Dear Author: Yuletide 2017
Oct. 1st, 2017 07:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
burglebezzlemenI’m excited to be signing up for Yuletide, and I’m sure I’ll love what you come up with! :D
As a general note before I get into the specifics: if my prompts don’t work for you, or if you’ve got another story you’d love to write, I’m here for that. Some of my favorite stories have been ones I never would have thought to prompt, or ones that took my general likes in directions I couldn’t have thought of.
I love all of these fandoms, and I’d be delighted to get a gift in any of them. While my Lumberjanes section is longer, that’s only because it’s my only ANY request, and I wanted to make sure I provided prompts that would work for each of the characters. All of these canons are canons of my heart, and I’ll be delighted to get a gift for any one of them. <3
Some of my general likes:
-Slice of life
-Domestic scenes
-Cooking and food
-General shenanigans and hijinkery
-Wintertime activities and the great outdoors
-Casefic
-Characters solving problems
-Established relationships
-Get-togethers
-Epistolary fic, including internet-based fic
-Outsider POV
-Cats, including fic from the POV of a cat
-Small towns, whether heartwarming or creepy
-Ghost stories and cryptids
-Someone gets turned into an unusual animal
-The Hangover and/or Waking Up In Vegas plotlines
-Gothic themes, whether subverted or played straight
-Someone’s a secret vampire/selkie/werepanther/whatever; someone else finds out
-Exploring new places together
-Vacations gone awry
-Stuck in the bathroom/elevator/wherever
-Trapped/stranded by the weather
-Abandoned houses, whether exploring or fixing them up
-Five Times fic
-State-mandated ghost hunting AU
-Undercover as a couple
-That fic where they have to go to a remote island or resort to investigate a haunting/why everyone has been invited and someone’s killing them off one-by-one/other mystery here
DNW: Dubcon, non-con, fic focusing on explicit porn/kink content, underage, major character death (although temporary MCD or minor character death in service of a casefic are fine), focus on terminal illness, issuefic, cannibalism, harm to pets
Quick note on spoilers for new canon, added 11/23: I am fully up to date on The Good Place through the most recent eps (which means everything that will air through Yuletide) and I'm on board with anywhere you want to go that does or doesn't include the new canon.
For Lumberjanes, I have read everything up through the middle grade book and Issue 44, which came out yesterday, and spoilers for anything in those are 100% fine.
Death In Paradise: Humphrey Goodman
I enjoy everyone on Death in Paradise, and I’ve always loved Humphrey as a character. I’m glad they didn’t kill him off, and the new Inspector has grown on me, but I really miss Humph. He’s a genuinely good guy who doesn’t seem to know his own abilities, and he cares about being kind to his colleagues and finding justice. I’d love to read something that lets me spend a little more time with him.
Ship-wise, I probably ship Humphrey the most with Camille, but I’m also open to something else. I felt like we didn’t get enough about Martha in canon for me to get a feel for her, but I could enjoy her in a fic, especially a fic that developed her backstory and character a little further. I’d be up for tropey shipfic for either of these ships -- undercover as a couple, characters react to a heat wave, someone is injured on a case or gets the flu, etc.
I’d also enjoy gen colleague fic! I love the entire St. Marie team, and it’d be great to see Humphrey teaming up with Fidel, JP, Dwayne, Catherine, the Commissioner, and/or Florence. And I love Harry the lizard. :D Maybe Catherine decides to teach Humphrey to cook, or maybe the Commissioner asks Humphrey to join him for some unusual hobby.
I love casefic, and a case would be amazing here, if it’s something you’re interested in writing. It’s always murder on the show, but something like a seemingly impossible theft, or a poison pen letter writer, or another small case would be lovely, too. Maybe there’s a local legend that Humph comes up with a theory about, or maybe someone drags him along to a local event and something unexpected happens.
I love the episodes where people get trapped somewhere by tropical weather, or where Humphrey is surprised by some aspect of island life he didn’t expect. Anything along those lines would be lovely.
I also love slice-of-life stuff where Humphrey gets to explore the island. Or maybe he tries to accomplish something in his beachside shack, but keeps getting sidetracked by new projects that seem to pile up endlessly — or keeps getting sidetracked by murder.
The Good Place: Janet
I love this show, and I love all the characters, and I really, really love Janet. She’s so open and honest and she’s got all this backstory and worldbuilding the show hasn’t fully explored yet. I love the position they’ve put her in and the way we’ve gotten to see her change.
There’s an interview with D’Arcy Carden, who plays Janet, where she says she asked Mike Schur what would be inside Janet, if you cut her open — "I’m like, 'Would she be full of parts, would she be full of a computer, would she be blood and guts, what would she be?' And he was like, 'I think she’d be some sort of opalescent shiny stone,' which I loved so much.” That description just slayed me. I love it.
I ship Jason/Janet, but I love Janet-focused gen just as much, and I’d be delighted with either. For background ships/characters, I enjoy any combination of Eleanor, Chidi, and Tahani, and I have a soft spot for Vicki, too.
I realize canon will be airing multiple new episodes in the writing period. I am 100% on board with canon departures, backstory, AU, various canon-reboot-fusions, or whatever you come up with for a setting. No worries if anything gets canon-noncompliant in the middle of the writing process — I’ve been there myself, and I enjoy canon-departure AUs. :D I’m watching as the show airs, so no worries on spoilers for stuff from the new season.
World-building about Janet and her role in The Good Place would be amazing — there’s so much we don’t know about what she knows, how she works, etc.
Does Michael understand everything Janet can do? He’s worked with Bad Janet before, and it seems like she might have a different skill set. Does Janet have any abilities she’s kept Michael from finding out about?
What if the real Good Place comes looking for Janet? Or what if she’s phoning home and reporting back to the real Good Place? Or what if she’s missing vital software updates from the real Good Place — how could that affect her?
Per S1E12, Janet engaged her ride-or-die protocol for Jason. Assuming the protocol survived her reboot, how could that play out in a different reboot version or in the current season?
How did Michael steal Janet? Or did she maybe make the choice to come?
Please note that the prompt below is a SPOILER if you have not yet seen episode 2.03.
.
.
.
.
.
Have any of the previous versions of Janet who made it to Mindy St. Claire’s Medium Place left notes for future versions of Janet? If so, what did Janet make of them? A “Dear Future Janet” fic that explored the thoughts of a few different reboot Janets who made it to the Medium Place could be amazing.
Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever: Grumpy Cat
Grumpy Cat! This movie was way better than it had any right to be. :D I love what Aubrey Plaza did with Grumpy as a character, and I love cats. Anything would be amazing.
Please feel free to go as meta or high-concept (or not) as you want with this one. I’m up for anything from a traditional fluff fic about Grumpy settling in with her new human post-movie to epistolary/Yuletide meta/script format/whatever other unusual format you’re interested in.
Grumpy Cat is threatened when Chrystal makes human friends. Maybe they work through it together as pet and human. Or maybe Grumpy sets up wacky Home Alone-style traps to deal with her emotions. Chrystal's new human friends won’t go on being friends with someone who trapped them, right?
Holiday fic is great, whether Christmas or another holiday. Maybe Grumpy has another holiday that doesn’t go well? Grumpy Cat’s Worst [Insert Holiday Here] Ever!
Anything that plays with the weird little commercial bumpers for the various invented Grumpy Cat shows etc. What other types of merch might Grumpy try to launch? Or if you want to play the movie’s universe straight here, what could Grumpy Cat dream about while being a perfectly normal house cat?
If you do want to go meta, maybe Chrystal stumbles across her cat’s online fandom? Maybe Grumpy has to explain that they’re in a movie?
I loved the bickering Sean & Gus (Psych) vibe between the two bad guys. Maybe they get out on bail and decide to try to catnap Grumpy Cat so she can’t testify against them? Or maybe they have to apologize to Chrystal and Grumpy as part of a program they’re in, and decide to do so in song?
The Katering Show: Kate McCartney, Kate McLennan
This show makes me so happy! I think I mainlined all the episodes in a day and a half when I found them. I love both the Kates and their enthusiastic (McLennan) and apathetic (McCartney) exploration of food culture. Cooking, snark -- this is the best. :D
I'd be delighted by gen or ship for this request, but if you are interested in writing ship fic, I definitely ship Kate/Kate. (Kate2? McMc?)
I would like to note that my request here is for the characters they play on the show. While I realize it’s a fine line in a fandom like this one, I’m interested in FPF that relies on the show, rather than on sources about their real life. Non-specific mentions of them having partners and children are OK, but I don’t want their actual RL partners and children included, if that makes sense.
I have seen at least the first few episodes of Get Krack!n, their new show, and spoilers for that are fine if you’ve seen it. :D
Some ideas, by no means the only ones I'd be interested in:
-A lost episode of The Katering Show! Some possible ideas: urban foraging, craft cocktails, Tea Culture, home fermentation, comfort food -- anything would be great! Or maybe the Kates go to a farm, and things do not go well. (If you're interested, I'm totally open to script-format for this, btw!)
-The Katering Show Noir.
-The Kates get an offer they can't refuse to be on-screen hosts in a documentary about a famous legend or ghost story or something. (Maybe in Australia, maybe somewhere totally different.) When they get to their destination to start filming, things get weird.
-I love McCartney's cat Beans and would love a fic involving Beans. Also great: McLennan's jealousy of Beans, which I find hilarious.
-Five Times McLennan was totally joking about being attracted to McCartney... and one time she admitted the truth.
-McCartney's terrible apartment finally burns down, and she's looking for a new place. McLennan's feeling weird about it.
-Freaky Friday body-swap! McLennan finally realizes that McCartney was telling the truth when she said she wasn’t that interested in cheese, while McCartney is flummoxed by what food does to her new palate. Can they manage to host an episode while trying to stay in character as one another?
Lumberjanes: Any
(nominated characters: Abigail, April, Barney, Jen, Jo, Mal, Molly, Ripley, and Rosie)
I love Lumberjanes! It’s the summer camp version of Gravity Falls I didn’t know I was missing. :D I’d be down with a gift for any of these characters and for any combo of these characters.
Ship-wise, I like April/Barney, Mal/Molly, and Rosie/Abigail. For ship fic focusing on underage characters, I’m fine with the level of kissing/hugging/etc. that we see in canon, and would prefer nothing above that. I do tend to read Jo and April more as sisters (since they’ve said they grew up like sisters in canon), and I love their friendship.
For gen team-ups, the sky’s the limit! Jen & Rosie? Awesome. Ripley & Jen? Love it. Mal & Molly & Jo & April & Ripley? Roanoke Cabin is amazing! Barney & Abigail? I’m not sure how you’d get there, but absolutely! Seriously, any gen combo has the potential to be amazing here.
Canon-wise, I am caught up through the family visit issues (so up to #40). Spoilers are fine, if you read any of the newer issues or the novel that are coming out between now and the deadline.
I would like to explain my issuefic DNW in a bit more detail for this canon. I really appreciate the way the characters’ identities are handled in canon, where they are an important part of the characters, but the Lumberjanes camp is a space outside of a lot of the structural oppression we see and experience in the real world. If the fic includes the characters' canon identities informing how they make decisions, giving them new perspectives, and making them stronger, that’s great! But I’d prefer that the focus of the fic not be on a character or characters experiencing structural oppression/various isms, or on explaining to the reader why some form of structural oppression is bad.
GENERAL, ANY CHARACTER(S)
I love fic set at Lumberjanes camp, in the forest etc. around the camp, and in Bear Woman’s weird land-of-the-lost world. Basically anything where the Lumberjanes have to solve some sort of problem, whether that problem is supernatural or totally mundane, would be awesome.
For non-supernatural stuff, maybe a storm hits the Lumberjanes camp. Or a camp-wide game (hide and seek? Assassins? Calvinball? Another game of Capture the Flag?) leads to unexpected discoveries. Or someone encounters an unexpected challenge while trying to earn a badge.
Someone finds and explores Bear Woman’s cottage, or maybe Abigail’s house, or some other weird location in the forest.
Is there anything in the forest that scares the Grootslang? And what would happen if the Lumberjanes ran across it?
Any character bonds with Bubbles the raccoon! I love Bubbles, and I love the fact that Bubbles is Molly’s raccoon but has a special bond with Ripley, too. And we don’t get to see any of the other characters interact with Bubbles much, so that could be fun too! I am also totally open to a fic from Bubbles' POV.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER GROUPS
Mal/Molly
Does Mal worry that Molly’s going to stay in the forest, with Bear Woman? How does she feel about it? How does Molly feel about it? Would Mal consider staying in the forest with Molly?
Alternately, maybe Mal uses all of her strategic skills to try to organize an afternoon with Molly, but various Lumberjanes and/or forest-dwellers keep getting in the way of her best-laid plans. Or if you’ve read the #37-40 arc, how did Molly feel about meeting Mal’s mom?
April/Barney
Barney’s a great baker, and April’s very impatient. I feel like the two of them could make an interesting baking team together — how would they overcome the differences in their baking styles together?
Barney gets to see April in her competitive badge-earning headspace for the first time — how would they see it, and how might they try to work with April? Or maybe April decides to get Barney caught up on Lumberjanes badges!
Rosie/Abigail or Rosie & Abigail
The Lumberjanes travel back in time and meet Rosie and Abigail when they were campers, or camper-age Rosie and Abigail travel forward in time and meet the Lumberjanes.
Anything from Rosie and Abigail’s time at camp together could be great, too. Or maybe some greater problem forces Rosie and Abigail to work together for the good of the forest/the Lumberjanes/whatever.
SINGLE-CHARACTER FOCUS
Abigail: Abigail’s house — like, what? Who has that many secret doorways and a Scrooge McDuck-style treasure room? How did she build it without Rosie noticing? (Or was she secretly hoping Rosie would notice?) Or maybe someone finds out about Abigail’s library, and decides to travel to her house to ask to borrow a book.
April: I love stories about April getting into her competitive badge-earning headspace and someone else pulling her out of it. Or an excerpt from April’s bestiary-slash-diary could be awesome!
Barney: I’ve liked Barney from the start and I’m so glad they’re a Lumberjane now. Seeing them get to know Zodiac Cabin could be fun! I also love Marigold, Barney’s kitten, and seeing Barney and Marigold solve some problem with Barney’s tracking skills and Marigold’s kitten super-powers could be awesome.
Jen: I love Jen’s interest in space and astronomy. What if Jen was the first person to realize that an alien ship was headed to the forest? Or maybe the campers decide to give Jen a special day of relaxation and fun, but things do not go as planned.
Jo: I love Jo’s robots (especially the unnecessary ones, like CakeBot the cake-frosting robot), and I also enjoy the stories where we get to see Jo being frustrated by how electronics/science/whatever doesn’t work right in the forest (the mermaid rock concert!). Or maybe Jo sets up something that DOES work in the forest, but gives weird readings or gets the Lumberjanes into a weird situation.
Mal: Mal’s terrified of the water, river monsters, etc. but nonetheless chose Lumberjanes camp over music camp. Why? Or something about Mal’s role as a master strategist!
Molly: BEAR WOMAN, like, seriously, what, what is going on there, tell me all about it. Molly’s feelings about the forest. Is she going to decide to stay? Is she tempted? Is she afraid? Does she have a bond with the forest that the other Lumberjanes don’t, and could that give her information the others don’t have access to?
Ripley: I love Ripley’s Abuelita, who shows up in the #37-40 arc, and something about Ripley spending time with Abuelita and Abuelita’s new friend, Bear Woman, could be awesome. :D Or five times Ripley got to hug a furry animal/dinosaur/cryptid! Or Ripley meets Calvin & Hobbes, somehow (maybe Calvin’s time machine actually took him to the Land of the Lost rather than the actual Jurassic?)
Rosie: How did Rosie take over the camp from Bear Woman? What does Rosie do during the winter? (Does her experience of the forest even include a winter, outside of a weird event like the snowstorm in Out Of Time?) We know she’s been alive for a long time — what’s it like for her when she leaves the forest, seeing how things have changed on the outside? Or I’d also love something about the bond between Jeremy the moose and Rosie, his human companion.
As a general note before I get into the specifics: if my prompts don’t work for you, or if you’ve got another story you’d love to write, I’m here for that. Some of my favorite stories have been ones I never would have thought to prompt, or ones that took my general likes in directions I couldn’t have thought of.
I love all of these fandoms, and I’d be delighted to get a gift in any of them. While my Lumberjanes section is longer, that’s only because it’s my only ANY request, and I wanted to make sure I provided prompts that would work for each of the characters. All of these canons are canons of my heart, and I’ll be delighted to get a gift for any one of them. <3
Some of my general likes:
-Slice of life
-Domestic scenes
-Cooking and food
-General shenanigans and hijinkery
-Wintertime activities and the great outdoors
-Casefic
-Characters solving problems
-Established relationships
-Get-togethers
-Epistolary fic, including internet-based fic
-Outsider POV
-Cats, including fic from the POV of a cat
-Small towns, whether heartwarming or creepy
-Ghost stories and cryptids
-Someone gets turned into an unusual animal
-The Hangover and/or Waking Up In Vegas plotlines
-Gothic themes, whether subverted or played straight
-Someone’s a secret vampire/selkie/werepanther/whatever; someone else finds out
-Exploring new places together
-Vacations gone awry
-Stuck in the bathroom/elevator/wherever
-Trapped/stranded by the weather
-Abandoned houses, whether exploring or fixing them up
-Five Times fic
-State-mandated ghost hunting AU
-Undercover as a couple
-That fic where they have to go to a remote island or resort to investigate a haunting/why everyone has been invited and someone’s killing them off one-by-one/other mystery here
DNW: Dubcon, non-con, fic focusing on explicit porn/kink content, underage, major character death (although temporary MCD or minor character death in service of a casefic are fine), focus on terminal illness, issuefic, cannibalism, harm to pets
Quick note on spoilers for new canon, added 11/23: I am fully up to date on The Good Place through the most recent eps (which means everything that will air through Yuletide) and I'm on board with anywhere you want to go that does or doesn't include the new canon.
For Lumberjanes, I have read everything up through the middle grade book and Issue 44, which came out yesterday, and spoilers for anything in those are 100% fine.
Death In Paradise: Humphrey Goodman
I enjoy everyone on Death in Paradise, and I’ve always loved Humphrey as a character. I’m glad they didn’t kill him off, and the new Inspector has grown on me, but I really miss Humph. He’s a genuinely good guy who doesn’t seem to know his own abilities, and he cares about being kind to his colleagues and finding justice. I’d love to read something that lets me spend a little more time with him.
Ship-wise, I probably ship Humphrey the most with Camille, but I’m also open to something else. I felt like we didn’t get enough about Martha in canon for me to get a feel for her, but I could enjoy her in a fic, especially a fic that developed her backstory and character a little further. I’d be up for tropey shipfic for either of these ships -- undercover as a couple, characters react to a heat wave, someone is injured on a case or gets the flu, etc.
I’d also enjoy gen colleague fic! I love the entire St. Marie team, and it’d be great to see Humphrey teaming up with Fidel, JP, Dwayne, Catherine, the Commissioner, and/or Florence. And I love Harry the lizard. :D Maybe Catherine decides to teach Humphrey to cook, or maybe the Commissioner asks Humphrey to join him for some unusual hobby.
I love casefic, and a case would be amazing here, if it’s something you’re interested in writing. It’s always murder on the show, but something like a seemingly impossible theft, or a poison pen letter writer, or another small case would be lovely, too. Maybe there’s a local legend that Humph comes up with a theory about, or maybe someone drags him along to a local event and something unexpected happens.
I love the episodes where people get trapped somewhere by tropical weather, or where Humphrey is surprised by some aspect of island life he didn’t expect. Anything along those lines would be lovely.
I also love slice-of-life stuff where Humphrey gets to explore the island. Or maybe he tries to accomplish something in his beachside shack, but keeps getting sidetracked by new projects that seem to pile up endlessly — or keeps getting sidetracked by murder.
The Good Place: Janet
I love this show, and I love all the characters, and I really, really love Janet. She’s so open and honest and she’s got all this backstory and worldbuilding the show hasn’t fully explored yet. I love the position they’ve put her in and the way we’ve gotten to see her change.
There’s an interview with D’Arcy Carden, who plays Janet, where she says she asked Mike Schur what would be inside Janet, if you cut her open — "I’m like, 'Would she be full of parts, would she be full of a computer, would she be blood and guts, what would she be?' And he was like, 'I think she’d be some sort of opalescent shiny stone,' which I loved so much.” That description just slayed me. I love it.
I ship Jason/Janet, but I love Janet-focused gen just as much, and I’d be delighted with either. For background ships/characters, I enjoy any combination of Eleanor, Chidi, and Tahani, and I have a soft spot for Vicki, too.
I realize canon will be airing multiple new episodes in the writing period. I am 100% on board with canon departures, backstory, AU, various canon-reboot-fusions, or whatever you come up with for a setting. No worries if anything gets canon-noncompliant in the middle of the writing process — I’ve been there myself, and I enjoy canon-departure AUs. :D I’m watching as the show airs, so no worries on spoilers for stuff from the new season.
World-building about Janet and her role in The Good Place would be amazing — there’s so much we don’t know about what she knows, how she works, etc.
Does Michael understand everything Janet can do? He’s worked with Bad Janet before, and it seems like she might have a different skill set. Does Janet have any abilities she’s kept Michael from finding out about?
What if the real Good Place comes looking for Janet? Or what if she’s phoning home and reporting back to the real Good Place? Or what if she’s missing vital software updates from the real Good Place — how could that affect her?
Per S1E12, Janet engaged her ride-or-die protocol for Jason. Assuming the protocol survived her reboot, how could that play out in a different reboot version or in the current season?
How did Michael steal Janet? Or did she maybe make the choice to come?
Please note that the prompt below is a SPOILER if you have not yet seen episode 2.03.
.
.
.
.
.
Have any of the previous versions of Janet who made it to Mindy St. Claire’s Medium Place left notes for future versions of Janet? If so, what did Janet make of them? A “Dear Future Janet” fic that explored the thoughts of a few different reboot Janets who made it to the Medium Place could be amazing.
Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever: Grumpy Cat
Grumpy Cat! This movie was way better than it had any right to be. :D I love what Aubrey Plaza did with Grumpy as a character, and I love cats. Anything would be amazing.
Please feel free to go as meta or high-concept (or not) as you want with this one. I’m up for anything from a traditional fluff fic about Grumpy settling in with her new human post-movie to epistolary/Yuletide meta/script format/whatever other unusual format you’re interested in.
Grumpy Cat is threatened when Chrystal makes human friends. Maybe they work through it together as pet and human. Or maybe Grumpy sets up wacky Home Alone-style traps to deal with her emotions. Chrystal's new human friends won’t go on being friends with someone who trapped them, right?
Holiday fic is great, whether Christmas or another holiday. Maybe Grumpy has another holiday that doesn’t go well? Grumpy Cat’s Worst [Insert Holiday Here] Ever!
Anything that plays with the weird little commercial bumpers for the various invented Grumpy Cat shows etc. What other types of merch might Grumpy try to launch? Or if you want to play the movie’s universe straight here, what could Grumpy Cat dream about while being a perfectly normal house cat?
If you do want to go meta, maybe Chrystal stumbles across her cat’s online fandom? Maybe Grumpy has to explain that they’re in a movie?
I loved the bickering Sean & Gus (Psych) vibe between the two bad guys. Maybe they get out on bail and decide to try to catnap Grumpy Cat so she can’t testify against them? Or maybe they have to apologize to Chrystal and Grumpy as part of a program they’re in, and decide to do so in song?
The Katering Show: Kate McCartney, Kate McLennan
This show makes me so happy! I think I mainlined all the episodes in a day and a half when I found them. I love both the Kates and their enthusiastic (McLennan) and apathetic (McCartney) exploration of food culture. Cooking, snark -- this is the best. :D
I'd be delighted by gen or ship for this request, but if you are interested in writing ship fic, I definitely ship Kate/Kate. (Kate2? McMc?)
I would like to note that my request here is for the characters they play on the show. While I realize it’s a fine line in a fandom like this one, I’m interested in FPF that relies on the show, rather than on sources about their real life. Non-specific mentions of them having partners and children are OK, but I don’t want their actual RL partners and children included, if that makes sense.
I have seen at least the first few episodes of Get Krack!n, their new show, and spoilers for that are fine if you’ve seen it. :D
Some ideas, by no means the only ones I'd be interested in:
-A lost episode of The Katering Show! Some possible ideas: urban foraging, craft cocktails, Tea Culture, home fermentation, comfort food -- anything would be great! Or maybe the Kates go to a farm, and things do not go well. (If you're interested, I'm totally open to script-format for this, btw!)
-The Katering Show Noir.
-The Kates get an offer they can't refuse to be on-screen hosts in a documentary about a famous legend or ghost story or something. (Maybe in Australia, maybe somewhere totally different.) When they get to their destination to start filming, things get weird.
-I love McCartney's cat Beans and would love a fic involving Beans. Also great: McLennan's jealousy of Beans, which I find hilarious.
-Five Times McLennan was totally joking about being attracted to McCartney... and one time she admitted the truth.
-McCartney's terrible apartment finally burns down, and she's looking for a new place. McLennan's feeling weird about it.
-Freaky Friday body-swap! McLennan finally realizes that McCartney was telling the truth when she said she wasn’t that interested in cheese, while McCartney is flummoxed by what food does to her new palate. Can they manage to host an episode while trying to stay in character as one another?
Lumberjanes: Any
(nominated characters: Abigail, April, Barney, Jen, Jo, Mal, Molly, Ripley, and Rosie)
I love Lumberjanes! It’s the summer camp version of Gravity Falls I didn’t know I was missing. :D I’d be down with a gift for any of these characters and for any combo of these characters.
Ship-wise, I like April/Barney, Mal/Molly, and Rosie/Abigail. For ship fic focusing on underage characters, I’m fine with the level of kissing/hugging/etc. that we see in canon, and would prefer nothing above that. I do tend to read Jo and April more as sisters (since they’ve said they grew up like sisters in canon), and I love their friendship.
For gen team-ups, the sky’s the limit! Jen & Rosie? Awesome. Ripley & Jen? Love it. Mal & Molly & Jo & April & Ripley? Roanoke Cabin is amazing! Barney & Abigail? I’m not sure how you’d get there, but absolutely! Seriously, any gen combo has the potential to be amazing here.
Canon-wise, I am caught up through the family visit issues (so up to #40). Spoilers are fine, if you read any of the newer issues or the novel that are coming out between now and the deadline.
I would like to explain my issuefic DNW in a bit more detail for this canon. I really appreciate the way the characters’ identities are handled in canon, where they are an important part of the characters, but the Lumberjanes camp is a space outside of a lot of the structural oppression we see and experience in the real world. If the fic includes the characters' canon identities informing how they make decisions, giving them new perspectives, and making them stronger, that’s great! But I’d prefer that the focus of the fic not be on a character or characters experiencing structural oppression/various isms, or on explaining to the reader why some form of structural oppression is bad.
GENERAL, ANY CHARACTER(S)
I love fic set at Lumberjanes camp, in the forest etc. around the camp, and in Bear Woman’s weird land-of-the-lost world. Basically anything where the Lumberjanes have to solve some sort of problem, whether that problem is supernatural or totally mundane, would be awesome.
For non-supernatural stuff, maybe a storm hits the Lumberjanes camp. Or a camp-wide game (hide and seek? Assassins? Calvinball? Another game of Capture the Flag?) leads to unexpected discoveries. Or someone encounters an unexpected challenge while trying to earn a badge.
Someone finds and explores Bear Woman’s cottage, or maybe Abigail’s house, or some other weird location in the forest.
Is there anything in the forest that scares the Grootslang? And what would happen if the Lumberjanes ran across it?
Any character bonds with Bubbles the raccoon! I love Bubbles, and I love the fact that Bubbles is Molly’s raccoon but has a special bond with Ripley, too. And we don’t get to see any of the other characters interact with Bubbles much, so that could be fun too! I am also totally open to a fic from Bubbles' POV.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER GROUPS
Mal/Molly
Does Mal worry that Molly’s going to stay in the forest, with Bear Woman? How does she feel about it? How does Molly feel about it? Would Mal consider staying in the forest with Molly?
Alternately, maybe Mal uses all of her strategic skills to try to organize an afternoon with Molly, but various Lumberjanes and/or forest-dwellers keep getting in the way of her best-laid plans. Or if you’ve read the #37-40 arc, how did Molly feel about meeting Mal’s mom?
April/Barney
Barney’s a great baker, and April’s very impatient. I feel like the two of them could make an interesting baking team together — how would they overcome the differences in their baking styles together?
Barney gets to see April in her competitive badge-earning headspace for the first time — how would they see it, and how might they try to work with April? Or maybe April decides to get Barney caught up on Lumberjanes badges!
Rosie/Abigail or Rosie & Abigail
The Lumberjanes travel back in time and meet Rosie and Abigail when they were campers, or camper-age Rosie and Abigail travel forward in time and meet the Lumberjanes.
Anything from Rosie and Abigail’s time at camp together could be great, too. Or maybe some greater problem forces Rosie and Abigail to work together for the good of the forest/the Lumberjanes/whatever.
SINGLE-CHARACTER FOCUS
Abigail: Abigail’s house — like, what? Who has that many secret doorways and a Scrooge McDuck-style treasure room? How did she build it without Rosie noticing? (Or was she secretly hoping Rosie would notice?) Or maybe someone finds out about Abigail’s library, and decides to travel to her house to ask to borrow a book.
April: I love stories about April getting into her competitive badge-earning headspace and someone else pulling her out of it. Or an excerpt from April’s bestiary-slash-diary could be awesome!
Barney: I’ve liked Barney from the start and I’m so glad they’re a Lumberjane now. Seeing them get to know Zodiac Cabin could be fun! I also love Marigold, Barney’s kitten, and seeing Barney and Marigold solve some problem with Barney’s tracking skills and Marigold’s kitten super-powers could be awesome.
Jen: I love Jen’s interest in space and astronomy. What if Jen was the first person to realize that an alien ship was headed to the forest? Or maybe the campers decide to give Jen a special day of relaxation and fun, but things do not go as planned.
Jo: I love Jo’s robots (especially the unnecessary ones, like CakeBot the cake-frosting robot), and I also enjoy the stories where we get to see Jo being frustrated by how electronics/science/whatever doesn’t work right in the forest (the mermaid rock concert!). Or maybe Jo sets up something that DOES work in the forest, but gives weird readings or gets the Lumberjanes into a weird situation.
Mal: Mal’s terrified of the water, river monsters, etc. but nonetheless chose Lumberjanes camp over music camp. Why? Or something about Mal’s role as a master strategist!
Molly: BEAR WOMAN, like, seriously, what, what is going on there, tell me all about it. Molly’s feelings about the forest. Is she going to decide to stay? Is she tempted? Is she afraid? Does she have a bond with the forest that the other Lumberjanes don’t, and could that give her information the others don’t have access to?
Ripley: I love Ripley’s Abuelita, who shows up in the #37-40 arc, and something about Ripley spending time with Abuelita and Abuelita’s new friend, Bear Woman, could be awesome. :D Or five times Ripley got to hug a furry animal/dinosaur/cryptid! Or Ripley meets Calvin & Hobbes, somehow (maybe Calvin’s time machine actually took him to the Land of the Lost rather than the actual Jurassic?)
Rosie: How did Rosie take over the camp from Bear Woman? What does Rosie do during the winter? (Does her experience of the forest even include a winter, outside of a weird event like the snowstorm in Out Of Time?) We know she’s been alive for a long time — what’s it like for her when she leaves the forest, seeing how things have changed on the outside? Or I’d also love something about the bond between Jeremy the moose and Rosie, his human companion.
