breathedout | Yuletide Dear Author letter

Hello Yuletide writer!

Note up-front: I'm requesting quite a few one-minute or ephemeral fandoms this year, so even if you match with me on a book or show, take a look at the tiny ones! (I include links under the fandom-specific cuts.) You might find something to pique your interest.

With that out of the way, thank you so much for making me a thing! I'm sure I'll love it. Particular loves of mine include: nuanced queerness and queer folks interacting with each other with nuance; formidable yet complex women being formidable and complex together; human trainwrecks colliding (either humorously or tragically); sex writing that is a character study 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.

DNWs: My huge, body-horror-level squick is pregnancy and babies; please avoid them if at all possible. Also please avoid animal cruelty or death. My feelings about the institution of marriage are complex and fairly critical: feel free to include it, but I don't much fancy it as a prepackaged "happy ending"; more something that the involved parties continue to negotiate and evolve inside of as it goes on, much like any other relationship. 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!

Fandom-specific ramblings (for some reason DW would not let me put the "Karen & Wayne" section of my For All Mankind prompt under a cut... no idea why, sorry about that):

Cotillion - Georgette Heyer: Freddy Standen, Kitty Charing, Lord Ledgerwood

Three of my favorite characters in the whole of Heyer. My partner and I often explain Cotillion to people as PG Wodehouse in the Regency, and that style of character-based comedy really makes it for me. I love Freddy's goodhearted, off-kilter prioritization of fashion/etiquette over any more tortured moralizing, and Kitty's frank admission of her own desire for luxury and appreciation of worldly beauty (and beauties). I love the way they play off each other, with Kitty shamelessly embroiling Freddy in whatever new impulsive hijinx she has wholeheartedly committed herself to, and Freddy going along with it because he's too much of a gentleman to do otherwise (and, later, because he loves her). My personal take on Freddy/Kitty leans toward a kind of mutually devoted queerplatonic/lavender-marriage dynamic, with Freddy what we would now call gay or asexual & Kitty a lesbian-leaning bisexual. Of course if you wanted to play with a similar version of them I would eat it up, but I'm not married (LOL) to these interpretations, & any version of them that communicates their mutual regard would delight me.

I also ADORE Lord Ledgerwood as this knowing character who is metaphorically sitting in his lounge chair with popcorn, sardonically yet politely pretending that he doesn't see through the absurd lies the kids are telling other people, themselves, and each other. His dynamic with Lady Ledgerwood is also fantastic, and I would love more of a peek behind the curtain of their marriage.

DNWs: No scat, watersports, gags/silencing, somnophilia/unconscious sex, mommy or daddy kink, or anything involving pregnancy.

Miss Marple (TV 1984): Shopper with hat in opening credits, Bareheaded shopper in opening credits, Woman at the window in opening credits, Curate in opening credits

Every time I watch this series, the opening credits (you can see the full opening credits at the beginning of this YouTube video) make me crave an outside-POV take on the one of the episodes, with random villagers talking primarily about their own lives but mentioning in passing how they've benefited or been inconvenienced. Maybe the supply lines of consumer goods to the village have been disrupted by the murder of the delivery driver, or someone's kid has developed an unhealthy fascination with murder and the villager is scandalized about it, or two busybodies can't help but notice that their invalid neighbor has mysteriously been up and around an awful lot now that so many exciting things are happening in the village, or a second-in-command clerk is now scheming about career advancement due to the convenient murder of their boss, or a couple who were close to having their illicit affair discovered, are now breathing a sigh of relief that everyone is instead focused on these murders. I like the idea of playing with the way in which every individual person is the living-breathing center of their own life, even when a narrative frames them as tangential.
DNWs: No scat, watersports, gags/silencing, somnophilia/unconscious sex, or mommy or daddy kink. Nothing involving pregnancy in a sexual context—offhand mentions of so-and-so from the village having just learned that she's expecting, or a pregnant person not being able to satisfy their weird food cravings due to the grocer having been murdered, are fine.

France's language watchdog has told government officials to use French fetish terms... (News Satire)

I am really just tickled and delighted to think through the ramifications/worldbuilding of this satirical news item. Eye-rolling at the conservatism of the Academie française is nothing new, but applying it to kinksters specifically brings up some hilarious gotchas. How might an encounter go between a censorious Academie official and someone who wanted to be punished for their language-related naughtiness? What about a kinster with a corruption and/or mommy fetish, getting off on being told that just by using foreign import words they're degrading the entirety of their langue maternelle? Would folks with extremely specific kinks start thronging and hanging about the Academie directly after the news announcement, much to the baffled surprise of Academie members? Might the affected Academie members find out new things about themselves and their own preferences as a result of these interactions? Might there have been kinksters preexisting in the Academie who either tried to warn their colleagues off this announcement, or who egged their colleagues on, and are now either laughing their asses off or rueing the consequences? Get as silly and/or racy as you want! Multi-lingual puns encouraged!

DNWs: I have a standard list of DNW kinks (see my other requests), but on this one in particular it's all fair game; anything goes.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - John Le Carre: Bill Haydon, Jim Prideaux, Connie Sachs

I find the Bill/Jim thread in this novel to be absolutely devastating. (That scene in Smiley's car, where Jim continues to cover up for Bill when we the readers know how little Bill deserves it!! Guts me every time.) I'd be into it if you wanted to dig into some point in their relationship. Possibly a scene together at school as they're just getting to know each other: what is the appeal of each for the other? Does Bill view Jim as solely a target, or does that part of his brain coexist alongside parts that find Jim physically attractive or emotionally appealing? How long before they fell into bed together, and what very different things does it mean for each of them when it happens? Or you could look at one of the "missing" scenes from the book. The night before Jim leaves for Czechoslovakia, for example, when he pays Bill a visit in order to warn him about the mole: how does that go down? There's some good potential for dramatic irony and point-of-view hijinx: if you're in Jim POV he's reading one set of meanings into Bill's actions whereas we are reading quite another; if you're in Bill's POV there's a whole mental calculus based on what he expects to happen in Czecho and afterward, whereas we the reader know what actually did happen. Or, of course, you could go with their final encounter on the bench, where Smiley and Lacon later find Bill's body.

Bill and Jim aside, Connie is also one of my all-time favorite side characters, and I'd love pretty much anything to do with her. Mentally/emotionally she's simultaneously steel-trap brilliant, and also intensely weakened by her griefs and addictions; it's a combination I'd love to see explored. I think there's also some potentially interesting intersections of queerness among these three characters: later in the series we see Connie living (and dying) with her female lover: back in their heyday what was her take on the performative, provocateurish way Bill sometimes used his own bisexuality? Did she clock Jim and Bill's closeness as a lovers relationship, and if so, what did she think of it? How does Connie's categorization of the Circus spies as "her boys, her wonderful boys" interact with her own gender and/or sexuality? Did she consider herself as a sort of mother figure, or did she want a place in the boys' club herself?

DNW: No fix-its or major divergences from canon, especially nothing softening Bill's character. No scat, watersports, gags/silencing, somnophilia/unconscious sex, mommy or daddy kink, or anything involving pregnancy.

The Unequal Marriage (Painting) - Vasily Pukirev: First Wife's Ghost, Bride
I am always a sucker for a ghost story, and this painting makes some fascinating suggestions for one. What are the attitudes of the two ghostly women toward the young bride? Toward the groom? Are they resentful of the young woman, or do they want to warn her? Are they in fact ghostly ex-wives haunting the groom (a common interpretation, I gather), or could they be older female ghosts who are for some reason haunting the bride? Ancestresses or mother-figures, perhaps? Malevolent governesses? What is their intention in being present, if indeed their presence is a choice at all? Which members of the wedding party, if any, can perceive them? What tragedy rendered them ghostly; what do they want, and what results might those desires have moving foward?

For All Mankind: Karen Baldwin, Tracy Stevens, Wayne Cobb

For All Mankind, though small, is currently my biggest or main fandom, so if you matched with me on this... hi, it's likely we already know each other, haha. In case we don't, here are some past prompts I've made relating to Karen, Wayne, & Tracy.

Karen & Wayne:
Karen & Wayne's friendship is my favorite, FAVORITE relationship in this show full of amazing rich relationships, and I just want SO much more of it. Peeks into how it developed over the years; key moments of self-disclosure from one to the other, helping each other deal with trauma. And also lighter moments: random non-space-related activities they might do together, for example. Do they introduce each other to new things? Do they try out together trends/activities that are new for both of them? What little rituals do they develop together (smoking weed, obviously LOL, but in addition to that)? Do they ever fight, & if so what about? How do they make up?

I'd also love more fic where Wayne has his own internal hangups & issues, rather than being solely an emotionally intelligent anchor for Karen. What is he getting out of this friendship? How does she help him as well as the other way around? What does Wayne find challenging about his marriage or other aspects of his life, that he discusses with Karen & gets some perspective on?

DNW: AUs, Any developing sexual or romantic relationship between Karen & Wayne.

Karen & Tracy, or Karen/Tracy: Karen and Tracy's relationship is fascinating to me, and goes through so many iterations over the years. I have to admit that my predictably lesbionic impulse is to explore a (regular or occasional) sexual/romantic aspect to their dynamic, but a totally platonic take could be equally amazing. Some things of interest to me:

Karen dissuades Tracy from throwing Gordo out when she learns he's been unfaithful: part of that is fear about the kind of social sanction and survival difficulties Tracy would face as a divorced woman, but what else is going on internally/emotionally for Karen in this scene? Is she imagining a scenario where she would be asked to choose between her own social standing and a continued relationship with Tracy? Is she fearing having her easy, unquestioned access to Tracy taken away? If they are sexually involved, does she obscurely feel that a sexual habit that "doesn't count" when they're both married would suddenly count a lot more if Tracy is divorced? Or that occasional sexual interludes that are easy to fall into when they're living similar lives & often at each others' houses while their husbands are gone, would suddenly be much harder to ignore or justify if Tracy leaves that comfortable orbit?

Their relationship becomes strained once Tracy is an ASCAN/astronaut and Karen is essentially raising both of their kids. We see them interacting when the kids are present, but do they have any one-on-one moments during this period? If so, what do these look like? Do they happen on purpose, or by accident? If on purpose, who is seeking them out, or are they an agreed-upon ritual/standing date, perhaps one that persists from the period before Tracy's ASCAN period?

What is it like for Karen during the period when Tracy really is navigating her divorce from Gordo? Does she initially react similarly to the way she did back in early S1, or has she seen and changed enough in the interim that her reaction has shifted? Does she support Tracy during this time, and if so, how? Does Tracy perhaps move in with Karen for a time while things are getting finalized (could work for the "moving in together" or "roommates" tags)? Or does Karen visit Tracy's new, post-divorce house and help her set it up? Or do they draw apart during this period, and if so, who instigates that?

How does Tracy long-term support Karen in the wake of Shane's death? Or does she? How does she react to Karen & Ed's separation?? Does she encourage Karen to get divorced too, and if so how do those conversations go? Or does she discourage her from divorcing? I'd be interested in a scenario where whatever Tracy is advocating is in tension with how Karen is actually seeing her. (For example: Tracy, mid-divorce, is high on relief and independence yet terrified underneath it all about reinventing her life; she tries to sell Karen on the positive aspects, but the terror and uncertainty are what Karen takes away. Or the opposite: Tracy is like "this is terrible, not worth it, never go through a divorce" and Karen agrees while secretly envying Tracy her newfound freedom and potential.)

By S2 there is obviously a lot more distance between Tracy and Karen than there once was. To some extent this is because of Tracy's fame; to some extent it is the lasting impact of Karen's whole freakout over Tracy becoming an astronaut in the first place. Are those the only factors involved, or are there others? How does it feel to Tracy in S2, thinking about Karen now & thinking about the relationship they used to have? She obviously feels conflicted nostalgia about Gordo during this period; does she feel something similar about Karen? I could see her missing the stability that Karen (albeit neurotically) provided back in the 60s and 70s, given what a hot, out-of-control mess Tracy is in the 80s. We see Karen & Tracy interact at the Outpost; are there other reunions during this time? And if so, how do they feel to both women?

DNWs: No threesomes or moresomes with either of the husbands (or anyone). Incidental kid content is OK, but nothing focusing on the children. No AU happy endings where they end up together long-term. No scat, watersports, gags/silencing, somnophilia/unconscious sex, mommy kink, or anything involving pregnancy.