Dear Yuletide Writer,
Oct. 14th, 2014 09:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shifty_gardenerHello, writer mine! If you're not feeling whatever fandom we matched on, Goon is a pretty short movie that's available on Netflix, and Captive Prince is a book series you can find online for free (the non-edited version, that is) and read in a day or weekend. The third book isn't out yet, though, so don't get too mad at me if you don't like cliffhangers. :) As for the other two fandoms, Sungkyunkwan Scandal is on Hulu and Viki and Youtube, but as it's a kdrama it would take you ~21 hours to watch. The Master and Margarita is a Russian novel, although a great deal less convoluted than most, so it would maybe take you less than 21 hours?
You may notice as you read my letter that the majority of my prompts lend themselves very well to fluff – if that isn’t your thing, I also enjoy adventure, mystery, gothic horror and angst.
My bulletproof non-kink (idk how else to phrase that) is the daily minutae of acting like family. So, like, found family/accidental relationship + domesticity. That said, I enjoy pretty much anything that isn’t on my list of dislikes!
Likes: tropes (esp marriage of convenience + pretend to be dating), trope subversion, fairy tales, banter, h/c when the h isn't really that bad and the c character is the less emotionally available one (for this letter that means Laurent, Xavier, Jae Shin or Ha In Su) and completely overreacts, exasperated characters, accidental dating, crack that is treated very seriously (I especially love when the crackiness is a logical extension of a detail from canon, such as: Harry Potter has a chest monster in HBP -> clearly he’s part Veela!), side characters, unbidden matchmaking attempts from side characters, polylingualism/language acquisition, characters being really competent at something, cuddles/touchy feeliness (platonic or not), online dating/penpals
Dislikes: major character death, embarrassing scenes (public declarations, exhibitionism, vouyerism, anything that would belong in Notting Hill), zombies, time travel
If you’re of the stalking persuasion, here are my past letters and here is my pinboard. You may notice I have a problem with getting into dead fandoms and revisiting past ones. Don't judge me; I can stop whenever I want to /o\it's so lonely here
Sungkyunkwan Scandal (Characters: Gu Yong Ha and Moon Jae Shin, but I also left prompts for Ha In Soo), omg, let me count the ways. I loved the way the drama not only acknowledged that LGBT stuff exists, but discussed it (“if hating someone is a sin, how could liking someone be, whoever it is?”) and I looooooooved the way the main relationship is so balanced, power wise. Sun Joon isn’t dragging Yoon Shik around by the wrist and kissing her against her will as happens in a lot of drama, and it’s implied that in the future their partnership is very equal. The way that women threw themselves at Yoon Shik’s (crossdressing) feet was also really great, and I loved that Cho Seon was in love with her, even though it was incredibly sad.
The show did all of the above well enough that I'm not actually requesting any of it for Yuletide, haha. On to the actual request!
Prompts:
Tropey, adorable get together fic for Gu Yong Ha and Moon Jae Shin would be f a n t a s t i c (Pretend to be dating! Marriage of convenience! Undercover mission! Huddling for warmth! Since Yong Ha was outed as not being a noble, he finds no reason to not date dudes! Jae Shin suddenly notices Yong Ha is a babe and thinks he’s being seduced while Yong Ha is just acting normal! Yong Ha in drag for plot reasons!!), as would cute married couple futurefic. Also, after so many episodes of watching Yong Ha worry over Jae Shin, it would be lovely to see Jae Shin have to deal with Yong Ha being the one getting hurt for once. Or to see more examples of the way that Yong Ha uses Jae Shin for comfort (it drove me crazy how Jae Shin didn't seem to question or give extra comfort to Yong Ha there).
I feel like Yong Ha has so many ~~feelings~~, whether he’s noticed them or not: as I was watching, the parallels between Jae Shin liking Yoon Shik and watching her like Sun Joon and Yong Ha watching Jae Shin like Yoon Shik lead me to believe that he knew he was totally gone for Jae Shin, but maybe not?? Feel free to convince me of either scenario. If you need further inspiration, here are a few (okay, a lot of) screenshots to remind you of the way Yong Ha looks at Jae Shin.
I really liked how the last glimpse of Ha In Soo we get is a humanized one – in the last episode, he finally goes against his father and we see that he actually does genuinely care for Cho Seon. So where did he go from there? I’d love to read about him redeeming himself, and whether it’s Cho Seon or one of the Jalgeum Quartet or one of his lackeys (or Yoon Shik’s brother??? That would be…very entertaining, actually. Maybe Ha In Soo gets sick and meets the real Yoon Shik at some healing hot springs retreat) helping him along the way. It would be really funny to read about him figuring out how to have friends rather than underlings. This would also suit itself particularly well for a modern AU, with his (unwilling?) redemption via community service/kittens/penpal/fatherhood/???. I would love rehabilitated!In Soo/Cho Seon, but if that’s not your thing then don’t worry about it.
I would tooootally also be down with OT4 of the Jeoreum Quartet (whether G or NC-17), because all of their bonds are strong, and at the very end for some reason Sun Joon holds Jae Shin’s hand in his sleep and Yong Ha grabs Yoon Shik’s face and is like, this never gets boring~! Both of those things were very...unnecessary, shall we say?? and made me cackle irl. Seriously, it was an established Thing that Sun Joon expresses his sappy feelings for Yoon Shik via handholding. And that Yong Ha was searching for a woman that didn't bore him. So the OT4 vibes had to have been deliberate.
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov (Characters: Any; Pontius Pilate, Ivan Nikolaevich, Margarita, Woland) – My favourite characters from this are Pontius Pilate and Homeless, but feel free to write about anyone that isn't the Master. I really (really, really) enjoyed the melancholic mood and tone of the book and how you got a really strong sense of each character, so anything that captures that or adds to someone’s backstory would be much appreciated. Seriously, if you could capture the wistful, resigned and tragic feeling the book evokes, you could literally write any character watch paint dry and it would make my Yuletide. I request this every year. >.>
It would be interesting to see Woland terrorize another city – his methods in Moscow reflected the myriad of issues plaguing Russia at the time: the stifling bureaucracy, the secret police, the hypocrisy of the intelligentsia, etc – do he and his methods change from place to place? Would he and his retinue change in appearance/mannerisms if they visited somewhere completely different, like a city in Asia or South America?
I thought the character of Margarita was stifled by her attachment to the Master (I actually wrote a paper on how her relationship with him was similar to Pontius Pilates’ is with his dog >.>), so a canon divergent AU where she joined Woland’s retinue for good or different events lead her to leave her life behind would be welcome.
I'd be totally fine with other canon divergence or cracky AUs for this as well. What kind of cracky AUs, you ask yourself? Well, for example, Woland and his retinue could be the Leverage team (think about it, they stole Moscow) Pontius Pilate could be a weary CEO, or the Well-Manicured Man from The X-Files. Or this could somehow be a coffeeshop AU? I believe in your creativity!
Feel free to make this shippy or gen – I kind of ship Pontius Pilate/Yeshua and Homeless is totally in love with the Master, imo (I would prefer Homeless’ POV if you decided to explore that) - maybe he gets ~artist crushes~ on other men? I also friendship Margarita and Homeless as well as Margarita and Woland’s retinue.
Captive Prince by C.S. Pacat (Characters: Laurent) – I loooooove the burning sexual tension of these books, the way Laurent is fierce and vulnerable at once and the way Damen learns that the world doesn’t conform to his ideals and his loyalties are no longer drawn along country lines, but around people (if that makes sense). He is essentially having a really intense study abroad experience, and I’m worried that he’s going to come out of it not much liking anywhere. I also really enjoy (in a v iddy way) how good he is at a lot of things and how oblivious he is to the fact that his skills are at all impressive. I’m guessing having a jealous brother (who was also much older) meant that he first of all, was trying to measure up to someone with years’ more experience and second of all, wasn’t praised very often by the person from whom it would really mean something.
Another thing I love in an iddy way is when Damen or Laurent gets angry or protective on the other’s behalf. Both Damen and Laurent 1. can clearly fight their own battles and 2. have been manipulated and betrayed by trusted authority figures they should have been able to count on, therefore it’s really great how 1a. they’re bewildered/charmed when someone else has their back, 1b. they realize that no matter how strong they are on their own, the other person can make them even better and 2. the books make them go out of their way to look out for the person that should be their greatest enemy.
Prompts:
Something that illustrates how limited the POV of the books is would be really cool (what is Damen oblivious to? What does he misinterpret? He speaks Veretian fluently, but does he get cultural stuff wrong? Is there a gossip mill he's missing out on?? - this doesn't have to have anything to do with Damen, I just want a glimpse of whatever the reader doesn't get to see), as would something involving Laurent relaxing and getting to act like a normal person. I love Laurent's adulation of his brother, possibly because it's a vestige of a younger and carefree Laurent - It follows that something involving Laurent and Auguste would make me very happy.
You could also do something in the happily ever after future and what you think that would look like – what does Laurent look like when he is no longer under constant threat from his uncle? How does someone with his personality and temperament fit into a time of tranquility? What does the happy ending look like if Damen and Laurent are both heirs to their respective kingdoms? Does Jord’s life stop being terrible at some point?
If your heart is set on writing action/adventure and battles, you can, but I’d prefer if it included a character moment or was the result of some entertaining bit of trouble that Laurent or Laurent and Damen got into (another undercover mission/date? An international incident at their wedding? Do they have a honeymoon that goes terribly wrong and turns action adventurey in some way? Someone does something to Damen and Laurent arranges something embarrassing/uncomfortable/bloody for them?).
Goon (Characters: Xavier Laflamme and Doug Glatt) – Xavier/Doug, please! Not only do they have, uh, twin lights in their stomachs, but Xavier brought Doug his gear when he was in the box and promised to score a goal for him. In the context of the movie, that was huge, because he did these things for Doug, the guy whose role in every other relationship in his life is to be the provider and protector. Xavier is the only person we see who approaches Doug as an equal and makes a reciprocal effort. So something involving Xavier looking out for Doug or Doug learning how to be taken care of would be lovely.
Doug taking Xavier home for a holiday/birthday/whatever would be HILARIOUS, because how the heck would his uptight parents react to Xavier in his full Xavierness, and even if it goes well, would this mean Xavier tried to clean himself up and act polite?? Or vice versa! Doug would have to deal with a bunch of Quebecois being thrown at him – does he speak French? Does Xavier try to teach him any in day-to-day life? As would Xavier being jealous and Doug being oblivious or seeing how Xavier reacts when Doug wants to hold hands and cuddle all night rather than have sex and treats him like he’s precious. /cackle
Pretend to be dating or marriage of convenience (I have no idea how you'd make this work) that turns into ~love~ for this pairing would be great. Just. So great.
If you wanted to make Doug magically transform into a girl (or always have been one) and Xavier to be all up on that and make him feel, like, beautiful or whatever, I would be embarrassingly into it. Or vice versa, heh, although I don’t think Xavier needs to be genderswapped for Doug to very solemnly tell him that he’s beautiful. Feel free to porn for this, btw.
Tl;dr Xavier forcing Doug to take the back seat and let Xavier take care of things would be really great, because Doug isn’t the kind of person to ask for things and I don’t think Xavier does anything in halves, including relationships. I’d prefer this to be shippy, but would accept any gen as preslash. Domesticity ftw!
You may notice as you read my letter that the majority of my prompts lend themselves very well to fluff – if that isn’t your thing, I also enjoy adventure, mystery, gothic horror and angst.
My bulletproof non-kink (idk how else to phrase that) is the daily minutae of acting like family. So, like, found family/accidental relationship + domesticity. That said, I enjoy pretty much anything that isn’t on my list of dislikes!
Likes: tropes (esp marriage of convenience + pretend to be dating), trope subversion, fairy tales, banter, h/c when the h isn't really that bad and the c character is the less emotionally available one (for this letter that means Laurent, Xavier, Jae Shin or Ha In Su) and completely overreacts, exasperated characters, accidental dating, crack that is treated very seriously (I especially love when the crackiness is a logical extension of a detail from canon, such as: Harry Potter has a chest monster in HBP -> clearly he’s part Veela!), side characters, unbidden matchmaking attempts from side characters, polylingualism/language acquisition, characters being really competent at something, cuddles/touchy feeliness (platonic or not), online dating/penpals
Dislikes: major character death, embarrassing scenes (public declarations, exhibitionism, vouyerism, anything that would belong in Notting Hill), zombies, time travel
If you’re of the stalking persuasion, here are my past letters and here is my pinboard. You may notice I have a problem with getting into dead fandoms and revisiting past ones. Don't judge me; I can stop whenever I want to /o\
Sungkyunkwan Scandal (Characters: Gu Yong Ha and Moon Jae Shin, but I also left prompts for Ha In Soo), omg, let me count the ways. I loved the way the drama not only acknowledged that LGBT stuff exists, but discussed it (“if hating someone is a sin, how could liking someone be, whoever it is?”) and I looooooooved the way the main relationship is so balanced, power wise. Sun Joon isn’t dragging Yoon Shik around by the wrist and kissing her against her will as happens in a lot of drama, and it’s implied that in the future their partnership is very equal. The way that women threw themselves at Yoon Shik’s (crossdressing) feet was also really great, and I loved that Cho Seon was in love with her, even though it was incredibly sad.
The show did all of the above well enough that I'm not actually requesting any of it for Yuletide, haha. On to the actual request!
Prompts:
Tropey, adorable get together fic for Gu Yong Ha and Moon Jae Shin would be f a n t a s t i c (Pretend to be dating! Marriage of convenience! Undercover mission! Huddling for warmth! Since Yong Ha was outed as not being a noble, he finds no reason to not date dudes! Jae Shin suddenly notices Yong Ha is a babe and thinks he’s being seduced while Yong Ha is just acting normal! Yong Ha in drag for plot reasons!!), as would cute married couple futurefic. Also, after so many episodes of watching Yong Ha worry over Jae Shin, it would be lovely to see Jae Shin have to deal with Yong Ha being the one getting hurt for once. Or to see more examples of the way that Yong Ha uses Jae Shin for comfort (it drove me crazy how Jae Shin didn't seem to question or give extra comfort to Yong Ha there).
I feel like Yong Ha has so many ~~feelings~~, whether he’s noticed them or not: as I was watching, the parallels between Jae Shin liking Yoon Shik and watching her like Sun Joon and Yong Ha watching Jae Shin like Yoon Shik lead me to believe that he knew he was totally gone for Jae Shin, but maybe not?? Feel free to convince me of either scenario. If you need further inspiration, here are a few (okay, a lot of) screenshots to remind you of the way Yong Ha looks at Jae Shin.
I really liked how the last glimpse of Ha In Soo we get is a humanized one – in the last episode, he finally goes against his father and we see that he actually does genuinely care for Cho Seon. So where did he go from there? I’d love to read about him redeeming himself, and whether it’s Cho Seon or one of the Jalgeum Quartet or one of his lackeys (or Yoon Shik’s brother??? That would be…very entertaining, actually. Maybe Ha In Soo gets sick and meets the real Yoon Shik at some healing hot springs retreat) helping him along the way. It would be really funny to read about him figuring out how to have friends rather than underlings. This would also suit itself particularly well for a modern AU, with his (unwilling?) redemption via community service/kittens/penpal/fatherhood/???. I would love rehabilitated!In Soo/Cho Seon, but if that’s not your thing then don’t worry about it.
I would tooootally also be down with OT4 of the Jeoreum Quartet (whether G or NC-17), because all of their bonds are strong, and at the very end for some reason Sun Joon holds Jae Shin’s hand in his sleep and Yong Ha grabs Yoon Shik’s face and is like, this never gets boring~! Both of those things were very...unnecessary, shall we say?? and made me cackle irl. Seriously, it was an established Thing that Sun Joon expresses his sappy feelings for Yoon Shik via handholding. And that Yong Ha was searching for a woman that didn't bore him. So the OT4 vibes had to have been deliberate.
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov (Characters: Any; Pontius Pilate, Ivan Nikolaevich, Margarita, Woland) – My favourite characters from this are Pontius Pilate and Homeless, but feel free to write about anyone that isn't the Master. I really (really, really) enjoyed the melancholic mood and tone of the book and how you got a really strong sense of each character, so anything that captures that or adds to someone’s backstory would be much appreciated. Seriously, if you could capture the wistful, resigned and tragic feeling the book evokes, you could literally write any character watch paint dry and it would make my Yuletide. I request this every year. >.>
It would be interesting to see Woland terrorize another city – his methods in Moscow reflected the myriad of issues plaguing Russia at the time: the stifling bureaucracy, the secret police, the hypocrisy of the intelligentsia, etc – do he and his methods change from place to place? Would he and his retinue change in appearance/mannerisms if they visited somewhere completely different, like a city in Asia or South America?
I thought the character of Margarita was stifled by her attachment to the Master (I actually wrote a paper on how her relationship with him was similar to Pontius Pilates’ is with his dog >.>), so a canon divergent AU where she joined Woland’s retinue for good or different events lead her to leave her life behind would be welcome.
I'd be totally fine with other canon divergence or cracky AUs for this as well. What kind of cracky AUs, you ask yourself? Well, for example, Woland and his retinue could be the Leverage team (think about it, they stole Moscow) Pontius Pilate could be a weary CEO, or the Well-Manicured Man from The X-Files. Or this could somehow be a coffeeshop AU? I believe in your creativity!
Feel free to make this shippy or gen – I kind of ship Pontius Pilate/Yeshua and Homeless is totally in love with the Master, imo (I would prefer Homeless’ POV if you decided to explore that) - maybe he gets ~artist crushes~ on other men? I also friendship Margarita and Homeless as well as Margarita and Woland’s retinue.
Captive Prince by C.S. Pacat (Characters: Laurent) – I loooooove the burning sexual tension of these books, the way Laurent is fierce and vulnerable at once and the way Damen learns that the world doesn’t conform to his ideals and his loyalties are no longer drawn along country lines, but around people (if that makes sense). He is essentially having a really intense study abroad experience, and I’m worried that he’s going to come out of it not much liking anywhere. I also really enjoy (in a v iddy way) how good he is at a lot of things and how oblivious he is to the fact that his skills are at all impressive. I’m guessing having a jealous brother (who was also much older) meant that he first of all, was trying to measure up to someone with years’ more experience and second of all, wasn’t praised very often by the person from whom it would really mean something.
Another thing I love in an iddy way is when Damen or Laurent gets angry or protective on the other’s behalf. Both Damen and Laurent 1. can clearly fight their own battles and 2. have been manipulated and betrayed by trusted authority figures they should have been able to count on, therefore it’s really great how 1a. they’re bewildered/charmed when someone else has their back, 1b. they realize that no matter how strong they are on their own, the other person can make them even better and 2. the books make them go out of their way to look out for the person that should be their greatest enemy.
Prompts:
Something that illustrates how limited the POV of the books is would be really cool (what is Damen oblivious to? What does he misinterpret? He speaks Veretian fluently, but does he get cultural stuff wrong? Is there a gossip mill he's missing out on?? - this doesn't have to have anything to do with Damen, I just want a glimpse of whatever the reader doesn't get to see), as would something involving Laurent relaxing and getting to act like a normal person. I love Laurent's adulation of his brother, possibly because it's a vestige of a younger and carefree Laurent - It follows that something involving Laurent and Auguste would make me very happy.
You could also do something in the happily ever after future and what you think that would look like – what does Laurent look like when he is no longer under constant threat from his uncle? How does someone with his personality and temperament fit into a time of tranquility? What does the happy ending look like if Damen and Laurent are both heirs to their respective kingdoms? Does Jord’s life stop being terrible at some point?
If your heart is set on writing action/adventure and battles, you can, but I’d prefer if it included a character moment or was the result of some entertaining bit of trouble that Laurent or Laurent and Damen got into (another undercover mission/date? An international incident at their wedding? Do they have a honeymoon that goes terribly wrong and turns action adventurey in some way? Someone does something to Damen and Laurent arranges something embarrassing/uncomfortable/bloody for them?).
Goon (Characters: Xavier Laflamme and Doug Glatt) – Xavier/Doug, please! Not only do they have, uh, twin lights in their stomachs, but Xavier brought Doug his gear when he was in the box and promised to score a goal for him. In the context of the movie, that was huge, because he did these things for Doug, the guy whose role in every other relationship in his life is to be the provider and protector. Xavier is the only person we see who approaches Doug as an equal and makes a reciprocal effort. So something involving Xavier looking out for Doug or Doug learning how to be taken care of would be lovely.
Doug taking Xavier home for a holiday/birthday/whatever would be HILARIOUS, because how the heck would his uptight parents react to Xavier in his full Xavierness, and even if it goes well, would this mean Xavier tried to clean himself up and act polite?? Or vice versa! Doug would have to deal with a bunch of Quebecois being thrown at him – does he speak French? Does Xavier try to teach him any in day-to-day life? As would Xavier being jealous and Doug being oblivious or seeing how Xavier reacts when Doug wants to hold hands and cuddle all night rather than have sex and treats him like he’s precious. /cackle
Pretend to be dating or marriage of convenience (I have no idea how you'd make this work) that turns into ~love~ for this pairing would be great. Just. So great.
If you wanted to make Doug magically transform into a girl (or always have been one) and Xavier to be all up on that and make him feel, like, beautiful or whatever, I would be embarrassingly into it. Or vice versa, heh, although I don’t think Xavier needs to be genderswapped for Doug to very solemnly tell him that he’s beautiful. Feel free to porn for this, btw.
Tl;dr Xavier forcing Doug to take the back seat and let Xavier take care of things would be really great, because Doug isn’t the kind of person to ask for things and I don’t think Xavier does anything in halves, including relationships. I’d prefer this to be shippy, but would accept any gen as preslash. Domesticity ftw!
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no subject
Date: 2014-10-15 04:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-15 05:38 pm (UTC)I think the tag set is done being reviewed on the 17th and signups start on the 19th. Do you know what you might request this year? :)
no subject
Date: 2014-10-15 05:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-15 06:43 pm (UTC)I think I have a general idea of what I want to request but I might change my mind when I go through the tags. Even your post made me go like "hmmmmm. Captive Prince! Should I request that?" Same goes for signing up for fandoms. I feel like I can write in a couple of fandoms that I didn't even think of before...Like Korean dramas? I can do some korean drama porn. I think?
Anyway, I am super excited for yuletide. It's so nice seeing obscure little fandoms getting so much love.
no subject
Date: 2014-10-15 07:42 pm (UTC)I'm not 100% sure I should request Captive Prince, because a lot of other people will probably also request it, and I could maybe just read whatever they get...but I'm not sure. Because I would still be really happy to get it.
Speaking of kdrama, do you have any recs? I just watched Master's Sun recently and it rekindled my love for drama.
no subject
Date: 2014-10-26 04:59 pm (UTC)