Dear Yuletide Writer....

[killclaudio]

Hello lovely writer! Can I commend you on your excellent taste in tiny fandoms? I know I'm going to love whatever you write!

I'm a big believer in optional details being optional, and I have pretty catholic tastes, so feel free to ignore this entire letter and write whatever you feel like writing. Seriously, I will read almost anything. The prompts are there to help in case you have that sudden blank 'Oh my god I have never had a single idea in my entire life' feeling that sometimes comes with getting your exchange assignment.

I've mentioned ships I'm into at the start of each section, but I love gen just as much and most of the prompts should work for both. And there's no need to use every character I've requested; include or discard them at your whim.

DNWs
General Likes
Kink Likes

Casanova (UK)
The Count of Monte Cristo (2002)
False Colors – Alex Beecroft
Green Men Series – KJ Charles
The Mrs Bradley Mysteries
A Study in Emerald – Neil Gaiman

DNWs

Permanent death of requested characters – It's fine to kill off the characters temporarily so that, for example, Character A can make a deal with the devil to bring back Character B, or go down into the underworld to get them. It's also fine to kill them off at the start of the story and then have the whole fic set in the afterlife. It's fine to mention the deaths of unrequested characters.

What I'm basically DNWing here is a sobfest full of grief and mourning and separating people who love each other. You're welcome to hurt my faves as much as you like, but please fix them afterwards. Thank you!

Kidfic – It's fine if the characters have kids, I just prefer it not to be the focus of the story.

Sickfic – Injuries from fights and so on are fine. Old injuries or disabilities flaring up are fine. Plots where people are contracting a mysterious virus are fine. It's the stories where the character spends the whole time in bed with flu etc that I don't enjoy.

Royalty AUs
High School AUs
Coffee Shop AUs
Food used during sex

Graphic details of pregnancy – I'm happy to receive stories about pregnancy or mpreg, but I would prefer not to read a lot of medical stuff. I also find the idea of the baby kicking from the inside a bit squicky.

Okay, that's the boring bit out of the way, on to the good stuff!

General Likes

Fluff! Romance! Pining! Especially romance and pining. Feel free to get as ridiculously sappy as you want, I'll love every minute of it. I also love darkfic and twisty stories with both characters manipulating each other and nobody knows quite what's going on. I love loyalty. I love betrayal. I love characters learning and transforming themselves.

Extreme mutual loyalty and characters who pass the Broccoli Test are my bulletproof kinks; I love it when they seem able to read each other's minds.

Some of my favourite tropes:

• Undercover As A Couple


• Trapped in a Confined Space


• Huddling For Warmth


• Only One Bed


• Drunk Confessions


• Non-Consensual Drug Use


• Truth Serum


• Bachelor Auctions


• Friends With Benefits


• Telepathy


• Dreamsharing


• Jealousy


• Hurt/Comfort, especially injured in the line of duty


• Amnesia


• Casefic


• Cabinfic


• Identity Porn


• Magical Realism


• Time Travel

Other stuff I like:

• One character teaching another a skill, or improving their own skills. Those ridiculous montages where a character becomes an amazing fighter or whatever are always my fave.


• Any time two characters play chess or poker or scrabble or something. I must have fixated on that chess scene in Thomas Crown at a really young age because board games are just infinitely hot to me.


• I really love anything to do with planes. This request is usually aimed at Jack O'Neill or Harold Finch, and maybe doesn't apply to my small fandoms, but if you happen to want to make Casanova, Mrs Bradley or Randolph Glyde into a dashing pilot I am here for it.


• Characters dancing together, whether that's romantic or just a sign of close friendship and trust.


• I really want someone to write me this scene from the Oglaf comic (NSFW), OTP or OT3, I don't mind. Make sure you click the 'epilogue' button on the side to read the last two panels.

Kink Likes

I'm very open to porny fics if the muse takes you in that direction, but I'm afraid I'm not very good at prompting them. So I'll just say I would love anything that included any of:

Sex Pollen
Coming Untouched
Edging
Pegging
Bathing
Aphrodisiacs
Bondage
Exhibitionism and Voyeurism
Face-fucking
Public Sex
Overstimulation
Crossdressing
Wet Dreams
Suit Kink, or Clothing Kink generally
Under-negotiated Kink
Somnophilia

Specific Fandoms

Casanova (UK)

Characters I requested: Any.
Ships I'm interested in: Everyone/Everyone.

This is one of those shows where it was clear everyone was having such fun making it, and I had such fun watching it. I love a good romp.

All the characters would make an amazing poly group if you want to play it that way, but I also love each of their separate relationships and all of them as individuals. Given the high levels of sex in canon the prompts have all come out a bit porny, but gen is also very welcome!

• Casanova and Rocco travelling around France, while Casanova tries to heal his broken heart and finds comfort in Rocco's bed.


• Casanova and Henriette running away together – successfully this time.


• Bellino and Rocco helping to get Henriette away from Grimani, and then they all fall into bed together.


• What if Bellino and Henriette hide out in a nunnery together (#andthentheyhavesex)?


• What if after Bellino helps Casanova win Henriette, she takes Rocco as her servant and they travel around Europe together and fuck in every capital city?


• Spy shenanigans! What if during the Seven Years' War they were sent by Paris to spy on London, or vice versa? Or maybe the Venetians send them all out to find out what's going on. I love stealing secret letters from palace bedrooms and sneaking political allies across borders and all that jazz.

The Count of Monte Cristo (2002)

Characters I requested: Edmond Dantès, Mercédès Mondego, Fernand Mondego.
Ships I'm interested in: Edmond/Mercédès, Edmond/Fernand, Fernand/Mercédès. (Edited to add: I forgot to mention that I would also be fine with Edmond/Fernand/Mercédès. Ship them in any configuration you like!)

This movie is ridiculously over the top and that's why I love it. Admittedly there's not much left of the original story after it's been given the Hollywood treatment, but honestly I like the cheesy stuff about Albert being Edmond's son and love being more important than revenge. Although revenge is pretty cool too.

• What was it like between Edmond and Fernand before everything went wrong? What were they like as children together?


• What kind of scrapes did they get into as merchant seamen before Edmond ends up with Napoleon's letter?


• What was it like between Fernand and Mercédès in the early days of their marriage? Did they both try to make it work at the start? Did Mercédès try to get on with Fernand's wild friends? Did Fernand try to reign himself in?

I ship Edmond and Mercédès so hard and would love anything about them together.

• Stolen moments when they were young and Edmond had a few days of shore leave.


• The moment Edmond comes back and they dance together as seen through Mercédès' eyes.


• An AU where she refused to marry Fernand and struggled on as a single mother, maybe getting Albert adopted and then working as his nursemaid.


• Post-canon, how do they learn to love each other again when they've both changed so much?

I also love the parts where Edmond is in the Bastille. I have a weakness for transformation stories where a character comes out of a situation practically unrecognisable to their former self.

• What's it like spending all those hours alone in a cell learning to fight? How different is it the first time he's in a real fight?


• Does the Abbé teach him astronomy? Can he see any stars from his cell or does he have to memorize them in the hopes he'll see them again one day? Do they play chess?

False Colors – Alex Beecroft

Characters I requested: Any.
Ships I'm interested in: John Cavendish/Alfie Donwell.

This is one of my all-time favourite books. I love Age of Sail, and I love epic romance, and I love Beecroft's lush prose.

The continuation of John and Alfie's adventures in any way would make me so happy. Maybe they're sent to chart the rest of the North American coastline. Maybe they're sent to fight the Spanish some more – the Seven Years' War was still going around this time, the British East India Company took Manila, the Royal Navy made a bid for Cuba… Maybe they're marooned on a desert island? Do they try to build a boat and get back to civilization? Or do they enjoy being able to love each other without hiding it?

Slice of (shipboard) life would also be amazing – I know very little about Georgian ships, so you can totally make it up and I won't know any different. Are they on different watches? How do they spend time together? Do they play/sing together again, maybe get the rest of the crew involved? Are they given shore leave somewhere exotic and spend it exploring? Or do they spend three straight days in bed?

I would be fascinated to see Alfie try to repair his relationship with his parents, with John tagging along for moral support. Or John taking Alfie to meet his own parents, with all the ensuing chaos. Or maybe they go back to London and bump into Mrs Deane at the opera? She was my favourite minor character and I feel certain she and Alfie would get on like a house on fire.

Green Men Series – KJ Charles

Characters I requested: Any.
Ships I'm interested in: Randolph Glyde/Saul Lazenby, Hugh Barnaby/Max Isaacs.

This book is far and away my favourite of all KJ Charles' work, and that's saying something. I love stories where two people who have been hurt are both just what the other needs to heal. I love the way that Saul and Randolph are able to help each other get their confidence and self-belief back. I adore the way Barney and Max work in concert like a well-oiled machine music-hall double act.

I'm thinking magical casefic, because obviously. Saul and Randolph running around the country solving cases and banishing underworld horrors and dragging each other into empty churches for long kissing sessions would be wonderful. Saul learning more about just what being the Walker entails and Randolph teaching him. Are there things Saul could learn but they involve suffering? Is Randolph hiding them from him because he doesn't want him hurt any more?

Alternate Universe where Saul and Randolph meet during WWI? Maybe Saul's punishment for his idiocy is to be sent to the Front as cannon-fodder, and then Randolph finds him and protects him. Or a non-magical AU where Randolph is a wealthy socialite funding one of Saul's archaeological digs?

I know there are already stories about Barney and Max's backstory but I would read an infinite number of these, squeeing the whole time. What was their war like before the experiments? What was it like when they were the only two left? How did the early days working with Randolph go?

Magical casefic for Barney and Max would also be amazing. I think it's inevitable that the third book will be about them, so feel free to just assume that's already happened and write established relationship. Or getting-together if you'd like that. How does the class difference work? Does it lead to misunderstandings? There's an implication in the book that they have trouble controlling themselves sometimes – are there dark days? Do the demons get inside their heads? Do they think of themselves as monsters now?

How does Saul fit into the whole magical shebang they have going? I feel like he and Sam would get on – they're both terribly British and stoic and practical – but Max and Saul seemed to be forming a tentative friendship at the end of Spectred Isle.

The Mrs Bradley Mysteries

Characters I requested: Adela Bradley, George Moody.
Ships I'm interested in: Adela Bradley/George Moody.

This show aired when I was a teenager and for years I wanted to be Mrs Bradley when I grew up. She's still the ultimate example of intelligence, wit and style and I love her with all my heart. I also love that the show was open about bisexuality and poly and crossdressing and is clearly on the side of the weirdos in the circus troupe and not the stuffy villagers. I love that canonically they go out drinking together; this is clearly more than a mistress-servant relationship.

I have this desperate need for Mrs Bradley to show take George travelling and show him the world. He's clearly smart and curious and full of pluck, and I imagine that's what made her hire him in the first place. Does she take him to Paris? Singapore? New York? He'd enjoy sampling the drinks and get excited about all the new cars, at least. Jazz! Flappers! Petting parties!

Casefic would make me extremely happy. It can be classic country house mystery stuff, or a darker issue like stalkers and serial killers. Or it can be light and silly, the Mystery of The Stolen Fruitcake or Who Keeps Sending George Love Notes or something like that.

How did George and Mrs Bradley meet? I can't remember if this is hinted at in canon. I kind of like the idea of him rescuing her somehow, although it's a lot more probable that she rescued him. I would very much enjoy reading about how the initial interview went, with Mrs Bradley thinking, 'He's pretty, maybe I should hire him," and George going, 'Oh no, she'll be the death of me and I'm going to like it.'

A Study in Emerald – Neil Gaiman

Characters I requested: Any.
Ships I'm interested in: Holmes/Watson, Moriarty/Moran.

This is a short story that basically adds a bunch of Lovecraftian horror to the Sherlock Holmes stories. If you're not familiar with it you can read it here: A Study in Emerald.

I love stories where the villains are the protagonists, and I'm fascinated by Moriarty and Moran. What's their dynamic like? Do they trust each other or are things darkly fucked up between them? How do they both feel about working for the Crown? Do they think of themselves as the defenders of law and order, or do they both know they're on the evil side and don't care? Do they continue to pursue Holmes and Watson? Do they travel around the Empire in the service of Queen Victoria? There's also so much potential for dirtybadwrong sex of every description, yum.

Holmes and Watson going around defending the innocent and killing the monsters would be amazing. Are they picking off the royal family one at a time? How are they planning to overthrow them? I feel that Holmes would be terrifyingly good at fomenting revolution. Feel free to go all hurt/comfort, with Watson being injured by creeping things from the depths and Holmes taking him home and tenderly caring for him.

The story also has a lot of fun adverts and stuff – Dr Henry Jekyll's medicinal powders! Vlad Tepes' professional exsanguination! – and I love the idea that this is a universe that contains every Victorian gothic horror ever. Do Holmes and Watson try to stop Jekyll? Do Moriarty and Moran team up with Tepes? Is there a Council of Evil that meets in the mountains of Switzerland to divide up the world between them?