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Hello! I'm keerawa on the AO3. In the fandoms where I requested multiple characters, my requests are Any/Or, not a request for all of them interacting.
On the subject of mini-challenges, I would be delighted if you wrote me something that fits the Chromatic Yuletide or Misses Clause challenges. I have posted prompts for the Yulebuilding, Femslash Festivus, and Interactive Fiction challenges and requested fusions with The Wire and Highlander for the Two for One challenge. I'm a huge fan of porn for Yuletide, so Yuleporn is a go! I welcome artwork as part of the Wrapping Paper challenge, and have posted prompts there. I'd be interested in Crueltide fic for 221b Baker Towers, Jeremiah, and Binti,and I have some dark-fic requests in each of my other fandoms. Unless otherwise specified I'd like some kind of happy or hopeful resolution or redemption. I cut my fannish teeth on drabbles, snippets, and 221bs. I honestly adore tiny, polished gems of fic 300 words and under, so if you are in a mood to treat with short fic, I would enjoy them!
Optional details are optional, and I know I'll love anything you write me in any of these fandoms, but if you'd like some further information on how to rock my world for Yuletide, here are some ideas.
Table of Contents for navigating this monster
General Likes, Dislikes, and Hot Sex tips
The Expanse (TV): Naomi Nagata, Chrisjen Avasarala, Amos Burton
Jeremiah (TV): Theo
A Taste of Honey - Kai Ashanti Wilson: any
Binti series – Nnedi Okorafor: Binti
221b Baker Towers: Sherlock Holmes (A potential 5-minute fandom!)
Rivers of London – Ben Aaronovitch: Peter Grant, Sahra Guleed, Molly, Thomas Nightingale
I'm a fan of plotty stories and case fic. I like it when interesting things happen, characters need to do something or figure something out. Even in a story where the sex or relationship is the main focus, I love having some kind of additional conflict, mystery or action going on, something that shows these characters have lives and outside interests. Characters being smart and competent really pleases me, and if some of those characters are women, queer, or people of color, all the better!
I like tight POV's, where I can really get into the narrator's head. I like questions of identity, magical realism and all kinds of world-building. I can get into past or present tense, 3rd or 1st person POV.
I enjoy angst and darkfic, up to and including deathfic, in most of my fandoms. (I've outlined some fandom-specific restrictions.) Now, don't feel that you have to go there - I like light, happy stories too! But if your Muse leads you somewhere dark, I'm delighted to go there with you. I like it when a character's dark side and flaws are intimately related to their best qualities. It's not that I enjoy the exploration of evil, per se. More that I'm fascinated by the search for love and redemption in even the darkest of circumstances.
Unreliable narrators are a particular thrill for me. I like original characters and outsider POVs, so feel free. I'm a sucker for fannish tropes like amnesia fic, omegaverse, and soulbonds. Canon-divergence AUs fascinate me. I'm always interested in stories that reveal character backstory, and I love stories about people who know and trust each other working together as a team. If you see potential for an open or poly relationship in canon, I would enjoy reading about it!
General Dislikes
I don't enjoy kid fic, and pregnancy completely squicks me. Plots that depend on characters failing to communicate with each other bug me. Pure romantic fluff with no conflict or other plot doesn't generally work for me, and I'm not a fan of 'These characters are now pirates in the 1700's' or coffee shop alternate setting AUs. I'd rather avoid fics focusing on cheating or infidelity. Gender-bending generally disappoints me, unless there is canonical reason to question or alter the character's gender. I avoid crack-fic. No holiday-themed stories, unless you are inventing holidays as part of your world-building, in which case, please carry-on! Although I admire a well-crafted sentence, I'm not really into poetic or flowery language.
Hot Sex
I read and enjoy lots of G-PG fic, and most of my requests this year are gen. But if you should be in the mood to write porn, yay! I like slash, het, and femme-slash. I'm a fan of intense relationships. People who love each other beyond all reason. Even if you're writing about a hook-up or business transaction, I want it to be in response to some deep need, not just a casual fling. Kink works for me, if you want to go there. You don't have to - one of the hottest stories I ever read never went past a purely vanilla first base. Passionate, nervous first-time kissing. Mmmmm.
My favorite kinks include dirty talk, voyeurism, masturbation, pain, bloodplay, knife-play, marking, bondage, orgasm denial, xeno, tentacles, loyalty kink, and power-imbalances. Most importantly, though, it needs to be in-character, be about these two people, what they want and need. Kinks are all about trust. I don't generally enjoy non-con or trash party scenarios, but dub-con, especially when a character is forced into something they secretly want and enjoy, but could not take, sets me off like a fire-cracker. (*coughs* omega-verse) Mind control is very, very hot, with or without consent play involved. I'm absolutely into mind control, hypnosis, sex pollen, etc, where someone is forced into participating in and enjoying sex. I enjoy the build-up and character reveal of kink negotiation, but being thrown right into the middle of an intense scene can also be very powerful and arousing. Both work for me.
I'm not generally into fisting, golden showers, scat-play, clothing-fetishes, DS as a lifestyle, necrophilia, or bestiality. Those are soft no's. One thing that seriously turns me off is fic where the character's kink is because of some childhood trauma, sexual assault, or anything like that. Pregnancy, male or female, is a hard no.
The Expanse (TV): Naomi Nagata, Chrisjen Avasarala, Amos Burton
THIS SHOW! All the found family love, distinct and competing cultures on Earth, Mars, and the Belt, issues of class and imperialism, plots that depend on all the people, even when in opposition to each other, being so damn smart. What a fabulous diverse cast. Three seasons in, and I am blown away by the plotting, world-building, and characters. The science even makes sense! I haven’t read the books, but if you want to share some insight from them with me as a part of your story, feel free.
Because this show is such a wonderful ensemble, I had a difficult time deciding which characters to request. Please consider my character request Any of the above, rather than a requirement that they all be in the given fic. Jim seems like a nice enough guy, but I’d prefer a story that didn’t focus on him.
DNW: AUs, pregnancy/childbirth, protomolecule horror or body horror, non-con between major characters, unhappy endings
· * Naomi is a big damn hero. She's intelligent and moral. She makes choices, and accepts the consequences of those choices without flinching. (Responsibility for Amos, taking refugees onto the Somnambulist, saving the protomolecule specimen.) I would appreciate any story showcasing this aspect of her personality and history.
* Naomi/Camina. I think this pairing is canon, but I’m not entirely certain. These two women are Belter to the core. They hit my competency kink hard, in all the right ways. They obviously have a lot of respect for each other, and I can see them figuring out how to be together while still leaving space for each other’s jobs and decisions. Having them supporting each other in a crisis, even as they disagree over the best plan of action, would be fantastic. If you don't fancy a serious relationship piece, you could write them as good friends or give me some fun, messy, kinky, zero-g porn with these two gorgeous women, and I would be delighted!
* Chrisjen & Bobbie Draper: I would love to read a story in which Chrisjen is determined to win Staff Sergeant Draper's loyalty - not only because she is a skilled bodyguard, or because her reliable testimony could be vital in the future, but because Chrisjen wants to be worthy of that loyalty, to prove it to herself as much as to Bobbie. I don't really see this as a romantic or sexual pairing, but now that I bring it up, I'm intrigued, and Chrisjen is absolutely willing to use sexual attraction to her advantage, so if you'd like to include some aspect of that dynamic, go right ahead.
* Amos &/ any It's not that I think Amos is the fandom's little black dress, or can make friends with anyone. On the contrary, I think he finds it incredibly difficult to relate to other people. So I would be delighted to read a story where Amos truly connects with someone, whether in his past, present, or future. That could be sexual, or not. Naomi, Alex, Anna, Praxidike, an OC - you decide! Oh, and Amos has a simple rule when it comes to sex, "Don't shit where you eat." Please respect that by having any sexual relationship happen physically off the Rocinante, if not outside of her crew.
* Tattoos: Naomi gets a traditional Belter tattoo after leaving the Rocinante. Amos has a whole set of them. I’d love to read a story showing the how/when/why either or both of them decided to get their tattoos. (Of course, for Amos, it might not have been his decision.)
* Wire fusion. I'd love to read a story where one or more of my favorite characters from The Wire (Omar Little, Stringer Bell, Bubbles, Kima Greggs) are part of Amos's backstory, growing up in Baltimore, OR are Belters. Naomi/Kima and Amos/Omar both sound amazing
Jeremiah (TV): Theo
Jeremiah shows us a post-apocalyptic society created by children. That's some serious Lord of the Flies territory, and yet it remains hopeful, less a dystopia than a cloudy sky with hints of light breaking through. I like the essential idealism of the show.
Please don't think, because this section of my letter is shorter than the others, that I am any less passionate about requesting it. I'm just laser-focused on what I want for it. I am fascinated by Theo. The woman is strong, charismatic, and ruthless. Theo gathered other children, resources, and power. She BUILT a town with its own system of law and commerce. She gained power, and lost it, and regained it. In her own way, she is a visionary, and I would love a story that explores that, and her perspective on the world. I am requesting either Erin/Theo or gen.
DNW: pregnancy/birth, kid-fic, AU, non-requested pairings, gender-bending
* Theo’s ruthless pragmatism saves the day.
* In an attempt to scare off someone who's becoming too important to her, Theo tells Erin about the first time she dealt with a challenge to her authority.
* Erin taking a leap of faith that helps Theo learn to trust her.
A
A Taste of Honey - Kai Ashante Wilson (any)
I read this novella for Yuletide last year, and would love to see some fic for it! I'm intrigued by what we see of Olorum culture; the tremendous divide between men and women of the upper classes, with an emphasis on hyper-masculinity for men, while literacy, mathematics, physics, medicine and psionics are all restricted to women. The 'gods', whether similar to human or very, very different, manipulating these people and cultures from a distance. The Sybil, possibly another human/other hybrid, and her monstrous desires and prophecies. The varied 'magical' abilities of the Cousins. The twist at the ending floored me.
And Aqib - sweet, kind, loving, self-sacrificing Aqib. Brave not because he is fearless, but because his love and compassion are more powerful than his fear. I adore him. This story's emotional arc is strange, swinging between joy with moments of fear, and sorrow with moments of happiness, all with that subtle undercurrent of horror. Feel free to explore any or all of those emotions in your fic.
DNW: pregnancy/birth; a focus on child-rearing, body horror, non-con, unhappy endings in this fandom
* Aqib growing into a stronger, more confident version of himself, rejecting the views of his home culture and family that shamed him for looking and acting different than a 'real man' should.
Binti series – Nnedi Okorafor: Binti
This series of Afrofuturism novellas blew my mind. They shatter so many of the expectations and conventions of science-fiction. This is a truly different imagining of our future, and one that I want to read more of. Technology based on organics and the mind, used for war, yes, but also for understanding, communication, and peace-making. Binti is a genius mathematician, a master-harmonizer, a selfish daughter, and a gentle warrior. She survives horrors and emerges deeply changed, but stronger each time. And rather than use her new understanding and power to punish those who hurt her, she uses it to make peace. The author’s endless creativity in the truly, radically different aliens she imagines as the scholars of Oomza University is marvelous. The found family aspect of the stories delights me, as does the deep optimism of it. This is a story about the power of curiosity and love to overcome any barrier and transform us into our best selves.
* Tell me the story hinted at right at the end of book 3, of Binti’s journey to the Falls, with her friends Mwinyi, Okwu, New Fish, Haifa, and the Bear.
* Binti learns more about another paired ship/person, or one of the many species at Oomza University.
* Binti experiences PTSD and panic attacks. There's gore, horror of war, and body horror in canon as she goes through a variety of genetic changes. There is character death and grieving, both true, untrue, and temporary. If you would like to explore any of these issues, I'm very interested. Please offer some hope or happiness in the end!
*
* Binti is culturally conditioned, as a woman of the Himba people, not to allow herself to express, or even really feel, anger. The Meduse seem to spend a lot of their time in a joyous rage, and after Binti’s genetic modifications, that is a part of her emotional make-up. I’d like more exploration than we got in canon for how she adapts to this, and learns to accept and use that rage.
221b Baker Towers: Sherlock Holmes
Imagine fandom’s reaction if the next big Holmes adaptation to come along had Holmes and Watson as British, yeah - young black British men, living case to case on a council estate in a dodgy area of London. How fandom would react if Sherlock Holmes didn’t employ street kids and homeless people like trained animals to do his bidding, but instead was part of that invisible underclass; if instead of having his eccentricities tolerated~ by Scotland Yard on account of being the Great White Genius, Sherlock Holmes, BME, school dropout, and sometime addict, was regarded by the police as practically a criminal already, one more thug, one more junkie, one more dealer in the making. If he had to choose between buying the week’s groceries or palming a twenty to a bored constable for the chance to spend five minutes on a crime scene, in the hope that whoever’s under enough pressure to deal with crime rates in the neighbourhood will pay him enough for a perp to feed himself and Watson for a month or two. If the greatest threat to his safety were police brutality, or the prospect of being done for a snitch; if his arch enemy weren’t Moriarty, but the systemic poverty and inequality that has him helping out his oppressors just to get by, and that makes the other side of the law look more tempting to someone with his skills every day.
This is a Tumblr-based, crowd-sourced fan adaptation of Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. You can find some of the fic, art, and meta created for it here: http://221b-baker-towers.tumblr.com . I desperately want to read more about THIS Sherlock Holmes. The line between canon and head-canon is nonexistent, in this fandom, and they can be contradictory, so here’s a few of my preferences. I love John (Jan, Jahan, or Jawan?) as an immigrant, possibly undocumented, from Afghanistan. Remember, 36.7% of London's population is foreign born, 24.5% from outside of Europe. I see Sherlock as atypical in some way the system read as needing special education, whether that was ADHD, autism spectrum, dyslexia, or some other difference. (If that doesn’t make sense to you, feel free to avoid it.) You can make the relationship between Sherlock and John platonic or romantic, but I would like it to be important to them both. This fandom lends itself to going very dark; I’ll be right there with you if you want to go there. Police brutality, drugs addiction, poverty, corruption, homophobia, sexual assault, anti-sex worker or anti-immigrant violence – it would all fit.
DNW: Race-bending major characters back to white.
· * Show me what Sherlock loves about London, and what he hates about it.
* I see John as part of a large family, who takes care of his younger siblings financially, emotionally, etc. Sherlock, on the other hand, is very much alone. How does John balance his responsibilities to his family and his friendship/relationship with Sherlock? Is his time with Sherlock an escape? Does he feel guilty for it, or guilty for the time at home, when Sherlock gets himself into all kinds of trouble without John there to look out for him?
* Harrowing Interactive Fiction or groundhog day style story, with Sherlock just trying to make it through one damn day with himself and John alive and free. Maybe it’s really happening, maybe he’s blazed and his own powers of deduction are spinning out of control and driving him round the bend – your call. If I, as the reader, can’t tell, either, more power to you.
* Sherlock code-switching language and communication style, sometimes honest and sometimes lying his arse off as he deals with different people, trying to blend in, get by, and get one over on the system.
Rivers of London – Ben Aaronovitch Peter Grant, Sahra Guleed, Molly, Thomas Nightingale
I adore the magical system, and this very posh, imperial British system being subverted by Nightingale who apparently has an entirely different criteria for who might make a good apprentice. I lived in London in the early 90’s, and this series re-introduced me to it, in all of its glory and history and ridiculousness, like an old friend. The bits about how policing has changed, so now they actually prefer to bring in the person who committed the crime over someone random, is hilarious. But the thing that truly made me fall in love with these books is how the young London constable finds out that there are magical people and beings all around him, and rather than viewing them as threats to be intimidated and put down as necessary, he thinks of them as the community members it’s his duty to protect.
This is an ANY/OR character request, not a demand for all 4 in one story. Most of my prompts are plotty gen, but I'm delighted to read about people in relationships experiencing and doing interesting things. I’m aware that Peter/Nightingale is popular in this fandom. I’d be happy with that (so long as Beverly isn’t demonized or disappeared) or Peter/Beverly/Nightingale. Please avoid focusing on Lesley. I realize not everyone has read the graphic novels and comics; feel free to incorporate that part of canon or leave it out. I've read Cry Fox and Water Weed, and will read Lies Sleeping by the time the collection opens. I enjoy Peter's first-person narrative in canon, but if that's not your thing, feel free to write it in your own style and POV.
DNW: pregnancy/birth, kid-fic, partner betrayal, PWP (porn WITH plot is very welcome), non-magical AU, explicit on-screen non-con in this fandom
· * Case-fic! I love the tension of kidnappings, but I have a soft spot for any kind of case-fic. Peter’s professional ethics and morality are important to me, so if that can somehow be incorporated in the story, I’d be thrilled.
* Community policing in the demi-monde. How does that work, exactly? How does Peter earn the trust of people who have spent their lives viewing the Isaacs, and the Nightingale in particular, as an occupying force?
* DC Guleed, the ‘Muslim Ninja’. Maybe she comes across a case that only she realizes is ‘Falcon-related’. How did she learn the rules for what you do, and don’t include in the official documentation of these cases? Perhaps she accidentally lets something slip to her grandmother, who grew up in a community of practitioners. How did she choose a teacher or dojo to study martial arts, and how did she convince them to accept her? She chooses to wear the hijab. Maybe a story where she educates Nightingale in why it is important to her?
* The fact that Nightingale and the rest of the Folly were completely, willfully ignorant of all non-European magical traditions is very provocative. I’d love a story where Peter gets a chance to explore the magical traditions of another culture. Does he learn from a witch-finder in Sierra Leone or an I-Ching diviner? Perhaps he travels to America to study with a shaman?
* Dark, Operation Paperclip AU. Operation Ettersburg involved too many fatalities, but otherwise went as planned. The leaders of the Folly took that information from the Nazis and used it, recruiting like-minded Nazi practitioners after the war to bolster their ranks. The Little Crocodiles, or men like them, are the ones running the show. Is Nightingale Public Enemy Number One, or secretly working to undermine the system from the inside? Would magic be public or kept secret? How would Peter fit into this reality? What about Molly? Eeeee!
* I'm intrigued by Nightingale aging backwards as magic surged in Britain. How has he changed over time? What does he think of how the world has changed around him? What if Peter comes across a younger version of Nightingale (amnesia, time-travel, who knows) and is unimpressed by that version of him? How would he and Nightingale work through the repercussions? A story that explores Nightingale's very particular system of ethics and responsibility would also be interesting.
* Show me the magical underpinning of some real-world event in London.
* Peter unearths references to the Ritual Sex Magic that is meant to be an essential part of his magical education. ( I still DNW a PWP for this fandom, but an exploration of issues of sexuality and consent with hot sex, or awkward sex, as a part of it would be great!)
* Beverly and Peter are having a lovely night out on the town, when something goes wrong. I'd love to see their relationship from Beverly's POV, along with an exploration of her dual identities as a woman and as a river goddess, and how those perceptions and priorities affect her.
* Someone was careless, failed to get a 'this food and drink is given freely and without obligation' dispensation, and pays the price. You could play this very dark or light-hearted. I'm up for many types of consent play and dub-con but DNW an explicit, on-screen rape scenario for this fandom.
* Peter and Dr. Wallid geeking out over some experiment related to magic.
* Fusion with 221b Baker Towers! As described above, this is a gritty, fan-sourced, modern day adaptation of Doyle's Sherlock Holmes where Sherlock is a young black man growing up on a council estate in London. I think it would cross-over very nicely with RoL, if you are so-inclined.
* Fusion with Highlander! I've got 3 potential prompts in mind here. 1) Nightingale might recognize Duncan MacLeod, in modern-day London, from his time working during WWII living in London, as part of the Resistance, or working for the British secret service. 2) A murder scene with decapitation and evidence of lightning strikes being investigated as a possible Falcon case. If this somehow led to DC Guleed and Amanda in the same room *coughs* or bed, I'd be delighted. 3) Methos has finally tracked down those records of Nazi magical experimentation that went missing during the war, and gets caught trying to sneak into the Folly to destroy them.
In Conclusion
To me, fanfic is all about getting a chance to explore characters in ways that the original source didn't allow. I love these characters, these worlds - show me something I didn't know about them, and that's the best present you can give me.
Your Eager Recipient,
- keerawa
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As for Holmestice! It's hosted on Dreamwidth (https://holmestice.dreamwidth.org/) They also have a Tumblr where they announce stuff (http://holmestice.tumblr.com/) and some or all of the fics will post to the collection on AO3 (https://archiveofourown.org/collections/HolmesticeWinter2018) but Dreamwidth is the central place where you'll definitely always see everything post. Holmestice has become my favorite exchange – such a fun and kind community, and it's open to every Holmes version but also makes a point of encouraging the smaller 'verses.
Oh, and as of now 3 people have now offered 221B Baker Towers for Yuletide! Anticipation!!
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