Dear Yulegoat
Nov. 17th, 2011 06:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bagheera_sanHello writer!
If you offered to write one of my requested fandoms, then I already like you because fic for all of them is preciously rare. Here is some hopefully helpful about me as your recipient:
Yuletide philosophy
I'm in it mainly for the chance to write in a rare fandom - getting fics in these fandoms is a wonderful treat and doubly so if you meet the details of my request, but please don't sweat it - I'm not the kind of person who will sulk if the result isn't what I hoped it would be. Last year my writer dropped out (and I got some great pinch-hits instead) so if you write me anything at all, I will appreciate it a lot :)
Likes and dislikes
First, some stuff that I'm not too keen on (if these seem completely obvious to you, please don't be insulted!):
- Schmoop. I like light-hearted and happy fics, but I don't like stories that are one sappy declaration of love or romantic sex scene after another. Also, I'm not big on traditional romantic gestures (candlelight dinners and roses) but I have a weakness for the Ridiculous Supervillain School of Romantic Gestures ("monkey-pony monsters hand-tailored for you, and oh, here's that Galaxy we could rule together...").
- Whitewashing villains or vilifying/bashing characters that aren't actually that bad. I ADORE a good redemption story for villains (except nazis, seriously, please don't try to redeem Baron Zemo or some Axis soldier), so if you can think of a feasible way of redeeming the Master from "Krabat", go ahead! Just don't turn A:EMH's Loki into some poor completely innocent woobie, or something like that.
Things I like (obviously some of these are mutually exclusive):
- gen, slash and het
- fun stories (with exciting adventures or wild shenanigans or everyone just having a real good time)
- serious stories (about bad things happening and moral dilemmas and people making difficult or questionable decisions)
- plotty stories: most of what I read is slash, and thus romance, but it's more about the interaction between people, and conflicts and overcoming obstacles or working together for me
- historical real people showing up in fictional universes
- AUs in which canon goes slightly differently because people made different choices, especially if it's a case of "of course if character X did Y, then Z had to happen!"
- intrigue, politics, spies
- anything that could happen in a Dungeons&Dragons campaign
- postmodern stuff (this is mostly for Benny fic, not so much for Krabat or A:EMH)
- posthuman stuff (i.e. people downloading their consciousness into computers, replacing their bodies with robots, body modification with magic or technology, etc.)
- stories that take up a minor but interesting detail of canon and make a real story out of that (like for example those clone duplicates of the Benny cast from "The Final Amendment")
- drug abuse in fic
- enemyslash (i.e. pairings where the characters are enemies)
- mindfuckery (i.e. hypnosis, memory alteration, blackmail, deception, lies, illusions, mindgames, disguises, secret identities, dreams etc.)
- the classic fanfic clichés (i.e. sexpollen, aliens-made-them-do-it, mate or die, in heat, wingfic, etc.)
The individual fandoms
Avengers: EMH
I'm very new to this fandom (well, the fandom itself is very new), but I've been into comics for years, first X-Men, then DC, these days I'm more into Marvel again. I have a moderate knowledge of comics canon gleaned mostly from scans_daily (the dreamwidth community) and fic. Most of that fic is Steve/Tony or Thor/Loki because that is what people write. Really, for this fandom I mostly want fic that shows what the Avengers are up to when they aren't fighting (adventures are cool, just not plots that consist mostly of who hits whom with what). I really like Tony, I think Ant-Man has a super cool power and I like his political views, I think Bruce Banner is vastly more interesting than the Hulk and deserves a hurt-comfort fic or two, I love Norse mythology and thus Thor and his supporting cast and the nine realms, I think the way SHIELD and the Avengers treat their supervillain prisoners is vastly creepy... well, really, that is all I have to say about A:EMH. There's so little fic for it, so yours will improve this fandom by a big percentage :D
My own Marvel fic
Bernice Summerfield
I've been active in Who fandom for a few years, but my Benny-love is still fairly recent. I've listened to the majority of the audios from "Death and the Daleks" onwards and I've read a couple of the novels (Theatre of War, Tears of the Oracle, Life During Wartime, Life Worth Living, Present Danger, Squire Crystal, The Gods of the Underworld, The Doomsday Manuscript). I've also listened to S12, so don't be afraid to use spoilers. I love Benny and Brax most of all, but I'm also really attached to the Collection, so I was sad that there was so little of them in Benny lately and I hope they bring the supporting cast back. I love how much Jason loves Benny, and I nearly cried at "The End of the World" and "The Wake". Adrian and Jason arguing is also a great thing, see "Green-Eyed Monsters" B-plot. S8 is probably my favourite, closely followed by S11. I also really love the episode "Glory Days" mainly for the flashbacks of Benny painting Brax and the use of the painting in the plot, and I'm glad Brax was sort of redeemed in "Escaping the Future". I have a soft spot for Hass (whether he is actually a Martian-Martian or some other species...) and his instant radiation death kill powers and the resulting angst. Although I think Brax is AWESOME, I love it when his plans are a bit rubbish and/or ridiculously over-complicated, and also when he's morally ambiguous to the point of being EVIL. Among other Big Finish things I like is "Gallifrey", so any crossovers (well, Brax makes it a crossover just by existing, but I mean a real crossover) would be lovely.
Krabat (Published in Great Britain as "The Satanic Mill", wikipedia, trailer for recent movie - which I haven't seen)
I love this book both for it's fairy-tale-ish structure and for the depth of characterisation and emotion that goes way beyond fairy-tale. When I was a kid, my favourite character was Tonda because he was, well, nice to Krabat and cool and then he died and that was what I went for as a kid (especially the tragic deaths), but re-reading the book as an adult my favourite character is Juro in all his sweet, cowardly, clever, under-appreciated glory. I loved the story-within-the-story flashbacks to the Master's past, especially about him and Jirko (this is what I meant with "going beyond fairy-tale" - the Miller is evil, but he's also a human being who once was a lot like Krabat.) The most memorable scenes from the book for me are the Easter nights and the transformation chases (both between the Master and the visitor and the Master and Krabat in Krabat's dreams), so I really love the magical stuff that happens - at the end of the book I'm always both glad and sad because Krabat saves his soul, but he also gives up magic. So you can't really go wrong if you write about magic, either in fun or dark ways. I've pretty much ignored Kantorka in my request because she's a cipher, but if you want to flesh her out, that would be great.
Gallifrey
Gallifrey is awesome. S4 was somewhat less awesome - I liked Disassembled, and I liked all the character stuff and the dialogues were still good, but the plots were pretty weak. Travelling through different universes and visiting alternate Gallifreys isn't a bad idea in and of itself, but the individual Gallifreys they visited seemed awfully random, and in some cases (Reborn, Forever) very dull or just plain weird (Annihilation). S1-3 always had excellent political plots with lots of intrigue and backstabbing and spying, and I think S4 was missing that. Still, I think you could come up with any number of really fascinating AUs for Gallifrey, and I'd enjoy a story where they visit some other Gallifreys.
I like all of the main cast, but Brax, Leela and Narvin are my particular favourites. My favourite episodes are: all of S3 but particularly "Mindbomb", also "The Inquiry", "Insurgency" and "Imperiatrix". I think Darkel was a brilliant love-to-hate villain, but I'm not terribly interested in finding out more about her as a character. Pandora on the other hand was a bit ineffective and mostly interesting as a challenge for Romana.
You don't necessarily have to write a terribly serious story, though, since among the Gallifrey fics I've enjoyed most to date were a Brax/Narvin aliens-made-them-do-it fic and a fic where all the main cast have to babysit a baby, so crack, humour or a fun romp are great too. Also, typical fanfic cliches to get people together like, as I said, aliens-made-them-do-it, which I find hugely enjoyable if everyone stays in character. The Gallifrey cast has very little (actually: zero) fun in their four seasons, so they deserve some :)
my own Gallifrey fic
My requests:
Avengers
I picked these four characters, but any characters or pairings you want to write are fine. I like Tony with just about anyone, Tony/Steve and Tony/Thor, and Tony/Hank or Tony/Hank/Jan would be a special treat. Here’s a selection of things that would be cool if you don’t want to have to come up with something all on your own: anything with ants, anything with Bruce Banner, Thor and Loki or Loki/Thor (especially if set after S1 or before Thor joins the Avengers), Loki scheming or pretending to be other people, Tony and Hank doing SCIENCE together, Thor vs modern Midgard, Steve vs the 21st century, A:EMH does “Civil War”, trips to the past, the future or parallel universes, fanfic clichés like “aliens made them do it”, anything set during “Fall of Asgard”, Steve in Hel/Niflheim, the Avengers discovering that Steve made a deal with Hel to save them and going to save him, something with Wonder Man….(if you’d like to know more, please read my Yulegoat Letter)
Krabat
Congratulations if you offered to write “Krabat”. You are an awesome person just for doing that. I’ve loved this book since I was young enough that my mother had to read it to me, which is why my only REAL request is that you treat it carefully – obviously the source material is pretty dark as it contains deaths and black magic and violence, but please don’t go higher than R with your rating and don’t do anything too graphic. Additionally, it would be great if you could keep it period – you don’t have to do tons of research on the 17th century, but keep it as historical as you can. Now, if you’d like some story ideas, here are some things I’d love to read about: anything about the Master’s past, something about him and Jirko (his dead friend), if you like slash, maybe some Master/Jirko, an adventure Krabat has with the Master, an AU in which Krabat accepts the Masters deal and becomes the Miller, a deal in which Juro becomes the Miller, any fic in which Juro outsmarts people while pretending to be a fool, something with Juro and the Master, something with Juro/Krabat, a fic about what the apprentices do after the Miller’s death, any of the characters interacting with real historical figures, a fic about Tonda and his girl, anything about magic in the world of “Krabat”...
Bernice Summerfield
I requested Benny, Jason or Brax, but I will be equally happy with a fic about Adrian, Peter, Bev, Joseph or Hass the gardener. I love the Collection as a setting and a cast, and although I ship Benny/Jason, I would equally love Benny/Brax and if you can make Brax/Jason or Benny/Brax/Jason happen, go ahead! Story ideas: something with Brax and Benny during “Escaping the Future”, an AU after “Escaping the Future”, Benny and Jason meeting again after S12, Brax and Benny meeting again after S12, a coda to “Glory Days”, something about the Brax clones from “Glory Days”, something about the clones/replicants of the Collection people from “The Final Amendment”, a fic about Brax’s timeline (:P), any crossovers with “Gallifrey”, something about Brax being newly arrived in the Benny-verse in “Dragon’s Wrath”, Brax and Jason being forced to spend time together, something about art or archeology, any member of the collection creating a piece of art, something with Brax’s daughter from “Empire State”, Benny and Jason during the Axis occupation…
Have fun, don't despair!
If you offered to write one of my requested fandoms, then I already like you because fic for all of them is preciously rare. Here is some hopefully helpful about me as your recipient:
Yuletide philosophy
I'm in it mainly for the chance to write in a rare fandom - getting fics in these fandoms is a wonderful treat and doubly so if you meet the details of my request, but please don't sweat it - I'm not the kind of person who will sulk if the result isn't what I hoped it would be. Last year my writer dropped out (and I got some great pinch-hits instead) so if you write me anything at all, I will appreciate it a lot :)
Likes and dislikes
First, some stuff that I'm not too keen on (if these seem completely obvious to you, please don't be insulted!):
- Schmoop. I like light-hearted and happy fics, but I don't like stories that are one sappy declaration of love or romantic sex scene after another. Also, I'm not big on traditional romantic gestures (candlelight dinners and roses) but I have a weakness for the Ridiculous Supervillain School of Romantic Gestures ("monkey-pony monsters hand-tailored for you, and oh, here's that Galaxy we could rule together...").
- Whitewashing villains or vilifying/bashing characters that aren't actually that bad. I ADORE a good redemption story for villains (except nazis, seriously, please don't try to redeem Baron Zemo or some Axis soldier), so if you can think of a feasible way of redeeming the Master from "Krabat", go ahead! Just don't turn A:EMH's Loki into some poor completely innocent woobie, or something like that.
Things I like (obviously some of these are mutually exclusive):
- gen, slash and het
- fun stories (with exciting adventures or wild shenanigans or everyone just having a real good time)
- serious stories (about bad things happening and moral dilemmas and people making difficult or questionable decisions)
- plotty stories: most of what I read is slash, and thus romance, but it's more about the interaction between people, and conflicts and overcoming obstacles or working together for me
- historical real people showing up in fictional universes
- AUs in which canon goes slightly differently because people made different choices, especially if it's a case of "of course if character X did Y, then Z had to happen!"
- intrigue, politics, spies
- anything that could happen in a Dungeons&Dragons campaign
- postmodern stuff (this is mostly for Benny fic, not so much for Krabat or A:EMH)
- posthuman stuff (i.e. people downloading their consciousness into computers, replacing their bodies with robots, body modification with magic or technology, etc.)
- stories that take up a minor but interesting detail of canon and make a real story out of that (like for example those clone duplicates of the Benny cast from "The Final Amendment")
- drug abuse in fic
- enemyslash (i.e. pairings where the characters are enemies)
- mindfuckery (i.e. hypnosis, memory alteration, blackmail, deception, lies, illusions, mindgames, disguises, secret identities, dreams etc.)
- the classic fanfic clichés (i.e. sexpollen, aliens-made-them-do-it, mate or die, in heat, wingfic, etc.)
The individual fandoms
Avengers: EMH
I'm very new to this fandom (well, the fandom itself is very new), but I've been into comics for years, first X-Men, then DC, these days I'm more into Marvel again. I have a moderate knowledge of comics canon gleaned mostly from scans_daily (the dreamwidth community) and fic. Most of that fic is Steve/Tony or Thor/Loki because that is what people write. Really, for this fandom I mostly want fic that shows what the Avengers are up to when they aren't fighting (adventures are cool, just not plots that consist mostly of who hits whom with what). I really like Tony, I think Ant-Man has a super cool power and I like his political views, I think Bruce Banner is vastly more interesting than the Hulk and deserves a hurt-comfort fic or two, I love Norse mythology and thus Thor and his supporting cast and the nine realms, I think the way SHIELD and the Avengers treat their supervillain prisoners is vastly creepy... well, really, that is all I have to say about A:EMH. There's so little fic for it, so yours will improve this fandom by a big percentage :D
My own Marvel fic
Bernice Summerfield
I've been active in Who fandom for a few years, but my Benny-love is still fairly recent. I've listened to the majority of the audios from "Death and the Daleks" onwards and I've read a couple of the novels (Theatre of War, Tears of the Oracle, Life During Wartime, Life Worth Living, Present Danger, Squire Crystal, The Gods of the Underworld, The Doomsday Manuscript). I've also listened to S12, so don't be afraid to use spoilers. I love Benny and Brax most of all, but I'm also really attached to the Collection, so I was sad that there was so little of them in Benny lately and I hope they bring the supporting cast back. I love how much Jason loves Benny, and I nearly cried at "The End of the World" and "The Wake". Adrian and Jason arguing is also a great thing, see "Green-Eyed Monsters" B-plot. S8 is probably my favourite, closely followed by S11. I also really love the episode "Glory Days" mainly for the flashbacks of Benny painting Brax and the use of the painting in the plot, and I'm glad Brax was sort of redeemed in "Escaping the Future". I have a soft spot for Hass (whether he is actually a Martian-Martian or some other species...) and his instant radiation death kill powers and the resulting angst. Although I think Brax is AWESOME, I love it when his plans are a bit rubbish and/or ridiculously over-complicated, and also when he's morally ambiguous to the point of being EVIL. Among other Big Finish things I like is "Gallifrey", so any crossovers (well, Brax makes it a crossover just by existing, but I mean a real crossover) would be lovely.
Krabat (Published in Great Britain as "The Satanic Mill", wikipedia, trailer for recent movie - which I haven't seen)
I love this book both for it's fairy-tale-ish structure and for the depth of characterisation and emotion that goes way beyond fairy-tale. When I was a kid, my favourite character was Tonda because he was, well, nice to Krabat and cool and then he died and that was what I went for as a kid (especially the tragic deaths), but re-reading the book as an adult my favourite character is Juro in all his sweet, cowardly, clever, under-appreciated glory. I loved the story-within-the-story flashbacks to the Master's past, especially about him and Jirko (this is what I meant with "going beyond fairy-tale" - the Miller is evil, but he's also a human being who once was a lot like Krabat.) The most memorable scenes from the book for me are the Easter nights and the transformation chases (both between the Master and the visitor and the Master and Krabat in Krabat's dreams), so I really love the magical stuff that happens - at the end of the book I'm always both glad and sad because Krabat saves his soul, but he also gives up magic. So you can't really go wrong if you write about magic, either in fun or dark ways. I've pretty much ignored Kantorka in my request because she's a cipher, but if you want to flesh her out, that would be great.
Gallifrey
Gallifrey is awesome. S4 was somewhat less awesome - I liked Disassembled, and I liked all the character stuff and the dialogues were still good, but the plots were pretty weak. Travelling through different universes and visiting alternate Gallifreys isn't a bad idea in and of itself, but the individual Gallifreys they visited seemed awfully random, and in some cases (Reborn, Forever) very dull or just plain weird (Annihilation). S1-3 always had excellent political plots with lots of intrigue and backstabbing and spying, and I think S4 was missing that. Still, I think you could come up with any number of really fascinating AUs for Gallifrey, and I'd enjoy a story where they visit some other Gallifreys.
I like all of the main cast, but Brax, Leela and Narvin are my particular favourites. My favourite episodes are: all of S3 but particularly "Mindbomb", also "The Inquiry", "Insurgency" and "Imperiatrix". I think Darkel was a brilliant love-to-hate villain, but I'm not terribly interested in finding out more about her as a character. Pandora on the other hand was a bit ineffective and mostly interesting as a challenge for Romana.
You don't necessarily have to write a terribly serious story, though, since among the Gallifrey fics I've enjoyed most to date were a Brax/Narvin aliens-made-them-do-it fic and a fic where all the main cast have to babysit a baby, so crack, humour or a fun romp are great too. Also, typical fanfic cliches to get people together like, as I said, aliens-made-them-do-it, which I find hugely enjoyable if everyone stays in character. The Gallifrey cast has very little (actually: zero) fun in their four seasons, so they deserve some :)
my own Gallifrey fic
My requests:
Avengers
I picked these four characters, but any characters or pairings you want to write are fine. I like Tony with just about anyone, Tony/Steve and Tony/Thor, and Tony/Hank or Tony/Hank/Jan would be a special treat. Here’s a selection of things that would be cool if you don’t want to have to come up with something all on your own: anything with ants, anything with Bruce Banner, Thor and Loki or Loki/Thor (especially if set after S1 or before Thor joins the Avengers), Loki scheming or pretending to be other people, Tony and Hank doing SCIENCE together, Thor vs modern Midgard, Steve vs the 21st century, A:EMH does “Civil War”, trips to the past, the future or parallel universes, fanfic clichés like “aliens made them do it”, anything set during “Fall of Asgard”, Steve in Hel/Niflheim, the Avengers discovering that Steve made a deal with Hel to save them and going to save him, something with Wonder Man….(if you’d like to know more, please read my Yulegoat Letter)
Krabat
Congratulations if you offered to write “Krabat”. You are an awesome person just for doing that. I’ve loved this book since I was young enough that my mother had to read it to me, which is why my only REAL request is that you treat it carefully – obviously the source material is pretty dark as it contains deaths and black magic and violence, but please don’t go higher than R with your rating and don’t do anything too graphic. Additionally, it would be great if you could keep it period – you don’t have to do tons of research on the 17th century, but keep it as historical as you can. Now, if you’d like some story ideas, here are some things I’d love to read about: anything about the Master’s past, something about him and Jirko (his dead friend), if you like slash, maybe some Master/Jirko, an adventure Krabat has with the Master, an AU in which Krabat accepts the Masters deal and becomes the Miller, a deal in which Juro becomes the Miller, any fic in which Juro outsmarts people while pretending to be a fool, something with Juro and the Master, something with Juro/Krabat, a fic about what the apprentices do after the Miller’s death, any of the characters interacting with real historical figures, a fic about Tonda and his girl, anything about magic in the world of “Krabat”...
Bernice Summerfield
I requested Benny, Jason or Brax, but I will be equally happy with a fic about Adrian, Peter, Bev, Joseph or Hass the gardener. I love the Collection as a setting and a cast, and although I ship Benny/Jason, I would equally love Benny/Brax and if you can make Brax/Jason or Benny/Brax/Jason happen, go ahead! Story ideas: something with Brax and Benny during “Escaping the Future”, an AU after “Escaping the Future”, Benny and Jason meeting again after S12, Brax and Benny meeting again after S12, a coda to “Glory Days”, something about the Brax clones from “Glory Days”, something about the clones/replicants of the Collection people from “The Final Amendment”, a fic about Brax’s timeline (:P), any crossovers with “Gallifrey”, something about Brax being newly arrived in the Benny-verse in “Dragon’s Wrath”, Brax and Jason being forced to spend time together, something about art or archeology, any member of the collection creating a piece of art, something with Brax’s daughter from “Empire State”, Benny and Jason during the Axis occupation…
Have fun, don't despair!
