Yuletide 2023

[tailcoat]

This is the Yuletide 2023 letter for Labocat on AO3 - I'm so glad we've made it this far and thank you so much for signing up and I hope we matched on something you're excited about! I did a lot of re-reading old favorites this year so there's a lot of returning requests, it all feels very throwback, haha.

In General: I’m really happy with anything! I'm good with all ratings, as well as with all takes on most tropes I enjoy, whether it be straight or subversive or somehow finagling it to fit a canon you wouldn't expect to find it in.

Please feel free to take the general tropes as all-purpose prompts for all fandoms and characters!


Some tropes I adore that are relevant (non-comprehensive):

- pining (preferably mutual and resolved, but I am not at all picky)
- hurt/comfort and whump (assorted fave freeforms from h/c exchange: accepting injury to protect someone, trapped together while one is injured, character pushes themselves too hard while injured and relapses, character doesn't realize how hurt they are until they collapse (bonus: other character catching them as they do so), carrying hurt character)
- alternate PoVs of scenes
- pre-canon backstory
- curtainfic/established relationship
- casefic
- fake relationship/arranged marriage/accidentally married/accidental confessions
- found family
- enemies/rivals to lovers (also friends to lovers)
- secret relationships/friendships
- reincarnation/fated/soulbonds
- trapped somewhere together/canadian shack/huddling for warmth
- loyalty
- magically bonded together (either physically or telepathically)
- redemption or corruption
- road trips
- the 90s anime onsen episode
- pollen/aphrodisiacs (sex or truth, but oh man, forced to choose between sex and truth pollen is especially good)
- sharing a bed, either by choice or circumstance
- focus on scars/wounds(recent or old), field surgery or first aid
- blood, just anything involving blood, whether it be biting, injuries, crying blood, smearing blood on people's faces IDC IT'S ALL GOOD
- timeloops (one-day loop, upon (temporary) character death or anything, really!)
- canon-typical cannibalism/bloodplay/vore ideation
- canon-typical body horror

Smut likes: I really enjoy size difference, blindfolds, light bondage, orgasm denial/delay, sex pollen or aphrodisiacs, messy/sloppy sex, desperate sex, intercrual, oral, semi-public sex (like in a closet or alley), praise kink, service kink, size kink, sensory deprivation, breathplay, toys (especially hidden plugs/vibes), marking/possessiveness, overstimulation, body worship, slow, drawn-out sex that can really tie in with the aforementioned body worship, or awkward first times.
Extra Optional: dubcon, vore/gore, tentacles and xenophilia, oviposition, comeplay, come inflation, heats and a/b/o, bloodplay, threesomes/moresomes, double/multiple penetration, degradation, non-con body mods.


DNWs: Permanent major character death (temporary is fine), story focus on real-life illnesses (canon-esque illness or canon-typical focus is fine, but no further), pregnancy/kids as major plot focus

Also, past letters are fair game to check if I've requested a fandom before! I've requested a few of these before in different exchanges, and while what I ask for may have shifted, I'm still interested for the same reasons and in for similar prompts, especially for freeform exchanges.

All of my canons have been put up for Yuleporn, and some are up for Crueltide - some canon-specific details/more prompts are at the bottom of each request, but as always, those are non-restrictive and non-comprehensive, just guidelines! Please feel free to use them as inspiration as well!



A Charm of Magpies
Shades of Magic
Nancy Drew
Link Click
Tokyo Babylon



A Charm of Magpies:
Ned Hall, Crispin Tredarloe
How to Consume:Rag and Bone and its prequel A Queer Trade are the most relevant books here, but any other cameos from the Charm of Magpies world are welcome, especially from Jackdaw!

Historical fantasy is such a weakness of mine and I just absolutely fell in love with this spin-off. I love the concept of graphomancy, and I love characters who have a type of magic that falls outside of the standard rules and methods and so have to create their own path, so I was doomed from the start.

I’ll admit, after finishing Rag and Bone, I have been thinking about if Ned and Crispin have to, as part of a case as judiciary, go to Cornwall, with Crispin starting to slipping back into Cornish and childhood habits and alternately more comfortable and more awkward with his magic surrounded by familiar things and trying to prove that he’s succeeded to people who have known him as a child (while having to hide his magic and his job and his boyfriend). Bonus points if at some point along the way they run into Ben and Jonah (because I would put good odds on the part of Cornwall Crispin is from being close to where Ben and Jonah ended up because their lives have already mingled and why not) and they bond over being on slightly the wrong side of the law and finding refuge in Cornwall and in general seeing each other again and realizing how their timelines overlapped.

But that’s my super specific request! Otherwise I think that Ned and Crispin’s relationship is wonderful and adorable. Nicknames! Each thinking the other is wildly successful and amazing (despite not thinking they themselves are all that)! Ned being grumpy about suddenly being magical! Graphomancy! Being recruited precisely because they’re oddities (which fits so nicely into my love of what a character thinks of as a weakness others see as their strength)! I think it’s really charming that Ned’s talent was one for hearing to begin with when Crispin absolutely lacks it - they complement each other so well and I loved seeing them play off of that to solve problems. I think Ned would still take a lot of time to get used to have more than a flit’s talent, so maybe Crispin helping him deal with it or finding a way to use his hearing in a way that is actually nice and pleasing rather than stressful from all the noise of London. Their first run (or few runs as they fumble through!) as justiciary would be so neat to see as well!

Crueltide coda: Lighter fare here, but absolutely okay with a job going wrong: we've seen practitioners hungry for power summon all sorts of things that would be a nightmare to deal with or to have go wrong. Bodily possession has also already come up and been a concern, so please feel free to play with that! Also it's canon that flits who get a taste for power are highly susceptible to getting addicted to magic and wanting more and we know that Ned's father was an alcoholic, so there's some open doors for magical addiction or for Crispin to be concerned about it.

Yuleporn coda: INTERCRUAL. that is all. (no, actually I'm here for just about anything - if you can find some way to bring graphomancy into play during, I would love you forever, but also I am always here for more intercrual)


Nancy Drew:
Carson Drew, Ryan Hudson
How to Consume: Available on HBO Max and the CW

So a friend told me I needed to watch the CW Nancy Drew series and I was dubious. But I watched it with bad movie friends and am now OBSESSED. It's chaotic in the most hilarious and exhausting way and once it starts going, reaches new peaks of WTF. But almost nothing will compare to Carson and Ryan having to co-parent, with Ryan trying to be "the cool dad" while still having just fucked one of Nancy's best friends and having flirted with Nancy as well. And then there's Carson, trying to deal with Nancy's outbursts and "you're not my real dad" and suddenly having to parent multiple adults. And THEN there's Ryan leaning in to SMELL Carson cooking him breakfast. And we're not even talking about Ace getting involved. Or the fact that they both just kind of shrug and go "yeah sure" when Nancy comes in and goes "hey I need to hold a seance to summon a demon in the house so we can swap souls because George is possessed by a French lesbian ghost and a demon I fought when I was 8 is in a child's toy and my ancestor who bathed in my blood to stay young is trying to open a hole in the backyard" I CANNOT TELL YOU HOW MUCH I LOVE THIS SHOW. It's ridiculous.

I just want them failing at parenting in this ghost-ridden, magic-overrun town, where your coworkers will lock you in the walk-in freezer as the closest thing to horny jail that they can find because you got possessed by a sex pollen wedding dress. There's absolutely no way they could ever control any of the people or happenings in this town, but they are doing their best. They are both very much doing their best and trying their best, but how do you navigate all the interpersonal stuff with all of the supernatural stuff interrupting you? The issues of trying to figure out how to be a family and where to go from here seem small when compared to saving the town, but it's what they've got (and since Nancy never tells them anything...).

Yuleporn coda No one in this show is particularly subtle when they've fucked someone, but maybe Ryan and Carson (and Ace if you want to include him) have to try to hide it at first, since there are a lot of people living under the Drew roof for a while. Or bring back the sex pollen dress! Or really, any artifact that you want to utilize, or make one up! I'm here for a good time, not a sensical one.



Shades of Magic
Characters:Holland
How to Consume: Amazon or anywhere you get books!

As of this writing, I have just started Fragile Threads of Power and will not be done by the time signups are closed, so requests won't reflect anything in that book. I may update the letter section if inspired, but otherwise feel free to ignore its existence.

Even though I requested characters, I love the worldbuilding potential of this book and would be more than happy to receive something just related to it - there’s so much to be explored in both the magic and the politics the occur from both inter and intra-world dynamics! I love how each character (and each London) has been shaped by their distance from the magic center and what London they occupy and the sort of shifts we get to see when they’re faced with new elements. Each of the Londons has a different relationship with magic due to their distance from the center, but what could have happened if any of the characters were from a different London, or the Londons were in a different order radiating outward? What if Kell or Holland were an Antari of other Londons? Has anyone ever been trapped in a different London during their early days learning their Antari powers? The Antari are a dying breed and Kell was brought quickly to the court - did the royals have people out searching for Antari to bind them to the crown even before they started dying out? Were they in the monasteries instead? Under a guise of "education"? How did the magic system evolve so differently in some of the cities other than London? From what we see in Red London and the cast’s expedition in Conjuring, the Antari aren't well understood by any of the other countries, so what happened to cause a split? There's so much to explore!

Athos Dane had it right - Holland just suffers so beautifully, and he just has such strong dynamics with every single character, whether it be deep hatred, loyalty, or a resigned sort of hope. I do ship Kell and Holland, so I would love anything with the two of them, especially a fix-it where they get to keep their Antari powers or continue living as the opposite sides of Antari coins in different Londons. Any sort of missing scene between them at any point during the books would be welcome, or any time they ran into each other beforehand! Beforehand is especially alluring because I love the idea of all the different ways their interactions could have gone under the power shift from Vortalis to the Danes, and how much was apparent even in just Holland's interactions with Kell. (I also love the loyalty between Holland and Vortalis, so if you want to play with that, please feel free!) I love Holland teaching Kell spells he hadn't known before, and the difference in how they both interact with and treat Osaron, driven by Holland's hope for better and knowledge that you don't get something without sacrifice, his resignation to self-sacrifice that runs throughout the third book.

I’ll also admit to being really into the bloodplay possibilities of Antari magic - the Danes drinking Holland’s blood in front of Kell was what catapulted me to Twitter to start to recruit friends to read the book. What if Kell had accepted the glass? Or if Athos hadn’t offered him anything else? What if they’d forced Holland to stay and watch while Kell drank it? Does Antari blood have a certain allure/affect on other Antari? The compulsive brand on Holland is also really alluring and I am very okay with him being coerced into doing things he normally wouldn’t do in regards to Kell.

Crueltide coda: As I mentioned, I'm extremely interested in the bloodplay or magical compulsion torture potential in the magic system. The Danes fill an easy noncon/dubcon niche here, but I am equally okay with any other character giving or receiving; Osaron would be good for non-con body takeover, for example.

Yuleporn coda: I half want to just c&p my Crueltide coda back in here, but bloodplay in a nice way, or even just letting Holland have some good memories, either before or while everything goes wrong, or loyalty kink for Holland and Vortalis!

Link Click:
Lu Guang, Cheng Xiaoshi
How to Consume:

Both of them would go back in time and fuck up the timespace continuum and break the future for each other, I'm not okay.

I really love how perfectly Lu Guang and Cheng Xiaoshi's powers complement each other - how did they figure that out? It's clear Lu Guang has more control and more knowledge about his own powers, and given the twins, powers themselves aren't common, but also clearly aren't absolutely unheard of, especially with Qiao Ling's easy acceptance of their powers (and her own???? maybe????), so please feel free to really dig into the worldbuilding side there! Why does Lu Guang know so much more? Has he lived this life over before? I'd also love any exploration of how both of their "I would literally rewrite the future for you" feelings developed (whether or not they actually realize that's what those feelings are until push comes to shove, and while I do ship them, I see this as much stronger platonic feelings than romantic re: the whole "you must survive"). Lu Guang also moved into the photo shop pretty quickly - we know a lot more about Cheng Xiaoshi and Qiao Ling's childhoods, but Lu Guang is still a man of mystery - what were either their college days or early lives living together like? Lighter hijinks along the lines of the shorts would be super cute.

I'm also super here for a casefic - while I loved S2, I did kind of miss the case-of-the-week photo trips; they always got me crying and I feel like we got to spend more time with the main trio. As mentioned in my general likes, I do love both a fun time loop and a fucked up one, and this canon feels perfect for either of those.

Yuleporn coda: TBD

Crueltide coda: Time gets FUCKED. UP. We've already had a number of death scares for the main trio (and possible successes???)

Tokyo Babylon:
Sumeragi Subaru, Sakurazukamori Seishirou
How to Consume:

Fandom specific DNW: setting-change AUs (i.e. don't take them out of Tokyo for an AU). Hokuto's death does not count against my general death DNW (i.e. no need to avoid it).

I cannot even describe how intrinsically this series rewrote my brain chemistry 20 years ago. It's a beautiful mix of dense, complex topics and light-hearted hopes for the future, of character-driven cases and how we come to terms with all of the ways we are changed by our surroundings, both human and inhuman. The way that every single character has impact on everyone around them and the way that Tokyo is almost as much of a character as any of the human ones. The balance between living for others and living for yourself, the inability to live completely selflessly in a selfish society, that sympathy and empathy can only go so far in a ruthless world that is constantly moving forward but are still intrinsically necessary and we would be lost without them. I love the balance between Seishirou and Subaru and how they always were magnetic opposites in so many ways but in other ways, are the only ones who can understand each other and will always be important enough in each others lives to destroy themselves in an attempt for connection, drawing together through all of the pain. I would honestly be fine with just about anything here - navel-gazing introspection, casefic, treatises on society, soft moments that are all the more heartbreaking for knowing what's coming, time loops, idk. Basically my entire general likes list ties back to this series somehow and like eating a favorite food, any repetition of variations on it is always welcome.

Yuleporn coda: You know Hokuto would have bought them novelty condoms, it's fine. Subaru tearing up every time he sees a condom kiosk because he never used the one his sister gave him.

On a more serious note, I don't think I could buy anything happy or fluffy if sex is involved, given all of the lying pre-death or trauma post-death, so this is almost intrinsically linked with the crueltide coda and I would like to ask against the narrative pretending everything is okay if you go an explicit route and want to set it pre-reveal. Theirs is a tragic love, after all, but I also trust anyone offering this is also here for that tragedy.

Crueltide coda: GESTURES WILDLY AT EVERYTHING. YEAH. GO FOR IT. Possessiveness as love, gaslighting, kidnapping, blood, guilt, trauma, dead bodies, ghosts, let's go.