Dear Yuletide Writer

[rachelmanija]

Thank you for writing for me! If you have any questions, please check with the mods. I am a very easy recipient and will be delighted with whatever you write for me. I have no special requirements beyond what's specifically stated in my DNWs. I'm fine with all POVs (i.e., first, second, third), tenses, ratings, story lengths, unusual formats, etc.

My AO3 name is Edonohana. I am open to treats. Very open. I love them.

I like hurt-comfort, action/adventure, domestic life, worldbuilding, evocative descriptions, camaraderie, loyalty, trauma recovery, difficult choices, survival situations, mysterious places and weird alien technology, food, plants, landscape in general, X-Men type powers, learning to love again or trust again or enjoy life again, miniature things or beings, and animals. And many other things, too, of course! That list is just in case something sparks an idea.


General DNW: Issuefic (preachiness; stories whose main point is some kind of political/social issue), literal coronavirus (other illnesses with similar symptoms are fine, as are pandemics or epidemics in general), current political figures, real-life terminal illness like cancer (non-realistic stuff like super-soldiers with a limited lifespan is fine), dementia and brain damage, A/B/O, PWP (porn without plot), unrequested change-the-setting AUs (canon divergence AUs are fine), non-canon human pregnancy and babies or a heavy focus on canon human pregnancy or babies (baby aliens, adorable kittens, older human children, etc are fine), adult/child, infantilization, digestive upsets, graphic dental trauma, and the gross kinds of bodily waste (blood, sweat, and tears are fine).

Please no death of requested characters or characters who don't die in canon unless I specifically say it's OK for that canon.




Cass Neary Series - Elizabeth Hand
Cass Neary

Canon-specific DNWs: Quinn appearing on-page or having a major presence in Cass's thoughts. Brief mentions are fine. For this particular canon, I'm fine with having Cass's past rape figure prominently. However, if so, I DNW it to have been committed by a supernatural entity.

I got the idea to make this Yuletide request when I saw a tag set for a different exchange which juxtaposed Folk Horror with Getting Sober at the Worst Possible Time, and I thought, "That sounds like a Cass Neary story."

I would like to get a story about Cass dealing with some kind of weird or supernatural situation. This could be the sort of ambiguously supernatural situation we get in canon, like the raven that guides her out of the blizzard in Available Dark or the probably-but-not-provably-evil book in The Book of Lamps and Banners, or something not supernatural but strange and cool like the ancient carvings in Hard Light, or something completely unambiguously supernatural, like a straight-up Lovecraftian horror or a good old haunted camera that takes creepy photos.

I do love the idea of taking off from the end of The Book of Lamps and Banners and have her be forced to deal with whatever it is while Getting Sober at the Worst Possible Time. But that's optional. I'd be fine with a story set at any point in her timeline, including a prequel of strange events happening when she was at her height of success.

I love the idea that she's a Valkyrie. I love the possible cosmic horror encounter when she was young. I love the moments that are unexpectedly non-horrific and even numinous, like the ancient camera obscura. Cosmic, mythic, and folk horror strike me as particularly Cass, but you could do anything. I just love her and how fucked-up and uncompromising and amoral she is, and also her occasional soft spot for teenagers in distress.

I was intrigued by the weird timeline of The Book of Lamps and Banners and like the idea of Cass being involved in some kind of time slippage or other weirdness. Is she somehow stuck in time while the world moves on around her?




Chronicles of Prydain - Lloyd Alexander
Eilonwy
Ellidyr

NOTE: Fic for just one of the two is fine. If you do include them both, you don't have to focus on them both equally.

Canon-specific DNW: Sexism directed at Eilonwy. People can be mean to or underestimate her because she's young or seems scatterbrained, but not because she's a girl.

This is one of my favorite series, along with Alexander's Westmark trilogy. If you like you can find my reviews of the books tagged alphabetically by author. I love the characters - all the characters, so feel free to include anyone you want - but Eilonwy is the one I love the most, and Ellidyr is the one who's most haunting. He does terrible things but for very relatable reasons. His death breaks my heart, and so does that of his horrible horse. ("She bites.")

For an Ellidyr-focused story, I'd like to see Ellidyr (and so also Islimach) survive the breaking of the cauldron, and have to deal with everyone they tried to kill and things in general after that. (I could totally believe that the cauldron would break so long as someone threw themselves in fully believing that it would kill them.) One thing Alexander did very well was having characters undergo big turning points without completely losing their flaws; he's very good at internal struggle, especially when mirrored by outward struggle. I'd like to see Ellidyr in that "So I did something unforgivable but I truly repented, I expected to be dead and I'm not, and now I have glory I thought I wouldn't live to see but still no money; what now?" mode.

For an Eilonwy-focused story, I'd like to see her get a her-specific test or quest. Other than when she first helped Taran escape Spiral Castle, the times where the story most focused on her also had her unconscious or enchanted; her best moments were more off to the side of the main plot. I love the way she thinks and talks, how her mind goes in such unexpected directions to make unexpectedly wise or clever connections, and how forthright and practical she is. I'd like to see her get to shine, whether in a dark night of the soul or in a more lighthearted adventure.

I don't have any particular ideas for a story equally focused on both of them, but I would definitely love to read it!




Piranesi - Susanna Clarke
The House (Piranesi)

Canon-specific DNW: The Other | Valentine Andrew Ketterley or The Prophet | Laurence Arne-Sayles as major on-page characters. Mentions of them or brief appearances in a story centered on other characters are fine.

NOTE: I requested just the House because that's what I definitely want, but I LOVE Piranesi | Matthew Rose Sorensen and Sixteen | Sarah Raphael (and worldbuilding!) and would be happy with any of them also appearing.

This is an incredibly beautiful book. I'd like something that captures some of its beauty, mystery, danger, and bittersweet joy. The House is an amazing and infinite creation, and so I would like more of it. Honestly I'd be completely happy with 1000 words of the narrator exploring the House at any point in his life other than when he was totally despairing, or bringing James Ritter to it, or Sarah Raphael exploring the House, or some original character exploring the House... you get the picture.

Don't feel like you have to stick with the specific mythological imagery seen in Piranesi - I imagine that the House appears different depending on what the characters are familiar with, so some people encounter statues of minotaurs and fauns, while others might find nagas and apsaras.

If you're familiar with any of my other requested canons, I would also enjoy a crossover in which one of my requested characters finds the House. I imagine it would be an incredibly different experience depending on whether that's Maybeth Tillerman, Cass Neary, or Cheerwell Maker!




Space Trilogy - C. S. Lewis
Worldbuilding (Space Trilogy)

Canon-specific DNWs: Weston, the Lady, an Earth setting, a heavy focus on religion or religious allegory.

I do want an actual story with characters, regardless of the form it's in, not something plotless and characterless like a travel guide or an encyclopedia article. I'm fine with all original characters, or including canon characters other than the ones I DNW.

I love the worldbuilding-centric aspects of these books - exploring Malacandra and meeting its inhabitants, and the transcendent early sections of exploring Perelandra. I would love something along those lines for either planet, or a Space Trilogy style Jupiter or Mercury or Saturn (etc). For Perelandra, perhaps an AU where it does have native inhabitants a la the ones of Malacandra.

I would love to see a story set on any planet, whether it involves an explorer from Earth or is entirely about the beings who already live there - or maybe beings from one non-Earth planet visiting another. Or maybe they can't visit, but can communicate back and forth in some manner.




Shadows of the Apt - Adrian Tchaikovsky
Worldbuilding (Shadows of the Apt)

Canon-specific DNW: Like many characters in the series, I DNW Totho.

I've read the ten main books, the books of short stories, and Echoes of the Fall. Feel free to draw on any of that canon.

I've gotten amazing fic for this prompt before, and it only made me want even more.

For this story, please feel free to either create original characters or to write about any canon character in the tag set or in the series, with the exception of Totho. From the tag set, Che is my single favorite character. I love her relationships with both Tynisa and Thalric. In canon, I love basically everyone - I started listing my favorites and it was going to be like 20 characters.

I love, love, love the kinden. I would love it if you invented a kinden and wrote me a story about them. I would also love if you explored a canonical kinden in more depth. I was especially intrigued by the Butterflies (their names especially fascinate me) and the Woodlice (they're Apt AND Inapt, what is up with that?!) and the Starfish (are they really non-sentient, WTF???), but honestly I'd be thrilled with a story focusing on any kinden.

I'd prefer a story that isn't war or politics-centric, as we got plenty of that in the series. You could write me a story about a lonely Roach girl taming a wild ladybug, or Thorn Bugs falling in love, or the first Earthworm student at Collegium, or a Pillbug doing whatever Pillbugs do in their downtime. Or if you focus on canon characters, you could write about Tynisa and Che (or Atryssa and Tisamon, etc) going out on the town with a focus on their cultural/kinden differences and similarities, or Taki flying into an unexplored area, or what Che and Thalric do after the end of the series.




The Tillerman Cycle - Cynthia Voigt
Dicey Tillerman
Maybeth Tillerman

NOTE: Fic for just one of the two is fine. If you do include them both, you don't have to focus on them both equally.

I love all the Tillermans and their friends, so feel free to include anyone, but Dicey and Maybeth are my favorites. I love the emotional delicacy of the books and their sometimes-dreamy atmospheres (like Jeff on the rollercoaster) combined with the precise details of their lives: a wooden box, a boat, a folk song, a food budget.

I think the two basic modes of non-romantic fanfic are "more of this" and "fix this," and while I definitely want more of this for this request, Dicey and Maybeth are the two characters for whom canon didn't completely satisfy me: in Maybeth's case because she didn't get her own book, and in Dicey's case because her last book didn't leave her in a great place. That being said, while I would enjoy future fic for either or both of them, I would be equally happy with a story from any time in canon during or post-Dicey's Song.

I'd love to see the two of them interacting, especially when Maybeth is a bit older and maybe Dicey's dealing with moving out of a protector role. But there doesn't need to be a plot or serious themes; I would be delighted with 1000 words of Dicey and Maybeth enjoying music or a dinner or the sea together.

I like folk music and am familiar with the songs in the book. If you want to include or even be inspired by a folk song, I would enjoy that.