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 ignore them and 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, like Lou's boyfriends, 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 requested 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 / 2023 / 2024

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

( Ogre Battle, Hilary Tamar Mysteries, Jeanne d'Arc, Good Cop/Bad Cop, Twelfth Night, Fire Emblem: Blazing Sword, Final Fantasy Tactics, and Cat Among The Pigeons )

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 ignore them and 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, like 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 requested 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 / 2023

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

( Alien Prequel Movies, Twelfth Night, Jeanne d'Arc, Ogre Battle, Hilary Tamar Mysteries, and When The King Comes Home )

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, Prometheus, Twelfth Night, Jeanne d'Arc, Ogre Battle, and Samurai Champloo )

Dear Yuletide Author,

Hi! Thanks for participating in this exchange! I love Yuletide. This letter has some brief suggestions for possible stories but feel free to disregard them. I am excited to give you free rein to go in any direction.

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 Rosa 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'm not troubled by any violent or sexual subjects; feel free to go dark or kinky or gross. I'm also fine with radical 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.

Things I Like: Eccentric families; not-entirely-happy love stories; sardonic work spouses; pragmatic compromises under high duress; villains becoming infinitesimally less villainous; demonstrations of self-control; the arousing qualities of competence and empathy; and fuck-ups and the forgiveness of those fuck-ups.

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

Below, I've listed some story ideas for all my prompts, but they are incredibly optional; feel free to ignore them and write me whatever!

( Specific Requests: Life, Ogre Battle, The Gray Man, Alien Prequels, Final Fantasy IV, and Twelfth Night )

As fanfiction dot net begins to approach the heat-death of the universe, here are the extremely ancient fic from there that I've never liked well enough to archive on AO3.

( Imaginary Things (Wild ARMs, 2001) )

( Going to the Sea (Final Fantasy VII, 2001) )

( Cancer's Ascent (Final Fantasy VII, 2002) )

Dear Yuletide Author,

Hi! Thanks for participating in this exchange! It is my favorite thing all year.

Do Not Want: Pregnancy. (Canonical pregnancy is a-okay; I ask only that you don't make any of my requested characters pregnant.)

Preferences: I'm not troubled by any kind of violent or sexual subjects; feel free to go wild.

Things I Like: Conflicted-but-loving sibling relationships; eccentric families of choice; slow-burn romances; overly invested mentors; sardonic work spouses; the arousing qualities of competence and empathy; and fuck-ups and the forgiveness of those fuck-ups.

The Proposal -- Andrew Paxton & Margaret Tate

I love workplace romcoms, and I love romcoms with a dude who is socially/professionally inferior to a lady -- so the beginning and the ending of The Proposal are my jam. (The middle part of the movie is somewhat less attuned to my particular taste. "Dammit, movie," I invariably whisper, "go back to that New York publishing house, I want to see Margaret fire some more people.")

I would love to get a story about Andrew and Margaret in their place of work. Maybe something set before the start of the movie -- how did Andrew and Margaret function as a team, even when they were deeply annoyed with one another? How much of Andrew's care-taking and nurturing was a result of his unconscious feelings about Margaret? Did Margaret have other assistants -- and was Andrew ever jealous of them? How DID Andrew get this job in the first place, anyway? What the hell was that interview like? And how much of Margaret's prickly persona was a result of her (irritating, inconvenient, and impossible) attraction to Andrew? Did any of the other editors ever try to poach Andrew from Margaret? Has Margaret ever protected or shielded Andrew from inter-office politics (in a way invisible to Andrew)? Or, conversely -- how has Andrew saved Margaret (while she remained oblivious)?

(These dynamics are also likely in-play even after the end of the movie, so feel free to set your story at any point! I just want to see Andrew and Margaret passive-aggressively manipulating one another in a world of copy machines and ergonomic chairs and lots of little Newton's Cradle swinging-ball toys on desks.)

Twelfth Night -- Sir Andrew Aguecheek.

Ah, dear, sweet, dumb Sir Andrew Aguecheek -- so rich and so helpless. Andrew is a great clown in Twelfth Night -- but he was adored once too, you know. So I'm asking for a story about the pathos and rich interior life of Aguecheek. Maybe a story about his life before the events of the play: what drives him to hang out with Toby Belch et al? Maybe a story set during the events of the play: what's happening to Aguecheek when he's off-stage? Or maybe a story set afterwards: what happens to Andrew after he exits under Toby's insults? (Do they ever reconcile???)

(Also: you're welcome to make this story Absolutely Shakespearean, but I love AU takes on Shakespeare too, so feel free to set this on Mars or the Midwest or wherever takes your fancy.)


The Banner Saga -- Ekkill

Ekkill is one of my favorite characters from Banner Saga and I would love any story about him -- either Bad Killer Ekkill, or the weary, guilt-ridden man he becomes after he joins Rook's party, or the mercenary finding fellowship with Bolverk's Ravens, or -- you get the idea.

(The format of The Banner Saga obviously means that lots of different things are potentially possible. Feel free to pursue any possible story-routes; I've played just about every variation and welcome whatever sequence you choose. Also, I like Ekkill, but I'm totally open to whatever moral judgments you want to render upon him.)

Feel free to pair Ekkill with other characters: does Rook feel any nauseated recognition of Ekkill's grief and trauma? Does Oddleif or Iver think Ekkill is ridiculous? How does Egil interact with him? (Maybe Egil survives! Maybe Egil and Ekkill manage to coexist in the caravan!) Why does Ekkill ultimately leave the caravan to join the Ravens? What kind of life does he have with Folka and the others?

Or: The first game suggests that Ekkill is developing a delicate connection with Alette (to the deep horror of Rook). I would love to know more about that connection -- their disturbing conversations, their tentative camaraderie, their mutual habits of passivity and evasion -- in the context of the caravan. (Is Ekkill developing a crush on Alette?)

Feel free to be as dark or redemptive as you want; either make Ekkill suffer or make him whole again. (Or both!)


The Vision of Escaflowne -- Dryden Fassa

Dryden is rich and swaggering and kind and arrogant; he's the kind of guy you'd want giving a toast at your wedding. Of course, his own wedding doesn't go so well, and at the end of the series, he gives his wedding ring to Millerna and goes abroad to "find himself."

So I invite you to tell me: what happens then? What kind of world does he see in the aftermath of the Zaibach empire? How does his family react to his wandering ways? Does he visit Van and Merle? Does he stumble across any references to the Mystic Moon or have any communication with Hitomi? Does he return to Millerna -- and how does she react? (You can pair Millerna and Dryden together or not as you see fit; I'm equally happy either way!)

Alien (Prequel Movies) -- Elizabeth Shaw and David 8

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

I love what a weird and inscrutable figure David is in Prometheus: at times, he's 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 also love it when Frankenstein's monster falls in loooooove.

To that end: I want a story about Shaw and David, either during the course of the movie (before Shaw has a real inkling about David's "deal") or afterwards (when Shaw is only too aware of David's deal and is presumably sleeping with one eye open). This story can be light and fluffy: David learns to love rainbows and kittens, and he and Shaw reach a tentative companionship. Or this story can be dark and twisted: David and Shaw circle one another grimly, distrusting one another and yet needing one another, forced to accommodate the other even as they try to bend the other to their will.

The sky is the limit, author! Feel free to be as kinky or as life-affirming as needed; feel free to ignore what "actually" happens to Shaw. (Or explain it!) As long as David and Shaw are unhealthily obsessed with one another (romantically, platonically, or mortal-enemies-ly), I'll be a happy camper.