It's Yuletide once again

[viewpoints]

Dear Yuletide Writer letter under the cut


A happy Yuletide to you, writer-person, and a preemptive thank you for writing for me and assurance that you? You are awesome. Yuletide is always an exciting time for me because new fic in tiny fandoms is always a gift, and I am a bit of a kid in a candy store - new things are shiny and wonderful by default, and I will be excited to read any words about my favourite characters, bar none. I hope you find a prompt or two here that interests you and will be fun to write as well!


Quick points of things I like:
- No story needs to include ALL characters. Any is fine!
- Worldbuild Worldbuild Worldbuild.
- Culture clash, fish out of water scenarios
- Power dynamics
- Very self-aware characters kicking ass in rough situations
- Survival
- Plot over Fluff
- Fluff over Unresolved Endings

**The Goblin Emperor - Katherine Addison**
Maia Drazhar, Deret Beshelar, Kiru Athmaza, Cala Athmaza

(TLDR: This story is Hurt/Comfort with all the hurt and no comfort. I want fic that balances some of that out!)

I adore this book and it left me gut-punched in the best possible ways, but there were times I was left wanting more from the characters and perspective. The tropes are things I adore (sworn/bonded guards, traumatic childhoods, nobility and class differences, language use) but I finished the book feeling that the last act was rushed and some threads were a bit too unresolved for me.

I'd love love love some outside perspective on Maia from his Nohecharei - or Csethiro or Csevet who I didn't specify but if you want to include them, please do! I'd equally love to see Maia being more self aware of himself and what he's doing to himself.

Points I'd Love Expanded On:
Maia and the fallout from his childhood:

• We get a few tiny slivers of reactions from the cast when they learn about Maia's history and abuse. I would love to see how the Nohechari discuss it among themselves, how it changes how they interact with Maia and those around Maia. How they translate that into Maia's coping mechanisms for safety, and how little he worries about his own physical self.
• Maia and his birthday. He is so obviously, totally, completely overwhelmed and we don't get to see how disturbing the others might find it. I'd love to see the people around Maia realize just how hurt of a kid he was and still is and work to help, rather than just keeping a constant professional distance.

Maia and his Meditation/His Nohechari's Presence:
Cala and Beshelar both act surprised that Maia thinks they would judge him for his need to meditate. Why? They clearly judge and inform him prior to this. I'd love the pair of them realizing how on guard Maia is around them, that their actions have had this effect, and that it isn't a benefit to anyone - least of all Maia.

Bonus points: The practice of Nohecharei have been an institution for centuries and are always provided by a set group: There's no way that nothing was written, over the years, about best care and practice of guarding your Emperor against harm both inside and out. What rules are they trying to follow, or break? Or is there really no guideline at all?

Bonus points x100: When Maia's questioned, after being kidnapped, he admits plainly that he'd have signed his abdication knowing that it would mean his death. He's upset about this, but also resigned. I would love a look into how little Maia values his own life beyond the power he represents, and how that affects his staff. 

Maia And His Health/Food/Identity: Having Maia disassociate from his own self because he's become a glittering jewel of an Emperor and moving away from who 'he' is himself, and being pulled back with help from someone (anyone, really).
The novel constantly repeats subtle nods at Maia's health: he skips his meals or eats little, has no appetite, has awful headaches, refuses to look at himself in the mirror, and others comment and ask if he's well. How that could be remedied or resolved? I'd prefer this to focus on it being a result of stress and  fixing the issue, not as Maia with an eating disorder.

Maia and Friendship: It is Maia himself who challenges the rules of friendship at the very end - directly before the story concludes. I'd love to see how Maia and his group develop from this point forward. What can friendship mean, between them, beyond the professional distance they've kept?

As you can see, I have a great deal of FEELINGS about Maia and his support structures and would love to see those examined. Feel welcome to write anything  - a series of small snippets, fix it scenes or alternates, something set after the end of the book, an overarching plot or just as character motivated Hurt/Comfort. You want to add porn? Go for it - I don't particularly ship Maia with his Nohecharei or Csvet directly because they are so distant to him for so long, but I'd enjoy something where those feelings could grow.

One liner likes: plot, worldbuild, hurt/comfort, caretaking, food issues, body image issues, Maia being kickass, dealing with/talking through trauma, class/power differences and acknowledgement, Maia having FRIENDS and a NICE DAY gosh darn it!
One liner dislikes: PWP, wilting flower Maia, ambiguous endings, anything where sex 'fixes' things.
If tackling food issues: Please focus on it being a physical issue - a lack of appetite, a struggle to eat once-comforting foods or only being able to eat the same familiar foods. Please no specific eating disorders/purging/intentional starvation.


**Ever After High: Raven Queen, Apple White**

(Please note: I’m only familiar with the animated shorts, not the books)

Because this show is a webseries aimed at kids, they only ever gloss the surface of subjects that really REALLY ought to have conversations or entire episodes about. I want fic that tackles the stuff they keep skipping over, or barely mention. Let's talk about abusive parents, bad friendships, and what Happily Ever After Means.

Prompts:
Apple finding out what Raven's future would be in their "Happily Ever After'
Apple is constantly chasing what she calls 'their' Happily Ever After, no matter the cost. What does Apple think Raven's future is? How does she handle finding out about Raven's  'real destiny' that Raven was shown from the book?

Bonus points: at one point in the series, Raven agrees to sign the book to save her friends. This is an incredibly selfless act - but what that would have meant for Raven? Do any of her friends know or understand at all?
 
Raven distancing herself from her mother:
The Evil Queen is exactly that, and a terrible, manipulative, gaslighting creature who cares not one bit about her daughter, a fact that is made abundantly clear, yet the series always plays it as a "Well, she's just like that" acceptances. Have Raven get angry, have Raven refuse to speak to the Evil Queen, have there be consequences to her actions, and have Raven's friends and Adults in her life support that.

Apple and Raven really discussing their mothers and the fact that they're not very good people nor mothers.
Exactly what it says on the tin, Snow White isn't exactly a great parent either.

If you're more of an Apple Writer: 
Since we have learned that Charming isn't her prince, If Raven had agreed to follow their 'destiny'? Future Apple would have been poisoned might never have woken up. Having Apple realize that could have been her future would be amazing.

If none of those prompts do it for you:
In general Worldbuild, questions I'd love to see prodded at: What future are you 'allowed' to have, as a Rebel? What’s right, when you’re the 'bad guy' who makes the story for the 'good guys' - or are supposed to? What do the Royals believe the Rebels ‘deserve’ - or do they even think of their futures at all? Sleeping Beauty’s daughter realizes her happy ending is one that means all her friends will be dead and gone: let’s have more of that consideration applied to the others. What makes an ending Happy, and for Whom? 

Likes/Dislikes: I originally did this prompt without including anything, because if you're writing anything that vaguely resembles the canon you pretty much can't hit my DNW list for this fandom. That said, I know some writers like having hard lists so:
I will love love love anything at all that even vaguely looks at the above points. I'd prefer not to get a straightup femslash romance or shipfic. I don't ship these two (Though Apple/Charming is a+). That's about it.


**Spite and Malice: Placebo**

I adore this song, and I hope if you chose it you are interested in all the potential it could have. I don't have a story in my head regarding the song and who the Queens and Jack or Aces might be or what the revolution is about - I am  going to give you a bunch of tropes/vague ideas of things I love as genre and such, and you go nuts and write what catches your interest. 

Prostitution, drug running, withdrawal, mafia/crime lords, life debts, indentured work, class boundries, dubious consent, food shortages/food issues*, brilliant but too old for their years kids who have seen too much, kickass people being amazing/competent, hurt/comfort/rescue and wish fulfillment, characters afraid for their position (meeting a superior/superpower/extreme difference in class/power) and that fear played with before being resolved, gambling, card sharps, dystopias, world building, sub/dom power dynamics in a lowgrade bedroom sense, political/military surrender, politics.

Go forth and pick anything from above - seriously any point - and I will adore every word. I know open worlds can be intimidating but I can promise you I will be the happiest gal for anything you create. Just give me a somewhat resolved/goodish ending rather than rocks fall everyone dies melancholy.

If you need some more specific structured prompt ideas:
- A Card Sharp who works the streets busking during the day and may or may not hustle at night/at casinos. Gang territory and border lines - what does he cross and how bad can it get, who does he 'belong' to?

- A drug running/information running gang turf war and two young initiates stuck on either side trying to make it out.

- Ancient Magic gets rediscovered in a (insert trope) world that means a Blood Oath suddenly means whatever and exactly what you swore. Organized crime gets a lot harder to infiltrate or subsume if someone must be loyal to you no matter what...

- Wonderland in a very very different world. Alice is trying to find her way through the War of Four Queens.

DNW List:
This one can be any rating you'd like, though please no PWP.
Food issues in this case are something I adore to read about, because I've struggled myself and it's always nice to see in text. I'd ask the focus more be on health and food availability and appetite: characters who don't care what they eat so long as it's food, or who can only eat bland and comfort food with any ease. Things like purging and anorexia I'd prefer to avoid: a focus on it being a matter of survival, not self control, would be great.
Dubcon, especially when power imbalances are a thing, is cool. Please no outright non-con in text (subtext or worldbuild is fine)