do i contradict myself?

Hello hello! I'm so delighted to make your acquaintance (well, sort of)! Thank you so much for offering one of the tiny fandoms of my heart -- I already know I'm going to love whatever you write for me, so consider the pressure off. While I'd love it if you stuck to the loose premises of what I'm looking for, worked in a few of the things I'm extra fond of, and/or fulfilled one of my prompts, I know I enjoy Yuletide most when I get an idea that I absolutely love and have a fantastic time writing, so that's what I want for you, too. If you had fun writing the fic, I'm going to have fun reading it, so please follow your heart here!!

In terms of things I'd ideally want out of a fic, though, broadly speaking, I love character- rather than plot-driven stories (not that the two can't happily coexist, of course, but my favorite stories tend to follow an emotional arc or a relationship development rather than characters dealing with an external conflict or a really intricate plot) with happy or at least hopeful endings (I'm fine with a more bittersweet hinting-at-the-light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel type ambiguity, but would strongly prefer more overt happiness, and I really and truly do not want any serious or lasting tragedy involved).

My major DNWs are needles (I have a huge phobia and would deeply rather no mention of them at all, but if it does come up, please please please keep it brief and be sure to clearly warn for me!) and significant involvement of serious issues beyond those explored in canon (e.g. racism, homophobia, character death, serious assault/injury, etc. etc.). By "beyond those explored in canon," I mean, for example, that Darius from Darius the Great faces racism and homophobia in the books, as well as the death of a family member, so while I would prefer a story in that fandom not focus on any of those experiences, mention or minor involvement of them or reflection on his experiences with them/how they've shaped him wouldn't feel out of place or be too upsetting to me. But I would really not want a story where, say, Spirit Falls is a hotbed of bigotry or a story focusing on the misogyny and oppression the woman in "Till We Meet Again" faces through the years. Basically, don't feel like you have to go to enormous lengths to avoid those things where they're present, but don't insert them unnecessarily or make them a significant focus of the story.

More generally, here are some of my likes and dislikes:

Likes: banter, UST/pining/slow burn, first kisses/makeouts that don't immediately lead to sex (either by design or by accidental interruption), gross fluffy ridiculous romcom-y tropes, people being very competent at what they do (and other people, ahem, enjoying it), little canon easter eggs, found families, intricate tangles of relationships among large groups of people, cute animals, puns, and the general concept of hope and humanity's essential goodness triumphing over darkness and existential despair! (Especially this year, oh dear god.) (That extra note originated in 2020 but let's just call it a now ever-present feeling! Sob.)

Dislikes: misogyny in m/m relationships/demonization of female characters for the sake of m/m, misogynistic dirty talk (e.g., "slut"/"whore"), noncon/dubcon, infidelity, excessive jealousy/possessiveness, excessive kinky elements, A/B/O, mpreg, daddy kink, first- or second-person POV, and contrived miscommunication conflicts that could be resolved with a single, simple statement of clarification! (Except maybe in Spirit Falls, for obvious reasons.)

I generally tend to be a fan of both AUs and explicit porn, but my preferences will differ based on fandom, so I'll include specific notes regarding my feelings re both in each fandom's prompt section!

Some additional references include my trope sorter and kink sorter results -- the rankings should be treated pretty flexibly, as the first half-dozen or so on each list are all pretty close together in terms of things I love! I am also blindmadness on AO3.

Now, having said all of that -- on to the fandoms! (Note: three out of four of these are what I've affectionately termed some Greatest Hits from prior letters, aka requests I really enjoyed writing and would have loved to receive, but sadly went unfilled. When deciding whether to do Yuletide this year, I found myself not feeling a lot of instinctive desires or new fannish enthusiasm, so I revisited old letters and found that some of the prompts still sparked a lot of joy -- so I'm reusing them here in hopes that maybe they'll also spark something in someone else this time around!)

( Darius the Great Series - Adib Khorram )

( The Martian (2015) )

( Till We Meet Again - Dave Brosha (Photo Series) )

( We Are A Picturesque Small Town And We Refuse To Be The Setting For Your RomCom (McSweeney’s) )

Hello hello!! I am so, so exceedingly sorry for the very lenghty delay in getting this together -- not to bore you with the details, but October was pretty rough for me both in general and in terms of making my brain form words, so it took a while for November to pick up on both fronts. It DOES mean that Yuletide has been even more of a light at the end of the tunnel for me than usual; I always really love Yuletide, but this year it is specially keeping me going. So as usual, I will say that no matter what you write, I will be so thrilled to read it -- and this year, I will be extra grateful to you for putting up with my letter shenanigans and working off of my scant initial prompts. I hope these longer ones inspire you further, and if not, I hope you write something that you truly enjoy writing, because I guarantee you that if you've loved creating it, I'll love reading it! ♥

Now, having said that -- let's talk specifics!

Broadly speaking, the things usually I want out of Yuletide are character- rather than plot-driven stories (not that the two can't happily coexist, of course, but my favorite stories tend to follow an emotional arc or a relationship development rather than characters dealing with an external conflict or a really intricate plot) with happy or at least hopeful endings (I'm fine with a more bittersweet hinting-at-the-light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel type ambiguity, but would strongly prefer more overt happiness, and I really and truly do not want any serious or lasting tragedy involved).

My major DNWs are needles (I have a huge phobia and would deeply rather no mention of them at all, but if it does come up, please please please keep it brief and be sure to clearly warn for me!) and serious issues beyond those explored in canon (e.g., racism, homophobia, character death, serious assault/injury, etc. etc.). I don't think any of my requested canons this time around really touch on any -isms or any serious or dark themes, so -- let's play it safe and avoid those altogether this year!

More specifically, here are some overall likes and dislikes:

Likes: banter, UST/pining/slow burn, first kisses/makeouts that don't immediately lead to sex (either by design or by accidental interruption), gross fluffy ridiculous romcom-y tropes, people being very competent at what they do (and other people, ahem, enjoying it), little canon easter eggs, found families, intricate tangles of relationships among large groups of people, cute animals, puns, and the general concept of hope and humanity's essential goodness triumphing over darkness and existential despair! (Especially this year, oh dear god.)

Dislikes: misogyny in m/m relationships/demonization of female characters for the sake of m/m, misogynistic dirty talk (e.g., "slut"/"whore"), noncon/dubcon, infidelity, excessive jealousy/possessiveness, excessive kinky elements, A/B/O, mpreg, daddy kink, first- or second-person POV, and contrived miscommunication conflicts that could be resolved with a single, simple statement of clarification!

Some additional references include my trope sorter and kink sorter results -- the rankings should be treated pretty flexibly, as the first half-dozen or so on each list are all pretty close together in terms of things I love! I am also blindmadness on AO3.

Annnnd now the fandoms--!! Obviously, SPOILERS ABOUND below (although, uh, that's only really relevant for half of them, ha).

( Black Mirror: Striking Vipers )

( Duel With Manuel - Ppallo (Tweet) )

( Warby Parker 'Step Into The Future' Ads )

( Galavant (TV) )

HI THERE. ♥ First and foremost, I am SO SORRY this took so long-- Yuletide really caught me by surprise this year, so I hope this delay hasn't been too detrimental! I'll take this opportunity to thank you so much for writing for me-- Yuletide is one of my happiest (if, clearly, busiest!) times of year, and I'm always delighted by whatever fic I receive, so I truly can't wait to see what you come up with! I know I enjoy my Yuletide most when I'm working on a story that really calls to me, so that's what I'd really love for you, too-- to write something that you're genuinely excited about. I hope that my prompts will inspire you, but even if they don't, I'm totally on board for you going off-road to write the fic of your heart. I promise I'm going to love whatever you provide and I'm so eager to see whatever that might be! ♥

Broadly speaking, the things usually I want out of Yuletide are character- rather than plot-driven stories (not that the two can't happily coexist, of course, but my favorite stories tend to follow an emotional arc or a relationship development rather than characters dealing with an external conflict or a really intricate plot) with happy or at least hopeful endings (I'm fine with a more bittersweet light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel type ambiguity, but would strongly prefer more overt happiness, and I really and truly do not want any serious or lasting tragedy involved).

My major DNWs are needles (I have a huge phobia and would deeply rather no mention of them at all, but if it does come up, please please please keep it brief and be sure to clearly warn for me!) and serious issues beyond those explored in canon (e.g., racism, homophobia, character death, serious assault/injury, etc. etc.). I don't really think I've requested canons that contain a lot of serious issues this year (apart from things like colonialism in Parasolverse and... you know, everything that Venom is), so we shouldn't have a problem there, but homophobia in general (internalized or otherwise) especially a significant DNW for me, in an effort to keep Yuletide my happy place!

More specifically, here are some overall likes and dislikes:

Likes: banter, UST/pining/slow burn, first kisses/makeouts that don't immediately lead to sex (either by design or by accidental interruption), gross fluffy ridiculous romcom-y tropes, people being very competent at what they do (and other people, ahem, enjoying it), little canon easter eggs, found families, cute animals, puns, and the general concept of hope and humanity's essential goodness triumphing over darkness and existential despair!

Dislikes: misogyny in m/m relationships/demonization of female characters for the sake of m/m, misogynistic dirty talk (e.g., "slut"/"whore"), noncon/dubcon, infidelity, excessive jealousy/possessiveness, excessive kinky elements, A/B/O, mpreg, daddy kink, first- or second-person POV, and contrived miscommunication conflicts that could be resolved with a single, simple statement of clarification! (All of these should be taken as blanket dislikes except when otherwise noted for each individual fandom; Venom in particular can, uh, be taken to a much kinkier place than I usually prefer my fic to go.)

Some additional resources in terms of things I like: my trope and kink sorters (feel free not to take the rankings on those too seriously; the first seven or so on both lists are pretty solidly interchangeable as Favorite Things To Read), and a non-comprehensive fandom list in case of crossover or AU possibilities (don't feel the need to force it, but if something seems like it lends itself to the option, I'm certainly open to it!). I... basically have no public fannish presence anymore and I'm so sorry about that, but here's my AO3 and my liveblog Twitter, which will almost certainly be of no use to you, ha, but if you want to see me yell about stuff as I read/watch it--! :")

SO now that we've got that taken care of, let's talk fandoms! (Should probably go without saying, but SPOILER WARNING for every fandom below! Please don't go in unless you're familiar with them, and if you aren't, PLEASE GO CONSUME THEM RIGHT NOW.)

( Parasol Protectorate - Gail Carriger )

( The Custard Protocol Series - Gail Carriger )

( The Darkest Part of the Forest - Holly Black )

( The Martian (2015) )

( Venom (Movie 2018) )

Why hello there! ♥ I'm so glad to (er, sort of) meet you, and I'm so very glad you're writing something for me! First things first: I will love whatever you write me, I promise. A while back, my sister told me that I'm so easy to give gifts to, she could give me a raccoon that she found in the trash, and I would be delighted and name her Suzanne and make her a member of the family right away. AND SHE ISN'T WRONG.

... Er, I say this not to compare your fic to a trash raccoon (it's going to be so much better!!), but to assure you that as far as I'm concerned, it's the thought that counts, and I already think you're amazing just because you're reading this and getting ready to write me a thing! I'm happiest doing Yuletide when I'm pouring my heart into a prompt that's grabbed me and having fun with it, and I want you to have a happy Yuletide, too-- so follow your heart, even if it's not exactly what I've asked for! If you've enjoyed writing it, I promise you I'll enjoy reading it. ♥

Broadly speaking, the things usually I want out of Yuletide are character- rather than plot-driven stories (a good involved fic is always fun, but my faves tend to be stories that follow an emotional arc or a relationship development rather than characters dealing with an external conflict or a really intricate plot) with happy or at least hopeful endings (I'm fine with a more bittersweet light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel type ambiguity, but would really prefer more overt happiness, and I really and truly do not want any serious or lasting tragedy involved).

My major DNWs are needles (I have a huge phobia and would strongly prefer no mention of them at all, but if it does come up, please please please keep it brief and be sure to warn for me!) and serious issues beyond those explored in canon (e.g., racism, homophobia, character death, serious assault/injury, etc. etc.). To clarify what I mean, using examples from my requests this year: Miss Sloane involves a character that does a really awful thing to another character, and a traumatic event in the latter's background; not including those in the story would feel weird, since they have such a significant impact on the plot. In The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, Mia deals with some implicit issues of sexism; I wouldn't want them to be a central part of the story, since they aren't front and center in canon, but they shouldn't be fully ignored, either. Meanwhile, while it's entirely possible that within the universe of American Bromance, Justin has dealt with racism, it would be totally antithetical to the mood of the canon to bring that up. So I don't want canon-specific issues ignored, but new ones shouldn't be introduced. (Homophobia especially is a big DNW for me, internalized or otherwise!)

More specifically, here are some overall likes and dislikes:

Likes: banter, UST/pining/slow burn, first kisses/makeouts that don't immediately lead to sex (either by design or by accidental interruption), subtle little nods to canon, gross fluffy ridiculous romcom-y tropes, people being very competent at what they do (and other people, ahem, enjoying it), found families, cute animals, puns, and my favorite characters/people having nice things and being happy!

Dislikes: misogyny in m/m relationships/demonization of female characters for the sake of m/m, misogynistic dirty talk (e.g., "slut"/"whore"), noncon/dubcon, A/B/O, excessive jealousy/possessiveness, first- or second-person POV, heavy kink (e.g., minor elements of D/s or bondage are fine, things like daddy kink less so), kidfic, and contrived miscommunication conflicts that could be resolved with a single, simple statement of clarification!

I'll specify my AU or porn preferences in each fandom section, but suffice it to say I'm generally down for either! For the most part, I've requested fandoms and characters here for which I'd most like to see shipfic; however, if I've written prompts for gen options, it's because I'm also genuinely interested in those. So if you're not feeling the ship, don't worry that you'll be disappointing me! Just because I have a preference doesn't mean it's the only thing that'll make me happy. ♥

Some more resources for you: my past letters are the last few posts on this journal, my trope and kink sorters, for some more specific ideas of things I like reading, and a non-comprehensive fandom list in case of crossover possibilities (don't feel the need to force it, but if something seems like it lends itself to the option, I'm certainly open to it!). I... basically have no public fannish presence anymore and I'm so sorry about that, but here's my AO3 and my liveblog Twitter, which will almost certainly be of no use to you, ha, but if you want to see me yell about stuff--!! :")

Now, ENOUGH OF THAT. Time for what we've all come to see-- the fandoms! \o/

( Miss Sloane )

( The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement )

( Ladyboss - Rachel Bloom (Music Video) )

( American Bromance (Short Film) )

( Yoplait Oui 'French Girl' Commercial )

( Academy Awards RPF )

GENERAL NOTE: This letter contains varying degrees of spoilers for all of the fandoms listed (with the exception of tennis RPF because, uh... obviously). If you're planning on consuming any of them at any point, a. don't read this yet, and b. DO SO. DO SO IMMEDIATELY. DO NOT PASS GO, DO NOT COLLECT $200, JUST DO IT.

Why hello there, dearest author! ♥ I am so very pleased to make your acquaintance-- I'm thrilled that you'll be writing something just for me, and I know for a fact I will love whatever you write me. I am one of those people that's extremely easy to shop for because anything you get me thrills me to my bone, since I'm just so happy that someone was thinking of me at all-- so trust me when I say that I'm delighted to just be getting fic, regardless of what it is, as long as you have fun writing it!

Overall, I like Yuletide to be a happy time of year for me, so the only things I will ask you to strictly abide by is happy endings (I will also accept "bittersweet but hopeful" or "open-ended but generally uplifting," just-- not overtly sad or dark), which means no serious, lasting tragedy (e.g., rape, character death, intense torture, serious unfixable injury, etc. etc.) and no serious real-world issues not already explored in canon. (For example, Captive Prince takes place during a war, The Departed involves hardcore criminals-- so any attempts to avoid those issues is pretty much impossible, given how ingrained they are in the canon. However, I don't want to see anything added to the canon that doesn't exist there already -- please don't introduce any serious trauma and don't give me any intense institutional discrimination. Keep it realistic and not overly traumatic.) (The ONE EXCEPTION to all this is Crimson Peak, which will be elaborated on in that particular request.)

A basic overall look at my taste:

I love: banter, UST/pining/slow burn, first kisses/makeouts that don't immediately lead to sex (either by design or by accidental interruption), people being really really dumb about their feelings and taking ages to get their shit together, awesome ladies!!, little nods to canon that will make me kick my feet in glee, really ridiculous tropey gross romance-novel/rom-com scenarios, people being very competent at what they do (and other people, ahem, enjoying it), found families, character- rather than plot-driven stories, cute animals, and my favorite characters/people BEING HAPPY!!

I don't love: misogyny in m/m relationships, misogynistic dirty talk, noncon/dubcon, character-bashing (unless EVERYONE agrees that they're fucking awful-- e.g., the Regent from Captive Prince), excessive jealousy/possessiveness, first- or second-person POV, heavy kink, and although I mentioned my love of gross romantic tropes above, I genuinely do not enjoy the miscommunication trope -- which is to say, I'm totally cool with characters who are canonically terrible at talking about their feelings continuing to be terrible at doing so, but if the conflict could have been resolved with a single, simple, not-difficult-to-utter statement of clarification, rest assured I am gently beating my head against the wall at the entire thing.

More generally, in case you get stuck and need inspiration, here are my results from the trope sorting meme! Aaand in case you go the porn route, here are my results from the kink sorting meme as well. >_>

And finally, I don't think it's likely to come up, but just in case: I have a big ol' needle phobia, so please keep them out of the story. I can be okay with a quick mention of them if it's necessary, as long as you just make it brief and please, please warn for it. Thank you for your consideration!!

My prior two Yuletide letters are the prior two posts on this journal; meanwhile, I'm mostly on Twitter these days at either my personal, locked account (@devilputaside; if you drop me a line about who you are, I'm happy to give you access!) or my public liveblogging account (@yellingaboutit; if you matched with me on Captive Prince or HTGAWM, I liveread Prince's Gambit and rewatched S1/am livetweeting S2 there, respectively). If you want a look at the Tumblr to which I haven't posted in over half a year, WHOOPS, it's allthroughoursplendor, and I have a fandom list here if you want to consult that. :3 And my AO3 is here, wherein you can see what I've written and what I've bookmarked as shit I really love!

So! That's enough of that. ON TO THE FANDOMS!

( Captive Prince )

( The Departed (2006) )

( The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (2015) )

( Tennis RPF )

( How to Get Away with Murder )

( Crimson Peak (2015) )

Flist cut! Mostly small -- comms and dead journals and stuff like that -- but a couple of people, as usual, primarily because a. there's not much going on there, as far as I can tell, or b. I was getting the impression that we were mutually not really communicating, and I mostly don't think it's fair to you to have someone on your flist who's just skimming and not commenting a whole lot.

If you feel you've been wrongfully removed, by all means let me know, and as always, if you'd like to defriend me feel more than free. \o/

So, in a fit of desperately not wanting to do my creative writing exercise, I have finally redone all of my tags! It was a little weird to me to have all of the little one-word tags of people's and place names mixed in with the longer ones of situations/emotions/etc., so now family, friends (as "people"), and places all have their own category of tags and I enjoy it greatly. I may do the same with professors at some point, but I think that's all I'll be putting into categories.

In honour of this, something else I've been meaning to do! Minor flistcut! I don't think I've cut anyone I was really close to; it was mostly people whose entries I just wasn't reading and I felt bad about that, so I felt like I might as well get my flist back to the people whose entries I really did read, since keeping someone on when I'm just skimming is unfair to both of us. No one who's been cut is ~BARRED FROM EVER TALKING TO ME AGAIN or anything -- y'all should have my contact information and I always encourage using it. :D

On that note, IF ANYONE EVER WANTS TO DEFRIEND ME, PLEASE GO AHEAD! I don't want anyone to feel obligated to read along with my ridiculousness, so if you're not enjoying having me on your flist, seriously, feel free to get rid of me. :D: ♥