![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Yuletide: Dear Author Letter
Hello, mystery creator!
I have not done yuletide in ages and I am very excited both to be participating again myself and to see whatever you create for me. As is the nature of yuletide, all of my fandoms are tiny islands where content for the characters I've requested -- much less ships -- basically does not exist, so I will be delighted by almost any story that celebrates these under-appreciated characters of my heart. I offer these prompts and thoughts solely as guidelines to what sort of stories and themes I love the most. If there is a story you're itching to tell for one of these fandoms that is totally outside the bounds of what I've thought to request, most likely, I will want to read it! As long as you avoid my DNWs I will be very excited to see where your imagination takes you.
General Information
My fandoms this year are a novel, a book series, a TV mini-series, and two videogames. On the off-chance we matched on something you aren't feeling like writing for, the TV mini-series can be knocked out in an afternoon (it's about six hours in total) and the novel can similarly be finished over a weekend, depending on your reading speed. The games, on the other hand, kind of necessitate a time commitment. You could watch a few cut-scenes on youtube but they're the kind of lifestyle sim where your attachment to the characters really comes from immersing yourself in the world. The novel series is kind of in the middle and I highly recommend it, but you do need to read all three books to fulfill my request.
For all of my requests, I will be happy with more G-rated, character study content but would also be extremely delighted by NSFW content. There also is a ship inherent to each of my requests and while I'm happy with gen content if you aren't feeling the ship vibe, shipfic would be lovely!
For more information on my general likes and dislikes: Try Here
That post is over six years old but generally holds up. There's a chance stuff in there may be contradicted by this letter, in which case the letter version is my preference. Usually, I'd say my past letters are a handy reference for my NSFW preferences, if you would like even more information, but this year my wants are pretty specific to these fandoms. Usually, I enjoy alternate setting AUs but for these fandoms, I would prefer stories in the canon setting. Canon divergence or alternate timelines, however, are welcome.
For a quick breakdown of my general likes and dislikes, they are as follows:
LIKES:
-worldbuilding, filling in holes in canon, and fleshing out under-utilized parts of canon
-caretaking, domesticity, quiet moments, and subtle intimacy
-age gaps (both adult/minor and large age differences between adults)
-power dynamics, authority figures, leadership, and mentorship
-trans, nonbinary, or genderless characters, and focus on gender identity and exploration
-exploration of personhood, personal autonomy, identity, and finding one's place in the world
-polyamory, relationship negotiation, communication, and compromise
-asexual and/or aromantic characters navigating their participation in sex and romance
-cultural differences, misunderstandings, and connecting across gulfs of lived experience
-body horror, transformation, and xeno/monster biology
DISLIKES:
-first or second person POV
-gratuitous angst for angst's sake
-serious illness, injury, and/or hospital scenes in general
-major character death; background characters are fine but no (non-canonical) death of canon characters
-racism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, or any other bigotry as a major focus
-issuefic/soapboxing
-rape recovery arcs or taking revenge on a rapist
-extreme violence, gore, and/or amputation (other body horror is good and loved)
-mundane AUs (coffeeshop, university, flower shop & tattoo parlor, etc)
-scat (all other bodily fluids in sexual situations are A-OK)
Some of these are more relevant to one fandom or another, but they're a good general overview of my interests! Clarification or expansion will be given fandom by fandom.
Request 1: Hench (novel)
Character(s): Leviathan (requested), Anna Tromedlov (optional)
General Thoughts: I reeeeeally love this novel's approach to talking about the sorts of passive harm our societies perpetuate. In the case of calculating the damage done by superheroes, the harm isn't entirely passive, but the way that is contrasted with henching as temp work and the scam that is medical insurance really hit me in a soft, tender, angry place. The way Anna approaches these things, with her spreadsheets and her superhero day-ruining, is suuuuch an amazingly satisfying power fantasy. That really is what sticks with me about this book: the fantasy of being able to fix the broken system you live in, through sheer force of will and stubbornness and smarts.
But also, and perhaps more relevantly to yuletide, I love and am soooo fascinated by Leviathan. His design is so cool! The way he's positioned in the story world is so interesting! The way he intersects with Anna's character arc means that what we really know about him is fairly limited, and I would love to see that expanded upon, in most any way you could imagine.
Prompts and Ideas:
-Body horror! That is the #1 wish of my heart, in any way you'd like to approach it, I'd love to see the inherent weirdness of Leviathan's physical form explored in the context of most any type of story.
-Leviathan/Anna ship fic. I didn't request Anna because I really do want a story About Leviathan first and foremost and I have prompts that don't include her, but I would love to see any exploration of their relationship as something more than boss/subordinate. I would love weird xeno body horror sex, if that's in your wheelhouse, but more than typical sex, I'd really like to see how physical intimacy of any sort would work with Leviathan.
-Leviathan POV on canon events. I don't have solid thoughts on which events would be interesting to see from his perspective, I'd just love to sit inside his head and see more of how he ticks. Could be his POV on concrete events that happened in his novel, or missing scenes filling in gaps in canon.
-Backstory expansion. The novel didn't have a lot of space to get into the backstory and in the context of everything the novel was more about, I think that's fine. But I'd love to read more about it, in a story that is About Leviathan rather than primarily About Anna.
Request 2: Scholomance Series (novel trilogy)
Character(s): Liesel (requested), Alfie (requested), Galadriel (optional/conditional)
General Thoughts: I adore this series. After following both Astolat's fanfiction work for many, many years and Naomi Novik's professional work, these books really do feel, to me, like an amazing evolution of the concepts and themes that she's been writing about over and over, for years, under both names. These stories present a beautifully, masterfully awful world and then ask the question, how can we change this?
And it absolutely is a power fantasy, because no one in reality has El's ability to reshape existence on as grand a scale as she does. But it is an extremely satisfying power fantasy and every part of it feels earned. I really love this sort of iterative problem solving, where El has to start small, because she initially has no resources and no allies, but as she makes connections and builds outward, often in spite of her own efforts to alienate people, she becomes capable of taking on larger and larger problems. And the arc of El's increasing agency runs in perfect parallel to the arc of her emotional growth in a way that I just find soooooo satisfying (and think is So Typical of Novik/Astolat's work). I just. Love these books! So much!!
But more to the point for yuletide, Liesel and Alfie's dynamic is dead on the most for-me thing you could possibly put into this already extremely for-me novel series. Liesel is a perfect character. She is amazingly my type. I am So In Love with her sort of ruthlessly calculating type, the sort who functions almost purely on logic but who isn't cold and emotionless. Liesel understands that emotions do play a part in all of her calculations and in building a happy and successful life! But she is going to build that life, with a perfectly clear-sighted thirty year vision.
And! On the flipside! Alfie being someone born into a position of great privilege and power who wants to use his unearned advantages For The Good but who doesn't trust in his own abilities to do it well. That sort of person choosing a person like Liesel, happily, with his eyes open, is so tasty to me. I really like the thought that even though there is a transaction very explicitly going on between them, that isn't all that there is. They're perfectly calibrated to give each other exactly what they want to achieve their ambitions; it makes sense that being so well-matched "professionally" actually is solid ground to fit together romantically and I want to see it.
Prompts and Ideas:
-Liesel/Alfie ship fic!! This is my heart's truest desire for this fandom. I will take anything. I love femdom and I think that could easily be an element of their dynamic but I also think it would have interesting nuance, because Alfie is in a position of power as an heir to an important enclave family, versus Liesel starting with no enclave alignment, and so I'd love the see the interplay between the power dynamic inherent to their positions in society vs the power dynamic actually present in their relationship.
-Romance as a vehicle for character study. Liesel and Alfie are canonically together so I'm just assuming that anyone who offered both of them is happy for them to be romantically involved, but especially if you'd like to lean more toward gen fic, I'd loooove character study fic that uses their relationship as a jumping-off point. I love Liesel the most and would love to sit in her head, but I'd also love to read fic of Alfie looking at her, or to be in her head while she studies Alfie.
-Liesel's thirty year plan. If you'd like to write something a little more plotty, I'd love anything that focuses on Liesel's ambitions and planning. Seeing El's big life's work to fix all the enclaves through Liesel's eyes, while Liesel is juggling her part in that and her own increasing responsibilities, could be really good. I could also go for future fic just exploring Liesel and Alfie well down the road and seeing where her plans take them.
-El/Liesel/Alfie shipfic. I didn't request El because, for this, I'm really only interested in seeing how El fits into Liesel and Alfie's lives, in any capacity. I'd love to see Alfie's feelings on El especially, in a version of events where El/Liesel doesn't progress beyond what happens in the novel. But I'd also loooove to see an exploration of the whole Orion-El-Liesel-Alfie polyamorous daisy chain, or alternate versions of canon events where El/Liesel/Alfie does happen, in some different way.
-Liesel/Alfie porn. I'd honestly prefer porn as a vehicle for character study but I love femdom and I love power dynamics and I will adore any story that uses sex (and/or kink!) to showcase what is fun and interesting about these two characters. (if you'd like to write about kink, I would prefer not to read a BDSM 101 Manual type story, but beyond that, I'm happy to take a trust fall. Feel free to make it Weird.)
Request 3: Devil in Ohio (TV mini-series)
Character(s): Suzanne Mathis, Mae Dodd
General Thoughts: The thing that really grabbed me about this series is the throughline about generational trauma and abuse. The way Suzanne has pushed aside actually processing the abuse from her childhood in favor of being a pillar of support for everyone else, up until the point she meets Mae Dodd and sees so much of herself and her past in this teen girl she hopes she can help, really got to me. Suzanne fascinates me. There is this unique, messed-up selfishness in the way she repeatedly, over and over, puts Mae ahead of the family that she's been devoted to for years. It makes so much sense and also no sense at all and I want to crack her head open and peek at whatever the heck is going on inside there.
And Mae! What I find most interesting about Mae is the tension between agency and helplessness that is inherent to her situation. She was raised by a cult and her thinking was warped and shaped in a lot of ways she had no control over, but she does make her own choices over the course of the series and there is evidence that she isn't as helpless as many characters may have believed. The twist at the end is so fascinating to me! She's manipulative, and I'd love to see that dug into, but I don't want to see her villainized. Her supposed goal -- staying with Suzanne -- is benign, it's just what she's willing to do to ensure it that pushes the envelope.
Prompts and Ideas:
-Post-canon fic. The thing I'd like to see the absolute most is fic exploring Suzanne's choice, at the end of the show, to stay with Mae over her husband and her own daughters. I reeeeally want to see more of what's going on inside her head, how she justifies that, if and why she believes that she'll be able to salvage her relationship with her family after that choice. If it really helps her heal from her own past, to help this person she over-identifies with.
-Suzanne choosing Mae over her family, weird and charged psychosexual edition. This one is the hard sell. I respect if, with the parent/child dynamic and the age gap, this is extremely not your thing. But the extreme degree of obsession, in both directions, the fact that Suzanne chooses Mae over her husband, is absolutely mindblowing to me. I will take it in either direction or both directions, I would be extremely down for an exploration of Mae imprinting on Suzanne and thinking she wants a romantic relationship and Suzanne having to navigate turning her down without damaging her further. For this, I really am looking for something fraught and uncomfortable and messed up, so if there is anything you'd be interested to write in that direction, I would love to read it!
-Character study. I'd looooove to see someone get directly inside Suzanne's head or Mae's head, in order to show me how they tick. I'd prefer if the other character is still involved in the story -- with how tightly their character arcs are intertwined, I feel like it would be difficult to fully separate them -- but I am happy with a story that is almost entirely focused on only Mae or only Suzanne!
Request 4: Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town (videogame)
Character(s): Beth, Damon, Lars
General Thoughts: Pioneers of Olive Town, moreso than almost any other Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons really got me with its cast of characters. This is a canon where I definitely prefer more quiet, cozy, comfort read kind of stories, and where I'm not really interested in AUs. Feel free to add changes on top, but the basic "farm" setting is really important to my enjoyment.
I got very caught on how much Damon wants to hang out with Lars and his brother and, by extension, Beth, and by the feeling that he doesn't QUITE fit in with this group of young adults who are just a liiiiittle old to be peers, but where they never make him feel unwelcome or not part of their group. I'd love to see anything that utilizes that dynamic! I also love that Lars is so supportive of Beth and her neuroses just by being a laid-back dude who goes with the flow. Their relationship is so cute and I'd love to see it depicted that way.
Prompts and Ideas:
-Damon Character Study. I would especially love fic that really examines Damon's thoughts, feelings, motivations, wants, etc in particular. Damon POV would be really fun, but I'd also really love Lars (or Beth) POV for that "seeing the character through another lens" experience. If you're more interested in Lars or Beth character study, I think seeing either of them through Damon's eyes would also be a lot of fun.
-Get together and/or new relationship fic. I'd especially love a story that shows how Damon gets together with Lars and Beth. Since Lars and Beth are canonically together, I see this as an OT3 where the third has to be integrated with the existing couple, and seeing how that might play out is really fun. How does Damon navigate having a crush on Lars or Beth or both? How do their feelings about him grow and change? How do they handle talking about these developments?
-Exploration of the age difference. Show me any situation where Damon being younger and less experienced is a pain point for these three! I see Lars and Beth being very kind and understanding of Damon being younger and maybe a little try-hard about it, but I'd love to see Damon struggling with the age difference, or life experience difference.
-Established Relationship fic. I am also very down for established relationship fluff and domesticity. Show me what their relationship looks like once it's solid and comfortable! I love polyamory so I'd also love any fic that explores how each bar of the polyamory triangle works, in addition to how all three of them work together.
-Character study via sex. I think their first time being sexually intimate as a triad could be sooooo interesting and could be used to explore a lot of facets of any and all three of them as characters. I'd also enjoy seeing what their sex life looks like once they're comfortably togeether and are used to having sex as a triad, or to see the differences between the sexual dynamics of each bar of the triad. How does Damon/Lars sex look, compared to Damon/Beth or Lars/Beth? How is any single pair different from them all together? I love all sorts of explorations of intimacy and more than raunchy erotica, I'd love to see that side of a NSFW story.
Request 5: Potion Permit (videogame)
Character(s): Xiao, Moira, Collin
General Thoughts: I am eternally a sucker for this kind of lifestyle sim / farming-adjacent game and I really adore the world and the cast of Potion Permit. I think this sort of game often makes for a really fun sandbox to play in, because each character is a specific trope and is given just enough cutscenes and interactions to give you the shape of who they are, but there really isn't enough space for any character to be 100% fully realized, so there's a lot of wiggle room to explore possibilities. As an entry to its genre, I think Potion Permit does a really good job weaving the lives of its cast together and I really enjoyed how the town really feels like a close-knit community bound together by many ties of friendship.
Prompts and Ideas:
-Character study. Since the game has limited space to flesh out each character, I would love to see an exploration of Xiao, Moira, or Collin's interiority and life outside of what is explicitly depicted in game cutscenes.
-Xiao/Moira/Collin OT3 fic. I will take anything. I think get-together fic can be really fun but I'd also be so interested in something where they are involved pretty much from the start of the game and where their stiffness in interacting with each other in front of the chemist is partially the result of not knowing how to be Visibly In A Polyamorous Relationship in front of others. I love Collin bullying Xiao by refusing to use his name and would love to see anything that expands on that dynamic for them. I love seeing the differences in how each bar of the polyamory triangle works. I love polyamory negotiation in general. I love OT3 fic!!
-V-shaped polyamory fic. While I love the idea of OT3, I would also be very interested in a story where Xiao/Collin is a thing and Xiao/Moira is a thing and Xiao has to navigate dating both of them / they have to navigate dating the same person while not being interested in becoming romantically involved with each other. For this dynamic, I would love if you played up the workplace rivalry between Collin and Moira, if that interests you!
-Moira/Collin fic. For this fandom, I'm fine with Xiao being left out, if you'd like to write something focusing on Moira and Collin instead. Focusing on their workplace rivalry, the contrast in their attitudes, what being a chemist looks like for them, would all be interesting angles for me. Since they live in the capital and not Moonbury, focusing on them could be a fun way to explore the world of Potion Permit beyond what we see in the game.
-Moira and Collin as siblings. This isn't canonical and I know it's a product of the old school simple game sprites, but Moira and Collin do look amazingly similar, so if you also had the thought "oh, they could be siblings!" and would like to explore what that looks like, I would love to read about it! For this, depending on your comfort level with incestuous ships, I'm happy with no romance, Xiao dating only one of Moira or Collin, Xiao dating them in a polyamorous-V situation and them trying to navigate that with minimal weirdness, or full (Xiao)/Moira/Collin with the incest element. If you would like to go that route, I prefer my incest to be taboo rather than normalized.
-Fandom-Specific Caveat: As mentioned in my sign-up, I would prefer that the chemist (if included in your fic) be referred to only as "(the) chemist" or similar, not by any given name. I have a preference for a female or nonbinary (they/them pronouns) chemist but if you prefer a male chemist, that's fine too!
Final Thoughts
And that's everything! I like being thorough with letters but really, all of the basics you need are in my AO3 sign-up. As long as you avoid my DNWs and write something that celebrates my character(s) of choice for the fandom, I expect I will be delighted with whatever you happen to make for me!
I have not done yuletide in ages and I am very excited both to be participating again myself and to see whatever you create for me. As is the nature of yuletide, all of my fandoms are tiny islands where content for the characters I've requested -- much less ships -- basically does not exist, so I will be delighted by almost any story that celebrates these under-appreciated characters of my heart. I offer these prompts and thoughts solely as guidelines to what sort of stories and themes I love the most. If there is a story you're itching to tell for one of these fandoms that is totally outside the bounds of what I've thought to request, most likely, I will want to read it! As long as you avoid my DNWs I will be very excited to see where your imagination takes you.
General Information
My fandoms this year are a novel, a book series, a TV mini-series, and two videogames. On the off-chance we matched on something you aren't feeling like writing for, the TV mini-series can be knocked out in an afternoon (it's about six hours in total) and the novel can similarly be finished over a weekend, depending on your reading speed. The games, on the other hand, kind of necessitate a time commitment. You could watch a few cut-scenes on youtube but they're the kind of lifestyle sim where your attachment to the characters really comes from immersing yourself in the world. The novel series is kind of in the middle and I highly recommend it, but you do need to read all three books to fulfill my request.
For all of my requests, I will be happy with more G-rated, character study content but would also be extremely delighted by NSFW content. There also is a ship inherent to each of my requests and while I'm happy with gen content if you aren't feeling the ship vibe, shipfic would be lovely!
For more information on my general likes and dislikes: Try Here
That post is over six years old but generally holds up. There's a chance stuff in there may be contradicted by this letter, in which case the letter version is my preference. Usually, I'd say my past letters are a handy reference for my NSFW preferences, if you would like even more information, but this year my wants are pretty specific to these fandoms. Usually, I enjoy alternate setting AUs but for these fandoms, I would prefer stories in the canon setting. Canon divergence or alternate timelines, however, are welcome.
For a quick breakdown of my general likes and dislikes, they are as follows:
LIKES:
-worldbuilding, filling in holes in canon, and fleshing out under-utilized parts of canon
-caretaking, domesticity, quiet moments, and subtle intimacy
-age gaps (both adult/minor and large age differences between adults)
-power dynamics, authority figures, leadership, and mentorship
-trans, nonbinary, or genderless characters, and focus on gender identity and exploration
-exploration of personhood, personal autonomy, identity, and finding one's place in the world
-polyamory, relationship negotiation, communication, and compromise
-asexual and/or aromantic characters navigating their participation in sex and romance
-cultural differences, misunderstandings, and connecting across gulfs of lived experience
-body horror, transformation, and xeno/monster biology
DISLIKES:
-first or second person POV
-gratuitous angst for angst's sake
-serious illness, injury, and/or hospital scenes in general
-major character death; background characters are fine but no (non-canonical) death of canon characters
-racism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, or any other bigotry as a major focus
-issuefic/soapboxing
-rape recovery arcs or taking revenge on a rapist
-extreme violence, gore, and/or amputation (other body horror is good and loved)
-mundane AUs (coffeeshop, university, flower shop & tattoo parlor, etc)
-scat (all other bodily fluids in sexual situations are A-OK)
Some of these are more relevant to one fandom or another, but they're a good general overview of my interests! Clarification or expansion will be given fandom by fandom.
Request 1: Hench (novel)
Character(s): Leviathan (requested), Anna Tromedlov (optional)
General Thoughts: I reeeeeally love this novel's approach to talking about the sorts of passive harm our societies perpetuate. In the case of calculating the damage done by superheroes, the harm isn't entirely passive, but the way that is contrasted with henching as temp work and the scam that is medical insurance really hit me in a soft, tender, angry place. The way Anna approaches these things, with her spreadsheets and her superhero day-ruining, is suuuuch an amazingly satisfying power fantasy. That really is what sticks with me about this book: the fantasy of being able to fix the broken system you live in, through sheer force of will and stubbornness and smarts.
But also, and perhaps more relevantly to yuletide, I love and am soooo fascinated by Leviathan. His design is so cool! The way he's positioned in the story world is so interesting! The way he intersects with Anna's character arc means that what we really know about him is fairly limited, and I would love to see that expanded upon, in most any way you could imagine.
Prompts and Ideas:
-Body horror! That is the #1 wish of my heart, in any way you'd like to approach it, I'd love to see the inherent weirdness of Leviathan's physical form explored in the context of most any type of story.
-Leviathan/Anna ship fic. I didn't request Anna because I really do want a story About Leviathan first and foremost and I have prompts that don't include her, but I would love to see any exploration of their relationship as something more than boss/subordinate. I would love weird xeno body horror sex, if that's in your wheelhouse, but more than typical sex, I'd really like to see how physical intimacy of any sort would work with Leviathan.
-Leviathan POV on canon events. I don't have solid thoughts on which events would be interesting to see from his perspective, I'd just love to sit inside his head and see more of how he ticks. Could be his POV on concrete events that happened in his novel, or missing scenes filling in gaps in canon.
-Backstory expansion. The novel didn't have a lot of space to get into the backstory and in the context of everything the novel was more about, I think that's fine. But I'd love to read more about it, in a story that is About Leviathan rather than primarily About Anna.
Request 2: Scholomance Series (novel trilogy)
Character(s): Liesel (requested), Alfie (requested), Galadriel (optional/conditional)
General Thoughts: I adore this series. After following both Astolat's fanfiction work for many, many years and Naomi Novik's professional work, these books really do feel, to me, like an amazing evolution of the concepts and themes that she's been writing about over and over, for years, under both names. These stories present a beautifully, masterfully awful world and then ask the question, how can we change this?
And it absolutely is a power fantasy, because no one in reality has El's ability to reshape existence on as grand a scale as she does. But it is an extremely satisfying power fantasy and every part of it feels earned. I really love this sort of iterative problem solving, where El has to start small, because she initially has no resources and no allies, but as she makes connections and builds outward, often in spite of her own efforts to alienate people, she becomes capable of taking on larger and larger problems. And the arc of El's increasing agency runs in perfect parallel to the arc of her emotional growth in a way that I just find soooooo satisfying (and think is So Typical of Novik/Astolat's work). I just. Love these books! So much!!
But more to the point for yuletide, Liesel and Alfie's dynamic is dead on the most for-me thing you could possibly put into this already extremely for-me novel series. Liesel is a perfect character. She is amazingly my type. I am So In Love with her sort of ruthlessly calculating type, the sort who functions almost purely on logic but who isn't cold and emotionless. Liesel understands that emotions do play a part in all of her calculations and in building a happy and successful life! But she is going to build that life, with a perfectly clear-sighted thirty year vision.
And! On the flipside! Alfie being someone born into a position of great privilege and power who wants to use his unearned advantages For The Good but who doesn't trust in his own abilities to do it well. That sort of person choosing a person like Liesel, happily, with his eyes open, is so tasty to me. I really like the thought that even though there is a transaction very explicitly going on between them, that isn't all that there is. They're perfectly calibrated to give each other exactly what they want to achieve their ambitions; it makes sense that being so well-matched "professionally" actually is solid ground to fit together romantically and I want to see it.
Prompts and Ideas:
-Liesel/Alfie ship fic!! This is my heart's truest desire for this fandom. I will take anything. I love femdom and I think that could easily be an element of their dynamic but I also think it would have interesting nuance, because Alfie is in a position of power as an heir to an important enclave family, versus Liesel starting with no enclave alignment, and so I'd love the see the interplay between the power dynamic inherent to their positions in society vs the power dynamic actually present in their relationship.
-Romance as a vehicle for character study. Liesel and Alfie are canonically together so I'm just assuming that anyone who offered both of them is happy for them to be romantically involved, but especially if you'd like to lean more toward gen fic, I'd loooove character study fic that uses their relationship as a jumping-off point. I love Liesel the most and would love to sit in her head, but I'd also love to read fic of Alfie looking at her, or to be in her head while she studies Alfie.
-Liesel's thirty year plan. If you'd like to write something a little more plotty, I'd love anything that focuses on Liesel's ambitions and planning. Seeing El's big life's work to fix all the enclaves through Liesel's eyes, while Liesel is juggling her part in that and her own increasing responsibilities, could be really good. I could also go for future fic just exploring Liesel and Alfie well down the road and seeing where her plans take them.
-El/Liesel/Alfie shipfic. I didn't request El because, for this, I'm really only interested in seeing how El fits into Liesel and Alfie's lives, in any capacity. I'd love to see Alfie's feelings on El especially, in a version of events where El/Liesel doesn't progress beyond what happens in the novel. But I'd also loooove to see an exploration of the whole Orion-El-Liesel-Alfie polyamorous daisy chain, or alternate versions of canon events where El/Liesel/Alfie does happen, in some different way.
-Liesel/Alfie porn. I'd honestly prefer porn as a vehicle for character study but I love femdom and I love power dynamics and I will adore any story that uses sex (and/or kink!) to showcase what is fun and interesting about these two characters. (if you'd like to write about kink, I would prefer not to read a BDSM 101 Manual type story, but beyond that, I'm happy to take a trust fall. Feel free to make it Weird.)
Request 3: Devil in Ohio (TV mini-series)
Character(s): Suzanne Mathis, Mae Dodd
General Thoughts: The thing that really grabbed me about this series is the throughline about generational trauma and abuse. The way Suzanne has pushed aside actually processing the abuse from her childhood in favor of being a pillar of support for everyone else, up until the point she meets Mae Dodd and sees so much of herself and her past in this teen girl she hopes she can help, really got to me. Suzanne fascinates me. There is this unique, messed-up selfishness in the way she repeatedly, over and over, puts Mae ahead of the family that she's been devoted to for years. It makes so much sense and also no sense at all and I want to crack her head open and peek at whatever the heck is going on inside there.
And Mae! What I find most interesting about Mae is the tension between agency and helplessness that is inherent to her situation. She was raised by a cult and her thinking was warped and shaped in a lot of ways she had no control over, but she does make her own choices over the course of the series and there is evidence that she isn't as helpless as many characters may have believed. The twist at the end is so fascinating to me! She's manipulative, and I'd love to see that dug into, but I don't want to see her villainized. Her supposed goal -- staying with Suzanne -- is benign, it's just what she's willing to do to ensure it that pushes the envelope.
Prompts and Ideas:
-Post-canon fic. The thing I'd like to see the absolute most is fic exploring Suzanne's choice, at the end of the show, to stay with Mae over her husband and her own daughters. I reeeeally want to see more of what's going on inside her head, how she justifies that, if and why she believes that she'll be able to salvage her relationship with her family after that choice. If it really helps her heal from her own past, to help this person she over-identifies with.
-Suzanne choosing Mae over her family, weird and charged psychosexual edition. This one is the hard sell. I respect if, with the parent/child dynamic and the age gap, this is extremely not your thing. But the extreme degree of obsession, in both directions, the fact that Suzanne chooses Mae over her husband, is absolutely mindblowing to me. I will take it in either direction or both directions, I would be extremely down for an exploration of Mae imprinting on Suzanne and thinking she wants a romantic relationship and Suzanne having to navigate turning her down without damaging her further. For this, I really am looking for something fraught and uncomfortable and messed up, so if there is anything you'd be interested to write in that direction, I would love to read it!
-Character study. I'd looooove to see someone get directly inside Suzanne's head or Mae's head, in order to show me how they tick. I'd prefer if the other character is still involved in the story -- with how tightly their character arcs are intertwined, I feel like it would be difficult to fully separate them -- but I am happy with a story that is almost entirely focused on only Mae or only Suzanne!
Request 4: Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town (videogame)
Character(s): Beth, Damon, Lars
General Thoughts: Pioneers of Olive Town, moreso than almost any other Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons really got me with its cast of characters. This is a canon where I definitely prefer more quiet, cozy, comfort read kind of stories, and where I'm not really interested in AUs. Feel free to add changes on top, but the basic "farm" setting is really important to my enjoyment.
I got very caught on how much Damon wants to hang out with Lars and his brother and, by extension, Beth, and by the feeling that he doesn't QUITE fit in with this group of young adults who are just a liiiiittle old to be peers, but where they never make him feel unwelcome or not part of their group. I'd love to see anything that utilizes that dynamic! I also love that Lars is so supportive of Beth and her neuroses just by being a laid-back dude who goes with the flow. Their relationship is so cute and I'd love to see it depicted that way.
Prompts and Ideas:
-Damon Character Study. I would especially love fic that really examines Damon's thoughts, feelings, motivations, wants, etc in particular. Damon POV would be really fun, but I'd also really love Lars (or Beth) POV for that "seeing the character through another lens" experience. If you're more interested in Lars or Beth character study, I think seeing either of them through Damon's eyes would also be a lot of fun.
-Get together and/or new relationship fic. I'd especially love a story that shows how Damon gets together with Lars and Beth. Since Lars and Beth are canonically together, I see this as an OT3 where the third has to be integrated with the existing couple, and seeing how that might play out is really fun. How does Damon navigate having a crush on Lars or Beth or both? How do their feelings about him grow and change? How do they handle talking about these developments?
-Exploration of the age difference. Show me any situation where Damon being younger and less experienced is a pain point for these three! I see Lars and Beth being very kind and understanding of Damon being younger and maybe a little try-hard about it, but I'd love to see Damon struggling with the age difference, or life experience difference.
-Established Relationship fic. I am also very down for established relationship fluff and domesticity. Show me what their relationship looks like once it's solid and comfortable! I love polyamory so I'd also love any fic that explores how each bar of the polyamory triangle works, in addition to how all three of them work together.
-Character study via sex. I think their first time being sexually intimate as a triad could be sooooo interesting and could be used to explore a lot of facets of any and all three of them as characters. I'd also enjoy seeing what their sex life looks like once they're comfortably togeether and are used to having sex as a triad, or to see the differences between the sexual dynamics of each bar of the triad. How does Damon/Lars sex look, compared to Damon/Beth or Lars/Beth? How is any single pair different from them all together? I love all sorts of explorations of intimacy and more than raunchy erotica, I'd love to see that side of a NSFW story.
Request 5: Potion Permit (videogame)
Character(s): Xiao, Moira, Collin
General Thoughts: I am eternally a sucker for this kind of lifestyle sim / farming-adjacent game and I really adore the world and the cast of Potion Permit. I think this sort of game often makes for a really fun sandbox to play in, because each character is a specific trope and is given just enough cutscenes and interactions to give you the shape of who they are, but there really isn't enough space for any character to be 100% fully realized, so there's a lot of wiggle room to explore possibilities. As an entry to its genre, I think Potion Permit does a really good job weaving the lives of its cast together and I really enjoyed how the town really feels like a close-knit community bound together by many ties of friendship.
Prompts and Ideas:
-Character study. Since the game has limited space to flesh out each character, I would love to see an exploration of Xiao, Moira, or Collin's interiority and life outside of what is explicitly depicted in game cutscenes.
-Xiao/Moira/Collin OT3 fic. I will take anything. I think get-together fic can be really fun but I'd also be so interested in something where they are involved pretty much from the start of the game and where their stiffness in interacting with each other in front of the chemist is partially the result of not knowing how to be Visibly In A Polyamorous Relationship in front of others. I love Collin bullying Xiao by refusing to use his name and would love to see anything that expands on that dynamic for them. I love seeing the differences in how each bar of the polyamory triangle works. I love polyamory negotiation in general. I love OT3 fic!!
-V-shaped polyamory fic. While I love the idea of OT3, I would also be very interested in a story where Xiao/Collin is a thing and Xiao/Moira is a thing and Xiao has to navigate dating both of them / they have to navigate dating the same person while not being interested in becoming romantically involved with each other. For this dynamic, I would love if you played up the workplace rivalry between Collin and Moira, if that interests you!
-Moira/Collin fic. For this fandom, I'm fine with Xiao being left out, if you'd like to write something focusing on Moira and Collin instead. Focusing on their workplace rivalry, the contrast in their attitudes, what being a chemist looks like for them, would all be interesting angles for me. Since they live in the capital and not Moonbury, focusing on them could be a fun way to explore the world of Potion Permit beyond what we see in the game.
-Moira and Collin as siblings. This isn't canonical and I know it's a product of the old school simple game sprites, but Moira and Collin do look amazingly similar, so if you also had the thought "oh, they could be siblings!" and would like to explore what that looks like, I would love to read about it! For this, depending on your comfort level with incestuous ships, I'm happy with no romance, Xiao dating only one of Moira or Collin, Xiao dating them in a polyamorous-V situation and them trying to navigate that with minimal weirdness, or full (Xiao)/Moira/Collin with the incest element. If you would like to go that route, I prefer my incest to be taboo rather than normalized.
-Fandom-Specific Caveat: As mentioned in my sign-up, I would prefer that the chemist (if included in your fic) be referred to only as "(the) chemist" or similar, not by any given name. I have a preference for a female or nonbinary (they/them pronouns) chemist but if you prefer a male chemist, that's fine too!
Final Thoughts
And that's everything! I like being thorough with letters but really, all of the basics you need are in my AO3 sign-up. As long as you avoid my DNWs and write something that celebrates my character(s) of choice for the fandom, I expect I will be delighted with whatever you happen to make for me!