These People are so Manly

Request 1 by melannen

Fandom: The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions - Larry Mitchell

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23 Oct 2026

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• My gift must feature all of my chosen character tags (if 0: any from tag set)

Summary

I read this for book club earlier this year and fell in love. I would genuinely love anything that exists in the world of this book; more about any of the characters, expansion of the worldbuilding. I am especially intrigued the fairies and the queens and also the women who love women of course and would love more about them as individual people, but I also liked the stories of all the specific named characters I nominated and would happy to get an expansion on what they've got going on. I like the house system too, and the sense of community! If you want to write in the style of the book that's great but more standard prose set in this world would also be great.

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Request 2 by melannen

Fandom: Aubrey-Maturin Series - Patrick O'Brian

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23 Oct 2026

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• James Dillon (Aubrey-Maturin Series - O'Brian)

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Summary

I find Dillon really fascinating as a character and I was delighted to see him nominated again this year (by somebody not me!) I'm fascinated by Dillon - all his layers of secrets, his complicated honor, his relationships with Stephen and with Jack and how those complicate each other.

He was clearly doomed to no honorable ending other than death once he lied about the fugitives, but this is fanfic, we're not bound by that, so I'd love an AU where he doesn't die heroically. Where he's only badly wounded on the Cacafuego and Stephen has to figure out how to force him to live by the time they get back to port. Where he's only mildly wounded on the Cacafuego, and has to deal with surrender, parole, and court-martial alongside the rest of the crew. Where the Cacafuego never finds them and things go on as they were until the tension finally inevitably snaps.

I'd love backstory on him too, what happened the last time he was in Ireland that changed his relationship with his faith, or a glimpse of his backstory as a fiery young revolutionary, or of young still-idealistic Stephen through his eyes. I'd also love any of the events on the Sophie that we see through Stephen's eyes on him retold in his POV.

I'd also be into a story imagining him as queer - he has so many layers of hidden and revealed identities and brotherhoods (and the references to canon queerness in the book come so thick and fast around him) that it's hard to resist, especially alongside his complicated feelings around his honor and his Catholicism and his oaths I'd love to see some complicated feelings about sodomy too. I'd love something where that's another secret he and Stephen share - that they're both aware that the other is not entirely averse to the intimate company of other men, or at least has not always been. Stephen/James, past or present or both, love affair or convenient partner (that first intense night together on the prize is begging for another bad decision along with the drinking and the too-frank talk), but also I'd love something where they never earn that slashmark but it's still yet another secret they both share onboard the Sophie and can't figure out how to talk about it.

I'm also one of the people who genuinely loves the descriptions of seafaring and the sea in these books, so if you need to pad your wordcount feel free to give me some wind and water and white sails. I've been increasingly fascinated on this slow re-read with how much everything in these characters' lives is so deeply dependent on the weather, from minute-to-minute tactical choices to long-term transportation planning, and how very much that relationship to weather isn't part of most people's daily lives these days. Something about that would be good, or even taking that idea of these people whose lives are so intimately married to the whims of the wind and putting it in a different setting to see what it does there (Sci-fi? Early airplane pilots? Modern oceanographers? Bird AU?)

He only appears in the first book, and feel free to base your fic entirely on just that book if you don't feel like a full reread. (Yes, I am still very slowly going through my re-read. I am stuck on The Ionian Mission, same place I always get stuck.)

Link to (optional) Dear Yuletide Writer Letter https://melannen.dreamwidth.org/tag/fandom:yuletide

Request 3 by melannen

Fandom: Le Roman de Silence | The Romance of Silence

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23 Oct 2026

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• My gift must feature all of my chosen character tags (if 0: any from tag set)

Summary

I am fascinated by it and would love any fic. Cador and Euphemie are such adorable failboats in love, I'd love to see more of that. I also read a theory once that Cador is trans, which would explain why he thought dressing Silence as a boy made sense (and why they were so sure they wouldn't have more children for that matter) - I dunno if I believe it but I'd love the AU. I'd love anything exploring Silence's gender of course! I have no strong feelings on where you go with it but somewhere interesting - use whatever pronouns work for the story you're telling. Will Nature realize once Silence is forced into a womanly body and life that perhaps she was not so purely female by Nature as Nature had realized? will Nurture gloat about it? Something about how Silence manages as Queen of England would be good too! How about some of Silence's adventures on the continent? Or a crossover with Silence running into another medieval romance would also be super fun. And I am of course 100% here for Nature/Nurture shipping and/or porn, of whatever level of weirdness you want, if your heart takes you there..

Link to (optional) Dear Yuletide Writer Letter https://melannen.dreamwidth.org/tag/fandom:yuletide

Request 4 by melannen

Fandom: Symposium - Plato

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23 Oct 2026

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• My gift must feature all of my chosen character tags (if 0: any from tag set)

Summary

Most of the fic I've seen for Symposium is Socrates/Alcibiades and while I see where that's coming from I find that most interesting when Socrates continues to not reciprocate, so please don't pair them up romantically/sexually, but feel free to write about Alcibiades' crush.

I am however super intrigued by Socrates' shameless flirting with Agathon. The stuff I've read about Symposium seems really eager to make that have some symbolic meaning or be about Athenian social status stuff but to me it just reads as Socrates being quite happy to play the innocent beloved to Agathon in defiance of social expectations while Pausanias watches them jealously, and if you want to write me porn I'd love a post-party scene where the three of them let that play out the way it was heading for, or a later post-party scene where Socrates keeps playing the coquette just for fun.

I'm interested in Agathon and Pausanias's relationship generally too, though, the way they held on to their relationship for life against all the culture expectations for that kind of relationship, and the way at least within this group of friends everyone just takes it for granted, and what must have been tension between the way they had to play their relationship in public, in places like this party, and in private with just each other, (and how that ties in to the party in Agathon's honor where all the guests basically debate this stuff for fun!). Any fic about their relationship would be great.

Generally I'm also interested in anything dealing with the complicated relationships between the people at the party, the many layers of queerness going on there both in Athenian perspective and later history's and how they play off of each other, and with the philosophy they're doing about it. A setting-swap AU that messes around with that could be really cool, putting this bunch and this party into a context with very difference ideas around sex and sexuality.

I'm also fascinated by Diotima, one of the only named female characters in all of the dialogues, she's basically set up as famous misanthrope Socrates's Irene Adler, and she's an mpreg fan. And literally nothing is known about her outside this dialogue. I'd love anything exploring who Diotima might have been, or what other kinds of stories Socrates might have told about her (true or not!) or what stories she might have had to tell about him! Also feel free to just write me classical Athenian mpreg, Platonically.

Also I'm not usually an A/B/O fan but having discovered the bit of pseudo-Aristotle where he talks about how some men are just natural bottoms because they have self-lubing anuses, you can write me A/B/O for this if you use the Platonic mpreg and soulmates, and Aristotelian self-lubing butts for it (extra bonus if you can find classical Greek knotting to justify things I guess.)

I am generally aware of the wider story of Socrates and Athenian politics and society that the Dialogues fit into but at far from an expert level and if you'd like to put some of that wider context in the story that would be good - I'm always up for some foreshadowed tragedy - but I'm also fine if you stick with the Symposium as a stand-alone canon.

Link to (optional) Dear Yuletide Writer Letter https://melannen.dreamwidth.org/tag/fandom:yuletide

Request 5 by melannen

Fandom: Mademoiselle de Maupin - Théophile Gautier

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23 Oct 2026

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• My gift must feature all of my chosen character tags (if 0: any from tag set)

Summary

I would really love anything for this fandom! My only DNW is a story where Theo is written as explicitly 100% cis or any of the main trio is written as explicitly 100% straight. I would love a story that does explore their relationships with gender and sexuality beyond where canon does, though. The way this story, through all the characters' POV, explores gender and sexuality in ways that are immediately familiar to a modern reader (fursuit sex!) but with characters who have an entirely different set of tools to understand them with is fascinating to me, and I want them all to figure out who they are and how they fit with themselves and with each other and with the categories available to them and get a queer as hell happy ever after out of it.

Obviously a post-canon OT3 that resolves the cliffhanger is important (or even just a fic where d'Albert and Rosette debrief with each other after Theo leaves) - maybe a fic where d'Albert learns the joy of crossdressing and genderqueerness too, where he puts on a dress and get his hair done and finally manages to see himself as pretty? How would their meetings and relationships go differently in a modern AU where they have words and communities available for many more options? Or maybe a canon-branching AU where things went just a little bit further in Rosette's original seduction of Theo? How about a modern AU where they all meet through furry fandom?

I'd love to see more of Theo's adventures before d'Albert comes into the story too, or some of the parts of Rosette's life and story we never really get a chance to see, or a 3rd person bystander POV of any of it (someone else who was involved in the theatrical and is there for the drama in more ways than one?)

And speaking of bystanders there's poor old Silvio who is getting all of this dumped on him via letters but we know nothing about. What is the reaction on the Silvio homestead when the latest installment of the d'Albert story arrives in the mail? Who is he, this person d'Albert is willing to share all his innermost drama with, and what has their relationship been? (I don't not ship it if you're so inclined.) I'd also love a story where any of the other three meet Silvio - a post-canon where d'Albert shows up back home but transitioned, and/or with his new polycule would be so sweet (so would one where he shows up post-canon still a sad sack and Silvio and co have to deal with it though.) There's also possibilities with Silvio reading a letter and realizing he's met Theodore or something long before d'Albert or something like that though!

Basically there's so much in this world that I want to see expanded on, I would enjoy anything about anyone. Here is your official exception if you want to write about a non-nominated character or even general worldbuilding of the vivid but sketched-in world (this book has such an amazing sense of place for a book with such a vague setting.)

Link to (optional) Dear Yuletide Writer Letter https://melannen.dreamwidth.org/tag/fandom:yuletide

Request 6 by melannen

Fandom: Dogsbody - Diana Wynne Jones

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23 Oct 2026

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• My gift must feature all of my chosen character tags (if 0: any from tag set)

Summary

This is one of my favorite books from childhood and I've been offering it for years and never matched, so I have decided to switch to requesting. I would love any fic for this fandom. I'd love post-canon for Kathleen figuring out her new life, I'd love to see more of post-canon Sirius back out with the luminaries - has he changed? did the lessons he learned stick? - I'd love anything with Kathleen post-canon too - her life with Ms. Smith, does she ever encounter the Hunter again, what is her relationship with Sol like afterward? And the cats are fascinating, ordinary Earth creatures who get this strangeness dropped in their life and take it in stride. How did living with Sol change them? What's their POV on all this? What is it to be a cat in this world? I'd love any kind of worldbuilding too - more about the luminaries, but also more about Sol's family in his own system, and about Earth's own oddities and secrets.

I'd prefer no shipping Kathleen or the cats, but feel free to pair Sirius with any of the others.

Link to (optional) Dear Yuletide Writer Letter https://melannen.dreamwidth.org/tag/fandom:yuletide

Request 7 by melannen

Fandom: Northwoods Baseball Sleep Radio (Podcast)

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23 Oct 2026

Tags

• Worldbuilding (Northwoods Baseball Sleep Radio)

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Summary

Look I gotta admit: I fall asleep listening to this podcast, so I am not fully up on all the details of canon. I would love a fic that explores the weirdnesses of the world it's in, though. I especially like the idea that there's timeline divergences that go way back, based on tiny details like a minor-league baseball stadium in rural Michigan being named for a member of the Japanese-American citizen that lived there starting in the early 20th century. Which could mean nothing. Or could say a lot about how the history of this America is divergent going way back (which it clearly is). I visualize some kind of fictional non-fiction, maybe a special radio spot about local history that just gets slowly less like us as it goes on? But anything is good. My image of this fandom is a sort of dreamlike haze over the world but I dunno how much of that is canon and how much is how I listen to it...

I'm also a genuine fan of the weirdness of real-life small town small potatoes baseball teams though (Choccolocco Monsters go!) And I was putting myself to sleep with AM radio baseball coverage long before podcasts exist, so if you want to explore worldbuilding through the baseball that's also good.

Link to (optional) Dear Yuletide Writer Letter https://melannen.dreamwidth.org/tag/fandom:yuletide

Request 8 by melannen

Fandom: Pokemon GO

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23 Oct 2026

Tags

• GO Rocket-dan no Shitappa | Team GO Rocket Grunt

• My gift must feature all of my chosen character tags (if 0: any from tag set)

Summary

I am a casual Pokemon GO player and much much much more casual pokemon-otherwise fan, but the Team Rocket grunts in GO have so much personality for characters who have like, one npc line each? It makes me genuinely sad to defeat some of them. What is it like to have to only have shadow pokemon (and what are the pokemon like?) Who actually enjoys the hot-air balloons? Do they have teams under the leaders like the players do or is there something else going on? What's it like to have to disguise yourself as leadership? What's it like to be stationed for days at a pokestop that's, like, a random bench at a run-down gas station on the highway? Please write me anything that is deep in Pokemon Go canon specifically, about the lives or POV of any of the grunts or their relationships with each other or their interactions with the world or their pokemon (or let the Player Character actually respond to them after their defeat? Enemies to friends arc?)

Link to (optional) Dear Yuletide Writer Letter https://melannen.dreamwidth.org/tag/fandom:yuletide