Dear Yuletide Author 2017
Oct. 8th, 2017 11:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
moemachinaDear Yuletide Author,
Hi! Thanks for participating in Yuletide! It is my favorite thing.
(ETA: Hey, Author -- I didn't expect matches to happen so fast, and I've since tweaked a few things in this letter as of 10/13. I won't edit further, though.)
Preferences: I like all kinds of stories, and I'm not troubled by any kind of violent or sexual subjects. If you have a story in mind that is transgressive in some way, and you're worried about how I might react: good news, I like literary transgressions, listen to your muse and go wild.
(Of course, I also like non-transgressive stories, so if your muse wants you to write about platonic high-fives, yes, do it, I will love it!)
In essence: write the story that you want to write.
General Things I Like: Conflicted-but-loving sibling relationships; eccentric families of choice; slow-burn romances; overly invested mentors; sardonic work spouses; the arousing qualities of competence and empathy; and fuck-ups and the forgiveness of those fuck-ups.
Past Yuletide Letters (on Livejournal):
2007 / 2008 / 2009 / 2012 / 2013 / 2015 / 2016
Specific Requests:
The Banner Saga -- Alette & Ekkill
Alette is the tender maiden...who eventually develops into a steely bad-ass (if she doesn't die first). Ekkill is the crazed warlord...who is eventually revealed to be something stranger and sadder and ever so slightly kinder (if he doesn't die first).
In the first Banner Saga, if you bring along Ekkill (like you probably did, the first time you played the game, little suspecting what lay down the road), he is revealed in Chapter 4 to be developing a delicate connection with Alette (to the deep horror of Rook). I would love to know more about that connection -- their disturbing conversations, their tentative camaraderie, their mutual habits of passivity and evasion -- in the context of the caravan. Is Ekkill developing a crush on Alette? Is Alette rethinking some parts of her worldview, thanks to Ekkill? Do they have any common reactions to this weird apocalypse that's slowly unfolding around them? Do they share any adventures? How do they react to the events of the story? What happens between them after Onef's mutiny? Why does Ekkill ultimately leave the caravan to join the Ravens? What, exactly, is their *deal*?
(The format of The Banner Saga obviously means that lots of different things are potentially possible. Feel free to pursue any possible story-routes; I've played just about every variation in both games and welcome whatever sequence you choose. Also, I think Ekkill is an interesting character, but I'm totally open to whatever moral judgments you want to render upon him.)
*
Logan Lucky -- Clyde & Jimmy & Mellie
I found Logan Lucky to be charming and inclusive and goofy, and I was particularly fond of the sibling trio at its center. In part, I am a sucker for affectionate brothers and sisters, and in part, the movie does an excellent job of delineating their individual relationships with one another: Clyde and Mellie have a rapport that is distinct and separate from their respective relationships with Jimmy, and I loved that Mellie maintains her own white-hot grudge against the man that married Jimmy's ex-wife. The movie ends on such a great and warm (if faintly ominous) note, with the three of them in the bar, happily together and blissfully flirting with three potential partners (or maybe two potential partners and their inescapable ruin).
So: what happens after the credits roll? Do Jimmy and Clyde protect Mellie from the Logan family curse? (Or is it too late? Does that curse have pale hair and a precise appreciation for chemistry?) Does Sarah Grayson get her man? (Or does she relent? Can she relent?) How have the lives of the Logan siblings changed since the heist?
Or: what happens before the movie? Tell me about the juvenile shenanigans around "cauliflower." (Was Mellie ever involved?) What did their family look like when they were children, or teenagers, or young adults?
Or: tell me something that happens during the movie: a slice of family support or dissension in the middle of planning ruses upon ruses.
*
The Proposal -- Andrew Paxton & Margaret Tate
I am super fond of workplace romcoms, and I am super fond of romcoms with a dude who is socially/professionally inferior to a lady -- so the beginning and the ending of The Proposal are my jam. (The middle part of the movie is somewhat less attuned to my particular taste. "Dammit, movie," I invariably whisper, "go back to that New York publishing house, I want to see Margaret fire some more people.")
I would love to get a story about Andrew and Margaret in their place of work. I love that they're both passionate and committed to their profession; I also love that they don't entirely agree about how that passion and commitment should be enacted. Maybe something from after the end of the movie -- how do the two of them juggle their professional and personal lives? What kind of work-life balance do they achieve, and how do they argue about it? Or maybe something from before the start of the movie -- how do Andrew and Margaret function as a team, even when they're deeply annoyed with one another? How much of Andrew's care-taking and nurturing is a result of his unconscious feelings about Margaret? How much of Margaret's persona is a result of her (irritating, inconvenient, and impossible) attraction to Andrew?
*
Atomic Blonde -- David Percival & Lorraine Broughton
Atomic Blonde made me realize that -- just like Percival -- I quite like Berlin.
So Percival and Lorraine eventually find their respective interests have diverged, but there's a middle section of the movie, when they're working together but suspiciously circling one another, when Lorraine is still and cold and implacable and Percival is manic and combustible and relentless, in which I found their partnership exciting and alarming and fun.
So: I'd like more of them, please, together in the same frame. Maybe it's a scene from the middle of the movie, when they're smiling at one another while planning all their elaborate double- and triple-crosses. Maybe it's an AU fix-it: one of them makes slightly better life choices (or maybe the other makes slightly worse life choices), and they both make it out of Berlin alive and clear and a little less murderously inclined toward one another. Or maybe one of them is a ghost haunting the other, who remains steadfastly indifferent to past trauma or spectral apparitions.
Feel free to redeem or condemn Percival as you see fit. I would enjoy either approach.
*
Final Fantasy VI -- Edgar Roni Figaro & Terra Branford
I've made this Yuletide request twice before, but I still love this wacky duo, so I'm just going to recycle my past prompt:
Terra is my favorite character from this game -- I love her persona of dreamy menace, of soft-spoken and inadvertent violence, and her personal quest toward self-control and independence. I also love Edgar, who is witty and dashing and flippant and helplessly responsible, despite himself, like an accidental Prince Hal.
Thus I would particularly love a story about Terra and Edgar, and I would particularly love a love story, although I am deeply flexible on what constitutes a "love" story -- I am a sucker for sweeping passion, quiet domesticity, unrequited angst, platonic-buddy comedy, bloody tragedy, happy endings, sad endings, and bittersweet endings.
Feel free to throw in other characters! Is there something to be said about their first encounter and early travels together? Does Edgar have any rad experiences in Zozo? What's it like when they meet again in the World of Ruin?
Hi! Thanks for participating in Yuletide! It is my favorite thing.
(ETA: Hey, Author -- I didn't expect matches to happen so fast, and I've since tweaked a few things in this letter as of 10/13. I won't edit further, though.)
Preferences: I like all kinds of stories, and I'm not troubled by any kind of violent or sexual subjects. If you have a story in mind that is transgressive in some way, and you're worried about how I might react: good news, I like literary transgressions, listen to your muse and go wild.
(Of course, I also like non-transgressive stories, so if your muse wants you to write about platonic high-fives, yes, do it, I will love it!)
In essence: write the story that you want to write.
General Things I Like: Conflicted-but-loving sibling relationships; eccentric families of choice; slow-burn romances; overly invested mentors; sardonic work spouses; the arousing qualities of competence and empathy; and fuck-ups and the forgiveness of those fuck-ups.
Past Yuletide Letters (on Livejournal):
2007 / 2008 / 2009 / 2012 / 2013 / 2015 / 2016
Specific Requests:
The Banner Saga -- Alette & Ekkill
Alette is the tender maiden...who eventually develops into a steely bad-ass (if she doesn't die first). Ekkill is the crazed warlord...who is eventually revealed to be something stranger and sadder and ever so slightly kinder (if he doesn't die first).
In the first Banner Saga, if you bring along Ekkill (like you probably did, the first time you played the game, little suspecting what lay down the road), he is revealed in Chapter 4 to be developing a delicate connection with Alette (to the deep horror of Rook). I would love to know more about that connection -- their disturbing conversations, their tentative camaraderie, their mutual habits of passivity and evasion -- in the context of the caravan. Is Ekkill developing a crush on Alette? Is Alette rethinking some parts of her worldview, thanks to Ekkill? Do they have any common reactions to this weird apocalypse that's slowly unfolding around them? Do they share any adventures? How do they react to the events of the story? What happens between them after Onef's mutiny? Why does Ekkill ultimately leave the caravan to join the Ravens? What, exactly, is their *deal*?
(The format of The Banner Saga obviously means that lots of different things are potentially possible. Feel free to pursue any possible story-routes; I've played just about every variation in both games and welcome whatever sequence you choose. Also, I think Ekkill is an interesting character, but I'm totally open to whatever moral judgments you want to render upon him.)
Logan Lucky -- Clyde & Jimmy & Mellie
I found Logan Lucky to be charming and inclusive and goofy, and I was particularly fond of the sibling trio at its center. In part, I am a sucker for affectionate brothers and sisters, and in part, the movie does an excellent job of delineating their individual relationships with one another: Clyde and Mellie have a rapport that is distinct and separate from their respective relationships with Jimmy, and I loved that Mellie maintains her own white-hot grudge against the man that married Jimmy's ex-wife. The movie ends on such a great and warm (if faintly ominous) note, with the three of them in the bar, happily together and blissfully flirting with three potential partners (or maybe two potential partners and their inescapable ruin).
So: what happens after the credits roll? Do Jimmy and Clyde protect Mellie from the Logan family curse? (Or is it too late? Does that curse have pale hair and a precise appreciation for chemistry?) Does Sarah Grayson get her man? (Or does she relent? Can she relent?) How have the lives of the Logan siblings changed since the heist?
Or: what happens before the movie? Tell me about the juvenile shenanigans around "cauliflower." (Was Mellie ever involved?) What did their family look like when they were children, or teenagers, or young adults?
Or: tell me something that happens during the movie: a slice of family support or dissension in the middle of planning ruses upon ruses.
The Proposal -- Andrew Paxton & Margaret Tate
I am super fond of workplace romcoms, and I am super fond of romcoms with a dude who is socially/professionally inferior to a lady -- so the beginning and the ending of The Proposal are my jam. (The middle part of the movie is somewhat less attuned to my particular taste. "Dammit, movie," I invariably whisper, "go back to that New York publishing house, I want to see Margaret fire some more people.")
I would love to get a story about Andrew and Margaret in their place of work. I love that they're both passionate and committed to their profession; I also love that they don't entirely agree about how that passion and commitment should be enacted. Maybe something from after the end of the movie -- how do the two of them juggle their professional and personal lives? What kind of work-life balance do they achieve, and how do they argue about it? Or maybe something from before the start of the movie -- how do Andrew and Margaret function as a team, even when they're deeply annoyed with one another? How much of Andrew's care-taking and nurturing is a result of his unconscious feelings about Margaret? How much of Margaret's persona is a result of her (irritating, inconvenient, and impossible) attraction to Andrew?
Atomic Blonde -- David Percival & Lorraine Broughton
Atomic Blonde made me realize that -- just like Percival -- I quite like Berlin.
So Percival and Lorraine eventually find their respective interests have diverged, but there's a middle section of the movie, when they're working together but suspiciously circling one another, when Lorraine is still and cold and implacable and Percival is manic and combustible and relentless, in which I found their partnership exciting and alarming and fun.
So: I'd like more of them, please, together in the same frame. Maybe it's a scene from the middle of the movie, when they're smiling at one another while planning all their elaborate double- and triple-crosses. Maybe it's an AU fix-it: one of them makes slightly better life choices (or maybe the other makes slightly worse life choices), and they both make it out of Berlin alive and clear and a little less murderously inclined toward one another. Or maybe one of them is a ghost haunting the other, who remains steadfastly indifferent to past trauma or spectral apparitions.
Feel free to redeem or condemn Percival as you see fit. I would enjoy either approach.
Final Fantasy VI -- Edgar Roni Figaro & Terra Branford
I've made this Yuletide request twice before, but I still love this wacky duo, so I'm just going to recycle my past prompt:
Terra is my favorite character from this game -- I love her persona of dreamy menace, of soft-spoken and inadvertent violence, and her personal quest toward self-control and independence. I also love Edgar, who is witty and dashing and flippant and helplessly responsible, despite himself, like an accidental Prince Hal.
Thus I would particularly love a story about Terra and Edgar, and I would particularly love a love story, although I am deeply flexible on what constitutes a "love" story -- I am a sucker for sweeping passion, quiet domesticity, unrequited angst, platonic-buddy comedy, bloody tragedy, happy endings, sad endings, and bittersweet endings.
Feel free to throw in other characters! Is there something to be said about their first encounter and early travels together? Does Edgar have any rad experiences in Zozo? What's it like when they meet again in the World of Ruin?
