Dear Yuletide Santa

Nov 16, 2011 20:03

Dear Yuletide Santa,

Let me start by saying Thank You. Presents that people have put time and effort into send me floating on Cloud Nine for about a week,  and creative ones doubly so, so just getting a fic at all means that this is set to be the best Christmas in years. I'm vain like that. :)

More then anything, I'd like to read the story that you want to write. Things made because the creator loves them have that undefinable something that makes them somehow More then things that are made because the creator has to. So if any of my suggestions don't spark something for you, ignore them! If you love what you have written, then so will I.

I have three friends on Yuletide that you can talk to if you would like hints or clarification and don't feel like bothering the Mods. One is Malkontent (Fishmalk on LJ). The second is Measured_Words (Elanya on LJ and Yulechat) who has requested to be contacted through Yulechat or PM's on LJ. The third is queenofinsanity6. All three are under orders to not give me spoilers no matter how much I beg, so your anonymity will be preserved. ;)

So onto the nitty gritty of why you're reading this!

General:
Happy endings make my soul glow with contentment. Sad stories make me cry and that scares my spouse.
Grit is no problem, and blood and gore is fine so long as it's appropriate to the setting and not overwhelming. Graphic descriptions of disemboweling = overwhelming.
Fics that match the tone of their source material make me squee, especially if they stay close enough to the source that they could theoretically be seen as canon. Not that AU's and crossovers aren't awesome, but even they should make some sense. Crackfic is usually not stuff that I read.
Period details in period fics = YAY. That being said, trying to research every tiny little thing is not fun for anyone.
Gen fics and tasteful romance are awesome. Porn generally does not interest me and M/M and F/F even less so. Though I am comfortable with sensuality and various kinks, I do not want to read a play-by-play of someone's sex life; generalized or fade-to-black scenes are preferable if the sex scene is necessary to the plot. Platonic relationships are wonderful no matter what the gender, and it annoys me when people try to turn Platonic into Romantic but I can handle it if it's of the "shipping if you squint" variety. (I am in the camp that maintains Frodo and Sam were never ever lovers and were instead in a feudal master/servant friendship sort of relationship. Hetero-lifemates, if you will.)

Specific:
1) Ivanhoe What I would Absolutely Adore is something based more on the BBC/A&E miniseries from 1997 then on the book. The book had caricatures while the series had well-rounded and fleshed out characters, and that made me love them all instead of going "meh" about everyone but Rebecca. Even Athelstane is a kind and sensible and honorable -if unpolished- man now! And it would be fun if it could be more focused on the minor characters; they get no love. Something about Maurice deBracy (possibly involving Rowena) would send me into raptures. Valentine Pelka turned him into an honorable and chivalrous man (if a little too ambitious and trusting) which made the character one of my favorites. The two doomed relationships (Maurice/Rowena and Brian/Rebecca) are somehow more interesting to me then either Wilfred/Rowena or Wilfred/Rebecca, even though I'm very happy that Wildred and Rowena ended up overcoming everything to be together. Feel free to add OC's and tweak the canon plot line a little. (Maurice surviving instead of getting stabbed in the back would be interesting.) Please write about any or all of the characters listed in the Request, plus any that you want. I like them all!
Part 1 of Episode 1 can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGpu7g2c9JI

2) Girl Genius What is there not to love about this story? You have adventure, UST, comedy, drama! And if you go into the fanfic (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7085916/1/ and http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7427624/1/) you even have James Bond style spy stuff! I accept the new novel as Canon when it differs with the comic, but that's just me. There's plenty of fic centered on Agatha and Gil and Tarvek, so what I'd like to see is something focusing on the students from Castle Wulfenbach, particularly Z and Sleipnir and Theo. Anywhere in the timeline would be fun. Growing up, their arrivals on the Castle, pre or post "Gil is Wulfenbach", pre or post "Agatha is Heterodyne", post Castle Escape, whatever! If the students don't appeal to you, then how about the Jagers? Any Jager! What did they get up to with the Old Heterodynes? What happened when Bill and Barry didn't go terrorizing the countryside? How did they end up with the Baron and what mischief did they get up to in his service? What's the deal with Mama Gkika's and the jagermaids? There's centuries to work with there.
And just in case you need background info, the comic is here: http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/ and the Wiki (which has tons of extra info and theories and such) is here: http://girlgenius.wikia.com/wiki/Special:WikiActivity

3) Gosford Park I first saw this a few months ago and fell in love with it. The dichotomy between Upstairs and Downstairs and Propriety and Licentiousness, the attention to detail, the songs, the slow unveiling of clues and the web of relationships and opinions! Not to mention Clive Owens. He is dreamy. That 30 seconds with the pounce-kiss was one of the more romantic things I've seen, mostly because the growing attraction between them had been so deliciously understated and restrained. Everything up and after the kiss is a good example of that "ship if you squint" thing I was talking about. Because there's so little fic for this movie out there, I will be happy with anything and everything. Deleted scenes, characters' thoughts during scenes, prologue or epilogue, it's all good. Mary and Robert are the two characters I like best, followed by Mr Novello and Mabel Nesbitt (especially together) but I'll take anything.
It is available for Streaming on Netflix, but there is a general outline of the plot on the Wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gosford_Park

4) Free Mars This is another "anything goes" fandoms. It's a fairly new web comic so there's not much info outside of the comic itself and what there is isn't terribly organized, but it's such a wonderful scifi-noir setting that it's hard to resist. It's gritty and shiny all at once! This is one where blood and gore and crudity of unimaginable levels would be appropriate. World building would also be appropriate; feel free to take the setting and use nothing but OC's. 
http://www.freemarscomic.com/

Once again, thanks a lot and have fun!

yuletide

Up