Yuletide Letter 2020

Hi Yuletide Writer! Thanks for writing for me. I’m so excited to explore these worlds we both love with you!

I haven’t been on dreamwidth for more than a decade, hence the blank journal with very old stylings. I’m ellida on AO3 and pearlsthatwereeyes on tumblr. (Tumblr says that my account may contain sensitive media—as near as I can tell, it’s mad about something I posted 7 years ago, and I haven’t had the patience to sort out what that is.)

As you might be able to tell from my requested canons, I love angsty, complicated, badass female characters. True to form, I mostly write angsty, lady-character-centric gen fic and enjoy reading it as well, but don’t worry if that’s not your thing! I’m also a big fan of f/f romance (both smutty and not), complicated plots, slice-of-life, fluff, humor, and friends-as-found-family fics—I just don’t write them very often.

Regardless of the canon/medium, I’m here for the characters. I will eat up anything you can tell me about their internal thoughts and motivations or their relationships with each other. I also love worldbuilding and atmosphere—I love reading stories that play around in and build out the canon world. And finally, I’m here for THE FEELS. Whatever those feels are! Angst, tragedy, comedy, romance, happy endings, bittersweet endings, TERRIBLE WHY DID YOU DO THIS TO ME endings—they’re all welcome!

I've provided a bunch of prompts, but if there's a different story that you're dying to tell me about these characters, by all means go for it! I'm a pretty eclectic fic reader, and a lot of my favorites are things I would never have thought to wish for.

General DNWs: rape/noncon, dubcon, any mention of characters under the age of 18 having sex with adults over 21, explicit depictions of characters under 18 having sex with each other (fade to black is fine), water sports/scat, A/B/O, alternate settings for any characters besides Gideon and Harrow, non-canonical character death, references to COVID-19

On to my canon-specific prompts!

Archivist Wasp: Wasp|Isabel, Sairy

I love this series for the characters who’ve hardened themselves to survive their very bleak world but hide soft squishy hearts underneath, the ghosts and the journeys through the underworld, the importance of friendship and the way these friends take fierce care of each other, even when it doesn’t come naturally to them. I love how Isabel and Sairy grope their way through their traumas to connect with each other and take care of the people (and in Isabel’s case, ghosts) around them.

You don’t need to include both characters, though you can if you want to! I love both Sairy and Wasp, and I’d be happy with a story about either or about both.

Some prompt ideas:

Wasp|Isabel: I’d love anything that fills in the gaps between Archivist Wasp and Latchkey. When and why and how does Isabel decide to set up the ghost fires and completely block out the Ghost and Foster? How does she grow into her grudging leadership role?

Sairy: I’m also fascinated by Sairy’s outsider POV. What is her experience like during Archivist Wasp? What was her friendship like with the upstart Isabel tried and failed to spare? What is building their community of ex-upstarts like for her? In Latchkey, we see Sairy treating Isabel with such tenderness and making repeated overtures of friendship that fly right over Isabel’s head—what is it like for her to keep reaching out and out and out, and why does she keep doing it?

The Locked Tomb: Mercymorn the First, Pyrrha Dve, Gideon Nav, Harrowhark Nonagesimus

What don’t I love about this canon? I love the memetastic introspection, the blend of angst and hilarity, the atmosphere and worldbuilding, the bones and the ghosts, the blend of spaceships and necromancy and swords, the way that the characters make their own meaning out of chaos, and all of these beautiful queer disaster humans.

You do not have to include all characters—I’d love either a story about Mercy, a story about Pyrrha, or a story about Gideon and Harrow together.

Mercymorn: I love Mercymorn so much. I love her mix of pettiness, spite, terrifying competence, grudging morality, terrible guilt, utter ruthlessness, and twisty, complicated love. I’d love pretty much anything about her past 10,000 years as a Lyctor, especially when/how she decided to betray EJG and years of planning she did with Augustine or any of the times EJG pissed her off? What meeting(s) was she in where he ate peanuts? Or where he came in late and said, “Don’t mind me, I’m only God”?

Pyrrha Dve: I am endlessly fascinated by Pyrrha, her infinite competence, and the way literally everyone who has ever met her is at least a little in love with her. Again, I’d love anything you want to write about her, whether that’s what she got up to during the initial Lyctoral trials, what her time as a revenant in Gideon’s body has been like (HOW DID SHE HAVE AN ENTIRE ROMANCE WITH WAKE, HOW, I MUST KNOW, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO CLUE ME IN), or her perspective on taking over Gideon the First’s body, surviving EJG’s purge by way of sunglass theft, shepherding Gideon Nav through the River, or anything else that strikes your fancy.

Gideon Nav & Harrowhark Nonagesimus: I just want more about my horrible bone children! I love backstory for the two of them set on the Ninth! I love fix-it fics that imagine how they could end up back together, despite their currently sharing one (potentially dead) body! (I do ship them, but I’m also happy if you prefer Gideon’s feelings being unrequited.) I love AUs starring the two of them, whether that means expanding the ones from Harrow the Ninth (I’m particularly fond of the Harrow Nova AU, but I’m extremely down for Regency Matchmaking or Cohort Coffeeshop if you prefer those) or making up your own. Go wild!

The Serpent Gates: Csorwe, Talasseres Charossa, Qanwa Shuthmili, Qanwa Zhiyouri

I love this book for its fascinating worldbuilding and its combination of gut-wrenching angst with completely ridiculous humor, but most of all, I love it for the characters. They’re all my beautiful queer garbage children.

You do not have to include all of these characters, though my main interest in Tal is his relationship with Csorwe, so if you choose to write about him, I’d prefer she be present as well. I’d also prefer pre-canon or missing scene/changed POV of canon—I’m not as interested in speculating about what comes next or in AU’s for this canon!

Csorwe & Tal: I really love Csorwe’s and Tal’s snarky, antagonistic but familiar, frenemies-except-on-second-thought-that-sounds-too-close-to-friends-let’s-just-stick-with-enemies-except-I-guess-I-will-grudgingly-have-your-back-sometimes-maybe-if-I-feel-like-it relationship. I’d love to see some of the gaps in their history between Csorwe’s arrival in Tlaanthothe and their trip to Qarsazh filled in. If you’d like a more specific prompt, a story about one of the other times Tal wrote Csorwe a “No hard feelings!” note would pretty much make my life.

Qanwa Shuthmili: I’m also really curious about Shuthmili’s backstory, early life, and education! Everything we see of her is from the outside, so I’d love it if you wanted to get inside her head a little bit. What was she like as a mage student? How and when did she do her forbidden reading? What draws her to her particular academic discipline? What is her first meeting/adventure with Tal and Csorwe like from her perspective? How does she make her decision to leave with Csorwe? What is it like for her when she wakes up in Zhiyouri’s custody after Csorwe has left her behind?

Csorwe: I love Csorwe! I’d love to know more about her adventures with the Blue Boars or her adventures (with or without Tal) in Sethennai’s service before she goes to retrieve the reliquary!

Qanwa Zhiyouri: I love how distinctive Zhiyouri's voice is, how sure of herself she is, and how unapologetically self-serving she is! I’d love more from her POV, whatever you feel like writing. Maybe Zhiyouri’s reactions to the other events of the novel, Zhiyouri’s backstory with her brother or with young Shuthmili, or Zhiyouri dealing with a completely unrelated petty bureaucratic annoyance and/or generally bending the Inquisition to her will? Or something else entirely!

Canon Specific DNW: Post-canon speculation, details about the canon plagues (mentions ok, but no details beyond that please)

Bright Smoke, Cold Fire: Juliet Catresou, Mahyanai Runajo

I love these books for the unabashed Shakespearean mash-up (Shakespeare totally wishes he’d thought of putting blood-sacrifice nuns in R & J), the atmosphere, the complicated politics, the angst, the stabby-and-would-definitely-kill-you girls, and the queer subtext.

I particularly love Juliet’s and Runajo’s relationship, how complicated and fraught and angsty it is, as their different traumas and goals rub up against each other and they try to survive their world (and each other). I love how much they hurt each other and how much they still care about each other despite themselves. I’d love some fic that explores that relationship. I’d particularly love it if you turned their queer subtext actually textual, but if you’d rather explore their dynamic from a friendship angle, I’m down for that too.

The Red Devil and Heroine Su: Red Devil, Heroine Su

This short film is so tantalizing, and I just want to know more about the Red Devil, Heroine Su, their relationship with each other, and their world. I will love absolutely anything you write for me in this world, but some broad strokes ideas of things that interest me: intrigue-filled gen fic, world building about the witches and guardians, missing scenes, Red Devil/Heroine Su romance development, Red Devil/Heroine Su smut-with-plot (both light BDSM and vanilla welcome).

If you’d like more specific prompts: How did the Red Devil and Su first meet/come into conflict? How does their relationship develop? What happens between them in between scenes? Has the Red Devil actually joined Su and is just wistful about the idea of a world where Su would come over to her side instead, or is she actively trying to persuade Su to change her mind and/or working to sabotage Su? Why does Su always work alone? What’s the larger political situation? Is the Red Devil working alone when we meet her, or is she part of a larger group of allies?

The Daevabad Trilogy: Aqisa, Zaynab al Qahtani

Okay, so I love these books. I love the intricate worldbuilding, the complicated politics, the complex characters and their thorny relationships with each other, and the way they get SO CLOSE to happiness until someone else (or five someone elses) with their own plans and agendas and ridiculous political schemes crash in on them and RUIN EVERYTHING ALL OVER AGAIN.

But much as I love this canon, there are a few things missing for me. And those things are more Aqisa, more Zaynab, and more of them together. I love each of them separately—Aqisa’s sheer competence, badassery, and loyalty; Zaynab’s elegance, political savvy, and love for her entire fucked up family—and I love their whole warrior woman/princess dynamic.

I’d love a story that explores their relationship with each other and fills in some of the gaps. As you can probably tell, I ship them and would love shipfic, but if that’s not where your muse takes you, that’s fine too! If you want more specific prompts, what was their first meeting like? How did Aqisa offering to teach Zaynab to fight go down, and how did those lessons go? What was their flight from the palace like, and what happened during their time walled off in the combined Geziri/Shafit quarter in the aftermath of the invasion? If they’re together romantically, how did that relationship develop? What adventures do they get up to after the Empire of Gold? Does Zaynab ever learn to summon fire to Ali's zulfiqar? When does Aqisa realize she's switched her allegiance from Ali to Zaynab? But seriously, I’ll be excited to read anything you write me about them!

I should probably clarify that at the time of this writing, I'm only halfway through The Empire of Gold (though I will definitely be finished long before I'm reading your story, so no worries on spoilers), so if Aqisa/Zaynab ends up being a canon ship, I'm not into them being straight-washed. But I'm trying not to get my hopes up, hence leaving lots of room in the prompts. Never mind, I am finished now!

Again, thank you so much for writing for me! I'm really excited to read whatever you come up with!