2016 Dear Yuletide Writer
Links to my fandom pages:
Maeve of Winter on AO3
Maeve of Winter on Tumblr
Maeve of Winter on Dreamwidth
WhimsicalNixie on LiveJournal
Maeve of Winter on Imzy
Maeve of Winter on Fanfiction.net
Dear Yuletide Writer,
Can it really be another Yuletide season upon us? I’m very excited- this is my first time as an active participant in Yuletide.
I know I don’t have very much of a presence online, so I’ve tried to make my letter as detailed as possible. Please don’t let its length freak you out- like the Mean Girls quote goes, “I just have a lot of feelings.” But in case you do need to anonymously poke me for more information, I’ve also provided links to all my fandom pages at the top of this letter.
All of the fandoms I requested are fandoms of my heart. I know I ramble on about Teen Titans for a bit longer than I spend on all my other ones, but please don’t let that discourage you. It’s only because I’m requesting a few characters that have been around for decades, so there’s just quite a lot to discuss.
General Likes
Selected characters being badass, selected characters surprising other people with their talents/competence, iron woobie/determinator who refuses to quit no matter what kind of horrible stuff life throws at them, selected characters fighting for and earning their happy ending, hurt/comfort, angst, pushing forward through/after a trauma, selected characters being put through secret tests of trust and passing them, selected characters making enormous personal sacrifices to save others, selected characters being recognized for their accomplishments, selected characters revealing hidden pasts/traits/skills and selected characters offering compassion to those who need it.
DNWs
homophobia, biphobia, bi erasure, issue fic, misogyny, character-bashing.
I know homophobia/biphobia would/does exist in some of these canons, but I would vastly prefer if you just took the route where homophobia/biphobia is completely a non-issue and is just as readily accepted as heterosexual relationships.
To expand on my thoughts about bi erasure, I would prefer that if you are writing a same-sex pairing where one or both of the characters was presented with heterosexual inclinations in canon (ie, interest in the opposite sex, opposite sex love interest, etc.) that they be presented in the fic as bisexual rather than gay.
General notes
Some of my prompts for my chosen fandoms aren’t particularly inclusive to each other, so please don’t feel that you have to include all characters listed for each fandom. Just use whichever characters you want in order to tell your story. Furthermore, I’m aware that for some of these stories, you might want to grab characters from the wider universe to feature in your fic, and that’s fine, too. I don’t mind the inclusion of unrequested characters, or even ineligible Yuletide characters, as long as they don’t overshadow my requested characters.
Trixie Belden (Books)- Dot Murray
Dot is a character that gets bashed a lot for the Jim/Trixie pairing, which I think is a shame. She only appeared for one book (Happy Valley Mystery), had no dialogue, and Trixie thought well of her after spending some time together. But Dot was traditionally beautiful where Trixie wasn’t, had an excellent skating performance when Trixie didn’t, and Jim seemed genuinely attracted to her. I guess many fans of Jim/Trixie find such attributes threatening, and thus do their best to tear Dot down.
Incidentally, out of all my fannish platforms, the place where I’m the most active is Jixemitri, the chief fansite for the Trixie Belden fandom.
What I want is a positive story about Dot Murray. I’d totally be down for a romance between Dot and any one of the BWGs. Do she and Jim meet up at college and start going steady? Is Dot the sultry singer in a slinky gown, stretched out on the piano and belting out torch songs, at the smoky nightclub where detective!Trixie goes to investigate? Dot and Dan are both talented ice-skaters, so do they have a romance on ice? Maybe they’re older and the setup is that Dot is an Olympic figure skater with Brian as her doctor, or Honey as her seamstress? Maybe an AU Diana is a fashion photographer whose big break is discovering Dot as a model, or where Dot’s a superhero who has serious chemistry with investigative reporter!Mart? Anything goes!
Or if you just want to write about Dot being friends with the Bob-Whites, that’s fine, too. Maybe five times she helped them/gave them advice, and one time one or all of them pulled through for her? She’s vaguely noted as somewhere from two to three years older than the thirteen-year-old BWG girls in canon, so maybe a fic where she’s their mentor/the big sister none of them have?
Honestly, for this fandom, I just want to see the BWGs being friends with Dot, so I will enthusiastically devour anything along those lines.
Archie Comics (Comics)- Reggie Mantle, Kevin Keller, Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge
I love all of these guys and gals! Pairings I'm interested in are Betty/Veronica and Reggie/Kevin, but if you want to write about either combo being just friends, that's great, too. I really like it when Veronica and Reggie (especially Reggie) show their softer side. I see Reggie more as a sarcastic, cynical guy than a legitimate jerk, but there's no denying he can have a nasty streak sometimes. I love Kevin being class president and a member of the debate team, and I love Betty and her various community projects-- my favorite stories are the ones where she teams up with Ronnie or corrals her into helping her.
This is one of my favorite Betty and Veronica moments.
This is one of my favorite Reggie moments.
I'd like to see Reggie meeting Kevin, and Kevin just being his friendly self, which brings Reggie to fall for him/want to be his friend. Maybe it's a gradual thing-- Kevin was handsome enough for Veronica to fall for him right away, but maybe it takes sometime for Reggie to realize his feelings. I really like the idea of Kevin becoming involved in all sorts of extracurriculars, and Reggie signing up for them, too, as he realizes he wants to be around Kevin. Since Kevin's new in town, I think he'd be more willing than anyone to give Reggie a chance. If you read Kevin's origin issues, Kevin befriended one of the kids he used to be bullied by and helped him into a better home situation-- he's just a really nice guy that I can see Reggie letting his guard down around without fear of looking weak or making himself vulnerable. But no means do you have to write smut for this pairing, but if there's sex, I'd like bottom!Kevin with top!Reggie.
Also, I love this page of Reggie helping Kevin choose outfits for a first date.
Betty and Veronica complement each other wonderfully. I love that Veronica is sly and not afraid to go ahead and take what she wants, while Betty has interests that vary between traditionally masculine and traditionally feminine. I'd love to see a fic with the two of them settling down and making a home, with planting a garden and inviting their families over for dinner. I feel like Mr. Lodge would really approve of Betty and see her as someone who would keep Ronnie grounded. Maybe you want to write about their first Christmas in their new home? Fics set in high school would be lovely, too-- maybe you want to write about each of them going clothes shopping and planning their outfits for their first date together? Perhaps they tackle another service project together, and realize their feelings? You could do a Christmas fic here, too, maybe with one jokingly kissing the other under the mistletoe, which turns into something more? Also, if you want to write about these two being friends, I'd love to read that as well.
Mighty Ducks (Movies)- Adam Banks, Fulton Reed, Dean Portman
If you don’t have access to the movies, or simply want another point of reference, the junior novelizations can be found here: D1, D2, D3.
For pairings, I’d really like to see a Dean/Fulton fic. We got to see in the movies how they went from fighting to being the Bash Brothers- maybe you could write a fic with them going from disliking each other to crushing on each other? Does Dean fall for Fulton after seeing his signature slapshot? Do they rollerblade together near the beach at sunset? I love them as friends as well, so if you want to write a fic about them being bros, that’s certainly okay by me.
Adam is probably my favorite character; I think it might be because of his angst potential: isolated from his friends in the first and third movies, and injured in the second. I’d love to get inside his head and see what he was thinking during those incidents. I especially thought he got a raw deal in D3, when his friends branded him a traitor simply because he was talented enough to play for the varsity team. Honestly, I don’t think Adam had any idea what was going to happen at the varsity dinner, and I thought it was unnecessarily cruel of the other Ducks to freeze his stuff in the locker rooms, so feel free to do something angsty with those events.
A general idea for Adam that I really like is a focus him connecting with his new teammates in the first movie, and/or reconnecting with his teammates in the third movie. I also like the idea of Dean and Fulton (one or both of them, either as friends or a couple) being like older brothers to Adam, so if you want to include something like that, more power to you!
One of my favorite aspects of the movies is when the Ducks are at Eden Hall. I really like the boarding school angle, and I think it works in all types of stories. Beyond Adam, the Ducks are mostly fish out of water here, not really used to being surrounded by wealth and its expectations. One last idea is Adam helping them adjust to life in a prestigious institution. Instructing the Ducks on dinner etiquette for banquets, proper conversation when meeting alumni sponsors, clothing to wear to awards ceremonies- just calmly and helpfully introducing them to a high society lifestyle.
Wolfman-Perez New Teen Titans/Teen Titans (Comics)- Gar Logan (AKA Changeling, AKA Beast Boy), Vic Stone (AKA Cyborg)
If you’d like to read about the history Gar’s character, or that of the various Terras, I found a very long and detailed analysis here.
Gar Logan is definitely my favorite DC character of all time. One recurring theme in later comics books and adaptations that continually frustrates me is when Gar is shown as incompetent, completely lame, or a total joke to make other heroes look more cool. I’d really like to have a fic where Gar’s leadership and/or strategy abilities are emphasized, as well as his kindness and generosity.
I loved his characterization in Wolfman and Perez’s New Teen Titans: he runs his father’s company in his absence, he’s still traumatized from losing the Doom Patrol, he falls for Terra only to be betrayed by her, and then his pain from losing her is resurrected when Terra II comes along. I like that as friendly as he seems, he still has a dark side, as seen when he kills Madame Rouge and attempts to kill Slade Wilson. I also liked that Slade was sort of Gar’s mentor for a while.
If you want to write about any of these events, feel free. For some other ideas, you could write about Gar’s first impressions of the other New Teen Titans, his thoughts on his dad’s various mental breakdowns and attempts to kill him, the conversation between Slade and Gar at the diner, or how Gar was sorta-kinda Slade’s substitute son for a while. If you want, write about Gar being swayed or tempted to the dark side by Slade, or Gar’s friends or other heroes worrying about this happening. Possibly a five times fic where a hero or villain underestimated Gar, only to have him prove them wrong? Or if you just want to have Gar interacting with other heroes and solving crises, that would be wonderful!
Another aspect of his character I really like is his friendship with Vic Stone. I love them as bros or as a couple. I love that they went from antagonizing each other to being very close, despite Gar being only sixteen to Vic’s nineteen. I think it’s interesting that Vic wonders about the origin of his friendship with Gar after seeing the uncle-nephew relationship of Gar and Robotman. I love that Gar was the one to rescue Vic during the Technis Imperative.
If you want to write about Vic and Gar being super close pals, that’s great. If you want to write about them being a couple, that’s great, too. If you want to make Vic more techno-organic, as he is in the New 52, with him being able to switch between appearing as human and cyborg, please feel free.
Other ideas are the moment when one of them started to fall for the other, or sixteen-year-old Gar trying to woo nineteen-year-old Vic, who is determined to wait until Gar is legal, or Vic and Gar shacking up somewhere in the countryside and opening their home to be a sanctuary for traumatized/injured/exhausted heroes. If you like, you could write a fic where Gar and Vic are the “parents” of the Teen Titans household, with the Young Justice Four (Tim, Kon, Cassie, and Bart) as their “children,” and super fun Aunt Kory dropping by for dinner every so often. Or if you want to write a non-powered AU to this effect, I’d like to read that just as much.
Maeve of Winter on AO3
Maeve of Winter on Tumblr
Maeve of Winter on Dreamwidth
WhimsicalNixie on LiveJournal
Maeve of Winter on Imzy
Maeve of Winter on Fanfiction.net
Dear Yuletide Writer,
Can it really be another Yuletide season upon us? I’m very excited- this is my first time as an active participant in Yuletide.
I know I don’t have very much of a presence online, so I’ve tried to make my letter as detailed as possible. Please don’t let its length freak you out- like the Mean Girls quote goes, “I just have a lot of feelings.” But in case you do need to anonymously poke me for more information, I’ve also provided links to all my fandom pages at the top of this letter.
All of the fandoms I requested are fandoms of my heart. I know I ramble on about Teen Titans for a bit longer than I spend on all my other ones, but please don’t let that discourage you. It’s only because I’m requesting a few characters that have been around for decades, so there’s just quite a lot to discuss.
General Likes
Selected characters being badass, selected characters surprising other people with their talents/competence, iron woobie/determinator who refuses to quit no matter what kind of horrible stuff life throws at them, selected characters fighting for and earning their happy ending, hurt/comfort, angst, pushing forward through/after a trauma, selected characters being put through secret tests of trust and passing them, selected characters making enormous personal sacrifices to save others, selected characters being recognized for their accomplishments, selected characters revealing hidden pasts/traits/skills and selected characters offering compassion to those who need it.
DNWs
homophobia, biphobia, bi erasure, issue fic, misogyny, character-bashing.
I know homophobia/biphobia would/does exist in some of these canons, but I would vastly prefer if you just took the route where homophobia/biphobia is completely a non-issue and is just as readily accepted as heterosexual relationships.
To expand on my thoughts about bi erasure, I would prefer that if you are writing a same-sex pairing where one or both of the characters was presented with heterosexual inclinations in canon (ie, interest in the opposite sex, opposite sex love interest, etc.) that they be presented in the fic as bisexual rather than gay.
General notes
Some of my prompts for my chosen fandoms aren’t particularly inclusive to each other, so please don’t feel that you have to include all characters listed for each fandom. Just use whichever characters you want in order to tell your story. Furthermore, I’m aware that for some of these stories, you might want to grab characters from the wider universe to feature in your fic, and that’s fine, too. I don’t mind the inclusion of unrequested characters, or even ineligible Yuletide characters, as long as they don’t overshadow my requested characters.
Trixie Belden (Books)- Dot Murray
Dot is a character that gets bashed a lot for the Jim/Trixie pairing, which I think is a shame. She only appeared for one book (Happy Valley Mystery), had no dialogue, and Trixie thought well of her after spending some time together. But Dot was traditionally beautiful where Trixie wasn’t, had an excellent skating performance when Trixie didn’t, and Jim seemed genuinely attracted to her. I guess many fans of Jim/Trixie find such attributes threatening, and thus do their best to tear Dot down.
Incidentally, out of all my fannish platforms, the place where I’m the most active is Jixemitri, the chief fansite for the Trixie Belden fandom.
What I want is a positive story about Dot Murray. I’d totally be down for a romance between Dot and any one of the BWGs. Do she and Jim meet up at college and start going steady? Is Dot the sultry singer in a slinky gown, stretched out on the piano and belting out torch songs, at the smoky nightclub where detective!Trixie goes to investigate? Dot and Dan are both talented ice-skaters, so do they have a romance on ice? Maybe they’re older and the setup is that Dot is an Olympic figure skater with Brian as her doctor, or Honey as her seamstress? Maybe an AU Diana is a fashion photographer whose big break is discovering Dot as a model, or where Dot’s a superhero who has serious chemistry with investigative reporter!Mart? Anything goes!
Or if you just want to write about Dot being friends with the Bob-Whites, that’s fine, too. Maybe five times she helped them/gave them advice, and one time one or all of them pulled through for her? She’s vaguely noted as somewhere from two to three years older than the thirteen-year-old BWG girls in canon, so maybe a fic where she’s their mentor/the big sister none of them have?
Honestly, for this fandom, I just want to see the BWGs being friends with Dot, so I will enthusiastically devour anything along those lines.
Archie Comics (Comics)- Reggie Mantle, Kevin Keller, Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge
I love all of these guys and gals! Pairings I'm interested in are Betty/Veronica and Reggie/Kevin, but if you want to write about either combo being just friends, that's great, too. I really like it when Veronica and Reggie (especially Reggie) show their softer side. I see Reggie more as a sarcastic, cynical guy than a legitimate jerk, but there's no denying he can have a nasty streak sometimes. I love Kevin being class president and a member of the debate team, and I love Betty and her various community projects-- my favorite stories are the ones where she teams up with Ronnie or corrals her into helping her.
This is one of my favorite Betty and Veronica moments.
This is one of my favorite Reggie moments.
I'd like to see Reggie meeting Kevin, and Kevin just being his friendly self, which brings Reggie to fall for him/want to be his friend. Maybe it's a gradual thing-- Kevin was handsome enough for Veronica to fall for him right away, but maybe it takes sometime for Reggie to realize his feelings. I really like the idea of Kevin becoming involved in all sorts of extracurriculars, and Reggie signing up for them, too, as he realizes he wants to be around Kevin. Since Kevin's new in town, I think he'd be more willing than anyone to give Reggie a chance. If you read Kevin's origin issues, Kevin befriended one of the kids he used to be bullied by and helped him into a better home situation-- he's just a really nice guy that I can see Reggie letting his guard down around without fear of looking weak or making himself vulnerable. But no means do you have to write smut for this pairing, but if there's sex, I'd like bottom!Kevin with top!Reggie.
Also, I love this page of Reggie helping Kevin choose outfits for a first date.
Betty and Veronica complement each other wonderfully. I love that Veronica is sly and not afraid to go ahead and take what she wants, while Betty has interests that vary between traditionally masculine and traditionally feminine. I'd love to see a fic with the two of them settling down and making a home, with planting a garden and inviting their families over for dinner. I feel like Mr. Lodge would really approve of Betty and see her as someone who would keep Ronnie grounded. Maybe you want to write about their first Christmas in their new home? Fics set in high school would be lovely, too-- maybe you want to write about each of them going clothes shopping and planning their outfits for their first date together? Perhaps they tackle another service project together, and realize their feelings? You could do a Christmas fic here, too, maybe with one jokingly kissing the other under the mistletoe, which turns into something more? Also, if you want to write about these two being friends, I'd love to read that as well.
Mighty Ducks (Movies)- Adam Banks, Fulton Reed, Dean Portman
If you don’t have access to the movies, or simply want another point of reference, the junior novelizations can be found here: D1, D2, D3.
For pairings, I’d really like to see a Dean/Fulton fic. We got to see in the movies how they went from fighting to being the Bash Brothers- maybe you could write a fic with them going from disliking each other to crushing on each other? Does Dean fall for Fulton after seeing his signature slapshot? Do they rollerblade together near the beach at sunset? I love them as friends as well, so if you want to write a fic about them being bros, that’s certainly okay by me.
Adam is probably my favorite character; I think it might be because of his angst potential: isolated from his friends in the first and third movies, and injured in the second. I’d love to get inside his head and see what he was thinking during those incidents. I especially thought he got a raw deal in D3, when his friends branded him a traitor simply because he was talented enough to play for the varsity team. Honestly, I don’t think Adam had any idea what was going to happen at the varsity dinner, and I thought it was unnecessarily cruel of the other Ducks to freeze his stuff in the locker rooms, so feel free to do something angsty with those events.
A general idea for Adam that I really like is a focus him connecting with his new teammates in the first movie, and/or reconnecting with his teammates in the third movie. I also like the idea of Dean and Fulton (one or both of them, either as friends or a couple) being like older brothers to Adam, so if you want to include something like that, more power to you!
One of my favorite aspects of the movies is when the Ducks are at Eden Hall. I really like the boarding school angle, and I think it works in all types of stories. Beyond Adam, the Ducks are mostly fish out of water here, not really used to being surrounded by wealth and its expectations. One last idea is Adam helping them adjust to life in a prestigious institution. Instructing the Ducks on dinner etiquette for banquets, proper conversation when meeting alumni sponsors, clothing to wear to awards ceremonies- just calmly and helpfully introducing them to a high society lifestyle.
Wolfman-Perez New Teen Titans/Teen Titans (Comics)- Gar Logan (AKA Changeling, AKA Beast Boy), Vic Stone (AKA Cyborg)
If you’d like to read about the history Gar’s character, or that of the various Terras, I found a very long and detailed analysis here.
Gar Logan is definitely my favorite DC character of all time. One recurring theme in later comics books and adaptations that continually frustrates me is when Gar is shown as incompetent, completely lame, or a total joke to make other heroes look more cool. I’d really like to have a fic where Gar’s leadership and/or strategy abilities are emphasized, as well as his kindness and generosity.
I loved his characterization in Wolfman and Perez’s New Teen Titans: he runs his father’s company in his absence, he’s still traumatized from losing the Doom Patrol, he falls for Terra only to be betrayed by her, and then his pain from losing her is resurrected when Terra II comes along. I like that as friendly as he seems, he still has a dark side, as seen when he kills Madame Rouge and attempts to kill Slade Wilson. I also liked that Slade was sort of Gar’s mentor for a while.
If you want to write about any of these events, feel free. For some other ideas, you could write about Gar’s first impressions of the other New Teen Titans, his thoughts on his dad’s various mental breakdowns and attempts to kill him, the conversation between Slade and Gar at the diner, or how Gar was sorta-kinda Slade’s substitute son for a while. If you want, write about Gar being swayed or tempted to the dark side by Slade, or Gar’s friends or other heroes worrying about this happening. Possibly a five times fic where a hero or villain underestimated Gar, only to have him prove them wrong? Or if you just want to have Gar interacting with other heroes and solving crises, that would be wonderful!
Another aspect of his character I really like is his friendship with Vic Stone. I love them as bros or as a couple. I love that they went from antagonizing each other to being very close, despite Gar being only sixteen to Vic’s nineteen. I think it’s interesting that Vic wonders about the origin of his friendship with Gar after seeing the uncle-nephew relationship of Gar and Robotman. I love that Gar was the one to rescue Vic during the Technis Imperative.
If you want to write about Vic and Gar being super close pals, that’s great. If you want to write about them being a couple, that’s great, too. If you want to make Vic more techno-organic, as he is in the New 52, with him being able to switch between appearing as human and cyborg, please feel free.
Other ideas are the moment when one of them started to fall for the other, or sixteen-year-old Gar trying to woo nineteen-year-old Vic, who is determined to wait until Gar is legal, or Vic and Gar shacking up somewhere in the countryside and opening their home to be a sanctuary for traumatized/injured/exhausted heroes. If you like, you could write a fic where Gar and Vic are the “parents” of the Teen Titans household, with the Young Justice Four (Tim, Kon, Cassie, and Bart) as their “children,” and super fun Aunt Kory dropping by for dinner every so often. Or if you want to write a non-powered AU to this effect, I’d like to read that just as much.