Dear Yuletide Author
Oct. 15th, 2025 03:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gogollescentThank you very much for writing for me! It's been a few years since I did Yuletide and I'm really delighted to be back to it--I can say in advance that your gift will be one of the highlights of my holiday season, and I'm honored by your effort and time. Take my prompts and commentary as suggestions only, with the exception of my DNWs below and those included in the requests; I would love to read any story you feel passionate about telling.
1. Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu - Legend of the Galactic Heroes
Legend of the Galactic Heroes has a story as memorable as it is frustrating, and Annerose and Julian are characters who stand out to me as particularly vivid, human, ambivalent figures who are also robbed of agency and interiority because they exist so much in relation to Reinhard and Yang, respectively. (I know that's a strange thing in some ways to say about Julian, who narrates so much of the story, but at the same time we never get to meet the Julian the adult historian, whose critical retrospective gaze is implied in the telling: we only see the devoted, mentor-worshipping boy.) I would be happy with a story about either of them individually or about some interaction between them after the end of the anime; I love the extremely bittersweet and scorched-earth detente that we leave off on, with just a glimmer of hope in democracy-on-a-reservation and a liberalizing constitutional monarchy under Hildegard, and am very interested in post-canon fic of all kinds; that said, I'm equally up for something set during the events of the show, particularly in the case of Julian, whose relationship with Yang is so sad and disappointing and also transformative for him. Annerose's severity and bitterness toward her brother is likewise one of my favorite (driving!) elements of the story, even as her side of it is largely withheld from the viewer and treated by Reinhard himself as a kind of inarguable mystery; I'd love something that explored the evolution of her feelings either before or after his death.
If you decide to write Julian-centric fic, I would prefer that romance not be the focus, although I enjoy his friendships with Katerose and Machungo. I am interested in fic that deals with or touches on the shades of romantic idealization or infatuation in his view of Yang, but I read that feeling as essentially a reaction to Yang's emotional reserve and ambivalence as a parent rather than real attraction (and Yang very much as a parental figure, failures notwithstanding): actual incest in this context is a DNW for me.
I'm, uh, less picky when it comes to Annerose and her relationship with Reinhard, not so much because I read that as incestuous (at least in a consciously romantic and sexual way as opposed to a wildly emotionally enmeshed one) as because it's really fucked up, so do whatever. In general I would be equally happy to read shipfic or gen about Annerose; I primarily ship her with Hildegard in a post-canon context, but I am also interested in the matter of ghost Kircheis, hypothetical crossed paths with Elfriede, and (as noted) any sort of friendship or recognition of a kindred survivor she might feel toward Julian.
2. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
RIP, I watched Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon for the first time only this year and was totally sucker-punched! I loved Yu Xiulian and Jen Yu to pieces individually and as foils: I got really into the contrast between Xiulian with her rigid integrity and caution and festering bitterness--at love too long deferred, at the unjust rules she accepted without any reward--and Jen Yu with her fierce desire to conquer and transcend, but also the kind of unabashed love for life, the world, and others that Xiulian can only envy. As is probably obvious from that description, I definitely ship them, both on the level of what is essentially textual--Jen Yu's powerful crush on, hero-worship of, and tragic desire to atone for having grieved Xiulian; but also on the level of what I read as Xiulian's sublimated attraction to and resentment of this multiply-forbidden, much younger woman for revealing as meaningless all the compromises and sacrifices that made up her life. That said, if you do not ship them or don't ship it as requited: I'm equally interested in gen about either of them on their own; about their canonical interactions and fraught rivalry; and about hypothetical post-canon exploration, whether in an AU where Jen Yu lived or dealing with Xiulian making sense of the bleak aftermath. If you decide to write about only one of them, please note that I like and am interested in both their male love interests, but would prefer to receive a story that treated those relationships as a plot element or opportunity for character exploration, rather than shipfic per se.
3. La Passe-Miroir - The Mirror Visitor Quartet
I had such a blast with this strange series and have already forgotten easily half of the world revelations; Ophélie as a protagonist was a treasure, and I'm interested in basically all of her important relationships, so take this basically as a carte blanche to do what you will with her character and the surreal, magic- and mystery-charged setting, which I cannot tag as a character but was a character to me. I really love her and Thorn's relationship both before and after they get together, since it remains combative, prickly, operatic, and full of the tension and stakes innate to their strong-minded and strong-willed selves rather than any mere question of will they or won't they; I'm also super into her strange friendship-ish with Elizabeth, her unwilling in-law affection and respect-of-sorts for Berenilde (although if you write about Ophélie and Berenilde, I would request that you not downplay just how cartoonishly abusive Berenilde is to Ophélie and to people in general, even as I am really into Berenilde's bizarre and delicately balanced position as, on the one hand, a violent enforcer at the top of her social hierarchy, and on the other, coerced concubine of God.) The whole cast of Memory of Babel is also interesting to me, as is the claustrophobic world of Babel itself! I love the anime-esque worldbuilding strangeness of the series altogether, especially as concerns the family spirits and all the things about the family spirits that don't seem fully accounted for by the story we get of their origins: Artemis and Farouk are my favorites, but anything dealing with their strange siblinghood and stumbling journey toward freedom would delight me as well.
Since (as already noted) Ophélie herself was a big selling point that carried me through the books, I would be happy with anything written from her perspective. On the other hand, since her voice defines the series and what we see of the setting, I am also very interested in other/outside POVs, and although I would prefer that the fic feature Ophélie, I am neutral as to how prominent or not she is in it; it could be about her, one or more of her relationships, or even just the wreckage she leaves behind her.
General likes: character-driven writing and character study, humor, casefic, missing scenes, intrigue, worldbuilding exploration, tone-matching with canon, bittersweetness and conflicting or contradictory emotions of all kinds
DNWs: setting AUs, fluff1. Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu - Legend of the Galactic Heroes
Legend of the Galactic Heroes has a story as memorable as it is frustrating, and Annerose and Julian are characters who stand out to me as particularly vivid, human, ambivalent figures who are also robbed of agency and interiority because they exist so much in relation to Reinhard and Yang, respectively. (I know that's a strange thing in some ways to say about Julian, who narrates so much of the story, but at the same time we never get to meet the Julian the adult historian, whose critical retrospective gaze is implied in the telling: we only see the devoted, mentor-worshipping boy.) I would be happy with a story about either of them individually or about some interaction between them after the end of the anime; I love the extremely bittersweet and scorched-earth detente that we leave off on, with just a glimmer of hope in democracy-on-a-reservation and a liberalizing constitutional monarchy under Hildegard, and am very interested in post-canon fic of all kinds; that said, I'm equally up for something set during the events of the show, particularly in the case of Julian, whose relationship with Yang is so sad and disappointing and also transformative for him. Annerose's severity and bitterness toward her brother is likewise one of my favorite (driving!) elements of the story, even as her side of it is largely withheld from the viewer and treated by Reinhard himself as a kind of inarguable mystery; I'd love something that explored the evolution of her feelings either before or after his death.
If you decide to write Julian-centric fic, I would prefer that romance not be the focus, although I enjoy his friendships with Katerose and Machungo. I am interested in fic that deals with or touches on the shades of romantic idealization or infatuation in his view of Yang, but I read that feeling as essentially a reaction to Yang's emotional reserve and ambivalence as a parent rather than real attraction (and Yang very much as a parental figure, failures notwithstanding): actual incest in this context is a DNW for me.
I'm, uh, less picky when it comes to Annerose and her relationship with Reinhard, not so much because I read that as incestuous (at least in a consciously romantic and sexual way as opposed to a wildly emotionally enmeshed one) as because it's really fucked up, so do whatever. In general I would be equally happy to read shipfic or gen about Annerose; I primarily ship her with Hildegard in a post-canon context, but I am also interested in the matter of ghost Kircheis, hypothetical crossed paths with Elfriede, and (as noted) any sort of friendship or recognition of a kindred survivor she might feel toward Julian.
2. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
RIP, I watched Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon for the first time only this year and was totally sucker-punched! I loved Yu Xiulian and Jen Yu to pieces individually and as foils: I got really into the contrast between Xiulian with her rigid integrity and caution and festering bitterness--at love too long deferred, at the unjust rules she accepted without any reward--and Jen Yu with her fierce desire to conquer and transcend, but also the kind of unabashed love for life, the world, and others that Xiulian can only envy. As is probably obvious from that description, I definitely ship them, both on the level of what is essentially textual--Jen Yu's powerful crush on, hero-worship of, and tragic desire to atone for having grieved Xiulian; but also on the level of what I read as Xiulian's sublimated attraction to and resentment of this multiply-forbidden, much younger woman for revealing as meaningless all the compromises and sacrifices that made up her life. That said, if you do not ship them or don't ship it as requited: I'm equally interested in gen about either of them on their own; about their canonical interactions and fraught rivalry; and about hypothetical post-canon exploration, whether in an AU where Jen Yu lived or dealing with Xiulian making sense of the bleak aftermath. If you decide to write about only one of them, please note that I like and am interested in both their male love interests, but would prefer to receive a story that treated those relationships as a plot element or opportunity for character exploration, rather than shipfic per se.
3. La Passe-Miroir - The Mirror Visitor Quartet
I had such a blast with this strange series and have already forgotten easily half of the world revelations; Ophélie as a protagonist was a treasure, and I'm interested in basically all of her important relationships, so take this basically as a carte blanche to do what you will with her character and the surreal, magic- and mystery-charged setting, which I cannot tag as a character but was a character to me. I really love her and Thorn's relationship both before and after they get together, since it remains combative, prickly, operatic, and full of the tension and stakes innate to their strong-minded and strong-willed selves rather than any mere question of will they or won't they; I'm also super into her strange friendship-ish with Elizabeth, her unwilling in-law affection and respect-of-sorts for Berenilde (although if you write about Ophélie and Berenilde, I would request that you not downplay just how cartoonishly abusive Berenilde is to Ophélie and to people in general, even as I am really into Berenilde's bizarre and delicately balanced position as, on the one hand, a violent enforcer at the top of her social hierarchy, and on the other, coerced concubine of God.) The whole cast of Memory of Babel is also interesting to me, as is the claustrophobic world of Babel itself! I love the anime-esque worldbuilding strangeness of the series altogether, especially as concerns the family spirits and all the things about the family spirits that don't seem fully accounted for by the story we get of their origins: Artemis and Farouk are my favorites, but anything dealing with their strange siblinghood and stumbling journey toward freedom would delight me as well.
Since (as already noted) Ophélie herself was a big selling point that carried me through the books, I would be happy with anything written from her perspective. On the other hand, since her voice defines the series and what we see of the setting, I am also very interested in other/outside POVs, and although I would prefer that the fic feature Ophélie, I am neutral as to how prominent or not she is in it; it could be about her, one or more of her relationships, or even just the wreckage she leaves behind her.
