Yuletide 2019

[greygerbil]

Dear Yuletide Writer,

I'm greygerbil on AO3, thank you for writing for me! Right from the start, I want to say you don’t have to do anything with my prompts, they’re just there in case you want some ideas. If it has my character and avoids my DNWs I’m sure I’ll enjoy it! All ratings are great. I included a list of my general likes and smut likes which apply to all my requests. When it comes to kinks, you can include anything not listed under my DNWs; point to this part of the letter if someone asked if I opted in, I like a lot of stuff.

Some prompts may read like ideas for longer fics, but if you’re interested in them, please just grab a scene with the general idea out of the middle of those hypothetical longfics and write me that! I love fic of all length and don’t want anyone to feel like they have to go above the minimum word count. I just get excited writing prompts sometimes, heh.

Considering the number of canons I have where you slaughter your way through untold heaps of NPCs, I should also point out I generally have no problem with gore, blood, and graphic violence.

Table of Contents

DNWs
Likes
Smut Likes
Assassin’s Creed: Stentor
Vampyr: Sean Hampton
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines: Mercurio
Stanton & Barling: Aelred Barling

DNWs and Likes

DNWs

• permanent death of requested characters (they can die temporarily and come back to life, though)


• infidelity


• unrequested open relationships/poly for requested characters


• unrequested ships for requested characters (however, past unrequested relationships are fine to include)


• noncon, dubcon (canonical instances of sexual abuse can be included/described/discussed, though)


• completely unhappy endings (vaguely hopeful or bittersweet is fine, just not full dark)


• smut involving underage characters (under 18)


• cross-gen incest


• ageplay, diaper play, daddy or mommy kink


• scat, emetophilia


• necrophilia, cannibalism/debilitating mutilation of requested characters for sexual pleasure, all the way through, vore


• crackfic (humour is great, just not complete randomness)


• high school/college AUs (other modern AUs are okay)


• 1st and 2nd person POV

Likes

• UST (and also eventual resolving of UST)


• friends to lovers, enemies to lovers, enemies to friends to lovers, friends with benefits to romance


• complicated people in love with each other, even if it’s not always easy


• battle couples fighting together


• loyalty kink


• admiring competence/skill


• sparring


• protectiveness


• possessiveness


• hurt/comfort


• fluff


• mpreg, kidfic


• close friendships


• fic focusing on relationship with siblings or parents


• angst


• arranged marriage turning into marriage of love, characters pretending to be in a relationship falling in love


• tough characters being driven to their breaking point


• character who is suffering trying to soldier through


• hurt character trying to comfort distressed person who is helping them


• one partner manhandling the other


• focus on height differences if applicable


• PWP


• Soulmate AUs, played straight or averted


• I also enjoy A/B/O AUs. I prefer my requested characters as omegas, their partners (if there are any) can be alphas or betas. For mpreg childbirth, feel free to give them new genitalia to manage it or just have an anal birth or a Caesarian.

Smut Likes

• rough sex


• slow, loving sex


• marking with biting and love bites, scratch marks, bruises


• overstimulation


• focus on hands, fingering, handjobs


• intercrural


• oral


• anal


• rimming


• body worship


• first times (in general, or with that partner, or with a partner of that gender)


• BDSM, D/s, honour bondage


• general playing around with dominance, one character calling the shots very clearly, or both challenging each other during sex, fighting for control


• however, I also love smut that is just really vanilla and fluffy and gentle


• for vampires (and humans who don’t do lasting damage to each other): bloodplay

Assassin’s Creed: Stentor

I love Stentor. He is so angry, so jealous of Alexios/Kassandra, so worried that he will not live up to what his father wants of him. I’m interested in anything, from his childhood to his youth training under Nikolaos to his adult life.

• Is Stentor of Spartan by birth or is a he a trophimos, an outsider’s child fostered in the Spartan agoge, who is adopted into Spartan citizenship, or a syntrophos, a helot child training with the boys of the agoge after being adopted by a Spartan, who has to prove his skill to gain Spartan citizenship? Whichever it is, he never mentions any other family and seems desperately attached to Nikolaos, so my headcanon is that he either doesn’t know them well/at all, they died early, or they treated him badly. I love me some hurt/comfort, so any reflection on that would be great.


• Anything about his relationship with Nikolaos would be nice, as Stentor is obviously deeply attached to his adoptive father and Nikolaos, despite his hard shell, seems to care for him, too. I have a whole letter section with prompts about Stentor’s childhood around Nikolaos, should you be interested in that sort of thing. I’d also love stories about Stentor’s relationship to his father now that he’s grown, though. Does he feel betrayed in any way that Nikolaos never told him he wasn’t dead? Is Stentor worried that now that the (coincidentally way stronger, basically godlike) real kids of Nikolaos turned up again, he’ll not be needed anymore?


• Stentor was obviously stressed as hell in Boeotia and didn’t feel like he had the trust of the kings after apparently inheriting Nikolaos’ position as leader of the armies of Sparta. It’d be great to see him giving his best to live up to Nikolaos’ memory and maybe someone acknowledging he’s not doing as bad as he seems to fear he is.


• Generally, I’d love to see Stentor leading his soldiers, pulling off some cool manoeuvre or turning a fight around. Maybe he even works together with Alexios/Kassandra to do it! (But I’d like it if he wasn’t completely outclassed, lol, even if maybe it feels that way to him at first.)


• Stentor seems to be pretty constantly angry at least in Boeotia, but then, he does have a good reason to be pissed at Alexios/Kassandra. Before he knows who the main character is in Megaris, and if they convince him they’re truly here for Sparta, he can actually be downright companionable in his own slightly prickly way. So what is he like with people who don’t trigger his jealousy and whom he doesn’t suspect of having killed his father? What relationships does he have with his soldiers, his neighbours, the men of his syssitios, his fellow polemarchs, the kings? Who are his closest battle companions? I’m not really interested in Stentor with an eromenos, but maybe there are younger soldiers who look up to Stentor, or he’s even collected an orphan of his own and thinks about adopting?


• Also, Stentor developing a brotherly relationship with one or both of his siblings would be a lot of fun. Maybe he can find some of the advantages of not being an only child anymore? Alexios/Kassandra would make a good protective older sibling if need be considering they have the power of the gods (or perhaps Stentor could help them with something, like a cult lead, even if grudgingly so). And Deimos and Stentor might actually find a connection, too; sure, they went at each other like two angry cats, but that might just mean they’ve got common ground.


• I also ship Stentor with Alexios and in a threesome with Alexios and Brasidas. Here is a link to some general prompts for those pairings, and two links in case you’re interested in AUs for Alexios/Stentor or AUs for the threesome, as well as kidfic prompts for the pairing and the threesome and marriage tropes for both. I also like Lysander as a possible partner for Stentor – imagine the sparks between these two hotheads – and Stentor and Brasidas by themselves. Is Stentor worried Alexios is going to take Brasidas from him, since they’re obviously such good friends?


• If you wanna write Stentor in a romantic relationship with an OC or another NPC, I’d prefer if it was a man. Let your imagination run wild! As long as they have a chance at a happy ending and are both of age, I’m down for pretty much anything. What sort of guy, other than the ones I already brought up, might sweep him off his feet, or at least get his attention? Is it a fellow soldier, or maybe a Spartan man taken out of the fight by an injury who now does other tasks than going to war? Maybe someone not Spartan altogether, but a local resistance fighter loyal to the Spartan cause or one of the non-Spartan inhabitants from Spartan lands, a perioikoi fighting alongside the Spartan warriors or perhaps doing a totally different job? Whatever you come up with would be fun! I’m fine with historically more accurate views on such a relationship or an AU where they could officially get married and stuff.


• Did Stentor have an erastes? How did they meet and why did he pick Stentor? Was Nikolaos alright with the relationship or did he have to be convinced? What’s Stentor’s relationship to his former erastes now – are they friends or maybe still secretly dating despite Stentor’s age now being too advanced for that to still be considered appropriate? (I would like it if Stentor is at least 18 years old when they started their thing, which would be kinda late historically, though not without precedent, but it’s not like AC: Odyssey is one hundred per cent accurate, anyway.) An OC would be great here, but I could also see Brasidas in that role.


• If you’re inclined to write smut, I generally prefer bottom Stentor, though I’m also interested in explorations of how he might get to a point where he even allows that to happen (which would obviously include top Stentor). After all, bottoming had its own stigma back in those times, especially for a proud Spartan warrior, unless the top was their erastes. But I’m also just as happy for pure PWP where most issues have already been worked through.

Vampyr: Sean Hampton

Sean is such an interesting character and I just really need to know more about him, his dealings with both his flocks, the residents of the East End Docks, Old Bridget, potential love interests... There’s just so much we only learned about him in hints and asides. It’s clear he’s touched the lives of many people around him and it would be great to see that elaborated on.

• How did Sean end up opening a night asylum, anyway?


• Sean met Old Bridget and her flock when he was still a human being. How did he arrive at the very charming but possibly not totally church-supported idea that these rotting zombie vampires are also God’s children? How did he get Old Bridget’s attention in the first place? I’m also here for their acquaintance (or friendship) at any point over the years, from their first meetings to when Sean himself has been changed into a Skal.


• Just generally Sean interacting with the people of the docks or in his shelter, either as a human or later when he’s a vampire and has to hide a little more.


• Sean being confronted with someone from his past at the orphanage who does not mean him well and either the people of the East End Docks or Old Bridget (or Jonathan if it’s after he’s turned) coming to his help and in the process reminding him that he’s not as alone anymore as he was when he fled Dublin at fifteen.


• Adjust the timeline a little bit so that Mary doesn’t kill anyone right after Sean is cured, but comes to confront him instead. Can he perhaps help Mary to accept what she has become? Convince her that Jonathan did not mean to hurt her (after all, he felt how easy it is to slip up himself before he was cured, he was certainly already on a downwards path, too)?


• Generally, I’d also like Sean to meet NPCs not from his district – whoever you think might be interesting. I have a feeling he’d get along really well with Dorothy Crane, for example, and some of the Whitechapel people could certainly need his help. Maybe, since he’s generally practicing a brand of Christianity that seems cheerfully detached from any church, he could in his status as sort-of-priest marry Oswald and Newton. Just anything like that.


• Sean has to reveal himself to protect one/some of his flock from a monster attack. What happens next?


• I ship Sean with Jonathan, Geoffrey, and both of them at the same time. Prompts for all three options are here if you’d like to see them. However, I also think a romance with Tom Watts could be a lot of fun – they’re both district caretakers in their own ways, after all. A male OC, maybe an Ekon or Skal or even Vulkod who became curious about him or needed his help, or even something like a well-meaning union member, would also be great. Hell, maybe he had a long-term OC boyfriend who got wrapped up in the whole vampire thing as well while trying to help Sean and now they both have to figure out their new natures. For smut, I enjoy bottom Sean. He can be any sexuality you want, but I’m not really interested in reading about a het romance with him.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines: Mercurio

When you meet the seer at the beach, she tells you there’s just two people you can trust: Beckett and Mercurio. I always thought it was really interesting that LaCroix’s ghoul of all people was on that short, short list. Besides that, he’s just a nice and fun guy that I always like talking to. He is one of the side characters, though, so I’d be happy to know more about him and what the world of darkness is like for a ghoul who has a fair few years of experience.

• So why exactly can’t Mercurio go back to New York, anyway? What happened there?


• Why was Mercurio turned into a ghoul and how did it come about? LaCroix/Mercurio is great, but not necessary, I just mainly want to know how the Waterloo Ventrue picked up this wise-guy type.


• I don’t know if this is a bug or just a convenience for weapon acquisition or an actual character beat, but Mercurio doesn’t turn on you when LaCroix calls the blood hunt – you can still go to him and go through the usual dialogue tree and buy guns (unless you’ve deliberately pissed him off before). I assume he must know what’s going on if all of Santa Monica does, so what makes him decide not to join in on hunting the Fledgling?


• So Mercurio and the Anarchs in Hollywood, that relationship is kind of interesting. He seems to know and like Romero (pretty sure he says he’s a customer of his at some point), which is interesting, since Romero is an Anarch’s ghoul and Mercurio belongs to the Camarilla via LaCroix. But then again Mercurio also seems to respect Isaac Abrams, so what’s that about, anyway? Isaac ghouling him away from LaCroix could be interesting, too, especially in showing how vampires play with mortals.


• I’m absolutely here for Mercurio, Romero, Knox, and Heather (and maybe even Vandal) having to work together, in some combination or all of them as a big team. Ghouls unite!


• Despite his ghoul powers, Mercurio is about to die after an attack by Faction Of Your Choice. Who saves his life (in a manner of speaking) by turning him and why? What does Mercurio think about it?


• I like Mercurio, so him rapidly aging and possibly dying after the ending is a sad prospect to me. However, I don’t think a ghoul like him would have to go begging for a new master; he is pretty damn convenient, the way he can pull any weapon of choice out of thin air eventually. Who picks him up and is it against his will – the Fledling, an Anarch, an OC, some other character? What does it feel like to switch masters for a ghoul, anyway?


• I’m not super interested in Mercurio in a romance with a woman, but feel free to pair him up with any guy you like. LaCroix is an obvious choice, as is a Male Fledgling, who might like Mercurio as being one of the few people not actively trying to put a knife in his back. Romero or Knox as fellow ghouls could make fun partners. Feel free to make up a male OC, too – VtM is such an interesting world with tons of clans and character possibilities, after all. What is romance like if the person Mercurio dates is not his regnant? Are two ghouls in a romance acutely aware of the fact that they’d each betray their lover for their master? Would a vampire lover try to make Mercurio switch over or turn him? And what does romance add to the relationship between ghoul and regnant?


• Smut is always fun! Some preference for bottom Mercurio. Maybe some vampire guy shows him how Kindred have sex? Or he tests out his new physical limits together with another ghoul?

Stanton & Barling: Aelred Barling

Aelred Barling is so likeable to me, despite his stiffness and at times haughty attitude, and his backstory and position in the society he lives in are really quite tragic. Mostly, I’m interested in a story in which he gets to be happy – whether it is by solving a difficult case, through his friendship with Stanton, or a romance, or simply through being allowed to shut himself up with some riveting legal documents for a day instead of having to trek through the muddy countryside!

• Barling being his proto-detective self, solving a case or helping someone, whether it’s an actual murder or something smaller, perhaps even private.


• This probably is an exception from the happy prompts, but what was Barling’s return to England like after Paris? What did his former friends, his family – if he has any – think of the new version of him? Do they think he has just grown up or do some people suspect something must have happened to make him this way? And what is it like for Barling to change into this quite different person?


• I ship Barling with Stanton, so in case that appeals to you, here is a link to a letter with prompts!


• However, I am also interested in them growing their friendship because I liked that despite the fact that Stanton doesn’t have an interest in men in the books, he was quite understanding and didn’t judge Barling. Once a bit of time passes, I could see him growing even more comfortable with it and perhaps his ease of handling the topic will make Barling open up a little, too.


• Generally, Stanton and Barling interacting is always a lot of fun. I love how well they work together and how they squabble. I’d love to see them working on a case, or Barling giving Stanton another lesson, or Stanton teaching Barling how to ride, or them simply enjoying some time together.


• I’m also totally here for Barling meeting an OC man who can pull him out of his self-chosen celibacy and convinces him that their affection for each other is not a sin. What kind of person might appeal to him? Would Stanton play wingman and try to nudge Barling towards giving love another go? Is Barling worried, even outside of his religious hang-ups, that he can’t trust his feelings, considering his last choice in lover ended so badly? For smut, I prefer bottom Barling.