Dear Yuletide....

[jedibuttercup]

It's that time of year again!! yuletide sign-ups are open until Friday, and for once I have time to put mine up before the last minute. It'll be my fifth year participating; I love the experience of writing gifts for people, especially in such small fandoms, and the whole atmosphere of fannish glee that surrounds the challenge.

And I also love waiting up to read whatever's been written for me: it adds an extra sparkle to my holiday season. So. Dear Yuletide Author, whomever you may be! First of all: thank you for writing in the first place. I look forward to reading whatever you gift me with!

I tried to be inclusive but not too complicated in my requests, but if you're looking for more guidance, read on. In general, I prefer something with more plot than sex, though fluffy interludes can be fun, too. Romance, humor, drama, action, whatever you enjoy writing? I'll probably enjoy reading. I write mostly plotty gen or minimal pairing stories myself, but I'm OK with just about any non-incest romantic relationship unless I specifically requested otherwise. I have a few squicks, which I'll list after the fandom details (see bottom of post), but nothing too unusual, I think.

The thing I care about the most is characterization: that the people I'm reading about act and sound like the people I know from the canon I love. (And that they behave like real, intelligent people who respect one another, but I should hope that goes without saying). As long as you love them, too, you can't go wrong.

• If you're looking at my DRESDEN FILES request:
  
  "Anything with Michael's badass wife, preferably set after Proven Guilty. Go wild. I love this series, light and dark alike, with the power of a thousand fiery suns, so as long as you don't bash any of the protagonists, I'm sure I'll love whatever you do."
  
  I love Harry to death, but we've got an overabundance of canon from his POV already, and Charity doesn't see enough action in fandom. Some suggestions, that you can feel free to ignore if otherwise inspired: her reactions to the events of Changes; a conversation with John Marcone; the first time she helps her husband suit up; an interlude from her misspent wizardly youth, or repercussions from that coming back to haunt her further; the moment she realizes that her daughter has inherited her gifts; a team-up with Murphy to protect their city while Michael and Harry are unavailable for whatever reason; even an AU where she recovers her powers (as we've seen can happen, with the ghost guy from Grave Peril). Use as wide or narrow a selection of the cast as you want, so long as Charity's the central character.



• If you're looking at my TIN MAN request:
  
  "I would absolutely adore something with a non-coercive Zero/DG pairing set after the mini-series, but I'm aware that's a tall order, so. I'd also be well pleased with just Zero, or Zero/Azkadellia, or even Zero/Wyatt; any version of Zero trying to make a future for himself now that he's not the Witch's General anymore. Just-- anything celebrating Zero."
  
  Angsty or regretful is fine, so long as there's at least some positive emotion. (I would really prefer not to see any non-con, or deathfic, or a depressing ending in general). Also, if you could inject any original-Baum-flavor Oz-style wonder reappearing now that the Witch is gone, it would be like whipped cream and cherries on top.



• If you're looking at my UNBREAKABLE request:
  
  "Anything about David's life post-movie. He knows what he can do now; so what does he do with it, and how does it affect his family? Slice-of-life with his wife and son, using his powers further, running across a new opponent, someone else figuring out what he is-- anything, really, funny or serious, bitter or sweet, so long as it ends on a positive note."
  
  If you're inspired and crossover-savvy, plunking him into some other superhero or supernatural world and exploring realistic interactions there would be awesome, but totally not required. (It just bugs me that Shyamalan said he basically only filmed the first act of an overall story when he made the movie, and then failed to continue it in any way whatsoever).



• If you're looking at my SAFEHOLD request:



• If you're looking at my PRINCE OF PERSIA request:
  
  "I'd like to see some family-fic with Dastan, either as a teen after his adoption, or post-movie. I listed Nizam because that's one area where I thought the movie could do with some exploration-- he clearly played a mentor role for Dastan, and Dastan actually doubted Tus before he doubted his uncle so he clearly was fond of Nizam, but Nizam actually says he hated him all along! So what were their early interactions like? If that fails to inspire you, though, brotherly fic, especially of them adjusting to each other early on or reaffirming family bonds after the movie, would be great (no slash, though!) or maybe Dastan interacting with King Sharaman. Basically, any familyfic would make me happy, though you can certainly include Tamina if you do set it post-movie (I love her to pieces, too, she's such a BAMF; I just don't want a pure shipfic)."
  
  I struck out my earlier request as entirely too problematic and went with this one instead. I am extremely fond of time-travel plots and movies that test sibling bonds and only make them stronger (especially when they're chosen family) and people being badasses and relationships of equals, and this movie hit a lot of those buttons. (Oh! And cultural detail; I know the movie was a mishmash of not-quite-history, but Dastan being raised differently from his brothers before Sharaman found him, and also Persia and Alamut not being the same, are things I'm interested in exploring.) If you can't manage the family thing at all, I'd understand; it's just what I think there's been the least of in fandom. Dastan backstory as a kid would work too (especially if he's got some unexposed connection to the Hassansins) or Dastan and Tamina adjusting to his role as consort in her city after the movie or-- well, anything. Just the characters being their awesome selves.

As for squicks, certain things will completely turn me off a story: incest, romantic partner betrayal, severely unbalanced pairings (referring to strength of character/personality here, not anything situational like rank or class or education or age, though statutory squicks me almost as much as incest regardless), character humiliation, serious drug abuse.

There are other things that make me cringe when I see them in a summary, but that are tolerable in a well-written story where it's not played for cheap thrills: this category includes non-canon character death, abuse of any type (especially of children), anti-religious themes, and scorched-earth endings.

I hope I've given you some things to be thoughtful about, rather than boxing you in. Just have fun writing whatever you're writing, and I'll love you for whatever you give me, I'm sure. Thank you again!