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thefourthvine) wrote2023-10-13 12:07 pm
thefourthvine) wrote2023-10-13 12:07 pm
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Dear Yuletide Writer 2023
Dear Writer,
Hi!
I am going to provide you with all the details, because that is who I am as a person. Thank you so, so much for writing in one of these tiny fandoms. See you on the 25th!
Likes/DNWs and General Stuff
I love so many things! Here is a small sample:
Notes: I have been given DELIGHTFUL fic in some of these fandoms, but I always want more! Also, the size of the sections doesn’t indicate which fandoms I want most or love best; sometimes I have a lot to say about a fandom, but sometimes my brain is just a giant heart emoji about it. I will rejoice to get any of the fandoms here.
I am entirely open to treats of any length!
Between Silk and Cyanide -- Leo Marks, Leo Marks, Forest “Tommy” Yeo-Thomas
Request: I love codebreaking, I love spies, I love extremely competent people working together to do something very difficult, so obviously I love Leo and Tommy. I would be delighted for ship fic at any point in their story. Before Arquebuse, when Leo is absolutely wrecked to see Tommy go? After Arquebuse, when Leo is absolutely thrilled that he’s back? During or around the fight before Marie-Claire, or Tommy’s whole, uh, situation at that point? Or, of course, after he comes back following that final ill-fated drop into France? Or how about after the war, when Tommy returns to France and Leo is writing and they’re both out of the war but with a lot of memories they can’t really discuss with most people? I’d love to see a reunion when they are older and, well, possibly wiser. Hard to say with these guys.
I'd also be fascinated by a they-both-stay-in AU, with or without the pairing. Obviously leaving was the right choice for Leo, and I'm glad he did, and yet -- I'm always curious.
(Also, I know there’s a lot of additional canon about Tommy especially -- James Bond and The White Rabbit and all that. I’m really only interested in the BSAC version of him, though.)
Additional Information: I love WWII codebreaking stuff, and also the SOE for some reason, so I have read very, very many books on these topics. Leo Marks’s memoir is my surprise favorite of all of them. His feelings, even though he was writing years after the fact, come off of every page, and he knows how to tell a story. I love that he cares so much, I love that he’s basically vibrating with imposter syndrome even as he accomplishes impossible thing after impossible thing, I love that he’s so out of his depth in the politics of the intelligence world, I love how fighty he is even as he calls himself a coward, I love how he trains himself an army of codebreakers at Grendon and forces the SOE to use decent codes very much against their will. I love how much he loves all the spies I love, too (even if it totally breaks him). And his relationship with Tommy is -- well. “I had never met anyone I trusted so completely or whose trust I valued more” is how Leo sums it up, and honestly that’s an understatement. Even when he was writing his memoir decades after the war, his hearteyes were absolutely visible in every line he wrote about him. (The part where he says Tommy’s hand is still on his shoulder -- WOW, sir.)
I also love Tommy, with his continental flair (he was a director of Molyneux’s fashion house before the war and stole his yacht during it, and that is style for real) and his fearlessness and dedication and absolutely absurd life. I also love how he acknowledges that Leo is something special in the SOE — a person who actually cares very deeply about his job AND is extremely good at it — and tries so hard to teach him how to play the game (and also learns a little about codes from him). I love how hurt Tommy is when he realizes Leo kept something from him -- he expected no secrets! From a codebreaker! Which shows that he was emotionally compromised, too.
(By the way, in re: the rest of the spies. Noor is my favorite, always, but I love Odette and Violette and Alec and Peter and all the rest, and I’m always happy to see more of them! But I’d appreciate it if their appearances in your fic, if any, were kept to their pre-departure selves, because most of them died horribly and tragically and … honestly, it’s too sad for Yuletide. So my ideal focus here is definitely codebreaking and the British side of the channel. If you’re looking for other, non-spy characters to include, I absolutely adore Vera Atkins and Joan Dodd and Joan Bright and Margaret Jackson.)
If you want to pick this fandom up, the book is a bit pricey, but it is available in both print and ebook forms, and it may be available from your local library as well.
DNW note about the abuse of women: It’s wartime. There are female spies. I know what happened and it’s not like you can change that. Just please don’t dwell on it?
Dimension 20: Escape from Bloodkeep, Leiland | Kraz-Thun, Markus St. Vincent
Request: Please tell me about how Markus and Leiland get together, or how they manage work-life balance given their challenging careers in ruling a kingdom and serving Leiland Junior, or how they get through Leiland Junior’s teen years (children of the Lord of Shadows can be challenging as they come into their full powers)! I’d also love to hear about any adventuring they do, just the two of them, or perhaps about how Leiland defeats an attempt to usurp Markus in his extremely usurpation-prone kingdom. I would love to see either of them go full murder to defend the other, by the way. Fully cannot even decide which way that would be best. And if you want to tackle the thorny question of how a human and an undead not-Ringwraith fuck, I am absolutely here for your journey.
I love absolutely everyone in the party, so please feel free to include as many of them as you want. (Obviously J'er'em'ih is the best of any of them. He also falls under the “animal harm and death” umbrella for me, FYI, although I fully grant that he could probably take himself apart and put the pieces back together without suffering a second’s harm.)
Basically: Leiland/Markus, plus whatever other PCs and NPCs you care to throw in, (un)living happily ever after, please!
Additional information: I fully ship this, and I’m not the only one. Ify Nwadiwe has provided rich and evocative post-series canon for all of us to enjoy:
So, yeah. Who doesn’t ship it? But also, who doesn’t love a found family of villains whose motto is basically “against the world, for each other”? Who doesn’t love a team of six terrifying parents for a baby of shadows? There is nothing about Bloodkeep I don’t love. It’s funny, it’s amazingly touching, and it is absolutely full of references to Lord of the Rings, which definitely gave it advantage when it was rolling to appeal to me.
I love Leiland’s severe case of low self-esteem, and that moment (trying to avoid huge spoilers here) when you can see that start to change. I love his awkward attempts to flirt with Markus and his general awkward self; he’s a terrifying undead warrior of darkness with imposter syndrome and no real sense of how to be comfortable occupying space, and I think that’s neat. I love how surprisingly sweet he is, and how he will absolutely betray and/or kill anyone except his party. (For me, this whole campaign is summed up by Brennan’s irritated “Excuse me for thinking we could get a little PvP in the evil party!” Well, that and “A bunch of very damaged people all found hope and meaning in each other, and the fact that they’re all quite bad ... the lesson is actually still quite beautiful!”)
I also love Markus and his “I’m cool as shit and nothing touches me” attitude slowly giving way to genuine concern for his family of ultimate evil, and I adore that he’s out there swashbuckling and ruling his kingdom and also, apparently -- Ify would know! -- banging it out with Leiland. I love that he covered his face with a mask because he is simply too hot for mortals to behold and stay sane, and I love that, in the end, he was smart and savvy and willing to die for the party and Leiland Junior.
They’re wonderful. Please give me more of them!
If you want to pick up this fandom, the whole thing is free on YouTube.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, Edgin Darvis, Xenk Yendar
Request: I would very much like to see Edgin and Xenk getting together after the end of the movie. Is there an adventure? Does Xenk maybe need Edgin’s help instead of vice versa? (I’d love if the story went into Xenk’s backstory a bit more than the movie does.) I’d also love to see Xenk being awkwardly incorporated into Edgin’s found family deal with the party, and maybe, like. Having a good but totally ethical, alignment-appropriate time? Also curious about how they’ll deal with Edgin’s extremely bardic approach to morality vs. Xenk's extremely paladin approach.
Anything you write that feels like the movie but with Edgin and Xenk developing a more romantic/sexual relationship is going to work for me. If you want to write something with a high rating, I am absolutely up for that, and one possibility that I love is Xenk teaching Edgin some patience and delayed gratification via edging. (Edgin! Edging! I assume the movie writers/directors wanted me to think this, since it is basically right there in the name.)
Additional information: This movie made me think it was just gonna be cute fun with D&D references galore, and then once my guard was down it hit me squarely in the feelings. I love that it has such great characters. I love that it follows D&D rules and shows how they would really work in the world. (Oh my god, Edgin standing back and playing his lute at key moments -- that was the BEST, because it made me think about every bard I’ve ever been in a campaign with.) I love that the movie is absolutely the kind of adventure I’ve played through a whole bunch of times. I even loved the setting, which I didn’t expect to -- I’ve played a lot of Forgotten Realms games, and I’ve always considered it sort of generic fantasy, but this added a ton to the worldbuilding.
I also love the many millions of tropes, both from fantasy in general and D&D in specific, that the movie played with. One trope that was definitely there was the enemies to friends thing with Edgin and Xenk, and obviously my brain instantly autocompleted that to enemies to friends to lovers. It just felt so dang obvious to me -- they’re opposites! But they work together! They disagree on many things! But they agree on fundamentals! And let’s face it: lawful good/chaotic good describes a good solid 20% of all romance novels out there. I would love for it to describe Xenk and Edgin, too.
The entire movie was about Edgin moving a little bit closer to where Xenk is, ethically speaking, and I love that and would love to see it continue -- and I would love to see what this looks like for Xenk, how he can, maybe, decide that it’s okay to have fun sometimes.
And, for the record, I like both characters equally, but since the movie really focused on Edgin, I’m more curious about Xenk. I’d love to see how his past informs his present in a romantic relationship setting. I really love his competence, which is not something people in Edgin's environs tend to have, and I would love to see him being super competent at something unexpected. And, man, I would super like to see him happy, because his life seems to have been a tough one.
If you want to pick up this fandom, it’s available for rental, purchase, or downloading wherever you download things.
Hikaru no Go, Touya Akira, Shindou Hikaru
Request: I have loved this fandom for so many years and I’m just very excited to see it in the Yuletide tag set. I’m hoping most for post-manga/anime fic, I think? But I am very flexible here, because there’s no part of the manga or anime I don’t love. I’d love Akira/Hikaru shipfic (set after the canon). I’d enjoy seeing them take the Go world by storm. I’d love a scene where Hikaru finally tells Akira all about Sai (maybe because he meets Sai’s next student?). I’ve always assumed that Akira would become Meijin and Hikaru would become Honinbo, and I would love to read about that, about who they are during that, about what it brings up for both of them to be following in the footsteps of a beloved mentor. (And if you want them to hook up then, that works very well!)
If you’re interested in doing some urban fantasy/AU type stuff, I’d also enjoy anything that builds on the supernatural aspect of the series -- what other ghosts are out there? Do old Go players really develop psychic abilities the way Kuwabara sort of did? Also, in the anime, it really does seem like every time Akira is sad, it rains or snows, and every time Hikaru is happy, the sun shines. I realize that’s just a storytelling device, but I’d love a supernatural AU where that is a specific power they both have.
Additional information: Some fandoms never leave you, and one of mine is Hikaru no Go. To me, it is perfect. The characters are perfect! The arcs are perfect! The Go games are somehow really tense and involving? It’s just. So great. I have never not cried at the Sad Moment, I have never not been riveted through every competition -- no matter how many times I read or watch HnG, it remains the best.
And of course I especially love Akira and Hikaru. Akira was so distant from the world and his emotions until Hikaru showed up and made him feel stuff! Hikaru was so directionless until Akira showed up and gave him a goal and a focus! They drive each other towards Go perfection and they balance each other and they’re like binary stars, revolving around each other and burning twice as brightly because they do. And yes that is an extremely pretentious sentence, but look: this fandom brings it out in me.
I also like virtually every secondary and background character. I enjoy Hikaru’s insei friends, I enjoy the study groups, I even enjoy the middle school go club (although I very much wish Akari would get a better deal than the one she’s got; you treat her like shit, Hikaru!). So feel free to throw in whoever -- I do want Akira and Hikaru in there, but I am happy for any other part of their world to be, too.
Men’s Basketball RPF, Earvin Johnson, Larry Bird
Request: I -- genuinely think Magic Johnson and Larry Bird might have soulbonded at the NCAA Championship in 1979. They certainly went from zero to intense, eternal focus pretty damn quickly. So what I want to know is -- what happened? Where did it go from there? How does that work, when you're playing against each other, when one of you doesn't even LIKE the other, when you're such incredibly different human beings?
If you go with the actual soulbond, there are lots of interesting possibilities here: Larry fighting the bond because of course he would, the way it affected them and their game, how it drove them to play. Or you could talk about how they finally accepted the soulbond and what it's like now, being comfortable with it and each other, years after the fighting and the struggle finally ended. Just, anything.
And if you take the non-soulbond route (which is of course entirely welcome; this definitely doesn't have to be a literal soulbond), just what IS going on? They have SOME kind of bond, that much is clear, and I'd love to hear what it's like: forever friendship, repeating reincarnation as people obsessed with each other, multiverse-spanning romance, whatever. I just want more about this intense *thing* they have.
Additional information: Okay, I am a trifle concerned that my request makes me sound like an exceptionally weird tinhat. No! No! I am merely reporting the truth, which is that Magic Johnson and Larry Bird appear to have a real-life soulbond!
...That didn't help my case. But I have solid evidence. The documentary A Courtship of Rivals (YouTube link to full documentary, but you only need to watch the first five minutes to see the literal discussion of the soulbond) could not be clearer. These guys are bonded in some way. And I just find that fascinating. You could not have two more different people playing the same game. You could not have a more intense rivalry. And yet it's abundantly clear they have a ton of respect for each other, a ton of very genuine love for each other, and they know each other so well -- every appearance I've ever seen them in has just been so great for that. We have Magic, dude who loves people, hugs, and fame, and Larry, dude whose basic approach to life is "go away and leave me alone because I have a lot of very important scowling to do," and they love each other, and that is the greatest thing to me.
Basically, I adore these guys. And I am riveted by their great and weird relationship. Anything you write about them navigating that relationship while being their extremely awesome selves will be wonderful.
And if you're up for pairing fic, I would absolutely love that, any rating.
To pick this fandom up, watch that documentary. Marvel at its dedication to pushing the soulbond storyline while somehow still being a real documentary!
Nomads (1986) — Eileen Flax, Veronique Pommier
Request: These women have, by the end of the movie, a relationship that was made for fic, and so I’m hoping for something post-canon. How do things go when you simultaneously remember someone as your new friend made while surviving a terrible ordeal and your beloved wife? What’s it like when you’re on the run with someone you barely know except she also has the memories of the person you know and love best in the world?
And there’s also the issue of practical matters. How do they live? Eileen’s ability to practice medicine is going to be somewhat limited, at least at first, since being on the run from supernatural evil tends to inhibit your ability to obtain a license and a job. Does she become a doctor for people with paranormal maladies, or for supernatural people, or just for other people on the run? And what does Veronique, who came to this country hoping for some peaceful downtime and did not at all get that, do after the trauma of the movie?
I would be delighted with ship fic. I would be delighted with them turning around and taking the battle to the Nomads. I would be delighted with them encountering a new kind of evil and becoming a two-woman, three-sets-of-memories supernatural detection team. I just want to know how things go after the movie ends for these two. And please please please give them some kind of happily ever after, or the potential for one.
Additional information:For me, this movie is essentially one long prologue to fic. Like, okay, I’m sorry, but Eileen literally has Veronique’s dead husband’s memories and they literally drive off into the sunset together to make a new life. I just ... feel like that needs exploring, you know? I mean, yay Nomads, yay vaguely creepy paranormal whatever, but what of the relationship?
And these are two fascinating women. Veronique takes in a woman who is apparently insane and ranting and who seems to know her dead husband way too well and is incredibly kind to her, even though Niki’s life is, at that point, SUPER not going well. And Eileen is this analytical, problem-solving person who is going to find out what happened and fix this problem even if it, you know, destroys her life and drives her insane. (Also, her first thought when she wakes up in Veronique’s bed is apparently “Wait, did we have sex?” I am just saying. It was not far from Eileen’s mind. And Veronique clearly knew that. The possibility is there.) They are both willing to burn down lives they loved to stay alive, and I believe that means they can build something new in the ashes. I love them both, and hope they find happiness on the other side of their Nomad-Related Life Implosion.
This is technically a horror movie, but a) it’s so non-horrifying that I, a noted wimp, can watch it even after dark (except the deeply creepy abbey/nun sequence, because I am still a wimp) and b) I’m not really here for the horror aspect. I mean, okay, vaguely punkish Nomads acting like people in a gang in a movie, memory stealing, fine, that’s all good. But. Well. It’s not actually my main interest. My interest is in how people survive events this weird, how they make new lives after surviving, and how it all affects them.
I will be happy with any rating you care to write on this one. If you’re going to write a pairing, I’m only really interested in Eileen/Veronique HEA here. (But I am VERY interested in that!)
If you want to pick this up — well, it’s definitely available for rental on Amazon. And there’s also this copy, although I cannot vouch for its quality, on YouTube.
Hi!
I am going to provide you with all the details, because that is who I am as a person. Thank you so, so much for writing in one of these tiny fandoms. See you on the 25th!
Likes/DNWs and General Stuff
I love so many things! Here is a small sample:
- Happy endings. (I mean of the everyone lives happily ever after kind. Although I am also a big fan of orgasms.)
- Humor.
- Slow burn romances and slow build sex scenes.
- Action and adventure.
- Mysteries, heists, spies, casefic.
- Snappy dialogue.
- Classic fan fiction tropes, whether played straight or inverted. (Soulbonds! Bodyswap! Arranged marriages! Fake dating! Amnesia! And so on.)
- Families (found, biological, synthetic, hologrammatic, whatever) being good to each other.
- People who have problems with feelings.
- Pining and denial, especially of the I-am-definitely-not-feeling-anything kind.
- Hurt/comfort.
- Worldbuilding.
- Every rating. I'm happy to get G up through NC-17, so go with whatever works best for you!
- Animal or child harm or death. These are my dealbreakers; I can't handle them at all.
- Rape.
- The abuse of women.
- Infidelity. (FULLY here for any kind of arrangement that has the consent of all involved, or for unpartnered AUs.)
- Public humiliation.
- Zombies and cannibalism.
- Character death or characters with cancer or other non-canon terminal or degenerative diseases.
- Christmas. (I’m Jewish and around this time of year I already get enough Christmas! Other religious holidays are very welcome in canons with characters who practice those religions, like Between Silk and Cyanide.)
- Mommy/Daddy/little kink.
- Unhappy endings.
Notes: I have been given DELIGHTFUL fic in some of these fandoms, but I always want more! Also, the size of the sections doesn’t indicate which fandoms I want most or love best; sometimes I have a lot to say about a fandom, but sometimes my brain is just a giant heart emoji about it. I will rejoice to get any of the fandoms here.
I am entirely open to treats of any length!
Between Silk and Cyanide -- Leo Marks, Leo Marks, Forest “Tommy” Yeo-Thomas
Request: I love codebreaking, I love spies, I love extremely competent people working together to do something very difficult, so obviously I love Leo and Tommy. I would be delighted for ship fic at any point in their story. Before Arquebuse, when Leo is absolutely wrecked to see Tommy go? After Arquebuse, when Leo is absolutely thrilled that he’s back? During or around the fight before Marie-Claire, or Tommy’s whole, uh, situation at that point? Or, of course, after he comes back following that final ill-fated drop into France? Or how about after the war, when Tommy returns to France and Leo is writing and they’re both out of the war but with a lot of memories they can’t really discuss with most people? I’d love to see a reunion when they are older and, well, possibly wiser. Hard to say with these guys.
I'd also be fascinated by a they-both-stay-in AU, with or without the pairing. Obviously leaving was the right choice for Leo, and I'm glad he did, and yet -- I'm always curious.
(Also, I know there’s a lot of additional canon about Tommy especially -- James Bond and The White Rabbit and all that. I’m really only interested in the BSAC version of him, though.)
Additional Information: I love WWII codebreaking stuff, and also the SOE for some reason, so I have read very, very many books on these topics. Leo Marks’s memoir is my surprise favorite of all of them. His feelings, even though he was writing years after the fact, come off of every page, and he knows how to tell a story. I love that he cares so much, I love that he’s basically vibrating with imposter syndrome even as he accomplishes impossible thing after impossible thing, I love that he’s so out of his depth in the politics of the intelligence world, I love how fighty he is even as he calls himself a coward, I love how he trains himself an army of codebreakers at Grendon and forces the SOE to use decent codes very much against their will. I love how much he loves all the spies I love, too (even if it totally breaks him). And his relationship with Tommy is -- well. “I had never met anyone I trusted so completely or whose trust I valued more” is how Leo sums it up, and honestly that’s an understatement. Even when he was writing his memoir decades after the war, his hearteyes were absolutely visible in every line he wrote about him. (The part where he says Tommy’s hand is still on his shoulder -- WOW, sir.)
I also love Tommy, with his continental flair (he was a director of Molyneux’s fashion house before the war and stole his yacht during it, and that is style for real) and his fearlessness and dedication and absolutely absurd life. I also love how he acknowledges that Leo is something special in the SOE — a person who actually cares very deeply about his job AND is extremely good at it — and tries so hard to teach him how to play the game (and also learns a little about codes from him). I love how hurt Tommy is when he realizes Leo kept something from him -- he expected no secrets! From a codebreaker! Which shows that he was emotionally compromised, too.
(By the way, in re: the rest of the spies. Noor is my favorite, always, but I love Odette and Violette and Alec and Peter and all the rest, and I’m always happy to see more of them! But I’d appreciate it if their appearances in your fic, if any, were kept to their pre-departure selves, because most of them died horribly and tragically and … honestly, it’s too sad for Yuletide. So my ideal focus here is definitely codebreaking and the British side of the channel. If you’re looking for other, non-spy characters to include, I absolutely adore Vera Atkins and Joan Dodd and Joan Bright and Margaret Jackson.)
If you want to pick this fandom up, the book is a bit pricey, but it is available in both print and ebook forms, and it may be available from your local library as well.
DNW note about the abuse of women: It’s wartime. There are female spies. I know what happened and it’s not like you can change that. Just please don’t dwell on it?
Dimension 20: Escape from Bloodkeep, Leiland | Kraz-Thun, Markus St. Vincent
Request: Please tell me about how Markus and Leiland get together, or how they manage work-life balance given their challenging careers in ruling a kingdom and serving Leiland Junior, or how they get through Leiland Junior’s teen years (children of the Lord of Shadows can be challenging as they come into their full powers)! I’d also love to hear about any adventuring they do, just the two of them, or perhaps about how Leiland defeats an attempt to usurp Markus in his extremely usurpation-prone kingdom. I would love to see either of them go full murder to defend the other, by the way. Fully cannot even decide which way that would be best. And if you want to tackle the thorny question of how a human and an undead not-Ringwraith fuck, I am absolutely here for your journey.
I love absolutely everyone in the party, so please feel free to include as many of them as you want. (Obviously J'er'em'ih is the best of any of them. He also falls under the “animal harm and death” umbrella for me, FYI, although I fully grant that he could probably take himself apart and put the pieces back together without suffering a second’s harm.)
Basically: Leiland/Markus, plus whatever other PCs and NPCs you care to throw in, (un)living happily ever after, please!
Additional information: I fully ship this, and I’m not the only one. Ify Nwadiwe has provided rich and evocative post-series canon for all of us to enjoy:
So, yeah. Who doesn’t ship it? But also, who doesn’t love a found family of villains whose motto is basically “against the world, for each other”? Who doesn’t love a team of six terrifying parents for a baby of shadows? There is nothing about Bloodkeep I don’t love. It’s funny, it’s amazingly touching, and it is absolutely full of references to Lord of the Rings, which definitely gave it advantage when it was rolling to appeal to me.
I love Leiland’s severe case of low self-esteem, and that moment (trying to avoid huge spoilers here) when you can see that start to change. I love his awkward attempts to flirt with Markus and his general awkward self; he’s a terrifying undead warrior of darkness with imposter syndrome and no real sense of how to be comfortable occupying space, and I think that’s neat. I love how surprisingly sweet he is, and how he will absolutely betray and/or kill anyone except his party. (For me, this whole campaign is summed up by Brennan’s irritated “Excuse me for thinking we could get a little PvP in the evil party!” Well, that and “A bunch of very damaged people all found hope and meaning in each other, and the fact that they’re all quite bad ... the lesson is actually still quite beautiful!”)
I also love Markus and his “I’m cool as shit and nothing touches me” attitude slowly giving way to genuine concern for his family of ultimate evil, and I adore that he’s out there swashbuckling and ruling his kingdom and also, apparently -- Ify would know! -- banging it out with Leiland. I love that he covered his face with a mask because he is simply too hot for mortals to behold and stay sane, and I love that, in the end, he was smart and savvy and willing to die for the party and Leiland Junior.
They’re wonderful. Please give me more of them!
If you want to pick up this fandom, the whole thing is free on YouTube.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, Edgin Darvis, Xenk Yendar
Request: I would very much like to see Edgin and Xenk getting together after the end of the movie. Is there an adventure? Does Xenk maybe need Edgin’s help instead of vice versa? (I’d love if the story went into Xenk’s backstory a bit more than the movie does.) I’d also love to see Xenk being awkwardly incorporated into Edgin’s found family deal with the party, and maybe, like. Having a good but totally ethical, alignment-appropriate time? Also curious about how they’ll deal with Edgin’s extremely bardic approach to morality vs. Xenk's extremely paladin approach.
Anything you write that feels like the movie but with Edgin and Xenk developing a more romantic/sexual relationship is going to work for me. If you want to write something with a high rating, I am absolutely up for that, and one possibility that I love is Xenk teaching Edgin some patience and delayed gratification via edging. (Edgin! Edging! I assume the movie writers/directors wanted me to think this, since it is basically right there in the name.)
Additional information: This movie made me think it was just gonna be cute fun with D&D references galore, and then once my guard was down it hit me squarely in the feelings. I love that it has such great characters. I love that it follows D&D rules and shows how they would really work in the world. (Oh my god, Edgin standing back and playing his lute at key moments -- that was the BEST, because it made me think about every bard I’ve ever been in a campaign with.) I love that the movie is absolutely the kind of adventure I’ve played through a whole bunch of times. I even loved the setting, which I didn’t expect to -- I’ve played a lot of Forgotten Realms games, and I’ve always considered it sort of generic fantasy, but this added a ton to the worldbuilding.
I also love the many millions of tropes, both from fantasy in general and D&D in specific, that the movie played with. One trope that was definitely there was the enemies to friends thing with Edgin and Xenk, and obviously my brain instantly autocompleted that to enemies to friends to lovers. It just felt so dang obvious to me -- they’re opposites! But they work together! They disagree on many things! But they agree on fundamentals! And let’s face it: lawful good/chaotic good describes a good solid 20% of all romance novels out there. I would love for it to describe Xenk and Edgin, too.
The entire movie was about Edgin moving a little bit closer to where Xenk is, ethically speaking, and I love that and would love to see it continue -- and I would love to see what this looks like for Xenk, how he can, maybe, decide that it’s okay to have fun sometimes.
And, for the record, I like both characters equally, but since the movie really focused on Edgin, I’m more curious about Xenk. I’d love to see how his past informs his present in a romantic relationship setting. I really love his competence, which is not something people in Edgin's environs tend to have, and I would love to see him being super competent at something unexpected. And, man, I would super like to see him happy, because his life seems to have been a tough one.
If you want to pick up this fandom, it’s available for rental, purchase, or downloading wherever you download things.
Hikaru no Go, Touya Akira, Shindou Hikaru
Request: I have loved this fandom for so many years and I’m just very excited to see it in the Yuletide tag set. I’m hoping most for post-manga/anime fic, I think? But I am very flexible here, because there’s no part of the manga or anime I don’t love. I’d love Akira/Hikaru shipfic (set after the canon). I’d enjoy seeing them take the Go world by storm. I’d love a scene where Hikaru finally tells Akira all about Sai (maybe because he meets Sai’s next student?). I’ve always assumed that Akira would become Meijin and Hikaru would become Honinbo, and I would love to read about that, about who they are during that, about what it brings up for both of them to be following in the footsteps of a beloved mentor. (And if you want them to hook up then, that works very well!)
If you’re interested in doing some urban fantasy/AU type stuff, I’d also enjoy anything that builds on the supernatural aspect of the series -- what other ghosts are out there? Do old Go players really develop psychic abilities the way Kuwabara sort of did? Also, in the anime, it really does seem like every time Akira is sad, it rains or snows, and every time Hikaru is happy, the sun shines. I realize that’s just a storytelling device, but I’d love a supernatural AU where that is a specific power they both have.
Additional information: Some fandoms never leave you, and one of mine is Hikaru no Go. To me, it is perfect. The characters are perfect! The arcs are perfect! The Go games are somehow really tense and involving? It’s just. So great. I have never not cried at the Sad Moment, I have never not been riveted through every competition -- no matter how many times I read or watch HnG, it remains the best.
And of course I especially love Akira and Hikaru. Akira was so distant from the world and his emotions until Hikaru showed up and made him feel stuff! Hikaru was so directionless until Akira showed up and gave him a goal and a focus! They drive each other towards Go perfection and they balance each other and they’re like binary stars, revolving around each other and burning twice as brightly because they do. And yes that is an extremely pretentious sentence, but look: this fandom brings it out in me.
I also like virtually every secondary and background character. I enjoy Hikaru’s insei friends, I enjoy the study groups, I even enjoy the middle school go club (although I very much wish Akari would get a better deal than the one she’s got; you treat her like shit, Hikaru!). So feel free to throw in whoever -- I do want Akira and Hikaru in there, but I am happy for any other part of their world to be, too.
Men’s Basketball RPF, Earvin Johnson, Larry Bird
Request: I -- genuinely think Magic Johnson and Larry Bird might have soulbonded at the NCAA Championship in 1979. They certainly went from zero to intense, eternal focus pretty damn quickly. So what I want to know is -- what happened? Where did it go from there? How does that work, when you're playing against each other, when one of you doesn't even LIKE the other, when you're such incredibly different human beings?
If you go with the actual soulbond, there are lots of interesting possibilities here: Larry fighting the bond because of course he would, the way it affected them and their game, how it drove them to play. Or you could talk about how they finally accepted the soulbond and what it's like now, being comfortable with it and each other, years after the fighting and the struggle finally ended. Just, anything.
And if you take the non-soulbond route (which is of course entirely welcome; this definitely doesn't have to be a literal soulbond), just what IS going on? They have SOME kind of bond, that much is clear, and I'd love to hear what it's like: forever friendship, repeating reincarnation as people obsessed with each other, multiverse-spanning romance, whatever. I just want more about this intense *thing* they have.
Additional information: Okay, I am a trifle concerned that my request makes me sound like an exceptionally weird tinhat. No! No! I am merely reporting the truth, which is that Magic Johnson and Larry Bird appear to have a real-life soulbond!
...That didn't help my case. But I have solid evidence. The documentary A Courtship of Rivals (YouTube link to full documentary, but you only need to watch the first five minutes to see the literal discussion of the soulbond) could not be clearer. These guys are bonded in some way. And I just find that fascinating. You could not have two more different people playing the same game. You could not have a more intense rivalry. And yet it's abundantly clear they have a ton of respect for each other, a ton of very genuine love for each other, and they know each other so well -- every appearance I've ever seen them in has just been so great for that. We have Magic, dude who loves people, hugs, and fame, and Larry, dude whose basic approach to life is "go away and leave me alone because I have a lot of very important scowling to do," and they love each other, and that is the greatest thing to me.
Basically, I adore these guys. And I am riveted by their great and weird relationship. Anything you write about them navigating that relationship while being their extremely awesome selves will be wonderful.
And if you're up for pairing fic, I would absolutely love that, any rating.
To pick this fandom up, watch that documentary. Marvel at its dedication to pushing the soulbond storyline while somehow still being a real documentary!
Nomads (1986) — Eileen Flax, Veronique Pommier
Request: These women have, by the end of the movie, a relationship that was made for fic, and so I’m hoping for something post-canon. How do things go when you simultaneously remember someone as your new friend made while surviving a terrible ordeal and your beloved wife? What’s it like when you’re on the run with someone you barely know except she also has the memories of the person you know and love best in the world?
And there’s also the issue of practical matters. How do they live? Eileen’s ability to practice medicine is going to be somewhat limited, at least at first, since being on the run from supernatural evil tends to inhibit your ability to obtain a license and a job. Does she become a doctor for people with paranormal maladies, or for supernatural people, or just for other people on the run? And what does Veronique, who came to this country hoping for some peaceful downtime and did not at all get that, do after the trauma of the movie?
I would be delighted with ship fic. I would be delighted with them turning around and taking the battle to the Nomads. I would be delighted with them encountering a new kind of evil and becoming a two-woman, three-sets-of-memories supernatural detection team. I just want to know how things go after the movie ends for these two. And please please please give them some kind of happily ever after, or the potential for one.
Additional information:For me, this movie is essentially one long prologue to fic. Like, okay, I’m sorry, but Eileen literally has Veronique’s dead husband’s memories and they literally drive off into the sunset together to make a new life. I just ... feel like that needs exploring, you know? I mean, yay Nomads, yay vaguely creepy paranormal whatever, but what of the relationship?
And these are two fascinating women. Veronique takes in a woman who is apparently insane and ranting and who seems to know her dead husband way too well and is incredibly kind to her, even though Niki’s life is, at that point, SUPER not going well. And Eileen is this analytical, problem-solving person who is going to find out what happened and fix this problem even if it, you know, destroys her life and drives her insane. (Also, her first thought when she wakes up in Veronique’s bed is apparently “Wait, did we have sex?” I am just saying. It was not far from Eileen’s mind. And Veronique clearly knew that. The possibility is there.) They are both willing to burn down lives they loved to stay alive, and I believe that means they can build something new in the ashes. I love them both, and hope they find happiness on the other side of their Nomad-Related Life Implosion.
This is technically a horror movie, but a) it’s so non-horrifying that I, a noted wimp, can watch it even after dark (except the deeply creepy abbey/nun sequence, because I am still a wimp) and b) I’m not really here for the horror aspect. I mean, okay, vaguely punkish Nomads acting like people in a gang in a movie, memory stealing, fine, that’s all good. But. Well. It’s not actually my main interest. My interest is in how people survive events this weird, how they make new lives after surviving, and how it all affects them.
I will be happy with any rating you care to write on this one. If you’re going to write a pairing, I’m only really interested in Eileen/Veronique HEA here. (But I am VERY interested in that!)
If you want to pick this up — well, it’s definitely available for rental on Amazon. And there’s also this copy, although I cannot vouch for its quality, on YouTube.
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Psst, I think your link needs fixing.
(For anyone else reading: it's only six eps, it's very funny and very charming!)
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(SO delightful and charming and funny! Truly, I love it.)