Dear Yuletide Author 2022
Oct. 21st, 2022 01:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwynThank you for signing up to write a story for me! I'm always very excited at this time of year, because I love gift-giving and receiving.
Some of the things I enjoy most: happy endings, romance, humor/banter, romantic ships (slash or het), gen/friendship stories, character studies, plotty fics with wonderful world-building, fluff or drama, capers and hijinx and shenanigans. I love first times and falling in love, people finding one another again after being apart, and relationships between equals. Friends to lovers and found families are my ultimate tropes. What I love about my fandoms are the canon universes they inhabit, so while I'm not really into mundane AUs (such as coffee shops, students, etc.), what-if AUs (canon-divergence) can be really cool.
I really appreciate story elements like hopeful or positive endings even if it's not necessarily a happy-ever-after, protectiveness (without possessiveness or jealousy), hurt/comfort, partners against the world, people who enjoy nurturing others. I'll always take the classics: time travel/time loops, competence kink, having to share a bed, huddling for warmth and/or stranded somewhere (blizzard! cave-in!), situations where one suffers or sacrifices for the other, rescues, everybody lives!, etc. Genre can be fun: someone discovers they have superpowers, or is trapped in a time loop or accidentally time-stranded would be utterly delightful.
My hard Do Not Wants: I do not want bdsm/anything particularly sexual kink-oriented, abo/mpreg, and that sort of thing (usually, if there are initials used for it, that's a safe bet I'm not into it), non-con of any type, emotional abuse, any kind of animal harm. I intensely dislike jealousy, and related to that, love triangles. I've battled grief and depression for a while and dealt with cancer recently, so something that might make me more depressed or fic about illnesses or death would not be my first choice, but if that's the direction your story goes, I'm also not the kind of person who'd freak out about it. Please, no sportsball or characters spending a lot of time talking/thinking about sportsing. Absolutely no reader or original character self-insert fic.
Fandoms:
The Adjustment Bureau: This is my perpetual ask. I know this movie is not perfect and has a fair number of questionable or problematic elements, but I love it and a large part of why I do is Harry Mitchell. I just adore Anthony Mackie in his soft sweaters and his fetching hats, with his gentle demeanor, and I'd love to know more about him. (I've always had this fantasy that Sam Wilson is basically Harry Mitchell if he was granted the life of a human.) There's so little known about them in the film that I feel like you have a blank slate here. Do the Adjustors even get to be humans, or would they want to be? What was it like for Harry to work on both David's and David's dad's timelines? How does he feel about helping David and Elise and going against his own organization? Do they have private lives, and what would Harry's be? If you wanted to put Harry with another character, that's totally fine, or just write Harry and explore his life, I know I'll be thrilled. Also, the movie is very dudecentric and cishet and we never see female adjustors or subjects. It could be really interesting to explore whether Harry’s ever fallen in love with a subject or fellow adjustor before, male or female, and how that might affect a plan (or his willingness to help David in the movie). Heck, maybe he was assigned to Steve Rogers back in the day! I'm not averse to having Harry crossed over with characters from other movies Anthony Mackie has been in, like the MCU.
Fast Color: This is such a beautiful movie and a fascinating if underexplored world they've built. I'd love to know more about everything, especially what happens to Bo after the ending. I have always loved stories where two people who loved each other reconnect later in life after separating (what I kind of call Winter of Our Lives stories), and it would be amazing to see what happens between Bo and Dean, maybe while she's doing whatever happens with the agency (I see he's listed as Ellis in most resources but Bo clearly calls him Dean, so I think of him that way). It's clear they loved each other but ended up apart, and I would love to know what happened, or what they will do now that Bo is determined not to hide her powers anymore. Could they rekindle their love or find some common place together again? Will he help her in the future--or would she even let him? If that doesn't work for you, a story about what happens with Bo and Ruth could be great--do the two of them make up for some of that lost time? Can they reconnect and have that relationship they were denied for so long? What about Bo and Ruth and Dean as a family unit--I love Ruth going on a mission with Lilah, but I'd also really love to see the family unit in their new future. They've lost so much, can they recover and love one another?
Amsterdam: The big surprise to me of this year was how much I liked this movie, considering I've never been a fan of the director. I've left the character field blank in my signup because I'd be happy with anyone here in any combination. I'm a bit of a military history buff, so I would honestly love to see something with Harold and Burt's developing relationship in the war, or how they became so devoted to Meekins, or just anything related to their service. I didn't know we could even nominate this film because it wasn't out yet, so I wasn't able to add some of the other characters to the tag set like General Dillenbeck, but I absolutely loved him because he's based on my hero, Smedley Butler, and if you wanted to write about the first meeting of the three friends with the general, or about their relationships after the events of the movies, I would adore that (it's a hard road ahead in some ways, maybe they reconvene to punch more Nazis or help someone out of a jam). Or if those ideas don't work for you, something about the trio's time in Amsterdam would be lovely, or maybe we could see what happens after the movie, how they might keep their little polycule together, with Irma, I assume, and maybe they all fight crime or do heists or something? Feel free to bring in tropes here, these characters are perfect for hijinks and shenanigans and more punching Nazis is always good.
Better Off Ted: I've fallen very much in love with Lem and Phil, and would love a story focused on them. If you want to make it some Phlem slash (does not have to be overtly sexual), that would be aces, but if that's not your thing, then just a story about their oddball friendship would be wonderful. I loved their medieval fight club hijinks, I love it when Lem addresses what it's like to be a Black man in science, and his earnestness is beyond adorable. I also am really fond of how they balance each other out; one guy's quirks and blind spots are where the other has strengths and wisdom, they're often saving the other one from himself or his bad decisions, and that is catnip to me. I think one of the things I'd love to see most is that they seem ripe for some hilarious genre action like accidental time travel, stuck in a time loop, accidental superpowers, or lab accidents that turn them into something else or create monsters or something. Maybe they get visited by aliens or land on an alien planet. With Phil and Lem, anything's possible!
Some of the things I enjoy most: happy endings, romance, humor/banter, romantic ships (slash or het), gen/friendship stories, character studies, plotty fics with wonderful world-building, fluff or drama, capers and hijinx and shenanigans. I love first times and falling in love, people finding one another again after being apart, and relationships between equals. Friends to lovers and found families are my ultimate tropes. What I love about my fandoms are the canon universes they inhabit, so while I'm not really into mundane AUs (such as coffee shops, students, etc.), what-if AUs (canon-divergence) can be really cool.
I really appreciate story elements like hopeful or positive endings even if it's not necessarily a happy-ever-after, protectiveness (without possessiveness or jealousy), hurt/comfort, partners against the world, people who enjoy nurturing others. I'll always take the classics: time travel/time loops, competence kink, having to share a bed, huddling for warmth and/or stranded somewhere (blizzard! cave-in!), situations where one suffers or sacrifices for the other, rescues, everybody lives!, etc. Genre can be fun: someone discovers they have superpowers, or is trapped in a time loop or accidentally time-stranded would be utterly delightful.
My hard Do Not Wants: I do not want bdsm/anything particularly sexual kink-oriented, abo/mpreg, and that sort of thing (usually, if there are initials used for it, that's a safe bet I'm not into it), non-con of any type, emotional abuse, any kind of animal harm. I intensely dislike jealousy, and related to that, love triangles. I've battled grief and depression for a while and dealt with cancer recently, so something that might make me more depressed or fic about illnesses or death would not be my first choice, but if that's the direction your story goes, I'm also not the kind of person who'd freak out about it. Please, no sportsball or characters spending a lot of time talking/thinking about sportsing. Absolutely no reader or original character self-insert fic.
Fandoms:
The Adjustment Bureau: This is my perpetual ask. I know this movie is not perfect and has a fair number of questionable or problematic elements, but I love it and a large part of why I do is Harry Mitchell. I just adore Anthony Mackie in his soft sweaters and his fetching hats, with his gentle demeanor, and I'd love to know more about him. (I've always had this fantasy that Sam Wilson is basically Harry Mitchell if he was granted the life of a human.) There's so little known about them in the film that I feel like you have a blank slate here. Do the Adjustors even get to be humans, or would they want to be? What was it like for Harry to work on both David's and David's dad's timelines? How does he feel about helping David and Elise and going against his own organization? Do they have private lives, and what would Harry's be? If you wanted to put Harry with another character, that's totally fine, or just write Harry and explore his life, I know I'll be thrilled. Also, the movie is very dudecentric and cishet and we never see female adjustors or subjects. It could be really interesting to explore whether Harry’s ever fallen in love with a subject or fellow adjustor before, male or female, and how that might affect a plan (or his willingness to help David in the movie). Heck, maybe he was assigned to Steve Rogers back in the day! I'm not averse to having Harry crossed over with characters from other movies Anthony Mackie has been in, like the MCU.
Fast Color: This is such a beautiful movie and a fascinating if underexplored world they've built. I'd love to know more about everything, especially what happens to Bo after the ending. I have always loved stories where two people who loved each other reconnect later in life after separating (what I kind of call Winter of Our Lives stories), and it would be amazing to see what happens between Bo and Dean, maybe while she's doing whatever happens with the agency (I see he's listed as Ellis in most resources but Bo clearly calls him Dean, so I think of him that way). It's clear they loved each other but ended up apart, and I would love to know what happened, or what they will do now that Bo is determined not to hide her powers anymore. Could they rekindle their love or find some common place together again? Will he help her in the future--or would she even let him? If that doesn't work for you, a story about what happens with Bo and Ruth could be great--do the two of them make up for some of that lost time? Can they reconnect and have that relationship they were denied for so long? What about Bo and Ruth and Dean as a family unit--I love Ruth going on a mission with Lilah, but I'd also really love to see the family unit in their new future. They've lost so much, can they recover and love one another?
Amsterdam: The big surprise to me of this year was how much I liked this movie, considering I've never been a fan of the director. I've left the character field blank in my signup because I'd be happy with anyone here in any combination. I'm a bit of a military history buff, so I would honestly love to see something with Harold and Burt's developing relationship in the war, or how they became so devoted to Meekins, or just anything related to their service. I didn't know we could even nominate this film because it wasn't out yet, so I wasn't able to add some of the other characters to the tag set like General Dillenbeck, but I absolutely loved him because he's based on my hero, Smedley Butler, and if you wanted to write about the first meeting of the three friends with the general, or about their relationships after the events of the movies, I would adore that (it's a hard road ahead in some ways, maybe they reconvene to punch more Nazis or help someone out of a jam). Or if those ideas don't work for you, something about the trio's time in Amsterdam would be lovely, or maybe we could see what happens after the movie, how they might keep their little polycule together, with Irma, I assume, and maybe they all fight crime or do heists or something? Feel free to bring in tropes here, these characters are perfect for hijinks and shenanigans and more punching Nazis is always good.
Better Off Ted: I've fallen very much in love with Lem and Phil, and would love a story focused on them. If you want to make it some Phlem slash (does not have to be overtly sexual), that would be aces, but if that's not your thing, then just a story about their oddball friendship would be wonderful. I loved their medieval fight club hijinks, I love it when Lem addresses what it's like to be a Black man in science, and his earnestness is beyond adorable. I also am really fond of how they balance each other out; one guy's quirks and blind spots are where the other has strengths and wisdom, they're often saving the other one from himself or his bad decisions, and that is catnip to me. I think one of the things I'd love to see most is that they seem ripe for some hilarious genre action like accidental time travel, stuck in a time loop, accidental superpowers, or lab accidents that turn them into something else or create monsters or something. Maybe they get visited by aliens or land on an alien planet. With Phil and Lem, anything's possible!
