yuletide 2023 letter

[briarlily]

Dear Author,

 

Thanks so much for being part of Yuletide! I'm looking forward to whatever you write. You can find me here, as briarlily and thewayofthetrashcompactor on ao3, briartrash on twitter, briarlily as my main on tumblr (with several fandom specific sideblogs linked on desktop)(anon should be open), and thelastjedi on pillowfort. Feel free to look at past letters as well!

 

General Notes:

Treats are welcome! 
 

General tropes and elements I enjoy: snark/banter, soulmates, monsters, fairy tales, angst that gets better, pining, badass couples, competence kink, happy endings! I primarily read for romance, but I'm happy to just see my fave characters together. 

 

AUs: For my Yuletide requests, I'm very happy with the canon universes, but I'm also open to canon divergence if you're inspired in that direction. For fic in general, I enjoy any and all aus, though for modern aus I prefer those with additional flair (soulmates, magic, monsters, etc), though simple fluff is very good too! 

 

NSFW: I'm open to all ratings! I have no problems with explicit content, but you don't have to go that direction either. My only kink limits are the opt-in type: mutilation, vore, waste play, etc. But again, any rating is welcomed.

DNWs:
Triggers: self-harm, suicide
Squicks: cheating, extreme BDSM (permanent harm or modification), water sports or related wasteplay, vore, vomit, detailed gore
Do Not Wants: tragic or bittersweet endings, character bashing, pegging, high school aus, 2nd person POV

 

 

Request specific notes:

 

Iron Covenant (Elara Harper, Hugh d'Ambray):

Iron and Magic is one of my all time favorite books. I listened to it three times in a week once, and it did not get old. Every aspect of it has my favorite things: cool fantasy worldbuilding, angry woman with eldritch powers, powerful guy who gets absolutely wrecked but still can't keep himself from being a smartass. Especially to his love interest, who can 100% keep up with him and give back every inch. I actually read this one before the main Kate Daniels books and then fell down the rabbit hole from there. 

 

I don't really have any specific prompts for this request. It's been years since the sequel was supposed to come out and I will read absolutely anything with the two of them. I love how they play off each other, with all their snark while still acknowledging each other's significant abilities. There's so much ridiculous pining potential in the time between Iron and Magic and Magic Triumphs, with them trying to keep their people alive while definitely not caring about each other. I have their moments in Magic Triumphs bookmarked because the dynamic they reach is so fantastic. There's also all that narrative space after Magic Triumphs, returning home after defeating the Big Bad and what that means. Anything is good with these two!

 

I'm open to any other characters being included! But just them is good too. 

(I still haven't finished Blood Heir, but I swear I'm going to. I have it in both physical and ebook forms but I keep getting distracted.)

 

Innkeeper Chronicles (Maud Demille, Arland Krahr):

I enjoyed the main Innkeeper books, (especially the crossover with the Edge books, which are some of my faves) but Sweep of the Blade is the one I keep coming back to. I have a serious weakness for oldest daughter characters in the first place, and I loved the complexity of Maud's character. It completely won me over, even though second chance romances and kid characters aren't usually my favorites. But I really liked Maud being able to remember the good things from her first marriage and also knowing how fucked up it became, and still taking another chance, for Helen, while also protecting her. It's something I love about Ilona Andrews' characters in general, that they're knowledgeable and good at what they do, but still fuck up realistically or have things they can't reasonably overcome and have to grapple with that. They always feel very relatable in their fantasy worlds, and Maud exemplified that in a big way for me. 

 

Arland also appealed to me for the way Ilona Andrews avoided all the stereotypes that come along with a vampire romantic rival. He's complex and interesting, stubborn but also willing to admit he's wrong, both protective and strategic. I like that, even when he makes dumb choices and almost gets himself killed, he's still trying to do his best by Maud and Helen, and they're always a priority for him. ("Sensitive warlord" is also a weakness, see request above :D.) The worldbuilding for the vampire society is also so fascinating to me! "Space vampires" is a hard concept to turn down.

 

Prompts:

I love their book, but all the plot keeps getting in the way of their time together, so I'd definitely be interested in a fic that gives them a little more time to themselves. 

 

I'd also be interested in anything exploring Maud's Innkeeper abilities! I loved that aspect and could definitely read more of her and Arland figuring more out about that. 

 

The book ends with this great new collaboration between the different allies, starting out on their unprecedented project, and I think there's also a lot of potential there! Maybe a snapshot of Maud and Arland trying to navigate these changes and adjusting to how that's interacting with their roles and vampire society (while also having time for each other)? 

 

I'm happy to see any other characters from the books, no particular preferences there, but I'm also happy with just the tagged characters! (and maybe Helen)

Hadestown - Mitchell (Persephone, Hades):
With Phantom off of Broadway, this has definitely taken over as the musical I will watch no prompting whenever I can. I got to see the new cast during NYCC and I absolutely loved them. It was so so cool seeing what they brought to the characters, especially Hades and Persephone who were absolutely amazing together, imo. I haven't watched any cast and not ended up crying though.

I know there's fics about Hades and Persephone pre- and post-musical out there, but it's one of those prompts I will read all of the fics for and then read them again. I really like established relationships and moments of tender domesticity and couples in love beyond what they know how to express, and both pre-musical figuring their situation out or post-musical trying to rebuild also have that angst I am a complete sucker for. 

Cursed - TV 2020 (Nimue, The Weeping Monk | Lancelot)
Netflix cancelled this because of course they did, but I'm still not over it. Nimue is very much in the style of heroines I'm into. (One day I'll cosplay her because I love her costumes too) And of course, warlord under duress with a tragic backstory is definitely my brand, which is also definitely tying into at least one other request here. Honestly anything exploring their characters more, since we were just getting into the good stuff by the end, would be very welcome. 

Time Princess: Sacred Beast (Asha, Reza)

(Spoilers) Sometimes your love interest wants to destroy the world. And that's hot :/

This whole story was a ride, especially Reza's route, and I'd love to see an expansion on his ending. I think there's a lot of ways that could go, whether in dreams, Asha finding a way to get him back, or some kind of alternative ending. I just thought their relationship was really complicated and compelling and I'd be very interesting in seeing it expanded more! I wasn't sold on Yazdan at the beginning, but he definitely won me over by the end, and there's a lot of angst potential between the prince and the guy trying to overthrow the kingdom too. 

 

(If you're interested in the Time Princess fandom but don't play, the game is pretty accessible, but it does take up a lot of space if you have an older phone. I do not recommend starting with the Gotham Memoirs book, since the crafting is harder. (Start with Queen Marie) It took me at least a month to get through all four chapters of Gotham Memoirs with crafting, but there are a good amount of playthroughs for all the stories on YouTube.)

-

 

I hope I've given you something to be inspired by, but please let me know if you need more or have any questions. I'm really looking forward to reading whatever you write!

 

Briar