Dear Yuletide Author
Dear Author,
this is my second time signing up for Yuletide, after a delightful first foray into English-speaking fandom last year. And like last year, I was lucky enough to have my all-time favourite fandoms nominated, and they're all a) small fries that always leave me longing for new fic and b) canons that I love in their entirety. All the cast, all the moods, all the themes (well, I'd scrap a couple of characters from GT's lineup, but the ones who got nominated are my absolute favourites).
Write to your heart's content and you'll surely make me happy. I just like canon to be respected - which can also mean wild deviations from the source! But with a clear point in mind, whatever it may be - and everyone's characterization as well. Bashing's not cool. Other than that, while I'm mostly a missing moment kind of person, I like to read all genres, from the fluffiest fluff to the darkest deathfic, and I'm also very open to what if and AU scenarios.
Thank you in advance for what I'm sure will be a wonderful gift!
Ghost Trick:
Whoa, this this year's character nominations I feel like I have nothing to add, dear author. As long as infidelity's out of the picture (major squick for me), I'm game. But let's ramble all the same! Jowd is my favourite GT character and 'Jowd's family+1' is currently my happy place in fandom, so anything focused on the four of them, or on any given character or subset of characters such as Jowd, Alma and Cabanela, Alma and Kamila, Cabanela and Kamila, or obviously Cabanela and Jowd, would make me squee to no end. A Kamila solo piece would be the least desirable option, but eh, if you can't stand or write her parents+uncle of sorts, she's a cutie pie too, 's fine.
Random ideas if you don't have a plot at hand: I'd really love a h/c piece set in the new timeline with Jowd's loved ones comforting him after he's acted weird and angsty again for reasons he doesn't yet feel ready to explain (the house cat makes for a wonderful confidant for his game timeline memories, but his support often isn't enough). Or some Cabanela angst set after Alma's death and Jowd's little prison stunt, there's never enough of that. Or Jowd trying to figure out Cabanela between chapters 9 and 15. Sexswaps (of the 'always a man/a woman' kind) are also great if you like the genre.
But really, anything with the nominated characters and I'll be the happiest giftee!
Ah, better safe than sorry... could you please, please not include Cabanela/Yomiel of any kind? I just can't see that pairing for either character, framed in literally any way fandom's presented it so far. I also side-eye Cabanela/Lynne for the >10y age difference and entirely one-sided power imbalance, which are definitely not my cup of tea.
I also like to think of Alma as a smart person who can take on the boys on equal footing. I'm not fond of the wallflowery 'perfect wife' trope and I think that someone who made the willing choice to marry Jowd (of all people) and is canonically very close to Cabanela (...of all people!) is bound to have a strength of character of her own. I tried to sum up why I love these characters in a separate post... I've definitely failed to 'sum up' my feelings for them, at the very least, but yeah. Here it is.
Availability: it's a 10-to-15 hours NDS or iOS game (the iOS version is prettier, digitally available and costs less), or there's a complete written Let's Play here.
Myst:
Dear author,
yes please.
Love, me.
Basically. As long as the possible pairings stick to canon and the rating's low, I'll read and love everything Myst. That's my only real request. With that in mind, any character, any genre, any generation/time frame is great.
What I'd like the most, with this year's unusual choice of characters, is an End of Ages piece focused on Yeesha and Esher - I find their opposition fascinating, they've both failed and they can't do anything directly to influence a Quest. And they're both whiny, sore losers, so seeing them growl at each other without actually being able to do anything would be just great.
Anything Yeesha would also make my Yuletide. She's my absolute favourite during her whole eventful, lonely, missing-moments-filled life, so if you like (or love to hate!) her too, dear author, I'd be thrilled to read about the most special snowflake in all the Ages. I do realize that I'm in the absolute minority here. But hey, Atrus and Catherine were nominated too! Second and third favourite characters right there. Would you like to write what happened on one of the Ages either of them wrote? Atrus solo, Catherine solo or the two of them on a rare small adventure together? A journal? Catherine's old age?
Or anything else with any of the nominated characters (a Veovis and Esher piece? Atrus and Saavedro before or after the disaster?). I love them all in all their aspects, so no matter what part of their lives you'd rather focus on, dear author, I'm sure I'll love it.
It may be worth to point out (if prompting End of Ages wasn't enough of a hint) that I'm all for canon 2.0, or Uru über alles, you know the drill. But I'm perfectly happy reading fic about book/old canon as long as it's consistent.
Availability: ...don't. Just don't. I wouldn't force my worst enemy to catch up with Myst canon in a month. At any rate, the first two games are available on GoG and Steam!
Journey:
“Surely this year's nominations can't be better than last year's for me, I mean, they'd have to include Journey to top last year's perfect triplet and what are the chanc- oh hello, here you are!”
So. I love Journey for lots of reasons, but one of the main ones is how powerful its narration can be while staying extremely vague. I am, therefore, not reeeally big on extended fanon backgrounds and explanations for this specific fandom. On the other hand, I love to bits every single aspect, theme, scenario, kind of interaction etc presented by the game, so please, focus on whatever struck your chords while playing and I'll be happy.
(ETA: now that I think about it, another thing I've seen in fandom that I'm not really down with is applying human-like romantic feelings to our chirping bunch of carpets. I'm all for developing a closeness between two travellers, but I'd rather keep capital-letter-Love out of it. On the contrary, given that they're such different creatures, why not explore different emotional bonds?)
If I have to suggest one plot... the Ancestors' views on the little ones' journeys. But it's just a suggestion. If 1000 words are too many for a single idea, a collection of shorter, themed snippets would also be great (in a 5+1 fashion, or 10 drabbles on a single theme, or any variation of the sort that one would publish in a single chapter)! Or, in the implausible event that we also share Uru as a fandom... a little crossover? The themes of Yeesha's journey are quite literally the same, so any explorer or canon character linking in would work for me.
This is also sort of a wildcard fandom in the unfortunate case you didn't actually sign up for any of these, dear author. It's a very short, visually-oriented game with no background lore, no multiple endings, no actual characters, no actual script - hit up a walkthrough on Youtube and you'll be up to date in a couple of hours. I really hope this isn't the case and we're all enjoying our Yuletide assignments, though.
Availability: it's a downloadable PS3 game... or Youtube.
Sworcery:
What I crave for this fandom is mainly its specific mood (clever, oniric, referential, low-key epic, hipster like whoa except not really... y'know, #sworcery), no matter the character, genre or interaction. As Superbrothers themselves put it, any fic 'in the key of #sworcery' is bound to make me declare cosmic friendship forever.
I sure wouldn't mind some Dogfella this year! Or... something referencing the Steam trailer or Humble Indie Bundle poster, you know, with that 'modern Scythian' thing going on, or the Scythian Steppes' cover art. Or anything else! It's #sworcery! I love every pixel of it! Feel also free to go wild with hashtags and format and whatever else tickles your fancy. The nerdier the better.
Availability: <10h iOS game. I've put together something that looks like a near-complete script for reference, by the way, but the game has to be seen and heard in full to make sense.