Dear Yulegoat 2020
Oct. 24th, 2020 04:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meretriculaHappy Yuletide and thank you in advance for writing for me! I really hope you'll have fun. This post has some prompts and general info about my preferences, but Optional Details Are Optional so if there's a story of your heart that you've been waiting to write about the characters I've requested, don't worry about sticking too close to my prompts: write the story you're into! So long as you respect my DNWs I'm sure I'll love it if you loved writing it. I'm meretricula on the AO3 (and Tumblr), if you need to find me!
Yes, Please!
-Happiness. I want everybody to be happy or at least not overtly miserable at the end of the fic. They can suffer and be angsty in the beginning or middle but please please please let the ending be sunshine and rainbows or the promise of sunshine and rainbows on the not-too-distant horizon. I'm also happy to get a fic that's 100% fluffy sunshine and rainbows all the way through.
-Characters having lots of feelings about each other. I'm a big fan of tropes where characters have a lot of history between them -- friends to lovers, childhood sweethearts, best frenemies, sibling relationships, etc. I'm not a big fan of porn for porn's sake but if you want to write about people expressing their feelings via sex, that's great! If you don't want to write shipfic, something focusing on friendship or family bonds is great too.
-Gen, het, slash, femslash and poly (including poly relationships where A is romantically involved with both B and C but B and C are not romantically interested in each other) are all good with me.
-tropes and cliches (if you want to write "snowed in at the hotel and there's ONLY ONE BED", sedoretu, unexpected baby acquisition, genderswap, somebody inexplicably has wings, etc., but are worried that it wasn't specifically prompted, please know that I love that kind of stuff and follow where your muse leads you -- only exceptions are I'm not too keen on soulmarks and A/B/O when they're done straight)
-subverted/inverted tropes and cliches (including soulmarks and A/B/O if they strike your fancy)
-lots of dialogue; limited third person POV; epistolary/mixed media/documentation fic
-canon settings (feel free to throw in some worldbuilding!)
-canon divergences (i.e. fork in the road AUs)
-alternate universes (the wackier the better; personal faves include Regency settings, Star Trek or similar space settings, magic, and "bring your fandom to work" AUs; it is TOTALLY OKAY to give me an AU even if I didn't ask for one specifically)
-food; competence; found families
No, Thanks!
-unhappy endings
-unrequited love
-major character death (as in, this character is gone and not coming back; death followed by resurrection or altered form of existence is fine so long as the character is still around)
-humiliation; intense angst; graphic violence and gore
-noncon and dubcon; kink involving bathroom functions or vore
-first and second person POV, with the exception of Shadows (where the canon is written in first person and I'd be totally fine with fic being written the same)
-fics that center around dealing with discrimination or identity issues (it's fine if these things are addressed in the course of the narrative but I don't want it to be the point of the story)
-AUs that change the nature of characters' backstory together (e.g. if two people have known each other since childhood I'd rather not have an AU where they meet for the first time as adults, and if they've been best friends their whole lives I'd rather not read an AU where they're enemies instead)
-writing my requested characters in relationships with other, unrequested characters (if you don't vibe with my ships, please just write friendship fic!)
-I seriously doubt that this will be an issue for these fandoms, but just as a note, I spent many years of my life studying Latin, so please don't throw random Google-translated Latin into the fic or use it for a title.
This year I have requested...
Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku - Momose Narumi, Nifuji Hirotaka
Oh my god, these nerds are so dumb and I love them so much. I love their stupid slice of life adventures and I love their obsessive interests and I love how they support each other even when they're making fun of each other and I WANT TO KNOW WHEN NARUMI IS GOING TO CLUE IN. Hirotaka is Suffering and so am I. (But! I also love that he is not Nice Guy-ing her and genuinely just enjoys hanging out with her??? The DreamTM.) Please can we get some requited love up in here.
I'd love get-together fic and I'd also love futurefic where they've already gotten their shit together and are experiencing other relationship milestones, in the nerdiest possible way of course. Can you imagine the epic Combining of the Household Goods that would happen when they move in together? The arguments over how their games should be organized and stored and whether Narumi's manga deserves an equal share of space. Would they hold an in-game wedding for their avatars as practice for the real thing? Would Hirotaka be nine billion times more stressed about everything being perfect for the in-game wedding than the real one???? WOULD THEY HAVE TO GO ON A QUEST TO GET THE WEDDING RINGS. I also adore the flashbacks to their childhood days together (Naoya almost spilling the beans about Hirotaka having a crush on Narumi cracks me up every time) and something tying together a story about their past and a story about their present would be adorable. I love all the characters in this show and would be delighted to have any and all of them show up -- the nerd quartet's adventures are hilarious and so true to life, and Naoya and Kou are SO CUTE, I'M DYING.
Gotham Academy - Mia "Maps" Mizoguchi, Olive Silverlock
I have mixed feelings about Gotham Academy as a comic (shenanigans good, treatment of women with mental health issues bad) but very positive feelings about Olive and Maps and their devotion to each other! (Yes, I do ship it.) I'm mostly interested in knowing what happens next for them, or what's waiting further down the road. I've read some other DC stuff but I'm not super familiar beyond the basic Batfamily cast, so cameos are okay but crossovers with actual plots from other comics are going to be lost on me -- although I have seen the Birds of Prey movie, if crossovers are your thing! I bet Maps would love Black Canary and Huntress!
So what does the future hold for Maps and Olive? Does Detective Club calm down, or is Gotham Academy just Like That all the time? Is Maps going to become a vigilante? What is senior prom like at Gotham Academy? (I will literally never be over Maps showing up to a school dance in a suit with a flower in her hair, looking like the cutest baby butch on the planet: please feel free to have Maps wear a tux to prom.) Where does Olive go to college, and how does Maps cope with being left behind for a year? (I'm not saying "gay awakening at a women's college" but I'm not NOT saying it…) I love epistolary stories, so something about them staying in touch while in a long-distance relationship, or figuring out their feelings while in a long-distance friendship, would be very cute! Outsider POV would also be fun: what happens when they have to explain what they got up to at boarding school to someone who's not from Gotham? Just as a note, it's fine to have cameos from other characters (Kyle, Damian, Pomeline, etc.) but I would like the focus of the story to remain on Maps and Olive.
One fandom-specific DNW: please don't make Olive and/or Maps a member of law enforcement in the future.
Shadows - Maggie, Takahiro
I really enjoy both the world-building and character development in Shadows, but I always get to the end and go, wait, THAT'S IT? We just got to the good part! (Both in terms of the revolution and Maggie and Taks' relationship.) I'd love to know what happens next, or maybe something in Taks' POV, or both!
If you'd like to write from Takahiro's perspective I would love to know what he's thinking at any point before, during, or after the events of the book. Did he develop romantic feelings for Maggie as suddenly as she realized she liked him like that, or was it more of a slow build for him? Is he less clueless about the political environment than Maggie? Gonna be honest here, if you wanna go full-on paranormal shifter romance about Taks being a werewolf and having Feelings About His Mate or whatever I would eat it up with a spoon. If you'd rather do outsider-POV, what does Val think about these teenagers going all gooey-eyed in the middle of the revolution? I really like Maggie and Takahiro as a couple (friends to lovers and childhood sweethearts are some of my favorite tropes) so I'd be happy with straight-up shipfic, or something else with them being cute in the background if that's more your speed, although I would prefer that things stay PG-13 or under in this fandom. (Make-outs are fine; teenage stressing about how to stage the perfect first time while trying to overthrow the government is fine; parental destruction of perfect first time planning with well-meaning "chats" about prophylaxis is fine; please don't actually describe Takahiro and Maggie's first time in explicit detail.) As a side note, I absolutely adored the level of detail that McKinley put into the animal characters of the book, and if you wanted to include Majid and his inexplicable fondness for Takahiro (and/or Maggie's relationship with Mongo or any of the other Family members) that would be amazing!
Prince of Tennis (2019) - Lu Xia, He Xinglong
I absolutely love how soft and awkward Lu Xia is. One of my favorite things about the show is how much fun it has at its protagonist's expense: Lu Xia looks cool for about five seconds, and then it becomes clear that tennis is the only thing he's good at. His relationship with He Xinglong fascinates me! Lu Xia clearly likes He Xinglong so much, but it's not because he looks up to his tennis skills. He just... likes playing with him? Likes spending time with him? I would love to see that dynamic explored further.
I have to confess that at sign-up time, I'm only about halfway through the show, but I'll do my best to be caught up by go-live and I'm familiar with the manga and anime so don't worry about spoiling me for anything. That said, what I'm most interested in with this fandom is, obviously, the relationship between Lu Xia and He Xinglong, which is such a radical departure from the original! I love how the way they each relate to tennis through each other is developed. What exactly is Lu Xia getting out of night practice with He Xinglong? He has other, objectively more skilled partners, but it's clearly important to him. Is this the first time he's had a real friend? Does Lu Xia even really understand why it upset him so much that He Xinglong quit tennis? I would love a story about Lu Xia figuring out that he does, in fact, care about something other than tennis. I love the episode where the whole team is following Lu Xia and Qi Ying around -- a goofy story about their teammates slowly clueing in that Lu Xia's relationship with He Xinglong is different from with the rest of them would be adorable, or something about Lu Xia being predictably terrible at romance (but trying his best, bless him). And I really like Qi Ying, if you want to include her! I would genuinely love a story in which Lu Xia and Qi Ying are friends who rely on each other for romantic advice in true "the blind leading the blind" fashion. (If you want to make my entire year by having them bond over their gay crushes on their best friends, go for it.) I also love both Lu Xia and He Xinglong's dads and would adore getting to see their perspective on what's going on between their sons, or them hanging out together, or embarrassing son-in-law bonding time. Stories set during or after the show are both great.
One fandom-specific DNW: I am aware that there are many difficulties for the LGBTQ+ community in modern China but I would prefer not to receive a story about homophobia for Yuletide. It's fine to set this story in a slightly alternate universe where not only are all the weird physics-defying tennis moves possible, but being gay is a non-issue.
Yes, Please!
-Happiness. I want everybody to be happy or at least not overtly miserable at the end of the fic. They can suffer and be angsty in the beginning or middle but please please please let the ending be sunshine and rainbows or the promise of sunshine and rainbows on the not-too-distant horizon. I'm also happy to get a fic that's 100% fluffy sunshine and rainbows all the way through.
-Characters having lots of feelings about each other. I'm a big fan of tropes where characters have a lot of history between them -- friends to lovers, childhood sweethearts, best frenemies, sibling relationships, etc. I'm not a big fan of porn for porn's sake but if you want to write about people expressing their feelings via sex, that's great! If you don't want to write shipfic, something focusing on friendship or family bonds is great too.
-Gen, het, slash, femslash and poly (including poly relationships where A is romantically involved with both B and C but B and C are not romantically interested in each other) are all good with me.
-tropes and cliches (if you want to write "snowed in at the hotel and there's ONLY ONE BED", sedoretu, unexpected baby acquisition, genderswap, somebody inexplicably has wings, etc., but are worried that it wasn't specifically prompted, please know that I love that kind of stuff and follow where your muse leads you -- only exceptions are I'm not too keen on soulmarks and A/B/O when they're done straight)
-subverted/inverted tropes and cliches (including soulmarks and A/B/O if they strike your fancy)
-lots of dialogue; limited third person POV; epistolary/mixed media/documentation fic
-canon settings (feel free to throw in some worldbuilding!)
-canon divergences (i.e. fork in the road AUs)
-alternate universes (the wackier the better; personal faves include Regency settings, Star Trek or similar space settings, magic, and "bring your fandom to work" AUs; it is TOTALLY OKAY to give me an AU even if I didn't ask for one specifically)
-food; competence; found families
No, Thanks!
-unhappy endings
-unrequited love
-major character death (as in, this character is gone and not coming back; death followed by resurrection or altered form of existence is fine so long as the character is still around)
-humiliation; intense angst; graphic violence and gore
-noncon and dubcon; kink involving bathroom functions or vore
-first and second person POV, with the exception of Shadows (where the canon is written in first person and I'd be totally fine with fic being written the same)
-fics that center around dealing with discrimination or identity issues (it's fine if these things are addressed in the course of the narrative but I don't want it to be the point of the story)
-AUs that change the nature of characters' backstory together (e.g. if two people have known each other since childhood I'd rather not have an AU where they meet for the first time as adults, and if they've been best friends their whole lives I'd rather not read an AU where they're enemies instead)
-writing my requested characters in relationships with other, unrequested characters (if you don't vibe with my ships, please just write friendship fic!)
-I seriously doubt that this will be an issue for these fandoms, but just as a note, I spent many years of my life studying Latin, so please don't throw random Google-translated Latin into the fic or use it for a title.
This year I have requested...
Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku - Momose Narumi, Nifuji Hirotaka
Oh my god, these nerds are so dumb and I love them so much. I love their stupid slice of life adventures and I love their obsessive interests and I love how they support each other even when they're making fun of each other and I WANT TO KNOW WHEN NARUMI IS GOING TO CLUE IN. Hirotaka is Suffering and so am I. (But! I also love that he is not Nice Guy-ing her and genuinely just enjoys hanging out with her??? The DreamTM.) Please can we get some requited love up in here.
I'd love get-together fic and I'd also love futurefic where they've already gotten their shit together and are experiencing other relationship milestones, in the nerdiest possible way of course. Can you imagine the epic Combining of the Household Goods that would happen when they move in together? The arguments over how their games should be organized and stored and whether Narumi's manga deserves an equal share of space. Would they hold an in-game wedding for their avatars as practice for the real thing? Would Hirotaka be nine billion times more stressed about everything being perfect for the in-game wedding than the real one???? WOULD THEY HAVE TO GO ON A QUEST TO GET THE WEDDING RINGS. I also adore the flashbacks to their childhood days together (Naoya almost spilling the beans about Hirotaka having a crush on Narumi cracks me up every time) and something tying together a story about their past and a story about their present would be adorable. I love all the characters in this show and would be delighted to have any and all of them show up -- the nerd quartet's adventures are hilarious and so true to life, and Naoya and Kou are SO CUTE, I'M DYING.
Gotham Academy - Mia "Maps" Mizoguchi, Olive Silverlock
I have mixed feelings about Gotham Academy as a comic (shenanigans good, treatment of women with mental health issues bad) but very positive feelings about Olive and Maps and their devotion to each other! (Yes, I do ship it.) I'm mostly interested in knowing what happens next for them, or what's waiting further down the road. I've read some other DC stuff but I'm not super familiar beyond the basic Batfamily cast, so cameos are okay but crossovers with actual plots from other comics are going to be lost on me -- although I have seen the Birds of Prey movie, if crossovers are your thing! I bet Maps would love Black Canary and Huntress!
So what does the future hold for Maps and Olive? Does Detective Club calm down, or is Gotham Academy just Like That all the time? Is Maps going to become a vigilante? What is senior prom like at Gotham Academy? (I will literally never be over Maps showing up to a school dance in a suit with a flower in her hair, looking like the cutest baby butch on the planet: please feel free to have Maps wear a tux to prom.) Where does Olive go to college, and how does Maps cope with being left behind for a year? (I'm not saying "gay awakening at a women's college" but I'm not NOT saying it…) I love epistolary stories, so something about them staying in touch while in a long-distance relationship, or figuring out their feelings while in a long-distance friendship, would be very cute! Outsider POV would also be fun: what happens when they have to explain what they got up to at boarding school to someone who's not from Gotham? Just as a note, it's fine to have cameos from other characters (Kyle, Damian, Pomeline, etc.) but I would like the focus of the story to remain on Maps and Olive.
One fandom-specific DNW: please don't make Olive and/or Maps a member of law enforcement in the future.
Shadows - Maggie, Takahiro
I really enjoy both the world-building and character development in Shadows, but I always get to the end and go, wait, THAT'S IT? We just got to the good part! (Both in terms of the revolution and Maggie and Taks' relationship.) I'd love to know what happens next, or maybe something in Taks' POV, or both!
If you'd like to write from Takahiro's perspective I would love to know what he's thinking at any point before, during, or after the events of the book. Did he develop romantic feelings for Maggie as suddenly as she realized she liked him like that, or was it more of a slow build for him? Is he less clueless about the political environment than Maggie? Gonna be honest here, if you wanna go full-on paranormal shifter romance about Taks being a werewolf and having Feelings About His Mate or whatever I would eat it up with a spoon. If you'd rather do outsider-POV, what does Val think about these teenagers going all gooey-eyed in the middle of the revolution? I really like Maggie and Takahiro as a couple (friends to lovers and childhood sweethearts are some of my favorite tropes) so I'd be happy with straight-up shipfic, or something else with them being cute in the background if that's more your speed, although I would prefer that things stay PG-13 or under in this fandom. (Make-outs are fine; teenage stressing about how to stage the perfect first time while trying to overthrow the government is fine; parental destruction of perfect first time planning with well-meaning "chats" about prophylaxis is fine; please don't actually describe Takahiro and Maggie's first time in explicit detail.) As a side note, I absolutely adored the level of detail that McKinley put into the animal characters of the book, and if you wanted to include Majid and his inexplicable fondness for Takahiro (and/or Maggie's relationship with Mongo or any of the other Family members) that would be amazing!
Prince of Tennis (2019) - Lu Xia, He Xinglong
I absolutely love how soft and awkward Lu Xia is. One of my favorite things about the show is how much fun it has at its protagonist's expense: Lu Xia looks cool for about five seconds, and then it becomes clear that tennis is the only thing he's good at. His relationship with He Xinglong fascinates me! Lu Xia clearly likes He Xinglong so much, but it's not because he looks up to his tennis skills. He just... likes playing with him? Likes spending time with him? I would love to see that dynamic explored further.
I have to confess that at sign-up time, I'm only about halfway through the show, but I'll do my best to be caught up by go-live and I'm familiar with the manga and anime so don't worry about spoiling me for anything. That said, what I'm most interested in with this fandom is, obviously, the relationship between Lu Xia and He Xinglong, which is such a radical departure from the original! I love how the way they each relate to tennis through each other is developed. What exactly is Lu Xia getting out of night practice with He Xinglong? He has other, objectively more skilled partners, but it's clearly important to him. Is this the first time he's had a real friend? Does Lu Xia even really understand why it upset him so much that He Xinglong quit tennis? I would love a story about Lu Xia figuring out that he does, in fact, care about something other than tennis. I love the episode where the whole team is following Lu Xia and Qi Ying around -- a goofy story about their teammates slowly clueing in that Lu Xia's relationship with He Xinglong is different from with the rest of them would be adorable, or something about Lu Xia being predictably terrible at romance (but trying his best, bless him). And I really like Qi Ying, if you want to include her! I would genuinely love a story in which Lu Xia and Qi Ying are friends who rely on each other for romantic advice in true "the blind leading the blind" fashion. (If you want to make my entire year by having them bond over their gay crushes on their best friends, go for it.) I also love both Lu Xia and He Xinglong's dads and would adore getting to see their perspective on what's going on between their sons, or them hanging out together, or embarrassing son-in-law bonding time. Stories set during or after the show are both great.
One fandom-specific DNW: I am aware that there are many difficulties for the LGBTQ+ community in modern China but I would prefer not to receive a story about homophobia for Yuletide. It's fine to set this story in a slightly alternate universe where not only are all the weird physics-defying tennis moves possible, but being gay is a non-issue.
