Dear Yuletide Writer

[hellabaloo]

I'm not totally sure where October went, but it's time for another Yuletide! :D

First off, hi, hello! 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 throw out A LOT of ideas, 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 writing all them in one fic or following them down 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: 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012

If you have any questions or want any clarification on a part of my letter or sign-up, please reach out through the mods!

Jump to:
Bottle Shock │ Dunkirk │ Fleabag │ Passenger List

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! cowboy/Western! 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, woke up married, amnesia (classic fandom-style and Memento-style anterograde amnesia), clothes-sharing, costume porn, anything hurt/comfort, 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, competency 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, animal death or cruelty, 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 by overly-invested friends or family, miscommunication as a plot device, 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

⇒ Bottle Shock │ Bo Barrett, Gustavo Brambila, & Sam Fulton; I just want hot, dirty hippies hanging out, talking (arguing) about wine, enjoying life, and banging. But honestly, I'd be happy with most anything! Bo and Gustavo hustling people with their blind-tasting trick, but also legitimately being just that good, Sam first realizing winemaking was a legitimate career, Gustavo growing up at his dad's knee, working in the vineyard and dreaming of owning his own one day, or Bo struggling to live up to his dad's legacy. I definitely ship Bo/Sam/Gustavo as an OT3, but also really like all the constituent parts of this triangle: Bo/Sam, Sam/Gustavo, and Bo/Gustavo, it's all good!

Available on Amazon, Google Play, Vudu (free with ads), and YouTube

This is the Two Buck Chuck of movies about wine and winemaking—mass market appeal and never claiming to be high art—and I love that. The story and characters are so utterly endearing that it’s turned into one of my go-to rewatchable movies. (Plus, as someone that grew up a couple hours south of Napa/Sonoma, the visuals of those dry, golden hills in high summer dotted with deep green oak trees, are like pure comfort food for my soul XD)

Bo’s got a touch of the prodigal son about him, but also a maverick streak and that sort of naïvete that doesn’t let practical realities limit what he thinks is possible. I love the push-pull of his relationship with his dad and how much he really does care under the cool guy facade. I love how principled Gustavo is, and how he isn’t scared to go after what he wants, even if that means suffering in the short-term. He’s always running at 100% and fully committed to whatever he’s doing. Sam is just so cool, ugh, it’s hard to distill what I love about her! She’s practical and no-nonsense, but also has this tendency of surprising people and I think that’s just such a fascinating combo.

I definitely see these three eventually working things out between them and getting together, but I do also like them all as friends or friends and sometimes more.

And I know he isn’t nominated, but Alan Rickman’s Steven Spurrier is uptight, fish-out-of-water English perfection and if you want to include him, please do! I like both fics that totally sidestep period-typical misogyny, homophobia, and racism and ones that confront it, but if you decide to write the latter, please don’t make it a major focus of the story.

‣ Prompts

◊ tl;dr get these three crazy kids together! I'm not usually in the "an OT3 will solve the love triangle!" camp, but, uh, an OT3 would totally solve this love triangle. Who's got what hangups? Who makes the first move? How do they realize they want this and go for it?

◊ Sam, Bo, and Gustavo drink the next year's vintage and brainstorm the description of the wine for the back label. Whether they go for the ridiculous and obnoxious or earnest (or both!) is totally up to you.

◊ Gustavo’s wine is an aphrodisiac and anyone who drinks it falls in love with the person they share it with. Or go the sex pollen route, and the wine just makes everyone incredibly, uncomfortably horny unless they fuck.

◊ Bo keeps getting progressively more responsibility at Chateau Montelena and is forced to change his look. Gustavo and Sam lovingly rib him for cutting his hippie hair, wearing a suit, and hob-nobbing with the squares.

◊ Bo and Sam help Gustavo get his own winery started.

◊ Tell me all about Sam! How did she even get interested in wine-making, as a science, as an art? What's her story?

◊ I've always loved how deeply connected Gustavo feels to the soil and the vines and everything that goes into creating wine. Write a fic with magical realism or where Gustavo has superpowers or there's something about his blood.

⇒ 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.

⇒ Fleabag │ Fleabag; Fleabag's different relationships with people are the heart and soul of the show for me and really just want more of them! A fic involving Fleabag & Claire sister feels, a Fleabag/Priest fix-it or one that leans into the hurts so good ending, Fleabag and her dad in that weird adult child-parent relationship space they're in, or whatever! I love both season 1 "hot mess" Fleabag and season 2 "sort of has her shit together" Fleabag and would love a fic set in either season.

Available on Amazon

There are people that can intelligently and eloquently talk about Fleabag—the witty dialogue, the gut-punch moments, the wonderful characters in all their realistic, terrible glory—but I am not one of them. So, apologies in advance because this is just going to devolve into me rambling about everything I love about the series, which is everything.

I devoured both seasons in a single sitting because a. I couldn’t bear to leave it unfinished when there were more episodes left and b. because Fleabag herself was just so damn captivating. I love just how much she feels and how she uses humor to deflect when things get uncomfortable, her 4th-wall breaking asides are amazing and always seem to be thing that everyone is thinking but no one is saying. It's all just so fucking good.

And as if that weren't enough, the way Fleabag relates and interacts with everyone in her life, from Boo to Claire and Martin to Harry to her Dad and Godmother and to the Priest just encapsulates everything good and annoying and heartbreaking and awful and amazing and remarkable about the people that mean the most in your life. Her relationships with other people and herself are the heart of the show for me.

While I have only requested Fleabag, I really do love all the other characters and how they all interact with one another so please feel free to include whoever you like. I've tried give a nice mix of Fleabag-centric and Fleabag 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 Fleabag/Priest, but am totally open to other ships too!

‣ Prompts

◊ In general, I love Fleabag and Claire's relationship. In particular, the moment in the first season when Claire tells her "How can I trust you after what you did to Boo?" completely broke me. So anything about Fleabag confessing just what did happen to Boo, or Claire revisiting that post season 2. Or really just any sort of sister feels, I'm good with that.

◊ The Continuing Adventure of the Statue as Fleabag continues to steal it or maybe she decides to steal something else from Godmother and that becomes a whole other Thing.

◊ Fleabag & Family Christmas Dinner.

◊ Basically, Fleabag/Priest porn. Go where your id wants to take you.

◊ Anything about the year between season 1 and season 2 and how Fleabag starts to get her shit together. How did Chatty Wednesdays get started at the café? Did Fleabag take cooking classes to expand the menu options or just marathon a ton of GBBO for ideas? What pushed her into action after the end of season 1?

◊ Before of after The Priest, write about any of Fleabag's random hookups. Does she decide to have theme weeks on tinder and only swipe right on guys named Tom or beyond the bus, where else has she unexpectedly picked someone up?

◊ There are already a ton of really wonderful fics that get Fleabag/The Priest together, but I will always want more. Set it before he's ordained, have him leave the priesthood, whatever just unbreak my heart from that ending!

◊ Fleabag and the Priest don't meet at dinner, they meet because she's possessed by a demon and he's called in for an exorcism. Or maybe a crossover with Constantine (the movie) or The Sin Eater? Basically, lean into the weird Catholic vibes!

⇒ Passenger List │ Kaitlin Le; I know it's tough writing for an ongoing canon, but I would love literally any fic for this fandom- gapfiller, jossed theory, anything. I love Kaitlin- she's not a great investigator, she's just a kid, but she's smart and learning with every interview she does. She's also dealing (or not) with this huge life-changing event and consumed with doing something and trying her best. So send her chasing a red herring, deal with the fallout between her and her parents, her and Dylan/Thomas, Mia contacts her again with more information, anything.

Available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, or your podcast source of choice.

SPOILERS AHOY

This is the podcast in my current rotation most likely to leave me shouting "WHAT?! WHAT?!" at the end of every episode. All the twists and turns and red herrings—excuse me, Conor’s alive?! All the passengers are alive?! AHHH—have built up this engrossing mystery and I just want to know what happens next!

I love Kaitlin’s determination, but I also am loving how authentic it all feels when she starts to doubt herself and learn how to investigate Flight 702. She fucks up and has to deal with the consequences, but that isn’t enough on its own to make her want to stop digging. The way they’ve built up the “is Kaitlin just unwilling to face facts” vs “Kaitlin is the only one on the right track despite everything” is so good. I love how from episode to episode, and sometimes from moment to moment within the episode itself, I am changing my own mind on where I stand. I am also loving how the story incorporates Kaitlin's parents and her child of immigrants experience. It gives a ton of insight into who she is and where she and Conor came from and I'd love to read more about that.

The little breadcrumbs the story leaves about Kaitlin and her relationship with her brother, her parents, and then have those little hints build up to something significant are so cool when you go back for a second or third listen. It'd be great to see any one of those threads explored more fully.

N.b. Because new episodes are currently airing, I'll do my best to keep up with them and make changes to my letter if there are reveals or plot developments that affect any of my prompts.

‣ Prompts

◊ I love the evidence/new lead of the week format, and I'd just love to have more of that. Send Kaitlin interviewing some friend or family of a passenger who was shipping a suspiciously large amount of something or who has ties important political figures or whatever!

◊ WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN NEXT?! After ep. 8 I am falling off the edge of my seat waiting for each new episode. Is there an actual government conspiracy? WHY? Is this a hostage situation? WHY? If you don't mind writing something that will probably be jossed, I'd love to read your theory!

◊ What's it like to be on the other side of Kaitlin Le's investigation?

◊ I am a sucker for supernatural elements in an otherwise totally real-world canon, and Mia was such a delight. I love Kaitlin's skepticism and Mia's unfailing belief and how the two of them collide.

◊ What do the in-universe true crime fans think of Flight 702? Does Kaitlin get requests to be on a podcast? Are there forums about the investigation she posts in? What do people think really happened?

◊ Not gonna front, I was totally shipping Kaitlin and Dylan before the Dylan-is-Thomas reveal, and the reveal has only mildly slowed that rowboat down. Two people leaning on each other to get through an emotionally trying time, potentially making a mistake that changes their relationship, is total catnip to me. And if Conor really turns out to be alive, I would not be opposed to a Kaitlin/Conor/Dylan-Thomas threesome. I love incest relationships fraught with tensions and unspoken issues and a go-between in the middle and this has the perfect set up for that.

◊ For all that they spoke maybe a handful of words to each other, there was something about Kaitlin and Beatrice LaPeer together that totally caught my imagination. They're two women who don't have anything in common except this one point of tragedy, and they each are reacting and dealing with it very differently. I'd love something shippy or just B recognizing that Kaitlin needs a friend in her life and slowly working her way into Kaitlin's life.

◊ I have a weird soft spot for Christmas fics that are discordant with the overall tone of a canon, and 100% would love one for Passenger List. Kaitlin's mom tries to get her to come home, but Kaitlin can't face her family home without Conor, Kaitlin finds herself stranded in an airport during a snowstorm, she gets a random holiday greeting on the tip line, anything.

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