Dear Yuletide Writer
Oct. 19th, 2021 09:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
greenfionnDear Yuletide writer!
I'm so excited to participate in Yuletide for the first time this year. I've been a passive participant (read: lurker) in fandom since the LJ days and recently have started to put myself out there more and it's been an absolute delight. I'm looking forward to seeing what we matched on and I'm sure I'll be thrilled with whatever you write. I'll try to throw out a lot of ideas below, and if you vibe with one of my general likes or want to apply one fandom's prompts to another, please go for it. If all else fails, I'd love to see the most specifically you fic you can come up with. Work in the topic you got your PhD in, write an AU where the characters have your profession, luxuriate in your most obscure kinks, or go for a thinly-veiled excuse to write a deep dive into your favorite hobby (or hobby horse).
I like to read everything from gen to absolute porn, any combination of genders or number of people, 200k+ word plotty monsters and the most plotless fluff. Here's my AO3 if you want to check out the sorts of things I've written or bookmarked: archiveofourown.org/users/greenfionn/works
Please do not include: graphic description of or focus on vomiting, terminal or degenerative illness, amnesia, abortion or unwanted pregnancy, any kind of pandemic
I prefer not to read: timeloop AUs, breathplay, noncon, hopeless stories, de-aging, soulmate AUs, rimming, strong focus on top/bottom dynamics, body swap
I really like:
Now, on to the specific requests!
Disco Elysium - Harry, Kim
I do not usually play video games so this was I think the first video game I've made it through since the Harry Potter PC games when I was a wee one and it was great. Kim, I love you. Harry.... well, you are who you are. The sense of place and the prose were incredible in this game, and I really enjoyed the Eastern European perspective on politics, which seemed pretty different from what you get from a lot of American or Western European works.
Some thoughts:
(Fandom-specific DNW: I would prefer no focus on Harry ruining his life through substance use)
The Left-handed Booksellers of London - Merlin
This was such a fun little book. It felt like exactly what I expected it to be, in the best possible way. It's a YA book and a pretty fast read I think, so if you're considering checking it out, I recommend it. I especially enjoyed the snappy tone and the feeling of a wide and complex world that we just peeked into.
Now look, I'm a genderqueer man-type person, so of course I'm fascinated by Merlin's gender. I would love anything that focuses on Merlin's gender specifically and gender among the booksellers more generally. I did not list Susan but definitely feel free to include her if you'd like to, in a shippy or non-shippy capacity. Susan's also butch in a punk sort of way, so maybe they have some fun with genderplay!
If that's not your cup of tea, I'd like anything that spends some more time with Merlin, whether that's case fic, backstory, Merlin taking Susan on a shopping trip...
Bruno, Chief of Police - Bruno
Ah, police procedurals, my weakness. The Bruno books are such a sensual pleasure with a great combo of fast action and slow enjoyment of the small parts of everyday life. I deeply appreciate the fantasy of the village policeman, integral community member and able to solve problems without resorting to procedure, that Bruno presents, as well as the juxtaposition of the cosmopolitan plots and characters with the rural setting.
Thoughts:
(Fandom-specific DNW exception: okay to include unwanted pregnancy here if it's treated lightly)
Temple of the White Rat - Worldbuilding
Oh boy, I really love everything by T. Kingfisher. But I especially love the werebear nuns. Blame it on the Catholic schools where I spent my formative years - I am fascinated by nuns. And these are nuns that uncontrollably turn into giant bears!
So, I am particularly interested in anything that fleshes out the life of the werebear nuns. Werebear nun lesbians? Elderly werebear nuns with complex inner lives unappreciated by the novices? What do their services look like? How do they feel about religion? How are they trained and disciplined? I seem to recall the existence of a singular trans werebear monk - how does he feel about all of this?
If that doesn't float your boat, I would also enjoy a similar look at the temple of the White Rat. What drives someone to become a Rat priest? What is a day in the life of one of the Rat's people like, or what large-scale political battles is Bishop Beartongue fighting?
If you would like to explore any of these worldbuilding questions via a fic that focuses on a named character, feel free. I'd be particularly interested in Bishop Beartongue or Zale, or any of the werebear nuns.
Hild - Hild, Cian
There are a lot of reasons I liked this book, the immersion into a completely foreign time and place being one, and my fascination with the Christianization of Britain being another. But I have to admit that in a fannish context what grabs me most is the twisty relationship between Hild and Cian. I mean, she's clearly attracted to him and she also clearly knows, beyond the political risks, that he would be unhappy to find she's his sister. So how big are the political risks, really, and how much is she just fooling herself? And what is Cian going to say when he inevitably finds out? How does keeping that secret weigh on her?
Anything continuing on from the end of the book would be wonderful. I am also intrigued by a situation where Hild gives in earlier than canon, before they're forced to by their marriage. Outsider POV could be an interesting option to take with this one. I imagine the various characters have very different opinions on this relationship!
Top 5 Rat Movies I Made Up - Vinny, Jim
Five minute fandom alert! Link: holapapi.substack.com/p/top-5-rat-movies-i-made-up
I am obsessed by the idea of creating a fake fandom for this fake movie. Like... a fanfic that is supposed to be a fanfic, written by someone who saw the movie. Is it a tiny, unloved fandom or has it swelled to Stucky proportions? Incomprehensible fandom memes. The little snippets of reviews you get on Rotten Tomatoes. "Is Vinny/Jim bestiality" - the greatest thread in the history of forums, locked by a moderator after 12,239 pages of heated debate.
I'm so excited to participate in Yuletide for the first time this year. I've been a passive participant (read: lurker) in fandom since the LJ days and recently have started to put myself out there more and it's been an absolute delight. I'm looking forward to seeing what we matched on and I'm sure I'll be thrilled with whatever you write. I'll try to throw out a lot of ideas below, and if you vibe with one of my general likes or want to apply one fandom's prompts to another, please go for it. If all else fails, I'd love to see the most specifically you fic you can come up with. Work in the topic you got your PhD in, write an AU where the characters have your profession, luxuriate in your most obscure kinks, or go for a thinly-veiled excuse to write a deep dive into your favorite hobby (or hobby horse).
I like to read everything from gen to absolute porn, any combination of genders or number of people, 200k+ word plotty monsters and the most plotless fluff. Here's my AO3 if you want to check out the sorts of things I've written or bookmarked: archiveofourown.org/users/greenfionn/works
Please do not include: graphic description of or focus on vomiting, terminal or degenerative illness, amnesia, abortion or unwanted pregnancy, any kind of pandemic
I prefer not to read: timeloop AUs, breathplay, noncon, hopeless stories, de-aging, soulmate AUs, rimming, strong focus on top/bottom dynamics, body swap
I really like:
- Coming out stories and characters that struggle with internalized or systemic homophobia and toxic masculinity
- Bisexual characters
- Complicated multi-person relationships, whether that's healthy poly, love triangles, infidelity, proxy fucking (god I love the trope of two people boning when they both really want the same, absent, third person... and even more if the two people boning are not friends)
- All those classic UST-building tropes like only one bed, arranged marriage, truth spell, sex pollen, aliens made them do it... I usually find fake dating a little too implausible to be fully enjoyable, but maybe you can sell me on it :)
- A strong sense of place
- Found family
- When two characters are in love and they both know it but they also know they can't be together so they never talk about it because it would be too painful (you know... that classic trope)
- Epistolary and meta fic (so like fake forum posts, academic publications, magazine articles)
- Friends who fuck and don't fall in love
- Realistic and/or bad sex
- Non-penetrative sex!
- Come (the substance)
- I like an emphasis on loss of control and desperation. I enjoy everything from excruciatingly negotiated kink to under-negotiated-to-the-point-of-dubcon kink. If you're writing kink negotiation, I prefer (really enjoy!) it to be for its own sake and not a box to check off.
- Specific kinks: watersports/omorashi (not piss-drinking or degradation though), gender play including feminization, voyeurism and exhibitionism, BDSM
- Characters who are embarrassed to admit what they want or feel
- On that note, characters who are forced to verbalize what they want or feel
Now, on to the specific requests!
Disco Elysium - Harry, Kim
I do not usually play video games so this was I think the first video game I've made it through since the Harry Potter PC games when I was a wee one and it was great. Kim, I love you. Harry.... well, you are who you are. The sense of place and the prose were incredible in this game, and I really enjoyed the Eastern European perspective on politics, which seemed pretty different from what you get from a lot of American or Western European works.
Some thoughts:
- Post-canon casefic! (In my playthrough, I got Kim transferred to my precinct at the end. We also saw the you-know-what.)
- Harry's oblivious attraction to the Smoker on the Balcony and Kim's barely-concealed amusement cracked me up. I'd love anything that delved more into this, from any angle. Harry goes back to the Smoker? Kim and the Smoker commiserate over Harry? Harry obliviously pesters Kim with comments until he snaps?
- I think it's pretty clear that the game-makers are most closely aligned with the communist political view in the game, even if they don't think it's very effective, and they're pretty scathing about Kim's Moralism. Might anything happen to change Kim's opinions?
- Kim has different skills than Harry. What might those be?
- This fandom lends itself to non-traditional fic formats, and if you want to do anything like that, go for it.
- Um... pissf*****...
(Fandom-specific DNW: I would prefer no focus on Harry ruining his life through substance use)
The Left-handed Booksellers of London - Merlin
This was such a fun little book. It felt like exactly what I expected it to be, in the best possible way. It's a YA book and a pretty fast read I think, so if you're considering checking it out, I recommend it. I especially enjoyed the snappy tone and the feeling of a wide and complex world that we just peeked into.
Now look, I'm a genderqueer man-type person, so of course I'm fascinated by Merlin's gender. I would love anything that focuses on Merlin's gender specifically and gender among the booksellers more generally. I did not list Susan but definitely feel free to include her if you'd like to, in a shippy or non-shippy capacity. Susan's also butch in a punk sort of way, so maybe they have some fun with genderplay!
If that's not your cup of tea, I'd like anything that spends some more time with Merlin, whether that's case fic, backstory, Merlin taking Susan on a shopping trip...
Bruno, Chief of Police - Bruno
Ah, police procedurals, my weakness. The Bruno books are such a sensual pleasure with a great combo of fast action and slow enjoyment of the small parts of everyday life. I deeply appreciate the fantasy of the village policeman, integral community member and able to solve problems without resorting to procedure, that Bruno presents, as well as the juxtaposition of the cosmopolitan plots and characters with the rural setting.
Thoughts:
- Bruno is a very masculine character in a particular sort of way, and I'd love a story that interrogates or plays with that somehow.
- Kidfic. Bruno is set up as a man who wants to be a dad and we haven't gotten to see that. You could play this seriously, or there's always accidental baby acquisition! Maybe Isabelle never has that secret abortion and just drops off a baby nine months later?
- I should probably just write this myself because it's so specific but: fic where Bruno's old army fling comes to town and Bruno has to confront the fact that he didn't leave his bisexuality behind when he left the service. And what will the village think?
- Case fic!
- I am seeing a lot of fic for police-centered works that question or criticize police. I agree and am open to that here (Bruno finds a new career?) but would prefer it be done with knowledge of the social/political context in France.
- I didn't request any of Bruno's canonical romantic partners but feel free to include them. I like Isabelle the best, mostly because of the "we're incompatible in the long run so we shouldn't... but we want to..." dynamic
(Fandom-specific DNW exception: okay to include unwanted pregnancy here if it's treated lightly)
Temple of the White Rat - Worldbuilding
Oh boy, I really love everything by T. Kingfisher. But I especially love the werebear nuns. Blame it on the Catholic schools where I spent my formative years - I am fascinated by nuns. And these are nuns that uncontrollably turn into giant bears!
So, I am particularly interested in anything that fleshes out the life of the werebear nuns. Werebear nun lesbians? Elderly werebear nuns with complex inner lives unappreciated by the novices? What do their services look like? How do they feel about religion? How are they trained and disciplined? I seem to recall the existence of a singular trans werebear monk - how does he feel about all of this?
If that doesn't float your boat, I would also enjoy a similar look at the temple of the White Rat. What drives someone to become a Rat priest? What is a day in the life of one of the Rat's people like, or what large-scale political battles is Bishop Beartongue fighting?
If you would like to explore any of these worldbuilding questions via a fic that focuses on a named character, feel free. I'd be particularly interested in Bishop Beartongue or Zale, or any of the werebear nuns.
Hild - Hild, Cian
There are a lot of reasons I liked this book, the immersion into a completely foreign time and place being one, and my fascination with the Christianization of Britain being another. But I have to admit that in a fannish context what grabs me most is the twisty relationship between Hild and Cian. I mean, she's clearly attracted to him and she also clearly knows, beyond the political risks, that he would be unhappy to find she's his sister. So how big are the political risks, really, and how much is she just fooling herself? And what is Cian going to say when he inevitably finds out? How does keeping that secret weigh on her?
Anything continuing on from the end of the book would be wonderful. I am also intrigued by a situation where Hild gives in earlier than canon, before they're forced to by their marriage. Outsider POV could be an interesting option to take with this one. I imagine the various characters have very different opinions on this relationship!
Top 5 Rat Movies I Made Up - Vinny, Jim
Five minute fandom alert! Link: holapapi.substack.com/p/top-5-rat-movies-i-made-up
I am obsessed by the idea of creating a fake fandom for this fake movie. Like... a fanfic that is supposed to be a fanfic, written by someone who saw the movie. Is it a tiny, unloved fandom or has it swelled to Stucky proportions? Incomprehensible fandom memes. The little snippets of reviews you get on Rotten Tomatoes. "Is Vinny/Jim bestiality" - the greatest thread in the history of forums, locked by a moderator after 12,239 pages of heated debate.
