Dear Yuletide Fairy

[kmo]

Dear Yuletide Writer,

First of all, let me thank you for agreeing to participate in this challenge and write a story for me! Last year was my first Yuletide and I had such a wonderful time that I am now back for more! The holidays are often a very hard time for me and it cheered me up so much last year to have a wonderful story written just for me- it definitely took the edge off all the unpleasant family holiday drama.  Please take all my optional suggestions and fannish blatherings as just that...suggestions. I’m comfortable with any rating. I'd like to think I'm "easy like Sunday morning," when it comes to fic challenges. I'm happy to throw out plotbunnies, but at the end of the day, I want to read a fic that you enjoyed writing.  Follow your muse and I know you'll write a great story! If you'd like to see the type of stories I write and like, please feel free to check out my work on AO3 or at fanfiction.net where I write as green lion. Very little of my lj is flocked, so feel free to explore my entries here as well.

General Likes: humor, bittersweet emotions, witty banter, character studies, Porn With Plot, “five things” fic, role reversals, foe yay, first meetings, Women Being Awesome, Passing the Bechdel Test, moral ambiguity.

Dislikes: Some of the characters I have requested could be considered anti-heroes or villains. Don’t erase their faults or gloss over their sins- I like them in all their complicated, contradictory glory. I also don't particularly like stories that involve non-con, mpreg, death of a major character (unless it refers to canonical events), or wildly divergent “in space” or highschool AUs.

Boardwalk Empire: Esther Randolph, Arnold Rothstein 

Esther Randolph and Arnold Rothstein are my favorite characters and dare I say it, I think they are both the smartest people on the show. I’d love a fic where they square off together or where Esther goes after Rothstein after her failure to bring down Nucky. I’d also love one where they join forces to take out some of the other players in the game. They are just so patient, ambitious and crafty- I feel if you put them in a room, sparks would fly. If you feel like writing something shippy for them, go for it. But honestly a gen fic about their intellectual and strategic brilliance would be equally awesome.

I don't have much to elaborate on here, other than that I think the historical figure Esther Randolph is based on, Mabel Walker Willebrandt, is completely fascinating. She was the highest ranking woman in the federal government at the time. What is even more incredible is that she was actually against Prohibition, and did it solely to advance her career as she was an ambitious mo-fo. Obviously, I think Esther has a lot of that ambition and drive as well and I'd love to see her feelings about being a woman in a man's world. 

I love Rothstein, too, and find him surprisingly sexy! I know a lot of folks ship him with Charlie and I'm comfortable with that. If you do go that route, I'd love to see how he balances his feelings toward Luciano with his love for his wife and if that mirrors how he balances respectability and his criminal activity. I'm a big fan of characters living double lives. Oh and I have yet to see season 3, so no spoilers, por favor. ;)





Flavia de Luce: Flavia de Luce, Harriet de Luce, Ophelia de Luce 

I love Flavia! She is the most morbidly cute girl detective ever. I read a lot of historical mysteries, so I feel like the Flavia series is just begging for a crossover. I’d love to see Flavia meet Lord Peter and Harriet Vane, or get taken in as a protégé for Maisie Dobbs or Mary Russell, or cross paths with Endeavour Morse at Oxford one day. If a crossover isn’t your thing, I’m fascinated by what Flavia feels for her absent mother, Harriet, and how she always seems to be craving a mother figure. I’d love a fluffy fic about Flavia’s scheming to get herself adopted by Antigone Hewitt. Or a mad-cap scheme to get revenge on her elder sister Ophelia that somehow ends with a truce and some kind of sisterly reconciliation.

All I will add is that I love love love Flavia's sharp-tongued, plucky first-person narration. If you want to take a crack at that, you're my hero. That said, a look at Flavia from another character's perspective could also be really interesting. If you decide to go the cross-over route, I've mentioned the fandoms I'm most familiar with. I'd still prefer a story set in the 1950s or 60s. I personally find casefic really hard to write, so seriously no pressure on that account! A character study of life in Bishop's Lacey or Flavia at home with her sisters would suit me just fine. 





Greek and Roman Mythology: Orpheus, Eurydice, Persephone

As a creative person, the Orpheus myth really speaks to me in a profound way. What would you play, what work of art would you create if your lover’s life was on the line? I’d love to see this story set in a different historical era or the present day. Some time periods I think might work- French Revolution, WWI/Roaring 20s, 1980s AIDS crisis. Feel free to interpret “trip to the underworld” as a metaphor for addiction or disease. I’d especially like it if one or more characters in the story was gender flipped, for example a female Orpheus going to rescue her (male or female) lover. I'm also a huge fan of the Inanna myth, so feel free to blend or borrow from that if you like. Het, slash, femmeslash are all fine with me for this story. If you prefer to stay with the original Greek myth, I’d love to see something from Persephone or Eurydice’s POV. What did Persephone feel when Orpheus played his music that moved her so? Did Eurydice really want to leave? I’d be down with Persephone/Eurydice or Persephone/Orpheus as pairings too.

I've gotten hooked on listening to Phillip Glass' Orphee suite for piano. I love IV- Orphee and the Princess. It's so beautiful, it brings me to tears. It really does sound so wonderful and sad, like something Orpheus really would have played to set free his beloved. I don't know if this helps in your writing, but that's where the inspiration for this request came from. And I know I said I usually don't like AUs, but I guess I think of this request more as modernizing a classic story. (Still, stay away from high school fic- I didn't like it much the first time around, I don't really enjoy reading about it now) I'm most familiar with time periods 18th c and beyond, but if you really want to set your fic during the black plague or Ming dynasty, you have my blessing to go for it. :)

I should note that I'm not a huge fan of the Orpheus myth where he gets torn apart by angry Maenads for being too emo. So, I'd appreciate it if you kept the focus on the "journey to the underworld" part of the story. 

Kushiel's Legacy- Melisande Shahrizai, Anafiel Delaunay, Phedre no Delaunay

I am a shameless, unrepentant Melisande fangirl. She is perhaps my favorite fictional antagonist ever. I also love sneaky bastard Anafiel Delaunay and so you can imagine my angst when Carey basically had one of my favorite characters kill off one of my other favorite characters halfway through the first book! Melisande/Delaunay is so sexy to me and sadly there is hardly any fic for them- I’d love a story set during their pre-canon relationship, where they play mind and sex games with one another. I’d also love a canon divergent AU where Melisande and Delaunay join forces and Phèdre becomes their protégé, especially if it ends up in a big ball of sexual tension love quadrangle between Melisande-Phèdre-Delaunay-Alcuin with Joscelin looking on shaking his head in disgust.

I am totally head over heels in love/lust with the Kushielverse. I love the world-building, especially Carey's use of myth and religion, and the sexual fluidity and moral ambiguity of so many of the characters. Melisande, Delaunay and Phedre are by far my favorites. If you prefer to write a story centered on just Melisande/Delaunay or Melisande/Phedre that's fine by me, though of course, I'd love something that features all three of them. Melisande's POV isn't often done...if you feel up for the challenge that would be fantastic! I'm a sucker for the religious aspects of the Kushielverse and Night Court politics- just throwing that out there. I almost requested Balthasar Shahrizai as a 4th character; he's my favorite from the Naamah books. (I am so, so easy for the Shahrizai...) So if you felt like doing something that bridged all three trilogies, go for it. Maybe Balthasar thinks Melisande's house is haunted? Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if it was. :)

I know kink and explicit sex is a big part of the Kushielverse, but if that's not you, don't feel pressured to write it. I'm equally happy with a PG or PG-13 story focused on intrigue and the arts of covertcy. And I don't think things need to be sexually explicit in order to be sexy. But I don't object to smut, either, as long as it reveals something about the characters or advances the plot. As far as kinks go, I'm not into watersports, infantilization, bestiality, or furries, but anything else is pretty fair game. 



Thanks again for signing up for this challenge! Good luck and happy Yuletide!