Yuletide Letter

Dear Yuletide Writer,
Thank you for writing for me! I'm Blurble on AO3. I did Yuletide for the first time ever last year and loved it, so here I am again!
I have opted into the Wrapping Paper art challenge and the Partridge in a Pear Tree challenge for treats

Some things I love

• strong, complex, deep friendships
• cozy small details of magic
• magic used for mundane/prosaic purposes
• redemption arcs
• friends to enemies, enemies to lovers, friends to enemies to friends, lovers to enemies to friends, friends to enemies to lovers, enemies to friends to enemies... Basically I just like a relationship with layers of antagonism and affection to unravel/reconcile.
• BAMF moments
• fic that reads completely differently on reread because of what you've discovered over the course of the story
• warm portrayals of kindness or supportive community
• animals! animals as pets! animals as part of setting a scene! I have a particular soft spot for dragons but also spiders, snakes, cats, dogs, birds, lizards, chinchillas, bees, praying mantises, bats... 
• dramatic irony in a variety of shapes and forms (includes, non-comprehensive: identity shenanigans, underestimated underdog is actually badass, characters having a conversation without being aware who they're talking to about things they would definitely not knowingly discuss with each other, etc)
• I don't enjoy horror played straight, but I love comedic horror (I mean things like Junji Ito's Cat Diary or My Roommate is an Apparition or anything else that plays with a horror atmosphere but deliberately fails to actually be horror). (Please, however, still no gore).

DNWs

• sex more explicit than fade to black
• graphic gore
• body horror
• animal abuse
• major character death (unless canon-compliant)
• incest
• issue fic
• racism, sexism, antisemitism etc, even if subverted/disproved/only by villains/etc.
• trans headcanons
• pregnancy as more than a minor background element (I don't care if a side character happens to be pregnant and this is mentioned in passing. I mind pregnancy being a major element of the story)
• tragedy (bittersweet but with a hopeful ending is fine)

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Prompts by Canon

My prompts are just me thinking out loud about stuff I'd enjoy seeing, they're not meant to be some kind of exhaustive list, they're just to give a sense of my taste/maybe spark an idea if you're feeling blank. Please don't feel bound by them if there's an idea you'd really like to write.

Aveyond 1

Characters: Rhen, Lars

I did not request Worldbuilding as a character but this is a fandom I'm very happy to receive worldbuilding in as an optional element. I love how the games have all these goofy bits of detail hidden away, feel free to invent your own and stick them in the fic.

(Alternately this is a fandom I'm very happy to receive AUs in)

I really like Rhen and Lars's bickering dynamic. I'm happy to receive fic set before they start the quest together when they just straight up hate each other, or during the quest when the feelings get complicated by having to rely on each other plus Lars realizing he was a huge jerk, or after the quest is over. But I do want them jabbing at each other and knowing each other's sore spots. I can't buy pure sweet fluffy mush for these two, not unless it's been hard-earned. 

I'd love to see them exploring the Aveyond world and discovering it a bit more deeply. More about the elves or the squirrels or any passing detail of the Aveyond story that takes your fancy ands you want to elaborate on. 

Or throw them into a tropey situation, I'm very weak for tropiness with these two. Like, some mission where they need to go undercover as a couple for some reason, or they accidentally get bonded to read each other's thoughts, or the Empress is suddenly insisting they get Married for Reasons, or they get stuck in an escalating game of chicken via increasingly more ridiculous dares (cue Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better)... Anything like that. 

Where can you find it: on the aveyond website for full price, or via bigfishgames, where it is frequently available at a big discount.
 

Chalice

Characters: Worldbuilding

What I love about this book is how rich and evocative it is. (Okay, also bees, I love bees). The sense of ritual-laden magic, the vivid descriptions of the land's ties to its keepers and the land as an almost-sentient entity of its own, everything said and not said about the elemental priests... I love the little snippets we get in the book of what is considered normal or unusual (Chalices of wine or water or brine by the seaside, vs unlucky chalices of milk, or the one chalice who was blood).

I'd love to hear the story of a chalice with an unusual medium (how insanely cool does that blood one sound? So insanely cool), or anything more about the elemental priests, or something about the power struggles between Overlord and Master and what the meaning of those roles are.

I'd also love a post-canon story about what went down with Mirasol and Liapnir and their freshly forged circle after the confrontation with the Overlord - what changes because of the unusual members of the circle and how does it affect the land? What kind of new unprecedented challenges do they need to invent new, unprecedented innovations to deal with? How do the priests respond to this, if at all? Who is available as political allies now that they've made an enemy of the Overlord? We get such tiny glimpses of the overall political situation outside the Willowlands, I'm so curious how outsiders reacted to what went down and what the long-term ramifications will be. 

Where can you find it: Amazon or other places books are sold

(and if you want some pleasant bee inspiration, may I present: Texas Bee Works)

Last Scenario

Characters: Any (Ethan, Thorve, Matilda, Felgorn)

It was very hard choosing which 4 characters would get nomination slots. Consider this your encouragement to include any others you want. Here are some ideas I have for each nominated character.

Felgorn: Honestly what I'd love to see most is a fix-it fic where he just barely doesn't die, and goes on a slow fumbling redemption journey, maybe with some parallels to Thorve's backstory. Or a canon divergence where Thorve's and his reunion is at an earlier point in the timeline, and they have terrible uncomfortable interactions with each other talking over the past (but somehow this ends up changing how things play out so that he doesn't die in the end, and maybe also they get to properly reconcile). Or something changes in his relationship to Randolph, they have some kind of painful reconciliation and as their relationship mends he has someone older and sensible to say STOP NO at crucial moments and both have his back and reality-check him.

Thorve: I'd love scenes of Thorve and Matilda's friendship throughout their entire storyline, or more of the dynamic of their squad before Selene and Jord's deaths, since what we saw of it was so intriguing (Matilda as the strict one, Thorve smoothing things over...). Anything with them having adventures - I'd love Thorve getting a chance to be a BAMF. I'm also intrigued by post-canon fic showing how Thorve being Wilhelm's advisor ends up working out. 

Ethan: He's so cool and such a dork! This is my favorite thing about him. I also like that characters seem to react to him as giving off Trustworthy Vibes. I could read pages of Ethan Failing at Communication while also being Tall Dark and Badass. I would love a comedy of errors type fic where he is forced to communicate and then fix what went wrong and then fix what went wrong with his fixing... (He's also a character I'd be interested in reading whump for)

Matilda: Matilda can't handle not having something driving her so I'm SUPER curious what she does after her nice relaxing drink at the end of the game. I also love her relationships with Thorve and with Drakovic, pre, during, or post-canon. (One specific idea I had: Valentin says he's thinking of going into politics and I just love the image of Matilda accompanying him to some important state function and then butting heads with Drakovic over something and Thorve is trying to redirect them to some more neutral topic. Especially if it all ends in some enemies attacking and Matilda just being enormously relieved she can go stab things instead.)

Where can you find it: I wrote a promo comment for this canon here, including links for where to download it/watch a playthrough

The Emperor's New Groove

Characters: Yzma, Kronk

I love these two so much.

I love how the movie subtext-treated Kronk as if he was Yzma's boyfriend (the incredibly awkward meet-the-boyfriend dinner with Kuzco, the romantic-heartbreak-music when Yzma said she didn't like his cooking). I am fine with you leaning into this (for example: you could do the standard cliche end-of-romantic-movie situation, you know the kind where the hero runs after the heartbroken heroine and apologizes for all he's done wrong with a big dramatic gesture and they make up and live happily ever after... just with Yzma as The Hero and the dramatic gesture being about how great Kronk's cooking is, actually), or just sticking to Evil Mastermind and Her Minion shenanigans.

I love how over-the-top and melodramatic and smart and self-indulgent and bitchy Yzma is.  Also, her evil villain lair/laboratory is sooo cool. I'd love to see her put in a context where she gets to accidentally accomplish some good in the world through her mad science shenanigans, or a situation where her intense scheming is what saves the day.

Kronk is the most wonderful mix of super-competent (at so many things) and yet extremely terrible sidekick. I'd love a role-reversal where he's in charge and Yzma has to play sidekick for once- some scenario where Kronk has to save the day. Maybe for Reasons he must bake a 12-tier cake or all hell will break loose? And it's a total disaster, but his assortment of random talents saves the day. I'm also happy to hear the adventures of  Kronk, cat!Yzma and the squirrel scouts.

If you want to send them through a portal into some other world to have adventures there, or write an AU for them, I'm game! I can think of so many scenarios (in spaaaace! hyper-competitive baking show! extremely elderly regency dame terrifying all the debutantes! grail quest!) where these two would be super fun.

Where can you find it: It can be streamed on Disney+ or Amazon