Dear Yuletide Author

[calliatra]

Dear Yuletide Author,

Hi there! I’m so excited there’s someone out there who shares one of my tiny fandom loves! I’ve written quite a long letter here because, well, I'm excited, and I'm a fan of having many different options. But I promise I’m not picky at all about them! So please help yourself to whatever optional details you’re interested in, ignore the rest, and write a story you’ll have fun with!

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Index  

General Things

• Quick Info
• General Notes
• DNWs
• Likes 

Fandoms

• Fresh Off the Boat
• Gone Home
• Grantchester
• John Finnemore’s Souvenir Programme
• The Rest of Us Just Live Here
• Swingtown

 

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Quick Info:

I go by Calliatra everywhere. You can find me mainly on ao3 and tumblr. You can find my letters for previous exchanges here.

Anon commenting is enabled here, so if there’s anything you’d like clarified, feel free to ask! (Or, hey, if you just want to chat about a tiny fandom, I’m always happy to!) And of course feel free to contact me via mod anytime.

 

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General Notes:

• I love both first person and third person POV. Same goes for past and present tense. I’ll also happily read more experimental things (drabble collections, future tense, non-linear progression, you name it)! …Just don’t go all Finnegans Wake, ‘k?


• Any and all prompts are only suggestions. If they don’t work for you, feel free to change or completely ignore them!


• In case you’d like additional prompts: A List of My Favorite Tropes (With Explanations)


• You may notice I have more to say about some fandoms than others, but that honestly has nothing to do with how much I like them. I’m head-over-heels in love with all the fandoms and characters I requested here, and I’d be absolutely thrilled to receive a fic for any of them!

 

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Do Not Want

• character death (Mentioning canon character death or killing an OC is fine, as long as you don’t dwell on the grief.)


• unhappy endings (I don’t need perfect fairy tale endings or anything, but I do like them to be at least hopeful.)


• overwhelming angst


• gore, graphic violence, or intense suffering


• humiliation or serious embarrassment (seriously, I have such an embarrassment squick, please spare me)


• an imbalance of power in romantic relationships (anything from D/s to teacher/student)


• cheating (on a romantic partner)


• the concepts of One True Love and Destiny


• PWP


• non-canon ships (unless you know I ship them or at least don’t mind them)


• too much introspection or ‘navel-gazing’


• pregnancy and kidfic


• bashing any characters, especially women


• body image issues, or any character being criticized for their body (up to and including being complimented on having “improved” it)


• Christmas-themed fic (Setting the fic around Christmas is more than fine, I’d just rather the story didn’t specifically focus on the characters celebrating it. Any other holiday is very welcome, though!)

 

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Likes!

• interactions between characters and closer looks at the dynamics of their relationship(s). Can be gen or shippy, I adore it either way, especially between characters who are at least to some degree fond of each other.


• subtlety. I love it when I have to read a fic twice to really understand everything that was implied.


• atmosphere! Anything that transports into the feel of a different place or world.


• humor, especially wordplay and language-based humor.


• surprises!


• playing with tropes. Invert them, subvert them, deconstruct them, whatever – anything other than playing them straight is always a fantastic kind of surprise! (Though there are a good few that I really love seeing played straight, as well.)


• mysteries. Not just the traditional crime-related ones, but really any kind at all. I love being intrigued! And I adore it when all the pieces finally come together in the end.


• psychological stories: stories about conflicts between people or within them, and how they deal with those.


• communication. Whether it’s talking, texting, letter writing, hand signals, body language, or Morse code, I love it when characters communicate with each other. And I love it even more when they find innovative ways to do it.


• banter! It makes for such fun scenes and great character moments, I just adore it!


• Getting Together/First Time fics. Possibly my favorite thing in the world. I just really love that moment when all that tension finally gets resolved, and all the various ways that can happen!


• friends-to-lovers/slow burn relationships


• explorations of queer themes. I really love seeing queerness from the POV of different characters, in different times throughout history, and/or in other universes. (Though I prefer these kinds of stories to be written by people who are queer themselves, so if you’re not, maybe go with something else.)


• a deliberate use of language. I absolutely adore it when language is used to set or match a specific tone, atmosphere, genre, POV, or anything like that! Or when it’s part of the plot somehow! I just… language. ♥

 

 

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Fresh Off the Boat

(Jessica Huang, Honey)

  

What It Is

An American sitcom set in the 1990s about a Chinese-American family settling in in Orlando, Florida. Part culture clash, part family comedy, and all good-hearted, silly fun, with lovable, continually growing characters. 2 seasons so far. (Trailer: x )

 

What I Like About It

I enjoy the light-hearted tone and glimpse into the past this show offers, but the reason I really love it are the relationships between all the characters, the way they’re in large part based on love (and that shines through even when things are rough), and the way they grow and change with the characters. I also adore the way all the characters are lovable in their own way, and how the humor is generally so very good-hearted, rather than mean. It makes for such pleasant watching! And I have to say, I also really like being shown a perspective I don’t usually get to see, and a culture I don’t know much about, especially from a point of view that is unapologetic about being “different”. Oh, and hey, the feminist undertones are pretty delightful, too.

 

About the Characters:

I love Jessica and Honey’s relationship so much, and I just want them to do everything together, and everything to be about them! Femslash or close friendship are both equally great here.

 

Jessica & Honey

I love their friendship, and I love that right from the start, they’re united both by being more or less social outcasts, as well as shared interests. It creates such a wonderful instant bond, and it’s a beautiful moment when Jessica chooses Honey over acceptance in the neighborhood. They were both lonely, and then they found each other, and had an instant, genuine connection!

I also adore the fact that they’ve gone into business together and are managing that on their own, without any real input from their husbands, and doing well again rough odds.

Individually, I love every single time Honey subverts the stereotype she’s set up to superficially look like! Every time she proves she’s smart and capable and loving, and didn’t actually break up her husband’s first marriage, and every time she uses people’s preconceptions to her advantage. And just in general, I really like how she’s so genuinely sweet and caring, without being cloying. And I enjoy the tempering influence she has on Jessica, drawing her slightly closer to being a bit more cautious, considerate, and calm.

In Jessica, I love her spirit, her self-confidence, and the incredibly impressive way she takes no shit and gets stuff done. She can be overly harsh to good people at times, which isn’t something I enjoy, but I live for the moments when she gives someone just what they deserve! Especially when it’s sexist bullshit she’s taking down. And I love that she’s rubbing off on Honey, and helping her be more confident and forward.

 

Jessica/Honey

Like with most my ships, you pretty much just take the above friendship and add some sexual/romantic attraction, and you’re good to go! They’ve already got all the chemistry and closeness, so it’s basically just a question of who makes the first move.

Jessica rarely hesitates in going for what she wants, but she’s also extremely clueless about anything queer. Honey, on the other hand “was a lesbian for a summer”, and whatever that means in terms of her sexual orientation, she must have some experience with women. The problem, of course, is that she’s more hesitant, and waits for cues from others… Mutual self-questioning and pining, anyone? Or, if you prefer, the “we’re running with this thing before we even know what it is ourselves” approach is also fabulously fun!

And, man, once they were in a relationship, that could be such sitcom-y fun, too. Their personalities in the perfect way for so many comedy tropes, enough to cause conflict, but not enough to create irreparable damage. And working together, they’d be practically unstoppable! Anything in that direction would be a joy to behold.

 

Fandom-Specific Likes & DNWs:

• No focus on infidelity, please. I really like Jessica and Honey’s relationships with Louis and Marvin, and I’d prefer to keep them positive. A little worrying about cheating is fine if you want it there for realism, but please don’t make it a major point. Otherwise feel free to just not mention the husbands at all, or say their marriages are open, or just straight-up run with a husband-less AU!
 
• Regarding the trope-heavy prompts, I do enjoy pure tropey fun in this fandom, but I also always love any kind of subversion, or fics that show how those types of situations would go down in reality, so you’re very welcome to take any of the prompts in that direction as well.
 
• Also, please don’t put a lot of focus on the kids. (Though of course having them make a brief appearance or two is totally fine.)

 

Prompts:

• Solving a Mystery! I absolutely adored Jessica and Honey investigating together in 2x19, and I would love to see them do it again! With anything from a tiny neighborhood nuisance to a full-blown murder mystery. Or maybe they could try to find out what happened to Kimmy Pozlacek, the girl mentioned in 2x23 as having lived in the Huangs’s house before them?
 
• Horror movie night gets extra scary! Is there something lurking outside the window? Or in the dark corners of the house? Will the phone not stop ringing? Is there news of an escaped murderer? (I’m a big fan of creepiness and fear, so feel free to go all-out on that, but please don’t have anyone actually hurt.)
 
• Girl’s night out! Where do they go, what do they do? How do their tastes clash, or mesh? Do they end up at the Denim Turtle, or might they try something completely new? Do they get into sitcom-y trouble? Or drama-y character revelations? Or something else entirely?
 
• Single Moms AU! What if it was just Jessica and her boys who moved into the new neighborhood? What if Honey had partial custody of Nichole for *handwave* reasons? What would change, what would stay the same? And how would their relationship develop? (If you mention ex-husbands/fathers of the children/etc., I’d prefer Jessica and Honey’s relationships with Louis and Marvin to be amiable.)
 
• Undercover in a Gay Bar! Good old tropey fun, which I think could work very well with a sitcom like this. Feel free to use the flimsiest of excuses as to why the undercover op is necessary ;) So, how about some Heteronormative Hesitation, followed by Surprising New Feelings, “Plot”-Mandated Experimentation, Sexual Confusion with Mutual Pining, and/or Sage Advice from Gay Bar Patrons? (Or, like mentioned above, feel free to take this in a more serious or just generally different direction.)
 
• Snowed In! More tropey fun that doesn’t need to involve any actual snow. (I’m told that would be difficult in Florida.) Just Jessica and Honey stuck somewhere (preferably somewhere comfortable, with food and heating and a working bathroom, and all that), alone together. Maybe they get trapped/forced to stay in a house they’re flipping? Or anything else you can think of!
 
• Road Trip! Basically just another way to trap the women in a small space together, but this time with bonus sightseeing! And Road Trip Shenanigans! There’s: Where Are We Going? Did You Even Bring a Map OMG? Let’s Sing Along with the Radio! Oh No, Unexpected Car Trouble! This Motel Looks Perfectly Fine and Not Creepy At All… and so, so much more!
 
• Handcuffed Together! Okay, so by now you’re probably getting the gist: I like my characters being forced to interact, and let each other see more of themselves than they might ordinarily choose. And I love all the directions this can go, from wild shenanigans to emotional confrontation. So, under what circumstances might Jessica and Honey get handcuffed together? And what might it lead to?
 
• Sticking it to a man! I admit it, this one is pure id-fodder for me. I love Jessica tearing down assholes, and I’d especially love for her and Honey together to take down some sexist (and, if you go with femslash, maybe bonus homophobic?) bullshit with a slow-clap, mic-drop deserving scene.
 
• Alternatively, some short and very open prompts!
  
  
  
  • Body Swap
  
  
  • Murder Mystery
  
  
  • New experiences in the Denim Turtle.
  
  
  • Mind Reading
  
  
  • Power Outage
  
  
  • UST
  
  
  • In Space! AU
  
  
  • Discovering something new about each other.
  
  
  • Hogwarts AU
  
  
  • Flipping a house together.

 

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Gone Home

(Kaitlin Greenbriar, Janice Greenbriar, Terrence Greenbriar)

 

What It Is

A simple, story-centric exploration video game from 2013 that transports you back in time to 1995. Play as a college student searching her family’s home for clues as to what happened to them in her absence. By turns creepy, intriguing, heartwarming, and moving, and overall just absolutely beautiful. 2 – 4 hours of gameplay. (Website: x )

 

What I Like About It

I adore the atmosphere, with the creepiness of all around, from the thunderstorm to the unanswered questions, contrasted with the homeliness of the often-used rooms and mundane mementos, and the comforting security or bright lights. I also love the sense of mystery and discovery, the subtle way the story builds up and gets revealed, and the way you get to know people via the artifacts and spaces they leave behind.

 

About the Characters:

I like how Katie is easy-going, adventure-happy, and open-minded, but also clearly very loving, considerate, and close to her sister.

With Janice and Terrence, I like the way they really feel like real, grounded people, pushing on through daily troubles big and small. I’m glad they’re working to fix their marriage, and I hope it works out for them. For each individually, I’m particularly interested in their jobs and hobbies. Jan’s job in the Forestry Service sounds like it must make for some great and unique work experiences! And Terry’s writing is so strongly divided between dry reviews and wild fiction, that must be fascinating in its own way.

It’d be interesting to see how close Katie is to her parents, and what their relationship is like. Is it as tense and complicated as Sam’s relationship with them?

I find the parents’ homophobia to be very uncomfortable, but also very real and believable at the same time, coming as it does mostly from ignorance, and misplaced concern for their daughter. I like to think they’ll reevaluate and overcome it, though the road there can’t be easy. But at least Katie’s accepting, and could help!

On the whole, though, honestly, the most intriguing part for me is that there’s still a whole lot we don’t know about these characters, and so much left to discover!

 

Fandom-Specific Likes & DNWs:

• I find the argument for the childhood abuse interpretation very compelling, and accept it as (head)canon. If you’d like to write something that includes that, you’re welcome to; I have no triggers or particular sensibilities there. If you want to completely ignore that theory, or straight up contradict it, that’s just as fine, though!
 
• I really like Sam and Lonnie’s story, but it’s already the one I know the most about, so I’d prefer if it stayed in the background here. Though of course you’re welcome to focus on how the other three Greenbriars dealt or deal with all that.
 
• Speaking of Sam and Lonnie, please don’t have them break up soon after Sam runs away. If you’re writing futurefic it’s fine to say that it didn’t work out/they ended up with other people, but I like to believe they had a happy ending together at least in the medium-run.
 
• I would love a story told in documents, canon-style, if that’s something you feel comfortable writing. And I’m not at all fussed about canon compliance or historical accuracy with things like exact dates/company names/boilerplate layout/etc., so don’t feel like you’d need to delve deep into research here! 

 

Prompts:

• How did Terrence and Janice’s retreat go? Did they manage to work things out? Or are they at least going to change their approach to the problem?
 
• What was Katie’s time in Europe like? Who was she traveling with? What did she experience, and how might she tell those stories? (Do her parents get a redacted version?) Did she send letters, or call, or were her postcards the only word her family got from her for a year?
 
• How do they cope after Sam runs away? What happens next? What’s the emotional fallout, and what are the practical consequences? How might they try to get her back, and what might the results be?
 
• Excerpts from Terry’s fiction. What’s his writing like, in better times and/or in worse? What notes, corrections, or suggestions might Katie and/or Jan have to offer? How much of his real life and/or his real concerns bleed into his fiction?
 
• More on Oscar, Terry’s past in the house, and his family. What was it like, back when he was a child? How much has stayed the same, how much has changed? How might it relate to his relationships with his own children? And where did the rumors that he house is haunted come from? (As I said above, you’re equally welcome to include or ignore the abuse theory.)
 
• More family secrets! Maybe Katie’s hiding something, this time? Or maybe there’s something going on with Janice’s parents, perhaps a reason why they don’t get mentioned at all? Or maybe it’s something else entirely – feel free to go wherever your imagination takes you!
 
• Before Katie’s year abroad. What was their family like, back in the old house, and the old school, when both girls were still home?
 
• What else is the house hiding? More secret passages? Messages from the past? A hidden graveyard? Long-forgotten items left behind by previous inhabitant? More information about Oscar?
 
• Katie’s not straight, either. This is my personal favorite headcanon, and I think it can open the door to any number of interesting queer storylines. Did Sam know, or suspect? Do their parents have any idea? What kind of situations does that put Katie in after Sam runs away, and how does she deal with it? Is she an out and angry activist? Quietly closeted? Still questioning, and maybe even inspired by Sam’s story? Or any other directions you might like to take this – anything at all about a queer Katie would be wonderful!
 
• Alternative prompts, if you like things shorter and more open to interpretation:
  
  
  
  • Might the house be haunted, after all?
  
  
  • VCRs, fax machines, and cassette tapes
  
  
  • Letters to Sam.
  
  
  • queer feminist uprising
  
  
  • ten years later
  
  
  • newspaper stories
  
  
  • Let’s not talk about that.
  
  
  • growth and change
  
  
  • realization
  
  
  • fragments

 
 

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Grantchester

(Sidney Chambers, Geordie Keating)

 

What It Is

A British TV crime/drama series set in the 1950s about a charming priest and a grumpy cop who solve crimes and develop an unlikely friendship. Or about an unconventional young priest in a small town, and his complex and evolving relationships with society, himself, and the found family he gathers around him. 12 episodes so far. (More detailed info: x )

 

What I Like About It

Everything. I literally cannot think of a single thing about this show that I don’t like. But I especially adore the relationships between all the characters, and the subtlety and nuance and just believability there. I also really like the atmosphere that’s woven into that, and the sense of things happening quietly and without drama, but not being any less meaningful for that. In terms of the cases, I love the fact that they’re not too convoluted, and that they deal more with human nature and psychology than with forensic clues and the likes. And there’s so much else I don’t have the room to list here, so, again, just assume that I love everything and you won’t be wrong!

 

About the Characters:

Sidney and Geordie are those characters, the ones I just want to be together so strongly that I don’t care which way. I ship them massively, but I also truly, deeply love the platonic friendship they have. So slash or gen or anything in between or beyond would have me equally delighted!

 

Sidney & Geordie

Sidney and Geordie’s friendship is almost too wonderful for words. They have such amazing chemistry right from the first moment onward, that immediate interest, affection, and understanding, and the relationship they build from that is just stunning. They hold such a deep, profound trust between them, to the point where they manage to be emotionally open and share things in a way that runs completely contrary to their usual habits, and such an intensity of emotional investment, it’s incredible.

They love each other, and aren’t afraid to say so, and beyond that, they just fit together. Their personalities, their ways of thinking, their situations in life, they all complement each other in such a perfect way, providing each other with exactly what they need. And even when they don’t, when the differences they do have cause them to turn against each other, their friendship is too strong and too important to give up on. Is there anything more heartwarming than that? Except maybe the fact that their (found) families are integrating into each other before our very eyes.

 

Sidney/Geordie

All of the above, first of all! Except maybe taking the word “friendship” and replacing it with “love”. Everything else would hardly change. Because already there’s just so much chemistry! So much trust! So much love! And so much touching, too. (I’m a fan of that.)

But in terms of a romantic relationship specifically, it’s probably the process of getting to that switch from platonic to romantic that’s the most interesting part. Now, Sidney is unusually relaxed about all things gay, of course. Part of that is definitely because he firmly believes in privacy, and loving your neighbor, and all that, but is there more to it? (My personal favorite headcanon (which you should feel free to ignore!) is that Sidney experimented with guys a bit when he was younger, and made peace with that, and gay people by proxy, afterwards.) But there’s always the question of what’s appropriate for a vicar, and the fact that Sidney holds himself to a higher standard than anyone else…

Geordie, on the other hand, has a lot of internalized homophobia to deal with. I mean, yeah, he had extenuating circumstances in 1x04, but it’s not like that aggression was coming out of nowhere. And man, he just keeps bringing homosexuality up every chance he gets, and wants to talk about it even when Sidney very clearly doesn’t. It makes me wonder if maybe he secretly knows he’s not straight, and is torn between angry repression and a desperate need to engage with the topic somehow…

Throw into all that the fact that they both regularly see a good bit of Leonard, who’s not only very observant (and in the habit of occasionally unobtrusively offering advice), but also a little torn on and uncomfortable with the subject himself, and you’ve got material enough for a thousand ways this might develop.

 

Fandom-Specific Likes & DNWs:

• The deleted scenes from the second series add so, so much to both the characters and the story, in my opinion, that I like to pretend they’re canon.
 
• I love everyone, every single character, so much it’s ridiculous. So if there’s anyone else you’d like to include: yes, please, go for it!
 
• Just please don’t have Sidney in a romantic relationship with one of the women with whom things didn’t work out in canon.  
 
• Oh, and I especially love Cathy tons, so please don’t treat her badly or write her out if you go for Sidney/Geordie. You’re welcome to just not mention her at all, but I’m also open to something heading in the direction of Sidney/Geordie/Cathy (as a triad or a vee, whichever works best).
 
• Cheating… is kind of inevitable if you go for Sidney/Geordie, and I’m okay with that being a thing. Just please don’t make it a central focus.

 

Prompts:

• For the most obvious thing first: casefic! I really like seeing Sidney and Geordie investigating cases together, and I like it even better when the rest of the vicarage family gets involved as well. So if casefic is your jam, anything in that direction would be delightful.
 
• With more of a character focus: What might it look like if Geordie and Sidney switch up their “good cop, bad cop” roles? If Geordie is the one feeling compassion for the suspect, and Sidney’s not? And what type of case or suspect would it have to be to bring them to that point?
 
• For slash: So, what exactly is going on with Geordie’s internalized homophobia? How self-aware is he, and how aware of Sidney? And how aware of anything is Sidney, for that matter? And what provoked the change in Geordie from between series one, where it made him so very uncomfortable, and series two, where he can make a light “You’re not my type” joke? Did he and Sidney manage to actually kind of maybe slightly talk about it? Did something happen? Or is Sidney just rubbing off on him (er, pun not intended…)?
 
• Or, for something more tropey: Undercover in a Gay Bar! There’s got to be at least one gay bar in Cambridge, right? Well, what if there was a murder committed there? Or it was in some other way connected to a crime? Maybe one that isn’t being officially investigated? Which of course means that Sidney and Geordie go poking around! Might Leonard be called on to help? What fun (or angst, or deep revelations about humanity) might all this lead to? (Bonus points if the gay bar is a counter point to the public lav thing, with a more ‘self-respecting’ and less closeted clientele.)
 
• Alternatively, and with more gen options: Outsider POV! What does Geordie and Sidney’s friendship look like to the people around them? Leonard’s certainly very perceptive, and likely to pick up on things they might not see themselves (or might be deliberately ignoring?). Mrs M has her opinions, but she also has a very distinct perspective, and she pays attention to things most people might not think of. And Cathy, well, she sees a different side to both of them than most others. (Anyone else’s POV is also very welcome!)
 
• If you like ensemble stories: how about another (found) family picnic? I loved those scenes in 1.06 and 2.01, and I so wish we’d gotten to see more of those happy times. I love this merging of Sidney and Geordie’s families, everyone getting to know each other, getting closer, and getting along, and I’d love to see just how that goes! Who talks to whom about what? Who helps how with the children? And how do Sidney and Geordie take to coming closer to sharing one big patchwork family? (See the last bullet point for prompts about various character constellations.)
 
• Or, going for humor, how about some adventures in trying to find Sidney an Eve? What other women did Sidney get set up with, and how did it go catastrophically wrong? What might Geordie and Cathy be plotting? (Is Geordie by any chance picking terrible matches on purpose, consciously or subconsciously…?) And how does Sidney, and how might he try to get ‘revenge’?
 
• For something darker and more plotty: What if Geordie’s tendency to take frustration out on suspects, or his and his colleagues’ brutal interrogation methods ended up actually hurting someone? What would the consequences be, and what the emotional fallout? And what role would Sidney play in the aftermath?
 
• Or, in a different direction: What’s daily life at the police station like? What are the routines, what are the quirks, what are the things outsiders don’t see? And how does Sidney fit into all that? What do people think of him, and the setup he and Geordie have? How far does he fit into that world, and how much is he an outsider? (Bonus points if you include Phil, and his relationship with or thoughts about Geordie and/or Sidney!)
 
• Otherwise, have some quick, short, and open prompts, in case that’s more your style:
  
  
  
  • Geordie’s keeping something from Sidney.
  
  
  • loneliness
  
  
  • hiding
  
  
  • “You’re not my type.”
  
  
  • pure banter, purely for the fun of it
  
  
  • It’s (not just) a question of trust.
  
  
  • learning something new
 
• Other relationships I’d adore seeing included and/or explored: (And, hey, if you find any of these mini prompts more inspiring than anything involving Sidney and Geordie, you 100% have my permission and encouragement to focus on that one instead!)
  
  
  
  • Geordie & Amanda (How much did they bond when Amanda stayed with his family?)
  
  
  • Geordie & Leonard (What might they discover they have in common? Can Geordie get past his homophobia?)
  
  
  • Sidney & Cathy (How might they build a relationship independent of Geordie?)
  
  
  • Cathy & Mrs Maguire (Mrs M has so much understanding and experience to offer, and she could surely stand to learn a few things in return.)
  
  
  • Leonard & Amanda (Do they make unlikely allies? Unexpected friends?)
  
  
  • Geordie & Mrs Maguire (Growing used to each other, and working from there?)
  
  
  • Geordie & Margaret (How do they work together, as allies? What do they share when they’re not both angry at Sidney?)
  
  
  • Cathy & Amanda (What might bring them together? How might they help each other out?)
  
  
  • Cathy & Leonard (She likes his gentleness, he likes her pragmatic wisdom?)
  
  
  • Amanda & Margaret (They might have been fast friends if they’d met another way… could they still be? (ahem. f/f welcome if you feel like jumping onboard my tiny ridiculous ship here…))

 

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John Finnemore’s Souvenir Programme

(Finnemore | The Storyteller)

 

What It Is

A British radio sketch comedy show made of pure joy and happiness. And lots and lots of witty wordplay. And ever increasingly meta jokes. And talking animals! And, okay, a liberal sprinkling of suppressed rage. But always in the form of bitingly hilarious satire, so it’s all good! 28 episodes so far. (More detailed info: x )

 

What I Like About It

All of JFSP is brilliant, but the Well, since you ask me sketches are pretty definitely my favorite thing about it. I’m a fan of that type of old, atmospheric (but not overly exciting) story they’re based on, and an even bigger fan of wordplay and language-based humor, so it’s like they were made for me. And, of course, the Storyteller’s naiveté is always beautiful and hilarious.

 

Fandom-Specific Likes & DNWs:

• I prefer tales/elements that are more or less believable (within the realm of fantasy) to the completely ridiculous. (So, for example, a witch accidentally curses the wrong duke? Sure! A runaway train returns to kill the duke in his sleep? Not so much.)
 
• I think I also prefer it when the tales are more lighthearted, and don’t involve any real harm to anyone. (My favorite tales are the one with Hey-Ho Rumblelow and the one with the Eagleing.)
 
• The one genre of old-timey fiction I don’t really care for is the noir detective story, so if possible, please go with a different style.

 

Prompts:

• I would really love a story written in the style of the Well, since you ask me sketches! So how about…
  
  
  
  • A haunted castle, occupied perhaps by an ill-tempered ghost?
  
  
  • An expedition into inhospitable lands.
  
  
  • A tale of the “mysterious Orient”?
  
  
  • A magical body swap, oh my!
  
  
  • Demon possession. (Oh, come one, that’s just a metaphor!)
  
  
  • Mix-ups with mind reading!
  
  
  • A werewolf. Probably. Or just a very hairy fellow with a very howl-y bunch of vocal exercises.
 
• If you feel like heading more strongly in a parody direction, how about unceremoniously dropping a clueless muggle Storyteller into the wizarding world of Harry Potter?
 
• Or, hey, do you like slashiness and innuendo? I certainly do, and I think there’s a lot of potential in double entendres there that will sadly never be used in JFSP… I’m thinking not just of the infamous “ejaculations” and the fact that “queer” used to just mean strange, but also of beauties like “I came upon him”, “I had to satisfy myself”, and the M.R. James story I recently read where one guy drags another guy into an empty church to show off his “enormous organ”… So if you feel like going there, please oh please do!
 
• Alternatively, how about exploring who the Storyteller is? He seems to be ageless, or to have shifting ages, and to move through time and space randomly. How does that work? What does that mean? Is he a Time Lord? A vampire? A loose fictional construct that falls apart when examined too closely?
 
• Or, how about something extremely meta? (I adore the meta asides that are showing up more and more in the show.) Maybe the Storyteller could comment on or narrate John Finnemore’s writing process? Or the performance of a live show? Or, hey, go as wild as you like here; whatever meta realm you’d like to go to, I’d be happy to follow!

*  *  *

 
 

The Rest of Us Just Live Here

(Mikey Mitchell, Jared Shurin)

 

What It Is

A YA novel about a group of teens who aren’t the Chose Ones, and who just want to live their lives and graduate from high school before it gets blown up again. It’s a beautifully trope-subverting parody of YA fantasy, that also offers a very intimate look at friendship and family and the everyday demons everyone carries. 330 pages/50k words. (Sample chapter: x )

 

What I Like About It

I adore just about everything about this book, honestly. The lovable, imperfect, believable characters. The focus on nuanced, complicated relationships. The beautiful love and trust and chosen families. The complete lack of clichés, especially about dating. The undramatized, everyday look at mental illnesses. Mikey’s voice as a narrator, his honest reflections, conversational style, and casual humor. The feeling of not knowing the answers, of still figuring everything out, and of that being normal and okay.

 
 

About the Characters:

I love Mikey and Jared’s friendship and I’d really love to see more of it! Including, if it’s something you feel like exploring, how they might move from friendship towards a romantic relationship.

 

Mikey & Jared

Their friendship is just the most beautiful thing. So much trust, so much love, and all of it openly acknowledged! So much maturity, in the way they can have a huge fight, and still decide to not let that ruin their friendship. So much history, too, even if most of it is only mentioned off-hand. They help each other, they’re there for each other, and they’re closer than brothers. To the point where Jared is willing to ascend to help Mikey! And man, they’re both a little confused and a little lost, but they understand each other, and simply accept each other just the way they are, and guh, it’s just glorious to see.

I also love the way that sex and sexuality are not only not a problem for them, but something they’re both comfortable with. Jared’s gay and Mikey’s (more or less?) straight and they’ve had sex a few times and it’s genuinely not an issue. Like, even when they’re digging deep to throw the worst, most unspoken things at each other, this doesn’t come up. That’s just stunning, and honestly so much of everything I want to see in friendships like this.
 

Mikey/Jared

All the above about their friendship still applies one hundred percent, because I think any romantic relationship they might have would still be built on the basis of all the love and trust they already have. It’d almost be just a matter of degrees, I think. I mean, they canonically a) love each other deeply, and b) had sex and enjoyed it, so it’s not too far a step from there to maybe c) romantic love, right?

The book leaves a lot of room for interpretation regarding Mikey’s sexual and romantic attractions, because he’s still in the process of figuring it out himself. He thinks he’s in love with Henna, but it turns out he’s not. Maybe he’s miscategorizing his love for Jared the same way?

As for Jared, well, we get less insight into him, but I can absolutely imagine him not letting himself have or acknowledge any feelings for Mikey that might interfere with their friendship. (Hey, he is the type to go for the big selfless sacrifice, after all.) And there’s the whole question of his godly powers, and the fact that he thinks they’re the only reason Mikey is attracted to him…

Any way you want to play any of these things is good with me!

 

Fandom-Specific Likes & DNWs:

• If you go for Mikey/Jared, please have Jared and Nathan broken up peacefully, offscreen. I’d really prefer no angst or drama there.
 
• Any other canon characters are very welcome! Even the ones I don’t love I still find incredibly interesting, so feel free to include any of them as heavily as you like!
 
• Please no porn in this fandom. Sexual content is fine, just no straight up smut, please.
 
• I love trope subversions in all forms, but I’m not super familiar with YA fantasy. So if you go for less well known tropes, I might not always catch on. I have seen most of Buffy, though, which feels like a solid starting point. ;)
 
• I really like Mikey’s voice as a narrator, so if you feel like going with that, please do! But I also think it’d very cool to see things from a different perspective, so I’m completely open to anything you can come up with.
 
• I adore cats, so anything at all about Jared and cats would be absolutely wonderful!

 

Prompts:

• What is Mikey and Jared’s life like in college? Do they manage to get an apartment together? How does it affect their friendship that they’re going to different colleges? What are the kinds of non-fantasy problems they worry about? Overly difficult classes? Loneliness or making new friends? Getting stuck in the wrong major? College style activism? All types of college adventures and problems welcome here! Especially if they relate to Mikey and Jared’s particular strengths and weaknesses.
 
• What about their friends and families? How and what is Mel doing? What does Henna and Mikey’s friendship look like these days? What’s Meredith like as a teenager, and the only child at home? Does rehab work out for Mel and Mikey’s father? What about their mother’s run for congress? How have those relationships changed, and how have they stayed the same?
 
• For low-key worldbuilding: What does Jared do with his new super-healing powers? He tends to feel obligated to help anyone who’s suffering, after all. Is that compatible with keeping his powers secret? Does he roam the streets as a vigilante vet? Does he open a black-market type clinic for students without health care? Does he become a faith healer and/or accidental cult leader? Does he keep consultation hours?
 
• More in the direction of actual plot, how do they deal with Jared’s impending ascension? Is there a way to get out of it? If there is, what’s the price for that? If there’s not, can gods stay involved or at least in contact with the mortal world? And if you’re best friends with/dating a god, does that make you an indie kid?
 
• What happens when you age out of the YA genre? Does everyone start to forget or repress what they know about the indie kids? Or are they still tangentially involved? Some indie kids must go to college, right? (Buffy did!) What happens when they do? What happens to the uninvolved people around them when they do?
 
• For some extra trope-subverting fun: What if by going to college they age out of YA Fantasy and… wait for it… into Paranormal Romance? What’s it like being a bystander when your roommate/TA/hot young professor is involved in a (possibly literally) whirlwind romance? Or maybe, what with Jared being part-god and all, he and Mikey accidentally become protagonists? (What are indie kids called, anyway, when they stop being kids?)
 
• In terms of Mikey/Jared specifically, what would change if their relationship became romantic. Or maybe nothing would change? Maybe to the point where they just drift into romantic love by accident, completely without noticing? Or perhaps a traditional romance just isn’t for them, and they experiment with other things? What would a friends-with-benefits setup, or an open relationship look like for them? Or how might they go about a non-labeled kind of thing full of experimentation and attempts to figure stuff out?
 
• If you’re more about the prequels than sequels: How did Mikey and Jared become friends? How did they and Mel and Henna become such a tight-knit group? How have their lives and friendships been shaped by all the indie kids stuff always happening in their town? Or, in terms of Mikey/Jared, when and how did they start fooling around? How did that impact their friendship, or vice versa?
 
• If you like more straightforward prompts, how about:
  
  
  
  • Jared opens up to Mikey and/or shares a secret.
  
  
  • Mikey makes a decision regarding his OCD.
  
  
  • Henna and Jared talk about Mikey.
  
  
  • The gods pay Jared a visit.
  
  
  • Mikey’s mother interferes.
 
• Or if you’re more of a short prompts person, let me throw a few of those at you:
  
  
  
  • undercover as a couple
  
  
  • magical body swap!
  
  
  • mind reading powers?!
  
  
  • “cat lady”
  
  
  • were-cat!
  
  
  • murder mystery?
  
  
  • Halloween…

 

*  *  *

Swingtown

(Trina Decker, Susan Miller)

 

What It Is

An American TV drama series set in the 1970s about a couple moving into a new neighborhood and being drawn into the swinger lifestyle. Full of well-rounded characters, nuanced and developing relationships, subtle subversions of soap opera tropes, fantastic female friendships, and sizzling summer fun! 13 episodes. (More detailed info: x )

What I Like About the Show:

The thing I probably love most about this show is the maturity. Like, the way over-the-top soap-type-misunderstandings are set up… and then the characters recognize how irrelevant they are, dismiss them, and cut to the actual heart of the problem. Usually by actually talking to each other! I love how real and relatable their emotions always seem.

And, of course, I adore how much of the focus is on seeing Susan, Trina, and Janet grow as people and develop such great friendships.

About the Characters:

I would love femslash, but I also really like the canon friendship, so go with whichever you’d prefer writing!

 

Trina & Susan:

I love the way we got to watch these two start out with not much more than curiosity about each other, and then grow into real friends over the course of one short summer/season. There’s a beautiful kind of simplicity to that, as well as so much potential for future development.

It was great to see Trina trying to look out for Susan, kind of taking on a mentoring role, while still admiring and appreciating the different viewpoints Susan had to offer. And seeing Susan being introduced to Trina’s world, and being so incredibly open-minded and willing to engage and just basically growing immensely in front of our eyes was just fantastic! But I love that she didn’t let go of her own judgment, and instead evaluated everything on her own terms. That’s a huge part, I think, of why Trina and Susan still appear as equals, despite the imbalance in experience, and I adore that.

I also adore the fact that they just plain talk to each other, that they address problems and concerns and get them out into the open to try to solve them, and generally have such a great open and communicative approach. I so love to see that in relationships of any kind. And of course that makes it all the greater when they team up to solve problems.

 

Trina/Susan:

Basically this is everything I said about Trina & Susan above, plus UST. I mean, come one, the way Trina looks at Susan is practically an open invitation! And I like to think Susan is growing just open-minded enough to take her up on it. (Plus, of course, it sure doesn’t hurt that they seem to get along better with each other than with their respective husbands.)

I don’t see them as truly in love (yet), given that, in the course of the short (oh god so short why was this amazing show cancelled WHY) show, they didn’t really have time to get to know each other well enough. To me it seems more like they would have budding feelings for each other on top of their growing friendship that may or may not turn into romantic love.

And in the mean time, there’s all that UST to explore! (And maybe resolve?) Which could be anything from hidden glances over shifting dynamics on their swinging nights to trying out a friends-with-benefits setup, or anything in between or beyond – whichever way you want to take this, I’ll be not just happy, but ridiculously excited!

 

Fandom-Specific Likes & DNWs:

• Any and all of the other characters are welcome to make an appearance. Especially Janet - I love her and her development so much!
 
• I’m not wild about Trina’s pregnancy storyline, so I’d be happiest if you didn’t make that the focus. (If you want to, you can totally just pretend it never happened.)
 
• I’d also prefer for Trina and Susan’s relationships with their husbands not to be the central focus.
 
• I’m happy with any rating! (Up to and including a fic that’s all sex, so long as there’s a bit of narrative in that and it’s not a pure PWP.)
 
• And this show being what it is, I’m lifting my DNW-ban on cheating on partners

 

Prompts:

• Friendship and General Awesomeness! I adored it in the show, and I’d just love to see more of Trina and Susan (and Janet, if you’re so inclined) having honest conversations, being there for each other, solving problems together, teaming up, growing closer, and getting stuff done! And goodness knows, the show’s ending left us with more than enough problems that need resolving…
 
• Exploring New Things! Maybe Trina introduces Susan (and Janet?) to more aspects of her world (fancy social functions? easy air travel? new and exciting sex games?), or maybe both (or all three) of them try out something new together?
 
• Road Trip! …Honestly, I think I may just want the women (again including Janet, if you feel like it) to jump into a car and drive far, far away from the men. But I also really love Road Trip Shenanigans, such as: Where Are We Going? Did You Even Bring a Map OMG? How Do You Have a Perfectly Packed Suitcase We Had Like Five Minutes’ Warning? Let’s Sing Along with the Radio! Oh No, Unexpected Car Trouble! This Motel Looks Perfectly Fine and Not Creepy At All… And so, so much more! Basically just show me the girls having a great (or, hell, terrible, or ambivalent!) time together on the road.
 
• Activism! After Trina got Susan on board with the Deep Throat/pornography thing, do they move on to other causes? If they do, it has to involve a lot of changes of beliefs and new perspectives for Susan (and definitely for Janet!), doesn’t it? But between civil rights and women’s rights and gay rights, there’s so much going on, and Trina does not strike me as someone who stays nonpartisan…
 
• Friends with Benefits! While the husbands are away, the girls can still play… I feel like it’s exactly the sort of thing Trina would enjoy, and would enjoy introducing (or seducing) Susan (in)to. And isn’t everything more fun if a girls’ movie night can take a spontaneous turn towards sex? And if confusing, possibly romantic feelings start entering the mix at some point, you won’t find me complaining…
 
• Sexual Exploration! Trina’s emphatically experienced, Susan’s emphatically not, and Trina emphatically takes pleasure in introducing Susan to new things. So far, so fantastic! And hot. But maybe there are also things Trina’s not an expert in, and that they could experiment with together? 
 
• Undercover as a Couple! Yeah, exploring a lesbian club under the guise of being a couple is not a great idea, but it’s totally the sort of idea Trina might have, isn’t it? What surprises might a night like that have in store for her and Susan?
 
• Investigating a Mystery! I don’t know why (maybe it’s the scavenger hunt?), but I get the feeling that these lovely ladies would be surprisingly skilled at solving mysteries, and I would love to see that! It could be anything, from mysteriously disappearing panties to an actual murder mystery. Bonus points if they figure out something the men can’t because of their different approaches and/or areas of experience!
 
• Actor AU! Okay, yeah, this is a completely out there idea, but what if Trina, Susan, and everyone else weren’t ordinary everyday folks, but actors on a TV show or movie? How would their relationships and dynamics change if they were all co-workers instead of neighbors? Would Trina be the lead actress, and Susan an up-and-coming young one? Or maybe they’d be an established central character and a new addition to the cast, respectively? Or something else entirely? Go wild! 70s or modern setting are both equally great.
 
• Or, if short and open prompts are more your thing, here’s a few ideas:
  
  
  
  • “This… isn’t what I expected.”
  
  
  • Summer’s over; now comes the fall.
  
  
  • Body Swap!
  
  
  • Watching porn, again
  
  
  • 70s music
  
  
  • “Oh.”
  
  
  • Playboy Magazine and/or/vs. Playgirl Magazine
  
  
  • baking together
  
  
  • dancing together
  
  
  • “Let’s try this again.”