Dear Yuletide writer
Hello, friend! I'm very interested to see what we matched on, and what you come up with! If we matched on more than one thing, there are some canons here where it might seem like I am more enthusiastic than others. Don't let that deter you from writing one of the others. When it comes to new fanfic, I am equally excited for everything here. If you'd like to find out more about some of things I've written or bookmarked in the past, you can find me on Ao3 under the username Cyren2132.
LIKES
My likes include but are not limited to time-travel mucking things up, family dynamics (including found families), and characters learning new things about each other or themselves. But I'm also pretty forgetful and don't want anyone to feel shackled to my arbitrary list of "likes I could think of today." So, in this letter I also have some Do Not Wants, some fandom-specific information and prompts that I hope will be inspiring in one way or another.
DO NOT WANTS
FANDOMS
(alphabetical by type)
FREQUENCY (FILM)
Character: Frank Sullivan
Why I like it: This is one of my favorite movies, and it's getting the TV treatment this year, so I hope interest in it is renewed. It's a great father-son tale that turns into a nice (albeit confusing) murder mystery, and I just love it so much. If you were brought here by another a fandom or need a refresher, it goes like this: John Sullivan is 36 when he dusts off his dad's old ham radio, and thanks to some movie-magic-science-nonsense ends up using it to talk to his dad, Frank, the day before Frank died while fighting a fire 30 years ago. He stops that from happening, but the repercussion is that John's mom is missing from the future, having fallen victim to a serial killer in the 1960s, They work together across time to find and stop her killer before she dies.
Prompts: Two lines prompt three scenarios for me.
"She just died? Your mother just died?" "No, Dad. It happened a long time ago for me."
"Time to die, soldier,"
(Said on John's end, heard on Frank's)
TERMINATOR GENISYS (FILM)
Character: Pops
Why I like it: Terminator 2 is another one of my favorite movies, and Genisys is a worthy successor. Pulling off being a sequel and a reboot is a tall order, but this did so admirably, spinning our old favorites off in new, interesting directions. But I'm pretty much requesting for one thing.
Prompt: Pops has a long wait for Sarah and Kyle. How does he fill his spare time? Does he work on his people skills by experimenting with friendships or, dare I say, romance? Does he discover and then single-handedly rid the world of supernatural monsters (because Sarah will have enough to deal with from Skynet, she doesn't need a vampire/werewolf/zombie uprising on top of that...)? Does he foster kittens and puppies or maybe a big old tomcat that no one else wanted? You tell me. Obviously, I'm not looking for super serious business, here. Have a blast! Make me laugh!
EVERWOOD (TV)
Characters: Bright Abbott, Harold Abott
Why I like it: Yeah, it's a soapy CW teen drama from the early 00s, but I love it -- and the Abbotts, particularly. Mostly because I think Harold and Bright have a really interesting father-son dynamic. Harold's a smarty-pants doctor and Bright's a lovable oaf of a jock, and they get along great. Except for when they don't. There's one episode in particular that showcases this the most: Bright fails a summer school class and refuses to blame it on Colin's condition and death, which gets him suspended from football. While fighting with Harold, who says they always packaged him as a student athlete, he asks why he can't go to college on his academics like Amy, and an exasperated Harold yells "Because you're not smart enough!"
Prompt: I want to see some follow-up on that. Don't be afraid to get painful with it, either. Bright's always been kind of a happy-go-lucky, devil-may-care sort, but what if people legit thinking he's dumb (or actually being dumb) is a fear he's always had buried, and his dad just gave voice to it in the kitchen? Or maybe Bright never minded being seen as the dumb jock, because he knew he couldn't hold a candle to Amy's academics anyway. But when he puts some effort into it, he surprises everybody, maybe even himself. Or, if you want to adopt my headcanon: Bright's always been in love with Colin, who'd never love him back, and he can't bring himself to use him to get out of having been lazy. As their argument picks up the next day, Bright admits some or all of that to Harold, who is stunned and impressed by his son's scruples.
Or ignore all that, and while Bright can't play football, he gets conscripted into the school play and gets bitten by the acting bug or discovers a knack for building sets or some other talent that sets him down a career path that doesn't require 4 years at a traditional university. How does he handle that? Who does he talk to if he's not ready to tell his dad he doesn't plan on going to college? What does Harold think about that? Or how does he feel when he realizes Bright is really good at this other thing?
Basically, give me changing perceptions on Bright. Whether it's Bright thinking differently about himself or Harold seeing Bright in a new light, that's what I really want out of this fandom.
JOURNEYMAN (TV)
Characters: Any (Dan Vasser, Jack Vasser, Katie Vasser, Theresa Sanchez)
Why I love it: This is just my goddamn favoritest show ever, and it's criminal that it not only got just half a season but never got a US DVD release, especially when it ended with just the right amount of closure while still being open-ended.
Because anyone reading this almost certainly got here by way of another fandom, let me tell you about this show.
Dan Vasser is a reporter in San Francisco who one day finds himself whisked back and forth between the past and the present as he tracks certain people's lives over the years and helps them change for the better. It might sound a little bit like Quantum Leap, but really, the simiarlity ends at "guy helps people in the past have better futures." Dan's traveling wreaks havoc on his own life. Oh, and he finds out the fiance he thought died eight years ago in a plane crash is actually another person (from the 40s) who time travels, too.
I love that Journeyman doesn't go the obvious route of creating a love triangle between Dan, his ex fiance and his wife. I love that his and Katie's entire relationship as we see it isn't predicated on Dan keeping this secret from her, but that she actually finds out by the end of the premiere. I love that we see how all of this is just as hard as her as it is on him, and I love that Dan's brother Jack has all the reason in the world to think the worst of Dan but still clearly loves and wants the best for him, even though they're awfully antagonistic during most of this. And I love Livia, even though I foolishly forgot to nominate her.
If you need more details about why I love this show as a whole, I wrote all about it here. This can also be a really hard show to find, since it's no longer streaming anywhere, and there are only UK DVDs. I've heard that the UK DVDs will still play on US computers via VLC, and honestly, I'm some Christmas money away from buying them and trying it, but I can't confirm it works. BUT, when it was still streaming, I did a recap/review of all 13 episodes. So if you need a refresher or just want to get really in-depth about the things I loved (and some of the things that were a little iffy at times), you can find the complete list here.
Prompts: I just want more. It can be case-fic. It can be fluffy. It can be gen or shipfic or just about anything in between. One idea I was kind of wrangling with was for Jack and Theresa to be getting married but their wedding day is made all the more chaotic by Dan's journeys as they all have to add covering for him to their duties. And maybe something about what Dan's doing in the past disrupts Jack and Theresa in the future and he has to fix it? Or maybe Dan's journeys to the past help Jack solve a case in the present (and get Dan a big story for the paper). Or Katie and Theresa talk about life with Vasser men or about life in general, IDK. Or Katie hass to go out of town for a week and since Zack can't miss that much school and Dan's erratic time-traveling isn't good for single parenting, they stay with Jack and hijinks ensue. Just, more Journeyman for everyone and no breaking up of Katie/Dan.
THE PRETENDER (TV)
Character: Jarod
Why I love it: I love that everything is new for Jarod. I hate calling grown adults "childlike" but the wonder and amazement he has for ice cream and Pez and all the childlike things we take for granted is amazing. Jarod was so sheltered and cut off from the world while The Centre was using him for bad things and now that he's escaped he just wants to help people and experience life (and find out who he is/find his family), and I love it too. It kind of went off the rails in the end, but those first couple seasons? They were great.
Prompt 1: Jarod finds himself in a puppy pile/cuddling group and ends up getting all the affection he missed out on at The Centre. Please stay fluffy and nonsexual.
Prompt 2 : Jarod is taking a break from cases while pretending to be a teacher at a boarding school when a death starts to look like more than an accident. Or maybe there really is no case there and he just uses his experience to be a good mentor to a bunch of kids.
CRACK PROMPT CROSSOVER ALERT: Jarod has another younger brother -- immediately put up for adoption to keep him safe from The Centre. His name: Phil Dunphy, and when Jarod finds him, he gains the biggest modern family he's ever known. I'd be happy with this set any time from present day to pre-series for Modern Family and as fluff or more serious with Miss Parker, Sidney and Broots catching up to them and discovering Phil (and Haley, Alex or Luke if it's set late enough). Basically, I just really want Phil to be a long lost Jarod brother, and would be happy with pretty much any circumstance.
LIKES
My likes include but are not limited to time-travel mucking things up, family dynamics (including found families), and characters learning new things about each other or themselves. But I'm also pretty forgetful and don't want anyone to feel shackled to my arbitrary list of "likes I could think of today." So, in this letter I also have some Do Not Wants, some fandom-specific information and prompts that I hope will be inspiring in one way or another.
DO NOT WANTS
- A/B/O, soul-bonding, love potions, etc. (basically, no supernatural/mystical/magical relationship dynamic)
- Non-canon established relationships
- Sexual violence or humiliation
- Alternate-setting AUs
- Age-gap romance (especially between characters with a parent/child, mentor/mentee relationship)
- PWP
- 2nd-person/reader fic
FANDOMS
(alphabetical by type)
FREQUENCY (FILM)
Character: Frank Sullivan
Why I like it: This is one of my favorite movies, and it's getting the TV treatment this year, so I hope interest in it is renewed. It's a great father-son tale that turns into a nice (albeit confusing) murder mystery, and I just love it so much. If you were brought here by another a fandom or need a refresher, it goes like this: John Sullivan is 36 when he dusts off his dad's old ham radio, and thanks to some movie-magic-science-nonsense ends up using it to talk to his dad, Frank, the day before Frank died while fighting a fire 30 years ago. He stops that from happening, but the repercussion is that John's mom is missing from the future, having fallen victim to a serial killer in the 1960s, They work together across time to find and stop her killer before she dies.
Prompts: Two lines prompt three scenarios for me.
"She just died? Your mother just died?" "No, Dad. It happened a long time ago for me."
- After this exchange, Frank considers a future without Julia and what it would be like to raise John by himself.
- Lop off the last half of that conversation, and give me a story where Julia really DID just die in the future and Frank has to talk a devastated John through it.
"Time to die, soldier,"
(Said on John's end, heard on Frank's)
- Frank's forgotten a lot of things in his lifetime, but he's carried those four words in his head for 30 years. Show me Old Man Frank Sullivan, waiting for the day he knows is coming. The day the man who tried to kill his wife will try to kill his son.
TERMINATOR GENISYS (FILM)
Character: Pops
Why I like it: Terminator 2 is another one of my favorite movies, and Genisys is a worthy successor. Pulling off being a sequel and a reboot is a tall order, but this did so admirably, spinning our old favorites off in new, interesting directions. But I'm pretty much requesting for one thing.
Prompt: Pops has a long wait for Sarah and Kyle. How does he fill his spare time? Does he work on his people skills by experimenting with friendships or, dare I say, romance? Does he discover and then single-handedly rid the world of supernatural monsters (because Sarah will have enough to deal with from Skynet, she doesn't need a vampire/werewolf/zombie uprising on top of that...)? Does he foster kittens and puppies or maybe a big old tomcat that no one else wanted? You tell me. Obviously, I'm not looking for super serious business, here. Have a blast! Make me laugh!
EVERWOOD (TV)
Characters: Bright Abbott, Harold Abott
Why I like it: Yeah, it's a soapy CW teen drama from the early 00s, but I love it -- and the Abbotts, particularly. Mostly because I think Harold and Bright have a really interesting father-son dynamic. Harold's a smarty-pants doctor and Bright's a lovable oaf of a jock, and they get along great. Except for when they don't. There's one episode in particular that showcases this the most: Bright fails a summer school class and refuses to blame it on Colin's condition and death, which gets him suspended from football. While fighting with Harold, who says they always packaged him as a student athlete, he asks why he can't go to college on his academics like Amy, and an exasperated Harold yells "Because you're not smart enough!"
Prompt: I want to see some follow-up on that. Don't be afraid to get painful with it, either. Bright's always been kind of a happy-go-lucky, devil-may-care sort, but what if people legit thinking he's dumb (or actually being dumb) is a fear he's always had buried, and his dad just gave voice to it in the kitchen? Or maybe Bright never minded being seen as the dumb jock, because he knew he couldn't hold a candle to Amy's academics anyway. But when he puts some effort into it, he surprises everybody, maybe even himself. Or, if you want to adopt my headcanon: Bright's always been in love with Colin, who'd never love him back, and he can't bring himself to use him to get out of having been lazy. As their argument picks up the next day, Bright admits some or all of that to Harold, who is stunned and impressed by his son's scruples.
Or ignore all that, and while Bright can't play football, he gets conscripted into the school play and gets bitten by the acting bug or discovers a knack for building sets or some other talent that sets him down a career path that doesn't require 4 years at a traditional university. How does he handle that? Who does he talk to if he's not ready to tell his dad he doesn't plan on going to college? What does Harold think about that? Or how does he feel when he realizes Bright is really good at this other thing?
Basically, give me changing perceptions on Bright. Whether it's Bright thinking differently about himself or Harold seeing Bright in a new light, that's what I really want out of this fandom.
JOURNEYMAN (TV)
Characters: Any (Dan Vasser, Jack Vasser, Katie Vasser, Theresa Sanchez)
Why I love it: This is just my goddamn favoritest show ever, and it's criminal that it not only got just half a season but never got a US DVD release, especially when it ended with just the right amount of closure while still being open-ended.
Because anyone reading this almost certainly got here by way of another fandom, let me tell you about this show.
Dan Vasser is a reporter in San Francisco who one day finds himself whisked back and forth between the past and the present as he tracks certain people's lives over the years and helps them change for the better. It might sound a little bit like Quantum Leap, but really, the simiarlity ends at "guy helps people in the past have better futures." Dan's traveling wreaks havoc on his own life. Oh, and he finds out the fiance he thought died eight years ago in a plane crash is actually another person (from the 40s) who time travels, too.
I love that Journeyman doesn't go the obvious route of creating a love triangle between Dan, his ex fiance and his wife. I love that his and Katie's entire relationship as we see it isn't predicated on Dan keeping this secret from her, but that she actually finds out by the end of the premiere. I love that we see how all of this is just as hard as her as it is on him, and I love that Dan's brother Jack has all the reason in the world to think the worst of Dan but still clearly loves and wants the best for him, even though they're awfully antagonistic during most of this. And I love Livia, even though I foolishly forgot to nominate her.
If you need more details about why I love this show as a whole, I wrote all about it here. This can also be a really hard show to find, since it's no longer streaming anywhere, and there are only UK DVDs. I've heard that the UK DVDs will still play on US computers via VLC, and honestly, I'm some Christmas money away from buying them and trying it, but I can't confirm it works. BUT, when it was still streaming, I did a recap/review of all 13 episodes. So if you need a refresher or just want to get really in-depth about the things I loved (and some of the things that were a little iffy at times), you can find the complete list here.
Prompts: I just want more. It can be case-fic. It can be fluffy. It can be gen or shipfic or just about anything in between. One idea I was kind of wrangling with was for Jack and Theresa to be getting married but their wedding day is made all the more chaotic by Dan's journeys as they all have to add covering for him to their duties. And maybe something about what Dan's doing in the past disrupts Jack and Theresa in the future and he has to fix it? Or maybe Dan's journeys to the past help Jack solve a case in the present (and get Dan a big story for the paper). Or Katie and Theresa talk about life with Vasser men or about life in general, IDK. Or Katie hass to go out of town for a week and since Zack can't miss that much school and Dan's erratic time-traveling isn't good for single parenting, they stay with Jack and hijinks ensue. Just, more Journeyman for everyone and no breaking up of Katie/Dan.
THE PRETENDER (TV)
Character: Jarod
Why I love it: I love that everything is new for Jarod. I hate calling grown adults "childlike" but the wonder and amazement he has for ice cream and Pez and all the childlike things we take for granted is amazing. Jarod was so sheltered and cut off from the world while The Centre was using him for bad things and now that he's escaped he just wants to help people and experience life (and find out who he is/find his family), and I love it too. It kind of went off the rails in the end, but those first couple seasons? They were great.
Prompt 1: Jarod finds himself in a puppy pile/cuddling group and ends up getting all the affection he missed out on at The Centre. Please stay fluffy and nonsexual.
Prompt 2 : Jarod is taking a break from cases while pretending to be a teacher at a boarding school when a death starts to look like more than an accident. Or maybe there really is no case there and he just uses his experience to be a good mentor to a bunch of kids.
CRACK PROMPT CROSSOVER ALERT: Jarod has another younger brother -- immediately put up for adoption to keep him safe from The Centre. His name: Phil Dunphy, and when Jarod finds him, he gains the biggest modern family he's ever known. I'd be happy with this set any time from present day to pre-series for Modern Family and as fluff or more serious with Miss Parker, Sidney and Broots catching up to them and discovering Phil (and Haley, Alex or Luke if it's set late enough). Basically, I just really want Phil to be a long lost Jarod brother, and would be happy with pretty much any circumstance.