abluestocking

Fandom 5K 2017

2017-02-15T19:37:08Z

What a great idea for an exchange! I’m really excited to get to participate in the inaugural edition. :) I hope you are too!

So welcome, dear Fandom5K writer. :) Please know that it is incredibly hard to disappoint me. I’m like a kid in a candy store – unless it’s black licorice (i.e., on my squicks list), I pretty much covet anything and everything. I want you to write something you enjoy and love, in one of the fantastic fandoms we share. Does half a prompt inspire you, but you want to mix-and-match it with half of a prompt from another fandom section? Go for it! Do you want to ignore my fandom prompts and take your cue from one of my general likes instead? Fabulous! ♥

I’ve tried to make this letter easy to browse and read, with links and bullet points and all that jazz. Hopefully I succeeded! :)

[things I love] // [squicks and DNWs]

[Sense and Sensibility (1995)] // [Miss Marple – Agatha Christie]
[Wimsey] // [West Wing] // [US Politics RPF]
[Political Cartoons] // [Crossovers]

•• things I love ••

writing things

~ Unreliable narrators.
~ Epistolary fic.
~ Slow build.
~ In medias res.
~ Twist endings.
~ Rashomon style.
~ Noodle incidents.
~ Non-linear fic.
~ Worldbuilding.
~ Five-times fic.
~ Happy endings; earned happy endings.
~ Canon-divergence; codas; missing scenes.

romantic things

~ Falling in love (especially when the characters don’t realize that’s what they’re doing).
~ Characters in love who have difficulty making the first move (particularly if it’s mutual).
~ Established relationships (particularly the old-marriedness and cosy bits).
~ Kissing; thorough kissing.
~ Cuddling and domesticity.
~ Laughter and derailments and affection during sex.

plot things

~ Adventures.
~ Mysteries.
~ Characters with plans; characters with plans that go wrong; characters who adapt.
~ Teasing, snark, and banter.
~ Working through problems.
~ Competence and skill, both earned and innate.
~ Friendships; intimate friendships; developing friendships; trust and love and loyalty.
~ Cats.

general things

~ Any rating – G through NC-17. (If the latter, I am fond of plot and/or character moments in my porn.)
~ Any length. Stories all have natural lengths. Write what gives you joy.
~ Any type of pairing – femslash, slash, het, and gen friendships are all great. I do have a particular soft spot for femslash if you’re putting in background pairings.
~ I don’t have a preference between past and present tense. Whichever works for your story!
~ Crossovers and fusions are fine, as long as I have requested both/all fandoms in this or a prior exchange. (Or mentioned the fandom in a prompt, even if not officially requested.) That way I’m sure to know and enjoy the fandoms you’re crossing!

porn things

See my Yuleporn comment from 2015. :)

~

•• squicks and DNWs ••

~ Pain, horror, and death. This includes torture, gore, and BDSM. (In mystery canons, canon-typical murders are fine, as long as the graphic details aren’t exceptionally graphic.)
~ Anything but full consent. This includes non-con, dub-con, incest, and underage sex.
~ Animal harm. This includes bestiality, hunting, and animal death. (In Wimsey, it would be fine to mention that Denver enjoys hunting and include that as one of his topics of conversation, but I would not enjoy a fic set during one of his hunts.)
~ Bodily fluids.
~ Infidelity by requested characters. (If I’m requesting a non-canon ship and the characters already have a canon ship, please don’t give me infidelity-fic. I’m fine with either setting the fic before the beginning of the canon ship or doing a canon-divergence AU.)
~ Any form of abuse in the relationships or friendships of the requested characters. (Fine to include as, say, backstory as to why a murder victim became a murder victim, as long as the details are canon-typical and not exceptionally graphic.)
~ Unhappy endings; unrelieved angst or angst that doesn’t resolve into a hopeful or happy ending.
~ “Will they or won’t they” tension that resolves into “they won’t”. I love both friendship-fic and friends-to-lovers fic, and am thrilled to receive either; what I don’t want is cockblocky angst in which a ship I’ve requested ultimately decides to not to take the next step or ignores their attraction.
~ Racism, homophobia, and/or misogyny espoused by sympathetic characters.

~

FANDOM NUMBER ONE:
Sense and Sensibility (1995)
Requests: Christopher Brandon/Elinor Dashwood; Margaret Dashwood
Genre Requests: AU – Canon Divergence, Canon Style Plot, Character Development, Established Relationship, Fluff, Getting Together, Humor, Mystery/Procedural

I adore this movie. I love the book too, obviously, but movie!canon is my favorite because of Margaret’s increased role (I love her!) and because I feel like it was absolutely perfectly cast. Also I adore Emma Thompson to ridiculous levels.

I requested one ship and one character for this fandom. I’m perfectly thrilled with a fic that focuses on either of these choices – they’re what I primarily want to see. :) But if you find yourself wanting to add secondary ships and/or characters, or to write a fic that featured both Brandon/Elinor and Margaret, go right ahead! (To take only one possible example: a fic about Margaret that had Elinor & Margaret & Marianne, plus canon background ships.) I love a lot of different ships in this fandom, including all the canon ships, so feel free to go wild. The only exception is that I don’t ship Brandon/Willoughby or any incest.

The most basic idea of what I’m looking for is affection and happiness (this doesn’t mean no conflict or no plot, but I really like my characters and ships to be happy, at least by the end of the fic). Everything else is simply suggestions and ideas! :)

Prompts:
• You knew this one was coming. ;) How do Brandon and Elinor fall in love? (NB: I call him Brandon because that’s what I think of him as, but in the movie they disclose that his name is Christopher, and that works for me when it becomes time for first names. Or if you use him as the POV character.)
• Sweet fluff set between their engagement and their wedding. Possibly including them working together to solve some crisis (that doesn’t have to do with their relationship – I’m not interested in angst in their relationship). Kisses!
• Someone in their lives is murdered, and Brandon and Elinor have to figure out who did it! (Not any of the Dashwoods or Brandon’s adopted daughter as murderer or victim, please. Willoughby is fair game, though.) Or, less violently, perhaps there’s a sneak thief at work in the area, and they have to play detectives to find the culprit.
• Elinor and Brandon being there for Marianne or Margaret during the progression of either’s love life.
• As she gets to know him better, Elinor finds that Brandon has a devilish sense of humor. (Or vice versa. Or both.)
• Elinor and Brandon getting to know each other’s families. Elinor and Eliza (and her baby), Brandon and the Dashwood daughters, both of them and John & Fanny – any/all of the above.
• What adventures might Margaret have? (Optional: and what do her sisters think of them?) Does she travel the world and bring back souvenirs for her sisters’ children?
• Five times Margaret’s family tries to introduce her to the perfect match, and one time Margaret finds her on her own.
• Does Margaret fall in love with another Austen character from a different book (either gender, though I’d especially love femslash), and if so, what are her sisters’ reactions?

Please do feel free to consult my general likes to supplement these prompts! And thank you again for writing for me. ♥

~

FANDOM NUMBER TWO:
Miss Marple - Agatha Christie
Requests: Jane Marple; Jane Marple/Original Female Character
Genre Requests: Canon Style Plot, Established Relationship, Getting Together, Humor, Mystery/Procedural

Jane Marple is my heroine. She’s both utterly badass and utterly adorable, and I love stories that balance the two. Jane will solve murders and win hearts at the same time, and finish her knitting projects while she’s at it. She’s one of my favorite characters in fiction, so I will love any story about her, whether you set it when she’s ten or when she’s ninety.

I love the way Jane comes across as so sweetly dotty and harmless to people who don’t know her (including murderers whom she’s chasing), and how word of her skills spreads among people in the business. I love how she truly cares about her community, and thus does what she can to keep it humming along, while having an astute view of the seamier side of human nature. I love the way her detecting mind works, and how she solves big mysteries by seeing the patterns she’s observed in smaller mysteries.

My topmost, pie-in-the-sky wish would be for a casefic in which Jane was either already in a romantic relationship with a woman, or fell in love with her over the course of the case. But I don’t have my heart set on it, and I’d be totally thrilled with either a casefic sans romance or a romance sans casefic. :) The only thing I ask is that there be no angst in Jane’s love life (unless it’s of the “she might be a murderer! oh hooray, she isn’t” type).

Some prompts:

• Casefic! (You knew that was coming, lol.)
• An AU which adds a long-term female partner to Jane’s life and detecting career would be wonderful.
• Alternatively, a fic about Jane falling in love (whether as a younger woman or at her canonical advanced age) would be fantastic too!
• Outsider POV is one of my favorite writing styles. How does someone who’s not Jane (a detective? A village resident? A relative? A housemaid? A murderer? Jane’s long-term partner? A woman falling in love with Jane?) observe her habits and method during a murder case?
• Does Jane ever try her hand at writing a mystery? Alternatively, does she read mysteries and point out their flaws? (Perhaps to the woman she loves? Or to her cat?)
• What was the first murder Jane solved? Was that the first time she recognized her extraordinary deductive gifts, or were they previously useful in other contexts?
• Does Jane ever train an apprentice/join up with another detective? (Does she end up falling in love with her?)
• Crossovers with other mystery series are great! (Please no Sherlock, however, except perhaps as part of a five-times fic.) Jane and Poirot or Ariadne Oliver, Jane and Harriet or Peter or the Dowager Duchess, Jane and Nero Wolfe, Jane and Amelia Peabody, Jane and Phryne Fisher – I would love to read all of these. (NB: I do ship Jane/the Dowager Duchess and Jane/Amelia, but am happy to read friendship gen for them as well.)

Please do feel free to consult my general likes to supplement these prompts! And thank you again for writing for me. ♥

~

FANDOM NUMBER THREE:
Lord Peter Wimsey - Dorothy L. Sayers
Requests: The Dowager Duchess/Original Female Character; The Dowager Duchess & Harriet Vane; Helen Duchess of Denver & Harriet Vane; Harriet Vane/Peter Wimsey
Requested Genres: Canon Style Plot, Established Relationship, Fluff, Humor, Mystery/Procedural

First of all, this is one of my favorite fictional universes of all time. A fic about any of these relationships being in love/having fun/in the middle of adventures/solving a mystery together/telling each other stories/etc. will make me very happy indeed. :)

The Dowager Duchess/Original Female Character
• When Peter tells her about the murder he’s currently investigating, Honoria realizes with a jolt that the bereaved widow of the deceased is her girlhood sweetheart who she hasn’t seen in forty years. Can she help Peter clear her beloved’s name? And will love re-spark?
• As she gets to know Harriet, Honoria is reminded powerfully of the woman she loved.
• Peter or Peter & Harriet are in trouble! Honoria needs help to save him/clear their names/etc. She’ll have to go to the woman she thought she’d never speak to again.
• Honoria falls in love for the first time in her life, and is as giddy as a schoolgirl about it (much to Helen’s chagrin). [I didn’t request “Getting Together” as a genre for this fandom because I’m not interested in a getting together fic about Harriet/Peter, but for Honoria/OFC I’d totally enjoy it!]
• Honoria writes a letter home to Harriet & Peter from a cruise/Orient Express/American trip, and they read between the lines and realize that she’s fallen in love with someone she’s met along the way.

The Dowager Duchess & Harriet Vane

• Harriet & Honoria bonding doing just about anything.
• Peter is away on Foreign Office work. Harriet & Honoria have to solve a mystery while he’s away.
• Honoria tries her hand at writing a mystery (or other type of novel). What does Harriet think of it?
• Honoria and Harriet (& Peter if you want) go on a trip together. Does it stay uneventful? (If so, fluffy bonding is totally something I enjoy!) Does it turn dramatic? (Time to solve a murder/theft/etc.!)
• (during the courtship years) Peter is out in London when he happens upon a teashop in which (gasp!) he sees his mother & Harriet chatting together. What can they be talking about? Should he join them?

Helen Duchess of Denver & Harriet Vane

So my main prompt for this relationship is: Harriet & Helen are forced to work together somehow. Some ideas:

• Harriet & Helen are kidnapped by a murderer (do they know too much? Stumbled upon a clue? Happened upon a murder in process?) and have to work together to escape.
• Some indiscreet letters of Helen’s are being used to blackmail her. She can’t face going to Peter to help, so she comes to Harriet in confidence instead (even though it galls).
• Gerald either dies or runs off with a younger woman, and Harriet helps Helen put her life back together.
• Winifred (Helen’s daughter) has written a scandalous book, and actually sent it off to a publisher! Helen, blaming Harriet for this development, comes to her to ask her to try to get the manuscript back before it shames the family.

Harriet Vane/Peter Wimsey

• Harriet and Peter solve a domestic mystery together.
• Peter writes a mystery story for Harriet’s birthday. What’s his style, and what does Harriet think of it?
• Harriet and Peter enjoy setting up small mysteries/puzzles for the other to solve. But does Harriet always play exactly fair?
• I really enjoy canon-divergence AUs. How might Harriet & Peter have fallen in love in a slightly different universe? What if Harriet had never lived with Boyes, for example? What if Peter read one of her mysteries and then met her at a party? Etc.
• Outside-POV of Harriet & Peter’s relationship! I adore the letters at the beginning of Busman’s Honeymoon, so anything in that style would be fantastic. But also any story from outside POV, really. Helen, St. George, the Dowager, Gerald, Miss Climpson, an OC murderer caught by Harriet & Peter – they all sound great.
• Harriet tells Peter about the punt incident. They go punting again. ;)
• AU in which Peter is the detective novelist, and Harriet the detective who rescues him from the noose.
• Harriet spots the clues and deduces that they’re going to be grandparents before Peter does.
• Harriet and Peter solve a mystery at their thirtieth-wedding-anniversary party.

Please do feel free to consult my general likes to supplement these prompts! And thank you again for writing for me. ♥

~

FANDOM NUMBER FOUR:
West Wing
Requests: C.J. Cregg/Toby Ziegler, Ellie Bartlet/Donna Moss, Jed Bartlet/Leo McGarry, Abbey Bartlet/Jed Bartlet/Leo McGarry
Requested Genres: Canon Style Plot, Established Relationship, Fluff, Getting Together, Humor, Mystery/Procedural

The West Wing is one of my favorite TV shows. Its idealistic take on politics – a political world populated by basically-decent people trying to do the right thing, in which ‘wins’ are possible and the American people admire and value a President like Bartlet (and later Santos) – is pure comfort food for my soul, especially in the current circumstances.

Please no excessive angst within these relationships, and happy endings only. I much prefer the conflict in this fandom to be external and something the selected pair can face together.

My most general prompt: a canon-style plot that a) focuses on one or more of the requested relationships and b) ends happily. :)

Specific prompts:

C.J. Cregg/Toby Ziegler

• I would love a story about how their friendship turned into love! What was their first kiss like? How do they manage the work-home relationship? How do they handle it when they disagree on a political issue or about how to solve it?
• They get stuck on a tarmac together and spend the time flirting (without drawing the attention of any possibly-roving reporters).
• They announce their engagement and are congratulated by your favorite West Wing character(s).
• C.J. runs for office down the line and becomes (whatever office you want to write). Toby figures out how he fits into this new paradigm.
• Five times C.J. & Toby slept together, and one time it ended up being for good.
• Five times C.J. & Toby were attracted to each other, and one time they took the next step.
• C.J. or Toby (or both) leaves the other the funniest, most irreverent notes throughout their time at the White House. Even though it’s probably illegal to destroy them (Federal Records Act and all that), the recipient does anyway (although they keep a couple of the best for themselves). Or they don’t destroy any and a future historian writes a book about their friendship and the Bartlet White House based on the notes.
• The Santos White House gets in a pickle (whether that’s Congress being intransigent, an accidental ‘secret plan to fight inflation’ PR disaster, or aliens/supervillains arriving), and C.J. & Toby are called in to help out. It’s the first time they’ve had to work together since Toby’s pardon, and it takes a while to reestablish their old rhythm. (And rekindle their old relationship, or fall in love!)
• Was C.J. actually the leaker and Toby took the hit for her? Is that what he thought was happening, but actually neither of them was the leaker? (Who was?)

Ellie Bartlet/Donna Moss
• How did Ellie & Donna get together? Was it a kiss after a tipsy campaign party that turned into sex that turned into something more? Was the West Wing working on an issue that Ellie deeply cared about, and Josh deputized Donna to keep the inconvenient First-Daughter lobbying off his plate? Do they meet up by chance ten years after Jed leaves office, and find that their chemistry is off the charts?
• Ellie thought that once her father left office, she’d never have to deal with politics or politicians ever again. Then Will Bailey calls, and her fiancé Donna starts thinking about running for office…
• Five times Ellie was attracted to Donna (starting with a glimpse on the very first campaign, even?), and one time she finally got the courage to make a move.
• Ellie and Donna announce their engagement and are congratulated by your favorite West Wing character(s).
• Donna goes to Ellie to find out more about (science-related political issue), and realizes partway through the conversation that Ellie is shyly flirting with her.
• Jed finds Donna sneaking out of Ellie’s bedroom at night (I know she doesn’t live in the WH, but during the holidays perhaps), and is initially confused, thinking Josh sent her up to tell him about some political crisis, only for the penny to eventually drop.
• Josh comes over late at night to Donna’s apartment to check on something, and is surprised to find Secret Service standing guard.

Jed Bartlet/Leo McGarry
Abbey Bartlet/Jed Bartlet/Leo McGarry

I’m interested in two dynamics for this pair of ships. 1) Jed & Leo fell in love instead of Jed & Abbey (could still have Abbey as a friend if you like). 2) Abbey & Jed & Leo are in a loving V relationship with Jed as the point (up to you which one Jed fell in love with first). I didn’t really feel any romantic or sexual chemistry between Abbey and Leo (though they were definitely good friends and I love that), so with the exception of one prompt below I’d prefer to keep that side of the triangle a friendship.

• Who made the first move, Jed or Leo, and how did it happen?
• Leo once says of Jed, “We first met about thirty-two years ago, but our friendship began about eleven years ago.” If that’s a euphemism, and it was their relationship that began eleven years ago, after twenty-two years of friendship, why did it take 22 years for their friendship to develop into something else, and why did it finally change?
• Leo and Jed play chess together, and Jed uses flirtation as a distraction tactic.
• It’s Abbey who realizes first that Jed loves Leo as well as her, and she has to decide what that means for them.
• (the exception mentioned above) Leo has been Jed’s lover for eleven years, and he and Abbey have never felt any curiosity about sleeping together and completing the triangle. But now that’s changing… (Optional addition: much to Jed’s amusement and interest).
• (ooops, second exception) Sometimes Leo and Jed and Abbey sleep together, but Jed’s always the focus and there’s not really any Leo/Abbey. One night (perhaps on a celebration high after a legislative or political win?) that changes.
• (AU in which Leo is not picked as Santos’s VP and doesn’t die.) After Santos’s inauguration, Leo moves into the Manchester house with Jed and Abbey. (Optional: other West Wing characters’ reactions or non-reactions.)
• (AU in which Leo doesn’t die and becomes VP.) Jed and Abbey like to try to drop by incognito to surprise Leo at work. His staff/Santos’s staff is amused by sekrit-spy antics (it’s kinda hard to be incognito with Secret Service protection).
• Five times Jed and Leo almost get caught kissing in the Oval Office/White House, and one time they let someone catch them on purpose.

Please do feel free to consult my general likes to supplement these prompts! And thank you again for writing for me. ♥

FANDOM NUMBER FIVE:
US Politics RPF
Requests: Ruth Bader Ginsburg & Elena Kagan & Sonia Sotomayor; Hillary Clinton/Original Female Character; Hillary Clinton & The First Female President; The First LGBT President
Requested Genres: AU – Canon Divergence, Canon Style Plot, Fix-it fic, Fluff, Getting Together, Humor, Mystery/Procedural

For all of these relationships, I’d love a happy story. Not necessarily a conflict or plot-free story! There’s always plenty of conflict and plot in politics. But I’m much more on the West Wing side of fandom than the House of Cards side – I like my politics stories to be about flawed but good people who are genuinely trying to make the world a better place, not about cold realpolitik that’s all about political calculus and exploiting people. And I like my main characters to be generally happy and to succeed. :)

Ruth Bader Ginsburg & Elena Kagan & Sonia Sotomayor

My Supreme Court heroines! I respect these three women and their work immensely. Ruth has been my favorite Justice for forever, and Sonia and Elena have quickly joined her in recent years. (Sonia’s fiery dissent in Utah v. Strieff!)

Some prompts:

• What does Ruth think of Sonia and Elena when they join the Court? Does she show them the Supreme Court traditions and tell them historical/current secrets/scandals? Does she (in private) share her more candid impressions of the conservative judges/other political figures?
• Do Sonia and Elena look up to Ruth? What did they think about her before being appointed to the Court? Does she give them any advice? Do Sonia & Elena bond?
• Do the three of them have a secret code or codeword for when the conservative men on the court are being simply too infuriating and/or casually sexist?
• What do they think of Donald Trump behind closed doors?
• How might their professional relationship deepen into real friendship?
• Outsider POV is one of my favorite writing styles. To take only a couple of examples (feel free to create your own!), I’d love to see President Obama’s view of the three Justices, or the impressions of one of Ruth’s clerks as she watched the two new Justices adjusting to life on the Court, or the thoughts of one of the waitresses at their favorite lunchtime spots.
• Canon-divergence AU in which Ruth is Chief Justice! Or in which Barack became a Justice instead of President (perhaps being named by a President Hillary?)
• Their relationship as seen through the lens of a particular case’s slow progress through the Court’s system.
• A day in the life of oral arguments.
• What do the three Justices do to relax together?
• While I am primarily interested in gen friendships in this fandom, I am also open to Sonia/Elena shipfic. Tell me how they fell in love over briefs and drafts of opinions and half-drunk cups of coffee!
• I would also be interested in a fic about the aftermath of Obergefell v. Hodges, in which a lesbian Elena or Sonia found themselves unexpectedly overcome by emotion at being a part of this leap forward (while still recognizing how far we still have to go). (Bonus points if one/both of the others knew how much it meant to them.)
• An AU crossover with the West Wing in which the Justices are on the Court during the Santos Administration. (With or without the wonderful Evelyn Baker Lang.)
• Cats. For any or all of the Justices. Maybe they even bond over cats! Maybe Elena’s cat has kittens and Sonia adopts one! Are they named anything judicially related?

Hillary Clinton/Original Female Character
This ship is non-canon, obviously. I would love to see an AU that went canon-divergent at a place of your choice, as long as it stayed in the political realm (not a coffeeshop AU, in other words, unless that means Hillary is holding a town hall in a coffeeshop). I’m equally happy with an OFC who is in the political world or who is a non-politician. The only thing I definitely wouldn’t enjoy is a large age gap (more than 10 years).

• Hillary falls in love with a woman at Yale, not Bill, and dreams of the future.
• Hillary takes her oath of office (as President, Senator, Congresswoman, Governor – your choice) with her wife at her side. (Alternate: It’s Inauguration Day! Aaaand things aren’t going so smoothly, due to [shenanigans of choice]. Can Hillary and/or her wife save the day?)
• A quiet moment on a campaign bus, in the middle of a Supremely Hectic Day, between Hillary and the woman she loves.
• Five women Chelsea (or Hillary’s friends) set Hillary up with to disastrous results, and one that clicks.
• An unmarried Hillary becomes President in her 40s. Something happens (superhero regulation act in Congress? Attack on the White House that needs superhero intervention? Etc.), and she meets-cute a superheroine. True love never did run smooth…
• Hillary’s always busy, working late and flying around the country. But however busy she is, she’s never too busy to jot down a quick note, or memo, or love letter, or acerbically funny workplace commentary, to the woman she loves. (Optional addition(s): do some of these come to light in the email scandal? Is this how they get outed?)

Hillary Clinton & The First Female President
I would be equally happy with a complete OFC or a “first female President” who’s one of the rising Democratic stars. If the latter, I especially like Tammy Duckworth and Kamala Harris.

• Hillary on the campaign trail with the nominee. Sharing a quiet moment in the middle of a Supremely Hectic Day, perhaps, or compare/contrasting the current Republican nominee with Trump, or giving an introductory speech for the nominee.
• The nominee on the night she becomes President-Elect, thanking Hillary in her victory speech, while Hillary watches with complex feelings.
• Hillary as sage confidante, either on the trail, helping the transition team, or called in to the White House.
• There is a crisis and aliens attack/supervillains move on the White House/etc. It’s all hands on deck! Hillary comes to the White House and joins forces with the President to defend America.
• Five times Hillary helped/gave advice to/inspired the First Female President, and one time the FFP returned the favor.

The First LGBT President

I’m primarily interested in the First LGBT President being a woman, so the prompts below reflect that. But if you’d rather write one of a different gender, that’s totally fine!

I’m open to the First LGBT President being a complete OC (whether set in a fictionalized political universe or parachuted into our real one), a canon LGBT politician (say Tammy Baldwin), or a politician like Cory Booker who there are lots of rumors about. (But no Republicans, please, so no Lindsay Graham.)

Prompts:

• Everyone tells her that America isn’t ready for a lesbian President. But, well, she wants to be President, and she’s deeply in love with her wife, so America’s just going to have to be ready, now isn’t it?
• The President and the First Lady enjoy thinking about how scandalized most of the Presidents would be if they knew who was currently occupying their Oval Office. (And who is currently stealing kisses in the corner away from the cameras…)
• During the re-election campaign, there’s a scandal when the President’s caught on camera pinching the First Lady’s butt/they break their hotel bed having enthusiastic sex (a la Matt & Helen Santos)/there’s a hot mic moment in which the President starts teasing the First Lady about what they’re going to do later that night. But dammit, America’s just going to have to get used to happily married lesbian political leaders in love.
• The First Lady spearheads a policy push in her area of expertise and the President is so proud of her and just a super huge fan.
• The President and First Lady don’t buy into the Presidential golfing tradition. They’re big hikers instead. Congresspeople and Senators who want to get the President’s ear have to angle for an invitation on a weekend hike, and devoutly hope that they can keep up.
• Five proposal settings the President considers, and the one she decides to go with.
• The President is single, and everyone’s always trying to set her up with people. Partly because America loves her and wants her to be happy, and partly because of course every lobbyist and pressure group in Washington would love to have someone in the President’s bed. It takes everyone by surprise when it’s a superheroine who captures the President’s heart!
• A superheroine has been hardcore crushing on the President since the primaries, to the point where it’s kind of an open secret among her buddies. She maaaay have arm-wrestled (your superhero/ine of choice or an OC superhero/ine) to be the one to respond when (supervillain of choice or OC supervillain) attacked the White House during the new President’s first state dinner.

Please do feel free to consult my general likes to supplement these prompts! And thank you again for writing for me. ♥

~

FANDOM NUMBER SIX:
Political Cartoons (Ilic; Beeler; Sousa; Machado & Rodgers)
Request: Lady Justice/Lady Liberty
Requested Genres: Action/Adventure, Established Relationship, Fix-it fic, Getting Together, Humor, Worldbuilding

When I saw this set of cartoons, I knew immediately that I wanted ALL the fic for them! :)

I’m interested in pretty much anything about the Justice Girlfriends that’s upbeat with a happy ending. (Please don’t have Trump grope them, for instance.)

• How did they first meet? (When the Statue of Liberty was first erected?)
• How did they fall in love?
• Tell me a story about their adventures together! How do they defend each other and the country from those who try to chip away at the rights they protect?
• Do they interact with national symbols from other countries? Britannia, Marianne, Mother Russia, etc. (And what are those symbols like?)
• How do they cope with the Orange Menace? Who are their allies and what are their plans?
• Fix-it fic set in a universe in which they dethrone the Orange Menace is more than welcome.

These are only a few ideas – if you have any of your own, go for it! As long as it’s not angsty or sad, I’ll love it. :)

Please do feel free to consult my general likes to supplement these prompts! And thank you again for writing for me. ♥

~

FANDOM NUMBER SEVEN:
Crossovers
Requests: Jane Marple & Hercule Poirot; Hillary Clinton/Leia Organa
Requested Genres: Canon Style Plot, Fix-it fic, Getting Together, Humor, Mystery/Procedural

Jane Marple & Hercule Poirot

• What do they even think of each other? The idea of these two encountering each other cracks me up. How do they meet? Do they respect each other, or does that take a while?
• Poirot is a guest at a Tuesday Club meeting. He underestimates Jane, and finds out that you do that at your peril.
• Poirot is traveling (he seems to do that a lot) and a murder happens on the boat he’s traveling on. Does he initially suspect fluffy-spinster Jane? Does he fear she’ll be the next victim? Who figures out the solution first? (Or vice versa, from Jane’s POV.)
• Outside!POV – Hastings observes the two of them and draws his own idiosyncratic conclusions.
• A murderer with a flair for the dramatic sets a little competition up for his own amusement – whichever of them solves the mystery first will live, the other one will die.
• Jane, having encountered Poirot/worked with him on a case, compares him to someone she knows in St. Mary Mead.
• Jane and Poirot are both involved in a case, and both come to the correct solution, but from different perspectives/for different reasons/using different clues.

Hillary Clinton/Leia Organa

I’m happy with the crossover going either way (Hillary in Leia’s world or Leia in ours), or with a fusion in which the worlds collide.

• Leia has been reared in a very different political tradition. Her approach to a political situation that she and Hillary find themselves in is – unorthodox. But the more Hillary thinks about it, the more she likes the idea.
• Hillary wasn’t raised to fight an actual war. But when she finds herself in the Resistance or Rebellion, she rolls up her sleeves and pitches right in. Hillary with a blaster protecting Leia’s back… yes please.
• Young Hillary falling in love with young Leia, in either universe.
• Banished by Kylo to another universe when he couldn’t go through with killing her, Leia starts trying to figure out how to get home. That’s hard in a universe that doesn’t know about the Force. But Leia Organa never gives up, and she’s making friends and allies along the way. Also she might be falling in love…
• Hillary only interviewed for a senatorial aide position. She’s passionate about policy and wants to get things done (even though the Senate feels completely powerless these days). She never expected Senator Organa to retire and hand the reins over to his daughter – she never expected to find herself caught up in a rebel plot against the Empire – and she definitely never expected to find herself kissing the new Senator in the cockpit of the Tantive IV.
• Feel free to steal prompts from the other political fandoms in this letter! (West Wing and US Politics RPF.)

Please do feel free to consult my general likes to supplement these prompts! And thank you again for writing for me. ♥

~

Hopefully this letter has been helpful! :) If you want more info, feel free to check out my other fandoms for ideas, and/or my past letters (under the exchange letters tag). A lot of my favorite tropes and plotbunnies are panfandom (with variations, of course, for different characters), and can be stolen for other fandoms or used as inspiration.

Thank you again for offering one of my fandoms! ♥ I know I’ll love whatever you write. :)

Chocolate Box 2017

2017-01-01T08:55:56Z

It’s Chocolate Box time! I’m excited. I missed Chocolate Box’s inaugural run due to a crazy real-life schedule, so I’m excited to get to participate this year. Especially since the tagset looks absolutely divine (as you’ll be able to see when you see the sheer number of things that I’ve requested!)

So welcome, dear Chocolate Box creator. :) If you’re writing a fic or drawing a sketch for me, please know that it is incredibly hard to disappoint me. I’m like a kid in a candy store – unless it’s black licorice (i.e., on my squicks list), I pretty much covet anything and everything. I want you to create something you enjoy and love, in one of the fantastic fandoms we share. Does half a prompt inspire you, but you want to mix-and-match it with half of a prompt from another fandom section? Go for it! Do you want to ignore my fandom prompts and take your cue from one of my general likes instead? Fabulous! ♥

Because I’m requesting the full ten fandoms, and often several ships within each (I told you the tagset was divine!), this letter is long. I’ve tried to make it easy to browse and read, with links and bullet points and all that jazz. Hopefully I succeeded! :) Also, please don't think that because my letter is long I have my heart set on longfic. I will be totally thrilled by a short snippet! I just like to talk a lot, especially about these awesome canons. ;)

Finally, I'm requesting both art & fic. I'm not very good at art prompts, not being an artist myself, but I've tried! I do love art and will love what you create. ♥

[things I love] // [squicks and DNWs]

[Amelia Peabody] // [Damar] // [Goblin Emperor]
[Howl’s Moving Castle] // [Sense and Sensibility (1995)] // [US Politics RPF]
[West Wing]// [Wimsey]// [Crossovers]// [Original Work]

•• things I love ••

writing things

~ Unreliable narrators.
~ Epistolary fic.
~ Slow build.
~ In medias res.
~ Twist endings.
~ Rashomon style.
~ Noodle incidents.
~ Non-linear fic.
~ Worldbuilding.
~ Five-times fic.
~ Crossovers between my requested fandoms. (Jane and Harriet and Amelia in the same fic? Be still my heart.)
~ Happy endings; earned happy endings.
~ Canon-divergence; codas; missing scenes.

romantic things

~ Falling in love (especially when the characters don’t realize that’s what they’re doing).
~ Characters in love who have difficulty making the first move (particularly if it’s mutual).
~ Established relationships (particularly the old-marriedness and cosy bits).
~ Kissing; thorough kissing.
~ Cuddling and domesticity.
~ Laughter and derailments and affection during sex.

plot things

~ Adventures.
~ Mysteries.
~ Characters with plans; characters with plans that go wrong; characters who adapt.
~ Teasing, snark, and banter.
~ Working through problems.
~ Competence and skill, both earned and innate.
~ Friendships; intimate friendships; developing friendships; trust and love and loyalty.
~ Cats.

general things

~ Any rating – G through NC-17. (If the latter, I am fond of plot and/or character moments in my porn.)
~ Any length. Stories all have natural lengths. Write what gives you joy.
~ Any type of pairing – femslash, slash, het, and gen friendships are all great. I do have a particular soft spot for femslash if you’re putting in background pairings.
~ I don’t have a preference between past and present tense. Whichever works for your story!
~ Crossovers and fusions are fine, as long as I have requested both/all fandoms in this or a prior exchange. (Or mentioned the fandom in a prompt, even if not officially requested.) That way I’m sure to know and enjoy the fandoms you’re crossing!

porn things

See my Yuleporn comment from 2015. :)

~

•• squicks and DNWs ••

~ Pain, horror, and death. This includes torture, gore, and BDSM. (In mystery canons, canon-typical murders are fine, as long as the graphic details aren’t exceptionally graphic.)
~ Anything but full consent. This includes non-con, dub-con, incest, and underage sex.
~ Animal harm. This includes bestiality, hunting, and animal death. (In Wimsey, it would be fine to mention that Denver enjoys hunting and include that as one of his topics of conversation, but I would not enjoy a fic set during one of his hunts.)
~ Bodily fluids.
~ Infidelity by requested characters. (If I’m requesting a non-canon ship and the characters already have a canon ship, please don’t give me infidelity-fic. I’m fine with either setting the fic before the beginning of the canon ship or doing a canon-divergence AU.)
~ Any form of abuse in the relationships or friendships of the requested characters. (Fine to include as, say, backstory as to why a murder victim became a murder victim, as long as the details are canon-typical and not exceptionally graphic.)
~ Unhappy endings; unrelieved angst or angst that doesn’t resolve into a hopeful or happy ending.
~ Racism, homophobia, and/or misogyny espoused by sympathetic characters.

~

FANDOM NUMBER ONE:
Amelia Peabody - Elizabeth Peters
Relationship: Amelia Peabody Emerson/Radcliffe Emerson

Amelia and Emerson are such wonderful characters. I love Amelia’s strength and her foibles, her idiosyncrasies and her fabulously distinct narrative voice, her love for Emerson and her love for archaeology. Meanwhile Emerson’s love for Amelia is so manifestly evident at all times and endearing (plus I love his own archaeological fervor). And their banter, conversational style, working together, arguments, and reconciliations are all so much fun to read about.

If you already have a plotbunny - or if any of the general likes in my letter inspire one - go for it! I love surprises. :)

If not, here are a few prompts: How about a story about their relationship over the years – perhaps five times Peabody rescued Emerson and one time Emerson rescued Peabody, maybe? (Or vice-versa.) (Five-times fic in general is great.) Or maybe they have an adventure together that didn’t get recorded in the books. Or maybe one of them is writing an article about best archaeological practices and the other provides input. ;) Or perhaps you’d like to write a story from Emerson’s POV (either first-person or third-person is great). Or perhaps you want to sketch them together, in the middle of a spirited discussion or in the middle of a dig or in the middle of Peabody seeing to an injured Emerson.

Although I have read the entire series, my favorite books are the first five (before Nefret comes on the scene), and I would prefer a fic or sketch set during that period. But if you love the later books (or are writing a series of snippets across the course of their relationship), I will enjoy fics set during that period too! (Keeping the focus on the Emersons rather than Nefret/Ramses, though.)

Some more ideas:

• Outsider POV is one of my favorite writing styles. To take only a couple of examples (feel free to create your own!), I’d love to see Evelyn and/or Walter’s view of Amelia and Emerson’s courtship, one of the Egyptian staff’s impressions of Amelia & Emerson and their archaeological dig, or a child-Ramses narrator telling a story of a childhood adventure with his parents.
• Jane or Poirot comes to Egypt. How do they and the Emersons get on?
• Case fic is of course always loved. (But I know firsthand how hard it is and by no means expect it or have my heart set on it.)
• Does Amelia ever try her hand at writing a mystery? What is her writing style? What kind of characters does she include, and do they bear any resemblance to people in her life? What does Emerson think of it? (Sketch idea: Amelia writing by the fire and Emerson regarding her affectionately – or standing over her shoulder and critiquing.)
• Amelia and Emerson, gettin’ busy. Any rating. Affectionate G-rated cuddles, super-porny romp, or anything in between.
• How legendary are the Emersons in the archaeological community? (Or perhaps a mock essay/historical biography about them written by a modern-day historian!)
• An article in a contemporary ladies’ journal about Amelia, her adventures, her scholarly work, her unique sense of style, and her inimitable husband. ;)
• THE CATS and the Emersons!
• A sketch of the Emersons on a dig together!

If none of these prompts speak to you, however, please write me a story or draw me a sketch that you love. And if something in my general likes inspires a plotbunny, feel free to let that supersede these prompts. I love this fandom and will truly enjoy what you create. ♥

~

FANDOM NUMBER TWO:
Damar Series - Robin McKinley
Relationships: Corlath/Harry Crewe, Senay/Original Female Character, Jack Dedham/Mathin, Richard Crewe/Kentarre

To this day, The Blue Sword remains one of my favorite books. I simply adore Harry. I love her journey over the course of the book, her character growth, and her developing relationships with the men and women she meets. Snatched out of her own world, she creates a new life for herself, and oh, wins a war and protects both of her worlds along the way. And there are so many great characters in her worlds – Corlath, Senay, Mathin, Jack, Kentarre, Richard, Gonturan, and the list goes on.

So! If you already have a plotbunny for one of the relationships I’ve asked for - or if any of the general likes in my letter inspire one - go for it! I love surprises. :)

If not, here are some prompts!

Harry and Corlath having adventures together after their marriage. Narknon’s perspective on their relationship. Harry or Corlath (or both) telling their child(ren) a bedtime story about how they fell in love. Harry or Corlath solving a mystery involving the other (or solving a mystery together). Harry and Corlath in bed. ;) Harry and Corlath visiting Ihistan and overcoming awkwardness/difficulties there by working together. Harry and Corlath talking about a cultural difference they have.

Mathin and Jack get to know each other, and slowly but surely find themselves falling in love. (I like outside POV, so if you do too this could definitely work from Harry’s perspective! Normal POV is great too though.) Mathin & Jack have an adventure, and one of them saves the other one’s life. Mathin & Jack are the indulgent godfathers to Harry & Corlath’s children. Mathin teaching Jack to ride like a Hillman. (Would work well as a sketch!)

Senay & an original female character fall in love! Up to you which of Harry’s worlds the original character comes from. (If she’s from Istan, one thing I enjoy is cultural differences and characters learning to bridge them.) Adventures! Mystery-solving! Falling in love! First times! Senay becoming a Queen’s Rider! Or perhaps Harry & Corlath send Senay as an emissary to Harry’s home country and she falls in love with a woman there and brings her back to Damar.

Kentarre falls in love with Richard and brings her people back into Corlath’s reach at the same time. How tricky are those transitions, especially combined? Do her people have cultural traditions that differ from broader Damarian tradition? Kentarre trains Richard in archery, with kisses (and perhaps more) as forfeits. (This would be fun as a sketch!) The story of how Kentarre and Richard fell in love.

I would also definitely enjoy a story or sketch that included more than one of these relationships.

If none of these prompts speak to you, however, please write me a story or draw me a sketch that you love. And if something in my general likes inspires a plotbunny, feel free to let that supersede these prompts. I love this fandom and will truly enjoy what you create. ♥

~

FANDOM NUMBER THREE:
The Goblin Emperor - Katherine Addison
Relationship: Csethiro Ceredin/Maia Drazhar

I love Csethiro/Maia! Pretty much anything you write or draw about them will make me happy. :)

If you're stuck, here are some ideas:

1) Csethiro's outsider POV on an event from the books.
2) What is Csethiro's reaction to Maia's accession? Being selected as his bride? Their first meeting (or the first time she saw him, before they officially met)?
3) A time when Maia and Csethiro's different childhoods and upbringings meant they had a misunderstanding over something and had to sort it out.
4) Csethiro teaching Maia something about court life/court people.
5) Csethiro and Maia getting to know each other before the wedding.
6) Skip forward five/ten/fifteen years. What does Csethiro and Maia’s life, marriage, and kingdom look like?
7) Canon-divergent AU in which Maia does not become Emperor, and they meet in some other situation. (Maybe his father does die, but not his brother, and his brother brings him to court.) How do they fall in love?
8) Csethiro, Maia, and cats!

Art ideas:

1) Csethiro and Maia's first meeting
2) Spending time together before the wedding
3) Csethiro or Maia making the other one laugh
4) Csethiro writing Maia a letter
5) Csethiro reading one of Maia's letters - does it make her smile?
6) Csethiro and Maia cuddling kittens together.

If none of these prompts speak to you, however, please write me a story or draw me a sketch that you love. And if something in my general likes inspires a plotbunny, feel free to let that supersede these prompts. I love this fandom and will truly enjoy what you create. ♥

~

FANDOM NUMBER FOUR:
Howl's Moving Castle Series
Relationships: Lettie Hatter & Martha Hatter & Sophie Hatter, Sophie Hatter/Howl Pendragon, Sophie Hatter/Howl Pendragon & Calcifer, Abdullah & The Genie, Sophie Pendragon & Morgan & Twinkle & Calcifer, Princess Hilda/Princess Matilda | Witch of Montalbino

I adore the Howl series! (And I like the movie too.) If you’ve matched on this fandom, I’m tickled pink. :) Please write or sketch something that makes you happy, and I’ll love it.

Some prompts, if you’re stuck:

Lettie Hatter & Martha Hatter & Sophie Hatter: I would love a story or a sketch of the three sisters set between Howl’s Moving Castle and Castle in the Air, or between Castle in the Air and House of Many Ways. How does their relationship develop over time, as all three of the sisters mature? What adventures do they have together? What do Lettie & Martha think of Howl? Do they babysit Morgan (and what happens then)? What does a girls’ night out look like for the Hatter sisters?

Sophie Hatter/Howl Pendragon and Sophie Hatter/Howl Pendragon & Calcifer: What adventures do Sophie and Howl (and Calcifer if you include him) get up to between the books? What is Calcifer’s POV on Sophie & Howl’s relationship? What are Sophie & Howl like in bed? What is Howl like as a dad after Castle in the Air?

Abdullah & The Genie and Sophie Pendragon & Morgan & Twinkle & Calcifer: These relationships crack me up. Any story or sketch about them would be great! Missing scene, alternate POV(s), post-book reactions, I’ll love it all.

Princess Hilda/Princess Matilda | Witch of Montalbino: I ship them! Tell me a story or sketch me a sketch about them falling in love post House of Many Ways. :) With or without the appearance of any of the major characters.

If none of these prompts speak to you, however, please write me a story or draw me a sketch that you love. And if something in my general likes inspires a plotbunny, feel free to let that supersede these prompts. I love this fandom and will truly enjoy what you create. ♥

~

FANDOM NUMBER FIVE:
Sense and Sensibility (1995)
Relationships: Colonel Brandon & Elinor Dashwood, Colonel Brandon/Elinor Dashwood, Colonel Brandon/Marianne Dashwood, Elinor Dashwood/Edward Ferrars, Elinor Dashwood/Edward Ferrars & Margaret Dashwood, Elinor Dashwood & Margaret Dashwood, Elinor Dashwood & Margaret Dashwood & Marianne Dashwood

I adore this movie. I love the book too, obviously, but movie!canon is my favorite because of Margaret’s increased role (I love her!) and because I feel like it was absolutely perfectly cast. Also I adore Emma Thompson to ridiculous levels.

I requested a lot of different ships for this fandom! If you want to mix and match any that don’t conflict (e.g., Elinor & Margaret & Marianne, plus Colonel Brandon/Marianne, plus Elinor/Edward, to take only one possible example), feel free. I didn’t ask for Marianne/Willoughby as a primary ship, but I’m fine with that being a background or secondary ship as well.

Some ideas:
• Sweet moments in one of the relationship ships. How do Colonel Brandon and Elinor, or Colonel Brandon and Marianne, or Elinor and Edward, woo each other between their engagements and their weddings? Are there stolen kisses? Or after their weddings, on their honeymoon/starting life together/having a baby/etc. (Sketch prompt: Any of the couples cuddling. Edward stroking Elinor’s cheek. Wedding day!)
• Elinor/Edward on Colonel Brandon & Marianne’s wedding day, still newlyweds themselves. (Is it Edward’s first officiated wedding, perhaps?)
• How might Colonel Brandon and Elinor have fallen in love, if you go with that ship? Canon-divergence AU at whichever point you like is great with me.
• Outside POV of one of the relationships. Perhaps Mrs. Dashwood?
• I love the sisters’ dynamic. Tell me any story about them down the road! What adventures might Margaret have, and what do her sisters think of them? Does she travel the world and bring back souvenirs for her sisters’ children? Does she fall in love with another Austen character from a different book (either gender, though I’d especially love femslash), and if so, what are her sisters’ reactions? Or perhaps tell me a story of a family reunion with Brother John and how the sisters react in solidarity. (Sketch prompt: The sisters looking unimpressed at Fanny. Or the sisters laughing together!)
• I also love Edward & Margaret’s relationship. He seems to really be good with kids, and with her in particular. Maybe Edward & Elinor have Margaret over to visit for a few months when their first baby is born? Or maybe he stands up to Fanny for her? Or maybe a story about Edward/Elinor’s falling in love from Margaret’s POV? Anything that has the three of them bonding is great. (Sketch prompt: Edward and Margaret fencing, with Elinor watching!)

If none of these prompts speak to you, however, please write me a story or draw me a sketch that you love. And if something in my general likes inspires a plotbunny, feel free to let that supersede these prompts. I love this fandom and will truly enjoy what you create. ♥

~

FANDOM NUMBER SIX:
US Politics RPF
Relationships: Hillary Clinton/Original Female Character, Hillary Clinton & The First Female President

Hillary Clinton/Original Female Character
This ship is non-canon. I would love to see an AU that went canon-divergent at a place of your choice, as long as it stayed in the political realm (not a coffeeshop AU, in other words, unless that means Hillary is holding a town hall in a coffeeshop). I’m equally happy with an OFC who is in the political world or who is a non-politician. The only thing I definitely wouldn’t enjoy is a large age gap (more than 10 years).

• Hillary falls in love with a woman at Yale, not Bill, and dreams of the future.
• Hillary takes her oath of office (as President, Senator, Congresswoman, Governor – your choice) with her wife at her side. (Alternate: It’s Inauguration Day! Aaaand things aren’t going so smoothly, due to [shenanigans of choice]. Can Hillary and/or her wife save the day?)
• A quiet moment on a campaign bus, in the middle of a Supremely Hectic Day, between Hillary and the woman she loves.
• Five women Chelsea (or Hillary’s friends) set Hillary up with to disastrous results, and one that clicks.
• An unmarried Hillary becomes President in her 40s. Something happens (superhero regulation act in Congress? Attack on the White House that needs superhero intervention? Etc.), and she meets-cute a superheroine. True love never did run smooth…
• Hillary’s always busy, working late and flying around the country. But however busy she is, she’s never too busy to jot down a quick note, or memo, or love letter, or acerbically funny workplace commentary, to the woman she loves. (Optional addition(s): do some of these come to light in the email scandal? Is this how they get outed?)

Hillary Clinton & The First Female President
I would be equally happy with a complete OFC or a “first female President” who’s one of the rising Democratic stars. If the latter, I especially like Kamala Harris and Tammy Duckworth.

• Hillary on the campaign trail with the nominee. Sharing a quiet moment in the middle of a Supremely Hectic Day, perhaps, or compare/contrasting the current Republican nominee with Trump, or giving an introductory speech for the nominee.
• The nominee on the night she becomes President-Elect, thanking Hillary in her victory speech, while Hillary watches with complex feelings.
• Hillary as sage confidante, either on the trail, helping the transition team, or called in to the White House.
• There is a crisis and aliens attack/supervillains move on the White House/etc. It’s all hands on deck! Hillary comes to the White House and joins forces with the President to defend America.
• Five times Hillary helped/gave advice to/inspired the First Female President, and one time the FFP returned the favor.
• A sketch of Hillary embracing/beaming with pride at/watching with pride/introducting to a crowd the First Female President.

If none of these prompts speak to you, however, please write me a story or draw me a sketch that you love. And if something in my general likes inspires a plotbunny, feel free to let that supersede these prompts. I love this fandom and will truly enjoy what you create. ♥

~

FANDOM NUMBER SEVEN:
West Wing
Relationships: C.J. Cregg/Nancy McNally, C.J. Cregg/Evelyn Baker Lang, C.J. Cregg & Toby Ziegler, C.J. Cregg/Toby Ziegler, Ellie Bartlet/Donna Moss, Zoey Bartlet/Charlie Young, Jed Bartlet/Leo McGarry, Abbey Bartlet/Jed Bartlet/Leo McGarry

The West Wing is one of my favorite TV shows. Its idealistic take on politics – a political world populated by basically-decent people trying to do the right thing, in which ‘wins’ are possible and the American people admire and value a President like Bartlet (and later Santos) – is pure comfort food for my soul, especially in the current circumstances.

C.J. Cregg/Nancy McNally
C.J. Cregg/Evelyn Baker Lang
C.J. Cregg/Toby Ziegler

• I would love a story about how any of these pairs fell in love! What was their first kiss like? (Or how about a sketch of their first kiss?) How do they manage the work-home relationship?
• The pair argues about a political issue (or how to solve it), but makes up afterwards with cuddles and/or sex.
• The pair gets stuck on a tarmac together and spends the time flirting (without drawing the attention of any possibly-roving reporters).
• The pair announces their engagement and is congratulated by your favorite West Wing character(s).
• C.J. runs for office down the line and becomes (whatever office you want to write). Her partner figures out how they fit in to this new paradigm.
• Five times C.J. & Toby slept together, and one time it ended up being for good.
• Five times C.J. & (partner) were attracted to each other, and one time they took the next step.

C.J. Cregg & Toby Ziegler

• They may argue, but there is deep affection behind the arguments. They may not be romantically together, but there is a real partnership there nonetheless.
• C.J. & Toby’s friendship over the years.
• C.J. or Toby (or both) leaves the other the funniest, most irreverent notes throughout their time at the White House. Even though it’s probably illegal to destroy them (Federal Records Act and all that), the recipient does anyway (although they keep a couple of the best for themselves). Or they don’t destroy any and a future historian writes a book about their friendship and the Bartlet White House based on the notes.
• The Santos White House gets in a pickle (whether that’s Congress being intransigent, an accidental ‘secret plan to fight inflation’ PR disaster, or aliens/supervillains arriving), and C.J. & Toby are called in to help out. It’s the first time they’ve had to work together since Toby’s pardon, and it takes a while to reestablish their old rhythm.
• Was C.J. actually the leaker and Toby took the hit for her? Is that what he thought was happening, but actually neither of them was the leaker? (Who was?)

Ellie Bartlet/Donna Moss
• How did Ellie & Donna get together? Was it a kiss after a tipsy campaign party that turned into sex that turned into something more? Was Donna working on an issue that Ellie deeply cared about, and Josh deputized Donna to keep the inconvenient First-Daughter lobbying off his plate? Do they meet up by chance ten years after Jed leaves office, and find that their chemistry is off the charts?
• Ellie thought that once her father left office, she’d never have to deal with politics or politicians ever again. Then Will Bailey calls, and her fiancé Donna starts thinking about running for office…
• Five times Ellie was attracted to Donna (starting with a glimpse on the very first campaign, even?), and one time she finally got the courage to make a move.
• Ellie and Donna announce their engagement and are congratulated by your favorite West Wing character(s).
• Donna goes to Ellie to find out more about (science-related political issue), and realizes partway through the conversation that Ellie is shyly flirting with her.
• Jed finds Donna sneaking out of Ellie’s bedroom at night (I know she doesn’t live in the WH, but during the holidays perhaps), and is initially confused, thinking Josh sent her up to tell him about some political crisis, only for the penny to eventually drop.
• Josh comes over late at night to Donna’s apartment to check on something, and is surprised to find Secret Service standing guard.

Zoey Bartlet/Charlie Young

• Which one runs for political office first? ;) Or do they both run simultaneously?
• Zoey’s aware that her father thinks of Charlie as the son he never had. Sometimes that’s a lot of pressure to make the relationship work.
• Zoey and Charlie consider eloping to avoid the craziness of a wedding (particularly with their backstory).
• Zoey deals with the mental fallout from the kidnapping; Charlie is there for her.
• Zoey and Charlie try to decide who should be godparents for their first baby. They have a lot of people to choose from!
• Charlie gets into political and/or personal trouble, and Zoey finds that she is more upset by this than an ex-girlfriend perhaps should be. Time to save the day (and get the boy)?
• Zoey or Charlie accidentally becomes a superhero. The other is the only person they trust enough to reveal their secret identity to. (Either get-together fic or established relationship.)
• Over the years, Charlie has acquired some of Jed’s mannerisms/storytelling habits/etc. What does Zoey think of this?

Jed Bartlet/Leo McGarry
Abbey Bartlet/Jed Bartlet/Leo McGarry

I’m interested in two dynamics for this pair of ships. 1) Jed & Leo fell in love instead of Jed & Abbey (could still have Abbey as a friend if you like). 2) Abbey & Jed & Leo are in a loving V relationship with Jed as the point (up to you which one Jed fell in love with first). I didn’t really feel any romantic or sexual chemistry between Abbey and Leo (though they were definitely good friends and I love that), so with the exception of one prompt below I’d prefer to keep that side of the triangle a friendship.

• Who made the first move, Jed or Leo, and how did it happen?
• Leo once says of Jed, “We first met about thirty-two years ago, but our friendship began about eleven years ago.” If that’s a euphemism, and it was their relationship that began eleven years ago, after twenty-two years of friendship, why did it take 22 years for their friendship to develop into something else, and why did it finally change?
• Leo and Jed play chess together, and Jed uses flirtation as a distraction tactic. (Would love a sketch of them playing chess!)
• It’s Abbey who realizes first that Jed loves Leo as well as her, and she has to decide what that means for them.
• (the exception mentioned above) Leo has been Jed’s lover for eleven years, and he and Abbey have never felt any curiosity about sleeping together and completing the triangle. But now that’s changing… (Optional addition: much to Jed’s amusement and interest).
• (ooops, second exception) Sometimes Leo and Jed and Abbey sleep together, but Jed’s always the focus and there’s not really any Leo/Abbey. One night (perhaps on a celebration high after a legislative or political win?) that changes.
• (AU in which Leo is not picked as Santos’s VP and doesn’t die.) After Santos’s inauguration, Leo moves into the Manchester house with Jed and Abbey. (Optional: other West Wing characters’ reactions or non-reactions.)
• (AU in which Leo doesn’t die and becomes VP.) Jed and Abbey like to try to drop by incognito to surprise Leo at work. His staff/Santos’s staff is amused by sekrit-spy antics (it’s kinda hard to be incognito with Secret Service protection).
• Jed can’t resist temptation and kisses Leo in the Oval Office one day. (Either passionately or for comfort after a long/difficult day.) They get walked in on by the West Wing character of your choice. What happens?

If none of these prompts speak to you, however, please write me a story or draw me a sketch that you love. And if something in my general likes inspires a plotbunny, feel free to let that supersede these prompts. I love this fandom and will truly enjoy what you create. ♥

~

FANDOM NUMBER EIGHT:
Lord Peter Wimsey - Dorothy L. Sayers
Relationships: Honoria Lucasta Dowager Duchess of Denver/Original Female Character(s), Harriet Vane/Peter Wimsey, The Dowager Duchess & Harriet Vane, The Dowager Duchess & Harriet Vane & Peter Wimsey, Helen Duchess of Denver & Harriet Vane

First of all, this is one of my favorite fictional universes of all time. A fic or sketch of any of these relationships being in love/having fun/in the middle of adventures/solving a mystery together/telling each other stories/etc. will make me very happy indeed. :)

The Dowager Duchess/Original Female Character
• When Peter tells her about the murder he’s currently investigating, Honoria realizes with a jolt that the bereaved widow of the deceased is her girlhood sweetheart who she hasn’t seen in forty years. Can she help Peter clear her beloved’s name? And will love re-spark?
• As she gets to know Harriet, Honoria is reminded powerfully of the woman she loved.
• Peter or Peter & Harriet are in trouble! Honoria needs help to save him/clear their names/etc. She’ll have to go to the woman she thought she’d never speak to again.
• Honoria falls in love for the first time in her life, and is as giddy as a schoolgirl about it (much to Helen’s chagrin).
• Honoria writes a letter home to Harriet & Peter from a cruise/Orient Express/American trip, and they read between the lines and realize that she’s fallen in love with someone she’s met along the way.

The Dowager Duchess & Harriet Vane
The Dowager Duchess & Harriet Vane & Peter Wimsey

• Harriet & Honoria bonding doing just about anything.
• Peter is away on Foreign Office work. Harriet & Honoria have to solve a mystery while he’s away. (Perfectly fine to be just a snippet/single scene from within that mystery-solving!)
• Honoria tries her hand at writing a mystery (or other type of novel). What does Harriet think of it?
• Honoria, Harriet, & Peter go on a trip together. Does it stay uneventful? (If so, fluffy bonding is totally something I enjoy!) Does it turn dramatic? (Time to solve a murder/theft/etc.!)
• (during the courtship years) Peter is out in London when he happens upon a teashop in which (gasp!) he sees his mother & Harriet chatting together. What can they be talking about? Should he join them?

Helen Duchess of Denver & Harriet Vane

So my main prompt for this relationship is: Harriet & Helen are forced to work together somehow. Some ideas:

• Harriet & Helen are kidnapped by a murderer (do they know too much? Stumbled upon a clue? Happened upon a murder in process?) and have to work together to escape.
• Some indiscreet letters of Helen’s are being used to blackmail her. She can’t face going to Peter to help, so she comes to Harriet in confidence instead (even though it galls).
• Gerald either dies or runs off with a younger woman, and Harriet helps Helen put her life back together.
• Winifred (Helen’s daughter) has written a scandalous book, and actually sent it off to a publisher! Helen, blaming Harriet for this development, comes to her to ask her to try to get the manuscript back before it shames the family.

Harriet Vane/Peter Wimsey

• Harriet and Peter solve a domestic mystery together.
• Peter writes a mystery story for Harriet’s birthday. What’s his style, and what does Harriet think of it?
• Harriet and Peter enjoy setting up small mysteries/puzzles for the other to solve. But does Harriet always play exactly fair?
• I really enjoy canon-divergence AUs. How might Harriet & Peter have fallen in love in a slightly different universe? What if Harriet had never lived with Boyes, for example? What if Peter read one of her mysteries and then met her at a party? Etc.
• Outside-POV of Harriet & Peter’s relationship! I adore the letters at the beginning of Busman’s Honeymoon, so anything in that style would be fantastic. But also any story from outside POV, really. Helen, St. George, the Dowager, Gerald, Miss Climpson, an OC murderer caught by Harriet & Peter – they all sound great.
• Harriet tells Peter about the punt incident. They go punting again. ;)
• AU in which Peter is the detective novelist, and Harriet the detective who rescues him from the noose.
• Harriet spots the clues and deduces that they’re going to be grandparents before Peter does.
• Harriet and Peter solve a mystery at their thirtieth-wedding-anniversary party.

If none of these prompts speak to you, however, please write me a story or draw me a sketch that you love. And if something in my general likes inspires a plotbunny, feel free to let that supersede these prompts. I love this fandom and will truly enjoy what you create. ♥

~

FANDOM NUMBER NINE:
Crossovers
Relationships: Amelia Peabody/Jane Marple, Harry Crewe/Amelia Peabody, Dowager Duchess/Miss Marple, Jane Marple & Hercule Poirot, Susan Pevensie/Minerva McGonagall, C.J. Cregg/Leia Organa, Hillary Clinton/Leia Organa

Amelia Peabody/Jane Marple

Note 1: I ship Peabody/Emerson a lot, so please set an Amelia/Jane romance before Amelia meets Emerson, or in an AU in which she doesn’t meet Emerson and gets into archaeology another way.
Note 2: Although their ages get a bit fudged over time because of the difficulties of writing long-running series, Amelia and Jane could arguably be contemporaries. (In Crocodile on the Sandbank, set in 1884, Amelia says she’s 32, which would mean she was born in 1852. Meanwhile Jane’s first appearance is as an elderly spinster in the 1927 short story “The Tuesday Night Club”; if we take “elderly” to be 70, that would mean she was born in 1857.)

• A sketch of Amelia and Jane, either young and exploring/excavating an archaeological site together, or old ladies chatting together by the fireside.
• Amelia is an archaeologist who has a mystery on her hands. Jane is a traveling tourist who finds herself helping Amelia solve it – and becoming bewitched by her sparkling eyes.
• Amelia gives a talk in London on one of her journeys home, and Jane, attending, is captivated.
• Jane comes to talk to Amelia’s academic father about a point of interest, but he’s so absentminded Amelia ends up being the one to entertain their guest. Developments ensue.
• Every child in the neighborhood knows that Amelia has the best stories. Jane knits by the fire and listens, content and happy even though she’s heard them all a million times.
• Amelia finds a historical mystery in an archaeological site, and Jane helps her solve it even though it’s a centuries-old cold case, because ‘people are the same, whatever the century’.
• A late-in-life love story in which Jane and Amelia fall in love during the time period of the Miss Marple stories; maybe a retired Amelia is suspected in a murder and Jane has to clear her name!

Harry Crewe/Amelia Peabody

Although Harry’s universe is a fictionalized version of our own, I’d buy 1860s or 1870s for The Blue Sword, which would make Harry a contemporary of Amelia. I’d be equally thrilled with a story that considered the two universes to be identical (there’s magic in Amelia’s world too, even though she hasn’t realized it yet) or with a story that considered them separate and then brought one character into the other’s world.

As with Peabody/Emerson, I love both the canon ships here (Peabody/Emerson and Harry/Corlath), so please don’t include infidelity or explicit breakups. Perfectly fine to have Emerson and/or Corlath present as friendships.

• How do Harry and Amelia meet? Does Amelia leave Egypt and come to investigate an archaeological site on the northwestern frontier in India, only to hear stories of Damar?
• What does Amelia think of Damar? What does Damar think of Amelia? How does Harry help her adjust?
• Amelia solves a mystery in Damar, and Harry helps (while falling in love with her).
• Canon-divergence AU: Harry’s father doesn’t die in England (thus setting up the beginning of Blue Sword when Harry goes to live in Istan), he’s murdered in Egypt while on a trip there with Harry. Amelia helps to solve his murder and she and Harry fall in love.
• Amelia and Harry knew each other as girls. When Amelia hears about Harry going missing in Damar, she remembers the name; when she hears through the grapevine about Harry’s adventures, she’s intrigued, and comes to Damar herself to investigate.
• When a centuries-old magic starts coming to life in Damar, Harry decides to try enlisting the expert advice of her acquaintance the archaeologist. Proper archaeological practice and defeating evil magic turn out to not always go hand in hand…

Dowager Duchess/Miss Marple

• Honoria has a mystery on her hands and neither Peter nor Harriet is around to help. Luckily Jane is! She’s so helpful. And sweet. And wickedly funny…
• Honoria’s children are taken aback when she informs them that, now that they’ve all settled down (even Peter, at last!), she intends to travel the world with her companion Jane. Only Harriet (and perhaps Peter? Or perhaps not?) guess the full scope of her & Jane.
• Epistolary fic in the form of Honoria’s letters home from her world travels, which (reading between the lines) are full of Jane.
• Honoria and Jane fell in love during their school days, but they weren’t from the same class and their lives diverged afterwards. Now, fifty years later, they meet again…
• Honoria writes to Peter and Harriet on their honeymoon that she’s a suspect in a murder! Peter & Harriet rush back, only to find that Jane’s already sorted everything and is beaming kindly at them from her comfortable chair by the fire.

Jane Marple & Hercule Poirot

• What do they even think of each other? The idea of these two encountering each other cracks me up. How do they meet? Do they respect each other, or does that take a while?
• Poirot is a guest at a Tuesday Club meeting. He underestimates Jane, and finds out that you do that at your peril.
• Poirot is traveling (he seems to do that a lot) and a murder happens on the boat he’s traveling on. Does he initially suspect fluffy-spinster Jane? Does he fear she’ll be the next victim? Who figures out the solution first? (Or vice versa, from Jane’s POV.)
• Outside!POV – Hastings observes the two of them and draws his own idiosyncratic conclusions.
• A murderer with a flair for the dramatic sets a little competition up for his own amusement – whichever of them solves the mystery first will live, the other one will die.
• Jane, having encountered Poirot/worked with him on a case, compares him to someone she knows in St. Mary Mead.
• Jane and Poirot are both involved in a case, and both come to the correct solution, but from different perspectives/for different reasons/using different clues.

Susan Pevensie/Minerva McGonagall

Minerva and Susan are close in age (Susan was b. 1928 and Minerva was b. 1935). I think they’d fit really well together. :)

• Minerva never intended to fall in love with a Muggle. But she goes to a Muggle club in London one night with a Muggleborn friend, and ends up dancing with a beautiful woman whose smile takes her breath away. Before she knows it, she’s falling.
• Lucy receives her Hogwarts letter shortly after she returns from her adventures on board the Dawn Treader. Magic is real, it turns out! Later, when Lucy becomes a professor at Hogwarts (or finds a job in Hogsmeade), Susan comes to visit her and meets the new Transfigurations Professor, a young woman with a sharp face and smiling eyes.
• Minerva commiserates over the trials of grading with her wife Susan, a professor in the Muggle world, and they compare magical vs. Muggle students. (Who has worse penmanship? Does one group have the upper hand in constructing logical arguments? Most outrageous excuse for tardiness? Etc.)
• Sketch of Minerva and Susan grading together by the fire.
• Despite being a Muggle, Susan has experience with magic because of Narnia. She writes a paper about the difference between Narnian magic and Earth magic and becomes the first Muggle to be published in a magical academic journal! Minerva is proud.
• Minerva only lets one person in the entire world pet her when she’s in her cat form, and that’s Susan. (I think a sketch of this would be lovely!)
• There may be an incident in Charlie Weasley’s sixth year involving a large, Not Tame lion and an intrepid Charlie. It goes down in Hogwarts legend, and Susan and Minerva laugh themselves silly behind closed doors. (So as not to offend either Charlie or Aslan.)

C.J. Cregg/Leia Organa
Hillary Clinton/Leia Organa

I absolutely adore all three of these women! I’m happy with the crossover going either way (C.J. or Hillary in Leia’s world or Leia in ours), or with a fusion in which the worlds collide.

• Leia has been reared in a very different political tradition. Her approach to a political situation that C.J./Hillary find themselves in is – unorthodox. But the more C.J./Hillary think about it, the more they like the idea.
• C.J./Hillary weren’t raised to fight an actual war. But when they find themselves in the Resistance or Rebellion, they roll up their sleeves and pitch right in. Hillary with a blaster protecting Leia’s back… yes please.
• Young Hillary falling in love with young Leia, in either universe.
• Banished by Kylo to another universe when he couldn’t go through with killing her, Leia starts trying to figure out how to get home. That’s hard in a universe that doesn’t know about the Force. But Leia Organa never gives up, and she’s making friends and allies along the way. Also she might be falling in love…
• Hillary only interviewed for a senatorial aide position. She’s passionate about policy and wants to get things done (even though the Senate feels completely powerless these days). She never expected Senator Organa to retire and hand the reins over to his daughter – she never expected to find herself caught up in a rebel plot against the Empire – and she definitely never expected to find herself kissing the new Senator in the cockpit of the Tantive IV.
• C.J. shouldn’t be noticing that Toby’s temporary deputy (filling in for Sam, who’s gone off to run in the 47th) is as beautiful as she is eloquent. C.J.’s far too busy to be getting distracted by Leia’s infectious laugh or the wicked curve of her smile. And yet…
• Feel free to steal prompts from the other political fandoms in this letter! (West Wing and US Politics RPF.)

If none of these prompts speak to you, however, please write me a story or draw me a sketch that you love. And if something in my general likes inspires a plotbunny, feel free to let that supersede these prompts. I love this fandom and will truly enjoy what you create. ♥

~

FANDOM NUMBER TEN:
Original Work
Relationships: Madam President/Superheroine, US President/Her Wife, Congresswoman/Congresswoman

As you can probably tell from the other political fandoms in this letter, I really like politics. I’m much more on the West Wing side of fandom than the House of Cards side – I like my politics stories to be about flawed but good people who are genuinely trying to make the world a better place, not about cold realpolitik that’s all about political calculus and exploiting people. So in that vein, here are some ideas for this group of pairings:

Madam President/Superheroine

• Does anyone know the First Lady is a superheroine? Does the Secret Service? Does the Secret Service have to recruit superhero agents to protect the First Lady, or does everyone tacitly agree that the First Lady can take care of herself?
• The President is single, and everyone’s always trying to set her up with people. Partly because America loves her and wants her to be happy, and partly because of course every lobbyist and pressure group in Washington would love to have someone in the President’s bed. It takes everyone by surprise when it’s a superheroine who captures the President’s heart!
• State dinners are a trifle difficult when your wife might have to nip out of sight to transform into a superheroine and go save the world at any given moment. On the other hand, if a supervillain attacks the White House, you’ve got a first responder right on site already, so it evens out.
• Meet-cute between the President and the superheroine she falls in love with.
• The superheroine has been hardcore crushing on the President since the primaries, to the point where it’s kind of an open secret among her buddies. She maaaay have arm-wrestled (your superhero/ine of choice or an OC superhero/ine) to be the one to respond when (supervillain of choice or OC supervillain) attacked the White House during the new President’s first state dinner.

US President/Her Wife

• Everyone tells her that America isn’t ready for a lesbian President. But, well, she wants to be President, and she’s deeply in love with her wife, so America’s just going to have to be ready, now isn’t it?
• The President and the First Lady enjoy thinking about how scandalized most of the Presidents would be if they knew who was currently occupying their Oval Office. (And who is currently stealing kisses in the corner away from the cameras…)
• During the re-election campaign, there’s a scandal when the President’s caught on camera pinching the First Lady’s butt/they break their hotel bed having enthusiastic sex (a la Matt & Helen Santos)/there’s a hot mic moment in which the President starts teasing the First Lady about what they’re going to do later that night. But dammit, America’s just going to have to get used to happily married lesbian political leaders in love.
• The First Lady spearheads a policy push in her area of expertise and the President is so proud of her and just a super huge fan.
• The President and First Lady don’t buy into the Presidential golfing tradition. They’re big hikers instead. Congresspeople and Senators who want to get the President’s ear have to angle for an invitation on a weekend hike, and devoutly hope that they can keep up.

Congresswoman/Congresswoman

• She’s come to Washington to represent the people in her district, fight the Republicans, and make a difference in the world. She’s fully prepared to sleep in her office, work 20-hour days, and do whatever it takes to rise through the ranks. She didn’t bargain on the distraction posed by the Congresswoman in the office across the hall. (Perhaps she’ll have to reframe her Big Plans to include a partner…)
• Meet-cute! I adore meet-cutes.
• The Congresswomen become firm friends while planning a disruption of a debate on defunding Planned Parenthood by filling their briefcases with (unopened!) tampons and dumping them on their desks during their remarks. Congresswoman A starts falling in love when, safe back in their offices afterwards, Congresswomen B does impressions of the sputtering Speaker of the House.
• Normal people have “where is this relationship going?” conversations. Congresswomen have “do we want to go public yet? And if we do, how do we best maximize the political capital?” conversations. And yet it’s still super romantic.
• You know it’s true love when you support and stump for different candidates in a bitter Presidential primary race and still come out adoring your partner afterwards (even though they are Wrong in this case).
• Five proposal settings Congresswoman A considers, and the one she decides to go with.
• Election Night celebrations!

If none of these prompts speak to you, however, please write me a story or draw me a sketch that you love. And if something in my general likes inspires a plotbunny, feel free to let that supersede these prompts. I love this fandom and will truly enjoy what you create. ♥

~

Hopefully this letter has been helpful! :) If you want more info, feel free to check out my other fandoms for ideas, and/or my past letters (under the exchange letters tag). A lot of my favorite tropes and plotbunnies are panfandom (with variations, of course, for different characters), and can be stolen for other fandoms or used as inspiration.

Thank you again for offering one of my fandoms! ♥ I know I’ll love what you create. Happy New Year!

Dear Yuletide Writer, 2016

2016-09-26T09:24:32Z

Every year when fall rolls around – or, as Californians in my neck of the woods have been known to call it, “second summer” – my heart starts beating a little more quickly. Because if it’s fall, that means it’s time for Yuletide! And Yuletide, as everyone knows, is one of the highlights of the holiday season.

Welcome, dear writer. :) I love Yuletide. This will be my sixth year, and every single year has been fabulous. If you’re writing a fic for me, please know that it is incredibly hard to disappoint me. I’m like a kid in a candy store – unless it’s black licorice (i.e., on my squicks list), I pretty much covet anything and everything. I want you to write something you enjoy and love, in one of the fantastic fandoms we share. Does half a prompt inspire you, but you want to mix-and-match it with half of a prompt from another fandom section? Go for it! Do you have a wonderful idea that only really has space for one/some of my requested characters? That’s fine! Do you want to ignore my fandom prompts and take your cue from one of my general likes instead? Fabulous!

Finally, I have received some truly magnificent gift fic over the past five Yuletides. I just want to thank all my authors again. You’re wonderful. ♥

Letter time!

[things I love] // [squicks and DNWs]
[Wimsey] // [Marple] // [Amelia Peabody] // [Damar] // [US Politics RPF]

•• things I love ••

writing things

~ Unreliable narrators.
~ Epistolary fic.
~ Slow build.
~ In medias res.
~ Twist endings.
~ Rashomon style.
~ Noodle incidents.
~ Non-linear fic.
~ Worldbuilding.
~ Five-times fic.
~ Crossovers between my requested fandoms. (Jane and Harriet and Amelia in the same fic? Be still my heart.)
~ Happy endings; earned happy endings.
~ Canon-divergence; codas; missing scenes.

romantic things

~ Falling in love (especially when the characters don’t realize that’s what they’re doing).
~ Characters in love who have difficulty making the first move (particularly if it’s mutual).
~ Established relationships (particularly the old-marriedness and cosy bits).
~ Kissing; thorough kissing.
~ Cuddling and domesticity.
~ Laughter and derailments and affection during sex.

plot things

~ Adventures.
~ Mysteries.
~ Characters with plans; characters with plans that go wrong; characters who adapt.
~ Teasing, snark, and banter.
~ Working through problems.
~ Competence and skill, both earned and innate.
~ Friendships; intimate friendships; developing friendships; trust and love and loyalty.
~ Cats.

general things

~ Any rating – G through NC-17. (If the latter, I am fond of plot and/or character moments in my porn.)
~ Any length. Stories all have natural lengths; I wouldn’t be disappointed by a 1001-word gift (or a 100-word treat), and neither would I regard a 20K gift as a burden to read. Write what gives you joy.
~ Any type of pairing – femslash, slash, het, and gen friendships are all great. I do have a particular soft spot for femslash if you’re putting in background pairings.
~ I don’t have a preference between past and present tense. Whichever works for your story!
~ Crossovers and fusions are fine, as long as I have requested both/all fandoms in this or a prior exchange. (Or mentioned the fandom in a prompt, even if not officially requested.)
~ Since it’s been a topic of discussion this year: if you’re a treater rather than an assigned author, you really do have carte blanche. Apart from my DNW list, go wild. Experimental formats, second-person POV, artwork or meta, the omission of my requested characters, wacky crossovers, crack, silliness – anything you can think of, I’m good with.

porn things

See my Yuleporn comment from last year. :)

~

•• squicks and DNWs ••

~ Pain, horror, and death. This includes torture, gore, and BDSM. (In mystery canons, canon-typical murders are fine, as long as the graphic details aren’t exceptionally graphic.)
~ Anything but full consent. This includes non-con, dub-con, incest, and underage sex.
~ Animal harm. This includes bestiality, hunting, and animal death. (In Wimsey, it would be fine to mention that Denver enjoys hunting and include that as one of his topics of conversation, but I would not enjoy a fic set during one of his hunts.)
~ Bodily fluids.
~ Infidelity by requested characters.
~ Any form of abuse in the relationships or friendships of the requested characters. (Fine to include as, say, backstory as to why a murder victim became a murder victim, as long as the details are canon-typical and not exceptionally graphic.)
~ Unhappy endings; unrelieved angst.
~ Racism, homophobia, and/or misogyny espoused by sympathetic characters.

~

FANDOM NUMBER ONE:
Lord Peter Wimsey - Dorothy L. Sayers
Characters: Harriet Vane

Signup text: First of all, this is one of my favorite fictional universes of all time. Any story featuring Harriet will make my Yuletide a happy one! If you already have a plotbunny - or if any of the general likes in my letter inspire one - go for it! It'd be fun to be surprised with something. :)

A few prompts (more in my letter): Harriet and Peter solve a domestic mystery together. Harriet and Helen have to work together for some reason; what happens? St. George brings someone unacceptable home to Wimsey Family Christmas, and Harriet is one of his only allies. (What might Wimsey Family Christmas look like, anyway?) Harriet and the Dowager Duchess spending time together doing just about anything. Does Peter ever try to write a mystery, and if so, what's his style and what does Harriet think of it? How might Harriet and Peter have met and fallen in love in a canon-divergent AU?

I have had a ridiculous amount of love for these characters for a very long time. Gaudy Night is usually the title I give when I'm forced to pick a favorite book (although it's like picking a favorite child!), and Wimsey is one of my favorite exchange fandoms. I just adore the universe and everyone in it. The mysteries! Harriet and Peter (and trusty Bunter)! Helen being so Helenish! The Dowager Duchess and Miss Climpson being so fantastic!! St George and his hijinks! Photography and old books and poetry and falling asleep in a punt! It's all simply marvelous.

I am attempting right now to not be totally hopeless and just say "anything, dear writer!" It is hard. Some ideas, though, in addition to the ones in my signup:

• Outsider POV is one of my favorites, so what does St George think of the events in Gaudy Night, and his uncle's relationship with Harriet? What about an epistolary fic from Helen about Peter's idiocy in the Vane affair? The Dowager Duchess telling her diary/Miss Climpson writing a friend about Harriet & Peter's wedding and all the commotion?
• Harriet tells Peter about the punt incident. They go punting again.
• What was it like for Harriet to marry into the Wimsey family? To have in-laws like Gerald and Helen, a scapegrace nephew like St George, and a mother-in-law like the Dowager? That's a pretty daunting prospect - was Harriet ever daunted? What were her first meetings with them like?
• Does anyone else in the family ever attempt to try their hand at writing a mystery story, and what does Harriet think of their attempts? They'd each have unique styles, I'm guessing. ;) I'm cracking up imagining a Dowager Duchess one, or a St George one. (I can't even imagine a Helen one, though.)
• Wimsey Family Christmas! Do they play parlor games? What are charades like in the Wimsey family? (Or would Helen disapprove too much for anything like that? Perhaps this is a Harriet-Peter get-together at their London house with St George, the Dowager, Mary, Parker, etc., without Gerald & Helen and all the pomp of Official Family Christmas.) Does the next generation learn how to solve a mystery with Peter or Harriet’s guidance? What does Harriet and Peter’s first Christmas together look like?
• Sort-of combining the two previous prompts, is one of the parlor games at Christmas something to do with deduction? Or telling a mystery story and challenging the others to guess the solution?
• AU in which Peter is the detective novelist, and Harriet the detective who rescues him from the noose.
• What if Harriet fell in love with a woman instead? (My preference would be for an OC.)
• Harriet and Peter on their thirtieth wedding anniversary.

If none of these prompts speak to you, however, please write me a story that you love. And if something in my general likes inspires a plotbunny, feel free to let that supersede these prompts. I love this fandom and will truly enjoy your fic. ♥

~

FANDOM NUMBER TWO:
Miss Marple - Agatha Christie
Character: Jane Marple

Signup text: Jane Marple is my heroine. She’s both utterly badass and utterly adorable, and I love stories that balance the two. Jane will solve murders and win hearts at the same time, and finish her knitting projects while she’s at it. Tell me a story about Jane! If you already have a plotbunny - or if any of the general likes in my letter inspire one - go for it! I love surprises. :)

A few prompts (more in my letter): What was the first murder Jane solved? (Or the first mystery in general.) Was that the first time she noticed her extraordinary deductive gifts, or were they previously useful in other contexts? Does she ever train an apprentice? Has she ever been in love? (I would adore a femslash pairing for Jane.) Has a murderer ever succeeded in deceiving her?

Jane is one of my favorite characters in fiction, so I will love any story about her, whether you set it when she’s ten or when she’s ninety. I love the way she comes across as so sweetly dotty and harmless to people who don’t know her (including murderers whom she’s chasing), and how word of her skills spreads among people in the business. I love how she truly cares about her community, and thus does what she can to keep it humming along, while having an astute view of the seamier side of human nature. I love the way her detecting mind works, and how she solves big mysteries by seeing the patterns she’s observed in smaller mysteries.

My preference is for a fic set around/in/after a new case, rather than drawing from a Christie story (but feel free to start in medias res or omit most of the details if you’d like – I’m not suggesting that you have to write me an entirely new Marple novel or anything). If you’d rather set the fic in an existing story, however, that’s okay too. :)

Some ideas in addition to the ones in my signup:

• Outsider POV is one of my favorite writing styles. How does someone who’s not Jane (a detective? A village resident? A relative? A housemaid? A murderer?) observe her habits and method during a murder case?
• Does Jane ever try her hand at writing a mystery? Alternatively, does she read mysteries and point out their flaws?
• Crossovers with other mystery series are great! (Please no Sherlock, however, except perhaps as part of a five-times fic, since he’s not really in the Yuletide Spirit.) Jane and Poirot/Ariadne Oliver, Jane and Harriet/Peter, Jane and Nero Wolfe, Jane and Amelia Peabody, Jane and Phryne Fisher – I would love to read all of these. I do ship Jane/the Dowager Duchess, but am happy to read friendship gen for them as well.
• Case fic is of course always loved. (But I know firsthand how hard it is and by no means expect it or have my heart set on it.)
• An AU which adds a long-term female partner to Jane’s life – perhaps Jane tells her about her suspicions of mysterious happenings in the village? – would be wonderful.
• Jane falling in love – whether as a younger woman or at her canonical advanced age – would be fantastic. I personally would adore femslash, but if you prefer het I would enjoy that too.
• How legendary is Jane in the law enforcement community?
• How about a fic set at Christmas/during the holidays? Especially since familial tensions often do rise during family get-togethers, so somebody getting murdered and Jane being called in is a real possibility.
• Jane and cats.

If none of these prompts speak to you, however, please write me a story that you love. And if something in my general likes inspires a plotbunny, feel free to let that supersede these prompts. I love this fandom and will truly enjoy your fic. ♥

~

FANDOM NUMBER THREE:
Amelia Peabody - Elizabeth Peters
Character: Amelia Peabody Emerson

Signup text: Amelia is such a fabulous character. I love her strength and her foibles, her idiosyncracies and her fabulously distinct narrative voice, her love for Emerson and her love for archaelogy. Tell me a story about Amelia! If you already have a plotbunny - or if any of the general likes in my letter inspire one - go for it! I love surprises. :)

A few prompts (more in my letter): I know Amelia didn’t have adventures as a girl, but she was still Amelia – tell me a story that hints at the woman she would later become. Or how about a story about her friendship with Evelyn over the years; five times Amelia rescued Evelyn and one time Evelyn rescued Amelia, maybe? (Five-times fic in general is great.) Or, since I ship Amelia & Emerson like burning, how about a story about the two of them having an adventure? (Either a missing scene from a book or an entirely new adventure.)

Amelia is, quite simply, fantastic, and I will love any story about her.

Although I have read the entire series, my favorite books are the first five (before Nefret comes on the scene), and I would prefer a fic set during that period. But if you love the later books, I will enjoy fics set during that period too! (Perhaps keeping the focus on Amelia rather than Nefret/Ramses, though.)

In addition to the canon ships of Amelia/Emerson and Evelyn/Walter, I also ship Amelia/Evelyn (not in the same fic as Amelia/Emerson, please).

Some ideas in addition to the ones in my signup:

• Outsider POV is one of my favorite writing styles. To take only a couple of examples (feel free to create your own!), I’d love to see Evelyn and/or Walter’s view of Amelia and Emerson’s courtship, one of the Egyptian staff’s impressions of Amelia & Emerson and their archaeological dig, or a child-Ramses narrator telling a story of a childhood adventure with his mother.
• Canon-divergence AU in which Amelia and Evelyn are the ones who fall in love. (Or Amelia and Jane Marple!)
• Jane or Poirot comes to Egypt. How do they and Amelia get on?
• Case fic is of course always loved. (But I know firsthand how hard it is and by no means expect it or have my heart set on it.)
• Does Amelia ever try her hand at writing a mystery? What is her writing style? What kind of characters does she include, and do they bear any resemblance to people in her life? What do Emerson and/or Evelyn think of it?
• Amelia and Emerson. Any rating. Affectionate G-rated romance, super-porny romp, or anything in between.
• How legendary is Amelia in the archaeological community? (Or perhaps a mock essay/historical biography about Amelia written by a modern-day historian!)
• An article in a contemporary ladies’ journal about Amelia, her adventures, her scholarly work, and her unique sense of style.
• THE CATS.

If none of these prompts speak to you, however, please write me a story that you love. And if something in my general likes inspires a plotbunny, feel free to let that supersede these prompts. I love this fandom and will truly enjoy your fic. ♥

~

FANDOM NUMBER FOUR:
Damar Series - Robin McKinley
Characters: Harry Crewe

Signup text: Harry! Isn’t she wonderful? I love her journey over the course of the book, her character growth, and her developing relationships with the men and women she meets. Snatched out of her own world, she creates a new life for herself, and oh, wins a war and protects both of her worlds along the way. Tell me a story about Harry! If you already have a plotbunny - or if any of the general likes in my letter inspire one - go for it! I love surprises. :)

A few prompts (more in my letter): How about a five-times fic looking at her different friendships? Or perhaps an AU in which Corlath doesn’t kidnap her; how does her life in Istan unfold differently? (Does she still end up in Damar somehow?) What adventures do she and Corlath, or she and Senay, or she and Mathin, have after the events of the novel? Or perhaps you, like me, ship Harry/Corlath like burning – I’d love to see a shippy and/or porny fic about the two of them.

Harry’s one of the beloved heroes of my childhood, and I’ll love any fic you write about her. :)

Some ideas in addition to the ones in my signup:

• Outsider POV is one of my favorite writing styles. To take only a couple of examples (feel free to create your own!), I’d love to see Mathin’s view of Harry’s training and transformation, Jack’s impressions of the changed Harry and her new role in Damar, or Lady Amelia’s version of her visit when Aerin Amelia is born. Or of course you could use Corlath as your narrator!
• Canon-divergence AU in which Harry and Senay are the ones who fall in love.
• Harry and Corlath, any rating. Affectionate G-rated romance, super-porny romp, or anything in between.
• Does Harry ever travel back Home, whether as a diplomat/emissary for Damar or as a private citizen? Does anyone go with her (Corlath, Jack, Richard, one of her children, etc.)?
• What does she teach her children about her old world (or does she?)
• I love fic about cultural differences. What are the little things that still throw Harry off sometimes, because she’s expecting one thing and gets another?
• Narknon! What does Narknon think of her human’s life, predilections, and annoying tendency to kick her off the bed to socialize with the other human?

If none of these prompts speak to you, however, please write me a story that you love. And if something in my general likes inspires a plotbunny, feel free to let that supersede these prompts. I love this fandom and will truly enjoy your fic. ♥

~

FANDOM NUMBER FIVE:
Political RPF - US 21st c.
Characters: Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan

Note: I give explicit permission for you to include whichever of my requested characters fit your story. You don’t need to include all three together.

Signup text: My Supreme Court heroines! I respect these three women and their work immensely. Ruth has been my favorite Justice for forever, and Sonia and Elena have quickly joined her in recent years. (Sonia’s fiery dissent in Utah v. Strieff!) Tell me a story about them, and you will make me a happy Yuletider. :)

A few prompts (more in my letter): How about the first time Ruth met Sonia and Elena? Do Sonia and Elena bond as the new women on the court? Do they look up to Ruth, and does she give them any advice? Do the three of them have a secret code or codeword for when the conservative men on the court are being simply too infuriating and/or casually sexist? What do they think of Donald Trump behind closed doors? How might their professional relationship deepen into real friendship?

Like I said in my signup, Ruth is one of my heroines, and I deeply respect Sonia and Elena too. I would love to read any story about them.

Some ideas in addition to the ones in my signup:

• Outsider POV is one of my favorite writing styles. To take only a couple of examples (feel free to create your own!), I’d love to see President Obama’s view of the three Justices, or the impressions of one of Ruth’s clerks as she watched the two new Justices adjusting to life on the Court, or the thoughts of one of the waitresses at their favorite lunchtime spots.
• Canon-divergence AU in which Ruth is Chief Justice! Or in which Barack became a Justice instead of President (perhaps being named by President Hillary?)
• Their relationship as seen through the lens of a particular case’s slow progress through the Court’s system.
• A day in the life of oral arguments.
• What do the three Justices do to relax together?
• While I am primarily interested in gen friendships in this fandom, I am also open to Sonia/Elena shipfic. Tell me how they fell in love over briefs and drafts of opinions and half-drunk cups of coffee!
• I would also be interested in a fic about the aftermath of Obergefell v. Hodges, in which a lesbian Elena or Sonia found themselves unexpectedly overcome by emotion at being a part of this leap forward (while still recognizing how far we still have to go). (Bonus points if one/both of the others knew how much it meant to them.)
• An AU crossover with the West Wing in which the Justices are on the Court during the Santos Administration. (With or without the wonderful Evelyn Baker Lang.)
• Cats. For any or all of the Justices. Maybe they even bond over cats! Maybe Elena’s cat has kittens and Sonia adopts one! Are they named anything judicially related?

If none of these prompts speak to you, however, please write me a story that you love. And if something in my general likes inspires a plotbunny, feel free to let that supersede these prompts. I love this fandom and will truly enjoy your fic. ♥

(One final note: Tart/sarcastic opinions on the current election are welcome, as long as you keep in mind that I’m a) somewhat to the left of Bernie, b) recognize Hillary’s flaws but still respect her and deeply want her to be President, and c) am incredibly worried about Trump winning the election. So whistling in the dark comments are fine, snide remarks about Bill’s wandering penis are fine, but Hillary-bashing or a fic in which Trump won would make me sad. Totally fine to leave out the election entirely if this doesn’t work for you.)

Election Day update, through tears: If we matched on this fandom, don't worry, I will still appreciate your fic. ♥ Please just be kind to Hillary, and me; I'm heartbroken and scared and devastated.

~

Hopefully this letter has been helpful! :) If you want more info, feel free to check out my other fandoms for ideas, and/or my past letters (under the exchange letters tag). A lot of my beloved tropes and plotbunnies are panfandom (with variations, of course, for the different beloved characters), and can be stolen for other fandoms.

Thank you again for offering one of my fandoms! ♥ I know I’ll love your fic. Happy creating, and happy Yuletide!

Trick or Treat 2016

2016-09-15T17:20:57Z

Yuletide recs, 2015

2015-12-29T21:07:00Z

It’s Yuletide recommendations time!

Yuletide is one of my favorite holiday traditions, along with our family’s Christmas Eve gift exchange (which takes two hours, because we have many people and everyone has 10+ gifts to open), the family gift game (this year, some of the gifts we fought over included six bottles of wine, a Star Wars calendar & movie soundtrack, the Secret Garden/Enchanted Forest adult coloring book duo, a Tintin bag full of Tintin-themed things, the Firefly DVD plus popcorn, and many more), Mom’s Christmas Eve lasagna, and playing board & card games galore.

And after all the Christmas festivities, after coconut cake and homemade pizza and One Night Ultimate Werewolf and Coup and Ticket to Ride: Europe, I snuggled up with my TARDIS blanket and opened up the Yuletide and Yuletide Madness collections, happy as a clam. (Are clams happy? I wonder where we got that expression.)

Without further ado, I present my 2015 Yuletide & Yuletide Madness recs! I haven’t read anybody else’s rec lists yet, so I hope I’m not duplicating too much. I just opened and read all the fics in all the fandoms I know, and here are the cream of the crop.

Recs after the cut, in the following fandoms:
• Historical RPF: 12th Century RPF/Badass Queens RPF, 14th Century RPF, 19th Century RPF, Tudor History/Twelve Dancing Princesses
• Sports RPF: Baseball RPF, Basketball RPF, Tennis RPF
• Fictional Fandoms: Brave (2012), Colleen (song) – Joanna Newsom, Damar Series – Robin McKinley, Emperor’s New Groove (2000), The Goblin Emperor – Katherine Addison, Jeeves & Wooster – P.G. Wodehouse, Lord Peter Wimsey – Dorothy Sayers, Matilda – Roald Dahl, Mulan (1998), Nero Wolfe – Rex Stout, Night at the Museum (Movies), Orange is the New Black (TV), The Queen’s Thief – Megan Whalen Turner, Sesame Street (TV), The Thick of It (TV), Twelve Dancing Princesses (Fairy Tale)

~~my gifts~~

First of all, thank you so much to the fantastic author(s) who wrote me two fantastic gifts this Yuletide! I love both of them. :)

Solitary as an Oyster (1445 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Lord Peter Wimsey - Dorothy L. Sayers
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Harriet Vane/Peter Wimsey
Characters: Harriet Vane, Peter Wimsey, Eiluned Price, Marjorie Phelps, Sylvia Marriott
Additional Tags: Christmas
Summary: Harriet Vane and Lord Peter Wimsey spend the Christmas of 1933 apart.

• My assigned gift! What a nice missing scene. It's great to see Sylvia and Eiluned again - I've always had a soft spot for them. Their dialogue is snappy and the tone is fun. :) I really liked having Harriet, Sylvia, and Eiluned together again.

Peace & Purring (2167 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Goblin Emperor - Katherine Addison
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Csethiro Ceredin/Maia Drazhar
Characters: Csethiro Ceredin, Maia Drazhar
Additional Tags: Fluff, Yuletide Treat, Cats, Post-Canon
Summary: Csethiro and Maia escape the tenth iteration of their wedding rehearsal, and relax a little.

• A fabulous treat! I love both parts of this fic – the wedding rehearsal, in which the comic timing and Csethiro’s voice are both exceptional, and the garden scene, because a) CAT and b) eeeee Csethiro and Maia bonding. This fic is absolutely adorable, and it’s definitely my favorite of the Goblin Emperor fics (and I’m not just saying that because it was written for me!) Everybody should read this, for sure.

~~the rest of Yuletide~~

i. Historical RPF

12th Century RPF, Badass Queens RPF

The Peggers' Tale (1866 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Badass Queens RPF, 12th Century CE RPF
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Eleanor of Aquitaine/Henry Plantagenet, Eleanor of Aquitaine/OFC, Henry Plantagenet/OFC, Eleanor of Aquitaine/Henry Plantagenet/OFC
Characters: Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry Plantagenet
Additional Tags: Pegging, Femdom, Threesome - F/F/M, Walking In On Someone, First Time, Virginity, POV Outsider, POV First Person, Power Dynamics, Kink Negotiation, Fabliau
Summary: List', maids, while I to you recount, / The queerest of things I did mount, / When to my Lady I'd come, newly.

• Okay, so let me say, first, that this is not going to be everybody’s cup of tea. BUT if you think you would enjoy a fabliau (“a metrical tale, typically a bawdily humorous one, of a type found chiefly in early French poetry”), then you would definitely enjoy this one. And if you love Eleanor/Henry, pegging, historical sex toys, complicated relationships, power dynamics, and/or smoking-hot kinky poetry, then what are you waiting for? Go forth and read!

14th Century RPF

As Was the Style at the Time (1923 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 14th Century CE RPF
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Anne of Bohemia/Richard II/Robert de Vere
Additional Tags: Crossdressing, Gender Play, Medieval clothing porn, fingering, Fluff, Penis Envy
Summary: Anne and Robert decide to compare the fashions of the day. In Richard's bedchamber. In private.

• This is a lovely porny threesome fic with crossdressing and gender play. It is also a carefully characterized Anne fic about trust, complex relationships, and polyamory. Both elements are excellent, and come together as more than the sum of their parts. I don’t usually ship threesomes, but I came out of this fic definitely shipping these three. Plus, it’s hella hot!

19th Century RPF

Act of Union (1771 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 19th Century CE RPF
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Characters: Benjamin Disraeli, William Ewart Gladstone
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Magic
Summary: The lives lived on the surface are not always the lives that matter most. Even when your surface life involves being Prime Minister.

• This is an intriguing AU in which many politicians have magic, and Disraeli’s death brings Gladstone around to see what artefacts he can scavenge. The Gladstone & Disraeli relationship was interestingly complex, and I liked the supporting roles of Cross and Northcote as well. The letter Disraeli left behind for his old adversary is probably my favorite part.

Tudor History

The Last Dancing Queen of England (2487 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 12 Dancing Princesses (Fairy Tale), Tudor History - Fandom
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Relationships: Elizabeth I of England & Catherine Parr
Characters: Elizabeth I of England, Anne Boleyn, Catherine Parr
Summary: On her wedding night to King Henry VIII, Katherine Parr discovers that a strange curse has been laid on all the queens of England...

• See “12 Dancing Princesses (Fairy Tale)”

ii. Sports RPF

I watch a lot of sports, and really enjoy sports RPF for the athleticism, competitiveness, rhythm of professional sports tours, and team camaraderie. How the closeness of a sports-buddy relationship (particularly on a team where you often have to rely on your teammates implicitly) can develop into something more and lead to Feelings – well, that will always be relevant to my interests. Some of these sports I know quite well and would consider myself to be in their fandoms; others I enjoy for all the above reasons, while essentially considering them as if they were original fic written about fictional athletes in their sport. This is a long way to say that I read widely in Sports RPF and will love fic about athletes from gymnastics to water polo to giant slalom! :)

Baseball RPF

Just Like Ice on the Dune (26519 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 15/15
Fandom: Baseball RPF
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Tim Lincecum & Hector Sanchez
Characters: Hector Sanchez, Tim Lincecum, Giants ensemble, special guest appearances from:, Adam LaRoche, Clayton Kershaw, Zack Greinke
Additional Tags: San Francisco Giants, 2014 MLB season, 2014 World Series, Alternate Universe - Magic, Friendship is Magic
Summary: Tim is feeling good. At least, he's trying pretty hard. (Or: the magical story of Tim Lincecum and Hector Sanchez's friendship.)

• I love shippy sports fics, but I also love gen sports fics, and the latter are harder to come by! This is a fabulous, meaty (26K!) gen fic which is all about friendship. Oh, and magic. Maybe I should have put that first? ;) Tim Lincecum is magic, and in between keeping up the spells on the team’s equipment and trying not to get involved in magic duels with a pissed-off Clayton Kershaw, he becomes really good friends with Hector Sanchez. Even if Hector does tease him by referring to Hogwarts a lot.

The Best at What He Does (706 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Baseball RPF
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Dan Uggla, Freddie Freeman, Bryce Harper, Jayson Werth, Denard Span, Tyler Moore, Gio Gonzalez, Yunel Escobar, Felipe Rivero, Matt Williams
Additional Tags: Hugs, Washington Nationals, 2015 MLB Season
Summary: ...and what he does is give hugs.

• Apparently Dan Uggla is canonically known for being a huge fan of in-game hugging and even having daily hugs in place with at least one teammate. (The ficlet links an article which reads like fanfic, haha.) This is a cute snippet with tons of hugs.

Basketball RPF

The Harden Trade (5973 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Basketball RPF
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Kevin Durant/Russell Westbrook
Summary: When the front office trades Harden to the Rockets, Russell calls Kevin. It’s not a decision so much as an instinct, something unconscious, like finding the lane, knowing the pass from Kevin is coming. Like muscle memory.

• This is a great first-time story with an excellent slow build. I love friends-to-lovers, and this fic does it really well. Lots of support through injuries (another athletic trope I love), and a sweet ending.

Tennis RPF

The Fighter (22397 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 2/2
Fandom: Tennis RPF
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Novak Djokovic/Andy Murray, Andy Murray/Rafael Nadal
Characters: Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, Jamie Murray, Rafael Nadal, Toni Nadal, Amélie Mauresmo, Boris Becker, Carlos Moya
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Origin Story
Summary: Andy's origin story. Or, the one where Andy develops a superpower and takes the long road to becoming a superhero.

• Poor Andy has a long road to mastering his powers! This is a really great novella which I quite enjoyed. Andy’s self … self-beratement? hard on himself-ness? self-censure? … feels very real to life, and is cleverly adapted for this superhero/superpowers AU. Many secondary roles also shine, and I have to particularly call out Amélie, who was excellent (and my favorite). If you like sports RPF and/or superpowers AUs, definitely check this fic out.

Bet On It (9096 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Tennis RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Eugenie Bouchard/Maria Sharapova
Characters: Eugenie Bouchard, Maria Sharapova
Additional Tags: Rivalry, Mentor/Protégé
Summary: Genie knows that to be the best, you've got to learn from the best.

• Neither Genie nor Maria is one of my favorite tennis players. Actually, I usually can’t stand Genie these days, although I do feel very sorry for her that the concussion has stalled her career, and hope she gets better soon. That said, this is a fantastic fic, went a long way towards reconciling me to Genie’s particular brand of crazy-competitiveness make-no-friends, and left me shipping Genie/Maria. So whoa! It’s not every fic that can give me a new ship, but this one definitely did. It’s very well-written, thoughtfully characterized, and nicely paced. Plus it has a lovely ending.

iii. Fictional Canons

Brave (2012)

Not Yet Legends (8525 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 2/2
Fandom: Brave (2012)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Elinor/Fergus (Brave)
Characters: Elinor (Brave), Fergus (Brave), Maudie (Brave)
Additional Tags: Arranged Marriage, Pre-Canon, underage betrothal but not marriage, Getting to Know Each Other, Beginnings
Summary: When Elinor was twelve years old, she decided she was going to become a princess. She also met Fergus. When she was twenty, she met him for the second time. And ended up becoming a Queen.

• Beautiful fic that shows us how Elinor became the person she was. Also starring young!Fergus, who is adorably fierce when Elinor is insulted and fascinated by her hair (but is too shy to look straight at her at first), and Maudie. I thoroughly loved reading about Elinor and her maturation, and the worldbuilding is first-rate.

Colleen (song) – Joanna Newsom

Every Beginning Has Broken Its Promise (1682 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Colleen - Joanna Newsom (song)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Colleen (Colleen - Joanna Newsom)
Additional Tags: Yuletide Treat
Summary: Scraps for sale and the saddest songs and a girl who never truly drowned.

• Lyrical and evocative, with some of the most beautiful prose I’ve read this Yuletide. I love the song this fic is based on, and the fic truly does it justice. Definitely read it (and listen to the song!)

Damar Series – Robin McKinley

honeysuckle and lilac (2279 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Damar Series - Robin McKinley
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Corlath/Harry Crewe
Characters: Harry Crewe, Jack Dedham, Corlath (Damar), Senay (Damar)
Additional Tags: Friendship, Loyalty, Found Family, Fluff
Summary: When Harry lived in Ihistan, her dreams were always of the land outside her window.</p>

Now she wakes at Corlath's side from dreams of a land a world away.

• The Blue Sword has been one of my favorite books since I was a teenager, and I always hope to see Yuletide fic for it. This is a beautiful found-family story set during the epilogue (between Harry & Corlath’s marriage and the birth of their first son). I loved the structure, the themes, and the lyricism of the prose.

Emperor’s New Groove (2000)

The Decision (1084 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Emperor's New Groove (2000)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Yzma (Emperor's New Groove), Kronk (Emperor's New Groove), Kronk's Shoulder Devil, Kronk's Shoulder Angel
Additional Tags: Humor, Poor Life Choices, Supernatural Elements, Yuletide Treat, Pre-Canon
Summary: Kronk makes the mistake of outsourcing one of the biggest choices he's ever made to his shoulder angel and devil. Yep. This is gonna go poorly...

• There are a lot of Emperor’s New Groove fics in the collections this year (and if you like the canon, check them all out!), but this one was my favorite because of the great Kronk voice. Oh, and also all the shoulder devil vs. shoulder angel, because that dynamic never fails to make me laugh. Lots of fun, snappy dialogue.

Jeeves & Wooster – Wodehouse

The Rummy Affair of the Brinkley Ball (6667 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Jeeves & Wooster, Jeeves - P. G. Wodehouse
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Reginald Jeeves/Bertram Wooster, Madeline Bassett/Honoria Glossop
Characters: Bertram Wooster, Reginald Jeeves, Madeline Bassett, Honoria Glossop, Dahlia Travers, Bingo Little
Additional Tags: Beards (Relationships), Hijinks & Shenanigans, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Farce
Summary:
BERTIE STOP THE MOST DREADFUL THING STOP THERE IS TO BE A BALL AT BRINKLEY COURT STOP H AND I SURE TO BE DISCOVERED STOP CALL UPON YOUR HELP STOP SOME SUBTERFUGE WILL BE CALLED FOR STOP H SAYS NO USE ASKING YOU BUT PERHAPS JEEVES STOP
In which there are unlikely allies, a party, and everyone is everyone else's beard.

• Yuletide always seems to give us at least one great Jeeves & Wooster fic, and this year is no exception. Contains plans and hijinks, some lovely Jeeves/Wooster, and found family. My favorite part was unexpectedly Madeline/Honoria – I came out shipping them mightily – but all of it is pretty great. :)

Lord Peter Wimsey – Dorothy Sayers

Christmas at Duke's Denver (2501 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Lord Peter Wimsey - Dorothy L. Sayers
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Harriet Vane/Peter Wimsey
Characters: Peter Wimsey, Harriet Vane, The Dowager Duchess
Additional Tags: Christmas Eve
Summary: Contrary to her own expectations, Harriet found the various huntin’, shootin’, and fishin’ types remarkably easy to talk to. She asked after the huntin’, shootin’, and fishin’, they asked after the murder-writing business, and everyone agreed that the weather was very fine for this time of year and wasn’t the salmon good, what?

• Harriet and Peter are perfectly lovely in this, and I adore the holiday theme. Helen and the Duchess are excellent secondary characters, and Milly & Tilly are fabulous additions. Love the characterization, love the dialogue, love the little touches throughout that take the fic to the next level. Really well done.

Matilda – Roald Dahl

Heroines (4887 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Matilda - Roald Dahl
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Matilda Wormwood, Jennifer Honey, Original Characters
Additional Tags: Found Family
Summary: “If the heroine of one novel be not patronized by the heroine of another, from whom can she expect protection and regard?” - Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

Or, (mostly) together and (occasionally) apart, Matilda and Miss Honey measure their lives in heroines.

• I like the style and structure of this fic very much. Matilda’s heroines inspire the sections and give them themes, gently tracing her growing-up years and the happiness she finds with Miss Honey. (I also love the “Miss Honey and the vicar” subplot.) The dialogue is excellent, and the prose quite pretty.

Mulan (1998)

The Ten Thousandth Mile (5677 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Mulan (1998)
Rating: Teen and Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationship: Fa Mulan/Li Shang
Summary: A journey that began so long ago ends with a closing of distance.

• When the Emperor sends them on a mission together, Mulan and Shang overcome the awkwardness between them and grow closer. Along the way they deal with a couple Huns (naturally). Beautiful imagery, and a fun fluffy fic.

Nero Wolfe – Rex Stout

Lies and Jest (5106 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Nero Wolfe - Rex Stout
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Archie Goodwin, Nero Wolfe
Additional Tags: Pre-Slash, Mystery, Case Fic
Summary: Archie starts to see the world from a new perspective and Wolfe gets some lobsters.

• I feel like Nero Wolfe is a particularly hard canon to pastiche, but this fic does a dang good job. It’s at once an excellent case fic, with plenty of Archie and Wolfe to enjoy, and a lovely pre-slash ‘realization’ piece. (And as always, Wolfe appears to be one step ahead…) I really enjoyed this one.

100 Words in the Brownstone (823 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Nero Wolfe - Rex Stout
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Archie Goodwin/Nero Wolfe
Characters: Nero Wolfe, Archie Goodwin, Saul Panzer
Additional Tags: Sex Pollen, Established Relationship, Alternate Universe - Pirate, Bodyswap, Gender or Sex Swap, Everyone Thinks They're Together, Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot
Summary: The stories I didn’t write for Yuletide, told as drabbles.

• Even if you don’t usually read drabbles, give these a shot. They’re hilarious. (And I would read all of them as full stories!)

Night at the Museum (Movies)

Paper Planes (4372 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Night at the Museum (Movies)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Jedediah/Octavius (Night at the Museum)
Characters: Jedediah (Night at the Museum), Octavius (Night at the Museum), Tilly (Night at the Museum)
Additional Tags: Post-Night at the Museum 3: Secret of the Tomb, Friends to Lovers, Tiny Badasses, Humor, A little angst, and Jedediah's thoughts on respectable underwear
Summary: Saving the day is easy. Surviving the ~~morning~~ evening after the night before — not so much.

• So, I’ve wanted a really good Jedediah/Octavius first-time fic for FOREVER. (Doesn’t everyone who watches those movies?) And guess what? This is exactly that fic! It’s hilariously funny, with a spot-on Jed voice and lots of great one-liners, and it’s also absolutely adorable and gives the two of them their happy ending in a believable, wonderful way. Two cowboy thumbs up.

Orange is the New Black (TV)

sea of love (2402 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Orange is the New Black
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Poussey Washington/Others, Brook Soso/Poussey Washington (implied)
Characters: Poussey Washington, Tasha "Taystee" Jefferson, Brook Soso
Additional Tags: Character Study, Loss, Love
Summary: "She will never love you. Not the way that you want," Vee had said, like it still had the possibility to hurt, like it wasn't an old wound, already scarred over; like Poussey hadn't already come to terms with the fact that when it came to love, what she wanted and what she got were two very different things.

Or: Four times Poussey loved someone, and it didn't matter anyway, and the one time that maybe, just maybe, it might.

• Poussey is my everything, so this angsty fic tore at my heartstrings in a perfectly painful way. Luckily for me and my heart, there is hope as well as loss.

Sweet and Sour (3258 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Orange is the New Black
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Cindy "Black Cindy" Hayes, Suzanne "Crazy Eyes" Warren, Poussey Washington, Galina "Red" Reznikov, Piper Chapman, Janae Watson, Mei Chang (Orange is the New Black), Ginsberg (Orange is the New Black)
Additional Tags: Explicit Language, Bechdel Test Pass, Misses Clause Challenge, Female Friendship, Female Character of Color, Ensemble Cast, Post S3
Summary: Now that she's Jewish, what will Cindy do on Christmas?

• Don’t be scared away by the abundance of tags! This is a lovely fic that has lots of humor, lots of heart, and a perfect Cindy. Cindy and Suzanne’s and Cindy and Ginsberg’s scenes are my favorites. Although Chang is also fantastic!!

The Queen’s Thief – Megan Whalen Turner

for sins and false alarms (8047 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Queen's Thief - Megan Whalen Turner
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Hilarion/Philologos, Canon Relationship(s)
Characters: Hilarion (Queen's Thief), Philologos (Queen's Thief), Eugenides (Queen's Thief), Attolia (Queen's Thief), Attendant Ensemble
Additional Tags: Loyalty, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Minor Canonical Character(s), Post-KoA
Summary: A single rumor could move mountains, or topple thrones. Sejanus had been very good at this game, but Hilarion knew better than to think it one of his own strengths. Then again, political acuity had gotten Sejanus imprisoned, his brother exiled, and his house doomed to crumble away with no son to inherit it, and Hilarion, for all his faults, would not make the same mistake twice. But he could not imagine standing before their cranky, sleep-rumpled king and telling Attolis that he ought to be careful of a mere rumor.

• Outsider POV is one of my favorite techniques, and this story uses it very well. It’s great to see Gen’s adjustment to being King from the point of view of one of his attendants, and to see how the attendants have to adjust in turn. Attolia and Gen’s public discussions/arguments are particularly fun, and the process of Gen Steals Hilarion’s Allegiance is fantastic.

Sesame Street (TV)

The 5 Most Important Cookies (908 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Sesame Street (TV), Sesame Street - All Media Types
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Cookie Monster, Big Bird, Count Von Count
Additional Tags: Implied/Referenced Character Death, Friendship, Childhood, Backstory, Food, Yuletide Treat, Yuletide Madness 2015, Mourning, Celebrations, Weddings, Humor
Summary: Just what it says on the tin, the five most momentous cookies in Cookie Monster's life.

• Cookies! And Cookie Monster at his most adorable. This one will bring a smile to your face.

The Thick of It (TV)

Playing the game (2501 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Thick of It (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Sam Cassidy, Malcolm Tucker, Jamie MacDonald
Summary: Malcolm has 18 hours to establish himself as a political colossus. Sam does it in five.

• Okay, I love Sam Cassidy, fair warning. (I also love Malcolm Tucker, a whole fuckin’ lot, but for now we’ll confine ourselves to Sam.) This fic is unabashedly Sam-centric, and I love how excellent a partner she makes for Malcolm. She may gently push and pull a few levers, just little nudges with an innocent face, instead of swearing and threatening and browbeating people into compliance, but she’s excellent at what she does and it’s really satisfying to see Malcolm properly value her work. (Which is totally in-character for him.)

Twelve Dancing Princesses (Fairy Tale)

The Last Dancing Queen of England (2487 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 12 Dancing Princesses (Fairy Tale), Tudor History - Fandom
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Relationships: Elizabeth I of England & Catherine Parr
Characters: Elizabeth I of England, Anne Boleyn, Catherine Parr
Summary: On her wedding night to King Henry VIII, Katherine Parr discovers that a strange curse has been laid on all the queens of England...

• I love fairytales and I love Tudor history, so reading this mashup between the two was a joy. Picking Katherine Parr as the POV character was inspired – she usually doesn’t get as much attention as her more famous predecessors, but she was a really interesting figure and she shines in this fic. I also love little Elizabeth’s role. And it’s neat to read about all of Henry’s wives getting to know each other over the years.

Turning (100 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 12 Dancing Princesses (Fairy Tale)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: The Youngest Princess
Additional Tags: Drabble, yumadrin, Loss
Summary: The youngest.

• This is an achingly lyrical drabble about what it means to the youngest princess to lose something she’s always known.

The Tragedy of the Master-Cobbler (100 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 12 Dancing Princesses (Fairy Tale)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Drabble, Yuletide Madness Drabble Invitational
Summary: The Master-Cobbler loses his best customer.

• In contrast to the last, this drabble is a funny one; it looks at the consequences of the princesses’ freedom for more mundane folk.

~//~

That's it from me! I hope you enjoyed all my recs, and I hope you enjoyed Yuletide 2015! Happy New Year. :)

Dear Yuletide Writer, 2015

2015-10-14T17:01:43Z

Hello, lovely fellow Yuletider! I’m really happy that we’ve been matched. You obviously have excellent taste, since you’ve offered one of my fandoms. ;) But seriously, I’m really excited to see what you write. You’re awesome. ♥

Things I love: adventures, falling in love (especially when the characters don’t realise that’s what they’re doing), unreliable narrators, slow build, characters with plans, characters with plans that go wrong, characters in love who have difficulty making the first move (particularly if the person they're pining for is in love with them too and having similar troubles), epistolary fic, teasing, snark, established relationships (particularly the old-marriedness and cosy bits), kissing, thorough kissing, worldbuilding, magic, working through problems, laughter and derailments and affection during sex, cuddling, domesticity, happy endings. (More porn likes, if that’s your thing.)

Dislikes and squicks: gore, scat, torture, bestiality, under-age sex, incest, non-con. Also, I’m a vegan. This isn’t a big deal usually – feel free to have people eating cheeseburgers in the background or whatever. It’s only a squick for me if the eating of animals is graphic, dwelt on at length, and/or raw.

On to the fandoms and ships!

♥ ♥ ♥

~//~

FANDOM NUMBER ONE:
The Goblin Emperor
Character: Csethiro Ceredin

Signup text: I love Csethiro! Pretty much anything you write about her will make me happy, except for the things on my DNW list. If you already have a plotbunny about her - or if any of my general likes inspire one - go for it! It'd be fun to be surprised with something. :)

Bonding, cats, worldbuilding, court manners, porn, adventures, outsider POV, canon-divergent AUs – anything and everything will make me happy! Some prompts in my letter, if you’re stuck, along with general likes and DNWs.

If you're stuck, here are some ideas from me:
• Cats are the symbol of House Drazhada, so tell me a story about cats! The time a cat adopted Maia. The time Csethiro’s cat had kittens and she gave one to her fiancée/found her husband up at night petting them/had to chase them out of state papers.
• Csethiro's outsider POV on an event from the books.
• What is Csethiro's reaction to Maia's accession? Being selected as his bride? Their first meeting (or the first time she saw him, before they officially met)? How does he compare to the young courtiers she knows?
• Csethiro has an adventure. It may involve going undercover.
• A time when Maia and Csethiro's different childhoods and upbringing meant they had a misunderstanding over something and had to sort it out.
• Csethiro teaching Maia something about court life/court people.
• Csethiro and Maia getting to know each other before the wedding (whether that’s completely innocent bonding time, or something a bit higher-rated).
• Csethiro meets Shaleän Sevraseched, Maia’s sea-captain aunt, who has come to court (with her wife?) on business (or just to see her nephew). How do they get along? What is Shaleän’s story?
• Csethiro solves a mystery.
• Csethiro talks to someone (family member? friend?) about what her expectations had been when she was chosen to be Empress, and how it's played out instead.
• Csethiro goes on a visit (with or without Maia) to the court of the Great Avar. Why does she go? Who does she meet? What happens there? Do things Not Go As Planned?
• Skip forward five/ten/fifteen years. What does Csethiro's life look like? What is she teaching her children about their family's history/how to be a proper royal/etc.? How does she incorporate Maia’s goblin heritage?
• Canon-divergent AU in which Maia does not become Emperor, and they meet in some other situation. (Maybe his father does die, but not his brother, and his brother brings him to court.) Romance or friendship, your choice.
• Or perhaps you don't want to write Maia at all! If so - what about Csethiro's relationship with any other character in the book? (Surprise me.) How does she relate to them? What does she think of their choices?

I am completely up for porn in this fandom as well. I do like my porn with characterization and/or plot involved as well as the porny bits. :)

I am equally up for worldbuilding, particularly anything involving Csethiro, her life, her role, her family, her pre-Maia experiences, etc.

♥ ♥ ♥

FANDOM NUMBER TWO:
Lord Peter Wimsey - Dorothy L. Sayers
Characters: Harriet Vane, Helen Duchess of Denver, Dowager Duchess

Signup text: First of all, this is one of my favorite fictional universes of all time. If you write me a story featuring one or more of my requested characters, you will already be making my Yuletide a very happy one. If you already have a plotbunny - or if any of the general likes in my letter inspire one - go for it! It'd be fun to be surprised with something. :)

A few prompts (more in my letter): What would a Wimsey Family Christmas look like? Does anyone else in the family ever try to write a mystery novel like Harriet, and to what success? What kind of an uncle is St George? How might Harriet and Peter meet and fall in love in a canon-divergent AU?

I have had a ridiculous amount of love for these characters for a very long time. Gaudy Night is usually the title I give when I'm forced to pick a favorite book (although it's like picking a favorite child!), and Wimsey is one of my favorite exchange fandoms. I just adore the universe and everyone in it. The mysteries! Harriet and Peter (and trusty Bunter)! Helen being so Helenish (I confess to a giant soft spot for her)! The Dowager Duchess and Miss Climpson being so fantastic!! St George and his hijinks! Photography and old books and poetry and falling asleep in a punt! It's all simply marvellous.

I am attempting right now to not be totally hopeless and just say "anything, dear writer!" It is hard. Some ideas, though, in addition to the ones in my signup text:

• Outsider POV is one of my favorites, so what does St George think of the events in Gaudy Night? What about an epistolary fic from Helen about Peter's idiocy in the Vane affair (or a non-epistolary fic about Helen's reaction to her husband being tried for murder)? The Dowager Duchess telling her diary about Harriet & Peter's wedding and all the commotion?
• Who does St George fall in love with, and what do his relatives think of this person? Slash or het are both fine.
• Anything Helen, hahaha. I love her. It strikes me that I don't really remember any interactions between St George & his mother in the books - you could correct this deficit! What does she think when he gets into one of his scrapes?
• What was it like for Helen to marry into the Wimsey family? To marry someone like Gerald, have a brother-in-law like Peter, and a mother-in-law like the Dowager? That's a pretty daunting prospect - was Helen ever daunted? Or was she always a battleship?
• The three first meetings that the Dowager Duchess had with her three children’s intended spouses, and what she thought of each of them.
• Does anyone else in the family ever attempt to try their hand at writing a mystery story, and what does Harriet think of their attempts? They'd each have unique styles, I'm guessing. ;) I'm cracking up imagining a Dowager Duchess one, or a St George one. (I can't even imagine a Helen one, though.)
• Family Christmas! Do they play parlor games? What are charades like in the Wimsey family? (Or would Helen disapprove too much for anything like that? Perhaps this is a Harriet-Peter get-together at their London house with St George, the Dowager, Mary, Parker, etc., without Gerald & Helen and all the pomp of Official Family Christmas.)
• Sort-of combining the two previous prompts, is one of the parlor games at Family Christmas something to do with deduction? Or telling a mystery story and challenging the others to guess the solution?

If you decide that you want to focus on one or two of the characters I’ve requested, it’s okay to minimize the presence of the one(s) you’re not focusing on. So if, for example, you were to write a story about the first time Helen met the Dowager Duchess (omitting Harriet), or about the first family Christmas Harriet and Peter held at their London House (with Gerald & Helen not invited), those would be completely okay with me. :)

♥ ♥ ♥

FANDOM NUMBER THREE:
Inda series – Sherwood Smith
Characters: Hadand "Arrow" Algara-Vayir (daughter of Inda and Tdor), Hadand "Captain Han" Tlen, Hadand Algara-Vayir, Tdor Marth-Davan

Sign-up text: I recently finished this series, and I love it! If you write me a story featuring one or more of my requested characters, you will be making my Yuletide a very happy one. If you already have a plotbunny - or if any of the general likes in my letter inspire one - go for it! It'd be fun to be surprised with something. :)

A few prompts (more in my letter): I would love to see a story about Hadand and Tdor’s friendship, whether that’s five-times fic, or their first meeting, or epistolary fic, or anything else you think of. Or, what does Arrow learn about/from her mother and aunt? Or how about a story centering around Captain Han’s new life in the capital and any adventures she might have (perhaps involving Hadand and/or Arrow?)

What else to say? This is a wonderful series, and I love all the Hadands (and Tdor too). Any story that involves one or more of them will be awesome. If you have your own plotbunny, go to town! If you don’t, here are some more ideas/prompts:

• I love five-times fic. How about five times Hadand and Tdor agreed, and one time they disagreed? (Or vice-versa.) Five times Hadand/Tdor met someone for the first time, and one time she met someone for the last time? Maybe five mysteries Captain Han solved, and one she was content to let stay unsolved.
• Outside-POV is something else I adore! If you want to stay solidly in the books-era, how about a scene/episode told from an alternative point of view? I love how different POVs can subtly change the whole dynamic of scenes, and add additional context. It’s like a remix!
• Since Arrow is separated from her mother at a young age, I think it’d be interesting to read epistolary fic between them. Or between Hadand/Tdor. Epistolary fic is one of my favorite things, and I think it’d fit this canon really well.
• Does Captain Han eventually become one of Hadand’s runners? What might their relationship look like? What is Captain Han’s experience as one of the first girls to train as a King’s Runner?
• One thing I’m interested in is how the Inda/Fox stories take on larger-than-life dimensions and are turned into myth. It seems to happen very quickly. A story that explored that process, through any combination of the requested characters, would be lovely. Each of them have different connections/perspectives to the stories.
• Any combination of the requested characters bonding, in whatever way you like. Over a practice bout, somebody’s bad cooking, going on a long ride, having a picnic, defending a castle, deciphering old manuscripts together, flurries of letters working on diplomatic/political maneuvering together – just about anything works for me.
• I would love to read a story about Hadand and Evred’s marriage, and how they make it work for them (as companions, monarchs, and parents), even though she’s in love with him and he’s in love with her brother. My fix-it desire for this pairing isn’t “make him love her”, it’s more “have him learn to value her and have sincere affection for her”.

I am definitely up for worldbuilding in this fandom as well. :) If that’s something you enjoy, I will love it!

♥ ♥ ♥

~//~

Hopefully this has been helpful! :) If you want more info, do check out my other fandoms for ideas, and/or my past letters (under the "exchange letters" tag). A lot of my beloved tropes and plotbunnies are panfandom (with variations, of course, for the different beloved characters), and can be stolen for other fandoms.

Thank you again for offering one of my favorite fandoms! I know I’ll love your fic. Happy creating! ♥ ♥ ♥

Trick or Treat 2015

2015-09-21T22:40:12Z

Hello, lovely fellow Trick or Treat person! I’m really happy that we’ve been matched. You obviously have excellent taste, since you’ve offered one of my fandoms. ;) But seriously, I’m really excited to see what you create. You’re awesome. ♥

Things I love: adventures, falling in love (especially when the characters don’t realise that’s what they’re doing), unreliable narrators, slow build, characters with plans, characters with plans that go wrong, characters in love who have difficulty making the first move (particularly if the person they're pining for is in love with them too and having similar troubles), epistolary fic, teasing, snark, established relationships (particularly the old-marriedness and cosy bits), kissing, thorough kissing, worldbuilding, magic, working through problems, laughter and derailments and affection during sex, cuddling, domesticity, happy endings. (More porn likes, if that’s your thing.)

Dislikes and squicks: gore, scat, torture, bestiality, under-age sex, incest, non-con. Also, I’m a vegan. This isn’t a big deal usually – feel free to have people eating cheeseburgers in the background or whatever. It’s only a squick for me if the eating of animals is graphic, dwelt on at length, and/or raw.

TREATS vs TRICKS note: I am a fan of both! Please no body horror, hard horror, or gore in my tricks. But occult, supernatural, scary, thriller, ghosts, vampires, headless swordswomen, werewolves, etc., that's all great! Most of my prompts aren't explicitly 'trick' or 'treat' - for example, "Csethiro teaching Maia something about court life/court people" could easily be an AU in which ghosts haunt the palace once a year/Csethiro is actually a vampire/etc., or it could be "Csethiro teaches Maia how to get some alone time with his fiancée". Feel free to take the prompts in either direction! :)

ART note: I have requested art as well as fic! I am very much not an artist, so I'm not sure how good my prompts will be, but I'll try. And I know I'll love what you create, if you're an artist and you've been assigned to me. :) I do really like art, I'm just hopeless myself.

On to the fandoms and ships!

♥ ♥ ♥

~//~

FANDOM NUMBER ONE:
The Goblin Emperor
Character: Csethiro Ceredin

I love Csethiro! Pretty much anything you write about her will make me happy, except for the things in my DNW list. If you already have a plotbunny about her - or if any of my general likes have inspired one - go for it! It'd be fun to be surprised with something. :)

If you're stuck, here are some ideas from me:
1) Csethiro's outsider POV on an event from the books.
2) What is Csethiro's reaction to Maia's accession? Being selected as his bride? Their first meeting (or the first time she saw him, before they officially met)?
3) A time when Maia and Csethiro's different childhoods and upbringing meant they had a misunderstanding over something and had to sort it out.
4) Csethiro teaching Maia something about court life/court people.
5) Csethiro and Maia getting to know each other before the wedding.
6) Csethiro talks to someone (family member? friend?) about what her expectations had been when she was chosen to be Empress, and how it's played out instead.
7) Skip forward five/ten/fifteen years. What does Csethiro's life look like? What is she teaching her children about their family's history/how to be a proper royal/etc.?
8) Canon-divergent AU in which Maia does not become Emperor, and they meet in some other situation. (Maybe his father does die, but not his brother, and his brother brings him to court.) Romance or friendship, your choice.
9) Or perhaps you don't want to write Maia at all! If so - what about Csethiro's relationship with any other character in the book? (Surprise me.) How does she relate to them? What does she think of their choices?

Art ideas (if these suck - I am not an artist - draw me something that makes you smile):

1) Csethiro and Maia's first meeting
2) Spending time together before the wedding
3) Csethiro or Maia making the other one laugh
4) Csethiro writing Maia a letter
5) Csethiro reading one of Maia's letters - does it make her smile?

♥ ♥ ♥

FANDOM NUMBER TWO:
Lord Peter Wimsey - Dorothy L. Sayers
Characters: St George, Harriet Vane, Helen Duchess of Denver, Dowager Duchess

I have had a ridiculous amount of love for these characters for a very long time. Gaudy Night is usually the title I give when I'm forced to pick a favorite book (although it's like picking a favorite child!), and Wimsey is one of my favorite exchange fandoms. I just adore the universe and everyone in it. The mysteries! Harriet and Peter (and trusty Bunter)! Helen being so Helenish (I confess to a giant soft spot for her)! The Dowager Duchess and Miss Climpson being so fantastic!! St George and his hijinks! Photography and old books and poetry and falling asleep in a punt! It's all simply marvelous.

I am attempting right now to not be totally hopeless and just say "write me/draw me anything, dear creator!" It is hard. Some ideas, though:

1) Outsider POV is one of my favorites, so what does St George think of the events in Gaudy Night? What about an epistolary fic from Helen about Peter's idiocy in the Vane affair (or a non-epistolary fic about Helen's reaction to her husband being tried for murder)? The Dowager Duchess telling her diary about Harriet & Peter's wedding and all the commotion?
2) Who does St George fall in love with, and what do his relatives think of this person? Slash or het are both fine.
3) Anything Helen, hahaha. I love her. It strikes me that I don't really remember any interactions between St George & his mother in the books - you could correct this deficit! What does she think when he gets into one of his scrapes?
4) What was it like for Helen to marry into the Wimsey family? To marry someone like Gerald, have a brother-in-law like Peter, and a mother-in-law like the Dowager? That's a pretty daunting prospect - was Helen ever daunted? Or was she always a battleship?
5) Does anyone else in the family ever attempt to try their hand at writing a mystery story, and what does Harriet think of their attempts? They'd each have unique styles, I'm guessing. ;) I'm cracking up imagining a Dowager Duchess one, or a St George one. (I can't even imagine a Helen one, though.)
6) Family Christmas! Do they play parlor games? What are charades like in the Wimsey family? (Or would Helen disapprove too much for anything like that? Perhaps this is a Harriet-Peter get-together at their London house with St George, the Dowager, Mary, Parker, etc., without Gerald & Helen and all the pomp of Official Family Christmas.)
7) A lot of the earlier prompts can have supernatural/occult stuff inserted into them! Strange things start happening while Peter is on the Continent on assignment - can Harriet track down the source of the midnight creaks and solve the mystery? There's canonically a ghost that Harriet encounters - does she befriend it and learn more about the Wimsey family? Does St George get turned into a vampire and Helen has to Tragically Cope?

Art ideas (and again, if these suck, I will love anything!):

1) The Dowager Duchess writing in her diary (perhaps with Ahasuerus nearby, although I know cats are tricky)
2) Harriet on her wedding day
3) Harriet writing/reading a book
4) St George meeting Harriet
5) Helen looking disapprovingly at Harriet (who is sitting on a sofa maybe?)
6) Harriet looking up at Peter with a soft smile on her face

♥ ♥ ♥

FANDOM NUMBER THREE:
The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Character: Éowyn

Éowyn is my favorite character in the LOTR universe, bar none. She is simply fabulous in all her beautiful complexity. Also, Mirando Otto is incredibly, incredibly stunning, and I confess that I have the biggest crush on her. Not to say anything against Arwen or Galadriel, because Liv Tyler and Cate Blanchett are also gorgeous, but DAMN, Éowyn wins LOTR's Next Top Model in my book. Also, she's a kickass swordswoman and rides into battle and defeats the Witch-King and survives nearly certain death and falls in love with Faramir, who's a pretty great guy. She's got it all going on. ;)

Like in my other fandoms, I will now attempt to give you some fic & art ideas - but like in my other fandoms, if you already have a plotbunny, or if my general prompts and/or like list have inspired you, feel free to ignore these! I want you to write or draw something you're excited about and love. :)

Ideas:
1) Éowyn and Éomer bonding. Before the books, during the books, after the books, it's all good! Whether that's over a practice bout, Éowyn's bad cooking (maybe Éomer's is even worse!), going on a long ride and having a picnic as children, Éomer visiting Éowyn and Faramir five years after Sauron's fall - anything with the two of them would be great.
2) How do Éowyn and Arwen get on after their marriages, as they rebuild Gondor together? Are they friends? What interests do they share?
3) Éowyn and Faramir are lovely together. I ship them and happiness. Anything with the two of them. But hmm, that's not helpful. Maybe cross-cultural communication? What do Rohan and Gondor do differently? What does Éowyn have to teach Faramir, and what does he have to teach her?
4) Does Éowyn have nightmares about the Witch-King, and/or Faramir have nightmares about being sent to die by his father/almost burnt alive? Perhaps they comfort each other.
5) I love diplomacy, political maneuvering, and all that jazz. If Éowyn is a part of that, as Lady of Ithilien, I'd love to read about it!
6) There is something strange going on in Ithilien, and Éowyn is going to get to the bottom of it. Supernatural/occult/scary things await her (but she's totally got this).
7) Does Théoden's ghost ever talk to her?

Art ideas:
1) Éowyn in her garden in Ithilien. Gardening, practicing with her sword, helping her son toddle, laughing up into Faramir's face - anything!
2) Éowyn on her wedding day.
3) Éowyn cooking.
4) Éowyn and Faramir standing together in perfect harmony.
5) Éowyn looking down at her shield that the Witch-King shattered and remembering, not only her great victory, but also her uncle.
6) Éowyn with her sword (whether cleaning it, standing in position with it, facing down a vampire - up to you!)

♥ ♥ ♥

FANDOM NUMBER FOUR:
Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Character: Hermione Granger, Luna Lovegood, Molly Weasley, Pansy Parkinson, Minerva McGonagall

No matter how many years pass, I will still love Harry Potter. Forever. (Aren't you glad I didn't say "Always"?) I strongly identify with Hermione, want to be best friends with Luna, want Molly to adopt me as an honorary Weasley, am intrigued by Pansy, and want to propose marriage to Minerva. (Seriously, she is so my type.) So whichever of these characters you offered, I will love whatever fic or art you create! :)

Ideas (and again, if you already have a plotbunny of your own or were inspired by my general prompts, feel free to ignore these and create what you love!):

1) What was Minerva like in her girlhood? What kind of student was she? Did she have a girlfriend who was on the Quidditch team? (Was Minerva on the Quidditch team?) Did they find ways to sneak into the Restricted Section at night? When did she become an Animagus - was it during school?
2) How does Hermione integrate her Muggle upbringing with her magical studies? She's pretty busy during the school year with classes, but are there any Muggleborn clubs at Hogwarts that she attends sometimes? And what career does she choose? I could really see her as a politician, myself - whether in the magical world or in an AU that put her in the real Parliament (what would she think of Cameron and the pig, for instance?)
3) Like I've mentioned in other fandom sections, I love outsider!POV. What was Hermione's experience like during the Time-Turner year? What does Luna think about the Gryffindor group (who does she bond with, when Harry isn't paying attention?) What was Pansy's experience of Hagrid's classes? How did Minerva feel, watching Harry on his first day of school (or observing Hermione's earnestly voracious pursuit of knowledge)? How much does Molly enjoy sending Howlers (she doesn't enjoy the need for them, but making them is pretty fun)?
4) I'd love to see a story about Molly at school or in the first war. What was she like as a young woman? How well did she know James & Lily - was she close to Lily? What was it like to be a young mother in wartime? Was she just as ferocious in battle back then? How did she deal with Lily & James's deaths, and what was her reaction to Harry being removed from the wizarding world?
5) If you like romance and/or porn, I love Hermione/Ginny (politician & professional Quidditch player would be amazing), Hermione/Luna, Hermione/Pansy, and Minerva/OFC (or Minerva/Madam Hooch or Minerva/Pomona). I enjoy both the falling-in-love part of a romance and the established-relationship part. Both relationship-focused and plot-focused romances are great. Plot-focused - Maybe Ginny suspects that there is performance-enhancing vampirism going on in her Quiddithc league, and Hermione has to head up a parliamentary/Wizengamot investigation. Relationship-focused - is Hermione really falling in love with a Slytherin (but Pansy makes really good lemon tarts, okay, and she's got a great acerbic wit)?
6) Tricks - there's plenty of supernatural, spooky, occult, thriller elements in Harry Potter! Does Minerva have to investigate what's scaring the ghosts (perhaps she needs her Animagus form to do it properly)? Does Pansy have a crush on a particularly pretty mermaid from the Great Lake? Does Molly fight werewolves in the first war? Does Hermione do an independent research project on the Hogwarts ghosts?

Art ideas (if these suck, draw me something you are excited about & love, and I will adore it!):

1) Minerva in cat form sitting on her girlfriend's lap
2) Luna talking to one of the Hogwarts ghosts
3) Hermione in business robes kissing Ginny, who's dressed for a Quidditch match and has a broomstick under her arm
4) Molly as a young mother, with a baby on her hip and her wand behind her ear - or Molly fighting in the first war (werewolves, Death Eaters, anything you like)
5) Pansy and Hermione on their wedding day
6) Any of them studying, or laughing
7) If you're into porn, I love Hermione's big curly hair - it'd be neat to see her in bed with her partner, maybe from behind so you saw her naked back with all her hair spilling over it? IDK if that works, I'm not an art-person. (I bow down in awe to art-people!)

♥ ♥ ♥

FANDOM NUMBER FIVE:
The West Wing
Margaret Hooper, C. J. Cregg, Donna Moss

Oh, West Wing, how I love you! These three women are fabulous, and I will love any fic or any drawing with one or more of them in it. In this fandom, I particularly love their competence - they're all very good at their jobs, and I really love that. In addition, I love C.J.'s wit, Margaret's quirkiness, Donna's curiosity - everything that makes them so wonderful. They're quite simply the best. :)

Ideas (as in the other fandoms, if you already have a plotbunny or were inspired by my general prompts, please do write/draw what you are excited about and love!)

1) One or more of the trio discovers ghosts of dead presidents DO live in the White House! (Or ghosts of dead first ladies, ghosts of dead press secretaries, etc.) What do the ghosts need to tell them? Do the ghosts have an agenda? Is there a threat to the White House?
2) Donna and Margaret are friends. They regularly meet in the mess to talk about their jobs over lunch & commiserate about the daily weirdness that can occur in the Bartlet White House.
3) While C.J. is Chief of Staff, an American ambassador to (x country) is turned into a vampire. She has to deal with the fallout and manage the situation, and of course it had to happen on a Monday.
4) Donna and Margaret have been dating for six months by the time Josh notices.
5) C.J. finds herself falling for Kate Harper, which is confusing, because she went to Berkeley for grad school, so if she likes women she kinda thinks she should have figured it out before now? But maybe these things have their own time, and wow, she definitely has a crush on Kate. Obviously she can't do anything about it while CoS, but the Santos inauguration is fast approaching...
6) One or more of the trio finds themselves hurried off to a secure location, because supernatural/occult shit is going DOWN. What happens next?

Art (forgive me if my art prompts suck! I am clueless about art. But I will love whatever you draw, for sure!!)
1) C.J. absorbed in her briefing folders
2) C.J. talking to Kate, both of them looking interested in each other
3) Donna and Margaret eating lunch together in the White House mess
4) Margaret in one of her quirky outfits, listening at Leo's door
5) Donna with one of her radiant smiles

♥ ♥ ♥

FANDOM NUMBER SIX:
Political RPF - US 21st c.
Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Sarah Palin

[Okay, uh, first of all, I just read over this section, and, uh, my politics are showing. Sorry. I can't help it. Hopefully you didn't offer Donald Trump because you love him and want to write a great love story with him and Ted Cruz. If you did... you know, if that's what you really really want to write, I would read it. I want you to write/draw what makes you happy. :)]

What kind of supernatural beings are Donald Trump and Sarah Palin? Donald Trump in particular, man. There are not enough superlatives to describe that guy's douchebaggery. But maybe he can't help being awful! Maybe he is an (insert supernatural monster here)! Maybe he is a one-of-a-kind supernatural monster. What is a Trump? What are its habits, and how can it be defeated? Crack is totally fine for this fandom, lol. Bring it on!

As for the others, I am a political junkie and would love to read fic about Hillary, Michelle, and/or Barack.

Ideas:
1) Michelle Obama, Trump-Hunter. She journeys across America in an attempt to vanquish the legendary monster, which has proven surprisingly impervious to other, less-skilled Trump Hunters.
2) Trump wins the nomination and selects Palin as his running mate. SHIT HAPPENS. Does Florida fall into the sea?
3) President Hillary Clinton having tea (or something stronger) in the Oval Office with Chief Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Because I love Ruth so fucking much, and I can picture this scene in my brain. :D
4) AU in which Hillary and Ruth didn't marry their husbands, but fell in love with each other instead (while Senator and Justice, perhaps?)
5) The army of zombies has reached Washington DC. Barack has been whisked away to a secure location. Michelle and Hillary, however, suit up for combat.
6) I ship Michelle/Barack immensely. How about a vignette from when they were falling in love (when did she first know that this kid was a keeper?) Or how about the easy intimacy that comes from a long, loving relationship, curling up next to each other in bed after a difficult day?
7) Barack, Michelle, and/or Hillary's unedited, profane views on Trump and/or Palin. (Whether or not the latter are supernatural monsters or just human monsters.)

Art ideas (if these ideas don't inspire you, please draw something that you enjoy drawing, and I'll love it):

1) Trump or Palin as a supernatural being of some kind
2) Michelle Obama, Trump-Hunter
3) Hillary standing in the Oval Office (or sitting behind the desk)
4) Barack and Michelle, as either young lovers or as comfortable long-marrieds; perhaps him stroking her hair, or making her smile?
5) Hillary or Michelle looking absolutely badass. Or both of them looking badass.
6) If you're a Trump and/or Palin supporter, how about a campaign poster for one/both of them?

♥ ♥ ♥

FANDOM NUMBER SEVEN:
Political RPF - UK 20th-21st c.
Jeremy Corbyn, The Ghost of Margaret Thatcher

So this is quite the duo, right? :D I nominated a whole host of UK political figures during the leadership election, but when it came time for signups I decided what I most wanted was these two. (But, you know, if you signed up hoping to get the chance to write a huge leadership-election orgy, more power to you! I am sure I would enjoy that, haha.)

Mostly I want these two separately, but again, if you're reading this and you have this awesome plotbunny for Jeremy Corbyn confronting the Ghost of Margaret Thatcher, I want to read/see it. I wonder what she'd think of him! Might blister his ear, lol.

Ideas:

(Jeremy)
1) What does it feel like to be at the center of a political whirlwind? Has Jeremy really adjusted to the fact that he's not an intractable backbencher, he's actually the Leader of the Opposition? Did he see it coming? Is he rolling with the punches? Does he pinch himself sometimes?
2) I find Diane Abbott ridiculously attractive. If you want to write me a story/draw me a picture of their long-ago romance (or maybe it's been off-and-on over the years), I would definitely be interested in that, whether it was relationship-focused or plot-focused. How they fell in love, or Diane telling him some home truths about his new leadership "because I know you better than most people, Jeremy" - either is great.
3) When (supernatural beings of your choice) attack Parliament during PMQs, how does Jeremy react? Probably inflappably; I could see him calmly waiting until Bercow (who obviously has magic) had the situation under control. And then posing a question from Mary in Walthamstow about whether Lycanthropy sufferers will be denied DLA next year.
4) After all the internecine squabbles, Jeremy's temporarily united Blairites and Brownites in mutual alarm. Does this amuse him?
5) Only if you like John Bercow and/or Dennis Skinner, but I love both of them, and I'd be quite interested in either of their POV on Jeremy's election. (I love outside!POV.)

(The Ghost of Margaret Thatcher)
1) The statues in the Members' Lobby come to life sometimes (during the witching hour/once a year/on election nights/etc.). The Ghost of Margaret Thatcher is the latest to take up her place in her statue. How does she get along with the others?
2) What does the Ghost of Margaret Thatcher think of the current political situation? (Either the real current one, or one in which some members of Parliament are Secret Vampires. Mostly Labour, because of course Vampires would be Red.)
3) What hijinks/pranks does the Ghost of Margaret Thatcher pull around the Parliamentary estate?
4) The Ghost of Margaret Thatcher has a cunning plan to somehow take over David Cameron (or Theresa May's?) body and retake her rightful place at the despatch box. What is the plan? How is it foiled? (Or IS it foiled?)

Art (if you have a plotbunny of your own, please feel free to use it!):

1) The Ghost of Margaret Thatcher haunting the Members' Lobby
2) The Ghost of Margaret Thatcher reliving her glory days standing in front of the despatch box (with or without an exasperated John Bercow in the background, come to kick her out)
3) The Ghost of Margaret Thatcher haunting Jeremy Corbyn
4) Jeremy Corbyn at PMQs, with his restive party sitting behind him
5) Jeremy and Diane, either today or in bygone days when they were a couple
6) Jeremy Corbyn meeting the Queen on the day he becomes Prime Minister ;) ;)

♥ ♥ ♥

~//~

Hopefully this has been helpful! :) If you want more info, do check out my other fandoms for ideas, and/or my past letters (under the "exchange letters" tag). A lot of my beloved tropes and plotbunnies are panfandom (with variations, of course, for the different beloved characters), and can be stolen for other fandoms.

Thank you again for offering one of my favorite fandoms! I know I’ll love your fic or art. Happy creating! ♥ ♥ ♥

Rare Ship Swap Letter, 2015

2015-02-10T05:02:59Z

Hello, lovely fellow Rare Ship Swap person! I’m really happy that we’ve been matched. You obviously have excellent taste, since you’ve offered one of my fandoms. ;) But seriously, I’m really excited to see what you create. You’re awesome. ♥

Things I love: adventures, falling in love (especially when the characters don’t realise that’s what they’re doing), unreliable narrators, slow build, characters with plans, characters with plans that go wrong, characters in love who have difficulty making the first move (particularly if the person they're pining for is in love with them too and having similar troubles), epistolary fic, teasing, snark, established relationships (particularly the old-marriedness and cosy bits), kissing, thorough kissing, worldbuilding, magic, working through problems, laughter and derailments and affection during sex, cuddling, domesticity, happy endings. (More porn likes, if that’s your thing.)

Dislikes and squicks: character-bashing (I adore all the characters I’ve nominated), gore, scat, torture, bestiality, under-age sex, incest, non-con. Also, I’m a vegan. This isn’t a big deal usually – feel free to have people eating cheeseburgers in the background or whatever. It’s only a squick for me if the eating of animals is graphic, dwelt on at length, and/or raw.

On to the fandoms and ships!

♥ ♥ ♥

~//~

FANDOM NUMBER ONE:
The West Wing
Ships: C. J. Cregg/Evelyn Baker Lang, C. J. Cregg/Nancy McNally

The West Wing may just be my favourite television show of all time. I know it’s over-idealistic, and unrealistic at times, and is (like most shows) vastly underrepresented in women and minority characters. But I love the writing and the heart, and the female characters it does have are some of my favourite of any show. Take C. J. She’s the absolute best, and I’ll fight anyone who says otherwise. And Evelyn Baker Lang? Season 5 mostly sucked, but she is by far and away the best part of it. I want her to be Chief Justice so badly. And Nancy McNally? She’s super-competent and funny and badass, and I completely adore her.

What kind of fic do I want? Oh god. Anything, really, but that’s super unhelpful. I wonder what Evelyn’s confirmation process looked like, and how she and C.J. might have bonded? Or how might Nancy have helped C. J. adjust to being Chief of Staff? Or maybe during that whole episode where C.J.’s dealing with the “lesbian rumours”, maybe Nancy comes by to talk and share her own story? I can think of millions of ways that either of these two ships might have fallen in love. :) I love all that friends-to-lovers and slow-burn falling-in-love stuff, I’ll eat it up with a spoon.

Or maybe you don’t really write romance or sex, and want to do established relationship! I adore established-relationship. Or maybe you want to write future-fic! Maybe C.J. actually stayed in DC and ended up eventually falling in love with Evelyn, and now they’re married and Evelyn’s Chief Justice and C.J.’s writing her memoirs, and maybe at the end C.J. begins to wonder if she shouldn’t get back in the game (or not!) Or maybe you want to write a fusion with real life where C.J. and Evelyn have Ruth and Elena and Sonia over for dinner (or C.J. and Nancy have Hillary and Jill Biden over).

Just like in all my other sections, I like adventures and plotty fic just as much as I like romance and fluff. And vice versa. I just really love these characters, so have fun. :)

♥ ♥ ♥

~//~

FANDOM NUMBER TWO:
Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries
Ship: Phryne Fisher/Elizabeth MacMillan

I love this canon, and the best parts about it are Phryne, Mac, and Dot. I’m asking for Phryne/Mac here, because I love their dynamic and I totally, totally ship them. Mac is completely my type, and I adore Phryne's personality. Whether you want to write a mystery for the two of them to solve, or porn in which they never leave their bed, or friends-to-lovers in which Phryne gradually realizes that Mac’s the one she’s been in love with all along, or established relationship with tons of flirting and banter… I’m up for it. (No unresolved angst or darkfic, please.)

I love pretty much all the background recurring characters as well, so feel free to have them wander in and out as necessary. Oh, and if you wanted to tell a story about the two of them from an outside POV (Dot, perhaps? Mr Butler? (I adore Mr Butler.) Aunt Prudence? Burt or Cec?), I love outside POVs. Or maybe they have to go undercover as a couple to a secret lesbian nightclub to solve a case? Or maybe you want to talk about period sex toys? I feel like there are loads and loads of options for fics. :) Have fun!

♥ ♥ ♥

~//~

FANDOM NUMBER THREE:
Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Ships: Madam Hooch/Pomona Sprout, Minerva McGonagall/Pomona Sprout, Madam Hooch/Minerva McGonagall

I love the world of Harry Potter, all its complications and richness and dark corners. I particularly love its minor characters, and the little glimpses we get into their broader lives. From Susan Bones to Madam Hooch to Parvati Patil, I always wonder how everything looked from their eyes, and what it was like growing up in the Hogwarts of Harry Potter’s days, when you weren’t Harry Potter yourself (or one of his mates).

For this exchange, I’ve highlighted three ships in particular: Madam Hooch/Pomona Sprout, Minerva McGonagall/Pomona Sprout, and Madam Hooch/Minerva McGonagall. I love all three of them desperately. Even from the little we see of Madam Hooch and Professor Sprout, they have such distinct personalities! And Professor McGonagall is of course simply fabulous. I love the way they were portrayed in the films – helped by the fact that I utterly adore each of their actresses – but I also love them in the books. (I don’t know any of the expanded canon that I vaguely know exists somewhere, perhaps in Pottermore? But feel free to work it in if it lends itself to your story, just maybe note it in your notes and point me in its direction so I can understand what’s going on, lol.)

As for ideas – goodness, I don’t even know where to start! Friends-to-lovers and first-times are two of my favourite tropes, so I’d love to see any of the duos becoming close and falling in love. Or perhaps you’d like to write a study of the academic system at Hogwarts, as written by Minerva, as Pomona tends happily to their balcony garden and comes in to bestow a kiss to the top of Minerva’s hair. Or maybe you’d be interested in a faculty game of Quidditch, with Madam Hooch sending the Quaffle through on many an occasion, but her partner Pomona catching the Snitch for the other team and waving saucily. Or perhaps you’re of a grimmer mind, and would want to write something about Hooch and McGonagall lying in bed together, listening to the thunder rage outside and holding each other close against the looming darkness. Or maybe you want to write porn.

I am exceedingly easy to please here, dear writer! :) Do Madam Hooch and Pomona laugh about the antics of their students? Does Minerva sigh over their attempts at handwriting, and summon her partner (who has better eyesight) to help her out? Do Minerva and Madam Hooch go to Diagon Alley together, parting to go separately to look at broomsticks and books, and then meet up again for a beverage and a pastry (does Diagon Alley do coffee? I’m not sure.) Did Pomona and Madam Hooch fall in love as prefects from different houses – did Pomona grow special plants to present to her new girlfriend – did Madam Hooch (who must’ve been called Rolanda back then, though it seems odd to think of her as anything other than Madam Hooch!) take Pomona up on broomsticks to the top of a hill to watch the sun set?

Eeee. This is all off the top of my head, so please don’t feel like you have to write one of these ideas! I would really love anything with one of these ships. They’re all of them awesome. And so are you, for volunteering to write one of them! ♥

♥ ♥ ♥

~//~

Okay, hopefully I’ve stayed relatively concise, while still giving you enough info and ideas! If you still want more, do check out my other fandoms for ideas that could carry over, and/or my past letters. A lot of my beloved tropes and plotbunnies are panfandom (with variations, of course, for the different beloved characters.)

Thank you again for offering to write one of these fandoms, dear writer! I know I’ll love your fic. Happy writing! ♥ ♥ ♥

Second set of Yuletide recs

2014-12-31T23:29:16Z

Racing in before reveals, here's a second set of recs for you! Ten fics in ten fandoms, this time (for my first set of recs, 32 fics + 5 gifts, see here). Enjoy!

Ten recs in ten fandoms: Decoys (2004), Hockey RPF, Nero Wolfe (Rex Stout), Non je ne regrette rien (Edith Piaf - Song), Persuasion (Jane Austen), Princess Bride, Protector of the Small (Tamora Pierce), The Sound of Music, Top Chef RPF/Unusual Dragon Hoards, and Unusual Dragon Hoards.

Decoys (2004)

I Dated a Tentacle Babe from Outer Space (7449 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Decoys (2004)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Roger/Constance
Characters: Roger (Decoys), Constance (Decoys)
Additional Tags: Xeno, Mpreg, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, Canadian Shack, Happy Ending, Minor Character Death, Vomiting, Body Horror
Summary:

Maybe Roger hadn’t had sex before, but he still had ideas about the morning after. None of them included running for the hills with his alien girlfriend, much less being pregnant with her alien babies.

This fic is fun, sweet, romantic, and has a lot of great lines. Yes, even though the main character is about to barf up ice alien-tentacle babies. It works.

Hockey RPF

Symphonies In My Head (2741 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Hockey RPF, Montreal Canadiens RPF
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Carey Price/P. K. Subban, Brandon Prust/P. K. Subban, Maripier Morin/Brandon Prust (background)
Characters: P. K. Subban, Carey Price, Brandon Prust
Additional Tags: Soul Bond, Sex Pollen, Trapped In Elevator, Open Relationships, bro-boning
Summary:

PK and Carey wake up temporarily soulbonded, and that's not even the weirdest thing that happens all week.

(Contains soulbonding, sex pollen, and being trapped in an elevator -- uh, I heard you liked tropes, so I put some tropes in your tropes! Also includes mention of an open relationship, which I will explain more spoiler-ily in the end notes for people with concerns.)

This is a Yuletide treat!

I loved this. Tropes folded into tropes! It's an affectionate fluffy first-time fic, and I love PK's voice.

Nero Wolfe (Rex Stout)

Dinner and a Movie (4120 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Nero Wolfe – Rex Stout
Rating: Teen and Up
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Archie Goodwin/Saul Panzer
Characters: Archie Goodwin, Saul Panzer, Nero Wolfe
Additional Tags: First Time, Case Fic
Summary:

Saul and Archie have Friday night plans. Wolfe throws a wrench in the works.

This is a fantastic fic! Archie's voice is perfect, the case is fun, and the romance is sweet.

Non, je ne regrette rien (Edith Piaf – Song)

The Flight of the Sparrow (1401 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Non je ne regrette rien - Edith Piaf (Song)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Narrator/Toi
Characters: Narrator, Toi
Additional Tags: Space Pirates, Lesbians in Space, Secrets
Summary:

Why be retired when you can be a space pirate for hire instead? No regrets.

The tags “space pirates” and “lesbians in space” guaranteed that this one would catch my eye. ;) I love Edie's backstory, and Mo's fantastic. I'd read a whole novel about these two.

Persuasion (Jane Austen)

Together At Sea (864 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Persuasion - Jane Austen
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Admiral Croft/Sophia Croft
Characters: Sophia Croft, Admiral Croft
Additional Tags: at sea, Pre-Canon, Canon Relationships
Summary:

Mrs Croft knows her place aboard ship and so does her husband.

This one is gorgeous and feels just right.

Princess Bride

Reason And (314 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Princess Bride (1987)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Fezzik/Inigo Montoya
Characters: Inigo Montoya, Fezzik (Princess Bride)
Additional Tags: Yuletide Treat, Rhyming Pirate Husbands
Summary:

Inigo, Fezzik, and the sea.

How can you resist a fic tagged “Rhyming Pirate Husbands”? :) This fic is super cute.

Protector of the Small (Tamora Pierce)

Intervals in Progression (6962 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Protector of the Small - Tamora Pierce
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Wyldon of Cavall, Keladry of Mindelan
Additional Tags: canonical levels of mysogyny, Mentorship, growing respect, Wyldon can change, Keladry is awesome
Summary:

Four times Keladry surprised Wyldon, one time he surprised himself, and one time he wasn't surprised. Also known as: Wyldon thinks a lot more than he talks.

Simply lovely. Really nice progression over the course of the fic, and great narrative Wyldon voice.

The Sound of Music

The Birds of the Sky and the Beasts of the Field (1866 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Sound of Music - Rodgers/Hammerstein/Lindsay & Crouse
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Baroness Elsa von Schraeder/Maria (Sound of Music)
Characters: Maria (Sound of Music), Elsa Schraeder
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe, Yuletide Treat, Misses Clause Challenge
Summary:

Maria leaves the convent, but not to be a governess to seven children. There's someone else who needs her.

I love Elsa's narration in this. Wonderful AU which leaves you smiling.

Top Chef RPF/Unusual Dragon Hoards

Unusual Dragons with Adventurous Palates (7012 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Top Chef RPF, Unusual Dragon Hoards - iguanamouth
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Hoard of Knives Dragon, Hoard of Cats Dragon, Hoard of Panties Dragon, Hoard of Stars Dragon, Hoard of Snakes and Lizards Dragon, Hoard of Broken VHS Tapes Dragon, Hoard of Teacups and Saucers Dragon, Spike Mendelsohn, Tiffani Faison, Richard Blais, Fabio Viviani, Antonia Lofaso, Dale Talde, Tre Wilcox, Marcel Vigneron, Padma Lakshmi, Kristen Kish
Additional Tags: Humor, Crossover, tongue-in-cheek cooking, bizarre ingredients, everything's better with DRAGONS, worst Top Chef challenge ever, Padma Lakshmi doesn't get paid enough for this, everything's better with RANCH DRESSING, Yuletide Treat, RPF, Crack, Crossdressing
Summary:

Unusual Dragons are big fans of Top Chef, and decide to visit earth and have their favorite chefs whip them up a meal. It's going to take all of Spike Mendelsohn's cunning to survive this challenge.

Fabio and Richard are hilarious in this. Well, all the contestants, really! If you like Top Chef and have always wondered what would happen if the challenge was to cook for a passel of ornery dragons – and even if you haven't – this is the fic for you.

Unusual Dragon Hoards

From Small Beginnings (192 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Unusual Dragon Hoards - iguanamouth
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Hoard of Panties Dragon, Hoard of Pastries Dragon, Hoard of Kittens Dragon, Hoard of Junk Food Dragon
Additional Tags: Dragons, Cats
Summary:

If there was one rule Egon always heard growing up, it was, "You don't choose your hoard. Your hoard chooses you." She just hadn't expected it to be so literal.

And finally, a cuddly little ficlet about a dragon and the kitten that chooses her. :)

~//~

I hope everyone had a fantastic Yuletide! :) On to 2015!

Yuletide 2014 recs

2014-12-30T00:24:59Z

Yuletide is one of my favorite Christmas traditions. This year I was only able to go home for three days, so having Yuletide stories to read when I got back was really nice. (I wish it was still undergrad years and I could stay for two weeks!) I haven't finished reading yet, but my recs list was getting pretty long & unwieldy, so here it is for now. (If I have time, there may be a second installment later.)

32 recs in 24 fandoms, plus my 5 gifts (in 3 fandoms).

Contains recs for Anne of Green Gables, Badass Women in History, Benjamin January Mysteries (Barbara Hambly), Cadfael Chronicles, Chris Bucholz Advice Columns (Cracked.com), Cornetto “40-Love” Commercial, Enchanted Forest Chronicles (Patricia Wrede), Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe (Fannie Flagg), Game of Thrones RPF, Jeeves & Wooster (Wodehouse), Lord Peter Wimsey (Dorothy Sayers), Lynes and Mathey series (Amy Griswold & Melissa Scott), Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, Monstrous Regiment, Oxford Time Travel Universe, Playthings (Gun Safety PSA), The Princess Bride, The Queen's Thief, Rosemary & Thyme, Scandal (TV), Scarborough Fair (song), Sleeping Beauty (1969), Snow White and the Huntsman (2012), Temeraire/Unusual Dragon Hoards, Tennis RPF, and Vienna Teng (Works).

My gifts:

yuletide

I sing because I’m free (1041 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe - Fannie Flagg
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Ruth Jamison/Idgie Threadgoode
Characters: Idgie Threadgoode, Ruth Jamison
Summary: Three ways Idgie Threadgoode didn’t kiss Ruth Jamison – and one way she did.

I love the framing device (Idgie tells Ruth stories about other lives where they might have ended up together). All three of the AUs are great, and the final section is simply adorable.

Where There's A Will (2629 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Benjamin January Mysteries - Barbara Hambly
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Chloë Viellard/Dominique Viellard
Characters: Chloe Viellard, Dominique Viellard
Additional Tags: Female-Centric, Female Friendship, Female Character of Color, Misses Clause Challenge, Pre-Femslash, Holding Hands, Developing Friendships, Consensual Infidelity, Possibly Asexual Character, Yuletide Treat, Chromatic Yuletide
Summary: Chloë pays an unexpected visit to Dominique's house to bring news about Henri's will, and perhaps for other reasons as well. Set prior to Good Man Friday.

I loved the careful way Dominique and Chloe's relationship was developed in this fic. Reading about the way they dance towards a closer understanding was quite simply a joy.

yuletide madness

A Watch and a Fresh Pair of Socks (423 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Monstrous Regiment - Terry Pratchett
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Jack Jackrum/William
Characters: Jack Jackrum
Additional Tags: Character Study, Socks, Retirement
Summary: Jackrum's thoughts at retirement.

I love the found family theme, and the socks, and the final line. And I like the theme of how Jackrum's career was so very useful, and the idea that Polly will be Jackrum's successor.

Private Jackrum's Secret (100 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Monstrous Regiment - Terry Pratchett, Discworld - Terry Pratchett
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Jack Jackrum
Additional Tags: Yuletide Treat, Drabble, Backstory
Summary: Woe betide the man who says Jackrum hasn't the balls for this.

Jackrum is portrayed perfectly, and every word counts. Wonderful drabble.

A Promise In The Dark (100 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe - Fannie Flagg
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Ruth Jamison/Idgie Threadgoode
Characters: Idgie Threadgoode, Ruth Jamison
Additional Tags: Yuletide Treat, Drabble, Fluff
Summary: Ruth wakes, and Idgie's still there.

Lovely drabble, very sweet. <3

Other recs:

Anne of Green Gables

What I May Not Speak (100 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Anne of Green Gables - L. M. Montgomery
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Walter Blythe/OMC
Characters: Walter Blythe, Una Meredith
Additional Tags: Yuletide Treat, Drabble, World War I, epistolatory
Summary: Walter writes a letter that he knows he will never send.

100 words, and yet so much. Beautifully done.

Badass Women in History

Ancient Space Monkey Blue Team (2110 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Badass Women in History (Blog)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Elizabeth Tudor/Joan of Arc
Characters: Elizabeth Tudor, Christine de Pisan, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Hatshepsut of Egypt, Catherine of Valois Queen of England
Additional Tags: Yuletide Treat, Yuletide 2014, Misses Clause Challenge, Femslash, Female-Centric, POV Female Character, no descriptions of sex
Summary: Far, far, far in the future, the most popular wave of all the possible reality syncs was "Battle of the Ancient Dudes and Babes" in which historical figures from Earth's history were cloned, given super powers, and made to fight each other in gladiatorial games for the amused distraction of the masses and the enrichment of their owners.

The most popular team was the "Ancient Space Monkey Blue", which had the benefit of a team name that none of the members objected to.

Fun. Fun fun fun. Come for the cracky premise, stay for the nonstop hilarious lines, great interactions, and games of monument, papyrus, knife.

Cadfael Chronicles

A Flourish of Gold (14800 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Cadfael Chronicles - Ellis Peters
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Brother Cadfael, Olivier de Bretagne, Eleanor of Aquitaine
Additional Tags: Minor Violence, Historical Inaccuracy
Summary: When a murder disrupts the peace conference that might end the Anarchy, Brother Cadfael must solve one last mystery. Fortunately, he has some very competent people to help him.

Probably one of my favorite fics this Yuletide. Wonderfully written – it really feels like it could be by Ellis Peters. Don't miss this one.

Chris Bucholz Advice Columns (Cracked.com)

So You Woke Up in a Slash Fanfic (1173 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Chris Bucholz Advice Columns (Cracked.com)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Person giving advice (Cracked Advice Columns), Person Seeking Advice (Cracked Advice Columns)
Additional Tags: Crack, cracked - Freeform, appropriate, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés
Summary: What the hell?

It's crack. It's short. It's fun.

Cornetto “40-Love” Commercial

Five Press Conferences, One Question (1394 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Cornetto "40 - love" Commercial
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Debbie/Maria Fernandez
Characters: Debbie (Cornetto "40 - love" Commercial), Maria Fernandez
Additional Tags: 5 Things, Press Conferences, Developing Relationship
Summary: "Have you spoken to That Line Umpire?" floated out from somewhere in the middle of the press throng.

I love the conceit of having the story be told through five press conferences. I'm not sure I quite buy that the question would linger that long, but the fic is very cute.

Love Game (1264 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Cornetto "40 - love" Commercial
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Debbie/Maria (Cornetto "40-Love" Commercial)
Characters: Debbie (Cornetto "40-Love" Commercial), Maria (Cornetto "40-Love" Commercial)
Additional Tags: Documentation, Misses Clause Challenge
Summary: “I’m on the internet again,” Debbie said fretfully. “Someone from the Wall Street Journal recognized me. I knew I should have worn bigger sunglasses.”

Wimbledon 2015: Maria is still on the court, but this time Debbie is in the stands.

Technically really well done, this fic has a real charm. Maria's voice rings true, and Maria & Debbie are very cute together. I also like how the author wrote Maria's dad.

skies above can't be stormy (2122 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Cornetto "40 - love" Commercial, Tennis RPF (fusion)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Maria Fernandez/Debbie (40-love)
Characters: Maria Fernandez, Debbie (40-love)
Additional Tags: First Meetings, Falling In Love, Sports
Summary: Maria Fernandez thinks she's all about tennis. And then she meets Debbie.

Maria backstory & Maria's perspective in the commercial. I love how this one integrates the commercial with real-life tennis.

Enchanted Forest Chronicles (Patricia Wrede)

In Which Morwen's Cats Have a Valid Point (1025 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Enchanted Forest Chronicles - Patricia Wrede
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Morwen/Telemain
Additional Tags: Fluff
Summary: To be more precise, in which Morwen's cats have a valid point regarding the feasibility of eliminating sundry household obstacles through magic.

Too cute. A big ball of fluff. With talking cats and an enthusiastic wizard.

Game of Thrones RPF

Follow you home (2633 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Game of Thrones RPF
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Sophie Turner/Natalie Dormer
Characters: Sophie Turner, Natalie Dormer
Additional Tags: Cunnilingus, Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, First Time
Summary: what if i asked nat and lucy liu for a threesome?

I thought u wanted one with Nat and Jennifer Lawrence

This is really cute and hot. I love first times, and both Sophie & Natalie have distinct character voices here. Sophie's experience yet nervousness around Natalie is lovely.

Jeeves & Wooster (Wodehouse)

The Honourable Thing (1676 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Jeeves & Wooster, Jeeves - P. G. Wodehouse
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Reginald Jeeves/Bertram Wooster
Characters: Reginald Jeeves, Bertram Wooster
Additional Tags: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Yuletide Treat
Summary: I burst into the flat and, before I could yell out to Jeeves to explain the sitch, was hit whang in the beak with the most scrumptious smell that has ever tickled my nostrils.

I didn't really get the ABO dynamics on this one – it felt more like old-style Star Trek pon farr to me – but it has distinct character voices and is lovely. Many, many good lines.

Lord Peter Wimsey (Dorothy Sayers)

Gentle Antidote (11199 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Lord Peter Wimsey - Dorothy L. Sayers
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Harriet Vane/Peter Wimsey, Charles Parker/Mary Wimsey, mentioned Sylvia Mariott/Eiluned Price
Characters: Harriet Vane, Charles Parker, Peter Wimsey, Mervyn Bunter, Mary Wimsey, Honoria Lucasta Wimsey, Sylvia Mariott, Eiluned Price, Gerald Wimsey Viscount St George
Additional Tags: Soulmate-Identifying Marks, AU, Yuletide, Yuletide 2014, Misses Clause Challenge
Summary: At twenty-one, Harriet Vane gets her Name. It's rather longer than she expected.

This is just wonderful. Soulmate-identifying marks in Wimsey, who could have ever imagined it working this well? I love Harriet & Peter's interactions here – do I ever – but I also want to shout out the Dowager Duchess and Mary as being really well done.

beatitude (1080 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Lord Peter Wimsey - Dorothy L. Sayers
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Harriet Vane/Peter Wimsey
Characters: Harriet Vane, Peter Wimsey, Mervyn Bunter
Additional Tags: happiness, Honeymoon, Post-Busman's Honeymoon
Summary: Oranges, happiness, and a second honeymoon.

This fic is as lovely as its oranges. I smiled through the whole thing. Peter, Harriet, and Bunter are all fantastic, and I just want like 100000 more words like this. Pure joy.

An Afternoon's Adventure (2944 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 3/3
Fandom: Lord Peter Wimsey - Dorothy L. Sayers, Miss Marple - Agatha Christie
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Honoria Lucasta Wimsey/Jane Marple
Characters: Honoria Lucasta Wimsey, Jane Marple, Alexandra "Kitty" Climpson
Additional Tags: Crossover, Case Fic, Misses Clause Challenge
Summary: “Excuse me, your Grace, but there’s a lady here to see you called Miss Marple,” said Alice, with a deferential bob in Mrs Travers’ direction. “Says she’s an old friend of yours and that it’s urgent.”

Okay. The Dowager Duchess, Miss Marple, and Miss Climpson teaming up to fight crime? Be still my heart! This fic is wonderful, and the ending is perfect.

Lynes and Mathey series (Amy Griswold & Melissa Scott)

The Mystery of the Egyptian Curse (3722 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Lynes and Mathey Series - Amy Griswold & Melissa Scott
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Julian Lynes/Ned Mathey, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Characters: Julian Lynes, Ned Mathey, Cordelia Frost (Death by Silver), Inspector Hatton
Additional Tags: Alternative Perspective, Case Fic, Established Relationship
Summary: While Mr Mathey and Mr Lynes attempt to solve the mystery of an Egyptian curse, Miss Frost solves the mystery of Mr Mathey and Mr Lynes.

Outside!POV is really fun, and Cordelia's here is great. I love seeing Julian & Ned's relationship through her eyes (they're frickin' adorable), and Cordelia is fantastic as well. Great character voices.

Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries

fighting vainly the old ennui (13049 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Phryne Fisher/Jack Robinson, Jack Robinson & Elizabeth Macmillan
Characters: Jack Robinson, Phryne Fisher, Elizabeth MacMillan, Hugh Collins, Dorothy "Dot" Williams
Additional Tags: Identity Porn, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence
Summary: The Bowerbird wasn't playing fair; Jack couldn't debate these pieces of paper. He couldn't tell pieces of paper and a growing pile of feathers that he, too, remembered the rare treat that was eating a single piece of tropical fruit in the heavy heat of a Christmas afternoon, stickying his best suit of clothes, which had been so clean and pressed for church that morning.

(In which Inspector Jack Robinson is having a fairly uneventful year, divorce notwithstanding, until he acquires a lady doctor for a drinking buddy and receives a series of flirtatious notes from a jewel thief.)

Case fic in which Jack falls in love with a jewel thief and flirts with a beautiful socialite. It takes him an endearingly-long time to suss out that they're the same person. Shout-out to a great Mac as well.

Monstrous Regiment
(don't forget to check out the awesome Jackrum ficlets I received!)

always you (1065 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Monstrous Regiment - Terry Pratchett
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Maladict/Polly Perks
Characters: Polly Perks, Maladict
Additional Tags: PWP, Teasing, Denial, Trust, Established Relationship
Summary: Polly has a cramp. Maladict is here to help.

Really cute! :) I love the lazy afternoon feel of this fic. <3

Oxford Time Travel Universe

Paradox (2221 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Oxford Time Travel Universe - Connie Willis
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Colin Templer, Verity Kindle, Polly Churchill, Kivrin Engle, Ned Henry, Badri Chaudhuri, James Dunworthy, John Bartholomew
Summary: A festschrift presented to Professor James Dunworthy on the occasion of his retirement: Introduction.

An introduction to a festschrift for Dunworthy, written by Colin. It's academic (ignore the slightly flawed SPaG) and fantastic and ties together the different books in the series very well.

Playthings (Gun Safety PSA)

Bzzt (4148 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Playthings (Gun Safety PSA)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Blue Mom/Magenta Mom
Characters: Blue Mom (Playthings), Magenta Mom (Playthings), Kyle (Playthings), Original Characters
Additional Tags: Sex Toys, First Time, The Law of Chekhov's Vibrator
Summary: Bonnie didn't want Mallory to think she was a prude or anything. She wasn't a prude. In fact, she was even less of a prude than she thought.

Hottest porn I've found in Yuletide so far this year. Plus, you know, “The Law of Chekhov's Vibrator” is kinda the awesomest tag ever.

The Princess Bride

The Pirate Bachelorette (6178 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Princess Bride (1987), The Princess Bride - William Goldman
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Inigo Montoya, Fezzik (Princess Bride), Buttercup (Princess Bride)
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes
Summary: Being the tale of the sixth Dread Pirate Roberts, who had the distinction of being the first female to hold the title and was sometimes known as Ines Montoya.

This fic had me from the moment it dissed Goldman's translation and recommended a different one. ;) It's really well done, though, and I adore Ines and Fezzik so much. Fezzik's dialogue in particular is spot on. And the dilemma Ines faces is one I've definitely wondered about before.

Bisou, bisou (738 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Princess Bride (1987)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Fezzik/Inigo Montoya
Characters: Fezzik (Princess Bride), Inigo Montoya
Additional Tags: First Kiss, Fluff, Backstory
Summary: "I've always liked kissing. I haven't had very much practice, though."

Fezzik, Inigo, and a kiss.

Adorable Madness ficlet. The Fezzik POV is really well done.

The Queen's Thief

Charioteer (13852 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Queen's Thief - Megan Whalen Turner
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Costis (Queen's Thief), Eugenides (Queen's Thief)
Additional Tags: Adventure, Loyalty, ridiculous plans, Background canon pairings, Post-Canon, Yuletide Treat
Summary: Captured in battle and stuck in the Mede capital, Costis has given up all hope of seeing his country again. But Eugenides has a habit of turning up where he's least expected.

This is just hands-down fantastic. Read it.

permanence (1923 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Queen's Thief - Megan Whalen Turner
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Eugenides the God (Queen's Thief), Moira (Queen's Thief), Hephestia (Queen's Thief)
Additional Tags: Post-King of Attolia
Summary: How many heroes, how many queens, how many shining, brilliant lives had Eugenides seen extinguished, for no reason other than the waning attention of the gods? How many humans had he become too attached to, and his kin told him he’d forget them soon enough, but he never did. He remembered them all, all of them so precious, all of them burning so bright—but none so bright as Gen, it seemed.

(Or: the gods can't save Gen from death forever)

Loved, loved, loved this one. Eugenides (the god) contemplates what it means to care about the fate of a mortal.

Rosemary & Thyme

Four Times Things Were Not What They Seemed (1983 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Rosemary and Thyme
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Rosemary Boxer/Laura Thyme
Characters: Rosemary Boxer, Laura Thyme
Additional Tags: Yuletide Treat, Crack
Summary: (And one time they were.)

Funny and adorable and very Rosemary & Laura. Really delivers. :)

Scandal (TV)

For Success (2452 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Scandal (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Mellie Grant/Fitzgerald Grant, Mellie Grant/Olivia Pope
Characters: Mellie Grant, Fitzgerald Grant, Olivia Pope
Additional Tags: alternate universe role reversal, five things, Madame President Mellie, fashion porn
Summary: "You're too young," was the first thing Olivia Pope ever said to her, while their hands were still clasped in a shake.

This is the AU I've always wanted for this fandom! Mellie is really well done here – there's tons of interesting character introspection – and I love that Mellie/Olivia is included but isn't the whole story. It's very much a Mellie fic with Mellie/Olivia coming organically out of it. (Also, kudos for including a completely IC abortion.)

Scarborough Fair (song)

gather it all in a bunch of heather (1696 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Scarborough Fair - Simon & Garfunkel (song)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: True Love (Scarborough Fair)/Singer (Scarborough Fair)
Characters: Singer (Scarborough Fair), True Love (Scarborough Fair), You (Scarborough Fair)
Additional Tags: First Love, Falling In Love, Identity Porn, Bittersweet, Unreliable Narrator
Summary:

Are you going to Scarborough Fair
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme
Remember me to one who lives there
She once was a true love of mine.

This fic made me go look up the lyrics to Scarborough Fair/Canticle, and it really does a good job. The narrator is great, and there's a lyrical wistfulness to the fic that's lovely.

Sleeping Beauty (1969)

toast and tea, sunshine and shadow (8423 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Sleeping Beauty (1959), Rumpelstilzchen | Rumpelstiltskin (Fairy Tale)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Aurora's Mother/King Stefan (Sleeping Beauty)
Characters: Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty), Aurora's Mother (Sleeping Beauty), King Stefan (Sleeping Beauty), Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), Prince Phillip (Sleeping Beauty)
Additional Tags: Pre-Canon, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Multiple Crossovers, Stealth Crossover, Good and Evil
Summary: Why did Maleficent curse Aurora?

This is fantastic. I love Maleficent's POV, and the evil/good tension that plays throughout. Floura & Merryweather squabbling in the background is hilarious, and so are the croissant first-years. Also Ursula & Maleficent? Yes please.

Snow White and the Huntsman (2012)

the moon a black hole in the blaze of night (4142 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Snow White and the Huntsman (2012)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Ravenna/Snow White (Snow White and the Huntsman)
Characters: Ravenna (Snow White and the Huntsman), Snow White (Snow White and the Huntsman)
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Misses Clause Challenge
Summary: There is no king, this time. When Ravenna tries to capture Snow White's kingdom, she is rescued by an armoured queen.

Rich, gorgeous, lush. Every word of this fic is so well-chosen and constructed. I love the story, and I love even more the way it's told. This fic will stay with me. Highly recced.

Temeraire/Unusual Dragon Hoards

An Abundance Of Captains (2897 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Temeraire - Naomi Novik, Unusual Dragon Hoards - iguanamouth
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Temeraire, William Laurence, Hoard of Kittens Dragon
Additional Tags: Fluff, Crossover, Yuletide Treat
Summary: Laurence was puzzled as to why anyone should send him and Temeraire to collect a stray dragonet, until he discovered how it had chosen its captain.

This already has loads of recs, all well-deserved. The voices are perfect - Naomi Novik, did you secretly write this under a sock? ;) - the tone whimsical, and all in all it's a lovely lighthearted romp. Highly recced.

Tennis RPF

all the girlfish in the sea (1019 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Tennis RPF
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Serena Williams/Caroline Wozniacki
Characters: Serena Williams, Caroline Wozniacki
Summary: Serena is going to tell her eventually.

Read this for Serena and Maria's interaction alone. :D The Caro bits are great too. It's short and fun.

Talkin' 'bout My Generation (2083 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Tennis RPF
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Roger Federer/Nick Kyrgios
Characters: Roger Federer, Nick Kyrgios
Additional Tags: Sexual Bets, Fucking, Generational Change, Opposites Attract
Summary: During a training week with Nick Kyrgios that's turned into something more, Roger Federer makes an ill-advised bet.

Not a pairing I've ever seen before (Federer/Kyrgios), but the intergenerational tension is fun, and I like the hints that Roger (the POV character) isn't as unaffected & calm as he's trying to be.

fuck is such a fun word to say (1210 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Tennis RPF
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Grigor Dimitrov/Maria Sharapova (primary), Grigor Dimitrov/Bernard Tomic, Grigor Dimitrov/Milos Raonic, Grigor Dimitrov/Eugenie Bouchard, Grigor Dimitrov/Caroline Wozniacki, Grigor Dimitrov/Andy Murray, Grigor Dimitrov/Nick Kyrgios (mentioned)
Characters: Grigor Dimitrov, Maria Sharapova, Bernard Tomic, Milos Raonic, Eugenie Bouchard, Caroline Wozniacki, Andy Murray
Additional Tags: Sleeping around, Open Relationships, Sexual Prowess, Sexual Competitiveness
Summary: Grigor loves to fuck around, but he always comes home in the end.

I'm a sucker for "happily sleeps around" fic, and this one with Grigor sleeping around both the ATP and WTA tours and then coming home to tell his girlfriend Maria about it is really well done.

Vienna Teng (Works)

Now You See Her (1087 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Homecoming (Walter's Song) - Vienna Teng (Song), Shasta (Carrie's Song) - Vienna Teng (Song), Whatever You Want - Vienna Teng (Song)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Walter/Carrie (Vienna Teng)
Characters: Walter (Vienna Teng), Carrie (Vienna Teng), Anna Rose (Vienna Teng), The Wife (Whatever You Want - Vienna Teng)
Additional Tags: Absolution, Character Study, Forgiveness, Making things right, Reconciliation, break-up, Romance, Separation, Small Towns, on the road, whistleblower
Summary: You do not wonder why you can never go home, but you wonder why it seems to follow you, all the mistakes you ever made.

I loved how this fic tied the songs together. And the ending = ♥

----

That's it for now! :) Back to burrowing through the collection. Happy Yuletide, everyone!

Dear Yuletide Writer, 2014

2014-10-20T05:50:17Z

Hello, lovely fellow Yuletider! I’m really happy that we’ve been matched. You obviously have excellent taste, since you’ve offered one of my fandoms. ;) But seriously, thank you for writing for me, and I’m really excited to see what you create. You’re awesome. ♥

Things I love: adventures, falling in love (especially when the characters don’t realise that’s what they’re doing), unreliable narrators, slow build, characters with plans, characters with plans that go wrong, characters in love who have difficulty making the first move (particularly if the person they're pining for is in love with them too and having similar troubles), epistolary fic, teasing, snark, established relationships (particularly the old-marriedness and cosy bits), kissing, thorough kissing, worldbuilding, magic, working through problems, laughter and derailments and affection during sex, cuddling, domesticity, happy endings. (More porn likes, if that’s your thing.)

Dislikes and squicks: character-bashing (I adore all the characters I’ve nominated), gore, scat, torture, bestiality, under-age sex, incest, non-con. Also, I’m a vegan. This isn’t a big deal usually – feel free to have people eating cheeseburgers in the background or whatever. It’s only a squick for me if the eating of animals is graphic, dwelt on at length, and/or raw.

On to the fandoms and ships!

(Final note: I’m trying something slightly different this Yuletide, which is to be relatively concise. Feel free to check out earlier exchange letters to get a fuller sense of things/situations/plotbunnies I like, if you’re into that. :) Many of my plotbunnies and general likes could easily carry over into other fandoms.)

♥ ♥ ♥

~//~

FANDOM NUMBER ONE:
Honor Harrington Series - David Weber
Characters: Shannon Foraker, Michelle Henke

SPOILERS BELOW

Michelle Henke and Shannon Foraker are my favourite characters in this series – although I love lots of people in it – and I just love the idea of them being in a relationship (or a friendship, if you are a gen writer). I think their personalities would work really well together, and they’d be a formidable force to help Manticore and Haven transform themselves into allies.

It’d be hard for you to go wrong with these two. :) Either falling-in-love (gen option: becoming friends) or established relationship works for me. Also, whenever you want to set a Shannon & Michelle story, that's great with me - I'm equally happy with a fic that slots into the canon timeline, or one that either looks into the future or has a canon-divergence to have them meet earlier/differently.

Ideas: Michelle showing Shannon around Manticoran technology? Michelle introducing Shannon to Elizabeth and/or Honor? Shannon being all tacticially-awesome (sorry, I am not tactically-awesome, but I love reading about it) and wowing Michelle? Worldbuilding starring the two of them? A look at how good (or bad) the two of them are at diplomacy? Porn? Everything is good. :) I love five-times fic, and cultural differences, and domestic moments. I love solving mysteries, and grace under pressure, and banter, and waking up in bed together. I love cuddling, and porn, and laughter during sex. I especially love how Shannon & Michelle have very different strengths, so a story that highlighted that could be really cool - maybe they're teaching a seminar or running a battle simulation together/against each other, or something like that? I also have this idea of one of them writing (or dictating?) a journal article, with the other chiming in with corrections/additions.

Finally, one of my biggest issues with the Honor Harrington series is the absence of queer characters. Weber isn't anti-LGBT (he's no Orson Scott Card), and I believe Word of God is that Admiral Sarnow is gay and that will be revealed in a coming book, but Weber's done a pretty bad job of giving us queer characters so far. If you wanted to work some worldbuilding in as to what being queer in the HH universe would be like, that would be more than all right with me! (But don't feel the need to focus on that exclusively - in fact, I'd prefer there not to be an exclusive focus.)

♥ ♥ ♥

~//~

FANDOM NUMBER TWO:
Benjamin January Mysteries - Barbara Hambly
Characters: Dominique Janvier Viellard, Chloe Viellard

SPOILERS BELOW

I love the world of Benjamin January. It’s so rich and interesting. I love pretty much all the main characters, but the two I’m asking for here is Dominique and Chloe. I’m just really interested in their relationship. Chloe is very young when she marries Henri, and not only does she seem to be uninterested in a sexual relationship with him, she seems to be happy that he has Dominique and in fact befriends her.

I’d be happy reading these two however you see their relationship. If you write Chloe as an asexual lesbian who falls in love with Dominique, that’s great. If you write her as a sexual lesbian who gradually realizes she’s just as much in love with Dominique as Henri is, that’s great too. If you write the story of how they become platonic friends, I’d love that as well. If you write Henri succumbing to cholera and Dominique and Chloe later falling in love and moving away to Boston or somewhere to live together in scandalous happiness, that’s also wonderful. Falling-in-love romance (gen option: developing a close friendship) and plotty (or fluffy) established-relationship are both good with me. :) If you like mysteries and want to write one, go to town, but it’s not a necessity or anything.

Ideas: Perhaps Chloe and Dominique could collaborate on something, or one of them could teach the other about something they were especially good at. (I love how they have very different strengths!) Perhaps they could play a game together, while Minou's daughter plays on the floor with her baby toys. Perhaps they could solve a mystery - either a little domestic mystery, or a broader mystery (whether on their own or assisting Ben is both fine with me). Or tell me the story of how they fell in love! (I adore the friends-to-lovers trope SO much.) For this fandom, I'm open to first-person POV (from either woman) and/or epistolary fic, if your brain moves in either/both of those directions. (Not a requirement!) I also love the Mayerlings, and if you wanted to incorporate them somehow, feel free.

I love Chloe’s mind and curiosity, and Dominique’s sweetness. I love their entire personalities! Anything that keeps them them will make me very happy.

♥ ♥ ♥

~//~

FANDOM NUMBER THREE:
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café – Fannie Flagg
Characters: Idgie Threadgoode, Ruth Jamison

SPOILERS BELOW

I listened to this book on audiobook while at the gym, without having the slightest idea in advance of the plot. My face when I realized Idgie & Ruth were going to end up together must have been quite a picture! I love, love them, and I will love any fic you write me about them together. More about them falling in love/being in love? When Ruth comes back to town and moves in with Idgie? When they start the café together? Their different parenting styles? An adventure they had together? I love outside-POV, so if you wanted to tell me a story about Idgie & Ruth in the characteristic style of Dot Weems, I’d enjoy that a lot. Or if you want to look at the history of the time through the prism of Idgie & Ruth’s relationship, that’s great too!

I love five-times fic, and domesticity, and found-families (I love the found-family atmosphere of the café! Sipsey is one of my favorites), and intimate moments that are mundane (someone doing laundry, someone fixing food for someone, someone rubbing someone’s shoulders). I’d also love fic that explored Idgie’s alternate identity as Railroad Bill, and what that means for her and Ruth. And if you love Eva Bates as much as I do, feel free to include her as well. (Though oddly, while I’m usually all for threesomes, I only see Idgie/Ruth as a duo.)

[Note: I asked for book fic on purpose – I haven’t seen the movie, but I’ve been told that they change it so Ruth was in love with Idgie’s brother and never got over him, instead of Ruth being in love with Idgie. Needless to say, this is not a change I’m a fan of, and I’m a Ruth/Idgie shipper all the way. :)]

♥ ♥ ♥

~//~

FANDOM NUMBER FOUR:
Monstrous Regiment – Terry Pratchett
Characters: Sergeant Jackrum

SPOILERS BELOW

Sergeant Jackrum is my favorite character in Monstrous Regiment, although I also love pretty much all the regiment. First things first: pronouns! I am happy with a) an outside POV that uses male pronouns because the POV is only aware of him as a man, b) Jackrum identifying as a man, or c) Jackrum identifying as a woman who has assumed a male identity. Basically, I’m willing to go with what you feel Jackrum would identify as. I personally think of him with male pronouns, but I am also perfectly willing to read a fic with female pronouns. (My one request is that the story not be focused on Jackrum’s gender identity. I’m fine with whatever you pick, but a story that was all about Jackrum thinking about identity wouldn’t be for me.)

Okay, pronouns over. I would love basically any story about Jackrum. Perhaps you want to write about how she enlisted in the first place, and her early years. Or about how she first blackmailed/persuaded an officer to let her stay in post. Or about an unseen adventure over the years. Or, the beginning of Monstrous Regiment from his perspective, dealing with all the new recruits. Or really any part of Monstrous Regiment from his POV (I feel like his POV would be great!) Or about the meeting between him & his son’s family at the end of the book.

I love five-times fic, and characters with plans (especially if the plans go wrong and they have to improvise), and unreliable narrators, and worldbuilding, and “day in the life” stories, and adventures, and mysteries, and grappling with unfamiliar technology. I love Jackrum’s mentoring of the recruits in his own inimitable way. I love the way he deals with officers, and his schemes, and how frickin’ awesome he is at the end of the book. Tell me a story about Jackrum, and you will have a very happy recipient. :)

♥ ♥ ♥

~//~

Okay, hopefully I’ve kept to my resolution of being more concise this time, while still giving you enough info and ideas! If you still want more, do check out my other fandoms for ideas, and/or my past letters. A lot of my beloved tropes and plotbunnies are panfandom (with variations, of course, for the different beloved characters.)

Thank you again for offering to write one of these fandoms, dear writer! I know I’ll love your fic. Happy writing! ♥ ♥ ♥

FemslashEx Letter 2014

2014-08-26T05:21:30Z

Hello, lovely fellow FemslashEx person! I’m really happy that we’ve been matched. You obviously have excellent taste, since you’ve offered one of my ships. ;) But seriously, thank you for writing for me, and I’m really excited to see what you create. You’re awesome. <3

Things I love: adventures, falling in love (especially when the characters don’t realise that’s what they’re doing), unreliable narrators, slow build, characters with plans, characters with plans that go wrong, characters in love who have difficulty making the first move (particularly if the person they're pining for is in love with them too and having similar troubles), teasing, snark, established relationships (particularly the old-marriedness and cosy bits), kissing, thorough kissing, worldbuilding, magic, working through problems, laughter and derailments and affection during sex, cuddling, domesticity, happy endings. (More porn likes, if that’s your thing.)

Dislikes and squicks: character-bashing (I adore all the characters I’ve nominated), gore, scat, torture, bestiality, under-age sex, incest, non-con. Also, I’m a vegan. This isn’t a big deal usually – feel free to have people eating cheeseburgers in the background or whatever. It’s only a squick for me if the eating of animals is graphic, dwelt on at length, and/or raw.

On to the fandoms and ships!

(Final note: I’m trying something slightly different in this letter than in other exchange letters I’ve written, which is to be relatively concise. Feel free to check out earlier letters to get a fuller sense of things/situations/plotbunnies I like, if you’re into that. :) Many of my plotbunnies and general likes could easily carry over into other fandoms.)

♥ ♥ ♥

~//~

FANDOM NUMBER ONE:
Honor Harrington Series
Ship: Shannon Foraker/Michelle Henke

Michelle Henke and Shannon Foraker are my favourite characters in this series – although I love lots of people in it – and I just love the idea of them being in a relationship. I think their personalities would work really well together, and they’d be a formidable force to help Manticore and Haven transform themselves into allies.

It’d be hard for you to go wrong with these two. :) Either falling-in-love or established relationship works for me. Michelle showing Shannon around Manticoran technology? Michelle introducing Shannon to Elizabeth and/or Honor? Shannon being all tacticially-awesome (sorry, I am not tactically-awesome, but I love reading about it) and wowing Michelle? Worldbuilding starring the two of them? A look at how good (or bad) the two of them are at diplomacy? Porn? Everything is good. :)

♥ ♥ ♥

~//~

FANDOM NUMBER TWO:
Benjamin January Mysteries
Ship: Dominique Janvier/Chloe Viellard

I love the world of Benjamin January. It’s so rich and interesting. I love pretty much all the main characters, but the ship I’m asking for here is Dominique and Chloe. I’m just really interested in how that would work. Chloe is very young when she marries Henri, and she seems to be very uninterested in a sexual relationship with him, happy that he has Dominique and in fact befriending her.

I’d be happy reading this ship however you see it. If you write Chloe as an asexual lesbian who falls in love with Dominique, that’s great. If you write her as a sexual lesbian who gradually realizes she’s just as much in love with Dominique as Henri is, that’s great too. If you write Henri succumbing to cholera and Dominique and Chloe later falling in love and moving away to Boston or somewhere to live together in scandalous happiness, that’s also wonderful. Falling-in-love romance and plotty (or fluffy) established-relationship are both good with me. :) If you like mysteries and want to write one, go to town, but it’s not a necessity or anything.

I love Chloe’s mind and curiosity, and Dominique’s sweetness. I love their entire personalities! Anything that keeps them them will make me very happy.

♥ ♥ ♥

~//~

FANDOM NUMBER THREE:
Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries
Ship: Phryne Fisher/Elizabeth MacMillan

I love this canon, and the best parts about it are Phryne, Mac, and Dot. I’m asking for Phryne/Mac here, because I love their dynamic and I totally, totally ship them. Mac is completely my type, and I adore Phryne's personality. Whether you want to write a mystery for the two of them to solve, or porn in which they never leave their bed, or friends-to-lovers in which Phryne gradually realizes that Mac’s the one she’s been in love with all along, or established relationship with tons of flirting and banter… I’m up for it. (No unresolved angst or darkfic, please.)

I love pretty much all the background recurring characters as well, so feel free to have them wander in and out as necessary. Oh, and if you wanted to tell a story about the two of them from an outside POV (Dot, perhaps? Mr Butler? (I adore Mr Butler.) Aunt Prudence? Burt or Cec?), I love outside POVs. Or maybe they have to go undercover as a couple to a secret lesbian nightclub to solve a case? Or maybe you want to talk about period sex toys? I feel like there are loads and loads of options for fics. :) Have fun!

♥ ♥ ♥

~//~

FANDOM NUMBER FOUR:
The West Wing
Ships: C. J. Cregg/Evelyn Baker Lang, C. J. Cregg/Nancy McNally

The West Wing may just be my favourite television show of all time. I know it’s over-idealistic, and unrealistic at times, and is (like most shows) vastly underrepresented in women and minority characters. But I love the writing and the heart, and the female characters it does have are some of my favourite of any show. Take C. J. She’s the absolute best, and I’ll fight anyone who says otherwise. And Evelyn Baker Lang? Season 5 mostly sucked, but she is by far and away the best part of it. I want her to be Chief Justice so badly. And Nancy McNally? She’s super-competent and funny and badass, and I completely adore her.

What kind of fic do I want? Oh god. Anything, really, but that’s super unhelpful. I wonder what Evelyn’s confirmation process looked like, and how she and C.J. might have bonded? Or how might Nancy have helped C. J. adjust to being Chief of Staff? Or maybe during that whole episode where C.J.’s dealing with the “lesbian rumours”, maybe Nancy comes by to talk and share her own story? I can think of millions of ways that either of these two ships might have fallen in love. :) I love all that friends-to-lovers and slow-burn falling-in-love stuff, I’ll eat it up with a spoon.

Or maybe you don’t really write romance or sex, and want to do established relationship! I adore established-relationship. Or maybe you want to write future-fic! Maybe C.J. actually stayed in DC and ended up eventually falling in love with Evelyn, and now they’re married and Evelyn’s Chief Justice and C.J.’s writing her memoirs, and maybe at the end C.J. begins to wonder if she shouldn’t get back in the game (or not!)

Just like in all my other sections, I like adventures and plotty fic just as much as I like romance and fluff. And vice versa. I just really love these characters, so have fun. :)

♥ ♥ ♥

~//~

FANDOM NUMBER FIVE:
Original Work
Ships: President/Chief of Staff

You might’ve guessed from my West Wing section that I love political stuff. :) Well, I do! I’d love to see this dynamic explored. I personally lean more towards “the president & chief of staff are out & proud”, or “the president falls in love with her chief of staff over the course of her term and asks her out after it’s over”, rather than some grand coverup while in office. But pining that’s resolved at the very end is great, and so’s porn in the Oval Office.

Just like in West Wing and my other sections, I like both romance & fluff (falling in love! Pining! Friends to lovers!) and adventures & plot (diplomatic brouhaha! Congressional crisis! Domestic turmoil!). I especially like them both combined, lol, but I love them both separately as well. Whether you want to write a fic about how the President and Chief of Staff solve an international crisis, or about how they pick out curtains for their home after leaving the White House, and everything in between, I will be very happy.

(Just a note: I do love politics. I obviously wrote UK politics fic for a long time. So feel free to ladle in as much as you want – I love Santos’s sneaky Congressional maneuvre, for instance. I’m a Democrat – who agrees with 85% of Green Party policy – so bashing Democrats a lot would be a turnoff for me, but a centrist with an unspecified party affiliation is okay.)

♥ ♥ ♥

~//~

Okay, hopefully I’ve kept to my resolution of being more concise this time, while still giving you enough info and ideas! If you still want more, do check out my other fandoms for ideas (a lot of them probably carry over – like, if you want the President/Chief of Staff, C.J./Nancy, or Dominque/Chloe to investigate a mystery, or conquer a new piece of technology, go for it!) and/or my past letters. A lot of my beloved tropes and plotbunnies are panfandom (with variations, of course, for the different beloved characters.)

Thank you again for offering to write one of these fandoms, dear writer! I know I’ll love your fic. Happy writing! ♥ ♥ ♥

2013 Yuletide reveals!

2014-01-01T17:37:53Z

So I've had a whirlwind holiday season! With my little sister's cancer diagnosis, we've spent the last 9 days or so together as a family, first at my mom's for Christmas and then at my dad's for the week after. I haven't spent so long with the kids since I was 16. It's been good, just a bit loud and boisterous, but I haven't had much privacy or time. Thus no recs posts yet, and I've only managed to read and comment on a few Yuletide fics. (Three of those were my terrifically wonderful gifts! Don't worry, you'll hear much more about them in my rec post when it comes. They're awesome.)

But I did write three fics before the Christmas rush, and here they are!

*drumroll*

Summer Rain (9652 words) by abluestocking
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Jolene (Song) - Dolly Parton
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Jolene/Narrator ("Jolene"), Narrator ("Jolene")/Man ("Jolene")
Characters: Jolene, Narrator ("Jolene"), Man ("Jolene")
Additional Tags: Mercenaries, Warring Factions, Applied Politics, High Fantasy
Summary:

Even before Jolene ran into an assassination attempt in a dark alley, it had been a long evening and an even longer day.

This was my main assignment. I don't really know how I got an assignment for Jolene and thought of high fantasy! But I think my recipient was waylaid by real life and never updated her Dear Yuletide letter, so I had to be imaginative all by myself. This fic was a labour of love, and I really enjoyed writing it.

~
Under a Summer Sky (3895 words) by abluestocking
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Phryne Fisher/Jack Robinson
Characters: Phryne Fisher, Jack Robinson
Additional Tags: Case Fic, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Developing Relationship, First Time
Summary:

Phryne and Jack go undercover as honeymooners.

I didn't realise until this morning, seeing my new fics in my AO3 profile, that I'd used 'Summer' in two titles. Oops. Well, this one is very different than Summer Rain - it's a whimsical casefic in a new fandom that I love. Oxoniensis's prompts were delicious, and I loved writing to them. (As a demonstration of how busy & non-private I've been since Christmas, I still haven't been able to watch the Christmas special, even though it came out on the 22nd! First thing I'm going to do when the kids leave today.)

~
The Milkmaid's Journey (4703 words) by abluestocking
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Chess (Board Game)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Queen (Chess), Pawn (Chess), Knight (Chess), Bishop (Chess), Keep (Chess), King (Chess)
Additional Tags: Points of View, Yuletide 2013
Summary:

Millie was just a rosy-cheeked, placid milkmaid - a pawn in a great chess game beyond her understanding.

Or was she?

There's a special place in my heart for this one. I'm really happy with all three of the fics I wrote for Yuletide this year, but this treat I wrote early on (in the first half of November) and it's special to me. I don't play much chess, but I love the rich universe it has, and this fic was a delight to write. Thanks to Malkontent for her lovely prompts!

~~

Well, that's it! That's my Yuletide reveal for 2013. Only three fics this year, as opposed to past years where I've had eight or nine, but all three of them were pretty hefty, so I'm quite happy with them. (And I do have at least one NYR still in the works.) Thanks to all the readers, kudosers, and commenters, and a special unworthy thank you to the lovely reccers. <3

P.S. To my LJ friends - we got a late Christmas present today! The oncologists called to reschedule M's appointment (to discuss a chemotherapy schedule) to February. It was supposed to be tomorrow, and we fully expected her to have to start chemo immediately. So she has a month's reprieve, which is a long time when you're 10. May all the days of 2014 be as joyful.

Oh, the weather outside is frightful

2013-12-07T06:32:33Z

First of all, I want to thank everyone who sent their best wishes and thoughts after my last post. Subsequent news is bad, although not the grimmest it could be, but we are focusing on having a wonderful holiday season and enjoying our time together. All of us except one live within 6 hours of home and will be home for Christmas (one brother is stationed in Europe and won't have leave until 2015). We had a lovely Thanksgiving and are looking forward to Christmas. Thanks again for your good wishes and for your friendship. <3

Second, to move on to a happier subject, I'm throwing myself headfirst into Christmas this year, and that includes both festivities IRL (it's snowing today! Actualfax snowing!) and online. Obviously I'm doing Yuletide - I feel like an old hat, being a greybeard third-year - and this year I've also picked up fandom-stocking. My stocking is here, and I'm excited to see what happens with it! :) I've already written three ficlets for various people's stockings, and am still going strong, so if you have a stocking up, send it my way! (If you don't, signups are open till the 18th, I think.) I hereby promise to put something in any LJ friend's stocking if you give me the link. :D

Third, did I mention it's snowing? Walking to the gym in the snow is weird. The gym itself was nicely toasty, though, which may be the first and only time I'll ever say that. (Usually I like it proper chilly.)

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season. <3 Keep warm! (Unless you're in the Southern Hemisphere, in which case, barbie on the beach!)

Yuletide Letter 2013! :)

2013-10-07T00:27:22Z

Hello, lovely Yuletide author-to-be! I am beyond excited that we’ve been matched. You’re already most awesome for signing up to Yuletide and for offering at least one of the fandoms of my heart. Everything above that is gravy. I will adore you and whatever you write, don’t worry. <333

You’ll already have my requests, which I’ve copied down below as well. This letter will go into more detail (and periodically swerve into squee, because this is my third year doing Yuletide and it just makes me so blissfully happy). If you already have an idea and want to get writing, go for it! But if you'd like a little more insight into me and my requests, read on. :)

Before getting to the fandoms, a few general notes: I love all kinds of fic – gen, femslash, slash, het, it's all good. Whichever way your muse takes you is fine (although I'd love it if the story had some plot and/or characterisation as well as its porn, if you go in that direction). ♥

Things I love: gen adventures, falling in love (especially when the characters don’t realise that’s what they’re doing), unreliable narrators, slow build, characters with plans, characters with plans that go wrong, characters in love who have difficulty making the first move (particularly if the person they're pining for is in love with them too and having similar troubles), teasing, snark, established relationships (particularly the old-marriedness and cosy bits), kissing, thorough kissing, worldbuilding, magic, working through problems, laughter and derailments and affection during sex, cuddling, domesticity, happy endings. (More porn likes, if that's your thing, at my Yuleporn comment.)

Dislikes and squicks: character-bashing (I adore all the characters I’ve nominated), gore, scat, torture, bestiality, under-age sex, incest, non-con. Also, I’m a vegan. This isn’t a big deal usually – feel free to have people eating cheeseburgers in the background or whatever. It’s only a squick for me if the eating of animals is graphic (e.g., character is hunting and eats their kill raw with bloody relish) and/or dwelt on at great length & detail.

On to the fandoms and requests!

FANDOM NUMBER ONE:
Political RPF - US 21st c.
(Hillary Clinton, Ruth Bader Ginsburg)

Signup text: I love these two women, full stop. So basically anything you write will make me ridiculously happy. I’m very easy to please. :) Femslash or gen friendship adventures are equally loved; if you want ideas, see my letter (in which I basically squee all over the place). Zombie-fighters! Equal-rights advocates who fall in love while arguing cases before the Supreme Court! Supreme Court justices who transform the bench together! President Hillary being BFFs with Justice Ruth!

First, look at these two and tell me they aren’t just Simply Awesome. <3

Second, ideas? You want ideas? How about a zombie invasion in which Hillary and Ruth team up to save Washington? Or perhaps Hillary went to Rutgers instead of Yale Law and studied with Ruth, or clerked for her. Or maybe in 1974, instead of following Bill to Arkansas, Hillary stayed in Washington and argued seminal cases in front of the Supreme Court, just like Ruth. Maybe, having turned down Bill’s repeated marriage proposals, she and Ruth fell in love over briefs and briefcases; maybe Hillary ran for Congress, with Ruth at her side.

Or maybe Ruth and Hillary both ended up on the Supreme Court, and had awesome friendship adventures transforming it together, and/or fell in love on the bench! (Footsie under the robes! Hillary or Ruth as Chief Justice kicking butt and taking names! Their clerks starting a secret betting pool as to when they’ll get together! Etc.!) Or maybe Hillary became President instead of Bill (before she decided to marry him and move to Arkansas, most people thought she had the starrier future in store), and ends up becoming either BFFs or falling inconveniently but awesomely in love with one of her Justices.

Or, if you want to set it in the present day, maybe Ruth and Hillary meet over tea and Ruth persuades Hillary that she still has more to give the country – that Hillary shouldn’t think she’s too old, that she still has some very good years left and would be an amazing president.

As you might be able to tell, I would adore a slow-build intelligent romance – oh god, would I ever – but a gen friendship would also be simply lovely. And I really do mean that. Anything with these two together would be divine. (Just thinking about it is giving me the shivers!) It may sound like I want a 15K novel (and, well, if you write that more power to you and I will write you the longest most blissful comment of all time), but really a 1K snippet from any of the universes I’ve suggested, or another you come up with, would be fantastic. Again, don’t worry, anything you write about these two will make me really happy. :)

The only caveats I’d make here are: 1) if you AU it so Hillary is Ruth’s law school student or clerk, I’d rather not see them get together while Ruth is in a position of power over her. Friendship or pre-romance is fine, but I’m a grad student and it’d feel weird. 2) Infidelity makes me sad, so if you’re getting Hillary & Ruth together, it’d be great if you could handwave or ignore their husbands without bashing them (in 1974 Hillary can easily turn down Bill’s repeated marriage proposals and send him away to Arkansas, for instance). 3) Related - I like Bill fine, but as a supporting character not a major one. 4) Julian Assange was nominated in this fandom and he majorly skeeves me as a person, so please don't include him. Thanks. :)

Oh, and if you need OCs – clerks on Ruth and Hillary’s Supreme Court, people who fall to the zombie hordes advancing up Pennsylvania Avenue, President Hillary’s aides who pretend not to notice that Justice Ginsburg is spending a lot of time in the Oval Office – I have absolutely no problem with OCs as long as they’re not the main focus. :) Go for it and have fun creating people.

Here, have a picture of young!Hillary to inspire you. :)

And Ruth at about the same time.

♥ ♥ ♥

~//~

FANDOM NUMBER TWO:
Jewish Scripture & Legend
(Vashti)

Signup text: Why did Vashti refuse to come when Ahaserus sent for her? What was she doing with that banquet of her own – was it a political ploy? What happened to her after she was deposed? What did she think of Ahaserus gathering all the beautiful virgins in the land to look for her replacement? I’d love to see anything you wanted to write about Vashti and her choices. (More thoughts in my letter about this.) Or, if the melancholiness of her story isn’t your cup of tea, I’d enjoy her meeting up with other similar heroines - perhaps they rewrite their stories to be less about jerkface men and more about themselves? ;)

Rereading the book of Esther recently, I was struck by how dark it is. As a kid, you’re focusing on Esther, and how she saves her people by making Ahaserus fall in love with her and choose her over Haiman. But Vashti was queen first. The king had a 180-day party to show off the wealth of his kingdom, and at the end he threw a huge banquet for his friends, and the queen threw a banquet for hers, and when the king was very drunk he sent for Vashti to “show off her beauty” to his friends. (What exactly did this entail, I wonder?) And when she refused to come, he deposed her as queen and started gathering all the beautiful virgins in the land to find her replacement.

Why did Vashti refuse? Did she underestimate how angry the king might be? (The response to her refusal is interesting to me; Ahaserus’s advisers seem to think that her example could ignite a rash of marital disobedience among all the noble women in the land – many of whom were probably at Vashti’s banquet and witnessed her refusal – and thus she must face dire consequences to keep the patriarchy intact.) Did Vashti think Ahaserus really loved her (he was in the third year of his reign, so they may have both been young, and he had chosen her as queen originally), and that he’d therefore overlook her disobedience? Or was their relationship bad and this the final straw, and she simply couldn’t obey him any longer?

And what happened to her? The text doesn’t say she was killed, just deposed and banned from ever entering the king’s presence again. Did she have to remain in the king’s harem, watching as all those girls received intensive beauty treatments and then were sent to the king, girl after girl going into him at night and coming out in the morning to join the concubines, not having sufficiently won his favour? (It took more than a year before Esther won the king’s favour and was crowned queen, as all the girls had to undergo twelve months of beauty treatments.) Was she happy to be “retired”? (Ahaserus certainly seems to have had a volatile temper – maybe quiet retirement and being banned from seeing him ever again was a good thing!) Did she already have a child or children? What did she think about being replaced, and the process by which Ahaserus was doing it?

So many questions, I know! I’m just fascinated by Vashti’s story and character and would love to see a fic that looked at any of these aspects. I’m not expecting something that knows all the current scholarship as to who exactly Ahaserus and Vashti were, or what actually happened to Vashti, or any of that. Mostly I want something that gives me a satisfying look into who Vashti could have been.

Alternatively, if all this sounds wholly too melancholy for you, I love the other women nominated in this fandom as well (Dinah, Rahab, and Bathsheba). They could meet up at Vashti’s for tea and talk about their lives, or decide to rewrite their stories and sneak them in to replace the current ones, having hair-raising adventures in the margins of the book of Joshua as they race ahead of the pursuing Story Police. (Feel free to add your own favourite Tanakh heroines if you're going with a group plot.)

Double-alternatively, Vashti/Esther could be interesting! I doubt they would have been allowed to become close initially, but after Esther’s triumphant victory she probably got to do more of what she wanted. Maybe she and Vashti became friends and fell in love; Ahaserus, despite the “favour” he took in Esther, had plenty of concubines to keep him busy most of the time. If you go this route it’d be great to still get plot/characterisation – I love porn, but I prefer the kind that focuses on the characters and the story more than detailed descriptions of genitalia and positions. :)

♥ ♥ ♥
~//~

FANDOM NUMBER THREE:
Lord Peter Wimsey - Dorothy L. Sayers
(The Dowager Duchess)

Signup text: I love the Dowager Duchess, I just do. Like, ridiculously much. So this request is pretty simple. More Dowager Duchess! Maybe you want to write a canon event retold from her unique perspective, or a missing scene, or her with her grandchildren. Maybe you want to write her as a younger woman, having adventures and reminding the reader of her talented son a bit. Maybe you want to write her late-in-life romance with Miss Climpson. Maybe you want to write a quiet scene between her and Bunter during the Difficult Bit of Peter’s recovery. Whatever you want to write, it’s all good! I will be excited! Because she is simply wonderful (and so are you, for offering to write her). <3

Not sure what else to say on this one! I love the Dowager Duchess so much, and I really would be happy with pretty much anything you write about her.

If you want to bring in other characters to interact with her, I like pretty much everybody. [Gerald kind of annoys me for some reason (the Duke, not St George). Harriet is the love of my life, St George constantly amuses me, I randomly have a soft spot for Helen, and Peter is just perfectly Peter.] But if you want to keep it solely to the Dowager Duchess, that is completely awesome. (More Dowager Duchess! Hooray!)

Hmm. I feel like I should give you more options here, haha, because I go on for so long about my other fandoms. The Dowager Duchess at Harriet and Peter’s wedding, fending off the descending hordes? Ooo, the Dowager Duchess having conversations with some of the dons at the wedding! Or the Dowager Duchess and St George after one of his escapades. So so so many things that you could write! Eeeeee!

(Have you figured out by now that I really love saying “the Dowager Duchess”? Even her name is awesome! Ahem. Shutting up now.)

♥ ♥ ♥
~//~

FANDOM NUMBER FOUR:
Oxford Time Travel Universe - Connie Willis
(Binnie, Eileen, Polly)

Signup text: Binnie is a terror of a child who loses her mother and has to protect her little brother in the middle of the London Blitz. Eileen and Polly are time-travelling historians who are stuck in the Blitz and frantically trying to find a way home. Together, they’re a trio of amazing, complex, flawed and fascinating characters who find friendship and family in the middle of fear and loss. What kind of fic am I looking for about them? I have some ideas about missing scenes and alternate POVs (uh, make that “a lot” of ideas, because I love this fandom – see my letter for more details), but primarily I’m hoping for a fic that focuses on their characters and on their relationships with each other. You can’t go wrong focusing on the three of them. :)

I just finished listening to Blackout and All Clear on audiobook a few weeks ago, and I absolutely loved them. I know some people fault them for being altogether too long and repetitive, but I fell in love with the characters. So many wonderful minor characters, and so many terrific major ones! I particularly loved the fact that not only are two of Willis’s main three characters women, but three-dimensional, complex, flawed women as well. Polly and Eileen are awesome, yes, and they are the heroines of their own stories, but they’re also very human and relatable, and I really liked that.

So, ideas. First of all, I love Binnie. Like, I adore her. Her relationship with Alf, the way she keeps the two of them alive and together in the middle of the Blitz, her sharpness (how old is she supposed to be again?! and responsible for a younger brother on top of that?), her intelligence (figuring everything out about Eileen, Polly, and Mike, go Binnie!), her orneriness (I love the name thing, I really do), her love for Eileen (found families hit me right in the heartstrings), her heroism (it’s interesting how the book comes at this from the side - Eileen’s always going on about terror children in the beginning, of course, but Binnie the ambulance driver is truly a heroine, besides all the times that she and Alf make it possible for the others to do what they need to do). Plus her love for film stars and her parrot and the name she finally chooses and the quest she goes on for Eileen’s sake - just everything about Binnie is so wonderful. She’s complicated and, yes, a terror, but she loves so deeply and will go to any lengths to protect the people she loves.

What kind of stories would I love to read about Binnie? Any scenes from the books from her perspective – what is she thinking during that incredibly long night when they’re dragooned into driving the ambulance, for example? How about during V-E Day, when she thinks Eileen is about to leave them? Or missing scenes! How does she try to hold things together after their mother dies? How do she and Alf puzzle out the mystery surrounding the time-travellers? What is her experience like during the later part of the war, once Polly has left and Binnie is driving ambulances? [Does Binnie ever hear of Mary Kent? Does she know who Mary is? Is she trying to avoid her, or does she catch glimpses of her from afar?] How does she decide on her name at last, and how does she tell Eileen? Basically, any stories about Binnie that focus on her Binnie-ness will make me very happy. :)

I also adore Eileen. Her first mission, gosh. She’s so young, and so scared for so much of the books. So scared…Polly has the bombing raids in her implant, but Eileen was supposed to be a maid up north, she wasn’t supposed to be anywhere near the Blitz and the bombings and danger! What must those weeks have been like, between the time she came to London and the time Mike and Polly found her? Yet as the books go on, Willis develops her so carefully; Eileen’s no longer just the scared rookie, she’s puzzling out the mysteries of the lies/omissions that Polly and Mike are telling her in their misguided attempts to protect her, she’s coming to her own conclusions and making her own plans. And I love the way her POV is so frequently annoyed with the “terror children” and even Theodore’s clingy whininess, but it’s belied by the way her actions speak louder than her thoughts. She’s a protector, a mother, a friend; she may be an undergraduate, but she grows up so quickly. By the time she makes the sacrifice at the end of the books, it feels both earned and satisfying, even though it’s sad at the same time.

What would I love to see about Eileen? Similarly to Binnie, I’d love to see missing scenes. Those missing weeks before Polly and Mike find her? Her adventures in the later part of the war, between the time Polly leaves and V-E Day? Maybe the aftermath of Polly’s departure – what is the troupe (and Binnie and Alf) like without her, and how does Eileen fill her place both to the outer world and in her own heart? I’d also love to see anything with both Eileen and Binnie. Any time in the books, honestly; if you wanted to do missing scene stuff, maybe how Eileen and Binnie’s relationship grows and matures as Binnie grows up? She becomes an ambulance driver, what does Eileen think of that? (I seem to remember she lied about her age to get in – does Eileen just sigh and go along with it because Binnie will do whatever she wants, or do they have a discussion and talk about it?) As Binnie matures, does her relationship with Alf change, and where is Eileen in this – do they bond some more over trying to keep Alf from swimming the Channel to join the D-Day invasion? Like I said with Binnie, though, anything that keeps Eileen’s Eileen-ness will be absolutely wonderful. :)

And Polly! Beautiful, smart, star-crossed Polly, who everyone falls instantly in love with, from Sir Godfrey to Colin to Stephen. I love her fights with ribbons and her friendship with Marjorie, her misguided attempts to protect Eileen and Mike from the truth about her deadline, her tendency to always think the worst (assuming the troupe’s dead after the church is bombed, assuming she’ll get everyone she touches in 1941 killed and thus must never see them again, etc), her inability to get anything past Sir Godfrey, and her fearlessness in the face of danger (staying at the drop during the bombing raid, going into the bombed theatre after Sir Godfrey).

I can think of three groups of things I’d love to see with Polly. 1) I’d adore a fic with her and Binnie and Eileen, after they take the children in. It’s a desperate time for them, particularly if you go with Polly’s POV and her impending deadline, but it’s also when they become a family in the wake of Mike’s loss. A story set in this period that focused on their interactions would be lovely. 2) I love her interactions with her coworkers. Marjorie! Miss Snelgrove! If you want to write me a Polly/Marjorie fic, I will adore you. Or maybe Miss Snelgrove’s POV of Polly’s career at Townsend Brothers. 3) EILEEN/POLLY. In this fandom I’m mostly interested in gen fic, but if you prefer to write shipping fic there are some lovely possibilities. I’d rather not see Binnie shipped, and definitely not with Eileen. But I do ship Eileen/Polly more than a little bit. :) Maybe Binnie trying to solve a mystery and finding out that Eileen & Polly are together? Perhaps Eileen, following the loss of Mike, finds solace in Polly’s arms? Other pairings I like, although as background not primary ones, are Eileen/Vicar Goode and Polly/Sir Godfrey (I almost requested Sir Godfrey so I could ask for Polly/Sir Godfrey porn, but decided not to at the last minute. Maybe next year!) I’m not really into Polly/Colin.

Nota bene: Like I said at the beginning, I listened to these on audiobook with a great narrator. I’ve heard from other people that in print Willis’s attempt to portray Binnie and Alf’s dialogue patterns can veer into “cockney Dick Van Dyke” land. Please don’t feel that you need to copy her style in this! ;)

♥ ♥ ♥
~//~

That's all of my fandoms! If you read all of that, I am very impressed indeed. :) Sorry to chatter on so, I just love Yuletide and these fandoms so much. I've had such a wonderful time the last two Yuletides, and I know this year will be just as fantastic. Thank you again for offering to write one of these fandoms, dear writer! I know I will love your fic.

If you want to see the kinds of things I write myself (I know I check out my recipient), here are a couple of my fics from prior Yuletides. :)

No Longer a Friend of Narnia (Wicked Girls (album) - Seanan McGuire, Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis).
Noah's Arkangel (Tanakh). [Warning, this one's really long, haha, but it was my assignment last year so I include it for completeness.]
Springtime in Ihistan (Damar - Robin McKinley).
Wicked Wiles (Fairy Tales and Related Fandoms, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)).
A Novel Solution (Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen).

See you on Christmas! Happy Yuletide writing, and thank you again!

♥♥♥

Away for a few days

2013-01-30T16:35:12Z

I won't be around for a few days, as I'm blocking myself from some sites, including Livejournal, with Cold Turkey. Need to get some PhD work done. :D

See you on the other side.

Yuletide 2012 Author Reveal!

2013-01-01T19:24:09Z

The time is here!

I had a lovely Yuletide, and I hope everyone else did too. <3 I received three lovely gifts, sencha's Prince Charming Gets Married (The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom - Christopher Healy) and Untherius's In Which a Hunting Trip Becomes More and Which Tells of a Quest for Biscuits (both Howl's Moving Castle). I've said more about all three of my gifts here, but let me take this chance to again say thank you to both of my authors. <333

But Yuletide is for giving as well as receiving!

Here are the fics I wrote this Yuletide!

1) Noah's Arkangel (26996 words) by abluestocking for strix_alba
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Tanakh
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Summary: “I’ll be up at the Arkangel,” Noah finishes. “When you lot have finished your grumbling, come up and get your assignments.”

After he leaves, everyone looks at each other, still caught in the moment of silence. As might have been expected, Ham’s the one to break it. “What’s crawled up his exhaust pipe?”

“I think the prospect of a life-ending flood might just have had a moderately deleterious effect upon him,” Rahela says sarcastically. “I can’t imagine why.”

Reveal comments: So this is the fic that was originally supposed to be about a third of this length, and then it decided it had other ideas. :) Strix_alba's main request in this fandom was for an AU, so I took that and ran with it. Apparently you can't do Noah's Ark AUs in space without epic proportions!

I'd never written this many scientists before - let's get real, I've never written any scientists period - so hopefully the science mostly sort of worked? (A. is probably pityingly shaking his head right now.) If it doesn't, well, I blame my anthropologist POV character, who probably just misunderstood or heard wrong. :P Which, speaking of anthropologists, in an eerie coincidence my recipient turned out to be one too. Yes. This only happens to me. So hopefully all the ethical debates about anthropology weren't horribly off. *headdesk* I did enjoy writing it, though, despite its longwindedness and science. :)

~//~

2) No Longer a Friend of Narnia (645 words) by abluestocking for Gehayi
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Wicked Girls (album) - Seanan McGuire, Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Susan Pevensie
Summary: Susan refuses to tell fairytale stories.

Reveal comments: "Wicked Girls" is just so lovely, that when I saw Gehayi's prompt I couldn't help writing something for it. I've always loved Susan and thought her condemnation was horrible, so this little story came from a very natural place.

~//~

3) Jasmine's Nemesis (1000 words) by abluestocking for tamarind (rogue)
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Nemeses (Song), Jonathan Coulton
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Summary: Jasmine is eleven, and she's looking for her nemesis. She knows the right one's out there somewhere.

Reveal comments: Another wonderful song that was just demanding a fill. Rogue's prompt was great, and I did my best with the girls. :)

~//~

4) We're Going to Say It's True (612 words) by abluestocking for proleptic_fancy
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: British Comedian RPF
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Lee Mack/David Mitchell
Characters: David Mitchell, Lee Mack
Summary: As soon as David looks at the card, Lee knows this is going to be a good one.

Reveal comments: I love Would I Lie to You?, I really do. I don't know how well I captured these two, but I did my best to celebrate them. :) A bit of fluff to fill a stocking.

~//~

5) Eighteen Impossible Things Before Breakfast (1616 words) by abluestocking for elyssblair
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Toy Story Series (Movies)
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Andrew "Andy" Davis, Sid Phillips
Summary: Andy renews an acquaintance.

Reveal comments: Another stocking stuffer. I may have had entirely too much fun inventing films for Sid to have made. xD

~//~

6) Daughter (1333 words) by Blue for Meltha
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Abraham's Daughter - Arcade Fire (Song)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Summary: Abraham had two sons. And I am his daughter.

Note: Mentions of child abuse. (This is the 'graphic depictions of violence' - I err on the side of caution.)

Reveal comments: This is the grimmest of the things I wrote this year. The song is haunting, and once I got the idea that Abraham's daughter might be Ishmael's full sister, it went from there.

~//~

7) Between (229 words) by Blue for Kainosite
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Political RPF - UK 20th-21st c.
Rating: Mature
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Alastair Campbell/Peter Mandelson, Tony Blair/Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair/Peter Mandelson
Characters: Alastair Campbell, Peter Mandelson
Summary: Alastair and Peter will forever have one thing in common.

Reveal comments: Yes, so, well, I know Kainosite, and when I saw that her prompt included a request for porn involving one of Tony's ties, I realised immediately that I had to write it. :D This is a teensy (well, 'concentrated' sounds better than teensy) bit of porn with as much characterisation as I could wedge in there. :) Enjoy.

~//~

8) Vexation of Spirit (1245 words) by Blue for eruthiel
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Political RPF - UK 20th-21st c.
Rating: Mature
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Alastair Campbell/Peter Mandelson
Characters: Peter Mandelson, Alastair Campbell
Summary: Five times Alastair annoyed Peter, and one time he made it better.

Reveal comments: So after I wrote the last Madness ficlet, eruthiel commented on it saying how much he loved top!Peter and that I should write him more often. Since I had a little bit of time before Madness closed, me writing more things was pretty predictable. :D This was a first attempt and didn't quite make it too far into pornness. There are bagpipes and posh apple juice and Alastair attempting to be Malcolm Tucker, however. :)

~//~

9) What A Man Wants (1347 words) by Blue for eruthiel
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Political RPF - UK 20th-21st c.
Rating: Explicit
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Alastair Campbell/Peter Mandelson
Characters: Alastair Campbell, Peter Mandelson
Summary: There are some embarrassing things that Alastair is happy to confess to – adoring Tony Blair, loving Burnley – and some that he will own because he has to – Iraq, his receding hairline.

There are others that he will refuse to acknowledge except under extreme duress.

Reveal comments: Just barely managed to squeeze this one in before Madness closed! Since the last one for eruthiel failed at being porny, I made this one doubly so. And um, included begging and wall sex. :) Enjoy, dude. <3

~//~ ~//~ ~//~

And that, gentlefolk, was my Yuletide reveal!

This was my second Yuletide, and I had a wonderful time again. I loved how it was a completely different experience this time around, in new and interesting ways. I'm already looking forward to seeing how my third year will try to top it.

And now it's 2013! Happy New Year, one and all. <333

First batch of Yuletide recs

2012-12-27T17:29:47Z

So, I've been having a perfectly lovely Yuletide! My assigned fic rather mushroomed into the Longest Fic Ever, because it decided to have a mind of its own, and then once it was finished I had a rather delicious time running about writing treats in a hodgepodge of disparate fandoms. It's been a wonderful second year participating. :)

Now that I'm done writing, I've been doing All the Reading. So many beautiful fics to devour! Finally, I'm ready to present to you my first rec list. (I say first, because if last year is anything to go by I'll probably end up with another eventually. But this one has grown enough to begin to be unwieldy, so up it goes.)

Without further ado, here are twelve recs in twelve fandoms, plus my three gifts in two fandoms.

Madness recs: Abraham’s Daughter – Arcade Fire (Song), Calvin & Hobbes, Brave (2012), West Wing/Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012), The Giver – Lois Lowry, Only Connect RPF

Main collection recs: Tennis RPF, Damar Series – Robin McKinley, Le città invisibili | Invisible Cities - Italo Calvino, Despicable Me (2010), Princess Bride – William Goldman, Enchanted Forest Chronicles - Patricia Wrede

Gifts: Howl Series - Diana Wynne Jones (2 fics), The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom - Christopher Healy

Welcome to my first recs list! I have spent a rather ridiculous amount of time compiling this, so I hope you enjoy. <3

First, have a cheeseboard of tasty little morsels to whet your appetite.

Madness!

For She Desires Questioning More than Sacrifices (875 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Abraham's Daughter - Arcade Fire (Song), Abrahamic Religions, Christian Bible, 16th Century CE RPF
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: William Tyndale, Abraham's Daughter
Summary: The effects of Abraham's daughter's actions, down the ages.

This is a really lovely fic, with an intriguing concept and an execution that does it justice. I am nerding out over the way it recasts Tyndale and Foxe, let me tell you, let alone the Bible! It does an amazing amount in just a few hundred words.

a brief history of western philosophy (702 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Calvin & Hobbes, Hobbes and Bacon
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Calvin/Susie Derkins
Characters: Calvin (Calvin and Hobbes), Mr. Bun, Susie Derkins, Calvin's Mother (Calvin and Hobbes), Bacon - Character
Summary: It's Susie's idea to name their daughter Bacon.

This is an exceptionally cute fic that had me beaming all over the place. First, Calvin and Susie. Second, baby. Third, Susie names the baby Bacon. Fourth, Mr. Bun. Just, Mr. Bun. And fifth, I always had a sneaking soft spot for Calvin’s mother, so I do love her here. <3 A perfectly calibrated fic that I really enjoyed.

Arktos (215 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Brave (2012)
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: The Witch
Summary: She's a good witch.

This is a tiny little fic that had chills running down my spine. Beautifully done.

I think you have to see this as an opportunity (499 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: West Wing, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012)
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Toby Ziegler, Jed Bartlet
Summary: A scene from 17 People, reimagined.

I haven’t seen Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, but the mashup between it and West Wing makes for thoroughly awesome reading. It’s in script form and is a really quick read, and if you’ve seen West Wing you should certainly check it out. “17 People” is my favourite episode, anyway, so this is perfect.

a mother too (320 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Giver - Lois Lowry
Rating: Not Rated
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Summary: The Birthmothers are only a story the Community tells.

Now for something darker. A chilling, eerie little snippet of worldbuilding that makes so much sense.

A Comeback Story (1787 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 6/6
Fandom: Only Connect RPF, British Comedian RPF
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Victoria Coren, Lee Mack, Miranda Hart, Alan Davies, Sandi Toksvig, Sue Perkins, David Mitchell
Summary It's a bit like one of those heartwarming sports films Victoria detests: three comedians who've styled themselves the Underdogs are going up against Sandi Toksvig, Sue Perkins, and David Mitchell, who've come up with no better connection after which to name themselves than the Cambridge Grads.

This one has a lot of Yuletide in-jokes, but those aren’t my favourite parts. My favourite parts are these: how Only Connect-ish this is (it’s a delightful and faithful little tribute to a show I love), how awesome Miranda turns out to be at this game, David swearing under his breath, and the mistake the Cambridge Grads make on their connecting wall. Oh, and also Alan’s excitement at getting to use a particular scrap of knowledge. :D

~//~

Cheeseboard’s empty for the moment! Time to break into the port anyway. Have some rich, deep, and lovely main collection fics. <3

Main Collection

The You and Me Song (19167 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Tennis RPF
Rating: Explicit
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Novak Djokovic/Andy Murray
Characters: Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Rafael Nadal
Summary: '“I’ll sleep there tonight,” Andy suggested, pointing at the floor. “You take the bed.”

“You’ll kill your neck,” Novak said, without really thinking, except that Andy’s shoulders had always been more sensitive even than his own.

Andy winced. “Well I can’t let you stay there now, can I? Look, it’s really OK, you can...” he drifted off into a mumble but Novak was pretty sure he caught the word ‘share’.

Andy didn’t exactly look like terribly convinced it was OK, but the floor was hard and cold and the bed wasn’t so very small, and Novak couldn’t resist taking him at his word.'

On the day they're meant to be contesting the US Final, Novak and Andy wake up in a universe where they're married and living in London. At least that means they're allowed to eat bacon sandwiches, but the rest of it is a little more complicated...

This is fic is freaking incredible. First of all, it’s 19K, which is glorious riches, and second, Novak’s voice is slightly idiosyncratic, perfectly believable, and entirely lovely. His narration is a joy to read. And Andy is hilariously and utterly Andy, and the minor background characters are uniformly wonderful. I lost my heart approximately three times reading this. It’s a really nice take on the “woke up married” trope, and plus there are bacon sandwiches and tennis and slow-burning attraction that eventually blossoms. Read it. <3

Second Daughter (1598 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Damar Series - Robin McKinley
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Rilly
Summary: Rilly was born second daughter. Sometimes, she learns, that's a blessing in disguise.

This is a lovely piece about a minor character that both fleshes her out beautifully and does some lush worldbuilding. Damar’s really hard to write, but when done well it’s one of my favourite things, and this is just marvellous. Its layers are also very rewarding: the othering of the Outlanders (who are nearly if not quite the British Empire) and Rilly’s quietly opinionated views on their society – particularly Outlander women and their place in their world – is carefully and deftly done.

Infinite Cities (1853 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Le città invisibili | Invisible Cities - Italo Calvino
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Marco Polo, Kublai Khan
Summary: The Great Khan rises and paces to his window, looking out across the gardens of his palace as though he can see - or perhaps hear - the cities Marco Polo describes if only he gazes long enough into the distance.

"No city such as the ones you have described to me can possibly exist," he says.

I have absolutely no knowledge of this canon, but I want to now. This fic is about imaginary or invisible cities, or about stories people tell each other, or about the breadth of imagination, or all of these together and something more. It’s spare and lush at the same time, and I think I’ll want to read it several more times, to savour and roll the words over in my head and to roll about in its rich imagination. It’s less than 2,000 words, and yet it does so much. Every word is in place, and every word resonates. Definitely a work of beauty.

Little Soldier (3660 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Despicable Me (2010)
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Margo (Despicable Me), Agnes (Despicable Me), Gru's Mother, Original Female Character, Original Male Character
Summary: Fake Santa has kidnapped Edith and Margo goes to Gran for help.

I haven’t watched Despicable Me in a long time, but I remember loving it, and this fic reminded me why I did. Margo is magnificent, and I could read about her forever. Gran is very nearly as wonderful. Margo’s weak spots are both heartwarming and eminently believable, and her strength was amazing. I want so much more fic in this universe, but this one is the perfect place to start. <3

Tough act to follow (1006 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Princess Bride - William Goldman
Rating: Not Rated
Warning: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Buttercup/Westley
Characters: Westley (Princess Bride), Buttercup (Princess Bride), William Goldman (Princess Bride)
Summary: "Bill, I don't know how to break this to you but no one wants to read about the adventures of Tweedledee, Tweedledum and their fifty cows, no matter how attractive Tweedledum is."

This one is clever and fun, a short palate cleanser that nonetheless is memorable. The tone is carefully balanced, and I for one would love to see more of this putative sequel. I particularly like Buttercup in it. And Hiram. Excellent first-person narrator as well.

The Balance of Affection (6060 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Enchanted Forest Chronicles - Patricia Wrede
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Cimorene/Mendanbar
Characters: Cimorene (Enchanted Forest), Mendanbar (Enchanted Forest), Willin (Enchanted Forest), Daystar (Enchanted Forest)
Summary: The King and Queen of the Enchanted Forest haven't shared a bed in more than a decade. Not that it's any of your business, really.

Another fic that’s inspired me to reread the canon! I remember loving these books when I first found them a few years ago (and promptly gave them to my twelve-year-old sister, because I knew I’d have loved them as a girl), and this is obviously a work of love to everything they are. Daystar is prickly and perfectly sixteen, Mendanbar is appropriately lost and a bit tentative, and Cimorene is classically, beautifully, wonderfully Cimorene. Her wild profane gesturing at Mendanbar when he attempts to mount an unwelcome rescue of her person from would-be kidnappers is priceless and eminently memorable. Also there is Wilf. And a cat. <33

~//~

And finally, that lovely ending to the evening, an assortment of puddings otherwise known as my gift fics. <333 No recs list is complete without a grateful nod to one’s gracious writers and the endlessly fascinating fruits of their hard work.

Gift Fics

In Which a Hunting Trip Becomes More (8944 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 2/2
Fandom: Howl Series - Diana Wynne Jones, Emberverse - S. M. Stirling, Tangled (2010)
Rating: Mature
Warning: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Characters: Morgan Pendragon, Original Male Character, Eugene, Rapunzel (Tangled)
Summary: While on an otherwise routine hunting trip, Morgan encounters more than he'd expected.

I love Howl’s Moving Castle - it’s a delightful fandom, and I was so excited when I saw not one but two fics for it in my gifts! This first one is an intriguing mesh between Howl’s Moving Castle, Tangled, and a series called Emberverse. It’s an unexpected and different take on the character of Morgan. If you like hunting and post-apocalyptic scenarios, I think you’d really enjoy this fic! Do note the archive warnings, though, as no fic can be right for everyone. :)

Which Tells of a Quest for Biscuits (2836 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Howl Series - Diana Wynne Jones
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Morgan Pendragon, Megan Jenkins, Howl Pendragon, Sophie Hatter
Summary: So Aunt Megan thinks she can withhold a biscuit from Morgan? Well, we'll just see about that!

My second Howl’s Moving Castle gift fic also looks at Morgan, whom I adore, but as a mischievous and slightly frustrated small child. It’s light and funny and does a really good job as splitting the fic between Morgan and Megan’s point of view. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about one of Morgan’s terrible adventures, and the nuanced interaction between Megan and Sophie was a delightful extra treat. <33

Prince Charming Gets Married (4262 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom - Christopher Healy
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Ella/Liam, Frederic/Gustav
Characters: Ella (The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom), Prince Frederic (The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom), Prince Gustav (The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom), Princess Lila (The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom)

This is the very first fic ever written for this brand-new book, at least on AO3, and it is thoroughly lovely in every way. I asked for Ella and Lila and Frederic/Gustav, and my writer wrote me the fic of my heart. <3 I was laughing from the very first line all the way through the end. It has the banter and idiosyncratic POVs and unique logic and all the cracky humour that made me fall in love with the canon in the first place. And Frederic and Gustav! <33

~//~

~//~

I may be back with more recs later, but I imagine these are plenty for now. Enjoy, and have the loveliest of holiday seasons and the merriest of New Years!

Yuletide Letter 2012

2012-10-15T15:31:46Z

Hello, lovely Yuletide author-to-be! I am beyond excited that we have been matched. You are already most awesome for signing up to Yuletide and for offering at least one of my fandoms. Everything above that is gravy. I will adore you and whatever you write, don’t worry. <333

As you will have seen, I already wrote a bit about each of my requests on the signup form. I’ll include those bits in the letter again for easy reference, but this will mostly be a letter about my fandoms and my characters and why/how much I love them. :D Yuletide inspires a lot of squee in me.

Before I get to the fandoms, here are some general notes: I love all kinds of fic – gen, slash, het, femslash, three(+)somes. Whichever way your muse takes you is fine (although I'd love it if the story had some plot as well as porn, if you go in that direction). <3

Things I love: established relationships, first times, unreliable narrators, fics that don’t just pass but thoroughly pass the Bechdel test, awkwardness, characters in love who have difficulty making the first move (particularly if the one they pine for is already in love with them and having similar troubles), teasing, snark, kissing, thorough kissing, characters with plans, characters with plans that go wrong, worldbuilding, magic, working through problems, fingering, pegging, domesticity, happy endings.

Things I’d rather not see: character-bashing, scat, torture, bestiality, under-age sex, incest, non-con.

Last note: I adore each and every one of these four fandoms. I had to agonize buckets before deciding which fandoms to choose, so these are the last four standing and dearly beloved. If it seems like I squee more over one or two of them than others, this is unintentional. Pick whichever one you want and I will love you forever no matter which one it is. <333

Onwards!

FANDOM NUMBER ONE:
The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom
(Prince Gustav, Prince Frederic, Ella, Princess Lila)

Signup text: I love Gustav and Frederic’s relationship, and would really enjoy a fic exploring this further (whether this be slash or gen). I also love my kickass duo of Ella and Lila and would adore a fic focusing on either or both of them (again, femslash or gen – if femslash, only in future!fic when Lila’s at least 18).

Any adventures with either or both of these duos, or just slice of life. Sorry not to provide more details, but as this is a new fandom (book published in May) and I’ve never seen a single fic, you will make me ecstatically happy no matter what you write, I promise! :D

So this is a new fandom! Here is the book on Amazon. If you were matched on another fandom and don’t feel inspired/want an out, this might be the way to go. It’s only one book, and a very easy read. If you’re a fast reader, you’d finish it in an evening.

Why I like it: I love fractured fairy tales in general, and this is a clever and funny one. You get four princes, who are all a bit annoyed at the way the bards have forgotten their names and lumped them all together under the “Prince Charming” name, which they all hate [Frederic (Cinderella), Gustav (Rapunzel), Liam (Sleeping Beauty), and Duncan (Snow White)]. You also get five princesses, who are markedly more capable than the princes and are certainly not going to wait around in their castles/assorted homeplaces for the princes to have all the adventures [Ella, Rapunzel, Briar Rose, Snow White, and Lila (Liam’s sister)].

When a misunderstood and undervalued witch named Zaubra decides that she’s going to make her mark on the world in a way that none of the bards will be able to manage to overlook, these nine characters have to try their best to save their kingdoms. If Duncan stops distracting them by naming every animal that crosses their path, that is (Look, Captain Spaulding!) If Lila can outwit a bounty hunter and join forces with another princess to stay one step ahead of the boys. If Gustav restrains himself from running full-tilt with his sword at every dangerous creature they meet and getting himself roasted/stepped on/thrown out of windows/etc. If Snow White realizes her husband’s walk in the forest is taking a very long time and sternly enlists the dwarfs to find him. If Frederic can stop worrying about his tassels. If Liam cuts his ego down a size or two (and gets rid of the melon in his hair). If Briar Rose stops throwing things through stained glass windows and goes after the guy who dumped her. If… you get the picture.

As I mentioned in my signup, I particularly love Frederic/Gustav and Ella and Lila. Pretty much any story with either of these duos would make me a very happy Yuletider. <33 (Or both of the duos, if you’re feeling especially brave.) You really can’t fail here. (Except don’t kill anybody, please!)

(artwork by Todd Harris)
~//~

FANDOM NUMBER TWO:
The Thief series
(Phresine, Ornon)

Signup text: I love Phresine and Ornon, I really do. Any story set in The Queen’s Thief verse that focused on any of the books’ events from Phresine and/or Ornon’s point of view would be awesome. Why did Ornon come to respect Gen? What is Phresine’s perspective on the whole Gen situation (in any or all of the books) – and what’s her relationship with Irene like?

Or a future tale! As Irene and Gen continue to be awesome, Phresine and/or Ornon are right there to help? Irene and Gen visit Eddis and Phresine observes the country and the monarch (or Phresine retires and takes a trip to Eddis to see what it’s like)? I’d even enjoy a Phresine/Ornon story if your mind went in that direction. :)

Some of my other favourite characters in the universe are Irene and Gen (obviously), Dite, Gen’s father, Eddis (Helen), and Eddis (the country). Obviously, though, you don’t need to include any of these! Just if you’re looking for background characters. ;)

Well, since I’ve already written you a novel in the signup, I don’t need to add many more details, do I? ;)

I adore this series to bits. It’s simply amazing. If you haven’t read it yet – run, not walk, to the first book, The Thief! Do NOT read the books out of sequence. In fact, don’t even look at the second or third book until you’ve read the first. The series as a whole is definitely one of my favourite series in the world. It is that good. Megan Whalen Turner is a genius.

What I love about this series – where to begin? I love the worldbuilding. I love the politics and how complicated it can all get. I love the characters, oh goodness I love the characters. I love Gen and Irene, for reasons far too numerous to name; I love Sophos (particularly in the first book, but afterwards as well) – all his “but why?” questions!; I love Costis and his stubborn doggedness; I love the minister of war and his dry and laconic interventions (and I love that he never gets a name); I love Helen with a fierceness, maybe even more than I love Gen. And beyond the characters, I love the countries, and Gen’s reaction to different sorts of hardships, and the sorts of messages the gods send Gen, and the myths (these took me two readings of the series to properly appreciate, but I do love them now), and the way Megan Whalen Turner writes her endings.

I almost asked for shippy scenes with the primary couple in KoA, because oh my goodness. But it’s Yuletide, so with difficulty I have opted instead for my lovely little minor characters. <3

First, Phresine. Phresine is Irene’s main attendant – I think she’s the oldest of the attendants, and she definitely ventures to make more comments on Irene’s behavior/various situations than any of the others. I’m intrigued by why and how she feels like she can do that, and why Irene listens to her (we’ve seen what Irene can do when she doesn’t like what an attendant says – see Chloe). I like the quiet bravery of her character, and the general aura of good sense that surrounds her.

Second, Ornon. Ornon is the Eddisian Ambassador to Attolia in QoA and KoA. Apparently he had a lot of sheep once upon a time and then lost them. Three guesses who was responsible and the first two don’t count. This whole episode, however, is only referred to obliquely and never explained. I love him because of how exasperated he gets with Gen, and how he’s trying to do his best in his own way, and how he eventually comes around. Also, anyone holding his post during QoA and KoA must have seen an awful lot of interesting things!

I’ve already put some ideas in the signup text, but really anything you were to write about either or both Phresine and Ornon would be amazing and very very much loved.

~//~

FANDOM NUMBER THREE:
Howl Series - Diana Wynne Jones
(Morgan Pendragon)

Signup text: What does Morgan think of everything? What sort of adventures does Morgan have? (Either when he’s young or as a teenager/adult.)

Obviously I love Howl and Sophie too, but Morgan is the one I particularly want this time. :D I adore him as a toddler, but I’d also really enjoy reading about him later on (a problematic teenager? The reason Howl’s hair is turning shocking colours?) if your mind runs that direction.

So, if you haven’t read the Howl books, this is another series that’s well worth reading! Diana Wynne Jones was a legend for a REASON.

image from here

(Howl’s Moving Castle, the first book, doesn’t have Morgan in it, but is necessary to understand the other books in the series.)

Basically I love Morgan to death. He’s amazing in his, um, other form (trying to avoid spoilers here, lol), and then his adventures as a toddler are hilarious too. I’d adore a fic about baby/toddler Morgan’s shenanigans and escapades, because he is awesome. He’s not the biggest character in the books by far, but to me he totally steals the show when he’s around. :D Also this would give you a chance to play with Howl and Sophie and various other lovely background characters if you so desired (although to be honest if the entire fic was about Morgan you would not hear me complaining, much as I love the others).

Like I said in my signup, though, I’d also love to see a preteen/teenager/young adult Morgan, if that was more to your liking. He would get up to such scrapes! Would he turn out more like his father or his mother? Would he turn his father’s hair a multicolored rainbow? Would he be a scholar and a gentleman but have a secret identity at night? Would he have seventeen cats? Would he become a hatter? Would he be a preteen schemer concocting difficult and exhaustive plans for the procurement of the last piece of bacon? The sky is the limit!

But really anything with Morgan would delight and enchant me. (Are you detecting a pattern here, oh dear writer?)

FANDOM NUMBER FOUR:
Tennis RPF
(Andy Murray, Laura Robson)

Signup text: I am a huge Andy Murray and Laura Robson fan. I adore them.

Anything happy with them. Andy & Laura hanging out at the Olympics? Laura’s feelings as she stepped out onto that gold-medal court with Andy at her side? Laura and/or Andy good-naturedly trash-talking any of their competitors before the match? Laura watching Andy win the US Open?

Or future fic with Laura winning a grand slam and Andy (superstar!Andy?) coming to watch her matches! (If you can’t tell, I really love the brother-sister relationship between Laura and Andy – I’d rather not see Laura/Andy, especially since I love Andy/Kim).

Or, if fluffy/happy fic isn’t your style and you’d prefer to write something more introspective, Andy was talking recently about seeing a sports psychologist in February, and how she really helped him. Something about that would be awesome too!

After three book fandoms, we arrive at my one non-book fandom. :D

I know sports and RPF aren’t everyone’s thing. But if they are yours, scroll on!

Laura and Andy are British tennis stars. They were a doubles team in the Olympics this summer, and went on an improbable run that culminated in a silver medal. (Meanwhile, Andy won Olympic gold in the men’s singles tournament.)

This is Laura:

This is Andy:

And this is the two of them together:

Why do I love them? Well, I’ve been an Andy fan forever – yes, waaaaay before he won Olympic gold, Olympic silver, and a grand slam in a matter of months – and this summer was just awesome. I love how he’s refused to play the media’s game all this time – he was always just himself, and if that led to the media stereotyping him as a dour Scotsman who could never win anything, then that was the way it was. He wasn’t going to change and try to smile all the time and make media-friendly quips, he was going to be himself and damn the haters. (Of course, it’s also been amusing to watch the media suddenly come around after Wimbledon this year and start loving on him all the time. I guess when he won he became ‘passionate and a tad eccentric’ instead of the ‘dour and grim, haunted by the Dunblane tragedy’ he always was before.)

And Laura! I didn’t find out about Laura until the Olympics. I watched all the tennis, lol. I love it. I love the Williams sisters and Victoria Azarenka and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Sabine Lisicki/Christopher Kas and Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic … the list goes on.

But Laura has a special place in my heart. She was so excited about the Olympics (she was only 18) and tried to experience it as much as possible – whether that be pin collecting, running around watching different sports, making friends with other athletes, etc. And she was always beaming, in just about every picture. Her bubbly happiness always makes me grin right along with her. <3 Plus she is an amazing tennis player! I fully expect her to win lots of tournaments in years to come. (She made the fourth round in this year’s US Open, beating Kim Clijsters and Li Na. Go Laura!)

Have another picture of Laura and Andy.

Like I said in the signup text, I love their brother-sister relationship. :) Andy’s had much more success in singles than Laura has – obviously he’s older (25 to her 18) and has been on the scene longer – and thus can give her lots of older-brother type advice. And they meld so well in doubles! Laura had some nerves in some of the Olympic matches, but she is fierce and fought back. Her joy and his determination really work well together. <3

I’m not sure what else to say here, except that I would love a story with the two of them. I love the way their personalities are so different, and yet the way they obviously are such great friends. Any story you wrote with the two of them being friends and being their awesome selves would make me very happy. :) Laura being roguish and playing pranks on people (either including Andy, or with Andy as an accomplice)? Andy not knowing how to propose to Kim and enlisting Laura to help him plan (probably ensuring a series of accidents and/or hijinks)? Laura and Andy winning lots of tournaments as a doubles pair and having a friendly rivalry going with another pair of your choice (I like Azarenka/Mirnyi if you don’t know what to choose, but whatever pair you like would be great)? Laura dating another tennis player and Andy playing the concerned!brother role (as for who Laura is dating, and what gender they are, totally up to you!)? Laura and Kim teaming up to set up Andy and Novak (I like open relationships as long as they’re honest and healthy)?

*breathes*

Enough ideas from me. :D You choose, dear author! Anything you write me I will love. <3

I leave you with a picture of Andy's dogs wearing his Olympics medals. Because why not?

~//~
~//~

final thoughts

As I said at the beginning, dear Yuletide author, I love each and every one of these fandoms to death. You cannot make me sad by choosing "the wrong one". There is no wrong one. <333

Oh, I should probably apologize at this point for writing you a freaking novel. xD Sorry about that. I am like that. I am never able to be concise. :D

If you have any questions about me/my likes/etc, ask kainosite. She'll probably know the answer. ;)

Oh, if you're the type of person to read samples of your recipient's fic (like I am), here are three of my Yuletide fics from last year (the first two are short):
A Novel Solution (Sense and Sensibility)
Springtime in Ihistan (Damar Series)
Wicked Wiles (Fairy Tales & Related Fandoms)

Thank you again so much in advance for writing for me. I will be thrilled to bits by your story, I know it. Thank you for making my Christmas a special one, and happy Yuletide! <3333333

So this happened

2012-09-11T22:28:14Z

Watched all 4 hours 54 minutes of the Murray/Djokovic match yesterday. It was amazing. <3

First this happened:

Then this happened:

And finally this happened:

Friends cut

2012-06-14T23:13:48Z

I've done a small friends cut, mostly of dead journals or those where there's been no contact between us for some time.

If you've been cut, this won't affect your ability to read my fic (which is always public).

If you still want to be added back to read my real-life updates, let me know and I'll consider it.

Randomness (writing & University Challenge)

2012-03-18T23:40:17Z

Have been writing - which is lovely - mostly due to a wicked case of insomnia last night - which was not. Still, it's nice to have the words flowing again, if still a bit haltingly (just minifills so far).

University Challenge final is tomorrow night. My beloved UCL went out in the semifinals and I lost my favourite player, UCL (Jamie) Karran, he of the massive hair and hilarious answers. :( Oh, Karran, I shall miss you.

The final is going to be Manchester, my second favourites, and one of the Cambridge colleges. Manchester's captain is (Tristan) Burke, who's hilarious in a completely different way from Karran. A lot of people hate him, but I think he's awesome, in an arrogant annoying Christopher-Bryant kind of way. xD And come on, how can you not love someone who recited "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day" to Paxman? ("First-round flirtation", declared one of Burke's teammates.)

Of course I am now shipping Burke and Karran. xD This isn't out of nowhere - they did play a match against each other back in an earlier round (Karran & co won), and they seem to be friends (or at least they talk to each other on Twitter, and Karran wants Manchester to beat Cambridge). And Karran is canon gay - I don't know about Burke.

Still, this is completely a fandom of one. xDDD

Anyway, I need to run to the shop before it closes, so I'll stop here.

Or rather, I don't NEED to, but I want Pepsi Max and chocolate. xD

Love you all.

EDIT: Ahahaha, I have found a video of UCL Karran! Not from University Challenge, though, from another of my favourite quiz shows, Pointless (which he was apparently on last year).

I love you, Jamie Karran.

This entry was originally posted at http://abluestocking.dreamwidth.org/41545.html. You can comment there if you like, or here. Either is fine. :)

FIC: Wicked Wiles

2012-02-18T01:59:30Z

Archiving another Yuletide story, this one written for loathlylady.

Fandom: Fairy Tales, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
Title: Wicked Wiles
Ship(s): Snow White/Prince Charming, Grumpy/Snow White
Word Count: 6,929
Rating: G
Summary: Grumpy visits Snow White, eight years after Snow left the forest. All may not be as it seems.
Disclaimer: This is a creative work of fiction, inspired by the world of Disney's Snow White. I do not own that world, and I am making no money from this work.

Wicked Wiles

“And what,” says the very supercilious young man in front of Grumpy, “may I do for you?”

He manages to bring out the word as if Grumpy was a particularly rancid specimen of squirrel-turd, and his hands instinctively twitch his magnificent flowing robes back from the edge of the step – back from Grumpy.

Grumpy looks up at him. He knows he’s contributing to the awkwardness of the situation by scowling fiercely, but the young man deserves a fierce scowl. Well, he deserves a fierce kick in the trousers, but since he isn’t wearing trousers, Grumpy will have to forgo that particular pleasure. “I’m here to see Snow White.”

He can see the young man’s indecision, whether to pretend not to hear Grumpy’s growl or to give way to his instinctive indignation at the request. Indignation wins. “Princess Snow is not at home to visitors at the moment.”

Not at home to me, you mean. Grumpy is done talking to pipsqueaks. “Heigh-ho!”

The traditional working-song yodel echoes around the cold reception room. (Grumpy would take a warm little cottage, or a glittering mine, over this empty grandeur any day.) The young man flinches back, face convulsing.

As the echoes die away, Grumpy folds his arms and waits.

“Gua—“, the young man starts, but Grumpy raises his eyebrows, and the young man falls silent.

Footsteps on the long marble staircase, skipping lightly down. “Grumpy!”

It is her voice – a little deeper, a little older, but still as bell-like and joyful as ever.

And then Snow White is jumping down the last few steps, running across the breadth of the grand reception-room, falling to her knees in front of Grumpy, and burying her face in his coat.

Grumpy feels awkward for a moment, but his desire to shock the young man wins out. He puts an arm around her shoulders. “There, there,” he mumbles, while raising a challenging eyebrow at the young man’s flabbergasted face. Shoo, he mouths.

The young man’s mouth opens and shuts.

And then he shoos.

~*~

“It’s not that I don’t love him,” Snow says contemplatively, kicking her feet, “but I do wish he was here more often. Does he have to hunt quite so much?”

Grumpy shifts on the garden bench and gives the matter some thought. He considers and discards the observation that in other countries, dwarfs are often on the hunting agenda. At least in this country, dwarfs are simply relegated to the borderlands and tolerated as long as they pay their (hefty) taxes. A dwarf-weight in diamonds per household, and they live in peace… “Hunting is what princes do.”

“It certainly seems like it,” Snow says, wrinkling her nose. “But Alexander’s brother Brian is a prince, and he doesn’t hunt.” She is thinner than Grumpy remembers, and he doesn’t like it. With all the hunting, surely they could be bothered to feed her. But then, she was just a child when Grumpy knew her; perhaps humans all grow thinner as they age. Eight years is a long time.

Snow is biting her lip, and Grumpy’s ears go up. “What is it?”

“It’s just…” She seems to be fighting to control a lip wobble. “It’s just good to see you!”

That hadn’t been what she had originally been going to say. Grumpy knows it. But he bows in the face of her forced cheerfulness, and says only, “Glad to hear it.”

“What brings you here after all this time?” Snow asks. “You said everyone was doing well – but is there anything you need? Anything I can help with?”

Grumpy makes a mental note to return to the topic later, but accepts the change of subject. “No. The mine is good, and we’re well.”

“Just wanted to see me, then?” Snow says, and smiles at him.

Grumpy finds himself fighting a blush, and hammers it down ruthlessly. “I’m on my Journey.”

Snow’s brow furrows. “Your journey?”

“Yes,” Grumpy says, but doesn’t elaborate.

Snow kicks her feet again, a thoughtful look on her face. “Well, how about pausing your journey here for a while? We could have such fun.”

Fun isn’t something Grumpy generally indulges in, but he looks at Snow’s smiling face and wonders for the first time what it might be like. “I can’t stay long. I must reach Birkenmine before winter.”

Snow jumps up from the bench, twirling in place. “Then let’s not waste time!”

~*~

The sun is warm on Grumpy’s bare head as they sit on the picnic blanket. These are the last days of summer, and he isn’t quite sure what he thinks of them; the mine is dark and warm and familiar, and the crisp clear air of a summer’s day is as foreign as the wide open fields around them.

“This is one of my favourite places,” Snow says, crumbling a piece of bread with her fingers absentmindedly. A bird flies down to coo at her and seize some of the crumbs. Of course it does.

“It’s pretty,” Grumpy says, noncommittally. ‘Pretty’ is one of those words which females use all the time – at least the females around the palace. He’s been here for three hours now, and he’s already lost count of the number of times simpering females have come up to Snow with the words, “Oh, you look so pretty today!” (Always followed by their nostrils flaring in alarm as they catch sight of Grumpy.)

“It’s serene,” Snow corrects. She sighs. “No one comes out here – the girls are afraid of getting their dresses dirty, and Alexander and his men are always off hunting. Except for Brian, but he’s always in the library.”

The hunting again. How many dead woodland animals can one palace need? Or is this entirely for sport? Grumpy looks at Snow’s pensive profile, as the bird eats daintily out of her hand.

He chews his mouthful of cheese slowly. “Do the animals still come when you sing?”

A shadow crosses Snow’s face, so quickly he might not have seen it if he hadn’t been watching for it. “Oh, you must meet my horse! Her name is Buttercup, and she is the most wonderful horse you’ll ever meet. She tries to dance when I sing.”

Grumpy privately does not want to meet any horse, particularly a horse that tries to dance. They are large, fearsome animals, and their hooves are massive. One misstep in a waltz…

“Cheese?” he says, and offers her the tray.

~*~

“This way,” Snow says, breathlessly, reaching down to grab Grumpy’s collar and pull him down a shady corridor and through a creaking door. He would protest – he may be small, but he doesn’t like being manhandled – but he can hear the gaggle of females clatter past, and he’s too grateful to mind too much this time.

“What was that?” he says instead, adjusting his collar and brushing himself off.

Snow looks apologetic. “There’s this embroidery club, and they keep pestering me to join. I’ve been putting them off, but it looks like they came in force this week.”

“Heh,” Grumpy says. “Female wiles.”

Snow leans against the door and laughs. “Well, this female wants none of them. Embroidery’s so fussy, and I always end up pricking my finger.”

“Shhh!”

Grumpy half-turns, only to see a plump man with beetling eyebrows bearing down on them indignantly. “I beg pardon, Princess, but the Prince is reading and he mustn’t be disturbed.”

“Of course, Lachlan,” Snow says. “We’ll just be going.”

Grumpy makes a face at Lachlan, who simply blinks back a little blearily.

“Is that Snow?” A young man peers around the corner of what Grumpy privately regards as a rather shaky bookcase. No craftsmanship. “I haven’t seen you since yesterday! Where were you at lunch?”

“Now you’ve done it,” Lachlan says, under his breath. Grumpy is perhaps the only one near enough to hear.

“I’ve had a visitor,” Snow says, beaming at the newcomer. “Brian, this is Grumpy, one of my friends from the forest. Grumpy, this is Prince Brian, Alexander’s younger brother.”

Prince Brian reminds Grumpy a little bit of Dopey, with his wide eyes and eager expression. He rounds the corner of the rickety bookcase and comes bounding over to them. “A dwarf? A real, live dwarf!”

Grumpy rears back, ready to direct his most fearsome scowl at this bumbling idiot, but the bumbling idiot grins down at him and sticks his hand out. “I’m so very pleased to meet you! I’ve never met a dwarf before, I’ve only read about them, we have the best collection of dwarf literature in the whole kingdom! Has Snow showed it to you yet? I can translate it for you if you don’t speak all the dialects, I speak almost all of them, well, I read them, you know how it is, I’ve never met a dwarf to speak to, this is such a great honour!”

On second thought, Grumpy entirely retracts the comparison to Dopey.

He warily grips the outstretched hand, being sure to squeeze it hard. Tears spring to the boy’s eyes, but he doesn’t wince, and Grumpy notes it with approval.

Snow is giggling. “We haven’t made it to the library yet. We’ve been mostly outdoors – I didn’t think Grumpy would be interested in books.”

Grumpy feels an irrational surge of annoyance. How should Snow know whether he’d be interested in books? She stayed with them for two days, then was in a coma, and then she was carried off to be married to a Prince. “Show me,” he says to Brian.

Brian’s smile gets even wider, if that’s possible, and then he’s bounding off again. Grumpy follows, then pauses to look back over his shoulder at Snow. “Your horse must miss you.”

Snow blinks. “Yes,” she says slowly. “I should go for a ride.” She’s feeling out the words, and Grumpy feels a little regret, but this is personal. This isn’t something he wants to share with Snow; she has her own secrets, he sees them shade her eyes. She can give him this space.

“I’ll be in the garden later,” she says now, uncertainly.

Grumpy nods curtly, and turns to follow Brian.

~*~

When he enters the garden, he can hear Snow’s voice, up ahead near the pond. She’s not alone. He can hear the male voice with her, and he hesitates. But he has nowhere to go – Brian is doing “research”, and the room Snow has found for him is cold and bare.

He rounds the corner, and finds Snow sitting on a bench, with a familiar figure beside her. They look up.

“Grumpy,” Snow says, and she sounds strained – or is that his imagination? “This is Alexander.”

Alexander’s mouth tightens, but his voice is polite enough. “We met, didn’t we, dear? When I rescued you from your evil stepmother’s curse.”

“Yes,” Snow says.

An awkward silence falls over the three of them. Grumpy knows that human norms would require him to participate in the conversation or leave the garden. But Grumpy is not human, and he scoffs at their rules. Snow looks unhappy, and he’s determined to get to the bottom of this particular diamond vein.

“Well,” Alexander says at last, dropping Snow’s hand and brushing invisible dust off his knees. “I promised Trevor I’d talk to him about the hounds before dinner. I’ll see you there.”

He brushes past Grumpy with a swirl of his fancy cape, and Grumpy scowls at his back.

As the Prince disappears into the distance, Grumpy’s scowl is disrupted by a soft sound behind him, and he turns to find Snow with her head in her hands, her shoulders shaking.

The moment of panic is entirely justified, he thinks. Tears are not something he’s comfortable with, or wishes to be.

He masters himself with an effort. “Can I help,” he mutters, forcing the words out.

Snow shakes her head mutely, her hair tumbling about her face and hiding it from view.

Grumpy turns to go.

“Wait,” Snow says, and her voice is thick. “Sit with me.”

He does.

~*~

With Alexander back from the hunt, dinner can no longer be something Snow rustles from the kitchen, as they’d planned (the cooks all love her), eaten with laughter in the garden (Snow’s laughter, Grumpy’s small hidden smile). Instead, they are at the head of a table full of staring people in the state dining room. Grumpy pokes at the food on his plate; he can’t quite tell, under the rich sauce, but he thinks it might have once been a partridge.

It is a quiet meal at first. Grumpy would have expected Brian to carry the conversation, after the afternoon’s excited torrents of words, but Brian is withdrawn and nearly as taciturn as Grumpy himself, staring across the table with far-away eyes.

One of the young simpering embroidery females is sitting next to Grumpy. Her eyelashes blink nervously as she leans around him to chatter to Alexander. Grumpy ignores her as best he can. She has nothing to say that he cares to hear.

On his other side, Snow is hardly touching her food.

In a strange fit that he will struggle to explain later, Grumpy slips his hand under the table and touches it to the side of Snow’s, which is hanging limply at her side.

Snow’s fingers curl around his.

“What do you think?” the female next to him asks, her voice trembling with mingled excitement and daring.

“What do I think about what?” he snaps. He is one of the centres of attention in a room of staring people, and he has never been more aware of his curiousity status. Snow is upset, and he’s beginning to be more than a little upset himself. He is in no mood to be polite.

She blinks rapidly, her ridiculously lengthened eyelashes bobbing. “I was just asking Sasha what he thought about having an autumn ball. Would you like that?”

A ball. A ball. She is indeed mocking him, then. He would let her know exactly what he thought about a ball, but Snow’s fingers are trembling against his; he gives the female his best glare instead, and turns back to his plate.

“What do you think, dear?” Alexander – or Sasha, apparently – asks Snow. “Shall we have a ball to celebrate the harvest?”

“That would be lovely,” Snow says.

Her words are as dead as a tree planted in rock, but she is smiling. She looks radiant, her simple evening gown and royal jewelry making her the fairest in the land, but her hand trembles against Grumpy’s; he finds himself gripping it more tightly, giving her something to hold on to, in this world which he does not understand.

“Wonderful,” Alexander says, smiling back at her. “What do you all say?” he calls down the table. “Shall we have a ball to celebrate the harvest?”

A chorus of affirmative chatter and excited blathering echoes back down at him, and Grumpy watches him bask in the attention, preening like Doc at the finding of an especially enormous diamond.

“We’ll ride out to Southland tomorrow,” Alexander says decisively. “We’ll have to lay in enough hart and boar for a proper feast, if we’re to invite the right people.”

“Perhaps it could just be a small ball,” Brian says. Grumpy sees him throwing the odd worried glance at Snow. He is not the only one who’s noticed something, then.

Alexander laughs. “You have much to learn, brother, if you’re going to be my steward. We’re a small kingdom, we have to make important friends and keep our alliances open. The best way to do that is to have the best food and the best dancing in all the seven seas.” He catches Snow’s eye. “And the most beautiful women, of course,” he adds, raising his wine-glass in a small salute.

Snow smiles at him. Her lips are blood-red, standing out against her snow-white skin.

Alexander drinks from his glass, then sets it back down with a clunk. “Who knows,” he says expansively, “perhaps you will even come on the hunt with us this time. We could use a rider like you.”

Snow’s smile slips, minutely. “I would rather not.”

“Alice hunts, don’t you, Alice?” Alexander says. The female to Grumpy’s left nods manically. “And so does Charlotte, and Rosie, and Victoria…”

“Please excuse me,” Snow says abruptly, standing. Her hands rest on the edge of the table. “I feel unwell.”

Alexander’s face is surprised. “Of course, darling. Brian, will you see Snow up to her room and have the doctor called?”

Grumpy knows that he cannot go with her, not now. Not in front of the entire court, which is already gawping at her like his pipe organ when all the mouths get stuck open. He digs grimly into his mystery animal carcase in front of him, refusing to watch as Brian supports Snow out of the room. He must not look overly concerned; he must not give these imbeciles an inch of room to use against him until he figures out what the hell is going on here.

That is a conversation that he must have with Snow.

~*~

Grumpy stumps up the last steps of the grand staircase, to where Brian sits in front of Snow’s door. His nose is, as usual, buried in a book.

“How is she?” Grumpy is pleased to find that his voice sounds as gruffly normal as ever.

Brian startles, nearly dropping his book. “She’ll...she’ll be fine.” He looks around them. “You shouldn’t be here.”

Grumpy snorts. “That’s what everyone thinks.”

“No, I mean,” Brian says, and hesitates. “This is the family wing. You shouldn’t be here.”

This afternoon, in the library, Grumpy had thought Brian had some intelligence, for a human. He’d never met a human who understood the Journey before, or who seemed as genuinely fascinated by dwarf culture. Now, however, he is quickly revising his opinion of Brian’s intelligence. “I’m Snow’s friend. Maybe her only friend. Let me in.”

Brian looks slightly wretched. Even though he is twice Grumpy’s height, the boy is gangly and bookish; Grumpy knows he could take him down with barely any effort at all. But that would bring guards, and change the tenor of the situation quite dramatically. He can’t afford that. “You know I mean her no harm,” he adds, stiffly.

“But...you’re...” Brian stutters.

“You know what I am,” Grumpy says. “Open the door.”

Brian swallows, and does.

~*~

Snow is not in bed. She’s sitting in her window seat, her legs drawn up underneath her. Her head rests against the window, her hands huddling in the folds of her gown.

Grumpy stays by the door. “Are you having a child?”

Snow laughs, a small exhausted sound. She does not turn her head. “Now that would truly be a miracle, after eight years.” One of the rings on her fingers catches the light and glints, like a diamond to be brought out of the earth. “What made you think that?”

“You’re ill and upset,” Grumpy says. “And one of the females whispered it to one of the other ones.”

Snow’s head jerks slightly against the glass. “I wish you wouldn’t call us that. You sound like you hate us.”

“You aren’t a female,” Grumpy says, raising his eyebrows. “Not like that. You’re honest, and hard-working, and strong.”

She turns to face him, and at least that’s a start. “I don’t feel very strong right now.”

“Well, you are,” Grumpy says, shortly.

She tries to smile. “And I don’t have wicked wiles?”

“No.” When the smile threatens to slip off her face, as if she can’t summon the strength to hold it up any longer, he tries to explain further. He’s never been very good at explaining. “There are females and males and dwarfs. Females and males are humans. They have wiles and weakness and evil. They hunt us and take from us and lie to us.” He clears his throat. Too many words. “I can call them humans instead of females if it will make you happy. They are much the same thing.”

Snow’s smile has twisted into something bitter. Grumpy’s fingers clench on air; even in the dark days when Snow had been chased into their cottage by her evil stepmother, she had never been bitter. What have they done to her, in this gilded prison? “What am I, then, Grumpy? Am I an honorary dwarf?”

She has tried for lightness, but failed. Grumpy considers the matter. “You are Snow,” he says, finally. “You are a friend.”

Snow turns away from him again, resting her forehead on the windowpane, and he can see her shoulders begin to shake again. He takes a step toward her. “Does he beat you?”

“What?” Her voice is shocked. “Alexander? No!”

“You were crying in the garden,” Grumpy says, and tries to quiet his voice, tries to make it more comforting. “And you’re crying now.”

“He doesn’t beat me,” Snow says, and there’s the bitterness again, and a touch of anger, and Grumpy knows this reaction. He has felt it far too many times: most recently, perhaps, in July, when the taxman came and took nearly their entire diamond haul for the year, and laughed in their faces when they protested. He’d been savage to his family for a week, even though he knew all the while that they didn’t deserve it. Let Snow be savage to him now. He can handle it.

“How could you think that he beat me?” Snow says, and she’s on her feet now, and her beautiful face is convulsed with pain. “You’re just a dwarf, you can’t understand! You grumpy old man, you don’t understand what it’s like to be young, or to be married, or to love someone who thinks that you’re a beautiful butterfly to be shown off and petted and put in a cage! You don’t understand what it’s like to watch him ride off to the hunt, where he kills my friends and brings their dead bodies home and serves them on my table! You asked me whether the animals still come when I sing?” She’s weeping openly now, and not trying to hide it. “They don’t! They don’t, Grumpy!”

“Have you tried to stop it?” Grumpy asks, into the face of her grief.

“Yes!” Snow says, and steps closer to him, balling her fists. “Yes, of course I have. But what can I do? I’m the Princess, I’m the beautiful rescued orphaned Princess, I have no real power here! Brian’s tried to help, but Alexander thinks he’s only fit to be a steward. He doesn’t listen to either of us!” She breaks off on a sob, trying to catch her breath. “You just don’t understand, you can’t.”

“I may not understand everything,” Grumpy says, watching her sink down on the bed and put her face in her hands. “But I think you don’t understand me, either.”

She hiccoughs into her hands. “What is there to understand, Grumpy?” The force of her grief has broken, and she’s winding down into the bitterness again. “You’re an old, grumpy, kind dwarf.”

“I’m a young dwarf,” Grumpy says, quietly.

She lifts her face. Tears have streaked it; she is still the most beautiful being Grumpy has ever seen.

Now that he has begun, Grumpy finds it easier to continue. “Brian knows about dwarfs. Has he told you?”

She shakes her head. “I thought...I thought there wasn’t much to know.”

“Yes,” Grumpy says, and closes his eyes for a moment. “Most humans think that. We mine. Humans take what we mine, by blood or taxation, and make it into the jewellery you wear. What more is there to know?”

“Tell me,” Snow says.

So Grumpy does.

He tells her what Brian knew: about the large mines and the family mines dotted across the seven kingdoms; about the clans and the families; about the taxation and devastation wrought by humans; about growing up as a dwarf child and a dwarf teenager; about coming of age and setting out for one of the great dwarf capitals, Birkenmine, on the Journey; about the Journey’s purpose, to find a life-mate and bring him home to the family mine.

He tells her what Brian was helping him to find: the best route to Birkenmine from the castle - for the family guide-map told only of the route from the mine to Birkenmine, but he, the first dwarf to make the Journey since Snow had been taken from them, had been unable to resist the urge to detour from the mapped route to see her.

When even the halting words he can muster have run out, he falls silent and watches Snow.

“I didn’t know,” Snow says at last.

“No,” Grumpy says, simply.

“I thought you were all little old men,” Snow says.

Grumpy shakes his head. “Doc and Happy are my parents. Sleepy is Doc’s brother; he lost his partner in a landslide when I was small. Bashful and Dopey are my brothers. Bashful made the Journey and brought Sneezy to us the year before you came.”

“And now it’s your turn,” Snow says, and her voice is full of wonder.

Grumpy scratches at his head. “Yes.”

They stare at each other for a long moment, caught in that strange closeness that comes after the explosion of secrets.

“What changed today?” Grumpy says, finally. “When I came, you weren’t happy, but you weren’t unhappy. Now you are.”

Snow sighs, but it isn’t directed at him. “I could live with the hunting. I could live with being a beautiful doll. I could live with my husband treating me like my mind was no better than a child’s.” She plays with the lace edging on a pillow. “Brian said I should fight, that I should make Alexander see who I really was.” Her voice takes on a defensive tone. “But I’ve survived so much in the past, I thought I could live with this, and I thought it would get better.”

“But it didn’t,” Grumpy prompts, when she falls silent.

“He’s sleeping with half the kingdom,” she says, all in a rush, and there it is, the secret she’s been holding back. “I suspected...but I didn’t know...and then he admitted it to me today, and then at the dinner table, I just couldn’t sit there any longer, with all of their eyes on me, knowing what he is, what he was.”

“Come away with me,” Grumpy finds himself saying, and being impulsive is so unlike him, he takes a step back inside his head and regards himself with astonishment. “Come away from him and all of them. Come back with me.”

“To Birkenmine? To the cottage?” Snow says, already shaking her head. “He’d find me, and he’d hurt all of you. He’s not a bad man, but he’s a jealous man. If I betrayed him, he wouldn’t be kind.”

Grumpy’s voice slides firmly into growl territory. “You can’t stay here.”

“No, you can’t stay here,” Snow says, swiping briskly at her eyes. “If Alexander finds out you were in my room, there’ll be hell to pay. He doesn’t like you already.”

Grumpy snorts. “Heh. I don’t like him.”

“Yes. Well, neither do I at the moment, “ Snow says patiently, “but it’s in neither of our interests for him to find a man in my room tonight.”

“I’m not a man,” Grumpy objects.

Snow rolls her eyes. “All right, a male dwarf, then.”

“I explained males and females earlier,” Grumpy says, feeling a bit put out. Words are so hard to marshal correctly, and what’s the use if humans don’t even listen? “They’re human things.”

Snow makes a helpless sort of gesture. “Well, you have to...who has the babies?”

Grumpy blinks hard. “That’s personal.”

Snow begins to laugh, tired strung-out laughter. Grumpy recognises it as the beginning of hysterics, from that same July taxman visit; Happy had had to slap Doc to bring him out of it. “You’re going on your coming-of-age Journey to find a mate, but ‘it’s personal’ what gender you are?”

“Yes,” Grumpy says. “We’re all dwarfs. That’s what matters.”

But she looks so exhausted, and so sad, curled on her grand bed, that he finds that he wants to give her this, here at the end. “If I was human,” he says, reluctantly, “I would be...like you.”

Snow sits up. “You’re... a girl?”

“I’m a dwarf,” Grumpy says again, bristling. “But...yes.”

She stares at him.

He seizes the chance, in her sudden silence. If this is to be his last opportunity, he has to take it, even if human words are failing his tired brain. “I Journey to find a partner. You have a partner, who treats you like a thing to have and keep. You are not a thing. You’re Snow, and you should have a life that isn’t caged.”

Snow bites her lip, and for a moment he feels a rush of a strange emotion that might almost be called hope; but then she is shaking her head. “I can’t leave him. I can’t put you all in danger, and you would be, even if I went somewhere else. He’s seen you here, and he would know that you had something to do with it.” She stands, brushing off her robe with long slender fingers. “Now go, before he finds you here.”

Grumpy turns to go, but looks back at the door. “We would protect you.”

“I know you would,” Snow says, and her smile is beautiful, for all that it’s sad. “In another world, if things were different, I would let you.”

~*~

It takes two months more to reach Birkenmine. By the time Grumpy is safely inside its gates, the snow outside is half his height. A lesser dwarf would have taken to his bed with a cold, but Grumpy buys additional clothing to ward against the chill and plunges into mine social life.

Bashful has always told stories of his own Journey: how he and Sneezy met each other’s eyes across a crowded beer hall, how Sneezy bought him a beer and then (with an ill-timed sneeze) spilt it all over him, how an expedition so Sneezy could buy Bashful new trousers ended up with Sneezy and Bashful finding quarters together for the night.

The stories used to make Grumpy blush, when he was younger. Then they had made him thoughtful, wondering whether such partnership was in store for him. The best partners work together in tandem, developing almost sixth senses for each other’s patterns in the close confines of the mine. Sneezy and Bashful work together beautifully; they also make each other laugh, create endlessly amusing jokes at each other’s expenses, and have a bower in the woods whose existence they think no one suspects.

If Grumpy had ever hoped for such a partnership for himself, that hope has faded in the grimness with which he faces the prospect now.

He finds a favourite Birkenmine beer hall, and spends most of his days loitering in the corner, nursing a tankard. He knows he should be more aggressive, should be out there looking for a partner. Somehow, however, he can’t bring himself to join in the darts game, or the hand wrestling, or the body wrestling. He doesn’t play chess, he doesn’t want to learn how to dance, and there is no pipe organ here.

One dwarf does approach him, midway through his second week in Birkenmine. His beard is strangely short, however, and Grumpy thinks he even sees earrings. “Hello,” the dwarf says, smiling. “I’m Gabby. I’m a bar-dwarf at the Seven Diamonds next door – you should come by some evening.”

“I’m Grumpy,” Grumpy says, bemused. “Are you...wearing earrings?” His courting skills lack finesse, he knows, but he simply doesn’t care.

“Yes,” Gabby says cheerfully, perching on the edge of the table. “I’m a member of the Birkenmine chapter of the Girls Unite! action group. And earrings are pretty, don’t you think?” He – she? The pronoun is entirely un-dwarfish, but surely it is the only one applicable, if she chooses to assert her gender in such a public fashion? – turns her head so he can see. “I mined the diamonds myself.”

They are pretty.

She smiles at him, and in the dim light of the beer hall, surrounded by his people, Grumpy almost smiles back.

For a moment, he almost thinks –

A face flashes into his mind.

“Excuse me,” Grumpy says abruptly, and goes straight back to his small rented room to pack.

~*~

In the winter, it takes him three months to retrace his steps. All in all, it is nearly six months after he left when he reaches Snow’s castle for the second time.

The castle seems quieter than it was the last time he was here, but he hardly notices, as he takes the steps two at a time. He brushes past the supercilious young man he vaguely remembers from that first day, and feels mildly triumphant when the young man doesn’t bother to call the guards.

Snow isn’t in her room. The curtains blow out from the open window, letting in the spring breeze – and the sound of Snow’s laughter.

Grumpy goes to the window and pushes aside the curtain.

Snow is in the garden below. Brian is with her, his scholar’s face open and happy as he swings her around in a dance.

Snow is heavily pregnant.

~*~

Grumpy clears his throat as he enters the garden, to let them know of his presence. “Snow.”

Snow’s face is as beautiful as ever, or even more so, now that it is no longer pinched and drawn. “Grumpy! Oh, Grumpy!” She runs to him, pulls him into her arms. “I’m so happy to see you!”

“Things have happened,” Grumpy says when she lets him go, looking pointedly at her abdomen.

“Yes,” she says, and the smile on her face turns suddenly sober. “Both good and bad. Which should I tell you first?”

There is never any choice to make in such a situation. “Bad.” Always bad first. The good doesn’t matter, if the bad is bad enough.

“There was a hunting accident,” Snow says, and her lips turn down, splash of colour in white face. “Alexander was racing Lady Anna, and his horse spooked and threw him over a cliff’s edge. He didn’t survive.”

“Alexander was never careful,” Brian adds, from behind Snow. “Racing horses in the winter is terribly dangerous.”

Grumpy has always said horses were dangerous. “Indeed.”

“The good news, though,” Snow says, forcing a smile back on to her face, “is that before Alexander died, he and I...well...we were going to have a baby.”

“Congratulations,” Grumpy says, in the expectant silence which follows her announcement. “What happens now?”

Brian looks taken aback at his bluntness, but Snow just laughs, the bell-like sound echoing over the garden. A rabbit pops his head around a bush, and a bird flutters down to land on her shoulder. “The baby will be the new ruler of the kingdom, when it grows up. Meanwhile,” and her smile turns playful, “poor Brian has to run things.”

“Not you?” Grumpy asks.

Snow extends a hand for the bird to hop on. “No, not me. I’m hopeless with things like that. Brian will do a much better job, won’t you?”

Brian blushes. “I hope to prove satisfactory.”

“But I am being incredibly rude!” Snow says, turning with mock horror back to Grumpy. “How did the Journey go? Have you brought your partner to meet us?”

Now that Grumpy listens, the garden is full of birds singing. “The Journey is personal.” At Snow’s moue of discontent, he hurries on. “But I hope you will be happy, and that the baby will be healthy and well.”

“Thank you,” Snow says, a little uncertainly. “But you sound like you’re saying goodbye! You simply must stay for dinner. For as long as you like!”

“I can’t,” Grumpy says. “My family needs me.” He nods to Brian. “Goodbye, Snow.”

Snow’s hand has slipped down to rest on the swell of her dress. “Goodbye,” she says, sounding forlorn. “Will I see you again?”

Grumpy adjusts the rucksack on his back. “Perhaps.”

He turns at the entrance to the garden. “Have you abolished hunting, then?”

A smile breaks like dawn across Snow’s face. “Yes, entirely.”

Grumpy reminds himself to smile. “I’m happy for you.”

“And we’ve lowered the tax on diamonds and precious stones,” Snow says, hurriedly, as if she’s afraid Grumpy will run away before she finishes. “It’s now at what Brian says is quite a reasonable rate.”

“Thank you,” Grumpy says, and means it.

The last things he sees before he rounds the hedge and begins the long walk home again are Snow’s beautiful face, mouth turning down in sadness, and Brian’s comforting hand on her elbow.

~*~

Grumpy hardly speaks for the first month after he returns home. He has used all of his words; he finds voice instead in the swing of his pick-axe and the yodel of the working song.

His family gives him the space he needs, wordlessly understanding and quietly supporting. If he thunders on the pipe organ more than he used to, they look the other way.

When a second month begins, it’s Happy who brings him a tankard of home brew.

“Did you get your heart broken, then?” he asks.

Grumpy takes a long draught of the brew.

“I know you might not want to talk yet,” Happy says, “but I’m your mother, so I’m entitled to push. When you’re ready, you come to me, you hear?”

He gets up to leave, but Grumpy puts out a hand to grab his sleeve. “Yes.”

“Yes what?” Happy asks, with infinite patience.

“Yes, I got my heart broken,” Grumpy says sullenly, after checking to make sure the room is empty except for them.

Happy covers his hand with his own. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Yes, well, so am I,” Grumpy says.

They sit together while Grumpy finishes his tankard.

“Well,” Happy says finally, “this may not be something you want to hear now, but there’s always next year.”

Grumpy stares at him. “I failed my Journey. I didn’t find a partner.”

“Did you learn about the world? Did you learn about yourself?” Happy asks, raising his eyebrows. At Grumpy’s reluctant nod, he continues, “Then you haven’t failed the Journey. You just have to go again this year.”

“Can we...”

“With the lowered taxes, we can certainly afford it,” Happy says, cheerfully. “Besides, you know the route now, so you’ll go faster, and somehow I don’t think you’ll be making a detour this time around.”

“You knew about that,” Grumpy says, kicking his foot at the table.

Happy pats his hand and takes his tankard to refill it. “Of course we knew about that. You were both teenagers when she came – we saw how you looked at her. A little harmless flirtation, that was all, but we thought you might go to see her on the Journey. And right that you should.”

“She wouldn’t come,” Grumpy says. It’s the nearest he’s come to saying Snow’s name, or starting the story he never will tell. “She won’t come.”

“I fell in love on my first Journey,” Happy says, bringing him the refilled tankard. “He was beautiful. We were snowed in on Bennant Mountain together, and then there was a rockslide, and it was two months before we were able to fight our way out.” He traces a line on the table, eyes far away. “But it wasn’t meant to be. His father would never have allowed it – my father had a feud over a border mine with his father, and the two of them hated each other.”

“Did you ever meet him again?” Grumpy asks.

Happy looks up, and smiles. “He married a nice dwarf he met in Dorchenmine. I think they’re very happy together. And I met your father the next year in Birkenmine, and the rest, as they say, is history.”

Grumpy drinks, and considers.

“Life isn’t always simple,” Happy says, comfortably. “My great-uncle fell in love with an elf.”

Grumpy spits beer everywhere. “An elf? What happened?”

Happy laughs, steepling his fingers under his chin. “Oh, his father and mother were very angry. But great-uncle and his elf were stubborn, and they stayed together anyway. In fact,” he adds thoughtfully, “I believe one of the great epic poems of the elves is about them.”

“I am not marrying an elf,” Grumpy says, quite decisively.

Happy regards him. “No, I would imagine not.” He points at Grumpy’s tankard. “Now, wash your mug.”

Grumpy rolls his eyes, but takes his tankard obediently to the sink. If Snow left one practical legacy, it’s his family’s fondness for cleanliness.

When the tankard is halfway clean, he has a thought.

“Happy?” he says, over his shoulder.

The sound of the broom sweeping stops. “Yes?”

Grumpy thinks about his words carefully before he says them. “If I went on a second Journey, and I found a partner – and I’m not saying I would, I’m saying if I did - and he was a... a she-dwarf, would that be something...” He trails off in frustration.

“I hesitate to enlighten you, but you and I are she-dwarfs, dear,” Happy says.

“I know,” Grumpy says, turning his tankard upside-down to dry. “I mean...I met someone, and he – she – wears earrings.”

“Were they well-cut?” Happy asks, with interest.

Grumpy turns to face him – and, with a certain detached surprise, finds a smile pulling at his mouth.

Perhaps, after all that has happened, he will be all right after all.

“Yes,” he says, and smiles at his mother. “Yes, I do believe they were.”

~//~

Author's note: My treatment of gender identity in dwarf culture is influenced by (although not identical to) Terry Pratchett's in the Watch series.

Also, yes, that was a surprise crossover. ;)

~//~

This entry was originally posted at http://abluestocking.dreamwidth.org/39480.html. You can comment there if you like, or here. Either is fine. :)

FIC: Springtime in Ihistan

2012-02-17T16:54:15Z

So I recently realised that I never posted my Yuletide fics on LJ/DW. I suppose I should catch up on them now, before too much time has gone by!

The first one is my Yuletide assignment, for astolat.

Fandom: Damar Series - Robin McKinley
Title: Springtime in Ihistan
Ship(s): OC/OC
Word Count: 1,455
Rating: G
Summary: A meeting in a marketplace; blue eyes, pimchies, and Gonturan; memories and Meeldtar.
Disclaimer: This is a creative work of fiction, inspired by a world created by Robin McKinley. I do not own that world, and I am making no money from this work.

"Surely you know," Jack said, frowning. "Your great-grandmother - mother's mother's mother - was a Hillwoman; one of rank, I believe. That was before we'd gained a proper foothold here..." (The Blue Sword, p. 207)

Springtime in Ihistan

She sees him first from afar, in the marketplace in Ihistan. He is with two of his fellows, one of whom is trying to make himself understood by raising his voice and waving his arms, as if the fruit-seller before him was elderly and her mind wandering.

He does not raise his voice or wave his arms. He stands by his fellows, but somehow the set of his crossed arms conveys amusement without malice. When she wanders closer, she tells herself that she merely wants to see how he will react when his friend loses his tenuous grasp on patience; she tells herself that his strange yellow hair and his strong chin have nothing to do with her interest.

She is very near indeed, pausing in the shadow of a flower-seller’s stand, when he looks up and meets her eyes. In the crowd, she should have been invisible – or perhaps she had simply been telling herself that, to silence the quiet voice inside her that warned against the strange pull she felt from this stranger. This Outlander. These Outlanders are new-come to Damar, and they speak with sweet voices (for all that they are inclined to be over-loud), but their eyes are covetous and never still.

His eyes are blue. The bluest of blues, as blue as the stone in Gonturan’s hilt.

His eyes smile at her, but his face is still. A serious face. A young and beautiful face, but one that wears its youth and beauty lightly; a face whose quiet curiousity will grow into wisdom in its old age.

Her uncle worries about the Outlanders. She has seen the way he carries his head, after an evening with the Meeldtar – as upright and stern as ever, but with that careful tightness that she, sister’s daughter, finds impossible to mistake. He has raised her after her mother fell fighting one of the Northern tribes; he has led her into battle and worked with her to help their people in war’s aftermath; she knows when he is hiding worry from her. She does not understand why Damar must fear these Outlanders, this scattering of rakish youngsters who ride for glory and adventure, but she knows that her uncle would have her resist the strange attraction of this one, for all his blue eyes and serious face.

But she is young, and he is beautiful – and he does not leer at her, with that appraising eyebrow and appreciative smirk which even now one of his fellows is sending in her direction, having noticed the preoccupation of his friend. He simply looks at her, and there is warmth in his eyes.

She lets the smile pulling at her mouth sharpen into something alive, small but bright. He may be Outlander, and she Damar, but that smile would be a challenge in any language. For a moment, the market in Ihistan seems to slow around them, as she waits to see if he will take up the challenge, or if he will turn away.

And then he steps forward, steps away from his fellows, faces upturning in confused unknowing, steps toward her.

His hand glitters, as he reaches it out. “Thank you,” he says to the flower-seller, and his voice speaks her language with a heavy accent, but somehow it makes her hair prickle.

He has paid the flower-seller far too much for that simple handful of pimchies, she thinks rather incoherently, as he holds them out towards her; perhaps he wished to pay far too much, a voice inside her reasons, or simply had no inclination for loud-voiced barter.

She hesitates for a moment, eyes searching his face. There are three of them in the market today – there were two last year – there may be six next month. Who knows what their intentions may be? That the North has always been the enemy does not mean that the North must always be the only enemy. That many of the Outlanders she has seen appear to have little sense and less intelligence does not mean that all Outlanders are thus afflicted. That this Outlander is beautiful does not mean that he is kind, or good, or honest.

It is the shyness in his eyes, the shyness behind the forced courage, that decides her. She has always been impulsive, the fire of her hair echoed in the spirit of her soul, as her uncle says. Now something sends her forward, that last step into the orbit of this boy in man’s clothing, her hand reaching out to close gently around the pimchies.

“You are beautiful,” she tells him, her own voice sounding odd in her ears.

There is uncertainty in his eyes at the unfamiliar syllables of the Hillfolk, but he blinks it back, and at last the serious lines of his face relax, falling into a small, shy smile.

She smiles back at him, letting the small smile she gave him earlier widen, from the brightness of Gonturan’s edge into the full radiance of her blade.

“Alexander,” he says.

The sounds are strange on her tongue as she rolls them over. “Sandr,” she says, and laughs at herself. “Alasandr,” she says again.

There is a real smile on his face now, and something inside her thrills to it. She is no blushing girlchild, to fall in love with the first person to smile at her. She is a woman of grown years, and she has loved before; she knows the joys and the sorrows of it. This is not love. This is a passing fancy of spring, of blue eyes and golden hair and the shyness of a smile.

“Aerin,” she says in her turn.

(He will not know the history of that name. He would not believe it, even if she told him, even if she was to find the words in his strange gargling tongue. He would not know what it meant, to have Aerin’s blood singing in her veins, to have the traces of Aerin’s kelar murmuring somewhere behind her eyes.

He would not understand how it felt, to lift Gonturan against Northerners, to kill and to maim to protect Damar. He would not understand the despair of the victors, when victory means only survival for another generation. He would not recognise in her the same woman who had knelt on a battlefield, holding her dead lover in her arms, her hands streaked with blood.

He would not understand what it meant, to drink of the Meeldtar and see only a girl lying dead in the Hills, with Gonturan dull and lifeless at her side. The girl is not her; she is small and the girl is tall, and the girl does not have her hair. But that one picture alone does the Meeldtar give her, a dead girl in her Hills.)

“Erin,” he says, and her thoughts break, as his lips shape her name.

She raises the pimchies to her nostrils. They smell sweet, if a bit cloying, and she closes her eyes, banishing all thoughts of blood and war and loss. Today is to welcome the coming of another spring, and she will not give way to fear or despair.

“Erin,” her Outlander says again, and his voice lingers on the sounds.

She opens her eyes and looks up over the pimchies, looks up into his shy blue eyes. She thinks of Outlanders, and Hillfolk, and the blue sword she has carried; she thinks of dead lovers and dead mothers and dead girls in Meeldtar visions; she thinks of her uncle, and the forgotten Outlanders hovering awkwardly behind their fellow, and the flower-seller with her mouth agape.

Her thoughts fly as quickly as a good horse, all in a moment.

“Sandr,” she says. Her mouth is dry, and she licks her lips. “Walk with me?”

He will not have understood her words, but he looks at her outstretched hand, gesturing to the border of the marketplace, and he smiles.

(They will call her Erin in his homeland, and purse their lips disapprovingly at her hair, her accent, and her love for fast horses. They will talk about her behind their hands, and in the corners of ballrooms, and in their own marketplaces. Sandr will be hurt, but she will laugh, blinking back the anger which will threaten to rear its head, and let him see that they cannot harm her. She will teach their children to ride, and not know whether she feels joy or sadness when kelar fails to spark behind their eyes; she will never again drink the Meeldtar and see the dead girl in the Hills; she will wake clutching the sheets where Gonturan should be.)

It is springtime in Ihistan, and this is the passing fancy of spring.

~//~

This entry was originally posted at http://abluestocking.dreamwidth.org/39275.html. You can comment there if you like, or here. Either is fine. :)

More Yuletide squee and recs

2011-12-26T21:55:12Z

My Christmas and Boxing Day have been thoroughly lovely. What with the Tube strike and the chaos in Central London today, I elected to stay home and loll decadently around in my pyjamas. Last night I watched the Doctor Who and Downton Abbey Christmas specials, of course, and today I read, played the piano, ate some ice cream, texted with my sister, wrote two more Yuletide treats, and dipped my toes further into the lovely epicness that is this year's Yuletide collection.

So all in all I have had a fabulous extended Christmas weekend!

~*~

My newest Yuletide recs (again, READ MY GIFTS, which are linked in one of yesterday's posts, or under my username on AO3):

Please, please, please... (1721 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: John Lewis Christmas Adverts
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Summary: Lewis knows exactly what he wants for Christmas.

Read this if you've seen the advert and want to spend the next five minutes grinning up a storm. If you haven't seen the advert, go watch it on Youtube and then come back and read this. A lovely little ficlet in every way. <333

Christmas in the Cupboard (3444 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: QI RPF
Rating: Mature
Warning: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Jimmy Carr/David Mitchell, Stephen Fry/Hugh Laurie
Characters: Jimmy Carr, David Mitchell, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie
Summary: David Mitchell absolutely hates Christmas parties. Will this one change his mind?

This is hilarious and awesome and smutty. If you are a fan of any of these comedians, definitely check this out. (Even if you aren't, and don't know any of them from Adam - although how could you not know Fry and Laurie?! - you won't regret giving this a try.)

The Tough Guide to Yuletide (3820 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Tough Guide to Fantasyland - Diana Wynne Jones
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Summary: What it says on the tin.

Hee. This one rings very true. It's doubly funny if you've read Tough Guide to Fantasyland, but it would still be wonderfully hilarious even if you hadn't.

Go and Catch a Falling Star (7085 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Lord Peter Wimsey - Dorothy L. Sayers, Doctor Who
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Harriet Vane/Peter Wimsey, Amy Pond/Rory Williams
Characters: Peter Wimsey, Harriet Vane, Mervyn Bunter, Amy Pond, Rory Williams, The Doctor
Summary: "No," Harriet Vane said, having given it some thought. "I don't suppose I do believe in spontaneous human combustion."

This one is AMAZING. It's Lord Peter Wimsey crossed with Doctor Who, how could it not be?! And it fully translates its epic premise into a wonderful, funny, interesting, plotty fic. Definitely well worth a read!

~*~

Finally, I wish we could have kept Yuletide Madness open longer! I was really enjoying celebrating my release from writer's block by turning out treats in new fandoms. Ah well, I suppose there's NYR. I do want to write two more fics, because that will bring me up to an even 100! I want to see those triple figures. :)

Final stats for my Yuletide output were 10 fics, 4 in the main collection and 6 in Madness. Both of my "main" fics (my assigned fic and my plotbunny-that-ate-my-brain fic) were so completely different than anything I'd written before...it's been such an amazing experience. I've enjoyed myself so completely.

And if you didn't already gather this from my previous posts, OMG MY GIFTS. Has any person ever been so blessed as I? Not one masterpiece that pulled my very dreams from my brain, but TWO.

READ THEM NOW. And leave comments that adequately express their awesomeness, because I have already ran around squeeing all over the comments sections, and I'm afraid if I do it again I may come off as slightly deranged. :)

Oh, why don't I provide the links again, just so it's easier for you to enjoy them? (I know I already linked them yesterday, shhh.)

Role Model (3104 words) by Anonymous (Lord Peter Wimsey - Dorothy Sayers)

The Rose and Crown (7331 words) by Anonymous (TTOI/Lolitics)

~*~

All right, that's enough for now! I hope everyone's Christmas and Boxing Day have been as wonderful as mine. <33

This entry was originally posted at http://abluestocking.dreamwidth.org/36065.html. Please comment there using OpenID.