Yuletide Letter!
Dear Yuletide Author,
I’m so glad to learn we share a taste in fandoms! This is my second Yuletide and I had a tremendous amount of fun last year. I’m so eager to read what you come up with because I know it will be amazing. Thank you for taking the time to read over my letter, and of, course, write a story for me.
If you’re curious, here’s my tumblr and AO3 page. My LJ’s pretty locked down at this point.
My letter did get a tad long, but please don’t feel obligated to use these prompts if none of them work for you. I’m just excited at the thought of reading fic with these canons and characters!
General
Shipping-wise, I’m open to anything: Het, slash, femslash, threesomes/moresomes, and gen are all fine. I listed some of my preferences for each fandom in the prompts.
My favorite stories focus on characterization and the relationships between the characters against the backdrop of a strong genre plot-I LOVE plotty fics and I’m particularly fond of mystery, suspense, adventure, and espionage.
I could care less about nitpicky canon details or canon compliance as long as the characters are IC, so feel free to shift around timelines and bring back characters from the dead if you need to make the story work.
Yes!: Strong, complex characterization. Plottiness. Canon-divergent AUs that ask - and answer! - what-if questions, or that introduce unusual elements to the already established canon. Angst-tinged romance. Bittersweetness. Melancholy. Quirkiness. Ambience, atmosphere, and evocative settings. Happily-for-now endings. Moral ambiguity.
No!: Rape, non-con, or other sexual violence. Underage. True incest. Scat. Major character death. Slice-of-life or straight character studies. AUs in which the characters are completely removed from the established setting. PWPs or stories in which the plot only exists to set up a sex scene at the end. Issuefic.
Maybe!: I’m fine with plot-necessary violence and gore as long as it’s not overly cruel or sadistic. I also don’t want long, loving descriptions of any act of violence. I like sex scenes as long as they don’t interrupt the narrative drive of the story. I’m generally fine with dub-con, especially if it’s more con than dub.
Generally I don’t want crossovers; however, Millennium is the exception to the rule, and I included a list of fandoms I’d be interested in seeing it crossed over with-if you’re interested, of course!
Fandoms
Fandom No. 1: Millennium
Characters: Frank Black, Jordan Black, Catherine Black, Emma Hollis (you can choose any combination of characters)
Millennium is the other show by Chris Carter. It aired in the late ‘90s and combined serial killers, the apocalypse, conspiracies, and Lance Henriksen into a delicious television stew:
What I love most about Millennium is the way it captures the paranoid end-of-days feel that was hanging around during the end of the twentieth century. The supernatural elements are much more subtle than in the X-Files, but they create an overall sense of eerie dread that I find simply fantastic. I also love how complex and richly drawn the characters are, and how the intricacies of their relationships are beautifully explored. Any fic that touches on either of those elements-eerie apocalypse stuff or complex character work-would be amazing!
Prompts
1. AU that assumes the second season ended with the actual apocalypse. I’d love a fic that explores Frank and Jordan’s time together as they navigate the post-apocalyptic world, The Road-style. What role does the Millennium Group play now that the end has come? How does Frank deal with Catherine’s death while fighting for his and Jordan’s survival? Feel free to bring in any characters you’d like; I love Emma and would be happy to see her incorporated into this scenario.
2. Jordan as an adult, dealing with having inherited her father’s abilities. What career path has she taken? What’s her relationship with Frank like? Does she have any ties to the Millennium Group?
3. Case fic is always appreciated with this fandom. I prefer mysteries that traffic in the supernatural to some degree-although how supernatural you want to make the case is up to you. I’d particularly love to see Frank working closely with either Emma or Catherine to solve the mystery. Finally, this prompt option is one exception to my “no-crossover” rule, as I’d enjoy seeing Frank working his way through any of these universes: Hannibal, Dexter, Sleepy Hollow, Elementary, Alien Nation, or The Lone Gunman.
Fandom No. 2: 2046
Characters: Tak, Su Li Zhen, Wang Jing Wen | Android, Chow (ETA: I forgot to list him here! You can write about him! You can also choose any combination of characters)
2046 is a dreamy, gorgeous, all-around perfect film from Wong Kar Wai. Love, loneliness, 1960s Hong Kong, pulp science fiction-does it get any better than this?
This is one of my favorite movies of all time. I love the beauty of it, the complexity of the characters and their interactions, and the way Chow lets his personal life influence the science fiction story that he’s writing. I also adore the science fiction sequences: they’re easily my favorite part of the movie. I have a huge thing for robots and stories about robots (see my Aliens prompts, too), and 2046 does really interesting, beautiful things with its android characters.
Prompts
1. A fic that explores the science fiction world Chow has created. I’d especially love something that looks at Tak’s time in 2046. How do you imagine it? What does it look like? What exactly happened to him there? I’d also love something that looks at the android characters in more depth.
2. I’m really interested in the way that the people Chow meets show up in this story, so I’d love to see something that’s structured a bit like Once Upon a Time, in that the characters are the same-ie, Wang Jing Wen exists in 1960’s Hong Kong AND as an android in the future. Basically, I’d like a fic that bridges between the present of the movie and the story Chow is writing, with the assumption that story is real.
3. A story that looks at the relationship between Wang Jing Wen and her boyfriend. I’d especially love something that follows them to Japan, after the events of the film, or that looks at the events of the film from her point of view.
4. An exploration of the Su Li Zhen that Chow meets in Singapore. I would love to see her backstory, to know why she has taken up gambling, or to find out what happens to her after Chow leaves. It’s suggested that she’s gone back to Cambodia or been killed, so you can work off that assumption, or go with something completely new.
Fandom No. 3: Aliens
Characters: Ellen Ripley, Bishop, Jenette Vasquez (you can choose any combination of characters)
Does Aliens really need an introduction? It’s the best film in one of the greatest science fiction franchises of all time!
I think what love most about Aliens is how real all the characters feel: they are complex, flawed, and even the redshirt marine characters seem like they’ve dropped into the action from a larger story. I also love how Cameron took the relatively simple premise of the first film and fleshed it out into a wide-reaching mythology. Some things I love about this fandom that I’d like to see explored in fics include Weyland-Yutani’s scheming, the place of synthetics in society, and general space opera badassery. Pairing-wise I like Bishop/Vasquez, Ripley/Bishop, and Ripley/Vasquez.
Prompts
1. Post-movie fix-it with a strong plot, lots of action, and a kickass space opera feel. I’d especially love it if you kept Vasquez around.
2. Vasquez and Bishop working together in some capacity - either a pre-movie mission or an AU where Vasquez survives. I would especially love something where Vasquez has to save Bishop in some capacity.
3. A bit of worldbuilding fic would be cool, particularly if it explores Weyland-Yutani and their plans for Earth, the solar system, the galaxy in general. I’d love something that looks at how Weyland-Yutani makes use of synthetics within their corporate structure.
Fandom No. 4: Defiance
Character: Stahma Tarr
Defiance is a new science fiction show on the SyFy channel (the first season aired last year) that reminds me so much of 90’s SF shows like TNG. Aliens, worldbuilding, weird steampunk St. Louis-this show has it all!
I’m requesting Stahma because she is hands down my favorite character. I love how she seems like a prefect Castithan wife on the surface, but once you get below that she shows a cunning and eye for trickery and a willingness to move beyond Castithan traditions and expectations. I’d adore any fic that gets inside her head and shows me what she’s thinking, but here are some prompts if you’d like something a bit more specific:
Prompts
1. Any pre-show stuff would be great: her life on her homeworld, particularly an exploration of her love of poetry; meeting Datak on board the Ark (Was the story about her betrothed true? Embellished?), arriving on Earth and setting up shop there.
2. I’d love any shippy stuff with Kenya-canon compliant (what’s Stahma’s thought process after the events of the season finale?) or otherwise. If you want to go the AU route, I’d love a story where Stahma and Kenya run away from Defiance together. What adventures do they have? What’s the larger world like for them?
3. Macbeth-style political machinations! I’d like to see Stahma behind the scenes, pulling all the strings, making stuff happen.
Fandom No. 5: The Lone Gunmen
Characters: Richard "Ringo" Langly, John Byers, Melvin Frohike, Yves Adele Harlow (you can choose any combination of characters)
The Lone Gunman spun off of the X-Files for one season in the early 2000s. I watched it when it aired and have loved it ever since.
What I love most about The Lone Gunman is the humor. My favorite episodes of the X-Files were always the funny ones, and TLG does a great job of bringing that funniness on the regular. I also love the relationship between the original trio and the way they interact with each other, with Jimmy, and with Yves. I chose “any” for my character because I love all four of the characters so much, so a fic that focuses on any or all of them would be just wonderful.
Prompts
1. Good old-fashioned casefic is always appreciated! In particular I’d like to see the back-and-forth with Yves foiling the trio, the trio trying to get back at Yves, Yves figuring out what they were going to do…
2. I love the Byers/Yves pairing, so any shippy stuff between Byers and Yves would be wonderful. I’m also fond of Langley/Frohike, so if you want to do something with them… go for it.
3. I’d love some Langly fic. Langly hacking, being a smug nerd, obsessing over Cap’n Toby… anything with Langly would be wonderful! On a similar note, I’d love to hear more about Frohike and his tango-dancing past.
4. A fic that fleshes out of Yves’ backstory. We got some hints in the show, but it never went in enough depth, and I would love to find out more about her. Feel free to make her backstory as wild and exciting as you want!