Dear Yuletide Writer:

[jain]

Thanks very much for participating in this exchange and writing for me! Particularly relevant to Yuletide: I don't want any Christmas/Christianity-themed fic, regardless of the characters' canonical religions. If you want further details on my fic preferences, you can check out my general fic kinks and squicks post or browse my fic exchanges tag. Have fun, and I'm sure I'll love whatever you end up creating!

For your reference: I'm Jain on AO3.


England series - K. J. Charles
Fenella Carruth, Pat Merton

What I'm most interested in is post-Proper English fic about Fen and Pat growing into themselves and their relationship. They're heartwarmingly appreciative of each other's very different talents and personalities, and aware but accepting of each other's different backgrounds, but those differences leave a lot of scope for misunderstandings and (hopefully temporary) conflicts of interest. Especially since both of them are still finding their own places in the world and aren't entirely certain who they'll be at the end of that process.

I'd also be really interested to see more of their interactions with their families. Pat and Bill are close if not very demonstrative, but they've also been keeping important secrets from each other. How does their relationship change after the events and revelations in Proper English? Or how do Fen's father and Pat get along with each other when they finally meet? Or Fen mentioned asking to learn more about her father's work and being rebuffed, but in Think of England she has a more than basic knowledge of the telephone exchange; what happened in the intervening years to let her acquire that knowledge? Did her father come around, or did she learn it elsewhere?


Green Men series - K. J. Charles
Hugh "Barney" Barnaby, Max Isaacs

Slash, please. I'm a huuuge fan of tentacles. If you are, too, then I'd really love something focused on the (noncon? medically and ethically dubious?) process of giving Barney and Max tentacles in the first place, or how they feel about having tentacles/not being standard humans any longer, or how they use their tentacles in their work as Green Men, or just some nice tentacle porn.

Things I love other than tentacles: loyalty kink, WWI historical details, worldbuilding involving the magical AU aspects of WWI, characters struggling to remain human when they fear they're turning into monsters.

Incidentally, I headcanon Max as Jewish. You don't have to use that if you don't want, but I'd prefer that you not explicitly identify him as Christian.


Iskryne series - Elizabeth Bear & Sarah Monette
Grimolfr, Hrolleif

Grimolfr and Hrolleif are the ultimate power couple, and I'd love to see more about their leadership of Franangford before Isolfr joins them: the day-to-day details of running a wolfheall, Franangford's relationship with neighboring towns and settlements and/or with other wolfhealls, troll fighting in the days when it's not an all-out war but just a dangerous and unceasing grind.

Alternatively, I'm very interested in the friends-to-lovers progression of their relationship, particularly Hrolleif's later assurance to Isolfr that a relationship didn't have to begin perfectly, because wolfcarls can be taught.


James Asher Vampire series - Barbara Hambly
Basilio Occhipinti, Antonio Pentangeli

Confession: I found the vampire ambulance horribly funny. (Genuinely horrible--as though wounded WWI soldiers didn't have enough awful shit in their lives already without vampires preying on them at their most vulnerable. But also funny in a horribly ironic way, and really quite clever of Antonio and Basilio.) I'd like to see more of the two of them being awfully amoral yet devoted to each other: how they fell in love, a slice of "life" fic, how they navigate the cutthroat world of vampire politics together...pretty much anything exploring their relationship prior to the events of Pale Guardian.

Alternatively, I'm intrigued by the suggestion that Basilio and Antonio were able to get revenge even after their deaths--that the small bits of their lingering consciousnesses were able to subvert Francesca from within--and would love to see that explored in greater depth. If you choose to write this prompt, then it's completely fine to write about just Basilio or Antonio, rather than both characters. Not too happy an ending for this scenario, please! I prefer the tone cast by canon: melancholic yet viciously satisfying.


The Lie Tree - Frances Hardinge
Leda Hunter, Jane Vellet

I'm very fond of both women and 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? Have either or both of them encountered their own supernatural horrors, or have all their bad experiences been strictly mundane?


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

Miss Frost is hands down my favorite character in this series: 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. Based on things she's said in the books, I don't think Miss Frost had a female lover in university, but I'd be interested in first time fic in which she becomes romantically involved with a friend from her club, or with one of Julian's or Ned's clients, or perhaps with a woman whom she and/or Ned consults on a case. Background Julian/Ned is also very welcome.