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yuletide letter 2022
Dear Yuletide Writer,
It's nice to "meet" you! 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 forever ago, and I haven’t had the patience to sort out what that is.)
This year, I'm requesting 5 tiny canons. I'm hungry for more fic for all of them and would be delighted with a story in any of them. (Number/length of prompts is a reflection only of how many ideas I came up with, not the depth of my desire for fic.) I've provided some more info about general likes, canon-specific likes, and some prompt ideas for each of them in case that's helpful, but if something sparks you in a completely different direction, that's great too! I'm excited to read whatever you come up with.
Quick housekeeping notes: Treats are enabled. There are jump-cuts for this long letter on my journal page, but I haven't been able to figure out how to make them visible from the direct link, sorry!
General Likes:
-Social, political, and courtly intrigue
-Unequal power dynamics
-Strong but complicated family relationships
-Friends as found family
-Origin stories
-In-universe arts and culture
-Fantasy religion and mythology
-Literary and pop-cultural allusions, either to real-world things or to in-universe things
-Snark and banter
-Women pinning other women against walls
-Women having thorny, complicated, rich relationships with other women
-Women being awesome lady friends who have each other's backs
-Actually just women being awesome in general
-SWORDS
-People grappling with the aftermath of terrible decisions and betrayals and figuring out how to find a way forward together
-People grappling with thorny, there-are-no-good-options choices and/or with the aftermath of said terrible choices
-Unreliable narrators
-In-universe texts and documents (consider this a resounding HECK YES to epistolary fic, journal entry fic, archive fic, in-universe-historical-thesis fic, and or any other experiments with form you want to do)
-Worldbuilding
-Experimental writing styles (do you want to write me a story in 2nd person? cool! do you want to write me a story from the POV of a building? awesome! etc. etc.)
General DNW's (starred DNWs = mentions of canonical events are fine): rape or non-con; incest; permanent major character death; alternate settings (canon-divergence AU's are fine); A/B/O; eye injuries; torture or abuse more graphic than canon levels; fic centered on dealing with real-world oppression*; plague/pandemic/disease*
Fandom-Specific Prompts:
Bright Smoke Cold Fire Series - Rosamund Hodge: Inyaan
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. Also, the library. I fucking love a magical library.
This year, I've requested Inyaan because I find her completely fascinating. She hates the blood sacrifice required of her as Blood of the Gods enough that joining the Sisters of Thorn felt like a reprieve, but then she stages a coup, becomes the Exalted, and declares that Viyara is the city where people bleed for the gods. She's had to learn to keep such a stoic mask in place over her feelings and can be pretty ruthless, but she still inspires intense personal loyalty in those around her: Sub-captain Xu agrees to stage a coup for her and Sunjai loves her (at least platonically, probably romantically) and protects her at all costs. She's a tangle of contradictions, wrapped around a moral core that puts her duty (to her people? the gods? Viyara itself?) above anyone else's personal happiness, including her own.
Prompt ideas:
I'm really interested in pretty much anything that gets inside Inyaan's head a bit. For instance, what sparks Inyaan's decision to overthrow the Exalted? Is it self-preservation (either due to the Exalted's treatment of her or his handling of the apocalypse), or a moral imperative? Does Sunjai's sacrifice illuminate the path forward for her (either out of grief or nihilism in the wake of her loss or to honor her memory by exhibiting the same courage and subsuming her own desires into serving the world)? How does she go about planning the coup and recruiting her followers?
I'm also fascinated by those horrible days in Endless Water, Starless Sky when Sunjai and Inyaan are frantically working their calculations for Runajo's ritual. When and how do they realize that Sunjai's sacrifice might be (or will be? how sure are they before the moment arrives?) necessary? Whose idea is it? Does Sunjai insist over Inyaan's protestations? Does Inyaan ask it of Sunjai, knowing that she won't refuse and break her own heart in the process? How do they prepare and say their goodbyes? Do they discuss Runajo's probable feelings about it, or is it so obvious to them that she can't know that they don't even need to discuss it?
Pre-canon, I'd love to see Inyaan's first meeting with Sunjai and/or the development of their relationship in the convent. What are those early days like? Or, how did Inyaan and Sub-captain Xu meet? Was Xu ever Inyaan's personal guard? Where does her incredible loyalty to Inyaan stem from?
Post-canon, how about Inyaan and Runajo? They're so similar in many ways: both holding themselves removed from others, both certain that they know what is right, both willing to sacrifice themselves to their cause. How do they work together to rebuild Viyara and the Sisterhood of Thorn? Do they ever arrive at any kind of understanding?
Canon-specific DNW: Vai portrayed as a cis woman.
Dublin Murder Squad Series - Tana French: Cassie Maddox, Abigail "Abby" Stone
I enjoyed all of the Dublin Murder Squad Series, but as you can probably tell from my requested characters, The Likeness is my very favorite of the books. I love the quasi-Gothic but somehow still cozy house, the focus on literature and academia, the attempt to pull off the acting challenge of a lifetime, and the blend of wholesome slice-of-life with high-stakes suspense and mystery. I love the characters' friends-as-family endealment and intense enmeshment with each other, both in the balanced, comparatively uncomplicated version they had going before Lexie's murder and in the off-kilter, codependent, "this train is careening wildly and about 5 seconds away from total derailment" version they've got going when Cassie meets them.
And finally, I love all of the characters. I’ve requested Cassie and Abby because they’re my particular favorites, but I’m happy for Rafe, Justin, and/or Daniel to be included as well.
I love Cassie for her chameleon-like nature and love of undercover work, the way her fascination with Lexie and the others deepens into love for all of them, her empathy and ability to read people, the way she's constantly searching for and trying to make meaning for herself, her compassion and love for her friends, and her hunger for escape and the way she's tempted to chuck everything and just let the group's dream become her dream. I love Abby for her gentleness and kindness, her compassion, her serious commitment to the group, and the way she's white-knuckling through all the awfulness trying to hold everyone together.
Prompt ideas:
I have always yearned for the AU where Cassie threw away her wire and decided to become Lexie Madison (and Frank just let her go). How do she and Abby (and the others if you want) pick up the pieces? Does Cassie continue trying to figure out what happened to the other Lexie? Does she ever try to clear the air about the night "her"/other Lexie's plan was revealed or tell Abby about the pregnancy? Do they grandfather that awful night into their “no pasts” agreement and just move on? Are they ever able to unsnarl the things that have gone wrong with the group (and is that a conscious, discussed, concerted effort between the two of them or something Cassie is trying to quietly, secretly guide from behind the scenes)? What’s the rest of their progress through school like, and what do they do afterward? Does Cassie ever confess to not having always been Lexie? Does Cassie ever miss being herself or start trying to gradually shade Lexie more towards her own personality?
I’d also love more slices of life together in the house, either from the Cassie-becomes-Lexie AU or as missing scenes from before everything comes crashing down. Give me Cassie and Abby (or Cassie/Abby?) working on a home improvement project or having an intellectual debate or having a homework-and-conversation party together, with or without the rest of the group.
Canon-specific DNW: Strong focus on Cassie and Abby's romantic and sexual entanglements with the men in their lives, especially if it involves a love triangle that pits them against each other. I'm fine with canon-level engagement with those elements of canon, but I'd prefer them not to be the main focus.
신입사관 구해령 | Rookie Historian Goo Hae-ryung: Goo Hae-ryung, Song Sa-hui
I love this show for all of the awesome lady characters, the complicated court intrigue and tangled loyalties, the humor and sweetness, the completely badass political protests, and the love the characters have for history and for each other. I particularly love Hae-ryung and Sa-hui. I love Hae-ryung for her absolute irrepressibleness, her flouting of convention, her determination, her kindness, her loyalty, her dedication to pursuing what she thinks is right at all costs, and her fierce love for her brother; I love Sa-hui for her reserve, her stubbornness, her grace under pressure, her fierce pride, her conviction that the ends outweigh the means, and her determination to remain true to herself and do what she thinks is right at all costs.
It is one of the great sadnesses of my TV-watching life that Hae-ryung and Sa-hui never quite manage to bridge the gap between them and become the opposites-attract friends (or more than friends?) that I am convinced they were meant to be. I'd love a story where they manage to do just that, whether that means a canon divergence or a story set post-canon.
More specific prompt ideas:
Hae-ryung manages to win Sa-hui over and the two of them manage to thwart the Second State Councillor's plans much sooner and with much less collateral damage!
Post canon, Sa-hui eventually returns to the Office of Records. Perhaps Min U-Won (or Hae-ryung, much later) has succeeded to the position of First Officer and invites her back? Perhaps Yi Jin has reinstated her? How do she and Hae-ryung navigate their changed hierarchy and the prospect of working together again?
If I can somewhat borrow a scenario from sigaloenta/ricardienne, some kind of post-canon future conflict where the wishes of the royal family conflict with the historians' mandate to record the truth, where both sides are well-intentioned and yet nevertheless clashing. I'd love either Hae-ryung and Sa-hui on the same side of this conflict, or Hae-ryung and Sa-hui themselves clashing over what the historians should do! Bonus points for historian protests!
Canon-specific DNW: Focus on Catholicism or the persecution of Catholics; focus on Dowon or Hae-ryung's romantic relationship with him (background Hae-ryung/Dowon is fine); any romantic relationship between Hae-ryung and the senior historians (Min U-Won, Officer Yang, etc).
The Silence of Bones - June Hur: Seol | Jeong Jeong-yun, Inspector Han | Jeong Inho
I love this book for the vividness and historical detail of the setting, the many fascinating and complicated lady characters, and especially for Seol and Inspector Han. I love Seol's curiosity, her tenacity, her compassion for everyone who crosses her path even though her role as a damo is an inherently adversarial one (and the way she chafes at that even as she's fascinated by the mysteries she's trying to solve!), her loneliness and the hesitant steps she takes towards friendship and connection, and her unswerving love for and loyalty to her brother and sister. I love Han's uncompromising pursuit of what he believes is right, and I find his conflict between his desire for vengeance and his love for his little sister both beautiful and deeply, tragically heartbreaking. Mostly, I just want to see more of their relationship and what it could have become or what it was back when things were good between them!
Prompt ideas:
I would love fix-it fic for that ending! I was devastated when Inspector Han died before he and Seol got a chance to reconcile, and I'd love for them to get a do-over. Let them restore their family's house together bit by bit (and their relationship along with it), work another case together and get to know each other that way, or visit their sister together. Let Han and Seol (but especially Han) take their memories of each other down off their pedestals and really dig into the hard, complicated work of rebuilding their relationship as the people they've become. Or write me a missing scene from their case in the novel where they actually do get to start doing that!
Alternately, if pre-canon is more your style, show me some happy memories of Inho's and Jeong-yun's childhood! I'd prefer not to focus exclusively on Inho's desire for vengeance or the tragedy of what happened to their parents, though that can be present if you like. I'd love something about the bond that eventually leads Jeong-yun to give up everything she knows (and become Seol) to find him. Maybe they're goofing off at the seaside together or Inho is standing up for Jeong-yun against their parents/their sister/some other kids.
Canon-specific DNWs: Focus on Catholicism or the persecution of Catholics; any mention of Inspector Han's death. Please either write me an AU where he didn't die or set your story before his death becomes imminent.
Bonus Request: 신입사관 구해령 | Rookie Historian Goo Hae-ryung and The Silence of Bones - June Hur Crossover
I consumed these canons back-to-back and couldn't help thinking of them in conversation with each other! I'd love to see them actually cross over in some way. If you're going this route, I'd love to see Hae-ryung and Seol interact in particular--feel free to leave out Inspector Han and/or Sa-hui if they don't quite fit into your story!
Specific prompts:
-AU where Seol is Hae-ryung's maid/companion instead of Seol-geum! (Maybe the Jeongs' family friend got Han a position in the civil service or Office of Records instead of in the police department, so Seol's sister finagled her a position with the Goo household to get her closer to Han that way. Or maybe Seol's and Han's parents died as part of the Seoraewon massacre rather than in a general anti-Catholic purge, and she ended up with Jae-kyung and Hae-ryung that way.) In any case, I'd love to see the way Seol's search for her brother intersects with Hae-ryung's quest to become a historian. How do they support each other? What kind of hijinks do they get up to?
-AU where one of Seol's and Inspector Han's investigations bring them into the palace and/or Office of Records, where Seol crosses paths with Hae-ryung. Does Hae-ryung help or hinder Seol's investigation? Does Hae-ryung discover Seol's quest to find her brother and shamelessly meddle until she resolves everything?
Stay? - E. Jade Lomax: Any
Stay? is the game of my heart. I love the balance of darkness and lightness, the way the very real costs of failure (famine, war, death, apocalypse) are leavened with slice-of-life cosiness and simple joys (fresh baked scones, sunsets, silly notes from friends). I love the endless permutations and variations, the way your friends play different roles in your life each time but are always in your orbit, shuffling and reshuffling, and the way you have unlimited chances to get it right.
And oh, the characters. I love them all.
I love Esteban’s quiet stoicness and sarcasm, his love of painting, his creativity, the way playfulness and high standards coexist in his approach to painting. I love his loyalty, the way he’s instantly ready to help the player character commit vandalism or save the southern lands, the way he always chooses to hold the walls of Elaia as long as possible so that more people can escape. I love that his romantic overture is trying to hold the player’s hand and how seriously he takes it if you tell him your friendship is beautiful and you like it just the way it is.
I love Myka’s irrepressibility, enthusiasm, and intellectual curiosity. I love her wild and wonderful theories, the way she writes on the walls and makes the whole house smell like sulfur, the way she throws her whole self into whatever she’s doing, whether that’s tinkering with her bubble spell or saving everyone’s lives in the war. I love that her response to being asked on a date is to vow she will brush her hair and that her response to “I need you to help me stop a comet” is “IS IT MY BIRTHDAY?!”
I love Jo’s seriousness and the gap between Ancient Time-Looping Jo and Young Single-Loop Jo. I love their sense of humor, the way young Jo’s humor is sly and understated and kind and old Jo is a lovable sarcastic asshole. I love that in the southern lands, they become a community organizer and local politician. I love the way they see Suzette so clearly, flaws and all, and choose to love her and be her friend anyway, loop after loop after loop. I love the audacity of old Jo palming the time loop and the responsibility of saving the world off on you.
And finally, I am completely fascinated by the world of Stay? I love the magic system, the weight of history and the tantalizing glimpses we get of it. I love the glimpses we get of Fiore. I love that even the minor characters feel like whole people with their own lives. I would love the chance to hang out in this world a little longer, exploring pretty much any aspect.
I’m requesting Esteban, Myka, Jo, or Worldbuilding. I’d be happy with a story about any of the three or with a Worldbuilding story that none of them appear in.
Prompt ideas:
Esteban: I’d love an Esteban POV of the day you ask him to commit to a little graduation day civil disobedience and tell him out of the blue that he shouldn’t give up painting, a thing he has never shared with you (as far as he knows). I’d also love anything about Esteban’s art: his process of painting, a more detailed description (or future museum catalog?) of his work, his struggles with a particular piece, his decision to start painting again and the ways he fits it into his life, in any of the loops. Or his quest to capture the light at home on the side of the barn vs in Elaia vs in the southern lands.
Myka: I’ve always been fascinated by the way Myka yells, “That explains so much!” when you tell her you’re caught in a time loop. What are the things it explains? How and when does she start putting the pieces together? I’d also love to know more about her magical experiments—either a particular day’s testing or maybe a lab notebook style fic documenting her process. And finally, I love the glimpse of Myka’s grandmother we get—standing tall like a tree, saying Myka was her friend too—and would love a fic exploring their relationship. Did her grandmother raise her? What is their bond like? Is Myka’s grandmother responsible for her interest in science, or is she a baffled but proud supporter of her granddaughter’s completely different interests?
Jo: I’m especially interested in fic exploring the Ancient Time-Looping Jo of the player’s first loop. How did they evolve from that shy serious kid into that sarcastic asshole? Also, we know they had a closer relationship with the player in their own earlier loops—what did some of those look like? What made Jo choose the player as the person to entrust their loop to? Is there a way (maybe with Myka’s help) where the loops can ever cross and the player of the final loop can talk to the Jo of the first loop? Where the Jo of the player’s final loop can talk to the Jo of the first loop?
If you prefer the Jo we know from most of the game, I’d love to learn more about their academic research! Or about some of their rabble-rousing and organizing work in the southern lands.
Worldbuilding: I’d love to read an excerpt of one of the player’s many history theses. I’m particularly fascinated by the one about the influence of immigration on Elaia’s architecture, but I’d also be down to read about modern-era Elaia or prehistoric Elaia or any other period/topic of Elaian history that strikes your fancy.
Also, Fiore! I’d love to learn more about Veris, her life, and the war that drove her to try to protect her city, or what daily life in Fiore was like in her time. What kind of relationship did Fiore and Elaia have with each other before the destruction of Fiore?
The magic shop! I’d eat up anything about it, from Mr Pent and some of his apprentices taking inventory or trying to fulfill a special request to the founding of the shop or an exploration of some of the shop’s regular customers.
Finally, the paper scraps the player works on at the archives! I’d love an expansion of any of them, whether as epistolary fic or as a more traditional fic exploring who these people were and what they were to each other or giving me a snapshot of their lives.
Canon-specific DNW: Major character death in the player character's final loop. If you want to set your story in one of the darker loops (either the player character's or First Loop Jo's) where major characters die, that's okay as long as it isn't the last loop.
It's nice to "meet" you! 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 forever ago, and I haven’t had the patience to sort out what that is.)
This year, I'm requesting 5 tiny canons. I'm hungry for more fic for all of them and would be delighted with a story in any of them. (Number/length of prompts is a reflection only of how many ideas I came up with, not the depth of my desire for fic.) I've provided some more info about general likes, canon-specific likes, and some prompt ideas for each of them in case that's helpful, but if something sparks you in a completely different direction, that's great too! I'm excited to read whatever you come up with.
Quick housekeeping notes: Treats are enabled. There are jump-cuts for this long letter on my journal page, but I haven't been able to figure out how to make them visible from the direct link, sorry!
General Likes:
-Social, political, and courtly intrigue
-Unequal power dynamics
-Strong but complicated family relationships
-Friends as found family
-Origin stories
-In-universe arts and culture
-Fantasy religion and mythology
-Literary and pop-cultural allusions, either to real-world things or to in-universe things
-Snark and banter
-Women pinning other women against walls
-Women having thorny, complicated, rich relationships with other women
-Women being awesome lady friends who have each other's backs
-Actually just women being awesome in general
-SWORDS
-People grappling with the aftermath of terrible decisions and betrayals and figuring out how to find a way forward together
-People grappling with thorny, there-are-no-good-options choices and/or with the aftermath of said terrible choices
-Unreliable narrators
-In-universe texts and documents (consider this a resounding HECK YES to epistolary fic, journal entry fic, archive fic, in-universe-historical-thesis fic, and or any other experiments with form you want to do)
-Worldbuilding
-Experimental writing styles (do you want to write me a story in 2nd person? cool! do you want to write me a story from the POV of a building? awesome! etc. etc.)
General DNW's (starred DNWs = mentions of canonical events are fine): rape or non-con; incest; permanent major character death; alternate settings (canon-divergence AU's are fine); A/B/O; eye injuries; torture or abuse more graphic than canon levels; fic centered on dealing with real-world oppression*; plague/pandemic/disease*
Fandom-Specific Prompts:
Bright Smoke Cold Fire Series - Rosamund Hodge: Inyaan
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. Also, the library. I fucking love a magical library.
This year, I've requested Inyaan because I find her completely fascinating. She hates the blood sacrifice required of her as Blood of the Gods enough that joining the Sisters of Thorn felt like a reprieve, but then she stages a coup, becomes the Exalted, and declares that Viyara is the city where people bleed for the gods. She's had to learn to keep such a stoic mask in place over her feelings and can be pretty ruthless, but she still inspires intense personal loyalty in those around her: Sub-captain Xu agrees to stage a coup for her and Sunjai loves her (at least platonically, probably romantically) and protects her at all costs. She's a tangle of contradictions, wrapped around a moral core that puts her duty (to her people? the gods? Viyara itself?) above anyone else's personal happiness, including her own.
Prompt ideas:
I'm really interested in pretty much anything that gets inside Inyaan's head a bit. For instance, what sparks Inyaan's decision to overthrow the Exalted? Is it self-preservation (either due to the Exalted's treatment of her or his handling of the apocalypse), or a moral imperative? Does Sunjai's sacrifice illuminate the path forward for her (either out of grief or nihilism in the wake of her loss or to honor her memory by exhibiting the same courage and subsuming her own desires into serving the world)? How does she go about planning the coup and recruiting her followers?
I'm also fascinated by those horrible days in Endless Water, Starless Sky when Sunjai and Inyaan are frantically working their calculations for Runajo's ritual. When and how do they realize that Sunjai's sacrifice might be (or will be? how sure are they before the moment arrives?) necessary? Whose idea is it? Does Sunjai insist over Inyaan's protestations? Does Inyaan ask it of Sunjai, knowing that she won't refuse and break her own heart in the process? How do they prepare and say their goodbyes? Do they discuss Runajo's probable feelings about it, or is it so obvious to them that she can't know that they don't even need to discuss it?
Pre-canon, I'd love to see Inyaan's first meeting with Sunjai and/or the development of their relationship in the convent. What are those early days like? Or, how did Inyaan and Sub-captain Xu meet? Was Xu ever Inyaan's personal guard? Where does her incredible loyalty to Inyaan stem from?
Post-canon, how about Inyaan and Runajo? They're so similar in many ways: both holding themselves removed from others, both certain that they know what is right, both willing to sacrifice themselves to their cause. How do they work together to rebuild Viyara and the Sisterhood of Thorn? Do they ever arrive at any kind of understanding?
Canon-specific DNW: Vai portrayed as a cis woman.
Dublin Murder Squad Series - Tana French: Cassie Maddox, Abigail "Abby" Stone
I enjoyed all of the Dublin Murder Squad Series, but as you can probably tell from my requested characters, The Likeness is my very favorite of the books. I love the quasi-Gothic but somehow still cozy house, the focus on literature and academia, the attempt to pull off the acting challenge of a lifetime, and the blend of wholesome slice-of-life with high-stakes suspense and mystery. I love the characters' friends-as-family endealment and intense enmeshment with each other, both in the balanced, comparatively uncomplicated version they had going before Lexie's murder and in the off-kilter, codependent, "this train is careening wildly and about 5 seconds away from total derailment" version they've got going when Cassie meets them.
And finally, I love all of the characters. I’ve requested Cassie and Abby because they’re my particular favorites, but I’m happy for Rafe, Justin, and/or Daniel to be included as well.
I love Cassie for her chameleon-like nature and love of undercover work, the way her fascination with Lexie and the others deepens into love for all of them, her empathy and ability to read people, the way she's constantly searching for and trying to make meaning for herself, her compassion and love for her friends, and her hunger for escape and the way she's tempted to chuck everything and just let the group's dream become her dream. I love Abby for her gentleness and kindness, her compassion, her serious commitment to the group, and the way she's white-knuckling through all the awfulness trying to hold everyone together.
Prompt ideas:
I have always yearned for the AU where Cassie threw away her wire and decided to become Lexie Madison (and Frank just let her go). How do she and Abby (and the others if you want) pick up the pieces? Does Cassie continue trying to figure out what happened to the other Lexie? Does she ever try to clear the air about the night "her"/other Lexie's plan was revealed or tell Abby about the pregnancy? Do they grandfather that awful night into their “no pasts” agreement and just move on? Are they ever able to unsnarl the things that have gone wrong with the group (and is that a conscious, discussed, concerted effort between the two of them or something Cassie is trying to quietly, secretly guide from behind the scenes)? What’s the rest of their progress through school like, and what do they do afterward? Does Cassie ever confess to not having always been Lexie? Does Cassie ever miss being herself or start trying to gradually shade Lexie more towards her own personality?
I’d also love more slices of life together in the house, either from the Cassie-becomes-Lexie AU or as missing scenes from before everything comes crashing down. Give me Cassie and Abby (or Cassie/Abby?) working on a home improvement project or having an intellectual debate or having a homework-and-conversation party together, with or without the rest of the group.
Canon-specific DNW: Strong focus on Cassie and Abby's romantic and sexual entanglements with the men in their lives, especially if it involves a love triangle that pits them against each other. I'm fine with canon-level engagement with those elements of canon, but I'd prefer them not to be the main focus.
신입사관 구해령 | Rookie Historian Goo Hae-ryung: Goo Hae-ryung, Song Sa-hui
I love this show for all of the awesome lady characters, the complicated court intrigue and tangled loyalties, the humor and sweetness, the completely badass political protests, and the love the characters have for history and for each other. I particularly love Hae-ryung and Sa-hui. I love Hae-ryung for her absolute irrepressibleness, her flouting of convention, her determination, her kindness, her loyalty, her dedication to pursuing what she thinks is right at all costs, and her fierce love for her brother; I love Sa-hui for her reserve, her stubbornness, her grace under pressure, her fierce pride, her conviction that the ends outweigh the means, and her determination to remain true to herself and do what she thinks is right at all costs.
It is one of the great sadnesses of my TV-watching life that Hae-ryung and Sa-hui never quite manage to bridge the gap between them and become the opposites-attract friends (or more than friends?) that I am convinced they were meant to be. I'd love a story where they manage to do just that, whether that means a canon divergence or a story set post-canon.
More specific prompt ideas:
Hae-ryung manages to win Sa-hui over and the two of them manage to thwart the Second State Councillor's plans much sooner and with much less collateral damage!
Post canon, Sa-hui eventually returns to the Office of Records. Perhaps Min U-Won (or Hae-ryung, much later) has succeeded to the position of First Officer and invites her back? Perhaps Yi Jin has reinstated her? How do she and Hae-ryung navigate their changed hierarchy and the prospect of working together again?
If I can somewhat borrow a scenario from sigaloenta/ricardienne, some kind of post-canon future conflict where the wishes of the royal family conflict with the historians' mandate to record the truth, where both sides are well-intentioned and yet nevertheless clashing. I'd love either Hae-ryung and Sa-hui on the same side of this conflict, or Hae-ryung and Sa-hui themselves clashing over what the historians should do! Bonus points for historian protests!
Canon-specific DNW: Focus on Catholicism or the persecution of Catholics; focus on Dowon or Hae-ryung's romantic relationship with him (background Hae-ryung/Dowon is fine); any romantic relationship between Hae-ryung and the senior historians (Min U-Won, Officer Yang, etc).
The Silence of Bones - June Hur: Seol | Jeong Jeong-yun, Inspector Han | Jeong Inho
I love this book for the vividness and historical detail of the setting, the many fascinating and complicated lady characters, and especially for Seol and Inspector Han. I love Seol's curiosity, her tenacity, her compassion for everyone who crosses her path even though her role as a damo is an inherently adversarial one (and the way she chafes at that even as she's fascinated by the mysteries she's trying to solve!), her loneliness and the hesitant steps she takes towards friendship and connection, and her unswerving love for and loyalty to her brother and sister. I love Han's uncompromising pursuit of what he believes is right, and I find his conflict between his desire for vengeance and his love for his little sister both beautiful and deeply, tragically heartbreaking. Mostly, I just want to see more of their relationship and what it could have become or what it was back when things were good between them!
Prompt ideas:
I would love fix-it fic for that ending! I was devastated when Inspector Han died before he and Seol got a chance to reconcile, and I'd love for them to get a do-over. Let them restore their family's house together bit by bit (and their relationship along with it), work another case together and get to know each other that way, or visit their sister together. Let Han and Seol (but especially Han) take their memories of each other down off their pedestals and really dig into the hard, complicated work of rebuilding their relationship as the people they've become. Or write me a missing scene from their case in the novel where they actually do get to start doing that!
Alternately, if pre-canon is more your style, show me some happy memories of Inho's and Jeong-yun's childhood! I'd prefer not to focus exclusively on Inho's desire for vengeance or the tragedy of what happened to their parents, though that can be present if you like. I'd love something about the bond that eventually leads Jeong-yun to give up everything she knows (and become Seol) to find him. Maybe they're goofing off at the seaside together or Inho is standing up for Jeong-yun against their parents/their sister/some other kids.
Canon-specific DNWs: Focus on Catholicism or the persecution of Catholics; any mention of Inspector Han's death. Please either write me an AU where he didn't die or set your story before his death becomes imminent.
Bonus Request: 신입사관 구해령 | Rookie Historian Goo Hae-ryung and The Silence of Bones - June Hur Crossover
I consumed these canons back-to-back and couldn't help thinking of them in conversation with each other! I'd love to see them actually cross over in some way. If you're going this route, I'd love to see Hae-ryung and Seol interact in particular--feel free to leave out Inspector Han and/or Sa-hui if they don't quite fit into your story!
Specific prompts:
-AU where Seol is Hae-ryung's maid/companion instead of Seol-geum! (Maybe the Jeongs' family friend got Han a position in the civil service or Office of Records instead of in the police department, so Seol's sister finagled her a position with the Goo household to get her closer to Han that way. Or maybe Seol's and Han's parents died as part of the Seoraewon massacre rather than in a general anti-Catholic purge, and she ended up with Jae-kyung and Hae-ryung that way.) In any case, I'd love to see the way Seol's search for her brother intersects with Hae-ryung's quest to become a historian. How do they support each other? What kind of hijinks do they get up to?
-AU where one of Seol's and Inspector Han's investigations bring them into the palace and/or Office of Records, where Seol crosses paths with Hae-ryung. Does Hae-ryung help or hinder Seol's investigation? Does Hae-ryung discover Seol's quest to find her brother and shamelessly meddle until she resolves everything?
Stay? - E. Jade Lomax: Any
Stay? is the game of my heart. I love the balance of darkness and lightness, the way the very real costs of failure (famine, war, death, apocalypse) are leavened with slice-of-life cosiness and simple joys (fresh baked scones, sunsets, silly notes from friends). I love the endless permutations and variations, the way your friends play different roles in your life each time but are always in your orbit, shuffling and reshuffling, and the way you have unlimited chances to get it right.
And oh, the characters. I love them all.
I love Esteban’s quiet stoicness and sarcasm, his love of painting, his creativity, the way playfulness and high standards coexist in his approach to painting. I love his loyalty, the way he’s instantly ready to help the player character commit vandalism or save the southern lands, the way he always chooses to hold the walls of Elaia as long as possible so that more people can escape. I love that his romantic overture is trying to hold the player’s hand and how seriously he takes it if you tell him your friendship is beautiful and you like it just the way it is.
I love Myka’s irrepressibility, enthusiasm, and intellectual curiosity. I love her wild and wonderful theories, the way she writes on the walls and makes the whole house smell like sulfur, the way she throws her whole self into whatever she’s doing, whether that’s tinkering with her bubble spell or saving everyone’s lives in the war. I love that her response to being asked on a date is to vow she will brush her hair and that her response to “I need you to help me stop a comet” is “IS IT MY BIRTHDAY?!”
I love Jo’s seriousness and the gap between Ancient Time-Looping Jo and Young Single-Loop Jo. I love their sense of humor, the way young Jo’s humor is sly and understated and kind and old Jo is a lovable sarcastic asshole. I love that in the southern lands, they become a community organizer and local politician. I love the way they see Suzette so clearly, flaws and all, and choose to love her and be her friend anyway, loop after loop after loop. I love the audacity of old Jo palming the time loop and the responsibility of saving the world off on you.
And finally, I am completely fascinated by the world of Stay? I love the magic system, the weight of history and the tantalizing glimpses we get of it. I love the glimpses we get of Fiore. I love that even the minor characters feel like whole people with their own lives. I would love the chance to hang out in this world a little longer, exploring pretty much any aspect.
I’m requesting Esteban, Myka, Jo, or Worldbuilding. I’d be happy with a story about any of the three or with a Worldbuilding story that none of them appear in.
Prompt ideas:
Esteban: I’d love an Esteban POV of the day you ask him to commit to a little graduation day civil disobedience and tell him out of the blue that he shouldn’t give up painting, a thing he has never shared with you (as far as he knows). I’d also love anything about Esteban’s art: his process of painting, a more detailed description (or future museum catalog?) of his work, his struggles with a particular piece, his decision to start painting again and the ways he fits it into his life, in any of the loops. Or his quest to capture the light at home on the side of the barn vs in Elaia vs in the southern lands.
Myka: I’ve always been fascinated by the way Myka yells, “That explains so much!” when you tell her you’re caught in a time loop. What are the things it explains? How and when does she start putting the pieces together? I’d also love to know more about her magical experiments—either a particular day’s testing or maybe a lab notebook style fic documenting her process. And finally, I love the glimpse of Myka’s grandmother we get—standing tall like a tree, saying Myka was her friend too—and would love a fic exploring their relationship. Did her grandmother raise her? What is their bond like? Is Myka’s grandmother responsible for her interest in science, or is she a baffled but proud supporter of her granddaughter’s completely different interests?
Jo: I’m especially interested in fic exploring the Ancient Time-Looping Jo of the player’s first loop. How did they evolve from that shy serious kid into that sarcastic asshole? Also, we know they had a closer relationship with the player in their own earlier loops—what did some of those look like? What made Jo choose the player as the person to entrust their loop to? Is there a way (maybe with Myka’s help) where the loops can ever cross and the player of the final loop can talk to the Jo of the first loop? Where the Jo of the player’s final loop can talk to the Jo of the first loop?
If you prefer the Jo we know from most of the game, I’d love to learn more about their academic research! Or about some of their rabble-rousing and organizing work in the southern lands.
Worldbuilding: I’d love to read an excerpt of one of the player’s many history theses. I’m particularly fascinated by the one about the influence of immigration on Elaia’s architecture, but I’d also be down to read about modern-era Elaia or prehistoric Elaia or any other period/topic of Elaian history that strikes your fancy.
Also, Fiore! I’d love to learn more about Veris, her life, and the war that drove her to try to protect her city, or what daily life in Fiore was like in her time. What kind of relationship did Fiore and Elaia have with each other before the destruction of Fiore?
The magic shop! I’d eat up anything about it, from Mr Pent and some of his apprentices taking inventory or trying to fulfill a special request to the founding of the shop or an exploration of some of the shop’s regular customers.
Finally, the paper scraps the player works on at the archives! I’d love an expansion of any of them, whether as epistolary fic or as a more traditional fic exploring who these people were and what they were to each other or giving me a snapshot of their lives.
Canon-specific DNW: Major character death in the player character's final loop. If you want to set your story in one of the darker loops (either the player character's or First Loop Jo's) where major characters die, that's okay as long as it isn't the last loop.