liryian

Hello, yuletide writer!

Sorry about how long it's taken me to get this letter finished. If you're writing for one of the sections I hadn't finished, feel free to disregard this, but if you're looking for something to help you figure things out, I hope this is useful!

I'm Elsin on ao3 and I'm looking forward to whatever you write for me!!

Different fandom sections may differ in length, but I would like all of them equally! Most of the text is collapsed under details tags, click the headers to reveal it.

General Likes

• plotty fics


• Secret identity and disguise shenanigans, the more layers to them and more absurdity the better


• Casual gender nonconformity


• Time travel and time loops are always fun


• A focus on family and/or friendship, especially characters realizing they’re not nearly as alone as they think they are, and just generally characters who like each other and enjoy spending time together


• Found family; families of choice


• Character studies


• Worldbuilding


• Canon-divergence AUs and missing scenes; things set pre- or post- or mid-canon


• What a character would perceive as "corruption" into becoming their own best self

General DNW

• non-con/dub-con


• explicit sexual content


• incest (incl. adoptive/chosen family)


• a/b/o


• mpreg


• non-canonical permanent major character death


• complete downer endings


• hurt no comfort


• relentless despair, self-loathing, or self-doubt


• on-page deliberate self-harm (generalized self-destructive behavior is okay)


• on-page suicide


• gore


• graphic physical trauma


• characters who are not cartoonishly evil in canon acting cartoonishly evil for no apparent reason


• cringe comedy


• fic that’s all about real-world bigotries or real-world politics


• specific contemporary real-world events


• unrequested marginalized identities as the main focus of a fic


• unrequested romance as the main plot


• any bigotry-motivated violence


• full setting aus

Monstrous Regiment - Terry Pratchett

Characters requested: none
Tagset characters: Wazzer, Jackrum, Maladict, Polly

This is a standalone book in the Discworld series, about a rather unusual group of newly recruited in the small country of Borogravia.

fandom notes: I DNW cis woman!Jackrum--which is to say, I'm not particularly interested in a reading of him that's explicit about him being Definitely Only A Woman. Other readings--be they him identifying as he presents himself, or an uncertainty, or somewhere in between--are welcome.
I also adjusted the bigotry-motivated violence dnw for this fandom--there's a lot of implications of and allusions to horrible misogynistic violence in this book, but most of it is written between the lines and off the page and I would prefer it to stay there; no need to pretend that Wazzer, for example, hasn't had terrible things happen to her, but I'd like it if they stayed at the level that they are in the book.

Onto my thoughts! I love the double entendre of the title--their regiment is both literally monstrous (in that half of them aren't human) and metaphorically so (since they're gasp women!). I like the way the book plays with presentation and identity and believability--Polly's read as a barmaid when she wears a skirt, but they get called infiltrating soldiers (which, to be fair, they are) when they show up as washerwomen.

I'd love something going into Jackrum's life, before or after the events of the book (or spanning both), or something about how Wazzer is afterwards--what was her relationship with the Duchess like for her? How did that work?

There's also Maladict, who I'd be down for any gender reading on--what was the thought process behind leaving? Was it really just a dislike of the corsets, or something more? Where does Maladict go afterward?

And Polly! Something about her navigating the new world, and what she does with her own little lads, would be great here, but for all of them--I'd love to see what you want to explore for them.

Mother of Learning

Characters requested: Novelty, Fortov, Kirielle, Raynie
Works may feature any one or more of these characters.

This is a complete webnovel of about 800k words, and can be found on fictionpress here and on royal road here.

fandom dnw:

• physical parental abuse


• significant exaggeration of canonical family dysfunction


• Zach/Zorian


• explicit permanent erasure of time traveler characters in your work who weren’t erased in canon


• original!Kirielle dying at all, either from plot events or getting her body stolen by a looping counterpart

There's a lot of characters in the novel whose lives we see bits and pieces of, but who we don't get a full picture of; I've selected four of them here. My prompts mostly deal with them in isolation, but I'd be down for any combination you want to write. if you're stuck for ideas, I'm always down for a good alternate Controller/alternate tag-along AU!

Novelty:
I love Novelty, how cheerful and curious she is, how unfailingly interetested in Human Things. Anything you want to give me about here I'd love--I'm particularly interested in Novelty And Humans, but if you've got another idea go for it!

Fortov:
Of the Kazinski siblings, we see Fortov the least, and we know that Zorian doesn’t like him, but Zorian isn’t a reliable narrator when it comes to Fortov. So tell me about him! What’s it like to be Fortov Kazinski, generally charismatic middle child and sometimes-definitely-a-dick who isn’t a total overachiever in any field?

Raynie:
I like how Raynie is in some ways a foil to Zorian, and some ways very different; they're both teenagers somewhat embittered over family dynamics, but Raynie carries a context and history with her that Zorian lacks. Something dealing with the tension between Raynie, student mage of Eldemar, and Raynie, first-born child and daughter of a shifter tribe, might be interesting.
I also enjoy her friendship and dynamic with Kiana.
for pre-canon I’d love something with Raynie going to Cyoria and how she befriended Kiana in the first place (or, more likely, how Kiana befriended her; I doubt that Raynie age 13, recently semi-exiled from her tribe, was particularly in search of outsider friends).
For post-canon, anything dealing with the fallout of all the things that go down in the real world would be fantastic too. What happens when she goes home? How does the invasion shift her relationship with her family and tribe?

Kirielle:
If you want to focus on Kirielle’s relationship with someone else, for Zorian, I love their dynamic! And I’d enjoy seeing their relationship developing in real time. I think it would be great to see either of them defending the other to their parents—maybe Zorian ends up with custody of Kiri, definitely things to explore there. For Nochka, they’re adorable and I’d love a further development of their friendship, especially getting to see it grow and develop after the invasion. If you want to write about her and Zach, they seem to have a lot of fun teaming up against Zorian, I really enjoy their dynamic and how they play off each other. Or you could go with someone else entirely!
I’d also be here for any sort of solo story about/character study of Kiri, really, but I’m gonna prompt a few specific things anyway.
- She grows up a little, and becomes a student mage—what’s that like for her, especially having received Zorian’s tutelage?
- She grows up a little, and doesn’t seriously pursue magic—does she devote herself more seriously to art? Do something else? Get away from her parents, and get to just be a kid for a little longer than her siblings?
- looper!Kirielle, with extra complications because she's a kid.

mulberry down!! - Nicole Kornher-Stace

Characters requested: none
Tagset characters: You | The Exiled One, The Other, Worldbuilding

This is a novella about the consequences of a portal fantasy, and you can find it here.

I really like the tone of this novella, how dreamlike and unmoored it is; I like the dynamic between the narrator and the other, and the yearning and searching and not-knowing of it all.

The world is sketched in broad strokes; I would love to see how more of how time works, or magic, even if nothing is ever really explained.

Nimona

Characters requested: Ambrosius, Ballister, Gloreth, Nimona
Please include at least two of these characters, in any combination you'd like to go with. If you want to focus on a ship, Ambrosius/Ballister would be fine.

Found family! Love and loss and trust and betrayal and hope and... look, there's a lot in this movie to like, all right? I'd love to see more about the dynamics between any of these characters--Nimona and Ballister of course are friends already, but how does she interact with Ambrosius after coming back? What were Ambrosius and Ballister like pre-canon; how did they pick up the pieces, after the movie's main events?

And as for Gloreth, she's someone Nimona knew in person and someone the others only know as a legend--did she and Nimona only know each other as children, or did they meet again? What was it like for Ambrosius, growing up with her legacy on his shoulders; what about Ballister, who knew himself as a contradiction to her rules for so long? Or do they end up meeting via time travel shenanigans, or something like that?

Feel free to engage with the canonical violence motivated by fear, etc around Nimona and her nature and abilities, and that around Ballister and his introduction into a previously-exclusive social class.

Candy Hair Saga

Characters requested: none
Characters in tagset: GG-chan, MC-kun, MG-chan, RBR-kun, Villain-chan, worldbuilding

This is a story in a tumblr post, and can be found here. It's about kids in a world where everything runs on like, rule of cool shonen anime logic, and the phrase "clothing maketh man" is anything but a metaphor--putting on the right costume will literally give you the associated skills, as long as you're sufficiently Special.

I really like the tone of it, and all the characters; I also love the world logic and anything that gives me more of the kids and/or the wacky world they live in would be great!!