Dear Yuletide Writer, 2018 edition

[hopefulnebula]

Dear Yuletide Writer:

If you're reading this, you have great taste.

(This is my tenth year doing Yuletide - which means my eleventh Yuletide - so why not begin the letter with some flattery?)

As usual, I'm copy/pasting a lot of this from previous letters, but it's all up-to-date. (I mean, there are some things I request every year anyway, so why not recycle?) Some of my prompts may be longer than others; please don't interpret this as me wanting you to write (or not write) a specific fandom or prompt. It's just that some of them (like the Black Mirror ones) require more words to cover everything.

As always, these prompts are all completely optional and there's no need to answer every question I ask.

I'm fully up to date on all the canons mentioned herein (including the most recent books in both of my literary prompts), so need to worry about spoiling me. (The other side of this: this letter is seriously spoilery in places, so read carefully.)

As a fan, I'm pretty easygoing. I love quite a lot of things, and I'm not squicked out by a lot. I have some issues regarding characters with disabilities, though, which I trust won't be problematic given the nature of my requests. Please, don't "cure" or otherwise erase the disabilities/differences of characters, and don't resort to problematic tropes ("Rain Man" is not research), and you're good. :) In each of my requests, I love the way these characters are portrayed in their respective canons, so if you stay true to that, I'll be happy.

Other things I don't like: glorification of the nasty things people do to each other (if you're going to have them in the story, that's fine, but please treat them like the terrible things they are) and gratuitous gore.

Now that that's out of the way, a non-exhaustive list of the general things I like:

- Fiction that's in the spirit of the source material. I love me some "original flavor" fic (not linking to the TVTropes page because then you'll never get anything written). Explore the things that the canon doesn't explore in a way that the canon would do it, and I'll be a happy camper.
- Non-human/human-but-neurologically-atypical characters not thinking the way neurotypical humans do, without being caricatures of themselves.
- Unexpected/odd POVs (external POVs of relationships, for instance).
- Epistolary fiction (that is, stories told in the form of letters/e-mails/telegrams/notes sent by carrier pigeon sent between characters)
- Strong character voices (I love hearing the characters speak the lines I read in my head).
- Stories that explore the characters' reactions to things around them (what makes them who they are? How does that relate to how they react to things now?)
- Anything that passes the Bechdel test (has at least two female main characters who communicate with each other about something other than a man)
- Past-fic, future-fic, missing scenes, sets of vaguely connected drabbles, weirdly formatted fics, plotless "slice of life" fics, fix-it fics, and probably about a hundred other things I could think of.
- AUs, particularly of the "what-if" variety.
- I like happy endings, but I also like it when things don't end exactly as the protagonist plans. I like bittersweet and even sad endings. But please don't make it a "rocks fall, everyone dies" ending. There should be something happy or hopeful to grab onto.

I'm open to all ratings, so write whatever you're comfortable writing, and while my prompts tend to lean toward gen-ness, I do like to read romance as well, so if you're a shipper of any sort, please don't feel obligated to avoid it for my sake.

And with that, on to the spoilery stuff.



Alphas (Anna Levy, Gary Bell)

What is Anna's day-to-day life like? How does she work with her local community? How and why did she join Red Flag? How did she get to such a high position in the group? What was her childhood like? How did she create her language, and who was the first person to understand it for what it was? Who does she work with at Red Flag, and what are their interactions like? What have her interactions with Stanton Parrish been like, and what did she do to piss him off?

How did Anna and Gary's relationship go from Gary hanging up on Anna to Gary disobeying orders to try to save her life? What was their correspondence like? What does she think of him?

Fic about Gary is also most welcome! Something highlighting his relationships with the rest of the team? Yes, please. Or an episode tag would be awesome too. Or Gary's driving lessons. Or a post-series fic (taking the finale into account or handwaving it, I don't care) would also be amazing. What is he doing five years from now? Ten? (Has he taken over Red Flag and led it in a non-violent direction? Is he making oodles of money as a consultant on the side? Who knows? You do!) The world needs more Gary.

(If you only want to write about one character or the other for this prompt, that's cool with me.)

I've loved Anna since the second they introduced her.

I love antagonists who aren't necessarily wrong (though I obviously don't condone Red Flag's methods). I love that they make her relatable, but obviously very different from "normal" humans. I even love that she's been misdiagnosed all her life because none of her doctors knew about alphas. I love how sympathetic she is. I love that she and Gary bonded so quickly.

One thing that fascinates me as well is the possibility that her ability might allow her to understand what people mean versus what they actually say.

(From a Watsonian perspective, I hate how she died. From a Doylian perspective, I totally understand it and am fascinated by the implications. This isn't to say I desperately want an AU where she lives, though I'm definitely open to that possibility, and I'd be kind of fascinated to see what Anna-ten-years-from-now would be up to.)

And then there's Gary. Gary, Gary, Gary. I love how they (both the showrunners and the characters) treat Gary as an individual. His autism is an integral part of who he is, but he's not the token oddball or the savant or the Very Special Episode The Writers Put In So Neurotypical Viewers Can Feel Good About Themselves. (And speaking of which, this show is literally the only time I've encountered the word "neurodiversity" in mass media. Which says quite a lot.) Sometimes it's helpful, and sometimes it's debilitating. He does get the lion's share of the funny moments, but it's not in an exploitative way.

In short: Anna and Gary are both the best. If you can make them be the best together, all the better. If not, they're still the best! (Best-ness is not zero sum.)

Black Mirror (Blue Colson, Karin Parke, Nanette Cole, Shania Lowry)

Let's get the probably-obvious housekeeping out of the way first: I do not expect you to include all four characters in your fic, if this is the fandom you matched on. They're from two separate episodes - both my favorites - and you are under no obligation to mash them together. I just couldn't decide between the two. I'd even be fine with fic focusing on any of the individual characters, without including any of the others. Now onto the specific prompts, which I've grouped by episode:

Hated in the Nation - I'd love to see Blue making the major decisions in her life. Choosing to work for law enforcement, becoming a more hands-on detective, leaving the force (and doing what she does at the end of the episode). Hell, even failing her driving tests. How does she deal with the fresh trauma of the episode's events? Does she plot the end of the episode with Karin, or does she just do it and informs her afterward? And speaking of Karin: we see her at the hearing, where she's (presumably) putting on her best face, but how has she herself dealt with the aftermath of the episode? What's her perspective on what happened between the events of May and the day of the hearing? How does she cope? Why does she stay on the force when she has just as much reason to leave as Blue does?

USS Callister - I've requested Nanette and Lowry here because I'm limited to four characters in the signup, but feel free to include more or fewer characters from the episode. I'm interested in so many things here - how do the "crew members" fill their time when Daly isn't around as puppetmaster? (We have some indications but there's got to be way more going on over the years he's been doing this.) How do they settle into their new "lives" within the game? Do they pose as players or as NPCs, or something else entirely? What happens if they get discovered by the programmers in brickspace? Do Lowry and Nanette interact any more between Daly's visits?

DNW: focus on Daly's abuse of the crew - referencing it & its aftermath is fine, graphic descriptions or focus on Daly's POV are not.

I got into Black Mirror in late 2016 (thanks, lil' sister) and have loved it ever since - it's kind of weirdly cathartic. I work in content moderation/trust & safety, so "Hated in the Nation" really speaks to me. Meanwhile, I grew up on Star Trek (seriously, when I was not-quite-2 my dad plopped me down and told me "Hey, I'll bet you'll like this" and it was the premier of The Next Generation, and he was right) and I loved how "USS Callister" managed to simultaneously be a love letter to the great parts of Trek and a takedown of its most problematic elements (including those of society at large, as they creep into fandom).

One of the things I both love & hate about the format of Black Mirror is how many questions each episode leaves. It really does allow for some nice complexity, but I also keep wondering what happens next and how things got to where they did.

(Also for those of you who read this in the 12 hours after it was posted, thanks for bearing with me as I messed up Daly's name. I had a list and everything, but yesterday was kind of a Day, I guess.


His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman (Iorek Byrnison, Lyra Belacqua)

Welcome to one thing I request every year no matter what. If you want, you can completely ignore the characters I've chosen (more on that later in the prompt).

This year I'd love to see what happens with Lyra and Iorek after the end of The Amber Spyglass. I imagine they'd definitely keep in touch with each other, but how? And what do they say to each other? How does Iorek fare as leader, as the North freezes over once again? Do they confide in each other? How does their relationship shift as Lyra grows?

Alternately, I'd love to hear stories, myths, and legends from any of the other worlds we see. If there's a geographic area and/or time period you love, I'd love to see what life is like in that time/place in Lyra's world - create a character and send them on an adventure in Lyra's world. Or you know those snippets of documents/other materials in Lyra's Oxford and Once Upon a Time in the North? Excerpts from things like that - from any world - would be amazing as well (and if you go this route, don't feel obligated to include my requested characters).

I've loved this series for nearly 20 years now and I think it'll always be one of the fandoms of my heart. I especially love the worldbuilding and the depth of the characters.

As much as I love HDM, there's not much I can say here that isn't also included in my prompt. There's the worldbuilding as mentioned above - seriously anything is welcome, from folk tales to pop culture to figuring out how organized sports work in a world where people's souls are tangible and you can't touch any but your own - but also the characters. I love the bit of post-series Lyra we see in Lyra's Oxford (and the supplemental ephemera in Once Upon a Time in the North. There's really no way she wouldn't keep in touch with her friends. While I'm only requesting Lyra and Iorek, it'd be interesting to see her continued communication with Serafina Pekkala and John Faa (and the other Gyptians) as well. Perhaps she's doing research on the North for school?

For the more bear-specific prompts: show me life in the world of the bears. Maybe Iorek's decision to move south, or their historical interactions with the various groups of humans they've come across. Also, fun fact: Polar bears usually have twins. This feels relevant.

Lock In - John Scalzi (any)

I'd love anything surrounding Chris and/or Leslie. Perhaps a story from Chris's childhood (seriously, what would it be like being the second person ever to have a threep?), or Leslie's Integrator training? Or something set a few years in the future as their careers and various personal issues change their working relationship? What was Leslie's daily life like as an Integrator, and how did she pick up the pieces after leaving? (I know she tells Chris the story, but it seems like she's maybe left more out of it than she's included.)

For more worldbuildy (or non-nominated character) prompts: What's life on the Agora like? What was it like when it was brand new? What's it like for people who don't have the money for their own server space? How does being locked in (or not) make things easier or harder for people who would face different treatment for visible traits regardless of Haden status (for instance, race, gender expression, or non-Haden disability)?

DNW: Please no Chris/Leslie, and if you write Chris please don't assign them a gender - I really like what Scalzi did there.

I'm saying "any" here, because I'm super open to worldbuilding and stories about minor, un-nominated characters, but I'd equally love something character-centric.

I love the ideas Scalzi has laid out in this world. It's not just a matter of losing such a large percentage of the world's population, but of the way the disease and subsequent technological developments have reshaped the post-outbreak world.

There are so many splits between groups in the book -- Hadens vs. non-Hadens, Hadens who were locked in as children vs. ones who took ill as adults, people who're seeking cures and integration into "normal" society vs. people who see Haden culture as distinct from that of non-Hadens... and the thing is, none of these sides are fundamentally wrong. So if that's something you feel like exploring, go to town!

If you matched on this fandom and haven't seen Unlocked: an Oral History of Haden's Syndrome, you'd probably enjoy it and maybe even find some inspiration.

Star Trek: Discovery (Saru)

What was Saru's life like on Shenzhou, or Discovery? What spurred him to join Starfleet in the first place? What was his life like before joining? (Kelpien social structures must be vastly different from anything we find on Earth.) What does a first contact specialist do?

I'd also love to see his interactions with his crewmates on Discovery and/or Shenzhou - anything you could write that lets him interact with Michael, Georgiou, or Tilly in particular would be appreciated (though I know Georgiou wasn't nominated, and I'm not specifically requesting the others, so I'm not expecting them if that's not what you want to write).

This is one prompt where I think episode tags or missing scenes would really scratch my itch. Perhaps Saru composing himself after returning to the ship in "Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum", or getting up the courage to deliver his St. Crispin's Day speech in "What's Past is Prologue"?

I feel so naughty requesting Star Trek for Yuletide. But it's in, so it's in.

A non-exhaustive list of things I love about Saru, in no particular order:
-His quasi-sarcastic sense of humor. ("That isn't even creative!" comes to mind.)
-The way he's so much more capable than he believes he is.
- The fact that he's for years been placing himself in situations where he's the only member of his species, and everyone around him thinks in fundamentally different ways than he does. You gotta admire that.
- The way he's clearly had to learn what most humans consider the "basics" of personal interaction.
-The way he manages to assert himself and his boundaries (especially around the people he may distrust) while remaining (outwardly) calm.
-Anxiety superpowers are a canon thing now!


Thanks again! I look forward to seeing what you do.
-Neb

And since we're both here: I've done this once before and might as well do it again. Have a ten-word summary of each fandom (ten words for ten years).

Alphas: Part Heroes, part X-Men, part Farscape - our differences unite us.

Black Mirror: It's not the technology that's messed up, it's the users.

His Dark Materials: Paradise Lost in the multiverse, with epic battles and betrayals.

Lock In: Solving murders across several states, while never leaving your bed.

Discovery: We all choose our pain. Some cope better than others.