has it all! Tragic misunderstandings! The grumpy one is soft for the sunshine one! Learning how to love yourself through home renovation! I love everything about it, but it's so short and I really feel like we barely scratched the kidfic and domesticity possibilities. I'd love to spend more time with Tommy and Everett getting to be happy together.
I will be delighted with any and all Tommy-and-Everett shenanigans, but a few prompts if you'd like them: Tommy sweating his way through the first volume of The Art of French Cooking when it comes out in 1961! Everett helping fix up Tommy's house! Daniel giving Everett a shovel talk! I think that Tommy deserves to put up Halloween decorations and hand out candy to adorable trick-or-treaters and turn out the porch light when it gets late and snuggle with Everett. Or for Everett to be a vampire tenderly feeding on Tommy's sweet blood or for Tommy to be a refugee on the run from the Wild Hunt after stealing himself and his beloved child from the clutches of the Fairy Queen, idk, I'm not picky. Final note, I love Pat and Harry and would be thrilled to see them, too!
Thank you again for writing for me! I'm so excited to read whatever you come up with!
Yes, Please!
-Happiness. I want everybody to be happy or at least not overtly miserable at the end of the fic. They can suffer and be angsty in the beginning or middle but please please please let the ending be sunshine and rainbows or the promise of sunshine and rainbows on the not-too-distant horizon. I'm also happy to get a fic that's 100% fluffy sunshine and rainbows all the way through.
-Characters having lots of feelings about each other. I'm a big fan of tropes where characters have a lot of history between them -- friends to lovers, childhood sweethearts, best frenemies, sibling relationships, etc. I'm not a big fan of porn for porn's sake but if you want to write about people expressing their feelings via sex, that's great! If you don't want to write shipfic, something focusing on friendship or family bonds is great too.
-Gen, het, slash, femslash and poly (including poly relationships where A is romantically involved with both B and C but B and C are not romantically interested in each other) are all good with me.
-tropes and cliches (if you want to write "snowed in at the hotel and there's ONLY ONE BED", sedoretu, unexpected baby acquisition, genderswap, somebody inexplicably has wings, etc., but are worried that it wasn't specifically prompted, please know that I love that kind of stuff and follow where your muse leads you -- only exceptions are I'm not too keen on soulmarks, A/B/O, or other "fated mates" universes when they're done straight)
-subverted/inverted tropes and cliches (including soulmarks and A/B/O if they strike your fancy)
-lots of dialogue; limited third person POV; epistolary/mixed media/documentation fic
-canon settings (feel free to throw in some worldbuilding!)
-canon divergences (i.e. fork in the road AUs)
-alternate universes (the wackier the better; personal faves include Regency settings, Star Trek or similar space settings, magic, and "bring your fandom to work" AUs; it is TOTALLY OKAY to give me an AU even if I didn't ask for one specifically)
-food; competence; found families
No, Thanks!
-unhappy endings
-unrequited love
-major character death (as in, this character is gone and not coming back; death followed by resurrection or altered form of existence is fine so long as the character is still around)
-humiliation; intense angst; graphic violence and gore
-noncon and dubcon; kink involving bathroom functions or vore
-first and second person POV, UNLESS (as with Shadows and Spinning Silver) the canon is written in first person POV, in which case matching canon is fine
-fics that center around dealing with discrimination or identity issues (it's fine if these things are addressed in the course of the narrative but I don't want it to be the point of the story)
-AUs that change the nature of characters' backstory together (e.g. if two people have known each other since childhood I'd rather not have an AU where they meet for the first time as adults, and if they've been best friends their whole lives I'd rather not read an AU where they're enemies instead) -- I do not mean no complete change-of-setting AUs, I love AUs, just try to translate the essential nature of the canon relationship to whatever setting you pick
-writing my requested characters in relationships with other, unrequested characters (if you don't vibe with my ships, please just write friendship fic!)
-I seriously doubt that this will be an issue for these fandoms, but just as a note, I spent many years of my life studying Latin, so please don't throw random Google-translated Latin into the fic or use it for a title.
This year I have requested...
Shadows - Maggie, Takahiro
I really enjoy both the world-building and character development in Shadows, but I always get to the end and go, wait, THAT'S IT? We just got to the good part! (Both in terms of the revolution and Maggie and Taks' relationship.) I'd love to know what happens next, or maybe something in Taks' POV, or both!
If you'd like to write from Takahiro's perspective I would love to know what he's thinking at any point before, during, or after the events of the book. Did he develop romantic feelings for Maggie as suddenly as she realized she liked him like that, or was it more of a slow build for him? Is he less clueless about the political environment than Maggie? Gonna be honest here, if you wanna go full-on paranormal shifter romance about Taks being a werewolf and having Feelings About His Mate or whatever I would eat it up with a spoon. If you'd rather do outsider-POV, what does Val think about these teenagers going all gooey-eyed in the middle of the revolution? I really like Maggie and Takahiro as a couple (friends to lovers and childhood sweethearts are some of my favorite tropes) so I'd be happy with straight-up shipfic, or something else with them being cute in the background if that's more your speed, although I would prefer that things stay PG-13 or under in this fandom. (Make-outs are fine; teenage stressing about how to stage the perfect first time while trying to overthrow the government is fine; parental destruction of perfect first time planning with well-meaning "chats" about prophylaxis is fine; please don't actually describe Takahiro and Maggie's first time in explicit detail.) As a side note, I absolutely adored the level of detail that McKinley put into the animal characters of the book, and if you wanted to include Majid and his inexplicable fondness for Takahiro (and/or Maggie's relationship with Mongo or any of the other Family members) that would be amazing!
Spinning Silver - Wanda Viktus, Miryem Mandelstam
Spinning Silver is one of my favorite books of all time, but I have to be honest: I do feel it would be better if it was less heterosexual. The intensity of Wanda's devotion to Miryem (she pulls the full Janet from Tam Lin and holds her fast to win her back from the fairies! like DANG!) slays me every time, but I don't think we ever get to the point in canon where Miryem understands or reciprocates that level of feeling. I would love to read a story where she does!
I'm fine with an AU where Miryem never goes back to the Staryk lord, some kind of time-sharing system where Miryem is his wife in the summer but Wanda's wife in the winter, or if you just want to handwave his whole existence, but I would prefer not to read a story where Miryem is cheating on him in order to be with Wanda. I would also be very happy with a story in a completely different setting, whether it's modern, historical-but-no-magic, or space! I'm not very knowledgeable about Judaism, but if you are, absolutely feel free (obviously) to bring that into your story. I've always wondered if Wanda and Stepon would eventually choose to convert after being adopted by the Mandelstams. And please feel free to include Wanda's brothers and the Mandelstams, if you're so inclined!
The Cabots - Tommy Cabot, Everett Sloan
This book has it all! Tragic misunderstandings! The grumpy one is soft for the sunshine one! Learning how to love yourself through home renovation! I love everything about it, but it's so short and I really feel like we barely scratched the kidfic and domesticity possibilities. I'd love to spend more time with Tommy and Everett getting to be happy together.
I will be delighted with any and all Tommy-and-Everett shenanigans, but a few prompts if you'd like them: Tommy sweating his way through the first volume of The Art of French Cooking when it comes out in 1961! Everett helping fix up Tommy's house! Daniel giving Everett a shovel talk! I think that Tommy deserves to put up Halloween decorations and hand out candy to adorable trick-or-treaters and turn out the porch light when it gets late and snuggle with Everett. Or for Everett to be a vampire tenderly feeding on Tommy's sweet blood or for Tommy to be a refugee on the run from the Wild Hunt after stealing himself and his beloved child from the clutches of the Fairy Queen, idk, I'm not picky. Final note, I love Pat and Harry and would be thrilled to see them, too!
Thank you again for writing for me! I'm so excited to read whatever you come up with!
