Dear Yuletide Writer 2013
Dear Yuletide Writer,
Hey! It's the most magical time of the year! Thanks for participating in Yuletide -- it is always a risky, anxious, nerve-racking, ultimately awesome experience for me, and I hope it will be the same for you!
If you're curious about my preferences: I like patchwork families of choice, fucked-up families of blood, subversive riffs on gender performance, the way your pupils dilated thirty minutes after we met for the first time and I was standing a little too close to you, semi-colons, intense platonic bonds, and romantic attraction based on competence, mutual respect, and enthusiastically awkward physical contact.
But I firmly believe that optional details are optional, and I have a strong stomach for violence and sexual kink of all varieties, so feel free to write whatever story you feel called to write. If you want more information on my idiosyncratic tastes, I also have Yuletide letters from 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2012, and my AO3 archive is here.
Final Fantasy Tactics -- Ramza Beoulve & Alma Beoulve & Dycedarg Beoulve & Zaalbag Beoulve
The Beoulve siblings are my favorite dysfunctional family, and I love the hints and tremors of a shared childhood that continue to reverberate through their intersecting adult lives. I would love a story, either before the start of the game or during, that dealt with the bonds that yoke the Beoulve children together, despite how much they may misunderstand or misuse one another.
My traditional Yuletide request! This belongs to the "fucked-up families of blood" preference; I find their shared history and differing commitments to "family" endlessly fascinating. I am always jonesin' to see the Beoulve siblings interact with one another, but even a story dealing just with Dycedarg or Zaalbag or Alma would scratch my itch. (I am most familiar with the PSX version of the game, but I am also happy if you want to use PSP-era orthography.)
Tales of Xillia -- Milla Maxwell/Jude Mathis
Milla is fierce and competent and focused; Jude is nurturing and empathetic, and I love how utterly he dedicates himself to her goals, body and soul. (And, in turn, I kind of love how Milla tries to be conscientious and balance working with her companion but not exploiting him). Obviously, they need to make out. (Or just yearn silently and helplessly for one another.)
I am a sucker for the relationship between Jude and Milla, which is the type of lightly romantic, strongly feminist 'ship that is my personal Kryptonite. Jude is refreshingly without ego in his relationship with Milla, and I love how his character eschews a lot of clichéd masculine elements in favor of many attributes -- care-taking, emotional support, and efforts to create consensus and harmony -- that are often assigned to the female characters in these sorts of stories. (Also, his trajectory of fumbling, gradual self-realization is pretty rad.) I'd be happy with a story from any point after they first meet each other, but I haven't played Tales of Xillia 2 yet, so no spoilers please!
The Vision of Escaflowne -- Hitomi Kanzaki & Van Fanel
I love Hitomi & Van. I love that Hitomi is allowed to be both girly and athletic, vulnerable and brave, and I love that Van's heroic journey is about going from "uncommunicative jerk" to "emotionally aware of others." I'd love a story about the two of them ten years after the events of the TV series -- either together or apart, growing taller and stronger and braver either way.
I rewatched this series this summer with my roommate and it was a pure, unadultered nostalgia bomb. As with all nostalgia bombs, I now want that ultimate wish-fulfillment fanfic: the fix-it story that reunites Hitomi and Van. Either that, or an artful exercise in catharsis and parallel narratives in which they aren't reunited. Either way, my inner teenager will be exultant!
Robert Jordan, The Wheel of Time -- Mat Cauthon and Tuon Athaem Kore Paendrag.
I read the whole of The Wheel of Time this year, and in honor of that, a request for two of my favorite characters: trickster Mat and poker-faced Tuon. As a rule, I hated Robert Jordan's romantic sub-plots, but Mat/Tuon hit my sweet spot: Tuon is an incorruptible bad-ass, and Mat is both alarmed and aroused by her implacable ferocity. I loved them.
I wrote two stories for 2012 Yuletide and received two stories, so the universe once again maintains its karmic balance.
Some Minor Burglary in the Pursuit of a Higher Truth (Lockout) by moemachina
Snow took a long drag on his cigarette. "This is not my idea of a hot date."
Deep with the First Dead (Twelfth Night) by moemachina
Before a shipwreck on the coast of Illyria, Olivia mourns the death of her brother. And then time passes.
The Best Place To Be (Martha Wells, Death of the Necromancer) by Measured_Words
After her mother's death, Tremaine goes travelling with Uncle Ari. But some things are still hard, when you're only seven...
Lovestruck (Final Fantasy VI) by virusq
Edgar can't help but fall for Terra. Sometimes, literally.
Hey! It's the most magical time of the year! Thanks for participating in Yuletide -- it is always a risky, anxious, nerve-racking, ultimately awesome experience for me, and I hope it will be the same for you!
If you're curious about my preferences: I like patchwork families of choice, fucked-up families of blood, subversive riffs on gender performance, the way your pupils dilated thirty minutes after we met for the first time and I was standing a little too close to you, semi-colons, intense platonic bonds, and romantic attraction based on competence, mutual respect, and enthusiastically awkward physical contact.
But I firmly believe that optional details are optional, and I have a strong stomach for violence and sexual kink of all varieties, so feel free to write whatever story you feel called to write. If you want more information on my idiosyncratic tastes, I also have Yuletide letters from 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2012, and my AO3 archive is here.
Final Fantasy Tactics -- Ramza Beoulve & Alma Beoulve & Dycedarg Beoulve & Zaalbag Beoulve
The Beoulve siblings are my favorite dysfunctional family, and I love the hints and tremors of a shared childhood that continue to reverberate through their intersecting adult lives. I would love a story, either before the start of the game or during, that dealt with the bonds that yoke the Beoulve children together, despite how much they may misunderstand or misuse one another.
Click to viewMy traditional Yuletide request! This belongs to the "fucked-up families of blood" preference; I find their shared history and differing commitments to "family" endlessly fascinating. I am always jonesin' to see the Beoulve siblings interact with one another, but even a story dealing just with Dycedarg or Zaalbag or Alma would scratch my itch. (I am most familiar with the PSX version of the game, but I am also happy if you want to use PSP-era orthography.)
Tales of Xillia -- Milla Maxwell/Jude Mathis
Milla is fierce and competent and focused; Jude is nurturing and empathetic, and I love how utterly he dedicates himself to her goals, body and soul. (And, in turn, I kind of love how Milla tries to be conscientious and balance working with her companion but not exploiting him). Obviously, they need to make out. (Or just yearn silently and helplessly for one another.)
I am a sucker for the relationship between Jude and Milla, which is the type of lightly romantic, strongly feminist 'ship that is my personal Kryptonite. Jude is refreshingly without ego in his relationship with Milla, and I love how his character eschews a lot of clichéd masculine elements in favor of many attributes -- care-taking, emotional support, and efforts to create consensus and harmony -- that are often assigned to the female characters in these sorts of stories. (Also, his trajectory of fumbling, gradual self-realization is pretty rad.) I'd be happy with a story from any point after they first meet each other, but I haven't played Tales of Xillia 2 yet, so no spoilers please!
The Vision of Escaflowne -- Hitomi Kanzaki & Van Fanel
I love Hitomi & Van. I love that Hitomi is allowed to be both girly and athletic, vulnerable and brave, and I love that Van's heroic journey is about going from "uncommunicative jerk" to "emotionally aware of others." I'd love a story about the two of them ten years after the events of the TV series -- either together or apart, growing taller and stronger and braver either way.
I rewatched this series this summer with my roommate and it was a pure, unadultered nostalgia bomb. As with all nostalgia bombs, I now want that ultimate wish-fulfillment fanfic: the fix-it story that reunites Hitomi and Van. Either that, or an artful exercise in catharsis and parallel narratives in which they aren't reunited. Either way, my inner teenager will be exultant!
Robert Jordan, The Wheel of Time -- Mat Cauthon and Tuon Athaem Kore Paendrag.
I read the whole of The Wheel of Time this year, and in honor of that, a request for two of my favorite characters: trickster Mat and poker-faced Tuon. As a rule, I hated Robert Jordan's romantic sub-plots, but Mat/Tuon hit my sweet spot: Tuon is an incorruptible bad-ass, and Mat is both alarmed and aroused by her implacable ferocity. I loved them.
I wrote two stories for 2012 Yuletide and received two stories, so the universe once again maintains its karmic balance.
Some Minor Burglary in the Pursuit of a Higher Truth (Lockout) by moemachina
Snow took a long drag on his cigarette. "This is not my idea of a hot date."
Deep with the First Dead (Twelfth Night) by moemachina
Before a shipwreck on the coast of Illyria, Olivia mourns the death of her brother. And then time passes.
The Best Place To Be (Martha Wells, Death of the Necromancer) by Measured_Words
After her mother's death, Tremaine goes travelling with Uncle Ari. But some things are still hard, when you're only seven...
Lovestruck (Final Fantasy VI) by virusq
Edgar can't help but fall for Terra. Sometimes, literally.