Yuletide 2019 Letter

[corvusumbranox]

Yuletide Letter 2019

AO3 Username: StopTalkingAtMe

Hi, Mystery Author, and welcome to my 2019 Yuletide letter. This Yuletide marks a full year since I started doing exchanges. I had an absolute blast last year, so I'm really excited to be back again this year and looking forward to reading my gift fic. Some of the fandom sections here are longer than others, but please don't read anything into this: all four of the fandoms I've requested are genuinely fandoms of my heart, and I will be over the moon to receive fic for any one of them.

Table of Contents

General Likes, Smut Likes and DNWs
Zone Blanche｜Black Spot
Thir13en Ghosts
Poltergeist: The Legacy
Vampyr

General Likes and DNWs

General Likes

• Character studies and introspection
• Loneliness and isolation
• Atmospheric description, scenery porn, sensory description
• World-building and character development. Backstory
• I love horror of all kinds, from quietly understated ghost stories to fucked-up gore. Body horror, folk horror, Lovecraftian horror, and atmospheric ghost stories are particular favourites but ANY kind of horror would be welcome.
• The Closed Circle trope (the most famous example is And Then There Were None) in both horrors and mysteries.
• Case-fic. Give me more of what's in canon, and I'll be happy
• Anything spooky, angsty, grim, gritty. I'm not so keen on anything too fluffy or slice-of-life.
• I have absolutely no problem with major character death. For me this translates as I'm good with anything short of a comet crashing into the world at the start of the fic and instantly killing everyone, and even that's okay if you can make it work. I'm also open to introspective fics dealing with one character's reaction to another's death, and in general loss and mourning is a theme I like to see explored. So feel free to rip my heart out.
• I love endings of all kinds, from happy, to bittersweet, to unremittingly bleak, but if I do have a preference, it's probably for bittersweet endings over purely happy endings. But having said that, even tooth-achingly sweet endings have their place and I do love to read them, so if that's the right ending for your fic then please go with that.
• Canon-divergent AUs, especially post-canon ones where the bad guys win.
• Post-apocalyptic scenarios and zombies
• Prequels and post-canon fics
• Epistolary elements or non-linear story-telling. First person or third person POV
• The following aren't specific likes but they do seem to be opt-in so here I am opting in: pregnancy (including pregnancy loss and horror focused on pregnancy); harm to children and animals. I'm also not really interested in MPreg in romance, but when it comes to horror? Hell yes.

Smut Likes

• Consensual sex both gentle and rough
• Fellatio and cunnilingus (especially cunnilingus with fingering)
• Mild bondage and other forms of gentle restraint, holding a person down or restraining their wrists.
• Dubcon, (when requested).
• Realistically imperfect but still pleasurable sex (e.g. taking factors into account such as age, one party feeling shy or vulnerable etc,)
• Ghost sex
• For vampires, bloodplay and biting

DNWs

• A/B/O
• Explicit violent rape or rape as a major theme (brief mentions are okay, and there’s an exception for P:TL)
• Incest (unless requested)
• Bestiality
• Scat and waterplay
• BDSM (mild bondage and other forms of gentle restraint are OK)
• Underage
• Het anal sex
• Breathplay
• Torture porn (scenes of torture are fine, and you can get pretty explicit; I'd just prefer torture not be the entire focus of the fic)
• Any variation of the word 'come' in a sexual context spelled as 'cum' (please use 'come', 'came', 'precome' etc)

Zone Blanche｜Black Spot

Requested Characters: Louis Hermann, Camille Laugier

Please note: This section contains spoilers.

This series, set in an isolated French town, is a recent discovery for me and one which I binge-watched because it's so, so good. I love the format, the way the case-of-the-week procedural mysteries are woven in with both the overarching theme of crime and corruption and with the supernatural forces in the forest. I love the way it uses Celtic mytholgy, the stunning cinematography and scenery, the modern folk-horror (and arboreal horror) vibe, and the way the forest is presented as both an antagonist and something many of the characters have a symbiotic relationship with. Oh, and the characters: aside from a scant handful of exceptions (Roman and Rudy, who I don't mind, but I'm not particularly invested in) there isn't a single character I wouldn't love to read more about.

One of my favourite things about the canon is the way everyone seems to have their own personal relationship with the forest and countryside, so I'd love to see something exploring that. I'd also love to see some scenery porn for this fandom, since the scenery is one of my favourite things about it, and my love for folk horror is particularly relevant here, as is my love for creepy forests and supernatural themes. I love the ambiguity of the supernatural: while the supernatural forces unambiguously exist, often their influence over the various cases of the week are less clear. I really like that, but I would also be happy to see something where the supernatural forces have much more influence.

I've requested Louis Hermann and Camille Laugier. I ship them (oh god, do I ship them), and while I'm open to a lot of ships in this fandom, THIS is the one that I'm really, really passionate about. I'm open to alternative ships too, but if you choose to write about a ship other than Hermann/Camille, I'd prefer if it wasn't the entire focus of the fic. I would also be thrilled with gen fic, particularly anything with a creepy vibe or which explores Celtic mythology and the forest. Case-fic and horror is always welcome.

I have absolutely no problem with character death and mourning. I would also be absolutely fine with a fic set after the season 1 finale, and where Camille does not appear as a character in the fic itself.

Hermann and Camille.

Ohhh, these two, where to start?

It was s2e4 that really solidified my love for the ship, but I was idly shipping them right from the very first episode. There's a moment in it when they're both at the bedside of a man on life support, which reminds Hermann of watching his wife die, and in response Camille promises that if it comes to it she'll spare him from a slow death by shooting him in the head.

Me: *heart eyes*

I love the contrast between them: Camille is deceptively fragile in appearance and behaviour, and Hermann's a tough-as-nails woodsman badass with a vulnerable streak, the awkwardness of the age gap, the tenderness between them, the hint of vulnerability that comes from loss and grief, and the mentor/protégé relationship: it's all so messed up and complicated and painfully sweet. The way he mourns her after her death, and the events of S2E4, which is HANDS DOWN my favourite episode so far, even if it did monkey's paw me by turning a kind-of-interesting ship into something that I ship like burning. That chaste heartbroken forehead kiss. Her expression when she walks away. My freaking heart.

The show is never quite clear just what their relationship is. Personally, I head-canon it as unresolved mutual pining, with Hermann perhaps trying to tell himself that his feelings towards her are fatherly when they're actually nothing of the kind, and which perhaps really did start off as a mentor/protégé relationship but gradually grew into something more. I would freaking love to see that realised, but however you choose to approach it, or if you just want to treat it as friendship, I'm good.

Alternative and background ships

I'm open to a lot of ships for this fandom, including almost all canon ships (I'm not particularly invested in Roman, so while I don't mind him appearing or mentions of Cora/Roman, I'd prefer no focus on him or on Rudy. I love Cora though). Feel free to include any background ships you want. If you don't want to write Hermann/Camille, I'd be happy to see Camille shipped with almost anyone (Cora, Marion and Laurène all spring to mind), and while I'm a little fussier about Hermann, I'd love to see something that explores his relationship with his late wife, and I could also see him with Sabine -- they share a close relationship with the forest, and I could see it as a friends-with-benefits (and-possibly-occasional-Pagan-ritual-sex) situation.

For gen fic, I would love to see something exploring either characters’ relationship with the forest, or perhaps Hermann's friendship with Laurène (although I would strongly prefer that this is kept platonic). Presumably he was already on the force when she was missing in the forest, and he also stepped down from the position of sheriff to allow her to take over at a time when he was going through a difficult patch. I see it as a combination of mutual respect and responsibility, and I'd love to see something exploring that.

I'd also love a Camille-centred fic set during the events of season one (or before), perhaps taking a look at her interactions with Gérald Steiner. Assuming she knew something of what he might be capable of, that must have been utterly terrifying, and I'd love to see something exploring that.

If you're up for writing it and know both canons, I would be thrilled with a crossover with Marianne: another French supernatural series, which is also creepy-as-hell, but with a more overtly horror theme, and the actress who plays Camille is in both. I'd particularly love to see Marianne's completely unambiguous style of horror and Lovecraftian vibe transplanted into the Zone Blanche setting, and the potential clash between the two shows' differing mythologies - Marianne's Christian-based witchcraft and Zone Blanche's Celtic gods - but however you do it is up to you. If you choose to do this then all bets are off: feel free to ignore my requested characters if necessary and do what you need to do to get it done. :D

Optional Prompts

• Camille comes back from the dead (I will literally never get enough of the came-back-wrong trope so have at it).
• Anything exploring Hermann & Camille's background and relationship, whether you interpret it as romantic, a purely platonic friendship, or keep it as ambiguous as it is in canon. Maybe he takes her hunting, or on one of his fishing trips.
• Another came-back-wrong prompt, but this time it's Marion who comes back during the events of series 1. Does she remember what happened or is her memory patchy? Has she changed to the point of being dangerous?
• Everyone from Villefranche spends a night sleeping in the forest when they turn 18. I would love to see something exploring that for either or both of them, and their individual relationships with the forest.
• Something which uses the sex-pollen trope as a catalyst, whether it focuses on the event itself or on the aftermath, and whether it's painfully awkward or leads to them admitting they have feelings for each other or both.
• Something which uses Celtic mythology or (French) fairy tales as inspiration.
• A fic which explores Hermann's experiences of Laurène's disappearance in the forest when she was 18 (fine to exclude Camille for this one)

Thir13en Ghosts

Requested Characters: Dennis Rafkin, Kathy Kriticos

I completely unashamedly love this film and everything about it: the bereaved family who think a sudden bequest from their estranged uncle is going to solve all their financial problems (I mean, good lord, did they actually pay attention to that video will?), the early noughties ghost aesthetic, the ghost-vision goggles, the clockwork workings of the mansion, the closed-circle tropey goodness of the plot, and most of all Dennis. He is everything I adore in a character: touch-starved, self-hating, deeply conflicted, and painfully, agonisingly lonely.

Anything that explores his struggles with his psychic abilities, loneliness and inability to touch people is right up my alley and I'm pretty much guaranteed to love it. I've requested Dennis and Kathy since that's the way most of my prompts lean, but please note that I'm happy for you to leave Kathy out if you'd rather focus on one of the other characters in the tag-set or write solely about Dennis.

If you do want to write about Kathy, I'd really love to see something that builds on what we see of her character, where in canon she has to keep things together for the sake of her grieving father and death-obsessed little brother. Maybe she's drawn to occultism despite (or because of) what happened, and finds herself following in Cyrus's footsteps. Or a darker Kathy who's working with Cyrus himself, either in a canon-divergent AU where Cyrus survived or where he's been brought back somehow. Maybe she brought him back thinking she could control him. I'd also be open to something dark here where he seduces her or they're sleeping together for whatever reason, in which case consider my incest DNW waived for that, although I'd prefer if the focus was more on being seduced to the dark side than on him technically being a family member.

It also isn't clear how old Kathy is in canon, but personally I see her as college-aged in canon, maybe 19-21).

I do also kind of ship Dennis and Kathy, and I would freaking love horror-tinged shipfic for this, however dark you want to go, but I'd also be thrilled with gen horror, particularly body or architectural horror. Ghosts are ALWAYS welcome, as is anything exploring the house or Cyrus's particular brand of ridiculously flamboyant occultism.

Again, I have no issue with character death and mourning and I'm fine with any combination of Dennis being dead at the start of the fic, dying during it, or staying dead throughout, so long as he appears as a character at some point, even if he only appears as a ghost.

Prompts

• A time-loop set during the events of the film where Dennis keeps dying in a variety of unpleasant ways.
• After the death of her brother and/or father, Kathy returns to the house in order to use its powers for herself. Maybe she finds Dennis there and he tries to stop her.
• Something quieter and sweeter exploring a relationship between Kathy and Dennis where he manages to overcome his difficulties with touching other people and they gradually heal from the experience. This could have a happyish ending, or it could be utterly devastatingly bleak, so perhaps at the end it's revealed that they're both dead and trapped in a containment cube and he's been hiding this from her to protect her.
• Architectural horror — something focused around that gloriously OTT clockwork house. Maybe something like that isn’t quite so easy to destroy.
• Dennis and Cyrus and their fucked-up relationship, however you choose to present it: platonic or otherwise. Bonus points for making it vaguely dub-conny and deeply manipulative. Perhaps Cyrus is somehow able to overcome the psychic touching issue with some sort of drug; if you've been desperate for human contact all your life that'd be hard to resist.
• I do love the way Dennis and Arthur interact in the film, so more of that will always be welcome.
• A comes-back-wrong fic where Dennis is brought back.

Poltergeist: The Legacy

Requested Characters: Derek Rayne

Wonderfully tropey nineties horror. :D I love this series so, so much, and having revisited it after loving it back when it was on the first time round it still holds up. I adore all the characters, but especially Derek, self-sacrificing and lonely as he is. I love the close almost familial bonds that form between the characters, and the overall concept of the show: the network of Legacy Houses, each carrying the risk of its members turning to the dark side.

For this request, I'd love anything horror with any combination of the characters. I do kind of sort of ship Derek and Rachel, but I'd also be open to him shipped with Alex or a female OC, or any one of his previous in-canon lovers. I'd also love to see appearances from any other canon characters, such as Ingrid, Julia, Kat, or reappearances from canon antagonists like Reed Horton or the female demon who appeared in a couple of episodes -- it was a shame her character was never really expanded on (oh, and btw, if you do decide to write about Reed Horton, I'm not averse to him being shipped with Derek or the two of them in an awkward love-triangle/threesome with the woman (demon? witch?) that Reed talks about having been in love with).

Backstory, particularly for Derek, would be amazing: I'd love to see more of his childhood, adolescence, time at university or in the Legacy and/or his relationships with his family, or with William Sloan or Reed Horton.

Regarding my DNW for 'explicit violent rape', I'm waiving it for references and depictions of Rachel's canonical rape in the pilot episode (like if you want to use it in my 'canon-style clip show' prompt, for example). I would prefer it be kept M-rated and no worse than it is in canon in terms of brutality and explicitness. Please note you do have a bit of wriggle-room there, so if you're not quite sure, then err on the side of 'it's fine'.

Prompts

• Case-fic -- any kind of horror, from fullblown gore to a quieter M.R. James style ghost story. Perhaps Derek investigates rumours of a haunting at his old school
• The Legacy gather for a canon-style clip-show to reminisce about the cases they've faced, but something's weird: with each story details change and reality warps. Perhaps events remembered are altered somehow, or the things they reminisce about are called into being once more.
• Came-back-wrong -- somehow Derek is resurrected, but something is very badly wrong.
• Something exploring Kat and her gift or her relationship with her mother, and any parallels between her and Derek. I really like the idea of her being destined to follow in his footsteps, and his potential conflict and guilt over simultaneously protecting her, whilst preparing her for a life which he knows from experience is painfully lonely.
• I'm fascinated by the various Legacy houses, and the ever-present danger of them going dark, so anything exploring that would be wonderful.
• A time-loop fic with any of the characters, where they keep returning to a particular day and have to set something right.
• A time-loop fic where things get progressively weirder/creepier with each loop.
• An isolated desolate coastline, a haunted mansion, and Lovecraftian horrors hiding in the walls.
• Derek discovers a way to destroy the sepulchers once and for all, but there is a cost.
• Pure tropey shipfic - Derek and Rachel have to pose as fake-married for a case. Or Derek and Alex. Or Nick and Alex. Or Alex and Rachel.
• A Tabula Rasa-style fic where the team have their memories wiped. Bonus points for Derek flirting shamelessly with Alex and/or Rachel.

Vampyr

Requested Characters: Old Bridget

What I love about this game is the moral ambiguity and the shades of grey, as well as the historical setting and the horror imagery, and the way the backstories of certain characters are implied. There's so much history there, but we only ever really get a glimpse of it. I would really like to know more, so any kind of worldbuilding or exploration of backstory would be wonderful. Equally, horror of any kind, or something quieter and introspective would also be wonderful.

I genuinely love Old Bridget's character so much. She's such a mystery, and I love the contrast of her appearance and her reputation as the monstrous Sewer Dog with how gentle and wise she is, and her role as London's protector. I completely headcanon her as being fiercely protective of the Skals under her care and far more dangerous than she looks.

I ship her with both Edgar and Elisabeth, so if you're in the mood to write shipfic, I'd love her paired with either of them. And while I don't ship them exactly, her relationship and background with Lord Redgrave would be fascinating to explore.

After Bridget, Edgar is probably my favourite character -- good intentions that go awry, a flexible moral code, his backstory with the Brotherhood of St Paul's Stole, and how overjoyed he is at the prospect of becoming a vampire. Elisabeth is another wonderful character with a wealth of subtly hinted at backstory which I'd love to see explored more fully. She was strong in a way that felt appropriate for the period.

I'm open to a bunch of background ships. I don't strongly ship Jonathan with anyone (apart possibly from with Edgar), so feel free to have Jonathan/Geoffrey, Jonathan/Sean, Jonathan/Edgar or Jonathan/Elisabeth as a background ship if you want. If you choose to ship Bridget with Elisabeth then I'd prefer the subject of infidelity is avoided, e.g. by pretending the canon relationship never took place, or by having Jonathan go dark, perhaps because his avoidance of drinking human blood has backfired, or perhaps by having him dead or missing.

For gen, I'd also be thrilled with fics exploring the friendship (or otherwise) between Bridget and pretty much any of the other characters in the game, or something exploring her past and/or relationship with London and her struggles building up and maintaining her sanctuary for the Skals. Horror is always welcome.

Something else that really appeals to me is the religious imagery in the game, and the contrast of heavily Catholic-flavoured factions like the Brotherhood with all their relics and saints existing in a country where the prevailing religion is the Church of England. And Jonathan: according to the Wiki his mother is French, so was he raised Anglican or Catholic? And the same question for Bridget. I love the contrast between the two sanctuaries, with Sean's altar shrine in that wonderfully creepy cut-scene and the dark austerity of the sewer sanctuary, and the similarities and differences between her and Sean, and the idea of them being two different denominations and having religious discussions really appeals. I'm not at all religious, so don't worry about offending me: it's the imagery and the historical detail and the pull between Catholic and Protestant that fascinates me about this, as well as characters being conflicted about their faith, or lack of it. Oh, and if you were at all interested in writing a historical piece about the Brotherhood set during the Reformation or its aftermath, then I would be all over that.

Prompts

• Jonathan has finally cracked and gone on a murderous rampage after too long denying himself blood and Elisabeth turns to Bridget for comfort and solace
• Jacob Blackwood returns, and Elisabeth turns to Bridget for help.
• Post-canon fic in which Edgar seeks Old Bridget out and his attempts to experiment cause conflict.
• Anything exploring her backstory. Like her relationship with Lord Redgrave for example. Ultimately he proved to be an utter bastard who deserted her when he couldn't turn her into an Ekon, but was there a time when he ever truly loved her? I'd love to see what happened between the two of them.
• Something about her relationship with London as it changes through the centuries.
• Explore what it's like to be a Skal, her life in the sanctuary with the other Skals, and please feel free to go into descriptions of grime and filth. I'm fascinated by what it's like to be a Skal and the differences between them and Ekons.
• An AU where Bridget and her Skals find Mary's body and she turns with Bridget's aid and support.
• Wounded and close to death, Geoffrey McCullum stumbles on the Skal sanctuary.
• A post-canon AU where Jonathan lost, and London has descended into a post-apocalyptic nightmare. Have people survived and adapted or are they just marking time until the inevitable end?
• A historical piece about the Brotherhood during the Reformation or its aftermath. Perhaps a fic or an epistolary in-game worldbuilding piece. How did they fare during the persecution of recusants during Elizabeth I's reign? Was there a scramble to retrieve manuscripts and relics from abbeys before they were lost completely? It's fine to leave out Bridget for this one, although appearances from other characters who would have been around at the time would be delightful.

Thank you for your interest in my letter. I hope you have a wonderful Yuletide.