Yuletide 2020 Letter

[corvusumbranox]

Yuletide 2020 Letter

AO3 Username: StopTalkingAtMe

Welcome to my Yuletide letter, Mystery Author. This is my third time doing Yuletide, and I'm excited it's that time of year again, and holy crap, the tagset was fantastic this year. :D My fandoms this year are a bit of an odd mix, and some of the sections might be a bit longer than others, but please don't read anything into that: I really do love them all, and would be thrilled to receive a fic for any one of them.

Table of Contents

General Likes, Smut Likes, Art Likes and DNWs
The Dresden Files - TV
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Poltergeist: The Legacy
Kaldor City
Thief
Year of the Rabbit

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
• Horror of all kinds, particularly body horror, folk horror, Lovecraftian horror, and atmospheric ghost stories.
• The Closed Circle trope (the most famous example is And Then There Were None) in both horror and mysteries.
• Case-fic.
• Whump
• Endings of all kinds, happy, bleak or bittersweet.
• Canon-divergent AUs, especially post-canon ones where the bad guys win.
• Older characters finding love
• Pining, of both the hopeless unrequited kind, and where there’s a happy ending,
• Horror scenarios which involve being trapped in dark, claustrophobic places (especially caves) with monsters (As in The Descent)
• Descriptions of scars
• I have absolutely no problem with character death. Even main character death. Feel free to rip my heart out.

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
• Threesomes (and orgies)
• Sex in grimy, grim, uncomfortable places

General Art Likes

In terms of artwork I'm open to a lot of different things, but I'll particularly love something which captures the atmosphere of canon, whether that be beautiful scenery, or something grim and gritty. If it suits the fandom and ship, I'm not averse to a bit of gore and violence either, and there's a couple where I'd particularly like some elements of horror. I love contrast and lots of rich intricate detail, but I'm also open to simpler art with softer, more muted colours if that's your style. I also quite like diptychs and triptychs, as well as the use of stylised borders which incorporate themes and objects from canon, such as clockwork, books, or vines. Artist-wise, I'm particularly fond of art nouveau and the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, but seriously, anything.

DNWs

• A/B/O
• Noncon (Unless requested. Extremely dubious dubcon is also fine if prompted)
• Deliberate underage grooming
• Dubcon involving unaroused characters
• Incest (unless requested)
• Bestiality (monsters don't count here)
• Scat and waterplay
• Formalised D/s dynamics (bondage and other forms of restraint are OK)
• Underage
• Het anal sex
• Breathplay
• Fisting
• Sexualised lactation
• Any variation of the word 'come' in a sexual context spelled as 'cum' (please use 'come', 'came', 'precome' etc)

The Dresden Files - TV

Requested Characters: Harry Dresden, Hrothbert of Bainbridge

~~

I will forever not be disappointed that this series never got a second season. It drew a lot of criticism for not being closer to the books, but I remain convinced that’s not necessarily a bad thing: sometimes it’s better for adaptations to do their own thing. The relatively close version the show did of Storm Front is, uh, evidence of that. As a whole the show wasn’t perfect, but it was *fun*, and I’m just sad it never had a chance to explore its take on the worldbuilding a bit more. Paul Blackthorne was perfect as Harry, and honestly, as far as I’m concerned the show was worth it for the changes it made to Bob alone.

I’d love to see some worldbuilding here, of the magic Harry does, or the monsters he faces, or the Wizard’s Council. I’ve only just started reading the books, so if you do bring in plot elements from the books, while ideally I’d prefer no major spoilers to specific mystery solutions, for more general plot developments you can spoil away - I'm not fussed about those. If at any point you’re in doubt, then please err on the side of assuming it’s absolutely fine. Casefic would be fantastic, as would loyalty kink between Harry and Bob, whether you treat their relationship as shippy or platonic. I loved the way the show started to go hard on the loyalty kink between them towards the end of the series (“I serve Harry now”, and how devastated Harry was when he thought he’d lost Bob), and I cannot emphasise enough how here I am for that.

Same goes for any exploration of Harry’s relationship with his uncle – the flashback when we see what happened to Justin is really interesting because they seem on fairly good terms – is that true, or is it not really as amicable as it might first appear? What was it like for Harry going from touring with his dad to living with Bob and his uncle in that vast mansion? And speaking of that house, at one point he tells Murphy he hasn’t sold it because it isn’t safe, so what exactly is he afraid of? And as for Justin, I can’t believe the show was going to end it that way. And what about Harry’s mother?

And then there’s Bob. I love him so much, the somewhat shady past, with his past crimes hinted at, but never in great detail. It’s pretty clear that there’s more to his crimes than just bringing his wife back to the dead, and I would absolutely love to see something of his darker side, perhaps with Bob forced to confront a younger, darker version of himself? And there’s the question of whether redemption can truly be found when you’re cursed in the way he’s been. Is Bob's loyalty to Harry entirely natural, or has it been induced to some extent by his curse? Harry seems like the sort of guy who’d free Bob if he could – did he ever try, maybe as a boy?

If you choose to ship Harry and Bob, then if you go all in on the complications of ghost-human relations (bearing in mind Bob has no physical presence), then I will eat it up with a spoon. There's also a very specific ship dynamic that I adore and which this hits for me: a man who acted as a semi-guardian to a younger person when they were a child, and the two of them just sort of accidentally falling into an awkward, slightly guilty relationship once the younger person is past the age where they're old enough to be acting in an adult capacity. Seriously, it's like CATNIP, and with Harry/Bob there's also the added complication of Bob being dead. I am, however, also totally here for their relationship being entirely familial/platonic, so whichever way you want to present it, I'm happy.

I also ship Murphy with Harry, and, after being a little disappointed by the fake-out when Murphy ‘learns’ Harry really is an actual, literal wizard and has the indentured soul of a dead sorcerer serving him, I also kind of sort of ship Murphy/Bob, and would quite like to see them interacting (always here for Bob calling her ‘M’lady’).

Optional Prompts

• The decision to wedge the Storm Front pilot into the series halfway through was certainly a choice. It raised a lot of questions, like: ‘Why is his house and office completely different?’, ‘Since when does TV Harry have a cat?’, and most importantly, ‘WHERE THE FUCK IS BOB?’ So: meta. Maybe the Storm Front episode is set in a different universe, Harry is trapped there, and is starting to think his house might be haunted...
• Morningway-Dresden-Hrothbert of Bainbridge family dynamics. How did Harry really get on with his uncle? What sort of things are lurking in that house? Is Bob the only ghost there? How easy was it for him to adapt to the way that world worlds, given his father took such pains to protect him from it?
• Harry discovers a way to free Bob from the curse, but it comes with its own risks, whether that be from Bob himself or an external danger? And jsyk, I’m always here for Lovecraftian monstrosities.
• Winifred turns out to be alive, whether she remembers her old life or not. And maybe Justin didn’t come up with that replica scheme himself – so Harry and Bob have to go up against a younger, crueller, unambiguously evil version of Bob.
• Harry, Bob and a bunch of wizards find themselves trapped in the Morningway Estate, being picked off one by one.

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Requested Characters: Corvus Umbranox, Millona Umbranox, Lucien Lachance, Vicente Valtieri

~~

Although I've requested four characters, there’s no need to include all four characters in the fic, whether you choose to focus on just one of them, go with the 'obvious' pairings (Corvus & Millona and Vicente & Lucien), or mix it up a bit (Lucien & Corvus? Millone & Vicente?).

I love everything about this game, its goofy quirks, the scenery and landscape, the quests, and how virtually every quest in the game usually has a little twist or something special about it. Landscape porn, adventure, and any quiet meta nods to the game's goofy moments would be wonderful.

Corvus is one of my favourite characters of all time, with the Thieves’ Guild questline of Oblivion easily one of the highlights of the game. I love the way all the details build towards that final climactic heist, and the reveal of the Gray Fox’s identity and the curse. There is something so exquisitely heartbreaking (but also pretty damn creepy) about the idea of him hanging about the castle, forever excluded from his own life, especially bearing in mind this is all taking place in the middle of the Oblivion Crisis.

I would love a take on his backstory, how he met his wife or became the Fox, or how he survived day to day as a nameless ghost who was essentially spying on his wife. Alternatively, something from after the curse was broken, exploring how they went about rebuilding their marriage. A huge part of what appeals to me about Corvus's character is the enforced loneliness of the situation he's put into, so anything dealing with touch-starvation and isolation, whether during the curse, or in its aftermath, will be like catnip to me. Alternatively, I’d also love a canon-style heist, or something examining the way the Thieves' Guild operates or interacts with other guilds such as the Dark Brotherhood.

I would be over the moon with gen, but should you choose to write shipfic, Corvus/Millona is engraved on my heart, but I also ship Corvus/Millona/Lex in just about every permutation. I’d also be up for Corvus/Lucien Lachance and Corvus/Lucien Lachance/Vicente Valtieri, whether fully consensual or dubiously so, and Vicente/Lucien too, naturally.

Speaking of Lucien and Vicente, I love them and their creepy murder cult. <3<3<3 They're both such irredeemably evil monsters - literally, in Vicente's case - and yet the game does such a fantastic job getting you to care about them, and making them feel, despite the game’s limitations, like characters with a depth of backstory. I’m fascinated by the question of what the dynamic between them would be, and what form their shared history would take, so I would absolutely love to see that tackled, however you choose to do it.

The Thieves' Guild and the Dark Brotherhood questlines are unquestionably two of the highlights of the game, and I would love to see something of how the two factions and their leaders interact. Do they have an uneasy alliance, or are they at war? I would be thrilled with a story that explores the relationship between Corvus and Lucien and whether they are allies or enemies. I'd also be happy with Lucien as a spectral assassin after his death, and I'll quietly point to my 'ghost sex' like. I'd particularly love an exploration of the darker side of the Thieves' Guild, because there's no way everyone who belongs to the guild is entirely down with the 'no killing' Robin Hood ethos.

Optional Prompts

• Anything that explores day to day life in the Thieves' Guild, whether it takes place before Corvus becomes the Gray Fox, during his tenure, or after the curse has been broken. How does he balance that life with his relationship with Millona?
• Something introspective about how the curse affects Corvus or Millona, or both of them.
• After the curse has been broken and the Fox's cowl has been passed on, something happens to the current Gray Fox and Corvus is forced to wear the cowl again.
• Anything exploring the healing process between Corvus and Millona after the curse has been broken and they can start to rebuild their marriage again.
• Lex may have been relocated to Anvil, but he still hasn't given up on his hunt for the Gray Fox, and this time he's absolutely certain who it is.
• PWP - Give me all the vampire sex, hate fucking, sex in the blood of the people they've just murdered, etc. etc...
• Backstory - show me what happened when Lucien became Speaker. Vicente's been a member of the Dark Brotherhood for two hundred years, so he might have been around to see Lucien when he first joined and moved through the ranks to become the Speaker.
• Did Vicente ever offer to make Lucien a vampire?
• Lucien's POV during the Dark Brotherhood questline. Was there ever a moment when he was tempted to warn Vicente? (I mean, obviously the answer is no, because Lucien, but maybe he idly considered it in a quiet moment, while knowing it was never going to happen).
• Time Loop from Vicente's point-of-view, where he realises the Hero of Kvatch keeps killing him, so he escapes and hunts down Lucien in order to warn him that the Hero of Kvatch is a traitor. Awkwardness ensues.
• Membership of the Dark Brotherhood seems to provide some degree of immunity to the effects of the cowl. After however many years of no one recognising Corvus or knowing his name, Lucien Lachance does, and an uneasy friendship/relationship starts to develop between the two men.
• Someone is murdering members of the Thieves' Guild. Corvus suspects the work of the Brotherhood.
• Something where Corvus and Lucien have known each other for a long time, since they were boys.
• Lucien and Corvus swap bodies and are forced to keep this information hidden from their respective guilds.
• After Lucien's death, Corvus looks back on their complicated relationship.
• I would be delighted with something as unexpectedly tropey as 'There's only one bed!' especially if the fic doesn't lose sight of how massively dark and fucked up Lucien is as a character
• Something weird is going on in the Anvil lighthouse.

Kaldor City

Requested Characters: Any (Kiy Uvanov, Kaston Iago, Carnell, Cotton)

~~

First off, I know what a ridiculous long shot this request is, but I have fallen desperately in love with just about everything relating to the setting of Kaldor City. Maybe it’s not such a surprise that I’d fall in love with the setting, since The Robots of Death, the Doctor Who episode which first introduced Kaldor City is basically And Then There Were None with killer robots (and look, if you’re not at all sure what to give me for this, then And Then There Were None with killer robots is a pretty damned good bet).

In fact, on the off-chance that you’re not yet familiar with the Magic Bullet CDs, then a simpler and cheaper alternative might be to watch The Robots of Death and follow up with Chris Boucher’s sequel novel Corpse Marker instead. I’m fine with canon divergence, and honestly my chances of getting something Kaldor City-related are so miniscule that I will be happy with virtually anything, including something set during Uvanov’s time as captain of the sand miner for which you’d probably only need to watch The Robots of Death (such as an AU where the Doctor and Leela don't turn up and Uvanov and the crew of the sandminer have to fend for themselves).

But as for the Kaldor City series, I originally picked it up because I’d heard it was a crossover between Doctor Who and Blake’s 7 and I was curious how that would work. Turns out I love it. I love everything about it. It’s clever and dark and brutal and really bloody funny. I especially love the way it links the two shows without ever quite feeling like either one. I love the setting, the class divide, the grittiness of the sewer pits, and the twenty founding families, and the idea of robophobia as this utterly crippling condition, and the worldbuilding that goes into what a civilisation reliant on robot technology would look like. It's so freaking bleak. I love the ambiguity, and the tonal shift over the course of the series too, the way it goes from a fast-paced techno-thriller to something altogether weirder and creepier as everything falls apart into bleakly awful cosmic horror.

Explore the ramifications of the Fendahl-stuff, or ignore that completely and stick with the bleak, gritty technothriller aspects. I'd love to see some worldbuilding and/or character development. I’d be delighted to see any one of the characters explored, both the ones nominated and everyone else too. Shipwise, I have no preference, so consider this the go ahead to write whatever ships you want.

Uvanov is such a self-serving little bastard, but at the same time bastard or not, there’s the slightest hint of decency about him. He’s just generally a fascinating character, and I’d love to see him explored, devious, greedy, paranoid, amoral, social-climbing little shit that he is. :D

Cotton made me laugh, especially his double-act with Rull. I’d really love to see his character explored a little more seriously: almost everyone assumed he was an idiot (possibly rightly so, admittedly), but I love the idea of him clawing his way out of the world of the sewerpits only to find the more privileged parts of Kaldor City equally treacherous.

And then there’s everything to do with Kaston Iago. It’s up to you whether or not you choose to write him as a post-Gauda Prime Avon - I’m good with either, although I’m not convinced that Avon is that much of a bastard.

And Carnell, who was such a fascinating character when he turned up in Blake’s 7, and it was such a shame that the concept of a psychostrategist was never revisited in more detail, so I love that we get to see him at work here, manipulating virtually everyone behind the scenes and generally being delightfully smug.

Since this is already a crossover, feel free to pull in elements of Blake’s 7 (or indeed Doctor Who) into it. If Uvanov succeeded in getting Kaldor to trade with other worlds would that mean risking bringing Kaldor under the influence of the Terran Federation (at this point possibly merrily modifying the entire population of planets with pylene-50), and what would be the consequences of that? Who is Kaston Iago, and did he really kill the Butcher of Zircaster or was he lying through his teeth? Is he a clone? Does Carnell have any suspicions? What if Commissioner Sleer suddenly turned up, on the run from the Federation? (ohgodohgod, Sleer/Carnell. Or Iago/Sleer. Or Sleer/Iago/Carnell) Or the Andromedans? Was Kaldor affected by the Galactic War, or was it too insular at that point?

(If you choose to go with the prequels (The Robots of Death & Corpse Marker) instead of the audio plays, then Lish Toos and Ander Poul are also favourite characters of mine. I’d love to see their return to Kaldor City after the events of The Robots of Death explored, or the pre-canon incident with Zilda’s brother referred to in that episode, or as I suggested above, an AU of The Robots of Death where the Doctor and Leela never turn up.)

Optional Prompts

• I really loved the tonal shift in Checkmate, and how it shed new light on all the creepy little hints that something wasn’t quite right throughout the earlier audioplays. Explore that build-up and the gradually creeping sense of danger
• Follow-on from Iago’s final bit in Checkmate. How does the story progress from there? What results do his actions have?
• Iago is a man of many skills. Why the hell did he decide working as Uvanov’s security consultant/hired assassin would be a good idea? And why did he come to Kaldor City in the first place?
• Give me your take on what was really going on in Storm Mine. What happened to Kaldor City? Was Blayes hallucinating? Was Iago really there?
• More Cotton & Rull please. I don’t often request slice-of-life stuff, but in this case, I’d freaking love to see a day in the life of Cotton having to deal with all the shit that goes on – Rull, Uvanov, Iago, Justina (especially if it’s set after that brief period of time where he takes over Iago’s responsibilities :D)...
• Cotton has to go undercover in the sewerpits for some reason
• What sort of life does Carnell lead in Kaldor City? He’s on the run from the Federation, but are they specifically hunting him? Maybe someone from the Federation turns up looking for him, or for Iago – an assassin? Someone seeking their services? How does he see Kaldor City? As a tedious insular backwater or does all the treacherous backstabbing and casual murder represent the universe in a microcosm?
• Carnell and Iago are forced to work together. Optional ‘bonding’ over their lives with the Federation.
• In Corpse Maker, we learn that psychostrategists are picked and trained from childhood to do what they do. Maybe Carnell, in his arrogance, decides to pick out and train an apprentice.
• In another Doctor Who episode, Image of the Fendahl, there’s a particularly iddy scene where Carnell’s actor menaces a fellow scientist by caressing his face with a gun – there’s an image here, which unfortunately doesn’t make it clear that the scientist being menaced happens to be tied to a pillar at the time. So, um, that dynamic, please, perhaps between Carnell and Iago, even if they’re having to fake it for whatever reason?
• Explore the relationship between Iago and Justina more. Why does she fall in love with him, given what a massive evil bastard he is? How did she get that painting? Is their relationship limited to those half-hour scheduled appointments or do they ever go on actual dates? Maybe they do try going on a date and it naturally goes horribly, horribly wrong.
• Considering robots aren’t supposed to be able to kill, they do seem to go on killing sprees on the regular. In Robots of Death the Doctor suggested that if it ever got out it might be the end of their civilisation, so what are the consequences of the latest robot killing spree which can’t be explained away as the fault of ore raiders?
• We never actually get to see a post-apocalyptic Kaldor City, or ever even find out if it actually happened, so that would be fun to explore, whether it’s the result of what happens in canon or something more prosaic, like panic after the robot uprising.
• Some complete idiot decides to clone Taren Capel and replicate the circumstances of his upbringing, perhaps in the hopes of producing another robotics genius. Unsurprisingly, it's a bad fucking idea.
• Look, if all else fails, I will always love a murder mystery, or another version of And Then There Were None, with or without killer robots.

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 'noncon', 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'.

Optional 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.

Thief

Requested Characters: Garrett

~~

Every now and then a game gets hold of you and you can't put it down. I love this series. I love everything about it: the gameplay, the lore, the level design, the characters, and the setting. I love the set-up, the competing factions of the Hammerites and the Pagans, the folk-horror imagery, and the steam-punky vibes. Oh, and Garrett. He's sort of a bastard, tries to be a misanthrope, but then there are those moments when his compassion shine through, like the Trail of Blood mission in the second game which was so sad and unexpected. In the first two games it's interesting to see the difference in his character between the cut-scenes when he's interacting with others (where he's misanthropic, angry, and bitter), and the pre-mission voice-overs (where he's confident, collected, and wry).

I'd love to see some world-building: the City is such a fantastic, fascinating setting, and there's so much scope for exploring, with the mix of old technology with the steampunky vibes of the first two games.

In many ways, this is the perfect canon for horror. Garrett is extremely vulnerable once spotted, and there are some seriously creepy antagonists in the game, as well as certain missions and locations being slanted towards horror, particularly the Haunted Cathedral, Constantine’s mansion, and – most of all – Shalebridge. Not to mention zombies, ghosts, the Hammer Haunts, necromancers, the bleak desolation of the walled off part of the City, the folk horror aspects of the Pagans, the Trickster’s monsters, torture, and the grotesque body horror of the Hag. There’s so much to explore, and I would love to see something exploring any aspect of these games.

Garrett is and remains one of my favourite characters of all time, and if there’s ever been a character who I’d love to see getting whumped, it’s him. I would LOVE a fic that focuses on him and him alone, or which focuses on his relationship with the City (which deserves to be a ship in its own right, honestly), his day-to-day life, or his background.

In the first two games it's interesting to see the difference in his character between the cut-scenes when he's interacting with others (misanthropic, angry, bitter), and the pre-mission voice-overs (confident, collected, dark humour). I'd be fascinated by anything exploring that apparent 'discrepancy' in his character, or by his backstory, what led him to be the way he is, what really happened while he was with the Keepers, why he left, and what happened after he left.

Prequels, sequels and fics set during canon are all welcome. I'd particularly love anything exploring Garrett as a young man, particularly his time with the Keepers, or just after leaving them. I'd especially love to see a Bad Guys Win AU for the first game in particular -- what happens if the Trickster wins and the world is plunged into darkness? Or alternatively, something exploring Garrett's past and his time with the Keepers. What was it like for him being one of their number, and why did he leave?

I would be thrilled with gen, but if you're interested in writing shipfic, I'm up for Garrett being shipped with Viktoria (whether consensual or dubconny), the Trickster/Constantine (leaning towards dubcon), Inspector Drept, or an original character (with a slight preference for a female OC).

Optional Prompts

• Shalebridge Cradle. Just that, basically, whether it’s set during the game’s events, or perhaps a pre-canon fic where Garrett is younger.
• Anything that follows on from the loss of his eye. I’d be fascinated to see something which looks at his early relationship with Karras before the events of the second game
• I love the bleakness of the walled-off part of the City, the ruined buildings, the zombies, and in particular the Hammer Haunts. It’s so atmospheric and creepy.
• The Eye fascinates me too, the way it speaks to him, how manipulative it is, and just what the implications are of it coming into his possession at the end of the third game.
• Any kind of heist fic is always welcome.
• I love the setting and the worldbuilding, and I'd love to see your take on balancing the different versions of the City. The third game is very different from the first two: how do you reconcile those differences?
• A fellow thief (ex-lover?) tricks him when they're going after a particular priceless artefact (guarded by Kurshok? Zombies?), and they repeatedly turn the tables on each other.
• A post-canon fic where one of the ex-Keepers now turned loose in the world comes to him for help.
• Something exploring the healing process Garrett goes through after his escape from Constantine's mansion and the loss of his eye. It was Karras who gave Garrett his replacement mechanical eye, and I'd particularly love something which explores the complicated relationship between them -- Garrett being vulnerable and hurt and broken, and it being Karras of all poeple who helps him start to heal.
• The Trickster Wins AU. Garrett, being Garrett, is nothing but pragmatic, and decides that he might as well make the best of a bad situation and seeks to make himself useful.
• Constantine invites Garrett to his house to give him the tour. I'd love to see more of their early game dynamic (and those creepy gardens), so stick to pre-slash conversation if you want: that mix of hostility and mistrust and greed. Maybe Constantine slips something in Garrett's drink to make him more voluble (or something in the air in the gardens?). Or, if you want to do smut, then that, whether Garrett remembers it all afterwards or not.
• Drept meets up with Garrett after the events of the third game. What happens to the Keepers, given the destruction of the glyphs? Does the destruction of the glyphs mean that the sealed-off part of the Old Town won't be sealed off anymore? And what will happen to Garrett now that he has the Eye? I have so many questions.
• For the Bad Guys Win AU, after being tortured, Garrett is seriously injured and close to death. Viktoria tends to his wounds.
• A fic set during the course of the second game when Garrett and Viktoria are gradually getting used to working with one another, and still don't quite trust each other. Does Viktoria try to make amends?

Year of the Rabbit

Requested Characters: Rabbit

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Matt Berry and grim-dark Victoriana: I was pretty much guaranteed to love this. It’s very, very silly, but I discovered it at a time when I desperately needed something to distract me from everything that was going on, and damn, did it do the trick. I’ve fallen for it and for all the characters in a big way, and I want alllll the fic for it. So far, it’s a single 6-episode series, with another series planned, and I loved basically everything about it. It’s surprisingly sweet, and I loved all the details of the spoof-Victorian London, the characters (Rabbit in particular), the way it uses urban folklore (Brick Man and his brick knife!), and generally how thoroughly it cheered me up when I was very much in need of cheering up. I was delighted by the whole show from start to finish.

It’s one of those rare fandoms where I genuinely, completely love every single character, Mabel and her father (I adore Wisbech, and oh my god do I want genfic about their relationship), and Gwen, and Joseph Merrick, and basically everyone. But most of all, Rabbit. Oh my god, Rabbit. It’s been a while since I’ve fallen so hard for a character. I basically love Matt Berry in everything he’s ever done, even when I’m not quite sure if I really like the show or not (Looking at you, Toast of London), but holy crap do I adore him in this. The slightly against type East End London accent, the violence, how completely and utterly baffled he is by the concept of a telephone… *heart eyes*

For this I’d love anything that goes all out on the grimdark Victoriana aspects of the show, canon-typical anachronisms welcome, as is anything that deals with Rabbit’s incomprehension when it comes to technology. One of my favourite things about the show is the relationship between the three main characters, and particularly the mentor-mentee relationship between Rabbit and Strauss. I love how the show deals with the trope of the posh fast-tracked copper, and how well they work together despite how different they are. They’re both pretty romantic in their own way too.

If you want to write shipfic, there are a ton of ships I would be into. Firstly, Rabbit/Flora won me over hard – I will never not be a sucker for a doomed relationship – but I also love a good hateship, and I was already kind of shipping Tanner and Rabbit even before we learn the reason for the animosity between them, which… :D Also here for Gwen/anyone, and Rabbit/Mabel/Strauss.

If you’re up for writing a crossover, I would love to see a Year of the Rabbit/What We Do in the Shadows (TV) crossover (Rabbit/Laszlo springs to mind), or a crossover with Ghosts, another comedy series that has completely utterly captured my heart this year, and which is also the loveliest, loveliest thing. A fair few of the ghosts should be around at this point - Thomas (and god do I love Thomas <3<3<3), Kitty, the Plague Victims, Mary... and maybe Annie, if she hasn't been, um, sucked off at this point. A creepy, haunted house seems like the perfect setting for a case fic.

Optional Prompts

• Explore Mabel's relationship with her father. I loved how it progressed over the course of the first series, and the bit where he told her how incredibly proud he was of her was the *loveliest thing*.
• I am always here for backstory, and damn do I want some backstory for Tanner & Rabbit. I’d love to see something of how and why Tanner came to hate Rabbit so much.
• All the hatefucking for Tanner & Rabbit, especially if it’s fraught and messy and awkward, and kind of leads to feelings despite them both continuing to hate each other.
• Case fic! Especially if it involves urban folklore along the lines of Brick Man.
• Some very, very ill-advised drunken sex between Strauss and Rabbit. Maybe they get to swapping stories and after it comes out how very, very inexperienced Strauss is, one thing leads to another.
• Rabbit crosses paths with an irritatingly arrogant consulting detective in the Sherlock-Holmes mould. Is he incompetent, a criminal mastermind, or just fucking with them for lols?
• Undercover as a couple for any pairing.
• They have to investigate a crime set in a boarding school
• A crossover with Ghosts. They have to investigate a murder at Button House, snowed in and stranded in a haunted house? Someone gets whacked on the head and finds they can see ghosts?

Thanks for reading and I hope you have a fantastic Yuletide!