It's that time of year again...
... so I'm actually making a post to say...
Dear Yuletide Author,
Hi! If you decide or have decided to browse through my other assorted Dear Author letters over the years, you'll probably noticed I've cribbed a good portion of this letter from them, but things get slightly refined over time. You know how it goes. Besides, plagiarizing from yourself is the only plagiarizing that's actually reasonably ethical! :p
That said, hello! Welcome to my letter, I hope it helps to alleviate any possible stress over your assignment instead of making it worse.
If you're trying to glean my personality or general demeanor from my journal here, then I am extremely sorry for its sparseness over the last few years, but feel free to check out my tumblr or twitter, if those are the kind of thing that helps you out. (Although I've been leaning a bit back of even tumblr lately.) If you could care less, then great, carry on!
My general likes include banter, happy endings (although I am perfectly fine with bittersweet or even sad if that's where your muse takes you), throwing in little canon details that you might miss on first read but totally make you squee come the second time around, wit, humor, dramatic irony, missing scenes, and in-character-ness. (Of course, nobody ever actually tries to write a character OOC, outside of crackfic for the purpose, so don't fret too much about this point. Plus one of my fandoms doesn't technically have much in the way of canon characterization, because online games. As long as you make a good faith effort, you'll be fine.) I also like slice-of-life stuff, as is kind of evident in a lot of my requests this year.
As much as I love fic that feels like it could fit right into canon, I also have a soft spot for AUs, so if you get bitten by an AU bug, go right ahead, I'll more than likely adore it.
Dislikes aren't many. Not really a huge fan of major character death for Yuletide, even if I don't mind reading it on a normal basis. Also, and I really doubt this will be much of a problem, but in the interest of full disclosure, depiction of injury to fingernails or toenails skeeves me out more than I can even begin to describe, so if somehow you have a bunny where that might come up, even if it wouldn't really fit in the majority of the fandoms I requested, maybe try to avoid it? Other than that, though, I won't really have much trouble with where you decide to take the fic!
Also, don't feel tied down to the characters I've requested. You can totally feel free to add ones that aren't listed, even in a reasonably large capacity, as long as (this probably goes without saying) you keep the focus on the requests. :) If there are any exceptions, where you can leave out requested characters, I'll have noted them in the individual prompt breakdowns.
And now that I've blathered on quite long enough, on to the nitty-gritty of my requests! It'll go as follows. The requests themselves, a little bit on the fandom, how to access it (should you either need a refresher or decide you just cannot write what we matched on and need to write something else badly!) and why I love it, and then a bit more elaboration on my requests themselves (And please, do not take the relative lengths of the various elaborations as any indicator as to which fandoms I want more. I would be overly thrilled with a gift in ANY of them).
Critical Role (Web Series)
* (Any)
Here's where I go and give you terrifying carte blanche. Seriously, whatever you want to write for this fandom, I'll be happy with (even if it's about characters that weren't nominated)! If you want some specific ideas, you can take a look at my letter, but don't feel beholden to them.
Critical Role! Voice actors playing D&D! Weekly sessions! Absolutely freaking amazing! Matt Mercer is a genius DM, end of sentence. Streams live on Thursday nights, with the archive available on Geek & Sundry's website! I just love the way that these guys interact, both with each other and with what the world (in the form of the amazing DM-ing of Matt Mercer) throws at them. It's compelling and fun and thrilling, worrying, and hilarious all in turns. It's great!
Having been on the receiving end of an Any prompt or two, I know it can be intimidating, especially with such a large list of characters nominated. It was just entirely too difficult for me to choose who I most wanted to see! So I'll leave it up to you who you most want to write! Give me the Critical Role fic you most want to see in the world! Pre-canon, around canon, post-canon, AU, whatever. That said, if you want a few idea-snippets, let me throw stuff out there, totally stream-of-consciousness (and probably long, because I'll do my best to cover every nominated character). Vax and Vex teasing each other like siblings are prone to do. Grog, having more fun being in an angry rage than anyone has any right to be. Scanlan composing new songs to use to inspire his comrades (parodies of current songs entirely welcome). Percy in those early days on the run from the Briarwoods. Keyleth worrying about her Ara'mente. Pike, overseeing the reconstruction of the temple. Tiberius and his relationship to his arcane power. How Gilmore started his shop! Or like I said, feel free to write about anyone NOT nominated. A story about Clarota or the Briarwoods or the guest characters or any NPC we've ever met... fine by me! Might be entertaining!
Flight Rising
* Crim (Flight Rising)
* Pinkerton (Flight Rising)
* Scribbles (Flight Rising)
* Tomo (Flight Rising)
Good times at the Trading Post! What are these guys like when they're just interacting with each other and not necessarily with the dragons that are coming to do business with them? Feel free to include the other Trading Post denizens if you'd like.
Flight Rising! Petsite! Adopt and breed dragons! My lair is right here if you somehow feel you will garner any insight to my likes and dislikes from my dragons. As for what I like about it, well... dragons. In many fun colors! That's the main draw for all petsites, of course, but I also really love what lore we have for FR, and the humor that manages to sneak in as well, whether it be in item descriptions or site announcements, or anything!
As far as my request, it's pretty much a case of what you see on the tin. I love the thought of the trading post dragons getting to see each other every day and what sort of relationships they might have with each other. Don't necessarily feel the need to have to focus on all four of these characters to the exact same level. Feel free to have one or two take center stage if you desire, as long as the others make appearances. Or interject with other Trading Post-ers! Baldwin can be a hoot, or Swipp (and his kids! Aaaah, how adorable!) Have fun with it!
Nethack
* Oracle (Nethack)
I'm curious as to what it's like being the Oracle in the downtime between ever so brave adventurers visiting en route to Yet Another Stupid Death. Day-to-day life in the Dungeons of Doom! Somehow not getting killed by anything! Do the shopkeepers come down and visit occasionally? What's up?
Nethack! In continuous development since pretty much the Paleolithic era! It's a roguelike game, so it's tough (and by that I mean I have yet to actually beat it in the... well over a decade I've been playing (albeit off and on) despite several heartbreaking near misses) but incredibly fun to play, and different every time you play it. It also manages a subtle sense of humor in various item interactions and the limited dialogue that you can encounter.
My request speaks for itself. It's gotta be kinda lonely being the Oracle. Or maybe it's not! After all, she has her visions... and maybe even dwarves and elves and stuff (like shopkeepers, as mentioned, who knows. She has to stay supplied somehow, and it's not like she's short on cash) dropping by. I'm just interested here in what's going on when she's not giving out consultations to player characters.
Shirokuma Cafe | Polar Bear's Cafe
* Grizzly (Shirokuma Cafe)
* Panda (Shirokuma Cafe)
* Penguin (Shirokuma Cafe)
* Shirokuma | Polar Bear (Shirokuma Cafe)
Something that feels like an episode would be lovely here. These guys hanging out in or out of the cafe, getting up to the kinds of shenanigans that they get up to, you know how it goes. Crazy fun!
Shirokuma Cafe! Available for streaming on Crunchyroll. Animals! Living side-by-side with humans! Having jobs and businesses! (Even if those jobs involve... being zoo displays!) It's hilarious and fun and absolutely wacky in a way that I just find great. I just love all the characters and how they interact and the real affection there even if they can get frustrated with each other sometimes.
I was originally going to request an Any on this one, but then it occurred to me that I'd feel kind of sad if any of these guys were left OUT, so requesting all of them it was. I know this makes character juggling a bit tricky, but I really don't mind if one or two of them are more in the spotlight, and the others take more of a background role. I'd just like all of them there, being themselves! They can just be hanging around at the cafe or at Grizzly's bar, or getting into wacky hijinks. Feel free to add other characters if you need them, or don't! Whatever you'd like, it's all good!
Town of Salem (Video Game)
* Godfather (Town of Salem)
* Mafioso (Town of Salem)
* Consort (Town of Salem)
* Consigliere (Town of Salem)
Give me Mafia life! Really, anything you can think of with these guys (and feel free to add or feature any of the maf roles not in the list). Show a plot going down at night, or what they do in the daytime when they're feigning respectability, or conflicts they have with other roles... anything, really! Enjoy yourself!
Town of Salem! Multiplayer online game you can find here. Inspired by the game Mafia, it involves bluffing and deception and intrigue! And it's pretty fun to play. It will of course occasionally run into one of the main downfalls of online games, which is other players who enjoy being disruptive more than anything, but if you manage to avoid them, the game itself is really great and makes you have to think. It's good times.
I always kinda like it when I end up rolling mafia. You have the team aspect working for you in ways that the other roles don't. So yeah, have another 'what it says on the tin' elaboration. And given the nature of the fandom, my normal leeriness of character death in a Yuletide fic is out the window with this one. Gimme a mafia fic and I'll be happy as a clam, even if it ends with absolutely all of them dead and cursing the Spy with their last breaths.
And that is that! More than any of my optional details (which are optional! You are not beholden to them!), the most important thing is that you have fun with writing whatever it is you're going to give me. If you enjoyed writing it, there is no doubt in my mind that I will enjoy reading it. Have a great Yuletide, and I hope it all works out flawlessly for you!
Sincerely,
dizmo
This entry was originally posted at my Dreamwidth. Comment here or there, either's fine by me! :D
Dear Yuletide Author,
Hi! If you decide or have decided to browse through my other assorted Dear Author letters over the years, you'll probably noticed I've cribbed a good portion of this letter from them, but things get slightly refined over time. You know how it goes. Besides, plagiarizing from yourself is the only plagiarizing that's actually reasonably ethical! :p
That said, hello! Welcome to my letter, I hope it helps to alleviate any possible stress over your assignment instead of making it worse.
If you're trying to glean my personality or general demeanor from my journal here, then I am extremely sorry for its sparseness over the last few years, but feel free to check out my tumblr or twitter, if those are the kind of thing that helps you out. (Although I've been leaning a bit back of even tumblr lately.) If you could care less, then great, carry on!
My general likes include banter, happy endings (although I am perfectly fine with bittersweet or even sad if that's where your muse takes you), throwing in little canon details that you might miss on first read but totally make you squee come the second time around, wit, humor, dramatic irony, missing scenes, and in-character-ness. (Of course, nobody ever actually tries to write a character OOC, outside of crackfic for the purpose, so don't fret too much about this point. Plus one of my fandoms doesn't technically have much in the way of canon characterization, because online games. As long as you make a good faith effort, you'll be fine.) I also like slice-of-life stuff, as is kind of evident in a lot of my requests this year.
As much as I love fic that feels like it could fit right into canon, I also have a soft spot for AUs, so if you get bitten by an AU bug, go right ahead, I'll more than likely adore it.
Dislikes aren't many. Not really a huge fan of major character death for Yuletide, even if I don't mind reading it on a normal basis. Also, and I really doubt this will be much of a problem, but in the interest of full disclosure, depiction of injury to fingernails or toenails skeeves me out more than I can even begin to describe, so if somehow you have a bunny where that might come up, even if it wouldn't really fit in the majority of the fandoms I requested, maybe try to avoid it? Other than that, though, I won't really have much trouble with where you decide to take the fic!
Also, don't feel tied down to the characters I've requested. You can totally feel free to add ones that aren't listed, even in a reasonably large capacity, as long as (this probably goes without saying) you keep the focus on the requests. :) If there are any exceptions, where you can leave out requested characters, I'll have noted them in the individual prompt breakdowns.
And now that I've blathered on quite long enough, on to the nitty-gritty of my requests! It'll go as follows. The requests themselves, a little bit on the fandom, how to access it (should you either need a refresher or decide you just cannot write what we matched on and need to write something else badly!) and why I love it, and then a bit more elaboration on my requests themselves (And please, do not take the relative lengths of the various elaborations as any indicator as to which fandoms I want more. I would be overly thrilled with a gift in ANY of them).
Critical Role (Web Series)
* (Any)
Here's where I go and give you terrifying carte blanche. Seriously, whatever you want to write for this fandom, I'll be happy with (even if it's about characters that weren't nominated)! If you want some specific ideas, you can take a look at my letter, but don't feel beholden to them.
Critical Role! Voice actors playing D&D! Weekly sessions! Absolutely freaking amazing! Matt Mercer is a genius DM, end of sentence. Streams live on Thursday nights, with the archive available on Geek & Sundry's website! I just love the way that these guys interact, both with each other and with what the world (in the form of the amazing DM-ing of Matt Mercer) throws at them. It's compelling and fun and thrilling, worrying, and hilarious all in turns. It's great!
Having been on the receiving end of an Any prompt or two, I know it can be intimidating, especially with such a large list of characters nominated. It was just entirely too difficult for me to choose who I most wanted to see! So I'll leave it up to you who you most want to write! Give me the Critical Role fic you most want to see in the world! Pre-canon, around canon, post-canon, AU, whatever. That said, if you want a few idea-snippets, let me throw stuff out there, totally stream-of-consciousness (and probably long, because I'll do my best to cover every nominated character). Vax and Vex teasing each other like siblings are prone to do. Grog, having more fun being in an angry rage than anyone has any right to be. Scanlan composing new songs to use to inspire his comrades (parodies of current songs entirely welcome). Percy in those early days on the run from the Briarwoods. Keyleth worrying about her Ara'mente. Pike, overseeing the reconstruction of the temple. Tiberius and his relationship to his arcane power. How Gilmore started his shop! Or like I said, feel free to write about anyone NOT nominated. A story about Clarota or the Briarwoods or the guest characters or any NPC we've ever met... fine by me! Might be entertaining!
Flight Rising
* Crim (Flight Rising)
* Pinkerton (Flight Rising)
* Scribbles (Flight Rising)
* Tomo (Flight Rising)
Good times at the Trading Post! What are these guys like when they're just interacting with each other and not necessarily with the dragons that are coming to do business with them? Feel free to include the other Trading Post denizens if you'd like.
Flight Rising! Petsite! Adopt and breed dragons! My lair is right here if you somehow feel you will garner any insight to my likes and dislikes from my dragons. As for what I like about it, well... dragons. In many fun colors! That's the main draw for all petsites, of course, but I also really love what lore we have for FR, and the humor that manages to sneak in as well, whether it be in item descriptions or site announcements, or anything!
As far as my request, it's pretty much a case of what you see on the tin. I love the thought of the trading post dragons getting to see each other every day and what sort of relationships they might have with each other. Don't necessarily feel the need to have to focus on all four of these characters to the exact same level. Feel free to have one or two take center stage if you desire, as long as the others make appearances. Or interject with other Trading Post-ers! Baldwin can be a hoot, or Swipp (and his kids! Aaaah, how adorable!) Have fun with it!
Nethack
* Oracle (Nethack)
I'm curious as to what it's like being the Oracle in the downtime between ever so brave adventurers visiting en route to Yet Another Stupid Death. Day-to-day life in the Dungeons of Doom! Somehow not getting killed by anything! Do the shopkeepers come down and visit occasionally? What's up?
Nethack! In continuous development since pretty much the Paleolithic era! It's a roguelike game, so it's tough (and by that I mean I have yet to actually beat it in the... well over a decade I've been playing (albeit off and on) despite several heartbreaking near misses) but incredibly fun to play, and different every time you play it. It also manages a subtle sense of humor in various item interactions and the limited dialogue that you can encounter.
My request speaks for itself. It's gotta be kinda lonely being the Oracle. Or maybe it's not! After all, she has her visions... and maybe even dwarves and elves and stuff (like shopkeepers, as mentioned, who knows. She has to stay supplied somehow, and it's not like she's short on cash) dropping by. I'm just interested here in what's going on when she's not giving out consultations to player characters.
Shirokuma Cafe | Polar Bear's Cafe
* Grizzly (Shirokuma Cafe)
* Panda (Shirokuma Cafe)
* Penguin (Shirokuma Cafe)
* Shirokuma | Polar Bear (Shirokuma Cafe)
Something that feels like an episode would be lovely here. These guys hanging out in or out of the cafe, getting up to the kinds of shenanigans that they get up to, you know how it goes. Crazy fun!
Shirokuma Cafe! Available for streaming on Crunchyroll. Animals! Living side-by-side with humans! Having jobs and businesses! (Even if those jobs involve... being zoo displays!) It's hilarious and fun and absolutely wacky in a way that I just find great. I just love all the characters and how they interact and the real affection there even if they can get frustrated with each other sometimes.
I was originally going to request an Any on this one, but then it occurred to me that I'd feel kind of sad if any of these guys were left OUT, so requesting all of them it was. I know this makes character juggling a bit tricky, but I really don't mind if one or two of them are more in the spotlight, and the others take more of a background role. I'd just like all of them there, being themselves! They can just be hanging around at the cafe or at Grizzly's bar, or getting into wacky hijinks. Feel free to add other characters if you need them, or don't! Whatever you'd like, it's all good!
Town of Salem (Video Game)
* Godfather (Town of Salem)
* Mafioso (Town of Salem)
* Consort (Town of Salem)
* Consigliere (Town of Salem)
Give me Mafia life! Really, anything you can think of with these guys (and feel free to add or feature any of the maf roles not in the list). Show a plot going down at night, or what they do in the daytime when they're feigning respectability, or conflicts they have with other roles... anything, really! Enjoy yourself!
Town of Salem! Multiplayer online game you can find here. Inspired by the game Mafia, it involves bluffing and deception and intrigue! And it's pretty fun to play. It will of course occasionally run into one of the main downfalls of online games, which is other players who enjoy being disruptive more than anything, but if you manage to avoid them, the game itself is really great and makes you have to think. It's good times.
I always kinda like it when I end up rolling mafia. You have the team aspect working for you in ways that the other roles don't. So yeah, have another 'what it says on the tin' elaboration. And given the nature of the fandom, my normal leeriness of character death in a Yuletide fic is out the window with this one. Gimme a mafia fic and I'll be happy as a clam, even if it ends with absolutely all of them dead and cursing the Spy with their last breaths.
And that is that! More than any of my optional details (which are optional! You are not beholden to them!), the most important thing is that you have fun with writing whatever it is you're going to give me. If you enjoyed writing it, there is no doubt in my mind that I will enjoy reading it. Have a great Yuletide, and I hope it all works out flawlessly for you!
Sincerely,
dizmo
This entry was originally posted at my Dreamwidth. Comment here or there, either's fine by me! :D