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Dear Yuletide Writer (2025)
Oct. 14th, 2025 09:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
primeidealDear Yuletide Writer,
Optional details are optional! Please feel free to write anything about these fandoms/characters, this is just to provide some suggestions if you're interested. I have treats enabled on my Ao3 account.
I'm also primeideal on Ao3 (and Tumblr), and Ember Nickel on FFN. I have many previous dear author letters from which much of this is copied, pasted, and endlessly rewritten. I've written/blogged more heavily about several of these fandoms than others at times, but I would be equally delighted with fic for any one of them.
For the fandoms where it's relevant, I'm checking the box for "one or more chosen tags," ie, if you want to focus on one character/worldbuilding tag and not include the others, that is very welcome! (If I requested only one character, then I specifically want that character.)
General Likes:
-canon-divergence AUs
-five things
-worldbuilding
-dialogue
-wit and wordplay
-nonstandard formats (documentation, epistolary, etc.)
-interactive fiction--I prefer formats like Twine to open-ended parsers.
-happy endings
-sad endings (character death, melodrama, heartbreak!)
General DNWs (see canon-specific notes for details):
-explicit on-screen sex (fade-to-black or innuendo is fine)
-underage characters having sex
-rape/noncon
-moralizing/didactic stories (characters Learning An Important Lesson about the value of tolerance, etc.)
-character bashing
Anathem
Erasmas, Jad, Orolo, Worldbuilding
Erasmas: What does his life look like in the post-canon era? Is he a mentor to future fids? What changes with the Second Reconstitution? More of his friendships with Sammann or Jules, or his family relationship with Cord?
Jad: What did a "normal" day in the life of a Millenarian look like, pre-canon? Is he bouncing around nearby "alternate universes," or moving farther up the Wick? Jad mentions that if it hadn't been for the Daban Urnud's arrival, Orolo would likely have become a Centenarian and then a Millenarian himself someday--what would their relationship have been like?
Orolo: How did he react when the Ita picked him to secretly spy on the Daban Urnud? What was actually going through his head in the early chapters that he couldn't tell Raz? Or during his death scene?
Worldbuilding: I'm primarily interested in the world of the concents pre-canon. Weird bell patterns! Giant clock towers! Math and science! Bizarre dictionary definitions! Whatever it is the Ita are up to! But if there's something you have ideas for in terms of the Daban Urnud or polycosmic travel, go for it.
For this request: DNW discussion of allswell or other mind-altering drugs.
Debrief
George Russell, Robert Alderidge, Worldbuilding
So on the one hand, RPGs can be kind of difficult to prompt for, in that everyone's playthroughs are different and will result in slightly different characterizations; on the other hand, I have so many feelings about these guys and would absolutely love any version. A retelling of your playthrough, what happened next, more backstory, fix-it, "fix-it" that makes it worse...
-I love the dramatic irony of seeing the same incidents from different POVs in the character sheets, and then trying to talk about it just makes it worse. (The Catholic Underground in Spain, Courtenay's investigation.) Anything expanding on those or another memory that they technically share but actually remember differently.
-From Alderidge's sheet: "Bykov has the distinction of being the only human on Earth, apart from George Russell, who has ever known you in any meaningful sense." What's going on with these two? How much does Bykov know about the OUC? Is there hatesex?
-Does any of this ever get declassified? How much do Dora or Jean, or the kids, ever figure out, correctly or incorrectly?
-Worldbuilding! What kind of research is the OUC (or the Soviets) doing into ghost technology? What are spirit mediums doing in other parts of the world? At rates of ~one in ten thousand, it's unlikely you'd ever run across another unless there was some effort--but there are also more people who acknowledge ghosts and auras even if they can't directly witness them.
For me, the disruptor was an important focal point of the playthrough--my version of Russell is increasingly horrified at the thought of using it on Alderidge, meanwhile, Alderidge is insisting that it's this great tool of mercy and it's not clear whether he's talking about himself. Then once my Russell admits to himself that getting Alderidge to cross over and get closure is more important to him than anything else, he gets his act together in kind of a ruthless Pascal's Wager-y way. The sense they both have of "okay well here's when I draw the line, it's different when it's you at risk" is part of what I love about this dynamic, so anything touching on that (or the disruptor in general) would be great, but obviously everyone's characterization will be different!
Feel free to lean into the shippy aspects, or not, as you prefer; I don't really want anything too anachronistic or setting-changey, but Alderidge's level of candor (or Russell's level of having-a-clue) can be anywhere on the scale, it's all good.
Note: some of the DNWs I've listed for other exchanges do not apply to this request. For instance, I think the use of second-person POV works very well in the character sheets, so I enthusiastically opt in to second-person POV fic here! (As well as first or third.) Also, go as dark as you want in terms of "possible outcomes include ghosts being destroyed forever with the disruptor, or haunting the world until they decay and lose all coherence."
False Doctrine series
Evvie, Sara
So maybe this was an osmosis failure, but I'm not sure I completely understood Evvie's plotline. At first, her conviction that she's called to the monastic life could have been a case of "I know what I'm called to do in life, other people [and their heteronormative stereotypes] might not understand, but that's okay." But then she meets "Fee," who "fills the void in her life," and Charlie and Hal, who maybe open her mind to different vocations and ways of serving God in the world. And there's Sara's whole thing about "I can't marry George, I think I'm the handsome rake," and the demon pointing out that Evvie finds people like Daphne attractive. It sort of seemed to be setting up an Evvie/Sara endgame? Then in the the last chapter, there's the quick swerve from "not exactly a yes" (about going back to Patmos) to "actually, talking to Charlie made me decide I want to be a nun after all..."?
So with that:
-I would be interested in an Evvie/Sara AU where Evvie realizes that maybe her vision isn't really telling her what to do anymore, and considers other alternatives for what to do next.
-Alternatively, something canon-compliant, where Evvie talks more with Sara and/or Kit on the voyage back to Patmos. Kit and Evvie comparing notes about their relationships with their half-siblings? Or Sara and Evvie staying friends and pen pals, post-canon? (I'll admit I don't know a great deal about Greek Orthodoxy, I'm assuming nuns aren't so cloistered that they can't have friends and pen pals in the outside world?)
-More about Sara's relationships with any of the "From All False Doctrine" characters. Does her love for fabricating completely unnecessary details come from Uncle Peachy? What does Elsa make of the events of "Neither Have I Wings," once she's all caught up? Was there more going on with "Hal's" appearance to young Sara than we knew? Does Uncle Sven have advice on living with a disability?
Master & MargaritaBehemoth
I'm just delighted by Behemoth and everything he chooses to be. He gets on the streetcar and pays his fare! He plays chess with a living board and cheats at it! He debates informal versus formal pronoun usage! Anything along these lines would be wonderful.
Completely optional, but for this fandom, I think there's potential for humor in a setting-change AU and/or crossover. Put Behemoth (and/or Woland and some of the other demons) in another setting, another awkward political situation, and create more "even the literal devil is no match for human incompetence" nonsense. Anything I've previously requested or written on Ao3 is fair game. Demons versus the Cold War-era KGB ("Debrief," "Chess")? Demons versus aliens in the Cultural Revolution ("Remembrance of Earth's Past")? Demons versus...other demons in World War II ("Neither Have I Wings")? For this prompt specifically, I'm even opting into RL contemporary politics mentions, as long as there's at least a little humor.
Project Hail Mary
Steve Hatch
I love Steve and how faith and science complement each other for him. Ryland kind of lampshades "you're the most optimistic guy I've ever met," which is saying something by the standards of an Andy Weir novel. More about his optimism in dark times? He seems very confident in his belief that the Beatles are just objectively the best musicians; more of his unshakable takes? Is he still alive by the time of the Beatle (spaceships)' return, and if so, what does he make of them? How does he incorporate the discovery of Eridians into his worldview?
Remembrance of Earth's Past
Cheng Xin, Yang Dong, Ye Wenjie, Worldbuilding
Cheng Xin:
A fix-it where she doesn't miss Yun Tianming at their star? Any kind of outside POV on her and the many different hats she wears: Older men patronizing her during Project Staircase? The humans resenting her in Australia? Luo Ji and the museum? What if she'd stayed on the cylinder worlds near Jupiter where things felt "normal" and 2000s-y? Her relationship with Guan Yifan--is he really a different kind of human for having been to space, or are they more two sides of the same coin?
Yang Dong:
For someone who has very little time "on screen," she casts a long shadow over all of the books. More about her friendship with the programmer from "Death's End," and/or with Luo Ji? What if she'd survived--what would she have made of her mother's betrayal? How would things have gone with Ding Yi?
Ye Wenjie:
Secrets at Red Coast Base? Some more of the "declassified" documents? The early days of the ETO? What did she work out about Dark Forest theory before meeting Luo Ji? What if Yang Dong had talked to her about the documents she'd sneaked a look at? Or if Ye had lived long enough to discover more of Deterrence theory herself?
Worldbuilding:
More of the "video game" that taught people about Trisolaris--what were others' experiences like playing it? The aftermath of Gravity and Blue Space? The four-dimensional artifact Guan Yifan talks to? The legacy of the old universe in the new?
Slay the SpireDefect, Merchant, Worldbuilding
I love this game, and these prompts are just a few jumping-off points--feel free to bring in any of the characters or mechanics. Trying to make a narrative out of the deckbuilding mechanics would be great.
Defect: I think they're my favorite character to play--the orbs doing damage automatically, the rainbows and the self-repair power! How did they become self-aware? What's the deal with the "claw"-type cards--they seem an odd combination with all of the computery, robotic stuff.
Merchant: Why is he such a jerk?! What's his relationship with the "Courier" like? What is he doing in Act 4? Just more of the Merchant snarking at the adventurers.
Worldbuilding: I mean, take any relic, look at the flavor text, there's a story there. The annotations from legendary explorers of the past? What's going on with the "leave a card for your future self" mechanic, or the tesseract, or the keys? What's the deal with vampires and ghosts, etc, running around and trying to recruit you? Who is Neow? Or the whale at the beginning?
Steerswoman
Worldbuilding, Bel
I was thrilled by the worldbuilding in this series--the depiction of Rowan's scientific inquiry is great, even if our perspective as readers is different from the characters'. And I especially enjoyed the complexity of Outskirter society in "Steerswoman's Road"--the tribes closer to the Inner Lands growing more militaristic and less cultured, the Face People and Efraim's weirdness around women, the naming ceremony and recitation of ancestors, the importance of poetry and lore--that makes them much more than "wilderness raiders." I'd love to see more about Bel's approach to life as a warrior and a bard, whether that be with Kammeryn's tribe or others in the outskirts, or adapting to Inner Lands culture (Rowan being impressed by the way she learns the importance of the "once upon a time..." narrative was a really neat touch!) I'm open to shippy Bel/Rowan if you're so inclined, but gen is great too.
Something more worldbuilding-focused elsewhere in the world would also be neat--documents at the Archives? Steerswomen and wizards' POV on the same events? What does religion look like in a world where Christian symbols and language exist but most people don't remember their homeworld? (I'd prefer no authorial bashing of any specific belief system or lack thereof, but canon-typical disagreements/skepticism on different characters' part is fine and expected!)
Feel free to bring in any canon characters or OCs. Steffie's POV sometimes dragged for me so I would prefer if he wasn't a central character, but mentions are fine.
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Again, this is all optional, feel free to use as much or as little as is helpful. I look forward to reading your story!