Just Off the Key of Reason

Dearest Darlingist Yuletide Author,

I promise I will like anything you write me because it will be for me, in one of the tiny fandoms of my heart. And they are all tiny fandoms of my heart. There is little or no fic for any of my requested fandoms, so I can promise I will be equally thrilled by stories for any of them.

This year all my requests are for books or book series with canon queer relationships, but I’m also quite happy with gen in any of these fandoms, as long as the canon relationships remain intact. Several of my requested characters are bisexual (and one is in a canon het relationship), and I’m happy to have that aspect of their character/sexuality addressed in any fic you write.

I read het, slash, gen and poly fic pretty much indiscriminately, with a particular passion for poly fic, especially poly-fic about non-closed relationships. However, this year my requests have ended up being entirely about male or non-binary characters.

On the AO3 I’m FairestCat.

I’m most active fannishly these days here and on twitter, where I’m also fairestcat.

Also, I realize the below is A LOT of optional details, because I have too many thoughts and feelings about these fandoms, but optional details are optional, feel free to use or discard this information as you see fit.

Things I Love: queerness, polyamory, found family, emotional intimacy, friends to lovers, friends with benefits to lovers, enemies to lovers, age differences, shifting power dynamics, emotional h/c, AUs of any variety, time travel, future-fic, characters who are bad at feelings, relationship negotiations, trope subversion, cultural differences, class differences, self-destructive tendencies, unusual/experimental prose style (epistolary fic, interactive fiction, documents, etc.), moral ambiguity, loyalty, first times, banter, snark, historical details, unreliable narrators, trust, political maneuvering, unusual mythology, competence, porn with plot

Smutty Thing I Love: D/s, bondage, rough sex, orgasm delay/denial, edging, multiple orgasms, body worship, possessiveness, fisting, double-penetration, face-fucking, fingering, dirty talk, praise kink, strength kink, sex toys, biting, bruising, voyeurism, angry sex, pain play, humiliation kink, wall sex, consent play, partially-clothed sex, dub-con, rape roleplay, strength kink, spanking, gang bangs, overstimulation, a/b/o heats, impact play

Things I DNW: infidelity, jealousy presented as romantic, body horror, non-sexual humiliation, embarrassment, character death, unhappy endings, food kink, medical kink, mpreg, watersports, scat, vore, monogamous soulmates/soulbonds, public sex, animal harm, disparaging previous romantic/sexual partners, we're not gay we just love each other, bisexual erasure, non-con, knotting, daddy kink (except in limited amounts in Scientific Method Universe)


Gun To My Head - Dira Lewis - Dominic, Sin Nombre

Some of my detailed thoughts on this book are on Goodreads.

For this request I'd welcome fic about Sin and Dominic together or fic that focuses on just one of them.

This book just pushes SO many of my buttons. I love the age difference. I love how the balance of power in Sin and Dominic’s relationship shifts constantly throughout the book. I’m absolutely fascinated by the mythology of this universe and the politics of the vampire courts. But more than anything else I’m just completely in love with Dominic.

Brave, beautiful, foolhardy, impossible, trusting Dominic. I want SO MANY stories about Dominic.

I would love to see what happens to Dominic directly after the events of the book. His mom’s no longer in a coma, yay! So, how exactly does he explain the vampire boyfriend he acquired and moved into their basement while she was in the hospital? I’m sure that’s going to go over great. Just like his mom will be thrilled to hear how much school he was skipping even before he met said vampire.

More generally, I’d love to see the evolution of Dominic and Sin’s relationship in the future. What are they like six months on after Dominic’s finished school. In five years? Ten? Their relationship has survived a serious trial by fire, but the day-to-day stuff still takes work and Sin’s now dependent on Dominic to a degree that can’t always be easy for both of them.

Alternately, I’d also be really interested in some Sin backstory about being a queer man in pre-Quiet Revolution Quebec and how that made him vulnerable to vampiric seduction.


Peter Darling - Austin Chant - Peter Pan

This is one of the best books I’ve read in the last several years, I am just completely in love with it. I don’t have many explicit prompts here, because I’m still mostly in the incoherent flailing stage of my love.

One of the things I love most is exactly how much of an asshole Peter is for much of the book. He has perfectly good reasons, it makes sense for him to be that way, but he has such a serious case of toxic masculinity poisoning. I’d like to see some follow-through on that now that Peter has left Neverland again. Peter has never lived openly as Peter outside the power-fantasy that is Neverland, I’d love to see something about that adjustment.

That’s what I most want really, the afterwards. I’d love to see some part of Peter and James building their life together after Neverland.


Scientific Method Universe - Kris Ripper - Hugh Reynolds, Truman Jennings, Will Derrie

As of writing this letter I have read all the main series, but not all the Beach House stories, but I plan to have caught up on those before Yuletide goes live. I’m a supporter of zir Patreon, so I have access to and plan to be caught up on all the various short stories as well. I’ve reviewed everything on Goodreads as I read it, and you can read my thoughts on the individual books there. (Link is to a folder: click "view (with text)" in the last column of each entry to see my review)

This is the queer, kinky, poly, found family series of my HEART. I love the realistic depiction of a variety of poly relationships. I love the kink, and the way the kink is not pasted on, but is rather an integral part of the characters and their relationships. I love the positive portrayal of Hugh’s past as a sex worker. And most of all I love that they are all a weird, queer, kinky family, who take care of each other and protect each other and lean on each other and just *hearteyes*

I asked for Hugh and Truman and Will, because the thing I’m most interested in is the evolution of Will and Hugh and Truman’s relationships, both in individual pairs and all three together. I also really love Will/Molly, so inclusion of Molly is entirely welcome. I also like Hugh’s friendship with Lucy, and Will’s friendship with Adam and Beccs, and I’m quite fond of Ally, so I'd welcome inclusion of any of them, as long as the main focus of the story stays on Hugh/Truman/Will.

I’m open to non-porny fic for this fandom, but I admit part of the appeal of this series for me is the degree to which the biggest character and relationship development happens around/within the sex scenes. I love plotty porn, and these books are the ultimate in plotty porn.

I don’t really have many prompts, so much as favorite emotional beats in the series that I’d love to see a bit more about:

My favorite part of the entire series is how long it takes Will to clue into the fact that Hugh and Truman are not just “the boyfriends”, they’re his boyfriends. And by “favorite”, I mean “makes me want to facepalm forever”.

That thing where Hugh is great at psychoanalyzing everyone else (especially Will), but completely shit at recognizing what’s going on in his own head? I live for that.

I recognize that it’s a tricky subject, but I’d love a closer look at Truman’s body image issues and the way Will is so good about them and Hugh, for all he doesn’t mean to be, can be so bad, and not even realize it until Will points it out.

I will embrace anything about Will’s intimacy kink, or Will and Hugh’s shared shrink kink.

Speaking of kink: Will and Truman’s daddy kink is tricky for me. It’s really not my kink, but Ripper mostly makes it work for me in the context of the series. But it’s enough hit or miss for me, that I’d prefer that it not be a big part of any fic I get. You don't have to ignore it altogether, references are great! I'd just prefer it not be the focus. Otherwise, if it’s in the books? I’m up for reading about it! Like Will, I have something of an intimacy kink, so I really like stories that emphasize the physical and emotional intimacy inherent in a lot of kink.


Society of Gentlemen - K. J. Charles - Dominic Frey, Julius Norreys, Harry Vane, Silas Mason

I recently reread this series and posted my reviews on Goodreads as I did so. All my reviews of this series are linked to from here. (Link is to a folder: click "view (with text)" in the last column of each entry to see my review)

For this request, I’m happy with fic for any two or more of my requested characters together, you don’t have to include all four of them if the story doesn’t call for it, but I'd prefer fic about the relationships between some number of them rather than about any one of them alone. I’m interested in both the canon romantic pairings and the non-romantic friendships. Please do not break up any canon couples.

I adore everyone in this series, although it took me until the last book to actually warm up to Richard, but Julius and Harry and Dominic and Silas are my absolute favorites.

I love Harry’s very-understandable desire to escape from the economically precarious and legally chancy life he was born into. I love even more the way he then discovers that you can take the boy out of the radical politics, but you can’t take the radical politics out of the boy, and has to reconcile his new reality with the lifetime of experiences that came before.

Julius breaks my heart, and I adore watching him come back to living again through his love for Harry. Also, that thing where he initially avoids a lot of types of sex because of the intimacy inherent in them? KILLS ME. I’m such a sucker for the standoffish character forced to embrace the messy reality of human emotions.

Dominic fascinates me, more than any Tory ever should. I love how principled he is, even as I disagree with many of those principles. And I especially love how as the series goes on he has to reconcile the reality he’s witnessing day-to-day with those principles, and how when they conflict he ultimately acknowledges where his principles have been doing him poorly and adapts them.

Silas is just everything I could ever want in a character. I love and profoundly agree with his politics. I love his loyalty to his friends and his cause. I love that when he realizes that he can no longer side with the Cato Street Conspirators, he’s still unwilling to betray them. Similarly, I love his friendship with David, and the way he’s willing to help spirit him out of Richard’s house in the middle of the night, no questions asked. And I adore beyond measure that Silas gets to fall in love and get a happy romantic ending. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a character like him get that before.

For fic I’m interested in the network of relationships between these four. Some thoughts on what interests me most about each combo:

Harry and Julius: I love that in the beginning Harry half wants to be with Julius and half wants to be Julius. I love that the sheer joy with which Harry embraces everything around him leads Julius to break out of the shell of reserve and cynicism that he’s built around himself since the end of the wars. I love seeing two dandies together, and fic about their shared sartorial choices would be great. Also, the EARRINGS. I would love fic about them getting those matching earrings. Oh, my heart.

Dominic and Silas: I love how much Silas validates Dominic’s desires and constantly reminds him that there is nothing shameful about them. I love the characterization of Silas as Dominic’s werewolf, and how protective of Dominic he is, especially with Richard. And I love how protective of Silas Dominic is in turn. And I squeed so much when Dominic gave Harry to Silas for Christmas. Just, <3<3<3. I love their bonding over books, and Silas introducing Dominic to radical literature.

Harry and Silas: I love that despite the age-difference, Silas is not a father-figure to Harry, but he is a true and loyal friend. I love that when Harry’s struggling to reconcile his new position and his politics Silas doesn’t provide him with any easy answers, but makes him make his own decisions. I love Silas’s admiration for Harry’s mother, and the way, when Harry is focused on his father and his father’s family, he reminds Harry that he’s her son too.

Julius and Silas: Oh man, they both love Harry, but these two are just so different, I don’t think they’ll ever really understand each other? But I love that despite that mutual incomprehension they come to appreciate each other because of that shared love. I imagine their shared carriage ride to go bring David back to London in A Gentleman’s Position must have been HILARIOUS on so many levels.

Julius and Dominic: I love how at the beginning of the series Dominic is in a shared social circle with Julius, but just doesn’t get him at all, and vice versa. Julius finds Dominic too series, and Dominic finds Julius too frivolous, and at the beginning neither of them is really wrong. And I really love the way that mutual bafflement turns gradually into understanding and then friendship as the series goes on.

Dominic and Harry: I feel like I understand the relationship between these two the least, which means fic about them would be great, because I’d love to figure their relationship out.


Prosperity Series - Alexis Hall - Any - (Byron Kae, Milord, Piccadilly, Ruben Crowe)

My thoughts on Prosperity are on Goodreads here.. And my thoughts on Liberty and Other Stories are also on Goodreads.

I pretty much want anything and everything for this fandom, so I couldn’t choose any one or two characters to request, I’ll be happy with fic about any of them!

Byron Kae/Piccadilly? Or Ruben Crowe/Milord? Or Piccadilly’s crush on Ruben Crowe? Or gen fic about any of the four of them together or separately? YES PLZ to any of it!

Some specifics would probably help though.

I love Byron Kae with the fire of a thousand suns. I think they are everything that is beautiful and good and right in this world, and they deserve all the best things and all the happiness ever. And Piccadilly? Is totally one of those best things they deserve :) I feel like pretty much everything I need to know about Byron Kae’s backstory is covered in Cloudy Climes and Starless Skies, so I’d prefer future-fic for them.

Piccadilly is such a delight! I love that he’s bi, and would happily read fic that goes into that more. I feel like the best word to describe Piccadilly is irrepressible, and I love that! Because his background could have left him jaded, but it hasn’t at all. I love in a hurty way his crush on Ruben Crowe and the way that plays out in canon. Future-fic about his friendship with Ruben after that would be great. Maybe Piccadilly visiting Ruben and Milord in Italy?

Byron Kae/Piccadilly: they are both such joyful characters, full of light and laughter and love. Show me some of that, as they have adventures together post-canon. I’d be happy with smut about them, but please be respectful of Byron Kae’s non-binary gender, and be sensitive in how you describe them in any sex scenes.

Ruben Crowe is such a fascinating character. He’s so good and so prone to see the best in anyone. I love how he struggles with that on first meeting Milord, who doesn’t have a lot of good to show for himself. The tension between his revulsion for what he discovers of Milord’s past actions and his strong attraction to and fascination with Milord is wonderful. I’d love a story about Ruben Crowe in the time between Milord’s escape at the end of Shackles and the beginning of Prosperity.

I have hugely complicated feelings about Milord. He is really not a good man, and yet I love him kind of a lot. To quote from my Goodreads review: “Maybe he doesn't deserve Ruben, maybe he doesn't deserve a happy ending, but he doesn't not deserve them either.” His backstory makes my heart hurt, and yet it doesn’t excuse his actions as the Crimelord of Gaslight. And he isn’t redeemed, I wouldn’t want him redeemed, but his choice to risk his life for the others at the end of Prosperity makes me love him even more. Also, he’s dying, and that matter to his character too, so please don’t erase/fix that.

Ruben Crowe/Milord: These two. THESE TWO. So fucked up and dysfunctional and helplessly in love with each other. And ridiculously hot together OMG. I would read anything about their relationship between Shackles and Prosperity, but I’d also love something about their future together in Italy. I think they could be less-dysfunctionally happy, for what time they have together. I’d like Milord’s illness to be acknowledge and incorporated into any future-fic, but I’d prefer to NOT get fic in which he dies/has died.

Miss Grey is not in the tagset due to character limits, but I’d be happy with her inclusion in fic, but prefer her not to be the sole focus of any story.


The Turner Series - Cat Sebastian - Lord Courteney

My review of this book on Goodreads is here.

Oh God, COURTENEY. The thing where Courteney has spent so much of his life focused on making the people around him happy that he’s only now figuring out what makes him happy? Yeah, that. I really, really, really want fic about that.

I’d especially enjoy fic set within or post-canon for this fandom. I find Courteney figuring out his interests and passions, in and out of the bedroom, really compelling.

Our of bed: once the scandal around the “duel” with Julian has died down, does he take up his seat in the House of Lords, advocating for social reform? Or does he decide to stay in the country doing the smaller but equally important work of advocating and working for his tenants?

In bed (or settee, other suitably appealing location): the way Julian makes Courteney ask for what he wants during sex? I find that hot as fuck AND emotionally satisfying.

I also love the found family happy ending of this series and would take anything and everything about that, as long as Courteney is at the center of the story.

Special mention: I really found it refreshing that none of the conflict between the characters in this story had anything to do with their sexuality. Courteney has a lot of angst and shame to work through, about a lot of things, but none of those things is his queerness, and I LOVE that.

Bonus points for kittens. Because canonical kittens.