Dear Yule Goat
Dear Yule Goat,
First of all, I have a very hard-and-fast rule that I only nominate fandoms for which absolutely anything will make me sob with joy. This is not difficult, as I am a somewhat enthusiastic person. This makes your job very easy, because I am very easy! Seriously, absolutely anything in any of these fandoms will make me intensely happy.
Second, my general approach to Dear Yule Goat letters is to first gush about what I love about the fandoms I'm requesting, and then to throw a whole bunch of idea-spaghetti at the wall in case something sticks. If it doesn't, no worries - write what makes you happy! I'm just the type of Yuletider who occasionally engages in Yuletide stalking, so I wanted to enable as much as possible if you're the type of writer who doesn't the same thing. Please feel free to ignore this letter if it isn't helpful.
In general, I'm open to gen, het, slash, femmeslash, threesomes and moresomes. I fall in love with fandoms for the characters, and whether they're working their way through an intricate plot, having lots of kinky and plotless sex, or just engaging in some slice-of-life vignettes, I'll pretty much read it and enjoy it if there's a good dollop of characterization in there.
I love when characters care about each other, when they support each other, and when they earn their happy endings. Warm fuzzies are welcome, but so are hurt/comfort and bittersweet endings (although I do prefer when the "bitter" part is cut with at least a little bit of "sweet"). I do, however, have an embarrassment/humiliation squick, so I prefer when characters are allowed their dignity, even when they're making mistakes. (The exception to this is Pete Lattimer, as long as he doesn't care that he's being undignified.)
Some tropes I tend to enjoy include amnesia, vulnerability, cuddling, found families, hurt/comfort, characters supporting each other in difficult (or, for that matter, ridiculous) situations, terrible puns, awesome female characters (I am definitely open to Rule 63, if that's where the urge takes you), space AUs, historical AUs, astronomer AUs (a genre which I find sadly lacking), and fusion AUs. If you want to get a sense of my tastes, you can find my tumblr here and my AO3 account here!
Warehouse 13
The things I love about Warehouse 13 are: Every last one of the characters, so much so that trying to list them would be counterproductive; the show's ability to simultaneously be wacky and madcap and unbelievably feels-inducing; the found-family trope that's out in full force; the one-off mentions and continuity that come up later; and the worldbuilding. In this fandom, I like gen slightly more than the ships, but I'll pretty much read anything - the only caveats are that if the pairing is Claudia/Artie or Claudia/Steve, I prefer the age difference and ensuing sexual identity crisis to be acknowledged. Also, any fics set in D.C. featuring Washingtonian in-jokes and references are welcome - Pete and Myka lived there for at least a while pre-canon, and just think of the mileage you can get out of a city with high-quality museums open to the public and a square called McPherson Square.
I'm up-to-date on the canon and also familiar with the tie-in novel (A Touch of Fever), so nothing's off-limits. I love casefic, slice-of-life fic, pre-canon fic (especially for Artie; MacPherson or OCs welcome!), or something set after the season four midseason finale that deals with the emotional fallout of one or both of the big events (although feel free to gloss over the plot fallout - or not - as it strikes your fancy). Some of the relationships between characters that I especially like are Myka and Pete and their importance to each other; Artie and Myka, in that there've been a few times where their relationship has seemed more even than Artie's relationship with the other agents; Claudia and everyone; everyone and their relationships with the Warehouse and what the Warehouse means to them; Myka and Helena; Mrs. Frederic and everyone; and pretty much everyone and everyone. Seriously, you can do no wrong.
The Middleman
Once again, I'm going to copy and paste from last year, because everything still applies:
"If you got matched on me for The Middleman, my friend, you have it easy. The Middleman is my One True Show, the fandom of my heart. There is not a single character I don't love, a single episode I don't adore, a single quirky use of an old plot that doesn't make me smile. My favorite character is probably Wendy Watson, with her lovely snark and kickassery, but the Middleman's aw-shucks all-around-great-guyness never fails to make me go d'aww! But I also love Ida, and Lacey, and Noser and Tyler and Pip and Joe 90 and pretty much everyone. Really, you can do no wrong.
For some ideas, any of the following would make me die of happiness: Wendy and the Middleman going on a mission to Cuba and Wendy being excited about what might be her only legal opportunity to go there; Lacey and Noser having to solve a case by themselves without ever realizing what they're doing; Ida snarking; Tyler being awesome; any cliche turned on its head in that uniquely Middleman fashion; Ida snarking; a fic post-Middleman's retirement in which Wendy is now the Middleman and has to deal with that; the return of Sensei Ping; "My plan is sheer elegance in its simplicity"; how the Middleman became the Middleman (complete with optional spoilers from the Doomsday Armageddon Apocalypse); Eleanor Draper trying once again to take over the world from Greenland; Ida snarking; or pretty much anything else you can think of. Seriously. I love everything about this fandom. I only moderately don't ship Wendy/Middleman and I'll read it anyway because I love this fandom so much. So while I prefer no porn or serious angst, anything that has moderately the same whimsy and joy of the show and a happy ending, no matter how sad it is before the happy ending, I really don't care and I will love it.
Also, the entire canon is only thirteen episodes and a ComicCon readthrough if you're interested in getting into a wacky, crazy, awesome show."
How to Train Your Dragon
In terms of the canon I've seen, I've seen the movie and the shorts, as well as having read some of the books; I haven't seen the show yet due to time constraints, but spoilers are a girl's best friend, so if you want to write something from that, knock yourself out!
My favorite thing about this movie is everything. Hiccup as a character and the way he grows; the way Toothless manages to communicate without actually speaking and still being an amazing (and delightfully bitchy) character; Astrid being absolutely fierce and, at the same time, kind of a goofball; Gobber and Stoick everyone and seriously, really, just, everything. I saw this movie about three days before Christmas of last year and promptly sobbed that I was too late to request it for Yuletide, so I have been hungering for fic for the past year and that means I will be satisfied with just about anything. I'm not as huge a fan of human!Toothless, just because I love him so much as a dragon and the way that he and Hiccup have a bond that goes beyond A Boy And His Dragon despite the fact that Toothless can't talk, but if that's what you want to write then knock yourself out! I personally tend to ship Hiccup/Astrid, but if you don't, then that's fine too! I'm a big gen fan as well.
If you're looking for story ideas, you could do something about the village dealing with living with dragons; new dragons with bizarre new abilities; Hiccup and the rest of the group becoming actual friends instead of just people-who-sometimes-fly-dragons-and-save-the-village-together; Hiccup and Astrid dealing with their stuff; Toothless being Toothless in any way, shape, or form; the father-son bonding between Hiccup and Stoick; everything not being 100% magically okay after the end of the movie; or gratuitous flying scenes. Seriously, anything. A n y t h i n g.
Haven
So I discovered this show about two weeks ago and I have already watched the entire damn thing and I love it uncontrollably. I love every single character with a passion: Audrey, for how strong she is even though the rug keeps getting pulled out from under her and the even-keeled way she deals with things and the way she's responding to the increasing tension; Nathan, for his delightful goofy moments and his lone-wolf attitude and his inability to actually talk about his feelings 99% of the time; Duke, for his snark and the fact that his expressions make up 110% for Nathan's stoicism and the way he's actually growing and maturing as a person.
As for ships, I am fully on board the OT3 of Audrey/Nathan/Duke, and all permutations thereof. I ship Audrey/Nathan for how much they obviously care about each other, even if this season they are going about it in deliciously counterproductive ways. I ship Audrey/Duke for how Duke is becoming her confidante and she's becoming his moral compass. And I ship Nathan/Duke for how much they obviously mean to each other despite the fact that most of that emotional investment recently has been in the form of beating the crap out of each other.*
Specific story ideas, in case you need inspiration: Nathan finding excuses to touch/be touched by Audrey; Nathan and Duke having to deal with a Trouble without Audrey; Audrey dealing with a Trouble without Nathan or Duke (bonus points for a girls'-night-out situation with Claire, whom I LOVE); Audrey dealing with her memories; bittersweet Audrey-returning-to-Haven-in-twenty-seven-years-as-someone-else fic; Audrey being a BAMF; a fairy-tale-inspired Trouble, a la Sleeping Beauty or any other fairy tale; Audrey working through her identity issues; Nathan and Duke working through their issues; any speculation on what's causing the Troubles or how the Hunter storyline might resolve; or just cuddling without any excuses, Trouble-induced or otherwise.
* (To expand on that one, I think a lot of Nathan's bitterness towards Duke stems from his deep-seated loyalty - as we're seeing now with Audrey, when Nathan cares about someone, he cares very deeply, and Duke was the one who betrayed that caring twice, once when they were kids and once when they were adults. And both, I should add, in ways dealing with Nathan's Trouble, which he obviously has issues with. And Duke - I think Duke, being a smuggler, often sees the world very much in terms of reciprocities and transactions, so that taking Nathan out on his boat as a cover for smuggling was accomplishing both the goals of hanging out with Nathan and also covering for his smuggling, and I don't think he saw anything wrong with that. But I think Audrey is part of what's changing Duke's worldview a little bit, along with his discovery of his Trouble, which is part of why I ship the OT3.)
First of all, I have a very hard-and-fast rule that I only nominate fandoms for which absolutely anything will make me sob with joy. This is not difficult, as I am a somewhat enthusiastic person. This makes your job very easy, because I am very easy! Seriously, absolutely anything in any of these fandoms will make me intensely happy.
Second, my general approach to Dear Yule Goat letters is to first gush about what I love about the fandoms I'm requesting, and then to throw a whole bunch of idea-spaghetti at the wall in case something sticks. If it doesn't, no worries - write what makes you happy! I'm just the type of Yuletider who occasionally engages in Yuletide stalking, so I wanted to enable as much as possible if you're the type of writer who doesn't the same thing. Please feel free to ignore this letter if it isn't helpful.
In general, I'm open to gen, het, slash, femmeslash, threesomes and moresomes. I fall in love with fandoms for the characters, and whether they're working their way through an intricate plot, having lots of kinky and plotless sex, or just engaging in some slice-of-life vignettes, I'll pretty much read it and enjoy it if there's a good dollop of characterization in there.
I love when characters care about each other, when they support each other, and when they earn their happy endings. Warm fuzzies are welcome, but so are hurt/comfort and bittersweet endings (although I do prefer when the "bitter" part is cut with at least a little bit of "sweet"). I do, however, have an embarrassment/humiliation squick, so I prefer when characters are allowed their dignity, even when they're making mistakes. (The exception to this is Pete Lattimer, as long as he doesn't care that he's being undignified.)
Some tropes I tend to enjoy include amnesia, vulnerability, cuddling, found families, hurt/comfort, characters supporting each other in difficult (or, for that matter, ridiculous) situations, terrible puns, awesome female characters (I am definitely open to Rule 63, if that's where the urge takes you), space AUs, historical AUs, astronomer AUs (a genre which I find sadly lacking), and fusion AUs. If you want to get a sense of my tastes, you can find my tumblr here and my AO3 account here!
Warehouse 13
The things I love about Warehouse 13 are: Every last one of the characters, so much so that trying to list them would be counterproductive; the show's ability to simultaneously be wacky and madcap and unbelievably feels-inducing; the found-family trope that's out in full force; the one-off mentions and continuity that come up later; and the worldbuilding. In this fandom, I like gen slightly more than the ships, but I'll pretty much read anything - the only caveats are that if the pairing is Claudia/Artie or Claudia/Steve, I prefer the age difference and ensuing sexual identity crisis to be acknowledged. Also, any fics set in D.C. featuring Washingtonian in-jokes and references are welcome - Pete and Myka lived there for at least a while pre-canon, and just think of the mileage you can get out of a city with high-quality museums open to the public and a square called McPherson Square.
I'm up-to-date on the canon and also familiar with the tie-in novel (A Touch of Fever), so nothing's off-limits. I love casefic, slice-of-life fic, pre-canon fic (especially for Artie; MacPherson or OCs welcome!), or something set after the season four midseason finale that deals with the emotional fallout of one or both of the big events (although feel free to gloss over the plot fallout - or not - as it strikes your fancy). Some of the relationships between characters that I especially like are Myka and Pete and their importance to each other; Artie and Myka, in that there've been a few times where their relationship has seemed more even than Artie's relationship with the other agents; Claudia and everyone; everyone and their relationships with the Warehouse and what the Warehouse means to them; Myka and Helena; Mrs. Frederic and everyone; and pretty much everyone and everyone. Seriously, you can do no wrong.
The Middleman
Once again, I'm going to copy and paste from last year, because everything still applies:
"If you got matched on me for The Middleman, my friend, you have it easy. The Middleman is my One True Show, the fandom of my heart. There is not a single character I don't love, a single episode I don't adore, a single quirky use of an old plot that doesn't make me smile. My favorite character is probably Wendy Watson, with her lovely snark and kickassery, but the Middleman's aw-shucks all-around-great-guyness never fails to make me go d'aww! But I also love Ida, and Lacey, and Noser and Tyler and Pip and Joe 90 and pretty much everyone. Really, you can do no wrong.
For some ideas, any of the following would make me die of happiness: Wendy and the Middleman going on a mission to Cuba and Wendy being excited about what might be her only legal opportunity to go there; Lacey and Noser having to solve a case by themselves without ever realizing what they're doing; Ida snarking; Tyler being awesome; any cliche turned on its head in that uniquely Middleman fashion; Ida snarking; a fic post-Middleman's retirement in which Wendy is now the Middleman and has to deal with that; the return of Sensei Ping; "My plan is sheer elegance in its simplicity"; how the Middleman became the Middleman (complete with optional spoilers from the Doomsday Armageddon Apocalypse); Eleanor Draper trying once again to take over the world from Greenland; Ida snarking; or pretty much anything else you can think of. Seriously. I love everything about this fandom. I only moderately don't ship Wendy/Middleman and I'll read it anyway because I love this fandom so much. So while I prefer no porn or serious angst, anything that has moderately the same whimsy and joy of the show and a happy ending, no matter how sad it is before the happy ending, I really don't care and I will love it.
Also, the entire canon is only thirteen episodes and a ComicCon readthrough if you're interested in getting into a wacky, crazy, awesome show."
How to Train Your Dragon
In terms of the canon I've seen, I've seen the movie and the shorts, as well as having read some of the books; I haven't seen the show yet due to time constraints, but spoilers are a girl's best friend, so if you want to write something from that, knock yourself out!
My favorite thing about this movie is everything. Hiccup as a character and the way he grows; the way Toothless manages to communicate without actually speaking and still being an amazing (and delightfully bitchy) character; Astrid being absolutely fierce and, at the same time, kind of a goofball; Gobber and Stoick everyone and seriously, really, just, everything. I saw this movie about three days before Christmas of last year and promptly sobbed that I was too late to request it for Yuletide, so I have been hungering for fic for the past year and that means I will be satisfied with just about anything. I'm not as huge a fan of human!Toothless, just because I love him so much as a dragon and the way that he and Hiccup have a bond that goes beyond A Boy And His Dragon despite the fact that Toothless can't talk, but if that's what you want to write then knock yourself out! I personally tend to ship Hiccup/Astrid, but if you don't, then that's fine too! I'm a big gen fan as well.
If you're looking for story ideas, you could do something about the village dealing with living with dragons; new dragons with bizarre new abilities; Hiccup and the rest of the group becoming actual friends instead of just people-who-sometimes-fly-dragons-and-save-the-village-together; Hiccup and Astrid dealing with their stuff; Toothless being Toothless in any way, shape, or form; the father-son bonding between Hiccup and Stoick; everything not being 100% magically okay after the end of the movie; or gratuitous flying scenes. Seriously, anything. A n y t h i n g.
Haven
So I discovered this show about two weeks ago and I have already watched the entire damn thing and I love it uncontrollably. I love every single character with a passion: Audrey, for how strong she is even though the rug keeps getting pulled out from under her and the even-keeled way she deals with things and the way she's responding to the increasing tension; Nathan, for his delightful goofy moments and his lone-wolf attitude and his inability to actually talk about his feelings 99% of the time; Duke, for his snark and the fact that his expressions make up 110% for Nathan's stoicism and the way he's actually growing and maturing as a person.
As for ships, I am fully on board the OT3 of Audrey/Nathan/Duke, and all permutations thereof. I ship Audrey/Nathan for how much they obviously care about each other, even if this season they are going about it in deliciously counterproductive ways. I ship Audrey/Duke for how Duke is becoming her confidante and she's becoming his moral compass. And I ship Nathan/Duke for how much they obviously mean to each other despite the fact that most of that emotional investment recently has been in the form of beating the crap out of each other.*
Specific story ideas, in case you need inspiration: Nathan finding excuses to touch/be touched by Audrey; Nathan and Duke having to deal with a Trouble without Audrey; Audrey dealing with a Trouble without Nathan or Duke (bonus points for a girls'-night-out situation with Claire, whom I LOVE); Audrey dealing with her memories; bittersweet Audrey-returning-to-Haven-in-twenty-seven-years-as-someone-else fic; Audrey being a BAMF; a fairy-tale-inspired Trouble, a la Sleeping Beauty or any other fairy tale; Audrey working through her identity issues; Nathan and Duke working through their issues; any speculation on what's causing the Troubles or how the Hunter storyline might resolve; or just cuddling without any excuses, Trouble-induced or otherwise.
* (To expand on that one, I think a lot of Nathan's bitterness towards Duke stems from his deep-seated loyalty - as we're seeing now with Audrey, when Nathan cares about someone, he cares very deeply, and Duke was the one who betrayed that caring twice, once when they were kids and once when they were adults. And both, I should add, in ways dealing with Nathan's Trouble, which he obviously has issues with. And Duke - I think Duke, being a smuggler, often sees the world very much in terms of reciprocities and transactions, so that taking Nathan out on his boat as a cover for smuggling was accomplishing both the goals of hanging out with Nathan and also covering for his smuggling, and I don't think he saw anything wrong with that. But I think Audrey is part of what's changing Duke's worldview a little bit, along with his discovery of his Trouble, which is part of why I ship the OT3.)