kitsunerei88

Dear Yuletide Writer,

Thank you for writing for me for Yuletide! I hope my prompts are clear and so
are my DNWs. I would say I’m generally pretty easy to please (I know everyone
probably says this, but really I think I am) so while I ask for a lot, know that
you can always throw out my specific prompts and look at my likes and dislikes
list and work on something from there.

General

Likes:

Fics that are character-focused, character-driven, and deal with character
exploration or character development. Show me aspects of a character I never
considered before, or explorations of how a character's upbringing influences
their worldview!
Fics as challenge, whether it be a challenge on canon, on fanon, on fandom,
or a comment on our own reality! This includes rage-driven spite-fic where you
want to make a Point, which I often enjoy.
A focus on relationships, particularly how a character interacts with the
world around them and other characters based on their upbringing and worldview.
Thematically, I love when characters are put in a tough spot, moral
ambiguity, and themes around honour, duty, and responsibility.
All flavours of AU. Canon-divergence, Modern AUs, Mundane AUs, crossovers,
etc, especially if it interacts with one of the above.
Worldbuilding, especially through in-universe documents (please consider
this an opt-in to pretty much whatever in-universe document or weird in-universe
storytelling device you can dream up).
Alongside the worldbuilding, I really like accuracy and real-life details.
I’ve fucking adored fic that involve a deep understanding of 9/11, I’ve written
fic where R2P is a big deal, I suspect I’m known for my legal shit, and so—if
you have specialized knowledge of something, I love seeing it!
Romance of all varieties: fluff, happy endings, drunken confessions,
friends-to-lovers, enemies-to-lovers, fake dating, fake marriage, arranged
marriages, established relationships, slow-burn, shovel talk, and pining (mutual
or otherwise). In general, I prefer M/F pairings, but I don’t mind M/M or F/F
pairings and prefer them if canon (I just enjoy them differently because I’m
cishet).
Smut-wise, I love first times, gentle sex, rough sex,
possessive themes, mild BDSM (e.g. bondage, spanking with a hand), D/s with
femsub, impregnation and pregnancy.

I am always open to treats!

Dislikes:

In general, unless otherwise requested, I don't take well to crack fic, soapbox
fic/issuefic, amnesia fic, body swaps, cringe comedy, and plots based on
miscommunication or jealousy. If there is hurt, I would like comfort, or I often
just can't get through it—same goes for angst (unless explicitly requested, of
course!). That said, these are general dislikes--they're not DNWs, I have liked
fics with all these themes, I have sometimes requested these things, and if you
have an idea that you’re worried might come close to one of these but where
these aren’t the focus, don’t worry and go for it.

Hard DNWs:

Please note that these are my general hard DNWs. In some cases, there may be
sections where some (or all!) of them won't apply, and in that case follow what
was in the sign up.

Character bashing. In general, I like to imagine that all characters are
like people—they're complex, and they have an array of good points and bad
points.
Harm or death of children or small animals (background mentions or past
references is fine, as are things like statistics—I just don’t want to be
dragged through it in detail, like please don’t make this a central point of the
fic).
Except otherwise indicated, non-canonical major character death, graphic
violence and torture (graphic being “more than what is in canon”), non-con or
dub-con, PWP or large age differences (>15)
Adultery or infidelity (specifically, this is mostly about the betrayal--if
you have a plot where two people are married for convenience and happen to have
other relationships, that wouldn't trigger as long as everyone knows and doesn't
care)
Smut-wise, unless it’s indicated above in my likes, I’m
likely not going to appreciate anything kinky. To be more specific, I DNW A/B/O,
age play, humiliation, bloodplay, cannibalism or vore, watersports, scat, mpreg,
snuff, or underage (<15).

Cyclone Series - Courtney Milan

This was honestly the series that turned me into reading romance novels at all,
and Courtney Milan is an absolute goddess. Romance novels are just so
outrageously white一the main characters come in many shapes and have many hair
colours and what-have-you, but they’re always white, and here comes
Courtney Milan like “here, have a main character who is Chinese” and I’m like
“please more.” And then Courtney comes and gives me more in the form of Maria
Lopez who is a trans woman and Jay na Thalang who is Thai and like can someone
scream with me about how the Asian man is never the sexy hero in western
media—so I’m still like “please I need MORE”.

I love the setting of the Cyclone series, in a weird hopeful Alt-Bay Area with
cool smartwatches and diversity and people who reflect my experience getting to
have those dream romances. And something I really, really like about this series
is that the characters are Chinese/trans/Third Culture Kids and that these
identities affect them, but the story isn’t about that. Tina’s
story isn’t really about Being Chinese, it’s about learning to let go; Maria’s
story isn’t about being trans but is about learning to set boundaries.

For this request, I’m really looking for more Tina and Blake, or more Maria and
Jay. I’d love college fluff for either pairing, and holiday fic is very welcome
for me (I’d really love to see how important these culturally diverse characters
even handle the American holiday-but-actually-its-Christmas season, but also if
they choose to celebrate it because American, well that reflects my experience
too). I’d love a fic that occurs a hundred times outside of fanfiction, which is
tropey and cuddly and warm, but featuring these characters and their minority
identities.

Old Kingdom

The Old Kingdom series is an old favourite of mine! I loved the system of magic
used by the Abhorsens, and the world that was built with the Old Kingdom in the
north, across the Wall. The worldbuilding is excellent, and I completely admit
that I’m mostly interested in more worldbuilding for this request! I’ve only
requested one character, Touchstone, mostly because he works so well
for worldbuilding.

I would love to hear about the Old Kingdom before the Interregnum, through
Touchstone’s eyes. Who was he? We know he was a royal byblow, and that he was a
royal guardsman, but we don’t know his name. What was this world like? What
world did Touchstone grow up in, compared to the one that he woke up in? From
the books, we know a little about the palace, but little else.

Alternatively, I’d love to hear Touchstone’s impressions of the Old Kingdom
after he wakes up. How does he feel about these changes, and what about when
Mogget has those words with him? When they go into Belisaere, what’s his
impression of his fabled old city, and how does it compare to the one in his
memories?

Romances of Arquitaine

I am absolutely mad about this series because there is so much
potential in it. I have basically been attempting to build this fandom out
of nothing, therefore there are two fic on AO3 and one of them is for me and the
other is by me.

How do I even begin describing my love of this series? It tickles so my id so
hard, from concept to characterization to worldbuilding. To begin, there is
Vianne di Rocancheil: hedgewitch, bookworm, and lady-in-waiting to Princesse
Lisele d’Arquitaine. She’s also a royal byblow, but that doesn’t matter until it
does, because there’s a coup that murders both the King and the Princesse.

Then, there’s Tristan D’Arcenne: the Captain of the King’s Guard, Left Hand of
the King, desperately in love with Vianne and who might have betrayed and killed
the King because the King wouldn’t let him court Vianne. With the coup, Vianne
is now the Queen, if throneless, and Tristan must now attempt unseat the king
that he might have helped put on the throne. Without letting Vianne know that he
might have been involved in the murder of the last King and Princesse, of
course.

Vianne di Rocancheil/Tristan d’Arcenne

I love the characterization of Vianne, especially in The Hedgewitch Queen. As
she said herself, she was specifically raised to be without ambition, and those
lessons took. What I love the most about her is that she is exactly what one
would expect of a lady-in-waiting to the Princesse—she’s intensely loyal to her
Princesse, she has no idea what she’s doing, the whole point of her life thus
far was the glittering Court social scene. She has no practical skills, and
she’s thrown into the deep end with no skills to survive it. And on the other
hand, there’s Tristan, who is deeply in love with Vianne—and who was involved in
killing the people she loved and who helped put her in this impossible
situation.

So, onto my prompts!

Canon divergence AU! I would love to see what would have happened if King
Henri had realized that the price of Tristan’s loyalty was Vianne and given her
to him. A straight-up arranged marriage fic would be great (in fact I got one as
a raffle prize and it was wonderful!), but I’m especially interested in seeing
what would happen with the coup if Tristan hadn’t betrayed the King and
Princesse. What would Vianne’s life have looked like then?
Another Canon Divergence idea—what if the coup went off exactly as Tristan
planned? What if Vianne found herself on a one-way boat trip to Tiberia? I can’t
imagine Vianne would have been very happy about this turn of events, but does
she try to go back?
I’d also love a fairy tale AU or fusion—I think this canon works really well
for that, and tonally it’s very much got the right feeling. Note that the series
itself is somewhat dark (there’s a canonical dubcon scene in book 2), so darker
takes are welcomed!

For this request, I am fine with non-canonical major character deaths (kill
Tristan or Vianne or both if you feel like the plot needs it), graphic torture
and violence (it’s a war story and I like my wars disgusting), PWP, and
non-con/dub-con (look, Tristan murdered a King over her and already
kind-of-maybe raped her in The Bandit King, why wouldn’t he do it again?).

Lisele d’Arquitaine

I admit I didn’t think much of Lisele until I got the arranged marriage fic last
year but really: who was Lisele? On one hand, you have Vianne’s perspective,
which is that Lisele was airheaded and needed her to look out for her; on the
other, you have Lisele’s single action in all of The Hedgewitch Queen, which is
to protect the Seal of Arquitaine and then entrust it to Vianne, which seems to
act at odds with her described character. So: more about Lisele, please! I’d
love an AU where she lived and took Vianne’s role, possibly because Vianne died
for her or something (oh man, her problems with Tristan would be immense, but I
somehow think she’d be better equipped to do it). Alternatively, if the coup
never went off or failed, what is Lisele like as Queen?

Worldbuilding

In terms of general worldbuilding, go wild. I'd love more of the history and the stories
that Vianne tells at the beginning of the book, or I'd love to see what life was
like in Arquitaine at pretty much any point. I'd love to see something about how
Adrien rebuilds the country and rules, or about Tiberia, or Arquitaine religion
or pretty much anything else. This would also be great in the form of folktales
or legends (expand on any that Vianne talks about in the beginning!) or
religious texts. Enjoy!

Strange Angels - Lili St. Crow

This is a YA series by Lilith Saintcrow that came out a little after the YA
vampire craze in the early 2010s. What I love about this series is that
depending on the book, you’re reading a very different story; the first book is
a bit of a survivalism and mystery, the second and third are boarding school
stories (but very different ones), while the fourth and fifth conclude the story
in more of a classic urban fantasy romp.

Some of the things I really love about this series is that it is in many ways a
reaction to the YA vampire craze. There are sexy vampires, and the story
directly calls out how it’s really weird that this hundred-year-old
super-soldier half-vampire is into the main character. The second main
character, Graves, is half-Japanese and he’s not a stereotype (though
the author’s descriptions of him sometimes are very, uh, please can you get a
sensitivity beta), which honestly is pretty good for this era of YA
fic.

For this request, I’m mainly looking for worldbuilding. I’m fascinated
by dhampir culture一what must it be like to be born and know that you’re going to
be hunted, and spend all your time preparing to fight for your life? What about
dhampir like Christophe, who were traitors and drank blood for power before they
came over? What about August, a self-professed late-bloomer who lives
in New York and, but for his connection to Dru, probably was never in the upper
ranks?

While I’d love to have Augie in it, or Dru or Christophe, I can’t say I really
care about any particular character. August would be interesting (how old is
he?), but I’d also be up for something from, say, one of Dru’s bodyguards and
the whole culture around how svetocha are treated and how badly Dru
breaks all those stereotypes.