Dear Yuletide author,
Each year, after another brilliant Yuletide, I start thinking ahead to the next year excitedly. So I hope you're as pumped for this as I am. :)
I would seriously be overjoyed with fic in any of my chosen fandoms. Please don't worry about picking one over another, I love them all.
Here are a few general ideas about
what I do and don't like in fic:
- I really really don't like characters dying in fic
- I’ll read anything from G to NC-17; and gen, slash, femslash, het is fine - as long as it’s contextually reasonable! The optional details in my signup should help colour in this idea a bit more specifically for each fandom
- I prefer my fics to err on the side of being story/character driven rather than being PWPs. I don't mind explicit sex, I just like there to be a good context to it
- I like more realistic fics over fluff, but I don't enjoy angst for angst's sake
- Happy or hopeful endings are lovely, but an ambiguous ending that fits the story is fine
- I don't usually like reading about established (romantic) relationships, I like to see the journey of two people growing closer and finding each other.
- I have a soft spot for co-dependence within close relationships (often the best friend dynamic)
If you want more information, you might want to check under the Yuletide tag, where I’ve put my past thoughts and recs from previous years. Also, I keep other recs over at
pinboard if that’ll help you with what I tend to like in fic. :)
Anyway, thank you, I really look forward to seeing the story and I hope you have lots of fun through the whole process!
Love,
SQ
P.S. I hope I'm not being too demanding with the details for my requests - they are just ideas I've been mulling over and might help you to get an idea of what I might like. But don’t feel pressured to take all or part of it on if it’s not your thing!
But if you'd like a few more my thoughts about these fandoms,
Night at the Museum (2006/2009)
I’d love something with Octavius and Jedediah at the centre, since I love the way their relationship has developed through the two movies. I mean, Octavius charges in on the scary White House squirrel to save Jedediah from death by hourglass. If that’s not love, I don’t know what is. :) But I also like the other museum exhibits and the mischief they get up to as well! Basically, I'm not fussy - I just like the universe, and I'd like a little more of a glimpse of it than the movies (with their focus on Larry) have allowed.
Even more optional details:
One idea that took my fancy was the idea of the exhibits discovering more of the world outside of the museum and how they’d react (e.g. what if they found some films apart from the educational ones?)
Or a gen story set after hours in the museum post-movies to see where they’re all at, with a particular focus on Octavius and Jed, that would also be lovely.
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
I love Cameron so much, his neurotic mopey self and how Ferris manages to set him free, a little. I'd love a post-movie story that's centred around their friendship. Maybe one set around college-era (Ferris is pessimistic about how that will "basically be it" for their friendship, but what if he chose not to let things go? What if he's the person Cameron first sleeps with?) or set even later in life, to see how their futures have turned out (Do Cameron and Sloane figure out what they wanted to do? Did Ferris continue to live out a charmed life? Are they still all friends?).
Even more optional details:
So, my sign-up wishlist ideas are based on two of my favourite scenes:
1. After they leave Chicago and Cameron's freaking out catatonically, Ferris makes that speech about Cameron building up to this idea of losing his virginity*. There's this undercurrent of bitterness and contempt as he's saying it, and part of me likes to think it's over the idea of Cameron throwing away his life on someone who won't appreciate and love him like Ferris does and will. So what if Ferris is the first person Cameron sleeps with? When does it happen? How does it happen? Why does Ferris do it (or does Cameron make the first move)?
* "Cameron's never been in love. Least, nobody's ever been in love with him. If things don't change for him, he's gonna end up marrying the first girl he lays. And she's going to treat him like shit. Because she will have given him what he has build up in his mind as the end all be all of human existence. She won't respect him."
2. During Ferris' parade performance, Sloane and Cameron have that conversation about how everything works out for Ferris, whereas Cameron feels like he can't handle anything. They both both admit they don't know what they're interested in, what's in their future - and then they turn to look at Ferris on the float, and they both have the fondest look for his craziness, with a hint of longing - to be that person or to be with that person, I'm not sure. So I'd love to know if it turns out like they think - if they figure out what they want to be, who they want to be with, how Ferris fits into all that. Gen, het, slash, a threesome - it'd be up to you! (I would not say no to any of those options, heh).
This is Our Youth
I like that even though it's a play written in the 90s about kids in the 80s it still feels relevant 20, 30 years on, a portrait of youth that's going to feel true even if the clothes, the drugs, the phones and presidents keep changing. The story plays out over such a compressed moment, barely two days, and there's all these hints about what's made them the people now, their messy lives outside the apartment bleeding into the messy situation within. So I'd love to explore those bits, whether it's going into the past to see how Warren and Dennis ever became friends, or going into the future to see what kind of adults they could become, like Jessica muses on within the play. If it involves some Warren/Dennis that would be great.
Even more optional details:
I loved the interplay of the personalities in this, Warren being a hapless perpetual screw-up who's so hard to like but managing to bring to surface surprising moments of joy and choked-up sadness anyway; Jessica all full of coltish teenage girlishness and nerves; and fast-talking Dennis, full of barely-suppressed rage.
So one of the idea I've been turning over in my head since I saw it is: what are they like 10 years on (they'd be 29, 30, 31)? Was Jessica right? Are they completely different people...or are they just extensions of the personalities they were? And how would they interact with each other in this time? Would it be just as awkward, just as antagonistic?