Dear Yuletide Writer, 2023 edition
Oct. 19th, 2023 05:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hopefulnebulaDear Yuletide Writer,
Thank you for writing for me! You clearly have great taste. ;)
First of all, I want to say that I truly don't want any single request more than any other one that's listed here. I realize some of my requests are much longer than others, but that's primarily due to the number of characters nominated in each. So if you got matched on Periodic Table anthro and are looking at the length of my Alphas prompts, put it out of your mind, I will love what you write just as much regardless of how long the requests are. Second, I usually alphabetize my prompts by fandom, but Farscape is a last-minute addition and I'm not about to copy and paste everything in a different order from the signup form, so it is what it is.
Let's get the "generally do not want" list out of the way first. I'm fine with canon-typical violence for each canon, but please don't focus on gratuitous descriptions of gore. Also please don't spend a lot of time glorifying the nasty things people do to each other. If you're going to include them in the story, that's fine, but please treat them like the terrible things they are.
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 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.
Also, I am completely open to treating and all forms of fanart/IF/whatever, I just perennially forget to opt in.
The prompts themselves are below, along with some commentary on what I love about each source material. Caution: here be spoilers.
Alphas - Anna Levy, Gary Bell - Giver's choice
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: Hated in the Nation - Any from tagset (Blue Coulson, Karin Parke, Shaun Li)
This is my favorite Black Mirror, as someone who spent a lot of years working in trust and safety. I love the dynamics between the nominated characters, and the very different ways they conceptualize the case we follow. I'm having trouble thinking of more about the fandom right now (downside of an anthology show) but I spent a lot of words in the request, so that'll do for the moment.
---
Lock In - John Scalzi - Any from tagset (Chris Shane, Leslie Vann)
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.
---
Periodic Table of Elements (Anthropomorphic) - Chlorine, Fluorine - All characters
- Periodic Videos: Chlorine, Fluorine
- Chemicool has some facts on the history of fluorine and chlorine.
- Chlorine trifluoride. That is all. (If you haven't seen Hank Green's explanation of ClF3, I also recommend it.)
---
Farscape - Aeryn Sun, Moya, Talyn - Giver's choice
Farscape was one of my formative experiences in life, and I'm thrilled that I thought to look for it with the new eligibility rules, even if it did happen just as I was signing up. It came out around the time I realized that I'm not actually "too weird to function," I'm just an autistic person living in a society built for allistic people. So Crichton's journey of being incredibly smart, but placed at a disadvantage because everybody else around him has a wildly different perception of the universe really resonated with me.But I'm not requesting Crichton for this one. (If you want to include him, though, please do!) There's something about the character dynamics and the actually-alien aliens that... just... (chef's kiss). There's a Tor article from a while back that really resonates with why I love the show, too.
Thanks again for matching to me, dear writer, and I look forward to "meeting" you in December.
-Neb (aka HopefulNebula on AO3)
Thank you for writing for me! You clearly have great taste. ;)
First of all, I want to say that I truly don't want any single request more than any other one that's listed here. I realize some of my requests are much longer than others, but that's primarily due to the number of characters nominated in each. So if you got matched on Periodic Table anthro and are looking at the length of my Alphas prompts, put it out of your mind, I will love what you write just as much regardless of how long the requests are. Second, I usually alphabetize my prompts by fandom, but Farscape is a last-minute addition and I'm not about to copy and paste everything in a different order from the signup form, so it is what it is.
Let's get the "generally do not want" list out of the way first. I'm fine with canon-typical violence for each canon, but please don't focus on gratuitous descriptions of gore. Also please don't spend a lot of time glorifying the nasty things people do to each other. If you're going to include them in the story, that's fine, but please treat them like the terrible things they are.
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 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.
Also, I am completely open to treating and all forms of fanart/IF/whatever, I just perennially forget to opt in.
The prompts themselves are below, along with some commentary on what I love about each source material. Caution: here be spoilers.
Alphas - Anna Levy, Gary Bell - Giver's choice
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 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.
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: Hated in the Nation - Any from tagset (Blue Coulson, Karin Parke, Shaun Li)
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? I'd also love to see Shaun working with Karin on a case (especially one that involves Black Mirror-esque technology). Or: does he have any idea what Blue is up to? If so, is he helping her at all?
This is my favorite Black Mirror, as someone who spent a lot of years working in trust and safety. I love the dynamics between the nominated characters, and the very different ways they conceptualize the case we follow. I'm having trouble thinking of more about the fandom right now (downside of an anthology show) but I spent a lot of words in the request, so that'll do for the moment.
---
Lock In - John Scalzi - Any from tagset (Chris Shane, Leslie Vann)
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 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.
---
Periodic Table of Elements (Anthropomorphic) - Chlorine, Fluorine - All characters
These two are just so explosive. Especially together. Do they just want to watch the world burn? What do they get up to? Why are they so reactive? Is there a secret society of other elements that wants to create ions of these two (chlorides and fluorides) to render them harmless?
- Periodic Videos: Chlorine, Fluorine
- Chemicool has some facts on the history of fluorine and chlorine.
- Chlorine trifluoride. That is all. (If you haven't seen Hank Green's explanation of ClF3, I also recommend it.)
---
Farscape - Aeryn Sun, Moya, Talyn - Giver's choice
I would love just about anything with any of these characters. Send the crew on an adventure with the most alien aliens you can imagine, show me how Moya coped with living under Peacekeeper rule pre-series, give me Talyn's POV as he forms his identity. The galaxy (whichever one they're in) is the limit.
Other potential starting points:
-Moya and Talyn communicate and experience life so differently than her crews do. (Heck, Moya and Talyn experience things differently from each other.) How do they stay a part of their crews' adventures when they can't join in planetside?
-Send Aeryn on an adventure before or after the series. (Or during, for that matter.) Show me the ways she's grown from her past, or sow the seeds of her future development.
Farscape was one of my formative experiences in life, and I'm thrilled that I thought to look for it with the new eligibility rules, even if it did happen just as I was signing up. It came out around the time I realized that I'm not actually "too weird to function," I'm just an autistic person living in a society built for allistic people. So Crichton's journey of being incredibly smart, but placed at a disadvantage because everybody else around him has a wildly different perception of the universe really resonated with me.But I'm not requesting Crichton for this one. (If you want to include him, though, please do!) There's something about the character dynamics and the actually-alien aliens that... just... (chef's kiss). There's a Tor article from a while back that really resonates with why I love the show, too.
Thanks again for matching to me, dear writer, and I look forward to "meeting" you in December.
-Neb (aka HopefulNebula on AO3)