Yuletide 2014
Hello, Yuletide writer!
Thank you for writing for me! I hope this match is okay for you and you can find something you like/something that’s inspiring. (This is my first year doing Yuletide, so I hope everything that follows is kosher!) The letter is TL;DR-y, but I want to emphasize up front that I will most probably like/love basically anything that doesn’t hit my squicks and at least tries to play with some of my favorite characters and tropes. This is meant to be a guide to what I like (which is a pretty wide-ranging and flexible field), not a “must hit every point” checklist, and playing around/remixing is totally fine as long as it avoids the squicks. (All my “prompts” are mostly just brainstorming, and if you have something involving the characters you really want to do that doesn’t hit my DNWs, feel free.) For canons with more than two requested characters, you don’t have to include all of them if it would make the fic awkward/disjointed/really difficult to write (although I would appreciate seeing at least two interacting). Also, I’ve tried to provide a decent range of both gen/nonexplicit and explicit/porny/very shippy likes/prompts--anything I like in general I also like sexually, and if you’re not comfortable with anything shippy/porny, feel free to go gen; it’s absolutely fine!
Where else I can be found
AO3: theoldgods
Tumblr: theoldgods (my general post on panfandom ships and favs/DNWs is here, if you're curious about what I like outside of YT fandoms)
Twitter: minebyrights
I've also listed myself as interested in Yuleporn treats and whatnot; my post with some especially porn-specific prompts is here, if you're intrigued. If you're not interested in writing porn, don't worry; I consider it an extra, appreciated bonus, not something I must have.
Likes
All pairing configurations are fine as long as they’re not specifically DNW pairings; in many instances I prefer slash or het, but femslash is also fine. Any level of explicitness is fine, from gen/only hinted at relationships to full-on explicit porn (as long as it doesn’t hit my porn squicks listed below). In general I prefer things that stick fairly close to the canon tone and canon events (although spec fic/future fic is fine), but do feel free to tone down or jettison entirely any blatant homophobia, racism, etc in the source material.
General
Worldbuilding. Female friendships. m/f platonic but intense friendships. The classic Holmes/Watson dynamic wherein someone with a very high IQ but shit emotional quotient learns from/becomes bosom buddies with someone with a high emotional quotient (especially if it becomes clear that they’re not so different after all). Undercover work and casefic where applicable. Bedsharing (both platonic and platonic-into-romantic) and huddling for warmth. Pretending to be in a relationship or married (whether it segues into actually being in a relationship later or not). Clever (and also sometimes just silly) bickering and bantering like old marrieds. Clothing and hand descriptions (especially men in boots). “You’re the only person who understands X part of me and i’m the only person who understands Y part of you!” Bathing/cleaning each other. Adrenaline junkies/partners in crime. Daemons, whether in HDM fic or not. Snow/anything set in winter. Shared living situations. Found families. 5+1s/vignettes if they’re thematically connected and characters evolve in some way across them. Age differences in relationships, especially where the participants work to treat each other as equals despite that (if they’re romantic/sexual, please have everyone be adults).
Specifically sexual
One character is dressed (the fancier the better) and the other isn’t. Consensual cousin or sibling incest, if their platonic relationship is suitably messed up enough. Dubcon, especially of the sex pollen variety (wherein it’s pretty clear that both characters have some sort of attraction for one another and just need ~~magic~~/alcohol/whatever to get over their inhibitions). Public or nearly-public sex and related elements of exhibitionism/voyeurism. Codependency. Elements of BDSM (i.e. light bondage and some whipping), especially involving subby men, although I don’t really like formalized D/s relationships where one character always plays the same role in relation to the other. Shower/bath sex. Frottage/dry humping. Dirty talk. Cunnilingus. Threesomes, especially m/m/m or m/m/f.
Dislikes
General
Pregnancy/childfic (this includes mpreg). Death fic (with the possible exception of one of my TIG requests below involving Alan and Christopher). Really, really dark/angsty stuff (I don’t mind touching on darkness/angst, but overall I’m into at least ambiguously positive endings, when it comes to fic). Horror/gore. Character bashing in general (even of characters I’m not fond of), but especially bashing of canonical love interests in the background of noncanon ship fics. AUs, especially modern AUs of historical/fantasy settings; future spec fic or canon divergence is fine, but I’m usually into canons because I like their worldbuilding the way it is and want to play in that world. (EXCEPTION TO THIS IS DAEMON AUs--I absolutely love daemons and don’t mind them being integrated into non-HDM worlds.) Tentacles. Body horror/extreme body modification.
Specifically sexual
Omegaverse. Rape/noncon. Bodily fluids/watersports. Parent-child incest. Pedophilia/kinking on how youthful-looking characters are (in general, if the character isn’t at least 16 or 17, please nothing harder than kissing, unless you intentionally age them up). Detailed analingus (mentioning that it occurs is okay, but please don’t focus on it). Anything touching on the humiliation of women, even for kink.
His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
Serafina Pekkala, Mary Malone, Will Parry, Lyra Belacqua
HDM is one of those canons where, although I recognize how unsubtle Pullman’s writing is at times, it’s still such an iddy, fun romp for me even ten years after I first read it, and I think its underlying philosophical messages about living for today are quite powerful. I’ve chosen these four characters because they’re my favorites, but really, anything involving them separately, in pretty much any combinations, whatever is good, and if you want to slide in other characters in the background, that’s fine. I adore daemons, daemons interacting with daemons and other humans, the multiverse, the possibilities of witches, Mary’s transition from religious to nonreligious, natural vs. learned talent (as personified in Lyra and the alethiometer), and the Lyra + Serafina/Mary + Will division at the end of The Amber Spyglass (it hurts so good!), among many other things.
Tentative prompts: What is Lyra doing the first time she reads the alethiometer by hard work instead of instinctive talent, after her permanent return to her world? What are Will and Mary’s lives like as people who can see their daemons in a daemon-less world--how do they “interact” with technically noncorporeal daemons? What would a meeting between Lyra and Serafina look like postcanon? What do Mary and Serafina think of one another, and what else might have happened between them during that brief period of time they talked in TAS?
Pairings, if you so choose: Pretty much any (or none) is fine, but I ask for no sexual/romantic Will/Mary and that any non-Lyra/Will involving Lyra or Will at least acknowledges the lifelong effects I imagine that relationship will have on them, even as they learn to love others. If you want to write confused/mildly angsty Lyra/Serafina or Mary/Serafina, that would also be cool.
Orphan Black (TV)
Siobhan “Mrs. S” Sadler
How do I love Siobhan Sadler? Let me count the ways. I love older women who still have acknowledged sexuality to them but are, themselves, not really romantically attached to anyone. I love women who have fierce bonds to nonbiological children. I love women with dodgy pasts (and dodgy presents, and dodgy futures) but (mostly) good hearts. I love women who can nail traitors to the table with knives and raise their foster grandchildren. I love women who can handle a gun but whose first instinct isn’t simply to kill. I love women who look like Maria Doyle Kennedy. Most of all, I love that brief exchange with Sarah: “Whose side are you on, S?”/”Yours, love. Always yours.” I’d love just about any fic that centers on Siobhan, wherein she’s somewhat morally dubious/ends-justify-the-means but not, ultimately, a villain. If you want to do some sort of origin story or story of her time working the network, that’s awesome; if you want to show her and Sarah at some point, that’s also cool (nothing too domestic and fluffy, please--I like this canon with a slight bit of edge).
Tentative prompts: How did Siobhan end up working with the trafficking network in the first place? What was her first encounter with Sarah like? If you’re up for porn: A scenario where Siobhan lightly doms a mouthy but admiring dude (Paul, like how Rachel did him?) would be cool. Or a 5+1 of a bunch of different sexual scenarios she’s been involved with (5 times the sex was for an ulterior purpose and 1 time it wasn’t, maybe? Whatever you like)
Pairings, if you so choose: Siobhan and just about anyone, male or female, is cool, with the exceptions of Siobhan/Felix and Siobhan/Sarah. (I AM okay with the idea of Siobhan/other clones, if it hits the right “man, that was pretty fucked up” vibe.)
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - John Le Carre
George Smiley, Peter Guillam
This is bookverse, but I also love the 2011 movie and often sort of cobble them both together in my mind--if stuff leaks in from the 2011 adaptation, that’s completely fine. I also have read The Honorable Schoolboy and Smiley’s People and love them, so feel free to draw from there as well if you want. I’ve chosen George and Peter because the weird master-student relationship between them is very compelling to me (I do read it as somewhat Holmes/Watson; older/younger, mentor/mentee is also a thing for me). Anything focusing on them, from platonic to highly sexualized, is fine with me, and feel free to populate the background with whatever characters you may want (I’m especially fond of Bill, Jim, and Connie if you want to mention them). I’m especially interested in how potentially “deviant” sexuality interacts with being a spy in 60s/70s UK (see the 2011 movie’s decision to make Peter gay), how friendships form (and are strained) among spies, what the emotional/sexual consequences of living a double life are, and similar. Casefic of some sort, if you can manage it, would be brilliant, but anything reasonably canon-adjacent featuring George and Peter is good. I’ll be honest here and say that I’d love shipfic (even if only mildly) above all for them, but as always, gen that involves both of them and focuses on their platonic relationship is also fine.
Tentative prompts: George and Peter go drinking right after George is fired from the Circus; what other things do they tell each other? (Bonus for drunken confessions and/or weird drunken sex.) How about awkward loyalty questions after Peter steals for George? What was their first meeting like? What was one instance where one was afraid for the other’s life? How about a situation where they had to live together outside of work and it wasn’t all easy-peasy (at least, not at first)? What happens when a more hotheaded Peter goes (briefly) off the rails? If you’re up for even light casefic involving them, I’d love that. Also, this is one canon I’d particularly enjoy seeing a daemon AU applied to, if you’re familiar with His Dark Materials (How would daemons change spycraft? Would spies all have very unnoticeable daemons? Would spies all belong to a class of people whose daemons never fully settle, but they keep that hidden from average civilians? What would the repercussions of all this be?), but that is of course completely, extra optional.
Pairings, if you so choose: George/Peter should be the ultimate focus, but mentions of others, canonical or not, are fine. (I’m especially intrigued by Ann/George, George/Karla, Bill/Jim, Peter/his boyfriend if you choose a more 2011 movie characterization, and Molly/Peter from bookverse.) I’d prefer no romantic/sexual Connie/George mentions.
The Imitation Game (2014)
Alan Turing (The Imitation Game)
Oh my word, this movie. Secret work, found family dynamics, super awkward but kind of sweet at heart nerdy guy, perfect woman who comes to stand up for herself against what the world expects of her. What makes a man a man? What makes a machine a man? What advances in humanity have homophobia and sexism taken from us? I’ve listed Alan here, but I’d accept almost any fic for this that involves him and any other characters. I’d love to see Alan having an affair with another man, general teamfic of the crew at Bletchley doing their “blood-soaked calculus,” platonic friend!fic of Alan and Joan, basically anything. If you want to include non-nominated characters like Menzies or Denniston or Hilton in small or large roles, that’s fine too. There isn’t a character I don’t like in this movie.
Tentative prompts: Five times Alan thought of Christopher and then the final time in his life he thought of Christopher. (Ambiguity about whether “Christopher” here is the man or the machine--or both!--is encouraged.) How many other times did Alan break into other people’s rooms (Joan? Hugh? John? Menzies? Denniston?) for a largely innocuous but appears-suspicious-to-others purpose and what, if any, were the consequences for him in doing this? When else did Team Codebreakers go to the pub together, and what awkward shenanigans did they get up to? (Bonus points for Alan unwittingly fucking up people trying to pick up girls.) Alan picking up men on the street. Alan/Hugh sex in Christopher’s hut, before or after it first works. And if you really want to go out there, Alan/Hugh/Joan sex where Alan’s awkwardness and uncomfortableness with women sexually is clear.
Pairings, if you so choose: Alan/any man (especially Hugh or John...or Menzies if you want to include him--his scene with Alan at Joan’s house killed me), Hugh/Joan, Joan/another man. Please no romantic Alan/Joan or Alan/any woman--the only exception I’d make to that is if it’s an Alan/Hugh/Joan threesome where Alan’s awkwardness and uncomfortableness with women is made quite clear.
The Americans (TV 2013)
Elizabeth Jennings, Nina Sergeevna Krylova, Claudia (The Americans)
If the TTSS request wasn’t enough to tip you off: I like spies. I like questions of double lives, what gets revealed when these lives cross, which self is “true” and which is “false” (IMO, they are likely both true to some extent), the relationship between spy and handler and the love-hate/trust-distrust that can fester there, and more. In the context of the Cold War, confusions over capitalism vs. communism (for ideologue Elizabeth especially) or more pragmatic concerns in the face of new issues arising (for Nina and Claudia) are especially potent for me. If you can get technical about the details of being a spy or write up some sort of casefic , that’s awesome, but don’t feel pressured to do that if it’s going to be really taxing. If you could create any sort of vaguely canon-related world in which these three women meet, even briefly, I would be very impressed, but anything that focuses on at least one (preferably at least two) of them would also be fine. Bonus points for going into their pre- or early-KGB lives to explore how that affects them at the time of the series.
Tentative prompts: How do these three women meet in canonverse, even briefly? (Could be futurefic, if you want.) What are Claudia’s early days in the KGB like, and how do they tie into her relationship with Elizabeth? How do Elizabeth and Claudia react to Kate’s death? How do the three of them use or fail to use sex as part of their work, and what are they thinking about the men (or women) they’re using as that happens? What do all three of them think/how do they react to a timely historical event of your choosing?
Pairings, if you so choose: Elizabeth/Philip, Elizabeth/Gregory, Claudia/Zhukov, Nina/Stan, Nina/Oleg, any sort of femslash involving them. I would prefer fic that backgrounds the pairings somewhat, however, to focus on these women themselves and their relationships to the KGB.