Alternate Universe Exchange!

Dear Yuletide Writer,

You are amazing. I want to tell you that up front, because you are.

Please don’t stress about this assignment. Just the fact that you are writing for any of these fandoms in the first place will make me ridiculously happy. Also, I love gifts in general, so I’ll be chuffed to get a prize of any of my requested fandoms and characters! I know this letter is ridiculously long as it’s the most fandoms I think I’ve ever signed up for for Yuletide – I think my reading muse’s ADHD is hitting HARD y’all LOLSOB. But again I love these fandoms and tend to babble about prompts and such, but don’t let that scare you off. And yes, some have more prompts than others, but that really does not mean anything preference wise – I would NOT have requested these fandoms if I didn’t want them. But honestly, I just wanted to give you as much detail as possible to hopefully help get your inspiration flowing! Seriously: A. Maze. Ing.

The only thing I do ask is that my DNW list be avoided.

DNW: Infertility/miscarriage, prostitution, noncon, dubcon, requested character/pairing death, infidelity, love triangles/jealousy focus (I am far more fond of OT3ing it up), Hanahaki, characters de-aged/aged back up during the story, A/B/O, gangster/mob, noir settings, Modern AUs that remove canon SFF or historical elements, amnesia, loss of limb/amputations, mpreg, underage/adult, gender swap, teacher/student, drug abuse/alcoholism, or incest. Please no 2nd person or 1st person POVs unless in epistolary/letters format.  

For M-rated fics, please no knife/blood/gun play in a sexual context (canon level plot/action violence is fine), humiliation in a D/S dynamic, age or pet play, scat, watersports, rape-as-fantasy-scenes, anal for M/F pairings, and any kind of direct blow in a sexual situation, including spanking/flogging.

Yes Please: Post-apocalypse, slice of life/domestic/curtainfic, epistolary stories, found family, crossovers with characters ending up at the Gertrude Hunt of Ilona Andrews’ Innkeeper Chronicles series, AUs (particularly zombie apocalypse, Black Jewels verse, Sentinel/Guide, Old West, and Pacific Rim fusion), outsider POVs, soul mark verses, supernatural elements like hauntings/werewolves/fae/etc., competency kink, fixit fics, stranded together/huddling together for warmth, X Reader fics esp in fandoms with few femme love interests and/or solo requested characters, and 5 and 1 style fics.

For M-rating fics, I particularly love dirty talk, Dom/Sub dynamic (service Dom and/or service Sub a plus), that Dom ordering their Sub around, restraint i.e.: shibari/handcuffs/holding partner down, wall sex, shower sex, cramped vehicular sex, biting/marking (without major blood being drawn), mate bonds and/or soul bonds needing consummation, “OMG we didn’t die” sex, and “sharing body heat” leading to sex.

Also I do have gifts enabled and welcome treats if someone who isn’t assigned me gets inspired by my requests!

Optional Re Yuletide Challenges: I am always a fan of the Yuletide mini challenges, and would definitely be thrilled in particular to get gifts that fit the following ones: Two for One, Yuleporn, Femslash Festivus, and Queering the Tide! Specific requests/details for any of those 4 challenges can be found on those journal entries!

Optional Re Crossovers: I also wanted to specifically mention that crossovers between any of my requested fandoms would be awesome if that’s your thing just so long as the fic is still focused on my requested characters/pairings. I know some of these are VERY different, but others I think could definitely lend themselves to some interesting combinations if that inspires you! If not, I’m also a fan of book verses getting crossed over with other series/stories by the same author!

Northmen: A Viking Saga

Asbjorn, Inghean

Tom Hopper pulled me into this teeny tiny fandom after Black Sails moved him onto my fandom boyfriend list. I gotta admit, it’s such a terrible movie objectively, but it totally appeals to my love of questionable action movies. We get all the Tom Hopper biceps you might hope for in his character (and the lead) Asbjorn, though sadly he never takes the shirt completely off. As the leader of the exiled and shipwrecked Vikings, he’s awesomely competent and has mad chemistry with the female lead (the only one in the entire film sadly), Inghean. She is a Scottish princess the Vikings kidnap in hopes of ransom only to discover her father prefers to see her dead than pay for her safe return. She also is the source of the one fantasy element in the film: an earth sense that warns her when the group is in danger. All in all, I just desperately want a post-movie fic with these two. The movie ended so very abruptly, and there was so much more of the story hanging. How do they all survive the long boat? Do they ever find safety? Is it at the Viking encampment they hoped to find? Does Inghean’s earth sense end up more under control or cause people to see her as a witch? Will Inghean and Asbjorn EVER do more than stare at each other longingly?

聖女の魔力は万能です | Seijo no Maryoku wa Bannou Desu | The Saint's Magic Power is Omnipotent (Anime) 

Albert Hawke, Takanashi Sei

This sweet little monster-filled anime was recommended in a blog from Ilona Andrews randomly enough – one featuring “comfort” animes to watch given The Everything. And this really was SUCH a comfort of a story. There are of course given it’s an isekai monsters to fight and chauvinistic elements to the world building (the prince is an ASS and arranged marriages are very much a thing and not always a great one) which is sort of a fantasy Regency vibe – but still all told - my jam LOL. Sei was a delight of a main character, and I loved that it got close to that typical “every handsome man in the vicinity falls desperately in love with her” shojo trope but JUST sidestepped it enough that it’s “every handsome man in the vicinity absolutely ships her and her love interest, Captain Hawke and does their best to get him to just MAKE A MOVE ALREADY.” I will say the slow pace of the anime got a bit overdone at times (2 seasons and a marriage proposal and they NEVER KISSED ON SCREEN), so I would not be opposed to romantic letters getting spicy between them on the road to marriage! Also, I loved all of Sei’s research and experimentation in everything from cooking to healing to monster-slaying, so books or articles from her featuring her academic mind would be a delight, as well. Really I just want these two sweetly shy, ridiculously brave kiddos to get to be romantic with each other.

The Borden Dispatches – Cherie Priest 

Lizzie Borden, Emma Borden, Nance O’Neill

This is one of those fandoms that I’m honestly SHOCKED doesn’t have any fics for. It’s based on an infamous historical murder AND the Innsmouth story ala Lovecraft. Oh and THEN, it’s written completely in epistolary/found document style with letters, diary entries, snippets of the doctor’s findings, reports of an investigation… It’s so PERFECT for fandom y’all. Oh yeah, and it features women fighting monsters and chronic illness and a chronically ill woman masquerading as a male academic on paper and a self-taught scientist with an ax and a sapphic sunshine grump couple between Lizzie and her actress girlfriend, and and and. I just loved this concept so so much, and the first book did not disappoint! I would like any gift to be set around the Ravenscroft timeline as opposed to the second book Chapelwood as sadly the massive decades long time skip lost so much of the characters and location I loved so much from the first book! Prompt-wise, you honestly can go wild as long as it’s featuring these ladies, especially if you can manage some of the style of the book! Between their complicated relationships and the crazy circumstances, there really is SO MUCH potential! (Plus, LBR, any opportunity to see more fics based off Lovecraft’s works that would REALLY piss that bigot off posthumously just makes me smile on principle lolol)

An Inquiry into Love and Death – Simone St. James

Jillian Leigh, Drew Merriken, Toby Leigh

A friend dragged me kicking and screaming (occasionally literally thanks to the creepy factor lol) into this author’s ghost story romances, but I have loved every one of them so far and am super sad that I’m literally the only person who has written for any of the books (and only a single one in a previous Yuletide no less LOL). INQUIRY is the book I’ve read most recently for the series (and the only one already with an archive listing), so I figured I’d go ahead and request it separately. For Drew and Jillian, I would love a glimpse into how their courtship goes after she returns to University. This is a fandom where I think epistolary stories/romance would be especially fun, though I also wouldn’t mind seeing a few ghostly letters show up from her Father/Uncle as if he was able to follow her home and finally manage to almost be family from the other side as he never was capable of in life. But regardless, Drew and Jillian are a delight on their own! As far as books or journals, glimpses of the book Toby might have written or even a coauthored book by Toby and Jillian for a posthumous release could be really cool to play with. As with several of my requests, I’m game for crossovers with the characters/pairings from the other books in this “series” from the author - especially something like a “Ladies Paranormalist Society” or something featuring all the ladies meeting up with Jillian and discussing their respective hauntings lol

North and South – Elizabeth Gaskell

Margaret Hale, John Thornton

Oh my HEART. In some ways, this book/mini series blows Jane Austen out of the water for me. Darcy who? John Thornton (as permanently played in my head by Richard Armitage after the BBC miniseries of course) is easily my favorite Regency hero of all times: brooding, honest, and desperately in love with Margaret. I did fall into this fandom through the mini-series first, but I’ve since read the book and love it just as much, so feel free to stick with just the book canon or weave in mini-series details as you wish (train station scene anyone?). Prompts: 1) This fandom in particular I’d LOVE epistolary fic for: letters between the two as they fall in love, awkward letters to family members to announce their relationship, even gossip articles about the relationship in the society pages – I’d love absolutely anything in that vein for these two! Heck get crossover-y with it and give me Lady Whistledown’s perspective on their romance! 2) Post-book/miniseries stories – give me their engagement or wedding or how the first year of their married life goes with or without the interference of their various family members and the cotton industry, etc. 3) Smut – these two have such glorious smoldering heat between them – feel free to bring it out on the page! Other than those options, run wild. I know it looks like I don’t have quite as much to say here as I do about some of the other requested fandoms, but honestly, it’s because my brain just dissolves into swooning when I think about John/Margaret and I lose any ability to articulate the things I love about them LOL. This is a fandom that I’d be especially game for crossovers or mentions of other characters from Jane Austen stories (Pride & Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Sanditon are my faves tho I’ve only seen S1. Bridgerton would also be a fun crossover!).

Rolling in the Deep Series – Mira Grant (including both Prequel novella ROLLING IN THE DEEP and sequel novel INTO THE DROWNING DEEP)

Victoria “Tori” Stewart, Olivia Sanderson

Y’all Seanan McGuire (and her horror pen name Mira Grant) has claimed my all-time fave author title, and these books are the perfect example of why. Queer main characters. Well researched science. Mixed media/interestingly formatted storytelling. And oh yeah. Deep. Sea. Murder. Mermaids. DEEP SEA MURDER MERMAIDS. Run amok here seriously, I’m game for anything including crossovers especially though I have NO IDEA how you’ll pull it off with some of the other fandoms I’ve requested LOL. I’m also a fan of worldbuilding/mixed media, too if that’s your thing. Prompt wise:  1) Pacific Rim AU with Tori/Olivia as pilots against the massive monstrous females of the species who’ve finally figured out how to survive out of the deepest depths long enough to reach shore to hunt? 2) Ray & Olivia’s bromance was one of my fave relationships here and I’d love to see him survive and TOTALLY ship Olivia/Tori– fixit fic for the win! 3) Anything playing with the mixed media format from the books: transcripts from the survivors of the Melucine, Tori & Louis’s scientific presentation of their findings, emails between Oliva and/or Ray and Imagine? 4) The other/previous “mockumentaries” Imagine did – were they all actually fake or did the people on site cover something up? Were Olivia and Ray (and possibly Anne?) involved in tracking down Bigfoot or a chupacabra? Is Tori dragged along in their wake for the next mockumentary after the Melucine?  Aside from that, I’m always a fan of stories that crossover various fandoms by the same author, so I’d totally be game with a related Seanan McGuire/Mira Grant verse character or setting colliding with this one (though note: I have NOT read the Newsflesh or Parisitology series yet).