Dear Yuletide Writer 2021
Oct. 18th, 2021 07:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eccentric_hatHi there, I'm ![[archiveofourown.org profile]](https://p.dreamwidth.org/b164c54b26e4/-/archiveofourown.org/favicon.ico)
Eccentric_Hat! Thank you so much for writing me a story! I'm sure I'm going to love it. I'm kind of a fannish omnivore, especially for small fandoms centered on canons I love. Past, present, and future tense are okay; first, second, and third person are okay; all ratings are acceptable. My prompts, as is usual for me, tend toward gen, but ships are welcome to show up too. I'm generally not wild about stories where other people make a couple get together; I like stories where the people in a relationship understand each other in a particular way that others just don't get. Happy endings are optional. Crossovers between any of these fandoms are welcome if you see a way to pull it off. If you're going to write about any real current events, in particular the pandemic, you can definitely do so, but please tag it.
DNWs: I don't want to read about sexual violence; I would rather not get graphic violence, though in each case, violence at the level present in canon is fine.
Elemental Logic - Laurie J. Marks
Characters: Medric, Zanja na'Tarwein
I'm currently in the middle of reading Air Logic for the first time. I love these books a lot; I just move a little slowly through them because of all the moments when I have to close my eyes and say "oof." So as I write this I haven't read the ending yet, but I'm definitely going to get there before December, so don't worry about that.
I started reading these books because of Medric: a mostly unrelated fandom got me interested in clairvoyants, and now they're something I actively seek out. I thought he didn't show up until book 2 and was absurdly jazzed when, in the middle of book 1, Zanja found herself crashed on the bedroom floor of (I think this is the description) "a bespectacled book-hauling boy with a blue ribbon in his hair." Since then, the moments when these two characters interact have been among my favorites in the series. I love the way they trade questions back and forth when talking in fire logic to each other, the offhanded way she (like most of their family) cares for Medric and reminds him to put his glasses on, and the way he kind of wanders through their family life making himself at home while saying things people don't understand--and all of that is the surface level of a relationship built on enormous trust, intimacy, sorrow, and responsibility. Nobody but Zanja understands what she has lost, but I think Medric might come the closest to understanding her conviction of her own guilt--even while he prefers to play his own sorrows close to the chest a lot of the time. (There's mention, I think at the start of book 2, that he doesn't drink alcohol, coffee, or tea or consume sugar because those things would interfere with his visions, and much later there's an offhand comment that the Sainnites remember him as a drunk. Oof.)
I would love to see more interaction between these two, whether it's an adventure, a card reading, or simply a shared meal. I adore the whole family of which they're part--it makes me especially happy how, at the series midpoint, they start referring to their lovers as husband or wife, without apparently having done anything to formalize that status--and any and all members of that family are welcome to make an appearance.
Galilei Galaxy - Let's Make a Music (Album)
Character: Crystal Goblin
If you don't know what this is, here it is! It's a short comedy sci-fi concept album (EP, really) about goblins, astral projection, and Galileo. Sometimes I listen to it and feel legitimately inspired, because that is the kind of year I am having.
I initially thought I would request Galileo, because the backstory hinted at there is SO tantalizing, and also he gets my favorite song of the bunch. But after thinking about it, what I really want is a story about the goblin: the goblin in its mysterious crystal planet, the goblin being mentored by "Stalagmighty," the goblin reaching out to other people...how do any of these characters even communicate with each other? Where did the goblin actually go to talk to the medium? Is there anybody else living on the crystal planet, and if so who are they, and if not, where did they go, or if there never have been other people, where did the goblin come from? I don't think anyone diegetically refers to the goblin with third-person pronouns, so you can pick any ones you like--obviously the character is voiced by Brian David Gilbert, but then, Galileo was voiced by Karen Han, so I think anything is possible.
I love the podcast from which this album originated, and if you feel like throwing in references to that (not podcaster RPF, I mean the other worldbuilding they hypothesize about while coming up with the songs), or to other songs by LMAM, be my guest! That's totally optional, of course.
Anathem - Neal Stephenson
Character: Fraa Jad
I received an excellent Anathem fic once, so asking again makes me feel greedy; but seeing that somebody else had nominated it this year, I couldn't resist. Tell me a story about Fraa Jad! Let's see the inside of the millenarian math, or his perspective on any of the events of canon--he's like the personification of "galaxy brain" and I am super curious what the adventure looks like to him. Or anything else! The guy is apparently aware of what's going on with infinite other versions of himself, so there is a lot of scope for creativity here.
Dimension 20: The Unsleeping City (Web Series)
Character: Kingston Brown
I have watched most though not all of the D20 campaigns, and Unsleeping City is my personal favorite. I love it when creators tell stories about a place that matters to them, and I ESPECIALLY love it when they take a good long look at that place's shortcomings as well as its wonders. Kingston is, I think, the distillation of that. He's committed to New York to a nearly unimaginable level, and he also knows it so well that he knows just how it can trample on people, how it can chew someone up and spit them out. I'm particularly moved by his relationship with Liz, and their oddball journey to parenthood, so you can absolutely take this in the direction of exploring their family life after chapter 2. (Potentially useful side note: I love Iga, and I love dragons, so if you want any draconic stuff and/or Langston's connection to her family history, I'm here for it.) The only reason I haven't also requested Liz and Langston is that I would ALSO be here for Kingston in the past, or during or between the canonical storylines, when he's coming to grips with his role as Vox Populi or facing an early adventure. Maybe Kugrash is there too? Maybe Misty is? Maybe it's him and Pete in a two-hander Vox story? Honestly this is kind of an "any" request, just "any with Kingston."
Greater Boston (Podcast)
Characters: Any (nominees are Leon Stamatis, Nica Stamatis, Michael Tate, and Gerald Poletti)
Someone nominated a similar set of characters for this fandom that I nominated last year, so obviously I'm here for it! And copying over some prompts from last year's sign-up.
Nica: I want Nica to get help, badly, but I think the show is getting her there, so I don't need a fic that predicts her future. I'd be interested in sibling fic for her (what's a time when the Stamatis siblings all got along really well, as children or as adults? What's a time when they didn't?). Or a missing-moment kind of scene between her and any other member of the cast--Louisa, Michael, Dimitri, heck maybe Mallory. Or what were her dealings with Oliver like, from her perspective?
Poletti (I'm gonna refer to him by his last name because calling him Gerald feels wrong and the other names change so much): I really disliked this guy when he first showed up in the narrative, and I'm super impressed by how the show has won me over to liking him.The moment I first got the idea to request this show for Yuletide was when Poletti was talking to Fox Fossil on the phone and said, "I love you," and Fox Fossil sighed and said, "I know you do, baby. I know." We've gotten a few more episodes since then featuring the family as a whole, but I'm still really curious about them! And I love the idea that from their perspective Poletti is the buttoned-up one who goes out and earns a living at an office, while most of the family is gardening or doing conceptual art or something.
Leon is just such a good person, and to put it baldly, it breaks my heart that he's dead. I'd love to see a story about him and Nica, or him and Michael; something grappling with the extremes of Leon's punctuality and what he could and couldn't deal with as a living person, what he can and can't deal with now that he's dead. If you wanted to install him as the narrator to tell a story about someone else, including someone else not nominated, that could also be cool.
Michael is the greatest; love his friendship with Leon, love his friendship with Louisa, want only good things for him but accept that bad things happen to him for narrative reasons. Michael gets some of the best monologues in the show--the speech about "I cause you, and you cause me, and we're both of us each other's fault" is priceless. Would love to see him interacting with just about anybody.
DNWs: I don't want to read about sexual violence; I would rather not get graphic violence, though in each case, violence at the level present in canon is fine.
Elemental Logic - Laurie J. Marks
Characters: Medric, Zanja na'Tarwein
I'm currently in the middle of reading Air Logic for the first time. I love these books a lot; I just move a little slowly through them because of all the moments when I have to close my eyes and say "oof." So as I write this I haven't read the ending yet, but I'm definitely going to get there before December, so don't worry about that.
I started reading these books because of Medric: a mostly unrelated fandom got me interested in clairvoyants, and now they're something I actively seek out. I thought he didn't show up until book 2 and was absurdly jazzed when, in the middle of book 1, Zanja found herself crashed on the bedroom floor of (I think this is the description) "a bespectacled book-hauling boy with a blue ribbon in his hair." Since then, the moments when these two characters interact have been among my favorites in the series. I love the way they trade questions back and forth when talking in fire logic to each other, the offhanded way she (like most of their family) cares for Medric and reminds him to put his glasses on, and the way he kind of wanders through their family life making himself at home while saying things people don't understand--and all of that is the surface level of a relationship built on enormous trust, intimacy, sorrow, and responsibility. Nobody but Zanja understands what she has lost, but I think Medric might come the closest to understanding her conviction of her own guilt--even while he prefers to play his own sorrows close to the chest a lot of the time. (There's mention, I think at the start of book 2, that he doesn't drink alcohol, coffee, or tea or consume sugar because those things would interfere with his visions, and much later there's an offhand comment that the Sainnites remember him as a drunk. Oof.)
I would love to see more interaction between these two, whether it's an adventure, a card reading, or simply a shared meal. I adore the whole family of which they're part--it makes me especially happy how, at the series midpoint, they start referring to their lovers as husband or wife, without apparently having done anything to formalize that status--and any and all members of that family are welcome to make an appearance.
Galilei Galaxy - Let's Make a Music (Album)
Character: Crystal Goblin
If you don't know what this is, here it is! It's a short comedy sci-fi concept album (EP, really) about goblins, astral projection, and Galileo. Sometimes I listen to it and feel legitimately inspired, because that is the kind of year I am having.
I initially thought I would request Galileo, because the backstory hinted at there is SO tantalizing, and also he gets my favorite song of the bunch. But after thinking about it, what I really want is a story about the goblin: the goblin in its mysterious crystal planet, the goblin being mentored by "Stalagmighty," the goblin reaching out to other people...how do any of these characters even communicate with each other? Where did the goblin actually go to talk to the medium? Is there anybody else living on the crystal planet, and if so who are they, and if not, where did they go, or if there never have been other people, where did the goblin come from? I don't think anyone diegetically refers to the goblin with third-person pronouns, so you can pick any ones you like--obviously the character is voiced by Brian David Gilbert, but then, Galileo was voiced by Karen Han, so I think anything is possible.
I love the podcast from which this album originated, and if you feel like throwing in references to that (not podcaster RPF, I mean the other worldbuilding they hypothesize about while coming up with the songs), or to other songs by LMAM, be my guest! That's totally optional, of course.
Anathem - Neal Stephenson
Character: Fraa Jad
I received an excellent Anathem fic once, so asking again makes me feel greedy; but seeing that somebody else had nominated it this year, I couldn't resist. Tell me a story about Fraa Jad! Let's see the inside of the millenarian math, or his perspective on any of the events of canon--he's like the personification of "galaxy brain" and I am super curious what the adventure looks like to him. Or anything else! The guy is apparently aware of what's going on with infinite other versions of himself, so there is a lot of scope for creativity here.
Dimension 20: The Unsleeping City (Web Series)
Character: Kingston Brown
I have watched most though not all of the D20 campaigns, and Unsleeping City is my personal favorite. I love it when creators tell stories about a place that matters to them, and I ESPECIALLY love it when they take a good long look at that place's shortcomings as well as its wonders. Kingston is, I think, the distillation of that. He's committed to New York to a nearly unimaginable level, and he also knows it so well that he knows just how it can trample on people, how it can chew someone up and spit them out. I'm particularly moved by his relationship with Liz, and their oddball journey to parenthood, so you can absolutely take this in the direction of exploring their family life after chapter 2. (Potentially useful side note: I love Iga, and I love dragons, so if you want any draconic stuff and/or Langston's connection to her family history, I'm here for it.) The only reason I haven't also requested Liz and Langston is that I would ALSO be here for Kingston in the past, or during or between the canonical storylines, when he's coming to grips with his role as Vox Populi or facing an early adventure. Maybe Kugrash is there too? Maybe Misty is? Maybe it's him and Pete in a two-hander Vox story? Honestly this is kind of an "any" request, just "any with Kingston."
Greater Boston (Podcast)
Characters: Any (nominees are Leon Stamatis, Nica Stamatis, Michael Tate, and Gerald Poletti)
Someone nominated a similar set of characters for this fandom that I nominated last year, so obviously I'm here for it! And copying over some prompts from last year's sign-up.
Nica: I want Nica to get help, badly, but I think the show is getting her there, so I don't need a fic that predicts her future. I'd be interested in sibling fic for her (what's a time when the Stamatis siblings all got along really well, as children or as adults? What's a time when they didn't?). Or a missing-moment kind of scene between her and any other member of the cast--Louisa, Michael, Dimitri, heck maybe Mallory. Or what were her dealings with Oliver like, from her perspective?
Poletti (I'm gonna refer to him by his last name because calling him Gerald feels wrong and the other names change so much): I really disliked this guy when he first showed up in the narrative, and I'm super impressed by how the show has won me over to liking him.The moment I first got the idea to request this show for Yuletide was when Poletti was talking to Fox Fossil on the phone and said, "I love you," and Fox Fossil sighed and said, "I know you do, baby. I know." We've gotten a few more episodes since then featuring the family as a whole, but I'm still really curious about them! And I love the idea that from their perspective Poletti is the buttoned-up one who goes out and earns a living at an office, while most of the family is gardening or doing conceptual art or something.
Leon is just such a good person, and to put it baldly, it breaks my heart that he's dead. I'd love to see a story about him and Nica, or him and Michael; something grappling with the extremes of Leon's punctuality and what he could and couldn't deal with as a living person, what he can and can't deal with now that he's dead. If you wanted to install him as the narrator to tell a story about someone else, including someone else not nominated, that could also be cool.
Michael is the greatest; love his friendship with Leon, love his friendship with Louisa, want only good things for him but accept that bad things happen to him for narrative reasons. Michael gets some of the best monologues in the show--the speech about "I cause you, and you cause me, and we're both of us each other's fault" is priceless. Would love to see him interacting with just about anybody.
