Yuletide Letter 2023

[firebatvillain]

Dear Yuletide Author,

Thanks for writing - I’m really excited for this Yuletide. I hope you’re excited as well! I’m FireBatVillain on Ao3 and Tumblr.

The stuff I’m including in this letter is optional, but I hope you consider them as you work. Whatever you make, I’ll appreciate it regardless, and I look forward to whatever comes. Prompts are just suggestions.

In addition to this letter, I also maintain an more detailed, general post about likes and dislikes if that's useful for you at all: https://firebatvillain.dreamwidth.org/3098.html

Things I like:

Happy stories, bittersweet stories, and stories that end with a spark of hope even if they are angry or sad. I like good communication, wordplay, honor, pointless heroism or love even if it won’t succeed. Probably one of my favorite ideas in fiction is the idea of heroism in the face of hopelessness.

I'm a fan of explorations of fandom meta, and I've often enjoyed canon-compliant off-screen fics that explore things are great! Some of my favorite stories of all time fit into the category of "AU - Canon Divergence" and I would say I am a common fan of "what if things were different in X way" type AUs. I do not usually enjoy modern or mundane AUs that much, but I've liked a few.

I like fics that have a lot of frantic energy about them, or with a focus on revolution or social change. I am a fan of fics that are about characters being ruthless in pursuit of an ideal, and giving something up or even becoming worse as a result.

Things I don’t like / DNWs:

My DNWs are pregnancy, authorial monarchist apologia, vivid descriptions of needles, and extreme underage.

Regarding the monarchism thing: I’m okay with characters in a feudal or monarchist setting, and even protags who are monarchs, and even these characters triumphing as monarchs as long as the story itself isn’t apologia for monarchism. Characters who like monarchism, who think of themselves as good kings, who want to restore the throne, etc - all good by me. Saber or Iskandar in Fate/Zero, Reinhard von Lohengramm from LoGH, etc is excellent. I just would prefer not to read a work where the final moral of the story is that democracy is bad and we should all be ruled by a single person with absolute unchecked power, as presented by the author.

Requested Fandoms:

Request 1: Suzume no Tojimari - Any Character

I found this movie so moving and fun, both emotionally stirring and funny! I really fell in love with the characters, and we only get little glimpses of what happens to them after the events of the film. I'd love anything related to that, or any more of Daijin and Sadaijin. Something uplifting and fun, maybe?

Here are a few prompts if you're looking for inspiration:

• Suzume and Chika meet up again later, perhaps on a break from school, or perhaps later on, and talk about boys or life.
• Suzume is off to university in Kobe! She tops by to check in on Rumi.
• Serizawa takes his car to get repaired.
• Souta speaks with his grandfather after the events of the movie.
• Tamaki has a date tonight, and Suzume is encouraging her.

 

Request 2: かぐや様は告らせたい | Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai | Kaguya Wants to be Confessed To (Manga)  - Odajima Saburo, J Suzuki of Koenji, The Glutton Girl of Jinbocho, Tanuma Takahiko (Any combination)

These four characters are the Four Ramen Emperors of Tokyo and they represent one of my favorite side plots in Kaguya-Sama.

I encourage you to write whatever you want as long as it features at least one of the Four Ramen Emperors. You can use a subset of the characters rather than using all four if you prefer. Some prompts:

• The Four Ramen Emperors gather in one place for the first time in a long time, and have a ramen related competition.
• San of Shibuya, aka Odajima Saburo, runs into Fujiwara again, and comes to the aid (or perhaps, causing problems for) our heroes on account of feeling he owes Fujiwara a debt of gratitude.
• The Immortal of Sugamo, aka Tanuma Takahiko, actually turns out to be related to Dr Tanuma Tsubasa, and Tanuma Shozo, and his family places him directly in the line of fire with the main plot.
• The Glutton Girl of Jinbocho, reminded of her history with San of Shibuya, and feeling that perhaps their beliefs aren't in such conflict any more, meets with him again - will they rekindle their romance?

Request 3: The Diamond Age - Judge Fang, Lieutenant Chang, Miss Pao, Dr. X (Any Combin

I recently read The Diamond Age, and my brain is still buzzing with the ideas that were introduced in it! I think that as usual, Stephenson did much better with the first half of the novel than he did with the second half, but wow did I love that first half! The conflict with the Celestial Kingdom and the Coastal Republic was interesting, and I also think it's the kind of thing that made a lot more sense to write about and seemed even reasonable in the 90s that would strain credulity now that China has so much more high tech industry and accounts for such a larger share of GDP. I'm still left feeling like we missed out on some fun times that I'd like to see explored further. I absolutely love Judge Fang, and am sad we don't really see him in the second half of the novel, and particularly I find him + his subordinates and allies to be very entertaining and have great comedy and personality chemistry on screen.

If you're looking for some prompts to inspire you, here are some optional prompts:

• A story about Judge Fang, Lieutenant Chang, and Miss Pao's adventures as part of the Celestial Kingdom after they defect. What kind of justice they serve, involvement in the civil wars, and so on.
• A story about Judge Fang's decision to join the Celestial Kingdom and how he, Lietuenant Chang, and Miss Pao defected.
• A story about Judge Fang and Dr. X's scheming and helping the orphaned girls who eventually join Nell. Aside from manufacturing the books, they must have provided many other things for them.

Request 4: The Ballad of Smokin' Joe Rudeboy - Tom Cardy (Music Video)  - Any

I love this song! It's a delightful mix of serious and funny and it has moments of drama and moments that make me want to learn more about the world. Smokin' Joe is, of course, willing to give a big fat "fuck you" to someone who charges too much for a soy cappuccino or who is impolite about party etiquette, but he also took down the Mongoose Mountain Gang! The core of the drama, about Bo, The Outlaw, and The Daughter, interests me a lot as well.

Some prompts if you're looking for them:

• What is life like for Smokin' Joe and The Daughter after canon? It seems like they've partially reconciled, but after 18 years apart, there's a lot to be teased through.
• What were those 18 years apart like for The Daughter? She has a velvet cloak - was she raised by The Outlaw? What was her tough life like? Is she herself an outlaw?
• I'd love to read a story about what happened with Bo and The Outlaw - she died, after all, but maybe The Outlaw isn't so bad, since it seemed he adopted The Daughter.

–

Thanks for reading this!

Hopefully this gives you some ideas. Avoiding the DNWs is significantly more important than any of this. Do what makes something good, what inspires you, and will let you have a good time writing.

Thank you.