Dear Yuletide writer:

[jain]

Thanks very much for participating in this exchange and writing for me! Optional details are of course optional, but here are some of my general preferences and a variety of prompts for my requested fandoms, in case you wanted some extra direction. Some of my fandoms this year have lengthier prompts than others, but rest assured that I'll be equally thrilled with fic for any of them. Have fun, and I'm sure I'll love whatever you end up creating!

For your reference: I'm Jain on AO3 and jain on my (rather out-of-date) pinboard account.


General likes and dislikes

I like happy (or at least hopeful) endings, friendship, family (including chosen family), loyalty, determination, cooking and/or eating, people being smart, people being competent, platonic bedsharing, non-platonic bedsharing, pining, unrequited love that turns out to be requited, hurt/comfort, kissing, masturbation, mutual masturbation, frottage, intercrural sex, oral sex, talking during sex (not dirty talk, just ordinary conversation), BDSM, watersports, first-time fic, established relationship fic in which there's some sort of shift in the dynamics of the relationship, character- and relationship-driven gen, worldbuilding, cultural differences, historical details, case fic, third person POV, and past tense.

I don't want breathplay/asphyxiation, vore/cannibalism, scat, emetophilia/vomit, bloodplay, knifeplay, gunplay, suspension, lifestyle D/s, heavy angst, character-bashing, unexamined misogyny and racism, dialogue-only fic, no dialogue, epithets (e.g. the blond, the taller man, the younger man), the phrases "to his [or her] credit," "had the grace to," and "took him[self] in hand," PWPs, crackfic, road trips, zombies, soulmates, omegaverse, first person POV, second person POV, crossovers, or AUs.


The Brothers Sinister series - Courtney Milan
Amanda Ellisford, Genevieve Johnson

I was so happy to see explicitly queer relationships in The Suffragette Scandal, but there wasn't nearly enough to satisfy me. More about the progression of Amanda's and Genevieve's relationship after their confession and first kiss would be lovely. A few options:

How and when do they move past just kissing? This is perhaps a little unfair of me, but I like to think that Genevieve's canonical claim that she only knew she was attracted to women because of Amanda is a dirty lie. Maybe she thought Amanda would be scared off by hearing of her previous affaires and/or schoolgirl romances?

I can't imagine Genevieve not telling Geraldine about her new romance, but do they keep it secret from their other friends, or do they quietly come out to a trusted few?

I'd also be very interested in seeing Amanda and Genevieve become part of a lesbian community. This might mean in London, or it could be as simple as them befriending Minerva Lane's aunts.


A Charm of Magpies series - K. J. Charles
Ned Hall, Crispin Tredarloe

I'm open to pretty much anything in this fandom: curtain fic, case fic (as mundane or magical as you like), Ned and Crispin developing their respective talents, backstory for either or both of them, how their romantic relationship progressed between "A Queer Trade" and Rag and Bone. If you're writing future fic, I'm especially fond of Mrs. Gold, should you want to include her; I actually think she and Ned might make good friends.


Frontier Wolf - Rosemary Sutcliff
Alexios Flavius Aquila, Hilarion

Slash, please. I'm exceedingly fond of tropes for this pairing: fake dating, huddling for warmth, sexswap, bodyswap, etc. I do prefer tropes involving issues of consent (e.g. sex pollen or made-them-do-it) to be as consensual as possible; trope subversion works particularly well for me in those cases. Werewolves are also completely awesome in this fandom. I'd love to see werewolf!Hilarion in particular, but there are plenty of other options, as well. And I realize that this pairs an unusual trope with an unusual kink, but Frontier Wolf werewolves + watersports would rock my world.

On the less trope-y side, I'm always up for another variation on why and how Hilarion came to be stationed with the Frontier Wolves. I'm also fond of fics in which Alexios has (or Hilarion believes he has) a one-sided romantic attraction to Cunorix, which makes for a very reasonable source of angst in a later Alexios/Hilarion relationship.


Iskryne series - Elizabeth Bear & Sarah Monette
Isolfr, Skjaldwulf, Vethulf

While I really like the second and third books, I also feel that they flatten the incipient triad formed in A Companion to Wolves in less than ideal ways. Without going AU or getting rid of Thorlot in any way, I'd love to see a deeper exploration of the relationships among Isolfr, Skjaldwulf, and Vethulf. I'd also love to see more of what the three of them actually do between battles; the increased cast of viewpoint characters resulted in a sad (to me) shift in focus away from the daily life of Isolfr and his wolfjarls.

Perhaps something set between The Tempering of Men and An Apprentice to Elves. While the Rhean threat was ever-present, it doesn't seem to have been Franangford's primary concern. What were Isolfr et al. doing in this time, besides raising Alfgyfa? Did the wolfhealls make any progress towards becoming essentially a police force, as was suggested in the second book? How did Isolfr end up with his own bedchamber, and what did Viradechtis, Mar, and Kjaran have to say about it? (And does Isolfr sleep in it rarely or often?)

Or something set after An Apprentice to Elves. How does their relationship change--and how does it stay surprisingly the same--when Isolfr no longer has two wolfjarls? How does Skjaldwulf take to his new profession? Does he bond with another wolf in time, and if so how does Viradechtis respond to it?

My reviews of A Companion to Wolves and The Tempering of Men. I'm not hugely interested in the alfar, but would love pretty much anything else about Franangford, its interactions with neighboring towns and settlements, and/or its relationships with other wolfhealls (especially Nithogsfjoll).


The Lie Tree - Frances Hardinge
Leda Hunter, Jane Vellet

I'm so fascinated by these two women, starting with their upstairs-downstairs romance, and I'd be interested in seeing that at any stage of the relationship: How did they initially become interested in each other, and how did their courtship progress? What do they do during their secret rendezvous? Do they ever move beyond those rendezvous to build a life together?

I'm also intrigued by Miss Hunter's comment that "a woman like [her] makes enemies." Both she and Mrs. Vellet responded with extraordinary calmness and competence when the Sunderlys were in danger. What personal experiences were they drawing on then?

And for something completely different, I'm actually very interested in telegraphy, in case you wanted to write about Miss Hunter's work as a telegraph operator and postmistress. (Though please include at least some femslash in the fic, even if much of the focus is on Miss Hunter's career.)


Lynes and Mathey series - Amy Griswold & Melissa Scott
Cordelia Frost

Miss Frost is hands down my favorite character in this book: competent, intelligent, highly sensible, and not quite what people expect her to be. I'd love a story about her university days, or her life outside of the office, or the progression of her career, or case fic in which she either solves the case by herself or is instrumental in helping Julian and Ned solve it.

Gen or Miss Frost/OFC, please. Background Julian/Ned is also very welcome.