Dear Yuletide Writer...

[hellabaloo]

WELL. This has certainly been A Year, but I'm so excited that it's Yuletide season once again. Let's get started, shall we? :D

First off, hi! Thank you for writing for me! Second, thinking of prompts and writing my letter is one of my favorite parts of Yuletide and I can get a smidge carried away, but what I want most to read is a story you want to write. It could be one you’ve been tinkering with for years, something that you just thought of yesterday, or maybe one of my ideas catches your imagination. Whatever the case, please think of these prompts as guidelines: there if you need them, but don’t worry about following them to the letter.

Have fun writing and I’m looking forward to reading what you come up with :)

General Information

My AO3 handle is hellabaloo, but I spend most of my fannish time on tumblr as historiograph.

Previous Yuletide letters: 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012

If you have any questions or want any clarification, please reach out through the mods!

Jump to:
Dunkirk │ Jodhaa-Akbar │ The Magnus Archives
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World │ Much Ado About Nothing │ Outliers: Strange Stars

General Likes:

An overview of what I like, that's by no means complete:

I love longfics that are sprawling epics and I love tight, short fics that are perfectly contained little morsels. I love casefic and gapfillers and slice-of-life fic that give you real sense of the characters and the atmosphere of canon. I love AUs: canon divergence/for-want-of-a-nail/what-if type things! organized crime/hitmen! regency! daemon/HDM! mecha/space colonies! political thriller! secret royalty! art thief! parallel universes! magic! time travel! tattoo artist! and many more!

I love tropes: any version of fake dating/pretend relationships, pining, soulmates/soulmarks/soulbonds (especially if they come with a side of mental connection/telepathy), bodyswaps, amnesia (classic and Memento-style anterograde amnesia), clothes-sharing, costume porn, hurt/comfort oh man anything h/c, friends to lovers, enemies to lovers to friends, UST (ALL THE UST!), huddling for warmth, bed-sharing (Canadian shacks if you want to combine those last two), groundhog day/time loops, didn't know they were dating, loyalty kink, etc. I’m also always intrigued when tropes are subverted or my expectations for how something is going to play out are upended.

I love gen and friendship-focused fics and I love shippy fics and porn. See the Yuleporn section below for more in-depth kinks and squicks lists!

General Dislikes:

Please no rape/non-con, necro, mpreg, scat, terminal illness, infidelity, major or non-canonical character deaths, character bashing, or character flaws being glossed over. If I have them, fandom-specific DNWs are included in their respective sections.

AU's I'm not a fan of: high school or college AUs, coffee shop AUs, omegaverses, and zombie apocalypses.

Tropes I’m not a fan of: match-making and overly-invested friends, miscommunication, and whump.

Yuleporn

I love many flavors of porn: vanilla, with feelings, wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am PWPs—it's all good!

Kink Likes: fun giggly sex, intercrural, inexperienced (but not necessarily virginal) characters enjoying themselves and having premature orgasms, spanking, touch starvation, kink discovery (e.g. one partner starts dirtytalking because they’re being funny and the other partner’s reaction can be summed up as “fuck, that’s hot”), mutual masturbation and masturbating for a partner, anything size difference related (especially forehead kisses!), size kink, frottage and coming in pants, pain play, hair-pulling, sex pollen/heats, breathplay, playing with power differentials, accidental stimulation, edging, watersports (particularly of the controlling/"I'll tell you when and how you can go" variety) and ass-worship.

Squicks: total power exchange or 24/7 BDSM relationships (elements of d/s or bondage are fine), animal/pet play, and infantilization/age play.

Requested Fandoms

⇒ Dunkirk │ Collins, Peter Dawson, & Mr. Dawson; Feel free to treat this request as 'OR' matching and include any of the requested characters as you see fit. The Sea was my favorite storyline of the movie and I'd love any fic that explores these three more fully either individually or in relation to one another. Mr. Dawson mourning his son but also feeling compelled to do his part for the war effort, Peter caught between adolescence and adulthood, Collins doing everything he can to fly another day, or just the impact of that day on the rest of their lives. I ship Collins/Peter and would love anything focusing on their relationship, especially if it included pining, soulbonds, and/or hurt/comfort.

Available on Amazon, Google Play, HBO, and YouTube.

I enjoyed the hell out of this movie, particularly the way the narrative wove together the three different storylines in three separate but connected locations where the characters from one get tossed together with characters from another and it's so intriguing to see how they change and react.

There's so much about Mr. Dawson that only makes sense once you know that he's already lost one son to the war: his empathy, the insistence on checking the plane wreck, and his focus from the very beginning on doing right by the soldiers that are fighting the war, even if that means sailing himself into danger.

Peter's arc feels like it's all about growing up and being thrust into the war, whether he's ready or not—from setting out in the morning not really comprehending what they're heading into, to locking up the Shivering Soldier, caring for George while he's dying, and eventually lying about George's death because the truth isn't going to help anyone in that moment.

And Collins has this unflappable character that doesn't panic even when he's trapped in the sinking wreckage of his plane or react when he's getting heckled by a soldier after the evacuation, but is so clearly worried, helpless and grounded, during Farrier's dogfight. I wonder how far that circle people or situations that make Collins worried extends, or what a person needs to do to be in it.

I mainly ship Collins/Peter, but I also like Collins/Farrier and love messy feelings and complicated relationships, so feel free to include Farrier as something more than just Collins' friend. I like both fics that totally sidestep period-typical homophobia and ones that confront it, but if you want to write the latter please don't make it the focus of the story.

Do Not Want: more than canon-typical violence, incest

‣ Prompts

◊ Any sort of post-canon fic: Peter joins the RAF as soon as he's able and Collins is his superior office or maybe they don't meet again until after the war when they unexpectedly run into each other or Collins is providing air support for a mission and is surprised to see Peter in the midst of the fighting or whatever!

◊ Groundhog day AU! Who's caught in the loop? How long is it? How do they get out?

◊ Peter wants to talk about his brother, but stops bringing him up after seeing the sadness in his father's face one too many times. (Basically, just give me Peter & Mr. Dawson family feels!)

◊ We don't get near enough of it in the movie, but I love the dynamic between Mr. Dawson and Collins—Collins reminding him of his son who died, Mr. Dawson being this almost sage-like figure who's constantly surprising Collins—and want more! Maybe Collins feels guilty for reminding Mr. Dawson of his other son, but also craves that connection with a father-figure and finds excuses to spend time with him. Maybe Mr. Dawson sees Collins as a chance at telling his own son everything he never had the chance to.

◊ Peter becomes a journalist after the war and is given an assignment to interview Collins for his newspaper. It's the first time they've seen each other since that day.

◊ I'd love backstory or gapfillers for any of these characters. Peter and George growing up, what was Mr. Dawson doing during WWI, the story of why Collins decided to become a pilot, what is Mrs. Dawson doing during the course of the film, let your imagination run wild!

◊ Peter knows it's stupid, and they'll never meet again, but he can't stop thinking about the pilot they pulled out of the sea.

◊ If you'd like to try your hand at a crossover, I'd be delighted to read one! Foyle's War, The Bletchley Circle, Atonement, Band of Brothers, and Darkest Hour are all canons set in the same general time period with which I'm familiar.

⇒ Jodhaa-Akbar │ Rajkumari Jodhaa & Jalaluddin Mohammad Akbar; Ugh, this movie and these two are just so much fun. I love their relationship, how it slowly develops over time, is tested and comes out the stronger for it, and how much they come to care for each other. I'd love anything that focuses on that or is set post-canon during their rule. I'm also all about that costume (and jewelry!) porn if you can find a way to incorporate it.

Available on Netflix

I rewatched this earlier this year and was reminded of what a good movie this is and just how many tropes I love are included. I mean, political marriage, court intrigues, slow-burn romance, bedside vigils—it has everything! Not to mention Aishwarya Rai and Hrithik Roshan are just two incredibly beautiful people.

I love Jodhaa's character: how she's a little impetuous and has very strong convictions and doesn't back down when confronted with an obstacle. She's not underhanded and deals with her problems directly and I think that makes her so interesting to Jalal and I love watching him fall in love.

Jalal is such a good egg that wants the best for his people and is willing to not only admit his mistakes, but learn from them and work at doing better in the future. There's a vulnerability to him that I find really endearing, even while he is also capable of making the tough decisions a ruler is required to make.

Honestly, the relationship between Jodhaa and Jalal are what my slow-burn dreams are made of. I love that they both have these little moments of realizing that they maybe, kinda, sort of actually like their spouse (Jodhaa cooking for Jalal! Jalal entranced by Jodhaa's singing! Jodhaa happening upon Jalal, who's Super Casually practicing his swordsmanship shirtless, and going back for a second look! Jalal letting Jodhaa come back to him on her own! Jodhaa learning Arabic script!), which are of course thrown into stark relief because of the attempted assassination of Jalal and war. It's so good!

Do Not Want: infidelity, miscommunication as a plot device, unhappy endings

‣ Prompts

◊ I'd love any sort of post-canon fic that focuses on Jalal and Jodhaa's reign.

◊ After Jodhaa returns from Amer, she and Jalal have a standing appointment where they clear the courtyard and spar. It has a non-zero chance of ending with them banging.

◊ This is the perfect canon for amnesia fic: Jalal is injured trying to subdue an elephant (or handwaves whatever) and is confused by waking up to find he's married or Jodhaa catches a fever and when she wakes up can't believe she's married to a Mughal. Basically, have them fall in love all over again!

◊ Give me lovingly-detailed descriptions of pining and Jodhaa and Jalal slowly falling in love.

◊ I completely loved the little moments of cultural exchange between Jalal and Jodhaa, so any fic about one of those differences that highlight their different upbringings and how they're living together with them would be great.

◊ If In Lamhon Ke Daaman Mein is anything to go by, their first time was probably pretty fucking satisfying, given they'd been building up to it for months, but these two don't strike me as super experienced lovers and I'd love fic all about them learning each other's tastes and having fun having lots and lots of sex.

◊ Jalal loves Jodhaa's voice and asks her to sing for him.

⇒ The Magnus Archives │ Martin Blackwood; I love Martin! He's that 'true believer' foil to Jon's (rapidly decreasing, tbf) skepticism and always looking for the silver lining in the face of Tim's increasing pessimism. I love how he's gone from someone that 'will only cause delays' in Jon's estimation to coming up with plans of his own to stick it to Beholding and using people underestimating him to his own advantage. I'd love casefic or something about Martin following up a lead on a statement or his feelings for Jon or any guesses on what happens to him in season 4.

Available on iTunes, RustyQuill, Stitcher or your podcast dealer of choice.

I love that as the seasons have progressed, the narrative has really expanded and we've gotten more and more of all the characters that were previously just in Jon's periphery in the first two seasons. And given that it's so hard to pick a favorite among all the cast of characters, but on my second listen through I am definitely appreciating Martin more and more.

His development this season has been one of my favorite parts of the show and I can't wait to see where his character goes next. While I'm not keen on stories about his relationship with his mother, I am interested in his backstory as one of the assistants that's been working at the Institute the longest. What made him want to apply for a position at the Institute and how did he come to the decision to falsify his qualifications? Why did the Institute accept him?

I also totally love his relationships with his colleagues: the awkwardness of his feelings for Jon, his banter with Tim, him trying to befriend Melanie, Basira, and Daisy after they join the Institute. There's so much of their everyday work lives that must go on outside what we hear on the tapes that I'd love to read about.

While I have only requested Martin, I really do love all the other characters and how they all interact with each other so please feel free to include whoever you like. I've tried give a nice mix of Martin-centric and Martin with other people prompts from which to work, but please don't be discouraged if I haven't included a character you'd really like to write about. I ship Martin with all his male colleagues and am always willing to give a new pairing a shot.

Do Not Want: more than canon-typical violence, body horror

‣ Prompts

◊ I am a such a sucker for pining and messy relationships and have been loving where the show has been going with Martin's feelings for Jon and. So, Martin pining for Jon and being embarrassed that he knows and doesn't reciprocate, Martin trying to get over his feelings with inadvisable Tinder hookups, Martin and Elias getting into a weird manipulative arrangement, it's all good.

◊ I'd love anything about Martin set in Season 2: him recovering from the Prentiss attack, dealing with Jon's paranoia and Tim's increasing bitterness, etc.

◊ I love loyalty kink and Martin's insistence that Jon couldn't be Jurgen Leitner's killer, his determination to do something while the rest of the gang is off to try and stop the Unknowing, and his bedside vigil all totally push my buttons and would love fic that gets more into Martin's loyalty, what Jon thinks of it, what he might do with it, etc.

◊ Martin tries to organize and office holiday party or white elephant gift exchange or anything remotely festive and no one else is buying into the whole holiday cheer thing.

◊ Re-listening to the podcast from the beginning led me to discover this gem from the 0.3 Launch Trailer: "Martin? Martin, is that you? I swear, if he's brought another dog in here I am going to...peel him." So, tell me about the time Martin smuggled a dog into the Archive and what happened to make Jon so mad.

◊ What's your take on Martin being touched by an Entity? There have been hints about the Web and he did get more into reading the statements the more he did them, or is he something else, something that can't be touched by a power? Or maybe simply is normal.

◊ Martin becomes Jon's one remaining link to the human world. Tropes like bed-sharing, forced proximity, unwanted soulbonds, and their angsty implications are very welcome.

◊ Casefic! Or statement fic, I guess in this case ;) Episodes that have to do with the Flesh, the Buried, the Vast, and the Stranger are the ones that creep me out the most, if you want to write something along those lines. I'd also love to see darker takes on tropes like soulbonds or timeloops.

◊ While I love canon's commitment to creeping horror, I also can't help but giggle at putting the Magnus Archives in context of the actual archive and library professions and would love anything in a sillier vein. Like, what if Martin very earnestly submitted a panel or poster idea to the Archives and Records Association for their annual meeting who just don't even know how to react. Or what happens to the tourists that wander in off the street because they think the Institute is the British Museum.

⇒ Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World │ William Blakeney; Will Blakeney is such an interesting character and I'd love any sort of fic about him! From a gapfiller set during the movie or post-canon as he continues on with his career, anything! I particularly like the canon setting and would prefer something set during the Napoleonic period. I ship Will/Peter and Jack/Stephen.

Available on Amazon, Google Play, iTunes, and YouTube..

Master and Commander is one of those movies I find myself rewatching on the regular because it's got great characters and a fun, satisfying story. I love the emphasis on how the ship is akin to a floating slice of England and how it's this mass of interconnected and sometimes conflicting people, all with their own duties, wants, and needs. There's an aspect of found family to it all that I find really appealing.

There's so much depth to William Blakeney that sometimes I forget he's only supposed to be what, thirteen or fourteen? He goes through so much—from losing his arm and needed to learn how to be a midshipman without it to and striving to be useful to Dr. Maturin with his collecting and eventually losing what's obviously his closest friend, both in age and feeling—but there's always this sense of calmness and rationality about him that I find really quite astounding.

I totally love how both Stephen and Jack relate to Will; they're both sort of in the father-figure category, and yet very different as you might expect. I wish we got to see more of Will and his other superior officers: Pullings and Mowett and Allen. What was life was like in the midshipmen's berth aboard the Surprise?

I love Will & Peter both as friends and fumbling teenagers figuring out how these 'more than friends' feelings work. I also ship Jack/Stephen if you want to include hints of it in the background. I've read the first few books if you want to include any references to actions or cruises.

Do Not Want: more than canon-typical violence, body horror, emphasis on Blakeney's amputation (mentions are fine), fic heavily emphasizing period-typical homophobia

‣ Prompts

◊ Blakeney and Dr. Maturin finally present the discovery of the flightless cormorant to the Royal Society.

◊ How did Will's first meeting with Peter go?

◊ I loved Jack visiting Will in the infirmary and doing his best to be comforting and little moments like him holding Blakeney's sextant and would love anything more about Will and Jack through the years—the engagement that gets Will promoted to acting lieutenant, Will getting promoted to master and commander and taking command of his own ship, Will visiting Jack in his retirement, anything!

◊ More Will backstory! There's some evidence that not only is he part of the landed gentry, but he's part of the nobility and that his father was a Navyman and his mother is less than pleased he's following in those footsteps.

◊ Will returns Peter's trunk back to Peter's family after they dock in Portsmouth.

◊ This is such a good canon for epistolary fic! Will keeping a journal at Dr. Maturin's suggestion, sending updates to his family, corresponding with his friends, etc.

◊ I am a sucker for pining and would love for some melancholic Will/Peter pining or after Peter's death Will transferring his feelings to either Stephen or Jack who have to let him down gently.

◊ Do you have a favorite historical fact about the British Navy in the Napoleonic Wars or do you love maritime superstitions? Lay it on me!

◊ I am totally down for a crossover, set concurrently with the movie or at some nebulous time in the future: Will meets Captains Wentworth, Harville, and Benwick, or he's on transport duty and argues the relative merits of the Army vs Navy with Colonel Fitzwilliam, he's on leave and dances a set with Miss Darcy at her come-out, he has a run-in with Jonathan Strange or Mr. Norrell, he's the unwitting hero in a Georgette Heyer-style romance—so many options!

⇒ Much Ado About Nothing │ any (Beatrice, Benedick, Don Pedro); I'm sorry, I'm about to be very unhelpful because I love everyone in this bar and just want more of them. Really, I'd love fic about any combination (Beatrice/Benedick, Benedick/Don Pedro, Beatrice/Don Pedro, Beatrice/Benedick/Don Pedro) or any of them on their own. Pre-canon, post-canon, gapfillers, character studies, silly, serious, I will take anything.

Full text available here.

This request is totally the fault of all the gifs from the Catherine Tate & David Tennant production that showed up on my dash. I broke down, rented it, and then promptly remembered how much I just freaking love this play and proceeded to watch every adaptation I could get my grubby little hands on and I'm even in the middle of reading because somehow I've never read it before. And, well, here we are.

I adore Beatrice: her wit, her vivacity, her fierce, protective love of her family, and despite how being merry is in her nature that doesn't mean she's a pushover or willing to look the other way just to make sure no one's feathers are ruffled. (Actually, she probably enjoys all the ruffling of feathers she does ;)

For all the monologues that Benedick has, I feel like there's a large part of his character that we don't get to see in the play. It's there in his decision to believe Beatrice and break with the Prince and Claudio, but until that point he's the guy that uses sarcasm and wit as a defensive tactic and I'd love to see more of him after the play's ending.

Don Pedro is one of those characters I just want to know more about, especially if it’s in relation to either or both Beatrice and Benedick. Was he carrying a torch for Beatrice or is tricking her into loving Benedick an odd attempt at payback? What’s his reaction to Benedick challenging Claudio? What makes him tick?

I love both traditionally staged and other interpretations of Shakespeare, so if you have a particular idea of a cool setting for a fic, go for it!

‣ Prompts

◊ "You always end with a jade’s trick. I know you of old." / "Indeed, my lord, he lent it me awhile, and I gave him use for it, a double heart for his single one." I love the hints we get in the play of a history between Beatrice and Benedick and would love anything that explores their backstory and the beginning of their skirmish of wits.

◊ I am fascinated by Don Pedro's position in the middle of the whole Beatrice-Benedick thing, both as an instigator of the plot to make them fall in love with each other and the accusations against Hero. I definitely ship them all together, but wonder at how might Beatrice come to forgive him his part in Claudio's renunciation of Hero at the altar. Or, barring all the emotional heavy-lifting, OT3 porn works too :D

◊ Don Pedro backstory! He's the Prince of Aragon, is that a recent ascension to the throne or a waiting-to-be-king title? Is his father still alive? His mother? Do they worry about him being unmarried? How did he and Benedick first meet?

◊ What does Beatrice and Benedick's married life look like?

◊ What would change if soulmates or soulbonds existed in this universe? Does Beatrice chafe at the idea of 'destiny?' Does Benedick hide his and go off to war hoping to avoid his soulmate forever? Is Don Pedro caught between two different soulmates?

◊ The action of the play moves pretty quickly from point to point, but I'd love anything from those in-between scenes. Beatrice taking care of Hero after her 'death,' Benedick's continued attempts at writing poetry, anything!

◊ I love the revelry in Act 2 Sc. 1 and the disguises that play a role in Beatrice and Benedick telling each other the most unvarnished opinions they have of each other. Combine that with my love of identity porn and oh man, I want more!

◊ Benedick, Don Pedro, and Claudio walk ten mile afoot to see a good armor.

⇒ Outliers: Strange Stars │ Hew Draper & Narrator | Chaplain of the Tower of London; I will love anything written for this funky little podcast episode! I loved the atmosphere, the interaction between Hew Draper and the Narrator, and how it all ends in mysterious circumstances.

Available on iTunes, libsyn, Stitcher, and other purveyors of fine podcasts.

This is such an odd little podcast/short story and I was totally mesmerized from the get go. I love, loved, the tight pov that it uses and how that leaves a lot of the action of the story to be told second-hand and through hearsay—it definitely ups the spooky factor and ability to play around with fic.

Given that it's so short, it's completely understandable that we don't have a lot of information about the Narrator, but of course I want more. How did he come to be the Chaplain of the Tower of London? Does he come from a family with some amount of influence at the English court to get him the post? What's his life like after his exposure to Hew Draper? Does he become obsessed with sorcery, alchemy, and those early-modern attempts to explain the universe through divination and reading the stars?

I love the facts we do have of Hew Drapers life: he was a Bristol innkeeper that was arrested for witchcraft and attempted poisoning. I mean, what a hook! The narrative does such a lovely job of dropping hints about Hew Draper—his unremarkable appearance, the "items found within his home that served as strong evidence of unholy practices," violence increasing among the Tower's prisoners after Draper was transferred there (because Draper was transferred there?), that he burned his books on astronomy but that his sacred text "is not bound in anything so simple as parchment"—while still maintaining the aura of mystery that surrounds him. There's a lot of possibilities to explore and I'd be happy to ready anything.

If you're interested, there's a short entry on Hew Draper and the Salt Tower where he was held in The history and antiquities of the Tower of London by John Bayley available online here.

‣ Prompts

◊ Years after abruptly and unceremoniously vanishing from his life, Hew Draper reappears in the Chaplain's life.

◊ After Hew Draper's disappearance, the Chaplain has a crisis of faith.

◊ I got sucked into a wikipedia wormhole about Hew Draper and the crimes he was charged with, and there was a lot that hinted at broader Elizabethan political intrigue of the time so please explore that if you're up for it.

◊ "Do you believe in magic?" The question haunts the Chaplain and he can't help but try and satisfy his curiosity on the subject.

◊ I love metatextual stories with framing conceits like the fic is about a scholar researching marginalia, so idk, anything like a PhD candidate trying to research early-modern English incarceration and legal practices comes across this story and tries to solve the mystery of what happened to Hew Draper.

◊ What if this were a statement given to the Magnus Institute?

And if you've made it this far, you are my people, thanks for reading, and happy Yuletide!