2013 Dear Yulegoat Letter
This year I requested four fandoms: Longmire (TV), Banshee (TV), Dexter (TV) and Ghost Soup Infidel Blue. As always, optional details are optional!
ETA: I have now finished watching the final season of Dexter. In the immortal words of Deborah Morgan, "Well, fuck."
Longmire
One thing I love about this show is the way the race and racism actually exist in canon, and so do cultures other than mainstream Americana. So if that could be incorporated in the Yuletide story, I would be delighted. Henry doesn't need to be the narrator of the story, but please have him play a significant part!
Prompt 1) A situation in which Henry is torn between his personal loyalty to his friend Walt and his loyalty to his community.
Prompt 2) A story that incorporates Cheyenne spirituality in a respectful way.
Prompt 3) A magical realism AU that has some spiritual or mystical conflict. I enjoy stories with with werewolves, vampires, fey, ghosts , etc. If this were actually based on Cheyenne beliefs, rather than European, I would be thrilled beyond belief.
Prompt 4) Walt and Henry as teenagers and best friends, maybe out camping together, talking about their hopes and dreams, and each finding out something surprising.
Prompt 5) Following some difficult or traumatic event, several characters have nightmares, and we get to see them.
Prompt 6) Absaroka County apparently has the same homicide rate as NYC. I want someone (investigative reporter, FBI agent, conspiracy buff, your call) to try to figure out why! The crazier his or her ideas, the more fun I'll have with it!
Banshee
Banshee strikes me as Longmire on crack. Everything about it is so extreme, from the violence to the plots to the characters. In fact, sometimes I feel like we are watching archetypes, rather than people, interact on the screen. It's like cartoons, anime, or some of those Chinese genre films. It's peculiar, but I like it! So don't be scared of that aspect, or feel like you have to soften it to make the story more realistic.
Prompt 1) Kai Proctor/Lucas Hood. This doesn't necessarily need to involve a sexual relationship, but I'd like something like those Chinese films that are all about the respect the protagonist and antagonist have for one another, even as they are destined to destroy each other.
Prompt 2) Job/Anyone. Job is a fascinating character. I would love a story in which Job carefully considers all of the options before setting out to seduce the most promising of the local characters into bed. (I'm aware this can be problematic in a small town, but Job takes no shit from anyone. I'm genderqueer, and would prefer a story that wasn't focused on angst, woe, and transphobia.) If you can also have Job playing with gender cues, identity and roles, that would be fantastic!
Prompt 3) Werewolf AU. Can you look at these characters and tell me they don't act like a wolf-pack?!?
Prompt 4) I was fascinated by the way, in the finale, the entire sheriff's department walked into that shoot-out like they had combat experience. Quite a few men and women from small towns end up serving, and then joining law enforcement. I would love a story from Deputy Siobhan Kelly's POV in which she served in Afghanistan, and that colors her actions and reactions to canonical characters and events.
Prompt 5) Lili spent the past few months switching back and forth between different cultures, different identities. She ended the season in a very precarious position; shunned by her community, rejected by Hood, and dancing along the edge of sex and possessive violence with her Uncle Kai. Write me something from her point of view!
Dexter
I've always enjoyed this show because the protagonist isn't 'normal'. Dexter's perceptions and reactions are atypical, and no matter how much he might pretend otherwise, to blend in, that will always be the case. So please don't make him just another guy (with a bloodthirsty hobby.) I like dark stories, so don't be afraid to bring it.
Prompt 1) Deb/Dexter. When a show gives you canonical incest, it seems a damn shame not to fanfic it. Now I realize that this is wildly problematic for a variety of reasons. So maybe this is Deb fantasizing all by herself in bed, maybe Deb is making out with some guy, and Dexter is sort of watching, and Deb gets off on it. Or potentially you just write me some really hot, possibly kinky incest porn!
Prompt 2) In an earlier season, Deb basically being one of the guys back at Miami Metro, and gets involved in some stupid prank or drunken bet or something. Dexter is watching, trying to figure it out, and wondering if he needs to step in to protect her.
Prompt 3) I always love the change in Dexter's body language from lab geek to predator. What if someone else sees it?
Prompt 4) Cross-over time! Bring in law enforcement from some other show. CSI, Criminal Minds, Sherlock or Elementary, Highlander, something else? Or, for a really off-the-wall possibility, what if Dexter's dead Dad and Benton Fraser's dead Dad ended up interacting somehow?
Prompt 5) Case-fic in which an unknown number starts texting Dexter with innocuous comments that make it clear the sender knows about his ... hobby. The comments seem to be approving rather than threatening, and Dexter has to figure out who might be sending them.
Prompt 6) Write me a fix-it for the finale. Harry said that Dexter didn't need him anymore, and left. I wonder, if Dexter's dead Dad taught him how to kill, if his dead sister could teach him how to live?
Ghost Soup Infidel Blue
Ghost Soup Infidel Blue is near and dear to me, but I feel like, between the live action fans and that insanity at Comic-con, the fandom's been taken over by teenage girls. So, seriously, enough with the high-school AUs, purple-haired Mary Sues, OOC rants, Angela-bashing, piss-poor spelling, and stories that have Luke as a malfunctioning sex-bot who helps Ryan find true love. (Yes, I got screen-caps of that one before she deleted it.) I'm not really a Red fan, and I'm trying to avoid Gold spoilers, so please stick with either classic or reboot Blue canon for my story.
Prompt 1) I want a story that goes back to what made me fall in love with Ghost Soup Infidel Blue in the first place - exploration, team-loyalty, and the search for love and beauty under the shadow of the zaibutsu. It could be gen, from season one, or team poly, after they develop the Sex Drive in season 2. But, please, keep it tasteful and artistic, nothing over an R rating, and no tentacles beyond the canonical ones.
Prompt 2) I've always been struck by the parallels between Moira's redemption arc and the classic Japanese legend of Amaterasu. I would be delighted if someone could write me a mitate story, simultaneously resolving both the legend and the GSIB canon, in which Moira returns/is reborn as the sun goddess.
Prompt 3) The treatment of clones in GSIB has always bothered me. I'd like to see a story that seriously tackles the issues of violence, consent, and identity inherent in cloning that were never fully explored in canon. This is not a kink-fic request!
Prompt 4) I know I said that I wanted to stick with Blue canon, but this is the ONE exception. If you wanted to write some epic story in which Angela uses the Portal to recruit members, clones, and Ships from ALL the different timelines to save Moira, I would love to read it. In fact, you could bring back all of the original Team Alpha - I hate the way they were killed off in season 3. Yes, that would mean winning the Martian campaign, and completely change the Blue timeline - but what the Hell, if they can do it in canon, why can't we?
OK, I had WAAAAAY too much fun writing my Ghost Soup Infidel Blue prompts.
I'm thrilled about all four of my requested fandoms. I threw some story ideas your way, but feel free to ignore them if they don't catch your interest. I'm sure I'll love whatever you write. Here are a few general ideas about my many likes and few dislikes.
Likes
I'm a fan of plotty stories. I like it when interesting things happen, characters need to do something or figure something out. Even in a story where the sex or relationship is the main focus, I love having some kind of additional conflict, mystery or action going on, something that shows these characters have lives and outside interests. Characters being smart and competent really please me.
I like tight POV's, where I can really get into the narrator's head.
I like angst and darkfic, up to and including deathfic. Now, don't feel that you have to go there - I like light, happy stories too! But if your Muse leads you somewhere dark, I'm delighted to go there with you. I like it when a character's dark side and flaws are intimately related to their best qualities. It's not that I enjoy the exploration of evil, per say. More that I'm fascinated by the search for love and redemption in even the darkest of circumstances.
Unreliable narrators are a particular thrill for me. I like Original Characters and outsider POVs, so feel free. I'm always interested in stories that reveal character backstory. I love stories about people who know and trust each other working together as a team.
One of my requests mentioned AU's, but you could write one for any of my fandoms. I really enjoy AUs, especially the 'alternate timeline' or 'hinge-point' variety, where a single different decision veers reality away from canon. I've also been reading a lot of Magical Realism and 'verse AU's recently, such as Omegaverse and BDSM AUs, and I really like the way fans build on and adapt other authors' canon for it. World-building (or culture-building) is cool, and I'm a bit of an anthropology geek, so feel free to play with that type of AU!
Dislikes
I'm not into crack!fic, including tentacles, wings, and transformation fic. I don't like kid fic, and pregnancy completely squicks me. Plots that depend on characters acting like idiots are irritating. Pure romantic fluff with no conflict or other plot doesn't generally work for me, and I'm not generally a fan of 'These characters are now pirates in the 1700's!' variety of AU.
Although I admire a well-crafted sentence, I'm not really into poetic or flowery language.
Hot Sex
I read and enjoy lots of G-PG fic. But if you should be in the mood to write porn, yay! I like slash, het, and femme-slash. I'm a fan of intense relationships. People who love each other beyond all reason. Even if you're writing about a hook-up or business transaction, I want it to be in response to some deep need, not just a casual fling. Kink works for me, if you want to go there. You don't have to - one of the hottest stories I ever read never went past a purely vanilla first base. Passionate, nervous first-time kissing. Mmmmm.
My favorite kinks include dirty talk, voyeurism, masturbation, pain, bloodplay, marking, bondage, orgasm denial, and power-imbalances. *licks lips* Most importantly, though, it needs to be in-character, be about these two people, what they want and need. Kinks are all about trust. It doesn't need to be safe or sane, but I want it consensual. That said, the particular flavor of dub-con wherein a character is forced into something they desperately want, but could never reach out and take on their own sets me off like a fire-cracker. (*coughs* omega-verse)
I'm not into fisting, golden showers, scat-play, clothing-fetishes, DS as a lifestyle, necrophilia, bestiality, or role-playing. But you could probably make me buy into any one of them, if you write it hard and hot enough. The one thing that seriously turns me off is fic where the character's kink is because of some childhood trauma, sexual assault, or anything like that. Pregnancy, male or female, is a hard no.
In Conclusion
To me, fanfic is all about getting a chance to explore characters in ways that the original source didn't allow. I love these characters, these worlds - show me something I didn't know about them, and that's the best present you can give me.
Your Eager Recipient,
- keerawa
ETA: I have now finished watching the final season of Dexter. In the immortal words of Deborah Morgan, "Well, fuck."
Longmire
One thing I love about this show is the way the race and racism actually exist in canon, and so do cultures other than mainstream Americana. So if that could be incorporated in the Yuletide story, I would be delighted. Henry doesn't need to be the narrator of the story, but please have him play a significant part!
Prompt 1) A situation in which Henry is torn between his personal loyalty to his friend Walt and his loyalty to his community.
Prompt 2) A story that incorporates Cheyenne spirituality in a respectful way.
Prompt 3) A magical realism AU that has some spiritual or mystical conflict. I enjoy stories with with werewolves, vampires, fey, ghosts , etc. If this were actually based on Cheyenne beliefs, rather than European, I would be thrilled beyond belief.
Prompt 4) Walt and Henry as teenagers and best friends, maybe out camping together, talking about their hopes and dreams, and each finding out something surprising.
Prompt 5) Following some difficult or traumatic event, several characters have nightmares, and we get to see them.
Prompt 6) Absaroka County apparently has the same homicide rate as NYC. I want someone (investigative reporter, FBI agent, conspiracy buff, your call) to try to figure out why! The crazier his or her ideas, the more fun I'll have with it!
Banshee
Banshee strikes me as Longmire on crack. Everything about it is so extreme, from the violence to the plots to the characters. In fact, sometimes I feel like we are watching archetypes, rather than people, interact on the screen. It's like cartoons, anime, or some of those Chinese genre films. It's peculiar, but I like it! So don't be scared of that aspect, or feel like you have to soften it to make the story more realistic.
Prompt 1) Kai Proctor/Lucas Hood. This doesn't necessarily need to involve a sexual relationship, but I'd like something like those Chinese films that are all about the respect the protagonist and antagonist have for one another, even as they are destined to destroy each other.
Prompt 2) Job/Anyone. Job is a fascinating character. I would love a story in which Job carefully considers all of the options before setting out to seduce the most promising of the local characters into bed. (I'm aware this can be problematic in a small town, but Job takes no shit from anyone. I'm genderqueer, and would prefer a story that wasn't focused on angst, woe, and transphobia.) If you can also have Job playing with gender cues, identity and roles, that would be fantastic!
Prompt 3) Werewolf AU. Can you look at these characters and tell me they don't act like a wolf-pack?!?
Prompt 4) I was fascinated by the way, in the finale, the entire sheriff's department walked into that shoot-out like they had combat experience. Quite a few men and women from small towns end up serving, and then joining law enforcement. I would love a story from Deputy Siobhan Kelly's POV in which she served in Afghanistan, and that colors her actions and reactions to canonical characters and events.
Prompt 5) Lili spent the past few months switching back and forth between different cultures, different identities. She ended the season in a very precarious position; shunned by her community, rejected by Hood, and dancing along the edge of sex and possessive violence with her Uncle Kai. Write me something from her point of view!
Dexter
I've always enjoyed this show because the protagonist isn't 'normal'. Dexter's perceptions and reactions are atypical, and no matter how much he might pretend otherwise, to blend in, that will always be the case. So please don't make him just another guy (with a bloodthirsty hobby.) I like dark stories, so don't be afraid to bring it.
Prompt 1) Deb/Dexter. When a show gives you canonical incest, it seems a damn shame not to fanfic it. Now I realize that this is wildly problematic for a variety of reasons. So maybe this is Deb fantasizing all by herself in bed, maybe Deb is making out with some guy, and Dexter is sort of watching, and Deb gets off on it. Or potentially you just write me some really hot, possibly kinky incest porn!
Prompt 2) In an earlier season, Deb basically being one of the guys back at Miami Metro, and gets involved in some stupid prank or drunken bet or something. Dexter is watching, trying to figure it out, and wondering if he needs to step in to protect her.
Prompt 3) I always love the change in Dexter's body language from lab geek to predator. What if someone else sees it?
Prompt 4) Cross-over time! Bring in law enforcement from some other show. CSI, Criminal Minds, Sherlock or Elementary, Highlander, something else? Or, for a really off-the-wall possibility, what if Dexter's dead Dad and Benton Fraser's dead Dad ended up interacting somehow?
Prompt 5) Case-fic in which an unknown number starts texting Dexter with innocuous comments that make it clear the sender knows about his ... hobby. The comments seem to be approving rather than threatening, and Dexter has to figure out who might be sending them.
Prompt 6) Write me a fix-it for the finale. Harry said that Dexter didn't need him anymore, and left. I wonder, if Dexter's dead Dad taught him how to kill, if his dead sister could teach him how to live?
Ghost Soup Infidel Blue
Ghost Soup Infidel Blue is near and dear to me, but I feel like, between the live action fans and that insanity at Comic-con, the fandom's been taken over by teenage girls. So, seriously, enough with the high-school AUs, purple-haired Mary Sues, OOC rants, Angela-bashing, piss-poor spelling, and stories that have Luke as a malfunctioning sex-bot who helps Ryan find true love. (Yes, I got screen-caps of that one before she deleted it.) I'm not really a Red fan, and I'm trying to avoid Gold spoilers, so please stick with either classic or reboot Blue canon for my story.
Prompt 1) I want a story that goes back to what made me fall in love with Ghost Soup Infidel Blue in the first place - exploration, team-loyalty, and the search for love and beauty under the shadow of the zaibutsu. It could be gen, from season one, or team poly, after they develop the Sex Drive in season 2. But, please, keep it tasteful and artistic, nothing over an R rating, and no tentacles beyond the canonical ones.
Prompt 2) I've always been struck by the parallels between Moira's redemption arc and the classic Japanese legend of Amaterasu. I would be delighted if someone could write me a mitate story, simultaneously resolving both the legend and the GSIB canon, in which Moira returns/is reborn as the sun goddess.
Prompt 3) The treatment of clones in GSIB has always bothered me. I'd like to see a story that seriously tackles the issues of violence, consent, and identity inherent in cloning that were never fully explored in canon. This is not a kink-fic request!
Prompt 4) I know I said that I wanted to stick with Blue canon, but this is the ONE exception. If you wanted to write some epic story in which Angela uses the Portal to recruit members, clones, and Ships from ALL the different timelines to save Moira, I would love to read it. In fact, you could bring back all of the original Team Alpha - I hate the way they were killed off in season 3. Yes, that would mean winning the Martian campaign, and completely change the Blue timeline - but what the Hell, if they can do it in canon, why can't we?
OK, I had WAAAAAY too much fun writing my Ghost Soup Infidel Blue prompts.
I'm thrilled about all four of my requested fandoms. I threw some story ideas your way, but feel free to ignore them if they don't catch your interest. I'm sure I'll love whatever you write. Here are a few general ideas about my many likes and few dislikes.
Likes
I'm a fan of plotty stories. I like it when interesting things happen, characters need to do something or figure something out. Even in a story where the sex or relationship is the main focus, I love having some kind of additional conflict, mystery or action going on, something that shows these characters have lives and outside interests. Characters being smart and competent really please me.
I like tight POV's, where I can really get into the narrator's head.
I like angst and darkfic, up to and including deathfic. Now, don't feel that you have to go there - I like light, happy stories too! But if your Muse leads you somewhere dark, I'm delighted to go there with you. I like it when a character's dark side and flaws are intimately related to their best qualities. It's not that I enjoy the exploration of evil, per say. More that I'm fascinated by the search for love and redemption in even the darkest of circumstances.
Unreliable narrators are a particular thrill for me. I like Original Characters and outsider POVs, so feel free. I'm always interested in stories that reveal character backstory. I love stories about people who know and trust each other working together as a team.
One of my requests mentioned AU's, but you could write one for any of my fandoms. I really enjoy AUs, especially the 'alternate timeline' or 'hinge-point' variety, where a single different decision veers reality away from canon. I've also been reading a lot of Magical Realism and 'verse AU's recently, such as Omegaverse and BDSM AUs, and I really like the way fans build on and adapt other authors' canon for it. World-building (or culture-building) is cool, and I'm a bit of an anthropology geek, so feel free to play with that type of AU!
Dislikes
I'm not into crack!fic, including tentacles, wings, and transformation fic. I don't like kid fic, and pregnancy completely squicks me. Plots that depend on characters acting like idiots are irritating. Pure romantic fluff with no conflict or other plot doesn't generally work for me, and I'm not generally a fan of 'These characters are now pirates in the 1700's!' variety of AU.
Although I admire a well-crafted sentence, I'm not really into poetic or flowery language.
Hot Sex
I read and enjoy lots of G-PG fic. But if you should be in the mood to write porn, yay! I like slash, het, and femme-slash. I'm a fan of intense relationships. People who love each other beyond all reason. Even if you're writing about a hook-up or business transaction, I want it to be in response to some deep need, not just a casual fling. Kink works for me, if you want to go there. You don't have to - one of the hottest stories I ever read never went past a purely vanilla first base. Passionate, nervous first-time kissing. Mmmmm.
My favorite kinks include dirty talk, voyeurism, masturbation, pain, bloodplay, marking, bondage, orgasm denial, and power-imbalances. *licks lips* Most importantly, though, it needs to be in-character, be about these two people, what they want and need. Kinks are all about trust. It doesn't need to be safe or sane, but I want it consensual. That said, the particular flavor of dub-con wherein a character is forced into something they desperately want, but could never reach out and take on their own sets me off like a fire-cracker. (*coughs* omega-verse)
I'm not into fisting, golden showers, scat-play, clothing-fetishes, DS as a lifestyle, necrophilia, bestiality, or role-playing. But you could probably make me buy into any one of them, if you write it hard and hot enough. The one thing that seriously turns me off is fic where the character's kink is because of some childhood trauma, sexual assault, or anything like that. Pregnancy, male or female, is a hard no.
In Conclusion
To me, fanfic is all about getting a chance to explore characters in ways that the original source didn't allow. I love these characters, these worlds - show me something I didn't know about them, and that's the best present you can give me.
Your Eager Recipient,
- keerawa