yuletide 2021 - dear author letter

[deepestbluesky]

hello! last year was my first time participating in yuletide, and i am beyond excited to be doing it again this year. if you’re writing any of these fandoms for me, i’m already guaranteed to love you and whatever you write, but i also know that personally, i love getting a ton of info to work from in exchanges, so i’ve written a bunch here! feel free to look through it for ideas, but also please don’t feel beholden to it.

general likes
any sort of magical/supernatural/fantasy au (especially if it’s regular setting- But Now With 200% More Magic! OR in the case of canons with magic, modern AU but there’s still magic around)
D&D AUs (whether characters in a modern setting playing dnd or a fantasy au based on dnd - i love both)
road trips (or canon-appropriate road trip equivalent)
always a girl/rule 63 (but only if it’s queer)
trans and/or nonbinary characters
queer feelings and/or gender exploration
casual sex
bondage (also generally d/s au and/or the trappings that come with it; collars, etc. but not possessiveness/jealousy)
circus au
important relationships with other characters (found family/team as family are great)
polyamory (inclusion of open relationships with canon significant others definitely included in this)
complex relationships that don’t fit neatly into a platonic vs romantic or platonic vs sexual divide
banter/snarking
tattoos (just as a thing or as a tattoo store au)
gen fic (more than okay with background relationships of other characters or main characters - i think of gen fic as fic where the main relationship and emotional focus is on platonic relationships)
stories set in very specific places or take-your-fandom-to-work type AUs
superhero au
vampires
tentacles (but only if everyone involved enjoys it)
omegaverse that specifically focuses on betas or is gen or has a focus on worldbuilding (omegaverse in general i am ambivalent towards)
multimedia or non-traditional narrative fic (social media in fics, epistolary fic, fics that are just notes the characters write in the margins of another text, fake academic papers, audio transcript fics, whatever format you like! i love all of it)

DNWs
(non-canonical or non-temporary) major character death
rape/non-con
bashing/villainizing of canon significant others (who aren’t already canonically horrible people - as an example, if you were writing a Frozen fic for me, feel free to Hans-bash away)

dislikes

high school au
big power imbalance
age difference as a feature (like, i don’t hate age difference pairings, but it’s not an appeal)
amnesia
pregnancy
cheating/infidelity
angsty endings
PWP (i'm happy to read fics that revolve around sex but i'd like there to be something else too - porn with plot is a-ok with me!)

extra special likes
platonic sex
polyamory where everyone’s relationship with each other is different and they get different things from each person
Queer Themes (especially in between things: bisexuality, being somewhere on the ace/aro scale, gender feels that don’t coalesce into anything major)
original characters and/or outside POV
that moment where someone sees something new in someone else for the first time and is taken aback by it
significant changes in how one character refers to another character (names)

special Yuletide note: for these specific canons, i’m not very interested in wholesale AUs (coffee shop, modern/no powers, college, etc.) UNLESS otherwise specified in the prompts. all of these canons are ones where the setting or world is a big part of what i love about them! that being said, i’m not gonna be devastated if you do write a full AU, it’s just not like. my Dream. i’m totally open to canon-divergence AUs though!

definitely feel free to check out my bookmarks, works, and gifts on ao3 for more of an idea of what i like! you can also consult with enter_remiges/enter-remiges if you have specific questions about something.

Fandoms and prompts!

Far Sector (DC Comics 2019) - Sojourner "Jo" Mullein
i just... love far sector? a lot? jo is SO COOL but also so relatable, and the worldbuilding is fascinating, and i thought it did such a cool job balancing a the story being told with the tropes of the superhero genre, and i’m just. it was great as a limited series with a coherent narrative but also i want so much more. if you want to write a story about jo's adventures post-canon, go for it! if you just want CanHaz and jo chilling and exchanging earth memes, hell yeah! if you want to write jo interacting with marth post-canon and post… everything that he did, that would be awesome! i also would be super into a fic (AU or otherwise) of jo and being in fandom, since she canonically reads fic quite a lot (if you wanted to do a social media/multimedia fic, i’d love you forever). i generally enjoyed jo/syzn as a ship but i wouldn't be heartbroken if you didn't include it either.

Borderland Series - Terri Windling - Worldbuilding (Borderland Series)
BORDERTOWN MY BELOVED. i discovered this series with the welcome to bordertown 2011 anthology and have been consuming whatever i can get my hands on since then (read: not much). i love the whole concept of a shared universe anthology series, the ways individual writers can put their own spin on it while still using the same familiar touchstones of characters and places and factions—it reminds me a lot of my favorite parts of D&D and also fanfiction! so: anything that brings that same spirit would be GREAT! also just love the whole vibe of bordertown the place? like… aahh the ways in which magic is used as and with technology, the fact that it's a place known for teenage runaways but is also fully populated with adults who stayed, the inclusion of real problems but also a sense of hope that maybe here things can be better (whether it's deserved or not)! i would sum up the 'worldbuilding' that i'm asking for here as less 'how does the world work' and more 'pick something from bordertown that you love or that intrigues you and RUN WITH IT'

Critical Role (Web Series) - Nord VPN Ad Reads - The Ultra Kodex (Nord VPN Ad Reads), CryptonicOverride (Nord VPN Ad Reads)
well. here we are. i've been promising/threatening that i wanted this as a yuletide fandom all year and now… there's too much!!!! okay so. truly i have no idea what i'm asking for, so i'm just gonna throw out some ideas and feel free to use them or ignore them completely. no one knows what they're doing in the nordverse i guess.
has the ultra kodex always been evil and was getting to know these people just a front for his nefarious plans, or was there a slow corruption arc happening that none of them knew about? just how long has freezerburn/Morpheus been alive and what has he Seen? do madhatterson, technospice69, and cryptonicoverride have digital sleepovers where they beam music videos to each other's hack pads? did everyone have an intense and undoubtedly full of technobabble planning session to rescue travis from the ultra kodex?

Midnighter and Apollo - Apollo (Midnighter and Apollo), Midnighter (Midnighter and Apollo)
so. i love the existing midnighter and apollo mini series, and also the steve orlando midnighter, and even the random annual dc released this year. but @ dc comics: STOP SPLITTING THEM UP FOR DRAMA!!! so anyway, i'd love anything with apollo and midnighter actually together: figuring out how to live together again, killing some shitty villains, playing a prank on the justice league, tangling with their memories of their different lives from before the various reboots/joining the main dcu, anything! just let them be together and badass and in love.

有翡 | Legend of Fei (TV) - Li Yan (Legend of Fei), Yang Jin (Legend of Fei), Ying Hecong (Legend of Fei), Zhou Fei (Legend of Fei)
i love the no braincell trio of li yan/yang jin/ying hecong!! so much!! when they each showed up, i was extremely skeptical and then within two episodes, i loved them, and they're SO fun together, and no one can convince me they didn't end up together at least platonically post canon. i would love to see something about their misadventures. i also… love zhou fei more than i can possibly express. she's incredible. i would be more than okay with a story mostly about her (and her relationships! i love yunfei, i love her family dynamics, i love her and wu chuchu's Whole Nebulously Queer Vibe). but if it's going to be about her, i'd love for the no braincell trio to be supporting/side characters, and the other way around too! i'd love some good queer feelings for this series in general tbh.
one of my exceptions to my au rule!! i would love to read AUs for this series, although i would also love them to a) retain the same level of like… adventure and danger? (so probably not a coffee shop au, unless it's like. jianghu coffee shop which now that i say that is a pretty fun idea. the no braincell trio would be terrible innkeepers and I Would Like To See It.) and b) not be super whitewashed.

Exandria Unlimited (Web Series) - Any
my childrennnnnnnn! i don't understand how i got so attached to these absolute useless losers in only eight episodes but HERE WE ARE. i’d absolutely go wild for some whole party poly, but i'd also love genfic! i’m not super interested in fic purely about one ship, because part of what i love is how interconnected the characters all are, but i am definitely open to pretty much any ships. if i was going to pick one relationship from the show that i'm absolutely feral about, it's opal and ted - my fandom happy spot is complicated sibling relationships who still love each other so damn much. it could be super fun to see the ExU squad interact with other locations and groups we know about in exandria (i just had a vision of the mighty nein's horseback teleportation misadventure but with these losers and OH BOY that's some Potential Chaos!) also happy to read AUs here, although i prefer AUs where there is still some magic and like genasi and elves and such.