breathedout | Recent Entries

Hello wonderful story-writer!

Thank you so much for writing me a thing! Sadly I only use this journal for these Dear Author letters, so If you'd like to poke around to get a broad sense of what I like, my Tumblr (or, obviously, my AO3 page) is probably your best bet. In short, I am a more-or-less lesbian bibliophile recently relocated from the Pacific Northwest to sunny southern California. Copy/pasting the following from previous letters:

Particular loves of mine include: formidable yet complex women being formidable and complex together; sex writing that is emotionally nuanced and/or ratchets up the narrative tension more than it resolves it; unreliable narrators; atmospheric settings; lovely turns of phrase; strong narrative voices, and weird narrative tricks.

Squicks: My huge, body-horror-level squick is pregnancy and babies; please avoid them if at all possible. Also I'd love it if you'd avoid animal cruelty or death. Other than that, I'm up for pretty much whatever, including dub-con or even non-con as long as they're acknowledged as such within the context of the story. I write a ton of porn and I love to read it, but it's in no way required or expected, so just follow your muse!

Feel free to disregard fandom-specific ramblings; but if you're interested, I've gone into a bit more detail below (some of this also copy/pasted from previous letters; some new). Thanks again for writing me a thing! You rock. :-D

Killers Kill; Dead Men Die
Atmosphere, atmosphere, atmosphere. This is such a cool "fandom" because it only requires about five minutes to become familiar with it, yet each image is so evocative that you could spin worlds out of it. There are a ton of things I love about noir, as a genre: the classic hard-boiled first-person narrator (especially thrilling to see a female version of this voice, since it's generally so firmly male); the rootedness in place; the obsession with shiny surfaces and the grime lurking beneath them. From an interpersonal perspective, I would say my #1 bulletproof narrative kink, in noir, is the conflicted double-cross: sure, nothing is what it seems and everyone has several layers of ulterior motives for doing what they do, but they also have all these messy ~emotions~ that make their loyalties genuinely conflicted.

Another noir-ish trope I love are the secret conspirators—the seeming strangers, or even seeming antagonists, who are revealed toward the end of the story to have been in league all along, and usually engaged in something criminal. Another version of this is when one type of relationship is revealed to actually be another type, aka we thought they were siblings but actually they're lovers. I fucking LOVE this take on the Helen Mirren/Judi Dench pairing, LOVE LOVE LOVE, So if it appeals to you at all you can basically do no wrong. I adore the idea of it told either from a POV in on the secret & working to perpetuate it (is it tough on the POV character to be, in essentials, closeted? and/or does she get a kick out of the challenge of keeping up the façade & manipulating her way through LA?), or one that only comes to suspect it in the course of events (maybe a third party overhears or witnesses something between these characters that seems... off?).

Spy
This movie is an utter delight, and every time I watch it I wish it were a TV show with multiple seasons rather than the admittedly very well-balanced but shortish feature film it is. The dynamic between Susan and Nancy is the total high point for me; I love that they are complete goofballs together but also very effective at their jobs, in the long run; I love that they're supportive of each other and cover for each other and also take the piss. I really just want MORE them, in whatever form. I dig them as friends, friends with occasional benefits, a romantic ship: go wild, I will love it. Conveniently, the movie provides a bunch of fic prompts in the form of Susan's later missions that play during the end credits; if you wanted to expand on one of those & have Nancy as her right-hand woman, that would be tremendous fun. Or whatever your heart desires! I'm really not picky as long as there's more Susan and Nancy in the world.

Desert Hearts
I would certainly be open to a story involving Vivian, too, but the character dynamic in this movie that really triggered my fannish instincts was the one between Cay and Silver. Friends who openly bathe together while one of their fiancé's is in the next room: how did they get to this unorthodox point? Were they lovers once and no longer? Are they still occasional lovers, and Silver's fiancé is just not threatened by it because Cay is a woman? Or maybe he's just that enlightened? Whatever the case, I'm very intrigued by their relationship, and would love a peek into their back-story, or an off-screen scene between them during the film. The other thing I adore about this movie is the vivid atmosphere, both of place and time, so attention to setting will always win me over!

A la recherche du temps perdu
I am not the person who nominated the triad of Marcel, Robert de Saint-Loup, and Gilberte Swann, but whoever it is, I'd like to shake their hand. Their dynamic over time is such a fascinating web of waxing and waning obsession and neglect, between Marcel's unrequited infatuation with Gilberte as adolescents and close (but safe! because Saint-Loup is definitely straight!) friendship with Robert, to the Gilberte/Saint-Loup marriage that turns out to be unhappy because St.-Loup is gay after all, to the later-in-life visit between Marcel and Gilberte, in which the remembered magic is gone and Gilberte seems more invested in seeing Marcel than Marcel feels in seeing her: a seeming impossibility to Marcel's younger self. Layered on top of that are so many Proust-typical sleights of hand with regard to sexuality: Marcel is a straight avatar for a decidedly gay yet closeted author, with whom he shares a name and much of a biography; while St.-Loup is a gay character whose straight act was so convincing that even Marcel—whose obsession with ferreting out the sexual deviants around him is frankly eyebrow-raising in a straight guy—doesn't suspect until the War. Meanwhile, Gilberte has been replaced in the narrator Marcel's affections with a woman whose real-life model was a man, and he has become unhealthily obsessed with the spectre of her lesbianism. All of this creates a kind of Chinese-garden-style effect, where depending on where (and when) you stand you get a much different impression of any given scene and any given relationship. I'd love a story that played with that effect, either via getting us out of Marcel's head to explore alternate points of view, or a moment of retrospection when the past self seems almost to rejoin or be layered on top of the current self. Or even some crossover RPF involving the composition of Á la recherche du temps perdu! Experimentation is very much welcome.

Archer
I just really love all the horrible assholes on this show okay, but Pam Poovey and her relationship with Cheryl Tunt hold a special place in my heart. Moments of Pam & Cheryl being semi-reluctant friends (with benefits?), conspirators, travel companions, drinking buddies, etc., are always the highlights of episodes for me, so... more o' that, I guess, is what I'm looking for here. (As a side note, I can't believe that the teaser montage in "White Elephant" gave us Pam in livery driving a towncar yelling "We started a damn coup!", with Cheryl in a flowing white evening gown and a rocket launcher behind her, AND THEN DIDN'T FOLLOW IT UP in the rest of the season. Possibly because nothing they could come up with lived up to the amazing promise of those two seconds. If you feel called to prove them wrong, I'm all ears.)

Hello marvelous story-writer or fan artist!

Thank you so much for wanting to make me a thing! Our shared interest in lady-lovin' ladies is bringing us closer already; I know I will love whatever you feel called to make. If you'd like to poke around to get a broad sense of what I like, my Tumblr (or, obviously, my AO3 page) is probably your best bet. In short, I am a more-or-less lesbian bibliophile recently relocated from the Pacific Northwest to sunny southern California. Copy/pasting the following from previous letters:

Particular loves of mine include: formidable yet complex women being formidable and complex together; sex writing that is emotionally nuanced and/or ratchets up the narrative tension more than it resolves it; unreliable narrators; atmospheric settings; lovely turns of phrase; strong narrative voices, and weird narrative tricks. I don't know as well how to talk about what I particularly like art-wise, but attention to clothes and capturing a tangible moment between two people are two things that I tend to adore.

Squicks: My huge, body-horror-level squick is pregnancy and babies; please avoid them if at all possible. Also I'd love it if you'd avoid animal cruelty or death. Other than that, I'm up for pretty much whatever, including dub-con or even non-con as long as they're acknowledged as such within the context of the story. I write a ton of porn and I love to read it, but it's in no way required or expected, so just follow your muse!

Feel free to disregard fandom-specific ramblings; but if you're interested, I've gone into a bit more detail below. Thanks again for writing me a thing! You rock. :-D

Marvel 616 (Natasha Romanova/Yelena Belova)
This pairing has a line straight to my id. Favorite Marvel pairing bar none. I love Yelena's unrelenting "do I want to become her, fuck her, or become her by fucking her" obsessive identification with Natasha; I also love Natasha's world-weary blend of antagonism and protectiveness toward Yelena, and how that plays into Natasha's mixed feelings about her own history as the Black Widow—how she sees in Yelena a younger version of herself, who still has the chance she no longer has, to back out. I am a total, total sucker for the "Murder Girlfriends Spar as Foreplay" trope. I am also a total sucker for sexually-charged rivalry relationships where the rivalry aspect doesn't resolve out as soon as they're having sex—where that tension is maintained. This seems like a no-brainer for Natasha/Yelena, since the nature of their work means that (a) sex generally means manipulation at least as much as it means genuine connection, so they can't comfortably assume this time is different, and (b) neither of them can really afford to trust anybody... especially another spy who is openly trying to kill her.

As this is a comics-based pairing, visual art is particularly welcome! I feel like Natasha and Yelena's dynamic, which already walks such a fine line between aggression, mutual recognition, and violence-based arousal, really lends itself to illustration. Natasha & Yelena in a rough post-chase makeout session? Natasha giving Yelena hands-on pointers about how to improve her fighting skills (pointers which Yelena no doubt pretends to spurn but actually memorizes and goes on to practice obsessively)? Natasha catching Yelena trying on Natasha's clothes (omg swoon)? Natasha & Yelena hiding together in a tiny atmospheric space while bad guys run by outside? I love all that. I also love, about the Black Widow comics, what a jet-setter Natasha is; so if you want to go the route of illustrating Natasha & Yelena in the midst of some specific place, that'd be another cool option.

Killers Kill; Dead Men Die (Aristocrat/Maiden Aunt; Queenpin/Songbird; Society Dame/Society Broad; Society Dame/Society Broad/Restless Wife)
Atmosphere, atmosphere, atmosphere. This is such a cool "fandom" because it only requires about five minutes to become familiar with it, yet each image is so evocative that you could spin worlds out of it. There are a ton of things I love about noir, as a genre: the classic hard-boiled first-person narrator (especially thrilling to see a female version of this voice, since it's generally so firmly male); the rootedness in place; the obsession with shiny surfaces and the grime lurking beneath them. From an interpersonal perspective, I would say my #1 bulletproof narrative kink, in noir, is the conflicted double-cross: sure, nothing is what it seems and everyone has several layers of ulterior motives for doing what they do, but they also have all these messy ~emotions~ that make their loyalties genuinely conflicted. The catty Society Triad (Anjelica Huston/Sharon Stone/Diane Lane) seem particularly ripe for this treatment. You can tell by Huston's face she would be just horrified to find she'd developed genuine feelings about anything; and you can tell by Diane Lane's body language that she'd be—or seem to be—easy pickings.

Another noir-ish trope I love are the secret conspirators—the seeming strangers, or even seeming antagonists, who are revealed toward the end of the story to have been in league all along, and usually engaged in something criminal. Another version of this is when one type of relationship is revealed to actually be another type, aka we thought they were siblings but actually they're lovers. I fucking LOVE this take on the Helen Mirren/Judi Dench pairing, LOVE LOVE LOVE, So if it appeals to you at all you can basically do no wrong. I adore the idea of it told either from a POV in on the secret & working to perpetuate it (is it tough on the POV character to be, in essentials, closeted? and/or does she get a kick out of the challenge of keeping up the façade & manipulating her way through LA?), or one that only comes to suspect it in the course of events (maybe a third party overhears or witnesses something between these characters that seems... off?).

As this is a photography-based canon and noir is an inherently visual genre, visual art is 100% welcome! A lot of what I love about this shoot is the thickness of the atmosphere and the opulence of the costuming—but also that in several of the spaces where we see these women—backstage with the Songbird, in the dressing room with the catty society triad, in the barn (?) with the Noemi Watts character in her dressing gown—they are in the process of robing or disrobing. I like that behind-the-scenes quality; it's very noir and very L.A., the contrast of the shiny façade with the gritty underbelly which is less pretty but often more compelling. And that's a particularly evocative idea for women, I think, since the "feminine" is traditionally associated with the fabricated and the artificial. So: scenes where these characters are interacting in their slips/bras & underwear? Putting on or taking off wigs or disguises? Or where two or more of them are scheming while getting dressed for an event? Or furtive backstage makeout sessions, with most but not all of their clothes still on? Any or all would be divine.

Chéri - Colette (Léa de Lonval/Charlotte Peloux)
I keep offering and requesting this fandom in the hope that one day I will meet someone else who has (a) read the novel, and (b) feels as I do about Léa and Charlotte! Their dynamic is the thing I most adore about this book: I love that their frenemy-ship predates Charlotte's son (Chéri); I love that it outlasts Léa's affair with him. I love that even though they are catty and critical of one another; even though they wound each other and hide from each other, and are products of an extremely male-centric culture; still, at the end of the day, the bond between them is the strongest thing in both their lives.

So I'd love some kind of story about Léa and Charlotte. A sexual/romantic liaison between them could go any number of different ways, and however you want to roll is cool by me. An affair de coeur slowly blossoming late in life? An ongoing frenemy-ship which occasionally extends to hate- or comfort-fucking; an early-life fling where they are learning together how to live in the world, before Charlotte became a mother—any or all of the above would be things I'd eat up with a spoon. I'd adore a post-Chéri story in which Charlotte comforts Léa in her typically backhanded yet unexpectedly sincere way. I'd REALLY adore a post-Fin de Chéri story where Léa comforts Charlotte (in a similarly complex way); or some combination of the last two ideas.

Or really, any Charlotte/Léa idea that occurs to you. I am all ears.

Empire (Cookie Lyon/Anika Calhoun)
I mean. Cookie/anyone, really; Taraji P. Henson could muster up sexual chemistry with the furniture, and Cookie Lyon is such a phenomenal role. Part of my attraction to this pairing is super-predictable given other choices like Natasha/Yelena and Léa/Charlotte above: these are two not-to-be-fucked-with women who are set up in opposition, due in this case to their investment in their relationships with a man very prone to fucking with women. I mean, they're sexual rivals, so their rivalry is inherently sexually charged; and the Empire directors (and Henson! damn!) really play that sexuality up, in terms of the sexual one-ups-manship Cookie and Anika get into with each other. I'd love to see a scenario where that mutual goading dynamic tips over into actual I'll-show-you-a-thing-or-two-about-Lucious, letting-off-aggression hate-sex.

On the other hand (or in addition), I'd also be interested in a scenario that explores some of their mutual bitterness toward Lucious about betraying them both with the other one. Both of these women are sharp as tacks, and although they work hard to make the other woman the enemy so as to safeguard their emotional connection with Lucious, there comes a point where their ability to do that starts to crack, on both sides. In that scene at the party where Cookie tells Anika about Lucious fucking her in the sound booth after he'd told Anika that he'd break it off with her, it seems like they both get to this place where they can't look away from the plain fact that the man they both love has been a total bastard to them both. That's obviously a hugely painful thing to look straight at, and I'm not sure whether it makes it more painful or less so if there's another person in exactly the same position, right next to you when you have to do it. I think there's some interesting space to explore some hurt/comfort type dynamics between Cookie and Anika there, in the moment when their anger shifts marginally away from one another and marginally toward Lucious. But I also think any honest connection between them is liable to be pretty tenuous, and bound up with their mutual (and very fresh!) grief and anger.

Visual art also very much encouraged for this canon! Visual highlights of this show for me include: Cookie's wide array of "are you fucking kidding me with this?" faces; Anika's tailored blouses and slightly menswear-inspired outfits (but also that one silver flapper dress with the Marcelle-waved hair, ugh); both women's razor-sharp makeup lines; the way they hover just on the verge of getting physical with one another when they're antagonizing each other, and then Cookie gives Anika a little push with her fingertips.

Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen (Charlotte Lucas/Anne de Bourgh)
This pairing only just took hold of me during my most recent re-watch of the 1995 miniseries adaptation. Greywash and I were talking about how we totally get why Charlotte makes the decision to secure her financial comfort by marrying Mr Collins, and we get the impression she does genuinely enjoy solitude; but even so, her interactions with Lizzy after her marriage are poignant with the loss of regular contact with a dear friend. I made an offhand comment that I hoped Charlotte finds some new source of female companionship, and Gins made an offhand comment in return that she hoped Charlotte was, and I quote, "givin' it to Anne on the regular." That was all it took! Ever since then I've been utterly delighted by the potential of these two reserved women, accustomed to solitude and both burdened with overbearing guardians/partners, forming an unlikely bond of fellowship with each other. I'm extra amused by the idea that their connection would be sort of undeniably, sparkily sensual, since I think both Anne and particularly Charlotte would be consternated and taken aback by that development, and I'd love to see what they make of that and how they navigate it. Other things that interest me about this pairing: Anne has the vastly socially superior position, and her mother has raised her to value little besides that knowledge; but Charlotte is in pretty much every way a more competent adult human, and genuinely prioritizes things that Anne has never had to consider, like getting enough time to herself, and getting as much autonomy as she can. Charlotte, as we see in her scenes with Lizzy, is also very secure in her own values, even when they differ from those of someone she loves. Does that make Anne uncomfortable, to fall in love with a woman whose values are so solid and so initially so alien to Anne? She is undoubtedly bored and hungry for sympathetic companionship; but she's also pampered and not used to being challenged or denied unless to be ridden over roughshod by her mother. How does she deal with that conflict?

And from Charlotte's point of view: it's pretty plain that utter pragmatism is inherent in Charlotte's sense of self, in what we would now call her "identity." And at first, a friendship with Anne might seem to fit in with that pragmatism: Mr Collins, for example, would be thrilled at an increased number of invitations to Rosings, and Charlotte's own social status would rise as well. But Charlotte has to understand that getting TOO close to Anne isn't pragmatic at all: if Charlotte ends up interfering with Anne's marriage prospects, for example, or if she becomes competition with Anne's mother for Anne's emotional energy, then Lady Catherine might end up snubbing Charlotte, or publishing gossip about her, or even banishing the Collinses from Rosings completely. So, does it freak Charlotte out to find herself doing something out of sync with the "self" that she believed herself so in touch with? How does she navigate that? It seems like there's a lot of interesting space for a relationship that's compelling and valuable to both women but also troubling to them both.

Hello wonderful story-writer!

Thank you so much for wanting to write me a thing! You're the best.

I don't use my Dreamwidth account for anything but these letters; I know that can be kind of a drag if you want to poke around my internet home, so feel free to take a gander at my Tumblr and/or, obviously, my AO3 page to get a sense of who I am and what I'm into.

If you just want the tl;dr: I am a more-or-less lesbian bibliophile recently relocated from the Pacific Northwest to sunny southern California. Particular loves of mine include: formidable yet complex women being formidable and complex together; sex writing that is emotionally nuanced and/or ratchets up the narrative tension more than it resolves it; unreliable narrators; atmospheric settings; lovely turns of phrase; strong narrative voices, and weird narrative tricks.

Squicks: My huge, body-horror-level squick is pregnancy and babies; please avoid them if at all possible. Also I'd love it if you'd avoid animal cruelty or death. Other than that, I'm up for pretty much whatever, including dub-con or even non-con as long as they're portrayed as such within the context of the story. I write a ton of porn and I love to read it, but it's in no way required or expected, so just follow your muse!

Feel free to disregard fandom-specific ramblings; but if you're interested, I've gone into a bit more detail below. Thanks again for writing me a thing! You rock. :-D

Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries: I adore basically all the characters on this show (how can you not?), but the one for whom I find myself craving more screen time and narrative attention is definitely Mac, so I'd love something that puts her front and center. How you choose to do that is totally up to you. I love her long-standing best-friendship with Phryne; I'd love to see her get an actual, for-real girlfriend who doesn't die; I am intrigued by how she relates to Jack vis-à-vis Phryne (it seems like they have a great potential for relating both to one another's love/appreciation for, and also one another's frustration/anxiety/longing surrounding the unstoppable force of nature that is Miss Fisher—I adore the idea of them as drinking-and-commiserating buddies and could even see some kind of complicated and tenuous threesome arrangement evolving, though that's probably outside the scope of a Yuletide gift). I love Mac's wry sense of humor and her dapper fashion sense. Basically give me something Mac-centric and you can't go wrong.

Scott & Bailey: Oh man, Scott & Bailey. Gill Murray/Julie Dodson is one of the SHIPS OF MY HEART, and if you felt inclined to write anything at all about their relationship, whether you see it as a friendship of long standing or a sexual relationship or both simultaneously or something complicated or in the process of transition, I would absolutely eat that up with a spoon. What I particularly adore about them is how tangible and hardy their relationship with one another is; they don't have to be careful with each other, and they give each other a hard time but you never for a second doubt the strength of their love for one another. So: Gill/Julie getting a drink together after or during a case, Gill/Julie dirty smut (Gill's HANDS, nggghhh), Gill/Julie reminiscing about their shared past, Gill or Julie dispensing their trademark variety of hard-edged teasing comfort in the face of life challenges; Gill or Julie coming to the defense of the other one even though she'd say she doesn't need it; pretty much anything involving Gill and Julie will have me swooning.

Killers Kill; Dead Men Die: There are really so many intriguing figures in this spread, so if you feel like branching out from my character choices I will very probably love whatever you feel called to do with it. I adore noir in general, the atmosphere and the double-crosses and the stylized hard-boiledness. That said, probably the relationship I'm most taken by is the one between the Helen Mirren and Judi Dench characters. The little snippets provided by Vanity Fair claim that they're half-sisters; I, unsurprisingly, read them as something more like mobster wives. But I am very open to either of those or basically any other interpretation you want to put on a moment in their relationship. Maybe the half-sisters story is a fabrication designed to misdirect suspicion? Maybe they're heads of rival crime families with a secret alliance? Whether they're running heists together, intimidating Johnny-come-latelies trying to horn in on their territory, or otherwise collaborating to pull the wool over the eyes of everyone around them, I'll dig it.

The Fall: Stella fucking Gibson, is pretty much what I have to say here. So, of course I eat up her chemistry with Reed both before and during the kiss/near-miss in the hotel (their reenactment of the murder scene, ooh la la!), and would love something exploring that further. I also think her evolving relationship with Danny is really interesting, especially since it started with an interaction that could be read as a power play (Danny telling Stella that she'd disposed of the evidence that Stella had had company)—was that a power play? Did Stella think it was? What does it mean that Danny now wants to get back on the street? An exploration of the subtleties of either of those relationships would be delicious.

Archer: I just really love all the horrible assholes on this show okay, but Pam Poovey and her relationship with Cheryl Tunt hold a special place in my heart. Moments of Pam & Cheryl being semi-reluctant friends (with benefits?), conspirators, travel companions, drinking buddies, etc., are always the highlights of episodes for me, so... more o' that, I guess, is what I'm looking for here. (As a side note, I can't believe that the teaser montage in "White Elephant" gave us Pam in livery driving a towncar yelling "We started a damn coup!", with Cheryl in a flowing white evening gown and a rocket launcher behind her, AND THEN DIDN'T FOLLOW IT UP in the rest of the season. Possibly because nothing they could come up with lived up to the amazing promise of those two seconds. If you feel called to prove them wrong, I'm all ears.)

Scandal: I have reached a point where I pretty much ship all the female characters on this show with all the other female characters, think some of the male characters are all right but not as interesting as the female characters, and heartily wish Fitz would just go jump in a lake, never to be heard from again. So, ahahaha: if you could downplay or avoid him, that'd be great! Other than that, almost literally any combination of ladies, either sexually involved and/or collaborating (possibly reluctantly) to effectively run the country despite the best efforts of their homicidal relatives and mopey chief of staff, would be right up my alley. Olivia/Mellie is maybe my favorite ship on this show, either as hatesex or as slow-burn reluctantly respectful clear-eyed power-hungry realists who surprise themselves by happening into occasional tenderness. But Olivia/Abby? Also amazing. Mellie/Elizabeth? Crazy hot and at this point I don't want to say practically canon, but: practically canon. Mellie/Abby? After that scene on the veranda of the White House, I'm so on board. Mellie and Bitsy Cooper smoking a joint together on the Truman balcony? OMG, hook me up. Anything, sexual or non-sexual, where the ladies of Scandal get shit done or have substantive interactions with one another, will be golden.

Hello marvelous story-writer or fan artist!

Thank you so much for wanting to make me a thing! I love f/f, you love f/f; I can tell already that we're going to get along fabulously.

I don't use my Dreamwidth account for anything but these letters; I know that can be kind of a bummer if you want to poke around my internet home, so feel free to take a gander at my Tumblr and/or, obviously, my AO3 page to get a sense of who I am and what I'm into. Or, if you just want the tl;dr: I am a more-or-less lesbian bibliophile recently relocated from the Pacific Northwest to sunny southern California. Copy/pasting the following from previous letters, since I can't really improve on it:

Particular loves of mine include: formidable yet complex women being formidable and complex together; sex writing that is emotionally nuanced and/or ratchets up the narrative tension more than it resolves it; unreliable narrators; atmospheric settings; lovely turns of phrase; strong narrative voices, and weird narrative tricks. I don't know as well how to talk about what I particularly like art-wise, but attention to clothes and capturing a tangible moment between two people are two things that I tend to adore.

The dynamic between Léa and Charlotte is the thing I most adore about this novel: I love that their frenemy-ship predates Charlotte's son (Chéri); I love that it outlasts Léa's affair with him. I love that even though they are catty and critical of one another; even though they wound each other and hide from each other, and are products of an extremely male-centric culture; still, at the end of the day, the bond between them is the strongest thing in both their lives.

So I'd love some kind of story about Léa and Charlotte. A sexual/romantic liaison between them could go any number of different ways, and however you want to roll is cool by me. An affair de coeur slowly blossoming late in life? An ongoing frenemy-ship which occasionally extends to hate- or comfort-fucking; an early-life fling where they are learning together how to live in the world, before Charlotte became a mother—any or all of the above would be things I'd eat up with a spoon. I'd adore a post-Chéri story in which Charlotte comforts Léa in her typically backhanded yet unexpectedly sincere way. I'd REALLY adore a post-Fin de Chéri story where Léa comforts Charlotte (in a similarly complex way); or some combination of the last two ideas.

Or really, any Charlotte/Léa idea that occurs to you. I am all ears.

Damages (Patty Hewes/Ellen Parsons)
I've actually only watched through Season 1 of Damages, but Patty Hewes is absolutely the modern-day Marquise de Merteuil that I totally knew I needed but never thought I would get. The scheming, the manipulation; the way using people has become second nature to her and she can't help but think three steps ahead—and yet how she does, despite her attempts to smooth them over, have chinks in her armor. She's even played by Glenn Close! What did I do to get so lucky?

Not only that, but her relationship with Ellen is so fraught and complex. I'm not super crazy about their decision to give Patty a lost biological daughter to "explain" the connection between them; I thought their dynamic was plenty strong without it and I think that particular plot device is overused. STILL, I adore the two of them as extremely wary and mistrustful but still intrigued and mutually invested (for better or worse, probably worse) mentor/mentee. In stories like this I also tend to love it when the roles are temporarily reversed; when Ellen has something Patty wants or knows something Patty doesn't, and how that plays out. But however you want to explore their dynamic, I am 100% down.

The Fall (Stella Gibson/Reed Smith, Stella Gibson/Danielle Farrington)
Basically, Gillian Anderson as Stella Gibson is absolutely phenomenal in this show and radiates a kind of hardened, melancholic sexual energy. Giving that energy a female-centric push just sets my heart all a-flutter.

Now that Reed and Stella have had their kiss and abortive hotel-room visit, I confess that I'm more on the Stella/Reed train than the Stella/Danny one, but I could still absolutely go either way on this. Stella/Danny has a bit of the semi-reluctant mentor/mentee dynamic I talked about above with Patty and Ellen from Damages, whereas Stella/Reed feels more like a meeting of peers, both of whom seem to keep their cards very close to the chest.

As I've said in previous Dear Author letters, the show's presentation is so dense and understated that there's a ton to explore about what's going on in the subjectivities of any of these three characters. To take Danny as a (partially copy/pasted) example: to what degree does Stella interpret Danny's disclosure about getting rid of evidence that she had company, to be a power play? To what degree did Danny intend it that way? To what extent does Stella feel blackmailed into offering Danny the position as her right-hand woman? To what extent does Danny realize that, and to what extent does that play into her anxiety to get back to the on-the-ground investigation? At what point does their dynamic shift away from one-ups-manship and into mutual regard (or has it? or will it in the future?), and how might sexual attraction map over that? I don't have ready answers but I find all these questions really intriguing, and I'd love any story that explored them a bit.

Hello Yuletide story writer, and thanks so much for wanting to write a thing for me! You're the best, I'm so excited. \o/

I don't use this journal for anything except Dear Author letters, so if you want a sense of me and what I'm into beyond what I write here, you might want to check out my Tumblr or my AO3 page. If not, all the basics are below:

Major loves: Complex, driven, morally-grey women being complex, driven, and morally grey together. Weird narrative experimentation. Queer shit. Plot as the efflorescence of character. Porn as the efflorescence of character. Porn as the efflorescence of plot. (Basically I just have this strong belief that sex scenes can be a crucial and integrated part of storytelling, and I like demonstrations of that.) But I like non-sexual writing as well! Banter; situational humor; strong friendships between women; strong male/female friendships, too.

Major turnoffs: I have a pathological fear of pregnancy and childbirth; please to avoid if at all possible. This possibly goes without saying, especially given the fandoms I've chosen, but I am also not a fan of female character bashing, homophobia, or bigotry in any form. That said, I have a very firm grasp on the difference between the philosophy of the POV character and the philosophy of the author, and always evaluate them separately; and I have a pretty high tolerance for sketchy character-held beliefs as long as I don't feel they're being championed by the author as well. The same goes for sex scenes with consent issues, and just in general: I'm willing to go to dark and complicated places with you, as long as I feel like you're acknowledging their darkness and complexity.

Fandom-specific stuff (feel free to ignore if you like!):

Killers Kill; Dead Men Die by Annie Leibovitz (photoshoot - any f/f pairing)
This photoshoot is sort of my perpetual fic-exchange darling; I championed it during and after nominations, and I will pretty much adore anything you choose to do with it. I love noir fiction—its fog-thick atmosphere and its hard edges and murky morality—and I especially adore noir told from the POV of someone other than a straight white dude (in published fiction, I like Sara Paretski's VI Warshawski books and Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlins ones, which skew classic noir in, respectively, white female and male African-American directions). I would LOVE LOVE LOVE some queer-female POV noir, I would just eat that up with a spoon, particularly if the female characters got to continue being as morally grey as their male counterparts in the genre. If you don't want to go the queer route, just female POV noir is also spectacular.

Based on the eleven nominated characters, there are about a dozen f/f pairings of various dynamics I could get behind 110%, including Songbird/Queenpin, Maiden Aunt/Aristocrat, Society Dame/Society Broad, some kind of complicated triangle involving Songbird/Thrush/Queenpin, Informer/Mystery Woman, Undercover Lady Cop as the POV character uncovering any of the above pairings. If you wanted to steer clear of the romance route, I'd also adore any of the above pairings as partners in criminal conspiracies — or both at once! I actually have a tag on Tumblr of story ideas generated by this photoset; feel free to use one, but no obligation at all. The world is seriously your oyster here, friend. You can do no wrong.

Scott & Bailey (Gill Murray/Julie Dodson)
As I said in my Femslashex letter, Gill/Julie is pretty much the pairing of my heart at the moment. Their casual comfort with each other; the bantering insults; the tangible substance of the years of relationship they have behind them. Do anything with them; I just want more of them. Write them as friends, write them as lovers, write them as friends-with-benefits, or friends-to-lovers; write them back in school, write Julie's reaction to Gill getting drunk at her 40th birthday party and running through the grass singing "I am Sixteen, Going on Seventeen"; write Gill getting hot & bothered by Julie's fabulous red heels and the slightly butch quality to the way her shirts fit; write Julie idly fantasizing about Gill's hands; write them post-S3, write an episode tag or an interstitial scene to any of the episodes they're in together (UGH the conversation where Julie is flustered by Karen Zalinski and Gill (eventually) reassures her! Or the way Gill handles being in the middle of things while Julie suspects Rachel of murder!). Write them back in the day, Julie taking Gill out for drinks during the depths of her divorce, and talking hard sense backed with tenderness into her. It's amazing how much substance the dynamic between these two women has assumed in the relatively small amount of screen time they share, and it leaves me greedy for anything more.

Carmilla by J. Sheridan LeFanu (Carmilla/Laura)
I debated about requesting Carmilla, because I try to always offer non-sexual as well as sexual options in my prompts, but LeFanu's original novel is so tawdry that I have a hard time imagining what to ask for here besides sexy Laura/Carmilla vampire shenanigans. If you're not into that, I say in all sincerity: write the story you feel called to write, my friend, and I will love it. Alternately, "Killers Kill; Dead Men Die" (my first fandom, above) is a photoshoot that takes five minutes to familiarize yourself with, and I'd love just about anything you could possibly do with that, shippy or not.

That said, if you're into sexy Laura/Carmilla vampire shenanigans, there's such a wealth of choice! Copy/pasted from my Femslashex letter: might I suggest: an angsty, guilt-and-lust-riddled Laura during a visit from Carmilla that she will later forget? An unreliable-narrator Laura who was actually aware of Carmilla's vampirism from Day One, and has been waiting to lure her back to her side ever since that glimpse of her as a child? A Laura who is less conflicted than Carmilla about Carmilla's predatory nature, and eggs her on to tell stories of her past bloody exploits while they're in bed together? A Laura who uses Carmilla's bond with her as blackmail to essentially domme the vampire? I AM UP FOR ANY OF IT. As you can probably tell I am especially delighted by the idea of a Laura who is much savvier and less the victim than she makes out in the "official"/canonical account, but seriously, any direction you take this is GOLD.

Chéri by Colette (Léa Lonval/Charlotte Peloux)
I can't really improve on what I wrote last year, so I am copy/pasting:

Basically, what I love about this novel is the dynamic between Léa Lonval and Charlotte Peloux. I love that their frenemy-ship predates Charlotte's son (Chéri); I love that it outlasts Léa's affair with him. I love that even though they are catty and critical of one another; even though they wound each other and hide from each other, and are products of an extremely male-centric culture; still, at the end of the day, the bond between them is the strongest thing in both their lives.

So I'd love some kind of story about Léa and Charlotte. I can't even decide if I prefer them as platonic, or as sexually involved, or as platonic frenemies who occasionally hate- or comfort-fuck. So really, however you want to roll is cool by me. I'd adore a pre-books story where they are young together and navigating their early affairs; I'd adore a post-Chéri story in which Charlotte comforts Léa in her typically backhanded yet unexpectedly sincere way. I'd REALLY adore a post-Fin de Chéri story where Léa comforts Charlotte (in a similarly complex way); or some combination of the last two ideas. Or a pre-Chéri story where Léa, in middle age, is just beginning to contemplate taking Charlotte's son as a lover: did they discuss it? Did Charlotte ask Léa to help him grow up a bit before Charlotte married him off? Were there ground rules between the two women? Did Léa report back, and did they laugh about it? Or did Charlotte hate it at first, and only gradually come to the acceptance we see in the second scene of the novel?

Or really, any Charlotte/Léa or Charlotte-and-Léa idea that occurs to you. I am all ears.

The Fall (Stella Gibson-centric, Stella Gibson/Reed Smith, Stella Gibson/Danielle Ferrington, Stella Gibson & Danielle Ferrington)
The long and the short of it is: I adore Stella Gibson. Gillian Anderson plays her with such understated complexity and not a lot of happiness, yet still manages to exude this raw, sexually charged charisma. Me being who I am I'd love to see her having complicated, mutually surprising sexual encounters with either of her female costars (Danielle or Reed); but if you're not feeling that, then I'd adore anything that dwells with Stella, what's going on in the depths of her, behind the stoic facade. And alternately, a lot of my Danny-specific rambling below could apply to their relationship in general, not just sexually.

If you are feeling the f/f sexual tension between Stella and her lady coworkers, all of the above still applies, and I'll also copy/paste this from my Femslashex letter:

I really could go either way on pairing Stella with Danielle versus with Reed. To my mind, she has more of an immediate "click" with Reed: she's visibly intrigued during the scene in the second episode where Reed arrives on her motorbike; and she also seems to be visibly off-center during the scene where Reed shows her Olson's postmortem x-rays—which, for someone as unflappable as Stella, is saying something. That is in part because of her complicated feelings about Olson's death, certainly, but it could also have something to do with Reed, or a combination of the two. And Episode 1.4! The scene where they're going over the crime scene together, and then go out for a drink! Goodness me, the slightly macabre yet also oddly touching fic writes itself.

On the other hand, Danny is canonically gay, and I love the push/pull that happens between her and Stella as the show goes on. The show is so understated with its depictions that there's a lot of room for interpretation: to what degree does Stella interpret Danny's disclosure about getting rid of evidence that she had company, to be a power play? To what degree did Danny intend it that way? To what extent does Stella feel blackmailed into offering Danny the position as her right-hand woman? To what extent does Danny realize that? At what point does their dynamic shift away from one-ups-manship and into mutual regard (or has it? or will it in the future?), and how might sexual attraction map over that? I don't have ready answers but I find all these questions really intriguing, and I'd love any story that explored them a bit.

Hello dear story-writer!

Aren't I a lucky duck that you want to write me some delicious f/f goodness; I adore you already! I'm copy/pasting some text from prior Dear Author letters, which reads:

Sadly I don't use my DW or LJ for anything but commenting on other peoples' posts and posting Dear Author letters, which I realize is not very satisfying from a poking-around perspective. Please feel free, if you'd like, to peruse my Tumblr (warning: often NSFW), which should give you some idea of what I'm about. Stuff I've written is over here.

Barring that: I am a bookish, mostly-lesbian, 33-year-old cis lady living in the Pacific Northwest. Particular loves of mine include: formidable yet complex women being formidable and complex together; sex writing that is emotionally nuanced and/or ratchets up the narrative tension more than it resolves it; unreliable narrators; atmospheric settings; lovely turns of phrase; strong narrative voices, and weird narrative tricks.

Squicks: My huge, body-horror-level squick is pregnancy and babies; please avoid them if at all possible. Other than that, I'm up for pretty much whatever, including dub-con or even non-con as long as they're acknowledged as such within the context of the story. I write a ton of porn and I love to read it, but it's in no way required or expected, so just follow your muse!

Feel free to disregard fandom-specific ramblings; but if you're interested, I've gone into a bit more detail below. Thanks again for writing me a thing! You rock. :-D

Carmilla (Laura/Carmilla)

Laura/Carmilla pretty much writes itself, and since you're already on board for femslash you can pretty much do no wrong. Obviously HOT VAMPIRE SEX (or UST, or makeouts) is the tl;dr here, but as far as more specific takes, might I suggest: an angsty, guilt-and-lust-riddled Laura during a visit from Carmilla that she will later forget? An unreliable-narrator Laura who was actually aware of Carmilla's vampirism from Day One, and has been waiting to lure her back to her side ever since that glimpse of her as a child? A Laura who is less conflicted than Carmilla about Carmilla's predatory nature, and eggs her on to tell stories of her past bloody exploits while they're in bed together? A Laura who uses Carmilla's bond with her as blackmail to essentially domme the vampire? I AM UP FOR ANY OF IT. As you can probably tell I am especially delighted by the idea of a Laura who is much savvier and less the victim than she makes out in the "official"/canonical account, but seriously, any direction you take this is GOLD.

Killers Kill; Dead Men Die (Society Dame/Society Broad, Songbird/Queenpin, Aristocrat/Maiden Aunt)

I'm pretty much going to keep nominating and requesting this photoset for every exchange I participate in until the day I die; and you'd have a hard time finding a way to go wrong with anything you want to do with it. (And hey, it's just a series of photos! Looking at it takes five minutes! Even if this isn't why you were matched with me, feel free to run with it.) I adore noir fiction of all stripes, from classic Raymond Chandler era stuff to more modern versions—especially when the modern stuff adapts the genre to reflect minority and female POVs (Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlins novels, for example, or Sara Paretsky's V.I. Warshawski ones). I would adore, adore, adore more noir fiction that's told from a queer female POV, that preserves the rough edges and moral ambiguity shared by all the best noir characters, very much including the protagonists. And hey, this challenge seems custom-made for such a request.

My big ships here are the Anjelica Huston/Sharon Stone characters (scheming society matrons running the underworld from the ladies' lounge, oh my!) and the Helen Mirren/Judi Dench ones (MOBSTER WIVES, OMG, HOOK IT TO MY VEINS), but I'm also super intrigued by the Penelope Cruise and Rinko Kikuchi characters, and would love to see them form an unlikely alliance that is so unexpected as to fly under the radar of everyone around them. I should note that I'm not at all attached to the names, relationships or story fragments that Vanity Fair posted along with this photoset: feel free to use them if they speak to you, but also feel free to build your own versions of the characters from the ground up, based on their images.

The Fall (TV) (Danielle Ferrington/Stella Gibson, Stella Gibson/Reed Smith)

Basically, Gillian Anderson as Stella Gibson is absolutely phenomenal in this show and radiates a kind of hardened, melancholic sexual energy. Giving that energy a female-centric push just sets my heart all a-flutter.

I really could go either way on pairing Stella with Danielle versus with Reed. To my mind, she has more of an immediate "click" with Reed: she's visibly intrigued during the scene in the second episode where Reed arrives on her motorbike; and she also seems to be visibly off-center during the scene where Reed shows her Olson's postmortem x-rays—which, for someone as unflappable as Stella, is saying something. That is in part because of her complicated feelings about Olson's death, certainly, but it could also have something to do with Reed, or a combination of the two. And Episode 1.4! The scene where they're going over the crime scene together, and then go out for a drink! Goodness me, the slightly macabre yet also oddly touching fic writes itself.

On the other hand, Danny is canonically gay, and I love the push/pull that happens between her and Stella as the show goes on. The show is so understated with its depictions that there's a lot of room for interpretation: to what degree does Stella interpret Danny's disclosure about getting rid of evidence that she had company, to be a power play? To what degree did Danny intend it that way? To what extent does Stella feel blackmailed into offering Danny the position as her right-hand woman? To what extent does Danny realize that? At what point does their dynamic shift away from one-ups-manship and into mutual regard (or has it? or will it in the future?), and how might sexual attraction map over that? I don't have ready answers but I find all these questions really intriguing, and I'd love any story that explored them a bit.

Scandal (TV) (Mellie Grant/Olivia Pope, Olivia Pope/Abby Whelan)

God, just please give Olivia a break from her own terrible, terrible taste in men.

Seriously, I love both these pairings for different reasons. Mellie/Olivia is such an amazing hate-ship: both those women have some serious pent-up aggression and resentment regarding Fitz, both in terms of their relationships with him and in terms of how he figures into their ambitions for themselves. Standard relationship models would dictate that they simply hate and/or avoid each other, but their actual canonical relationship is a lot more complicated than that, because of their ambition and their shared pragmatism; and I can definitely see an attraction building out of that. So while I can see (and would savor) a straight-up hatefucking scenario between Mellie and Olivia, I can also see a situation (porny or no) in which resentment would vie with an unexpected sense of solidarity or grudging respect.

Abby is much more squarely on Olivia's side, to the point where she sometimes seems more a minion than a peer. But there's unexpected complexity there, too—multiple points at which Abby really tangibly resents Olivia, where her loyalty is tested. I think my favorite bits are where they're closest to being peers, though: I love the domesticity of the episode(s) where Olivia is calling Abby at home while Abby bustles around her kitchen. I also love Abby's domme-ish tendencies in her sex scenes with David, and since Grant is obviously (like, OBVIOUSLY) so useless as a lover, I enjoy thinking about Olivia getting someone who just takes charge and shows her a good time for a change—even if that take-chargeness might be to some degree mixed up with Abby needing to prove a point.

But really, you can pretty much take these pairings in any direction and I will be on board. I find all three of these women super compelling and interesting to think about, and I'm sure I'd be intrigued with things you see in their dynamics that I didn't necessarily pick up on.

Scott & Bailey (Gill Murray/Julie Dodson)

Oh man, friend. Gill and Julie. Julie and Gill. This might be, across all fandoms, across all of media, the pairing of my heart at the moment. I just adore their dynamic SO much. The trust between them; their obvious history together; their high expectations of each other and the uncompromising way they hold each other to them; the palpable affection in the way they rag on each other and pretend to insult each other; the way, when they're working a case together, they move in tandem and communicate with each other so seamlessly. The way they ask each other for reassurance and give each other a hard time but eventually provide it. They are individually smokin' hot (I have a major thing for both Gill's expressive hands, and for the hint of butchness about the way Julie shrugs off her jackets), and their chemistry is phenomenal: I'd be great—more than great, over the moon—with seeing a sex scene between them, but I'd also like to explore that push-and-pull, tangible-caretaking-while-ostensibly-ragging-on-each-other dynamic they've got going. Maybe a post-3.8 episode tag? But really, as with all these, if you capture even a bit of their dynamic I will be so so happy and not care what specific direction you took it.

Anyway, hope that helps, and thanks again for the story, you are wonderful!

Groove on,
HBBO

Dear Yuletide Author,

You are a delight! Thanks so much for writing me a story; it totally makes my day to know that you're out there. Thank you so much, and I'm sure I'll love what you come up with! <3

Barring that: I am a bookish, mostly-lesbian, 32-year-old cis lady living in the Pacific Northwest. Particular loves of mine include: formidable yet complex women being formidable and complex together; f/f sex writing; sex writing in general that is emotionally nuanced and/or ratchets up the narrative tension more than it resolves it; unreliable narrators; atmospheric settings; lovely turns of phrase; strong narrative voices and weird narrative tricks. I've tried to include a range of book/show/photoset fandoms, including the Killers Kill, Dead Men Die one (which is just a photoset, so you shouldn't need any previous familiarity with it). \o/

I don't have many squicks, but I would prefer no pregnancy, babies, or small children I don't anticipate this being much of an issue given the fandoms I've requested, but just in case.

So in addition to the above, everything else really is gravy. Feel free to disregard fandom-specific ramblings; but if you're interested, I've gone into a bit more detail below. Thanks again for writing me a thing! You rock. :-D

Killers Kill, Dead Men Die:

I'm having a hard time imagining something you would do with this photoset that I wouldn't love. I adore noir fiction of all stripes, from classic Raymond Chandler era stuff to more modern versions—especially when the modern stuff adapts the genre to reflect minority and female POVs (Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlins novels, for example, or Sara Paretsky's V.I. Warshawski ones). I would adore, adore, adore more noir fiction that's told from a queer POV, or that features queer characters in something other than villain roles. I say "something other than villain" because of course even the narrators and so-called good guys in the genre are usually troubled and very rough around the edges, and I'm definitely not looking to change that!

For this photoset in particular, the characters I nominated were the Anjelica Huston, Sharon Stone, Helen Mirren and Judi Dench ones, and I would certainly love any story that focused on any subset of them, either in a shippy way—I completely ship both those pairs—or otherwise. (As a note: I'm not at all married to the names, relationships, or story fragments that Vanity Fair posted along with the photoset; feel free to use them if they speak to you, but also feel free to build your own versions of the characters from the ground up, based on their images. I personally wouldn't have cast Dench and Mirren as half-sisters, or Dench as slow-witted; my initial take was "mob boss Helen Mirren with girlfriend Judi Dench," and "Anjelica Huston/Sharon Stone as sinister society matrons." But whatever works for you and your writer-brain!)

I would be all over a story about different characters, as well: I am forever enchanted by undercover cop partner stories, and would devour with abandon a story about the Undercover Dude Cop and Undercover Lady Cop. And my heart starts beating, too, at the idea of an illicit Songbird/Queenpin alliance—an unlikely connection that nobody around them thinks to suspect...

As you can see, you can pretty much take this in any direction and I will be on board.

Chéri

So I'd love some kind of story about Léa and Charlotte. I can't even decide if I prefer them as platonic, or as sexually involved, or as platonic frenemies who occasionally hate- or comfort-fuck. So really, however you want to roll is cool by me. I'd adore a pre-books story where they are young together and navigating their early affairs; I'd adore a post-Chéri story in which Charlotte comforts Léa in her typically backhanded yet unexpectedly sincere way. I'd REALLY adore a post-Fin de Chéri story where Léa comforts Charlotte (in a similarly complex way); or some combination of the last two ideas. Or a pre-Chéri story where Léa, in middle age, is just beginning to contemplate taking Charlotte's son as a lover: did they discuss it? Did Charlotte ask Léa to help him grow up a bit before Charlotte married him off? Were there ground rules between the two women? Did Léa report back, and did they laugh about it? Or did Charlotte hate it at first, and only gradually come to the acceptance we see in the second scene of the novel?

Or really, any Charlotte/Léa or Charlotte-and-Léa idea that occurs to you. I am all ears.

Orphan Black

Anything with Alison Hendrix! While we were watching Orphan Black, my buddy and I referred to it as "the Clone Alison Show," which is pretty accurate as far as the parts I really crave to see expanded. By FAR my favorite episode was the one with the potluck, where she ties up Donny in the back room. I both (a) adore spending time with the hilarious yet poignant trainwreck that is Alison, and (b) have so many questions about her. I love her dynamic with Felix; any stories about Alison and Felix being reluctant buddies/allies would be amazing, especially if they're in some environment that's natural to one but not the other (i.e., pretty much every environment). This could be post-Season 1 (which I'm sure would provide a lot of high-tension possibilities, seeing as Alison has signed her life away and she and Sarah will presumably be, at least to a certain extent, working against each other in Season 2), or it could be filling in holes in Season 1 as it exists. I am not picky! Any Alison is enjoyable Alison, as far as I'm concerned.

Pre-show, I'm also super intrigued about the implied dynamic between Alison and Beth. That scene where Alison teaches Sarah to shoot, and talks about how Beth taught her, is so interesting to me. It seems like it implies a certain closeness or intimacy between Beth and Alison--how did that develop? Alison is so protective of her "normal" life, whereas Beth seemed so hemmed-in by hers; but the way Alison talks about Beth in that scene, it seems like knowing her really added to Alison's experience in some way. I am interested in how that might have developed. (Note: I am in no way *opposed* to taking this in a sexytimes direction, but clone/clone action is kind of out there to actually request at Yuletide, and I would be just as happy with a complex, evolving acquaintanceship.)

Oh, also: Alison is a possible exception to my "no small children" request--if you want to include her kids, that's cool, I'd just prefer they not become the focal point of the story.

Les liaisons dangereuses

Unsurprisingly, what I love most about this novel (in a novel chock-full of things to love) is Merteuil. I think she's just fantastic; this is, again, a "you can do anything as long as it involves Merteuil, and I will love it" kind of situation. I love how Laclos understands that she, as a woman, has to be smarter and quicker than Valmont in order to play his same game; I adore the dynamic between them, the rivalry and the sexual tension. I love how delighted Merteuil is with herself at every one of her coups, and how she very consciously chooses to communicate or not communicate that through letters. I love the little glimpses of genuine feeling (or is it genuine feeling?) we get, through the chinks in her armour. I have a particular weakness for her dynamic with Cecile Volanges, where, even though her primary motive is certainly to manipulate the circumstances to fit her ulterior motives, there's a moment in which I like to imagine she can indulge her own, you know, "educate the naive young girl in the ways of love" urges.

Basically, knock yourself out with your Merteuil headcanons, and I will almost certainly approve. :-D

Hey Yuletide author!

This is actually my first-ever post on DW, for which I apologize. I'm sure it's not very useful to you in figuring out what's up with me, generally speaking. So: I'm a 31-year-old queer cis-lady, very bookish, reading about history and listening to David Bowie in the constant rain of the Pacific Northwest. You can get some idea of my general aesthetic from my Tumblr.

I...really am just gonna love anything you write for me! But below are some ideas that might be useful.

Story-wise, I love slash and femmeslash (looooove femmeslash), and am also very happy with gen and het. In fanfic and published fiction, I have a particular love for the atmospheric; for stories with very vivid, evocative settings; for witty banter; for unresolved mystery or narrative tension; for endings that could be interpreted several different ways; for complex characters who have redeeming qualities, but who are not necessarily "nice people."

I love porn. I especially adore sex that complicates rather than resolves tension, or sex that is really rooted in the characters of the participants involved. Sex scenes that have underlying motivating factors beyond simple lust (e.g., sadness, relief, insecurity, exerting dominance, desperation, the desire to avoid a certain thought or topic of conversation, etc.) are almost always my favorites. I don't mind darkness or the unsettling, with exceptions listed below. I love it when sexuality is depicted against the standard gender script (e.g., there is tenderness in a m/m pair, or desperate, rough sex in a f/f pairing). I also love androgyny, gender-bending, cross-dressing, disguise, and the like - not even necessarily in a sexy context, although that's always good, too. :-)

General squicks include: pregnancy, kids, rape (Sleep No More might be something of an exception to this), cruelty to animals (I know there's canonical cruelty to animals in Sleep No More, but I'd love it if it weren't stressed), major character death.

Info on specific requests:

Sleep No More - Punchdrunk
I've only seen Sleep No More once, and I was UTTERLY CAPTIVATED by both Lady MacBeth (who I followed for a complete cycle, and who took my hands and smeared blood on them) and the Boy Witch (who I followed for another complete cycle, and who gave me his wet trousers to hold when he took them off in the bathroom).

Lady MacBeth doesn't show up on the character selection, but I'd love anything to do with either (or both!) of these characters. I loved the Boy Witch's aggressive hate-sex homoerotic dancing, especially in and around the old telephone booth (with someone who I believe was Duncan? but I'm not sure), and Lady MacBeth's...everything to do with Lady MacBeth, really. I guess, with Lady MacBeth, I especially loved how, as her madness escalated, she began interacting more and more with the spectres/audience members.

In general, Sleep No More is just so deliciously gothic and mysterious, and I would love anything that evokes that atmosphere, and the general, sexually-charged, mysterious murderousness of the whole thing. My section on Rebecca might also give some ideas, since the two storylines are connected. I'm also familiar with Shakespeare's MacBeth and adore Shakespearean language, so if you have the urge to reference it, I will get you. :-)

Gosford Park
Gosford Park! Talk about witty banter. I love this film for the sardonic class-consciousness, and the clever dialogue, and the mix of repression and shamelessness, and the hidden interpersonal dynamics constantly going on beneath the surface.

I adore the idea of Elsie and Mary focused femmeslash, either before or after Elsie's dismissal, but I also LOVE - I mean LOVE - anything to do with Maggie Smith's Constance Trentham character. It goes against some of the story-building of the actual film, but I love the idea that Constance Trentham knows pretty much everything that goes on everywhere she travels, including at Gosford Park, and is basically a wry, claret-swilling commentator on all society gossip since the 1870s. I also love the idea of a developing bond of mutual respect between her and Mary, which would be an awesome focus for a gen story, should you so desire.

I also adore the unapologetic ennui of Kristin Scott-Thomas's Sylvia McCordle. Just throwin' that out there for the sake of completeness.

Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)

Given what I wrote above about Sleep No More, it's not surprising that I love the menacing, gothic atmosphere of Rebecca; the way Manderley is a character in its own right, with all kinds of nooks and crannies good for secret rendezvous and squirreling things away; the kind of uncertain relationship between the DeWinter household and their neighbors, where it's never clear whether everyone hates them or not; and, of course, the exact nature of the relationship between Danny and Rebecca.

If you're inclined to take a more gen approach, anything involving the atmosphere and setting of Manderley would be amazing. Especially if it explored Rebecca DeWinter's psychology a bit: maybe delving into her back-story, or giving her perspective on her marriage to Max DeWinter, or just...finding any way you can to make her a more fully-rounded, complex character. Ideally without completely erasing the things that made her unsympathetic in the source material.

Or, if you wanted to go the femmesleash route, that is way cool as well! I'm pretty convinced that some kind of sexual and/or romantic relationship between Danny and Rebecca is more or less canon, but I'd be interested to see the ins and outs of that explored. What was the power dynamic like between them? Was Danny just another toy to Rebecca, or was there a more mutual connection between them? Or was one of them never really sure about the answer to that question? And so on.

Oh, and I am very familiar with both DuMaurier's novel and Hitchcock's film adaptation, so drawing on either or both is lovely.

Anyway, I'm really just thrilled with whatever you come up with, so thanks for reading!