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ten-ten31 · 2 years ago

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Dear Yuletide Writer 2022

Dear Yuletide Writer,

Thank you so much for agreeing to write for me! :) I can't tell you just how excited I am. This is my second Yuletide, and I’ll try to give you as much inspiration and fangirling as a point to jump off of as I can, so I hope you’ll find some useful bits and pieces here. I am very much looking forward to reading whatever you come up with. Don’t stress about writing for me - as long as you have fun with it, I’m sure I’ll like my gift. :)

Please feel free to browse my ao3 (KitKaos) and/or tumblr to get an idea of what I stan, like, read or write. I hope I can give you some broad ideas and inspirations in this letter to help you plan. The prompts below are nothing more than ideas, though - feel free to ignore them or to fall back on my general likes if you have a better idea. :)

Gifts are enabled in AO3, so treats are welcome! :)

Oh, and should you, esteemed Yuletide Writer, want to write in German instead of English, then I'm definitely okay with that. I'm fluent in both, so whichever you feel more comfortable with.

If there's something missing or if you have a question, you can reach out to me via the mods.

_______&_______

General likes (in no particular order):

friends-to-lovers or even enemies-to-lovers (with all the drama of grudginly admitting that the other party maybe isn't all that terrible and all)

found families

fake dating

pining

crossdressing

undercover missions

drunken shenanigans

reconciliation between estranged characters

second chance romance

characters torn between two sides (e.g. two different loyalties, or love versus duty)

gestures of affection and intimacy (such as forehead kisses, cuddling in bed, holding hands, massages)

casual intimacies

hurt/comfort (especially with an emphasis on the comfort)

seduction (especially seduction/corruption of someone who's less experienced and/or initially reluctant)

games: truth or dare, playing drinking games/strip games for fun, seduction games

Can't Stop Thinking About That Thing I Saw Completely By Accident (a.k.a. various flavours of accidental voyeurism)

competence porn

masquerades

tattoos

body details (freckles, moles, tan lines, goosebumps, acne, scars, burns, wrinkles, etc.)

redemption arcs

consent play/negotiation

firting/teasing/banter

temporary de-aging

Identity porn

unreliable narrators

snark/banter/wordplay

mysteries/investigative work

travel/exploration

any kind of scene you can sneak in there about cooking or eating food (also characters being picky about certain foods and other characters going to some lengths to accommodate that)

descriptions of food and especially impressions of taste (if you want to make it kinky: food play)

I also have a bit of a hand fetish - so descriptions of hands are always welcome

epistolary fic (letters, journal entries, passive-aggressive post-it notes are great and amazing and I love them; long conversations in tweet or chat fic form exhaust me a little)

bisexuality

I am happy to read about trans/genderfluid/genderqueer character interpretations, if that's what you want to write (though I would prefer them to be tagged rather than a surprise)

steampunk aesthetics

casefic

humour

worldbuilding

character development

fish-out-of-water situations

pop culture references

breaking the Fourth Wall

coffeeshop AUs

spy AUs

musical episode (AUs)

dystopian AUs

any kind of alternate history AU

crossovers of my fandoms

_______&_______

Do Not Want:

rape/dubcon/noncon

watersports

scat

humiliation

A/B/O

soulmates AU

vampire/werewolf AU

second-person pov

character bashing of any kind

racism/sexism/ableism/misogyny as the main focus

any form of bigotry, unless fighting against it is a plot point

PWP

excessive descriptions of blood/gore

Mpreg

_______&_______

Opted-in mini challenges

Crueltide (for Pieces - L’Arc~en~Ciel (Music Video))

Wrapping Paper (for all of my requested fandoms)

Chromatic Yuletide (for B:WFA, Dial H for Hero, and Sweetest Kulu)

...

_______&_______

FANDOMS

In alphabetical order - I do love all of them equally!

Batman: Wayne Family Adventures (Webcomic)

- Tim Drake, Duke Thomas, Jason Todd, Barbara Gordon

What can I say? This version of the Batfam is just so fun to read, wonderfully endearing and wholesome! I love the dynamics between all the characters and the slice-of-life concept of it all. No matter if other superheroes or villains or the GCPD are involved, it’s always character-driven and a clear focus on that. I love how they all get a snarky tag when they’re introduced, how it plays with visual quotes, how it can be light and funny, and at the same time deep and from the heart. With other comics or stories in general, I usually have a favourite character, but with B:WFA I just love them all together as a chaotic mess of a family! Of course you don’t have to write all of the requested focus characters, though; feel free to pick and choose as fits the story best.

Prompts:

More games on and off patrol between the siblings (B may or may not know about or approve of)

SO many stories behind the online pictures in Ep 53! So Duke is a Tarantino fan and writes online movie reviews? Give me some of that. So Tim has concert tickets for date night with Bernard? Give me some of that. So Nightwing has some dedicated online stans? I bet his siblings are teasing Dick about it endlessly and mercilessly. So Jason is trying to online date? There sure are some weird responses to that.

What else has Oracle found (and had to scrap) online?

More of Aunt Kate’s queer relationship advice to Tim!

Where to find it: Webtoon.

Dial H for Hero (DC Comics)

- Miguel Montez, Summer Pickens

The 2019 12-issue run is just pure love! There is worldbuilding galore, relatable characters, a wonderful coming-of-age and initiation plot, interdimensional shenanigans, the question how Joe Average could get addicted to sudden superpowers, and so much fun with the concept of Superhero Secret Origins. Summer is a wonderfully strong and caring female lead and Miguel is a self-conscious little oddball.

Prompts:

5+1 times Miguel ran into his meet-cute crush

5 times Summer was the perfect wingwoman + 1 time Miguel wasn’t self-involved enough to actually return the favour (I know I haven’t put Jinny Hex in my character list for my YJ 2019 request, but I would love to see her and Summer hit it off really well and, well, the rest is history?)

More about Miguel and Summer's adventures at the Daily Planet

Feel free to include any other ((teenage) superhero) cameos you feel like. Please do not pair up Summer and Miguel romantically - although I don't have any problems with a fake relationship fic for them. ;)

Where to find it: Your trusted comicbook supplier.

Pieces - L’Arc~en~Ciel (Music Video)

- any / worldbuilding

I’ve been a Laruku fan for a long time and “Pieces” has always been one of my favourite music videos of theirs. The mood of the song is beautiful and the story told just so haunting and intriguing. It starts right there with the (cursed? demonic? avenging?) dagger in the hands of a New York street vendor, who is not (or not that we know of) affected by its curse. He tells its story, in which it’s always the more powerful party getting killed by the blade. Now, apart from the interesting dynamics/symbolism that the lead singer killing his bassist/bandleader carries, it kind of redeems the blade a little, doesn’t it? Also the ones killing with it don’t seem to realize what they’re doing until it’s too late. The music video tells so many (human) stories with a common theme and a common (supernatural) protagonist (= the dagger) that I just want to see this universe expanded upon.

Prompts:

Sicily 1899 is the beginning of the story, but it can harldy be the beginning of the dagger. So how did it come to be and do what it is and does?

Warsaw 1940 is also a very intersting part because we don’t see the killing per se, just the result. So how did the boy end up killing the much larger soldier?

What (else) does the dagger see/perceive? How does it find or even choose its “victims”?

Where to find it: YouTube

Sweetest Kulu - Celina Kalluk

- any

I recently became a mom, and looking for things from as many different cultures as I could find that I could read to my daughter I discovered this wonderful lullaby/poem/song of wishes. I instantly fell in love with the beautiful imagery and the ebb and flow of the language and the beautiful relationship with nature within it. I would love to be able to read my daughter more stories within the same mythic space, so to speak.

Prompts:

Kulu grows up, and tries to always carry the Arctic world‘s gifts in their heart

How do the animals and spirits mentioned experience the day little Kulu was born?

What kind of stories will Wise Wind tell of Kulu and other humans?

Where to find it: Your trusted bookstore; there is also a read-aloud version on YouTube.

Young Justice (2019 Comics)

- Kon-El | Conner Kent, Tim Drake

So I only requested two characters because I’d love to read something with them as focus - by no means should the other characters be left behind (e.g. the look in Bart’s eyes when he first meets Cissie again haunts me ever since I first read the comic; and for Jinny Hex see my Dial H prompt above), I do believe Young Justice is such an amazing group because of everyone pushing everyone else to be their best (stupid, bickering, snarky, teenage drama) selves!

I loved the 1990s/2000s series, and as such was over the moon when the 2019/2020 run came out, dealing with all the reboots and all the people and memories lost in between the cracks there. I love how Bart is the one to corral them all, and to remind them of what they are. Friends, first and foremost! BAMF superhero friends that go above and beyond for each other! I love how Kon returns that favour. I love the image of them crashing on Naomi’s couch that one night, just because. And since I’m a TimKon shipper (also a TimBernard stan, even if that hasn’t happened at the time of that particular run - but please don’t feel obliged to write any kind of ship fic/pairing, I love gen just as much!!!), I especially love the friendship and general dynamic between those two idiots.

Prompts:

Kon‘s time / adventures being lost in Gemworld, especially the more domestic kind, with a sudden wife and child thrown at him

5 times the others remember Kon‘s name + 1 time they don’t need to

5+1 of why Drake may or may not be a good superhero alias

Where to find it: Your trusted comicbook supplier.

_______&_______

Overall, I’m sure I’ll love what you have for me, and I'm looking forward to reading it! <3

#yuletide #dear yuletide writer #yuletide 2022 #yt2022 #crueltide #wrapping paper #yt2022: wrapping paper #chromatic yuletide

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adamwedd-official · 5 years ago

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Yup. Me and Santa have a few of these things in common .. He's got a WAY better heard . Though 😅 #oneday #chriscrinkle #hipstersanta #lonelysanta #divorcedsanta #timallen #thesantaclause #dontbeaghost #xmas #crueltide Ps... has Santa EVER been ghosted ? (at Tolworth) https://www.instagram.com/p/B5QJrJbHIP-/?igshid=1oqfois4ch7a7

#oneday #chriscrinkle #hipstersanta #lonelysanta #divorcedsanta #timallen #thesantaclause #dontbeaghost #xmas #crueltide

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papofglencoe · 5 years ago

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Thank you @lovely-tothe-bone for tagging me for SSS! I’ve been limping along on a prompt for the @everlarkficexchange for the past two years (or more): sexy, sociopathic Peeta. Kinda going more the psychopath route on this one. 😬

*****

“These parts are the most tender. You see?” Her blood-covered index finger dragged a line across the soft pink flesh, still moist and peppered with traces of pale fur, to show him. “The loins. They’re called the saddle.”

Beneath the rabbit’s translucent skin he thought he could see its veins, deep blue tracks that coursed through its scrawny body like the glacial-fed rivers pounding and thundering through the Sky Valley. His eyes traveled to the rabbit’s neck, where her snare had strangled it, leaving an angry bruise around its throat.

Blood. Flesh. Veins. Bruises. These were the palette of a body’s possibilities, one that had more to do with death than it ever had with life.

#😬😬😬#this story is a prequel #to one of my personal faves #katamount #it’s crueltide in panem part 2 time

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ansatsu-sha · 3 years ago

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The shape and cosmology of the disc system are perhaps worthy of note at this point. There are, of course, two major directions on the disc: Hubward and Rimward. But since the disc itself revolves at the rate of once every eight hundred days (in order to distribute the weight fairly upon its supportive pachyderms, according to Reforgule of Krull) there are also two lesser directions, which are Turnwise and Widdershins.

Since the disc's tiny orbiting sunlet maintains a fixed orbit while the majestic disc turns slowly beneath it, it will be readily deduced that a disc year consists of not four but eight seasons. The summers are those times when the sun rises or sets at the nearest point on the Rim, the winters those occasions when it rises or sets at a point around ninety degrees along the circumference.

Thus, in the lands around the Circle Sea, the year begins on Hogs' Watch Night, progresses through a Spring Prime to its first midsummer (Small Gods' Eve) which is followed by Autumn Prime and, straddling the half-year point of Crueltide, Winter Secundus (also known as Spindlewinter, since at this time the sun rises in the direction of spin). Then comes Secundus Spring with Summer Two on its heels, the three quarter mark of the year being the night of Alls Fallow - the one night of the year, according to legend, when witches and warlocks stay in bed. Then drifting leaves and frosty nights drag on towards Backspindlewinter and a new Hogs' Watch Night nestling like a frozen jewel at its heart.

Terry Pratchett / The Colour of Magic

#terry pratchett #the colour of magic #discworld #currently rereading

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sobriquett · 2 years ago

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Dear Yuletide Author 2022

Dear Yuletide Author,

Thank you very much for writing for me, or at least thinking of writing for me! Yuletide is my favourite time of year, and I wish you an unending supply of creativity and may the words come smoothly and silkily at your whim! (If you’re also a treat writer then doubly so!)

Treats are enabled and very, very welcome! If you are treating, please don’t feel bound by my character requests if you have an idea but remember that your fic will need to go in the Madness collection if it doesn’t feature Uhtred, Jane, Margaret and John, or Nobu and Sayuri!

Please find below a summary of things I love in fic, things I don’t love, and then some further details and prompts by fandom. Also, if you’re looking for a beta reader in any of these fandoms (or any other fandom referenced in past dear author letters or on my AO3 page or Tumblr page, please get in touch!

I am also happily signed up to Crueltide, Yuleporn, Season’s Treatings and Yule Be First! Many of my prompts overlap multiple categories. Please treat any prompt in any way you like, for any or all challenges as you like.

As you can tell by my overuse of exclamation marks, I am excited!

Likes:

DNWs:

A/B/O Dynamics | Bestiality | Body Horror | Gore | Graphic On-Screen Depiction of Torture | Modern/Mundane AU | Mpreg | Explicit On-Screen Non-Con | Out of Context AU (e.g. coffee shop, college AU) | Scat | Vore (The Last Kingdom clarification: implied/referenced/off-screen/non-gratuitous sexual violence is fine, as sexual violence is particularly a fact of life in The Last Kingdom and a reality faced by women of all stations - in fact, I would really enjoy a thoughtful fic about that because of its significance in the historical context. I would simply prefer not to receive direct and explicit "rapefic". All fandom clarification: Anything canon/canon-compliant is broadly fine, such as description of/reference to canonical injury/torture, etc. Again, I just don't want graphic on-screen depiction. Graphic violence is cool, especially in battle contexts! It's specifically torture that's my squick. Please ask the mods if you're unsure.)

For Crueltide:

Darkfic Likes

Darkfic DNWs:

For Yuleporn:

Smut-Specific Likes:

Honestly, I am up for near anything that feels like it fits into the canon context and isn't on my DNW list. Bonus points for anything I haven't thought of that is really contextually appropriate!

Smut DNWs:

---

1. The Last Kingdom (TV)

Requested character: Uhtred of Bebbanburg

Tag set characters: Aethelflaed, Alfred the Great, Aelswith, Beocca, Finan, Hild, Pyrlig

At time of writing, I am reading book seven eight nine of the Bernard Cornwell series, but I binged my way through the TV show twice over the summer and fell in love.

I have only requested Uhtred because I would be delighted with any fic with him and any or all of the other characters in the tag set. That said, Uhtred doesn’t have to be the main character if you prefer. I love Outsider POV and he’s an almost alien figure compared to the people he lives among, and I am interested in all eight characters in the tag set. Please feel free to include any book content you like (I’ll almost certainly be done with the whole series by reveals), or not worry about it at all.

I have no particular ships in this fandom, although I enjoy Aethelflaed/Uhtred and Uhtred & Everyone. Ship whoever you want with whoever you want, if you can make it work. (I was about to say I didn’t want Uhtred/Aelswith, Uhtred/Beocca or Uhtred/Pyrlig but actually that first one is deeply intriguing to me, and I’ll read anything you can make me believe in.)

What I Love About This Fandom

The different worldviews, values, priorities, etc. between the different characters: the conflicting interests of ealdormen and thegns, kings, Danish leaders. The Danish reluctance to lose men is interesting, as well as the way their armies fall apart at the first defeat, no matter how individually formidable the warriors and leaders. Alfred’s building of Burhs, and the way Wessex and the Saxon kingdoms usually prefer to be on the defensive. Uhtred’s absolute scorn for Christianity, versus the way it sweeps through his world and the people he loves against all reason. I’d particularly enjoy Yuletide/Christmas fic with conflict between Uhtred’s religion and Christianity. Also, political intrigue and war strategy and close friendships between unlikely pairs (and likely ones) and batshit plans that work out.

General Prompts

Uhtred dealing with Aelswith living at Bebbanburg. How does she enjoy her room with a sea view? How does she try to exert her influence? Do they become grudging friends, or does Uhtred plot to get her out, or both?

Finan and Uhtred are brothers in arms for decades. Missing moments, moments where that relationship isn’t as close, moments where that relationship gets even closer?

A missing moment for Uhtred and Aethelflaed. Does she ever break her oath, or come close to it? Separately or additionally: Aethelflaed is caught breaking her oath.

I enjoy fics featuring character death or its aftermath and every tag set character loses someone or is lost themselves.

Alfred’s perspective on some of Uhtred’s nonsense? Alfred’s reflections on his deathbed? Love, hate, madness, loyalty, obligation, respect, scorn – they’re one messy tangle of thorns for these two.

Uhtred collects bastards: Osferth, Aethelstan, Sihtric (maybe more books than TV), etc., but is not a great father to his own sons. He has a difficult relationship with his own father but a warm and close one with Ragnar the Fearless. A fic about father/son relationships, adopted or by blood?

A fic about Uhtred's reunion and relationship with his second son, who appears at the very end of the series.

Is Uhtred ever haunted by his ghosts?

One of Uhtred’s plans goes wrong.

A prophecy or seer spelling doom, and someone/many people believe it. Does this drive them all to that doom?

Yule Be First

Possibilities: Uhtred of Bebbanburg & Beocca, Uhtred of Bebbanburg & Pyrlig,

There are no relationships for Uhtred and the priests he actually liked: Beocca, his childhood teacher, and Pyrlig, the Welsh warrior priest who fought Sigefrid and won. I would love any stories of mutual respect here, or their relationship over time.

(Five?) Things Uhtred learned from Beocca? Was this different to what he learned from Ragnar, or was Uhtred learning from Beocca all through his life, whether he wanted to or not? (Five?) Battles where Uhtred fought alongside Pyrlig? Another time that Pyrlig and Uhtred conspire to shock and surprise using Pyrlig's unlikely skills. Drinking and commiserating. Bonus: Crueltide crossover, looking at Thyra or Beocca’s death.

Crueltide

I will suspend my DNWs of gore and non-con here, but would still prefer to avoid graphic depiction of torture. (Referenced/threatened is fine.)

The horror of the shield wall. The spectre of sexual violence in the lives of these women. Seven kings will die, and all of Uhtred’s women. Prophecy, especially self-fulfilling. A battle is lost. A bad death. A hall burning.

Season’s Treatings

Yule vs. Christmas! Uhtred celebrates Yule, as do many of his men, but others (and the majority of people in Wessex and Mercia) celebrate Christmas, and their festivities are very different. I would enjoy either a delightfully pagan Yule fic, or a fic exploring the contrast or how the two are balance on Uhtred’s estate/at Bebbanburg (at a point in canon that suits the author!)

Yuleporn

I mostly read F/M but am happy with F/F, M/M or whatever else takes your fancy. I am up for anything, with any combination of these characters or other characters from the show. (Please note that if these don’t include Uhtred, you’ll need to put them in Madness.)

Battle joy spills over. On the march/on the run. A different form of palace intrigue. Keeping to the letter if not the spirit of Aethelflaed's oath.

2. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte

Requested character: Jane Eyre

Tag set characters: Adele Varens, Bertha Mason, Edward Rochester, Grace Poole, Helen Burns, Jane Eyre, Maria Temple

What I Love About This Fandom

This is one of my favourite novels ever, but I read a new story each time I read it. I had a different experience of it as a child, teenager, young adult, and so on – and with time, I’ve come to see Rochester as more of a villain, and then also as a victim of circumstances and a product of his environment, and to increasingly believe that Jane Eyre lies to us. She’s also every bit as prejudiced and superior as those she criticises, but/because she’s also a product of her world. But I still love her, and love that she says she got a happy ending. But that doesn’t mean it has to stay happy, or even that she was telling the truth.

From a fic perspective, the novel is a first person autobiography. Have fun with that! Jane Eyre is an unreliable narrator. The novel is her autobiography and I don’t believe that the story she told is necessarily the story that happened. What did she conceal? What did she tweak? What did she exaggerate or minimise? Is she trying to tell a moral story? Does her faith endure and guide her quite as steadfastly, perfectly and purely as she says? I adore fics that play with this idea.

Despite my personal lack of religion, I enjoy stories that feature faith and conflicting faiths. That’s the case with the first three of my fandoms – Christianity and personal faith are a major influence in all of them, and Uhtred’s paganism. I’m shoehorning this in here for want of a better place to put it in the letter! If that’s your jam, great. If it’s not… I can’t write it either, which is why I appreciate it so much when I read it.

General Prompts

Does Jane ever meet her Reed cousins again after Mrs Reed’s death? What would they think of her changed circumstances? Perhaps she calls in to the French abbey, or comes across her other cousin in society. Does Jane become – or put on the airs of – a great lady, and put them in their place? Or does she forgive, warmly, and try to cultivate relationships because she remembers what it was like to be alone, as her cousins may both become?

Do Jane and Mrs Fairfax meet again in the future? At Thornfield, they were the closest thing to peers as they were both ladies but dependents, but there was a huge gulf between them in terms of age, experience and outlook. How does their relationship change?

What if the Thornfield wedding isn’t interrupted? (I’m writing this myself too, very slowly.)

If Jane and Rochester have children, what does that do to Adele’s place in the family? Is she beloved sister or unwanted burden? (Any POV here – hers, Rochester’s, an outsider. I can’t see Jane considering her a burden but I could perhaps see Jane being torn in too many directions and having no time left for Adele, leaving her bereft.)

What if Adele’s mother returned to collect her, or for some other (nefarious) purpose?

Post-canon happiness?

Post-canon unhappiness?

Canon divergence at any point.

A missing moment from the engagement - an evening spent together, a walk, a trip out. Tension, anticipation, uneasiness, a sense that all's not quite right that can't be entirely set aside. Rochester trying to claim more affection than Jane is yet willing to give, with either a playful or darker edge.

A missing moment between the interrupted wedding and Jane fleeing Thornfield? (See also Yuleporn!)

How does Rochester discover Jane’s missing? How does Adele find out? Mrs Fairfax? How do they all react? What is that day like? (Jane's absence would almost be the character in this case. She doesn't have to appear, she's still the focus.)

Jane, Mrs Fairfax and Adele are all dependents. Thornfield Hall might be where they live but it’s not their home, and there’s an inherent precariousness to their position that might be worth exploring – or what it’s worth when they finally do have a home that’s theirs, and they feel it.

Yule Be First

Jane Eyre & Maria Temple

There are no fics about Jane Eyre and her former teacher, Maria Temple. Do they keep in touch through Jane’s adult life, or get in touch or meet again in the future? What does the former Miss Temple (I can’t at this moment remember her married name but it is given in the novel) think of how Jane’s life turns out, her choice of husband, his story? Does she offer Jane counsel? What if Jane goes to her instead of to the Rivers when she flees Thornfield? Would the story go differently?

Crueltide

So many options!

Rochester dies in the fire. Jane dies on the moors. The marriage isn’t interrupted and then Rochester’s a bigamist and Jane a fallen woman when it comes out. (I have started writing this but not finished it.) They don’t have a happily ever after. Jane goes with St. John and it doesn’t end well. What if they do have a night of madness before Jane flees Thornfield, where just for a moment she gives in? Or is coerced? (Dubcon over non-con though please! Bonus: Yuleporn fun.) Remember, she’s an unreliable narrator – if it had happened, she just wouldn’t have told us. Jane tries to put Adele back together, as she’s traumatised by the sudden loss of her home, the dismissal of her nurse Sophie, the loss of Jane, the wrath/rage of Rochester, her cruel treatment at school, etc. Does Jane come to see Rochester as a villain? Does she find herself corrupted, tarnished or lessened in his eyes in some way when he comes to marry/possess her and the sharper, darker side of his character turns on her once she’s off her pedestal? Does Jane resent being Rochester’s carer, his eyes and hands?

Season’s Treatings

Jane is not in the habit of receiving gifts, and still isn’t used to it. But she has grown to enjoy giving them to those she loves and cares for. Christmas at Ferndean, with her new husband, reunited with Adele. How does Jane celebrate her first Christmas at Thornfield with Adele and Mrs Fairfax, before she meets Mr Rochester?

Yuleporn

How does their wedding night go? What if they do have a night of madness before Jane flees Thornfield, where just for a moment she gives in? Or is coerced? (Dubcon over non-con though please! Bonus: Crueltide consequences.) Remember, she’s an unreliable narrator – if it had happened, she just wouldn’t have told us. How do Rochester’s blindness and injury affect this side of their relationship? An in-character moment of passion, with badinage and fairy talk.

3. North and South - Elizabeth Gaskell

Requested characters: Margaret Hale, John Thornton

What I Love About This Fandom

Yes, I got into the fandom by way of the Richard Armitage series (who didn’t?) but I read Gaskell’s Ruth at school and now I re-read this novel every couple of years and walk past old mills on a daily basis in my Northern English town so I’m steeped in the history. (I’m writing this letter in Manchester, Milton-Nothern by another name and a few miles from Gaskell’s house! I need to remember to go another time when I’m in town.) I love the context of the place, the contrast between north and south, old and new, leisure and trade, masters and workers, masculinity and femininity. It’s Pride and Prejudice with higher stakes. (Although arguably there are three worlds – Margaret’s, John’s, and Higgins’.) There’s so much pride in all these characters, and they’re all looking down on each other, and then they start to understand one another.

There’s such a rich setting to explore here - time, place, convention, mores, differences in education and worldview… I love this fandom so much. I have requested it many times before and as well as past letters there are many pretty gif sets under this tag for you to enjoy.

General Prompts

Wedding fic! How does their wedding day/night go? How do their friends and relatives behave and respond?

How do they pass their engagement? Do they write to one another? Do they keep finding excuses to be in one another’s company? Do they keep finding themselves alone in back drawing rooms?

Do they live with Mrs Thornton? How do they all get on?

John buys some of the Hales�� furniture from the auction after Margaret’s parents die. Does this come back to Margaret in her married life?

Does something in their (very different) pasts come back to haunt them?

Does Frederick Hale return to England? What does he think of his sister’s husband? Does he impact Margaret and John’s life? Frederick is Margaret’s only living male relative, but they have only seen each other once in a decade – and illicitly at that. Does he have a say in her life? Does he think he does?

Do Margaret and John have a traditional marriage or a more equitable one in terms of ownership and management of the mill?

Is Thornton traumatised, or at least significant affected, by the loss of the mill and his close brush with disaster? Does it colour his relationships with his mother, who he nearly failed, and his new wife who saved him, and/or his management of the mill once he owns it? Can he feel the ghost of his father’s failure and shame?

John and Hannah Thornton and Nicholas Higgins have tasted poverty – or at least true difficulty. Margaret might think she has, but she has not. Is there conflict there?

Yule Be First

Sadly not applicable here! Or at least not possible with the characters in the tag set.

However, at time of writing, there are no fics for Margaret Hale & Bessy Higgins, Margaret Hale & Richard Hale, Frederick Hale & John Thornton, Maria Hale & John Thornton, all of which could be interesting!

Crueltide

Victorian bankruptcy was a deliberate cruel, destructive, public, shameful process, designed to grind a man down to nothing at all. Does Thornton go through this, either during the novel or post-canon? Does he survive, or is he weighed down by grief and shame? He is so very conscious of his place in the world, his responsibilities to his peers, his workers, and his family. And a bankrupt man has pointedly failed in every one of these things – and it would all be so terribly, terribly public. (Very interested in stories about financial pressures/public shaming/private support, Crueltide or otherwise.)

What if the riot goes wrong? Is one or both of them more seriously injured? Is there a disaster at the mill, or in the police response? Does the incident become even more infamous?

Disaster at the mill! Fire, accident, disease. Mills were a very, very dangerous place to work.

John and Margaret’s marriage, despite their love for one another, isn’t accepted in either the north or south. John is not the right sort of man in the eyes of Margaret’s southern friends and relatives – a manufacturer, not a gentleman, soiled by his engagement with trade and industry and direct work, and even more so because of his father’s past and suicide. Margaret is not acceptable to society in the north as an outsider who meddles where she’s not wanted, doesn’t understand their world, and represents an old world with no relevance to their new modern vision. She says the wrong thing, values the wrong things, has the wrong priorities in their eyes, took one of their most eligible men. Can they be happy in such circumstances? Society thinks, alternately, that they either married to avert scandal (which means scandal happened) or Thornton wants Margaret’s fortune (which reflects badly on him in the south and Margaret in the north).

Season’s Treatings

Christmas in the big house at the mill. What does their day look like? What gifts do they buy/give one another? Christmas celebrations with mill workers. There would be a gap between how masters and workers celebrate. How would Margaret manage everyone’s pride, to make it into a celebration genuinely enjoyed and valued by all, not merely unwelcome charity?

What if the Thorntons (possibly including Hannah) go to London for Christmas with Edith and her family, Henry, Mrs Shaw?

Future fic: family Christmas.

Yuleporn

The world’s your oyster here.

Pre-marital shenanigans? Misuse of mill equipment? The virtues of a private train carriage.

4. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

Requested characters: Nobu Toshikazu, Nitta Sayuri | Sakamoto Chiyo

My rarest of rare pairs, Nobu/Sayuri. (I also very much enjoy Nobu & Sayuri!) I massively prefer the novel to the movie, mostly because there’s so much more Nobu. He’s my favourite character, for the gap between how he’s perceived and how he is. He inspires such loyalty and friendship in those who know and value him – Mameha, the Chairman, Sayuri - and yet more shallow characters (Hatsumomo) can’t stand him based only on his looks (and grumpiness).

In many ways, the Chairman is the more ghost-like character in the novel, floating in the background as Sayuri develops a deep and genuine friendship with Nobu despite their differences. Her entire fantasy of the chairman is based on a five-minute encounter and a hanky and then she essentially doesn’t speak to him for a decade, and I wish she’d made a different choice. Nobu would have been an active choice, rather than continuing down the path she set as a child without consideration for how she’s changed as she’s grown up and seen more of the world. I understand Sayuri’s heartbreak knowing that having Nobu as her danna would preclude any possibility of such a relationship with the Chairman, but it would open up a world of other possibilities, and to kindness from a different source. Neither Nobu nor Sayuri know much kindness in their lives, and I really enjoy their repartee. It's one of the few times Sayuri seems to have fun.

General Prompts

What if Sayuri chose Nobu instead, and accepted him as her danna before the war? What if she accepted him after the war? Sayuri appreciating Nobu, with optional romantic edge How does Nobu feel when he realises what Sayuri’s done? What does he know, what is he told, does he try to find out more? Is his respect once lost gone forever? Sayuri could be the Chairman’s but he could never be hers – he already had a wife – but Nobu would have been hers. Would she want this? What would Sayuri want, given the opportunity? Nobu and Sayuri being affectionate to one another, even gruffly and distractedly. How would an evening with Sayuri, Nobu and the Chairman unfold? With or without Mameha to guide Sayuri’s choices to their advantage? Exploring the differences between the pair – in power (financial, sexual, influence), personal freedom, status, ability to make their own decisions, the rules they play by. What do they have in common? They are both survivors, at the top of but on the outside of their respective worlds. (Teahouses, factories, okiyas, battlefields.) Sayuri and Nobu have an en. How else does this manifest?

Yule Be First

Sadly not applicable here, I think!

Crueltide

Do Nobu and Sayuri ever meet again, in the future? Are things frosty, all bridges burned? What if Pumpkin does bring Nobu instead of the Chairman?

Season’s Treatings

I don’t know any Japanese traditions or festivals that would be celebrated at this time! But I would be absolutely delighted to learn.

Yuleporn

Neither of them knows much of kindness or tenderness. Could they find it in each other?

Nobu is severely burned, missing an arm. These facts would definitely affect the experience, but it doesn’t have to be negatively.

First time/only time Tenderness Passion Frustration

#yuletide #yuletide 2022 #dear yuletide writer #dear author letter #the last kingdom #jane eyre #north and south #memoirs of a geisha

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unofficialyuletide · 4 years ago

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Yuletide Mini-Challenges

Yuletide is BIG. It can feel overwhelming trying to look through requests and letters trying to find just the right recipient to treat. Enter: mini-challenges! Mini-challenges are casual, self-identified sub-collections within Yuletide that are all centered around a particular theme.

How do they work? Anyone interested in setting up a mini-challenge submits a post to the member DW comm outlining the theme. Participants interested in receiving that kind of fic leave comments with links to their letters (and sometimes extra prompts) on the post, and anyone interested in writing that kind of fic can look through the comments and see if any letters or prompts inspire them.

For 2020 we have:

Cheftide - fic about cooking

Two for One - crossovers

Yuleporn - porn

Yulebuilding - worldbuilding

Wrapping Paper - art treats

Femslash Festivus - femslash

Crueltide - dark!fic

Season’s Treatings - holiday fic

Interactive Fiction - text adventures, choose your own adventure, etc. (not technically a mini-challenge, but you do have to opt-in)

Creators often tag their works with the appropriate challenge tag (e.g. Yuleporn, Crueltide, etc.) for easy browsing once the collection is open. Go forth and prompt for or find the niche request of your dreams!

#yuletide #yuletide 2020 #yt bells and whistles #will edit this post with any other challenges that get posted

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forthegothicheroine · 4 years ago

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Dear 2020 Yuletide Author...

Hey, I’m RobberBaroness on AO3, and thank you so much for offering one of my fandoms! I say that every year but I especially mean it this time, since I picked more obscure stuff than usual. Now, let’s get to it!

General likes: Fairy tales, gothic literature, film noir, revenge tragedies, bodice rippers, melodrama, dark comedy, heroine/villain/hero love triangles, heroine/villain dynamics, rescue romance, mythology, maledom (non and dubcon are welcome), bdsm, bondage, character studies, what-if AUs, genre swapping AUs, vampires, folklore, knight and lady dynamics, epistolary fic, interactive fiction.

DNWs: Pushing away female characters, fetish universes, character bashing, fully mundane AUs for fantastical settings, unrequested identity headcanons, Christmas or other Christian holiday-themed fic, abrupt character death (character death fully earned and explored is fine), a focus on bodily fluids or byproducts in porn.

I’m open to both Crueltide and Yuleporn, but I’m also okay with getting neither of those.

Waxwork (1988)

Sarah, China, Dracula, Marquis de Sade

Such a fun, silly movie! And absolutely perfect for anyone who likes to read or write Problematic Fanfiction. You can write about all four of those characters, or just focus on one of the two heroine/villain ships (China/Dracula or Sarah/de Sade.) The movie (and its sequel) have lots of references and homages to classic horror movies, so that would be fun to see here! In any case, this is a great place to pile on all the gothic tropes and aesthetics your heart desires.

Some ideas:

Sarah and China are very much positioned as the Virgin and the Whore, respectively, but surely there must be some more to their characters than that! What if they were the two survivors who had to rally troops of monster-hunters against the forces of darkness? (Mark can be there too if you want, I have nothing against him.) How would Sarah deal with being put in a position of leadership? How would China deal with having to think about the well-being of people other than herself?

Tell me about the women whose situations the girls found themselves in, Dracula’s victim and the Marquis’ plaything. Tell me how they ended up in those situations. Alternately, what if they found themselves in America in the 1980s when Sarah and China took their places?

Explore the darkly sexy situations Sarah and/or China were in if the camera hadn’t cut away (China) or Mark hadn’t been there to rescue them (Sarah.) Straightforward porny stuff is fine, or you could spin it into a full story of the aftermath. (I know the Marquis plans to whip Sarah to death, but I’d rather that didn’t happen- he can spare her life or she can escape, whatever you want.) This can be a seductive dom-sub scene, full on noncon, or anything in between.

Dracula and/or the Marquis de Sade don’t get killed and have to adapt to the modern era. Will China and/or Sarah pledge themselves to hunting them down, or grudgingly and grumblingly help them adjust?

The sequel has characters hopping between times and alternate universes, so if you want to bring that into the events of the first movie, that could be fun. Sarah and China find themselves running from one sexy horror movie scene to the next, having to deal with a whole range of hot villains interested in them!

Dragonwyck (1946)

Nicholas Van Ryn, Miranda Wells

I love Vincent Price and I love Gene Tierney, and I really love them together. Movie Nicholas seems a lot less cold-hearted than his book counterpart, and I think he probably was in love with Miranda before grief over his son’s death and opium addiction drove him mad. (Which is not to excuse murdering his first wife- he’s still a very bad man!) Another thing I like about the movie adaptation is that there’s a lot less blame put on Miranda for daring to want to leave the farm, and an understanding of why she’d be dazzled by the Van Ryn’s lives. For this canon, I’d really like to explore more of Nicholas and Miranda’s relationship, doomed though it may be.

Some ideas:

Seduction! Either before or after their marriage, Nicholas tempts Miranda with the pleasures of sin. This can involve sex, or just sensual pleasures (kisses, fine wine, scandalous poetry.)

Is there any way Nicholas and Miranda could have had a happy ending? If he and his first wife had divorced (with all the trouble that would have caused at the time), if he hadn’t accused her of being barren, if he had gotten better after their marriage instead of worse?

A darker look at their relationship, with obsession and possessiveness and madness inspired by beauty. (Would rather this didn’t involve physical abuse, but sexual or psychological is okay.)

What if Nicholas had tried to corrupt Miranda to be his partner in crime? Would she have stood firm against his temptations, or find herself weakening towards sin?

Revenger’s Tragedy (2003)

Gloriana, Vindice, the Duke, Lussurioso

I know for sure one kind of fic I’d want- Gloriana lives fic! I’m very sweet on Vindice’s devotion to her, and I’d like to know more about the woman herself! (I once saw someone call her a Mary Sue, which baffles me- how can she be a Mary Sue if all we know about her is that she was pretty and nice?) Mind you, this doesn’t necessarily mean a nice and happy story. The bloodthirsty nature of Revenger’s Tragedy is one of the reasons I love it, after all! If you don’t want to write that main prompt, you could write something where any of the nominated characters reflects on Gloriana, or where the revenge plays out in a different fashion. You can come up with something gruesome enough for a Jacobean playwright, I believe in you!

You can write these stories without Lussurioso, but he’s fun if you do include him.

Some ideas:

Instead of poisoning Gloriana, the Duke drugs her for his own ends. Or, if you don’t want to get that dark, he does poison her but she survives after a period of illness. Either way, she joins Vindice in his crusade of revenge.

Role reversal! When the Duke makes a pass at Gloriana, Vindice interferes and gets killed for his efforts. Now Gloriana is the one setting out to destroy the entire ruling family.

The movie seems to take place in a vaguely post-apocalyptic setting, so dig into that if you like. Worldbuild away, so long as you include the characters!

For any of the above scenarios, what part might Lussurioso play? Would he take over as the main villain after his father is dealt with, or could disgust towards his family’s actions (which he does seem to canonically show) lead to him rethinking his life and switching sides?

#yuletide 2020

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thelightofthingshopedfor · 4 years ago

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Dear Yuletide writer,

I’m 100indecisions on AO3. just based on numbers of requests/offers in the signup summary, it seems fairly likely that you matched with me on Avengers Academy, but it’s also slightly possible it was Silent Hill 3 or The Bifrost Incident. numbers also indicate nobody else requested or offered my other two fandoms, but I’m including them here anyway in case you or anyone else wants to take a stab at them. (there’s also this post if you want a little more info about why these fandoms are cool and where to find them.)

regardless! the important thing as always is that you have fun writing the fic, and for the most part everything that follows is just a suggestion. whatever you come up with, I’m sure I’ll love it.

I feel like…most of the fandoms I requested aren’t too likely to lead to fics with my major DNWs, probably. I wouldn’t want to see dubcon or significant manipulation in a relationship that’s supposed to be positive and healthy, for instance. I’m not opposed to explicit sex scenes of any kind, although I often end up skimming them because I’m the type of ace person who is just Not Interested in most of the physical aspects, so…you’re welcome to write sex scenes if it’s relevant but you absolutely don’t have to feel like you need to.

in general, my biggest DNW is unhappy endings. I’m thrilled to see my favorite characters go through all kinds of hell to get there, so for most of these I would be very happy to get something tagged Crueltide, but I also like things to be okay or at least hopeful by the end. if canon is the unhappy part in one way or another, I’m always happy to read fix-it fics. Between post-canon fix-its that could reasonably happen in the future and canon-divergence AUs where things are okay now because of some mid-canon change, I have a slight preference for the former, but both are good.

as for stuff I like, well, the other thing implied by my main DNW is that I do often enjoy fairly dark fics, as long as they end okay. I also like Loki a lot, as you can probably guess from my requests. if you ended up matching me on Avengers Academy Loki or Bifrost Incident Loki, and/or you want to take a stab at one of the other Loki-centric requests, the Loki fics I’ve actually written are pretty representative of stuff I like in my Loki fics, which basically boils down to “sympathetic interpretations always, with loads of angst and/or whump on the way to a reasonably happy ending”. I tend to take a somewhat lighter tone in general with my Avengers Academy fics (I’ve written several of those and only one of them doesn’t involve Loki at all, so…yeah I have a one-track mind where Loki is concerned), although I did also write a pretty damn whumpy fic for AvAc Loki. I’m very invested in the relationship between Thor and Loki as brothers, although Thorki is usually a personal squick. for things that aren’t necessarily Loki-related, I like found families and deep friendships, sibling bonds, stories about characters reclaiming their own agency from some outside force and/or figuring out how to take control of their own narratives, and probably plenty of other things that aren’t coming to mind at the moment. I’m equally good with plotty fics and little slice-of-life or introspective pieces. I will always always always be happy to see queer characters, especially asexual ones.

more detail about my specific requests, basically just expanded versions of what I wrote in my sign-up:

Silent Hill 3 (Heather Mason). I love this game and that’s mostly because of Heather–she’s resourceful, brave, and incredibly tough, and the game is essentially all about her reclaiming her agency (in a very literal, physical way) from people who used her for their own ends. Anything that gets into Heather’s head would be great, whether it’s a missing scene of some kind during the game or something afterward that explores what she does next, how she recovers from a frankly massive amount of trauma, and how she reconciles the various layers of her identity. The ways in which Heather, Cheryl the child, and Alessa both are and are not the same person are endlessly fascinating to me, and it seems like she probably has a lot of weird memories bouncing around in her head at this point--and possibly some extra trauma from Alessa’s memories of things Heather never physically experienced, as if she doesn’t have enough to deal with already. I would also really love to see something involving Angela and/or Maria from Silent Hill 2; I’m not sure how the timelines would line up (although realistically, considering the setting, that part would be trivial to handwave) but the way Heather basically said “fuck you, you don’t own me” to the cult makes me want to see other female characters find their own agency as well, and it would be really awesome if Heather found a way to help them do that, either by helping them directly or just by influencing the way the town operates. in general, I love these games for their atmosphere and symbolism, so anything you can do along those lines would be great.

Avengers Academy (Loki, Thor). I still miss this game. I especially miss Loki, who was a snarky little bastard but really not a bad dude. Mostly I’d be thrilled to see anything that focuses on him (or her, I super loved Loki’s canonical genderfluidity) developing actual friendships at the academy, with any characters who might be relevant (Steve, Natasha, America Chavez, Nebula, Union Jack, Angela, Jane Thor, really anybody). Working things out with Thor and/or the rest of his family is always good too; Loki’s Frost Giant storyline didn’t involve Thor at all, for instance, probably because it was written long before Thor was added to the game, so I’d be interested to see how things went when he found out his brother was a Frost Giant. I’m also always happy to see crossovers of some kind with other Marvel universes, especially considering AvAc was an interesting patchwork of film and comics canon; meta stuff where characters are aware of their multiverse counterparts is always fun (again, my own AvAc fics are pretty representative of what I like…and if you wanted to build off anything in those, I’d be thrilled). and hey, if you want to pick up or expand on any of the plot threads the game never really got around to, like more about the Academy’s supposed mole, the actual nature and origin of the timefog, or other worldbuilding-related stuff, that would be awesome. random slice-of-life stuff is also fun; so is expanding on any of the event plotlines or digging into in-world reasons for various gameplay decisions (way back during the Civil War event, for instance, Loki was one of the characters who could do stuff to earn points for Team Cap even though this didn’t come up in dialogue--it was almost certainly because they needed another non-event character to round out the rosters, but it would also make a fun premise for a fic). I’d also be happy to see something post-canon, showing what characters are up to now or doing some kind of reunion. I’m realizing somewhat belatedly that last year I only requested Loki because that’s the character I wanted most, and this year I requested both Loki and Thor even though my actual wishes haven’t changed, which...I’m not sure if that’s a potential matching problem or not. But just to be clear, the only character I require is Loki, and everything else is basically a suggestion. If there’s a character I haven’t listed but Loki had an interesting interaction with them, or they never spoke but you think they’d play off each other in fun ways, go for it.

The Bifrost Incident - The Mechanisms (Loki, Thor, Sigyn). I...need a fix-it. Like, for these characters specifically, but also for the universe in general, because the premise of this album is absolutely fascinating but I can't deal with tragedy, so--I need somebody to fix it. Somehow. I mean, I would also be very interested in pretty much anything about Loki and Sigyn, backstory or otherwise (especially if there’s Loki whump due to cosmic horror in general or Odin being a dick specifically, because...I am who I am), or Loki’s relationship with Thor, or...yeah, pretty much anything Loki-centric? But also I am a baby who cannot deal with tragedy so I gotta have like...at least a hint that things are going to end up differently than in canon. Or if you really don’t want to do that, speculate on this universe’s version of Valhalla or something, I don’t know. And yes, even though this isn’t a Marvel universe, I would also be very happy with some type of crossover/fusion with the MCU or another Marvel universe.

Loki: Where Mischief Lies - Mackenzi Lee (Loki). I had a lot of issues with this book and I’m not sure how much of that is just me not appreciating what the author was doing with an unreliable narrator (in part because I’m already pretty attached to certain interpretations of Loki) and how much is the author not quite doing it right, but I’d love to see something that would…make it make sense internally in terms of Loki’s motivations and actions. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a fix-it, although I’d love one of those too, with Loki reuniting with Theo and/or actually reconciling with his family. A giant crossover that includes this Loki with other major versions of Loki could be fun too. I’ve been planning for a while to write up some kind of actual review to articulate what about this book didn’t work for me, and I’ll update this post with a link when I do that, although…again, I know nobody else offered or requested this one. (if you think it sounds fun or you just want to read this book in general, my library actually has the ebook on Hoopla, so it’s worth checking to see if your library does too.)

What If... Thor Was Raised by the Frost Giants? (Loki, Thor). This is such a great little AU and I need MORE. Slice-of-life stuff with Thor and Loki growing up (and Laufey being an abusive bastard to Loki)? Fix-it where Freyja survives or somehow gets brought back? Post-canon fic picking up immediately after the end of the comic? Far-future speculation about what the present-day Marvel universe might look like with this change in its history? Literally anything post-canon about Thor and Loki tentatively reconciling? YES PLEASE. As always, biggest DNW is unhappy endings.

#yuletide 2020 #yuletide #avengers academy #silent hill 3 #the bifrost incident #loki: where mischief lies #marvel comics #look at me doing my Yuletide letter in a reasonable timeframe for once #mostly because...the majority of this was copied from last year's but whatever #marvel what if

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noirandchocolate · 5 years ago

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THE DISCWORLD YEAR. The calendar on a planet which is flat and revolves on the back of four giant elephants is always difficult to establish. It can be derived, though, by starting with the fact that the spin year--defined by the time taken for a point on the Rim to turn one full circle--is about 800 days long. The tiny sun orbits in a fairly flat ellipse, being rather closer to the surface of the Disc at the Rim than at the Hub (thus making the Hub rather cooler than the Rim). This ellipse is stable and stationary with respect to the Turtle--the sun passes between two of the elephants. The effect of all this is that the 'spin year' contains two of each season--two summers, two winters and so on. The winters occur when our theoretical point is at 90 degrees to the orbit of the sun, and the summers when it is directly under the orbit. ... In the days of the Ankh-Morpork Empire this was fully understood and the Great Year was divided into eight seasons--Winter Prime, Spring Prime, Summer Prime, Autumn Prime, Winter Secundus, Spring Secundus and so on. But this was always a purist's view of the calendar, of interest only to wizards and astrologers. Most people--and certainly most rural areas--really dealt quite sensibly in what were technically half-years, a little longer than a terrestrial year, but noted that some years the sun rose on your left as you faced the Hub, and on others it rose on your right. Apart from that, they follow the natural year. You plough, you sow, it grows, you harvest--that's a year, no matter what some daft old man in Ankh-Morpork says. This has caused some confusion over the naming of various festivals. Hogswatchnight and Crueltide are, from the farmer's point of view, the 'same' festival, although in fact they are the middle and end of the year. Midsummer Eve and Small Gods Eve are also 'the same' for practical purposes. In rural areas Hogswatchnight and Midsummer Eve tend to be used to refer to both festivals, since they refer to natural, homely things (the beginning of summer and the killing of animals).

Terry Pratchett and Stephen Briggs, “Turtle Recall: The Discworld Companion So Far” (Okay was anyone gonna tell me that technically Hogswatch and people’s birthdays only ‘really’ happen once every 800 days or did I have to read that in a companion book myself?)

#terry pratchett #gnu terry pratchett #stephen briggs #discworld #turtle recall #((the following tags will only make sense to ppl who've read my rants about the fake fanon concept of 'irken years' in invader zim fandom))#hey lol this means a disc year is like 2.19 earth years!#so if canon says cohen the barbarian is 'in his 80s' that means he's only 40 in 'disc years!'#and therefore he's only middle-aged by earth terms lololol!#((yes i know that makes zero sense but that's the argument ppl in iz fandom make about how 'irken years' mean zim's like a human teen))

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lendmyboyfriendahand · 5 years ago

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Dear Yuletide Santa 2019

Hello!

This is my first time doing Yuletide, so I apologize if the letter is disorganized.

I am open to Crueltide and Yuleporn, but please include plot or emotional change in the fic even if there’s sex.

Things I like: power dynamics, loyalty, sacrificing yourself for other’s sake, crossovers with anything else I’ve asked for or with anything Tolkien, family and found family, canon divergent au's, soulmate au’s (romantic or platonic), long insights on character’s emotions, casefic, crack fic and crack taken seriously, characters time traveling or otherwise getting future knowledge and using it try and improve canon, characters who have dark sides slipping for a moment, devotion that one character thinks is so obvious it doesn’t need to be said

DNW: porn without plot (’oh god what have I done’ counts as plot), incest that wasn’t present in the canon (basically no incest except Doctrine of Labyrinths), non-canon relationships between unprompted canon characters, graphically described gore, vivisection, Christmas fic, real religions in any world that don’t have them, modern au’s, no magic au’s, good characters turning out to have been secretly evil this whole time, cheating (polyshipping is cool though), gross out humor

NSFW DNW: Piss, scat, vomit, bleeding from any orifice as a result of rough sex, characters being into hardcore BDSM when neither of the involved parties are mentioned to be so in canon, sounding or other urethra play, crippling or other permanent injury during sex

Damar: Corlath (Damar,) Harry Crewe, Luthe (Damar)

What I love about it: The wonderfully well done ‘girl finds out she has magic and bonds with her horse”. Harry feeling like a fish out of water in Homeland as much as Damar. How Damar is diffrenet than Homeland, but not lesser in knowledge or general development. The long history of Damar occasionally peeking through the urgency of the plot. How Kelar is magic, and technically controllable, but not as simple as snapping your fingers. Harry and Corlath, two incredibly willful people, meeting, and the king bowing first.

Ideas (though please don’t feel limited to these):

- Corlath and Harry take their kids to see Luthe, who insists he is actually an ancient and terrible magical being. He is, but he’s also the only babysitter who’s not freaked out by Kelar.

- Tsornin being friends with Colath’s horse, whose name I sadly can’t recall, while Harry and Corlath make up dialogue for them.

- Luthe coming to the city and everyone assumes there’s a disaster but really he’s just checking in. Humans several hundred years ago were dumb enough to keep dragon skulls in the palace, who knows what Corlath and Harry have done.

- Harry and Corlath sitting down and discussing ‘so what does marriage and a family look like in your culture’. Bonus if Harry insists, truthfully or facetiously, that Coralth needs Richard’s permission to marry her.

Doctrine of Labyrinths

Characters: Felix Harrowgate, Mildmay Foxe, Shannon Teverius, Mehitabel Parr

What I love about it: Doctrine of Labyrinths reads like published idfic to me, in that the author was obviously enjoying every single trope she included.

Getting in character’s heads! Mildmay going “Well I guess I’d die for you now, brother I met five minutes ago.” The whole reverse-suicide pact Felix and Mildmay have where they’re staying alive because the other would die without them. The Obligation d’ame, and all the amazing power dynamics. Felix manipulating people out of habit and only realizing he pushed too far an hour or a month later. Court intrigue and magic intrigue and ghosts!

Ideas (though please don’t feel limited to these):

- Mehitabel in court dealing with being the king’s mistress, and navigating political power with Shannon.

- Pre-canon fluff with Felix and Shannon dating

- Canon divergence where Felix and Shannon get back together and Mildmay is awkwardly protective of Felix

- Felix and/or Mildmay get appointed ambassadors from Corambis to Melusine and come back to town. Shannon, Stephen, Mehitbel, the entire Curia, and half the lower city think this is a terrible idea, but they are technically foreign citizens now.

- Missing scenes on the awkward road trip back to Melusine in book 2

- Felix going right up to the line of 'not Poryphyria Levant'. Look, he's not beating Mildmay, or even touching him at all, so how can he be abusing him? Like, Mildmay was going to change clothes anyway, ordering him to do so in Felix's bedroom with Felix present isn't that big. And it's not like Mildmay complains out loud. (Probably this is mix of Felix shying away from self-examination and him having genuinely fucked up standards due to his past.)

- In general anything to do with the obligation d’ame. Felix kept talking about pushing it ‘lightly’ and Mildmay sure couldn’t disobey those times. Did they ever talk about the difference in perception there? What happens when Felix does push strongly on it? Does he ever say ‘go away’ in a bad mood and come back to find that Mildmay has been standing literally outside his door all night because Felix had earlier ordered him to stay nearby?

It’s fine not to include all prompted characters as long as you use at least two, if that’s what makes sense for the story. Also of course fine to have more characters show up and interact with them!

Mercy Thompson

Characters: Mercy, Asil, Warren, Kyle

What I love about it: Found family and bio-family. New found family when your first found family turned out to not fit you. Wolves ordering each other around and being flummoxed by everyone who doesn’t have to obey. Solving mysteries and learning more about the magical world. The whole urban fantasy trope of magic cropping up in utterly mundane circumstances, and planning your car repairs around the full moon.

Ideas (though please don’t feel limited to these):

- Asil and Kyle meet. Asil tries to freak out Kyle because that’s his MO. Kyle doesn’t take it.

- Casefic! (there is a supernatural mystery / dead bodies /etc. Mercy Thompson is on the case!)

- Kyle turning into a werewolf as has been hinted since Blood Bound. Everyone trying to figure out the rank of a male werewolf’s male mate. (Since Warren is mentioned to be unusually dominant, please don’t have Kyle more dominant than him – he’d basically be an Alpha at that point.) Possibly someone claims that now Warren is ranked at Kyle’s level?

- Warren and Mercy complaining together about werewolf social norms being stuck in the past.

- I do not need all four characters in the story, 3/4 is fine if that’s what makes sense for the story.

#yuletide

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lojsa · 6 years ago

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Crueltide. Эх, наступило Страшдество и ознаменовало конец недели лени и обжорства. А лень моя велика, даже вектор сделать не смогла себя заставить. Я больше всего люблю новогодние каникулы и печалюсь, когда они заканчиваются. #calligraphy #calligraphyart #brushcalligraphy #brushlettering #brush #cyrillic #ruslettering #tyxca #tyxca_calligraphy #calligraphymasters #holidays #christmas #terrypratchett #instaart #instagood #inspiration #moderncalligraphy #каллиграфия #каллиграфиякистью #современнаякаллиграфия https://www.instagram.com/p/BsV_TV5j_YB/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=i12hksc69t4f

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iconuk01 · 2 years ago

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“The shape and cosmology of the disc system are perhaps worthy of note at this point. There are, of course, two major directions on the disc: Hubward and Rimward. But since the disc itself revolves at the rate of once every eight hundred days (in order to distribute the weight fairly upon its supportive pachyderms, according to Reforgule of Krull) there are also two lesser directions, which are Turnwise and Widdershins. Since the disc’s tiny orbiting sunlet maintains a fixed orbit while the majestic disc turns slowly beneath it, it will be readily deduced that a disc year consists of not four but eight seasons. The summers are those times when the sun rises or sets at the nearest point on the Rim, the winters those occasions when it rises or sets at a point around ninety degrees along the circumference. Thus, in the lands around the Circle Sea, the year begins on Hogs’ Watch Night, progresses through a Spring Prime to its first midsummer (Small Gods’ Eve) which is followed by Autumn Prime and, straddling the half-year point of Crueltide, Winter Secundus (also known as the Spindlewinter, since at this time the sun rises in the direction of spin). Then comes Secundus Spring with Summer Two on its heels, the three quarter mark of the year being the night of Alls Fallow -the one night of the year, according to legend, when witches and warlocks stay in bed. Then drifting leaves and frosty nights drag on towards Backspindlewinter and a new Hogs’ Watch Night nestling like a frozen jewel at its heart.

Precisely why all the above should be so is not clear, but goes some way to explain why, on the disc, the Gods are not so much worshipped as blamed.”

Sir Terry Pratchett - The Colour of Magic

I get why fantasy authors would default to using, like, the same basic arrangement of seasons and weather and gravity that we have here in The Real World because they have to make up so much shit as it is and it IS probably good praxis to give your readers some familiar touchstones in your world so they can just focus on the plot, but. having said that. I think there should be more settings that have seventeen seasons, all of them different lengths, and constellations that don't have fixed patterns because sometimes they'll get pissy and just move to a different part of the sky, and sometimes the sun tells people things telepathically, and there's a type of weather where the air just gets really thick and difficult to walk through that's unpleasant but not any more uncommon than rain. it's called smärklf.

#seasons

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sodomhipped · 2 years ago

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yuletide 2022

hi yuletide writer,

thank you so much for creating something for me! i truly hope you have a good time. i’ve included some general thoughts on what i like about characters, ships, tropes, and so forth below. (even if i list something as a ship, i would be happy to receive gen of those characters interacting platonically – i know not everyone ships the same things!)

please don’t gift anything in my “do not want list.” however, as for my various list of “likes” those are entirely optional ideas or starting points. your gift doesn’t need to include them if they don’t speak to you!

this year, i am requesting these six fandoms:

disco elysium

elden ring

monster

mozart l’opera rock

tokyo babylon

vampyr

thank you again,

- reclamation @ ao3

p.s. i am grateful for any treats! i am also signed up for both crueltide and yuleporn.

do not wants

unrequested gender identity headcanons (note for reasoning: i have plenty of gender issues of my own and it can have a negative effect on me), unrequested AUs that change the setting (i.e. i’m not interested in coffee shop au or university au stories but i love canon divergent stories that keep the same general setting with something changed), unrequested non-canon ships that conflict with requested ships, unrequested underage characters in sexual situations or sexualizing youth (including age regression, ageplay, infantilization, etc), unrequested kidfic (e.g. parenthood plots, stories central on child characters, characters as children), pregnancy/breeding, A/B/O, watersports/scat

optional details

tone and content likes: i am happy to receive something angsty, fluffy, or sexy--or anything in-between. happy, sad, or ambiguous endings are all great. the only major warnings i avoid are underage and incest (and there are clearly exceptions to that since i asked for tokyo babylon), so if character death, dark themes, dub-con, etc makes sense to for your story, go for it.

general trope likes: canon divergence, getting together, unreliable narrators, repression, pining, unrequited, bitter exes, fake relationship, trying and failing, emotional vulnerability, complicated/unhealthy/co-dependent relationships, bets/wagers, deal with the devil, first time/last time, friends/enemies to lovers, role reversal, reunions, slice of life, having to work towards a common goal even when they don’t want to, horror elements, ambiguous endings, sharing small spaces/bed or other forms of forced intimacy, soulbonds (especially those that take a novel approach)

general smut/kink likes: intercrural, first times, oral sex, masturbation, fingering, non-penetrative sex, being held down, negotiation, possessiveness, rough sex, feeling overwhelmed by emotion and sensation, pretending sex doesn’t mean anything when it does, servicing/pleasuring their partner, teasing, body worship (especially when focused on one part/aspect of the body), kneeling, dubcon, hate sex, playful sex, laughing together during sex, vulnerability/intimacy, choosing to have sex for poor reasons (e.g. “i know this will break my heart later,” or “i don’t even like this person that much but why not,” or any other variation), [aliens/bad guys/whatever flimsy plot device] makes them do it, sex during or after an argument

disco elysium

ships: harry du bois/kim kitsuragi/jean vicquemare, harry du bois/kim kitsuragi, harry du bois/jean vicquemare

characters: harry du bois, kim kitsuragi, jean vicquemare

notes & questions:

the thing that really struck me about this game was the intimacy and clarity of having your body/brain/intuition/etc speak directly. but even then there are limits to self-awareness. i would love to see this incorporated in some manner.

i love harry, kim, and jean, so i would love to see any situation that allows me to see some side of any one of them (or any permutation of them together) that shows something new.

what lurks in harry’s past? what did his relationship with jean look like? are they just partners? or exes? how does jean feel about this as he sees harry progress through the story of disco elysium?

how do any of these characters interact after the story? what does a normal day look like for them?

elden ring

ships: sorcerer rogier/d(arian) hunter of death

characters: sorcerer rogier, d(arian) hunter of death

notes & questions:

i love the essential conflict of rogier and d's world views and anything that explores them separately or in comparison to the other.

rogier fascinates me because he appears to have a persona (the charming "easy air" obscuring his wisdom, thoughtfulness, worry, etc) so i would love to see this explored.

d fascinates me because after being rejected for his nature (the shared soul with his brother) when he was very young, he latches onto the golden order because it accepts him and lets him belong. because of that, he is very set on his path and refuses to see outside of it. how does this self-imposed narrowness help and hurt him through his life and relationships?

how did d and rogier meet? what were their first impressions of each other?

what does rogier and/or d regret? would they do anything differently if they had the chance?

how did rogier end up with that letter from devin? did he and devin meet? what did they think of each other?

monster

ships: wolfgang grimmer/tenma kenzou, eva heinemann/tenma kenzou, eva/martin reest

characters: eva heinemann, johan liebert, tenma kenzou, wolfgang grimmer

notes & questions:

i love monster because a lot of the series is a question of morality, the lengths people will go to follow their beliefs, and what actions they will take against previously or even currently held beliefs. at the core of the story is a hope that people will become better, given time, the chance, and more information.

tenma. i love him because he’s a good person, who lost a lot due to his strict sense of ethics, and then goes on a mission that seems at once antithetical to his beliefs as well as necessary. i also love that he becomes a central piece to so many lives without trying just because of his nature.

eva. i really do love her. she’s horrible at first, spoiled and narcissistic, but she improves. it’s a slow and painful process, but it’s there. i love her relationships with both tenma and martin--who are so alike and so different.

grimmer. i love his approach to a world that has only dealt him difficult situations. he feels like so much is missing from himself but he resolves to smile. he also carefully partitions his ‘bad’ self (the magnificent steiner) and the, well, better self. i love his interactions with tenma and wish they had gotten to spend more time together.

johan. everyone loves johan. i love how enigmatic he is throughout the story. we get to hear from a lot of people about their lives, but he’s relatively curtained off from the reader. i am very interested in his relationship with his twin and tenma.

how could things have gone differently for any of these characters? could they have made different decisions and ended up happier (or alive in some cases)?

what are other ways any of these characters could have interacted or spent more time together?

what if tenma was able to interact with anyone here without his mission against johan hanging over his head?

mozart l’opera rock

ships: antonio salieri/wolfgang amadeus mozart

characters: antonio salieri, wolfgang amadeus mozart

notes & questions:

the scene where salieri reads mozart’s music for the first time and has a complete sexual meltdown is formative for me. i love that he recognizes mozart’s talent immediately, without a doubt, and then proceeds to write in jealousy for the rest of mozart’s life.

i love salieri and how, when his wires get entirely crossed between admiration/hate/jealousy, he just chooses a terrible course and commits.

i love mozart in his naive genius and manic energy. he manages to come across as both looking for approval and arrogant at the same time.

salieri is a celebrated composer in his time--so why does he allow himself to be so threatened by mozart’s genius talent?

does mozart ever suspect that salieri harbors ill will against him?

what is mozart and salieri had to work on a collaboration?

what circumstances would have been required for a better ending to the show? how would salieri and/or mozart get to that point?

what would it take for salieri to express his admiration and/or desires to mozart?

tokyo babylon

ships: sakurazuka seishirou/sumeragi subaru

characters: sakurazuka seishirou, sumeragi subaru

notes & questions:

you may ignore my DNW for underage in this fandom. i am very interested in the relationship between subaru and seishirou, romantically and sexually.

this was one of my first fandoms and i will always be in love with it no matter how much time passes. i love the premise of the bet and how unfair it was.

for subaru, i love that subaru has to bear so much responsibility and tragedy on his young shoulders, losing everyone who was the most important to him--all while his heart is breaking from a betrayal. he trades his mantle of hope and kindness to instead take on guilt, cynicism, and sadness.

for seishirou, i love that he’s incapable of emotion--or at the very least, incapable of recognizing it in himself. while i do think he comes to love subaru in his own way (and can admit to some part of it) by x/1999, i don’t think he’s that far along in tokyo babylon. and, as he shows, he is very able to put on a mask to hide all of that--or wield his coldness as a weapon.

hokuto wasn’t nominated but i love her, too! please feel free to include her. i love her interactions with both seishirou and subaru. her protectiveness of subaru; her willingness to let seishirou have a chance to be a better person. she sees more than her twin but she is also tends towards hope, i think.

were there any points that seishirou even suspected he might be losing his own bet? did he ever try to give subaru a real chance to win or was he always holding back?

the manga takes subaru’s pov, what does a day in the life of seishirou look like?

do seishirou and subaru sleep together before the betrayal or not? does that make it better or worse?

is there any way things could have gone differently for them? with or without external intervention?

vampyr

ships: geoffrey mccullum/jonathan reid

characters: geoffrey mccullum, jonathan reid

notes & questions:

for reid, i prefer him to hold on to his respect humanity and life, so a "not even once" or "only bad guys" version of him is my favorite.

i love that mccullum is so unbending in his beliefs. even if he's turned into a vampire, he seems to intend to continue hunting vampires. however, i also love any little cracks in this armor he surrounds himself with (his eventual trust of reid shown by giving him the blood of king arthur for example).

for reid and mccullum together, i love how they are opposed and yet both are trying to essentially hold on to their own morality. one or both of them have blood on their hands, but they believe they’re working towards good--even if they disagree on what that looks like. the tension between them because of their different world views is delicious to me.

in what ways is mccullum and/or reid willing to compromise his values? what are the circumstances that would inspire it and how does he justify it to himself?

how does reid and mccullum’s view of each other change after the game? does this affect how they interact?

if they manage to get into a relationship (romantic or sexual), how does it begin? and how does it progress?

what was mccullum like when he was hunting his brother? how did it change him?

#challenges and exchanges #yuletide #yuletide 2022 #just because a fandom has more bullets than another doesn't mean i want it more or less than any other fandom i promise

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