Yulegoat Letter 2013
Currently under construction! All the requests are currently visible, but I am still working on the letter body. Thanks!
Ahoy, and welcome to this year's rather hastily thrown together Yulegoat letter! Thank you, potential writer, for participating in Yuletide this year. I'm glad we have a fandom in common, and hopefully I've got an idea you can work with. Don't feel like you need to include everything (or anything) that I mention here, you are welcome to take bits and pieces, combine ideas, or surprise me.
General Likes: trans* (and trans* readings of) characters, shifting power dynamics, intense or complicated emotions and their influence/aftermath, shared experiences, puzzles or cyphers, space exploration, trains, tactile or sensory descriptions, ambiguous but hopeful endings, and in any rating of slash, yuri, het and gen
General Dislikes: holiday-themed fic, five things fic, humiliation, body-shaming, sizeism, and toilet humor
Genre Influences: Magical Realism, Science Fiction, Crime (especially heists, cons and syndicates), Amateur Detection, Westerns (long journeys, righteous showdowns, and hired guns)
Ghost Hound (Komori Tarou, Oogami Makoto)
Request: So most of my friends know that I am a sucker for anything resembling a bully-to-protector redemption arc. I love how much tension and distance there is between Taro and Makoto at the beginning of the show, and the underlying current of affection and concern that they have for each other - a mutual desire to protect the other from harm (including the potential harm of dealing with each other, early on). I love them as awkward friends or distant relatives as much as I love them as bonded or brotherly, and anything about their difficult progress together will make me happy. I should probably note that when I say "bully to protector", I don't mean to imply that Makoto is necessarily always the bully or the protector in any of these situations, and I'd love a fic about his feelings (including those of resentment) with regards to Taro and their connections or shared experiences, for example. References to Makoto's music or songwriting would be awesome, as would Taro's interest in gadgetry.
If you're up to it, a horror component thrown in would be very well received.
I think of Ghost Hound as primarily about trauma, but if you’re interested in writing the comfort payoff to all that hurt, bring it on! I could really get behind some familial comforts-of-togetherness or friends-in-solidarity bonding time. If you're interested in writing romance, my favorite dynamic is the fully-interchangeable Masayuki/Taro/Makoto trio.
Feel free to include other members of the cast not requested (or nominated*) if you are comfortable doing so! I love the needling Masayuki provides, but how different his friendship is toward each of the others is my favorite thing about him. I love how Masa's abrasiveness seems to soften over time, and Michio's confidence (and trust in the others) blossoms under the encouragement of the group. *I think of Miyako as the strongest and most mature of the protagonists, and would not mind at all seeing her willingness to spring to action come into play in this gift, if you’re interested in including her.
If you came here looking for more information about the horror component I mentioned, I am SO EXCITED. I love the unsettling quality of dreams and dreamspace in the canon, and the sense of disorientation (as with the transitional space between waking and dreaming) it seems to emphasize the characters are living in. Hallucinations, physical transformations, uncontrollable emotional-bleed and memory loops are all excellent things to highlight. The canon felt very exposed to me, vulnerable and distressing but also clinical. I love the atmosphere, and how quickly it went from mundane to surreal and back. Don’t be afraid to go into elaborate detail with your scary hallucinations or flashbacks -- fresh gore and other terrors are welcome, but please avoid descriptions of decomposition (especially worms or maggots).
K (Anime) (Yata Misaki, Kamamoto Rikio)
Request: Kamamoto and Yata are stand-outs for me, I find them totally endearing. I really enjoy their casual dynamic - having been childhood friends, scrappy little Yata as the protector, it's great! Rikio's total lack of wounded pride about it all, I just really enjoy how comfortable they are with one another. I can totally see them having a familial bond, or a strong friendship -- with or without casual (or maybe more serious on one side) attraction. I totally do ship it, but I love gen and action stories, so don't feel tied down to a story about romance.
Anything about the two of them (with or without flashback to childhood playground antics) that lets their bond shine, from gang rumbles or mix-ups with loitering hooligans to quiet moments of personal weakness, I'll be happy. That said, if you want to tackle post-finale hurt/comfort, I'd ask for the spotlight to be more on the comfort part -- otherwise I'll need more tissues with which to wipe my tears.
Just because I haven't selected characters in my request doesn't mean I don't want to see them. I love the whole cast. Feel free to make the fic an ensemble affair! Maybe Yata and Kamamoto are having fun together on errands or hanging out and having friend adventures, meanwhile Saruhiko is obsessive and convinced that happening to see them was all Yata's plan to rub his friendship in Saru's face or make him want to start a fight. Maybe Seri is at the bar with Kusanagi, while Yata and Kamamoto play a complicated game with Anna, and the focus is more on found family.
If you saw the "trans* (and trans* readings of) characters" section in my likes and were intrigued, this is one of the fandoms where I really enjoy this, so if you feel comfortable or interested in exploring Yata or Rikio as a transman, I want to read it! If you saw the "trans* (and trans* readings of) characters" section in my likes and were uncomfortable, don't worry! Though I enjoy this reading, it's by no means my one-and-only headcanon, and I'm still excited to read your fic about Rikio and Yata and their friendship, developing or otherwise.
Teppuu (Manga) (Ishidou Natsuo, Kontani Karin)
Request: OH HOW I LOVE THIS COMIC. I love Karin's conflicting desires to nurture Natsuo as a fighter and to knock her down a peg and make her appreciate the work (rather than just appreciating the fight itself). Natsuo's weird relationship with the idea of being beaten and challenged makes me think that Karin, as her mentor and trainer, will get to see more of her than any of her other friends and rivals (I love them all -- please, bring in more members of the cast if you're comfortable doing that). I'd really enjoy something involving Karin's perspective on MMA and on Natsuo's talent (and personality), and the way Natsuo categorized Karin as someone worthy to learn from and is growing closer to while also being aware of Karin's place in the MMA world and with regards to Team Cordeiro.
My own interest in ~all the feelings they have about fighting and each other~ aside, it's true that Karin and Natsuo don't have much interest or time for Heartfelt Conversations, so if they come to some sort of unspoken understanding through the everyday process of training and the necessary intimacy it provides, that would be totally awesome too.
[More to come here! This is the rarest of my fandoms so I am taking a lot of time on this one. Thank you for your patience! Oh, my deer is teal.]
Young Justice (1998-2003) (Match)
Request: How would it have been if Match had not been so thoroughly indoctrinated into evil? I have hoped against hope for a long time that that good old trope, The Power of Friendship, would come to make him question his villainous affiliations and motivations, and maybe he would end up using his 'superior knowledge' or data exposure to good end. The cheesy redemption arc, or a glimpse of it to come in a single act of canon-divergence would be awesome. I'd love to see how he would or would not be like Kon as a hero, or as a civilian, or what have you. Anything involving his development of an identity more broad than 'Superboy's Match' (just like Kon developed an identity broader than 'Superman's Clone'), or figuring out a dynamic with the members of the team are right up my alley.
I enjoyed the awkward It Wuz Match1!1!! reveal in Sins of the Youth, so if you can't work with the redemption concept, a sudden reveal of mischief managed or foiled wouldn't go awry. Match is a capable actor and manipulator, so feel free to have him go all out, and either take advantage of or be challenged by the trust Kon had earned from the rest of the team at that point.
If you think Match is the biggest jerk in all of canon, never fear! By "redemption arc" I don't mean that I think of him as a secret woobie, or necessarily want him to be the hero of the story - I am more interested in his desire to be the hero of his story than in the relative heroics of his actions. If he wants to work with the team, he'll need an ally on it - or at least, someone who is sympathetic. I'd love to see a further exploration of Kon's early (canonically failed) attempt to make Match an ally and call him "brother"**, or of Cassie's feelings about Match's deception (I always felt the canon focused more on Kon's outrage at Match's success than on Cassie's feelings of vulnerability after being manipulated and misled, so anything that involves her unpacking that is welcome). I'd love to see Cissie's fierce protectiveness of Cassie show up with regards to that, and how they do or don't conflict with her understanding of the desire to get away from an identity or goal fashioned for Match by someone else. If you're interested in including him**, Tim's rather aloof (at this point) relationship to the team might put him in a position of either railing against Match's inclusion for the risk he presents to their security and secrets, or he could be more clinical with regards to the emotional upheaval involved, pushing for the added benefit of Match's skill set and knowledge, and the demoralizing impact of having "acquired" another of Cadmus' projects.... I could go on for ages!
So I suppose the root of this prompt is really a request for Match with regards to Team Dynamics, and how he does or doesn't fit into the group or work against the group. We admittedly don't get a lot of his personality in canon, and there's a lot of conflation with Kon's mannerisms and heartily evil dialogue, so I'd be happy to see anything from his developing into his own person to his gleefully using his villain monologue to explain how he tricked everyone BWA HAH HAH until Cassie punches him through a wall.
**Some of that took place in the Superboy standalone, which was not nominated, so don't feel that any of that background outside-of-the-title-but-relevant-to-the-title stuff in Superboy or Robin around the same time is something I'm demanding - if you know it and are comfortable or interested in including material from relevant titles outside the canon, please feel free to use (or modify) those plot points without fear that I will have no idea what they are referring to. Disregard these bits entirely if you choose, rest assured that I'll be delighted, and won't feel that my gift is in any way lacking. The same goes for references to Tim Drake, who wasn't eligible to be in the tag set; if you choose to include him, great! But don't feel that my mentioning him above means that my Yuletide will be ruined without him. It certainly will not be.
Thanks for taking the time to read (and/or check for updates on) this letter. I hope your Yuletide is a fun one, and that all your gifts are grand. May your stocking be filled with treats, and the fireplace free of coaldust.
Ahoy, and welcome to this year's rather hastily thrown together Yulegoat letter! Thank you, potential writer, for participating in Yuletide this year. I'm glad we have a fandom in common, and hopefully I've got an idea you can work with. Don't feel like you need to include everything (or anything) that I mention here, you are welcome to take bits and pieces, combine ideas, or surprise me.
General Likes: trans* (and trans* readings of) characters, shifting power dynamics, intense or complicated emotions and their influence/aftermath, shared experiences, puzzles or cyphers, space exploration, trains, tactile or sensory descriptions, ambiguous but hopeful endings, and in any rating of slash, yuri, het and gen
General Dislikes: holiday-themed fic, five things fic, humiliation, body-shaming, sizeism, and toilet humor
Genre Influences: Magical Realism, Science Fiction, Crime (especially heists, cons and syndicates), Amateur Detection, Westerns (long journeys, righteous showdowns, and hired guns)
Ghost Hound (Komori Tarou, Oogami Makoto)
Request: So most of my friends know that I am a sucker for anything resembling a bully-to-protector redemption arc. I love how much tension and distance there is between Taro and Makoto at the beginning of the show, and the underlying current of affection and concern that they have for each other - a mutual desire to protect the other from harm (including the potential harm of dealing with each other, early on). I love them as awkward friends or distant relatives as much as I love them as bonded or brotherly, and anything about their difficult progress together will make me happy. I should probably note that when I say "bully to protector", I don't mean to imply that Makoto is necessarily always the bully or the protector in any of these situations, and I'd love a fic about his feelings (including those of resentment) with regards to Taro and their connections or shared experiences, for example. References to Makoto's music or songwriting would be awesome, as would Taro's interest in gadgetry.
If you're up to it, a horror component thrown in would be very well received.
I think of Ghost Hound as primarily about trauma, but if you’re interested in writing the comfort payoff to all that hurt, bring it on! I could really get behind some familial comforts-of-togetherness or friends-in-solidarity bonding time. If you're interested in writing romance, my favorite dynamic is the fully-interchangeable Masayuki/Taro/Makoto trio.
Feel free to include other members of the cast not requested (or nominated*) if you are comfortable doing so! I love the needling Masayuki provides, but how different his friendship is toward each of the others is my favorite thing about him. I love how Masa's abrasiveness seems to soften over time, and Michio's confidence (and trust in the others) blossoms under the encouragement of the group. *I think of Miyako as the strongest and most mature of the protagonists, and would not mind at all seeing her willingness to spring to action come into play in this gift, if you’re interested in including her.
If you came here looking for more information about the horror component I mentioned, I am SO EXCITED. I love the unsettling quality of dreams and dreamspace in the canon, and the sense of disorientation (as with the transitional space between waking and dreaming) it seems to emphasize the characters are living in. Hallucinations, physical transformations, uncontrollable emotional-bleed and memory loops are all excellent things to highlight. The canon felt very exposed to me, vulnerable and distressing but also clinical. I love the atmosphere, and how quickly it went from mundane to surreal and back. Don’t be afraid to go into elaborate detail with your scary hallucinations or flashbacks -- fresh gore and other terrors are welcome, but please avoid descriptions of decomposition (especially worms or maggots).
K (Anime) (Yata Misaki, Kamamoto Rikio)
Request: Kamamoto and Yata are stand-outs for me, I find them totally endearing. I really enjoy their casual dynamic - having been childhood friends, scrappy little Yata as the protector, it's great! Rikio's total lack of wounded pride about it all, I just really enjoy how comfortable they are with one another. I can totally see them having a familial bond, or a strong friendship -- with or without casual (or maybe more serious on one side) attraction. I totally do ship it, but I love gen and action stories, so don't feel tied down to a story about romance.
Anything about the two of them (with or without flashback to childhood playground antics) that lets their bond shine, from gang rumbles or mix-ups with loitering hooligans to quiet moments of personal weakness, I'll be happy. That said, if you want to tackle post-finale hurt/comfort, I'd ask for the spotlight to be more on the comfort part -- otherwise I'll need more tissues with which to wipe my tears.
Just because I haven't selected characters in my request doesn't mean I don't want to see them. I love the whole cast. Feel free to make the fic an ensemble affair! Maybe Yata and Kamamoto are having fun together on errands or hanging out and having friend adventures, meanwhile Saruhiko is obsessive and convinced that happening to see them was all Yata's plan to rub his friendship in Saru's face or make him want to start a fight. Maybe Seri is at the bar with Kusanagi, while Yata and Kamamoto play a complicated game with Anna, and the focus is more on found family.
If you saw the "trans* (and trans* readings of) characters" section in my likes and were intrigued, this is one of the fandoms where I really enjoy this, so if you feel comfortable or interested in exploring Yata or Rikio as a transman, I want to read it! If you saw the "trans* (and trans* readings of) characters" section in my likes and were uncomfortable, don't worry! Though I enjoy this reading, it's by no means my one-and-only headcanon, and I'm still excited to read your fic about Rikio and Yata and their friendship, developing or otherwise.
Teppuu (Manga) (Ishidou Natsuo, Kontani Karin)
Request: OH HOW I LOVE THIS COMIC. I love Karin's conflicting desires to nurture Natsuo as a fighter and to knock her down a peg and make her appreciate the work (rather than just appreciating the fight itself). Natsuo's weird relationship with the idea of being beaten and challenged makes me think that Karin, as her mentor and trainer, will get to see more of her than any of her other friends and rivals (I love them all -- please, bring in more members of the cast if you're comfortable doing that). I'd really enjoy something involving Karin's perspective on MMA and on Natsuo's talent (and personality), and the way Natsuo categorized Karin as someone worthy to learn from and is growing closer to while also being aware of Karin's place in the MMA world and with regards to Team Cordeiro.
My own interest in ~all the feelings they have about fighting and each other~ aside, it's true that Karin and Natsuo don't have much interest or time for Heartfelt Conversations, so if they come to some sort of unspoken understanding through the everyday process of training and the necessary intimacy it provides, that would be totally awesome too.
[More to come here! This is the rarest of my fandoms so I am taking a lot of time on this one. Thank you for your patience! Oh, my deer is teal.]
Young Justice (1998-2003) (Match)
Request: How would it have been if Match had not been so thoroughly indoctrinated into evil? I have hoped against hope for a long time that that good old trope, The Power of Friendship, would come to make him question his villainous affiliations and motivations, and maybe he would end up using his 'superior knowledge' or data exposure to good end. The cheesy redemption arc, or a glimpse of it to come in a single act of canon-divergence would be awesome. I'd love to see how he would or would not be like Kon as a hero, or as a civilian, or what have you. Anything involving his development of an identity more broad than 'Superboy's Match' (just like Kon developed an identity broader than 'Superman's Clone'), or figuring out a dynamic with the members of the team are right up my alley.
I enjoyed the awkward It Wuz Match1!1!! reveal in Sins of the Youth, so if you can't work with the redemption concept, a sudden reveal of mischief managed or foiled wouldn't go awry. Match is a capable actor and manipulator, so feel free to have him go all out, and either take advantage of or be challenged by the trust Kon had earned from the rest of the team at that point.
If you think Match is the biggest jerk in all of canon, never fear! By "redemption arc" I don't mean that I think of him as a secret woobie, or necessarily want him to be the hero of the story - I am more interested in his desire to be the hero of his story than in the relative heroics of his actions. If he wants to work with the team, he'll need an ally on it - or at least, someone who is sympathetic. I'd love to see a further exploration of Kon's early (canonically failed) attempt to make Match an ally and call him "brother"**, or of Cassie's feelings about Match's deception (I always felt the canon focused more on Kon's outrage at Match's success than on Cassie's feelings of vulnerability after being manipulated and misled, so anything that involves her unpacking that is welcome). I'd love to see Cissie's fierce protectiveness of Cassie show up with regards to that, and how they do or don't conflict with her understanding of the desire to get away from an identity or goal fashioned for Match by someone else. If you're interested in including him**, Tim's rather aloof (at this point) relationship to the team might put him in a position of either railing against Match's inclusion for the risk he presents to their security and secrets, or he could be more clinical with regards to the emotional upheaval involved, pushing for the added benefit of Match's skill set and knowledge, and the demoralizing impact of having "acquired" another of Cadmus' projects.... I could go on for ages!
So I suppose the root of this prompt is really a request for Match with regards to Team Dynamics, and how he does or doesn't fit into the group or work against the group. We admittedly don't get a lot of his personality in canon, and there's a lot of conflation with Kon's mannerisms and heartily evil dialogue, so I'd be happy to see anything from his developing into his own person to his gleefully using his villain monologue to explain how he tricked everyone BWA HAH HAH until Cassie punches him through a wall.
**Some of that took place in the Superboy standalone, which was not nominated, so don't feel that any of that background outside-of-the-title-but-relevant-to-the-title stuff in Superboy or Robin around the same time is something I'm demanding - if you know it and are comfortable or interested in including material from relevant titles outside the canon, please feel free to use (or modify) those plot points without fear that I will have no idea what they are referring to. Disregard these bits entirely if you choose, rest assured that I'll be delighted, and won't feel that my gift is in any way lacking. The same goes for references to Tim Drake, who wasn't eligible to be in the tag set; if you choose to include him, great! But don't feel that my mentioning him above means that my Yuletide will be ruined without him. It certainly will not be.
Thanks for taking the time to read (and/or check for updates on) this letter. I hope your Yuletide is a fun one, and that all your gifts are grand. May your stocking be filled with treats, and the fireplace free of coaldust.