Yuletide Letter 2019

[platinum_firebird]

 Hi! Thanks for taking a look at my letter! 

Links: I'm Burning_Nightingale on AO3


Likes

General

I’m a fan of romance, adventure (especially quests!), casefic, plotty fic, fluff, gen, world-building and character studies. I am happy with any rating and any tone, from fluffy curtain fic down to pretty dark stuff. I usually prefer at least a bittersweet ending, though (unless otherwise specified). I love fics that are realistic and I love stuff that’s tropey as all get out; go wild.

Some themes/tropes I really love include: characters fighting against/changing fate, everything about survival (what it means, how it changes you, the lengths you went to), the pressures and struggles of leadership, two people against the world together, found family anything, harsh/beautiful (or harshly beautiful) physical landscapes, gifts or gestures with intense or very personal meanings, anything where characters just get one another, characters who grapple with becoming evil or doing evil deeds, villains who believe they’re in the right, villains who just don’t care about morality, characters who are determined hope will prevail above all else, characters who really feel the weight of their heritage/someone's legacy and a pressure to live up to that.

I am also very into AUs and fusions, including: fantasy (urban, high, whatever), post-apocalypse, sci-fi/space, superpowers, Pacific Rim fusions, reincarnation, royal/arranged marriage

Relationship Themed Trope Likes

Seemingly Unrequited Pining, Friends to Lovers, Fake Dating/Fake Marriage Accidentally Turns Into Feelings, Battle Couple, Everyone Can See It, Like An Old Married Couple

Porn Likes

I really love porn that’s about the characters and centres their relationship. Emotionally charged, desperate, I-need-you-it-can’t-wait sex is fantastic! Sex that’s the culmination of a slow burn and/or a really intense bout of UST is my absolute jam. I’m pretty vanilla when it comes to things like BDSM, so anything beyond blindfolds and tying up wrists is a no-go for me. I’m not really into dom/sub dynamics, but a bit of dirty talk is great. A bit of rough sex – hair-pulling, pushing up against walls, scratching/biting, not being 100% gentle all the time is also very good ;) I'm also always down with xeno and human/non-human sex!

DNWs

Scat + watersports, incest, underage, character-bashing, non-con, lifestyle BDSM relationships, de-aging

Fandoms

The Bedlam Stacks - Natasha Pulley

Merrick Tremayne
Raphael (The Bedlam Stacks

I just love the feeling of magic and wonder and discovery in this book, and how odd and dangerous but also magical and homely Bedlam is. I love how the setting seems very much like our world, but just one step to the left, where these magical things can exist just like they’re normal, everyday occurrences for the people who’ve been living with them all their lives.

Prompts:

•           Anything more set in Bedlam and the jungle around it, anything about what makes the town tick and the daily life of the inhabitants there, especially through Merrick’s foreign eyes
•           ANYTHING about the floating city, it was SO COOL and we only saw brief snatches of it since it came in right at the end. What’s life like there? Maybe something post-canon with these two navigating their way around life there? How do you cope with the altitude when you haven’t lived there all your life? Literally any worldbuilding about the floating city would be amazing.
•           Something about Raphael’s thoughts on comparing Merrick’s grandfather and Merrick himself? They seem to be two pretty different people, and Raphael’s still clearly holding a lot of sorrow and remorse about missing Merrick’s grandfather leaving, and I’m really interested in the parallels between them and what Raphael thinks about that.
•           I would be happy with gen where these two mean a lot to each other as friends, but I would also love anything shippy. Combine the above prompts with the ship? Something about them working out their relationship post-canon? Working out how to bang a living statue? I’m here for it.

 

The Bone Key - Sarah Monette

Claudia Coburn
John Pelham Ratcliffe
Kyle Murchison Booth

I love the horror stories and creepiness of this canon, and how much Booth resents and fears being caught up in all of it. I also love how he seems pretty genre-savvy most of the time, with his general knowledge about ghosts/demons/the supernatural, even when he’s also very afraid. I loved Ratcliffe because he’s the kind of person who’s clearly made himself better and grown out of the nastier person he used to be, and also because he was so instantly down with the idea of the supernatural and instantly coming up with practical ways to solve the situation. I love Claudia’s attitude to things, that she seems happy working at the museum and bucking gender norms, and just her entire character, really!

Prompts:

•           The three of them meet somehow? I feel like the three of them would make a very effective supernatural-hunting team!
•           Just any case-fic or monster-of-the-week type story, whether Ratcliffe and Claudia turn up or if it’s just Booth alone like in the short stories
•           Vampires. I love vampires, and Booth’s already encountered werewolves, so why not their (supposed) natural enemies? A very hot vampire gentleman flirting with and menacing Booth would be ideal.
•           I do ship Booth/Ratcliffe so feel free to go there in any way you see fit!

Fandom Specific DNWs: Booth/any female character or OC (shipping him with a male OC is fine and encouraged though!), Claudia/Ratcliffe

 

Dark Matter - Michelle Paver

Algernon "Algie" Carlisle
Gus Balfour
Jack Miller (Dark Matter)

I love everything about this book, from the plot to the setting to the characters to the horror. Go as scary as you like with your fic, I will love it! I love Jack and his prickly exterior that hides a softer centre, and how determined he is to not let everybody else down and to complete their task out on the island. I love how he’s either not really aware of being in love with Gus at first, or tries to hide it in his written journals. I love how Gus is like an action hero but doesn’t seem to realise it, and he’s just so earnest and well-meaning despite sometimes putting his foot in his mouth. I love how Algie is given a hard rap by Jack, especially at the beginning, but he clearly has his good characteristics too and the two of them eventually become good friends.

Prompts:

•           Any kind of Gus Lives!AU. Maybe Jack manages to save him right at the end?
•           I would love some post-canon feels where Gus and Jack work out they’re into each other and how to go forward with their lives.
•           I would absolutely love if by some circumstance Algie had to leave Gruhuken sometime after they arrived (perhaps he’s the one who gets appendicitis?) which leaves Gus and Jack on their own confronting the monster. Would love if this included any sort of huddling for warmth/Canadian shack type tropes, or saving one another from the monster, or helping each other hold onto their sanity when they think they’re going mad. And I would love if Algie came in at the eleventh hour to save them just like in canon (but no one dies please!)
•           I would also enjoy seeing how things would be different if Algie had managed to make it back to Gruhuken after taking Gus to the doctor. Would he and Jack be at each other’s throats constantly or would they come to understand each other? What would it take to take them to admit to their sightings of the ghost, and how would they deal with it together?
•           For a much sadder prompt, it’s clear from Algie’s letter at the beginning that he and Jack bonded after the events at Gruhuken, and I would love to see some of that. Mourning Gus together? Going to his funeral? Make it sad!

Fandom Specific DNW: Isaak dying or any bad things happening to him.

 

 

Star Wars: Thrawn Series - Timothy Zahn (2017)

Eli Vanto (Thrawn 2017)
Thrawn | Mitth'raw'nuruodo (Thrawn 2017)

The new Thrawn series has been my favourite of the new Star Wars EU books, I love these two and the bond they build. I love Thrawn’s complexity in the novels, how he has no compunctions about working for the Empire, but how he feels it’s important to treat the people under his command with respect and dignity. And what is going on with his loyalties to the Empire and the Ascendancy, exactly? (I think ultimately he’s loyal to the Ascendancy, but I could definitely be open to fic presenting him another way!) And I love that we get to see Eli grow over the course of the novels, especially the first one, but also that he still has some ways to go by the end of the trilogy. I love how he starts off being resentful of Thrawn and then moves to admiring him and wanting his approval so much.

Prompts:

•           Anything post-Rebels, either with Thrawn trying to deal with getting blasted off into unknown space and get back, or with Eli dealing with it. Does Eli go looking for him, or is something keeping him in the Ascendancy and he just has to try and accept the reality of Thrawn being gone? Anything with Eli reluctantly accepting Thrawn being gone and mourning him would be great, especially if Thrawn then reappears. Also Eli going to look for him! (Feel free to make this shippy or not)
•           I would be really interested in something post-canon that puts them on an equal footing – maybe Eli leaves the military for some reason, or Thrawn doesn’t rejoin the military, or is reinstated at the same rank as Eli? Maybe the impending civil war in the Ascendancy/war with the Grysk means Eli gets promoted fast because the Chiss are running out of competent officers to promote? Whatever way it happens, I would be really interested in seeing them interact when military ranks either no longer apply or they’re on equal terms rank-wise. How do they deal with it?
•           Any kind of worldbuilding for the Ascendancy or Lysatra. Maybe they go visit Lysatra and Eli’s parents? Or they visit Thrawn’s homeworld/family? Or they have a day together on Csilla/Lysatra/some other Chiss world? (If you’ve read Outbound Flight/know about Thrass, I would love him to be included, and what his relationship is like with Eli or Thrawn or both)
•           I also love plotty things, so anything with these two solving a case or mystery or going on a mission like they do in canon would be amazing. Murder mystery? The royal machinations of a particular planet? Imperial politics? Catching smugglers and/or rebels? Anything.
•           This might be a slightly random prompt, but I loved Thrawn and Vader’s interactions in Alliances, so I would LOVE an AU where Vader lives and goes into hiding in Ascendancy/ends up in Ascendancy somehow. The continuing adventures of Redeemed!Vader and Ascendancy!Thrawn! (And how even when redeemed, Thrawn still sets Vader’s teeth on edge). How would Eli react to Vader? And would Luke come with Vader to the Ascendancy? If he does, what does he think of it? Do he and Eli get along? What does Luke think of Thrawn? (If you wanted to do Luke/Eli I would be totally on board)
•           I ship them a lot so would love to get shipfic of any kind, any of the above prompts + ship would be amazing. For specifically shipfic, I love pretty much anything, especially with Thrawn being the instigator. I love the trope of Chiss fraternization laws/social rules differing from humans, and how the two of them cope with that. Also marriage proposals/accidental marriage/arranged marriage would make my day, I love marriage tropes.
•           I haven’t requested any other characters in the tagset because I didn’t have specific prompts about them, but I like them all and would love any of them to show up in fic. Also feel free to bring in characters from other bits of Star Wars like e.g. Rebels characters.

Thanks for reading, and Happy Yuletide!