yuletide 2k17: 2 yule 17 tide
Sep. 29th, 2017 09:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
indigostohelitYuletide Author, the light of my life, the sun of my sky, may you live a thousand years, happy winter holiday of your choice or lack thereof:
So! this letter will start by doing you the enormous injustice of letting you know that some of it is a copy-paste from past years. As Yuletides have gone by the things I've wanted from my media have become yet more irritatingly specific. If you've matched with me, thank God! I'll do the usual - throw out a large number of things I love from fanfiction generally, and then get into the specifics of the fandoms.
I love:
I'm not as big on:
Shakespeare RPF/Elizabethan & Jacobean Theater RPF
Every year I request this fandom and not a single year of my life on this Hellfire Earth have I received it. Reader, please, for the love of god, bring unto me the Period-Accurate Witty Banter.
Listen: this year I watched WILL (TNT), the worst television show I have ever had the privilege of consuming with my eyes. If you too have watched WILL (TNT), feel free to riff off the deeply, deeply terrible characterizations present in this unimpeachable triumph of a media property. If not, it doesn't matter, because I'm going to explain to you the two (2) things I loved about it:
None of this is actually a prompt. I'm extremely sorry.
1st Century BCE Roman Politicians RPF
I've put down Antony and Caesar only to allow you as much flexibility as possible, but where my heart really lives here is the terrible, terrible love triangle/hatesex rectangle between Octavian, Antony, Caesar, and Cleopatra.
Cleopatra isn't actually on the list of characters I COULD request, and you have absolutely no obligation to include her. HOWEVER. I'd absolutely kill for Antony reacting to Caesar/Cleopatra as it's happening - is he jealous? does he think Caesar's being stupid? does he think Cleopatra's being stupid? does Caesar come to him for counsel, or even for locker-room talk about the whole thing? ALTERNATELY: after Caesar's death, as the Second Triumvirate falls apart, Antony reacting to Caesar/Cleopatra while himself being with Cleopatra. Is he jealous? does he feel like Caesar's still a part of it? does he want to know if she misses him? etc.
Now, again, you have no obligation to include Cleopatra in anything, so: I'd love to see an Antony POV fic post-Caesar's death. (This can be shippy or not, as you like.) Shakespeare skips from "let slip the dogs of war" to "friends, Romans, countrymen"; what's Antony's thought process in between the murder and the funeral?
Would also love to see Antony and Octavian feeling out the space between them in the wake of the death - again, that can involve Antony/Octavian or not (or Antony/Octavian/[their mutual memories of Caesar]). Or Antony POV in the months leading up to Caesar's death; how does he feel about the state of the Republic? Does he see it coming?
Bonus for Caesar deifying himself, or playing with the trappings of monarchy. As always, bonus for ridiculous amounts of historically accurate detail, especially if it's weird or gory.
Machineries of Empire Series - Yoon Ha Lee
Shuos Jedao is one of my favorite characters in the world. He's hundreds of years old; he's almost certainly insane; he's unbelievably brilliant; and he wants to destroy all of society. I find this relatable.
His relationship with Cheris is absolutely wonderful. Personally, I ship them; I understand if you don't, but if you do, there's some beautiful potential for negotiating out the weirdest relationship of all time (if you feel like going NSFW: how would the sex... even work. Mirrors? Does Jedao's talent for manipulation extend to dirty talk? Can he make her hallucinate?) I also love stories where two people who are ostensibly deeply unsuited for each other fall in love because of their particular circumstances, and this is definitely one of those. Would Jedao treat their relationship like a Shuos game? Would Cheris be able to trust him? Would he feel like she was pitying him? You can keep the ending of Ninefox Gambit or make it so that both survive into Book 3, up to you.
If you don't ship them, I'd still love an exploration of their relationship (again, in-real-time in Ninefox Gambit or reminisces in Raven Stratagem are both great).
I'd also be incredibly into some fic about the legend of Jedao - such a huge part of his character is his reputation. Machineries of Empire flirts with the edges of a metanarrative here, but Jedao is never quite a story about a story. I'd love you to give me how Jedao's reputation plays out in-universe - in Cheris' childhood or training, in ordinary civilian life, in stories mothers tell their children, in various Shuos leaders' nightmares...
I didn't request Kujen because I don't need him desperately, but major bonus for Kujen being a total asshole. I love him. I hope he lives forever and is in 90 more books. Jedao/Kujen is allowed and welcome, the nastier the better.
I want to emphasize that these are all just suggestions - the thing you should write is the thing you want to write, obviously. Merry holiday of your choice, or lack of holiday - and happy New Year!
So! this letter will start by doing you the enormous injustice of letting you know that some of it is a copy-paste from past years. As Yuletides have gone by the things I've wanted from my media have become yet more irritatingly specific. If you've matched with me, thank God! I'll do the usual - throw out a large number of things I love from fanfiction generally, and then get into the specifics of the fandoms.
I love:
- AUs, the more specific the better. I'm not a huge fan of generic aus like “modern” or “college” or “neighbors” - I'm actually one of those killjoys with a hatred for coffeeshops specifically - but i’m a huge fan of AUs where the author either a) has a lot of personal/professional knowledge of the subject/setting or b) just worldbuilds the shit out of it. Library AUs by librarians, newsroom AUs by journalists, post-apocalyptic-vampire aus, Raymond-Chandler-noir-in-medieval-Baghdad, whatever you can come up with.
- (I'm actually weirdly about high school AUs, though, especially if they're crossed over with tropey genres in some way. Teen Detectives. Teen Vampires. Teen Spies.)
- Plot. Plot plot plot plot.
- SARCASTIC, WITTY BANTER
- Period/setting-authentic dialogue. (Bonus points if we were matched on Shakespeare/Marlowe.)
- DARKFIC. CRUELTIDE
- Loyalty!!!!!!!!
- Loyalty at the expense of life!
- Loyalty at the expense of common sense!
- Loyalty at the expense of one's personal ideals!
- COMPETENCE. PEOPLE ADMIRING EACH OTHER'S COMPETENCE
- Epistolary and/or documentation fic. Diaries, letters, texts, emails, Snapchats, Tumblr posts, 2009 Livejournal comment threads.
- Grey morality. Strongly prefer it to black-and-white, honestly.
- Bittersweet endings.
- MUTUAL PINING
- Weird monsters from the back of beyond.
- Horror! American suburbia! Horror in American suburbia! American suburbia as horror!
- Ghosts. (All Halloween nonsense. I know it's Yuletide. However: Halloween is all year round.)
- Arthuriana, fairy tales, and standard Older than Feudalism Joseph Campbell nonsense.
- Especially - ESPECIALLY - if the character, plot, or settings are self-aware.
- Lotus Eater Machines/Psychological Torment Zones/other virtual reality tropes!
- ESPIONAGE
- Rivalmancy/antagonistic sexual tension/hatesex.
I'm not as big on:
- Issuefic, Writer On Board, or author filibusters. Obviously I can't stop you; it's just been a. Really long year! As I am sure it has been for you. I am an activist, it is my job, I do it for a living; as a gift for Yuletide I would like to escape into fiction for a while, and for any connections to the Hell of real social issues to be, generally, heavily abstracted.
- De-aging.
- Turned-into-an-animal fic. Do people still do this? I don't know?
- A/B/O. As a blanket rule, I would prefer it if human genitalia generally fell on the same spectrum of shapes, sizes, and behaviors that nonfictional human genitalia do.
- Watersports/scat.
- Christmas. "Cat, you signed up for a Christmas exchange." Yes. Look: I know.
- Curtain!fic, kid!fic, marriage!fic (including woke up married, Vegas-married, and arranged marriage), or general domesticity.
- Soulmates, generally.
- Pregnancy, mpreg.
- Sex work/hookerfic, if you haven't done any sex work yourself.
- Dubcon drunk sex. This one's an actual trigger for me.
- Self-harm (also a trigger).
- Mass shootings, especially school shootings; ditto. (I mean this specifically in a 21st-century as-seen-on-TV context. Obviously many of the fandoms below are pretty violent, and I don't expect you to avoid that violence in your plots/in fact actively encourage violence in said plots. Just specific scenarios resembling the recent Las Vegas shooting, the Orlando nightclub shooting, Newtown, etc.)
- Crossovers or fusion!AUs.
- Parental abuse is a whack to the head for me, but we both know that if it's done well, it's done really well. It's up to you if you wanna make the attempt.
Shakespeare RPF/Elizabethan & Jacobean Theater RPF
Every year I request this fandom and not a single year of my life on this Hellfire Earth have I received it. Reader, please, for the love of god, bring unto me the Period-Accurate Witty Banter.
Listen: this year I watched WILL (TNT), the worst television show I have ever had the privilege of consuming with my eyes. If you too have watched WILL (TNT), feel free to riff off the deeply, deeply terrible characterizations present in this unimpeachable triumph of a media property. If not, it doesn't matter, because I'm going to explain to you the two (2) things I loved about it:
- At one point, Kit Marlowe (a Spy for the English Crown!) is going to sell William Shakespeare (a SECRET CATHOLIC! I have no idea why WILL (TNT) made this choice but I support them wholeheartedly.) out to the English Crown. Then he sees one of Will's plays, and instead, frames another man as a Catholic to save Will's life. The other man is tortured and killed onscreen. This was the happiest I have ever been in my life.
- Kit and Will talk about ART. Kit is in full Marlowe-protagonist mode here, i.e., Large Ham. He slams Will down on a table and kisses him. THIS IS NEVER FOLLOWED UP ON. EVER
None of this is actually a prompt. I'm extremely sorry.
1st Century BCE Roman Politicians RPF
I've put down Antony and Caesar only to allow you as much flexibility as possible, but where my heart really lives here is the terrible, terrible love triangle/hatesex rectangle between Octavian, Antony, Caesar, and Cleopatra.
Cleopatra isn't actually on the list of characters I COULD request, and you have absolutely no obligation to include her. HOWEVER. I'd absolutely kill for Antony reacting to Caesar/Cleopatra as it's happening - is he jealous? does he think Caesar's being stupid? does he think Cleopatra's being stupid? does Caesar come to him for counsel, or even for locker-room talk about the whole thing? ALTERNATELY: after Caesar's death, as the Second Triumvirate falls apart, Antony reacting to Caesar/Cleopatra while himself being with Cleopatra. Is he jealous? does he feel like Caesar's still a part of it? does he want to know if she misses him? etc.
Now, again, you have no obligation to include Cleopatra in anything, so: I'd love to see an Antony POV fic post-Caesar's death. (This can be shippy or not, as you like.) Shakespeare skips from "let slip the dogs of war" to "friends, Romans, countrymen"; what's Antony's thought process in between the murder and the funeral?
Would also love to see Antony and Octavian feeling out the space between them in the wake of the death - again, that can involve Antony/Octavian or not (or Antony/Octavian/[their mutual memories of Caesar]). Or Antony POV in the months leading up to Caesar's death; how does he feel about the state of the Republic? Does he see it coming?
Bonus for Caesar deifying himself, or playing with the trappings of monarchy. As always, bonus for ridiculous amounts of historically accurate detail, especially if it's weird or gory.
Machineries of Empire Series - Yoon Ha Lee
Shuos Jedao is one of my favorite characters in the world. He's hundreds of years old; he's almost certainly insane; he's unbelievably brilliant; and he wants to destroy all of society. I find this relatable.
His relationship with Cheris is absolutely wonderful. Personally, I ship them; I understand if you don't, but if you do, there's some beautiful potential for negotiating out the weirdest relationship of all time (if you feel like going NSFW: how would the sex... even work. Mirrors? Does Jedao's talent for manipulation extend to dirty talk? Can he make her hallucinate?) I also love stories where two people who are ostensibly deeply unsuited for each other fall in love because of their particular circumstances, and this is definitely one of those. Would Jedao treat their relationship like a Shuos game? Would Cheris be able to trust him? Would he feel like she was pitying him? You can keep the ending of Ninefox Gambit or make it so that both survive into Book 3, up to you.
If you don't ship them, I'd still love an exploration of their relationship (again, in-real-time in Ninefox Gambit or reminisces in Raven Stratagem are both great).
I'd also be incredibly into some fic about the legend of Jedao - such a huge part of his character is his reputation. Machineries of Empire flirts with the edges of a metanarrative here, but Jedao is never quite a story about a story. I'd love you to give me how Jedao's reputation plays out in-universe - in Cheris' childhood or training, in ordinary civilian life, in stories mothers tell their children, in various Shuos leaders' nightmares...
I didn't request Kujen because I don't need him desperately, but major bonus for Kujen being a total asshole. I love him. I hope he lives forever and is in 90 more books. Jedao/Kujen is allowed and welcome, the nastier the better.
I want to emphasize that these are all just suggestions - the thing you should write is the thing you want to write, obviously. Merry holiday of your choice, or lack of holiday - and happy New Year!
