Yuletide letter

[labellementeuse]

Dear Yuletide writer,

Hi! Happy Yuletide! Sorry this is late. Thank you so much for matching with me on whatever fandom we matched on. I am so thrilled to be playing, just as I am every year, and I can't wait to see what you produce! It's really important to me that you have fun with Yuletide, so please treat my requests with exactly the degree of attentiveness that you need for a good Yuletide experience, and no more. If what I say below bugs you or is going to, like, mess with your creative impulses, feel free to ignore it: if I requested it for yuletide, I will pretty much read absolutely anything.

With this in mind, I deliberately kept my sign-up as low-key as I could and if that works for you, please run with that and don't read any further.

But if you're like me, you probably need more information. I like a nice thorough letter, so I write my letter with people like me in mind (i.e. it's ridiculously detailed). It's in two parts: general stuff about my likes and dislikes, and specific stuff about my fandoms. Feel free to read any of it, part of it, or none.

This is my seventh Yuletide; you can see previous letters here (2012), here (2011 letter), here (2010 yuletide letter), here (2009 yuletide letter), here (2008 letter), and here (2007 letter, holy shit).

Me Generally

Things I like: I really prefer happy endings. Slash (both kinds!), het, and gen. Porn. G-rated friendship or romance. Kidfic. Breakup-makeup! The appearance of cooking, music or handcrafts in fic. Professionalism and competentcy, children, careers, futurefic, makeouts, camping, conspicuous consumption of caffeine, adventure stories, gratuitous use of magic, slash cliches, reinvented romance tropes, feminism, women, unusual relationships, siblings being siblingy, emotional misunderstandings and/or RESOLVED emotional neglect, third person narrative, music and people playing musical instruments.

Things I'm not so big on: Major character or requested character deathfic; stories featuring rape as a major plot point.

I have no triggers and my only real squick is scat. However, I don't enjoy dubcon that is portrayed and dealt with as if it were consensual.

Did that give you an idea? Maybe you don't need to read my more specific notes! You can go away again now if you like!

If you want more, lay on.

Young Wizards: Dairine, Carmela

I said:

I'd love some Dairine/Carmela fslash or budding friendship fic - maybe a first time? (any kind: milestones, first spells, Ordeals ... and the sexy kind too, of course: first time, first threesome, first whatever.)

More detail: Dairine/Carmela is one of my not-so-secret weird OTPs developed by spending way too long in this fandom. They’re huge fun as foils for their respective siblings but I love them for themselves, as well. Once upon a time I wrote an embarrassing ship manifesto for this pairing (that actually now that I re-read it lacks one key element: WOW THEY'D BE HOT TOGETHER. Dairine kind of twitchy and passionate and, you know, her personality is shaped like an arrow, sometimes angry and Carmela so laid back and relaxed but still passionate and mm it's just a dynamic that really works for me in a relationship. Like a short skirt and a long jacket iykwim.) Of course I would be just as thrilled with gen; these guys are just so much fun to read about and I think they have a real spark together.

Secondly - I have often requested “Any characters” for this fandom. If you got matched with me on this fandom and you don’t like Dairine/Carmela, Dairine, or Carmela, or if you just can’t get something with the combo going, I really recommend that you take a look at some of my other letters and see if there’s something there you like. I hope you might find those inspirational. I really truly adore this fandom and every character in it, and will be thrilled with whatever you put together.

Protector of the Small: Keladry

I said:

Kel's Sex Adventures!

More detail: Oh, I hope you don't hate me for this, but listen, I was filling out my Yuletide sign-up and simultaneously performing my annual Kel re-read and got to thinking about how one of my favourite things about the Kel books is that they don't have the serious endgame romance that most of the other Tortall books have. And also, that Kel thinks practically about sex. And then I was thinking about some of the things I was reading about casual sex and polyamory and ethical sluttishness and blah blah blah and it all came together: wouldn't Kel just be the best person in the world to have casual sex with? I think she'd be GREAT at it. OK, she's a little bit serious, but she's so honest and direct and I think she'd be willing to give just about anything a try. Can't you just see her, knight-erranting from town to town, just having sex with randoms? Randoms she knows and trusts, of course, probably. Men, women, hey, couples. Especially since she can't really have sex with men under her command or, really, I imagine, with fellow knights. IMAGINE THE POSSIBILITIES. Kel butching it up with a young widow! Kel being tutored in The Arts of Love by an experienced widow! Kel having athletic sex with one of the Queen's Riders! Kel banging a carpenter to thank him/her for fixing a bookshelf! (As well as paying him/her cashy money, obviously.) Kel helping Lalasa teach self-defense to women and getting seduced by one of her students! Probably Kel would have sex with men too! (I do like het plenty, I am just better at coming up with femslash prompts, haha.) oh em gee. Vanilla sex! Kinky sex! All sorts of sex. (Feel free to throw in any characters you like and, if it's your preference, you can handwave existing canon couples. also: I wouldn't mind if you handwaved safe sex the same way Tammy handwaves contraception, i.e. Magical Protection From Diseases.)

Of course I know it's possible that you would rather write gen or something PG. (Of course, I think you can totally write Kel Having Loads Of Sex PG. Sexually charged scenes and draw a curtain over the porn! It's not the porn that I'm fascinated by, really.) I TOTALLY UNDERSTAND AND SYMPATHISE and so, if you'd rather NOT write Kel's Sex Adventures/are totally horrified by the very idea, feel free to write Kel having OTHER kinds of adventures. Bringing in bandits! Saving children and/or kittens! (Getting thanked by the kittens' owner WITH SEX! wait, wait, that was the last prompt. Maybe she gets thanked WITH A KITTEN, I wonder how the sparrows and Jump would get along ...) Being hilariously faily at carpentry and hilariously perfect at literally everything else! I love everything about her; if you want to write a romance with just one character, or a sweet polyamorous romance, or some regular old gen, I will totally enjoy that too.

Seven Kingdoms 'verse: Any

I said:

Bitterblue left me with a craving to know more about this universe and this cast of characters. There are so many empty spaces - what’s the nature of Saph’s relationship with Teddy; Raffin and Bann’s relationship, will Raffin marry a woman in the end, what will it be like if he does; what will happen when the Seven Kingdoms and Bitterblue’s kingdom in particular spend more and more time with Fire’s people. I’d love to read more about the Council’s work, about the nobles and commoners they work with in the other kingdoms; I’d love to read about what happens with Bitterblue’s Ministry of Stories.

Oh god, the dreaded "any" request! This request is a bit more detailed so I have quite a bit less to say. I’d just love anything exploring the Seven Kingdoms. Slash (m/m or f/f), het, gen, plotty, romancy, smutty, slice-of-life - whatever! Random OC Graceling? Go for it! I know I’ll love whatever you write. Feel free to get in contact through the usual channels if you need more detail with this prompt.

Republic of Thieves: Jean, Locke

I said:

Just anything about young Jean and young Locke - preferably from Jean's point of view - it's so clear what Locke gets out of their friendship and less clear the other way around, perhaps. If you felt like throwing in some casual boys-will-be-boys handjobs I certainly wouldn't say no :) I love the rest of the crew including Sabetha so feel free to chuck in anyone, set it anytime, etc. I will have finished reading Republic of Thieves by yuletide time so no worries about spoilers. :)

I have totally finished Republic of Thieves so, alternatively, if you would like to write something spinning out from the possibilities of that book, please do! This is an annoyingly non-detailed prompt: I know I'd love something with Jean and Locke but I don't have any specific useful scenarios or ideas to offer you/inspire you with. Something Jean-focussed would be really cool. He's so outwardly steadfast: does he doubt often? Why is Sabetha so jealous of their relationship? What books does he read? etc, etc.



Okay. I'm sure by now you're absolutely replete with detail! I'll repeat myself: please feel free to take as much or as little from my letter as you need If we've never met, I can't wait to meet you; if we have met, I still kind of can't wait to meet you on 25 Dec. For stalking purposes, you can find me as labellementeuse on LJ, DW, Ravelry and, of course, the AO3; and I'm @tui_talk on twitter (locked, sorry, but I do add fannish people back). Take care and happy Yuletide!