Yuletide Letter 2019 (now complete!)

[ageorwizardry]

Hello! This letter has stayed the same all week so far since I completed my sign-up, but now I've finally come back and updated it with at least a little more information for all my fandoms! I hope you may find it helpful.

I love yuletide, and one of the things I love is getting wonderful things I couldn't have even expected or asked for, so please discard anything in this that may be unhelpful (and know that I have no triggers or squicks you need to avoid).

The Brothers Sinister Series - Courtney Milan
Frederica "Freddy" Barton

Request: Freddy Barton, recluse and secret adventure novelist. We see Freddy only through other people's point of view in the series, and I'd love to see her more directly. I love the way she finds to expand her world to the entire globe through her novels, even while she struggles with not being able to step outside her home in her physical life. (Shades of people today finding lifelines out of various unpleasant circumstances over the internet?) I'm interested in seeing anything you want to write about Freddy as a writer and as a person--even if it's just mundane details about her writing process :-P

Since both this and my Brothers Sinister request concern women whose lives were cruelly limited by circumstance, but who pushed against those limitations how they could, if you can see your way to some kind of crossover, that would be welcomed with interest.

A note on the potential crossover between this and the next fandom: timeline, what timeline? :-P At least we know that Freddy dies in The Heiress Effect in 1867, but I have been completely unable to figure out when The Prisoner of Zenda is supposed to take place—when it was published, easy enough, but how long after the events of the story is Rassendyl supposed to have written it..? Which is to say, if you do this, do absolutely whatever you want with the timeline. I see no obvious way for Freddy and Ma Hentzau to meet, but perhaps Ma Hentzau likes Freddy's novels? I'd be interested to see whatever you come up with! (And of course, no crossover is in fact necessary.)

Notes about the fandom source in case you are considering another fandom than the one you matched on: this character appears in the novella The Governess Affair and the novel The Heiress Effect in this romance series, and is no longer alive but is mentioned several times in The Suffragette Scandal.


The Henchmen of Zenda - K. J. Charles
Rupert Hentzau's mother (Henchman of Zenda)

Request: Rupert Hentzau's mother exists only in one glorious paragraph of this delightful book (copied below, along with some brief introduction), and now I want to know all the things about her. I love her so much: her defiance, her strength and determination, her great love of life and the world and her son. Obviously an AU where she doesn't die as in canon would be extremely relevant to my interests! But I'd also love a canon-compliant story that fleshes out her too-brief period of freedom, or anything else you like. (Is there a storyline or universe where she gets to act on a scale that's truly as grand as her spirit?).

Since both this and my Brothers Sinister request concern women whose lives were cruelly limited by circumstance, but who pushed against those limitations how they could, if you can see your way to some kind of crossover, that would be welcomed with interest.

Notes on the fandom source: this is a single novel written by the ever-delightful KJ Charles as an alternate retelling/the other side of the story/"this is the real story" of the novel The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope. It's designed to be enjoyable and comprehensible without having read The Prisoner of Zenda first, but reading them back-to-back really makes you appreciate how much better every single female character is in Charles' version!

I freaked out about this book on tumblr a bit while I was reading it, and you can find that chain of posts here.

"All the world presumes it. Rupert Hentzau flaunted his mistresses in his mother’s house. Drove her to her grave with a broken heart. It is a damned insult."

I scarcely knew what to make of this. "Given the life you intend to live, you will hear a great deal worse insults, and probably deserve them all."

"Not an insult to me. To her."

"That she died of a broken heart?" I asked, somewhat confused.

"She died of a disease of the lungs," Hentzau said. "She was married off to my father aged seventeen, when he was forty. He was old-fashioned, which is to say a brute. He circumscribed her life to nothing more than church, nursery, and drawing room, and would not let me go to school. We were all to live in his house forever, the shutters half-closed, no light, no air, puppets in his domestic dollhouse. She told me stories, though. She bought me books and hid them; she engaged tutors with imagination; she insisted I should learn to ride and secretly paid my instructors to teach me how to use a sword. I was seventeen when my father died of an apoplexy, and I thought we would both be free at last, but she was already ailing by then. It took her three years to die, and in all that time, she begged me to live for us both. She wanted the house filled with pleasure; she asked me to introduce my mistresses, and laughed at their stories, and made me promise not to marry early—as if I had not had quite enough of the domestic hearth—and she lived for tales of the life she had never been permitted to have. Broken heart, indeed. My father was the one who crushed her, not I, except that she would not be crushed. She refused a priest when she died, you know. She told me she’d had enough of God for an eternity, and laughed till she coughed blood."

Babette's Feast (1987)
Babette Hersant (Babette's Feast 1987)

Request: There's so much I'd love to discover about Babette. It seems she never seriously considered returning to Paris at all after winning the lottery (and given that she'd be returning to a city where her family was murdered, that makes perfect sense), but I'm not sure I completely understand her reasons for choosing to stay in the village with the sisters she works for. I keep turning possibilities over in my mind like turning a geode this way and that so that different facets catch the light. Clearly she loves the sisters and is loyal to them, but it's equally clear that she hungers to work at a level that she will likely never have the opportunity to do again after this, if she continues to stay. If she were offered a job more in line with her skills, say as a chef for a wealthy person, would she take it? Does she view staying in the village as a sacrifice worth making in exchange for the kindness she found there? I can't see far enough into her mind to know which of these things is most important to her, and I'd love to see your answer.

(And this is just an idea I'm throwing out--in absolutely no way required--but given that Good Omens has eaten my brain this year, I just thought I'd mention that if you happen to have any ideas involving a certain foodie angel in any way, I'd certainly be interesting in seeing what you might do with that. :-))

I rewatched this movie this summer for the first time in years, at a local dine-in movie theater that served an accompanying dinner as a special event (at least an attempt at a version of three of her courses, even if they weren't the same), and it was a magical experience that reminded me all over again of how beautiful this movie is. I have meant to write up the experience and my reactions at greater length ever since, but haven't managed it yet (and it would probably be unfair for me to try to do it after this, at least during yuletide, when I wasn't able to do it in time for this letter!). I was in tears by the end, and full of joy, and for all the talk of faith in the movie it also struck me as very humanist, with its love for the world and its physical realities and pleasures and the ways people actually are. (It made me want to reread Terry Pratchett! one of the most humanist authors I know—which is perhaps also what led to the first inkling of the idea of a possible crossover with Good Omens.) I had completely forgotten all the backstory of the sisters, and even that Babette had come to their village as a refugee after her family was killed. But I remembered her having been the chef at the famous fancy restaurant—and I remembered her explaining that the cost of a dinner at that restaurant was exactly the amount of her lottery winnings, that she had spent them all on one glorious night. (When I was on the fence about whether to go to see it at the theater, since the ticket price including the meal was significant—thinking of this line was what made me decide to go.)

And oh, what a gift that the one sister's former suitor accompanied his aunt to the meal! It's a miracle of its own to have one person at the table who previously ate at her restaurant, who can truly recognize and appreciate her achievement, and who can enjoy it and express his pleasure without being bound by the villagers' attempted vow of silence. It surprised me a bit that, as far as we see in the movie, he never spoke to Babette—she obviously knew he was appreciating the meal, but I wonder what they would have said to each other.

Source notes: this is a movie that's available for purchase on DVD and streaming.


Hustlers (2019)
Ramona Vega (Hustlers)
Destiny (Hustlers)

Request: I have so many ideas for possible stories, any one of which I'd be delighted to see! Most obviously and directly: what happens when Destiny contacts Ramona again after the end of the movie!? What about the alternate universe Ramona imagines where they knew each other when they were younger--how would things turn out differently? Their daughters are so centrally important to both of them--tell me something about their daughters as they're continuing to grow up?

This movie is something like an R-rated Leverage might be, but it's more "But then there were Actual Consequences" than Leverage tends to be. If you're familiar with Leverage, I'd be interested in a more Leverage-y take on the Hustlers story--whether as an actual Leverage crossover or just with the team somehow having more Leverage-level skills among themselves--which would have allowed them to find/vet targets and truly make sure they weren't targeting anyone who couldn't afford the losses (and possibly not get caught?).

They just love each other SO MUCH even when they're hurting each other, and I want to see more of that love. There is such strong femslashy, sisterly, found-family, and arguably even motherly (with the way Ramona takes Destiny under her wing) energy between these two, and I would be delighted for you to explore any or all of these dynamics to as full an extent as you wish to!

Some parts of the movie that meant the most to me:
- When Destiny first sees Ramona. This is shot in classic "birth of a crush" style, with such strong "do I want you or do I want to be you?" energy on Destiny's part.
- And ONE SCENE LATER they are CUDDLING IN THE SAME FUR COAT :-D
- How much Destiny and her grandmother love each other and take care of each other.
- How much the found family of Destiny, Ramona, and the rest of the team and their families love each other and take care of each other! The Christmas scene! How they stop introducing each other as co-workers and start introducing each other as sisters and it's not a new line, it's just the truth.
- Destiny telling Ramona she has to stop taking in strays, but oh honey, don't you realize that's the same impulse that led Ramona to take you under her wing in the first place?
- Destiny after that horrible night, still in her sexy work clothes, blood visible on her shirt, like a visual representation of losing control of her life, taking her daughter to school (no doubt the nice, suburban school she probably picked specifically so that her daughter could have the best possible start), absolutely refusing to show any shame in front of the other adults at the school—at least, while her daughter is with her on the way in.
- The scene outside the police station. Ramona is so furious with Destiny for taking the deal she was offered, but she understands being willing to do anything for the sake of her daughter, because how could she not. (This is the scene I was thinking of most when I said "they love each other so much even when they're hurting each other" in my prompt.)
- That one moment we get to see of Ramona's interview, and there's obviously so much more, but that's all we get to see.

Source notes: a recently released movie that may or may not still be in theaters, depending on where you are; it will apparently be released streaming November 26 and on DVD December 10


Sweeney Todd - Sondheim/Wheeler
Johanna Barker
Anthony Hope

Request: I love stories about people trying to be good to each other and take care of each other after terrible things have happened to them, and I'd love to see that with these two. While we don't know much of Anthony's background, what we know of Johanna's certainly makes it seem plausible that she may have the more traumatic background, of the two of them--still, I don't think I'd like a story with a dynamic of Anthony being the Normal Person who's here to Make Johanna Better--so feel free to invent any kind of complementary backstory for him you like. (I'm actually kind of fond of the idea that he gets depressed, for instance--and his positive outlook is a practiced defense against it. This isn't required, though; I only mention it in case the idea grabs you, too!)

Yuletide nominations were very kind to me this year! Thanks to other people's nominations, I got to both revive this request (previously requested in 2015—2015 yuletide letter here in case you're interested) and request the next fandom, which I'd previously considered but never actually been able to do!

Source notes: a musical play with an audio cast recording and DVD of the play available (and, I guess, there's the movie too :-P).


Corpse Bride (2005)
Victor Van Dort
Victoria Everglot
Emily (Corpse Bride)

Request: I distinctly remember the point in watching this movie where it looked like Victor and Victoria might both be killed, and thinking: if he'll be dead, and she'll be dead... and they barely knew each other before, and would have had to start from near-zero getting to know each other once they were married anyway... and Emily is already dead... what I mean is, I saw some really beautiful potential for a "working out how to get along in a threesome relationship in the underworld" story, and I'd love it if you could tell me that story now. :-)

I didn't get a chance to rewatch this before making my request (though I plan to before stories are revealed, just in case!), so I don't have command of the details to elaborate any further for the request or the letter, just—I just love threesomes so much, and I couldn't pass up the chance to request it for these characters! (Uh, sorry if you signed up for this not wanting to write a threesome? I usually do try to provide alternate prompt options, but in this case I'm afraid I don't have any! I do also have five other fandoms you could perhaps choose from as a backup, though? :-D)

Source notes: a movie available for purchase in the usual ways.


And Happy Yuletide!