Yuletide!

[ishie]

Hi there, Yuletider! I'm so excited to see what happens this year, so THANK YOU FOR WRITING FOR ME <3

This is my *mumblety* year doing Yuletide, and I love it, but it's kind of terrifying, too! I absolutely love fics of all kinds, most especially when you write a story you're excited about. Please don't stress the details. Remember that optional details are optional!

Here's my annual blanket LIKE/NO LIKE thing. (Bottom line is really: if it serves the story, do what makes you happy!)

LIKE: apocafic, both hopeful and bleak; fight scenes that make me ache; snappy dialogue; character studies; narrative-heavy stories; missing moments; AUs both serious and crack; bickering for bickering's sake and UST-y banter; road trips; what-ifs; fix-its; tropes played straight and subverted; canon-compliance; crossovers; original characters; experiments in tone and tense; mood pieces and action-tastic epics; SCIENCE!; friendships romantic and platonic; history stuff; worldbuilding and backstory explorations; that kind of fic where you spend six hours researching something that winds up being two words out of the whole story. I generally prefer het and canon relationships, unless otherwise specified, and I am terribly vanilla when it comes to kinks.

NO LIKE: I put my HARD NOPES in the requests themselves, but here are some other things that make me sadface: gratuitous character-bashing; treating female characters like crap for no reason (but again that goes back to: if it serves the story, as not every story treats its female characters nobly or well). Other than that, it's pretty much all fair game.

I really mean that "write what makes you happy", but here also are WAY TOO MANY details.

If you have questions, I'm happy to answer through the mods :)

So, these requests, in no particular order whatsoever other than the order in which they occurred to me. (Also please please don't think that because there's a ridiculous amount more rambling about one request than another, it means I want one more than another. I love all my children equally; there is not a Gob among them. The only thing is that 2017 continues to sap all of my will to have a good time so I'm choking on writing this letter. I'm sorry.)

KING CREOLE (1958)
Crawfish Seller, Danny Fisher
source: streaming; it runs infrequently on TCM on US cable; and is on dvd & bluray

My long-shot fandom of one! Law of averages says one of these years someone might write it! Let me just say: I would be so happy with anything. ANYTHING. Crawfish Seller and Danny Fisher. Tell me a story. *chinhands* (I ship it like whoa, thanks to this duet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQOlgXaSDy8, anywhere on a spectrum from realistic and heartbreaking, to totally gauzy fantasyland happily ever after style, but not shipping them is also great.)

HARD NOTE: The movie is like 400% white in the middle of mid-century New Orleans for whatever (racist) reason. I'd prefer stories in conversation with that rather than recreating it (aka please don't be an oblivious racist dick?).

HARD NOPES: animal deaths/cruelty; a/b/o; non- or dub-con, rape, abuse, and/or incest glamorized or done up as ~romance~

I'm just gonna repeat what I said last time, because it's everything: We know about him. I want to know about her, and her and him. So, maybe she thought it was only a fling, just to see what it would be like to pretend to be a girl in a world where it doesn't matter who she falls in love with. OR MAYBE HE KNOWS IT'S DOOMED AND ALL OF THE MOVIE IS HIS STUPID ACTING OUT TO GET HER TO HATE HIM? God, he is an unthinking dick aka nineteen-year-old dude, though, so this would work. Or tell me what she's doing during the movie when she's not on screen, which is ALL OF IT after this song. :( Tell me how she struggles and triumphs. Tell me how their paths cross if you aren't starting out with them being together or wanting to be together, or even if you are! Tell me whether she likes selling the crawfish, whether she likes driving the cart, whether she likes standing in knee-high water in the bayou in the mornings, and whether she's pulling up the big cages and thinking how someday maybe she'll have a rice field to flood instead (or maybe she's already got the rice field and she hates one or the other most), or it's late afternoon and she's sold her share for the day and she's not in school anymore and she can't afford college and she's not ready for XYZ and now she has a minute to do what she likes. God. Just. Everything. I want everything. Tell me about anything. (I mostly super want them to be a couple though, I can't lie.)

I feel like this is perpetually the longest of shots in my requests. But I want. Crawfish Seller/Danny Fisher, sweet jeebus, yes, gimme. It's all because of A) this song (♥♥ again, I'm gonna keep linking ittttt) and B) that big smacking kiss he throws at like 42 minutes into the movie, which is probably to the dancer across the street but IT'S NOT IT'S TO HIS LOVE THE CRAWFISH SELLER and I CAN'T BE RATIONAL ABOUT THIS. I'M SO SORRY. It's just that they made this movie right at the cusp of the major civil rights movement in America (though without showing any of that in the movie of course! and without having any characters of color who aren't background!), about as deep as you can get in the South, and almost a decade before Loving v Virginia officially killed interracial marriage bans in law (though not always in practice obvs), and I watch it or listen to the song on repeat, and I want it to be this other hugely complex and painful and wonderful thing instead. I WANT THESE POSSIBILITIES IN MY HEAD TO BE THE REALITY OF THE STORY SO BAD. But mostly I want to learn about crawfish and New Orleans and this girl who drives her cart through the French Quarter every morning and maybe about the boy who sings with her, too.


BACK TO THE FUTURE
Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen, Gertrude Tannen, Griff Tannen, Biff Tannen
source: streaming 1, 2, 3; and is on DVD and Blu-ray

I got a wonderful story about Biff in Yuletide2015 (https://archiveofourown.org/collections/yuletide2015/works/5447510), but there can never be enough Tannenfic for me! I really enjoy complexity in characters, and was disappointed that the Tannens were so one-dimensional in the movies, and I've always wanted to know more about Buford and Biff, and the never-seen Gertrude, and where did Griff come from, and and and. Does Biff go somewhere else between picking up the sports book and 1955? What happened between 1955 and 1985 and 2015 in the first improved timeline to make him so obsequious in middle-age and so bitter in old? Could Griff turn out to not be a dumbass? (Is he in love with one or both of Marty's kids?) Does the casino timeline bleed into another and a Tannen has to fix it instead of a McFly? Does Doc's family run across a Tannen we didn't meet? Do they interfere with Buford's hanging? Or or or. And! Tom Wilson is pretty great—often my favorite part of all three movies on rewatching—so if you channel him, I will adore you for the rest of time. Or OUTATIME. (I'm sorry. It was just sitting there. I had to.)

HARD NOTE: I cannot in 2017 deal with the Biff-Trump comparisons, so please no alt-1985 if you can avoid it.

HARD NOPES: animal deaths/cruelty; non- or dub-con, rape, abuse, and/or incest glamorized or done up as ~romance~

I got a WONDERFUL gift in 2015 for this prompt (Flight of the Tannens!!!) and I'm so greedy I'm asking for another.

Yeah, yeah, Marty and Doc and Jennifer and Lorraine and George. I love them. We all do. They're great! But I want to know about TANNENS. A story about any one or combination of them would be fantastic. Do you want to take it back or forward to other generations? DO IT. Did Buford have a wife? Why did he turn to outlawin'? How did he get to be in California? Who raised his baby? How did they deal with living where Buford harassed everybody and was eventually hanged? Who's Gertrude (Biff's grandma)? Buford's (great-?)granddaughter? Daughter-in-law? Who does Biff hook up with in the improved non-casino original timeline to wind up with a child that eventually produces Griff? What if aside from Buford, Biff, and Griff, the Tannen line is unmarried women who keep their names!! What if all the dudes aren't big dumb jerkfaces! Hell, what if they are. What if the women are worse!! What's your headcanon for this family? I'd really like to read about them being treated fairly as people, not all good or all bad, but definitely not nice people. Maybe a timeline where someone makes a different choice and it isn't a McFly who changes the course of a Tannen's life?


THE GOOD PLACE
Chidi Anagonye, Eleanor Shellstrop
source: s1 is on Netflix, and s2 is currently airing on NBC

Uh, obviously, Eleanor and Chidi are soulmates, whatever else the afterlife throws at them. I thought through most of s1 that the point of the Good Place wasn't that it was the good place but that it was a place where people could get one more shot at *being* good, and tbh I'm kind of still headcanoning it? I freaking love that I can't predict any of the actual factual show decisions, too. This is about the only show I'm 100% current with at all times (this, and Superstore!) so feel totally free to write 100% canon-compliant up to whatever point you're at when you write it, or dive into one of those other Good Places, or dream up your own Michael-approved situation! (I'm also not at all opposed to their being multiple configurations of soulmates, fyiii)

HARD NOTE: No hard notes, just nothing but OMG YESSS in the show's direction and also yours!

HARD NOPES: animal deaths/cruelty; a/b/o; non- or dub-con, rape, abuse, and/or incest glamorized or done up as ~romance~

Hi, I love this show. It and Superstore are about the only things I'll make sure I watch when they air. I love the intricacy of the neighborhood Michael constructed, the inventive ways Eleanor and Chidi try to evade consequences, the genuinely caring relationship that developed between them, the glimpses of their pre-Good Place life, the interplay with the rest of the neighborhood, and going back to rewatch the first season had me LOSING MY MIND at how they laid the groundwork. So! I love it, I love you if you're writing it, and I will love your forking story. Thank you!


14TH CENTURY CE RPF
Anne of Bohemia, Isabella of France, Joan of England, Philippa of Hainault
source: wikipedia? it's hard to source info about them in readily available texts :| (Alison Weir's Queen Isabella is supposed to be quite good, though.)

Another request from a bygone Yuletide that resulted in a wonderful gift, but I'm greedy!

I picked these particular ladies because we've got hundreds of years of junk about their husbands/fathers/sons/brothers. I want stories about them. Especially about having to leave their homes to marry strangers. Especially Joan of England, who died on the way (one of the first English victims of the Black Death :( ) and was only 14 or 15 years old at the time, and Isabella, who was also called the She-Wolf of France. Anything, really! I picked all four but any combination or solo would be great, too.

I've been deep into Shakespeare's histories and pre-Tudor biographies for years, and I'm always struck by two things: how comparatively little importance is placed (by us, mostly) on the marriages that helped broker and break alliances and treaties, and on the women who were so married off and what they did once they were. And most especially in how they related to each other: Isabella of France schemed with her lover to replace her husband on the throne with her son, who she married to Philippa of Hainault. Philippa's favored daughter, Joan of England, left to marry in Spain and never made it there, dying in a camp along the way. Anne of Bohemia came to marry Richard II, against the wishes of most of his court and one of the two rival popes of the time (!!). (re: Anne of Bohemia, I am S U P E R interested in how she was repeatedly cast as the champion of the people against Richard; and re: Isabella of France, omg everything.) Anyway. Royal ladies! How do they talk to each other? What do they know/remember/wish of each other? Do they resent their lives or are they content? Did they dream of being queens regnant, with no kings above them? How much influence do they have over their relatives? Do they think about the generations to come? *_*

HARD NOTE: I would really like stories in which the ladies win, whether it's happily or not.

HARD NOPES: animal deaths/cruelty; a/b/o; non- or dub-con, rape, abuse, and/or incest glamorized or done up as ~romance~

Uh, I don't know what else to say. Go wild! Have fun!


CORMORAN STRIKE SERIES
Cormoran Strike, Robin Ellacott
source: ebook & print

Another prior request I can't get enough of. The end point of the last book is like an open wound!

Uh, so I am super into detective stories of all kinds, everything from Monk and Wishbone to Dashiell Hammett, Law & Order(s), and Agatha Christie. The whole range of it. I love it. I LOVE IT. I also love casefic like burning. What I love best about this series, though, is Cormoran/Robin. I think the latest book is the most well-written of the series so far, with the tidiest and most satisfying conclusion and the least irritating "I know something you don't know" reveal from Cormoran himself. I ship these two dummies like whoa, though. The slow burn is THE BEST but it is also KILLING ME, BUSTER. If you want to play with that or just have them be good friends, I'm fine either way. But if you have them make out I will probably try to make out with you through the computer screen, so, just. You know. Let that be a warning and/or incentive? (It would be really great if you stayed in the time period after Robin comes to work for Cormoran, as I'm much less interested in their backstories than in their now-stories, but you do you!)

I genuinely adore JKR's facility with voices and pacing, and if you'd like to include any of the other characters, that would be lovely! I am not kidding about hating Matthew and Charlotte, though I don't particularly want bad things to happen to them. (Some mildly bad things, maybe. Mostly whatever it takes to get them far, far, far, far away with no takebacks.)

HARD NOTE: I am a big big big fan of how Cormoran's amputated limb is such a big part of his life in the novels and would love to see that in fic as well. Also I am up to date on the TV series and not at all opposed to crossing the streams, if you'd like to do that.

HARD NOPES: animal deaths/cruelty; a/b/o; non- or dub-con, rape, abuse, and/or incest glamorized or done up as ~romance~

HOW COULD SHE END CAREER OF EVIL WHERE SHE DID. Do you want to write your own version of Lethal White? Have at it! I would so very much love to read whatever.


TRUE GRIT
Mattie Ross, LaBoeuf, Rooster Cogburn
source: intermittently available on streaming; dvd & bluray

Okay so by this point you've noticed that I haven't really opened my heart to any new fandoms this year. I tried! But the old ones are still the best ones, so: here's yet another Yuletide repeat request. (I LOVE the fic that exists for this fandom but I want moooore.)

What I love about this movie (and book), which is in my Top Five of all-time: Mattie Ross. She's such a little persimmon, as likely to pray for your soul as to damn you to hell herself, and so loyal and vengeful and mean and innocent. I love Rooster Cogburn in all his offensive, awful, rude, drunk, valiant glory. I love LaBoeuf's braggadocio and hunger for notoriety as much as his idiocy. I'd love any kind of adventure, solo/duo/trio, either on the road where we didn't see or years later. Or character pieces. I'd be delighted by anything but death or torture, really. (Even those are negotiable.)

HARD NOTE: Right off the bat I need to tell you that I ship Mattie/LaBoeuf years down the line. And any story about Mattie after the events in the territory that doesn't deal with her amputation is kind of a deal-breaker for me. I don't expect a story has to be about it entirely, but erasing or eliding it is a no-go.

HARD NOPES: animal deaths/cruelty; a/b/o; non- or dub-con, rape, abuse, and/or incest glamorized or done up as ~romance~

Found families are my JAM and this is one of the best examples of it in Western literature and film, in both senses of the word Western. I am not a scholar of this period or genre, but I am a sucker for period detail and realism--I want ugly and awful and bloody and ruthless with this fandom. I think it's a disservice to the characters not to include those things. Kind of like, oh, say, a film version starring John Wayne that ignores all the dirty for the schmaltz instead! But I have such fondness for the characters that if you wanted to wrap them all in cotton batting and feed them delicate candies and delectable roasted meats that would be great, too. If you love them, then I'd like to read the story you want to tell about them!


Okay, sorry, every year I get more obnoxious, but I'm done now! Happy Yuletide!! I hope it's everything you hope for as a writer and a recipient ♥