yuletide letter

EDIT: I'm probably not going to have my computer on the 25th, so I'll comment on the 27th once I get back from visiting relatives.

Dear Author,

Thank you very much for writing for me! I hope that this letter is useful; and if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them through the usual channels.

General things that I like to read: found-family fics, ship fics, OT3s, and stories about friendship in general — especially odd friendships/friendships that are suggested but not expanded upon in canon. I like friendships and stories about people trying out poly/alternative relationship formats and communicating about them/trying really hard to communicate! I don’t actively seek out explicit fics most of the time, and the ones I do like are focused heavily on the characters’ personalities and relationship as expressed through sex more than the doing of the do. (Does that make sense? I hope so.) Domestic and slice-of-life stories are my absolute favorite, for whatever value of domestic fits the characters. I’m fond of characters dealing with the aftermath of battles/cataclysmic shifts in their lives. Learning to deal with tragedy and picking up the pieces is good. I don't know that all of this specifically applies to my fandoms below, but that is a general idea of what I gravitate towards. I also love stories about the calm before the storm, or the eye of the storm, or watching the storm from inside the house and listening to the rain rattling the windows in silence. Happy stories are awesome, but straight-up fluff is not really my thing. If you’d rather go full-on darkfic, you can do that, too! I like unrequited pining, creepy canon divergences, darker takes on canon, etc, as long as it’s in-character.

I multiship like no one's business, but I don’t like stories that assume an established relationship that doesn’t exist in canon - so, for example, while I'd read a story that included Dean/Cas, I'm unlikely to read a story that starts out with Dean getting Castiel a kitten for their anniversary, or one that takes as a given a drunken makeout in the past that never happened in canon.

Do Not Want: character bashing, misogyny/racism/homophobia/transphobia (even if it’s in-character; I just don't want to read it); underage anything; child abuse; non-con; dub-con; non-canonical trans characters; May-December romances, age-play kink, watersports, issuefic. I loathe a/b/o with a burning passion.

Things I am up for: gore, blood, violence, D/s dynamics, con-non-con. 

Stylistically speaking: I don't think most of my fandoms lend themselves to stylistic experimentation, but if you have an idea that tells the story in, I don't know, text messages or second-person conditional or whatever, you rock on.

My tumblr has more information about what I think is cool than you will ever want to know, just in case this letter doesn't cover it. Specifics for fandoms are below. There are some of them where I have more specific wish-lists than others, but rest assured that I will be very happy with any of them!

Bob’s Burgers

I like all of the Belchers! I like the moments when Louise stops displaying sociopathic tendencies long enough to care a lot about her family (the Halloween episode this year was the BEST THING for me.)

Fic of my heart: give this family some goddamn financial security, and let them keep it. I really, really want something nice to happen to the Belchers and stick. Maybe the restaurant finally becomes profitable. Maybe Gene goes commercial, or Tina becomes a bestselling zombie erotica author, or Linda turns out to be a great manager in the entertainment business. Or they become a regular stop on the adventurous eaters circuit. Or just a Christmas miracle!

If AUs are your thing, most of those would also amuse me. Zombies, actual cannibals, apocalypse, aliens come to town, etc. (but please no genderbends.) 

Finally, if you wanted to write a crossover with Leverage, or Welcome to Night Vale … or any of my fandoms beside Harry Potter, I wouldn’t say no. I don’t expect this to happen, but if that’s something you want to do, go for it.

And if none of those appeal, then write what you will! For this fandom, weird is awesome, morbid humor is awesome, super-serious things and porn are Do Not Wants but other than that go nuts.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Things that I like about the show — the balance of all of the characters caring about each other while also pissing each other off and fighting like siblings and having their own lives outside of each other. I like every police officer except for Hitchcock. I can’t even enjoy being irritated or grossed out by him. Stories I would enjoy:

• Rosa/Gina
• Jake and Amy planning their wedding
• One of the characters I nominated realizes that they are queer. Is it because of a hot perp that comes in? Do they discover they have a crush on someone? I would be thrilled by the idea of
• Harry Potter AU, because I saw a tumblr post sorting them into various houses, so if that sparks any ideas and you can do it in the spirit of yuletide (i.e. the Harry Potter cast is only mentioned or there as background) then go for it.
• ensemble shenanigans, holidays of any kind optional but appreciated
• AUs are also appreciated here: medieval, paranormal anything, space opera, etc.

Nimona
Honestly, I'm pretty down with whatever you want to write in this fandom because as long as it's in the gen-ish target area, I'll be happy with what you want to write. That being said, if you want ideas...

Anything about Meredith Blitzmeyer!! Particularly things that involve Science, and how that science works with the monkpunk setting. What her life is like before Nimona arrives in it, and what it's like afterwards. Do she and Blackheart become friends? Do they just exchange Christmas cards? An epilogue. Blackheart and Goldenloin when they were younger, because in the bit of them we saw in the flashback, Blackheart seemed to have been more of a big-brother figure than a love interest, so how did their relationship change in the years between that scene and the duel? Alternatively, anything more of Nimona's history - has she made friends before? Why did she decide to work for Blackheart? How old is she? I don't think the canon story would have worked if it was written from her POV instead of Blackheart's, but now that the story is over, it would be really cool to read more about how she thinks and what her experiences are like.

And if none of those tickle your fancy, the Gay Dads AU is always appreciated.

Over the Garden Wall 

I got really, really into this story a while back and it’s kind of my comfort food now. Anything that you write, for basically any character, will make me happy, as long as it’s in the same atmospheric vein as the show. I’d ask that you not do shipfic, AUs, or crossovers with this one. If you want to do general worldbuilding about the nature of the Unknown, that’s great. If you want to write about how Lorna came to live with Auntie Whispers, or what happened to them after Wirt and Greg left, that’s also great. How *did* Quincy Endicott make his money? How did the Woodsman and the Beast come to their agreement in the first place? Is the Woodsman the first one with whom the Beast has made some sort of arrangement? How did the Beast come to be in the first place? Why are Beatrice and her family living in the Unknown? If you want to delve into what the Unknown is, and how one ends up living there, I would love that! Alternatively, I selected “any” character and those include Greg and Sara, who are NOT part of that world. I think Greg is an interesting character, and probably better suited to the logic of the Unknown than to our world. What happens when he comes back? And while I think it would be interesting for Sara to come into contact with the Unknown, whatever you feel like writing for her, really, that’d be good too. Oh, and Enoch is in the mix — Pottsfield was my favorite episode, so again, I’m up for anything that gives me more background or daily life for the cat with the beautiful voice who governs the town of the forgotten dead. (How did he end up there, anyway?)

Oh lord sorry I forgot to update my letter here we go:

Elementary

Normally, I am all about the casefic, but for Elementary, the cases are very much secondary to the relationships. I did not expect to care about Kitty nearly as much as I did; and I understand why she left, but I wanted so badly to see more of her. Joan is just, ugh, she's such an interesting blend of competent and flawed in ways that she isn't always aware of. I haven't watched the last few episodes of S3 because I was spoiled for them and decided they were too upsetting to watch right then; I'd appreciate it if you'd either ignore the finale, or set your fic before it in canon. Stories I would love to read for this fandom include:

• Any story that follows Kitty after she leaves for London. How does she manage to get on with her life now that she's completed her vengeance quest? Does she keep in touch with Sherlock or Joan? Does she have people in London?
• Kitty before Del Gruner happened to her. What was she like? What did she want to do with her life before that?
• Joan as a child or a teenager, particularly in her interactions with her mother, and seeing the parts of her that eventually wound up with her being a surgeon, and then a consulting detective
• Joan and Clyde. I didn't tag Clyde because he's not essential to my happiness, so if you don't feel like writing about a reptile, then skip this one; but I'd be amused by a quiet story about Joan hanging out with Clyde like he's a real interactive pet. (I recognize that's vague. You can go in whatever direction you feel like with it.)
• Sherlock isn't a nominated character so also feel free to disregard, but: I love it on the show when he brings her clothing, or food, or makes sure that she's taken care of/knows the option is there. I'd love to see that highlighted and/or codified by the characters, particularly from Joan's perspective. So, a story focusing on him and Joan having a service sub/Domme relationship; preferably not sexual.

I'm normally all about the femslash, but please don't write me Joan/Kitty. I don't know if that's even a thing in this fandom, but just to be on the safe side.

Thank you again, Yuletide Author! I'm excited to see whatever you come up with, in whichever fandom you've chosen!