Yuletide 2022 Letter

[kiraly]

Hello there, dear creator! I’m Kiraly, and I’m so thrilled to have you write or draw for me! I’m sure I’ll love whatever you come up with, so this letter is merely a list of suggestions to give you ideas. I hope you’ll find something to inspire you, but as long as you keep my DNWs in mind, feel free to do as you like! If you need more ideas, you can check out my previous letters (but heads up some of them are VERY old and my tastes have shifted haha). You can also find me on Tumblr: worldsentwined, or check out my AO3: Kiraly

General Likes:

I really love character-driven stories with a lot of emotion. I’m all about the fluff, but I also enjoy angst with a happy ending. I love to see characters building friendships, working together, going on adventures, getting into (and out of) trouble. Found family and loyalty are always welcome. I love poetry, so feel free to incorporate it. I also love stories that make me laugh,

For romances, I have a huge weakness for cuddling, (mild) hurt/comfort, and, uh...characters getting soaked and having to snuggle to warm up, haha. Kisses are good (awkward or sweet or steamy). I’m also totally down for things like “there was only one bed”, “fake/pretend relationship”, or other situations where the characters kind of get thrown together and then develop feelings for each other. Also very here for friends-to-lovers, especially the kind that takes years to realize. Mutual pining is great, though I prefer it to end happily.

Although my prompts are mainly focused on canon-setting stories, I adore modern AUs, so if you want to put the characters in college or a coffee shop or an office or whatever, I will probably be delighted and charmed.

Dislikes (Do Not Want):

Major character death. Maiming or graphic violence beyond what is canon-typical (references to canon events are okay, just don’t make them the focus, please). Abusive relationships as the primary focus of the story, or described in detail. Terminal illness. Sexual violence of any kind. Explicit sex (allusions to sex or implied sex are fine). Dementia or permanent memory loss. Tragic endings.

Now, on to the prompts!

The Goblin Emperor Series

Characters Requested: Thara Celehar, Iäna Pel-Thenhior

(Note: Hopefully if you’re reading this you’ve had a chance to read Grief of Stones, because there are spoilers in here!)

I love these two so much - their interactions in canon both leave me giddy with delight and longing for more. It’s nice to see how Iäna seems genuinely delighted to help Thara with his work (and to see Thara in general, honestly) and how both of them have expertise with different areas. I got a chuckle out of Iäna’s indignation that Thara would think of him as someone who would know a *gasp* photographer…and then it turns out that he does, in fact, know a photographer. And Iäna turning to Thara for help with his cousin’s wife and the revetheralin is a less humorous but still good example of how they each respect each other’s knowledge and experience with things they can’t fix themselves. I’d love to see more of that - Thara encountering places where Iäna can fill in gaps in his knowledge of Amalo, or times when Iäna needs help with something and Thara can provide it.

I understand why their relationship is progressing so slowly and delicately in canon, but my little shippy heart would love to see a story where Thara is able to admit his feelings (both to himself and to Iäna) and for them to be able to act on those feelings. It doesn’t have to be anything big and flashy - I love the bits and pieces we’ve gotten so far, of companionable dinners and evenings at the opera and some light breaking-and-entering for dessert. ;) So more of that, but with the space to actually blossom into something, would be great. I think there are great opportunities for other kinds of tender moments between them too, with more privacy. Cuddling? Falling asleep on each other? Iäna comforting Thara after a nightmare? Thara learning to help Iäna with his braids? Any and all domestic fluffy nonsense will delight me.

In general I am desperate for Thara to get a hug and have someone take care of him - and to realize that there are so many people who WANT to take care of him - and this does not have to just be a romantic thing with Iäna! Feel free to bring in side characters too, there are so many people who care about this poor traumatized man. (I am SO hoping that the next book involves Min Nadin giving Thara one of her quilts, so that is a detail I’d love to see in a fic). I also love and appreciate Anora’s support of Thara, so I’d be happy to see him make an appearance.

Regarding the loss of Thara’s powers at the end of Grief, I’m fine with however you want to handle that. You can do a canon-divergent story where that doesn’t happen, or a story where he’s coping with the loss of them and figuring out how to move on, or a story where he’s trying to cope with their loss but maybe they’re not as gone as he thought? I think there are a lot of possibilities to be explored, but by no means do you have to go down this road if you’d rather write something with a different focus.




In Other Lands

Characters Requested: Elliot Schafer, Luke Sunborn

First of all, I should say that I am 100% fine with including Serene and Golden in here too, I just didn’t want to formally request them. I love how this book is so focused on the friendship between Elliot and Serene and Luke, and how that’s really the core of the story even as romances come and go (and eventually solidify). So a story about their friendship over the years would be delightful, if you don’t want to focus on the romantic relationship between Luke and Elliot.

But! If you do want to write a romantic story, please do! I love the way their relationship develops throughout the story - there are so many times when they misunderstand each other and hurt each other’s feelings, but at the end of the day they always have each other’s backs (even if they won’t admit to being friends) and stand by each other. I have read Wings in the Morning and I adored seeing so many of the scenes from Luke’s POV, and I would love seeing other canon events from his perspective too. My top choice would probably be the play (this guy joined the school play for the boy he had a crush on, even though he had no idea he had a crush - and then it turns out his crush was trying to get someone else’s attention! Poor Luke!) It would be fun seeing either a general Luke POV of that, or an AU where he realizes his feelings earlier and actually acts on them.

Another scene I’d be interested in seeing from Luke’s perspective is the three days when Elliot tried to stay behind and not come back to the Borderlands. What must have been going through his head, with both of his friends gone and no way of going after either of them?

Of course, I’d also love to see something about their adventures post-canon. Do they end up being posted by the mermaids? What new treaties will Elliot negotiate, what new dangers can he accidentally get in the way of that Luke will have to save him from? What awkward social situations will Elliot have to save Luke from? I’m also 100% here for any story that gets into how much Elliot likes Luke’s wings (best blanket in the Borderlands - if Luke thinks he’s ever going to escape being Elliot’s personal space heater, whatever that is, he’s wrong). I think the contrast between how Elliot sees Luke’s half-harpy heritage (so awesome, totally hot) to how Luke sees it (uncomfortable, if not downright monstrous) would make for an interesting story as Luke loves to learn this new part of himself.



The Murderbot Diaries

Characters Requested: Murderbot, Asshole Research Transport, Amena, SecUnit Three
(You don’t have to include all four of these characters - any combination of at least two of them would be cool to see!)

Two notes for this: one, I’m not interested in romantic stories between any of these characters (the canon “mutual administrative assistance-ship” thing MB and ART have going on is fine, but I don’t consider that a romance). References to the canon background relationships are fine. And two, PLEASE use the canon it/its pronouns for Murderbot, ART, Three, and any other bot characters. (And canon pronouns for any characters, I guess, but those are the characters I’m Tired of seeing misgendered).

I would love to see anything about what happens post-Network Effect! I’m very excited to see what future adventures MB and ART will get up to, how MB will handle being around ART’s crew, and what exactly a “research and teaching” vessel does when it’s not running secret missions. As part of this, I am always here for stories where Amena ends up being one of the students, and I also love the idea of Three deciding to get an education and tagging along. Or, alternately, it would be fun to see Amena and Three on some adventure of their own while MB and ART are off in space. Or both? Some kind of epistolary fic between the two sets of characters would be very cool to see as well.

I didn’t specifically request worldbuilding for this, but please feel free to go hog wild with exploring that. I would love to see the effects of Murderbot’s actions causing a ripple effect throughout the corporation rim - what if Murderbot and ART end up in corporate space and encounter a group of bots that have seen Bharadwaj’s documentary? Or an independent bot liberation movement? What kind of things does Amena learn in her classes (and how do her adventures make her rethink some of what she’s been taught?) What does it look like when Murderbot and Three, two people designed for the same function but who have different histories, encounter a problem and have to work together to solve it? What kind of family dynamics come into play when your family is several humans and a sentient spaceship, and the sentient spaceship decides to bring home a friend (who won’t admit they’re friends).



The Queen’s Thief

Characters requested: Costis Ormentiedes, Kamet, Relius, Teleus

Acceptable romantic pairings: Costis/Kamet, Relius/Teleus (other canon relationships in the background are fine, including references to Relius’s other lovers)

Confession: I just got several amazing gifts for this fandom in the Hamiathes’s Gift Exchange, but because I am someone who will finish reading an amazing story about my favorite characters and then immediately go looking for another one, I am recycling some stuff here. So if you just wrote for HGE and think “hey, this looks familiar…” that is why! Also, my prompts skew romantic, but all of these characters have connections that still make for fascinating stories if you choose to look at them through the lens of friendship instead.

Kamet & or / Costis:

I love the slow build of their relationship in canon, all the ways they gradually learn to trust each other, how Costis acts in so many ways Kamet doesn’t expect, how every time Kamet thinks of running off he instead chooses to stay. It’s also hilarious to me that they are having WILDLY different road trip experiences sometimes - because Thick As Thieves is all seen through Kamet’s eyes, and we know he looks at the world through a particular (blurry) lens, it would be neat to see Costis POV of a scene from canon. I’m also all here for deleted scenes - what was their life like in Roa before the Medes made their move? What happened in the shepherd’s hut, who made Kamet’s blanket shirt, what was it like for him, waiting for Costis to come home? (Could be neat to see a parallel here of Costis trapped in the well in TaT, not knowing Kamet would come back for him). And of course I will never say no to stories that answer the question of “what happened in the Taymets?” haha!

ALSO because I am on a big myth kick, I love the idea of Costis and Kamet’s story turning into an epic like the Immakuk and Ennikar stories - it would be fun to see a version of their events as told by someone far in the future, looking back and piecing a story together the way Kamet did.

Relius & or / Teleus:

I am desperate for stories of their reunion after RotT. The fact that Teleus thinks Relius is dead during the big triumphant scene at the end of RotT KILLS me, please write me a fix-it. Or write me a story about how these two came to be on “poetry books and the kinds of adult activities teenage Pheris doesn’t approve of” levels of intimacy, over the years in their respective positions. Anything involving the poetry will make me SO happy, the idea of Teleus copying poetry for Relius hits me right in the feels. I love it when characters who are prickly or stoic on the outside are soft on the inside for another person, which makes this pairing so fun to read about. In general, a story where we get some Teleus interiority would delight me.

Friendships:

Putting any of these characters in combination with any of the others leaves SO much room for interesting character study. Kamet and Relius watching the court and making observations; Costis and Teleus growing from guard-and-captain to something more collegial as Costis’s role transitions into something new; Kamet and Teleus bonding over a love of poetry; Relius and Costis finding common ground in their devotion to the monarchs. Really, whatever combination of these characters you want to write about would be fascinating, so feel free to think outside of the box!


United States of Asgard

Requested Characters: Signy Valborn, Glory | Fenris Wolf

So I saw this fandom in the requests list and it is probably the thing that tipped me over into signing up for the exchange - it has never once occurred to me to write or request fic for this, but it makes me very happy to think about the possibility! Feel free to pick one character or the other to write about (I can’t actually remember if they even meet in canon?) but of course if you get inspired to incorporate them both, I will not be disappointed! I’m also totally fine with other characters from the books showing up.

For Signy, I am deeply fascinated by her fierce determination and how that coexists with her loneliness and fear of failure. She spends a lot of time measuring herself against others (her sister Valkyries, her foster family, even the troll whose heart she plans to tear out) while gradually finding a way to be herself. I also appreciate how, in the midst of her training for the fight of her life, we get little moments of softness like Unferth braiding her hair. If you want to write a story focused on the two of them, something that looks at more moments like that would be lovely.

Also, I feel like I should note that I had not actually read Beowulf when I read this book, and now that I have I would love to see something that relates to that? By which I mean, feel free to write part or all of this as poetry - I love poetry so much, and find that the stylings of the poetry in Beowulf really fit the kind of character Signy is. (If you are at all familiar with Maria Dahvana Headley’s translation of Beowulf and want to take a stab at a Signy story in that style, that would be amazing! But do not feel pressured).

As for Glory, I loved seeing a more thorough exploration of her character in Glory’s Teeth, and it definitely made me want to read more about her. How do things change after she decides to stand more fully in the sun, as a symbol for the starved and forgotten of the world? Does her routine change at all, for good or for bad? Is she able to find some satisfaction, even though the hunger will never truly leave her, in the things she is allowed?

In some ways I feel like Signy and Glory have a lot in common: both of them holding themselves back from things they can’t (or feel they shouldn’t) have, both of them failing sometimes but still going on. There is definitely room for a compelling story about that, if you want to go down that route? And this is a place where I wouldn’t mind if you wanted to delve into a relationship that diverges from canon - Signy/Glory seems like an interesting possibility, even though I don’t actually have specific prompts for that.