Dear Author (Yuletide 2020)
Oct. 16th, 2020 07:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
coaldustcanary Hi there,
Thanks for checking out my letter. This is my fifth year participating in Yuletide and, as always, I'm looking forward to it. This letter is organized into three parts: first are general preferences around fic, next are fandom-specific prompts and Do Not Wants, and finally is a big list of general tropes I enjoy.
General Preferences: I am overall open to receiving fic of any rating, including violent or sexually explicit content. I am OK with any AO3 required warning if appropriate to the fic. I am also open to worldbuilding fic in each of my requested fandoms this year that barely includes any requested character, if such a premise interests you.
I do not have broad DNWs (in the sense of topics that I under no circumstances want to receive in any fic) just fandom-specific preferences detailed below with each set of prompts.
XXX
Enola Holmes (2020)
Requested Characters: Enola Holmes, Sherlock Holmes
I'm not going to lie: I initially watched this film mostly to see how Millie Bobbie Brown would take on another I'm Not Like Other Girls role, and to appreciate Henry Cavill's curls. I ended up finding it really charming and fun, and I really hope Netflix turns it into a film series. (Honestly, I think it would have been even better as a miniseries or short series, but I understand just about everyone in it is busy with other projects.) I liked how it centered Enola's relationship with her mother, but also complicated her distant admiration for her brother's sleuthing with the realization that Sherlock, for all his skills and talents, wasn't at all sure how to deal with her. I'd really like to see a fic set post-film that looks at that developing relationship.
Note that I haven't read the books that the film is based off of, but feel free to use some of that canon if it pleases you, I'm not worried about spoilers.
Prompts:
Both Enola and Sherlock continue to look into their mother's mysterious work, and keep running into one another throughout their investigations, to mixed feelings. It seems clear from the film that Eudoria is involved in suffrage movement activism that may very well turn violent - and I suspect that even as proud and fond of his sister as Sherlock is, he would not be particularly supportive of those kinds of actions. (Though, maybe he'd surprise me, I don't know!) Perhaps Enola (learning more about the Cause from Edith) and Sherlock debate about the issue and Enola tries to win him over to supporting their mother's work.
Does this Sherlock have a Watson? What's their relationship like, and how might Enola come to meet them or feel about them if they were to team up to help Sherlock at any point? (Ambiguous pronoun used on purpose, feel free to play fast and loose with the character of Dr. Watson however you like. I'm not invested in any particular variation of a Sherlock/Watson ship but if you're pulled in that direction go for it!).
Potentially riffing off the above prompt - ACD Holmes canonically had a cocaine addiction that Watson helped him overcome. (Obviously various adaptations have played with this more directly, like in Elementary.) Maybe Enola finds out that her Gifted older brother has some demons of his own?
Enola/Tewky is very cute (he's a good boy) and I'm fine with it being included in a fic - Sherlock seemed unbothered by the idea of their relationship, perhaps even a little amused. Whether Enola is really romantically attached to Tewky or just very protective of his helplessness or something in between, fic featuring the three of them could be interesting.
Slice of life stuff is good, too - Sherlock attempting to convince Enola to live with him as his ward more formally (I expect she's not interested, though perhaps tempted, but it would be intriguing to see that discussion), Sherlock and Enola running into one another in an unexpected context, Sherlock and Enola competing for a particular case to the former's consternation and amusement and the latter's increasing determination.
Fandom Specific DNW: Incest. Mycroft featuring as a Big Bad Villain in the fic. (He can be mentioned or even pass through, but I'd rather just ignore the big boor.)
Motherland: Fort Salem (TV)
Requested Characters: Anacostia Quartermaine, Berryessa Tansey
I think the worldbuilding for this show is fascinating...and full of holes screaming for further development. The alternate history is both intriguing and frustrating in its inconsistencies. I am absolutely starving for more details like the bits of history timeline we've seen in bits and pieces across the first season, and its effects on everything from global power structures to religious practices.
Prompts:
I chose Sgt. Tansey and Anacostia as my requests because they are my favorite minor and major characters, respectively, and I adored their conversation during the Beltane festivities. I would very much welcome Anacostia/Berryessa-focused fic, but I'm also okay with only one of them featuring in the fic, or neither. For a ship-focused fic, something about their pasts together (Beltane festivities when they were cadets, perhaps? or perhaps the idea that they were both fosterlings together?) or how Berryessa - as a ritualist and perhaps religious figure - might help Anacostia deal with her doubts prompted by the events of the end of S1.
Worldbuilding, religious-style: Sgt. Tansey is a "matrimonialist" - "Matrimonialist" appears to be a title and perhaps even a specific military rank - we see Sgt. Tansey on the show seem to lead both the Beltane ritual and Charvel Bellweather's marriage ceremony. With witchcraft ability being inherited and implied to come from extra-human physical development (per the ability of the Fort Salem witches to identify murder victims as witch-descendants by autopsying their vocal chords) it stands to reason that maintaining family lines is extremely significant. At the same time, there's enough witches who slip through the cracks that there were dozens of Bellweather-related victims previously unknown to the military. If there's a role that's equivalent to something between an archivist, matchmaker, and priestess devoted to keeping the family lines known and marrying well, what would that be like? What social and cultural norms would grow up around that - we see glimpses of some interesting worldbuilding around pregnancy in combat (considered an admirable thing, perhaps lucky for the baby?) and pagan-flavored temporary, contract-like marriages. Any exploration of this would be fantastic!
Worldbuilding, soldier-style: What does it mean to be a soldier - not a general and not a cadet - in the witch military? We've seen a bit of it filtered through the POV of Raelle's mother, but she had a very particular POV. What was Anacostia's experience like before she became an instructor and leader at Fort Salem? She must have had battlefield experience, but unlike most of the other adult characters on the show we don't actually hear her talk about that time much. If she has always been close to General Alder, as their relationship implies, what was that like for her? What has she seen or heard, and how does that influence the way she's made her choices re: Scylla and the Spree at the end of S1?
Fandom specific DNW: No Magic AU. Major focus on any romantic relationships between students. Background references to relationships are fine, inclusion of canon Raelle/Scylla's effect on Anacostia's work and emotional state is great, but I would prefer any relationship focus be on the adult characters I requested with each other or others.
Valdemar series - Mercedes Lackey
Requested Characters: Lythe Shadowdancer, Rothas Sunsinger
Link to the lyrics of all of the Sun & Shadow music here: http://www.goldenboughmusic.com/music/SunShadow/SunShadow.htm
The legend within the story, the one that Lackey swore she'd never actually write about - but I'm intrigued. I love the Sun and Shadow ballads in the books (I have owned the Firebird Arts and Music recordings since the 90s, I must admit) and I am always interested in seeing what others think of the legend and what might be behind it. We know that "officially" Sun and Shadow were cursed, eventually found magic to undo the curse but instead used it to free an heir of Valdemar from an evil mage and lost their chance to beat the curse, and were eventually chosen by Companions to become Heralds, which then (because Companion Magic, presumably) caused them to be freed from the curse.
But...is that really how it went down?
In addition to a direct take on the legend, I would also be game for any fic in the Valdemar setting that touches on the ballads themselves and doesn't directly include the prompted characters - a Bard character working on their own variation of the legend in song or poetry, an archivist trying to find the real history in the legend, a pair of starcrossed lovers somewhere else in the universe of the books relating to the great tragic love of Sun and Shadow.
I'd also be interested in a very meta take involving "Herald-Archivist Myste" (Mercedes Lackey's extremely transparent self-insert, gods love her) writing about (critiquing?) the ballads and the history if that's your interest.
Tonally, anything from total tragedy (they were not, in fact, saved by Companions, in the end...) to lighthearted comedy (*groan* oh god not ANOTHER Sun and Shadow ballad!) is welcome here.
XXX
And the final part of my letter is the below big list of preferred tropes. I am a pretty regular fic exchange participant and so this is my "list of likes". Not all of them will apply to every fandom or prompt, but if you're looking for some evidence of my tastes and trope preferences in fic, this might help clarify things.
Setting tropes and AU premises I Love:
Hurt/Comfort & Whump Favorites (note that the "comfort" can be sexual, romantic, or platonic)
Thanks for checking out my letter. This is my fifth year participating in Yuletide and, as always, I'm looking forward to it. This letter is organized into three parts: first are general preferences around fic, next are fandom-specific prompts and Do Not Wants, and finally is a big list of general tropes I enjoy.
General Preferences: I am overall open to receiving fic of any rating, including violent or sexually explicit content. I am OK with any AO3 required warning if appropriate to the fic. I am also open to worldbuilding fic in each of my requested fandoms this year that barely includes any requested character, if such a premise interests you.
I do not have broad DNWs (in the sense of topics that I under no circumstances want to receive in any fic) just fandom-specific preferences detailed below with each set of prompts.
XXX
Enola Holmes (2020)
Requested Characters: Enola Holmes, Sherlock Holmes
I'm not going to lie: I initially watched this film mostly to see how Millie Bobbie Brown would take on another I'm Not Like Other Girls role, and to appreciate Henry Cavill's curls. I ended up finding it really charming and fun, and I really hope Netflix turns it into a film series. (Honestly, I think it would have been even better as a miniseries or short series, but I understand just about everyone in it is busy with other projects.) I liked how it centered Enola's relationship with her mother, but also complicated her distant admiration for her brother's sleuthing with the realization that Sherlock, for all his skills and talents, wasn't at all sure how to deal with her. I'd really like to see a fic set post-film that looks at that developing relationship.
Note that I haven't read the books that the film is based off of, but feel free to use some of that canon if it pleases you, I'm not worried about spoilers.
Prompts:
Both Enola and Sherlock continue to look into their mother's mysterious work, and keep running into one another throughout their investigations, to mixed feelings. It seems clear from the film that Eudoria is involved in suffrage movement activism that may very well turn violent - and I suspect that even as proud and fond of his sister as Sherlock is, he would not be particularly supportive of those kinds of actions. (Though, maybe he'd surprise me, I don't know!) Perhaps Enola (learning more about the Cause from Edith) and Sherlock debate about the issue and Enola tries to win him over to supporting their mother's work.
Does this Sherlock have a Watson? What's their relationship like, and how might Enola come to meet them or feel about them if they were to team up to help Sherlock at any point? (Ambiguous pronoun used on purpose, feel free to play fast and loose with the character of Dr. Watson however you like. I'm not invested in any particular variation of a Sherlock/Watson ship but if you're pulled in that direction go for it!).
Potentially riffing off the above prompt - ACD Holmes canonically had a cocaine addiction that Watson helped him overcome. (Obviously various adaptations have played with this more directly, like in Elementary.) Maybe Enola finds out that her Gifted older brother has some demons of his own?
Enola/Tewky is very cute (he's a good boy) and I'm fine with it being included in a fic - Sherlock seemed unbothered by the idea of their relationship, perhaps even a little amused. Whether Enola is really romantically attached to Tewky or just very protective of his helplessness or something in between, fic featuring the three of them could be interesting.
Slice of life stuff is good, too - Sherlock attempting to convince Enola to live with him as his ward more formally (I expect she's not interested, though perhaps tempted, but it would be intriguing to see that discussion), Sherlock and Enola running into one another in an unexpected context, Sherlock and Enola competing for a particular case to the former's consternation and amusement and the latter's increasing determination.
Fandom Specific DNW: Incest. Mycroft featuring as a Big Bad Villain in the fic. (He can be mentioned or even pass through, but I'd rather just ignore the big boor.)
Motherland: Fort Salem (TV)
Requested Characters: Anacostia Quartermaine, Berryessa Tansey
I think the worldbuilding for this show is fascinating...and full of holes screaming for further development. The alternate history is both intriguing and frustrating in its inconsistencies. I am absolutely starving for more details like the bits of history timeline we've seen in bits and pieces across the first season, and its effects on everything from global power structures to religious practices.
Prompts:
I chose Sgt. Tansey and Anacostia as my requests because they are my favorite minor and major characters, respectively, and I adored their conversation during the Beltane festivities. I would very much welcome Anacostia/Berryessa-focused fic, but I'm also okay with only one of them featuring in the fic, or neither. For a ship-focused fic, something about their pasts together (Beltane festivities when they were cadets, perhaps? or perhaps the idea that they were both fosterlings together?) or how Berryessa - as a ritualist and perhaps religious figure - might help Anacostia deal with her doubts prompted by the events of the end of S1.
Worldbuilding, religious-style: Sgt. Tansey is a "matrimonialist" - "Matrimonialist" appears to be a title and perhaps even a specific military rank - we see Sgt. Tansey on the show seem to lead both the Beltane ritual and Charvel Bellweather's marriage ceremony. With witchcraft ability being inherited and implied to come from extra-human physical development (per the ability of the Fort Salem witches to identify murder victims as witch-descendants by autopsying their vocal chords) it stands to reason that maintaining family lines is extremely significant. At the same time, there's enough witches who slip through the cracks that there were dozens of Bellweather-related victims previously unknown to the military. If there's a role that's equivalent to something between an archivist, matchmaker, and priestess devoted to keeping the family lines known and marrying well, what would that be like? What social and cultural norms would grow up around that - we see glimpses of some interesting worldbuilding around pregnancy in combat (considered an admirable thing, perhaps lucky for the baby?) and pagan-flavored temporary, contract-like marriages. Any exploration of this would be fantastic!
Worldbuilding, soldier-style: What does it mean to be a soldier - not a general and not a cadet - in the witch military? We've seen a bit of it filtered through the POV of Raelle's mother, but she had a very particular POV. What was Anacostia's experience like before she became an instructor and leader at Fort Salem? She must have had battlefield experience, but unlike most of the other adult characters on the show we don't actually hear her talk about that time much. If she has always been close to General Alder, as their relationship implies, what was that like for her? What has she seen or heard, and how does that influence the way she's made her choices re: Scylla and the Spree at the end of S1?
Fandom specific DNW: No Magic AU. Major focus on any romantic relationships between students. Background references to relationships are fine, inclusion of canon Raelle/Scylla's effect on Anacostia's work and emotional state is great, but I would prefer any relationship focus be on the adult characters I requested with each other or others.
Valdemar series - Mercedes Lackey
Requested Characters: Lythe Shadowdancer, Rothas Sunsinger
Link to the lyrics of all of the Sun & Shadow music here: http://www.goldenboughmusic.com/music/SunShadow/SunShadow.htm
The legend within the story, the one that Lackey swore she'd never actually write about - but I'm intrigued. I love the Sun and Shadow ballads in the books (I have owned the Firebird Arts and Music recordings since the 90s, I must admit) and I am always interested in seeing what others think of the legend and what might be behind it. We know that "officially" Sun and Shadow were cursed, eventually found magic to undo the curse but instead used it to free an heir of Valdemar from an evil mage and lost their chance to beat the curse, and were eventually chosen by Companions to become Heralds, which then (because Companion Magic, presumably) caused them to be freed from the curse.
But...is that really how it went down?
In addition to a direct take on the legend, I would also be game for any fic in the Valdemar setting that touches on the ballads themselves and doesn't directly include the prompted characters - a Bard character working on their own variation of the legend in song or poetry, an archivist trying to find the real history in the legend, a pair of starcrossed lovers somewhere else in the universe of the books relating to the great tragic love of Sun and Shadow.
I'd also be interested in a very meta take involving "Herald-Archivist Myste" (Mercedes Lackey's extremely transparent self-insert, gods love her) writing about (critiquing?) the ballads and the history if that's your interest.
Tonally, anything from total tragedy (they were not, in fact, saved by Companions, in the end...) to lighthearted comedy (*groan* oh god not ANOTHER Sun and Shadow ballad!) is welcome here.
XXX
And the final part of my letter is the below big list of preferred tropes. I am a pretty regular fic exchange participant and so this is my "list of likes". Not all of them will apply to every fandom or prompt, but if you're looking for some evidence of my tastes and trope preferences in fic, this might help clarify things.
Setting tropes and AU premises I Love:
- canon divergence/"what if" AUs - I love butterfly effect, "change one thing" AUs especially!
- soulmates and soul bonds - and soulmate subversion, and soulmates played dark or strange - feel free to play it straight but I also love characters choosing someone(s) other than a soulmate, or the notion of soulmates being as much trouble as they are a joy. The worldbuilding would be wild in a world where soulmates are A Thing - I love exploring the effects of that, and the ambiguous bits of such an AU.
- battle couples/trios - ties neatly into competency kink and loyalty kink sexual likes, but non-sexual love and romance among folks who fight together is A+ also
- magical aus (give non-magical characters/canons magic - telepathy, mind magic, arcane magic, spellcasting. Though many of the canons I tend to like have magic of some kind, feel free to go on a worldbuilding dive into what any of my non-magical canon requests might look like if magic was real.)
- alternate magical system AUs (keep the canon magic, but make it different somehow)
- time loops/Groundhog Day premise (via magic or weird science or no explanation whatsoever)
- undercover antics and/or identity porn - undercover fake married, partners or lovers undercover as enemies, or characters having overlapping complex arrangements of fake identities are all good
- future fic and "next gen" fic (about children of canonical characters as older teens or adults)
- ghosts, communicating with the dead (via magic or weird science)
- enemies to lovers
- werewolves and other were-creatures/animal shapeshifters - tying into magical AUs, I like "everyone's a werewolf" or some kind of magical critter AUs, or just one particular character being "other"
- sharing a bed (sexual, romantic, or platonic) - enforced intimacy!
- huddling for warmth - more enforced intimacy!
- trapped in a cabin in a blizzard - are you seeing the trend about enforced intimacy?!
- Hurt/Comfort - see the whole section on this trope below
Hurt/Comfort & Whump Favorites (note that the "comfort" can be sexual, romantic, or platonic)
The thing I really like the most about h/c and whump is the intimacy of it all. The deeply intimate nature of caring for another person in h/c, and/or the headspace/emotional rollercoaster of pain the whumped character goes through are absolutely my personal catnip.
Hurt and Whump Preferences:
- torture - I'm generally interested in the emotions and sensory elements more than the gore here. Torture that leads to chronic injury/pain, mild-to-moderate debilitation over time or permanently, or psychological trauma are the sorts of things I want to see for this kind of hurt. I'm less interested in super-severe injury, amputation, or mindbreak-levels of torture.
- sleep deprivation/exhaustion
- noble self-sacrifice - risking harm or death (by performing a noble last stand, or being a distraction, or playing the honeypot, or offering yourself up for torture/assault) to spare others punishment or to allow them to escape
- drugging
- hallucinations
- characters forced to watch others being hurt
Comfort Preferences:
- hair touching/running fingers through hair
- helping others with personal care - hair washing, injury tending, etc
- small acts of intimacy/care - preparing food, standing guard while the hurt one sleeps, etc
- sex (with reasonable consideration for the seriousness of the hurt!)
Sex tropes I Love:
- dubcon - specifically in situations when both/all parties are consenting under duress due to outside forces, such as "sex pollen", "bad guys made them do it", or character(s) consenting to spare another character from having to do so. This can lead to a positive outcome - admitting feelings, strengthening a relationship after such a difficult experience - or a negative outcome - angst, the end of a relationship/partnership, tragedy - or something ambiguous.
- bondage - particularly of stoic or restrained characters getting tied up and absolutely wrecked
- first time sex - both first time sex ever or first time performing a particular sex act for a character if there's a reasonable characterization of said character as inexperienced, and also first time sex with a particular partner - I tend to prefer getting together over established relationship unless otherwise requested
- sex magic
- pegging (both f/m and f/f)
- praise kink - particularly of stoic and/or damaged characters unused to and undone by praise
- casual physical intimacy between partners - falling asleep on partner's shoulder, cuddling, spooning, etc., especially of characters not used to casual physical intimacy becoming comfortable with it - this could include both characters who have lots of casual sex but not much casual cuddling, or characters who are touch starved or anything in between
- begging during sex ("please!")
- sex as an emotional outlet in the wake of tragedy or grief - friends grieving the loss of a mutual friend or loved one or getting over a shared bad experience
- Dominance/submission (if it's f/m I generally prefer the female character be dominant unless otherwise requested)
- sex between platonic friends
- competence kink
- threesomes
- loyalty kink