2020 Yuletide Letter
Oct. 23rd, 2020 11:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
somethingdarkerWhat I want most is a story that you enjoyed writing. In many cases, I nominated and/or requested single characters. That's more aimed at not limiting you than at me not wanting those characters interacting with others. For / character interactions, I'll be happy with a G or a T rated interaction with a lot of plot.
I would much prefer getting a story you loved writing that avoids my DNWs than something you didn't enjoy writing but think is exactly what I want. Exchanges are imperfect things.
In some cases, my DNWs include things I have written and/or things that would be okay under very specific circumstances simply because it's easier to detour around the field entirely than to define the exact route for avoiding the landmines.
Me not giving a specific prompt for a character I requested does not mean I want them less. It means I got overwhelmed with all of the detail.
Generally speaking, I like::
Canon divergence.
Time travel fix-its.
Time loops with humor.
Unreliable narrators.
Two or more characters simultaneously trying to manipulate each other.
Divided loyalties.
Characters having inexplicably survived their tragic, canonical deaths.
Crossovers.
Established relationships with trust and good boundaries.
Worldbuilding, generally.
Worldbuilding that explores scaffolding/logistics in the background of canon.
Explorations of the dark implications that canon ignores.
Bisexual characters.
Genderqueer characters.
Poly characters and relationships.
Open ended stories.
5 things and variants.
Note: What I write is not necessarily consistent with what I like to read. I read a lot less porn than I write and am not necessarily interested in any particular kink, even when I've written it more than once. Gen is good. G, T, or M rated relationships are also good. I'm not saying no sex scenes or no explicit sex, more that such things aren't the point for me.
DNW: PWP, cancer, underage sex (I'm okay with the idea that it happens; I don't want to have to read about it), non-canonical death of requested characters, vampires, zombies, were-creatures, a/b/o, mundane AU, any sort of transplantation AU, non-canonical harm to or death of children, drowning or risk of drowning, incest, mentor/protege sex or romance, soulmates/soulbonds, bleak/hopeless endings, fusions, non-canonical reincarnation, focus on homophobia or transphobia or racism or ablism or similar prejudices
Hamster Princess Series - Ursula Vernon
Harriet Hamsterbone
I don't have a lot of specific prompts for this one. I'll just wave my hand at canon and say, "More of that, please!" Feel free to pull from fairy tales that I might not know (I'd appreciate a link in an author's note, though).
I like how Harriet's general (but skewed) practicality and her tendency to ask important questions pushes angst and expectations off-track. Always, always ask things like 'Who cleans the kitchen?' and 'But what do they eat?'
Also, 'But... Why?'
I'm fine with vampires, zombies, and were-creatures for this fandom as long as they're written as fitting the canon. Break all the tropes.
Fandom specific DNW: Sex, romance, Harriet experiencing angst, dark themes, human characters
The Witch Family - Eleanor Estes
Little Witch Girl | Hannah (The Witch Family)
Feel free to jettison the bit about the magical characters never growing up; I'd rather that you did that or avoided the topic.
I'm curious about worldbuilding here. More about witch school or about magic. Something about what the Little Witch Girl does after canon. Does she become more traditionally witchy or does she find her own way to be a witch? Does she interact with Amy and/or Clarissa again?
Witch parties, witch holidays, witch traditions for interacting with non-witch magical beings.
I'd enjoy seeing other canonical characters show up and am open to OCs.
Fandom specific DNW: Sex or romance. The witches being entirely (or even mostly) imaginary. Violence beyond canon levels.
The Hollow (Cartoon)
Adam (The Hollow)
Kai (The Hollow)
Mira (The Hollow)
Vanessa (The Hollow)
I'm open to either season 1 versions or season 2 versions or to some mix of both. I don't need all four characters in the fic if a subset ends up working better. I also don't mind additional canonical characters.
We don't see a lot of the world outside of the game. Are there other applications of the technology? Are there carryovers from the game into the characters' offline lives? Do the season 1 versions ever find out about the season 2 versions?
I took the ending of season 2 as a happily-for-now. I can't picture the kids being longterm happy with the situation. Parts of it-- particularly the people-- are going to feel very cardboard very fast. They can't even be completely sure that the MC told them the truth about him not telling anyone or about him having hidden them in a safe partition.
I have no idea what any of them would do with that or who they might become over the course of months or years. Do they figure out ways to manipulate their environment? Are there ever other people coming in? Do they age physically? Do they get sick of each other and bicker about ridiculous things?
I'm open to a fix-it for the death in season 2. I'd rather keep the death, but I could see the characters looking for a way to bring him back.
I'm fine with vampires, zombies, and werecreatures for this fandom as long as they're written as fitting the canon. I just don't want to have to take the usual associated tropes seriously.
Fandom specific DNW: Explicit sex. Alteration of Adam's stated sexual orientation. Other characters making a big deal about Adam's sexual orientation.
Phoebe and Her Unicorn Series - Dana Simpson
Marigold Heavenly Nostrils
This, obviously, is an exception to my usual DNW for unicorns. I'm kind of fascinated by unicorn culture and magic in this series. I'm also curious about unicorn friendships with non-unicorn magical creatures.
If you want to bring in Marigold's canonical sister, feel free. I'm also open to Lord Splendid Humility and other canonical unicorns. I'm also fine with a story that has Marigold interacting with just Phoebe or with some subset of the nominated human characters.
Or maybe Marigold interacting with Phoebe's parents?
Marigold has a lot of stories about unicorn history. I would not be averse to her telling more of those.
I like that this comic has gentle humor and no out and out villains.
If you're interested in crossing this with Calvin & Hobbes, I'd love to see Marigold and Hobbes interact.
Fandom specific DNW: Any correlation between virginity and unicorn friendship. Sexual/romantic relationships that go beyond a G rating on page. Violence or gore. Marigold as a human.
Every River Runs to Salt - Rachael K. Jones
Imani (Every River Runs to Salt)
Quietly Jensen (Every River Runs to Salt)
I'm mostly wondering about post-canon stuff here. I'm pretty sure that the magic won't leave the characters be even if they try to avoid it.
If you want to go pre-canon, I'd be curious about how the characters met and when (and why!) Imani told Quietly her family stories.
Given the stuff with oceans and rivers and so on, I understand that there may be going onto or into water involved. Please just avoid anything that makes me or the characters think that drowning is a risk.
For post-canon, please assume currently happy Imani/Quietly and focus conflict (if any) on external to the relationship things. If they have conflict with each other, I'd prefer it to be about things like, "No, bringing home Lake Michigan is not less of a big deal than bringing home the Pacific!" or "Maybe taking a job in California is a bad idea even if it would be a good career move."
I'm curious about how their families react to the magic related changes in Quietly and/or Imani. I'm also kind of fascinated by the general personification of things like the states and the university. Are most people aware of those things? Nobody seems to have really freaked out about the impossibility of Imani turning to salt, and I wondered about that.
Canon specific DNW: Making either Quietly or Imani white.
Sky High (2005)
Josie Stronghold
Layla Williams
Magenta (Sky High)
I'm kind of curious about how Josie might be a role model or advisor for Layla and Magenta. I don't mind other characters, nominated or not, showing up as long as the focus is on those three. Layla's mother and/or Principal Powers might be interesting additions.
I'd also enjoy seeing the three of them interact after Layla and Magenta have graduated and found their feet as adults.
A case fic set at any point would be fun or some sort of school project/assignment.
I tend to view this setting as a candy coated dystopia. I'm not sure if the characters realize it, of course, and I'll be fine if the story doesn't touch on them noticing the issues or trying to deal with them. I'd just be interested to see how the characters talk about their world when they're not in a G-rated movie.
Layla/Magenta is fine. I'm also good with them as friends. No strong feelings there.
I haven't requested Gwen, but I'm very interested in who Sue Tenny was. I'm much less interested in Gwen because I'm not sure how easy it would be to write about her without addressing her relationship with Stitches which I can't view as anything but deeply fucked up. If you write Sue, you can omit any or all of the requested characters. I don't think getting Layla and Magenta in would be easy to do, and Josie might not make sense. Obviously, this is an extremely ODAO request.
I don't object to the high school age characters dating the other high school age characters (in any configuration as long as it's consensual all around), but I'm not interested in seeing those relationships as guaranteed to be permanent. I don't mind if the adult versions of those characters are still together, but I'd like an acknowledgement that most people don't end up happily married to someone they met in high school.
Fandom specific DNW: Focus on Stitches. Adult/teen relationships. Josie/Layla or Josie/Magenta.
I would much prefer getting a story you loved writing that avoids my DNWs than something you didn't enjoy writing but think is exactly what I want. Exchanges are imperfect things.
In some cases, my DNWs include things I have written and/or things that would be okay under very specific circumstances simply because it's easier to detour around the field entirely than to define the exact route for avoiding the landmines.
Me not giving a specific prompt for a character I requested does not mean I want them less. It means I got overwhelmed with all of the detail.
Generally speaking, I like::
Canon divergence.
Time travel fix-its.
Time loops with humor.
Unreliable narrators.
Two or more characters simultaneously trying to manipulate each other.
Divided loyalties.
Characters having inexplicably survived their tragic, canonical deaths.
Crossovers.
Established relationships with trust and good boundaries.
Worldbuilding, generally.
Worldbuilding that explores scaffolding/logistics in the background of canon.
Explorations of the dark implications that canon ignores.
Bisexual characters.
Genderqueer characters.
Poly characters and relationships.
Open ended stories.
5 things and variants.
Note: What I write is not necessarily consistent with what I like to read. I read a lot less porn than I write and am not necessarily interested in any particular kink, even when I've written it more than once. Gen is good. G, T, or M rated relationships are also good. I'm not saying no sex scenes or no explicit sex, more that such things aren't the point for me.
DNW: PWP, cancer, underage sex (I'm okay with the idea that it happens; I don't want to have to read about it), non-canonical death of requested characters, vampires, zombies, were-creatures, a/b/o, mundane AU, any sort of transplantation AU, non-canonical harm to or death of children, drowning or risk of drowning, incest, mentor/protege sex or romance, soulmates/soulbonds, bleak/hopeless endings, fusions, non-canonical reincarnation, focus on homophobia or transphobia or racism or ablism or similar prejudices
Hamster Princess Series - Ursula Vernon
Harriet Hamsterbone
I don't have a lot of specific prompts for this one. I'll just wave my hand at canon and say, "More of that, please!" Feel free to pull from fairy tales that I might not know (I'd appreciate a link in an author's note, though).
I like how Harriet's general (but skewed) practicality and her tendency to ask important questions pushes angst and expectations off-track. Always, always ask things like 'Who cleans the kitchen?' and 'But what do they eat?'
Also, 'But... Why?'
I'm fine with vampires, zombies, and were-creatures for this fandom as long as they're written as fitting the canon. Break all the tropes.
Fandom specific DNW: Sex, romance, Harriet experiencing angst, dark themes, human characters
The Witch Family - Eleanor Estes
Little Witch Girl | Hannah (The Witch Family)
Feel free to jettison the bit about the magical characters never growing up; I'd rather that you did that or avoided the topic.
I'm curious about worldbuilding here. More about witch school or about magic. Something about what the Little Witch Girl does after canon. Does she become more traditionally witchy or does she find her own way to be a witch? Does she interact with Amy and/or Clarissa again?
Witch parties, witch holidays, witch traditions for interacting with non-witch magical beings.
I'd enjoy seeing other canonical characters show up and am open to OCs.
Fandom specific DNW: Sex or romance. The witches being entirely (or even mostly) imaginary. Violence beyond canon levels.
The Hollow (Cartoon)
Adam (The Hollow)
Kai (The Hollow)
Mira (The Hollow)
Vanessa (The Hollow)
I'm open to either season 1 versions or season 2 versions or to some mix of both. I don't need all four characters in the fic if a subset ends up working better. I also don't mind additional canonical characters.
We don't see a lot of the world outside of the game. Are there other applications of the technology? Are there carryovers from the game into the characters' offline lives? Do the season 1 versions ever find out about the season 2 versions?
I took the ending of season 2 as a happily-for-now. I can't picture the kids being longterm happy with the situation. Parts of it-- particularly the people-- are going to feel very cardboard very fast. They can't even be completely sure that the MC told them the truth about him not telling anyone or about him having hidden them in a safe partition.
I have no idea what any of them would do with that or who they might become over the course of months or years. Do they figure out ways to manipulate their environment? Are there ever other people coming in? Do they age physically? Do they get sick of each other and bicker about ridiculous things?
I'm open to a fix-it for the death in season 2. I'd rather keep the death, but I could see the characters looking for a way to bring him back.
I'm fine with vampires, zombies, and werecreatures for this fandom as long as they're written as fitting the canon. I just don't want to have to take the usual associated tropes seriously.
Fandom specific DNW: Explicit sex. Alteration of Adam's stated sexual orientation. Other characters making a big deal about Adam's sexual orientation.
Phoebe and Her Unicorn Series - Dana Simpson
Marigold Heavenly Nostrils
This, obviously, is an exception to my usual DNW for unicorns. I'm kind of fascinated by unicorn culture and magic in this series. I'm also curious about unicorn friendships with non-unicorn magical creatures.
If you want to bring in Marigold's canonical sister, feel free. I'm also open to Lord Splendid Humility and other canonical unicorns. I'm also fine with a story that has Marigold interacting with just Phoebe or with some subset of the nominated human characters.
Or maybe Marigold interacting with Phoebe's parents?
Marigold has a lot of stories about unicorn history. I would not be averse to her telling more of those.
I like that this comic has gentle humor and no out and out villains.
If you're interested in crossing this with Calvin & Hobbes, I'd love to see Marigold and Hobbes interact.
Fandom specific DNW: Any correlation between virginity and unicorn friendship. Sexual/romantic relationships that go beyond a G rating on page. Violence or gore. Marigold as a human.
Every River Runs to Salt - Rachael K. Jones
Imani (Every River Runs to Salt)
Quietly Jensen (Every River Runs to Salt)
I'm mostly wondering about post-canon stuff here. I'm pretty sure that the magic won't leave the characters be even if they try to avoid it.
If you want to go pre-canon, I'd be curious about how the characters met and when (and why!) Imani told Quietly her family stories.
Given the stuff with oceans and rivers and so on, I understand that there may be going onto or into water involved. Please just avoid anything that makes me or the characters think that drowning is a risk.
For post-canon, please assume currently happy Imani/Quietly and focus conflict (if any) on external to the relationship things. If they have conflict with each other, I'd prefer it to be about things like, "No, bringing home Lake Michigan is not less of a big deal than bringing home the Pacific!" or "Maybe taking a job in California is a bad idea even if it would be a good career move."
I'm curious about how their families react to the magic related changes in Quietly and/or Imani. I'm also kind of fascinated by the general personification of things like the states and the university. Are most people aware of those things? Nobody seems to have really freaked out about the impossibility of Imani turning to salt, and I wondered about that.
Canon specific DNW: Making either Quietly or Imani white.
Sky High (2005)
Josie Stronghold
Layla Williams
Magenta (Sky High)
I'm kind of curious about how Josie might be a role model or advisor for Layla and Magenta. I don't mind other characters, nominated or not, showing up as long as the focus is on those three. Layla's mother and/or Principal Powers might be interesting additions.
I'd also enjoy seeing the three of them interact after Layla and Magenta have graduated and found their feet as adults.
A case fic set at any point would be fun or some sort of school project/assignment.
I tend to view this setting as a candy coated dystopia. I'm not sure if the characters realize it, of course, and I'll be fine if the story doesn't touch on them noticing the issues or trying to deal with them. I'd just be interested to see how the characters talk about their world when they're not in a G-rated movie.
Layla/Magenta is fine. I'm also good with them as friends. No strong feelings there.
I haven't requested Gwen, but I'm very interested in who Sue Tenny was. I'm much less interested in Gwen because I'm not sure how easy it would be to write about her without addressing her relationship with Stitches which I can't view as anything but deeply fucked up. If you write Sue, you can omit any or all of the requested characters. I don't think getting Layla and Magenta in would be easy to do, and Josie might not make sense. Obviously, this is an extremely ODAO request.
I don't object to the high school age characters dating the other high school age characters (in any configuration as long as it's consensual all around), but I'm not interested in seeing those relationships as guaranteed to be permanent. I don't mind if the adult versions of those characters are still together, but I'd like an acknowledgement that most people don't end up happily married to someone they met in high school.
Fandom specific DNW: Focus on Stitches. Adult/teen relationships. Josie/Layla or Josie/Magenta.
