Yuletide Letter!
Hello, you amazing person, you! That you match up with me on any of these fandoms thrills me to the core. That you're willing to create something for me from one of them--oh, that's gift enough already. Everything from here on in is entirely optional--mostly I just like the opportunity to go on and on about things I love, knowing you love at least one of them too, aren't you wonderful? Despite my nattering below, I would much rather receive a story written in joy that didn't fit my prompts and preferences than a passionless connect-the-dots that did, so please do have some fun with it. My Tumblr is Missmithen if you want to see what I've got there (prepare for lots of Superman, Batman, Sherlock Holmes and kittens!).
Things I love in general: comradeship, heroism, competence (oh, my ultimate turn on!), trust between friends, bittersweet endings, happy endings, slice of life, casefic, culture clash, language play, yearning romance, stoic characters with a caring core, just-the-two-of-us-against-the-world. I love a variety of tropes: sex pollen (in the I've-always-wanted-it-and-now... sense), pretending to be married, amnesia, disguises and identity play, time travel, Groundhog's Day loops, and handcuffed together all spring to mind as things that I would love in a fic. Holiday fic is lovely: Christmas in Albion might be incredible, as would Spenser cooking Christmas dinner for Hawk! Crossovers are great if I'm well-acquainted with the crossing-fandom (basically, if I've written something for it on AO3, go for it).
Things I'm not a fan of: Non-con, character bashing, gross-out body horror, infidelity, cruelty and abuse in relationships, raunchy porn-for-porn's-sake, mundane AUs (like high school or coffee shop), Omegaverse, gender-swapping, pregnancy (m or otherwise), kidfic (in the sense of stories about characters raising kids...characters meeting when they were kids is fine, and could be super-cool and strange with Spenser or A Study in Emerald), scat and watersports, utterly bleak endings (but character death is fine if they go out in a blaze of glory and accomplish something).
But again, follow your heart above all--if something I'm not a fan of is in your story, I will not denounce you to the Yuletide Old Ones! I will love anything you write.
On to specifics!
Fandom: Astro City. (Martha Sullivan) Kurt Busiek's original superhero series is one of my favorite things in the world, and that he got to start it up again with Vertigo has made me unspeakably happy. It's like a Platonic Ideal of a superhero world, where there are resonances with DC and Marvel, but everything is fresh and beautiful and humane.
Prompt: I fell hard for Martha Sullivan and the Sideliners when they showed up in issue 4. I love the idea of people with superpowers who aren't cut out to be either a hero or a villain, they just want to live fairly normal lives. So I'd like to see Martha's life a bit, and maybe the lives of some of the other Sideliners (you can use Busiek's or make your own): just a slice of life, or interacting with the capes a little, whatever you like.
Extra Thoughts/Squee/Burbling: Obviously you've got a lot of freedom on this one! There's nearly no canon on Martha or her background, although Busiek certainly makes her personality shine through. So have fun! Go on a tour of the Astro City world from on the POV of the groundlings! It's an amazing place and I want to see more of what makes it tick. As a side note, I read Martha as a lesbian--you don't have to focus on that (Busiek obviously didn't), but I'd just rather she not be going out on dates with Samaritan or anything.
Fandom: Spenser Series - Robert B. Parker (Hawk/Spenser) is a book series and a television show about a hard-boiled private detective (and excellent amateur cook) in Boston, Spenser. Hawk is a mercenary and his sort-of-friend: they disagree about methods (Hawk kills without compunction) but always have each others' backs.
Prompt: I really just want more of canon here. Maybe Hawk shows up at Spenser's place and Spenser cooks him a meal. Or they go undercover at a gay bar. Or they hang out on a stakeout (if you want a specific, the sequence in Judas Goat where they spend days sitting around a fancy hotel and ordering room service was where I fell in love with their dynamic). Canon-style gen with slashy undertones is great, maybe with the UST ramped up just a bit. Sex is also great! Although mushy-romantic between them might stretch credulity...
Extra Thoughts/Squee/Burbling: Oh, these two. I love their masculine code, I love their trust, I love their snark and their casualness about race (Hawk's viciously ironic language play with race and his background are so incredible). I love how anyone who messes with them is absolutely doomed. I love moments where people underestimate them and have no idea what badasses they're dealing with, and I love when people know Hawk's reputation and are terrified of him. I love when Hawk calls Spenser "babe," and I love his clothing--God, the clothing porn with Hawk. Stoic, muted hurt/comfort would probably make my heart turn backflips, as would either of them risking their life for each other, or Hawk showing up just when Spenser needs him. Whether gen or slash, please don't dis Susan--I know she's not to everyone's tastes, but I don't enjoy stories where female characters get run down, and I'd rather not have a big angsty infidelity storyline.
Fandom: Star Wars: The Old Republic (Imperial Agent/Vector Hyllis) is an online RPG in which you can play a character from either the Empire or the Republic in the ancient past of the Star Wars universe. One nice thing about the game is that it's coded so you can play a good or evil person on either side of the battle--as a result I fell in love with my Imperial Agent (a spy) and her storyline full of double-crosses and espionage, who's a very good person who believes that the Empire is the best ally for her people (the Chiss) while the Republic pretends to be nice but is just as unethical as the Empire. Vector is an Imperial diplomat who has been "turned " by a hive mind collective, but manages to be a very adorable character nonetheless (One of my favorite quirks of his is how at the end of a battle he will sometimes announce, "We are victorious! ...somewhat to our surprise.")
Prompt: Agent/Vector has been my favorite romance option in the game so far--I think it's the strangeness of it, the sense of alien wonder. I'd love to see an alternate ending where the Agent does indeed Join the collective, and it's a positive experience. I know in other tie-in novels the Killik are presented as evil, but the game seems to have a more nuanced take on them that I find intriguing.
Extra Thoughts/Squee/Burbling: Let's start by addressing the elephant in the room: There's no getting around the fact that I have an image of the Agent which might not match yours, so I'll tell you about her and you can pick and choose what you want to use in your story. My Agent is a female Chiss who is light-side but unswervingly loyal to the Empire. Being Chiss is maybe the most important part of the character--thus all the discussions of Vector's "weird eyes" in the game annoyed her! Chiss are very communal and she saw the Killik as perhaps superior to more individualistic societies (having done my research since, I know this is ironic as the Chiss end up going to war with the Killik in the distant future, but neither she nor I knew that at the time). To be honest, her race is more important than her sex or morality to me--I wouldn't at all mind seeing a male Agent/Vector romance! Her name is Lyad'aerie'lin and she goes by Daeriel, but honestly if you can find a way to avoid her name (first person? "Agent"? "Cipher Nine?") it would feel truer to the game, you know? I'd love to see more of the rest of her crew as well, they're all delightful.
I love Vector! I love his oddball, eccentric way of seeing the world, I love his delicate balance between individual and collective thought, I love his pride at bring Dawn Herald. I love his off-kilter wooing and my Agent loves him just as he is. I want to see more of him!
Fandom: A Study in Emerald. (John Watson/Sherlock Holmes) This short story is a Sherlock Holmes/Lovecraft crossover, it is by Neil Gaiman, it is available free online, and if you haven't read it before OMG why are you still reading this sentence, go read it, I'll wait for you right here.
Prompt: I would love to see any canon ACD story moved into this universe, but would especially love to see "The Final Problem"/"The Empty House" done up in emerald. I don't know how that would go--in the inverted mirror of this world, would Holmes die and Moriarty fake his death? I'd rather Holmes and Watson strike a decisive blow against the Old Ones but if you want to follow the Lovecraft ethos rather than the Holmesian ethos, then embrace it--rip my damn heart out and leave me a sobbing mess on the floor, and I'll love you for it. Crossovers with different versions of Holmes are welcome--admit it, you want to write a version of The Great Mouse Detective with Cthulhu in it. You know you do. And I want to read it.
Extra Thoughts/Squee/Burbling: This story. This story. THIS STORY. I just want to see more of it! I especially want to see more of Holmes and Watson, of course! (and at any level from gen all the way through slash, I ship these two anywhere and anytime). But if you want to keep to the original POV I think you can make that work just fine as well. Moriarty and Moran are fascinating in this world and I'd love to see more of their relationship as well.
Despite it being a mirror-type universe, I would really appreciate it if you kept Holmes and Watson the Good Guys--they're driven to desperate acts, but it's for the sake of humanity. In the classic D&D morality axis, they've flipped law and chaos, but not good and evil--Moriarty has gone from chaotic evil to lawful evil, and Holmes and Watson from lawful good to chaotic good. So I'd rather they not be inhumane or cruel--they're resistance fighters, but not sadists. Whether the end result of this world is bleak or triumphant depends entirely on whether you think this is Holmes dropped into in a Lovecraft story (in which case he fails) or Cthulhu showing up in a Holmes story (in which case reason must prevail). I think Gaiman is leaning toward the latter--the hints at the end that Holmes is working to create a nuclear bomb (theories of mass, energy, and the hypothetical speed of light) intrigue me very much--but with the Old Ones, who knows?
A word on crossovers: I love every version of these two (Granada, BBC, and Ritchie are the adaptations I know best) although I haven't watched Elementary yet so if you used that as your base I'd probably be a little confused. If you love BBC Sherlock as I do--and don't feel it would be shattering the spirit of Yuletide to use this story as a back door into the most popular pairing ever--I would enjoy a creepy modern AU of the story. But I love the ACD Victorian vibe...and I'm not kidding about The Great Mouse Detective, either.
Things I love in general: comradeship, heroism, competence (oh, my ultimate turn on!), trust between friends, bittersweet endings, happy endings, slice of life, casefic, culture clash, language play, yearning romance, stoic characters with a caring core, just-the-two-of-us-against-the-world. I love a variety of tropes: sex pollen (in the I've-always-wanted-it-and-now... sense), pretending to be married, amnesia, disguises and identity play, time travel, Groundhog's Day loops, and handcuffed together all spring to mind as things that I would love in a fic. Holiday fic is lovely: Christmas in Albion might be incredible, as would Spenser cooking Christmas dinner for Hawk! Crossovers are great if I'm well-acquainted with the crossing-fandom (basically, if I've written something for it on AO3, go for it).
Things I'm not a fan of: Non-con, character bashing, gross-out body horror, infidelity, cruelty and abuse in relationships, raunchy porn-for-porn's-sake, mundane AUs (like high school or coffee shop), Omegaverse, gender-swapping, pregnancy (m or otherwise), kidfic (in the sense of stories about characters raising kids...characters meeting when they were kids is fine, and could be super-cool and strange with Spenser or A Study in Emerald), scat and watersports, utterly bleak endings (but character death is fine if they go out in a blaze of glory and accomplish something).
But again, follow your heart above all--if something I'm not a fan of is in your story, I will not denounce you to the Yuletide Old Ones! I will love anything you write.
On to specifics!
Fandom: Astro City. (Martha Sullivan) Kurt Busiek's original superhero series is one of my favorite things in the world, and that he got to start it up again with Vertigo has made me unspeakably happy. It's like a Platonic Ideal of a superhero world, where there are resonances with DC and Marvel, but everything is fresh and beautiful and humane.
Prompt: I fell hard for Martha Sullivan and the Sideliners when they showed up in issue 4. I love the idea of people with superpowers who aren't cut out to be either a hero or a villain, they just want to live fairly normal lives. So I'd like to see Martha's life a bit, and maybe the lives of some of the other Sideliners (you can use Busiek's or make your own): just a slice of life, or interacting with the capes a little, whatever you like.
Extra Thoughts/Squee/Burbling: Obviously you've got a lot of freedom on this one! There's nearly no canon on Martha or her background, although Busiek certainly makes her personality shine through. So have fun! Go on a tour of the Astro City world from on the POV of the groundlings! It's an amazing place and I want to see more of what makes it tick. As a side note, I read Martha as a lesbian--you don't have to focus on that (Busiek obviously didn't), but I'd just rather she not be going out on dates with Samaritan or anything.
Fandom: Spenser Series - Robert B. Parker (Hawk/Spenser) is a book series and a television show about a hard-boiled private detective (and excellent amateur cook) in Boston, Spenser. Hawk is a mercenary and his sort-of-friend: they disagree about methods (Hawk kills without compunction) but always have each others' backs.
Prompt: I really just want more of canon here. Maybe Hawk shows up at Spenser's place and Spenser cooks him a meal. Or they go undercover at a gay bar. Or they hang out on a stakeout (if you want a specific, the sequence in Judas Goat where they spend days sitting around a fancy hotel and ordering room service was where I fell in love with their dynamic). Canon-style gen with slashy undertones is great, maybe with the UST ramped up just a bit. Sex is also great! Although mushy-romantic between them might stretch credulity...
Extra Thoughts/Squee/Burbling: Oh, these two. I love their masculine code, I love their trust, I love their snark and their casualness about race (Hawk's viciously ironic language play with race and his background are so incredible). I love how anyone who messes with them is absolutely doomed. I love moments where people underestimate them and have no idea what badasses they're dealing with, and I love when people know Hawk's reputation and are terrified of him. I love when Hawk calls Spenser "babe," and I love his clothing--God, the clothing porn with Hawk. Stoic, muted hurt/comfort would probably make my heart turn backflips, as would either of them risking their life for each other, or Hawk showing up just when Spenser needs him. Whether gen or slash, please don't dis Susan--I know she's not to everyone's tastes, but I don't enjoy stories where female characters get run down, and I'd rather not have a big angsty infidelity storyline.
Fandom: Star Wars: The Old Republic (Imperial Agent/Vector Hyllis) is an online RPG in which you can play a character from either the Empire or the Republic in the ancient past of the Star Wars universe. One nice thing about the game is that it's coded so you can play a good or evil person on either side of the battle--as a result I fell in love with my Imperial Agent (a spy) and her storyline full of double-crosses and espionage, who's a very good person who believes that the Empire is the best ally for her people (the Chiss) while the Republic pretends to be nice but is just as unethical as the Empire. Vector is an Imperial diplomat who has been "turned " by a hive mind collective, but manages to be a very adorable character nonetheless (One of my favorite quirks of his is how at the end of a battle he will sometimes announce, "We are victorious! ...somewhat to our surprise.")
Prompt: Agent/Vector has been my favorite romance option in the game so far--I think it's the strangeness of it, the sense of alien wonder. I'd love to see an alternate ending where the Agent does indeed Join the collective, and it's a positive experience. I know in other tie-in novels the Killik are presented as evil, but the game seems to have a more nuanced take on them that I find intriguing.
Extra Thoughts/Squee/Burbling: Let's start by addressing the elephant in the room: There's no getting around the fact that I have an image of the Agent which might not match yours, so I'll tell you about her and you can pick and choose what you want to use in your story. My Agent is a female Chiss who is light-side but unswervingly loyal to the Empire. Being Chiss is maybe the most important part of the character--thus all the discussions of Vector's "weird eyes" in the game annoyed her! Chiss are very communal and she saw the Killik as perhaps superior to more individualistic societies (having done my research since, I know this is ironic as the Chiss end up going to war with the Killik in the distant future, but neither she nor I knew that at the time). To be honest, her race is more important than her sex or morality to me--I wouldn't at all mind seeing a male Agent/Vector romance! Her name is Lyad'aerie'lin and she goes by Daeriel, but honestly if you can find a way to avoid her name (first person? "Agent"? "Cipher Nine?") it would feel truer to the game, you know? I'd love to see more of the rest of her crew as well, they're all delightful.
I love Vector! I love his oddball, eccentric way of seeing the world, I love his delicate balance between individual and collective thought, I love his pride at bring Dawn Herald. I love his off-kilter wooing and my Agent loves him just as he is. I want to see more of him!
Fandom: A Study in Emerald. (John Watson/Sherlock Holmes) This short story is a Sherlock Holmes/Lovecraft crossover, it is by Neil Gaiman, it is available free online, and if you haven't read it before OMG why are you still reading this sentence, go read it, I'll wait for you right here.
Prompt: I would love to see any canon ACD story moved into this universe, but would especially love to see "The Final Problem"/"The Empty House" done up in emerald. I don't know how that would go--in the inverted mirror of this world, would Holmes die and Moriarty fake his death? I'd rather Holmes and Watson strike a decisive blow against the Old Ones but if you want to follow the Lovecraft ethos rather than the Holmesian ethos, then embrace it--rip my damn heart out and leave me a sobbing mess on the floor, and I'll love you for it. Crossovers with different versions of Holmes are welcome--admit it, you want to write a version of The Great Mouse Detective with Cthulhu in it. You know you do. And I want to read it.
Extra Thoughts/Squee/Burbling: This story. This story. THIS STORY. I just want to see more of it! I especially want to see more of Holmes and Watson, of course! (and at any level from gen all the way through slash, I ship these two anywhere and anytime). But if you want to keep to the original POV I think you can make that work just fine as well. Moriarty and Moran are fascinating in this world and I'd love to see more of their relationship as well.
Despite it being a mirror-type universe, I would really appreciate it if you kept Holmes and Watson the Good Guys--they're driven to desperate acts, but it's for the sake of humanity. In the classic D&D morality axis, they've flipped law and chaos, but not good and evil--Moriarty has gone from chaotic evil to lawful evil, and Holmes and Watson from lawful good to chaotic good. So I'd rather they not be inhumane or cruel--they're resistance fighters, but not sadists. Whether the end result of this world is bleak or triumphant depends entirely on whether you think this is Holmes dropped into in a Lovecraft story (in which case he fails) or Cthulhu showing up in a Holmes story (in which case reason must prevail). I think Gaiman is leaning toward the latter--the hints at the end that Holmes is working to create a nuclear bomb (theories of mass, energy, and the hypothetical speed of light) intrigue me very much--but with the Old Ones, who knows?
A word on crossovers: I love every version of these two (Granada, BBC, and Ritchie are the adaptations I know best) although I haven't watched Elementary yet so if you used that as your base I'd probably be a little confused. If you love BBC Sherlock as I do--and don't feel it would be shattering the spirit of Yuletide to use this story as a back door into the most popular pairing ever--I would enjoy a creepy modern AU of the story. But I love the ACD Victorian vibe...and I'm not kidding about The Great Mouse Detective, either.