Dear Yuletide Writer
Somehow it’s already that time of year again―Yuletide! First of all, thank you for writing for me. Second, above all else, I want to read the story that you want to write. So, if that means getting inspiration from my letter or elsewhere, or using Yuletide to finally wrangle that plot bunny you stashed away on your hard drive years ago into actual fic, it’s all good with me :)
If you’re looking for prompts or a creative springboard, I will do my best to provide them! Feel free to take any of the prompts in whatever direction you want; they are only suggestions on my part. I am absolutely stoked for this year probably because I’ve been thinking about Yuletide since July, and can’t wait to see what you come up with!
For reference, I am penniform here on LJ and at AO3, but historiograph on tumblr. If you're interested, previous years' letters can be found here and here.
General Likes: I am probably embarrassingly easy to please, because I like tons of stuff. Gen, het, femslash, and slash, in all manner of ratings; AUs (in space! mafia! circus! librarian! art thief! for want of a nail! amnesia!) and crossovers are both heartily enjoyed; utter attention to detail canon-compliance fics are an absolute joy; gapfillers, character studies, backstories, and vignettes are all love; tension and chemistry and fics that really explore characters’ relationships with each other, be they good and healthy or bad and dysfunctional, are fantastic; long and plotty or short and sweet, I will love it either way.
I don’t really care about past vs. present tense, although generally I prefer third-person narration.
General Dislikes: Rape/non-con, necro, gore, scat, bestiality, mpreg, terminal illness/deathfic, character bashing, character flaws being glossed over, and characters assuming the worst of each other through lack of communication.
Requested Fandoms
→ American Horror Story: Coven │ Kyle Spencer, Madison Montgomery, Queenie, and Zoe Benson, Feel free to use ANY of the requested characters in any combination. I'd love to see something set post-canon that runs with one of the loose narrative threads from the season's ending―how does being on the council affect Zoe and Queenie? Does Madison end up haunting the Academy? What do the new girls think of Kyle and Zoe? I ask that any reference to sexual assault (canonical or otherwise) be focused on the aftermath or recovery, rather than the assault itself.
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I love how stylized and southern gothic AHS: Coven is, but also a cool, modern interpretation of witches; horror and scary stuff in general can be really hit and miss with me, but this was a definite hit. New Orleans was such a great backdrop for the series. It really felt like the city and its history became a secondary character that interacted with and contributed to the story lines. I just really liked how this entire world was slipped into our own, in a very natural-feeling way. That most of the relationships on the show were between women (mother-daughter, older woman-younger woman mentoring, female friendships, female rivalry beyond just competing over guys), and kept complicated and messy, was awesome.
One of the things I love most in AHS: Coven fic, is stuff set-post canon. How do Queenie and Zoe handle being the new council? Are there any other council members added because they're seen as being too young? I am really intrigued by the idea of Queenie being caught between the two worlds of the Salem witches and the voodoo witches. Does she continue to learn about and practice voodoo magic? Are there any of the new girls that come to Miss Robichaux's Academy that also have an affinity and they form a voodoo-practicing club? Madison being dead complicates her involvement in post-canon fic, but I really like the idea that she haunts and judges the hell out of the new Academy recruits. Or maybe she's forced to watch how Queenie and Zoe develop their powers and become everything that Madison can now never have the chance to be. Or that Kyle and Zoe need to keep Madison's death a secret for fear of punishment and there's this Tell Tale Heart aspect to keeping the secret. I am totally intrigued by the idea that Zoe/Kyle comes to mirror the relationship that Fiona had with Spalding, and would love fic that used one of the new girls as an outsider POV on their relationship and Zoe's position at the school and on the council. And how does Kyle adapt to being the butler and accept his position at the Academy? And the series ended with the twist that Cordelia is the new Supreme, but what happens when Cordelia's powers start to fade? Do Queenie and Zoe recuse themselves from trying the Seven Wonders again? Do they make bets on the odds of which of the new girls has what it takes to be the next Supreme?
If you'd like to try your hand at a crossover, I was thinking Sarah Monette's The Bone Key could result in some really interesting fic. Go full AU and set in the same time period as The Bone Key―maybe Booth is trying to acquire a manuscript collection in New Orleans and has a run in with the students of Miss Robichaux's Academy―or maybe the witches need a book from Booth's private collection and he's less than willing to part with it given the contents. But that's just one idea I came up with, use another canon if you like!
I love Madison/Zoe for how good and protective it can be, but more often than not they sort of egg each other on and push each other's buttons in a way that makes their relationship incredibly fucked up. And adding Kyle to the mix makes things even more interesting; sometimes it seemed to me that Madison was more focused on Zoe and her reactions than Kyle. If you'd like to take the porn option for 500, feel free to get kinky; beyond the DNWs I've mentioned above, have at it. I'd love to see Queenie/Zoe that used Queenie's power to engage in painplay. Or a good, old-fashioned threesome with Kyle/Madison/Zoe. What if being dead just means Madison is haunting the mansion and starts testing just how close she can get to the living world by teasing Zoe―somnophilia or other dubcon situations could work really well here. At the end of season, Kyle seems to be settling in happily to his role as the house's new butler and I'd love to see some loyalty or service kink with him and Zoe. Maybe Zoe learns how to be a femdom to really give Kyle what he wants.
→ Gentleman Bastard Sequence │ Calo Sanza, Galdo Sanza, I’d love to read backstory fic for the Sanza twins, how they got to be disciples of Father Chains, their adventures being sent away for special tutoring, or why they were so adamant about not being “twin-like” in the beginning of Republic of Thieves. Incest would be totally welcome for these two, but please keep it taboo and needing to be kept secret rather than an accepted Camorri kink.
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I started reading this series on a recommendation from a friend and oh my god do I love it. The worldbuilding, the characters, the snappy dialogue, the twisty plots, the overlapping narratives, it all just works for me in a way that few other fantasy series do. The Gentleman Bastards rarely have truly pure motivations, but damn are they good at what they do and they do it in such style! I really hope Lynch continues with the prequel sections and we get to keep seeing more of Calo and Galdo in future books.
But these two! I didn’t realize just how much I was missing Calo and Galdo throughout Red Seas Under Red Skies until I read Republic of Thieves. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Jean and Locke (and Sabetha!) show, but Calo and Galdo bring a levity to the group and don’t take any of their fellow Gentleman Bastards too seriously. I’d like fic that deals with their relationship as brothers and twins and how that has always set them apart from the rest of the crew. How did Father Chains pick them up in the first place? Were there other members of the Gentleman Bastards before Sabetha, Locke, or Jean that never quite made it through all the training (that either met with real or manufactured accidents because of it)? Did Father Chains ever separate them to go on different learning sojourns or have they always been attached at the hip? How did they get to be so good at cooking? Just why were they practically at each other’s throats and trying desperately not to be twin-like at the start of Republic of Thieves? Was it a broody-teenager thing or was there something more serious that they needed to work through? What made them suddenly put their differences behind them and make up?
So, I did not expect to come out of reading RoT wanting all the incest fic for these two, and yet here I am. There was something about countering their standard twin-speak relationship in the first book with the new backstory that at one point in their adolescence Galdo and Calo desperately were trying to distance themselves from each other and that dynamic that totally got to me. I love the idea that part of the reason that rift happened was because they’re trying to work through less than platonic feelings and the stigma that’s attached to them. They spent a lot of time with the Gilded Lilies, maybe they ended up together via one of those lovely ladies. Maybe they used each other to experiment, so they wouldn't appear inexperienced. Jealousy, pining, possessive behavior, generally acknowledging that their relationship can be unhealthily co-dependent, but not caring because they’re brothers and even when they have nothing they have each other is right up my alley for these two.
→ Nike “The Last Game” Commercial │ any characters, Whether in the same irreverent tone as canon, or a little more serious, I'd love to see backstory or gapfiller that really explores the world of The Last Game. Or shipfic focusing on Cristiano Ronaldo/Wayne Rooney or David Luiz/Neymar or a totally unexpected pairing and how they navigate their relationship―be it established or developing―in the context of what the Last Game could mean for their futures.
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Even if this is not the fandom we matched on, if you’ve got five minutes, you should totally watch this. (Here or embedded below!) It’s a great little what-if story of a world in which football players have been cloned by an Evil Scientist and their clones are used to replace them and make the sport completely safe and predictable, but the players rally for a final winner-take-all game against their cloned selves to save the soul of football. The animation hits that sweet-spot of caricature without being too cartoony or losing the important bits of the players’ characteristics as real people. It is amazing.
I was so excited to see this nominated for Yuletide, a. because I think I sent it around to all of my friends when it came out, whether or not they’re into football, because it’s so cool and b. it’s such a rich 5-minute fandom. I tend to like Nike advertising; when they go for one of these mini-films the production values are always high, the attention to detail is amazing, and the story is always fun and engaging. The Last Game is just so ridiculous. I mean, from the original concept―perfect decision-making clones replace elite athletes, what?!―to the small, lopsided team they field―although credit to Nike for including a goalie and a defender, usually there aren’t any defenders in things like this―it’s sheer, unabashed feel-good fodder.
Even though the canon itself doesn't really bother with the details, I'd love to see something that deals with some the practical aspects of cloning (legal, moral, or ethical) and what it might mean to the players to be put out of a job by these personality-less versions of themselves. Or how the decline of football affected these players. Or maybe the clones do have personalities, just are discouraged from expressing them, and a player ends up bonding with his clone after the final game. I mean, the clones are created expressly to replace the Originals, but once they Originals win the final game and put the clones out of business, maybe one of the players adopts one of his clones because he knows what it's like to have the most important part of your life taken away from you. I'd also love to see how the players get to where they are and what they're doing when they're kidnapped recruited by Ronaldo for the Last Game: what does Andrés Iniesta, gentleman of leisure, actually do all day? How does Zlatan cope with not being Zlatan? How do David Luiz and Neymar decide that their non-footballing passion is hairdressing? Cristiano may be an experienced model (that face! those abs!), but how does he end up working as a live mannequin? Did Wayne pick a job where he's unlikely to be recognized, or does he find some measure of comfort in the hard, physical labor of being a fisherman? Inquiring minds want to know! Go ahead and include Tim Howard and Franck Ribery if you’d like, even though they weren’t nominated. We never even see what they’re up to pre-The Final Game.
There's also some interesting possibilities for shipfic too. Cristiano and Wayne reunited on the same team after years, and maybe they had an actual thing at Manchester United that ended when Cristiano went to Madrid (breaking Wayne's heart?), or maybe it was just a flirtation and they thought that's all it was, but now they suddenly have a second chance, despite everything going on around them. Are Neymar and David Luiz secretly grateful that they're no longer superstar footballers and can live in domestic bliss together, working together everyday? In general though, this is an odd collection of players for ships that fandom pays attention to, so if you want to write a fic in which two players, who otherwise wouldn't really have all that much opportunity to interact, find themselves falling for each other here, at what could be the end of their world as they know it, I'd absolutely love it.
And if you’ve got another fifteen minutes to spare, there are oodles of other Nike commercials to waste your time on.
→ The Pacific │ any characters, Prefer fics in a canon-compliant setting, but otherwise I am open to just about anything. I love pieces that really get into the heads of the characters and/or explore characters' relationships with one another. For shipfic, I always love to see Eugene/Sid (either best friends to lovers or in a heartbreaking, unrequited way), Eugene/Snafu, Eugene/Snafu/Burgie, or Snafu/Burgie, but I also fallen hard for the idea of Eugene/Burgie or Sid/Snafu.
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This is the definition of a hurts so good canon for me. Sometimes, I find The Pacific hard to watch because when the action really gets going, it can be so relentless and grim. No matter how many times I rewatch it, there are moments when I honestly forget who survives and I am worried for all the characters. I do love how they manage to find things to laugh about, despite the bleak nature of the canon; otherwise it really would be too much for me. I also appreciate how it doesn't glorify war or unduly vilify the Japanese and tries to honestly and frankly deal with the psychological and emotional fallout that the marines must each deal with and there isn't a single, "right" way of coping. But at the end of the day, what I love about The Pacific is the way it manages to interweave the stories of all these different characters and how the come to rely on one another to make it through the war.
I will never tire of reading fic for The Pacific, so even if something's been done before it doesn't matter, I will want to read another version of it. For pre-canon fics, I'd love to see something about Sid and Eugene's friendship growing up or how Burgie or Snafu decided to enlist or got to be friends by the time Eugene makes it to K Company. Or if you want to tackle fics set during canon, I always love to read introspective pieces about how the characters are dealing with the whole environment of being at war―from needing to be hyper-focused during a firefight, trying to do a job, making sure the guys next to them don't die to the weird, in-between times when they're just lounging about and waiting for the next set of orders. And then there's all of post-canon to play in. There will never be enough fics about the train scene, in my opinion. Burgie leaving on "You're good marines" and Snafu leaving Eugene sleeping―oh my heart! I tend not to get into the lives of the real men portrayed, but if you want to draw inspiration from there (when or how does Burgie find out that Florence is indeed coming? do Eugene and Snafu road trip to the wedding together? what's Eugene's reaction to hearing from Snafu after decades of radio silence?) go for it. Eugene and Sid, post-war, is endlessly fascinating to me, because even though they fought in the same war, they lived through totally different parts―Sid on Guadalcanal and the beginning, Eugene on Peleliu and Okinawa and the end―and have similar, though not shared, experiences. I'd love to read a fic that deals with how their friendship changes, or doesn't, in the aftermath of everything.
I adore first time exploration fics, and would love to see it with teenage Eugene/Sid. But heartbreaking, unrequited love on Eugene's part is also so, so good. From their very first interaction, I was so all over Eugene/Snafu, but also loved every development and change of their relationship throughout the series. I love these two whether Snafu is giving Eugene shit (he can be the textbook definition of pig-tail puller), they're yelling at each other (angry, rough sex in the muck of Okinawa full of desperation, D/s elements, breathplay, or watersports―unf), or Snafu is being surprisingly empathetic (when Eugene learns that his dog died, Snafu looks like he wants to make everything better for Sledge and it makes me wibble every time). I love outsider POV on relationships, and would love to see Eugene working out how Burgie/Snafu works, because Burgie is so goddamned steady and Snafu is, well, Snafu. At the same time Burgie/Eugene/Snafu is also amazing; just keeping one another alive and caring for one another, anything hurt/comfort really. Eugene/Burgie snuck up on me, but the more I think about it, the more I think it could really work―Burgie wanting to take care of and be a good squad leader to Eugene and Eugene using Burgie as his rock. Another thing that gets me every time is when two characters bond over their mutual admiration for a third character, which is how I got to Sid/Snafu―a weird pairing, granted, but I can't the idea of it out of my head.
And a general note, feel free to include other characters that didn't get nominated, especially Bill Leyden and Jay De L'Eau if you'd like, and I really like the headcanon that Snafu and Gene Roe from Band of Brothers are acquainted, but don't feel obligated to include it.
→ Reign │ Lord Castleroy, Greer, Together or separate I love these two characters to bits. Castleroy has been utterly endearing, but I like the different side of his character season 2 is giving us, I love Greer for having such a good head on her shoulders, and I adore the honesty in their relationship. I'd love fic from Castleroy's perspective of falling in love with Greer, dealing with jealousy about Leith or backstory detailing how Greer grew up with the responsibility of her sisters' futures always on her shoulders. I'd also love any fic that includes Kenna, Mary, or Lola and their friendship with Greer. Please keep any mention of Greer/Leith to the past and please no adultery/infidelity.
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I don't think I've added any terrible spoilers for S2 in my prompts, but they were written with S2 developments in mind. Proceed at your own discretion :)
Reign is soapy, unapologetically anachronistic, only gives a nominal nod to historical accuracy on just about everything, full of sloppy writing, and totally awesome. It's not even that it pulls a so-bad-it's-good, but that the show never tries to be anything other than what it is really endears it to me, and the characters and relationships they've developed keep me interested week after week. To me, those relationships, and how the characters grow and change in their relationships, are definitely the strength of the show. I also love this period in European history―there's so much going on! In my wildest, it-would-never-happen-despite-Reign's-give-no-fucks-attitude-to-history dreams, they'd figure out a way to introduce Elizabeth I to really amp up the drama at court (not that drama is ever lacking on Reign ;).
Okay, I admit it. I was definitely one of those people that didn't really notice Castleroy until he got rid of that awful facial hair (thank you hair and makeup department!) and he really is sweet and endearing, but confident in a quiet way that I find a really refreshing counterpoint to Bash's swagger or Francis taking on the world's problems as king. And I feel for Greer, she has to be level-headed and make sure she secures her sisters' futures, but that she genuinely wants to do well by them speaks volumes about her character. Really I'd love anything with these two: schmoop, holiday fluff, wedding night porn, Castleroy reading from his accounting ledgers while Greer makes plans to host guests, whatever. We know Castleroy was previously married, what happened to his first wife? How does Greer handle coming into a ready-made family, needing to immediately step into the roles of wife and mother? What does it mean for their future when Castleroy leaves court? I'd love a fic that focused on how aware Greer was of being wealthy, yes, but not coming from titled nobility and thus needing to be the perfect lady in every way to compensate, and how that might have strained her friendships with Kenna, Lola, and Mary. Or something tropey like soulbonds―maybe Greer has never expected to like her soulmate or get lucky enough that her soulmate could be someone to give her family what it needs, and Castleroy totally challenges that view. What if Castleroy's first wife was his soulmate? How would that affect Greer? What if it's a completely accidental soulbond? Or if you want to do some subversion of the trope, what if Leith was Greer's soulmate, but she still chooses to marry Castleroy? I really do enjoy the friendships between the four main girls, how they're great friends who stick up for each other and comfort each other when they need it, but aren't afraid to be honest with one another. So if you want to just write them getting together for a slumber party and talking like they used to, taking a break from all the craziness, go for it! In particular, I really like Kenna and Greer's friendship because they seem like such opposites, in temperament and situation, but the scenes they have together shows just how much they care for each other.
I don't mind if you want to include prior Greer/Leith or write a fic where Greer is working through her feelings for Leith, but I do ask that Greer/Castleroy is kept endgame. Actually, I'd be okay with Greer/Leith if it were in a Cyrano de Bergerac kind of situation, and if you wrote that for me you'd be going WAY above and beyond the call of Yuletide duty. I don't particularly like seeing Castleroy jealous and insecure, but I think it's really important that he and Greer continue to confront these issues. Please no adultery/infidelity on anyone's part.
I'll be keeping up with S2 as it airs, so feel free to use any canon without worrying about spoilers. I am writing this letter only three weeks into the new season, and if something crazy ridiculous happens (and it's Reign, anything is possible) I'll try to update my letter if it changes any my request or affects my prompts. But feel free to write something set earlier in canon and not worry about getting jossed or staying up to date if you prefer. Random aside―with all the focus of the first few episodes on politics and Mary/Francis, Mary and Catherine have been my favorites so far this season. I am torn between wanting Mary to keep her gentleness and righteousness and learning the finer points of Italian statecraft; you just know Catherine was totally tutored on Machiavelli. This season is killing me so far!
ETA: OMG EP 4 IS EVERYTHING GREER/CASTLEROY THAT I HAVE BEEN WANTING :D :D :D AHHHHHHHH
ETA (again): THE WEDDING THOUGH!! Although is this me, being interested in Leith as a character? What? Gah and Kenna was absolutely adorable this week.
Clocking in at more than 4k, this is a new personal longest for a DYW letter, by like miles. Dang I have a lot of feelings this year XD
If you’re looking for prompts or a creative springboard, I will do my best to provide them! Feel free to take any of the prompts in whatever direction you want; they are only suggestions on my part. I am absolutely stoked for this year probably because I’ve been thinking about Yuletide since July, and can’t wait to see what you come up with!
For reference, I am penniform here on LJ and at AO3, but historiograph on tumblr. If you're interested, previous years' letters can be found here and here.
General Likes: I am probably embarrassingly easy to please, because I like tons of stuff. Gen, het, femslash, and slash, in all manner of ratings; AUs (in space! mafia! circus! librarian! art thief! for want of a nail! amnesia!) and crossovers are both heartily enjoyed; utter attention to detail canon-compliance fics are an absolute joy; gapfillers, character studies, backstories, and vignettes are all love; tension and chemistry and fics that really explore characters’ relationships with each other, be they good and healthy or bad and dysfunctional, are fantastic; long and plotty or short and sweet, I will love it either way.
I don’t really care about past vs. present tense, although generally I prefer third-person narration.
General Dislikes: Rape/non-con, necro, gore, scat, bestiality, mpreg, terminal illness/deathfic, character bashing, character flaws being glossed over, and characters assuming the worst of each other through lack of communication.
Requested Fandoms
→ American Horror Story: Coven │ Kyle Spencer, Madison Montgomery, Queenie, and Zoe Benson, Feel free to use ANY of the requested characters in any combination. I'd love to see something set post-canon that runs with one of the loose narrative threads from the season's ending―how does being on the council affect Zoe and Queenie? Does Madison end up haunting the Academy? What do the new girls think of Kyle and Zoe? I ask that any reference to sexual assault (canonical or otherwise) be focused on the aftermath or recovery, rather than the assault itself.
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I love how stylized and southern gothic AHS: Coven is, but also a cool, modern interpretation of witches; horror and scary stuff in general can be really hit and miss with me, but this was a definite hit. New Orleans was such a great backdrop for the series. It really felt like the city and its history became a secondary character that interacted with and contributed to the story lines. I just really liked how this entire world was slipped into our own, in a very natural-feeling way. That most of the relationships on the show were between women (mother-daughter, older woman-younger woman mentoring, female friendships, female rivalry beyond just competing over guys), and kept complicated and messy, was awesome.
One of the things I love most in AHS: Coven fic, is stuff set-post canon. How do Queenie and Zoe handle being the new council? Are there any other council members added because they're seen as being too young? I am really intrigued by the idea of Queenie being caught between the two worlds of the Salem witches and the voodoo witches. Does she continue to learn about and practice voodoo magic? Are there any of the new girls that come to Miss Robichaux's Academy that also have an affinity and they form a voodoo-practicing club? Madison being dead complicates her involvement in post-canon fic, but I really like the idea that she haunts and judges the hell out of the new Academy recruits. Or maybe she's forced to watch how Queenie and Zoe develop their powers and become everything that Madison can now never have the chance to be. Or that Kyle and Zoe need to keep Madison's death a secret for fear of punishment and there's this Tell Tale Heart aspect to keeping the secret. I am totally intrigued by the idea that Zoe/Kyle comes to mirror the relationship that Fiona had with Spalding, and would love fic that used one of the new girls as an outsider POV on their relationship and Zoe's position at the school and on the council. And how does Kyle adapt to being the butler and accept his position at the Academy? And the series ended with the twist that Cordelia is the new Supreme, but what happens when Cordelia's powers start to fade? Do Queenie and Zoe recuse themselves from trying the Seven Wonders again? Do they make bets on the odds of which of the new girls has what it takes to be the next Supreme?
If you'd like to try your hand at a crossover, I was thinking Sarah Monette's The Bone Key could result in some really interesting fic. Go full AU and set in the same time period as The Bone Key―maybe Booth is trying to acquire a manuscript collection in New Orleans and has a run in with the students of Miss Robichaux's Academy―or maybe the witches need a book from Booth's private collection and he's less than willing to part with it given the contents. But that's just one idea I came up with, use another canon if you like!
I love Madison/Zoe for how good and protective it can be, but more often than not they sort of egg each other on and push each other's buttons in a way that makes their relationship incredibly fucked up. And adding Kyle to the mix makes things even more interesting; sometimes it seemed to me that Madison was more focused on Zoe and her reactions than Kyle. If you'd like to take the porn option for 500, feel free to get kinky; beyond the DNWs I've mentioned above, have at it. I'd love to see Queenie/Zoe that used Queenie's power to engage in painplay. Or a good, old-fashioned threesome with Kyle/Madison/Zoe. What if being dead just means Madison is haunting the mansion and starts testing just how close she can get to the living world by teasing Zoe―somnophilia or other dubcon situations could work really well here. At the end of season, Kyle seems to be settling in happily to his role as the house's new butler and I'd love to see some loyalty or service kink with him and Zoe. Maybe Zoe learns how to be a femdom to really give Kyle what he wants.
→ Gentleman Bastard Sequence │ Calo Sanza, Galdo Sanza, I’d love to read backstory fic for the Sanza twins, how they got to be disciples of Father Chains, their adventures being sent away for special tutoring, or why they were so adamant about not being “twin-like” in the beginning of Republic of Thieves. Incest would be totally welcome for these two, but please keep it taboo and needing to be kept secret rather than an accepted Camorri kink.
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I started reading this series on a recommendation from a friend and oh my god do I love it. The worldbuilding, the characters, the snappy dialogue, the twisty plots, the overlapping narratives, it all just works for me in a way that few other fantasy series do. The Gentleman Bastards rarely have truly pure motivations, but damn are they good at what they do and they do it in such style! I really hope Lynch continues with the prequel sections and we get to keep seeing more of Calo and Galdo in future books.
But these two! I didn’t realize just how much I was missing Calo and Galdo throughout Red Seas Under Red Skies until I read Republic of Thieves. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Jean and Locke (and Sabetha!) show, but Calo and Galdo bring a levity to the group and don’t take any of their fellow Gentleman Bastards too seriously. I’d like fic that deals with their relationship as brothers and twins and how that has always set them apart from the rest of the crew. How did Father Chains pick them up in the first place? Were there other members of the Gentleman Bastards before Sabetha, Locke, or Jean that never quite made it through all the training (that either met with real or manufactured accidents because of it)? Did Father Chains ever separate them to go on different learning sojourns or have they always been attached at the hip? How did they get to be so good at cooking? Just why were they practically at each other’s throats and trying desperately not to be twin-like at the start of Republic of Thieves? Was it a broody-teenager thing or was there something more serious that they needed to work through? What made them suddenly put their differences behind them and make up?
So, I did not expect to come out of reading RoT wanting all the incest fic for these two, and yet here I am. There was something about countering their standard twin-speak relationship in the first book with the new backstory that at one point in their adolescence Galdo and Calo desperately were trying to distance themselves from each other and that dynamic that totally got to me. I love the idea that part of the reason that rift happened was because they’re trying to work through less than platonic feelings and the stigma that’s attached to them. They spent a lot of time with the Gilded Lilies, maybe they ended up together via one of those lovely ladies. Maybe they used each other to experiment, so they wouldn't appear inexperienced. Jealousy, pining, possessive behavior, generally acknowledging that their relationship can be unhealthily co-dependent, but not caring because they’re brothers and even when they have nothing they have each other is right up my alley for these two.
→ Nike “The Last Game” Commercial │ any characters, Whether in the same irreverent tone as canon, or a little more serious, I'd love to see backstory or gapfiller that really explores the world of The Last Game. Or shipfic focusing on Cristiano Ronaldo/Wayne Rooney or David Luiz/Neymar or a totally unexpected pairing and how they navigate their relationship―be it established or developing―in the context of what the Last Game could mean for their futures.
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Even if this is not the fandom we matched on, if you’ve got five minutes, you should totally watch this. (Here or embedded below!) It’s a great little what-if story of a world in which football players have been cloned by an Evil Scientist and their clones are used to replace them and make the sport completely safe and predictable, but the players rally for a final winner-take-all game against their cloned selves to save the soul of football. The animation hits that sweet-spot of caricature without being too cartoony or losing the important bits of the players’ characteristics as real people. It is amazing.
I was so excited to see this nominated for Yuletide, a. because I think I sent it around to all of my friends when it came out, whether or not they’re into football, because it’s so cool and b. it’s such a rich 5-minute fandom. I tend to like Nike advertising; when they go for one of these mini-films the production values are always high, the attention to detail is amazing, and the story is always fun and engaging. The Last Game is just so ridiculous. I mean, from the original concept―perfect decision-making clones replace elite athletes, what?!―to the small, lopsided team they field―although credit to Nike for including a goalie and a defender, usually there aren’t any defenders in things like this―it’s sheer, unabashed feel-good fodder.
Even though the canon itself doesn't really bother with the details, I'd love to see something that deals with some the practical aspects of cloning (legal, moral, or ethical) and what it might mean to the players to be put out of a job by these personality-less versions of themselves. Or how the decline of football affected these players. Or maybe the clones do have personalities, just are discouraged from expressing them, and a player ends up bonding with his clone after the final game. I mean, the clones are created expressly to replace the Originals, but once they Originals win the final game and put the clones out of business, maybe one of the players adopts one of his clones because he knows what it's like to have the most important part of your life taken away from you. I'd also love to see how the players get to where they are and what they're doing when they're kidnapped recruited by Ronaldo for the Last Game: what does Andrés Iniesta, gentleman of leisure, actually do all day? How does Zlatan cope with not being Zlatan? How do David Luiz and Neymar decide that their non-footballing passion is hairdressing? Cristiano may be an experienced model (that face! those abs!), but how does he end up working as a live mannequin? Did Wayne pick a job where he's unlikely to be recognized, or does he find some measure of comfort in the hard, physical labor of being a fisherman? Inquiring minds want to know! Go ahead and include Tim Howard and Franck Ribery if you’d like, even though they weren’t nominated. We never even see what they’re up to pre-The Final Game.
There's also some interesting possibilities for shipfic too. Cristiano and Wayne reunited on the same team after years, and maybe they had an actual thing at Manchester United that ended when Cristiano went to Madrid (breaking Wayne's heart?), or maybe it was just a flirtation and they thought that's all it was, but now they suddenly have a second chance, despite everything going on around them. Are Neymar and David Luiz secretly grateful that they're no longer superstar footballers and can live in domestic bliss together, working together everyday? In general though, this is an odd collection of players for ships that fandom pays attention to, so if you want to write a fic in which two players, who otherwise wouldn't really have all that much opportunity to interact, find themselves falling for each other here, at what could be the end of their world as they know it, I'd absolutely love it.
Click to viewAnd if you’ve got another fifteen minutes to spare, there are oodles of other Nike commercials to waste your time on.
→ The Pacific │ any characters, Prefer fics in a canon-compliant setting, but otherwise I am open to just about anything. I love pieces that really get into the heads of the characters and/or explore characters' relationships with one another. For shipfic, I always love to see Eugene/Sid (either best friends to lovers or in a heartbreaking, unrequited way), Eugene/Snafu, Eugene/Snafu/Burgie, or Snafu/Burgie, but I also fallen hard for the idea of Eugene/Burgie or Sid/Snafu.
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This is the definition of a hurts so good canon for me. Sometimes, I find The Pacific hard to watch because when the action really gets going, it can be so relentless and grim. No matter how many times I rewatch it, there are moments when I honestly forget who survives and I am worried for all the characters. I do love how they manage to find things to laugh about, despite the bleak nature of the canon; otherwise it really would be too much for me. I also appreciate how it doesn't glorify war or unduly vilify the Japanese and tries to honestly and frankly deal with the psychological and emotional fallout that the marines must each deal with and there isn't a single, "right" way of coping. But at the end of the day, what I love about The Pacific is the way it manages to interweave the stories of all these different characters and how the come to rely on one another to make it through the war.
I will never tire of reading fic for The Pacific, so even if something's been done before it doesn't matter, I will want to read another version of it. For pre-canon fics, I'd love to see something about Sid and Eugene's friendship growing up or how Burgie or Snafu decided to enlist or got to be friends by the time Eugene makes it to K Company. Or if you want to tackle fics set during canon, I always love to read introspective pieces about how the characters are dealing with the whole environment of being at war―from needing to be hyper-focused during a firefight, trying to do a job, making sure the guys next to them don't die to the weird, in-between times when they're just lounging about and waiting for the next set of orders. And then there's all of post-canon to play in. There will never be enough fics about the train scene, in my opinion. Burgie leaving on "You're good marines" and Snafu leaving Eugene sleeping―oh my heart! I tend not to get into the lives of the real men portrayed, but if you want to draw inspiration from there (when or how does Burgie find out that Florence is indeed coming? do Eugene and Snafu road trip to the wedding together? what's Eugene's reaction to hearing from Snafu after decades of radio silence?) go for it. Eugene and Sid, post-war, is endlessly fascinating to me, because even though they fought in the same war, they lived through totally different parts―Sid on Guadalcanal and the beginning, Eugene on Peleliu and Okinawa and the end―and have similar, though not shared, experiences. I'd love to read a fic that deals with how their friendship changes, or doesn't, in the aftermath of everything.
I adore first time exploration fics, and would love to see it with teenage Eugene/Sid. But heartbreaking, unrequited love on Eugene's part is also so, so good. From their very first interaction, I was so all over Eugene/Snafu, but also loved every development and change of their relationship throughout the series. I love these two whether Snafu is giving Eugene shit (he can be the textbook definition of pig-tail puller), they're yelling at each other (angry, rough sex in the muck of Okinawa full of desperation, D/s elements, breathplay, or watersports―unf), or Snafu is being surprisingly empathetic (when Eugene learns that his dog died, Snafu looks like he wants to make everything better for Sledge and it makes me wibble every time). I love outsider POV on relationships, and would love to see Eugene working out how Burgie/Snafu works, because Burgie is so goddamned steady and Snafu is, well, Snafu. At the same time Burgie/Eugene/Snafu is also amazing; just keeping one another alive and caring for one another, anything hurt/comfort really. Eugene/Burgie snuck up on me, but the more I think about it, the more I think it could really work―Burgie wanting to take care of and be a good squad leader to Eugene and Eugene using Burgie as his rock. Another thing that gets me every time is when two characters bond over their mutual admiration for a third character, which is how I got to Sid/Snafu―a weird pairing, granted, but I can't the idea of it out of my head.
And a general note, feel free to include other characters that didn't get nominated, especially Bill Leyden and Jay De L'Eau if you'd like, and I really like the headcanon that Snafu and Gene Roe from Band of Brothers are acquainted, but don't feel obligated to include it.
→ Reign │ Lord Castleroy, Greer, Together or separate I love these two characters to bits. Castleroy has been utterly endearing, but I like the different side of his character season 2 is giving us, I love Greer for having such a good head on her shoulders, and I adore the honesty in their relationship. I'd love fic from Castleroy's perspective of falling in love with Greer, dealing with jealousy about Leith or backstory detailing how Greer grew up with the responsibility of her sisters' futures always on her shoulders. I'd also love any fic that includes Kenna, Mary, or Lola and their friendship with Greer. Please keep any mention of Greer/Leith to the past and please no adultery/infidelity.
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I don't think I've added any terrible spoilers for S2 in my prompts, but they were written with S2 developments in mind. Proceed at your own discretion :)
Reign is soapy, unapologetically anachronistic, only gives a nominal nod to historical accuracy on just about everything, full of sloppy writing, and totally awesome. It's not even that it pulls a so-bad-it's-good, but that the show never tries to be anything other than what it is really endears it to me, and the characters and relationships they've developed keep me interested week after week. To me, those relationships, and how the characters grow and change in their relationships, are definitely the strength of the show. I also love this period in European history―there's so much going on! In my wildest, it-would-never-happen-despite-Reign's-give-no-fucks-attitude-to-history dreams, they'd figure out a way to introduce Elizabeth I to really amp up the drama at court (not that drama is ever lacking on Reign ;).
Okay, I admit it. I was definitely one of those people that didn't really notice Castleroy until he got rid of that awful facial hair (thank you hair and makeup department!) and he really is sweet and endearing, but confident in a quiet way that I find a really refreshing counterpoint to Bash's swagger or Francis taking on the world's problems as king. And I feel for Greer, she has to be level-headed and make sure she secures her sisters' futures, but that she genuinely wants to do well by them speaks volumes about her character. Really I'd love anything with these two: schmoop, holiday fluff, wedding night porn, Castleroy reading from his accounting ledgers while Greer makes plans to host guests, whatever. We know Castleroy was previously married, what happened to his first wife? How does Greer handle coming into a ready-made family, needing to immediately step into the roles of wife and mother? What does it mean for their future when Castleroy leaves court? I'd love a fic that focused on how aware Greer was of being wealthy, yes, but not coming from titled nobility and thus needing to be the perfect lady in every way to compensate, and how that might have strained her friendships with Kenna, Lola, and Mary. Or something tropey like soulbonds―maybe Greer has never expected to like her soulmate or get lucky enough that her soulmate could be someone to give her family what it needs, and Castleroy totally challenges that view. What if Castleroy's first wife was his soulmate? How would that affect Greer? What if it's a completely accidental soulbond? Or if you want to do some subversion of the trope, what if Leith was Greer's soulmate, but she still chooses to marry Castleroy? I really do enjoy the friendships between the four main girls, how they're great friends who stick up for each other and comfort each other when they need it, but aren't afraid to be honest with one another. So if you want to just write them getting together for a slumber party and talking like they used to, taking a break from all the craziness, go for it! In particular, I really like Kenna and Greer's friendship because they seem like such opposites, in temperament and situation, but the scenes they have together shows just how much they care for each other.
I don't mind if you want to include prior Greer/Leith or write a fic where Greer is working through her feelings for Leith, but I do ask that Greer/Castleroy is kept endgame. Actually, I'd be okay with Greer/Leith if it were in a Cyrano de Bergerac kind of situation, and if you wrote that for me you'd be going WAY above and beyond the call of Yuletide duty. I don't particularly like seeing Castleroy jealous and insecure, but I think it's really important that he and Greer continue to confront these issues. Please no adultery/infidelity on anyone's part.
I'll be keeping up with S2 as it airs, so feel free to use any canon without worrying about spoilers. I am writing this letter only three weeks into the new season, and if something crazy ridiculous happens (and it's Reign, anything is possible) I'll try to update my letter if it changes any my request or affects my prompts. But feel free to write something set earlier in canon and not worry about getting jossed or staying up to date if you prefer. Random aside―with all the focus of the first few episodes on politics and Mary/Francis, Mary and Catherine have been my favorites so far this season. I am torn between wanting Mary to keep her gentleness and righteousness and learning the finer points of Italian statecraft; you just know Catherine was totally tutored on Machiavelli. This season is killing me so far!
ETA: OMG EP 4 IS EVERYTHING GREER/CASTLEROY THAT I HAVE BEEN WANTING :D :D :D AHHHHHHHH
ETA (again): THE WEDDING THOUGH!! Although is this me, being interested in Leith as a character? What? Gah and Kenna was absolutely adorable this week.
Clocking in at more than 4k, this is a new personal longest for a DYW letter, by like miles. Dang I have a lot of feelings this year XD