Yuletide Letter 2015
Hello, Yuletide author! I'm Deepdarkwaters on Ao3 and Tumblr as well (probably unhelpful for recip-stalking purposes since it's pretty much just me sobbing about Colin Firth, but there's occasional other stuff), and ambrotypes on Twitter.
This is going to get a bit tl;dr so I'll do the short version first: I'm easy to please and happy to be completely surprised, as long as you don't include any of the few DNWs mentioned below. If you've got a story in mind then write it your way! If not, get a cup of tea and read on for some rambling prompts :D
General fic loves: (probably not applicable to every fandom requested, but just so you've got an overview of some of the things I enjoy reading in whatever combination) worldbuilding/exploration of the canon world; dialogue; description; competence (someone utterly absorbed in a job or a craft and doing it really well - swoon); petty arguments; a sense of wonder; smart girls and women; unreliable narrators; misunderstandings; found families; really old comfy friendships; really old comfy friendships that accidentally/unexpectedly become more; clumsy inappropriate humour; backstories; melancholy; loonngg dragged out UST that feels like it'll never end and then ENDS GLORIOUSLY; awkward imperfect sex where everyone's still having the best time ever; fight scenes; kissing (like seriously I would happily read 1000 words of lovingly described kissing and nothing else); any gender pairing if you want to write romance. I have no expectations or demands with regards to shipfic vs. gen for most of these fandoms - please write whatever makes you happiest or makes the most sense for you, because I'll honestly be equally as happy with either. (Two exceptions below.)
Please don't write me: sex that's not unambiguously consensual and between people aged 16 or over; torture or really extreme violence; anything to do with execution, particularly hanging. Please avoid! No problem with fic about other kinds of death, just not that.
Also I realise this makes me weird, but: I have this absurd phobia about Big Things. I know it's sort of nuts, especially with one of my fandoms featuring massive tripods striding about. It's so difficult to explain exactly what's going to set me off feeling all sweaty and sick because often I don't even know myself until it's happening, so just wanted to mention it - Martian tripods are ok, but otherwise please avoid including anything like oversized statues or super high bridges just in case. It's so ridiculous and I'm sure it'll never come up in fic anyway, but I feel stupidly paranoid that the one time I don't mention it will be the time I get 1000 words of someone marvelling at the size of Christ the Redeemer. SHUDDER.
Rating: I'm happy with all ratings, whatever works best for you.
FANDOMS (alphabetically, not order of preference):
Ballet Shoes - Noel Streatfeild
Book summary & background info
Petrova Fossil
I love Petrova for about a million different reasons and anything at all about her will make me happy so please just write the Petrova fic you've always wanted to write. If you prefer prompts though: I'm slightly obsessed with the ATA and other women's roles in WW2, so a future fic about her time as a pilot would be amazing (my headcanon kind of wants her to work with some of the characters in Code Name Verity if you've read that and fancy a crossover). Or if you're more into her as a child then one of my favourite scenes in the book was the one where she sneaks out of bed and has that talk with Garnie - if you'd rather not write dancey stuff or write about the sisters then there are lots of really lovely moments like this between Petrova and various adults and it could be fun to explore their relationships, Mr Simpson or Gum or Garnie or whoever you like. OR something about the sisters and growing up and working in 1930s London if you want to bring in the other two girls. I like the detail that she hates dancing but she's very good at it technically, so looking at her feeling stuck with talent for something she doesn't care for is always interesting, especially in contrast with Pauline and Posy being so focused. I'm ok with whatever gender if you want to go romantic, but I absolutely don't want incest or underage please (which I know kind of limits the partner pool a bit - OCs absolutely welcome, as are crossovers with any other suitable books or films from the same kind of period). I don't mind being upset, especially if you're going for a wartime story, so go as tragic and gloomy as you like, or as cheerful.
Dorian Gray - Bourne
Dorian and Basil's smokin hot photoshoot | Trailer | More clips | Winsor & Piper interview
Dorian Gray, Basil Hallward
So basically any version of Dorian/Basil is going to do it for me, but Dorian plus Basil plus BOURNE is more than my brain can take and more than any of us deserve. Please please just run with anything you're inspired to write. Totally happy for Cyril and Lady Henrietta to get involved as well if you've got some kind of wider plot in mind, but honestly I'm in this for the Dorian/Basil. If you know other versions of the story but not this one: in this modern-day setting they're a model and a photographer, and it's a pretty dead-on look at trash celebrity and the hunger for fame and all that stuff in a way that sounds super heavy-handed in writing but actually was done with such deftness that it worked better than any adaptation I've ever seen. I think Wilde would have approved ;) Anyway - Dorian/Basil, please. I will take anything I can get. I'm not sure how easy it is to translate the kinetic sense of a dance show into writing, so I'm excited to see whatever anybody's got to say about these guys.
Post-Classical Hollywood RPF
Dean & Newman's 1954 screentest | Fandom pimp post with more links
James Dean, Eartha Kitt, Paul Newman
I'm guessing that if this is the group of characters we matched on you're in it for the threesome porn as much as I am?? I really have nothing to say except GO WILD. I don't read much RPF but I've been fighting the urge to request this for years and the burning for it is getting silly now. Please help me get it out of my system. I don't care about logistics, I don't care who's putting what where, I just want to know how this happened, what led to it, how things were for them all after. Was this the first threesome for all of them? Were two of them boning already and invited the third one in? Whose idea was it? (Btw it was a fucking fabulous idea, standing ovation for whoever that was.) It's easier to say what I'd rather not read: I'm not into the idea of her being dominated or in any way disrespected by the guys. Anything else though, have at it. Are they in love? Are any corners of the triangle more into each other than the third? Are they friends fooling around having a smashing time without anything fussy like love getting in the way of the fun? Are any of them rubbish at sex? GO.
Scarlet's Walk - Tori Amos (Album)
Fandom pimp post with links to songs & story info
Scarlet
For like a decade of my life Tori Amos was the most important person in it. I haven't listened much to her recent stuff in comparison, but this is still one of my all time favourite albums because (like many of my other favourites - Tom Waits' Alice, Hawksley Workman's Treeful of Starling, David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust) it's this perfect balance of songs that are great individually and work beautifully out of context but become so much more when they're all strung together as a single huge sprawling story. There are so many different threads to pick up and run with. I want to know everything. Tell me about Scarlet's background. Tell me about moving on from the Prince of Blackjacks, and how she deals with him getting involved with her niece. Tell me about her relationship with Mrs Jesus, I'm fascinated by her. Or go less about Scarlet's interactions with the other characters, more about Scarlet and her relationship with America, and with herself. What made her go out on this massive road trip? Did she plan it for a while, or was there something in particular that happened to make her say screw it to her life and race off to the horizon on a whim? Did she ever regret it? How about afterwards, the whole Gold Dust section, her daughter. What's changed? What's next? I have no concrete prompts, I'm just so invested in this mood of wanderlust and self-discovery and navigating the ugly realities of history - I would love to read anything at all that you're inspired to write.
Still Crazy (1998)
Trailer | All Over the World | The Flame Still Burns | Full film £2.49 on YouTube
Tony Costello, Brian Lovell, Ray Simms, Les Wickes
I'm sad Beano wasn't nominated but so glad this is in! One of my all-time favourite films, partly because half of my family is from Wisbech and it's the least likely place in the world to have a rock festival :P and partly because it's one of those lovely British films like Billy Elliot that gets this perfect human balance between relationship comedy and agonising pathos without ever feeling like it's not honest. This band feels as real to me as any, I'm so stupidly invested in them all. Tell me more about them as youngsters back when they were successful, their fights, their alliances within the band, any rare moments of happiness between all the drama. Did any of them ever meet during the time they were broken up? Tell me about reunion tour shenanigans. If you want to write something shippy, I'm preeetty interested in Les and Ray's "complex karma". Angry rockstar hate sex YES PLEASE. Un-nominated characters also welcome if you want, especially Karen and Astrid (what happened at the Isle of Wight?!)
This is my comfort-film and it never fails to rescue a miserable day, so I'd rather not get fic that's just relentless angst, and please no Brian/Hughie, but anything else goes. My favourite thing about Still Crazy is this sense of (strong cheese alert) friendship overcoming bullshit, and the glorious airpunch ending, so anything matching that sort of hopeful modern fairytale tone would be perfect and wonderful and I would treasure it forever.
The War of the Worlds - H. G. Wells
Wikisource (with illustrations) | Project Gutenberg | Fandom pimp post
Narrator, Martians
My all time favourite book. It's terrifying. I don't think there's ever been an adaptation into any other medium that's done it justice, because everyone seems obsessed with updating it when actually the thing that gives it such incredible clout in the first place is its idyllic countryside setting and seeing all the chaos and devastation in contrast with the prim Victorian way of life shown before everything kicks off. It's not the same having modern soldiers with belts full of grenades like every other action film ever :( VICTORIAN SCI FI. Why isn't everybody all over this?
The only characters I nominated are the Narrator and the Martians, but feel free to write about any of the others if you like (the Elphinstowes, the narrator's brother, the Curate?). As for prompts, I'd love to see how the world goes on after the end of the story, either for the Narrator and his family or more generally. Do the Martians ever come back (in little hazmat suits, carrying hankies)? Or - and I'm not sure exactly how this would work but maybe you've got an idea - maybe you could tell something from the Martians' point of view? I'd love to read anything at all! The only thing I'll beg for is this: please don't "fix" the science with modern knowledge. Old sci-fi is so fascinating to me because yes they're some great stories but also because they're so firmly of their time, they're like glorious little time capsules of every stage of recent scientific discovery and imagination. I'd love to see something in keeping with Wells' era of more limited knowledge but limitless possibility.
Also - so much potential for amazing crossovers! (I got two fantastic fics last year, one with Alice and one with Alice and the Harkers from Dracula, and I'm greedy for more.) How do Isabel Archer/Nan and Florence/Oscar Wilde(?!) fare with the Martians? If you want to write a crossover/fusion type thing I would be all over that. I'm familiar with a lot of Victorian literature, and plenty of modern stuff set around the same time, but even if I don't know your other fandom I'd still be interested in a crossover if there's something you want to write - I get sci-fi disaster fic AND a new fandom, double win :D
If I've written less about your fandom than another I promise that does NOT mean I want it any less, just that I had fewer specific things to say. These are all things I really really want to read, none more than any of the others. I'm excited to see your take on whatever fandom we match on :D Have fun!
This is going to get a bit tl;dr so I'll do the short version first: I'm easy to please and happy to be completely surprised, as long as you don't include any of the few DNWs mentioned below. If you've got a story in mind then write it your way! If not, get a cup of tea and read on for some rambling prompts :D
General fic loves: (probably not applicable to every fandom requested, but just so you've got an overview of some of the things I enjoy reading in whatever combination) worldbuilding/exploration of the canon world; dialogue; description; competence (someone utterly absorbed in a job or a craft and doing it really well - swoon); petty arguments; a sense of wonder; smart girls and women; unreliable narrators; misunderstandings; found families; really old comfy friendships; really old comfy friendships that accidentally/unexpectedly become more; clumsy inappropriate humour; backstories; melancholy; loonngg dragged out UST that feels like it'll never end and then ENDS GLORIOUSLY; awkward imperfect sex where everyone's still having the best time ever; fight scenes; kissing (like seriously I would happily read 1000 words of lovingly described kissing and nothing else); any gender pairing if you want to write romance. I have no expectations or demands with regards to shipfic vs. gen for most of these fandoms - please write whatever makes you happiest or makes the most sense for you, because I'll honestly be equally as happy with either. (Two exceptions below.)
Please don't write me: sex that's not unambiguously consensual and between people aged 16 or over; torture or really extreme violence; anything to do with execution, particularly hanging. Please avoid! No problem with fic about other kinds of death, just not that.
Also I realise this makes me weird, but: I have this absurd phobia about Big Things. I know it's sort of nuts, especially with one of my fandoms featuring massive tripods striding about. It's so difficult to explain exactly what's going to set me off feeling all sweaty and sick because often I don't even know myself until it's happening, so just wanted to mention it - Martian tripods are ok, but otherwise please avoid including anything like oversized statues or super high bridges just in case. It's so ridiculous and I'm sure it'll never come up in fic anyway, but I feel stupidly paranoid that the one time I don't mention it will be the time I get 1000 words of someone marvelling at the size of Christ the Redeemer. SHUDDER.
Rating: I'm happy with all ratings, whatever works best for you.
FANDOMS (alphabetically, not order of preference):
Ballet Shoes - Noel Streatfeild
Book summary & background info
Petrova Fossil
I love Petrova for about a million different reasons and anything at all about her will make me happy so please just write the Petrova fic you've always wanted to write. If you prefer prompts though: I'm slightly obsessed with the ATA and other women's roles in WW2, so a future fic about her time as a pilot would be amazing (my headcanon kind of wants her to work with some of the characters in Code Name Verity if you've read that and fancy a crossover). Or if you're more into her as a child then one of my favourite scenes in the book was the one where she sneaks out of bed and has that talk with Garnie - if you'd rather not write dancey stuff or write about the sisters then there are lots of really lovely moments like this between Petrova and various adults and it could be fun to explore their relationships, Mr Simpson or Gum or Garnie or whoever you like. OR something about the sisters and growing up and working in 1930s London if you want to bring in the other two girls. I like the detail that she hates dancing but she's very good at it technically, so looking at her feeling stuck with talent for something she doesn't care for is always interesting, especially in contrast with Pauline and Posy being so focused. I'm ok with whatever gender if you want to go romantic, but I absolutely don't want incest or underage please (which I know kind of limits the partner pool a bit - OCs absolutely welcome, as are crossovers with any other suitable books or films from the same kind of period). I don't mind being upset, especially if you're going for a wartime story, so go as tragic and gloomy as you like, or as cheerful.
Dorian Gray - Bourne
Dorian and Basil's smokin hot photoshoot | Trailer | More clips | Winsor & Piper interview
Dorian Gray, Basil Hallward
So basically any version of Dorian/Basil is going to do it for me, but Dorian plus Basil plus BOURNE is more than my brain can take and more than any of us deserve. Please please just run with anything you're inspired to write. Totally happy for Cyril and Lady Henrietta to get involved as well if you've got some kind of wider plot in mind, but honestly I'm in this for the Dorian/Basil. If you know other versions of the story but not this one: in this modern-day setting they're a model and a photographer, and it's a pretty dead-on look at trash celebrity and the hunger for fame and all that stuff in a way that sounds super heavy-handed in writing but actually was done with such deftness that it worked better than any adaptation I've ever seen. I think Wilde would have approved ;) Anyway - Dorian/Basil, please. I will take anything I can get. I'm not sure how easy it is to translate the kinetic sense of a dance show into writing, so I'm excited to see whatever anybody's got to say about these guys.
Post-Classical Hollywood RPF
Dean & Newman's 1954 screentest | Fandom pimp post with more links
James Dean, Eartha Kitt, Paul Newman
I'm guessing that if this is the group of characters we matched on you're in it for the threesome porn as much as I am?? I really have nothing to say except GO WILD. I don't read much RPF but I've been fighting the urge to request this for years and the burning for it is getting silly now. Please help me get it out of my system. I don't care about logistics, I don't care who's putting what where, I just want to know how this happened, what led to it, how things were for them all after. Was this the first threesome for all of them? Were two of them boning already and invited the third one in? Whose idea was it? (Btw it was a fucking fabulous idea, standing ovation for whoever that was.) It's easier to say what I'd rather not read: I'm not into the idea of her being dominated or in any way disrespected by the guys. Anything else though, have at it. Are they in love? Are any corners of the triangle more into each other than the third? Are they friends fooling around having a smashing time without anything fussy like love getting in the way of the fun? Are any of them rubbish at sex? GO.
Scarlet's Walk - Tori Amos (Album)
Fandom pimp post with links to songs & story info
Scarlet
For like a decade of my life Tori Amos was the most important person in it. I haven't listened much to her recent stuff in comparison, but this is still one of my all time favourite albums because (like many of my other favourites - Tom Waits' Alice, Hawksley Workman's Treeful of Starling, David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust) it's this perfect balance of songs that are great individually and work beautifully out of context but become so much more when they're all strung together as a single huge sprawling story. There are so many different threads to pick up and run with. I want to know everything. Tell me about Scarlet's background. Tell me about moving on from the Prince of Blackjacks, and how she deals with him getting involved with her niece. Tell me about her relationship with Mrs Jesus, I'm fascinated by her. Or go less about Scarlet's interactions with the other characters, more about Scarlet and her relationship with America, and with herself. What made her go out on this massive road trip? Did she plan it for a while, or was there something in particular that happened to make her say screw it to her life and race off to the horizon on a whim? Did she ever regret it? How about afterwards, the whole Gold Dust section, her daughter. What's changed? What's next? I have no concrete prompts, I'm just so invested in this mood of wanderlust and self-discovery and navigating the ugly realities of history - I would love to read anything at all that you're inspired to write.
Still Crazy (1998)
Trailer | All Over the World | The Flame Still Burns | Full film £2.49 on YouTube
Tony Costello, Brian Lovell, Ray Simms, Les Wickes
I'm sad Beano wasn't nominated but so glad this is in! One of my all-time favourite films, partly because half of my family is from Wisbech and it's the least likely place in the world to have a rock festival :P and partly because it's one of those lovely British films like Billy Elliot that gets this perfect human balance between relationship comedy and agonising pathos without ever feeling like it's not honest. This band feels as real to me as any, I'm so stupidly invested in them all. Tell me more about them as youngsters back when they were successful, their fights, their alliances within the band, any rare moments of happiness between all the drama. Did any of them ever meet during the time they were broken up? Tell me about reunion tour shenanigans. If you want to write something shippy, I'm preeetty interested in Les and Ray's "complex karma". Angry rockstar hate sex YES PLEASE. Un-nominated characters also welcome if you want, especially Karen and Astrid (what happened at the Isle of Wight?!)
This is my comfort-film and it never fails to rescue a miserable day, so I'd rather not get fic that's just relentless angst, and please no Brian/Hughie, but anything else goes. My favourite thing about Still Crazy is this sense of (strong cheese alert) friendship overcoming bullshit, and the glorious airpunch ending, so anything matching that sort of hopeful modern fairytale tone would be perfect and wonderful and I would treasure it forever.
The War of the Worlds - H. G. Wells
Wikisource (with illustrations) | Project Gutenberg | Fandom pimp post
Narrator, Martians
My all time favourite book. It's terrifying. I don't think there's ever been an adaptation into any other medium that's done it justice, because everyone seems obsessed with updating it when actually the thing that gives it such incredible clout in the first place is its idyllic countryside setting and seeing all the chaos and devastation in contrast with the prim Victorian way of life shown before everything kicks off. It's not the same having modern soldiers with belts full of grenades like every other action film ever :( VICTORIAN SCI FI. Why isn't everybody all over this?
The only characters I nominated are the Narrator and the Martians, but feel free to write about any of the others if you like (the Elphinstowes, the narrator's brother, the Curate?). As for prompts, I'd love to see how the world goes on after the end of the story, either for the Narrator and his family or more generally. Do the Martians ever come back (in little hazmat suits, carrying hankies)? Or - and I'm not sure exactly how this would work but maybe you've got an idea - maybe you could tell something from the Martians' point of view? I'd love to read anything at all! The only thing I'll beg for is this: please don't "fix" the science with modern knowledge. Old sci-fi is so fascinating to me because yes they're some great stories but also because they're so firmly of their time, they're like glorious little time capsules of every stage of recent scientific discovery and imagination. I'd love to see something in keeping with Wells' era of more limited knowledge but limitless possibility.
Also - so much potential for amazing crossovers! (I got two fantastic fics last year, one with Alice and one with Alice and the Harkers from Dracula, and I'm greedy for more.) How do Isabel Archer/Nan and Florence/Oscar Wilde(?!) fare with the Martians? If you want to write a crossover/fusion type thing I would be all over that. I'm familiar with a lot of Victorian literature, and plenty of modern stuff set around the same time, but even if I don't know your other fandom I'd still be interested in a crossover if there's something you want to write - I get sci-fi disaster fic AND a new fandom, double win :D
If I've written less about your fandom than another I promise that does NOT mean I want it any less, just that I had fewer specific things to say. These are all things I really really want to read, none more than any of the others. I'm excited to see your take on whatever fandom we match on :D Have fun!