yuletide 2012 letter
Oct. 14th, 2012 04:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cricketmaskDear Yuletide author,
First off, you are quite possibly my favorite person in the world right now! I heart you like whoa, author, I really do. I’m super-excited that you matched up on one of my fandoms, and I just want to say straight out that if you already have an amazing idea that you’re excited to write, then you can completely disregard everything I’ve said here. Also, if we matched on one thing and you like one of my other fandoms more, feel free to write that story instead! I’m in love with every single fandom in this letter and would be incredibly excited to read something in any of them.
I’m not sure how much help this will be to you, but I post fanfiction at AO3 under![[archiveofourown.org profile]](https://p.dreamwidth.org/b164c54b26e4/-/archiveofourown.org/favicon.ico)
ghostsoldier and occasionally put random stuff on my tumblr. Of more use is probably this post on my narrative kinks I made a few days ago. Optional details are, of course, super optional, but it might give you a better idea of themes and scenarios and such that tend to appeal to me.
While I generally prefer slash and gen over het, I’m quite fond of all three and will try to specify which pairings I’m particular about. I’m definitely fine with any rating, so stick to what you feel most happy writing. Like, if you don’t feel comfortable writing explicit sex? That’s cool! If you really, really love writing explicit sex? That’s cool too!
In terms of dislikes, I’m relatively simple. I don’t like mpreg, non-con (although dub-con is fine, especially for the Tron universe), or kinks like vomit, scat, or watersports. I also don’t usually like works with strong BDSM themes. Angst is delicious when it fits the story and I will happily eat it with a spoon, but I definitely prefer my endings to be somewhat happy. I understand that “happy” is a relative term (for example, if you’re writing from a villain’s POV, then a happy ending for them might be one in which they convince the hero to turn to the dark side…and I am totally okay with that!), so when I use it here I mean (a) no deathfic*, and (b) if two characters are in a relationship, I’d prefer that they stay together and are relatively comfortable with that decision.
*If a character has died in canon, it’s definitely cool to acknowledge it and for the other characters to reference it! I just don’t really want a story where death is the major focus, if that makes sense.
On to fandom specifics!
The Last Lovecraft: Relic of Cthulhu
Characters: Charlie, Paul, Jeff
Additional Info:
So…I ship Paul and Charlie really hard. Like, really hard. The banter between the two of them is one of the main reasons I love the movie as much as I do, and you could write a story where they do nothing but talk about which “Silent Hill” game is the best and I would love you forever. Friends to lovers is one of my faaaaaavorite fic tropes in the whole entire universe, so a story where they slowly/eventually/finally get together? ~Amazing!~
Because the movie draws (inaccurately, but still) from Lovecraftian source material, I would also be SO INCREDIBLY DELIGHTED if you opted to play in that part of the sandbox instead. What do the guys find in Antarctica? Are there other artifacts, and if so, what are they and what do they do? Jeff is relatively protected by virtue of his bloodline, but what about Paul and Charlie? How do they cope with all the Weird Shit they’re encountering? Feel free to incorporate as much or as little from the Cthulhu Mythos as you like. I’m a huge Lovecraft nerd but I also don’t take it too seriously (part of why I adore this movie so much), so please don’t feel constrained by the tone of the movie or the original source material. If you want to stick with nerdy banter and friendship bracelets, I dig it; if you want to try for something creepier and more traditionally Lovecraftian, I’d love that too.
Even more optional stuff:
I kind of love stories where a group of people who team up together a lot (THE AVENGERS, I’M LOOKING AT YOU) all live in one big house and do domestic family shit? Jeff and Charlie already lived together; I would absolutely love it if they made Paul move in too. And Paul’s grandmother is just like, “THANK GOD, IT’S ABOUT FUCKING TIME,” because she’s sassy that way.
Seriously, though, there’s absolutely no fic for this movie and I would be delighted with pretty much anything. I’m honestly not that picky.
Potential sources: If you have Netlix, it’s available HERE. You can also find it on DVD through Amazon. The works of H.P. Lovecraft can be found in a variety of books, and online here and here.
Redshirts – John Scalzi
Characters: Andrew Dahl, Jasper Allen Hester
Additional info:
THIS BOOK. THIS BOOOOOOOK. This book epitomizes everything I love about fanfiction. And many of the things I love about Star Trek! One of the greatest things about Star Trek is that the show and the fanfic it inspired are the granddaddy and grandmommy of so many of the weird, delightful tropes I adore. Sex pollen! Huddling for warmth to stave off hypothermia! Mirror universes! Mind melding! Mind melding that gives rise to feeeeeelings! Aliens made them do it! Pon Farr! Time travel! People getting freaky with the holodeck (okay, that’s Next Gen, but still)! Accidental marriage!
Author, I would be so incredibly delighted if you took a classic fanfic trope, applied it to Redshirts, and just ran away with it. I am so serious. Shippiness would be amazing but by no means required, and you can get as meta as you like with it. Is the story still part of the Narrative? Is it existing outside of it? How many fictional layers are involved, and how aware are the characters of it?
I would also be delighted if you opted for a different direction! This universe is absolutely crying out for backstory, and it would be so awesome to find out what it was like for Dahl in the Forshan seminary, or what exactly went down during the conversation where Finn talked Hester into using his footlocker for, er, “candy”. Was Hester actually a virgin when they were on shore leave, and if so, did he and Finn do something about it? Tell me about the development of Duvall’s relationship with Kerensky, or about her altercation with a superior back on the Nantes! OR HANSON! TELL ME YOUR THOUGHTS ON HANSON! I WANT TO KNOW!
I don't really have an OTP for this book, but I do have some ships that I really like. Duvall and Kerensky, for one – I love that she’s way smarter, tougher, and more awesome than he is, and I love that they both know it. I could totally see them as one of those couples that constantly breaks up and gets back together. I also ship Dahl, Hester, and Finn REALLY HARD in various permutations. Not really as an OT3 thing, but I love Dahl/Hester, Dahl/Finn, and Finn/Hester pretty equally, and would be over the moon if you opted to write about any of them. Hester ended up being one of my favorite characters, so Hester pairings are YAY. I’d love to know how the events of the book affected him. What is he doing with himself now? How does he step up to start being the guy he wants to be?
(If you wanted, I would be cool if you found some bizarre, sci-fi logic way to bring Finn back. Given the existence of the Box, Chronicles of the Intrepid seems to run on SCIENCE!!! and I could totally see Weinstein writing Finn back in somehow to make up for giving him a shitty death. You definitely don’t have to, but if character death fixits are your thing then I am setting up camp and subscribing to your newsletter. Or you could leave him the way he is, because his death stays meaningful to the others that way. ♥ Finn ♥)
Even more optional stuff!
Hey, you know what I love? AUs. AUs are awesome. Again, you can get as weird and meta as you like with this, because the very nature of the book and the universe kind of lend themselves to the characters being aware of the tropes around them, and if you are the kind of person that really loves writing AUs then you have my permission to venture into FULL-ON SPARKLY CRACK TERRITORY. I’m not really into character crack (unless they lampshade it acknowledging the Narrative’s involvement), but setting or scenario crack is definitely cool.
Sources: Redshirts is currently available in hardback and in a variety of e-formats.
Tron - All Media Types
Characters: Tron, Rinzler, Clu
Additional info:
I have a lot of feelings about Tron. The idea of sentient and sapient artificial intelligence is one of my BIGGEST bulletproof narrative kinks, and one of the things I love about the Tron movies/game/comic/tv show is that even though the programs think and feel and react in ways that are very human, there’s still something that’s ever-so-slightly alien about them. Evolution was kind of a mediocre game, but it got me thinking a lot about the way programs experience reality. What did restoring from his backup feel like to Anon, the System Monitor? How did the Abraxas virus actually work, and did it fundamentally change Jalen and Gibson’s code or were they still in there somewhere? On the Legacy side of things, are the humans still “human” when they’re on the Grid or do their bodies operate in a way more similar to the programs? Was Quorra able to enter our world just because she was an ISO, or could other programs do the same thing? If so, what would our world be like for them?
You certainly don’t have to go into all this stuff, but I would absolutely love a story that at least touches on the differences between humans and programs, whether it’s a story about the programs only or one about the programs and humans both. Depending on the direction you go with it, gen is definitely cool. I have a huge list of pairings that I like for the Tron universe, and while I would prefer something that’s not outright non-con, dub-con is very much okay for anything involving Clu or Rinzler. Poly and OT3 aren’t really my thing, so if you do write about anyone hooking up, I’d prefer monogamy. If you do like the idea of writing a pairing, I ship Sam/Tron (Rinzler), Sam/Clu (I know, I know, I’M SORRY), Clu/Tron (Rinzler), Anon/Tron (Rinzler), and Anon/Gibson. I honestly have no preference between Tron and Rinzler, because the whole reprogramming thing is just REALLY FASCINATING to me when it comes to these guys and I love when authors explore that.
Even more optional stuff!
Okay, so the Tron universe is kind of a big sandbox and I mostly just babbled about why I like it, so here are some additional tropes and prompts and things for if you’re feeling stuck. I love stories set after Legacy, where Sam has to deal with the damage Clu left behind and Tron is struggling with the things he’d done as Rinzler. I also love stories where he hasn’t entirely shaken the Rinzler programming. And AU’s! I REALLY LOVE AU’S! What if Anon hadn’t died at the end of Evolution? What if Gibson hadn’t been taken over by the virus? What if Anon had been infected as well? What if Clu won? What if Rinzler never flipped back to Tron and he decided to carry on where Clu left off? What if Clu hadn’t been able to reprogram him into Rinzler in the first place? What if Flynn and Clu both survived? Seriously, there’s no end to the changes you could explore, and any of them would be delightful. *grin*
Sources: Tron and Tron: Legacy are both available on DVD. You can usually find the game Tron: Evolution in game stores, but unless you’ve already played it (or don’t mind glitchy controls and dying a lot) I recommend hitting up Youtube for Let’s Play videos and/or cutscenes.
I'm sorry this got so long, oh lovely author, but I hope it gives you lots of options to work with! I'm really excited to see what you come up with.
First off, you are quite possibly my favorite person in the world right now! I heart you like whoa, author, I really do. I’m super-excited that you matched up on one of my fandoms, and I just want to say straight out that if you already have an amazing idea that you’re excited to write, then you can completely disregard everything I’ve said here. Also, if we matched on one thing and you like one of my other fandoms more, feel free to write that story instead! I’m in love with every single fandom in this letter and would be incredibly excited to read something in any of them.
I’m not sure how much help this will be to you, but I post fanfiction at AO3 under
While I generally prefer slash and gen over het, I’m quite fond of all three and will try to specify which pairings I’m particular about. I’m definitely fine with any rating, so stick to what you feel most happy writing. Like, if you don’t feel comfortable writing explicit sex? That’s cool! If you really, really love writing explicit sex? That’s cool too!
In terms of dislikes, I’m relatively simple. I don’t like mpreg, non-con (although dub-con is fine, especially for the Tron universe), or kinks like vomit, scat, or watersports. I also don’t usually like works with strong BDSM themes. Angst is delicious when it fits the story and I will happily eat it with a spoon, but I definitely prefer my endings to be somewhat happy. I understand that “happy” is a relative term (for example, if you’re writing from a villain’s POV, then a happy ending for them might be one in which they convince the hero to turn to the dark side…and I am totally okay with that!), so when I use it here I mean (a) no deathfic*, and (b) if two characters are in a relationship, I’d prefer that they stay together and are relatively comfortable with that decision.
*If a character has died in canon, it’s definitely cool to acknowledge it and for the other characters to reference it! I just don’t really want a story where death is the major focus, if that makes sense.
On to fandom specifics!
The Last Lovecraft: Relic of Cthulhu
Characters: Charlie, Paul, Jeff
Request: I’d love to see a story set after the events of the film, either before or after the Antarctica coda. I ship Paul and Charlie like burning (their banter!), so a story where they get together would be absolutely amazing. If slash isn’t your thing, then genfic about the three guys fighting monsters or being nerdy together would also be lovely. I’m a big Lovecraft nut -- the “comic book version” of the Cthulhu Mythos was fun and hilarious, but it would be SO COOL to see other details of the mythos worked into the fic. Go nuts! I would also be just as happy with fic where all they do is argue about the accuracy of “Alien vs. Predator” as I would be with case!fic where they trek off to the Plains of Leng. (However, I would prefer that no one die or go insane. I know, I know – CTHULHU – but I like my endings happy and the movie is silly enough that you can work around the sanity thing). Seriously, any fic at all for this movie would be awesome.
Additional Info:
So…I ship Paul and Charlie really hard. Like, really hard. The banter between the two of them is one of the main reasons I love the movie as much as I do, and you could write a story where they do nothing but talk about which “Silent Hill” game is the best and I would love you forever. Friends to lovers is one of my faaaaaavorite fic tropes in the whole entire universe, so a story where they slowly/eventually/finally get together? ~Amazing!~
Because the movie draws (inaccurately, but still) from Lovecraftian source material, I would also be SO INCREDIBLY DELIGHTED if you opted to play in that part of the sandbox instead. What do the guys find in Antarctica? Are there other artifacts, and if so, what are they and what do they do? Jeff is relatively protected by virtue of his bloodline, but what about Paul and Charlie? How do they cope with all the Weird Shit they’re encountering? Feel free to incorporate as much or as little from the Cthulhu Mythos as you like. I’m a huge Lovecraft nerd but I also don’t take it too seriously (part of why I adore this movie so much), so please don’t feel constrained by the tone of the movie or the original source material. If you want to stick with nerdy banter and friendship bracelets, I dig it; if you want to try for something creepier and more traditionally Lovecraftian, I’d love that too.
Even more optional stuff:
I kind of love stories where a group of people who team up together a lot (THE AVENGERS, I’M LOOKING AT YOU) all live in one big house and do domestic family shit? Jeff and Charlie already lived together; I would absolutely love it if they made Paul move in too. And Paul’s grandmother is just like, “THANK GOD, IT’S ABOUT FUCKING TIME,” because she’s sassy that way.
Seriously, though, there’s absolutely no fic for this movie and I would be delighted with pretty much anything. I’m honestly not that picky.
Potential sources: If you have Netlix, it’s available HERE. You can also find it on DVD through Amazon. The works of H.P. Lovecraft can be found in a variety of books, and online here and here.
Redshirts – John Scalzi
Characters: Andrew Dahl, Jasper Allen Hester
Request: Because this book riffs on Star Trek, I would absolutely LOVE to see fic that plays with classic fanfic tropes, especially ones that show up a lot in Star Trek fic. I’m ridiculously fond of the weird shit that always happens to the away teams – sex pollen, having to huddle together for warmth, accidental marriage, alien mind control, etc. How do our dear protagonists handle that kind of thing? I kind of love Dahl/Hester for anything post-book, but cheerfully ship Dahl/Finn, Finn/Hester, and Duvall/Kerensky as well. Gen is also lovely! Referencing the Narrative certainly isn’t necessary, but it would be delightful…especially if the characters acknowledge that Something Tropetastic Is Happening and either change how they act or go along with it anyway. The more meta, the better! I love that stuff.
Additional info:
THIS BOOK. THIS BOOOOOOOK. This book epitomizes everything I love about fanfiction. And many of the things I love about Star Trek! One of the greatest things about Star Trek is that the show and the fanfic it inspired are the granddaddy and grandmommy of so many of the weird, delightful tropes I adore. Sex pollen! Huddling for warmth to stave off hypothermia! Mirror universes! Mind melding! Mind melding that gives rise to feeeeeelings! Aliens made them do it! Pon Farr! Time travel! People getting freaky with the holodeck (okay, that’s Next Gen, but still)! Accidental marriage!
Author, I would be so incredibly delighted if you took a classic fanfic trope, applied it to Redshirts, and just ran away with it. I am so serious. Shippiness would be amazing but by no means required, and you can get as meta as you like with it. Is the story still part of the Narrative? Is it existing outside of it? How many fictional layers are involved, and how aware are the characters of it?
I would also be delighted if you opted for a different direction! This universe is absolutely crying out for backstory, and it would be so awesome to find out what it was like for Dahl in the Forshan seminary, or what exactly went down during the conversation where Finn talked Hester into using his footlocker for, er, “candy”. Was Hester actually a virgin when they were on shore leave, and if so, did he and Finn do something about it? Tell me about the development of Duvall’s relationship with Kerensky, or about her altercation with a superior back on the Nantes! OR HANSON! TELL ME YOUR THOUGHTS ON HANSON! I WANT TO KNOW!
I don't really have an OTP for this book, but I do have some ships that I really like. Duvall and Kerensky, for one – I love that she’s way smarter, tougher, and more awesome than he is, and I love that they both know it. I could totally see them as one of those couples that constantly breaks up and gets back together. I also ship Dahl, Hester, and Finn REALLY HARD in various permutations. Not really as an OT3 thing, but I love Dahl/Hester, Dahl/Finn, and Finn/Hester pretty equally, and would be over the moon if you opted to write about any of them. Hester ended up being one of my favorite characters, so Hester pairings are YAY. I’d love to know how the events of the book affected him. What is he doing with himself now? How does he step up to start being the guy he wants to be?
(If you wanted, I would be cool if you found some bizarre, sci-fi logic way to bring Finn back. Given the existence of the Box, Chronicles of the Intrepid seems to run on SCIENCE!!! and I could totally see Weinstein writing Finn back in somehow to make up for giving him a shitty death. You definitely don’t have to, but if character death fixits are your thing then I am setting up camp and subscribing to your newsletter. Or you could leave him the way he is, because his death stays meaningful to the others that way. ♥ Finn ♥)
Even more optional stuff!
Hey, you know what I love? AUs. AUs are awesome. Again, you can get as weird and meta as you like with this, because the very nature of the book and the universe kind of lend themselves to the characters being aware of the tropes around them, and if you are the kind of person that really loves writing AUs then you have my permission to venture into FULL-ON SPARKLY CRACK TERRITORY. I’m not really into character crack (unless they lampshade it acknowledging the Narrative’s involvement), but setting or scenario crack is definitely cool.
Sources: Redshirts is currently available in hardback and in a variety of e-formats.
Tron - All Media Types
Characters: Tron, Rinzler, Clu
Request: It’s been next to impossible for me to narrow down my prompt for this fandom, because I love so many things about it. What I’m most interested in are the differences between the way humans think and the way programs think, and Tron/Rinzler is SUCH an interesting character to me. What was it like for him to be remade? How did his mind work when he was Rinzler? I really love stuff that’s set after Legacy, because I want to know how Tron deals with everything that went down. Is he all Tron now, or is the Rinzler programming still a part of him? I also really love AUs set in this universe, specifically the “what if things went differently?” sort. What if Clu won? What if Anon survived the events of Evolution? What if the Rinzler programming never fully took hold? I’m primarily interested in Legacy, Betrayal, and Evolution (mostly because I haven’t been able to watch Uprising yet), so feel free to include characters from any of the Tron-related properties.
Additional info:
I have a lot of feelings about Tron. The idea of sentient and sapient artificial intelligence is one of my BIGGEST bulletproof narrative kinks, and one of the things I love about the Tron movies/game/comic/tv show is that even though the programs think and feel and react in ways that are very human, there’s still something that’s ever-so-slightly alien about them. Evolution was kind of a mediocre game, but it got me thinking a lot about the way programs experience reality. What did restoring from his backup feel like to Anon, the System Monitor? How did the Abraxas virus actually work, and did it fundamentally change Jalen and Gibson’s code or were they still in there somewhere? On the Legacy side of things, are the humans still “human” when they’re on the Grid or do their bodies operate in a way more similar to the programs? Was Quorra able to enter our world just because she was an ISO, or could other programs do the same thing? If so, what would our world be like for them?
You certainly don’t have to go into all this stuff, but I would absolutely love a story that at least touches on the differences between humans and programs, whether it’s a story about the programs only or one about the programs and humans both. Depending on the direction you go with it, gen is definitely cool. I have a huge list of pairings that I like for the Tron universe, and while I would prefer something that’s not outright non-con, dub-con is very much okay for anything involving Clu or Rinzler. Poly and OT3 aren’t really my thing, so if you do write about anyone hooking up, I’d prefer monogamy. If you do like the idea of writing a pairing, I ship Sam/Tron (Rinzler), Sam/Clu (I know, I know, I’M SORRY), Clu/Tron (Rinzler), Anon/Tron (Rinzler), and Anon/Gibson. I honestly have no preference between Tron and Rinzler, because the whole reprogramming thing is just REALLY FASCINATING to me when it comes to these guys and I love when authors explore that.
Even more optional stuff!
Okay, so the Tron universe is kind of a big sandbox and I mostly just babbled about why I like it, so here are some additional tropes and prompts and things for if you’re feeling stuck. I love stories set after Legacy, where Sam has to deal with the damage Clu left behind and Tron is struggling with the things he’d done as Rinzler. I also love stories where he hasn’t entirely shaken the Rinzler programming. And AU’s! I REALLY LOVE AU’S! What if Anon hadn’t died at the end of Evolution? What if Gibson hadn’t been taken over by the virus? What if Anon had been infected as well? What if Clu won? What if Rinzler never flipped back to Tron and he decided to carry on where Clu left off? What if Clu hadn’t been able to reprogram him into Rinzler in the first place? What if Flynn and Clu both survived? Seriously, there’s no end to the changes you could explore, and any of them would be delightful. *grin*
Sources: Tron and Tron: Legacy are both available on DVD. You can usually find the game Tron: Evolution in game stores, but unless you’ve already played it (or don’t mind glitchy controls and dying a lot) I recommend hitting up Youtube for Let’s Play videos and/or cutscenes.
I'm sorry this got so long, oh lovely author, but I hope it gives you lots of options to work with! I'm really excited to see what you come up with.
