A Letter for Yuletide: 2016 Edition
Dear Yuletide Author,
Hello! I’ve once again resurrected this old tumblr account for YT letter posting (which at this point seems to be all it’s good for). First off, thank you in advance for being my YT author and writing me something - I love you already. Second, if you read any more of this tumblr (which I do not recommend), please do so realizing that the majority of posts are from 3 or more years ago and that, while I am not precisely embarrassed by them, I am quite surprised each time I do a re-read by just how different I am now. Time and life, and all that nonsense. Go figure.
Anyway, onto the fun stuff! I’m going to give a bit more info on all my requests. But first, a few general notes on me and fanfiction (copied mostly from my last YT letter, because this much has not changed):
General:
Generally speaking, I am...
…a fan of endings that are not 100% dark, POV character(s) who is(are) not necessarily the main character, and dialogue. I also do enjoy tropes. But, like, everything’s a trope, so there isn’t much to say about that. All of these are negotiable, but my preferences stand.
…open but neutral to sex and alternate universes. I like both these things in stories much of the time, depending on the mood and the story. If you’re in the mood for it, go for it.
…unfond of bestiality, underage sex, excessive fluff, and first-person narration. Only the first of the two are hard “no”s. First-person narration are acceptable if you must, just know that I’m not a fan. Fluff rocks in moderation, but drives me nuts in excess - honestly, as long as there’s some substance beyond the fluff, fluff is fine.
Wolf 359:
Preferred Ship(s): None, please. I adore the relationships between characters on this show beyond reason; I also staunchly see all of them as nonsexual and nonromantic. That said, give me all of the friendships. Seriously. Every friendship relationship combination between Minkowsi, Eiffel, Lovelace, and Hera makes me swoon.
My Feelings, an Outpouring of: I really, really, really love this show. A lot. A lot a lot. Mostly because I think the core characters are so beautifully and distinctly drawn. Anything that pays a lot of attention to who those characters are and how they interact with each other (from the silly to the serious and all in between) will make me infinitely happy. Feel free to use only a subset of the character I requested (and I’m not against adding Hilbert into the mix). All that said, I am really not a fan of Mr. Cutter or SI-5 - if you want to me really happy, feel free to just pretend they don’t exist.
Specificish Prompts (that you are of course free to disregard):
If you do want to include SI-5, I would love you to write them off the show. Preferably with as much competence from the Hephaestus crew as possible.
Any of the relationships we haven’t seen too much of for a while - Lovelace and Hera, for example. Or Lovelace and Eiffel. Or Lovelace and Minkowski. (Lovelace and everyone is wonderful, okay?) Or Minkowski and Hera. Hera and Eiffel & Minkowski and Eiffel are shown off a lot by the show, but I love those too and could always have more.
Jorinde and Joringel (J&J) and East of the Sun and West of the Moon (EotSWotM):
(I put these two together bc enough of my feelings about each can be generalized to my feelings about fairy tales in general; it was worth consolidating.)
Preferred Ship(s): Play this however you want in both cases.
My Feelings, an Outpouring of: Fairy tales are just about my favorite thing, and Yuletide is a fairy tale time for me (in large part because they’re what I offer to write for). Both of these stories create frameworks on which questions can be asked and characters can be fleshed out and stories can be hung and expectations can be twisted - I love that.
In particular, I am fascinated by the darkness at the heart of J&J - the way the nightingales that used to be girls are just a fact in the story that is barely touched upon, the unexplained reasons for the sorceress’ actions. I’d love some more backstory crafted into the tale.
For EotSWotM, I love the central character and her quest, the way she constantly takes action (even when those actions are wrong) and rescues a prince locked in a castle in a rather delightful role reversal (though unfortunately she does so mostly by being pretty and good at laundry...ah well, can only win sometimes). I’d love to see some part of the surprisingly dense story expanded; maybe a snapshot into the lives of the people our heroine meets on her way or a full conversation between her and the troll princess.
Whatever you do, nothing will make me happier than to see that you took the stories as inspiration and ran off with it to places unexpected and fantastic and thoughtful and human. Do what you will and have fun.
Specificish Prompts (that you are of course free to disregard):
Anything from a side character POV - J&J from one or more of the other caged nightingales, EotSWotM from the sisters or the neighbors or the trolls (or all of the above), etc.
Mashups are welcome! If you’d like to cross these with other fairy tales or fairy tale characters, by all means do! If that means bastardizing the plots of these stories a bit (or more than a bit), have at it! If I know the other story(ies), I will love it; if I don’t, I’ll get to discover another new story in addition to the one you wrote.
Fairy tales are a situation where I always enjoy AUs...because pretty much anything with a fairy tale is a AU.
In Conclusion:
Thank you! Writing is flipping hard, and I cannot express how much I appreciate you even before I read a word. Thanks for making my holidays that much brighter!
Cheers,
Forsythia R. (this-does-not-concern-you)
