fiberglasshorsereplica

Dear Yuletide Writer,

Thank you for writing me a story for Yuletide! My ao3 is

orthostatics.

Note: I'm open to treats :)

My general likes and DNWs are below.

General Likes:

pining
period-typical internalized homophobia, where relevant
romance
polyamory
casefic
people having gay experiences
bodyswaps
strong, distinctive character and/or narrator voices
epistolary works or interludes
canon divergence AUs
creative choices of prose, perspective, or format
stories that surprise me
worldbuilding, especially historically or logistically grounded worldbuilding

General DNWs

modern AUs
mundane AUs
coffee shop AUs
the cthulu mythos (including related concepts, e.g. things being “eldritch” or involving “Elder Gods”)
bathroom humor/gross-out humor
description of vomiting or other excretion/bodily waste
explicit depiction of characters under 16 having sex

Opt-ins (things that are often DNW'd or avoided unless specifically requested in exchanges, but that I'm definitely fine with):

Non-canon or unrequested ships (including crackships treated at least kind of seriously)
Infidelity
Interactive fiction

Note: my opt-ins are not exhaustive, so please don't assume I don't want something just because it's not listed! I'm always happy to have people reach out via the mods to ask about things if you're not sure, I just wanted to list a few common DNWs that are definitely fine.

Fandom-specific prompts:

Old Kingdom — Garth Nix
Characters: Sabriel, Lirael, Worldbuilding
One or more of chosen tags, giver's choice

Fandom-specific DNW: Fic using characters/events/locations that only appear in Clariel or Goldenhand.

I'd be happy for any other characters from the Abhorsen Trilogy to be included besides the ones I've requested, and it's fine to do fic that just features Sabriel or Lirael (or worldbuilding!) rather than both.

The concept of two neighboring universes, one of which is ~1912 England and one of which is ~1600s Scotland with magic, is thrilling to me, but frankly I don't think Nix takes it far enough. Ancelstierre and the Old Kingdom should be really different culturally and linguistically! If you like, I'd love to see Sabriel dealing with more of the strangeness there post-Sabriel/pre-Lirael, or just more of what it looks like for regular people to try to engage in trade/move around between the two countries. I'm also really interested in what kind of local governance/organization arose during the interregnum period in the Old Kingdom and how Touchstone & Sabriel have to deal with that while trying to reassert central government.

In general the setting is really interesting but also has a lot of weird gaps and implications, and I'd love to see someone dig into that, especially with some reference to how different societies really do become across the kind of technological and physical gap that the two countries are supposed to have.

Sabriel and Lirael are both really exciting to me as characters, and I'd be very happy with a fic about one or both of them living their lives in the Old Kingdom, solving necromantic problems, researching magic, etc. Canon divergence where they meet earlier, or with Lirael striking out on her own differently from how she does in canon, would be great! Lirael-in-the-library (or Sabriel-meets-Lirael-in-the-library) is always good.

I'd also love Lirael F/F fic, any pairing you like; Lirael's angst about her identity and separation from her society of origin lend themselves really well to gay angst/coming of age as well. As one example, I'd be really interested in a Lirael pairing with another Clayr, especially digging into the fact that Lirael has what I can only describe as "Clayr dysphoria", since being a Clayr is so ontological and given such weirdly biological significance that it is essentially a gender assignment.

Song of the Lioness — Tamora Pierce
Characters: Any

Fandom-specific DNW: On-screen 'endgame' Alanna/George (offhand mentions, reference to their canonical interactions prior to the very end of book 4, or just not overtly stating whether they're together are all fine, just not a fic specifically about the ship or with a lot of discussion of their marriage.)

I love the intense, claustrophobic atmosphere in the palace during the events of the second and fourth books-- I'd love anything highlighting the political maneuvering and thwarted or counter-thwarted scheming between Alanna & Jonathan's 'side' and Alex and Delia's, and/or the tug-of-war for Thom's loyalty and well-being. Including worldbuilding about politics and intrigue in Tortall is very welcome here too. Alex and Delia are both really intriguing to me in terms of what their perspectives/rationales/motivations really are.

I also really enjoy canon divergence for this series: Alanna sleuths out Roger/Delia/Alex's plans earlier (or, tragically, later, as part of a roaring rampage of revenge!); Alex or Delia decide, for calculating or emotional reasons, to defect to Alanna and/or Jon during book 2; Alanna marries Jon and has a miserable time being queen; Thom decides to try to secretly defeat Roger/the conspirators instead of resurrecting him and causes entirely *different* horrible problems; etc.

Alanna/Alex, Alanna/Delia, Alanna/Jon, Jon/Thom, or Alanna/Jon/Thom are all favorite ships, but really any combination of these people, whether romantic or not, has the potential to be interesting, very intense, and slightly horrible (including Alanna/Thom). Alanna/Alex or Alanna/Jon (or any Alanna ship really) also have a lot of really fun interesting potential for gender confusion/being ambiguously gay/Alanna being 'Alan' in bed, all of which I love.

(My FFFX 2024 letter has even more prompts about Alanna/Alex and Alanna/Delia, if either of those ships interest you!)

If none of these prompts grab you, I'd be happy with basically anything canon-era about any set of these characters. I know I talk about Alanna a lot in my prompts, because I have the most ideas about her and she's the main character, but I really will be happy with stories that don't include Alanna at all if that's what you're interested in writing.

Derkholm Series — Diana Wynne Jones
Characters: Any
Fandom-specific DNW: Flury/Elda; mentioning or repeating the sentiment of that “both our ladies have some growing and adjusting to do" comment about Claudia/Blade from the end of Year of the Griffin.

Prompts:
I really love the University setting we see in Year of the Griffin, so basically any postcanon sequel/view of how things at the university are going would be great. Do Policant and Querida manage to recruit some of Derk's children, or Elda's friends, to help run things? What other horrible inconvenient problems turn out to have cropped up or been hidden over the course of the university's recent mismanagement? What weird magical accidents come up when you try to totally overhaul a curriculum so that it involves actual theory and novel work for the first time in decades?

I really like Claudia/Blade and would be happy to see them getting to know each other more, solving magical problems together, writing letters while Claudia's doing coursework or doing magic in the Marshes and Blade is off doing freelance wizard activities, etc.I also really enjoy Elda and Callette's interactions in YotG, and would be happy with more fic about the two of them spending time together. Maybe an adventure together where Callette realizes that Elda really is an adult and a capable wizard now!

If you haven't read YotG/are only interested in Dark Lord of Derkholm, that's also totally fine! Seeing any of the nominated characters in a 'missing scene'/precanon setting dealing with the problems of the tours, or just after DLoD dealing with the immediate aftermath of getting rid of Mr. Chesney, sounds really fun and really interesting. Feel free to bring in any other characters or setting pieces from either book.

Magids Series — Diana Wynne Jones
Characters: Any

Prompts:

I love how spiky and difficult the characters in this series are, each in their own ways, and the ways they figure out how to communicate that and interact with each other. I'd love seeing any combination of Nick, Maree, Rupert, and Roddy out on Magid business or trying to solve magic problems together. If you want to come up with your own idea for an interesting world for them to go to, build out one of the worlds we see briefly in the books (more centaurs! one of the worlds Roddy and Nick run through with the goat! etc), or do a crossover where the characters visit another DWJ universe on Magid business, I'd love to see it.

I slightly prefer Nick and Roddy to not get together romantically, but I'll be happy with whatever you want to write. Rupert/Maree is great.

For the Hurt Lady, I'd love to either get more of her life or a work about Roddy continuing to deal with having the Hurt Lady's life and experience in her head-- or the Hurt Lady's ghost still being around/able to communicate! She's such an intriguing, evocative small part of the Merlin Conspiracy & I'd love to see you build on that however you like.

Fandoms: Tortall, Peter Wimsey, Name of the Rose, Old Kingdom

General Likes:

pining
period-typical internalized homophobia, where relevant
romance
polyamory
casefic
people having gay experiences
bodyswaps
strong, distinctive character and/or narrator voices
epistolary works or interludes
canon divergence AUs
creative choices of prose, perspective, or format
stories that surprise me

General DNWs

modern AUs
mundane AUs
coffee shop AUs
the cthulu mythos (including related concepts, e.g. things being “eldritch” or involving “Elder Gods”)
bathroom humor/gross-out humor
detailed description of vomiting or other excretion/bodily waste
explicit depiction of characters under 16 having sex

Fandoms:

Tortall:
Alanna/Delia, Alanna/Alex, Kel/Dom, Kel
10k fic
Alanna/Delia, Alanna/Alex:
I’d love to read either of these ships, either set during the book 2 era where Alex and/or Delia seem to be normal people getting slowly pulled in to Roger’s orbit, or the book 3/4 era where they are doggedly enacting an insane scheme to kill everyone and also themselves by exploding a city. Alex and Delia are both really interesting to me in how they occupy simultaneous positions of strength or social power relative to Alanna that still leave them vulnerable to Roger’s influence, either coercively or just because they’re seduced by promises of power. We don’t get a lot of insight into Alex or Delia’s perspectives on why they’re doing what they’re doing, either. How much are they conniving villains out for themselves vs. people trying to rationally protect themselves in a medieval society vs. active victims of Roger? Ideally all three to some extent.

Casefic about Alanna learning earlier than in canon what Roger’s scheme is (for either scheme) would be great.
I’m also interested in either of these ships as Alanna, at any point in canon, trying to get close to Alex or Delia to learn more about Roger’s schemes, and ending up getting rather closer than she bargained for! She wouldn’t be particularly good at subtlety or fishing for information, but maybe she doesn’t have to be.

Alanna/Delia is especially delicious during the parts of book 2 where she’s torturing Jon by dancing attendance on Alanna, and I think there’s lots of room for her to either keep escalating into actually seducing Alanna, or to develop a genuine interest in Alanna, whose behavior is so much less fatuous than everyone else’s.

For Alanna/Alex one thing I’m really interested in is a sexual/romantic relationship that arises out of their rivalry as swordsmen, including if those feelings of rivalry are simultaneously part of what interests Alex in ‘Alan’ and what makes it easy for Roger to influence Alex to attack her. Very happy to have you lean into the total homoeroticism and gender confusion of this, and for Alex to still relate to Alanna as a fellow squire foremost, rather than having his feelings of competitiveness shift from learning her identity, if he does.

For either ship, feel free to have things end up happy/with Delia or Alex no longer helping Roger, or as overt manipulation by one or both parties/with a failure to avert later canon events. Totally fine with an unhappy ending. Side ships (Alanna/Jon, Alex/Roger, Delia/Roger, etc) are totally fine, and I’m very down with infidelity as a part of the drama these ships would likely involve.

Kel, Dom/Kel:
I would really love some canon divergence or postcanon POTS fic. Kel has the most interestingly open-ended personal life and my favorite potential relationship to politics and nobility of the Tortall protagonists, and I would love fic that features her navigating those points. Some possible angles: how does her high-profile status as a war hero with her transgressive social gender role? Does Kel get called back to the capital to act as an actual general? Does it bring her into more conflict with Jonathan now that she has a public reputation of her own to leverage in political maneuvering?

Are there particular causes or policies for the well-being of common people that she takes up as ‘Protector of the Small’? How do these make her especially unpopular in a feudal society, and how does she handle that/who tries to assassinate her about it?

I’m not at all inclined to hold to the word-of-god retcon that Kel is ace/aro, and I do find it kind of frustrating that the protagonist who’s the least feminine-looking/conventionally attractive/romantically successful is the one who got assigned the aro-ace identity. I would really enjoy reading about Kel continuing to have a romantic life, including navigating the ways in which that’s complicated by her social role, gender presentation, etc.

I like Dom/Kel because there’s a lot of scope for pining, complexity introduced by the fact that she (I think?) outranks him in canon, feelings about gender and attractiveness, and what it would even mean in this society to have a marriage between two military officers. Other Kel pairing(s) are also totally welcome.

Fandom-specific DNWs:
Extensive, uncomplicated focus on Yaman (I find the canon treatment of Yaman/Yamani culture in particular kind of frustratingly orientalist & narrow; including the individual Yamani characters featured in the books is fine)
Narrative focus on/extensive discussion of Kel having an asexual or aromantic identity (Choosing not to depict Kel as having romantic or sexual interests or relationships postcanon is completely fine, including mentioning explicitly that she has no such interests! I just don’t want a fic *about* that fact or ahistorically making it an ‘identity’ in the way we would talk about it now.)
AUs in which Kel stops pursuing knighthood to marry Cleon

Name of the Rose:
William of Baskerville; Adso of Melk; William of Baskerville & Adso of Melk

Have *you* ever wanted to write tens of thousands of words of fic about intra-church politics in medieval Italy? If so I would love to see it. I hate to even contemplate constraining you with prompts.

Truly there are so many options. William of Baskerville's pre-canon life trying to moderate the ascetic inclinations of the most fervently anti-fun Franciscans at monasteries across Europe! Adso of Melk's *second* adventure with William of Baskerville, in which he is continually convinced that there are highly allegorical miseries hidden behind every action in what is in fact a totally normal monastery! Adso meets William of Ockham in exile and is dazzled again by the concept of parsimony!

If you have a favorite Thing about the medieval church that you just really want to work in: *please do*. Nothing would please me more for this fandom than to receive the fruits of your obsession with the practices of the Cathars.

Lord Peter Wimsey
Harriet/Peter; Harriet; Peter; Dowager Duchess
10k or 2 5k fics

This is my all-time favorite mystery series, and part of what I love is how human and well-drawn the main characters are. Feel free to set fic at any time in canon.

I'd absolutely love mystery-solving casefic for this canon with any combination of characters sleuthing things out-- the Dowager Duchess solving a case essentially on her own, for example, would be hilarious and delightful. Harriet pre- or post-canon would also be totally equal to mystery-solving! I love a mystery that is also a character study of the sleuth, too, if you want to do that.

I also love Harriet and Peter's relationship-- the difficulty and pride they both negotiate to finally come together & the care they show each other once (& before) they do. A largely romance-focused fic with the two of them would be wonderful. I'm also definitely open to Harriet/Peter/Bunter if you'd like.

Also very welcomed is close attention to the setting & ways in which the characters have very particular habits/speech patterns/modes of dress that (while contemporary when written) are now *very* 20s/30s British. No pressure to do any particular research, but including historical details about what their lives would involve & contemporary historical events (including WWII if you like) is very welcome.

I particularly like Peter's constant classics/poetry quotations & manuscript collection habit, if you happen to have a favorite piece of historical writing you'd like to work in or make a plot point. Ditto including more of the Oxford setting/characters from Gaudy Night.

Old Kingdom - Garth Nix:
Sabriel; Lirael; Lirael/OFC
10k or 2 5k fics

The concept of two neighboring universes, one of which is ~1912 England and one of which is ~1600s Scotland with magic, is thrilling to me, but frankly I don't think Nix takes it far enough. Ancelstierre and the Old Kingdom should be really different culturally and linguistically! If you like, I'd love to see Sabriel dealing with more of the strangeness there post-Sabriel/pre-Lirael, or just more of what it looks like for regular people to try to engage in trade/move around between the two countries.

I'm also really interested in what kind of local governance/organization arose during the interregnum period in the Old Kingdom and how Touchstone & Sabriel have to deal with that while trying to reassert central government.

In general the setting is really interesting but also has a lot of weird gaps and implications, and I'd love to see someone dig into that, especially with some reference to how different societies really do become across the kind of technological and physical gap that the two countries are supposed to have.

Sabriel and Lirael are both really exciting to me as characters, and I'd be very happy with a fic about one or both of them living their lives in the Old Kingdom, solving necromantic problems, researching magic, etc. Canon divergence where they meet earlier, or with Lirael striking out on her own differently from how she does in canon, would be great! Lirael-in-the-library (or Sabriel-meets-Lirael-in-the-library) is always good.

I'd also love Lirael/OFC fic; Lirael's angst about her identity and separation from her society of origin lend themselves really well to gay angst/coming of age as well. As one example, I'd be really interested in a Lirael pairing another Clayr, especially digging into the fact that Lirael has what I can only describe as "Clayr dysphoria", since being a Clayr is so ontological and given such weirdly biological significance that it is essentially a gender assignment.

Fandom-specific DNWs:
I'd prefer Sabriel-focused fic to either be set prior to her having kids, or not focus extensively on her role as a mother rather than as Abhorsen/her political role as Queen Consort/etc.

DNW fic drawing heavily from Clariel or Goldenhand's worldbuilding/settings/characterizations, which were written long enough after the first trilogy that they really seem like separate works to me.

Treats settings: open to gifts.

DNWs:

modern AUs/mundane AUs (including coffee shop & high school AUs)
breakup fic
characters coming out as trans or transitioning on-screen (as distinct from characters already being trans in a way that is not an extended topic of discussion, which is fine)
explicit depiction of characters under 16 having sex
bathroom humor/gross-out humor
description of vomiting or other excretion/bodily waste
soulmate AUs
the cthulu mythos
MMF triad fic in which the story refers to the men in the triad as “[female character]’s boys”, or there is a dynamic in which the female character is overtly the “mom friend” equivalent in the relationship. (MMF triads, like other poly groupings, are otherwise fine and indeed encouraged.)

Likes:

pining
period-typical internalized homophobia, where relevant
romance
polyamory
casefic
people having gay experiences
bodyswaps
strong, distinctive character and/or narrator voices
epistolary works or interludes
canon divergence AUs
eventual reasonably happy endings (but don’t force it if it doesn’t work with your vision)
creative choices of prose, perspective, or format
stories that surprise me

I’m open to gen or shipfic in any of my fandoms at any rating, and don’t mind fic breaking up canon relationships.

Fandom: Kate & Cecelia – Patricia C. Wrede & Caroline Stevermer
Characters: Kate, Cecelia

My favorite thing about this series is Kate and Cecy’s characters and relationship, and how their energy/insistence on Doing Something interacts with everyone else around them. They’re so great: kindred spirits who love investigating and Making Inferences and Getting Involved With Situations and Solving Problems! and hate ever staying out of something for any reason or refraining from things due to social nicety! Icons truly.

I’m a big fan of Regency romance settings in general, & love that these books use the era/setting to give particularity to the characters’ experiences & social problems without dwelling indefinitely on the Grim Restricted Fate of Women. I also love the epistolary format of the books, but you shouldn’t feel restricted to writing something epistolary yourself.

I’m totally happy to see fic involving Thomas and James as well, but I admit my interest in their characters is more about their relationships to Kate & Cecy than in their own right. I’m equally interested in gen or ship fic for whatever ship combination (including canon ships, Kate/Cecy, or Kate/Thomas/Cecy/James).

I’m generally more interested in stories relating to the eras/character relationships from the first two books (Sorcery & Cecelia and The Grand Tour) rather than the third book, which leaned a little hard on adorably precocious little children and backgrounded Kate & Cecy too much for my taste.

Some possible prompts:

Countryside adventures in Kate & Cecy’s youth. What problems (especially magic-related) did they solve and/or cause to make them so notorious in the neighborhood prior to the first book?
Kate and Cecy (and their husbands?) return to France for a totally routine reason and immediately get embroiled in yet another Lady Sylvia-related mystery, to the combined fascination and exasperation of various parties
Kate & Cecy’s ongoing magic training after Grand Tour (Cecy coming into her own as a truly independent magician? Kate totally hating magic lessons/doing magic ever? Both at once to create hilarious contrasts?)

While I don’t want modern AUs or total displacement from the original Regency setting, I’m totally open to crossovers that are even vaguely possible for the setting, or to other kinds of AUs/fusions. I don’t mind getting crossovers with canons I’m not familiar with; as long as they’re googlable and more or less interpretable within the fic without much background, if you’re excited about a crossover, go for it. Some possibilities/illustrative examples:

Kate and Cecy accidentally summon Jonathan Strange from the infinite darkness and are really judgmental about his choices
Kate and Cecy get involved in a Georgette Heyer or Jane Austen plot and add magic, and problems, to it

Fandom: Young Wizards - Diane Duane
Characters: Nita Callahan, Kit Rodriguez, Carmela Rodriguez

I’ll be happy with fic featuring any subset of my requested characters as well as the whole group. Feel free to also bring in other characters from books 1-8 (SYWTBAW to WaW); after that I dropped off a little on how interesting I find new additions to the cast. I’m most interested in either canon-era or semi-near-future (e.g. timeskip close enough that the characters are old enough to go to college) settings for fic, but that’s not a hard preference.

I unfortunately find Carmela/Ronan kind of boring and would prefer it not be a main focus (but do ship Carmela/Filif or Carmela/Sker’ret, if you really wanted to indulge my Carmela shipping opinions).

Things I like about this series/am interested in in fic:

alien society/galactic economy worldbuilding; complications of dealing with greater galactic society as a member of a sevarfrith/astahfrith galactic backwater species
non-wizards working alongside wizards (e.g. Carmela being able to act as an equal to wizards in solving problems)
the diversity of possible smaller-scale problems wizards are supposed to solve, especially weird/unexpected ones (casefic, basically)
Kit and Nita as a wizardly team/best friends
Kit’s dealing with Carmela third-wheeling them while they’re on wizard business
what wizard stuff must be like from Carmela’s point of view (weird, presumably! her brother was chosen by Wizard God to be able to talk to DVD players!)
Kit and Nita’s, at this point, very strange relationship to the Lone Power. (Do other wizards think that’s weird?)

Things that frustrate me about the books that I would love for fic to poke at/investigate/complicate:

the fact that the Catholic god & saints are real and uncomplicatedly good in this setting
the constant background expectation that these teenagers will sacrifice their lives for literally any problem
the fact that Kit/Nita is kind of treated like a narratively fated inevitability within the books, rather than clearly portrayed as something the characters are definitely excited about. (If you uncomplicatedly ship Kit/Nita and want to portray it as positive, that’s fine! It’s a cute ship that I’ve written myself, I just find it odd that they never manage to express genuine enthusiasm about getting together in the actual text of the books.) (Alternately, feel free to solve this problem with Kit/Nita/Ronan if you’re thus inspired.)
the fact that no one ever actually does any science (e.g. solves a problem with research or close observation of natural phenomena) despite this series ostensibly being about Science Magic

Hilary Tamar Mysteries - Sarah Caudwell
Characters: Any

Some of my favorite things about these books:

Hilary’s incredibly fun, funny narrative voice (obviously)
The simultaneous constant sniping & genuine affection and friendship among Hilary & the barristers
Epistolary interludes
The intense, juuust-barely-not-canonized gay undercurrents in every book from like all the main characters
These books may technically be about solving murders, but the true enemy of humanity…. is taxes

I love casefic if you want to write that, but I’d also be totally thrilled with Hilary et al. just living life, having misadventures, dealing with recalcitrant clients or the Bursar or someone’s deeply offensive misunderstandings of medieval tax law.

(Also, while I am a big fan of Hilary’s gender- and pronoun-free canonical state, I understand that it’s a bit difficult to write, especially if you choose a different or third-person narrator. My ideal would be to default to “they” pronouns for Hilary if necessary and still refrain from any commentary on Hilary’s gender, but it’s not a strong DNW if you do otherwise, and I defer to your vision on the question if it comes up.)

More possible prompts:

Hilary and Selena observing the final, inevitable, presumably mishap-ridden coalescence of the Julia/Cantrip/Ragwort triad relationship
Hilary discovers an Oxford colleague’s obviously fraudulent paper proof, which, incidentally, disagrees with the main thesis of Hilary’s book Causa in the Early Common Law, and determines to investigate this scurrilous case of academic dishonesty to the utmost extent

You can check out my ao3 profile (orthostatics) and bookmarks for even more context on my likes/fandoms/etc if that's useful!
Thank you so much for writing a fic for me! Happy Yuletide!

Dear Yuletide Writer,

I’m very excited you matched with me! This is my first year participating in YT after many years as a spectator, and I’m really looking forward to it. I hope the prompts below are helpful, but please do take all of them with a grain of salt if they don’t work for you! Optional details are optional!
Each of my requested fandoms this year is a book series, but you could pick up enough canon for my prompts from a single book for each (Conrad's Fate for Chrestomanci, Sorcery and Cecelia for the Kate and Cecelia series, or Thus Was Adonis Murdered for the Hilary Tamar series).

ao3 username: orthostatics

Treats settings: open to gifts.

DNWs:

modern AUs/mundane AUs (including coffee shop & high school AUs)
breakup fic
characters coming out as trans or transitioning on-screen (as distinct from characters already being trans in a way that is not a focal point of the story or a discussion topic, which is fine)
depiction of characters under 16 having sex
bathroom humor/gross-out humor
soulmate AUs
the cthulu mythos
MMF triad fic in which the story refers to the men in the triad as “[female character’s] boys”, or there is a dynamic in which the female character is overtly the “mom friend” equivalent in the relationship. (MMF triads, like other poly groupings, are otherwise fine and encouraged and indeed are one of my “likes” aside from this.)

Likes:
pining
romance
polyamory
casefic
plot
magic
people having gay experiences
bodyswaps
strong character and/or narrator voices
epistolary works or interludes
canon divergence AUs
reasonably happy endings (but don’t force it if it doesn’t work with your vision)
creative choices of prose, perspective, or format
stories that surprise me

I'm fine with any rating of fic and either gen or romantic/shipfic for any of my requests, keeping in mind my DNWs above.

Prompts:

Kate & Cecelia – Patricia C. Wrede & Caroline Stevermer
Characters: Any

My favorite thing about this series is Kate and Cecy’s characters and relationship and how their energy/insistence on Doing Something interacts with everyone else around them. They’re so great: kindred spirits who love investigating and Making Inferences and Getting Involved With Situations and Solving Problems! and hate ever staying out of something for any reason or refraining from things due to social nicety! Icons truly.

If you’d rather write about Aunt Elizabeth or Lady Sylvia (or both!) without Kate & Cecy present, that’s totally fine with me— they’re both fun, exciting characters with very interestingly different relationships to both magic and Regency society and I’d love to read more about either of them.

I’m a big fan of Regency romance settings in general, & love that these books use the era/setting to give particularity to the characters’ experiences & social problems without dwelling indefinitely on the Grim Restricted Fate of Women. I also love the epistolary format of the books, but you shouldn’t feel restricted to writing something epistolary yourself.

While they weren’t nominated, I am totally happy to see fic with Thomas and James as well, but I admit my interest in their characters is more about their relationships to Kate & Cecy than in their own right. I’m equally interested in gen or ship fic for whatever ship combination (including Kate/Thomas/Cecy/James).

I’m generally more interested in stories relating to the eras/character relationships from the first two books (Sorcery & Cecelia and The Grand Tour) rather than the third book, which leaned a little hard on adorably precocious little children and backgrounded Kate & Cecy too much for my taste.

Some possible prompts:

Countryside adventures in Kate & Cecy’s youth. Obviously Squire Bryant’s goat is a sacred noodle incident never to be explained or depicted, but what other problems (especially magic-related) did they solve and/or cause to make them so notorious prior to the first book? Feel free to bring in other inhabitants of Essex for them to collude with and/or terrorize
Kate and Cecy (and their husbands?) return to France for a totally routine reason and immediately get embroiled in yet another Lady Sylvia-related mystery, to the combined fascination and exasperation of various parties
A story about Lady Sylvia’s adventures as, essentially, the Scarlet Pimpernel during the French Revolution
What kind of scandalous shenanigans finally cause their neighbors in Essex to learn about Aunt Elizabeth’s magic?
Kate & Cecy’s ongoing magic training after Grand Tour (Cecy coming into her own as a truly independent magician? Kate totally hating magic lessons/doing magic ever? Both at once to create hilarious contrasts?)

While I don’t want modern AUs or total displacement from the original Regency setting, I’m totally open to crossovers that are even vaguely possible for the setting, or to other kinds of AUs/fusions. I don’t mind getting crossovers with canons I’m not familiar with; as long as they’re googlable and more or less interpretable within the fic, if you’re excited about a crossover, go for it. Some possibilities/illustrative examples:

Kate and Cecy get involved in a Georgette Heyer or Jane Austen plot and add magic, and problems, to it
Kate and Cecy accidentally summon Jonathan Strange from the infinite darkness and are really judgmental about his choices
Aunt Elizabeth isn’t just secretly a sorcerer…. she’s also secretly a werewolf

Chronicles of Chrestomanci
Characters: Millie, Christopher, Conrad

As indicated by my character selections, I’d especially love to get Conrad’s Fate fic. It’s probably my favorite of the Chrestomanci books— I love Conrad’s perspective on the ridiculous etiquette and Family drama. I’m a huge fan of his relationships with both Millie and Christopher— his irritation-becoming-sincere-reciprocal-friendship with Christopher, his immediate chemistry and sympathy with Millie as they bond over making fun of Christopher, how all three of them are willing to drop everything and improvise help for each other to deal with disasters both magical and domestic. I also really like the ensemble cast of Family, domestic staff, and eventually actors-posing-as-staff— like most DWJ, the character work is so deft and engaging and I just love seeing people in these books interact.

I love Christopher/Millie/Conrad & would be super excited for a shippy fic about them, but gen plots are great too! Some possible ideas:

C/M/C get-together fic set during magic training at Chrestomanci Castle
Missionfic with the three of them investigating a problem in another Series
Cat’s generation of Chrestomanci Castle trainee kids being scandalized by the unexpected appearance of Chrestomanci and Millie’s out of town boyfriend (landing wherever you like on the scale of “who is this mysterious figure?” to “gross, adults being soppy and romantic”)
Conrad’s Fate plot divergence of any kind, whatever sounds cool to you and keeps to the relatively upbeat tone of the books— for example, there are so many plot thread collisions right at the end of the book, it would be cool to explore what happens if any of the parallel plots/problems collapse earlier
Christopher and Conrad, caught sneaking around during their investigations at Stallery, pretend they were having a Romantic Rendezvous, leading to Tension and possibly Millie making fun of them when she hears about it from Fay later.

If you’re not so interested in Conrad’s Fate specifically, any Christopher-centric stories, especially set when he’s younger and hasn’t quite perfected the aloof Chrestomanci act yet, would be delightful; feel free to not include Millie & Conrad if they don’t fit.

Hilary Tamar Mysteries - Sarah Caudwell
Characters: Any

Some of my favorite things about these books:

Hilary’s incredibly fun, funny narrative voice (obviously)
The simultaneous constant sniping & genuine affection and friendship among Hilary & the barristers
Epistolary interludes
The intense, juuust-barely-not-canonized gay undercurrents in every book from like all the main characters
These books may technically be about solving murders, but the true enemy of humanity…. is taxes

I love casefic if you want to write that, but I’d also be totally thrilled with Hilary et al. just living life, having misadventures, dealing with recalcitrant clients or the Bursar or someone’s deeply offensive misunderstandings of medieval tax law.

Feel free to foreground/focus on just one of the characters I requested if you would prefer!

(Also, while I am a big fan of Hilary’s gender and pronoun-free canonical state, I understand that it’s a bit difficult to write, especially if you choose a different or third-person narrator. My ideal would be to default to “they” pronouns for Hilary if necessary and still refrain from any commentary on Hilary’s gender, but it’s not a strong DNW if you do otherwise, and I defer to your vision on the question if it comes up.)

More possible prompts:

Once again, one or more members of Lincoln’s Inn find themselves in a strangely gay situation! (How odd that Julia should be in a partially undressed embrace in the middle of a lesbian bar again, et cetera.) Feel free to, in a departure from the books, make this actually, textually gay (especially if it’s one of them discovering that gosh, possibly all of their life’s previous inexplicable gay misunderstandings were actually because they are pretty bisexual! what a surprise).
Hilary and Selena observing the final, inevitable, presumably mishap-ridden coalescence of the Julia/Cantrip/Ragwort triad relationship
Hilary discovers an Oxford colleague’s obviously fraudulent paper proof, which, incidentally, disagrees with the main thesis of Hilary’s book Causa in the Early Common Law, and determines to investigate this scurrilous case of academic dishonestly to the utmost extent

Again, thank you so much for writing a story for me for Yuletide!

— glass