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HELLO, DEAREST WRITER. I've done Yuletide a few times now and every year I just get so pumped. It's a great exchange and I love both giving and receiving fic. If you'd like more information on what I like and what I'm a giant nerd about, you can check out my tumblr or my AO3. (It's kind of all Hamilton all the time on the tumblr right now, I apologize.)
General likes: humor, friendship, family relationships, adventures, happy endings, character studies, great dialogue, explorations of the world around the characters. Ratings from G to NC-17 are fine, though please keep the canon atmosphere in mind. I tend to focus on the women in my fandoms, and I'm primarily a canon shipper, though there's one big exception on this list that I'll get to.
General DNWs: graphic violence, rape, major character death, general grimdarkness, incest, A/B/O, watersports, scat. I'm also not super into body horror. (By which I mean I am a GIANT WIMP.)
A Year and A Day in Old Theradane - Scott Lynch
Amarelle Parathis, Brandwin Miris, Jadetongue Squirn, Sophara Miris
The bad part about short stories is that they leave you wanting more, and that's basically what I want. More of this gang! Amarelle's schemes before they all bought amnesty from the Parliament! Jadetongue's attempt to go straight and how much she misses everybody else! The courtship of Brandwin and Sophara and what that might have looked like! The secret recipe book of Sophara and how she started putting spells into drinks! I thought this story was a rollicking romp and would enjoy anything about the characters.
OH MAN THIS STORY. (If you are here for another fandom, the entire novelette is available for free on the Uncanny Magazine website and I recommend reading it because it's great.) I appreciate that what could have been an entire novel or series in its own right - the exploits of Amarelle Parathis and her gang across the entire continent, stealing whatever they could and having a blast while doing so - is instead the background to a fascinating tale about what happens afterwards. I love the makeup of the gang, too, and all their individual skills and personalities. Every crew needs its pieces, they're just a little different when you have wizards and goblins involved. I love that even in such a short space we get such great portrayals of the different personalities involved, even Ivovandas, that fucker. And I adore Lynch's talent for detail and making a world that feels rich and real - the names of the drinks Sophara mixes, the spy-spells, the bureaucracy of the city and the Parliament, THE STATUES OF THE CONDEMNED. All of it. So great!
So. I think given the size of the canon there are a lot of options, and I encourage you to write whatever seizes your fancy. Plotty heist fic where you tell me about one of the outlandish things Amarelle stole? How the gang got together in the first place? Something focused on Brandwin and Sophara and their criminal courtship? Five poker games the gang played and the smoking craters left afterwards? Seriously, enjoy yourself. And please feel free to use Shraplin, even though he wasn't nominated, or any other of the named characters if they are useful to your story.
Hamilton - Miranda
Eliza Schuyler Hamilton, Alexander Hamilton, Angelica Schuyler
Can I be real a second? Eliza might be my favorite character in the entire show. Her arc from beginning to end, from lovestruck girl to the sorrowful but strong widow, is amazingly done. And it's impossible to talk about her without talking about Angelica and Alexander. THE SCHUYLER SISTERS. I love them so! And I love stuff about sisters generally too, and what those relationships can look like and incorporate. And Eliza and Alexander's relationship is fascinating too, his lofty promises and love for her and betrayal, her hopes and dreams and rage and forgiveness. There are so many ways you can go with these three, whether it's Angelica and Eliza preparing for either of their marriages, a cozy domestic moment at home (Did you know there were EIGHT Hamilton children? Alexander COVERED IN BABIES), letters between the sisters, or the pair of them finally convincing Alexander to take that damned break upstate.
OH MY GOD, HAMILTON. I was fortunate (and financially irresponsible) enough to see the show when it was off-Broadway and was utterly blown away by it, and now I am super pumped that everyone is in the Hamilton handbasket to hell with me. It's so great. It absolutely deserves all the hype. (If you are new to Hamilton but want more resources, or just want to cram every tidbit about this show into your maw, this resource post is a great place to start.) I could write volumes about every song and every character in the show, but for me the real star is Eliza. Phillipa Soo is magnificent. I started crying at Burn and then struggled to hold back enormous, chest-heaving sobs during the finale. And as I said in the request itself, her dramatic arc is so great. We get to see her grow up, we get to see her grapple with the choices she's made and the effects of being married to such an infuriating genius with no sense of proportion. And then she gets the last word! She tells the story! She doesn't give up on life when Alexander dies, she lives it to the fullest! THE ORPHANAGE oh no I'm gonna cry again.
Of course, it's impossible to write about Eliza in isolation, and I've requested the two characters I want to see her interacting with the most. I love Angelica and Eliza's relationship - sisters excited about the world around them, knowing they're intelligent and beautiful and wealthy and all the men are falling at their feet, but valuing their bond to each other above all else. ("I'm not here for you." "When I needed her most, she was right on time.") And Alexander - god, Alexander and Eliza! From "Is it a question of 'if,' Burr, or 'which one'?" to "Best of wives and best of women. He hurts her so deeply, and she loves him so much. And, of course, Angelica and Alexander. Well. Comma sexting! And you have to wonder how much Eliza knew and what she thought about it. "If you really loved me, you would share him." I get the impression that Angelica and Alexander are operating at a level of intellect that's a little beyond Eliza (because they are CRAZY GENIUSES), and I think she understands that, but maybe she's just happy that they have that in common and that the two people she loves best also love each other?
I realize this doesn't give you a lot of specific prompts, but I really am just so fascinated by the characters and by the sheer joy the music takes in telling us about them that I'd be happy with almost anything about them. If you do decide to write about the three requested characters together, I would prefer no actual sister incest, but a poly V is fine, and I could probably be sold on them being reeeeeally close. I leave that to your judgement. I also know there's a lot of death in the show but I'd rather it not be 100% about mourning and grieving - so maybe nothing in the immediate aftermath of the death of Laurens or Philip. And please, not after Alexander's death. I encourage you to include other characters as you see fit even if they weren't requested, because one of the great things about the show is how intertwined everybody's lives are. (AU where Burr and Angelica get married to spite Alexander and he becomes president.)
If you are one of those intrepid souls who is already slamming their way through the 800-page Chernow biography and doing a deep dive into the Hamilton Papers and would like to include historical nuggets, that's great; I haven't done that myself beyond reading some of Alexander's letters to Eliza and the Revolution is not my historical period of expertise so if you don't care about doing all the deep research that is totally fine too. If you'd rather write a modern AU where they're politicians in the current day and dealing with Alexander's frothing at the mouth on twitter, or college students bickering about student government funds, that's also great. Hamiltons in space. Hamiltons at Hogwarts. Have fun and go nuts!
(One last incredibly heartbreaking note: Lafayette came back to America in 1824 and wound up touring all of the then-existing states. Eliza was still alive at that point. What would THAT visit have been like? Other than VERY SAD?) (Okay, I'm done.)
Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Blue Sargent, Gwenllian
Witches! I am so fascinated by that one line of Gwenllian's, and I would love to see a fic that goes more in depth about it. Is that Blue's true power, that her family's been drawing on all these years? Can she control and shape it more than her bubble of protection or making Noah's poltergeisting stop? Does Gwenllian have more skills and knowledge she can pass along? This can be all present-day or could incorporate the ancient timeline as well, or involve some time-loop shenanigans. I'd just like to see something focused on their power.
BLUE SARGENT. If these books had existed when I was in high school I would have idolized her. I still love her a lot even though I'm almost twice her age now. I love how fiercely independent she is, how determined she is to be singular, how badly she wants to stand on her own rather than simply being part of someone else's story. How she wants to be special not because of her use to others but because of who she is and what she can do. And now she's found herself bound up with these boys and their magic and their quest and she's maybe not sure where she stands, but she can't convince herself to give that up. And Gwenllian - we know so little about her and I have SO MANY QUESTIONS. What was her true purpose in the past? Why was she sealed away? What happens now that she's in the modern day? And what does that banner with Blue's face on it have to do with everything?
So all that being said - I don't expect you to have definitive answers, and I encourage you to go whereever your heart desires in writing this. I find the parallels fascinating and I think there's a lot of potential. If you want to write about 300 Fox Way and the ways in which Blue and Gwenllian do and don't fit in, that would be great; if you want to write about the pair of them confounding and tormenting the boys of Monmouth Manufacturing, that's rad; if you want to write the pair of them tapping into Cabeswater or the realm of dreams or the past or the future - seriously, anything. I will note that I don't really ship them and would prefer this to be gen. But aside from that? I encourage you to have fun.
Stardust (2007)
Tristan Thorn, Yvaine
The world beyond the wall is so huge, and Tristan and Yvaine are still fairly new to it - and yet they've been crowned king and queen of a kingdom they barely know or understand. Feel free to get as big or as small in scope as you like; maybe Tristan has to adjudicate a dispute between a farmer and the pixies that have been turning the cattle strange colors, or maybe Yvaine strikes out on a trip and writes letters to Tristan of all the fascinating things she's getting to experience up close. Maybe Yvaine continues to have trouble with being bound to a planet and wants to learn to fly. I love their relationship and I'm always down for investigations of the mundane details of fairy-tale worlds, so I encourage you to have fun and go where your imagination takes you!
This movie! It was a bit of a trip when Charlie Cox's face started showing up on my tumblr dash this year all stubbled and beaten up and I kept going "Tristan? From Stardust? HIM?" But it reminded me of how much I love this movie, and what a goddamned tragedy it is that almost all the fic on the Stardust tag on AO3 is AUs/fusions from other canons where their OTP becomes the small-town boy and the crankiest star in creation. Which is a shame, because I love Tristan and Yvaine so much. Mostly Yvaine, because she's wonderful. Even when she learns to love Tristan she's not automatically less prickly or complicated or confused by the world she's having to deal with. And Tristan learns so much and has his whole world turned upside down, but he still believes in the power of love. And together they learn that love can conquer all but only if you're willing to trust and apologize and learn along the way.
And on top of all that, we have such a richly realized fantasy world that we only see tiny glimpses of. All the different stalls in the fairy market with their goods. The traders that Captain Shakespeare and his crew must visit across the realms. (Are there more flying ships?) The distance a Babylon candle can cover, across the border between worlds and between earth and the heavens. Witches who aren't hiding away in a rotting castle in the husks of their bodies, who don't subsist on scraps of a star's flickering heart. The entire court of Stormhold - what do THEY think of a ruling family that kills each other off every time there's more than one heir? Are they all that murderous? ALSO, UNICORNS.
So I suppose this is a little bit about worldbuilding, but also about Tristan and Yvaine and their relationship. She's impossibly old and he's very young, she's new to earth and he's new to Stormhold, and together they must be knocking the kingdom ass over teakettle. This could be humor or something darker, given the world as we see it; this could be a huge adventure or a quieter moment where they deal with being suddenly royalty. If you've read the book the movie was based on, it does mention Tristan and Yvaine going off on adventures every so often, and that would be a lot of fun, but this is a movie request and I don't expect you to have read the book. (Also I like the movie ending.) I think like Stormhold itself there's a lot of room for exploration and for you to have fun with it.
Uprooted - Naomi Novik
Agnieszka, Kasia
The relationship between Agnieszka and Kasia was one of my favorite things about this book, and I'd love a story that focused on the pair of them. Whether it's something set before the story that highlights a moment when Kasia suspected Agnieszka's powers, Kasia's perspective on the events of the book, or maybe something after the ending when Kasia might come back from the sea - I'd read pretty much anything. (I ship it like burning, but I'm also just really interested in their friendship as it exists, so any development is fine.)
I didn't expect to love this book as much as I do! I love a good retold fairy tale, and this one is REALLY good. I've also got some Polish heritage so it was wonderful to see that threaded throughout the story. But that's not the point! The point is: Agnieszka. And Kasia. THESE TWO. As you might be able to tell from the Hamilton section I tend to have a lot of feelings about female characters, especially those who might feel overlooked or out of place. (Hm, that also goes for Blue. ANYWAY.) I find Agnieszka's emotional journey so interesting, that she thought she was so ordinary and turns out to have so much within her. That she's not going to fit the ways that the Dragon does magic, or that her village expects her to grow up. That her unique gifts and her stubbornness and her perception allow her to figure out how to heal the whole damn forest. That is awesome. And Kasia! KASIAAAAA. Groomed since childhood for a destiny that isn't hers. What is that like? What happened to her while Agnieszka was off learning to wield the tower and learning to do magic? And when she's been transformed, transmuted - what does that feel like? What does she feel? DOES she feel anymore? Does she photosynthesize? Is she going to keep changing in slow and incremental ways the way a tree grows larger ring upon ring over the decades? Is she going to live as long as the trees in the forest? Is the salt air of the sea going to damage her? Will she come back? Can she communicate with the other creatures of the forest like the walkers and the other tree people? (TREE PEOPLE!) And the two of them together, growing up side by side, sharing everything, knowing they're waiting for an oncoming doom but seizing the happiness they can in the face of it. Their relationship as the thread through the whole book, Agnieszka's love refusing to let Kasia be lost, Kasia standing always at Agnieszka's side to protect her as long as she can.
Like I said in the signup, I do ship it, and I would be thrilled to read a shippy story for these two at any point in the canon, or before or after. But I would also be delighted to just read about their friendship, or a story that mostly focuses on one or the other of them. I encourage you to really delve into the world around them, to explore more of what the magic can do and what can be done with it. I really like the Sword, out of the other wizards. I don't really care for the canon romance; feel free to use it as background if you prefer to write their friendship in a gen story, or ignore it entirely as you so choose. Mostly I just want to focus on Agnieszka and Kasia and how they support each other and grow together.
General likes: humor, friendship, family relationships, adventures, happy endings, character studies, great dialogue, explorations of the world around the characters. Ratings from G to NC-17 are fine, though please keep the canon atmosphere in mind. I tend to focus on the women in my fandoms, and I'm primarily a canon shipper, though there's one big exception on this list that I'll get to.
General DNWs: graphic violence, rape, major character death, general grimdarkness, incest, A/B/O, watersports, scat. I'm also not super into body horror. (By which I mean I am a GIANT WIMP.)
A Year and A Day in Old Theradane - Scott Lynch
Amarelle Parathis, Brandwin Miris, Jadetongue Squirn, Sophara Miris
The bad part about short stories is that they leave you wanting more, and that's basically what I want. More of this gang! Amarelle's schemes before they all bought amnesty from the Parliament! Jadetongue's attempt to go straight and how much she misses everybody else! The courtship of Brandwin and Sophara and what that might have looked like! The secret recipe book of Sophara and how she started putting spells into drinks! I thought this story was a rollicking romp and would enjoy anything about the characters.
OH MAN THIS STORY. (If you are here for another fandom, the entire novelette is available for free on the Uncanny Magazine website and I recommend reading it because it's great.) I appreciate that what could have been an entire novel or series in its own right - the exploits of Amarelle Parathis and her gang across the entire continent, stealing whatever they could and having a blast while doing so - is instead the background to a fascinating tale about what happens afterwards. I love the makeup of the gang, too, and all their individual skills and personalities. Every crew needs its pieces, they're just a little different when you have wizards and goblins involved. I love that even in such a short space we get such great portrayals of the different personalities involved, even Ivovandas, that fucker. And I adore Lynch's talent for detail and making a world that feels rich and real - the names of the drinks Sophara mixes, the spy-spells, the bureaucracy of the city and the Parliament, THE STATUES OF THE CONDEMNED. All of it. So great!
So. I think given the size of the canon there are a lot of options, and I encourage you to write whatever seizes your fancy. Plotty heist fic where you tell me about one of the outlandish things Amarelle stole? How the gang got together in the first place? Something focused on Brandwin and Sophara and their criminal courtship? Five poker games the gang played and the smoking craters left afterwards? Seriously, enjoy yourself. And please feel free to use Shraplin, even though he wasn't nominated, or any other of the named characters if they are useful to your story.
Hamilton - Miranda
Eliza Schuyler Hamilton, Alexander Hamilton, Angelica Schuyler
Can I be real a second? Eliza might be my favorite character in the entire show. Her arc from beginning to end, from lovestruck girl to the sorrowful but strong widow, is amazingly done. And it's impossible to talk about her without talking about Angelica and Alexander. THE SCHUYLER SISTERS. I love them so! And I love stuff about sisters generally too, and what those relationships can look like and incorporate. And Eliza and Alexander's relationship is fascinating too, his lofty promises and love for her and betrayal, her hopes and dreams and rage and forgiveness. There are so many ways you can go with these three, whether it's Angelica and Eliza preparing for either of their marriages, a cozy domestic moment at home (Did you know there were EIGHT Hamilton children? Alexander COVERED IN BABIES), letters between the sisters, or the pair of them finally convincing Alexander to take that damned break upstate.
OH MY GOD, HAMILTON. I was fortunate (and financially irresponsible) enough to see the show when it was off-Broadway and was utterly blown away by it, and now I am super pumped that everyone is in the Hamilton handbasket to hell with me. It's so great. It absolutely deserves all the hype. (If you are new to Hamilton but want more resources, or just want to cram every tidbit about this show into your maw, this resource post is a great place to start.) I could write volumes about every song and every character in the show, but for me the real star is Eliza. Phillipa Soo is magnificent. I started crying at Burn and then struggled to hold back enormous, chest-heaving sobs during the finale. And as I said in the request itself, her dramatic arc is so great. We get to see her grow up, we get to see her grapple with the choices she's made and the effects of being married to such an infuriating genius with no sense of proportion. And then she gets the last word! She tells the story! She doesn't give up on life when Alexander dies, she lives it to the fullest! THE ORPHANAGE oh no I'm gonna cry again.
Of course, it's impossible to write about Eliza in isolation, and I've requested the two characters I want to see her interacting with the most. I love Angelica and Eliza's relationship - sisters excited about the world around them, knowing they're intelligent and beautiful and wealthy and all the men are falling at their feet, but valuing their bond to each other above all else. ("I'm not here for you." "When I needed her most, she was right on time.") And Alexander - god, Alexander and Eliza! From "Is it a question of 'if,' Burr, or 'which one'?" to "Best of wives and best of women. He hurts her so deeply, and she loves him so much. And, of course, Angelica and Alexander. Well. Comma sexting! And you have to wonder how much Eliza knew and what she thought about it. "If you really loved me, you would share him." I get the impression that Angelica and Alexander are operating at a level of intellect that's a little beyond Eliza (because they are CRAZY GENIUSES), and I think she understands that, but maybe she's just happy that they have that in common and that the two people she loves best also love each other?
I realize this doesn't give you a lot of specific prompts, but I really am just so fascinated by the characters and by the sheer joy the music takes in telling us about them that I'd be happy with almost anything about them. If you do decide to write about the three requested characters together, I would prefer no actual sister incest, but a poly V is fine, and I could probably be sold on them being reeeeeally close. I leave that to your judgement. I also know there's a lot of death in the show but I'd rather it not be 100% about mourning and grieving - so maybe nothing in the immediate aftermath of the death of Laurens or Philip. And please, not after Alexander's death. I encourage you to include other characters as you see fit even if they weren't requested, because one of the great things about the show is how intertwined everybody's lives are. (AU where Burr and Angelica get married to spite Alexander and he becomes president.)
If you are one of those intrepid souls who is already slamming their way through the 800-page Chernow biography and doing a deep dive into the Hamilton Papers and would like to include historical nuggets, that's great; I haven't done that myself beyond reading some of Alexander's letters to Eliza and the Revolution is not my historical period of expertise so if you don't care about doing all the deep research that is totally fine too. If you'd rather write a modern AU where they're politicians in the current day and dealing with Alexander's frothing at the mouth on twitter, or college students bickering about student government funds, that's also great. Hamiltons in space. Hamiltons at Hogwarts. Have fun and go nuts!
(One last incredibly heartbreaking note: Lafayette came back to America in 1824 and wound up touring all of the then-existing states. Eliza was still alive at that point. What would THAT visit have been like? Other than VERY SAD?) (Okay, I'm done.)
Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Blue Sargent, Gwenllian
Witches! I am so fascinated by that one line of Gwenllian's, and I would love to see a fic that goes more in depth about it. Is that Blue's true power, that her family's been drawing on all these years? Can she control and shape it more than her bubble of protection or making Noah's poltergeisting stop? Does Gwenllian have more skills and knowledge she can pass along? This can be all present-day or could incorporate the ancient timeline as well, or involve some time-loop shenanigans. I'd just like to see something focused on their power.
BLUE SARGENT. If these books had existed when I was in high school I would have idolized her. I still love her a lot even though I'm almost twice her age now. I love how fiercely independent she is, how determined she is to be singular, how badly she wants to stand on her own rather than simply being part of someone else's story. How she wants to be special not because of her use to others but because of who she is and what she can do. And now she's found herself bound up with these boys and their magic and their quest and she's maybe not sure where she stands, but she can't convince herself to give that up. And Gwenllian - we know so little about her and I have SO MANY QUESTIONS. What was her true purpose in the past? Why was she sealed away? What happens now that she's in the modern day? And what does that banner with Blue's face on it have to do with everything?
So all that being said - I don't expect you to have definitive answers, and I encourage you to go whereever your heart desires in writing this. I find the parallels fascinating and I think there's a lot of potential. If you want to write about 300 Fox Way and the ways in which Blue and Gwenllian do and don't fit in, that would be great; if you want to write about the pair of them confounding and tormenting the boys of Monmouth Manufacturing, that's rad; if you want to write the pair of them tapping into Cabeswater or the realm of dreams or the past or the future - seriously, anything. I will note that I don't really ship them and would prefer this to be gen. But aside from that? I encourage you to have fun.
Stardust (2007)
Tristan Thorn, Yvaine
The world beyond the wall is so huge, and Tristan and Yvaine are still fairly new to it - and yet they've been crowned king and queen of a kingdom they barely know or understand. Feel free to get as big or as small in scope as you like; maybe Tristan has to adjudicate a dispute between a farmer and the pixies that have been turning the cattle strange colors, or maybe Yvaine strikes out on a trip and writes letters to Tristan of all the fascinating things she's getting to experience up close. Maybe Yvaine continues to have trouble with being bound to a planet and wants to learn to fly. I love their relationship and I'm always down for investigations of the mundane details of fairy-tale worlds, so I encourage you to have fun and go where your imagination takes you!
This movie! It was a bit of a trip when Charlie Cox's face started showing up on my tumblr dash this year all stubbled and beaten up and I kept going "Tristan? From Stardust? HIM?" But it reminded me of how much I love this movie, and what a goddamned tragedy it is that almost all the fic on the Stardust tag on AO3 is AUs/fusions from other canons where their OTP becomes the small-town boy and the crankiest star in creation. Which is a shame, because I love Tristan and Yvaine so much. Mostly Yvaine, because she's wonderful. Even when she learns to love Tristan she's not automatically less prickly or complicated or confused by the world she's having to deal with. And Tristan learns so much and has his whole world turned upside down, but he still believes in the power of love. And together they learn that love can conquer all but only if you're willing to trust and apologize and learn along the way.
And on top of all that, we have such a richly realized fantasy world that we only see tiny glimpses of. All the different stalls in the fairy market with their goods. The traders that Captain Shakespeare and his crew must visit across the realms. (Are there more flying ships?) The distance a Babylon candle can cover, across the border between worlds and between earth and the heavens. Witches who aren't hiding away in a rotting castle in the husks of their bodies, who don't subsist on scraps of a star's flickering heart. The entire court of Stormhold - what do THEY think of a ruling family that kills each other off every time there's more than one heir? Are they all that murderous? ALSO, UNICORNS.
So I suppose this is a little bit about worldbuilding, but also about Tristan and Yvaine and their relationship. She's impossibly old and he's very young, she's new to earth and he's new to Stormhold, and together they must be knocking the kingdom ass over teakettle. This could be humor or something darker, given the world as we see it; this could be a huge adventure or a quieter moment where they deal with being suddenly royalty. If you've read the book the movie was based on, it does mention Tristan and Yvaine going off on adventures every so often, and that would be a lot of fun, but this is a movie request and I don't expect you to have read the book. (Also I like the movie ending.) I think like Stormhold itself there's a lot of room for exploration and for you to have fun with it.
Uprooted - Naomi Novik
Agnieszka, Kasia
The relationship between Agnieszka and Kasia was one of my favorite things about this book, and I'd love a story that focused on the pair of them. Whether it's something set before the story that highlights a moment when Kasia suspected Agnieszka's powers, Kasia's perspective on the events of the book, or maybe something after the ending when Kasia might come back from the sea - I'd read pretty much anything. (I ship it like burning, but I'm also just really interested in their friendship as it exists, so any development is fine.)
I didn't expect to love this book as much as I do! I love a good retold fairy tale, and this one is REALLY good. I've also got some Polish heritage so it was wonderful to see that threaded throughout the story. But that's not the point! The point is: Agnieszka. And Kasia. THESE TWO. As you might be able to tell from the Hamilton section I tend to have a lot of feelings about female characters, especially those who might feel overlooked or out of place. (Hm, that also goes for Blue. ANYWAY.) I find Agnieszka's emotional journey so interesting, that she thought she was so ordinary and turns out to have so much within her. That she's not going to fit the ways that the Dragon does magic, or that her village expects her to grow up. That her unique gifts and her stubbornness and her perception allow her to figure out how to heal the whole damn forest. That is awesome. And Kasia! KASIAAAAA. Groomed since childhood for a destiny that isn't hers. What is that like? What happened to her while Agnieszka was off learning to wield the tower and learning to do magic? And when she's been transformed, transmuted - what does that feel like? What does she feel? DOES she feel anymore? Does she photosynthesize? Is she going to keep changing in slow and incremental ways the way a tree grows larger ring upon ring over the decades? Is she going to live as long as the trees in the forest? Is the salt air of the sea going to damage her? Will she come back? Can she communicate with the other creatures of the forest like the walkers and the other tree people? (TREE PEOPLE!) And the two of them together, growing up side by side, sharing everything, knowing they're waiting for an oncoming doom but seizing the happiness they can in the face of it. Their relationship as the thread through the whole book, Agnieszka's love refusing to let Kasia be lost, Kasia standing always at Agnieszka's side to protect her as long as she can.
Like I said in the signup, I do ship it, and I would be thrilled to read a shippy story for these two at any point in the canon, or before or after. But I would also be delighted to just read about their friendship, or a story that mostly focuses on one or the other of them. I encourage you to really delve into the world around them, to explore more of what the magic can do and what can be done with it. I really like the Sword, out of the other wizards. I don't really care for the canon romance; feel free to use it as background if you prefer to write their friendship in a gen story, or ignore it entirely as you so choose. Mostly I just want to focus on Agnieszka and Kasia and how they support each other and grow together.
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