Are You My Santa?

[thefourthvine]

Dear Santa,

Okay. I'm. Um. A little bit afraid that you're looking at your assignment right now and regretting ever signing up for Yuletide, because you got stuck with a crazy recipient OMG. Do not fear! I'm not crazy. Okay, I am, but not in a way that's harmful.

To you, anyway.

I know I went overboard with the details a bit, but I wanted to make sure you had a starting place if you needed one. If you can't do what I requested, or you think you can't do it well, details are optional.

If, on the other hand, you want to know more about what I like in fan fiction in general, or what I'm hoping for from Yuletide this year, read on.

I'm hoping that my story will be like the canon it's based on. I made these requests because I love the canons, after all, so I'm hoping the characters will sound like themselves, act like themselves, and think like themselves. For the fictional fandoms, I'm hoping the story will be similar in tone and content to the canon. For the historical fandoms, I'm hoping the details will be historically accurate and appropriate.

I'm hoping that my story won't be very dark or angsty. I'm great with tension and conflict in the middle, but I'm a big fan of happy endings. Witty dialog and humor are always a plus, if you can go there. I'm neutral about porn this year; if it fits in the story and it's what you want to write, then please do. If it doesn't work in the story, that's great, too. The story's the thing.

ETA: Like an idiot, I forgot to mention squicks. The first and most major one is animal harm - I just can't handle it in any form. And the other one is embarrassment. Minor embarrassment I can survive; major embarrassment leaves me fetal on the floor. So, um, those would be good to skip?

Fandom specifics:

For I, Robot, my ideal is actually a pairing story, though it can be of any rating or explicitness. I'd also be totally happy with a gen story that has a level of subtext similar to the Powell and Donovan short stories in the book. And, as I said, I'm really hoping for malfunctioning robots in space. Malfunctioning robots in space are the very essence of this canon, to me. I'd love to see Powell and Donovan work some kind of robot problem. And if that robot problem causes them to have we're-gonna-die or we're-locked-in-an-enclosed-space or we're-desperate-and-horny first-time sex? That would be golden.

For The Gold Bat, I have no preference between slash or gen. (If you do write slash, though, O'Hara and Moriarty are my first choice, followed very closely by Trever and Clowes - or Trevor and pretty much anyone of roughly his age.) One thing I don't think I made clear in the details is that it doesn't have to be set during the school years - feel free to age them up to university or whatever if you like. I'm hoping for something similar in tone and content to the school stories - light, humorous, filled with school politics and intrigue.

For James Cook and Joseph Banks, as I said, feel free to take it either to a gen or a slash place - extraordinary friendship or pairing, either is fabulous. I'd particularly be interested in something that acknowledges or explores the diversity of their backgrounds and their relative purposes and positions during the expedition. I'd love it to feel like the age of sail, too. If you need references or beta help, obviously I can't volunteer, but you could try kiss_me_hardy, which is basically tailored to suit your beta and research needs; I've left the community and will stay gone for the duration of Yuletide, so if you post members-only there, I won't be able to see it. And Australiana (and, OMG, maybe even a wombat!) is totally not necessary or expected, but if you can put that in there, I will bounce with joy.

And for Charles Baudelaire - if he's the fandom we share in common, I love you. And I'm so, so sorry. My fourth request is, traditionally, the place where I let my inner crazed fangirl come out and play, and I definitely went there this year. Basically, I want (lower-case 's') supernatural fiction with Charles Baudelaire's rather, um, unique world view as the guide, and Charles himself as a main character. If you can make it jibe with his life, I'd love it. (And if you need references for his life, let me know via the mods or however; I will so totally be happy to help!) Oh, and - I don't speak French, though I'm familiar enough with most of Les Fleurs du Mal that I'll at least understand the poems themselves. But for dialog and suchlike, English is definitely preferable.

Here's what's most important, though: I love all these fandoms. The existence of a story in any of them will make me happy. That it was written for me will make me deliriously happy.

And I already love you for volunteering to write for it.

Love,
TFV, your totally not crazy in any way recipient

Comments

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

I worship the Wodehouse school stories, and I've been requesting a story for one of them for at least two years. (I don't know about 2004, because the email account that had that signup sheet in it went poof, but I think that year I requested the Pothunters.) I have this unfortunate thing for boarding school stories anyway, as I have confessed to you before, and Wodehouse is the king, in my opinion.

Also the Baudelaire, that's a brilliant idea.

I've been trying to write it myself for three years and getting fucking nowhere. If my Yuletide Santa doesn't bite, I'm giving it another try, this time dumping the Angelus/Baudelaire angle and going just for Baudelaire.

Although I will need to find a co-writer who can PLOT. I am hoping to draft maygra, possibly when SPN goes on hiatus. (She'll be bored! She'll need something to do! ...No, really. Okay, she won't even be interested, but she swore she'd help me plot it, anyway.)

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Have you read David Blaize and sequel by EF Benson? I've read probably a thousand or so school stories, and it's the slashiest thing I've ever read. I do like Wodehouse's stories, but I find him a bit light. For me, the best school stories are those that when you're reading (and preferably for a short time afterwards), school is EVERYTHING, and it matters quite terribly that everyone plays up, is honourable and eschews beastliness.

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

OMG no. And now I really, really want to. And it is out of print. (Although I love how, if you search for it on Amazon, what you mostly get is references to it in books like "Gay and Lesbian Literary Heritage." Apparently you aren't kidding about the slashiness.

*off to search out-of-print stores*