platinum_firebird | Yuletide Letter 2020

Hi! Thanks for taking a look at my letter!

Links: I'm Burning_Nightingale on AO3

For all my requests, I'm fine with not all of the requested characters appearing; feel free to mix and match and include whoever fits the story best. In fact, for the Southern Reach and Laputa, I'm happy with you not including any of the requested characters/using OCs if you want to write worldbuilding!

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.

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, character-bashing, non-con, lifestyle BDSM relationships, de-aging, ABDL

Fandoms

The Southern Reach Trilogy

The Psychologist
Whitby Allen

I admit that most of what I want out of this fandom is the weirdness, the strangeness, the lowkey horror of Area X. If you want to write something worldbuilding-y that doesn’t even mention the requested characters, that would be fine with me.

Prompts:

I would love something that expands on one of the previous expeditions and what happened to them – especially that mysterious, disastrous first expedition. What really happened? What was it like to be on that expedition, or one of the following expeditions?
I’m also into the body horror aspects of this canon; the kind of changes the biologist and others go through, and what it’s like to transform into an animal or, in the biologist’s case, pretty much an eldritch horror. Something focusing on how the experience feels, whether the person changing accepts or challenges what’s happening to them, etc., would be great.
There’s also the fact that Area X has expanded, and possibly will keep expanding indefinitely. I’d love a fic from the point of view of someone in the outside world in a scenario when the expansion of Area X becomes too big for Central to hide anymore, and the general public become aware that a potentially apocalyptic event is slowly creeping closer. I’d love a fic in which Area X has pretty much engulfed the entire world, and only a small outpost is left of the “normal” world where certain people hide. Maybe this is where Grace and the Biologist finally arrive? Perhaps there’s a reason that little piece is left – or maybe they’re all living on borrowed time, just waiting for the day when Area X swallows them up for good?
Whitby + The Psychologist: I’m intrigued by their unsanctioned trip together into Area X, and all the weirdness that went on. What exactly happened? Did the real Whitby come back? And what made the Psychologist want to choose him in the first place? And something following the psychologist through her years at the Southern Reach would be really interesting – what is it like, being responsible for sending all those people out to die? How does she cope? I’m also interested in her relationship with Grace, whether shippy or not, and how they handle life at the Southern Reach together. If you’d be interested in writing events in Annihilation from the psychologist’s point of view that would be really interesting – what pushes her to force the anthropologist to her death? What does she do between that and seeing the biologist coming from the lighthouse and falling to her death?

Fandom Specific DNW: Whitby/The Psychologist

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

Cells At Work

Red Blood Cell AE3803

White Blood Cell U-1146

This canon is just super cute, and I find the way it envisions the inside of the body and all the cells really fun! I just love the tone of canon, so anything vaguely sticking to that would be amazing.

Prompts:

·       Any more worldbuilding for what the inside of the body looks like, and what weird hijinks everyone gets up to. Maybe this poor person has another injury/disease and we see the effects on everyone inside the body?
·       I love Red Blood Cell getting lost and White Blood Cell having to guide her back to the right path, but it would be hilarious if for once they were both lost!
·       I never thought I’d end up shipping cells, but dammit, I do. Anything shippy for these two would be amazing! Slacking off work for a while to be together? A romantic moment interrupted by the sudden appearance of germs? Going about their daily lives while pining super obviously? (I would die for pining fic)

Laputa

Pazu

Sheeta

I absolutely love all the worldbuilding and the mystery about the people who came before/built Laputa in this canon!

Prompts:

· I’ve always been obsessed with the animation that accompanies the opening credits, with the development of airships into huge flying machines and castles like Laputa, but then somehow they’re forced back to the ground again. Literally any worldbuilding about this history and how it affects the world that Sheeta and Pazu live in would be amazing – we see all the seemingly abandoned mining operations when they’re running from the pirates in the beginning, so are there places like that littered all over? Do people remember the history where their ancestors flew great castles through the sky, or has it mostly been forgotten/repressed?
· What about Pazu and Sheeta? What do they do at the end of the movie? Where do they end up? And what do they do when they grow up? I do ship them, but I'm also totally fine with this being gen. Combined with the previous prompt, maybe they go exploring looking for more relics of the old world? Maybe they find one of the huge downed airships that we see people coming out of at the end of the title sequence?

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.
Feel free to bring in characters from other bits of Star Wars like e.g. Rebels characters.