Yuletide Letter 2018

Dear Yuletide Author:

First of all, welcome and thank you! This is my second year doing Yuletide, and I’m very excited to read your story. I want to start by saying that you shouldn’t consider any of my specific requests binding, if that’s not what floats your boat. I just wanted to give you some ideas, to help you get started and give you a taste of the sort of things I’m into.

Let’s start with the general guidelines:

Things I Like

I love fic that captures the feel of canon, even if it’s operating in a different genre. Fic which incorporates little details of the world building. Fic which doesn’t forget the existence of characters who may not be center-stage, or their importance to the leads. I like fic where the characters sound and act the way they do in canon, without any of their edges and flaws filed off. I like complicated emotions and psychological realism, including and especially in speculative settings. I’m a multishipper, so het, slash, femslash and poly are all A++. If there’s a pairing I’m particularly fond or unfond of, I’ll mention it under that specific fandom. Otherwise, have at! Anything from gen to kinky, kinky porn is well appreciated. (And if the kink in the latter is visceral and real-world believable, even better!) I like well-earned happy endings and bittersweet ones. Happiness and tragedy are both great, but I’d prefer something other than unmitigated fluff, or ‘everything sucks, so let’s just be emo about it.’

When it comes to relationships in fic, my guideline is ‘more banter, less shmoop.’ I’m as much of a sucker for declarations of love as the next person, but put some thought into how a given character would act on those particular feelings. That, and I just plain like banter. :) Springing off from this, I have a major soft spot for unorthodox and indirect ways characters might say ‘I love you.’ The ‘as you wish,’ clause, if you will.

I love canon divergence or ‘turn left’ AUs, time loops, ‘Five Things That Never Happened to X,’ roleswaps, and other variations on a theme.

Not Inherently Positive or Negative - Just Needs More Detail

I love certain types of hurt/comfort, and dislike others. Particularly, what I like is characters going together through trauma, supporting each other, and bonding. What I dislike is h/c which infantilizes the hurt character and doesn’t acknowledge them as a person with agency and drive; ridiculous amounts of comfort for something minor like a headcold; or h/c which assumes that ‘hug and cry’ is the only possible emotional aftermath to trauma, ignoring other valid reactions, such as anger, denial, black humor, being surprisingly okay with it, etc.

Things I Dislike

There are few things I dislike more than character bashing, or characters who are sympathetic in canon being made to act like abusive assholes. If they are morally gray canonically, obviously that is fine, and not what I am talking about here. Extra special note for this, if said character happens to be a PoC, female, or queer.

I have no interest in Character/Reader, A/B/O or mundane AUs, such as high school of coffee shop. (I was going to say ‘modern AUs,’ but then I realized I’d be totally down with say a mafia AU, or something like that, which might still be set in the modern world. Basically, I want a setting which can parallel the stakes of canon in an interesting manner. Sticking with the canon is always a safe bet, though I do love me some canon divergence AUs, as mentioned above.)

Crossovers aren’t particularly my bag, especially in an exchange, where you might have no way of knowing which fandoms I am or am not familiar with.

In terms of squicks, please no MPREG, reproductive coercion, or breeding kink. Mention of a pregnancy or kid is fine, but it shouldn’t be the focus, and I ask for absolutely no scenarios where the character doesn’t want to be pregnant but has to keep it anyway.

As per what I’ve said a couple paragraphs above, absolutely no rape or abuse featuring canonically sympathetic characters as the perp (or even ones who might be ruthless on occasion, but unlikely to go *that particular route* if they’re in character.)

I dislike seme/uke essentialism, and essentialist gender roles in general. Who tops (or does the penetrating, or what have you) sexually has jack-all to do with strength of character or actual power dynamics in a relationship.

Now, on to the specific fandoms and requests:

( Sagas of Sundry: Dread )

( The Good Place )

( Star Driver )

( Umineko no Naku Koro Ni )