Dear Yulegoat (or other ruminant), [This greeting is now traditional, I've used it since at least 2009] Once again I'd note that you may well have written for me in Yuletide before (in which case thanks a lot for doing so!), but three years ago I changed the name on my AO3 account and now I'm Larilille. In previous years I was known as Senji. I've continued, since then, exploring myself; and I'd appreciate seeing characters I can identify with in one way or another. I'm a polyamorous pansexual trans-feminine non-binary pixie gamer filker geek with ADHD, so that's a lot of stuff to identify with! I have no major overarching DNWs. Likewise I'm not adverse to something that's not a traditional story -- if your fannish inclinations lead you to Interactive Fiction or a CYOA story, or whatever, then feel free! I've not read a lot this last year so there's nothing on this list of requests that I'm really immediately frothing about; but on the other hand that means they're all things that I've loved for years, which is a different kind of passion! One additional note, since I've enjoyed crossover and AU fics in the past, is that I do not want crossover with anything written by JK Rowling. Alliance-Union - C. J. Cherryh Characters: Any Despite having received many wonderful fics in this fandom (or some years two fandoms :-D ) it's always going to be the first request I fill in on my yuletide; it's my catnip. On the other hand in the last two years I've had my three long-term requests filled so I'm a bit at a loss of what to ask _for_. Really anything involving any of these characters will make me delighted but here are a few thoughts: * Ben Pollard - he never got to Stockholm, does he still wish he did? * Damon Konstantin - how does his war trauma help or hinder him rebuilding Pell? * Di Janz - he's a fairly strong but 1 dimensional character, there's a lot of stuff to flesh out here! * Elene Quen - I've thought a lot about Elene when I've been working on my own YT fics (some of which were ideas that got thrown out). She's a classic Cherryh strong protaganist who goes through shit; but she doesn't actually have all that much development. It would be great to see something about her that doesn't centre on her lost family and ship (which inevitably means after _Downbelow Station_ * Joshua Talley - Who is the real Joshua? Really? * Jurgen Graff - Always the bridesmaid, never the bride. He gets more development than Di Janz, but not much. Lots to work with here. * Meg Kady - One of the few characters here where a pre-canon fic could work well; but she's a larger-than-life character and a lot could be written! * Paul Dekker - "What's the time, Dekker?" Ben is (understandably) mean to Dekker, but Dekker does genuinely have post-traumatic problems. It would be interesting to see things from his perspective. * Sal Aboujib - Meg's sidekick; whilst you get the impression people think that Meg is corrupting her, I often get the feeling it's the opposite - what do you think? * Signy Mallory - We see the complexity of Signy; but why is she the only one of Mazian's captains who manage to retain their sense of morality and honor? Machineries of Empire Series - Yoon Ha Lee Characters: Any / Worldbuilding Oh, I mean wow, what do I even say here? Anything. Anything from the big scale (these people know how to hack the universe to produce special effects by doing weird shit with calendars behind it's back) to the character interactions (Jedao telling Cheris not to trust Jedao; Kujen and Jedao double crossing each other so much that it's more like a lacecross) to the details that are minute on the scales of Empire (the fate of the Mwennin when the uncaring hexarchate had a reason to oppress them). And none of that made any sense to you did it? But whatever, anything you write for this will just be so amazing anyway. Really. Craft Universe - Max Gladstone Characters: Any/Worldbuilding "Whenever I create a new character I ask myself 'Does this character have to be white? Do they have to be male? Do they have to be straight?'" -- Max Gladstone Max's "Path least assumed" approach has, so far, produced four; very different; books in a world both surprisingly similar and surprisingly different to ours. I don't really have any suggestions here; one of the things I like about Max's work is that there's always a surprise around the corner, and they don't go where you expect. Another thing I like about them is that they have some of the feel of a John Grisham novel or a Police Procedural; both of which are quite odd things in the fantasy genre. Finally, he actually manages to pull off making his very odd and unusual characters actually seem sympathetic and human; even when they're wanting to sacrifice one of the protagonists... Dragonriders of Pern - Anne McCaffrey Characters: Worldbuilding I'm not sure I've ever requested Pern for yuletide; certainly not since 2009 which is a long time ago! Pern was one of the earliest SFF series that I read, many many years ago when I was a young teen. Over a long series the McCaffreys have built a very large world; and I think there could be room for all kinds of stories here! I won't mind if you want to include or centre on canon characters but something interesting that builds on the canon would be great. Graceling Realm Series - Kristin Cashore Characters: Any/Worldbuilding Scanning the tag list has reminded me of these books and I'm going to have to go reread them now. I only have the first three (Graceling, Fire, Bitterblue) so I'd prefer to avoid spoilers for the last two, but don't worry too much as I'll probably end up buying the others before the deadline. Of course I haven't read them recently but I have found some prompts from an earlier letter: * Katsa and Po's relationship seems to lead to them doing stupid or unthought-out things. In Bitterblue this works out well in the end, but there must have been (or going-to-be) occasions where it's come out worse. * The Dellians have spent at least 20 years observing the 7 Kingdoms, which is a lot of space for fill-in fic; in particular they must have had to make hard moral decisions sometimes (particularly with the turmoil in the 7 Kingdoms) and come close to being discovered at times. * Fire and Katsa's meeting is done entirely offscreen in Bitterblue; and given their respective personalities must have been ... interesting. But, if none of those thoughts inspire then don't worry, as I say any fic at all will make me happy :-) Vantage (Board Game) Characters: Any/Worldbuilding I've played about three games of this so far, and the world is amazingly deep considering that it's made up of about 2000 cards and 9 slim books a bit like a choose your own adventure. The six player characters all have their own strengths and weaknesses that suggest at interesting backgrounds and there are a lot of hints at things in the world and its inhabitants which really encourage you to fill them in with your own thoughts. I have no idea how well this would translate to a traditional fic format but there are so many interesting things going on that you could even just take a random card and write something based on that. Please don't go spoiling yourself for the game, so write something based on the ideas that you've encountered or centre it on the interaction between two characters that you know about. Or just take the theming and write something that _could_ be a story in the game. Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine (RPG) Characters: Any/Worldbuilding Oh my goddess, someone's nominated Chuubo's. If you've nominated this because you had something you wanted to write, then go ahead and just write it! I figure noone's going to offer to write this unless their head is really inspired by Jenna's creativity and anything that results is, in my opinion, going to be amazing. If you want more of a prompt like that, then a lot of Jenna's writing is about the liminal, particularly the boundaries between what is and what isn't, or between mundane and magical; and that could be a fun place to explore. Wyrmspan (Board Game) Characters: Any/Worldbuilding As with Vantage, although to a lesser extent, the mechanics and artwork here bring an awful lot of life to the setting of the game. I'd love something involving the interactions betwen dragons in one player's caverns; particularly about how the dragons with different personalities or habitats interact. Thanks a lot! Larilille.