Dear Yuletide Writer Letter 2016
Sep. 25th, 2016 10:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tlvopHello, Yuletide Writer!
Thank you so much for writing a fic for me! My AO3 account is TLvop for easy access :). I'm sorry if this letter is a little lower on content/energy than previous ones, or at all uneven (this journal is basically just exchange letters, so feel free to go snooping) -- I'm having a mixed bag (balancing out to goodish) but exhausting few weeks! I'm a pretty easy recipient, and I like a ton of things, but I'm totally fine with you ignoring my prompts or only picking/choosing as long as you avoid my triggers (listed before the cut). Please write whatever strikes your fancy! And if writing my fic causes you any level of Not Fun Stress, please don't feel you're doing poorly by me if you default -- your mental health > this fanfic. <3
Also, the fandoms are listed alphabetically -- not by desire to get them! I pruned my list to only things I'd be delighted by :). My fandom prompts and notes are often spoiler-y, so... heads-up?
Triggers
I really only have one trigger (non-con/dub-con/threats of the same), but many other things can set it off. Therefore, I would appreciate if you avoid "on-screen" sexual encounters, including dirty talk. Early "fade to black"s and kissing are generally fine, especially in relationships that are already established in the fic's timeline or are known to be happily established in canon if you're writing a prequel. Please also avoid discussed incest, under-18 sex, cross-generational (like "I knew you when you were a child") sex, and mentioned childhood sexual abuse (I don't believe this is canon for any of the characters I requested this year -- if it is, and you'd like to discuss it, please just add a warning tag). ALSO -- this is not always a trigger, but I would appreciate a warning for suicide if it comes up. Ryfkah (e-mail at ryfkah AT gmail DOT com) is a volunteered me-expert in this area, if you’re at all worried! She’s great, and you’ll be fine <3.
General
Do Not Want: Active mockery (versus brief, stated dislike) of either religion or atheism, graphic violence, and break-ups of canon ships.
General Likes: Dogs, robots, AIs, world-building, cute flirting between couples, situations that reveal things about characters, stories that feel very grounded in the world they’re in, thoughtful friendships, and just as much I like characters who (if it is IC) just totally bomb the feelings game so hard. Happy stories, bittersweet stories, thoughtful stories, ridiculous romps, casefic, day-in-the-life, all-the-days-in-a-life ... all that good stuff. I also am totally cool with any person, tense, or style you choose to tell the fic in. I prefer the person/tense stay consistent unless you're switching between well-delineated sections, so my brain stays minimally confused :).
General Dislikes: Interpersonal tension between characters without established reasons in the plot; characters presented as being “just evil” without logic (it doesn’t have to be GOOD logic, just that the bad character is internally consistent and a person) – This is less true when it comes to Beyond Belief, where there are plenty of eeeeevil monsters.
Beyond Belief (in tagset as The Thrilling Adventure Hour)
Characters Requested: Pterodactyl Jones, Sadie Doyle
Why I love this canon: I love Beyond Belief because of its ridiculous malleability (Sadie is a picture of Old Hollywod, and Donna is a 1980s suburban soccer mom, and it's Donna who's the immortal vampire??), its focus on characters above worldbuilding, and honestly the acting of the leads!
Why I love these characters: hahaha WHY WOULDN'T YOU LOVE SADIE PARKER DOYLE. She's classy, she's snarky, and she is REMARKABLY good at holding her liquor. Also, she's both kind and intensely pragmatically nasty as the situation calls for it (see: her stocking blood, because she is friends with many vampires, and her stocking stakes, because she is enemies with many vampires, and using them both on the same vampire). I love Sadie/Frank and Sadie-Donna to no end. I am mostly just fascinated by Pterodactyl Jones. WHAT IS UP WITH HIM??? I adore noir tropes, and I would just roll around delightedly in any story that includes his life (with or without the self-narrating, but ahaha the self-narrating).
Notes: Sadie/Frank is my forever ship (but I don't need Frank in the fic, if you'd rather not write him). Also, I headcanon Sadie as older than Frank based on her discussion of her and Donna's history before she and Donna both got married (it seems very "in the decades we knew each other before you and I met"), but I'm totally okay with you not mentioning that! Also, I am more than happy for Pterodactyl Jones AND Sadie Doyle (yaaaay), but if you choose one don't feel obligated to include the other!
Prompts:
* How did Pterodactyl Jones and his pterodactyl meet?? HOW DOES ONE ACQUIRE A GHOST PTERODACTYL FAMILIAR? Also, are they equal partners in the P.I. firm, and/or what does actually solving their cases look like? Do they ever have GHOST CUSTOMERS? What do the local pterodactyl heavens look like, and has Jones ever visited?
* Sadie is faced with a HORRIFYING PROBLEM except it's something extremely mundane, and she must (with or without Frank!) take to the streets with her cunning and problem solving to FIX IT. (Possibly: the power is out, and they've run out of alcohol. They have broken their window, which means it is open to a DREADED BEE, and neither she nor Frank have the slightest idea how to fix it). Obviously, hijinks ensue.
* An AU where Sadie teamed up with Pterodactyl Jones instead of Frank. Either take the show route -- how did this happen??? Or just write an adventure they go on as a DETECTIVE DUO.
* What are some of Donna and Sadie's FUN ADVENTURES from The Bloodsucker Proxy?
* Really, any ridiculous AU you want to go for (either the show route -- which makes me cackle -- or with no framing story, which I would still be very down for!). Sadie Parker Doyle IN SPACE? Sadie and Frank OPEN A COFFEE SHOP? with LOTS OF LIQUOR? Pterodactyl Jones, TIME TRAVELING DETECTIVE? Sadie Parker, TIME THIEF, being chased by Frank Doyle and Pterodactyl Jones, TIME COPS? Daemon AU?!?
* Any of these as an in-canon AU starring Sadie or Jones, but especially House Detective in the Most Haunted Hotel in New York City http://thrilling-adventure-hour.wikia.com/wiki/Shows_that_Frank_and_Sadie_would/would_not_watch
* Fun potential crossovers/fusions (though please focus on the BB people, and generally I'd prefer the tone of the podcast!): OKAY I looked at the tagset and here are 70+ canons!
Hail Caesar! (2016)
Characters Requested: Carlotta Valdez, Hobie Doyle
Why I love this canon: I love this canon primarily due to its slice-of-life aspects, even though the characters involved have really odd lives (but seem very consistently themselves)! I'd never seen a Coen Bros movie before (I know D:), and I'm excited to carve out time in my day to watch more from my experience with this one. It's hard to communicate the rest of what I like in this canon in a way that's useful to fic, but I enjoyed a lot of the visual aesthetic and music if that's at all useful!
Why I love these characters: They're just the cutest, most competent, genuinely sweet people in the movie! I love Carlotta's quick friendliness and ease with Hobie, and from what little we see of her she seems to be so willing to just do the thing which is a trait I find very admirable. I adore Hobie's aw-shucks dorkiness paired with his clear intelligence and discernment about What Evil Lurks In The Heart Of Men. I enjoy the contrast between his clear lack of knowledge about certain tropes/movies/industries and his extreme competence in the things he knows.
Notes: Yeah, I ship it! Adorable friends is also very cool, but if so please don't mention them paired with other people <3. Also, I love DeeAnna and would be delighted by her appearance in any fic (though as I didn't request her, obviously don't feel burdened to!)
Prompts: This one was hard, because I'm genuinely interested in anything with these two interacting!
* the romance of valdez and doyle which I suspect would be the CUTEST THING EVER? A series of scenes or a fully fleshed out storyline -- man, I'd love anything here.
Fun tropes: fake married/dating (--> real feelings), pretty much anything dorky as long as one doesn't think they're dating while the other one does.
Non-pairing-specific prompts (but can be hijacked!):
* Hobie goes to Carlotta's next premiere as her date -- how does it go?
* Any sort of non-mundane AU that maintains their characterization and mild outsiderness -- especially something sort of offkilter, like them in a space western! Or either modern or 1950s urban fantasy (though if so, I'd appreciate if Carlotta is human)!
* Future fic! How does Carlotta adapt as her genre is phased out -- does her "image change" lead her into a new genre of films? Does Hobie have any advice? Or, in contrast, has Carlotta already changed genres and have advice for Hobie?
* FOR SOME REASON, Hobie and Carlotta are made to babysit DeeAnna's baby, because obviously they are ~*so wholesome*~ and trustworthy that they know how to deal with babies! Except. Um. Maybe they don't. (or maybe they do, and whatever drives the storyline comes from other tensions!)
* CASEFIC. I don't know what sort of case, but a case that they must solve!
Hitman: Agent 47 (2015)
Characters Requested: Agent 47 (Hitman: Agent 47), Katia van Dees
Why I love this canon: Dumb action movies with cool visuals and interesting/smart characterizations are just my favorite thing? Man, I am super predictable, but I'm so glad I saw this!
Why I love these characters: I really love Katia van Dees; she feels very, very real to me -- especially as someone who deals with sensory detail/anxiety weirdly (though she is, of course, that to an absolutely maxxed out degree). I love her tendency to dismantle things. I love how present danger makes her relax. I love Agent 47 for how normal he seems to feel in his entirely bizarre life, and how it's unclear to what extent his quiet friendliness is real and to what extent it's faked to earn Katia's trust. I do love the fact that he's extremely gentle, when not ruthlessly murdering people, and I just as much love the scenes where he is the "monster" for the movie to move forward. For both of these characters, I enjoy their outsider perspective on "normal" human interaction, and to what extent they both "play at" those interactions and to what extent they realize they share the motivations that drive other people.
Notes: I personally don't see these characters as siblings (it seems Katia's father only thinks of them as both his "children" in so far as they are both his experiments). So, though I don't actively ship them, I'd be happy to be convinced to ship them if you want me too -- as long as you don't play with incest vibes! I also have become aware this is a videogame. I do not know the videogame! So if you use canon from it, please use it in a way that is understandable to someone who has no familiarity with that canon <3.
Prompts:
*Katia and Agent 47 on a new case: where do they go from the end of the movie?
*Pre-canon early life. What has Katia forgotten? Why does she know Agent 47 better than the clones he is identical to (in appearance, at least)?
*More recent pre-canon comparing and contrasting the two of their lives as they both search for the same man
*Down-time fic. How do they interact? What do they do when not under extreme pressure? Do either of them have hobbies they can share, or do they try to pick up an interest in visiting botanical gardens?
*I would find it weirdly hilarious to have a very normal fic about them, like, buying board games. I'd be just as happy with fic full of explosions!
Kubo and the Two Strings (2016)
Characters Requested: Monkey (Kubo and the Two Strings), Beetle (Kubo and the Two Strings)
Why I love this canon: I mostly love this canon's worldbuilding (the importance of paper! the interactions of stories with real life!) and its visual appeal. I found it's tone-- darker than anticipated, and quietly unsettling -- to be incredibly interesting, and found the idea of Kubo winning through forgiveness to be very compelling. I also just love the characters.
Why I love these characters: Monkey is my favorite person??? I love her joy in story telling, her intense pragmatism, and how she knows the danger Kubo faces and is terrified by it. I love that she designed a vessel to hold her dying self to save her son from her family -- someone so scared, and so powerful, and so pragmatic, and so loving all at once is incredibly rare in fiction. Beetle is just the dorkiest of all dorks and should be allowed to dork for all time <3 <3 <3. I love him, and I love his devotion to HONOR and his curiosity about his past life, and his willingness to help Kubo out. I also love how much Monkey & Beetle's current relationship speaks to what their old one must have been.
Notes: I would be fascinated by any worldbuilding you squeezed in, even tiny throwaway details -- the mythos of this world is so interesting! Also, *clutches face with one hand, and heart with the other* Monkeeeeey! Beetlllllle!
Prompts:
*Fic about Monkey and Beetle during the journey to find the three treasures! Particularly when it comes to their relationship with each other. To what extent does Monkey already feel like this could be the beginning of something new, as she doesn't know it's the continuing of something old?
*Something about their current life interspersed with parts of their old life would also be incredibly fascinating to me.
*A story Kubo tells about his parents & protectors
*A story about Monkey & Beetle back when they were humans, and newlywed. What was it like, for a moon princess to live on the earth with a human hero?
*Something looking at them coming back to Earth every year to visit Kubo (& the Moon King), but if so a focus on their story instead of Kubo's would be preferable <3.
*What's up in the afterlife??
Thank you so much for writing a fic for me! My AO3 account is TLvop for easy access :). I'm sorry if this letter is a little lower on content/energy than previous ones, or at all uneven (this journal is basically just exchange letters, so feel free to go snooping) -- I'm having a mixed bag (balancing out to goodish) but exhausting few weeks! I'm a pretty easy recipient, and I like a ton of things, but I'm totally fine with you ignoring my prompts or only picking/choosing as long as you avoid my triggers (listed before the cut). Please write whatever strikes your fancy! And if writing my fic causes you any level of Not Fun Stress, please don't feel you're doing poorly by me if you default -- your mental health > this fanfic. <3
Also, the fandoms are listed alphabetically -- not by desire to get them! I pruned my list to only things I'd be delighted by :). My fandom prompts and notes are often spoiler-y, so... heads-up?
Triggers
I really only have one trigger (non-con/dub-con/threats of the same), but many other things can set it off. Therefore, I would appreciate if you avoid "on-screen" sexual encounters, including dirty talk. Early "fade to black"s and kissing are generally fine, especially in relationships that are already established in the fic's timeline or are known to be happily established in canon if you're writing a prequel. Please also avoid discussed incest, under-18 sex, cross-generational (like "I knew you when you were a child") sex, and mentioned childhood sexual abuse (I don't believe this is canon for any of the characters I requested this year -- if it is, and you'd like to discuss it, please just add a warning tag). ALSO -- this is not always a trigger, but I would appreciate a warning for suicide if it comes up. Ryfkah (e-mail at ryfkah AT gmail DOT com) is a volunteered me-expert in this area, if you’re at all worried! She’s great, and you’ll be fine <3.
General
Do Not Want: Active mockery (versus brief, stated dislike) of either religion or atheism, graphic violence, and break-ups of canon ships.
General Likes: Dogs, robots, AIs, world-building, cute flirting between couples, situations that reveal things about characters, stories that feel very grounded in the world they’re in, thoughtful friendships, and just as much I like characters who (if it is IC) just totally bomb the feelings game so hard. Happy stories, bittersweet stories, thoughtful stories, ridiculous romps, casefic, day-in-the-life, all-the-days-in-a-life ... all that good stuff. I also am totally cool with any person, tense, or style you choose to tell the fic in. I prefer the person/tense stay consistent unless you're switching between well-delineated sections, so my brain stays minimally confused :).
General Dislikes: Interpersonal tension between characters without established reasons in the plot; characters presented as being “just evil” without logic (it doesn’t have to be GOOD logic, just that the bad character is internally consistent and a person) – This is less true when it comes to Beyond Belief, where there are plenty of eeeeevil monsters.
Beyond Belief (in tagset as The Thrilling Adventure Hour)
Characters Requested: Pterodactyl Jones, Sadie Doyle
Why I love this canon: I love Beyond Belief because of its ridiculous malleability (Sadie is a picture of Old Hollywod, and Donna is a 1980s suburban soccer mom, and it's Donna who's the immortal vampire??), its focus on characters above worldbuilding, and honestly the acting of the leads!
Why I love these characters: hahaha WHY WOULDN'T YOU LOVE SADIE PARKER DOYLE. She's classy, she's snarky, and she is REMARKABLY good at holding her liquor. Also, she's both kind and intensely pragmatically nasty as the situation calls for it (see: her stocking blood, because she is friends with many vampires, and her stocking stakes, because she is enemies with many vampires, and using them both on the same vampire). I love Sadie/Frank and Sadie-Donna to no end. I am mostly just fascinated by Pterodactyl Jones. WHAT IS UP WITH HIM??? I adore noir tropes, and I would just roll around delightedly in any story that includes his life (with or without the self-narrating, but ahaha the self-narrating).
Notes: Sadie/Frank is my forever ship (but I don't need Frank in the fic, if you'd rather not write him). Also, I headcanon Sadie as older than Frank based on her discussion of her and Donna's history before she and Donna both got married (it seems very "in the decades we knew each other before you and I met"), but I'm totally okay with you not mentioning that! Also, I am more than happy for Pterodactyl Jones AND Sadie Doyle (yaaaay), but if you choose one don't feel obligated to include the other!
Prompts:
* How did Pterodactyl Jones and his pterodactyl meet?? HOW DOES ONE ACQUIRE A GHOST PTERODACTYL FAMILIAR? Also, are they equal partners in the P.I. firm, and/or what does actually solving their cases look like? Do they ever have GHOST CUSTOMERS? What do the local pterodactyl heavens look like, and has Jones ever visited?
* Sadie is faced with a HORRIFYING PROBLEM except it's something extremely mundane, and she must (with or without Frank!) take to the streets with her cunning and problem solving to FIX IT. (Possibly: the power is out, and they've run out of alcohol. They have broken their window, which means it is open to a DREADED BEE, and neither she nor Frank have the slightest idea how to fix it). Obviously, hijinks ensue.
* An AU where Sadie teamed up with Pterodactyl Jones instead of Frank. Either take the show route -- how did this happen??? Or just write an adventure they go on as a DETECTIVE DUO.
* What are some of Donna and Sadie's FUN ADVENTURES from The Bloodsucker Proxy?
* Really, any ridiculous AU you want to go for (either the show route -- which makes me cackle -- or with no framing story, which I would still be very down for!). Sadie Parker Doyle IN SPACE? Sadie and Frank OPEN A COFFEE SHOP? with LOTS OF LIQUOR? Pterodactyl Jones, TIME TRAVELING DETECTIVE? Sadie Parker, TIME THIEF, being chased by Frank Doyle and Pterodactyl Jones, TIME COPS? Daemon AU?!?
* Any of these as an in-canon AU starring Sadie or Jones, but especially House Detective in the Most Haunted Hotel in New York City http://thrilling-adventure-hour.wikia.com/wiki/Shows_that_Frank_and_Sadie_would/would_not_watch
* Fun potential crossovers/fusions (though please focus on the BB people, and generally I'd prefer the tone of the podcast!): OKAY I looked at the tagset and here are 70+ canons!
Hail Caesar! (2016)
Characters Requested: Carlotta Valdez, Hobie Doyle
Why I love this canon: I love this canon primarily due to its slice-of-life aspects, even though the characters involved have really odd lives (but seem very consistently themselves)! I'd never seen a Coen Bros movie before (I know D:), and I'm excited to carve out time in my day to watch more from my experience with this one. It's hard to communicate the rest of what I like in this canon in a way that's useful to fic, but I enjoyed a lot of the visual aesthetic and music if that's at all useful!
Why I love these characters: They're just the cutest, most competent, genuinely sweet people in the movie! I love Carlotta's quick friendliness and ease with Hobie, and from what little we see of her she seems to be so willing to just do the thing which is a trait I find very admirable. I adore Hobie's aw-shucks dorkiness paired with his clear intelligence and discernment about What Evil Lurks In The Heart Of Men. I enjoy the contrast between his clear lack of knowledge about certain tropes/movies/industries and his extreme competence in the things he knows.
Notes: Yeah, I ship it! Adorable friends is also very cool, but if so please don't mention them paired with other people <3. Also, I love DeeAnna and would be delighted by her appearance in any fic (though as I didn't request her, obviously don't feel burdened to!)
Prompts: This one was hard, because I'm genuinely interested in anything with these two interacting!
* the romance of valdez and doyle which I suspect would be the CUTEST THING EVER? A series of scenes or a fully fleshed out storyline -- man, I'd love anything here.
Fun tropes: fake married/dating (--> real feelings), pretty much anything dorky as long as one doesn't think they're dating while the other one does.
Non-pairing-specific prompts (but can be hijacked!):
* Hobie goes to Carlotta's next premiere as her date -- how does it go?
* Any sort of non-mundane AU that maintains their characterization and mild outsiderness -- especially something sort of offkilter, like them in a space western! Or either modern or 1950s urban fantasy (though if so, I'd appreciate if Carlotta is human)!
* Future fic! How does Carlotta adapt as her genre is phased out -- does her "image change" lead her into a new genre of films? Does Hobie have any advice? Or, in contrast, has Carlotta already changed genres and have advice for Hobie?
* FOR SOME REASON, Hobie and Carlotta are made to babysit DeeAnna's baby, because obviously they are ~*so wholesome*~ and trustworthy that they know how to deal with babies! Except. Um. Maybe they don't. (or maybe they do, and whatever drives the storyline comes from other tensions!)
* CASEFIC. I don't know what sort of case, but a case that they must solve!
Hitman: Agent 47 (2015)
Characters Requested: Agent 47 (Hitman: Agent 47), Katia van Dees
Why I love this canon: Dumb action movies with cool visuals and interesting/smart characterizations are just my favorite thing? Man, I am super predictable, but I'm so glad I saw this!
Why I love these characters: I really love Katia van Dees; she feels very, very real to me -- especially as someone who deals with sensory detail/anxiety weirdly (though she is, of course, that to an absolutely maxxed out degree). I love her tendency to dismantle things. I love how present danger makes her relax. I love Agent 47 for how normal he seems to feel in his entirely bizarre life, and how it's unclear to what extent his quiet friendliness is real and to what extent it's faked to earn Katia's trust. I do love the fact that he's extremely gentle, when not ruthlessly murdering people, and I just as much love the scenes where he is the "monster" for the movie to move forward. For both of these characters, I enjoy their outsider perspective on "normal" human interaction, and to what extent they both "play at" those interactions and to what extent they realize they share the motivations that drive other people.
Notes: I personally don't see these characters as siblings (it seems Katia's father only thinks of them as both his "children" in so far as they are both his experiments). So, though I don't actively ship them, I'd be happy to be convinced to ship them if you want me too -- as long as you don't play with incest vibes! I also have become aware this is a videogame. I do not know the videogame! So if you use canon from it, please use it in a way that is understandable to someone who has no familiarity with that canon <3.
Prompts:
*Katia and Agent 47 on a new case: where do they go from the end of the movie?
*Pre-canon early life. What has Katia forgotten? Why does she know Agent 47 better than the clones he is identical to (in appearance, at least)?
*More recent pre-canon comparing and contrasting the two of their lives as they both search for the same man
*Down-time fic. How do they interact? What do they do when not under extreme pressure? Do either of them have hobbies they can share, or do they try to pick up an interest in visiting botanical gardens?
*I would find it weirdly hilarious to have a very normal fic about them, like, buying board games. I'd be just as happy with fic full of explosions!
Kubo and the Two Strings (2016)
Characters Requested: Monkey (Kubo and the Two Strings), Beetle (Kubo and the Two Strings)
Why I love this canon: I mostly love this canon's worldbuilding (the importance of paper! the interactions of stories with real life!) and its visual appeal. I found it's tone-- darker than anticipated, and quietly unsettling -- to be incredibly interesting, and found the idea of Kubo winning through forgiveness to be very compelling. I also just love the characters.
Why I love these characters: Monkey is my favorite person??? I love her joy in story telling, her intense pragmatism, and how she knows the danger Kubo faces and is terrified by it. I love that she designed a vessel to hold her dying self to save her son from her family -- someone so scared, and so powerful, and so pragmatic, and so loving all at once is incredibly rare in fiction. Beetle is just the dorkiest of all dorks and should be allowed to dork for all time <3 <3 <3. I love him, and I love his devotion to HONOR and his curiosity about his past life, and his willingness to help Kubo out. I also love how much Monkey & Beetle's current relationship speaks to what their old one must have been.
Notes: I would be fascinated by any worldbuilding you squeezed in, even tiny throwaway details -- the mythos of this world is so interesting! Also, *clutches face with one hand, and heart with the other* Monkeeeeey! Beetlllllle!
Prompts:
*Fic about Monkey and Beetle during the journey to find the three treasures! Particularly when it comes to their relationship with each other. To what extent does Monkey already feel like this could be the beginning of something new, as she doesn't know it's the continuing of something old?
*Something about their current life interspersed with parts of their old life would also be incredibly fascinating to me.
*A story Kubo tells about his parents & protectors
*A story about Monkey & Beetle back when they were humans, and newlywed. What was it like, for a moon princess to live on the earth with a human hero?
*Something looking at them coming back to Earth every year to visit Kubo (& the Moon King), but if so a focus on their story instead of Kubo's would be preferable <3.
*What's up in the afterlife??