Dear Yulegoat 2014
First things first! THANK YOU, WONDERFUL WRITER, FOR OFFERING ONE OF MY TINY BELOVED FANDOMS. I am so excited to read whatever you write, and I hope you will have a wonderful time writing for me! This post has some general information about stuff I like/don't like, because I prefer it when my recipient gives me extra stuff to go on, but if you prefer to just go from the prompts, you don't have to read any of this! I want you to write the story you want to write. If there is ever a question in your heart as to whether you should fulfill some nitpicking optional detail in my request or write the story you have dreamed of writing since you offered the fandom, go with the story of your dreams, because if you love writing it, I'm sure I'll love reading it! The purpose of this post is to make your life easier, not harder. (If you want even more information about me, which I don't think anyone would but I know some people like to read their recipient's blog, I'm meretricula on tumblr as well, and more active over there.)
Likes: Happiness. I want everybody to be happy or at least not overtly miserable at the end of the fic. They can suffer and be angsty in the beginning or middle but please please please let the ending be sunshine and rainbows or the promise of sunshine and rainbows on the not-too-distant horizon. I'm also happy to get a fic that's 100% fluffy sunshine and rainbows all the way through. I like characters bantering with each other and goofing off and being total dorks! And I love love love characters showing how much they love each other, whether it's in a romantic or friendly or familial way. I'm not a big fan of porn for porn's sake but if you're happier writing about people expressing their feelings via sex, that's great too!
I also like: lots of background details, so long as they're accurate; tropes and cliches; subverted/inverted tropes and cliches; lots of dialogue; limited third person POV; canon settings AND alternate universes; food; competence; found families; female friendship; humor; LADIES.
Side-note: since there are ladies in all my prompts and I am indeed very fond of them, feel free to write something for the Misses Clause Challenge for me, though obviously you shouldn't feel obligated -- I also love the dudes I've nominated. :)
Dislikes: major character death; humiliation; intense angst; noncon and dubcon; misogyny, homophobia and racism (unless they're part of the canon, in which case please make sure you're dealing with them respectfully); first person POV; second person POV; bad Latin grammar; bad or experimental English grammar.
Some Girls (Amber Dean and Saz Kaur)
I love this show, and I love all four of the girls (if you want to include Holli and Viva, I would adore that!), and I enjoy all the madcap shenanigans that go on... but I was SO MAD that Amber offering to help Saz "proper give being gay a go" never became anything more than one kiss played for laughs as the credits rolled. I want them to kiss a lot more! And, like, hold hands and go out for fish and chips and figure out how to relationship by trial and error. If you don't feel comfortable writing a shippy story about them, I also love their unlikely but longstanding friendship and I would really like to read a fic that focuses on it. I am not a fan of Amber's boyfriend and would prefer that he not be a central character, but an ensemble fic about all four girls would also make me happy!
Blurred Lines Sexy Boys Parody (Caela Bailey, Sexy Boy With Long Hair | Trojan Original, Sexy Boy With Shaved Head | The Luminous Pariah, and Sexy Boy With Short Hair | Paris Original)
I have no prompt for you except to have some sexy, sexy fun. (Or non-sexy fun! Whatever kind of fun you like!) I am completely enchanted by this video and how playful it is; I love that the women are aggressive without violence and are confident in their sex appeal. I love that the men all play up their sexiness in different ways and seem genuinely delighted to be there, being sexy. Tell me a story about them! It could be about a full-on orgy or it could be about the Sexy Boys doing an eye makeup tutorial or anywhere in between on the sexiness scale and I promise I would adore it. (I feel like I should make it clear that I would be happy to see any and all of the characters from the video so long as there is some interaction between the Sexy Boys and the Women Who Serenade Them; you don't have to include all the boys if it doesn't work for your story, and you should feel free to write about Sydni Deveraux and Dalisha Phillips in addition to or instead of Caela Bailey as well.) Also, this is probably the easiest of my fandoms to pick up on the fly, so if you're not feeling the prompt we got matched on, feel free to hop over to youtube and see if you like this better -- it's only four and a half minutes long!
Tennis RPF (Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova)
The most epic tennis rivalry in the history of the sport and there is literally no fic. This makes me sad. Fix this sad lack and make my yuletide gay! Chrissie and Martina played each other 80 times! They shared so much with each other that nobody else in the world could possibly have understood. I would adore a fic about them being friends (or, predictably, more than friends) at any stage of their lives - when they first met, at the height of their rivalry, when their careers were winding down. I would totally love post-retirement fic about them reconnecting while doing commentary, or Chrissie supporting Martina while she was getting chemo, or Martina being there for Chris during her divorces. Anything. This is a hard fandom to get into, but if you're curious, I'd recommend starting with The Rivals by Johnette Howard, which is a really solid book about their athletic careers, and @Martina and @ChrissieEvert on Twitter for how they interact post-retirement. (I just went to Chrissie's page to make sure I had her handle right and the most recent tweet is her wishing Martina a happy birthday. NEVER CHANGE.)
A Countess Below Stairs (Susie Rabinovitch and Tom Byrne)
I loved Susie and Tom's relationship in A Countess Below Stairs and I was really bummed that aside from the one scene at the dress ball, we didn't really get a lot of their interactions -- which is where you come in, dear writer! Anything with Tom and Susie will make me happy, so go wherever the spirit leads you. What is their married life like? Or their early courtship? Or their wedding? If you feel up to it, I would really love details about the role Jewish tradition plays in their life together -- maybe their first major holiday together? But only if you want to! I also adore their families and friends, so feel free to include as large an ensemble cast as you like.
The Outlaws of Sherwood (Cecily and Little John)
I love Cecily so much sometimes I want to claw my face off GOD SHE'S THE BEST and her relationship with Little John is my favorite part of the book except for how there is NOT ENOUGH OF IT so that's where you come in, dear author! I would like some Cecily/Little John. Cecily and Little John on the Crusades? Cecily and Little John get married? Cecily somehow inherits Norwell and Little John has to live in a castle and deal with being a lord? Cecily and Little John try to bake bread and set the house on fire, seriously, whatever you want to write is cool so long as I get some shippy goodness in there. (If you'd rather write pre-relationship fic or are interested in queer themes, I personally found Little John's admission to a gay crisis over how attractive he found "Cecil" to be pretty intriguing... go with that where you will.)
Happy yuletide!
Likes: Happiness. I want everybody to be happy or at least not overtly miserable at the end of the fic. They can suffer and be angsty in the beginning or middle but please please please let the ending be sunshine and rainbows or the promise of sunshine and rainbows on the not-too-distant horizon. I'm also happy to get a fic that's 100% fluffy sunshine and rainbows all the way through. I like characters bantering with each other and goofing off and being total dorks! And I love love love characters showing how much they love each other, whether it's in a romantic or friendly or familial way. I'm not a big fan of porn for porn's sake but if you're happier writing about people expressing their feelings via sex, that's great too!
I also like: lots of background details, so long as they're accurate; tropes and cliches; subverted/inverted tropes and cliches; lots of dialogue; limited third person POV; canon settings AND alternate universes; food; competence; found families; female friendship; humor; LADIES.
Side-note: since there are ladies in all my prompts and I am indeed very fond of them, feel free to write something for the Misses Clause Challenge for me, though obviously you shouldn't feel obligated -- I also love the dudes I've nominated. :)
Dislikes: major character death; humiliation; intense angst; noncon and dubcon; misogyny, homophobia and racism (unless they're part of the canon, in which case please make sure you're dealing with them respectfully); first person POV; second person POV; bad Latin grammar; bad or experimental English grammar.
Some Girls (Amber Dean and Saz Kaur)
I love this show, and I love all four of the girls (if you want to include Holli and Viva, I would adore that!), and I enjoy all the madcap shenanigans that go on... but I was SO MAD that Amber offering to help Saz "proper give being gay a go" never became anything more than one kiss played for laughs as the credits rolled. I want them to kiss a lot more! And, like, hold hands and go out for fish and chips and figure out how to relationship by trial and error. If you don't feel comfortable writing a shippy story about them, I also love their unlikely but longstanding friendship and I would really like to read a fic that focuses on it. I am not a fan of Amber's boyfriend and would prefer that he not be a central character, but an ensemble fic about all four girls would also make me happy!
Blurred Lines Sexy Boys Parody (Caela Bailey, Sexy Boy With Long Hair | Trojan Original, Sexy Boy With Shaved Head | The Luminous Pariah, and Sexy Boy With Short Hair | Paris Original)
I have no prompt for you except to have some sexy, sexy fun. (Or non-sexy fun! Whatever kind of fun you like!) I am completely enchanted by this video and how playful it is; I love that the women are aggressive without violence and are confident in their sex appeal. I love that the men all play up their sexiness in different ways and seem genuinely delighted to be there, being sexy. Tell me a story about them! It could be about a full-on orgy or it could be about the Sexy Boys doing an eye makeup tutorial or anywhere in between on the sexiness scale and I promise I would adore it. (I feel like I should make it clear that I would be happy to see any and all of the characters from the video so long as there is some interaction between the Sexy Boys and the Women Who Serenade Them; you don't have to include all the boys if it doesn't work for your story, and you should feel free to write about Sydni Deveraux and Dalisha Phillips in addition to or instead of Caela Bailey as well.) Also, this is probably the easiest of my fandoms to pick up on the fly, so if you're not feeling the prompt we got matched on, feel free to hop over to youtube and see if you like this better -- it's only four and a half minutes long!
Tennis RPF (Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova)
The most epic tennis rivalry in the history of the sport and there is literally no fic. This makes me sad. Fix this sad lack and make my yuletide gay! Chrissie and Martina played each other 80 times! They shared so much with each other that nobody else in the world could possibly have understood. I would adore a fic about them being friends (or, predictably, more than friends) at any stage of their lives - when they first met, at the height of their rivalry, when their careers were winding down. I would totally love post-retirement fic about them reconnecting while doing commentary, or Chrissie supporting Martina while she was getting chemo, or Martina being there for Chris during her divorces. Anything. This is a hard fandom to get into, but if you're curious, I'd recommend starting with The Rivals by Johnette Howard, which is a really solid book about their athletic careers, and @Martina and @ChrissieEvert on Twitter for how they interact post-retirement. (I just went to Chrissie's page to make sure I had her handle right and the most recent tweet is her wishing Martina a happy birthday. NEVER CHANGE.)
A Countess Below Stairs (Susie Rabinovitch and Tom Byrne)
I loved Susie and Tom's relationship in A Countess Below Stairs and I was really bummed that aside from the one scene at the dress ball, we didn't really get a lot of their interactions -- which is where you come in, dear writer! Anything with Tom and Susie will make me happy, so go wherever the spirit leads you. What is their married life like? Or their early courtship? Or their wedding? If you feel up to it, I would really love details about the role Jewish tradition plays in their life together -- maybe their first major holiday together? But only if you want to! I also adore their families and friends, so feel free to include as large an ensemble cast as you like.
The Outlaws of Sherwood (Cecily and Little John)
I love Cecily so much sometimes I want to claw my face off GOD SHE'S THE BEST and her relationship with Little John is my favorite part of the book except for how there is NOT ENOUGH OF IT so that's where you come in, dear author! I would like some Cecily/Little John. Cecily and Little John on the Crusades? Cecily and Little John get married? Cecily somehow inherits Norwell and Little John has to live in a castle and deal with being a lord? Cecily and Little John try to bake bread and set the house on fire, seriously, whatever you want to write is cool so long as I get some shippy goodness in there. (If you'd rather write pre-relationship fic or are interested in queer themes, I personally found Little John's admission to a gay crisis over how attractive he found "Cecil" to be pretty intriguing... go with that where you will.)
Happy yuletide!