Dear Yuletide Writer
Thank you so much for writing me a story! I'm super easy to please, I promise. Just having heard of/wanting to write one of my fandoms wins you a million points, so I'm sure I'll like whatever you write. All optional details really are optional - if none of my ideas are working for you or you already have a story you are dying to write, I'm sure I'll like that too! But here are some ideas to get you going, anyway. :)
Things I like: slash, femslash, OT3s, gen, complicated, intense, and fucked up relationships (romantic and otherwise), complex, messy, but ultimately loving family relationships, unconventional romance, plotty adventures and casefic, character studies, team-as-family, dub-con, consensual hate-sex, aaaaaall the hurt/comfort. I am always okay with porn, plotty or otherwise.
Things I don't like so much (any prompt-specific exceptions noted below): non-con, extremely graphic violence or gore, character bashing (especially female characters), BDSM, humiliation, non-canonical deaths/deathfic, issue-fic and identity headcanons, a/b/o, modern AUs
More fandom specific thoughts:
1. Norma - Bellini/Romani - Norma (Norma), Adalgisa (Norma)
I really love how Norma and Adalgisa's relationship develops in this opera - from Norma's side, she's so sympathetic to Adalgisa's feelings despite her anger, and Adalgisa has such a fantastic loyalty to Norma and an understanding of what a terrible position she's been put in, and they both move really quickly to embracing each other and putting the blame for their tragedy where it really belongs (i.e. that bag of dicks Pollione). In the second act, there's this brief hope spot between the two of them that I find incredibly fascinating:
ADALGISA
I loved him - now I feel
Nothing but friendship.
NORMA
Child - what will you do?
ADALGISA
Return to you what is yours,
Or hide myself, with you, from God and man.
NORMA and ADALGISA
You have won - embrace me.
I have found my friend again.
For the rest of my life
I shall always stay with you.
The earth is big enough
To shelter us both from love.
Together with you, courageously,
We shall fight outrageous Destiny,
As long as in our breasts
Our loving hearts shall beat...
Obviously we quickly move on to the drums of war and things go in a very different direction after that, but I'm really interested in the way this scene dangles the possibility of them leaving the love triangle and the conflict behind and running away together, and makes it sound like something they would both genuinely be happier with. I'd love an alternative-ending AU where instead of all the suicide, they do actually run away together with the children, either to start a new life somewhere else or just to live alone in the woods together far away from everyone else. What kind of life do they make for themselves? How do they deal with what happened, and how does their relationship with each other grow from there? What happens with the Romans? I'd prefer an overall happy ending for this one, as un-operatic as that may be. I'd really love a F/F romance for this, but them finding a deep friendship with each other would also be great!
2. Fancy - Bobbie Gentry (Song) - Mama (Fancy)
The Bobbie Gentry version of this song will always be my favorite - I really love what a bitter, raw edge it has to it, and how clear-eyed Fancy is about what a brutal, desperate choice her mother made for her, and why she had to make it. The flat despair when her mother describes how bad their situation is ("She said, Your Pa's runned off, and I'm real sick/And the baby's gonna starve to death.") never fails to get me in the gut - it's so clear that she's a woman who has made do her whole life with almost nothing, and now that almost nothing's run out, this is the most loving thing she can do to give her daughter a chance, even though it's terrible. I'd love to see something from Mama's POV, either backstory, or leading up to the scene in the song, or just after Fancy leaves, when she knows she isn't ever coming back, that explores her character and her relationship with Fancy and how they got to that moment where she had to make that decision.
3. The Death of the Necromancer - Martha Wells - Sebastion Ronsarde (The Death of the Necromancer - Wells), Cyran Halle (The Death of the Necromancer - Wells)
I love that even though Ronsarde's role in the story is relatively minor, all the details we get about him before he shows up establish that he's the middle of his own completely ridiculous series of crime novels. He's the best investigator in the city! He's in a long-term cat-and-mouse game with Nicolas! He's a master of disguise! The penny sheets breathlessly exclaim his adventures! It's a really fun call-out to classic detective stories, while also making the setting feel more fleshed-out, and like everyone's stories exist outside of the one point of time we see in the book. I'd love to see something set before or after the book's events that focuses on Ronsarde dealing with another magic-related case - maybe with some hijinks and some ridiculous disguises - and Halle getting dragged in as his right-hand man. In the scenes after the prison escape, I really enjoyed how "bickering old married couple" the two of them seemed - I'd love to see something where they are in a long-term relationship and just really married with each other all the time, but I'm also fine with gen.
4. The Book of Mormon - Parker/Stone/Lopez - Kevin Price, Elder "Connor" McKinley
I feel like Kevin ends up in a really interesting, painful place with his faith by the end of the play. So much of his character arc involves deconstructing his Good Mormon Boy facade and figuring out what kind of person he actually is underneath that, ugly parts and all, and while he does sort of find his way back, the crisis of faith he has in the second act feels like something a lot deeper, and I don't really see it being resolved by the end. Meanwhile, for as silly as the show is, McKinley's attempt to continue to try to be a Good Mormon Boy despite being gay really genuinely breaks my heart. I'd love to see something set after the musical, once they have gone home from their mission, where Kevin continues to have a lot of messy, conflicted feelings about his faith and the Church, and McKinley continues to struggle with his faith and his sexuality, and the two of them connect over that and support each other through coming out/leaving the Church. I'd also be happy with Kevin also realizing he has messy feelings for guys in general/McKinley in particular, and that also being another part of his facade to break through - slow-burn Price/McKinley romance definitely welcome here! But either way, I would like them to both somehow end up in a healthier, happier place (outside the Mormon Church).
5. Cut & Run - Madeleine Urban & Abigail Roux - Ty Grady, Zane Garrett
These guys are hands-down one of my all-time favorite M/M romance couples - they are my favorite combination of kind of intensely fucked-up and bad at their feelings but also deeply devoted and somehow in the end actually really good for each other (plus they get whumped to hell and back in canon, which has got to be the fastest way to my heart). I'd love to see some light h/c set during the time they are dating and still in the FBI together - sick, cranky Ty with a cold moping around the FBI office because he can't do everything he wants to (and not-so-subtly angling for more attention from Zane, because he loves it when Zane shows how much he cares with his actions), and Zane wanting to take care of him and not being able to while other people are around. Or either one of them being sick or hurt while they are in the field on a case, and leaning on the other for support/care-taking. For this one, I'd prefer no descriptions of vomiting, but otherwise feel free to make them feverish and miserable in whatever way you'd like.
This entry was originally posted at https://masterofmidgets.dreamwidth.org/283117.html. You can also comment there using OpenID.
Things I like: slash, femslash, OT3s, gen, complicated, intense, and fucked up relationships (romantic and otherwise), complex, messy, but ultimately loving family relationships, unconventional romance, plotty adventures and casefic, character studies, team-as-family, dub-con, consensual hate-sex, aaaaaall the hurt/comfort. I am always okay with porn, plotty or otherwise.
Things I don't like so much (any prompt-specific exceptions noted below): non-con, extremely graphic violence or gore, character bashing (especially female characters), BDSM, humiliation, non-canonical deaths/deathfic, issue-fic and identity headcanons, a/b/o, modern AUs
More fandom specific thoughts:
1. Norma - Bellini/Romani - Norma (Norma), Adalgisa (Norma)
I really love how Norma and Adalgisa's relationship develops in this opera - from Norma's side, she's so sympathetic to Adalgisa's feelings despite her anger, and Adalgisa has such a fantastic loyalty to Norma and an understanding of what a terrible position she's been put in, and they both move really quickly to embracing each other and putting the blame for their tragedy where it really belongs (i.e. that bag of dicks Pollione). In the second act, there's this brief hope spot between the two of them that I find incredibly fascinating:
ADALGISA
I loved him - now I feel
Nothing but friendship.
NORMA
Child - what will you do?
ADALGISA
Return to you what is yours,
Or hide myself, with you, from God and man.
NORMA and ADALGISA
You have won - embrace me.
I have found my friend again.
For the rest of my life
I shall always stay with you.
The earth is big enough
To shelter us both from love.
Together with you, courageously,
We shall fight outrageous Destiny,
As long as in our breasts
Our loving hearts shall beat...
Obviously we quickly move on to the drums of war and things go in a very different direction after that, but I'm really interested in the way this scene dangles the possibility of them leaving the love triangle and the conflict behind and running away together, and makes it sound like something they would both genuinely be happier with. I'd love an alternative-ending AU where instead of all the suicide, they do actually run away together with the children, either to start a new life somewhere else or just to live alone in the woods together far away from everyone else. What kind of life do they make for themselves? How do they deal with what happened, and how does their relationship with each other grow from there? What happens with the Romans? I'd prefer an overall happy ending for this one, as un-operatic as that may be. I'd really love a F/F romance for this, but them finding a deep friendship with each other would also be great!
2. Fancy - Bobbie Gentry (Song) - Mama (Fancy)
The Bobbie Gentry version of this song will always be my favorite - I really love what a bitter, raw edge it has to it, and how clear-eyed Fancy is about what a brutal, desperate choice her mother made for her, and why she had to make it. The flat despair when her mother describes how bad their situation is ("She said, Your Pa's runned off, and I'm real sick/And the baby's gonna starve to death.") never fails to get me in the gut - it's so clear that she's a woman who has made do her whole life with almost nothing, and now that almost nothing's run out, this is the most loving thing she can do to give her daughter a chance, even though it's terrible. I'd love to see something from Mama's POV, either backstory, or leading up to the scene in the song, or just after Fancy leaves, when she knows she isn't ever coming back, that explores her character and her relationship with Fancy and how they got to that moment where she had to make that decision.
3. The Death of the Necromancer - Martha Wells - Sebastion Ronsarde (The Death of the Necromancer - Wells), Cyran Halle (The Death of the Necromancer - Wells)
I love that even though Ronsarde's role in the story is relatively minor, all the details we get about him before he shows up establish that he's the middle of his own completely ridiculous series of crime novels. He's the best investigator in the city! He's in a long-term cat-and-mouse game with Nicolas! He's a master of disguise! The penny sheets breathlessly exclaim his adventures! It's a really fun call-out to classic detective stories, while also making the setting feel more fleshed-out, and like everyone's stories exist outside of the one point of time we see in the book. I'd love to see something set before or after the book's events that focuses on Ronsarde dealing with another magic-related case - maybe with some hijinks and some ridiculous disguises - and Halle getting dragged in as his right-hand man. In the scenes after the prison escape, I really enjoyed how "bickering old married couple" the two of them seemed - I'd love to see something where they are in a long-term relationship and just really married with each other all the time, but I'm also fine with gen.
4. The Book of Mormon - Parker/Stone/Lopez - Kevin Price, Elder "Connor" McKinley
I feel like Kevin ends up in a really interesting, painful place with his faith by the end of the play. So much of his character arc involves deconstructing his Good Mormon Boy facade and figuring out what kind of person he actually is underneath that, ugly parts and all, and while he does sort of find his way back, the crisis of faith he has in the second act feels like something a lot deeper, and I don't really see it being resolved by the end. Meanwhile, for as silly as the show is, McKinley's attempt to continue to try to be a Good Mormon Boy despite being gay really genuinely breaks my heart. I'd love to see something set after the musical, once they have gone home from their mission, where Kevin continues to have a lot of messy, conflicted feelings about his faith and the Church, and McKinley continues to struggle with his faith and his sexuality, and the two of them connect over that and support each other through coming out/leaving the Church. I'd also be happy with Kevin also realizing he has messy feelings for guys in general/McKinley in particular, and that also being another part of his facade to break through - slow-burn Price/McKinley romance definitely welcome here! But either way, I would like them to both somehow end up in a healthier, happier place (outside the Mormon Church).
5. Cut & Run - Madeleine Urban & Abigail Roux - Ty Grady, Zane Garrett
These guys are hands-down one of my all-time favorite M/M romance couples - they are my favorite combination of kind of intensely fucked-up and bad at their feelings but also deeply devoted and somehow in the end actually really good for each other (plus they get whumped to hell and back in canon, which has got to be the fastest way to my heart). I'd love to see some light h/c set during the time they are dating and still in the FBI together - sick, cranky Ty with a cold moping around the FBI office because he can't do everything he wants to (and not-so-subtly angling for more attention from Zane, because he loves it when Zane shows how much he cares with his actions), and Zane wanting to take care of him and not being able to while other people are around. Or either one of them being sick or hurt while they are in the field on a case, and leaning on the other for support/care-taking. For this one, I'd prefer no descriptions of vomiting, but otherwise feel free to make them feverish and miserable in whatever way you'd like.
This entry was originally posted at https://masterofmidgets.dreamwidth.org/283117.html. You can also comment there using OpenID.