Dear Yuletide Author 2013....

[betony]

I am so excited! Both for Yuletide, and for whatever wonderful fic you will produce; because before anything else, thank you, fabulous author, for choosing to write in one of these fandoms. I adore them all, am delighted you presumably enjoy them as well, and I am sure I will adore anything you will produce! So thank you! ♥

I've been lucky enough to be a part of several fantastic fic exchanges over the last year, and , and what I've learned is this: authors can usually come up with fics far more brilliant than I can imagine, much less prompt, so please think of the following as nothing more than suggestions. I very much hope that whatever you feel inspired to write is something you genuinely enjoy, so before anything else, have fun! That said, if you'd like some more prompts, or are okay with listening to me happily rambling on about these fandoms, in no particular order, click on through!

General likes: humor/snark, plotty fic, canon pairings, retellings or resonance with myth/folklore/etc., worldbuilding, idealism, playing with or twisting tropes, AUs with subtle callbacks to canon, and women being awesome in multiple (not just Strong Female Character, to quote Kate Beaton) ways. I also adore backstory or behind-the-scenes fic, and will always, always love outsider POVs and unreliable narrators. I'm a quick reader, so long fic is totally fine, should the question come up, and I have no particular preferences for POV or tense.
General dislikes: explicit sex/violence/gore, consent issues, fics that hinge solely on hurt/comfort or angst/hopelessness.

The Odyssey-Homer
Penelope, Odysseus
I love Odysseus and Penelope together, outwitting each other and everyone else around them, so: tell me about their courtship, or their rediscovering each other after Odysseus's return, or even Telegony fix-it fic (because honestly, I can't help but find that a terribly disappointing end for these two). I am always a fan of humor/banter/snark! Political intrigue is also something I find fascinating, as well as couples who are extraordinarily competent at ruling/manipulating/getting stuff done, so exploring that would be wonderful, too! Basically, I've loved a lot of the Odysseus/Penelope fic from Yuletides past, so plotty fic or fluff would all be delightful!

I feel like my sign-up covers most of what I mean to say about these two, but I adore them, and I'd really like something about them being crafty and clever and snarky together. I would however, prefer that whatever you write doesn't focus only on the twenty-year separation? My one qualm about this, apart from the angst inherent therein, is I find it pretty intriguing to see what the two of them could manage to scheme up together and keeping them apart would obviously not really emphasize that! To give you a by-no-means comprehensive list of fics with these two that I've enjoyed, I point you towards: Incomparably Cunning by Roz McClure , Spider's Web by athousandwinds, and Turn and Turn Again by Mercurie. (BTW, if you missed these and/or are interested in completely unprompted fic recs, all of these are delightful!) And, in the spirit of full disclosure, I wrote Telegony conspiracy crack!fic myself (and if you want to play with that, that is fine by me!), but please don't feel like you have to go with what's in any of these! I just really crave fic about these two, and I will seriously love anything about them :)

The Squire's Tales
Gawain, Arthur, Terence, Eileen
I love these books, especially the constant snark and dorky references to obscure Arthurian mythology, as well as the genuine goodness of the characters! That being said (...spoilers for a book series released years ago follow?) my favorite period of time is immediately post The Squire, His Knight, and His Lady/The Savage Damsel and the Dwarf. So maybe tell me about an adventure these three had around that time period then and/or (since Terence/Eileen is a pretty excellent ship) more about how the two of them managed to keep their relationship under wraps for sixteen years. And of course I love Arthur; this series's quiet, kind, dryly funny Arthur is one of my favorite versions of the character, and something from his perspective during these years would be quite interesting. Arthur getting to participate in, if not outright have, an adventure of his own would be great! If you want to have Lynet and Gaheris (another duo/ship I adore!) cameo, or any other knights from the first few books, that would also be absolutely wonderful! I'm a quick reader, and I like long plotty fic a lot, but let's be honest, mostly I just want to visit with the characters and canon just one more time and I'll pretty much be thrilled with whatever you want to write!

I think I've gushed sufficiently about this fandom in the past, so I'll limit myself to saying: this, despite reading the Arthurian classics, is still the retelling of my heart; I love that despite its cynical, sarcastic tone, it completely sells me on the genuine goodness and idealism of the myths. And the dorky subtle shoutouts to Arthuriana! :D This is another fandom where I can't offer you more helpful suggestions than what I have above; anything from fluffy vignettes to five times fics to your own spin on one of the wacky Arthurian quests that the books didn't mention would be great!

Georgian History RPF
Tamar Queen of Georgia, David Soslan, Rusudan of Georgia
Queen Tamar of Georgia is sadly not too well known--but she was pretty incredible! She's famous for bringing in the Golden Age of Georgia as queen regnant, and essentially for being a very savvy ruler. I'd love something about her relationship with David Soslan, her second husband (after she divorced her first husband, a Russian prince who had been picked out for her by her nobles), or her relationship with any of the Rusudans in her life--these include her aunt and chief advisor (and also the mentor/teacher of David Soslan, mentioned above); her younger sister, about whom not much is known; and her daughter, who ruled as a queen regnant of Georgia herself. Or anything about Queen Tamar being awesome would be excellent!

I can't help but think that Queen Tamar was awesome, omigosh, but I must admit that there is still a great deal I could stand to learn about her, so anything you want to teach me about her would be great! I find her relationship with David Soslan really interesting too, particularly as compared with her relationship with her first husband; unlike Yuri, David was notable for his complete support of her (he seems to be satisfied with the status of prince consort), and what's more, he was apparently a student of Tamar's Aunt Rusudan, which means it's possible for them to have known each other when younger. So something dealing with their relationship would be neat--but I must admit Tamar fascinates me far more, so if you want to focus more on her, I will absolutely not complain.

(Because my brain has this bizarre tendency to cross fandoms, a simpler way to explain this might be as follows: I sometimes find myself thinking of Tamar as a rather nicer Irene of Attolia, with David as her Attolis--with the rocky road to queenship and the backstabbing, antagonistic nobles, and even the disastrous first marriage! Er, not that I see Tamar and David as having the same sort of ah, history or relationship, but a version of their story with the same sort of feel would be really great. But if you're not familiar with the Queen's Thief series, feel free to ignore this! That said, if you're not and you like cleverly written novels of intrigue, do check them out for your own enjoyment!)

In terms of other prompts: Tamar really has a lot of Rusudans in her life, as I listed above. There's her aunt, who, in her youth, was married to two Seljuk sultans and apparently wise and influential enough to tutor princes and become her niece's trusted advisor and supporter. How did this Rusudan feel about molding her niece into the perfect ruler; worried, proud, guilty? There's her sister, who we...pretty much don't know much about, other than that she might have taken refuge with her sister after her husband was killed, and that Tamar helped her nephews reclaim their throne; but even otherwise, what must it have been like to be the sister of a sovereign Queen like Tamar?And finally, there's Tamar's daughter, who followed her brother onto the throne--what was her relationship with her mother like?

(As a further note, if there are any gaping holes in my knowledge or understanding of her, feel free to let me know! One of my favorite things about fandom is being able to learn from better-informed people.)

College of Magics-Caroline Stevermer
Agnes Paganell, Prosperian Nallaneen
The residents of Aravill, both past and present, fascinate me. First of all, there's Prosperian Nallaneen; we get snippets about her, but never the full story of why she decided to create the rift, other than she was trying to create something "wholly good" and was also preoccupied with political upheavels at the same time. So, uh, what was up with that, anyway? Closer to the novel's timeframe, there's Agnes, who I found myself liking far more than I thought I would; she's definitely unpleasant but she loves her sister and her family and definitely seems to have more going on than Faris pays attention to. So, alternately, anything about Agnes would be excellent! What's her relationship with Menary like, particularly if you like backstory? What's her relationship with her dad like, and how is it affected by erm, certain events in the climax? (Seriously, what that meant for poor Agnes, given everything else she loses by the end of the novel, horrified me once it all sank in. If you like post-canon fic, something dealing with Agnes's fate would be marvelous.)

.:spoilers for College of Magics follow:.
Starting with Prosperian--I just really find her fascinating, to the point where I would probably read a whole novel just about her. Through Faris, we see what a terrible responsibility being Warden of the North is, and I can't imagine that it was that much easier, even without the Rift. Not to mention the fact that Prosperian was apparently caught up in political turmoil--why? What sort? But that said, what really fascinates me is her motivations for making the Rift. It was clearly a really, really stupid idea but made with the best of intentions, and I just want to know more about what she was even thinking. So any sort of insight into her would be great.

On a completely different note, if your tastes run more towards futurefic, I would love something that dealt with the Problem of Agnes Paganell--granted, yes, she's not very pleasant when she appears, but she's more complex than Faris gives her credit for. Not to mention her awful position by the end; her daughter is taken away from her, she's stuck in exile, her sister is dead, and her father--the one remaining family member left to her, or so she believes--is actually a completely different man who's just wearing her father's body. I can't help but pity her for this awfulness, and I'd love to be convinced that Agnes might have at least a somewhat happy ending somehow. Otherwise, backstory about her, or more about her relationship with her family, would also be quite interesting!

The Mask of Zorro (1998)
Elena de la Vega, Esperanza de la Vega, Alejandro Murrieta
I would really like something Elena-centric; I always have to wonder why the creators never spend much time, in either this movie or the sequel, on the character who arguably undergoes the most upheavals during the running time. How in the world does Elena react to finding out that her father isn't really her father, the random servant she's been talking to actually is her biological father, the man who's been courting her is a peasant instead of a nobleman (and also, y'know, Zorro.) More intriguingly, she also gets a chance to reevaluate her impression of her mother--what does she find out about Esperanza? How do any or all of these affect her? Judging from the sequel, it seems Alejandro was the one to inherit the de la Vega title; how, why, and how does Elena feel about that?If you're up for plotty adventure fic, Alejandro implies in the sequel that she joined him on his exploits as Zorro, and certainly her behavior implies she's no stranger to self-defense, so Elena being heroic and awesome, either with Zorro or on her own? If you like AUs, a story where Diego isn't identified/imprisoned, Esperanza lives, and Elena (either with or without her parents' blessing) takes up the masked fight for justice, maybe crossing paths along the way with a horse bandit named Alejandro Murrieta? (I think Elena/Alejandro also needs a fair bit of development, in both canon and AUs, to get us to where they are in Legend of Zorro, so dealing with that is also something I'd be interested in!)

This movie is absolutely cheesy, but it's also fun, and I've always had a soft spot for secret identities and sword fights--but I've always wanted from Elena's perspective. She never really gets a chance to process any of the huge revelations she receives during the movie, and inter-movie fic dealing either with that, or with her relationship with Alejandro, would be neat! Otherwise the AU mentioned, or any variation--for example, if you'd like to tweak the plot to give Esperanza and her relationship with Elena more weight--would be totally awesome!
I apologize for how long this is, and hope this helped somewhat! Again, though, more than anything I hope you find something that you have fun writing, and I'm sure I'll love anything you produce for one of these fandoms. Thank you, once again, and I hope you have a seriously fantastic Yuletide as well!