Yuletide 2024
Oct. 17th, 2024 04:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mousekHello, writer, or treat-er! Thank you so much for embarking on this excellent journey. I look forward to reading whatever you choose to give me, but if you’re looking for a sense of my tastes, here you go! You can also find me on AO3 at Mousek.
DNWs:
Fic where sex is the focus. Sex is fine, not PWP please - it’s really just not my thing.
On-screen physical assault. Violence and battles, I’m fine with! Bring on the swords, martial arts, and blasters. But I don’t like people getting cornered and abused/similar situations.
Things I love:
Experimental nonsense (and experimental not-nonsense). Truly, go wild with your formatting and push the boundaries of what a linear “story” could be. I’ll be thrilled.
Worldbuilding. While I’d be happy to get an AU, I would much prefer an exploration of the canon world!
Playing with formatting - epistolary, interactive fiction, script format, news article style, overheard conversations, fairy-tale style, take this as your second go-ahead to do something absolutely wild.
“Found documents” - by which I mean the lore, campfire stories, songs, and poetry that one would find in the world. Always Coming Home style, if you’ve read that.
Mission fic
Gen (ie, no romance)
Ace characters, regardless of whether they are in canon
Trans/nonbinary characters, regardless of whether they are in canon (although I prefer it if the fic isn’t focused on issues caused by them being trans).
Polyamory
Missing scenes/post-canon
Things written in the style of the original media
Meditations on the concept of “home,” and thoughts on how adventure and home work together
Found family, chosen family, family aggressively created.
Mini challenge opt-ins:
Before I start, please do not take this list as a limit. These are things I’m very excited about, but it does NOT mean that you should not write something for a challenge I didn’t specifically select! Please do it!!
Wrapping Paper (Art)
Interactive Fiction
Chromatic Yuletide (characters of color)
Queering the Tide
TransTide
So now: fandom-specific thoughts! As well as prompts for each - feel free to use them or do something else!
The Strange Case of Starship Iris (podcast)
Characters: Any
I love all of these characters. I would love something written in the style of an episode, or something unconventional (for fanfic), so something like mission reports, daily ship’s log, voicemails - any of that would be super exciting for me! I’m also curious about what remnants of Violet’s past IGR life still remain? What remnants of any of their lives still exist and influence their behavior? Something about Brian Jeeter’s linguistic skills or Violet’s biology skills being critical to the mission would also be super cool. Or something about Brian and/or Krejjh's interactions with Krejjh's bio family. Honestly any of the team being highly competent at their respective fields gets to me. I’d also love anything about any of their pasts - they all had such fascinating lives!
Tress of the Emerald Sea (Brandon Sanderson)
Characters: Tress
The fairytale vibe of this story drew me in and hooked me immediately, as did the fascinating world. And Tress is a wonderful protagonist - she doesn’t think she’s anything special, but she absolutely is!! I picked just the one character because I wanted to leave as many options open for you as possible. Maybe it’s a pre-canon story about her life on the island! Maybe it’s a scene from her time on the ship! Maybe she’s meeting new and fascinating people from new and fascinating different places! I’m in this story partly for Tress as a character (learning! growing! finding her place and family!!) and partly for the worldbuilding, so feel free to go far afield with new and different things she might be seeing/experiencing.
Monk and Robot (Becky Chambers)
Characters: Any
These stories are a very quick read, and absolutely worth it.
The solarpunk, hopeful world here heals my soul. It’s the kind of thing that we could do, that we should do, that people are working towards!! I’d love to see more about how the different towns live, or more of Dex’s time travelling as a tea monk, or more stories that Dex tells Mosscap. Or more stories that Mosscap tells Dex! Mosscap has a very different experience than Dex, but still has so much knowledge to share. Maybe it’s a story about Mosscap before leaving to meet Dex - what was going on in the world of the robots, or what was there to observe and learn about? Or maybe it’s about Mosscap after getting that part fixed/replaced. How does this impact robot culture? How do the robots react to it? Is there a subset of robot culture that now acquires new parts, whether for themselves or to augment new robots?
Chants of Senaar (video game)
Characters: Any
In my experience, this game takes about 10 hours of playtime, so if you're interested, you should do it!
There are so many small worldbuilding aspects of this game that we see briefly and are left with questions about. Any of them would make a great story - show me something new in this world! What’s going on around/behind/before/after our traveler’s experience? Some suggestions:
What’s going on with the rebellion in the bard’s district?
More about the Prophet and the religion of that district
Interactions between two peoples after they meet
The alchemists and/or warriors with the Monster
17776 (online story)
Characters: Nine and/or Ten
If you haven't read this before, it'll take about an hour or two and be so worth your time!
I just read this the other week, finally, and it made me feel such a rollercoaster of emotions. It’s such a strange future combination of success and complacency. I’d love to read more of Nine and Ten talking, or of them watching a game, or talking to people. The strange games that humans have come up with are so cool - what are some others? What are more of Nine’s questions? What are these wonderful robots feeling? How do they feel about other human traditions - be it holidays or education or art or more thoughts on religion?
As a side note, I’m a whitewater kayaker and have at some points worked in the medical system, so the nanos fascinate me. How do they play out when people are doing something deliberately dangerous? How do they play out if, for example, people are boxing, and throwing punches? What’s left for doctors to do?
One Last Stop - Casey McQuiston
Characters: Any
Somehow McQuiston always knows exactly what I need. In this case, it was a happy queer magic romance. I am so down for happy queer magic romance. I also would love to read more about the pancake shop, or the other people that Jane must have interacted with on the train. A series of vignettes with people she meets - either before or after she can retain memories? A series of vignettes about people August or Jane meet at the pancake house? Just the fun times everyone living in those apartments has? Or the inevitable we-will-help-each-other-out that happens in queer communities like theirs - either emotionally or materially?
My partner and I - not too different from August and Jane - also somewhat-accidentally acquired a queer 17 year old a year or two ago. I believe there’s a term for this amongst kidfics, but I’m not sure what it is. What would happen if a queer teen just dropped into their household/laps?
DNWs:
Fic where sex is the focus. Sex is fine, not PWP please - it’s really just not my thing.
On-screen physical assault. Violence and battles, I’m fine with! Bring on the swords, martial arts, and blasters. But I don’t like people getting cornered and abused/similar situations.
Things I love:
Experimental nonsense (and experimental not-nonsense). Truly, go wild with your formatting and push the boundaries of what a linear “story” could be. I’ll be thrilled.
Worldbuilding. While I’d be happy to get an AU, I would much prefer an exploration of the canon world!
Playing with formatting - epistolary, interactive fiction, script format, news article style, overheard conversations, fairy-tale style, take this as your second go-ahead to do something absolutely wild.
“Found documents” - by which I mean the lore, campfire stories, songs, and poetry that one would find in the world. Always Coming Home style, if you’ve read that.
Mission fic
Gen (ie, no romance)
Ace characters, regardless of whether they are in canon
Trans/nonbinary characters, regardless of whether they are in canon (although I prefer it if the fic isn’t focused on issues caused by them being trans).
Polyamory
Missing scenes/post-canon
Things written in the style of the original media
Meditations on the concept of “home,” and thoughts on how adventure and home work together
Found family, chosen family, family aggressively created.
Mini challenge opt-ins:
Before I start, please do not take this list as a limit. These are things I’m very excited about, but it does NOT mean that you should not write something for a challenge I didn’t specifically select! Please do it!!
Wrapping Paper (Art)
Interactive Fiction
Chromatic Yuletide (characters of color)
Queering the Tide
TransTide
So now: fandom-specific thoughts! As well as prompts for each - feel free to use them or do something else!
The Strange Case of Starship Iris (podcast)
Characters: Any
I love all of these characters. I would love something written in the style of an episode, or something unconventional (for fanfic), so something like mission reports, daily ship’s log, voicemails - any of that would be super exciting for me! I’m also curious about what remnants of Violet’s past IGR life still remain? What remnants of any of their lives still exist and influence their behavior? Something about Brian Jeeter’s linguistic skills or Violet’s biology skills being critical to the mission would also be super cool. Or something about Brian and/or Krejjh's interactions with Krejjh's bio family. Honestly any of the team being highly competent at their respective fields gets to me. I’d also love anything about any of their pasts - they all had such fascinating lives!
Tress of the Emerald Sea (Brandon Sanderson)
Characters: Tress
The fairytale vibe of this story drew me in and hooked me immediately, as did the fascinating world. And Tress is a wonderful protagonist - she doesn’t think she’s anything special, but she absolutely is!! I picked just the one character because I wanted to leave as many options open for you as possible. Maybe it’s a pre-canon story about her life on the island! Maybe it’s a scene from her time on the ship! Maybe she’s meeting new and fascinating people from new and fascinating different places! I’m in this story partly for Tress as a character (learning! growing! finding her place and family!!) and partly for the worldbuilding, so feel free to go far afield with new and different things she might be seeing/experiencing.
Monk and Robot (Becky Chambers)
Characters: Any
These stories are a very quick read, and absolutely worth it.
The solarpunk, hopeful world here heals my soul. It’s the kind of thing that we could do, that we should do, that people are working towards!! I’d love to see more about how the different towns live, or more of Dex’s time travelling as a tea monk, or more stories that Dex tells Mosscap. Or more stories that Mosscap tells Dex! Mosscap has a very different experience than Dex, but still has so much knowledge to share. Maybe it’s a story about Mosscap before leaving to meet Dex - what was going on in the world of the robots, or what was there to observe and learn about? Or maybe it’s about Mosscap after getting that part fixed/replaced. How does this impact robot culture? How do the robots react to it? Is there a subset of robot culture that now acquires new parts, whether for themselves or to augment new robots?
Chants of Senaar (video game)
Characters: Any
In my experience, this game takes about 10 hours of playtime, so if you're interested, you should do it!
There are so many small worldbuilding aspects of this game that we see briefly and are left with questions about. Any of them would make a great story - show me something new in this world! What’s going on around/behind/before/after our traveler’s experience? Some suggestions:
What’s going on with the rebellion in the bard’s district?
More about the Prophet and the religion of that district
Interactions between two peoples after they meet
The alchemists and/or warriors with the Monster
17776 (online story)
Characters: Nine and/or Ten
If you haven't read this before, it'll take about an hour or two and be so worth your time!
I just read this the other week, finally, and it made me feel such a rollercoaster of emotions. It’s such a strange future combination of success and complacency. I’d love to read more of Nine and Ten talking, or of them watching a game, or talking to people. The strange games that humans have come up with are so cool - what are some others? What are more of Nine’s questions? What are these wonderful robots feeling? How do they feel about other human traditions - be it holidays or education or art or more thoughts on religion?
As a side note, I’m a whitewater kayaker and have at some points worked in the medical system, so the nanos fascinate me. How do they play out when people are doing something deliberately dangerous? How do they play out if, for example, people are boxing, and throwing punches? What’s left for doctors to do?
One Last Stop - Casey McQuiston
Characters: Any
Somehow McQuiston always knows exactly what I need. In this case, it was a happy queer magic romance. I am so down for happy queer magic romance. I also would love to read more about the pancake shop, or the other people that Jane must have interacted with on the train. A series of vignettes with people she meets - either before or after she can retain memories? A series of vignettes about people August or Jane meet at the pancake house? Just the fun times everyone living in those apartments has? Or the inevitable we-will-help-each-other-out that happens in queer communities like theirs - either emotionally or materially?
My partner and I - not too different from August and Jane - also somewhat-accidentally acquired a queer 17 year old a year or two ago. I believe there’s a term for this amongst kidfics, but I’m not sure what it is. What would happen if a queer teen just dropped into their household/laps?
