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Dear Yuletide Writer,
Thank you for writing for me! I hope this letter is helpful and interesting to read. I'm sorry it took a while to unlock it!
The general stuff:
I like emotional intensity in stories a lot, whether in individual characters or relationships. Which includes but does not necessarily mean fraught situations and feelings; there's also the kind of story that leaves you with a full heart and a sensation of peace. Hopefully that makes sense! I like happy, airy, floaty stories too--again, I don't feel there has to a difference between that and something emotionally intense, but there can be, and I enjoy that as well. I love character studies and quiet moments. I also like plot and worldbuilding, and harmonious blends of those with the quiet character stuff. Angst is wonderful, but for this exchange I'd like the story to end somewhere between happy and bittersweet. Sticking to the tone and feel of the canon material is great, but so is taking a different approach to dig in to something you want to explore in a way sticking to canon won't allow. I love both romance and gen. With regard to the first, though, I'm more into f/f and het than I am m/m. I've liked m/m, but I'm more inclined towards dynamics (of any kind, romantic or not) that include at least one female character.
As to tropes, I'm not particularly partial to many. However, I do really like canon divergence, role reversal what ifs, and enemies to friends/lovers (where enemies can also just mean rivals or some other thing that provides something similar to antagonistic tension. Especially with regard to m/f ships; my taste in ships is varied for f/f but veers towards the friendly, whereas my m/f ships usually need a degree of antagonism for me to really get into them.) Also, I love crossovers (I lived for them while in the Harry Potter and Buffy fandoms) and am intrigued by fusions (where the characters from one canon are born in the setting of the other canon/take similar roles as the second canon's characters.) I'm not very into modern AUs, especially setting-specific ones like coffeeshop or high school AUs, but I could enjoy one. I'm not a PWP person, but I do like smut, particularly emotional (happy, angsty, and/or some other kind of heightened feeling) smut. So I would enjoy a PWP full of characterization. And I like smut being included/not being included in the story just fine.
Things I would strongly prefer not to see: dubcon/noncon, a/b/o, more gore than depicted in canon, body horror, focus on bodily fluids, torture, bashing of characters or ships, major character death unless it happened in canon.
Internet identities: tigerpetals on LJ, tigerlily on DW, snowdropsandtigers on Tumblr.
Fandoms:
Romeo x Juliet
My most melodramatic canon! Portia is so interesting in that she removed herself from a marriage she could no longer be in as best as she could. How did that go? How does she live her life after her son is dead? And it'd be weird, but I like the idea that along with listening to Romeo's last wish with regard to the joyride, Tybalt might interact with Romeo's mother at some point after the finale. I have no idea how that would go for either, but I'm curious! I love Juliet's path from vigilante to resistance leader, and in particular how she incorporated the first into the latter (with more success than when she tried so hard to just be the Capulet avenger her stewards and Tybalt all thought she should be at first.) I was also left really intrigued by her dynamics with Tybalt and Hermione. There was a friction that melted into a kind of respect and understanding, I think, and I'd love to see that explored. Also, for Hermione, anything between her deciding to protect Juliet's location and her seeming to be at peace with everything that happened in the epilogue. Backstory for each character would also be good; they all have interestingly fraught situations.
The Royal Trap
I'm happy more characters than I was able to nominate got in! I enjoy all Madeleine's futures/dynamics with the other characters, and would enjoy further exploration of all those routes' happy ends. I love politics and relationship drama in a fantasy setting with all these female characters. (Suddenly I've hit upon what three of my fandoms have in common.)
I also like the progression of Callum and Cassidy's relationship in-game, so I would enjoy fic about this in any of the paths, whether it be Callum's happy ending where they both know everything, or the unhappy/neutral endings to his path where the whole family is left in disarray or worse, or the bad ending to Gaston's path, since there they go away together while Cassidy sorts out her feelings about her identity. In that last one, Madeleine notes that Callum's satisfied that he's been right, whereas Cassidy is devastated. How would that play out? And what might happen with it all when Madeleine-as-Cassidy is murdered? Or, what do all the relevant players feel about the Cassidy/Nazagi/Madeleine triad? Including Callum, if he continues to live with them. We don't get much of an idea of what Cassidy thinks. How does she come to accept and live with this arrangement? It's her choice, but she's also in a precarious position without many good options. What about Dolores and Madeleine--does the chaos of that ending ever reach them in their farm? How well does it really go for Madeleine, who is pragmatic and adaptable but never before imagined that kind of life, to leave everything behind and just not concern herself with the chaos disrupting the kingdom even if their little patch of land is untouched? How well does Dolores do, having finally got what she wanted but having to deal with suddenly inviting a very different-seeming person along with her? What about Colette's past heartbreak and her relationship to Gaston? How does her sweet happy ending with Madeleine go? How is advising Gaston and Cassidy different from Madeleine managing Oscar? Or give me a look at Madeleine's life being challenged and happy running an intelligence network with Callum.
1931: Scheherazade at the Library of Pergamum
I'm very new to this fandom, but I love the humor and the adventure. Haven't finished a route yet, but I don't care about spoilers so don't let that concern you! Anyway there are so many ending variants (if I've heard correctly), and I'll probably finish at least a couple before Yuletide Day. I'm happy with backstory for Sadie and Evelyn and Sadie and Anna, or with further explorations of their in-game adventures and in the future. They're so very cute and endearing. I also liked the pointed but not unfriendly sparring between Sadie and Ahmose about the ethics of museums with regards cultural heritage. Again, I'd like expansions of in-game interactions or something set in the future, whether their relationship is platonic or romantic. Or stuff from Sadie's past, how she grew up such a driven, cheerful and intrepid person. I love that she's witty and knowledgeable in her interests, charming, funny, and just such a delightful adventure heroine!
Guenevere (Interactive Fiction)
Another fandom I'm new in! I've only finished Book I. As with the Scheherazade game, I don't care about spoilers and I'll probably finish one or two storyline variants by the time the archive opens anyway. I love the adventure/character drama of this. My Guenevere studies light magic and leadership, expressed interest in learning dark magic from Morgana, and is drawn to all three of the other main characters, but the one you write doesn't need to be that way. Though if you want to go the romance/loyalty to Arthur route, I'd like it to be complicated by the arranged marriage aspect and Guenevere's sense of duty instead of it being straightforwardly sweet. Also, while I said I didn't want dubcon/noncon above, if I remember and heard correctly there is a magical element influencing the Guenevere/Lancelot connection. I'm not far enough yet to know more than that they've both noticed something odd about the spark between them, but I'd like the influence of that to be explored as part of the relationship. How does Guenevere relate to Morgana if she starts out a dark magic user herself, or as a light magic user, or as someone uninterested in using magic at all? If she's uninterested in using magic herself, how does she feel about others doing it on her behalf (or Arthur's, or on behalf of the kingdom in general)? This could also be a fic of multiple scenarios: something like "four times Guenevere was magical and one she wasn't." Or backstory for Guenevere with her family, Arthur and Lancelot, Morgana and Lancelot/Arthur, or the last three with Merlin.
The Chronicles of Morgaine
I'd love to see the continuing adventures of Morgaine and Vanye. I love the dynamic of Morgaine's driven leader and Vanye as determined follower even if he doesn't quite understand her. It would be nice to see more Morgaine backstory, whether something wholly set there or as a flashback, or as development of her and Vanye's relationship. For clarity's sake, I'm all right with either a platonic or romantic view of it. And I'm haunted by Jhirun, years after I read The Wells of Shiuan. I loved the descriptions of her at the beginning, the way she scavenged and dreamed of older days and people. It's so interesting that she wanted to escape her life so badly, wanting to follow Morgaine and Vanye, only to witness the chaos in their wake and be too afraid to take the final leap. Watching people she despised escape while she could not. How would she feel about staying behind in a drowning, dying world? What does she think about herself? What difference does it make that at least some of the people she'd wanted to escape were gone, and that she now has a position of power where she feels needed? What about an AU where she did go? Would that have given her something she could live with? What would her dynamics with Morgaine and Vanye look like, and how would they affect the Morgaine and Vanye dynamic, if at all?
Thank you, Yuletide writer! I hope you enjoy writing for me.
Thank you for writing for me! I hope this letter is helpful and interesting to read. I'm sorry it took a while to unlock it!
The general stuff:
I like emotional intensity in stories a lot, whether in individual characters or relationships. Which includes but does not necessarily mean fraught situations and feelings; there's also the kind of story that leaves you with a full heart and a sensation of peace. Hopefully that makes sense! I like happy, airy, floaty stories too--again, I don't feel there has to a difference between that and something emotionally intense, but there can be, and I enjoy that as well. I love character studies and quiet moments. I also like plot and worldbuilding, and harmonious blends of those with the quiet character stuff. Angst is wonderful, but for this exchange I'd like the story to end somewhere between happy and bittersweet. Sticking to the tone and feel of the canon material is great, but so is taking a different approach to dig in to something you want to explore in a way sticking to canon won't allow. I love both romance and gen. With regard to the first, though, I'm more into f/f and het than I am m/m. I've liked m/m, but I'm more inclined towards dynamics (of any kind, romantic or not) that include at least one female character.
As to tropes, I'm not particularly partial to many. However, I do really like canon divergence, role reversal what ifs, and enemies to friends/lovers (where enemies can also just mean rivals or some other thing that provides something similar to antagonistic tension. Especially with regard to m/f ships; my taste in ships is varied for f/f but veers towards the friendly, whereas my m/f ships usually need a degree of antagonism for me to really get into them.) Also, I love crossovers (I lived for them while in the Harry Potter and Buffy fandoms) and am intrigued by fusions (where the characters from one canon are born in the setting of the other canon/take similar roles as the second canon's characters.) I'm not very into modern AUs, especially setting-specific ones like coffeeshop or high school AUs, but I could enjoy one. I'm not a PWP person, but I do like smut, particularly emotional (happy, angsty, and/or some other kind of heightened feeling) smut. So I would enjoy a PWP full of characterization. And I like smut being included/not being included in the story just fine.
Things I would strongly prefer not to see: dubcon/noncon, a/b/o, more gore than depicted in canon, body horror, focus on bodily fluids, torture, bashing of characters or ships, major character death unless it happened in canon.
Internet identities: tigerpetals on LJ, tigerlily on DW, snowdropsandtigers on Tumblr.
Fandoms:
Romeo x Juliet
My most melodramatic canon! Portia is so interesting in that she removed herself from a marriage she could no longer be in as best as she could. How did that go? How does she live her life after her son is dead? And it'd be weird, but I like the idea that along with listening to Romeo's last wish with regard to the joyride, Tybalt might interact with Romeo's mother at some point after the finale. I have no idea how that would go for either, but I'm curious! I love Juliet's path from vigilante to resistance leader, and in particular how she incorporated the first into the latter (with more success than when she tried so hard to just be the Capulet avenger her stewards and Tybalt all thought she should be at first.) I was also left really intrigued by her dynamics with Tybalt and Hermione. There was a friction that melted into a kind of respect and understanding, I think, and I'd love to see that explored. Also, for Hermione, anything between her deciding to protect Juliet's location and her seeming to be at peace with everything that happened in the epilogue. Backstory for each character would also be good; they all have interestingly fraught situations.
The Royal Trap
I'm happy more characters than I was able to nominate got in! I enjoy all Madeleine's futures/dynamics with the other characters, and would enjoy further exploration of all those routes' happy ends. I love politics and relationship drama in a fantasy setting with all these female characters. (Suddenly I've hit upon what three of my fandoms have in common.)
I also like the progression of Callum and Cassidy's relationship in-game, so I would enjoy fic about this in any of the paths, whether it be Callum's happy ending where they both know everything, or the unhappy/neutral endings to his path where the whole family is left in disarray or worse, or the bad ending to Gaston's path, since there they go away together while Cassidy sorts out her feelings about her identity. In that last one, Madeleine notes that Callum's satisfied that he's been right, whereas Cassidy is devastated. How would that play out? And what might happen with it all when Madeleine-as-Cassidy is murdered? Or, what do all the relevant players feel about the Cassidy/Nazagi/Madeleine triad? Including Callum, if he continues to live with them. We don't get much of an idea of what Cassidy thinks. How does she come to accept and live with this arrangement? It's her choice, but she's also in a precarious position without many good options. What about Dolores and Madeleine--does the chaos of that ending ever reach them in their farm? How well does it really go for Madeleine, who is pragmatic and adaptable but never before imagined that kind of life, to leave everything behind and just not concern herself with the chaos disrupting the kingdom even if their little patch of land is untouched? How well does Dolores do, having finally got what she wanted but having to deal with suddenly inviting a very different-seeming person along with her? What about Colette's past heartbreak and her relationship to Gaston? How does her sweet happy ending with Madeleine go? How is advising Gaston and Cassidy different from Madeleine managing Oscar? Or give me a look at Madeleine's life being challenged and happy running an intelligence network with Callum.
1931: Scheherazade at the Library of Pergamum
I'm very new to this fandom, but I love the humor and the adventure. Haven't finished a route yet, but I don't care about spoilers so don't let that concern you! Anyway there are so many ending variants (if I've heard correctly), and I'll probably finish at least a couple before Yuletide Day. I'm happy with backstory for Sadie and Evelyn and Sadie and Anna, or with further explorations of their in-game adventures and in the future. They're so very cute and endearing. I also liked the pointed but not unfriendly sparring between Sadie and Ahmose about the ethics of museums with regards cultural heritage. Again, I'd like expansions of in-game interactions or something set in the future, whether their relationship is platonic or romantic. Or stuff from Sadie's past, how she grew up such a driven, cheerful and intrepid person. I love that she's witty and knowledgeable in her interests, charming, funny, and just such a delightful adventure heroine!
Guenevere (Interactive Fiction)
Another fandom I'm new in! I've only finished Book I. As with the Scheherazade game, I don't care about spoilers and I'll probably finish one or two storyline variants by the time the archive opens anyway. I love the adventure/character drama of this. My Guenevere studies light magic and leadership, expressed interest in learning dark magic from Morgana, and is drawn to all three of the other main characters, but the one you write doesn't need to be that way. Though if you want to go the romance/loyalty to Arthur route, I'd like it to be complicated by the arranged marriage aspect and Guenevere's sense of duty instead of it being straightforwardly sweet. Also, while I said I didn't want dubcon/noncon above, if I remember and heard correctly there is a magical element influencing the Guenevere/Lancelot connection. I'm not far enough yet to know more than that they've both noticed something odd about the spark between them, but I'd like the influence of that to be explored as part of the relationship. How does Guenevere relate to Morgana if she starts out a dark magic user herself, or as a light magic user, or as someone uninterested in using magic at all? If she's uninterested in using magic herself, how does she feel about others doing it on her behalf (or Arthur's, or on behalf of the kingdom in general)? This could also be a fic of multiple scenarios: something like "four times Guenevere was magical and one she wasn't." Or backstory for Guenevere with her family, Arthur and Lancelot, Morgana and Lancelot/Arthur, or the last three with Merlin.
The Chronicles of Morgaine
I'd love to see the continuing adventures of Morgaine and Vanye. I love the dynamic of Morgaine's driven leader and Vanye as determined follower even if he doesn't quite understand her. It would be nice to see more Morgaine backstory, whether something wholly set there or as a flashback, or as development of her and Vanye's relationship. For clarity's sake, I'm all right with either a platonic or romantic view of it. And I'm haunted by Jhirun, years after I read The Wells of Shiuan. I loved the descriptions of her at the beginning, the way she scavenged and dreamed of older days and people. It's so interesting that she wanted to escape her life so badly, wanting to follow Morgaine and Vanye, only to witness the chaos in their wake and be too afraid to take the final leap. Watching people she despised escape while she could not. How would she feel about staying behind in a drowning, dying world? What does she think about herself? What difference does it make that at least some of the people she'd wanted to escape were gone, and that she now has a position of power where she feels needed? What about an AU where she did go? Would that have given her something she could live with? What would her dynamics with Morgaine and Vanye look like, and how would they affect the Morgaine and Vanye dynamic, if at all?
Thank you, Yuletide writer! I hope you enjoy writing for me.