Yuletide 2023: Letter (updated 10/30)
Oct. 19th, 2023 03:28 amContents:
1. General DNWs
2. A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia (1990)
3. Shoujo Kakumei Utena | Revolutionary Girl Utena
4. Wayfarers series - Becky Chambers
5. Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu | Legend of Galactic Heroes
6. Oniisama e... | Dear Brother
7. The Wire
GENERAL DNWs, no exceptions:
ABO/Omegaverse of any kind | Animal death/abuse/harm | Autistic or neurodivergent headcanons as main focus of the story | Bathroom kinks | Breathplay or other potentially life-threatening kink | Child sexual abuse, including in backstories (unless it is canonical. Note that a character having been abused as a child in some other way does not mean that "child sexual abuse" is canonical) | Detailed violence/torture/gore | Extreme underage (i.e. younger than the age when teens typically start having consensual sex) | Feederism or other weight-fetishization | Focus on feminine grooming rituals (such as doing each others' hair/makeup) in F/F | Genital mutilation (such as sounding) | Issuefic. Feel free to give your characters strong opinions and explore fraught issues, but the key word there is explore; I don't want to feel like I'm being lectured to or taught a lesson | Jewish or Muslim characters with uncircumcised penises | Loss of intelligence/Flowers for Algernon plots | Men domming women | Mpreg-specific: butt babies, surprise uteruses, or other stuff that's implausible to whatever fictional universe you're in | Negative/stigmatizing discussion of abortion | PIV in smut | Pre-relationship/UST that never resolves in romance/ship fic | Pregnancy in a female character (unless in the background) | Rape/non-con | “Soulmate AUs” where the main couple are not actually soulmates | Using feminizing terms for male characters
GENERAL DNWs, with specific exceptions for specific fandoms/characters:
Ace/aro/demisexual/demiromantic headcanons (exception: Yang Wenli in Legend of Galactic Heroes) | Amnesia/memory loss (exception: Revolutionary Girl Utena) | AUs that change the setting or central relationship significantly* (exception: some AUs are fine with A Dangerous Man, please see details in that section) | Daddy kink (exception: Faisal/Lawrence in A Dangerous Man) | Lifestyle BDSM (exception: Faisal/Lawrence in A Dangerous Man) | Unrequested poly (exception: Rosemary/Sissix in Wayfarers with their canonically poly relationship) | Trans/non-binary headcanons for focus characters (exceptions: Revolutionary Girl Utena and Oniisama e...)
*Setting changes means like significant shifts in place/time or worldbuilding, like a sci-fi AU for a realistic fiction show, or moving a historical or futuristic show to the present day. It does not mean plot-divergence or smaller worldbuilding changes (e.g. a soulmate AU) in an otherwise similar universe. You can use your best judgment on where to draw the line, obviously. "Central relationship" changes are stuff like changing people's ages, genders/sexes, species, etc. or "reversing" in-canon character dynamics (like giving characters each other's jobs or social roles).
Usually DNW, with broader exceptions for certain fandoms, please look at the specific fandom:
Abusive relationships between requested characters | Big power differentials between members of the main couple in ship fic | Cheating on main couple in ship fic | Major Character Death | Whump/dark fic (as stated in some of the fandom sections, I'm never really a fan of full-on "Hurt No Comfort," but I'm cool with and even prefer darker themes for some fandoms)
A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia (1990)
Requested: Faisal bin Hussein bin Ali al-Hashemi, T.E. Lawrence (must use all)
Canon is a made-for-television movie that aired on UK TV in the early 1990s, designed as a sequel to the 1962 Lawrence of Arabia film, but you do not need to watch that for this film to make sense. It's available in the U.S. on Amazon Prime.
I love this movie so much; both of the mains' performances are so beautiful and they do such a great job of building such a fascinating relationship between these two men that is intertwined with their diplomatic dreams and failures.
I'd really love a version of this where the subtext between the two of them becomes text! (It may as well be text, with some of the moments between them...) Write their private moments at night in-between meetings, write them kissing right after that final shot, write a way for them to be together? I'm fine with stuff that deviates from the historical reality of what happened to them if it allows for more romance. I'm also totally fine with if you want to get NSFW; Faisal/Lawrence are the one ship where I really like BDSM, including lifestyle BDSM.
Despite being really interested in the period, I'm open to AUs here, including modern AUs, AUs in a more accepting (less homophobic, for instance) version of the time period, even an AU where they somehow succeed at getting what Faisal wants from the Paris Peace Conference? (I continue to think that "what if the UK and France didn't continue to insist on colonialism but instead gave more of the non-Western nations what they wanted" is one of the best unrealized alternate-history scenarios, so if you can make that happen, go ahead.) While the big thing I want here is romance between the leads, I'm also super into the geopolitics of this story.
Specific Prompts:
- What happens immediately after the camera stops (since it always seems to me like they're about to kiss there)
- How could Faisal and Lawrence manage to be together as a couple after the events of the story?
- AU where Faisal manages to win his fight for decolonization in some way, and Lawrence joins him there - exploring their relationship and the geopolitical implications of this change
- Grappling with Lawrence's beliefs about politics and empire in the context of him being in a relationship with Faisal
- "Missing scenes" of them being romantically affectionate/intimate during the events of the story
- AU where the time period/historical events are otherwise the same except homophobia is less present and maybe same-sex marriage is even allowed: does this allow Faisal/Lawrence to be together or do they still encounter obstacles to their relationship because of the political situation? You could even have a situation where they do get married with Faisal as some sort of monarch, and how this complicates Lawrence's situation back in the UK
- Modern AU that still preserves their dynamic to some degree (an example of one of these that I like is nerdypipsqueak's The Modern Royalty AU that Nobody Asked For)
Fandom-Specific DNWs:
Anything that tries to romanticize colonialism | De-aging | Dom/top Lawrence | Gender changes/Rule 63 | Historical inaccuracies that are not intentional (It doesn't have to be exacting detail, but don't get basic facts wrong like which countries existed, don't have them use overly-modern speech, etc. unless you're intentionally changing that aspect of the history/in an AU. I'm super interested in this particular time period, so it really takes me out of the story if it comes across like the author just doesn't know that history) | Lawrence being attracted to women | Major Character Death | Mpreg | Non-mundane AUs (e.g. sci-fi, fantasy, etc. AUs) | Orientalist depictions of Faisal and his culture (what I mean by this is just do not treat the Islamic World/Middle East as a cultural monolith, respect cultural sensitivities as best you can, I've read too many terrible fics involving Muslim characters where people are conflating, for instance, Arab and Persian culture in a way that is just distracting and offensive if you know the first thing about that part of the world!) | Sad/ambiguous/unhappy endings
The "usually DNW" all apply here except for the "big power differentials" (as long as Faisal is the one with more power there).
Requested: Any nominated character(s)
Canon is a 39-episode anime television series that aired in Japan in 1997. It is currently available in the U.S. from Nozomi Entertainment's YouTube channel for free. (This may change over the course of this year's Yuletide as Nozomi Entertainment is in the process of being bought out by Crunchyroll; I'll update this entry if that is the case.) I strongly recommend watching the Japanese dub with English subtitles, rather than the English dub.
This is my favorite anime of all time, and I went for "any character" because I really, genuinely do love every character on this show. I'm very interested in a lot of the relationships that are both canon and implied. In terms of romantic or sexual ones, my favorites are Juri/Shiori, Touga/Saionji, Utena/Anthy, Miki/Touga (one-sided on Miki's part or reciprocal), Mikage/Mamiya, and any combination of Kozue/Nanami/Shiori. In terms of other kinds, Miki's relationship with his sister Kozue, Wakaba's friendship with Utena (which you can make more shippy if you want), and anything centered on Nanami, Juri, or Mikage.
I enjoy things that lean into the dark, messy nature of a lot of the relationships in the show. In fact, I would prefer not to have something overly fluffy, or if you want to go there, at least give me some smut 🙂 I am 100% ok with pure smut/PWP in this fandom.
I like explorations of anyone's sexuality, as long as it's not in a didactic way or one that focuses overmuch on specific labels. But stuff where they might have to deal with attraction they didn't anticipate, wonder what this means about them, how it relates to hang-ups they have about gender... great stuff and the sort of thing that Utena is all about, really!
I am familiar with the original anime series, the original manga, the Adolesence of Utena series and accompanying manga, and the After the Revolution "sequel" manga from a few years ago. I'm starting to read the light novels. I'd prefer a work based on the anime series, but if you want to include elements from those other works, that's cool too. I'm not familiar with any other Utena canons, but I'm fine with spoilers and so on so dropping in stuff from there is cool with me, so long as it doesn't require me to have read/watched/played/etc. the thing in order to understand it.
Specific Prompts:
- Introspective/character study. I would really love this focused on ANY character, but if you do need some specific characters, my current personal favorites are Juri, Saionji, Mikage, Miki, Nanami, Wakaba and the two mains, Anthy and Utena.
- Soulmate AUs that really lean into the messy, coercive nature of universe-assigned soulmates (with the caveat that the main couple still needs to be each other's soulmates per the rule of that universe, per the DNWs)
- Any focus significantly on the Black Rose arc or the Black Rose duelists, as that is my favorite arc of the series
- Saionji or Shiori grappling with being gay rather than bisexual (if you would rather write them as the latter that's fine, but I'd be realllllly interested in a more introspective fic that focuses on the former)
- Juri dealing with the fact that the woman she's in love with is kind of a terrible person, and coming to terms with that - ideally with some messy smut thrown in
- Juri/Shiori somehow making it work? But hopefully with some toxicity along the way - I looooove "toxic yuri" more than few other things in fanfiction
- Touga/Saionji somehow making it work - ideally post-canon
- Touga/Saionji having various messy false starts during canon, while slowing realizing that their feelings are for each other
- One of my friends suggested a reading of Kozue as trans, especially based on the After the Revolution manga. I think that would be realllllly cool to explore in fanfiction, especially in how that influences her relationship with her brother.
- I genuinely don't think that the Miki/Kozue is a case where they actually want to do incest with each other; I think those feelings are proxy for other stuff. If you'd like to explore what exactly those feelings mean and how they figure that out, and even if they make some mistakes about their attraction and feelings to each other and act on them along the way, be my guest. I would prefer it not be a case where Miki/Kozue incest is the endgame, but it as a stop along the way in their character journeys I find really interesting.
- Nanami being queer in some way and how she figures that out
Fandom-Specific DNWs:
Any characters being portrayed as exclusively heterosexual | Explicit physical abuse. Emotional/mental abuse and manipulation OK | Fluff. Make it messy and/or smutty, please. | Juri being attracted to men | Mpreg | Non-canonical MCD | Unrelenting misery (darkfic is OK otherwise. I do enjoy these characters being awful people, but I'm not interested in a fic that's just "Character X Suffers") | Woobification. I like these characters for their faults!
None of the "usually DNW" apply here.
Wayfarers series - Becky Chambers
Requested: Rosemary Harper, Sissix Seskethet, Worldbuilding (must use all)
Canon is a sci-fi novel series by Becky Chambers, set in the same universe but largely stand-alone. The characters that I requested appear in the first book, A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet.
This is my first time requesting this fandom for an exchange, but I really love the romantic relationship between Rosemary and Sissix! I would love stuff that delves deeper into that, including by incorporating worldbuilding involving Sissix's culture or other alien cultures. How does their relationship going forward from the first book fit in with Sissix's culture's norms about relationships? Where do they go from there?
If you go for smutty stuff (which I am A-OK with here), I love stuff that focuses on differences in alien biology from human biology, especially in exploring Sissix's reptilian body and all that entails.
I have read the first book. I haven't yet read the other books in the series, but I am planning to and I don't mind plot spoilers.
I love the exploration-focused sci-fi plots, so feel free to have the Wayfarer explore more strange new worlds with Rosemary, Sissix and their relationship as a central focus. I really love the worldbuilding in this series and would love fics that explore it further!
Specific Prompts:
- Delving further into Aandrisk (or future human) culture, history, geography, art/media, etc.
- Rosemary and Sissix exploring different cultural norms around relationships, relationship milestones, etc.
- The Wayfarer goes on new adventures where Rosemary and Sissix are featured
- How lesbian sex works between a human and a reptilian alien ;)
Fandom-Specific DNW:
Sad/ambiguous/unhappy endings for requested characters
The "usually DNWs" all apply here.
Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu | Legend of the Galactic Heroes
Requested: Reinhard von Lohengramm, Siegfried Kircheis, Yang Wenli, Hildegard von Mariendorf (if you use Kircheis, Reinhard must also appear; otherwise, writer's choice among these four characters)
Canon is a 1980s sci-fi novel series and two anime series, one from the 1980s-90s and one from the 2010s. I would prefer if you focus on the first anime series, which is available in its entirety in Japanese with English subtitles on HIDIVE.
My interest in this fandom is in a deeper exploration of their character arcs and how the politics and worldbuilding shape who they are, their ideals and ways of looking at the world, and their relationships with each other. I especially love stuff that further explores the queer subtext of this series. I'm a big fan of ReinKir (Reinhard von Lohengramm/Siegfried Kircheis) and in making that relationship more textual, but I love exploring the queerness of these other characters as well.
I also like fix-its where Reinhard or Yang lives, and possibly where Yang goes on to play a role in Reinhard's future rule over the galaxy (especially interesting if you go for a Reinhard/Yang relationship).
You can go relatively canon-compliant in terms of the social mores of their world (and maybe explore them further than the show canon does?) OR you can do a world that is more accepting of same-sex marriage, even in specific circumstances (like a Reinhard/Yang alliance marriage after the war).
I have some basic knowledge of German (and intermediate knowledge of Japanese) if that helps in terms of dialogue choices or names or whatever, though obviously (and also per the rules of the exchange) please write the fic in English.
Specific Prompts:
- Reinhard/Kircheis: subtext becomes text - how they start hooking up
- Reinhard/Kircheis: fix-it fic where Kircheis lives - how does their relationship affect Reinhard's political journey? can they ever be open about it?
- Reinhard/Kircheis: Kircheis grappling about his feelings for Annerose vs. Reinhard and his sexuality, perhaps realizing what he thought was a crush on the sister was really a way to get closer to the brother
- Reinhard/Yang: political/arranged marriage, rivals to lovers
- Reinhard and Hildegard, or Yang and Frederica, as a lavender marriage
- How Hildegard first gets interested in politics
- Hildegard as a lesbian or otherwise interested in women
- Yang introspective fic about his political journey, how he got interested in history, etc.
- Yang AU where he gets to study history/go to the future's equivalent of grad school in some way or another (including possibly post-canon in a fix-it where he lives?)
- Yang dealing with Julian having one-sided feelings for him
- Yang-focused fic where he's had a romantic history with Dusty and/or Jessica Edwards
- Yang fic that focuses on him being gay or asexual
- Exploring what the specific societal mores are about sexuality/LGBTQIA+ identities in the Empire, the Alliance, or both
- AUs where one or both are more accepting of alternate sexualities than they are in canon, or possibly, where a future Reinhard or Yang government helps that come about
Fandom-Specific DNWs:
The "usually DNW" apply here - and the MCD DNW includes canonical character deaths.
Oniisama e... | Dear Brother
Requested: Misonoo Nanako, Asaka Rei, Shinobu Mariko, Orihara Kaoru (must use either Nanako and Rei, OR Mariko and Kaoru; other two requested characters you can add in or not per writer's choice)
Canon is a manga from the 1970s by Ikeda Riyoko (of Rose of Versailles fame) and a 1990s anime adaptation directed by Dezaki Osamu. I would prefer a focus on the latter, which is available in its entirety in Japanese with English subtitles on RetroCrush.
The thing I'd really like for this fandom is to give these characters the sort of happy ending they didn't get in the original story - a version of the story where Nanako and Rei can be happily in love without Rei's death, or where Mariko and Kaoru have a real romance. Any sort of variation where it's a version of the story where the characters can be openly queer without being doomed to tragedy is great, but that's the one I'd most like to see!
Specific Prompts:
- Fix-it fic where Rei lives, and looking at how Nanako and Rei's relationship develops from there
- Fix-it where Rei lives, but she and Nanako do not stay together; however, Nanako remembers her fondly as her first lesbian relationship as she goes on to have other, more balanced relationships with women
- Fix-it fic where Kaoru and Mariko get to be together
- Anything that features Fukiko in a major supporting role
- Rei/Nanako that features Tomoko in a major supporting role, including possibly as a love triangle?
Fandom-Specific DNW:
Woobification. I like these characters for their faults! | Writing any of these characters as straight | Writing any of them as ending up with men in this story (even if they did canonically)
The "usually DNWs" apply here with the exception of "big power differentials." The MCD DNW includes canonical character deaths.
The Wire
Requested: Omar Little, Brother Mouzone (must use all requested characters)
Canon is a 5-season drama/crime TV show that aired on HBO in the United States 2002-2008. It is available in its entirety on Max in the U.S.
I always thought there was a lot of subtext between these two, or that there could potentially be something between them. I'm really interested in a fic that explores that possibility. Alternately, a fic that involves the two of them in a significant way that goes into one of Omar's other romantic/sexual relationships with men/his sexuality. I appreciated what the show gave us there and that that wasn't all there was to his character, but it would've been cool to see more.
I'm very familiar with Baltimore, so I also love stuff that uses the location to great effect if you are familiar enough with it for your writing to be convincing to a local.
I'll be honest, I meant to also request Kima Greggs and Jimmy McNulty, so I'd be fine with them appearing as background characters in this somehow. I also enjoy stuff focusing on any of the tagset characters as possible. If you'd like to treat with a Greggs- or McNulty-centric fic (if that is allowed? this is my first time doing Yuletide), I'm cool with that, too.
Specific prompts:
- Omar/Mouzone fall for each other while working together
- Omar/Mouzone grappling with different beliefs about homosexuality, especially as per Mouzone's religious beliefs (or maybe he's fine with it?)
- Omar/Mouzone wondering if the other person sees this as just a temporary thing to earn the other's trust (or maybe figuring out if they see it that way themselves or not)
- Omar/Mouzone as Mouzone's first gay experience
- Omar/Mouzone - fix-it fic where Omar lives, and they seek each other out post-canon
Fandom-Specific DNW:
Explicit physical abuse. Emotional/mental manipulation OK | Mpreg | Unrelenting misery (I'm fine with dark themes, given the nature of this show, but I don't want a fic that's nothing but the requested characters suffering) | Woobification. I like these characters for their faults! | Writing Omar as interested in women/not gay
The "usually DNWs" apply here with the exception of power differentials, abuse and dark fic. The MCD DNW includes canonical character deaths.