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Another year another Yuletide!
Yuletide, here we come again! 18 years and counting!
Requested fandoms this year are as follows (actually maxed out my requests this time for the first time in ages):
* Tress of the Emerald Sea - Brandon Sanderson
* Vexillology (Anthropomorphic)
* When you see a lore video for a franchise you know nothing about (Web Video)
* The Universim (Video Game)
* Fairway Solitaire (Video Game)
* Mark Rober's Backyard Squirrel Mazes (Web Video)
And with that, on to the actual letter!
Dear Yuletide Author,
Hi! If you have or will browse through my other assorted Dear Author letters over the years, you'll probably notice I've cribbed a good portion of this letter (including pretty much this entire preface) from them, with some changes. You know how it goes. Besides, plagiarizing from yourself is the only plagiarizing that's actually reasonably ethical! :p
That said, hello! Welcome to my letter, I hope it helps to alleviate any possible stress over your assignment instead of making it worse. I've tossed out some generalities in my assignment itself, but I know some of those are a bit more loose than others. Which on the one hand gives you a lot of leeway, but on the other can be a bit intimidating, so I'll be trying to spitball a few ideas in each fandom to give you a starting point if you feel like you need one.
If you're trying to glean my personality or general demeanor from my journal here, then I am extremely sorry for its sparseness over the last few years, but feel free to check out my tumblr, my twitter or even my reddit account if those are the kind of thing that helps you out. (Although I honestly barely use twitter anymore, because gross, I haven't changed that much from when I did.) If you could care less, then great, carry on!
My general likes include banter, happy endings (although I am perfectly fine with bittersweet or even sad if that's where your muse takes you), throwing in little canon details that you might miss on first read but totally make you squee come the second time around, wit, humor, dramatic irony, and missing scenes. I also like slice-of-life stuff, as is kind of evident some of my requests this year, although what a slice-of-life looks like certainly depends on the life in question.
As much as I love fic that feels like it could fit right into canon, I also have a soft spot for AUs, so if you get bitten by an AU bug, go right ahead, I'll more than likely adore it. Another thing that I often like is outsider POVs, so if you get a bunny that involves that, I would be completely on board.
Dislikes aren't many. Unless otherwise specified, I'm not really a huge fan of major character death for Yuletide. Also, and I really doubt this will be much of a problem, but in the interest of full disclosure, depiction of injury to fingernails or toenails skeeves me out more than I can even begin to describe, so if somehow you have a bunny where that might come up, even if it wouldn't really fit in the majority of the fandoms I requested, maybe try to avoid it? Other than that, though, I won't really have much trouble with where you decide to take the fic!
Also, don't feel tied down to only the characters I've requested. You can totally feel free to add ones that aren't listed, even in a reasonably large capacity, as long as (this probably goes without saying) you keep the focus on the requests. :)
And now that I've blathered on quite long enough, on to my requests! It'll go as follows. The requests themselves, a little bit on the fandom, how to access it (should you either need a refresher or decide you just cannot write what we matched on and need to write something else badly!) and why I love it, and then a bit more elaboration on my requests themselves (And please, do not take the order or relative lengths of the various elaborations as any indicator as to which fandoms I want more. I would be overly thrilled with a gift in ANY of them!)
Enjoy the prompts, and have fun writing!
-![[archiveofourown.org profile]](https://p.dreamwidth.org/b164c54b26e4/-/archiveofourown.org/favicon.ico)
dizmo
Tress of the Emerald Sea - Brandon Sanderson
* Tress
* Charlie
I think these two are just so... sweet! I would love to see anything with them, really! Pre-canon, as they get to know each other and become each other's gloves, missing scenes from when it's Tress and Huck, before the curse gets broken, or even post-canon, and the world opening itself up to them, captain/sprouter with her loyal valet/storyteller. Feel free, also, to include any and all of the rest of the crew, as I love each and every one of them to an unsettling degree.
Tress! The first of Brandon Sanderson's kickstarter novels! And I was ridiculously charmed by it from the beginning. Hoid's narration had me grinning and the general almost comfortable nature of the story is like the reading equivalent of wrapping yourself in a fuzzy blanket.
So yes! Tress and Charlie! There's something nice about a relationship that's... comfortable, and where they grow and change, but do it together. It means there are multiple places you can take it and multiple things you can do with it! I'll spitball a few ideas now, but don't at all feel beholden to them. They're just available if you need them. What was their first meeting like? How about a series of the stories Charlie would tell Tress as their friendship and relationship grew, and her reactions? How about Charlie's point of view on their finally meeting again in the brig of the Oot's Dream? Any of the experiments as Tress is learning sprouting with Huck by her side to assist, or, as I said, anything post-canon! I'd love to explore one or more or the other seas we know nothing about if you feel up to inventing new spores! The world is your oyster!
Vexillology (Anthropomorphic)
* Welsh Flag Dragon
* Bhutanese Flag Dragon
It's a silly fandom and a silly request, I know, but I really want to see these glorious dragons in all their...glory! Do they get along? Do they not? Is there some sort of friendly rivalry? How do their personalities align with those of their particular nations? Seriously, just have fun with this one.
I'm... honestly not sure how much I can really elaborate on this one? Like I said, it's a silly little request but one that I absolutely love and did from the moment I got the idea months ago. And if you offered to write these characters, you are obviously on board with the silliness. Just... two dragons, two wildly different countries. Have fun!
When you see a lore video for a franchise you know nothing about (Web Video)
* Worldbuilding
Honestly, this is going to be about as open-ended as a request will be, which I know can be intimidating for Yuletide, but the video just offers so many delightful little teasers about things that could very obviously be expounded on that I give you all the rein you'd like to go into whatever you'd like, big or small! If you want specific prompts to either work from or maybe flip something in your brain that might give you a different idea, feel free to check my letter!
This video, people. Just. Oh man. It's found over here and it's a shade over a minute and a half of absolute gold. I consistently am cackling at this video whenever I watch it (which is admittedly more often than I'm sure the creator intended) and then promptly find myself just saying 'Arrrerrorer' with my very best R-rolls. It's exactly what it says on the tin and it's so very true to the experience of fantasy franchises, speaking as someone who's been a fan of a lot of them and as someone who has friends and family (and a husband!) who's into some that I'm not familiar with. It teases you into wanting more and that's why I'm here!
That said, what I said in my signup is true. Anything you feel like writing spurred by the video, I would be perfectly delighted by. That said, I will now proceed to throw some half-baked ideas against the wall in case they either knock something loose in you or you want to take them and fully bake them. Here we go! What would live have been like for the Berkel Clans before leaving the land of Sus? What was the inciting incident in 1815 of 8 of the TA time that caused so many to leave? Are the Fuuuuuuk really as cowardly as advertised? What exactly was Klug-Klug up to? Have any stories from the Great War? How were Arrrerror's relations with the land of KepKep? What is up with Fussili Paganini anyway? How about those barely alluded to wizards? What was life like for any single member of one of the Berkel Clans at any point in the timeline? Any star-crossed inter-clan relationships? Murder mysteries? Adventuring parties? What sort of holidays do they have? What's coming of age like? Heroes? Villains not mentioned in this video? Little day to day dramas? Seriously, give me aaaanything! I will be beyond happy with it!
The Universim (Video Game)
* Any
I'm kind of giving you the terrifying free rein here! I am so ridiculously charmed by this game, that really anything in, around, or about it would probably please me, so basically... whatever Universim fic you want to see in the world? Write it, because I probably want to see it too.
The Universim (also available on Steam) is the latest entry in the god-game genre, and although it's only in early access (and there are still a few bugs here and there), it is still so amazingly charming, from the graphics to the sense of humor in the narration and various item names and dialog boxes, and... well, everything else. I have spent far more time on it than is probably right. :P
That said, yes, the terrifying 'write me anything!' request. Worldbuilding fics of any kind would totally be fitting for the game. Of course, I can spitball a few loose ideas out here to help jumpstart your brain, if you so desire. Feel free to write any or all of these or something entirely different. Just in a free consciousness list... A day in the life of a nugget! A life in the life of a nugget! The trials and tribulations of a poor nugget deity trying to wrangle these little guys and making sure they don't get into too much trouble! The reactions of the various fauna to the sudden appearance of the nuggets! A deeper look into any of the questlines! A nugget love story! A hard-boiled nugget detective story, what with the eventual crime update! An exploration into the experiences of Adahy and Elu as the first nuggets! Taking a look at nuggets' relationships with/reactions to their deity! Seriously, anything your heart desires, I will be overjoyed with. Have fun!
Fairway Solitaire (Video Game)
* Gary Snead (Fairway Solitaire)
* Jack Hogan (Fairway Solitaire)
* Tommy Morris (Fairway Solitaire)
This is one of the few apps that I never play on silent just because I love hearing the commentary! Really, anything featuring the interplay between these guys would be great, whether it's them up in the booth getting ready to announce a tournament or even out playing a round together themselves... or anything else!
Fairway Solitaire is a delightfully fun free mobile app where you're playing the variety of solitaire where you make ascending and descending runs to clear the board. This one has a golf theme and interesting hazards... and, most importantly for the purposes of Yuletide... commentators! They're a little bit cheesy, a little bit ridiculous, and a lot of fun.
My prompt says it all. I just want more of these guys without the limits of the prerecorded lines! I love the way they bounce off each other, and if you're writing for me in this fandom, I'm sure you do too. Whether you write them on the job or off the job or even in some strange AU that I never would have conceived of, just let their personalities shine through and I know I'm going to love it!
Mark Rober's Backyard Squirrel Mazes (Web Video)
* Any
The secret lives of squirrels! No, seriously, I would love to see any and all of the squirrels' thoughts on these increasingly strange gauntlets they're being run through. Feel free to play into Mark Rober's invented narratives either completely or not at all, or even make up your own wildly implausible ones! Squirrels are my favorite animals, so you'll delight me no matter what.
Mark Rober's squirrels! (All three videos can be found here. Oh my God I love those squirrels! I also love the wild stories he's invented for the squirrels! I mean, a heist, squirrelympics, what can be better? This is a prompt that I really do encourage you to go wild with. There's squirrels, there's nuts, have at! Honestly, even AU them if you want to! SQUIRRELS IN SPACE! Seriously, there are so many possibilities, have a blast with it.
Requested fandoms this year are as follows (actually maxed out my requests this time for the first time in ages):
* Tress of the Emerald Sea - Brandon Sanderson
* Vexillology (Anthropomorphic)
* When you see a lore video for a franchise you know nothing about (Web Video)
* The Universim (Video Game)
* Fairway Solitaire (Video Game)
* Mark Rober's Backyard Squirrel Mazes (Web Video)
And with that, on to the actual letter!
Dear Yuletide Author,
Hi! If you have or will browse through my other assorted Dear Author letters over the years, you'll probably notice I've cribbed a good portion of this letter (including pretty much this entire preface) from them, with some changes. You know how it goes. Besides, plagiarizing from yourself is the only plagiarizing that's actually reasonably ethical! :p
That said, hello! Welcome to my letter, I hope it helps to alleviate any possible stress over your assignment instead of making it worse. I've tossed out some generalities in my assignment itself, but I know some of those are a bit more loose than others. Which on the one hand gives you a lot of leeway, but on the other can be a bit intimidating, so I'll be trying to spitball a few ideas in each fandom to give you a starting point if you feel like you need one.
If you're trying to glean my personality or general demeanor from my journal here, then I am extremely sorry for its sparseness over the last few years, but feel free to check out my tumblr, my twitter or even my reddit account if those are the kind of thing that helps you out. (Although I honestly barely use twitter anymore, because gross, I haven't changed that much from when I did.) If you could care less, then great, carry on!
My general likes include banter, happy endings (although I am perfectly fine with bittersweet or even sad if that's where your muse takes you), throwing in little canon details that you might miss on first read but totally make you squee come the second time around, wit, humor, dramatic irony, and missing scenes. I also like slice-of-life stuff, as is kind of evident some of my requests this year, although what a slice-of-life looks like certainly depends on the life in question.
As much as I love fic that feels like it could fit right into canon, I also have a soft spot for AUs, so if you get bitten by an AU bug, go right ahead, I'll more than likely adore it. Another thing that I often like is outsider POVs, so if you get a bunny that involves that, I would be completely on board.
Dislikes aren't many. Unless otherwise specified, I'm not really a huge fan of major character death for Yuletide. Also, and I really doubt this will be much of a problem, but in the interest of full disclosure, depiction of injury to fingernails or toenails skeeves me out more than I can even begin to describe, so if somehow you have a bunny where that might come up, even if it wouldn't really fit in the majority of the fandoms I requested, maybe try to avoid it? Other than that, though, I won't really have much trouble with where you decide to take the fic!
Also, don't feel tied down to only the characters I've requested. You can totally feel free to add ones that aren't listed, even in a reasonably large capacity, as long as (this probably goes without saying) you keep the focus on the requests. :)
And now that I've blathered on quite long enough, on to my requests! It'll go as follows. The requests themselves, a little bit on the fandom, how to access it (should you either need a refresher or decide you just cannot write what we matched on and need to write something else badly!) and why I love it, and then a bit more elaboration on my requests themselves (And please, do not take the order or relative lengths of the various elaborations as any indicator as to which fandoms I want more. I would be overly thrilled with a gift in ANY of them!)
Enjoy the prompts, and have fun writing!
-
Tress of the Emerald Sea - Brandon Sanderson
* Tress
* Charlie
I think these two are just so... sweet! I would love to see anything with them, really! Pre-canon, as they get to know each other and become each other's gloves, missing scenes from when it's Tress and Huck, before the curse gets broken, or even post-canon, and the world opening itself up to them, captain/sprouter with her loyal valet/storyteller. Feel free, also, to include any and all of the rest of the crew, as I love each and every one of them to an unsettling degree.
Tress! The first of Brandon Sanderson's kickstarter novels! And I was ridiculously charmed by it from the beginning. Hoid's narration had me grinning and the general almost comfortable nature of the story is like the reading equivalent of wrapping yourself in a fuzzy blanket.
So yes! Tress and Charlie! There's something nice about a relationship that's... comfortable, and where they grow and change, but do it together. It means there are multiple places you can take it and multiple things you can do with it! I'll spitball a few ideas now, but don't at all feel beholden to them. They're just available if you need them. What was their first meeting like? How about a series of the stories Charlie would tell Tress as their friendship and relationship grew, and her reactions? How about Charlie's point of view on their finally meeting again in the brig of the Oot's Dream? Any of the experiments as Tress is learning sprouting with Huck by her side to assist, or, as I said, anything post-canon! I'd love to explore one or more or the other seas we know nothing about if you feel up to inventing new spores! The world is your oyster!
Vexillology (Anthropomorphic)
* Welsh Flag Dragon
* Bhutanese Flag Dragon
It's a silly fandom and a silly request, I know, but I really want to see these glorious dragons in all their...glory! Do they get along? Do they not? Is there some sort of friendly rivalry? How do their personalities align with those of their particular nations? Seriously, just have fun with this one.
I'm... honestly not sure how much I can really elaborate on this one? Like I said, it's a silly little request but one that I absolutely love and did from the moment I got the idea months ago. And if you offered to write these characters, you are obviously on board with the silliness. Just... two dragons, two wildly different countries. Have fun!
When you see a lore video for a franchise you know nothing about (Web Video)
* Worldbuilding
Honestly, this is going to be about as open-ended as a request will be, which I know can be intimidating for Yuletide, but the video just offers so many delightful little teasers about things that could very obviously be expounded on that I give you all the rein you'd like to go into whatever you'd like, big or small! If you want specific prompts to either work from or maybe flip something in your brain that might give you a different idea, feel free to check my letter!
This video, people. Just. Oh man. It's found over here and it's a shade over a minute and a half of absolute gold. I consistently am cackling at this video whenever I watch it (which is admittedly more often than I'm sure the creator intended) and then promptly find myself just saying 'Arrrerrorer' with my very best R-rolls. It's exactly what it says on the tin and it's so very true to the experience of fantasy franchises, speaking as someone who's been a fan of a lot of them and as someone who has friends and family (and a husband!) who's into some that I'm not familiar with. It teases you into wanting more and that's why I'm here!
That said, what I said in my signup is true. Anything you feel like writing spurred by the video, I would be perfectly delighted by. That said, I will now proceed to throw some half-baked ideas against the wall in case they either knock something loose in you or you want to take them and fully bake them. Here we go! What would live have been like for the Berkel Clans before leaving the land of Sus? What was the inciting incident in 1815 of 8 of the TA time that caused so many to leave? Are the Fuuuuuuk really as cowardly as advertised? What exactly was Klug-Klug up to? Have any stories from the Great War? How were Arrrerror's relations with the land of KepKep? What is up with Fussili Paganini anyway? How about those barely alluded to wizards? What was life like for any single member of one of the Berkel Clans at any point in the timeline? Any star-crossed inter-clan relationships? Murder mysteries? Adventuring parties? What sort of holidays do they have? What's coming of age like? Heroes? Villains not mentioned in this video? Little day to day dramas? Seriously, give me aaaanything! I will be beyond happy with it!
The Universim (Video Game)
* Any
I'm kind of giving you the terrifying free rein here! I am so ridiculously charmed by this game, that really anything in, around, or about it would probably please me, so basically... whatever Universim fic you want to see in the world? Write it, because I probably want to see it too.
The Universim (also available on Steam) is the latest entry in the god-game genre, and although it's only in early access (and there are still a few bugs here and there), it is still so amazingly charming, from the graphics to the sense of humor in the narration and various item names and dialog boxes, and... well, everything else. I have spent far more time on it than is probably right. :P
That said, yes, the terrifying 'write me anything!' request. Worldbuilding fics of any kind would totally be fitting for the game. Of course, I can spitball a few loose ideas out here to help jumpstart your brain, if you so desire. Feel free to write any or all of these or something entirely different. Just in a free consciousness list... A day in the life of a nugget! A life in the life of a nugget! The trials and tribulations of a poor nugget deity trying to wrangle these little guys and making sure they don't get into too much trouble! The reactions of the various fauna to the sudden appearance of the nuggets! A deeper look into any of the questlines! A nugget love story! A hard-boiled nugget detective story, what with the eventual crime update! An exploration into the experiences of Adahy and Elu as the first nuggets! Taking a look at nuggets' relationships with/reactions to their deity! Seriously, anything your heart desires, I will be overjoyed with. Have fun!
Fairway Solitaire (Video Game)
* Gary Snead (Fairway Solitaire)
* Jack Hogan (Fairway Solitaire)
* Tommy Morris (Fairway Solitaire)
This is one of the few apps that I never play on silent just because I love hearing the commentary! Really, anything featuring the interplay between these guys would be great, whether it's them up in the booth getting ready to announce a tournament or even out playing a round together themselves... or anything else!
Fairway Solitaire is a delightfully fun free mobile app where you're playing the variety of solitaire where you make ascending and descending runs to clear the board. This one has a golf theme and interesting hazards... and, most importantly for the purposes of Yuletide... commentators! They're a little bit cheesy, a little bit ridiculous, and a lot of fun.
My prompt says it all. I just want more of these guys without the limits of the prerecorded lines! I love the way they bounce off each other, and if you're writing for me in this fandom, I'm sure you do too. Whether you write them on the job or off the job or even in some strange AU that I never would have conceived of, just let their personalities shine through and I know I'm going to love it!
Mark Rober's Backyard Squirrel Mazes (Web Video)
* Any
The secret lives of squirrels! No, seriously, I would love to see any and all of the squirrels' thoughts on these increasingly strange gauntlets they're being run through. Feel free to play into Mark Rober's invented narratives either completely or not at all, or even make up your own wildly implausible ones! Squirrels are my favorite animals, so you'll delight me no matter what.
Mark Rober's squirrels! (All three videos can be found here. Oh my God I love those squirrels! I also love the wild stories he's invented for the squirrels! I mean, a heist, squirrelympics, what can be better? This is a prompt that I really do encourage you to go wild with. There's squirrels, there's nuts, have at! Honestly, even AU them if you want to! SQUIRRELS IN SPACE! Seriously, there are so many possibilities, have a blast with it.