yuletide letter.

Dear Yuletide Author:

Hello there! This is my first year doing Yuletide, and as such my first time writing one of these, so I hope I'm able to make it helpful. But I'd like to go ahead and put out upfront that I am already super excited just about the whole part where you're writing something in a tiny fandom I love, and that alone is pretty darned awesome from where I'm sitting. Anything above and beyond that is icing on the cake, as far as I'm concerned. ♥

(I'll also go ahead and say here that I'm going to be out of town and internetless when stories go up, and I won't be back until just before New Year's! So I won't be able to leave you a breathless thank you right away, sadly. Checking out what's waiting for me is going to me one of the first things on my agenda when I got back, so please don't feel unloved that I won't get there right away!)

Some general stuff to start this off: I am not a picky shipper, and I am usually willing to give almost any ship a chance if it's being handled with care. Het, slash, femslash, whatever, I won't be bothered. Gen is also completely fine, and I have a gigantic soft spot for characters who aren't family by blood, but make that kind of relationship between themselves and would jump on a grenade for each other even if they don't always (or often) get along smoothly. Although my own writing hangs out on the lower end of the ratings most of the time, I am fine with mature content and smut (just as long as bathroom stuff stays out of the bedroom).

I love bittersweet endings and tragic situations, though my choice of canons probably reflects that pretty well in itself. If you find your inspiration is going towards something happy and fluffy, though, that's cool too! Goodness knows some of these characters have certainly earned it.

If that's enough to get you going: awesome! Surprise me. It'll be a blast. :3 If you'd like some more specifics per the canons I've requested, however -- read on.


Samurai Warriors, Takenaka Hanbei and Kuroda Kanbei

Whether you treat it as a ship or just as two very good bros, either way is fine for me; I mostly just would love anything with Hanbei and Kanbei interacting, being themselves, and showing how important they are to each other despite the fact that they don't really say it overtly. I would also be totally down with Motonari showing up, if you're up for it (I loved Hanbei's SW3 ending and the event they had with him in Chronicles), but he's completely optional. Hanbei and Kanbei are the thing here.

I also love when Hanbei's illness is an issue to be dealt with (or willfully ignored), and doesn't just spring up seemingly from nowhere like in SW3. Kanbei's thoughts or reactions to it - noticing it, confronting Hanbei about it, or reacting to his death - would be gravy. But fluff is fine too! Basically I'm all about the personality clash the two of them have, and how they're a complete odd couple and yet totally important to each other and close despite that, so any direction you take that in will thrill me. Fic for these two seems practically nonexistent!

To expand a little on the illness thing, it's a big factor in why I prefer the storytelling in Samurai Warriors Chronicles over Samurai Warriors 3 - everyone has more time to show off facets of their personality and their backstory, especially. So we actually get to see Hanbei lose his temper and Kanbei smile, and we find out that Hanbei's clearly known that's he's got one foot in the grave for years before he finally bites it, and Kanbei raised one of his retainers himself after the guy's father died, but claims that it was just practical and Not An Act Of Kindness At All, Dammit Hanbei Shut Up. Everyone just feels more well-rounded, and I like seeing the hints of their other sides peek through the persona they usually display.

If you haven't played SWC or haven't gotten all the events (no shame there, I'm still only at 40% myself!), I have transcriptions for some of them hanging out here, and Hanbei and Kanbei's event sets both have some really cute moments that kind of illuminate everything that makes me love these two. (They do pop up in a few others, as well: Motonari, Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, and Nagamasa are it, I think.)

I'm trying not to write a lengthy essay on How Much I Love Hanbei And Kanbei, Holy Shit, but it's an uphill battle.


Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey, Zelenin

I adore Zelenin, so I can think of very little that wouldn't make me happy here. Backstory before she joined the expedition, a look into her thoughts during any of her key moments, something examining the weird juxtaposition of ideals the story took by having the scientist be the one who sides with God and the angels, a look at just how much her ordeal in Sector B affected her through the rest of the story...

I do ship her with the protagonist, but in a very understated, "there is attraction here but we are way too professional to act on it because this ain't the time or the place" sort of way. And of course, I'm not holding anyone to that in a game where the protag's personality is so dependent on the player's choices and imagination! I prefer a protag who took neutral path, but I would be just as interested to see the impact of a protag who chose law or chaos, if your ideas send you in that direction.

I think that says most of what I wanted to say, really. One of my favorite things about Megaten games is the clash of philosophy and the way no option is ever presented as clearly The Best Path, because the ugly bits of both law and chaos are always clearly on display. So that kind of thing will definitely get me excited a bit more than zany antics with helping Anthony with still more girl troubles. (But Anthony's girl troubles were pretty hilarious and I am A-OK with those, too.)


Game of Thrones, Catelyn Stark

Hm. Despite it being listed under TV, I see a couple people on the character list who haven't shown up in the TV series yet? I'm a fan of both the TV show and the books, however, so whichever way you're more comfortable taking it is fine with me.

I just want something with Cat. Any details beyond that are so optional I can't even express it, I just really love Cat in all her mama bear, doin' things and taking no crap glory. I'm in the middle of rereading Storm of Swords as I type this, so I would love more exploration of the conflict between her actions and motives versus Robb's, and how they conflict even as they want the same things. But I would be just as thrilled with Cat early in her marriage, learning to adapt to the north and deal with all those conflicting feelings about Ned, or that so very strained relationship with Jon Snow, or that whole mess with Brandon and Petyr, or just Cat being an amazing mama bear to her children.

There's a lot I could say about how much I love Cat, but I'll try to keep it brief by saying that I love how she's complex and well-rounded, how she doesn't always make the best decisions and how she has her less shining moments (i.e. her pettiness re: Jon), and yet you can really see that love for her family shining through in everything she does, even when it leads her in a bad, bad direction.

Should you be working with book canon, I am...less than fond of the post-Red Wedding developments, so I'd rather not see anything past that point, if it's possible.


But as I said: that's all just in case you're stuck. All of these characters are very dear to me and kind of underwritten, so just reading something about them at all is enough to get me pretty excited. ♥

Thanks so much for your time, and I'm looking forward to seeing your fic!