Dear Yuletide Author: 2023
Oct. 17th, 2023 05:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
burglebezzlemenHappy Yuletide! I always enjoy the Yuletide season, and I look forward to seeing what you come up with. :)
I love all of these canons, and I will be delighted to get a gift for any of them. The prompts below are in case you want them, so please feel free to run with another idea if it strikes. Some of my favorite gifts have been ones I would never have thought to prompt! And I hope you also feel free to mix and match, take part of a prompt and leave the rest, etc.
GENERAL LIKES | DNWs | THE DISPATCHER - SCALZI | HIDDEN LEGACY | HIVE MIND
General Likes
Epistolary fic exploring worldbuilding, including fic in the form of in-universe documents like message boards, text exchanges, podcast transcripts, textbooks, etc.
Cooking and food
Characters solving problems
Ghost stories
Cursed objects
Thrift score/eBay purchase gone wrong
Someone gets turned into an unusual animal
The Hangover and/or Waking Up In Vegas and/or accidental marriage plotlines
Someone is accidentally drugged; someone else takes care of them
Cross-time communication, where something like a journal/letterbox/website/whatever is able to let characters communicate across time
Alternate universe body swap, where characters from the canon universe we know are swapped or transferred to an alternate universe and have to find their way back
Stuck in the bathroom/elevator/wherever
Characters coming up with MacGyver-style solutions to problems
Trapped/stranded by the weather
Abandoned houses, whether exploring or fixing them up
Five Times fic
Fic involving in-universe urban legends
Casefic, especially unusual cases
That fic where the characters have to go to a remote island or resort, possibly while pretending to be a couple, in order to investigate a haunting/why everyone has been invited and someone’s killing them off one-by-one/other mystery here
DNWs
I am happy with both gen and ship. I tend to prefer canon-typical levels of sexual content. I’m not interested in smut/porn as the main focus of the fic.
My DNWs for these canons:
The Dispatcher - Scalzi
The Dispatcher - Scalzi - Any
This series has exactly the type of worldbuilding I love: change one major thing about the world - in this case, people coming back when they're murdered - and then work through all of the second- and third-order effects.
For this canon, canon-typical death-and-return shenanigans are fine and will not violate my serious illness and injury DNW.
I've made this a character-optional request, but it doesn't mean I don't love Tony. Tony's a lot of fun, and I'd be happy to get a fic with him in it. I haven't come out of the series shipping him with Langdon - I mean, the trust issues there - but if you ship it, I could totally be sold on it. Or if Tony's not your jam and/or not the character you want to spend Yuletide with, I'm totally here for an OC / OCs or more exploration of someone else from Tony's world!
-What other sketchy side-jobs has Tony taken? What's been too sketchy for him?
-Epistolary fic from back when it first started happening. How did people notice?
-How are people researching the boundaries of dispatching? If someone has a failed dispatch, what does the investigative process look like? Are there patterns?
-Tony's worst first dates (and maybe one that wasn't terrible)
-Agatha Christie-style murder mystery, but the corpse just won't stay dead
-Has anyone non-human ever come back?
Hidden Legacy
Hidden Legacy - Arabella
I love the worldbuilding in this canon. Arabella is one of my favorite characters, and I also love seeing her interact with everyone in her family, with a particular fondness for Bern, Leon, and Grandma Frida. (And Bug. He's honorary family, right?)
I’ve read the canon through Ruby Fever, and I keep up with the snippets posted on the blog, so no worries on spoilers here. :D
Gen is great here. If you want to include a ship or ships, I’m good with Nevada/Rogan and Catalina/Alesssandro as background ships. Or if you're in more of a shippy mood for Arabella, I'd be happy with an OC love interest or either of her love interests from Ruby Fever.
-More about Arabella's powers! We know she hasn't been honest with even her family about their true extent. How else do they come out?
-Arabella finds a new pet. Except maybe it's... not a pet?
-Or maybe Arabella watching people speculate on what her power is on Herald. Does she ever get tempted to chime in? Maybe come up with a really ridiculous and unbelievable story? Does she ever catch Grandma Frida joining in on the speculation? (Epistolary fic/fic in the form of a message board totally welcome here!)
-I'm always here for a good cursed object fic, and it seems like there's a lot of potential for that in this world. Arabella buys a cursed necklace? A "well-wisher" leaves a vintage cabinet on the Baylors' front lawn?
-Outsider POV from someone suddenly dealing with the Baylors!
-Five Times Grandma Frida spotted one of her grandkids on Herald.
-What do urban legends or creepypasta look like in this universe? It could be really fun to see fic written in the form of a podcast or blog post or creepypasta about some event that ends up actually being due to Arabella’s powers.
Hive Mind
Hive Mind: Any
I love the world of Hive Mind, and I'd love to see a fic exploring it further. I'd be delighted to get something about any of the known characters, and/or original characters.
I have read all of the bonus content on the author's website, including last year's New Year's story about Eli. It's sounding like Hive Mind 5 (Adversary) will be out at some point soon(ish) - fingers crossed - which I am super-excited for. If it comes out, I will be reading it in eBook and will be open to spoilers for the new book in my gift. If it gives me more ideas, I may update this letter with a clearly marked section with spoilers. But having said that, please know that I absolutely do not expect someone writing for me to read the new book or make any changes at all to anything they may already be working on. I know a lot of readers don't read in eBook, and the hard-copy books take a while to come out. I also know that not everyone may have time to read the new book in time to write a fic, or have ideas for fic for the new book. Fic for the canon up to any point would be wonderful.
I am very happy with gen, ship, or something more world-building focused, like an in-universe document, story, etc. If you want to include ships: I’m fine with relationships of equals (which would be anyone still living on Teen level - I have no objections to relationships between characters of different Lottery years), although I do not want to see explicit fic/porn for them. In terms of other ships, I adore Amber/Lucas and would prefer to not see them break up. In Amber's unit, characters I’m particularly fond of include Amber, Lucas, Beckett, Nicole, and Buzz. For people outside of Amber's unit, I'd love to see some exploration of the early years of the Hive; exploration of other Telepath units or what happens to the people in Olivia's unit after her reset; exploration of the Council of Gaia; exploration of the people who work for Information Archives; more about Gregas; or anything else that strikes your fancy!
-The Hive seems committed to furthering engineering, the arts, and biosciences, but not to other types of knowledge. Does anyone in the Hive try to hold on to historical knowledge, whether of pre-Hive times or of the Hive itself? Is that allowed by the Hive as one of their pressure-relief communities, or is that something the Hive cracks down on?
-Amber's Hive focuses on recycling and reclamation, and is close to a closed loop system. But we've never seen anything about used goods, apart from the mention of used dataviews for Teen Games. Are there thrift stores or flea markets on the lower levels? Do used items from higher levels ever get passed down, or does the Hive try to discourage that?
-Emergency response-related fic is my jam, and I’ve really enjoyed what we’ve seen in canon. I’d love to see more of our team responding to emergencies! Are there ever storms outside large enough that they affect the inside of the Hive? What other emergencies might be triggered by wild bees, and how do the Hive protocols help keep people safe?
-What types of stories do the Teen Level Law Enforcement teens tell about Light Angel? And how does Gregas cope with knowing that’s his sister? Does he ever let the secret slip?
I love all of these canons, and I will be delighted to get a gift for any of them. The prompts below are in case you want them, so please feel free to run with another idea if it strikes. Some of my favorite gifts have been ones I would never have thought to prompt! And I hope you also feel free to mix and match, take part of a prompt and leave the rest, etc.
GENERAL LIKES | DNWs | THE DISPATCHER - SCALZI | HIDDEN LEGACY | HIVE MIND
General Likes
DNWs
I am happy with both gen and ship. I tend to prefer canon-typical levels of sexual content. I’m not interested in smut/porn as the main focus of the fic.
My DNWs for these canons:
- Dubcon, noncon, explicit underage content, or fic focusing on explicit porn/kink content
- Permanent major character death (temporary MCD or minor character death in service of a casefic are fine)
- Unrequested incest
- Fic focusing on serious or terminal illness or injury (see Dispatcher for canon-specific exceptions)
- Cannibalism
- Animal harm/cruelty
- Ghost cats
The Dispatcher - Scalzi
The Dispatcher - Scalzi - Any
This series has exactly the type of worldbuilding I love: change one major thing about the world - in this case, people coming back when they're murdered - and then work through all of the second- and third-order effects.
For this canon, canon-typical death-and-return shenanigans are fine and will not violate my serious illness and injury DNW.
I've made this a character-optional request, but it doesn't mean I don't love Tony. Tony's a lot of fun, and I'd be happy to get a fic with him in it. I haven't come out of the series shipping him with Langdon - I mean, the trust issues there - but if you ship it, I could totally be sold on it. Or if Tony's not your jam and/or not the character you want to spend Yuletide with, I'm totally here for an OC / OCs or more exploration of someone else from Tony's world!
-What other sketchy side-jobs has Tony taken? What's been too sketchy for him?
-Epistolary fic from back when it first started happening. How did people notice?
-How are people researching the boundaries of dispatching? If someone has a failed dispatch, what does the investigative process look like? Are there patterns?
-Tony's worst first dates (and maybe one that wasn't terrible)
-Agatha Christie-style murder mystery, but the corpse just won't stay dead
-Has anyone non-human ever come back?
Hidden Legacy
Hidden Legacy - Arabella
I love the worldbuilding in this canon. Arabella is one of my favorite characters, and I also love seeing her interact with everyone in her family, with a particular fondness for Bern, Leon, and Grandma Frida. (And Bug. He's honorary family, right?)
I’ve read the canon through Ruby Fever, and I keep up with the snippets posted on the blog, so no worries on spoilers here. :D
Gen is great here. If you want to include a ship or ships, I’m good with Nevada/Rogan and Catalina/Alesssandro as background ships. Or if you're in more of a shippy mood for Arabella, I'd be happy with an OC love interest or either of her love interests from Ruby Fever.
-More about Arabella's powers! We know she hasn't been honest with even her family about their true extent. How else do they come out?
-Arabella finds a new pet. Except maybe it's... not a pet?
-Or maybe Arabella watching people speculate on what her power is on Herald. Does she ever get tempted to chime in? Maybe come up with a really ridiculous and unbelievable story? Does she ever catch Grandma Frida joining in on the speculation? (Epistolary fic/fic in the form of a message board totally welcome here!)
-I'm always here for a good cursed object fic, and it seems like there's a lot of potential for that in this world. Arabella buys a cursed necklace? A "well-wisher" leaves a vintage cabinet on the Baylors' front lawn?
-Outsider POV from someone suddenly dealing with the Baylors!
-Five Times Grandma Frida spotted one of her grandkids on Herald.
-What do urban legends or creepypasta look like in this universe? It could be really fun to see fic written in the form of a podcast or blog post or creepypasta about some event that ends up actually being due to Arabella’s powers.
Hive Mind
Hive Mind: Any
I love the world of Hive Mind, and I'd love to see a fic exploring it further. I'd be delighted to get something about any of the known characters, and/or original characters.
I have read all of the bonus content on the author's website, including last year's New Year's story about Eli. It's sounding like Hive Mind 5 (Adversary) will be out at some point soon(ish) - fingers crossed - which I am super-excited for. If it comes out, I will be reading it in eBook and will be open to spoilers for the new book in my gift. If it gives me more ideas, I may update this letter with a clearly marked section with spoilers. But having said that, please know that I absolutely do not expect someone writing for me to read the new book or make any changes at all to anything they may already be working on. I know a lot of readers don't read in eBook, and the hard-copy books take a while to come out. I also know that not everyone may have time to read the new book in time to write a fic, or have ideas for fic for the new book. Fic for the canon up to any point would be wonderful.
I am very happy with gen, ship, or something more world-building focused, like an in-universe document, story, etc. If you want to include ships: I’m fine with relationships of equals (which would be anyone still living on Teen level - I have no objections to relationships between characters of different Lottery years), although I do not want to see explicit fic/porn for them. In terms of other ships, I adore Amber/Lucas and would prefer to not see them break up. In Amber's unit, characters I’m particularly fond of include Amber, Lucas, Beckett, Nicole, and Buzz. For people outside of Amber's unit, I'd love to see some exploration of the early years of the Hive; exploration of other Telepath units or what happens to the people in Olivia's unit after her reset; exploration of the Council of Gaia; exploration of the people who work for Information Archives; more about Gregas; or anything else that strikes your fancy!
-The Hive seems committed to furthering engineering, the arts, and biosciences, but not to other types of knowledge. Does anyone in the Hive try to hold on to historical knowledge, whether of pre-Hive times or of the Hive itself? Is that allowed by the Hive as one of their pressure-relief communities, or is that something the Hive cracks down on?
-Amber's Hive focuses on recycling and reclamation, and is close to a closed loop system. But we've never seen anything about used goods, apart from the mention of used dataviews for Teen Games. Are there thrift stores or flea markets on the lower levels? Do used items from higher levels ever get passed down, or does the Hive try to discourage that?
-Emergency response-related fic is my jam, and I’ve really enjoyed what we’ve seen in canon. I’d love to see more of our team responding to emergencies! Are there ever storms outside large enough that they affect the inside of the Hive? What other emergencies might be triggered by wild bees, and how do the Hive protocols help keep people safe?
-What types of stories do the Teen Level Law Enforcement teens tell about Light Angel? And how does Gregas cope with knowing that’s his sister? Does he ever let the secret slip?
