Yuletide Letter 2023

[withinadream]

Thank you for writing for me! I’ve requested fic and art for all of my fandoms. I am within_a_dream on AO3, and you can read my previous letters here if you want to see some of my previous exchange requests! Please feel free to include anything I don’t DNW – I have very few kink/smut turnoffs (and they’re all in my DNWs), I’ll enjoy pretty much every plot or trope that you feel goes along with my requested characters, and I’m fine with any ships or friendships involving my requested characters. Length of prompts is not a reflection of which fandoms I want more! I have the ability to receive treats turned on.

(Edited 10/23 to copy Queen's Thief DNW clarification over from my sign-up, and add source link to the Darlene tiktok series)

DNWs

• Unrequested pregnancy


• Omegaverse


• Modern/mundane AUs


• AUs of my historical canons with no homophobia/where queer marriage exists/etc


• Fics that are entirely poetry rather than prose


• Trans characters having PIV sex (other vaginal penetration or use of dicks is fine!)

General Likes

I love all tenses and POVs!

Unusual formats very welcome

Fic about canonical children, Accidental Child Acquisition of OC children (especially for characters who are not at all parental and have no idea what to do with kids)

Casefic, with a loose definition of "case" that encompasses mysteries for mystery fandoms, paranormal investigations for fantasy canons, espionage for spy canons, etc

Ghost stories! Particular favorites include the "ghostly hitchhiker" urban legend and the setup where characters need to spend the night in a haunted house for Reasons

Recovery or aftermath – of canonical traumatic events or noncanonical torture, rape, murder attempts, etc

Whump, hurt/comfort, hurt/no comfort

5+1 fics

Epistolary fic

Trans characters, trans headcanons, character-is-trans AUs

Internal or external homophobia

Smut Likes

• Feel free to include any of your favorite kinks if you are writing or drawing me smut! My only squicks are in my DNWs – anything else goes.
  
• Any and all sex acts (vaginal, anal, oral, manual, frottage, intercrural, fisting, double penetration, sounding, etc) are great! I have no top/bottom or dom/sub preferences.


• My favorite words for genitals are cock and cunt, but I have no objections to whatever you’d like to use


• Pretty much anything under the BDSM umbrella. I am especially into unnegotiated or undernegotiated kink, and characters falling into kinky dynamics or things they enjoy (especially with the younger characters). I have no dom/sub preferences


• I would love noncon for any of my requested characters or fandoms – if you want to know more about what I like in dubcon or noncon I have a general list of kinks and tropes here in my Consent Issues letter. I generally prefer noncon with an OC or canonical antagonist as the rapist, and "fuck or die" setups between my requested characters are also great!


• Roleplay – I am into both serious roleplay and goofy scenarios that the characters can’t quite take seriously, and I am especially fond of rape roleplay/consensual non-consent


• Group sex, orgies, and gangbangs


• Gunplay, especially fucking someone with a gun


• Watersports – I am mostly into it for humiliation or marking aspects, and am neutral about drinking piss (and would prefer if any drinking happens it’s someone having their mouth pissed in directly rather than just drinking a glass of pee/etc)

The Sleeping Soldier – Aster Glenn Gray
Characters

• Russel Krause
  
  • I love Caleb and Russel/Caleb as well, but I’m only requesting Russel to leave room for less relationship-focused works about Russel getting used to the 1960s
  
  
  • I am so into time travel stories where someone from the past travels forward in time, and this canon was like made in a lab for me. I want so many fics about Russel’s experiences in the 1960s! Talking with his classmates or teachers, reacting to books or movies, what he does after college, or anything else you might like to write
  
  
  • I’m also really into the impact of realizing everyone you knew when you were alive is dead now, and would love some more angst along those lines (or perhaps Russel’s POV on the time he goes missing from the graveyard)
  
  
  • Russel getting sick and thinking it’s much more serious than it is (because it would have been more serious in the 19th century) was also very enjoyable, and I’d love some sickfic exploring other illnesses or injuries he could acquire that have new and/or improved treatments in the 1960s
  
  
  • I love Russel/Caleb, and the preconceptions they both bring to the relationship and have to work through, and I want any and all shipfic you want to write about them!
  
  
  • Russel and Caleb exploring more of the gay scene would be very fun
  
  
  • If you’re in a smutty mood, I’d also love to see Russel working through his hangups about sodomy through assplay and anal sex. I would also love a Russel/Caleb/Michael threesome, related to sodomy exploration or not!

The Doomsday Books - K. J. Charles

I’m requesting Any for this fandom! I love the canon ships, and if you have any non-canon ships you’ve been dying to write, I will also love those (I have yet to find a combination of characters from Charles’ books that I don’t ship). Any gen combination of the tagset characters with non-tagset characters is also welcome!

I have also read all of Charles’ other books, and would enjoy crossovers with any of those books/series (whether they’re canonically set in the same universe as the Doomsday Books or not).

Characters

• Berengaria d'Aumesty - I always love the background lesbians in Charles’ m/m books, and I also really love the d’Aumesty children. I want all the fic about Berengaria! I’d love to see something about her earlier years as an artist, either her studying art or how her grandfather ended up supporting her art ambitions. I want get-together fic about Berry and Emily, or scenes from their established relationship! Smut-wise, I would love to see nude modelling turn into sex. I want to see her perspective on her family (I am a big fan of fucked-up families) and/or the events of the series (especially her reactions to the endgame reveal about her parents!)


• Odo d'Aumesty – I love this nerd, and I am so glad the series takes him to a place where he gets to be happy in his genealogy research and out of the thumb of his overbearing parents! I’d love to see more of his research, perhaps with some invented d’Aumesty family history and lore. I also love that he finds a woman who’s a good match for him, and I want to see him and Laura being nerds together! I am totally down for Odo smut and would especially love to see him and his fiancee doing some incredibly nerdy and intricate roleplay. As with Berengaria, I would also love to see more about his relationship with his family and his reaction to the events of the books!


• Emily Doomsday – Much like with my Berengaria prompts, I want Emily/Berry get-together or established relationship fic! I would also love to see more Doomsday family shenanigans, before, during, or after the events of the series. And I love seeing canon events from different POVs, so I’d love to see Emily’s perspective on anything from the books!


• Gareth Inglis – First off, I love Gareth/Joss and am down for anything you want to write about them! Pre-canon looks at their relationship, post-canon, fluff, fights they’ve had, smut...I am also very into the inner workings of estates and would love to see more of Gareth getting used to being a baronet and taking over from his father. And I want to see more of his relationship with Catherine and Cecelia! We have a jump in time between the two books, and I’d especially love to see Gareth & Catherine or Gareth & Cecilia interactions in that time the series doesn’t cover. If you are into whump, I am also very into the whole “almost getting murdered” thing that Gareth went through at the end of the first book, and I would love to see more about the aftermath of that! If you’re into noncon, I would also really love to see one of the antagonists raping Gareth during that endgame conflict.


• Joss Doomsday – All of the Gareth/Joss prompts in my Gareth request go for Joss as well! I also really love the Doomsday family in general, and would love to see more of that either pre-, during, or post-canon. Joss’s childhood, Doomsday relative fluff, family conflicts, smuggling adventures, or anything else you can think of! I would also love to see more of what Joss got up to after the first book in general.


• Lord Corvin (The Doomsday Books) – if you’re offering Corvin in this canon I assume you wanted to write him interacting with the Doomsday characters, so most of my prompts are relationship focused, but in general I would love to see anything about Corvin and I love that his cameo gives an opportunity to see him post-Band Sinister! I was so excited when he popped up as a prior employer of Luke’s, and I want any and all fic about Luke working as Corvin’s secretary. Gen and Murder shenanigans are great, shipfic and/or smut is great! I would also love to see Rufus and/or Gareth befriending Corvin (and perhaps more Murder members along with him). They’re new to their positions, they don’t have a lot of friends, and like, befriending Corvin isn’t going to do great things for their reputations, but it will be fun. (And if you’re feeling like smut, Corvin having a threesome with either of the main couples would be delightful.) I could also see him acquiring some of Berry’s art, and I feel like they could hit it off.


• Luke Doomsday – first off, I love Luke/Rufus, and will enjoy anything shippy and/or smutty about them. I love the roleplay aspects of their sex scenes in the book and would love to see them exploring further scenarios! I also love the care Luke takes with accommodating Rufus’s dyslexia, and would love to see more of them running the estate together with their complementary skillsets. I elaborated in the Corvin section about Luke/Corvin and Luke&Corvin, so suffice to say I am very into that! I would also love fic about Luke’s life between books – how did his time at school go? Show me more about any of his positions. And I would also love to see fic about Luke as a kid – feel free to break my heart with angst here if you wish.


• Rufus d'Aumesty – See Luke for my Rufus/Luke thoughts! As with Gareth, I really love getting into the minutiae of running an estate (realism welcome but not necessary) and would love to see more about Rufus bringing Stone Manor back from the brink of disaster. And I would love to see more of Rufus interacting with his cousins! Especially after the book ends, when he and Berry & Odo & Fulk are able to interact more without Conrad and Mathilda spoiling things.


• Sophia Doomsday – as I have requested with all the other Doomsdays, I am so down for more fic about smuggling, Doomsday family relationships, and alternate perspectives on the events of the books. Sophy is also married by the time we reach the second book, and I want to know more about that relationship! Go wild with what you’d like her husband to be like, or go AU and give her a female lover. It would also be very fun to see her interact with Gareth and/or Rufus!

Rivers of London

I’ve read all of the comics and am caught up on the books, so feel free to include details from any in your fic!

Characters

• Worldbuilding
  
• I enjoy all of the nominated characters and have yet to meet a Rivers of London character I wouldn’t enjoy reading fic about, so feel free to include whoever you’d like in your fic!


• I love the way the Folly has been an interface between the magical and nonmagical worlds, and I’d love to see more about Peter, Nightingale, and other Folly members helping to integrate magical beings into mundane London society and/or setting policies to avoid conflict between magical societies and mundane laws.


• I’m so into the different systems of magic, and how as the series goes on we see how different societies practice magic and train wizards differently than the Newtonian system. I’d love to see more about any of the magical systems we get in the book or any new magic system you’d like to invent.


• If you want to write smut, I am so into smut and worldbuilding combos. Show me more about magic through some in-universe sex pollen, a sex magic ritual, magically significant orgies, or anything else you’d like! Or you can work your favorite ships into the worldbuilding exploration, with or without smut. (I love pretty much every ship, so go wild!)


• The rest is copied from my Worldbuilding Exchange letter, leaving the tags I requested intact for ease of explanation:
  
  • WB: Death/birth/rebirth of genii locorum (Rivers of London) – I'm so fascinated by the birth of new genii locorum that we're seeing in the series, and I would love more detail about the life cycle of genii locorum. We see genii locorum die 'natural' deaths due to pollution and other societal changes, and also hear about them being killed by humans, and I would love a work that delves into either of those aspects. Is it possible for a genius locii to die due to lack of belief in it? When one is born, how much of the memories of their past self or selves do they retain? I'm also interested in the first birth of a genius locii, like we see with Walbrooke and Mr. Punch – what other events have caused so deep an impact as to create a god? The old selves of the rivers who died naturally do seem to linger on, but we have less information about the ones killed by practitioners. I also find the idea of a young genius locii who still has all the powers of a god and possibly the memories of an ancient being remaining with them fascinating, and would love to see some moments in the lives of the young rivers we see in the series.
  
  
  • WB: genii locorum in places other than England (Rivers of London) – if you have a particular city or country you are interested in, take this as carte blanche to tell me a story about it! Give me your OC spirit of a Tibetan mountain or a US river or a Sierra Leonean city. Rivers are great, but I'm also interested in genii locorum who embody/represent different things. The world of the series has such potential for a vast and global scope, and while I understand why the books stay mostly in London, I would love fic to take me farther abroad, whether that's to other places in Great Britain (I chose 'non-English' as the scope of this tag deliberately) or Germany that we get glimpses of in the series, or a country or continent we don't see in the series at all.
  
  
  • WB: Non-English magical traditions (Rivers of London), WB: practitioner groups in other parts of the world (Rivers of London), WB: how practitioners are found and trained in other parts of the world (Rivers of London), WB: human non-Newtonian magic systems (Rivers of London), WB: magical practices or traditions influenced by or related to Chinese culture (Rivers of London) – much like with the genii locorum, I'm really interested in seeing a wider variety of magic than just English Newtonian magic! I think it could be very interesting to see what spells other cultures' magic systems focus on – we mostly see Peter's education focus on battle magic, although that's as likely to be due to necessity as to the focus of English Newtonian magic in general, but the healing magic that Helena Linden-Limmer focuses on seemed entirely unknown to the Folly. We also see that not all magic systems use a verbal system, and I'd love to see what other casting systems exist.
  
  
  • WB: Magic's involvement in pre-20th century historical events (Rivers of London) – the series basically only shows us how magic was involved in the World Wars, and I want to see its impact on earlier history! When did English magicians become actively involved in wars? What role did magic play in colonialism, and how did the magic of imperial countries like the UK and Spain interact with the magic systems of the places they colonized? Has magic or magical practitioners contributed to any great scientific or medical discoveries?
  
  
  • WB: Scientific study of magic (Rivers of London) – whether that's Peter and Dr. Walid and co's investigations, or earlier English or elsewhere studies. I love the combination of magic and science that Peter brings to the Folly in the books, and I would love to see if any other magical traditions have systematized a study of magic or if there are other individuals out there studying it.
  
  
  • WB: the Quiet People (Rivers of London) – I am absolutely fascinated by the Quiet People. Literally anything about their culture, from when their society was first established to how it's changing with their introduction to the outside world post-Whispers Under Ground. I would love to see their folklore, their linguistics, their educational system, their marriage and relationship traditions, or anything else you'd like. Individual Quiet People trying to hold onto their culture as they leave their underground city and integrate more with modern London would also be really cool!

Charm of Magpies

I’ve read all of Charles’ other books, and would enjoy crossovers with any of those books/series. The Doomsday Books seem particularly suited for a crossover since both series have scenes set in Romney Marsh (and why is the marsh such a magical dead zone?), but I’m down for any combo, and I’d also be into any of the characters from other books in an AU where they’re practitioners or otherwise involved in the magical world.

Characters

• Crispin Tredarloe & Ned Hall
  
  • I want to see more of their future as Justiciars! Casefic investigating whatever you’d like, Crispin and Ned learning magic, Ned getting used to this new world he’s been thrust into, them interacting more with the other characters in the series (I love the contrasts we get in the series between how we see the characters when we’re in their heads for their primary books, and how they look to Crispin and Ned).
    
  • Relationship fic in general! Smut is very welcome (especially smut involving magic), the two of them being domestic together, planning out their future and spending their new salary...
  
  
  • I would love to see more magical worldbuilding! I love how Crispin has nonstandard magic, and I love that Ned is a newcomer to this world, and I want to see more about them using their abilities and learning how to work well together.

Queen’s Thief

I’m very behind on books, so I haven’t read Moira’s Pen yet. Is Pheris in it? I’m not sure, but feel free to use or discard any MP details about Pheris or any other characters in your fic.

DNW Clarification: I don't need societal homophobia to mirror what the real-world equivalent of the Queen's Thief society would be, I'm totally down for different takes on what attitudes towards sexuality would be like, from "completely accepted" to "typical of our world's Byzantine Greece" or anything in between.

Characters

• Pheris
  
  • If you want to write whump or h/c, I have a lot of specific tropes in my Trauma Exchange letter, and here’s my general request: I fell so in love with Pheris during Return of the Thief, and I want endless fanworks about him, especially post-canon. He had such a horrific childhood, and I would really like to see him get to relax and heal post-canon. And like, the whole book is about his life in the palace adjusting to no longer being under the thumb of and hiding from his abusive family, but I always enjoy more along those lines. And while life at the palace is certainly BETTER than with his family, he's still trapped in the middle of political machinations and adult concerns that he doesn't entirely understand, and I'd love to see how that compares and contrasts to his time with his family. As well as how the war affects him!!
  
  
  • As a fellow math nerd, I love how much Pheris loves math, as well as his enthusiasm for other subjects. I want to see anything about his studies that you want to write!
  
  
  • I also really love the variety of disabled and chronically ill characters in the book, and I would love to see fic about Pheris’s disability and/or how he relates to the other disabled/etc characters in canon. I loved seeing the accommodations he got in canon and would love to see more about him doing his job as a baron in the future, and what accommodations might look like there (as well as how people react to him)
  
  
  • I love his relationships with Eugenides and Kamet and Relius and how they all genuinely care for him but are also considering politics and the Greater Good in their interactions to various degrees, and I’d love to see how those relationships might grow and change post-canon.

POV: You go on a date with a very sheltered homeschooled woman (TikTok)

I watched this fandom via Youtube compilation, located here.

Characters

• Darlene
  
  • I am so into Darlene getting out of her restrictive family life and getting to live her best life with her girlfriend! Show me the movies, books, events, food, etc her girlfriend introduces her to
  
  
  • I also love Darlene helping her sister and mother, and would love fic about her going up against her father and/or helping her relatives adjust to life outside of their religion! (The compilation I watched stopped at Darlene's mother telling her to follow the money, so if there are further Tiktoks I missed where Darlene actually does take down her father, forgive the prompt redundancy)
  
  
  • I would be very into fic exploring Darlene's adjustment period to life after fundamentalism - guilt, learning how to do things she's never experienced before, what her therapy sessions look like, gaining job skills/taking her GED/maybe taking classes
  
  
  • If you want to write smut, I am very here for Darlene getting to explore sex with her girlfriend, whether its' pure fluff, angst (maybe involving panic attacks or other anxiety at having sex at all, having sex with a woman, etc), or anything in between