Yuletide 2023

Hi Yuletide! Long time, no see!

Thank you, first and foremost. Whether you’ve matched me on one fandom or several, were assigned me or grabbed me as a pinch hit, hopefully there’s something here to spark your imagination.  As usual, my requests are a mixture of SF, art, and general nostalgia, so do please browse whichever bits of it take your fancy. This year’s list of fandoms is in alphabetical order

Secondly – my apologies. My letters are always pretty long ones. But optional details are optional!  Feel free to ignore everything beneath the cut(s) and write what you want. I think the best stories come from writers who are engaged with what they’re writing, and I don’t want this to be a chore for you. If you’re feeling compelled to write the fic of your dreams for one of these fandoms, then GO FOR IT. I’m 100% sure I’ll love reading it too.

If you want to stalk my own writing, you can find it on ao3 and FFnet. Most of my own writing is within the Dragonriders of Pern fandom, but I like to offer/request other fandoms for Yuletide. If you want to know more about the kinds of stories I love, check out Cast of Wonders!

A quick note before the cut: I’ve requested the following fandoms:

• Blood on the Clocktower
• Dragonriders of Pern
• The Electric State
• Machineries of Empire
• Old Gods of Appalachia

What do I like in my stories?

What I like best: gen, deleted scenes that fit canon, stories that take canon divergence in plausible and interesting directions, and any kind of exploration of the worldbuilding. Well thought out OCs are fine – I’m guilty of enough of those myself. I prefer writing worldbuildy gen to romance, but when I do write sex scenes they’re heavily biased towards the emotional headspace of the participants rather than any graphic descriptions of what they’re getting up to. As far as reading them goes, I read a lot more widely than I write, but I’d prefer not to receive anything E-rated as a yuletide gift. Romantic/shippy stories in themselves would be just great, but I get the most out of them when the relationship drives the plot and/or character development forwards, rather than being the sole focus of the prose. Crossovers are rarely my thing – please ask a hippo first before writing me a crossover.

For some of my requested fandoms, the existing characterisation is pretty sparse or non-existent. So, here’s a (non-exhaustive) list of characters/character tropes that I most enjoy reading: Morally dubious (or with such a strong moral compass that they’re willing to ruin their own humanity for some greater good). Smart. Dangerous. Determinators. Manipulative/magnificent bastards. People who rise to a challenge. Redemption narratives. Tension, sexual or otherwise. Hope & despair. Grace in the face of destruction. Unreliable narrators. Uneven balance of power/agency, where the underdog fights on regardless. (You can probably see why I requested Yoon Ha Lee’s series now…) I’m also interested in non-standard types of human/sentient beings and all the ways they can be used as characters to explore what it means to be human (or not, as the case may be!)

In terms of tone and pacing: anything goes. Poetic, rollercoaster, cracky, serious, lightweight, dark…seriously, I’m not fussed. You know what works best for you as a writer. In the past I’ve had gorgeously dark heartbreaking stories, poignant light-weight gen, cracktacular meta, sweet nostalgia, and all sorts of other lovely things. With the caveat that I’m not after torture porn or Ulysses cycled through Babelfish, I doubt you’ll write anything too dark or too cracky for me (this is not a specific request for cracky darkfic BTW, just free rein should you feel inspired to write either/both – and maybe I should note that I prefer emotional/psychological-dark over physical/violent-dark). I love character-centered stories, plotty epics and concise, high-clarity snapshots all equally well, and really respect an eye for detail. Write me something atmospheric or poetic, or plotty of any length, and I’ll be very, very happy. Make it clever and devious and twisted as fuck and I will love you forever!

So…no pressure. 😉

Yuletide also has a number of opt-in extras, and opinions on them vary. I’m basically up for anything other than yuleporn.

What are my Do Not Wants?

• A story overloaded with either sex or violence. Considering sex first, I really don’t want a PWP or pornographic fic for Yuletide. If you were hoping to write porn for your recipient, please put your energies into treating someone on the Yuleporn list and don’t worry about phoning something in for me. Related to the above point, lovingly detailed descriptions of violence in progress would probably be a huge no for me. In both cases, where I’d draw the line depends very much on what you’re writing, and the fandom you’re writing for. If it serves the purpose of the plot then do whatever you need to, but otherwise please don’t go too far beyond the tone of the fandom itself.
• Crossovers – please think very carefully before writing me a crossover. I’ll be throwing a few crossover ideas in further down the letter, but don’t take them as carte blanche to write me a crossover with some random mega- or minor-fandom that I have no interest in. If you desperately want to write a crossover with a fandom that I haven’t mentioned in this letter, please check via one of the Yuletide Hippos, but don’t wager anything valuable on it. 😉
• Unless it’s a standard part of the canon worldbuilding, I don’t want to see young kids dying/in serious peril. This particularly holds if the story’s protagonists are in some way responsible for their fate. Even if the nastiness happens off-camera, don’t think I can’t read between the lines. Please don’t set off my parental angst!
• Anaphylaxis. Avoid like the plague. In fact, if you can avoid close focus on plague/any other medical nasties too, that’d be just peachy. (Exotic nastiness happening to redshirted extras in a Ninefox Gambit fic would be fine, but lovingly detailed descriptions of an OC protagonist being on the receiving end of it… nuh-uh.)

Blood on the Clocktower – the Pandemonium Institute
Characters requested: Any

I love this game so much. And yes, I’m *that* Kat. Because of that my major DNW is RPF/real world settings of any kind for this fandom. Keep it to Ravenswood Bluff and environs.

I’d really enjoy a story that leans into the background lore of the game more than the mechanics. A story that explores the tension between public image and private identity, who we are and who we serve, and the close bonds of trust between friends and enemies would really hit the sweet spot for me. Kill with grace and die with dignity!

You do not need to use ANY of these specific characters for me.
Stealth and not-so-stealthy crossovers with some of my other requested fandoms are welcome here – I’d be very happy with either The Railroad Man travelling in, or Cheris and Jedao as allies-of-convenience. If you have other ideas for potential crossovers, please run them past the yuletide mods.

Dragonriders of Pern
Characters requested: Mirrim, Worldbuilding

The old fandoms are the best, right?

In a Mirrim story, I’d like to see her in her independence, as a leader in her own right, out from the shadows of the women she has grown up respecting and to some degree emulating. How have they influenced her? How does their treatment in life colour Mirrim’s own experiences? How have the double standards she’s faced in her youth (yes, Jaxom, I’m looking at you) changed her approach to the world in her maturity?

Alternatively: go wild with that worldbuilding. My favourite passes are the earlier ones, and I would love to see more threadfall narratives

The Electric State
Characters requested: Any
I’m generally happy with anything here. If you love this book, show me why!
I love a sense of mystery, pervading encroaching doom, hard choices, loyalty. If you need more direction, hopefully my generic likes/DNWs will provide more guidance. The artwork is just so evocative, and I want to explore this setting some more. Take me (but not necessarily the characters) on a journey of discovery!

Machineries of Empire – Yoon Ha Lee
Characters requested: Kel Cheris, Shuos Jedao
Note: Please treat this as an OR request rather than an AND request. If you’ve matched me on this fandom for Cheris and Jedao alone, that’s awesome, but if you were hankering to write for some of the other characters then this is your go-ahead from me. Cheris and Jedao are my favourites, but I love everything about this fandom. I’ve had some AMAZINGTREATS in this fandom before, but this fandom is basically catnip for me. Brilliant minds. Maths and strategy. Formations and sacrifices. Loyalty and delight. Character-focused gen is my ideal story here, and I’m open to AUs/crossovers with fandoms I’m already familiar with so long as the core of the characters and the calendrical mechanics remains a focus.

So, the character tropes I highlighted earlier? That kind of sums up what I love about these books. Kel Cheris and Shuos Jedao just work for me so, so well. Conflicted loyalties and competence! (Khiruev and Brezan, I HAVE SO MANY FEELS.) And the worldbuilding, the worldbuilding is just so. Damn. Cool. Maths and formation manoeuvres, space battles, politics, heretical science, all interwoven with the very fabric of reality. This is definitely one of those universes that I’d really not want to be anywhere near (remembrances! *shudder*), but it’s fantastic reading. It also ticks all of my ticky boxes for unbalanced power dynamics. Oh. yes.

So would I be interested in for a Machineries of Empire fic? High concepts and small moments, I guess.

Here are some prompt ideas if you’re looking for them, including some for other characters or OCs if you fancy writing something in that vein.

• Kel Cheris working new formations, becoming the person we meet in the first book. How she adapts to her new circumstances at the end of the book. Key moments that focus her character. Missing scenes.
• Camaraderie in battle. Unexpected surprises. Jedao being caught out, or (if you’re feeling ambitious) engaged in a complex strategic double-bluff.
• Heretical calendars and their zones of influence coming into conflict with one another.
• Immolation/sacrifice as a general theme, or the nature of sentience under different Calendars, or individual worth, or any kind of symbolic exploration.
• Day in the life of an average person – how do they adapt to a sudden shift in calendrical reality?
• Crackfic. Darkfic. Both?

Old Gods of Appalachia
Characters requested: The Railroad Man

Ah, the mindless march of human progress and capitalist powers. This is a terrifying and brilliant character that I would love to see thwarted by the unexpected, by snowballing incremental acts of kindness and compassion that unpick carefully planned and executed goals. Alternatively, there’s a seductive element to the promises of progress and power, but also clear and ever-increasing costs to the souls that fall under its sway. But above all, The Railroad Man offers a journey. Do the characters who take that journey have the resilience to survive it? Will they be corrupted, or will they be the green shoots that first breach the stony ground? Feel free to get creative with the worldbuilding here.