Dear Yuletide Author

[lebateleur]

Thank you for writing a story for me! Yuletide is one of my favorite things about the winter season, and I am super excited to be getting a gift from you in a shared fandom. I love surprises, so if there’s a story you’ve always wanted to tell for the canon and characters we’ve matched on, feel free to write that (while avoiding my sign-up DNWs). If you’re looking for inspiration, I’ve listed general kinks and some prompts, plot bunnies, or ideas for each of my requests below, and you’re welcome to borrow from them as you like. (The requests themselves are in alphabetical order, not order of preference.)

Kinks: Angst, banter, bickering-as-flirtation, bonding, camaraderie, casefic, comedy of manners, established relationships, found families, humor, hurt/comfort, language (be it grammar geekery, foreign language fluency, or how characters use it to enforce or transgress social status), loyalty, misunderstanding and reconciliation, pining, relationships crossing or transgressing social mores and social status, sarcasm, slice-of-life, wordplay, worldbuilding.

I am happy with any rating from G to explicit (and fully support smut between canon couples and between requested characters as mentioned in the prompts if you're so inclined).

Blake & Avery Series – M. J. Carter
Jeremiah Blake, William Avery

I adore the dynamic between these two—Blake outwardly aloof and cynical but inwardly so eager for companionship, and Avery so desperate to please and not half as incapable as he seems to think he is—and would love to read your take on it at any point from the first book on, be it Blake & Avery or Blake/Avery. I’m game for our heroes solving cases involving cool historical facts and personalities, examinations of current day issues through historical parallels, period details, the supporting cast of allies and villains, the vivid settings, the mixture of action, drama, humor, mystery, and social commentary.

Some ideas:

• Either Blake or Avery is sent, for reasons of your choosing, to [India/China/America/wherever you like]. How do they reunite, why does one track the other down in the first place, and what do they do next?
• What stories did Blake tell Avery during their flight toward the end of The Strangler Vine. How do they feature in Avery's understanding of who Blake is (for gen) or private fantasies (for shipping)?
• Boz encounters a problem and needs Blake's help. Avery uses the opportunity to fanboy. What happens next?
• The fair is in town. It brings back dark memories for Blake. What are they, and what do our heroes do about it?

The Kingdoms – Natasha Pulley
Missouri Kite, Joe Tournier | Jem Castlereagh | Joe Zhang

The Kingdoms is hands down my favorite thing Pulley’s written since Watchmaker. It takes guts to write a romance with such amoral leads, and talent to make me as a reader root for them despite said amorality! Please give me more of that in your fic. I’d love anything that expands on events in the novel, or carries the story beyond the book’s conclusion.

Some ideas:

• The lighthouse gateway wasn’t actually sealed successfully, despite what Kite et al. think. Who travels through, from where and when, and what happens next?
• Or, Joe and/or Kite discovers they need to travel back through the gateway to [correct what wrong/save what life/avert what disaster]. Does they go through with it? Do they tell the other? If so, what do they tell them? What is the result?
• Other portals are discovered, either during the events in the book, or after its conclusion. Who finds them? What do they do about it?
• Kite and or Joe needs to go to France. Why does he need to go? Does he tell the other? Does the other follow him? And what happens to them once he/they are there?

The Master of Blacktower – Barbara Michaels
Gavin Hamilton, Damaris Gordon, Mrs. Cannon
I’ve read The Master of Blacktower so times (seriously, so many times), and I was thrilled to see this it appear in the tagset! It is my gothic romance id committed to paper, and I’d love anything that expands on or continues that vibe in a yuletide fic.

Either Gavin & Damaris or Gavin/Damaris would be delightful, depending on where in the plot you set your story.

Some ideas:

We know Gavin and Damaris went out for regular rides throughout the course of the novel. I’d love a missing scene that delves into one of them in more detail.

Damaris encounters a volume in the library with [secrets about the Hamilton family/secrets about the Gordon family/secrets about the local village/secrets about local history or customs]. How does she react? What happens next?

Mrs. Cannon may be more than she appears. What is her secret, and how does it relate to Gavin and Damaris.

Gavin teaches Damaris to duel. Does he want to? Does she want him to? Is he forced to? (And if so, by what circumstance?)

Under The Pendulum Sun – Jeannette Ng
Catherine Helstone, Ariel Davenport, The Anglerfish Moon, Queen Mab
Under the Pendulum Sun blew me away when I read (I squeed about it here and unlike my other requests, I don’t really have prompts for this one, because I would just love more. More of any of these characters. More of the world they inhabit. More of Arcadia and its eerie, beautiful otherworldliness. More of its horrific, arbitrary mindfuck rules, and characters thinking and tricking their way out of the horrific consequences. More origin stories. More missing scenes. More of Catherine’s story following the novel’s conclusion.


The Queen's Thief – Megan Whalen Turner
Kamet, Costis Ormentiedes, Teleus, Relius
I love these books so much. So. Much. I waited a year to read The Return of the Thief because I couldn’t bear the thought of it ending. Now that it is over, please give me more fic in this world, withr any of the characters I’ve requested (and if you want to include anyone else from the cast whom I didn’t specifically request, feel free to do so as well)! G-rated is great, and I also ship these guys in any configuration with each other and/or with Gen and Attolia.
When it comes to fic for this series, I’m down for political intrigue, court comedy of manners, clashing personal inclinations with official responsibilities, slice-of-life, divine intervention in human affairs, you name it—let your imagination run wild!
Some ideas:

• How did Teleus and Relius go from members of the court/colleagues to casual lovers, to committed lovers? Please give me all the backstory here.
• Give me all the Kamet and Costis missing scenes, from the end of Thick as Thieves to the end of The Return of the Thief.
• The Mede have been defeated—for now. But there are ominous signs that trouble is brewing with [the Mede/the Continental powers/Erondites’ former co-conspirators/what you will]. How do one or more of the requested characters catch wind of the trouble, and what do they do to try to nip it in the bud? (Run wild with gen or any relationship combo here.)
• Costis, Kamet, Teleus, and/or Relius find Pheris’ history in draft form. What revisions/additions/redactions do they make? How do their personal recollections of events differ from what he has recorded? What do they know but not want included in the draft?

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street Series – Natasha Pulley
Keita Mori, Thaniel Steepleton
I picked up The Watchmaker of Filigree Street knowing nothing about it beyond the fact that it had an octopus on the cover (I love octopuses) and it six years later it’s still one of my favorite books. I love everything about Watchmaker—the beauty of Pulley's language, the way the plot switches from crime procedural to subtle social commentary to steampunk/historical novel to romance, the way the characters are deeply amoral but you cheer for them anyway. I love that Mori is someone who both sends people to their deaths if they threaten him but washed Thaniel's dirty dishes before they met.

Feel free to include any other characters from the books as you like. I’ve read The Bedlam Stacks and The Lost Future of Pepperharrow, so no need to worry about spoiling for those if you want to write something that references them. That said, my headcanon stops at the conclusion of Watchmaker, so if you want to write something that pretends the other volumes don’t exist, feel free.

Some ideas:

• Thaniel and Mori retrace part of the steps of the Iwakura Mission. What does Mori tell Thaniel about his experiences, and what does Thaniel think of them?
• Six goes missing. Why didn’t Mori see it coming (or if he did, why did he let it happen) and what do he and Thaniel do next?
• What musical endeavor is Thaniel working on now? How is Mori involved?
• Another individual with Mori’s abilities appears on the scene. Is s/he friend or foe? What does s/he want with Mori and/or Thaniel?

これで以上です。