somniloquence

Thank 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 )

( Fast Color )

( Amsterdam )

( Better Off Ted )

So, this is an interesting thing I did not know about till I had cancer: Did you know that Washington state has a thing where once someone is diagnosed with cancer, they get put in a database and contacted to participate in a study about that cancer? I didn't either. Apparently it's only western Washington, too? Whatever, it surprised me all to hell when I got this letter from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centers (they're a big deal here and people come from all over to get treatment) saying they would contact me about possibly participating in the study. You can say no, of course.

There was a lot of nonsense with the person I spoke to, but I did end up doing the interview, and then they asked if I would be willing to do some tests, including the notorious spit in a vial and have DNA testing! I said, "I had a lot of trouble producing that much spit" and she laughed and said well, it's not as bad as that one. So it is sitting here awaiting my spit. At first the whole thing felt like a really strange invasion of privacy--getting this letter at all, and then finding out they have all your information. It's sort of amazing, too, that it's a law, like, how did they put that one through state legislature? I don't know how much my history will help them learn more about colon cancer, but if it does, then I guess that's okay.

**

Thanks so much for all the birthday wishes! I had a nice day, even though it was pouring rain and miserable outside. I went to killabeez's house, since she broke her leg(!), and we hung out and watched The Adjustment Bureau and went out for a lovely dinner. It's so funny--I was telling her and minim_calibre about the movie after I came home from the hospital, and they both were intrigued enough to go out and buy the movie (and here is my pitch again--if you're interested in seeing it, I have a copy up on my dropbox, scroll back a ways and you'll see my post from a few weeks ago with the link) sight unseen. Such is the power of Anthony Mackie. Ugh, his eyelashes and his sweater vests and cardigans and his cute hats. I love him so much in this thing.

Even after all she did for me during and after the hospital, killa still bought me a lovely gift--Shifty Powers's book. If you've seen Band of Brothers, you'd remember Shifty as their sharpshooter. I'm really looking forward to reading this, lots of World War 2 stuff, and I always like that.

**

I sort of thought finishing the WIP on my birthday would mean people would want to read it now. Ha. Or maybe they just don't like it. Still, I'm glad now I can move on to writing Bucky and Peggy and Sam reacting to Steve's movie stardom, though that'll have to wait until I finish Yuletide. Ugh, having a birthday at the end of November sucks in so many ways, not the least of which is that if I want to post fic on that day, I can never get my Yuletide stories started until late, and then I'm running around screaming about bears.

Min and I did a canon review the other day, and talked about ideas. I'm having a tough time with this one. The past few years I've had people who don't have much in the way of letters, or any letter at all, and not a lot of detail to work with, but with a little stalking we found some stuff so I can at least try to start.

**

I am trying not to think about politics, but I'm tied up in knots and sick and there's not really a lot I can do. We call our senators, but they're largely useless, being from a blue state and neither of them having any sort of sway. Because I've been busy with work, I haven't done enrollment in the health exchange, and now that my insurer is pulling out, that means I'll have to pay about $150 more per month, though my income doesn't go up that amount, and the deductible will go back to over $4,000 dollars. Since I have to go back next year for cancer screenings and another colonoscopy, I'm not sure what I'll do. I hate the idea of having to do some kind of campaign, but I probably will. As it is, I'm having trouble meeting these bills--I had to turn work away of course, around the operation, so I have a lot of things to figure out in 2018. I don't want to, but it'll have to be done.

Anyways, to not end on a complete downer, I was pretty meh about the Infinity War trailer, because it just looks like a lot of running about advancing behavior and no character work except I guess Wanda and Vision macking, which I care less than nothing about, but I was happy to see T'Challa as what looks like the leader, as he should be, and Steve is wearing something that looks like vambraces on his arms, and I AM HERE FOR THAT. Could they be for the energy shield?? Since it looks like Suri drives some sort of techie laser holographic car in the Black Panther trailer, maybe she made Steve an energy shield, and that would be super fun, though of course I will always want him to carry his original one, because it's the one Howard made him and Peggy shot.

I'm super happy you are writing for me!

I'm open to angst, romance, humor, 'ships (slash or het), gen, character studies, long plotty stuff (I love plotty stuff), fluff, or drama. I love first times and falling in love, friendships, relationships between people who are equals. Friends to lovers might be my ultimate trope, and found families is right up there too.

What I don't like: BDSM/anything particularly kink-oriented, non-con in any way, emotional abuse, animal harm, ABO and that sort of thing. I've battled grief and depression for a while and dealt with cancer this year, so something that might make me more depressed or fic about illnesses or death would not be enjoyable, but if that's the direction your story goes, I'm also not the kind of person who'd freak out about it.

What I love about my fandoms is the canon universe they inhabit, but what-if AUs (canon-divergence) can be really cool--I love it when someone comes up with a story off of one tiny element being changed! Under my Yuletide tag here, you can find some of my past DYA letters if you'd like to know more.

Some of the tropes and approaches I enjoy (most of which I stole from Dorinda): right now, I really love hopeful endings, words that camouflage deeper/unspoken meanings, protectiveness, worry, extreme competence (with honest weakness), hurt/comfort, found or chosen families, partners against the world, nurturing via food/drink/warmth. Don't be afraid of the classics: Having to Share a Bed, Huddling for Warmth, Pretend Couple, situations where one suffers or sacrifices for the other, rescues, stranded somewhere (idyllic or non-), etc. And if you can write time travel of some sort, I'll probably fall in love with you.

( Gifted )

( The Adjustment Bureau )

( Political Animals )

ETA: I removed The Good Place from my requests. It seems like it's the juggernaut fandom this year, so I imagine there will be lots of good fic, and since I royally forked up and didn't nominate Mindy St. Claire, I wouldn't have a guarantee of the character I most want to see. Who knows, maybe I'll write some Mindy fic of my own...