Dear Yuletide Author 2023

[moemachina]

Dear Yuletide Author,

Hi! Thanks for participating in this exchange, which I love. This letter has some brief suggestions for possible stories, but feel free to disregard them. Follow your own bliss in what you choose to write about my requested characters.

AO3 Name: moemachina.
Treats warmly accepted.

Do Not Want (DNW): Unrequested romantic relationships. However, it's totally fine to include canonical spouses or partners, such as Helen or Holloway, as important and sympathetic characters. My prompts often allude to relationships between requested characters and their wider social network; if I mention an unrequested character by name in a prompt, it's okay to put them in a romantic/sexual relationship with a requested character.

Otherwise: I am not troubled by any degree of violence or sex. Feel free to write something dark, kinky, or gross. I am fine with AUs or canon divergence. Consider me opted-in to everything.

If I've requested more than one character, I'm cool with the characters being in a romantic relationship together. I'm also cool with the characters being in a non-romantic relationship. I like ships; I like gen.

Past Yuletide Letters:
2007 / 2008 / 2009 / 2012 / 2013 / 2015 / 2016 / 2017 / 2019 / 2020 / 2022

Below are some story ideas for my requests, but they are obviously optional to the max.



All Creatures Great and Small: Siegfried, James

I've been re-reading Herriot's vet stories this year, which I last read in childhood, and I was surprised to find that they're genuinely great comic sketches: deft, funny, perceptive about male relationships. In particular, I was impressed by the literary creation that is Siegfried, who is charming, idiosyncratic, impatient, absent-minded, mercurial, generous, and dramatic. The narrator's affection for his exasperating boss-turned-partner is deeply relatable, since Siegfried is such a lovable tyrant.

Some possible story ideas:

Vet Cases: Two roommate-vets at work, solving medical mysteries, driving around the countryside, arguing about bills, and mixing together dubious medical concoctions.

Cthulhu Has A Boo Boo: There's a shadow over Darrowby, and James and Siegfried are called upon to administer some supernatural entity care.

Flip It And Reverse It: Instead of James' POV on Siegfried, we get Siegfried's POV on James as the two men work together.

It Says In The Letter 'And Partner:' James spends a lot of time thinking about Siegfried's "attractive face, lean, strong-boned with steady humorous eyes." Maybe, to figure out why, he should kiss Siegfried.


Prometheus: Elizabeth Shaw, David 8

I love David's prickly, unpredictable weirdness. At times, he takes immediate offense at small slights; at other times, he endures oppression with implacable calm. He finds his human crew fascinating and repugnant; he treats Shaw with devotion and contempt. I really like the dissonance of an inhuman entity mimicking humans and seeking self-actualization through a selective embrace of human foibles. I love the contrast with Shaw, who is virtuous and dedicated and noble: a paragon of humanity that captures the fickle, unintelligible interests of an android.

For the purposes of this prompt, you are welcome to include or disregard Covenant as you see fit. (Fix-its or bummers are both a-okay.)

Some possible story ideas:

Dorothy and the Tin Man: During the early days on LV-223, Shaw and David have minor adventures together. Maybe they have some laughs, get to know each other, develop an ominous-in-retrospect connection.

Everybody Lives, Nobody Dies: The crew of the Prometheus observes sensible safety protocols on an alien planet and as a result, everyone survives -- which means that the relationship between David and Shaw develops on a much different trajectory. What happens then?

Rom-Com in SPAAAAACE: Frankenstein's monster falls in love. The object of his affection, marooned alongside him, is less than thrilled. At first. Does David slowly grow on Shaw, like a fungus? Or does Shaw have to take measures to protect herself?

Cabin Fever: Things go wrong on the Engineers' ship, at first slowly, and then all at once. Shaw and David influence and change one another, for better or worse. What uncomfortable truths do they discover together? How do they deal with injury, madness, and/or death?


Twelfth Night: Toby

Toby Belch! Everyone's favorite disreputable uncle! He instigates all the plot shenanigans in Olivia's household; he is a chaos gremlin at every point in the story. I'd love to see more of his mischief, largesse, and/or cruelty in relationship to the people around him. Feel free to make him face the consequences of his actions (unless, of course, it would be funnier for him to get off scot-free).

Some possible story ideas:

A Plague o’ These Pickle Herring: It's a lovely morning in the village, and you are a horrible uncle, spreading merriment and disaster in your wake.

All the Good Gifts of Nature: Toby is callous in his treatment of Sir Andrew Aguecheek, but maybe there's some affection there as well. What's the backstory between these two?

Here Comes the Little Villain: Despite Toby's many flaws, Maria presumably sees something in him. Does Toby have some redeeming qualities? (Does Maria have some gremlin qualities?)

And Does Not Toby Take You a Blow o’ The Lips: Toby and Malvolio hate each other, but maybe they also make out sometimes? Listen, listen, it's a classic enemies-to-lovers set-up. Whomst among us has not set up an elaborate gaslighting plot involving half a dozen people to humiliate our crush???


Jeanne d'Arc (2006): Jeanne, Gilles

This request refers to the 2006 video game. I'm very into Jeanne's toughness and focus, and I'm also into the fact that she's barely aware of the hot loyal nobleman in eyeliner who quietly and humbly assists her at every point, finds her when everyone else thinks she is dead, and gives her motivational pep talks whenever necessary. And does it ever occur to Jeanne to wonder about Gilles' ardently selfless service? Nope! Love that for her.

Note: It's up to you if you want to address or ignore the fate of the historical Gilles de Rais. I am perfectly fine with a dark take on Gilles, but it's also okay if you want to ignore his real-life analogue and focus on the fictionalized video-game version who travels with a talking purple frog.

Some possible story ideas:

Makeover Montage: On the road, Gilles tries to help Jeanne prepare to deal with nobility and/or royalty. Jeanne returns the favor by introducing him to the finer points of rustic country life.

One-Sided Pining: Gilles spends a lot of time metaphorically doodling in his journal and drawing little hearts around Jeanne's name. Jeanne spends a lot of time thinking about HOW TO SAVE FRANCE.

Demon Time: Post-game, Gilles has a dark passenger who keeps whispering to him. He might need Jeanne's help to pull through.

Two-Sided Pining: Maybe, as a little treat, Jeanne can take the occasional break from the red-string corkboard entitled HOW TO SAVE FRANCE and develop some uncomfortable and inconvenient feelings for her right-hand man.


Ogre Battle: Lanselot Hamilton, Lanselot Tartaros

The revelation in Tactics Ogre Chapter 4 down in the torture pit that LT and LH not only had history together but had real bad, eye-gouging history: what a twist! Bloody Lans H, nearly broken but still spitting defiance at Tartaros, who is contemptuous and superior but also extending his opponent a grudging respect: "They are not the soldiers we are, you know." Plus all the chiming resonance between their philosophical conversation and what's actually happening to LH in a very real, physical sense. (Ah, to "reach beneath the suppurating flesh of this world and wrench out the source of its ailment," indeed!) I would like more about that intimately intense relationship, either before, during, or after the game. I played the PSP edition of the game, but feel free to use the original SNES flavor or whatever is going on in the Reborn remaster, and you're welcome to incorporate material from Knight of Lodis or the CODA stuff. Obviously, all routes and endings are fair game.

Some possible story ideas:

Lovers to Enemies: Lans H, respected paladin, just loves hanging out with his new best friend with a suspiciously vague background. Wait, what's that? The kingdom's magic sword is missing??? Oh no!

Enemies to Lovers: It's AU Time, baby! Everyone lives; everyone recovers; everyone rides off into the sunset for (grudging, suspicious) happily ever after. How does that happen?

The Eternal Shriek: Let's all go hang out together in the torture chamber! What's happening down there? Bad things? Yeah, yeah, but WHAT bad things?

But You Are In That Chair, Blanche: Post-game, Tartaros pays Hamilton a visit. What happens next?


Samurai Champloo: Jin, Fuu, Mugen

I love the central trio of Samurai Champloo and how their three-cornered relationship shifts, swinging unpredictably between being contemptuous, goofy, loving, competitive, and bittersweet. I love Fuu's warmth and empathy and absolute inability to hatch a cunning plot; I love Mugen as a feral jerk surrounded, for the first time, by the excruciating brambles of friendship and love; I love Jin's steadfastly selfish self-denial slowly degrading on behalf of the two idiots he has picked up in his travels. Great stuff! I want more of it!

Note: I will be equally happy to receive either gen or romance for this prompt! However, I only want Fuu & Jin & Mugen OR Fuu/Jin/Mugen. I want all three as a matching set, rather than a romantic duo and a third wheel.

Some possible story ideas:

On The Road: Another day, another town, another screw-up that forces the trio to work an odd job or take a weird mountain shortcut or perform an undignified task in order to move forward.

Reunions, Schmunions: After the events of the series, coincidence (or fate) brings our three protagonists back into each other's lives. How have they changed? What remains, fixed and forever?

Nothing In The Rulebook Says: Continue the series' genre-bending goofiness. Put the trio in a time loop! Send them to the moon! Have them switch bodies!

In Vino Veritas: The characters get drunk and make some difficult confessions to each other. Possibly followed by a joint make-out and/or threesome.