Dear Secret Santa/Yulegoat/Hogfather
Dear Yuletide Author,
Thank you so much for what you are about to write! You signed up to write a story in one of my tiny fandoms, and that automatically makes you awesome! Please don't feel intimidated by the massive letter that follows here. Sometimes I get a little (or more than a little) long-winded. Just take a deep breath and remember that optional details are optional. I'm sure I'll enjoy whatever it is that you choose to write. The important thing is that you have fun while you're writing. I want your writing experience to make you as happy as receiving the story will undoubtedly make me. Here we go.
I like humor (dark or light), drama, horror, and angst, separately or mixed together in varying ratios. I like the occasional bit of romance, but gen is great too. I like vivid descriptions. I like stories that play with the reader's expectations while staying true to the characters. I like to see love being expressed through strong friendships and family dynamics. I like idiosyncratic expressions of affection, such as when Lisa and Vinny were using mock-arguing as foreplay in My Cousin Vinny or in Jekyll when Claire stole Tom's shoes to keep him from leaving the dinner party without her. I like to see characters being competent, unless canon specifically says that they aren't. I like flawed heroes/heroines and villains with believable motivations. I like to see characters learning from their mistakes. I like closure, but I also like for the characters to have a way forward into whatever future is waiting for them, if they have a future. Happy endings are great, but they aren't always necessary. I like AUs that explore how a single deviation from canon can change everything that happens after it.
Death-fic is fine if the death furthers a larger plot. Stories that consist of "Character X just died, isn't that the saddest thing ever?" and nothing more tend to bug me. Violence is fine as long as it is in character. So, for example, Billy Hyde disemboweling someone without a second thought would be perfectly believable and therefore fine as far as the narrative is concerned, whereas Vinny Gambini or Alan Carter doing the same thing would be a massive WTF moment and jolt me out of the story. I generally prefer romantic pairings, friendships, and other varieties of relationships to reflect canon. Sex is fine. However, unless watching the characters get squelchy with each other is actually vital to the plot, I would prefer that you focus more on the intellectual/emotional aspect of the encounter and less on the blow by blow physical description of what gets inserted where. Or, you could just fade to black after the foreplay. It may seem silly, but if I like a character enough to be emotionally invested in them, then I start feeling the need to respect their privacy to some degree, even though I know it's all just fiction. Besides, I'd feel a little guilty/creepy if I got porn for Christmas.
My biggest common squick is incest. That shouldn't be much of an issue with most of the fandoms that I requested. However, in the few instances where it is applicable, please don't go there. If you end up writing sex, please keep it between consenting adults, and a little bit of kink is fine, but I dislike non-con, dub-con, scat, and watersports. I also dislike the sort of AU where everyone is in high school together or they're all in the French Foreign Legion or anything like that, but that's a matter of annoyance rather than a squick.
Fandom: Jekyll (2007)
This six episode BBC series is a modern drama/horror/dark comedy sequel to/reinterpretation of Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Dr. Tom Jackman has been having blackouts lately, but instead of just going unconscious he has been physically turning into someone else who happens to be younger, hornier, and not exactly human, forcing him to abandon his wife and children in fear of what his alter-ego might do to them. Suspicious black vans have started following Tom wherever he goes, and he soon learns that he looks exactly like a certain Henry Jekyll who died under mysterious circumstances back in the 1880s. I'm not sure how easy this one is to find in brick-and-mortar stores, but you can get the DVD from your favorite on-line retailer without any fuss.
IMDb page
TV Tropes page
Requested Characters: Any
Optional Details: A Tom/Claire or a Tom/Claire/Hyde story could be fun, maybe a post-series story where Hyde is back and he and Tom are attempting (but not necessarily succeeding) to put aside their differences for the sake Claire and the boys, or maybe an AU where Hyde tells Claire the truth about who/what he is the first time he meets her instead of her not finding out until episode 3. However, if that isn't your cup of tea, don't worry, because this is a fandom where I like watching pretty much everybody get some time in the spotlight, even the evil bastards like Peter and Benjamin, so feel free to explore the show's minor characters. I would love to see a fic dealing with the friendship between Henry Jekyll and Robert Louis Stevenson, with Alice and the original Hyde thrown in to complicate matters. A story about Harry and Eddie Jackman when they're older would make me equally happy. Want to write a post-series fic where Katherine goes to work for Miranda/Min? That would be awesome. A Benjamin/Christopher fic? Great, because I already ship them. Want to explore how someone as grumpy and apparently antisocial as Peter still manages to get nearly every woman at the Institute to sleep with him? Go for it. In fact, you could probably make me squee madly just by writing about Freeman and Dr. Gilligan sitting around on a cigarette break. All I really ask is that you keep the rating to R or below.
I should probably point out who Freeman is, just in case the name doesn't sound familiar. He was the guy who did the phone traces and later almost got shot by Peter. For someone with so few lines, I always found him to be really entertaining. And yes, in addition to the canon pairings, I really do ship Benjamin/Christopher. Usually I don't have much in the way of slash-goggles, but the idea of these two together latched on to me and wouldn't go away. I like to think of Tom/Claire/Hyde as my OT2.5, because there are too many people to be an OTP but never enough bodies for an OT3. Tom/Claire without Hyde is great too, but I'd rather not have Claire/Hyde without Tom at least giving some sort of indication that he is okay with the situation. The poor guy has been through enough without his wife completely dumping him for his better-looking alter-ego. Besides, Claire made it pretty clear in canon that she thinks Hyde is sexy but loves Tom.
Fandom: Murphys Law UK (tv)
This is a crime drama that ran for five series on the BBC. It's about a cop named Tommy Murphy from Belfast who is currently doing undercover work in England. It started off fairly humorous in its first season and then got darker and grittier with each passing year. Series 1 and series 2 feature a different case every episode. Series 3, 4, and 5 each deal with a single case. The first series just became available on Region 1 DVD this past October, but if you want to see anything after that, you'll need to get it from the UK. There are also two novels written by the creator of the series, but they're just AU versions of the pilot episode and the last episode of series 2.
IMDb page
Requested Characters: Any
Optional Details: Pretty much anything for this fandom would be cool. Witty banter is a plus but not required. I would be thrilled with case-fic if you want to attempt it, but don't feel obligated if you aren't comfortable with that. Series 1 and 2 are my favorites, but I enjoyed all five of them, so feel free to draw inspiration from whatever part of the show strikes your fancy. Some possible ideas include: Light-hearted Murphy/Annie interaction, het or gen, possibly Annie's thoughts on Murphy before she finds out that he's a cop. Murphy and McBride friendship fic. Murphy and Paul Allison friendship fic. Anything with Carter. Murphy fulfilling his promise to his wife that they would get together to remember their daughter every once in a while. A look at Murphy's time in Belfast with his parents immediately before and after series 4, possibly involving his brother who only ever got a single mention in one episode and was never seen onscreen. Or maybe some Murphy/Jackie Cole friendship and/or romance. It would also be interesting to see a post-series 5 Murphy running into one of the people that he had helped out back when he still had something resembling a sense of humor. Mickey Munday would be my first pick, but anyone from series 1 or 2 who doesn't hate Murphy would work. If you have another idea that you want to write about, that's fine too. All I really ask is that keep the rating to R or below.
Most characters in this fandom are fair game for killing off if the plot demands it, even Murphy himself, but please don't kill Carter or McBride. And speaking of who lives and who dies, if you want to, feel free to go AU and keep Annie alive into the later series.
Fandom: I Sell The Dead
This is a movie about a pair of grave-robbers who discover that they can get more money if they ignore regular corpses and start selling zombies and other varieties of the undead. It's a horror/comedy that leans more towards the comedy end of the spectrum. I haven't been able to find any solid information about an American DVD release, but it is scheduled to be released in Canada in a couple of weeks (Like the US, Canada is in DVD Region 1, so Canadian discs should play on standard American players without any hacking) and it is already available for sale in the UK.
IMDb page
Requested Characters: Any
Optional Details: If your story sticks to the original spirit of the movie, it will probably make me happy. It could be the further adventures of Arthur and Willie, either picking up where the movie left off or a pre-movie incident that Arthur didn't get a chance to tell to Father Duffy. A more in-depth look at Dr. Quint or the House of Murphy could be interesting too. Supernatural weirdness would be much appreciated, but it isn't required if you prefer to just do a character piece. I'd rather not see Arthur and Willie paired up with each other as anything more than friends/business-partners, but Fanny and the members of the House of Murphy and everyone else are all fair game if you really want to play matchmaker, just please keep the rating to R or below. Also, I'd rather not have any necrophilia, no matter how lively the corpse is.
Not much to add to this one. If you do decide to focus on the supernatural end of things, it might be fun to see what Arthur and Willie (and possibly Fanny) do when they encounter a ghost, or a werewolf, or some other creature that didn't get mentioned in the movie.
Fandom: My Cousin Vinny
This is a movie about a pair of young guys from New York who get arrested while on a roadtrip through the South. They think it's about the can of tuna that one of them accidentally shoplifted from a convenience store, so they confess to the crime. Then they discover that they actually just confessed to a murder. Fortunately, one of the guys has a cousin (named Vinny, of course) who happens to be a lawyer, so he should be able to keep them from getting the electric chair. Unfortunately, Vinny has never actually gone to trial with a case. Comedy ensues in the form of culture shock, courtroom shenanigans, and lots and lots of bickering. The DVD should be fairly east to find.
IMDb page
TV Tropes page
Requested Characters: Mona Lisa Vito/Vinny Gambini
Optional Details: Down South or back in New York, anything with Vinny and Lisa being their usual argumentative selves would be great. Feel free to bring in whatever other characters from the movie you want or even invent OCs to act as foils and/or audience for the bickering duo. Beyond that, I don't really know what to ask for with this one, so have fun with it. Just please keep the rating to R or below.
I like most of the characters, but Lisa and Vinny are the ones who elevate the movie from good to great. I adore how they obviously love each other and belong together despite the fact that they never stop arguing. Even when they aren't actually arguing, they pretend to argue, because that's just how they do things. In most movies, the relationship would probably feel like it's only one step away from turning abusive as soon as the balance of power shifts too far in one direction or the other, but here it's a weird sort of abrasiveness with a sweet edge that works romantically because they're so perfectly matched.
And this letter is now twice as long as your story needs to be. I'm not sure whether I should feel proud of myself or embarrassed. Anyway, remember that you're free to ignore any or all of this. **slinks quietly off into the shadows to go stalk my own recipient**