Yuletide 2023!

[spacegandalf]

Hello!! Thank you for agreeing to write something for me. <3 I'm signed up to Yuletide as facingthenorthwind (spacegandalf) and if you're writing me a treat, please gift it there. Optional details are optional, of course, and I'd love to see whatever you come up with! Some of these have more stuff about them than others but that's not because I'm less enthusiastic about the others! Some of them just lend themselves to longer sections, often because they have a squillion characters in the tagset.

I am open to interactive fiction and crossovers (see +here for a list of fandoms I'm familiar with and anything I've written or bookmarked except for Hibike! Euphonium, Supergirl and any characters that appear in the Jacket Bar).

Table of Contents

General Likes
DNWs
Leia Princess of Alderaan - Claudia Gray (Any)
We Are A Picturesque Small Town And We Refuse To Be The Setting For Your RomCom - Rachel McKenny (Any)
Deadloch (TV) (Any)
Andor (TV) (Any)
Score: A Hockey Musical (2010) (Moose)
Yudah Cohen Series - Rebecca Fraimow (Any)

General Likes

• Worldbuilding
• Cultural differences
• Roleswaps
• Fix-its
• Character/relationship studies/genfic
• Canon divergence
• Established relationship
• Getting together
• People finding something soft and/or something that makes them happy even when the world is going to shit
• Hurt/Comfort
• Fake Dating
• Humour
• Tenderness
• Politics
• Plottiness
• Angst
• Fluff
• Mutual Pining
• Outsider POV
• Time travel, time loops
• Queer characters
• Missing scenes
• Found Family
• Unconventional formats
• Comedy of errors
• Crack treated seriously
• Judaism

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Do Not Wants

• Unhappy endings
• Major Character Death, unless it's a bad guy
• Noncon
• Omegaverse
• Pregnancy
• Smut (fade to black totally fine)
• Humiliation
• Watersports/scat
• Big age gap (7 years-ish? i'm not going to be a massive stickler on this, it's more a power imbalance that I'm not a fan of)
• Significant power imbalance or mentor/mentee romance/sexual relationship
• Unrequited love
• Incest
• Highschool/college AU
• Permanent amnesia
• Infidelity (polyamory is fine with consent of all parties)
• Readerfic (2nd person is fine as long as it's meant to be a specific character)
• Cancer/other terminal illness
• Suicide (suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts are fine)
• Queer tragedy
• Painful breakups (reference to past breakups is fine)
• Christmas and Christianity
• Covid
• Love triangles that don't end in polyamory

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Leia Princess of Alderaan - Claudia Gray

This is a YA novel about Leia Organa getting involved in the Rebellion age sixteen (by accident, sort of). While obviously she's the main plot, the part that fascinated me the most was her parents -- Bail is super against the Rebellion getting violent, whereas Breha has already accepted that this will end up with them killing people at some point. That, plus Breha's disability and her accident makes it so rich for exploration!

This is the only Disney canon that has my girl Breha Organa in any significant capacity. I didn't have any characters in my signup because the only nominated ones were Breha and worldbuilding, and while I love Breha, I would also be thrilled with Alderaan worldbuilding fic that doesn't necessarily have Breha in it. We don't get heaps of Alderaan worldbuilding outside of royal traditions.

Breha and Bail are so in love and I love that so much!! This pairing can have pregnancy as a plot point if you like.  If you would like to write fic about Bail struggling with the prospect of violence, I'm fine with that even though he's not in the tagset!

Some prompts (but of course if you have a completely different idea I'd be thrilled!):

• Is Breha and Bail's marriage arranged, or did they fall in love without any outside forces pushing them together? If it's arranged, is it awkward initially?
• What's raising Leia like?
• What happened the night Bail brought Leia home from Paucris?
• How do Bail and Breha decide to get involved with the Rebellion?
• In the scene where Breha pretends to be drunk and get angry about Bail and Mon having an affair -- that comes off as fairly practised. Is it, or are Mon and Bail just excellent at improv? Perhaps Bail/Breha/Mon is a thing?
• I am permanently haunted by that scene where Breha gets cross at Bail for talking about the dungeons:
  
  • “We can ask for her to stay out of harm’s way, and if she won’t, we can keep her out of it.” Bail stopped pacing and pointed downward, at the seldom-used lower areas of the palace. “There used to be dungeons down there, you know.”
    This time her mother’s voice was sharp. “Bail!”
    He held up one hand. “You know I wasn’t serious.”
    “Don’t even joke about that.”
  • What does this scene mean? Why is Breha cross about it? 
• An exploration of their disagreements about the violence in the Rebellion. Breha tells Leia that they have to respect him enough to fight them on Leia getting involved, which is such a fascinating response to the situation (especially given he was incredibly cruel to her just minutes before). Is Bail's reluctance because of his involvement in the Clone Wars?
• Stuff with disabled Breha (specifically, her pulmonodes but I'm also totally open to other consequences of the mountain accident) would be fabulous!
• Leia says in narration that the public loved Breha even more than they love Leia -- perhaps an outsider pov of the accident, or something else to do with the royal family?
• In Queen's Shadow Breha talks about how Alderaan is a very traditional planet that doesn't change easily. How is that reflected in society, apart from the whole Day of Demand traditions?

Fandom-specific DNWs:

• Fic about Alderaan's destruction UNLESS both of them survive.
• Having Organa as Bail's family name (it's established as Breha's family name in other parts of Disney canon)
• Non-Star Wars setting
• Breha, Bail or Leia dying

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We Are A Picturesque Small Town And We Refuse To Be The Setting For Your RomCom - Rachel McKenny (Any)

This is a McSweeney's article you can read here. It's hilarious, and the worldbuilding opportunities are endless. While there are specific characters nominated in the tagset, feel free to ignore those and write about any character you want! How were the rules put in place? What tipped them over the edge? How were the businesses brought back from the brink (was this before they thought about instituting the resolution, or did they all band together to fix these businesses' problems as preparation for the resolution?)? What is the life of the risk ombudsman like? When Chet Anderson inevitably falls afoul of this resolution, what happens? Go wild!

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Deadloch (TV) (Any)

This is an Australian murder mystery comedy full of lesbians. When a serial killer starts killing people in a Tasmanian town around the time of the Winter Feastival, an occasion that brings many lesbians from the mainland, how will our intrepid heroes find the killer? It manages to be an incredibly gripping murder mystery as well as a comedy, and basically every character is ripe for exploration. And yes, while it's about cops, it's critical of them. While there are heaps of characters nominated, if your heart is set on writing a fic about one not in the tagset, go forth and fulfil your dreams! Now I have to write prompts without spoiling everything, oh god. Hopefully you can read through the lines enough to get what I mean, but I suppose Optional Details Are Optional applies even more so here, haha. Per my DNWs, please don't linger on Dulcie's infidelity!

Some thoughts in no particular order (I know these don't hit every character in the tagset but there are so many, so I'm happy to read about the ones I don't mention here too!):

• Sven has so many hidden depths. He's fluent in Indonesian! He knows everyone he calls up and their personal lives! Why did he stay in Deadloch when, in his words, he feels like he's about to be hate crimed if he goes to the pub? Why did he go into law enforcement if he doesn't really like it? What was his experience of life before Dulcie came to town?
• I love Abby so much, she's so perfect and deserves so much better. What's her life like after the show? Does she fall in love with Kate? Does she flourish in her new role? What was her falling out with Sharelle? They seem to have stopped talking when Abby became a police officer. What was their relationship before that? Was Abby always this anxious, or was it as a result of some event (by which I mean James, lbr)? Did other people try to convince her James was bad for her and she didn't listen? 
• Eddie claims she's "done stuff" with women. Does she do any more stuff after the end of the show? With Dulcie and Cath, perhaps? What's investigating Bushy's murder like? What's her relationship with her colleagues in Darwin -- does Dulcie defend her against hostility, perhaps? I'm also into just some gen bickering between them! Does Eddie ever actually remember what Dulcie and Cath's names are?
• What weird and wacky experiences does Adele have on the job? What's her relationship with the people she went to school with? What's her relationship with Eddie? 
•  What was returning triumphantly to Deadloch like for Skye? What's her experience raising her son? How did she get together with Nadiyah?
• I'd love to read more about Miranda's feelings about her scholarship and her decision to reject it. What is her life like after the show? 
• What was it like for Tammy to get kicked off the footy team? What's her experience like as captain?
• What's Holly's relationship with Eddie like? What's her reaction to Bushy's murder? What's her reaction to Eddie, Dulcie and Cath turning up on her doorstep?
•  I would love to know more about William Carruthers! How did the event that caused him and Margaret to fall out go?
• What's Kate's experience working with James like? What does she witness of Abby and James's relationship? 
• Vanessa Latham has had such a hard life. I'd love an exploration of any of those experiences, or perhaps by some miracle she ends up in therapy and comes to accept that what happened to her when she was younger was wrong? (Or perhaps she just gets to thinking about it after Dulcie and Eddie say it's wrong?)

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Andor (TV) (Any)

This is the latest live-action Star Wars show and it's got almost no action compared to your average Star War. It's all POLITICS, BABEY. It's available on Disney Plus, and I had the time of my life. It's my favourite Star Wars thing that has ever been made. I love so much how it allows space for really excellent character moments and explores the early rebellion that's a lot more complex in terms of the morality of what they're doing. I'm waiving my DNW for MCD here, because... well... a lot of people die. I'm going to organise them in vague groupings in terms of my thoughts, but of course that is just for organisational purposes and isn't necessarily reflective of anything.

Chandrilans: Mon Mothma, Leida Mothma, Tay Kolma

• So infidelity is a general DNW but this is the one circumstance I'll waive it. I loathe Mon's husband and I will support the hell out of her having an affair (although I really don't want it to be with Bail Organa unless Breha knows and is fine with it!). Tay Kolma is of course a prime candidate.
• Were Tay and Mon together at school and forced to break up because Mon was forced to marry Perrin?
• What was her early marriage to Perrin like? Was he less of a dickhead at some point?
• Does Tay have a wife? If not, how has he escaped the whole arranged marriage at fifteen situation?
• If Mon does have an affair, does Perrin find out? How does he react? Has he also been having affairs? Is having affairs the norm for Chandrilans who have arranged marriages because the arranged marriages are for political or money reasons, so while it's not exactly approved of to have affairs, no one is surprised?
• If you set this post-ANH (or post-official establishment of the Alliance), does Tay join?
• So far, we've mostly just seen Mon talking about money things. What else does she do for the Rebellion? How did she get involved?
• I would love more exploration of the weird culty tradition thing Leida has going on. We know Perrin doesn't care about it, so how did she get involved? What does it entail?
• What are Leida's thoughts on getting an arranged marriage with Davo Sculdun's son?
• Did she once have a better relationship with Mon?

Ferrixians: Brasso, Bix Caleen

• Brasso is the greatest of friends. What's his relationship with Cassian like before the show? What other favours has he done for Cassian? 
• What was caring for Maarva like? Did he have any qualms about doing treason against the Empire?
• What's Brasso backstory? Has he always wanted to be a grappler? 
• How did Bix get involved with selling things to Luthen? (For that matter, how did Salman get involved?)
• What was her relationship with Cassian like? Clearly they had an amicable breakup -- what prompted that? I know I DNWed breakups but as long as it's amicable, I'm happy to you to explore this one.
• How did Bix feel about hiding her activities from Timm?
• You could explore Bix's torture and how she's subsequently broken by it, and how the gang who flies to Gangi Moon care for her afterwards.
• Do our faves get involved in the rebellion in a bigger capacity?
• Other Ferrixians I would be happy for you to write about despite not being in the tagset: Salman Paak, Wilmon Paak, Jezzi, B2EMO.

Rebels: Cinta Kaz, Vel Sartha, Arvel Skeen, Karis Nemik, Kleya Marki

•  I'm not going to lie, I loathe Skeen. If you want to write about Skeen, your challenge is to make me like him or have fun loathing him. I'm very much open to that! Perhaps exploring his life before he got involved in the rebellion, or why/how he joined. Why did he invent the story about his brother? Is there some kernel of truth in it? As I said in my DNWs, I have zero interest in anything romantic involving Skeen, so please write genfic only!
• Cinta/Vel is so compelling because they're so different! How did they get together? What are their struggles about being from radically different social classes? 
• When Perrin asks Vel if she's found herself a husband yet, how does she feel about that, knowing she's got Cinta instead? Is there lots of homophobia on Chandrila?
• How did Vel get involved in the rebellion? Was it through Mon or some other way?
• Nemik, my beloved space Marx. I would love more of his manifesto, or how he got involved in the rebellion. What does Luthen think of his manifesto? Is there anyone who's enthusiastic about it? What is his family's position (or have they been killed?)?
• Kleya is SO compelling. How did she become Luthen's right hand? What's her relationship with other rebels (imo she and Vel have Ex-Girlfriends Energy)? Sometimes she's the one telling Luthen off for taking unnecessary risks -- what's it like being the voice of reason for the head of a rebel cell? Does she have training in her job as the assistant in their antiques gallery?

Imperials: Dedra Meero, Syril Karn

• Genfic only for both of these characters!
• Syril is... such a pathetic wet paper bag of a man. Please keep him pathetic.
• Is the murder of the two guards the first time he's been Too Enthusiastic about something, against his superiors' wishes?
• What's his relationship with Linus Mosk?
• What about Syril's relationship with his mother? Eedy is terrible, I love her.
• How does Dedra feel about Syril's weird stalkery actions? Is she shaken by him turning up outside her building?
• Why is Dedra so obsessed with getting Andor and this rebel cell?
• What's her relationship with the rest of the ISB? We know already that she and Blevin mutually hate each other.

Kino Loy

• Unfortunately he didn't fit into any other categories, haha.
• Does he survive the prison, either by finding something to float on or perhaps taking a speeder or something? If you could refrain from writing fic about him drowning, that would be good. I'm cool with fic about his realisation that he's inciting this riot with the knowledge that he won't be able to escape, though!
• What's his life pre-prison like? Andy Serkis has a really wonderful backstory for him that he talked about here:
  • "We sort of set up this back-history that he had a family, that he was a factory worker, a shop steward and a foreman in his life outside of prison, but he was very vocal about workers’ rights. And then he forgot all about that as soon as he was in prison and just became a tough shell of his former self. He just wanted to get through the day. [...] [The crime that landed him in prison] was [him] vocally standing up for workers’ rights and that was seen as being unpatriotic in some way, or that he was stepping out of line and being a troublemaker."
• Feel free to explore that backstory, or come up with your own!
• What about the emotional arc he goes through in prison? Becoming hard and abandoning his previous values, only caring about the number of days he has left. What's it like realising that Cassian is right, and they need to rebel?

Fandom-specific DNWs:

• Any romantic relationships involving Arvel Skeen, Dedra Meero or Syril Karn (although Syril unrequitedly being weird about Dedra is fine)
• Portraying Saw Gerrera as morally worse than Luthen
• Non-Star Wars settings (though AUs involving different part of Star Wars are fine)

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Score: A Hockey Musical (2010)
When I watched this film a few years ago, I immediately edited my Yuletide signup to include it. It's a Whole Experience and I highly recommend watching it for free on Youtube here! It's 1 hour and 38 minutes of the most baffling thing you will experience today. If "hockey musical" doesn't sell you, there's a glorious promo post here. It inexplicably stars Patrick from Schitt's Creek and Olivia Newton John is his mother. Nelly Furtado is there. I simply cannot express in words How Much this film happens.

• I love my son Moose. We see him go on a whole journey about what intricate rituals you need to construct to touch the skin of other men and I'd love to see something exploring that!
• I also ship Farley/Moose. Does it happen before the whole Farley doesn't fight scandal or after? Is Moose, known Sensitive Guy, already aware/comfortable with his queerness? Or does he have to work through it with Farley? 
• What's the conversation like when the Blades have that discussion about violence and refused to let Coach Donk in? 
• Does Moose ever meet Farley's parents (as a friend or boyfriend)? How does that go?
• I didn't request him because I forgot to put him in the tagset, but if you wanted to write a fic where Coach Donk and Darryl are secretly married.......... I sure as hell wouldn't stop you. (It would be hilarious if they're not even trying to hide it, they're just Like That. but deliberately hiding it would also be delicious.) Or any Donk/Darryl content. It wouldn't have to have Moose in it if you didn't want to.
• A Do Not Want: please don't have Farley and Eve together! Eve deserves someone better. I love her. (Mentions of her crush on Farley are fine.)

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Yudah Cohen Series - Rebecca Fraimow

This is a series of short stories available for free:
“Further Arguments in Support of Yudah Cohen’s Proposal to Bluma Zilberman” by Rebecca Fraimow
Shaina Rubin Keeps Her Head Under Circumstances Nobody Could Have Expected
Gitl Schneiderman Learns to Live With Her In-Laws

They share a universe that's Jewish with a little magic! Yudah Cohen argues that Bluma should marry him because he could help with her mother who is definitely not a werewolf. It's just so charming and so full of possibility!

• Yudah arriving in Vilna, becoming part of the community, finally free to be who he is. How does that feel?
• Tante Leah -- what's her life as a werewolf like? How did it go with Yudah saying he already knew? Was she planning to confess? Who else knows? Is this just a secret that everyone pretends to keep to avoid making Leah uncomfortable? Does Shaina ever find out?
• Yudah/Bluma -- what's their courtship like? Their marriage? If you wanted to write some smut for this, I'd be happy to receive it, though preferably not PWP. And the baby! What's living in Lodz like? Are there any unexpected surprises with the baby being a quarter demon?
• Shaina -- her life is truly so hard. I'd love to see more of her and Bluma, or her friendship with Gitl, or her visiting Lodz. And when people start making noise about her needing to get married, does she want to or does she perhaps go to Yudah for help on how to avoid that? (She read to me as ace, but I'm happy for whatever interpretation you bring!)
• A legal proceding/some talmud/etc. from this world would be amazing, since we know that demons have brought court cases.
• Gitl and Mirele -- did Gitl love her husband or was it actually Mirele? Or did she love them both? What is her life like with Mirele now that they've run off to the theatre?
• More of Yudah encountering magic -- he's been visited by dybbuks before; how did that go? What other creatures does he encounter?