Yuletide Exchange 2025 Letter
Oct. 23rd, 2025 06:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
azhdarchidaenDear Yuletide writer (and other interested folks),
Thank you for signing up to write for one of my fandoms! I'm azhdarchidaen on Ao3/astriiformes on tumblr and this is my second Yuletide, and my first year writing a proper letter. I hope that I can illuminate some of my likes and dislikes here to aid you in your writing!
General things I enjoy:
Back to the Future (Character requested: Marty McFly)
I have loved BttF since I was a teenager Marty's age, well over a decade ago now. I think it has such an intense grip on me as a story because it focuses on a close friendship -- though the time travel tropes/shenanigans, various perils the characters face, and other amazing characters don't hurt either. Marty is my favorite character, hence why I requested something focused on him, but I'd honestly enjoy seeing something with any of the characters in the tagset (Doc, Jennifer and/or Clara) interacting with him. I am also a huge fan of the trans!Marty headcanon (it's canon in my heart) and especially love when people do their research and think about what it would be like to be a trans man in the 1980s/other historical periods.
More specific prompts:
I've been a Dracula fan almost as long as I've been into BttF, and it's one of my go-to answers when people ask about my favorite book. Needless to say, I really enjoyed Murray Mysteries when I listened to it a while ago. The Modern AU-in-the-form-of-a-podcast trope did get a little stretched at times, but I feel like as an adaptation it gets to the heart of what I love about the characters and their friendships in a way a lot of things that tackle Dracula just don't. And as an asexual person, the fact that it has a canonically ace Jonathan Harker made me so happy! I'd love to see a story exploring his identity a little more than we get in canon. Hence this is also the one slight exception to my DNW about sexual content -- if it's something written in service of exploring Jonathan as an ace character, especially if he's a bit sex-averse/sex-repulsed, I'd actually be really into that.
More specific prompts:
A friend got me hooked on the Rivers of London series this year, actually, partially because they'd been pitching it to me for years and partially because after Nightingale was confirmed to be aro/ace, I got a lot more interested! But now that I've finally checked them out, I get it. I love the amazing worldbuilding and really all the unique and diverse characters, I love the magic system and the clever premises for all the mysteries in the series (good urban fantasy is so my jam, and RoL feels like it avoids a lot of the pitfalls that sometimes bug me with the genre), I love the Folly crew so, so much and the things the series has to say about community and support. I'd really like to read a story centered on Nightingale, and I've included a few other characters I'd love to see him interact with -- you can choose which ones or how many of them, though! And I'm also very open to the inclusion of just about anyone else, too, if it suits the story (for example, I know Dr. Walid would be a really great character to have in a casefic or a whumpier story). Also, I would very much prefer a RoL story written in first-person, like the books, whoever you choose as your narrator.
Timeline-wise, I've read almost all the books at this point, and I'm mid-way through False Value currently (and may well be caught up by the time gifts go out, but something set before that point might be a safer call). I've also read three of the novellas -- What Abigail Did That Summer, The Furthest Station, and The Masquerades of Spring -- and most of the comics up to the point I'm at in canon.
More specific prompts:
Thank you for signing up to write for one of my fandoms! I'm azhdarchidaen on Ao3/astriiformes on tumblr and this is my second Yuletide, and my first year writing a proper letter. I hope that I can illuminate some of my likes and dislikes here to aid you in your writing!
General things I enjoy:
- Platonic relationships of all sorts, especially seeing them given the same weight and diversity as romantic relationships. I like when friendships are complicated but close, I love a queerplatonic relationship, and I even enjoy relationships where it's hard to say exactly what's going on, just that it's not romantic!
- Hurt/comfort and whump. I am a huge whump fan, and not particularly squeamish about characters having a rough time (although if you are, fear not -- some good old angst is always welcome, too). This is probably my single favorite trope, if I'm being honest.
- Missing scenes or adventures -- before, during, or after canon, it's all wonderful!
- I really like stories with a little more plot, versus things on the fluffy end of the spectrum. Casefic and mysteries, dramatic rescues, canon-typical shenanigans and adventures, you name it. I like it when things get a little tense, people get hurt, and everyone has to work together to solve a problem or save a friend.
- Canon divergence! I love stories that explore what-ifs, alternate timelines, and different ways things could have gone. Especially to whumpy effect.
- Explorations of mental health issues, especially ones that are present in or informed by canon.
- Well-researched fic that explores interesting topics. I absolutely love learning something new from a story.
- I am not big on romantic content in my stories -- canon ships are fine and something I'd be perfectly happy to see explored (although it would be nice to see at least one platonic relationship highlighted in the story, too), but please no non-canon ships.
- Ditto for sexual content, with one notable fandom-specific exception I will note below.
- Second person writing -- I only like it under very specific circumstances, so for the sake of ease I'd prefer you avoid it.
- Non-canon character death. Again, something I only like under very specific circumstances.
- Soulmate AUs (yes, even platonic ones)
- Christmas fic. I know this time of year some people get very festive, but as a Jewish person, I get pretty tired of the holiday pretty fast.
Back to the Future (Character requested: Marty McFly)
I have loved BttF since I was a teenager Marty's age, well over a decade ago now. I think it has such an intense grip on me as a story because it focuses on a close friendship -- though the time travel tropes/shenanigans, various perils the characters face, and other amazing characters don't hurt either. Marty is my favorite character, hence why I requested something focused on him, but I'd honestly enjoy seeing something with any of the characters in the tagset (Doc, Jennifer and/or Clara) interacting with him. I am also a huge fan of the trans!Marty headcanon (it's canon in my heart) and especially love when people do their research and think about what it would be like to be a trans man in the 1980s/other historical periods.
More specific prompts:
- Marty dealing with the consequences/after-effects of time travel is a classic in the fandom for a reason. Maybe something where he's having a hard time adjusting, or need to rely on someone else in his life to help him?
- Canon divergence centered on a pivotal point in the trilogy is also always a good one, considering how it fits with the time travel theme.
- A time travel adventure in a time or place other than the ones we see in the movies -- especially if you, like me, love doing really niche historical research.
- Again, I love seeing Marty written as a trans guy and would love if you wove that into any of the above prompts somehow, but I would equally love a story well and truly centered on it. Would that have had any influence on how he and Doc met? Or maybe how he got together with Jennifer? Could it make things difficult for him in another historical period? If you do go this route, try to keep things a little more authentically 80s, as the 2010s/2020s trans experience is a really different one. But also, if you do, it'll make my day.
I've been a Dracula fan almost as long as I've been into BttF, and it's one of my go-to answers when people ask about my favorite book. Needless to say, I really enjoyed Murray Mysteries when I listened to it a while ago. The Modern AU-in-the-form-of-a-podcast trope did get a little stretched at times, but I feel like as an adaptation it gets to the heart of what I love about the characters and their friendships in a way a lot of things that tackle Dracula just don't. And as an asexual person, the fact that it has a canonically ace Jonathan Harker made me so happy! I'd love to see a story exploring his identity a little more than we get in canon. Hence this is also the one slight exception to my DNW about sexual content -- if it's something written in service of exploring Jonathan as an ace character, especially if he's a bit sex-averse/sex-repulsed, I'd actually be really into that.
More specific prompts:
- What is Jonathan and Mina's relationship like in this universe? How has his being ace figured into that?
- Did Dracula and/or the Girlies creep on Jonathan more than we see in canon while he was still in Dracula's castle? Was it ever in ways that, like his first encounter with the vampire women, interacted with his asexuality?
A friend got me hooked on the Rivers of London series this year, actually, partially because they'd been pitching it to me for years and partially because after Nightingale was confirmed to be aro/ace, I got a lot more interested! But now that I've finally checked them out, I get it. I love the amazing worldbuilding and really all the unique and diverse characters, I love the magic system and the clever premises for all the mysteries in the series (good urban fantasy is so my jam, and RoL feels like it avoids a lot of the pitfalls that sometimes bug me with the genre), I love the Folly crew so, so much and the things the series has to say about community and support. I'd really like to read a story centered on Nightingale, and I've included a few other characters I'd love to see him interact with -- you can choose which ones or how many of them, though! And I'm also very open to the inclusion of just about anyone else, too, if it suits the story (for example, I know Dr. Walid would be a really great character to have in a casefic or a whumpier story). Also, I would very much prefer a RoL story written in first-person, like the books, whoever you choose as your narrator.
Timeline-wise, I've read almost all the books at this point, and I'm mid-way through False Value currently (and may well be caught up by the time gifts go out, but something set before that point might be a safer call). I've also read three of the novellas -- What Abigail Did That Summer, The Furthest Station, and The Masquerades of Spring -- and most of the comics up to the point I'm at in canon.
More specific prompts:
- Casefic casefic casefic -- RoL feels like it's begging for it and I would love to see it. Come up with a creative magical mystery (maybe one that interacts with Nightingale's past somehow?) or other situation the main characters have to deal with and throw them in the deep end. This would be great for a Peter & Nightingale story, obviously, (or Peter, Nightingale, & Abigail) but might also provide a fun opportunity to include some other characters, too?
- A friendship fic with Molly and Nightingale, either when they were younger and first meeting, during or immediately after the war, or something in the aftermath of the loss of so many wizards. Honestly even something written during canon would be great, I just love the two of them and their friendship so much!
- Something about Nightingale dealing with some PTSD from the war, whether it's shortly after or set at the same time as the books, would also be really interesting. It'd be cool if you could weave it into a larger plot, but even just some classic angst or hurt/comfort would be great.
- A story exploring Nightingale's asexuality/aromanticism would also make me so happy. I tend to like it when acefic/arofic are woven into a larger story, as opposed to just a coming-out scene, but also, Nightingale's so private about his life that I think even just something with him talking to Peter or Abigail about his feelings on sex/romance could be really fun.
