Dear Yuletide Writer 2020
Oct. 18th, 2020 11:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ladybird97Dear Yuletide Writer,
Thank you so much for writing for me! I’m already grateful that you would dedicate your creativity towards giving me a fic.
All of my previous Yuletide posts are public under my Yuletide tag, so you can see the kinds of things I like, rec, and have received in the past.
Things I Love
Gen. Strong friendship. Found family. Romance. Femslash. Bechdel-passing. Feminism. Inclusivity. Teamwork. Smart people getting to show their intelligence; competent people getting to do what they're best at. Stories that replicate the tone and style of the original. Stories about people making discoveries about themselves: discovering their inner strength, discovering that they're in love, discovering the strength of their friendship. Plot. Well-researched history. Snappy dialogue. Hurt/comfort. Casefic. (if you write me casefic, I will be your friend forever!)
And, most of all, I love crossovers! If you find inspiration for one of these, it would be an amazing Yuletide present! It can be a crossover or fusion between two of the fandoms I've requested, or with an outside one. Time travel and ‘just add magic’ are two of my fandom catnips, and also some of my favorite excuses for crossovers. (Doctor Who and Timeless would be awesome time-travel crossovers. Please, no Harry Potter for the 'just add magic' crossover, not anymore.) So, the Ministerio del Tiempo team goes to 1830s Mexico or Cuba and crosses over with Benjamin January and Co.; or goes to 1960s Oxford and Morse figures out that they're really not from around here. (Irene's from the 1960s - did they give her a mission close to home?) An older Pat and Fen cross paths with a very young Endeavour - and together, they solve crime!
Absolute Do Not Want
Explicit sex or violence. Rape, non-con, dubcon. Incest. Humiliation. (Seriously, I can't even watch The Office because humiliation makes me cringe so hard.) Sexual relationships between adults and teens. Violence against children, child abuse, or other children-in-peril. Physical or psychological torture. Misogyny, homophobia, and other bigotry. And please, no 'they act like they hate each other but that's actually because they're in love,' unless that's already been established in canon. I want "no" to mean "no."
And, because it is this year (sigh): no COVID, no stories about other epidemics, and no present-day politics.
Would Rather Not Have
The Five Things structure. Angst. Major character death. Plotless character studies. AUs (except crossovers and fusions). Non-canonical pairings that I haven't specified in my request.
Benjamin January Mysteries. Rose Vitrac January, Dominique Vieillard, Hannibal Sefton, Benjamin January
I'm happy with a story about any or all of these characters, at any point during the series.
What I love about this series: The New Orleans setting: its social complexity, racial diversity, music, history. The emotional authenticity of everyone's strengths and weaknesses. The way it respects the characters' pasts. The complications of friendship and family. The way each mystery is so deeply embedded in the fabric of its society. I also respect how the series doesn't look away from the legacy of slavery, racism, and trauma, both in the characters' lives and in the wider world. I absolutely understand that some of those elements need to be in this story if it's going to do justice to the original and the historical reality. However, I would strongly prefer a story that is not primarily about racism, slavery, or trauma.
About the characters specifically: I love Dominique's emotional intelligence, unabashed femininity, perceptiveness, and skillful navigation of New Orleans' racial divisions and her own place within them. I love Rose's intellect, gentleness, pragmatism, and the little flashes of daring and bravery that are getting more frequent as time goes on. (The cross-dressing is especially excellent.) I love Hannibal's loyalty, haplessness, accidental charisma, stealth competence, and fast-talking.
My first choice is a story in which Rose and Dominique team up to solve a case. Maybe it's while Benjamin is away; maybe it's a case that he can't investigate on his own: just as he takes on cases that other people can't (or won't) investigate, maybe Rose and Dominique have taken on one that Benjamin can't or won't. How do Rose and Dominique work together? What are their detective methods like? How do they rescue Hannibal (because you know he'll need to be rescued!)
If you'd like to do a solo story, I'd love to see Hannibal on his own. Maybe you could show what he was doing during one of the many times when he was offstage working on Benjamin's behalf, trying to bluff his way out of a tight situation.
Obviously I'm happy to have a conventional case with Benjamin there! I'd just really like to see some of the other characters working on their own, too.
Bunheads: Boo, Sasha, Melanie, Ginny
What I love about this show: the strong friendship among the girls, the witty dialogue, the love for art and performance that it conveys.
I'd love an ensemble-cast story that features the core friendship among the four girls and shows how it develops as time goes on. How does their friendship change as they get closer to graduating high school? How do they deal with having to leave home and each other? What are their plans for the future? I also love the ballet-studio scenes, so it would be great to have a story focused on preparation for a recital or another Nutcracker production.
If you want to focus the story on one girl, Boo is my favorite. I'd really love a story that shows her gaining confidence, either in her dancing ability or another aspect of her life. And, what happens when her new sibling is born? What happens in her relationship with Carl? Or, how about a Sasha/Boo story? I love the opposites-attract idea of that relationship, but I think they could also find a lot of common ground with the way they struggle with independence and self care - each could help support the other in those areas.
Endeavour: Endeavour Morse, Fred Thursday, Jim Strange
What I Love About This Show: I love the puzzle-piece mysteries, the trails of complicated clues, the way Morse thinks around corners. I love the way Morse continually grapples with his past and present: he's still very much trying to figure out what kind of person he wants to be, and where his innate qualities lead him. I love that he's brilliant but also fallible: sometimes his leaps of intellect don't work, and sometimes he's trapped by his own preconceptions.
I love the way the show grapples with the complexities of class differences among all of these characters: Morse is highly educated but not from an upper-class background; Strange is constantly trying to figure out what it means to have the authority that he does.
In general, I prefer the earlier seasons to the later ones. I would absolutely adore an ensemble casefic - also easier in the earlier seasons! - but I'd also be happy with a solo story for one of the characters.
Some specific ideas:
- for solo stories: a prequel story for Morse or Thursday, showing what they did during the war; something when Morse was a student; something early in Thursday’s career, maybe when his kids were young and he was still figuring out how to balance fatherhood and career. A solo Strange story is the one exception to my general preference for early in the series, because he has a lot of interesting development in the later seasons with his new position and his new relationship to his former colleagues.
- Some kind of supernatural occurrence, especially Morse and Thursday's skepticism pushing up against actual proof of the supernatural. A ghost story, a crossover or fusion with some other fandom that involves magic like Strange and Norrell. (Where is Strange’s family from?)
- Another literary fusion, along the lines of the Great Gatsby and Lion in Winter episodes. Shakespeare would be awesome - maybe Hamlet or Macbeth, since both of those feature murders. Or another play, if you feel inspired in that direction.
England Series, KJ Charles. Patricia Merton, Fenella Carruth.
I love these two SO MUCH.
I love Fen’s femininity, stealth competence, emotional intelligence, unexpected confidence when it comes to relationships. I love the way she learns how to take advantage of the way people underestimate her, but I wish she had more opportunities to show the world how absolutely awesome she is.
I love Pat’s not-so-hidden gentle side and not-at-all-stealth competence. I love her supportive relationship with her brother. I love the way she _sees_ Fen when nobody else does and I love the way she respects her.
I love they way they work as a team: how each teaches the other, how their strengths complement each other, how they admire each other, and how they work together.
Casefic would be fabulous, obviously. I’d love to see Pat and Fen working as a team to solve another murder or other crime, especially one where they’re the only people who really understand how important it is. I’d also love to see some role reversal, where Pat is imperiled and Fen has to step up to be brave. (I love hurt/comfort, and this would be a great opportunity for that as well.)
El Ministerio del Tiempo: any character
What I Love About This Show: Time travel is one of my fandom catnips. I love the idea of people from all eras mingling together and finding common bonds. I love the mix of the magical and the mundane: Roman soldiers and Regency gentry standing in line in the Ministry cafeteria; government audits; laptops in the 16th century, doors that can open up into closets or courtyards or bathrooms.
I even love the wackiness of their time-travel rules: that time keeps moving forward so that there’s always a Ministry at the end of time, that cellphones work at any era in the past (?), that the doors work in Spain defined politically rather than geographically (??)
Most of all, I love the debates about the ethics of time travel. Why do we need to keep history the same? Why can’t we change things for the better? Why can’t we save the people we love? I really wish that the show had fully grappled with the uglier aspects of Spanish history, and the moral conflicts that come from being unable to change them. S3 was a start, but they could have - and should have! - done more.
Please no spoilers for Season 4! I haven't seen it! (If it's possible to see it at all yet in the US, I haven't found a way!)
I love ensemble stories and casefic, so my first choice would be an ensemble story about The Team going on a mission. (Original team, please. I don’t mind if you include other characters around the Ministry like Ernesto or Salvador or Angustias, but I’m not a fan of Pacino.)
If you want a solo story, I'd prefer it to be about Amelia or Irene. Amelia/Irene romance would make me super extra happy! They're both so intelligent and competent, and Amelia has just a tiny bit of ruthlessness in her that would make her a good fit with Irene. I would love to see them as a Ministry power couple, going on missions and fixing history for the better.
I love Amelia's intelligence, flexibility, integrity, and curiosity. I love how she grows into a leader; I love how she grapples with the ethics of time travel and what she's personally willing to do to make a mission succeed. I was also extremely disappointed that the show ended with Amelia offstage! I'd love to see a story about her coming back to the Ministry after having dealt with her family, or about what she did with her time offstage.
I love Irene’s confidence, moral ambivalence, pragmatism, and extreme competence. I’d love to see her being badass and competent as a field agent! How did she work for justice within the boundaries of the Ministry? How does she balance her drive for justice with her increasing investment in the Ministry's administration? Most of all, I’d love to see Irene being happy. Happy with Nuria or Amelia or Rocio; happy with her work; anything.
I’d also be happy with a general “life in the Ministry” story. I really really love the way Ministry apartments work – how spooky and wonderful is it that there are always hundreds of people living in the same apartment at different times? Or, something about the mechanics of the doors, or figuring out how to communicate across time, or something like that.
Thank you so much for writing for me! I’m already grateful that you would dedicate your creativity towards giving me a fic.
All of my previous Yuletide posts are public under my Yuletide tag, so you can see the kinds of things I like, rec, and have received in the past.
Things I Love
Gen. Strong friendship. Found family. Romance. Femslash. Bechdel-passing. Feminism. Inclusivity. Teamwork. Smart people getting to show their intelligence; competent people getting to do what they're best at. Stories that replicate the tone and style of the original. Stories about people making discoveries about themselves: discovering their inner strength, discovering that they're in love, discovering the strength of their friendship. Plot. Well-researched history. Snappy dialogue. Hurt/comfort. Casefic. (if you write me casefic, I will be your friend forever!)
And, most of all, I love crossovers! If you find inspiration for one of these, it would be an amazing Yuletide present! It can be a crossover or fusion between two of the fandoms I've requested, or with an outside one. Time travel and ‘just add magic’ are two of my fandom catnips, and also some of my favorite excuses for crossovers. (Doctor Who and Timeless would be awesome time-travel crossovers. Please, no Harry Potter for the 'just add magic' crossover, not anymore.) So, the Ministerio del Tiempo team goes to 1830s Mexico or Cuba and crosses over with Benjamin January and Co.; or goes to 1960s Oxford and Morse figures out that they're really not from around here. (Irene's from the 1960s - did they give her a mission close to home?) An older Pat and Fen cross paths with a very young Endeavour - and together, they solve crime!
Absolute Do Not Want
Explicit sex or violence. Rape, non-con, dubcon. Incest. Humiliation. (Seriously, I can't even watch The Office because humiliation makes me cringe so hard.) Sexual relationships between adults and teens. Violence against children, child abuse, or other children-in-peril. Physical or psychological torture. Misogyny, homophobia, and other bigotry. And please, no 'they act like they hate each other but that's actually because they're in love,' unless that's already been established in canon. I want "no" to mean "no."
And, because it is this year (sigh): no COVID, no stories about other epidemics, and no present-day politics.
Would Rather Not Have
The Five Things structure. Angst. Major character death. Plotless character studies. AUs (except crossovers and fusions). Non-canonical pairings that I haven't specified in my request.
Benjamin January Mysteries. Rose Vitrac January, Dominique Vieillard, Hannibal Sefton, Benjamin January
I'm happy with a story about any or all of these characters, at any point during the series.
What I love about this series: The New Orleans setting: its social complexity, racial diversity, music, history. The emotional authenticity of everyone's strengths and weaknesses. The way it respects the characters' pasts. The complications of friendship and family. The way each mystery is so deeply embedded in the fabric of its society. I also respect how the series doesn't look away from the legacy of slavery, racism, and trauma, both in the characters' lives and in the wider world. I absolutely understand that some of those elements need to be in this story if it's going to do justice to the original and the historical reality. However, I would strongly prefer a story that is not primarily about racism, slavery, or trauma.
About the characters specifically: I love Dominique's emotional intelligence, unabashed femininity, perceptiveness, and skillful navigation of New Orleans' racial divisions and her own place within them. I love Rose's intellect, gentleness, pragmatism, and the little flashes of daring and bravery that are getting more frequent as time goes on. (The cross-dressing is especially excellent.) I love Hannibal's loyalty, haplessness, accidental charisma, stealth competence, and fast-talking.
My first choice is a story in which Rose and Dominique team up to solve a case. Maybe it's while Benjamin is away; maybe it's a case that he can't investigate on his own: just as he takes on cases that other people can't (or won't) investigate, maybe Rose and Dominique have taken on one that Benjamin can't or won't. How do Rose and Dominique work together? What are their detective methods like? How do they rescue Hannibal (because you know he'll need to be rescued!)
If you'd like to do a solo story, I'd love to see Hannibal on his own. Maybe you could show what he was doing during one of the many times when he was offstage working on Benjamin's behalf, trying to bluff his way out of a tight situation.
Obviously I'm happy to have a conventional case with Benjamin there! I'd just really like to see some of the other characters working on their own, too.
Bunheads: Boo, Sasha, Melanie, Ginny
What I love about this show: the strong friendship among the girls, the witty dialogue, the love for art and performance that it conveys.
I'd love an ensemble-cast story that features the core friendship among the four girls and shows how it develops as time goes on. How does their friendship change as they get closer to graduating high school? How do they deal with having to leave home and each other? What are their plans for the future? I also love the ballet-studio scenes, so it would be great to have a story focused on preparation for a recital or another Nutcracker production.
If you want to focus the story on one girl, Boo is my favorite. I'd really love a story that shows her gaining confidence, either in her dancing ability or another aspect of her life. And, what happens when her new sibling is born? What happens in her relationship with Carl? Or, how about a Sasha/Boo story? I love the opposites-attract idea of that relationship, but I think they could also find a lot of common ground with the way they struggle with independence and self care - each could help support the other in those areas.
Endeavour: Endeavour Morse, Fred Thursday, Jim Strange
What I Love About This Show: I love the puzzle-piece mysteries, the trails of complicated clues, the way Morse thinks around corners. I love the way Morse continually grapples with his past and present: he's still very much trying to figure out what kind of person he wants to be, and where his innate qualities lead him. I love that he's brilliant but also fallible: sometimes his leaps of intellect don't work, and sometimes he's trapped by his own preconceptions.
I love the way the show grapples with the complexities of class differences among all of these characters: Morse is highly educated but not from an upper-class background; Strange is constantly trying to figure out what it means to have the authority that he does.
In general, I prefer the earlier seasons to the later ones. I would absolutely adore an ensemble casefic - also easier in the earlier seasons! - but I'd also be happy with a solo story for one of the characters.
Some specific ideas:
- for solo stories: a prequel story for Morse or Thursday, showing what they did during the war; something when Morse was a student; something early in Thursday’s career, maybe when his kids were young and he was still figuring out how to balance fatherhood and career. A solo Strange story is the one exception to my general preference for early in the series, because he has a lot of interesting development in the later seasons with his new position and his new relationship to his former colleagues.
- Some kind of supernatural occurrence, especially Morse and Thursday's skepticism pushing up against actual proof of the supernatural. A ghost story, a crossover or fusion with some other fandom that involves magic like Strange and Norrell. (Where is Strange’s family from?)
- Another literary fusion, along the lines of the Great Gatsby and Lion in Winter episodes. Shakespeare would be awesome - maybe Hamlet or Macbeth, since both of those feature murders. Or another play, if you feel inspired in that direction.
England Series, KJ Charles. Patricia Merton, Fenella Carruth.
I love these two SO MUCH.
I love Fen’s femininity, stealth competence, emotional intelligence, unexpected confidence when it comes to relationships. I love the way she learns how to take advantage of the way people underestimate her, but I wish she had more opportunities to show the world how absolutely awesome she is.
I love Pat’s not-so-hidden gentle side and not-at-all-stealth competence. I love her supportive relationship with her brother. I love the way she _sees_ Fen when nobody else does and I love the way she respects her.
I love they way they work as a team: how each teaches the other, how their strengths complement each other, how they admire each other, and how they work together.
Casefic would be fabulous, obviously. I’d love to see Pat and Fen working as a team to solve another murder or other crime, especially one where they’re the only people who really understand how important it is. I’d also love to see some role reversal, where Pat is imperiled and Fen has to step up to be brave. (I love hurt/comfort, and this would be a great opportunity for that as well.)
El Ministerio del Tiempo: any character
What I Love About This Show: Time travel is one of my fandom catnips. I love the idea of people from all eras mingling together and finding common bonds. I love the mix of the magical and the mundane: Roman soldiers and Regency gentry standing in line in the Ministry cafeteria; government audits; laptops in the 16th century, doors that can open up into closets or courtyards or bathrooms.
I even love the wackiness of their time-travel rules: that time keeps moving forward so that there’s always a Ministry at the end of time, that cellphones work at any era in the past (?), that the doors work in Spain defined politically rather than geographically (??)
Most of all, I love the debates about the ethics of time travel. Why do we need to keep history the same? Why can’t we change things for the better? Why can’t we save the people we love? I really wish that the show had fully grappled with the uglier aspects of Spanish history, and the moral conflicts that come from being unable to change them. S3 was a start, but they could have - and should have! - done more.
Please no spoilers for Season 4! I haven't seen it! (If it's possible to see it at all yet in the US, I haven't found a way!)
I love ensemble stories and casefic, so my first choice would be an ensemble story about The Team going on a mission. (Original team, please. I don’t mind if you include other characters around the Ministry like Ernesto or Salvador or Angustias, but I’m not a fan of Pacino.)
If you want a solo story, I'd prefer it to be about Amelia or Irene. Amelia/Irene romance would make me super extra happy! They're both so intelligent and competent, and Amelia has just a tiny bit of ruthlessness in her that would make her a good fit with Irene. I would love to see them as a Ministry power couple, going on missions and fixing history for the better.
I love Amelia's intelligence, flexibility, integrity, and curiosity. I love how she grows into a leader; I love how she grapples with the ethics of time travel and what she's personally willing to do to make a mission succeed. I was also extremely disappointed that the show ended with Amelia offstage! I'd love to see a story about her coming back to the Ministry after having dealt with her family, or about what she did with her time offstage.
I love Irene’s confidence, moral ambivalence, pragmatism, and extreme competence. I’d love to see her being badass and competent as a field agent! How did she work for justice within the boundaries of the Ministry? How does she balance her drive for justice with her increasing investment in the Ministry's administration? Most of all, I’d love to see Irene being happy. Happy with Nuria or Amelia or Rocio; happy with her work; anything.
I’d also be happy with a general “life in the Ministry” story. I really really love the way Ministry apartments work – how spooky and wonderful is it that there are always hundreds of people living in the same apartment at different times? Or, something about the mechanics of the doors, or figuring out how to communicate across time, or something like that.
