dreams of pirate ships and patty hearst

I wrote two stories for this year's Yuletide:

Matches To Paper Dolls (The Wicked + the Divine, Baphomet/Morrigan). In which Baphomet is fucked up, naturally.

Morning in the Morgue (In Death, Peabody/Morris). A short scene with the second-best homicide detective in New York and everyone's favorite coroner.

And in case you missed it, everyone who likes Rebels should go read my gift, Past, yet present, a really lovely Kanan/Hera story.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Dear Yuletide Writer:

As usual, thank you in advance for whatever you choose to write. I’m incredibly excited about all the fandoms/characters mentioned below this year, and I’m really looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

I include some prompt-type things with each fandom, but don’t feel like you’re limited to those ideas. Those are just in case you want a jumping-off point - if you have your own ideas, I’ll be super excited to read them!

If you’re the sort of person who likes to stalk your recipient, I more often live on Tumblr as shadowedhills. I’m seimaisin on AO3.

To porn or not to porn: If I say I ship something below, or if it’s otherwise a canonical pairing, I’m absolutely open to porn! Consider anything that’s not listed in my dislikes as fair game. However, if you’re not a porn kind of writer, that’s 100% okay too! Just know that I’m open to either, whatever your preferences and inspirations are.

General likes: happy/hopeful endings, domestic fluff, found families, BDSM (especially fem!sub), heists and shenanigans, hurt/comfort, friendship between women,

General dislikes: tragic endings, rape/non-con, watersports, character humiliation, incest


Elder Scrolls Online - Razum-dar, Ayrenn Aldmeri

I am not the person who nominated this fandom, but I literally pumped my fist in glee when I saw it in the tag set. ESO has eaten up hundreds of my hours over the last year and a half, and Raz and Ayrenn are probably my favorite NPCs in the whole game. Ayrenn is such an interesting example of the Altmer - so young, in their world, and so determined to push past the typical Altmer superiority complex. And I love Raz’s devotion to her, as mysterious as it is, given how little of himself and his past he reveals to the player.

If you’re writing this fandom, I really just want fic about their relationship. Ship or no ship, either way is more than fine. I’ll take stories of their adventures before she came back to take the crown, or stories about the Queen and her spymaster. Want to speculate about what happens after Molag Bal is defeated? Be my guest! Seriously, I don’t care when you set it, or what direction you go with their relationship, as long as you keep the obvious affection and loyalty they have towards each other.

Potential prompts: What happens behind closed doors after Naemon’s death? How exactly does Raz survive in those ruins in Reaper’s March if you leave him behind? Or what was that whole story about riding a guar naked? Or how exactly did a runaway Altmer princess end up under the wing of a Khajiit … assassin? Or whatever Raz called himself in those days?


October Daye - Sylvester Torquill, Luna Torquill

Toby’s surrogate parents, with whom she now has a very contentious relationship. But they’ve both been alive for infinitely longer than Toby, and have their own histories, their own motivations for everything they do, things that Toby is unable to see. I want to know what they are, what their relationship is like when Toby’s not around.

I’d especially love to see something that happened before the start of the books. Maybe even pre-Rayselline, pre-Toby, when “parent” wasn’t a role either one of them needed to play. Maybe something about Sylvester’s days as a hero, or something expanding on who Luna is other than “child of a Blind Michael, wife of Sylvester, mother of Rayseline.” They’re fascinating characters with a long, storied history, and we don’t get but a small glimpse of it in the books. I will happily read anything you want to write about the two of them and their loving, but complicated relationship.

Potential prompts: I’d read about their courtship, or about how Sylvester finds out Luna’s true identity. Or if you want to use this opportunity to expand on their relationships with other people in their circle outside of Toby’s limited POV, feel free!


Star Wars: Rebels - Hera Syndulla, Kanan Jarrus

So yes, I ship it 110%. I adored everything about the start of their relationship in A New Dawn, and I love the way their relationship progressed to comfort and trust between then and the TV series. I love the “old married couple” dynamic, the fact that they know each other so well and can find so much comfort in each other. So if you’re inclined to write something shippy, I’ll be delighted with anything - set it during Rebels, set it during the years between their meeting and when they picked up Ezra, speculate about the future, it’s all good by me.

If shipping them isn’t your thing, though, don’t worry - the dynamics I mention above are just as awesome when you’re talking about non-romantic friends and partners! Really, the only thing I ask is that your story keep their closeness intact; or, if you introduce a rift in the story, it’s resolved by the end. Also, I’m happy to read anything with any of the Ghost crew being their fantastic “found family” selves. As long as Kanan and Hera are the main focus of the story, you can bring anyone else along for the ride that you choose!

Potential prompts: If you ship it, when did their relationship change from platonic to romantic? I love falling-in-love stories! Otherwise, for any version of their relationship, I’ll happily read adventure stories, tales about them making trouble for the Empire, slice-of-life down time stories, pretty much anything.


Hamilton - Angelica Schuyler, Eliza Schuyler Hamilton, Peggy Schuyler

Give me ALL THE SCHUYLER SISTERS FIC. THE END.

… okay, you probably want more to go on. But I’m serious, I’ll take anything about any one of the sisters, apart or together. Give me Eliza dealing with her life with Hamilton, or her quest to maintain his legacy after his death. Give me … well, anything with Peggy at all, whatsoever. But I’ll admit, Angelica is my favorite. I want to know what her marriage is like, how she feels about her husband, what kind of life they lead. I want more about her complicated relationship with Hamilton - and I’m open to reading about an actual affair between the two of them, if that’s your thing. Or, hey, I’m also one of those who thinks OT3 is the answer to a lot of shipping problems, so if you want to OT3 Angelica/Hamilton/Eliza, that is also fair game!

Whatever you choose, I just want to read about one or more of the sisters dealing with life in the context of the musical, or in an AU based on the musical, if that’s somewhere your mind goes. The show tells us a lot about how the men shaped the nation. Now I want to see things through the eyes of the women.

Potential prompts: I mentioned some above - an Angelica/Hamilton affair, or an OT3. Or tell me what Peggy was doing while everyone else was embroiled in everything. Or give me bonding moments between any of the sisters, before or after Hamilton walks into their lives. Or, I’d actually really like to see Angelica being happy with her husband; the fact that she loves Alexander doesn’t preclude her also loving the man she married.

Yuletide is one of my favorite times of the year! I can't wait to see what you write!

Dear Yuletide Writer:

First, let me thank you in advance for whatever it is you end up writing for me. Last year was my first year participating in Yuletide, and I ended up with a couple of really great stories that made my holiday season that much better. Whatever you write for me is a gift that will make me clap with delight on Christmas, no matter what you write, I can guarantee that!

My main request for this year, regardless of which fandom you matched with me on, is pretty simple – I want women being awesome! The ways in which they're awesome are completely up to you, but whatever you write, I'd really like it to focus primarily on female characters.

( Fandom details - and potential spoilers - below: Cinders (video game), Iron Seas (Meljean Brook), Newsflesh (Mira Grant), Clockwork Century (Cherie Priest) )

Thank you in advance for your story, whatever you choose to write! This is my first year participating in Yuletide, so I'll try to make this letter helpful without going overboard. :)

The biggest thing to note is that right now, I'm almost exclusively interested in stories that center around women - either on their own, or as half (or a major part) of a pairing. The fandoms listed below all have some really amazing women to play with, so I don't think that should be a problem for anyone willing to write in one of them!

My general likes are many and varied, so I won't start listing things here. Specific likes for the fandoms are all below, so that should (hopefully) point you in the right direction. As for dislikes, I prefer to stay away from deathfic, incest, rape/dubcon ... basically, if given the choice, I prefer happy/hopeful stories, though a good dollop of angst never really goes awry.

On to the fandoms!

In Death (any)

I am madly, hopelessly in love with all of these characters, so whoever you choose to focus on will make me dance for joy. I'm attached to the canon pairings, so please avoid breakups or infidelity. Mostly, I just want to read slices of life with anyone being snarky and weird and awesome. Peabody and McNabb being hilarious and adorable? Banter from the bullpen at Cop Central? A social get-together with some or all of the characters having a good time together? Nadine or Mira going about their jobs during a time when Eve isn't involved? Mavis's rock star life? Eve and Roarke having wild monkey sex on one of their vacations? And those are just things I came up with off the top of my head, don't feel limited to anything I've listed - the possibilities are endless! I would read a million words of any of these people going about their lives, pick whatever scenario sounds good to you!

Toby Daye (Toby, Tybalt, The Luidaeg, May)

Another universe I could cheerfully drown myself in. This one's a bit darker than my other choices, though, so don't feel the need to follow my "happy/hopeful" direction if whatever you're writing wants to turn the other way. (Just don't kill anyone she hasn't already offed in the books, though. ;)) I would love a good Toby/Tybalt story - smut, UST, whatever you choose. Otherwise, I find the Luidaeg fascinating and would love to read a juicy gen story that explores her more in depth - her history, her relationship with Toby, her interactions with another character, whatever! And any story is made better with May, as far as I'm concerned - and the combination of May and Tybalt, whether on their own or making Toby's life harder/more irritating, would be really hilarious. :D

The Iron Seas series (Yasmeen, Archimedes, Zenobia, Scarsdale)

I literally just finished reading Heart of Steel, so seeing this fandom pop up made me clap with joy. I love this universe SO MUCH, and would read just about anything anyone wanted to explore inside it. Any and/or all of the above characters having some kind of adventures would make me a very happy panda. Gen or shippy, it's your call - any pairing/threesome would be fine by me, as long as a) a female is involved and b) it's not incestuous. I would also love to read gen about Zenobia's life as a writer, or about Yasmeen and Scarsdale's friendship, or about Yasmeen's previous adventures as an airship pirate, or Yasmeen and Archimedes' future adventures ... on and on, you get the picture. :D