Yuletide 2025

Thanks so much for creating for me, and for taking a look at my letter!

I have more ideas/prompts for some canons/characters than others, but I would be genuinely thrilled to get anything in this letter, regardless of whether I've written a long or short section on it.

I am just called whalebone on AO3 :) Treats are enabled and welcome!


Request 1: Moby Dick - Herman Melville


Request 2: Benjamin January Mysteries


Request 3: Culprits (TV 2023)


Request 4: Armadale - Wilkie Collins

Request 1: Moby Dick - Herman Melville

Ishmael | Queequeg
My gift must feature all of my chosen characters

General Likes

Missing scenes | Exploring new places | Mutual pining | Protectiveness, hurt/comfort | Competence kink | Strong sense of place | Complicated relationships with family, home, faith. | Friends-to-lovers | Slow-burn | Trauma recovery | Tenderness and gentle touching (hair stroking, hand holding, face touches, all that stuff.) | Banter and snark | Non-mundane AUs (setting change or canon divergence) | Setting change AUs I like: steampunk, solarpunk, historical, fantasy | Time travel and time loops | 5 times fic / 5+1 fic | Women in leadership positions, working with/against other women | Mission fic | Fixing/building things together

DNWs

Non-con | Mpreg | BDSM | Incest | Watersports & scat | Underage | Teenager (under-18)/adult romance and sex | Omegaverse | Sex pollen | Unrequested non-canon ships | Medical kink (meaning: explicitly kinking on medical treatment, doctor/patient relationship, use of medical equipment. Feelings and attraction developing during hurt/comfort, wound care, etc., are fine.) | Readerfic | Character bashing (characters can be critical of others, particularly if canon-compliant, but I don't like characters being made to be villains when they aren't meant to be.) | Pre-relationship that doesn't go beyond that

Fandom-specific Likes

- I really ship Ishmael/Queequeg, so I just love everything about their first meeting, the bed-sharing, the marriage, the way they touch one another. I love how Ishmael admires Queequeg (both his actions and competence, and his physical form). I love how they trust one another (the whole monkey-rope scene!) Ishmael calling him "my brave Queequeg", and how he cares for Queequeg when he's ill. It's so much. So if you were given to writing Ishmael/Queequeg... go for it. If you don't ship them that's absolutely fine and I will be very happy with canon typical interactions!

- I love the strangeness of this book. The cosmic horror of it all. The weird Victorian ideas of science, Ishmael's flights of fancy, the way it lingers on the unknowable and the horror and beauty of it. The absolute raw power of nature and the sea and these incredible creatures that the crew are hunting. I love the chapters where Pip is lost at sea, and ruminations on the colour white.

- Ishmael himself just fascinates me, honestly. He's given to depression, he's a dreamer, he's poetic. He's clearly spent much of his life seeking knowledge about whaling, possibly trying to make some sense of the tragedy of the Pequod. I feel like a large part of Ishmael-the-narrator's character is his profound grief. 

- I like anything in fandom that tries to get beyond the Victorian racism in its depiction of Queequeg (and Tashtego and Daggoo), that tries to dig into him as a person with a rich heritage and his own complex thoughts and feelings. I would love this for Queequeg in particular, of course, but if anyone wants to include Tashtego, Daggoo or Fedallah I would love that - there is something very fascinating about the harpooneers and their status on the Pequod.

- I would definitely be here for a Queequeg Lives! AU, but I'd be equally delighted with something set during the canon, or a post-canon Ishmael dealing with the events of the book.

- Feel free to include any other Pequod crew members, so long as the focus is on Ishmael and Queequeg.


Request 2: Benjamin January Mysteries

Benjamin January | Hannibal Sefton | Rose Vitrac January 
My gift must feature one or more of my chosen characters (giver's choice)

General Likes

Missing scenes | Exploring new places | Mutual pining | Protectiveness, hurt/comfort | Competence kink | Strong sense of place | Complicated relationships with family, home, faith. | Friends-to-lovers | Complications of inhuman/human relationships | Slow-burn | Trauma recovery | Tenderness and gentle touching (hair stroking, hand holding, face touches, all that stuff.) | Banter and snark | Non-mundane AUs (setting change or canon divergence) | Setting change AUs I like: steampunk, solarpunk, historical, fantasy | Time travel and time loops | 5 times fic / 5+1 fic | Women in leadership positions, working with/against other women | Mission fic | Fixing/building things together

DNWs

Non-con | Mpreg | BDSM | Incest | Watersports & scat | Underage | Teenager (under-18)/adult romance and sex | Omegaverse | Sex pollen | Unrequested non-canon ships | Medical kink (meaning: explicitly kinking on medical treatment, doctor/patient relationship, use of medical equipment. Feelings and attraction developing during hurt/comfort, wound care, etc., are fine.) | Readerfic | Character bashing (characters can be critical of others, particularly if canon-compliant, but I don't like characters being made to be villains when they aren't meant to be.) | Pre-relationship that doesn't go beyond that

Fandom-specific Likes

- Such a vivid sense of place
- Music - both Ben and Hannibal being talented musicians is catnip to me. I like how they bond through their music, how important it is to them both socially and emotionally, and their love for their instruments.
- Navigating the complex social strictures of New Orleans society and how aware they always have to be of their place in it.
- Ben's relationship with his very different sisters - I'm very happy for Olympe to show up!
- The way Ben and Hannibal look out for one another and rely on one another. They are just rock solid.
- Both Ben and Hannibal are total woobies but in very different ways - Ben is a true iron woobie, stoic until he can't be stoic any more, while Hannibal is often frail, ill and struggling, but trying to put a good face on it. There's so much space for hurt/comfort for these two.
- Anytime Ben and Hannibal quote Shakespeare or poetry at one another I am delighted.
- Ben's fascinating mix of kindness, deep anger, complicated spirituality, and how he carries such trauma and grief but is still so pragmatic about facing any problems and still finds such love and enjoyment in life. I adore him.
- Hannibal suffers so much from his addiction and illness earlier on, but he's got this lightness and gentleness about him.
- Rose's scientific mind and her studies, and how coolly calm and logical she is in her approach to the world. 
- Rose cross-dressing. She's so cool.
- Ships I like: Ben/Rose, Ben/Ayesha, Ben/Hannibal, Ben/Hannibal/Rose

Note
I've not managed to read beyond Crimson Angel yet, so I would appreciate no spoilers for the later books - thanks! <3
 

Request 3: Culprits (TV 2023)

Joe Petrus-David Marking | Jules | Officer
My gift may use exception I explain below

Note: This series is 8 1-hour episodes available on Disney+. Promo post here.

General Likes

Missing scenes | Exploring new places | Mutual pining | Protectiveness, hurt/comfort | Competence kink | Strong sense of place | Complicated relationships with family, home, faith. | Friends-to-lovers | Complications of inhuman/human relationships | Slow-burn | Trauma recovery | Tenderness and gentle touching (hair stroking, hand holding, face touches, all that stuff.) | Banter and snark | Non-mundane AUs (setting change or canon divergence) | Setting change AUs I like: steampunk, solarpunk, historical, fantasy | Time travel and time loops | 5 times fic / 5+1 fic | Women in leadership positions, working with/against other women | Mission fic | Fixing/building things together

DNWs

Non-con | Mpreg | BDSM | Incest | Watersports & scat | Underage | Teenager (under-18)/adult romance and sex | Omegaverse | Sex pollen | Unrequested non-canon ships | Medical kink (meaning: explicitly kinking on medical treatment, doctor/patient relationship, use of medical equipment. Feelings and attraction developing during hurt/comfort, wound care, etc., are fine.) | Readerfic | Character bashing (characters can be critical of others, particularly if canon-compliant, but I don't like characters being made to be villains when they aren't meant to be.) | Pre-relationship that doesn't go beyond that

Fandom-specific Likes

This show somehow doesn't have a fandom so I would love anything! Feel free to include any other characters from the show, so long as the focus is on the requested character/s.

- Joe being simultaneously a super-competent badass and emotionally vulnerable
- The tension between Joe's past and his genuine desire for a normal life with Jules
- Jules being ready to climb Joe like a tree the minute they meet - first-time fic or early-days-in-the-relationship fic would be amazing, with Joe dealing with the knowledge that he's lying to Jules about everything while also genuinely wanting a new life and falling for him.
- Joe/Jules domesticity
- Jules rising to the occasion when Joe's world intrudes on his own - a post-canon adventure where something else crops up and this time Jules is along for the ride!
- Officer and Joe's friendship - the friendly bickering, the way she pushes at him all the time, but they clearly care for one another. 
- Officer's lying - when is she telling the truth? Is it never? Always? Who knows! She's so brilliantly brazen with it.
- I ship Joe/Jules (I call him Joe in this for ease, but feel free to call him David if you prefer, or Muscle if that works best for your fic) and love platonic Joe & Officer. Jules & Officer in an AU where she survives would also be fascinating. Like Joe's suddenly brought a little sister home, except she's also a con artist.
- Joe and Jules finally get married (but something kicks off to interrupt the wedding?) I'd love for Jules to see Joe in full badass mode and have complicated (but also horny) feelings about it.

Tag exception:
If you would prefer to write Joe/Jules I don't mind at all if Officer doesn't appear. I'm also happy for a fic to focus entirely on Joe. I do want Joe to feature.

Request 4: Armadale - Wilkie Collins

Main Allan Armadale | Ozias Midwinter-Allan Armadale | Lydia Gwilt
My gift may use exception I explain below

General Likes

Missing scenes | Exploring new places | Mutual pining | Protectiveness, hurt/comfort | Competence kink | Strong sense of place | Complicated relationships with family, home, faith. | Friends-to-lovers | Complications of inhuman/human relationships | Slow-burn | Trauma recovery | Tenderness and gentle touching (hair stroking, hand holding, face touches, all that stuff.) | Banter and snark | Non-mundane AUs (setting change or canon divergence) | Setting change AUs I like: steampunk, solarpunk, historical, fantasy | Time travel and time loops | 5 times fic / 5+1 fic | Women in leadership positions, working with/against other women | Mission fic | Fixing/building things together

DNWs

Non-con | Mpreg | BDSM | Incest | Watersports & scat | Underage | Teenager (under-18)/adult romance and sex | Omegaverse | Sex pollen | Unrequested non-canon ships | Medical kink (meaning: explicitly kinking on medical treatment, doctor/patient relationship, use of medical equipment. Feelings and attraction developing during hurt/comfort, wound care, etc., are fine.) | Readerfic | Character bashing (characters can be critical of others, particularly if canon-compliant, but I don't like characters being made to be villains when they aren't meant to be.) | Pre-relationship that doesn't go beyond that | Allan/Neelie, Allan/Lydia and Ozias/Lydia

Fandom-specific Likes

- Identity porn
- All the intrigue and wild stuff of a Victorian sensation novel. I would love anything that really leans into the language and mystery of it all.
- The absolute devotion and adoration that immediately springs up between Ozias and Allan
- Ozias as an iron woobie and his slightly ridiculous woobie backstory.
- Allan just wants to sail his boat and travel the world - lots of opportunity for adventures. Send them off for a post-canon adventure on their boat!
- Lydia! She is ruthless and smart and angry and honestly I feel like I understand why she was driven to the lengths she was, considering her status in the world. I would love something that digs into Lydia's psyche a little more, or an AU where she lives and can do something more with her life. Maybe she can have a wild romance with another woman who doesn't live by Victorian rules.
- I absolutely ship Ozias/Allan and would love shipfic, but I'd be delighted by canon-level close friendship.

Tag exception: If you just want to write about Lydia I would be absolutely fine with that. Equally, if you want to write about Allan and Ozias I don't mind if Lydia doesn't appear. I would like Ozias and Allan to appear together, though.