Dear Yuletide Writer

[glowsinthedarkofspace]

(Yes, I created a Dreamwidth account just to post this letter!)


Dear Yuletide Writer,

Thank you so much for writing a fic for me! I’m so excited to see what you come up with and I’m sure I will love it. All of what follows is optional, here to spark ideas and guide you if needed. I hope it helps, but feel free to follow your heart!

Some tropes I always like/preferences for fic:
• Fish out of water stories
• Time travel/time loops
• Alien or fantasy culture shock/culture clash
• Outsider POVs
• Found-document or in-world document fics
• Platonic intimacy
• Secret identities/identity porn (not in the actual porn sense)
• Competence porn (not in the actual porn sense)
• Worldbuilding, especially when it’s really in-depth and researched
• Canon divergence AUs/“For want of a nail”
• Intense but unexpected friendships or relationships
• Staying mostly true to the tone/vibe of the source material
• For these fandoms, I’m most interested in platonic fics!

DNW:
• Explicit rape, incest, or suicide
• References to covid
• Christmas themes
• Modern AUs


Requests:

The Masquerade Series - Seth Dickinson
Baru Cormorant, Haradel Heia | Heingyl Ri, Svirakir | Apparitor

Any subset of these characters is ok!

(Spoilers through Tyrant Baru Cormorant ahead—most of my prompts are based on that book!)

Some ideas/prompts that would delight me:
• Anything focusing on the marriage plot between Baru and Heingyl Ri (and the Necessary King) that was set up in Tyrant. I loved the tension and flirting of Baru’s masquerade ball conversation with Heia, and the manipulation of cultural elements that would make it work. A fic with the actual wedding or its aftermath would be delightful. I low-key ship Baru (lesbian) and Heia (not lesbian but curious) and their arranged-marriage relationship—this could be an exception to my preference for platonic fic, or it could be a really interesting platonic marriage.
• Baru figuring out how to exist in the world as someone with friends, a la her amazing surprise birthday party at the end of Tyrant
• Baru and Svir’s coming to any sort of understanding despite relationship being at odds (my end hope is that they can eventually become friends and/or true allies, but they’re definitely not there yet).
• Any exploration of Svir, Svir’s past, or the politics/worldbuilding of the Mansions. I loved the scene near the end of Tyrant where he had to fend off the attack in the mountains.
• Baru’s houseboat—I am curious, how does she feel about making a place for herself in Falcrest? I feel like there are all sorts of potentially interesting missing scenes from the time she arrives in Falcrest to the end of the book.
• My favorite characters are Baru, Tau-indi, Svir, Xate Yawa (but no need to limit to these)

In general, I’d prefer that any fic for this fandom try to maintain the same level of depth and thoughtfulness as the source material, balancing any lighthearted elements with the reality and complexity of this world (but without being hopeless).

The Modern Faerie Tales – Holly Black

Kaye Fierch, Rath Roiben Rye

 

Any subset of these characters is ok!

 

I grew up with these books and have always wanted a little more of these characters. I’ve read Holly Black’s later books set in the same world, which had a few cameos, but it wasn’t enough! And while I like the characters from later books, I’d prefer they not be the focus here. But feel free to include other characters from the original books, I love them all.

 

Some ideas/prompts that would delight me:

·      Anything dealing with trying to make human things/ideas work in faerie or faerie things/ideas work in the human world

·      Faerie/human interactions—humans finding faeries and getting mixed up in the wrong thing, and vice versa?

·      The daily reality of faerie politics--maybe Kaye or Roiben has to solve a thorny political problem

·      Worldbuilding; what do the Faerie courts look like in other parts of the country/world? Do they ever visit?

·      Humorous elements mixed in with the creepy or serious; Kaye being goth

·      What happens if Faerie becomes common knowledge to humans?

 

If you have read Holly Black's short story in this world “The Land of Heart's Desire” (in the collection The Poison Eaters if you want to find it!), I especially loved that intermingling of the human and faerie worlds (aka “what happens when humans who want to find faeries show up at your under-the-radar faerie-run coffee shop”). I’ve been dreaming of a fic a little like this.

The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells

Murderbot (Murderbot Diaries)

Any subset of these characters is ok! Plus other characters, I just didn't want to limit it. 

 

I really don’t think you can go wrong with any Murderbot fic you write for me. I would prefer no romantic shipping of Murderbot with anyone but even that’s not a dealbreaker.

 

Some ideas/prompts that would delight me:

·      Amena takes SecUnit to the Preservation version of prom/school play/ice skating/any other slightly mundane activity—it could go amazingly wrong or it could go terribly right!

·      A plotty situation that calls for SecUnit going undercover as augmented human security again

·      Preservation internal politics

·      SecUnit learning how to be a person who lives in a society; SecUnit possibly freaking humans out a little bit

·      SecUnit using the equivalent of the Internet

·      My favorite supporting characters are probably Mensah, Gurathin, Pin-Lee, Amena (of course I love many others as well, no need to limit it)

 

 

Some of what I most love about the Murderbot Diaries is the mix of humor and depressing worldbuilding, SecUnit’s voice, the secret identity aspect of being a SecUnit in the first place, and the “this might as well be happening” and “oops, I got attached to these people” vibes.