Dear Yuletide Writer (2021)
Oct. 23rd, 2021 12:50![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
howlingmoonriseHello, dear writer! I hope this Yuletide gives you a break from the hell year it's been, and that you have fun with your assignment!
Below the cut you'll find squicks and kinks, as well as a few prompts and character dynamics ;) Obviously you don't have to follow any of these (though I hope you'll respect my squicks!) but hopefully this letter will help you out!
--
general things i like
- pining! so much pining!
- this is usually the part where i say i prefer non-established to established a hundred times over, but this year two thirds of my fandoms are actually exceptions to the rule??? further details on their sections
- either gen or romance is fine, if romance isn't really your thing. what really does it for me is the dynamics between the characters and how they find unprecedented levels of kinship and trust and intimacy and understanding in each other, not necessarily romantic acts
- bickering is great! unless you're writing for Morticia/Gomez (which have an entirely different dynamic), the characters can be a little petty and/or banter-y. as a treat.
- sticking to the original characterizations and the tone of canon is a definite plus!!!
- “missing scenes” and “what if” canon-divergent situations are excellent, as are continuations from where canon left us depending on the fandom! more details on the sections for the respective fandoms i GUESS
- casual intimacy is super fun, especially when adapted to the character dynamics. a bickering pair being casually comfortable adds a whole new depth to it, enemy dynamics makes is hilarious since the other half would have zero clue as to how to react, a pair that is already comfortable with each other that they do stuff without communicating is so intimate, mix and match however you like!
- fun tropes i enjoy (a bit romance-leaning but if you’re not into that then some of these can probably be adapted): fake dating, accidentally got roped into x and shenanigans of all sorts keep happening, misunderstood confessions, groundhog day au, one or both the characters having stupid levels of denial while technically in a relationship and just not realizing it like What Do You Mean We’re Dating??, that sorta thing.
- TROPE SUBVERSION ALL THE WAY!
--
general things i dislike
- kidfics. babyfics. next gen fics. pregnancy fics, or even pregnancy discussed in the fic is a major squick of mine. the one exception i make for kidfics is for kids already existent in canon and even then I'd rather not see too much of it, but no babies or children otherwise please.
- future fics/time skips in general, actually. what i enjoy is the relationship development, so huge time skips make me feel like we missed way too much
- angst is... meh. i don't dislike it but it really depends on how it’s done, usually it feels like it’s angst for the sake of angst instead of giving the fic some actual meat. i’d pass at least on most content with major character death, sexual abuse, self-harm, gender/sexuality angst, the like. beyond that, feel free to go ahead! (but at least give the thing a happy ending)
- hard AUs are a bit ugh to me. by this i mean AUs that rely heavily on setting, such as high school AUs, harry potter AUs, that sort of thing. i DO however enjoy stuff like soulmate AUs and alternate canon AUs, depending on the concept and on the fandom. more details in their own sections if you enjoy writing those!
- i heavily dislike things involving cheating/infidelity, sickfics, and genderbending of any kind is a bit ehhhh for me, as are concepts such as A/B/O. hard pass on stuff like dysphoria and deep diving into mental illnesses and disorders, too.
- script-based or roleplay fic is not really my preferred format, i really enjoy prose instead of nearly all dialogue!
- stuff with bigotry in general, racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, etc as well as discussions of it is a pass in general. it’s not a HUGE squick but i’d rather not see it if possible
- discussions and thoughts on gender/sexuality. if you’re gonna make them gay/bi/etc, make them gay/bi/etc, no exploration of it added. delving into the psyche of it is a hard pass.
--
if you're going for nsfw stuff:
kinks
- moderate sadomasochism, uncommon forms of bondage (plants, stuck in an awkward position, etc), choking/breathplay, edging/desperation play, ladies topping and calling the shots, bloodplay/knifeplay, long hair dragging over skin, sharp nails, lowkey cannibalism imagery and hunger, biting
squicks
- scat, vomit, praise kink, daddy/mommy or baby kink, forced feminization, pet play, wound-fucking, abuse, abo, anything involving pregnancy at all
--
THE ADDAMS FAMILY
oh boy. let me just begin by saying that this really isn’t my usual kind of pairing, by sheer virtue of them being perfectly happy and established in canon. HOWEVER, they’re goth and they’re odd and they’re kinky and they’re delightful to watch interact and so they’ve managed to creep their way into my blackened little heart.
THAT BEING SAID, my absolute biggest wish for this fandom would probably be pre-relationship. i don’t mind if canon is twisted a bit for this, considering that they presumably met and proposed on the very same day, so it’s definitely a bit hard to work with. perhaps some shenanigans with the funeral itself? or gomez has a date/fiancée already and so there’s some juggling of priorities here while he’s absolutely falling over himself in order to continue looking at that absolute gothic vision of a woman? or an old family feud, or them just being downright useless at knowing how to deal with proper romance (on morticia’s side, i’d imagine she’d only grow more stoic and be at a loss of what to say. on gomez’s side, it’s probably his first time being speechless, or he’s not speechless but he’s flirted so much in his life that he doesn’t know what to do with these actual literal feelings, what the hell is this and how does he show he actually means it this time??), or morticia has a long string of dead fiancés black widow-style (i think she and debbie would have gotten along great if given the chance okay, bonus points if you add in a morticia&debbie friendship if you don't write pre-relationship), or a soulmate au where they don’t realize it’s each other right away (maybe mixing in some of the concepts above for extra oomph), or morticia amusedly pretends to be dating gomez before they know each other to get him out of a criminal/legal bind, or they’re somehow roped into someone else’s shenanigans and don’t know how to react to each other (my money is on either ophelia or cousin itt putting them in a bind), the sky is the limit!
if you’re more comfortable writing established, however, casual intimacy or smut are the best! give me a moment of respite where they are just comfortable basking in each other’s presence, or when they’re separated for a moment at an event or something and the longing is burning all the way across them until they come back together again (y'know, in the good old way of the script). something slice of life would be great, for example "gomez/morticia thinks the other is worrying about something and fusses internally as how to make it better, turns out it was something very simple or they were simply preparing a surprise or something of the sort".
for smut, morticia being a mostly stoic dom maybe? (though yes, i know she’s very much into being tied up and tortured, i can't really see her as a normal sub unless it’s something languid and drawn-out - she doesn’t really read as someone who spends a lot of energy normally, all those stoic vibes). they’re both definitely into pain and bondage too; morticia conflating arousal with hunger would also be really interesting to see (think praying mantis or lady spider who is actually very invested on not taking off her partner’s head, but who dreams of it all the same. gomez is, of course, very much into it). something lowkey macabre would be amazing.
things i'd like to see for this fandom in general are:
- morticia being her stoic vampiric goddess of a self
- gomez being completely taken by her as usual
- burning sultry glares/staring across the room
- overly passionate hand-kissing
- creepy/gothic atmosphere, or at least pastiche of it
you know, like canon. (with non-existent or minimal kid existence, though)
references to horror stuff/general creepiness like sudden lightning, casual poisonings and dealings with death, dracula references, etc, like the movies would be super fun, as campy as possible! half the greatness of the movies come from these imho
--
HYOUKA
i think this might possibly be the slice-of-life-est pairing i have, ngl. i love the attention to details and the soft nostalgic vibe of the anime (i'm not familiar with the novels, though i know they were also nominated for yuletide) and the growing understanding and kinship between oreki and chitanda. the development! the growth! the dynamic! the oreki putting an effort into things of his own volition for her sake, when not too long ago he'd have simply said no! for reference, my favourite episodes are the ones where they have the most one-on-one time, it's really great to see them interact without outside expectations. whenever satoshi or mayaka are around, you can see oreki checking himself on what he says/how he acts because their reactions to him acting outside of the ordinary are a pain to deal with. i really like how comfortable he grows to be with chitanda that he doesn't do this as much around her (outside of trying not to get dragged into another case, i mean ;))
favourite episodes to base their dynamic on would be pretty much anything from episode 18 onwards (including 18 itself). like i said, slice-of life is great. i love the show dynamic so pre-relationship or understated getting together is definitely a must (no established if you can avoid it). canon characterizations are the best, with lazy oreki who's learning to make an effort for the things that really matter (and who sometimes still doesn't know how to handle himself around chitanda), and chitanda that has those introspective layers beneath the bubbling optimistic enthusiasm, and both of them being occasionaly oblivious when it comes to the other.
as to prompts... i'm afraid i'm not going to be much help on this regard, so sorry! i could go for a little something that reads like an episode or a case-fic, or even just some time where the two of them are able to be comfortable together, discussing something about a case or mayaka/satoshi's relationship or the future, where some of the things end up paralelling their own relationship. you don't have to go romantic if you don't want to, obviously (and hyouka is really great at the liminar state between platonic/romantic), but i'd really like that sense of closeness to come through. another idea would be fake-dating, or a timestamp/missing scene fic from one of the episodes i pointed out above, with some extra interactions or layers of meaning about the scene itself. or a small divergence from canon events could work too (for example, what if in the doll's festival episode someone assumed oreki/chitanda were an item? or maybe satoshi comes clear to chitanda about oreki wanting to punch him for her and mayaka on the valentine's episode?).
i'd like canonverse the best, but if you like to add twists to things i wouldn't be opposed to a soulmate au, for example, where oreki didn't realise or purposefully didn't tell chitanda from the start that he's connected to her, because that would have been a pain with overly-excitable!chitanda and overly-pained/lazy!oreki from the first episode (or maybe work in some of oreki's self-worth issues on this one). or maybe chitanda's family doesn't do soulmates, same as they don't really do valentine's, and so she never placed a lot of importance on it for one reason or another, and oreki didn't realize until much later on (like the doll's festival episode) that his soulmark was pointing to her. (obviously neither of these soulmark concepts work if it's with the person's name or colours (though aesthetically speaking it'd fit the theme of the first half of the anime i GUESS), i'll leave it to you to figure out which concept you like best)
--
WHAT'S YOUR NUMBER
in another unprecedented turn of events, this is ANOTHER fandom where i'd actually, entirely out of character in regards to myself, would like to see established relationship. post-movie and messy and banter-y and ridiculous, with all that it includes. bonus points if it keeps some of the running gags like weird shenanigans where they somehow run into donald AGAIN, much to everyone's collective disbelief. i love the weird situations the characters get into in the movie and their weird personality quirks, and how everything works together to make them... that.
so yeah, slice of life. i've never asked for so much slice of life in my life, which is so extremely weird i can't even begin to describe it. i'd like something not overly mushy, but where the characters are so obviously comfortable with each other and are allowed to share the parts of themselves other people would judge them for. prompts could be something like weird shenanigans to get ally's mom to like colin, or them just hanging out doing weird shit, or running into ally's ex julie and it turns out colin slept with him too pre-transition (or even post! bisexual icons), cue hilarity.
other possible ideas if you don't want to go established are fake dating. i friggin love fake dating. maybe ally can't find a date on time for the wedding (no jake adams reaching back) and doesn't want to be judged too bad, or when tracking down one of her exes they get into a weird shenanigan-y situation where they spontaneously get roped into it and keep escalating, or even try to use it as an excuse for a quick getaway once and then the person they were faking it for ends up being a lot more involved with their lives and they have to keep the pretense up. if you want to go full AU this could be one of those "hired a fake boyfriend on craigslist to get my mom off my back about my dating habits (by either being absolutely horrid, or by being the best date ever after which i'll be absolutely heartbroken and not ready to date anytime soon, sorry mom)" sort of situation. in any case, banter is appreciated!
if you're going for nsfw for this pairing, i really enjoy subversions of what is socially "expected", plus those two would probably be hella kinky (or at least colin would be, and ally wouldn't have considered so many things or would have denied herself those things for appearance's sake when it came to her exes. probably some hangups to explore there). some minor bondage, a little masochism, discussions of pegging would be nice as well ;) (bonus points for colin being into a little pain e.g. pinching, spanking, could go from a normal casual butt slap slight overreaction into “wait, you’re into this?”, cue smut) or we could add a few romcom stupidity shenanigans and turn them smutty, like one of them getting stuck somewhere dumb and in the process of them trying to get the other out they both end up horny and make the situation even worse.
--
thank you so much for staying with me this far! i hope you have a fantastic time this yuletide, and that you end up loving your own requested fic as well!
Below the cut you'll find squicks and kinks, as well as a few prompts and character dynamics ;) Obviously you don't have to follow any of these (though I hope you'll respect my squicks!) but hopefully this letter will help you out!
--
general things i like
- pining! so much pining!
- this is usually the part where i say i prefer non-established to established a hundred times over, but this year two thirds of my fandoms are actually exceptions to the rule??? further details on their sections
- either gen or romance is fine, if romance isn't really your thing. what really does it for me is the dynamics between the characters and how they find unprecedented levels of kinship and trust and intimacy and understanding in each other, not necessarily romantic acts
- bickering is great! unless you're writing for Morticia/Gomez (which have an entirely different dynamic), the characters can be a little petty and/or banter-y. as a treat.
- sticking to the original characterizations and the tone of canon is a definite plus!!!
- “missing scenes” and “what if” canon-divergent situations are excellent, as are continuations from where canon left us depending on the fandom! more details on the sections for the respective fandoms i GUESS
- casual intimacy is super fun, especially when adapted to the character dynamics. a bickering pair being casually comfortable adds a whole new depth to it, enemy dynamics makes is hilarious since the other half would have zero clue as to how to react, a pair that is already comfortable with each other that they do stuff without communicating is so intimate, mix and match however you like!
- fun tropes i enjoy (a bit romance-leaning but if you’re not into that then some of these can probably be adapted): fake dating, accidentally got roped into x and shenanigans of all sorts keep happening, misunderstood confessions, groundhog day au, one or both the characters having stupid levels of denial while technically in a relationship and just not realizing it like What Do You Mean We’re Dating??, that sorta thing.
- TROPE SUBVERSION ALL THE WAY!
--
general things i dislike
- kidfics. babyfics. next gen fics. pregnancy fics, or even pregnancy discussed in the fic is a major squick of mine. the one exception i make for kidfics is for kids already existent in canon and even then I'd rather not see too much of it, but no babies or children otherwise please.
- future fics/time skips in general, actually. what i enjoy is the relationship development, so huge time skips make me feel like we missed way too much
- angst is... meh. i don't dislike it but it really depends on how it’s done, usually it feels like it’s angst for the sake of angst instead of giving the fic some actual meat. i’d pass at least on most content with major character death, sexual abuse, self-harm, gender/sexuality angst, the like. beyond that, feel free to go ahead! (but at least give the thing a happy ending)
- hard AUs are a bit ugh to me. by this i mean AUs that rely heavily on setting, such as high school AUs, harry potter AUs, that sort of thing. i DO however enjoy stuff like soulmate AUs and alternate canon AUs, depending on the concept and on the fandom. more details in their own sections if you enjoy writing those!
- i heavily dislike things involving cheating/infidelity, sickfics, and genderbending of any kind is a bit ehhhh for me, as are concepts such as A/B/O. hard pass on stuff like dysphoria and deep diving into mental illnesses and disorders, too.
- script-based or roleplay fic is not really my preferred format, i really enjoy prose instead of nearly all dialogue!
- stuff with bigotry in general, racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, etc as well as discussions of it is a pass in general. it’s not a HUGE squick but i’d rather not see it if possible
- discussions and thoughts on gender/sexuality. if you’re gonna make them gay/bi/etc, make them gay/bi/etc, no exploration of it added. delving into the psyche of it is a hard pass.
--
if you're going for nsfw stuff:
kinks
- moderate sadomasochism, uncommon forms of bondage (plants, stuck in an awkward position, etc), choking/breathplay, edging/desperation play, ladies topping and calling the shots, bloodplay/knifeplay, long hair dragging over skin, sharp nails, lowkey cannibalism imagery and hunger, biting
squicks
- scat, vomit, praise kink, daddy/mommy or baby kink, forced feminization, pet play, wound-fucking, abuse, abo, anything involving pregnancy at all
--
THE ADDAMS FAMILY
oh boy. let me just begin by saying that this really isn’t my usual kind of pairing, by sheer virtue of them being perfectly happy and established in canon. HOWEVER, they’re goth and they’re odd and they’re kinky and they’re delightful to watch interact and so they’ve managed to creep their way into my blackened little heart.
THAT BEING SAID, my absolute biggest wish for this fandom would probably be pre-relationship. i don’t mind if canon is twisted a bit for this, considering that they presumably met and proposed on the very same day, so it’s definitely a bit hard to work with. perhaps some shenanigans with the funeral itself? or gomez has a date/fiancée already and so there’s some juggling of priorities here while he’s absolutely falling over himself in order to continue looking at that absolute gothic vision of a woman? or an old family feud, or them just being downright useless at knowing how to deal with proper romance (on morticia’s side, i’d imagine she’d only grow more stoic and be at a loss of what to say. on gomez’s side, it’s probably his first time being speechless, or he’s not speechless but he’s flirted so much in his life that he doesn’t know what to do with these actual literal feelings, what the hell is this and how does he show he actually means it this time??), or morticia has a long string of dead fiancés black widow-style (i think she and debbie would have gotten along great if given the chance okay, bonus points if you add in a morticia&debbie friendship if you don't write pre-relationship), or a soulmate au where they don’t realize it’s each other right away (maybe mixing in some of the concepts above for extra oomph), or morticia amusedly pretends to be dating gomez before they know each other to get him out of a criminal/legal bind, or they’re somehow roped into someone else’s shenanigans and don’t know how to react to each other (my money is on either ophelia or cousin itt putting them in a bind), the sky is the limit!
if you’re more comfortable writing established, however, casual intimacy or smut are the best! give me a moment of respite where they are just comfortable basking in each other’s presence, or when they’re separated for a moment at an event or something and the longing is burning all the way across them until they come back together again (y'know, in the good old way of the script). something slice of life would be great, for example "gomez/morticia thinks the other is worrying about something and fusses internally as how to make it better, turns out it was something very simple or they were simply preparing a surprise or something of the sort".
for smut, morticia being a mostly stoic dom maybe? (though yes, i know she’s very much into being tied up and tortured, i can't really see her as a normal sub unless it’s something languid and drawn-out - she doesn’t really read as someone who spends a lot of energy normally, all those stoic vibes). they’re both definitely into pain and bondage too; morticia conflating arousal with hunger would also be really interesting to see (think praying mantis or lady spider who is actually very invested on not taking off her partner’s head, but who dreams of it all the same. gomez is, of course, very much into it). something lowkey macabre would be amazing.
things i'd like to see for this fandom in general are:
- morticia being her stoic vampiric goddess of a self
- gomez being completely taken by her as usual
- burning sultry glares/staring across the room
- overly passionate hand-kissing
- creepy/gothic atmosphere, or at least pastiche of it
you know, like canon. (with non-existent or minimal kid existence, though)
references to horror stuff/general creepiness like sudden lightning, casual poisonings and dealings with death, dracula references, etc, like the movies would be super fun, as campy as possible! half the greatness of the movies come from these imho
--
HYOUKA
i think this might possibly be the slice-of-life-est pairing i have, ngl. i love the attention to details and the soft nostalgic vibe of the anime (i'm not familiar with the novels, though i know they were also nominated for yuletide) and the growing understanding and kinship between oreki and chitanda. the development! the growth! the dynamic! the oreki putting an effort into things of his own volition for her sake, when not too long ago he'd have simply said no! for reference, my favourite episodes are the ones where they have the most one-on-one time, it's really great to see them interact without outside expectations. whenever satoshi or mayaka are around, you can see oreki checking himself on what he says/how he acts because their reactions to him acting outside of the ordinary are a pain to deal with. i really like how comfortable he grows to be with chitanda that he doesn't do this as much around her (outside of trying not to get dragged into another case, i mean ;))
favourite episodes to base their dynamic on would be pretty much anything from episode 18 onwards (including 18 itself). like i said, slice-of life is great. i love the show dynamic so pre-relationship or understated getting together is definitely a must (no established if you can avoid it). canon characterizations are the best, with lazy oreki who's learning to make an effort for the things that really matter (and who sometimes still doesn't know how to handle himself around chitanda), and chitanda that has those introspective layers beneath the bubbling optimistic enthusiasm, and both of them being occasionaly oblivious when it comes to the other.
as to prompts... i'm afraid i'm not going to be much help on this regard, so sorry! i could go for a little something that reads like an episode or a case-fic, or even just some time where the two of them are able to be comfortable together, discussing something about a case or mayaka/satoshi's relationship or the future, where some of the things end up paralelling their own relationship. you don't have to go romantic if you don't want to, obviously (and hyouka is really great at the liminar state between platonic/romantic), but i'd really like that sense of closeness to come through. another idea would be fake-dating, or a timestamp/missing scene fic from one of the episodes i pointed out above, with some extra interactions or layers of meaning about the scene itself. or a small divergence from canon events could work too (for example, what if in the doll's festival episode someone assumed oreki/chitanda were an item? or maybe satoshi comes clear to chitanda about oreki wanting to punch him for her and mayaka on the valentine's episode?).
i'd like canonverse the best, but if you like to add twists to things i wouldn't be opposed to a soulmate au, for example, where oreki didn't realise or purposefully didn't tell chitanda from the start that he's connected to her, because that would have been a pain with overly-excitable!chitanda and overly-pained/lazy!oreki from the first episode (or maybe work in some of oreki's self-worth issues on this one). or maybe chitanda's family doesn't do soulmates, same as they don't really do valentine's, and so she never placed a lot of importance on it for one reason or another, and oreki didn't realize until much later on (like the doll's festival episode) that his soulmark was pointing to her. (obviously neither of these soulmark concepts work if it's with the person's name or colours (though aesthetically speaking it'd fit the theme of the first half of the anime i GUESS), i'll leave it to you to figure out which concept you like best)
--
WHAT'S YOUR NUMBER
in another unprecedented turn of events, this is ANOTHER fandom where i'd actually, entirely out of character in regards to myself, would like to see established relationship. post-movie and messy and banter-y and ridiculous, with all that it includes. bonus points if it keeps some of the running gags like weird shenanigans where they somehow run into donald AGAIN, much to everyone's collective disbelief. i love the weird situations the characters get into in the movie and their weird personality quirks, and how everything works together to make them... that.
so yeah, slice of life. i've never asked for so much slice of life in my life, which is so extremely weird i can't even begin to describe it. i'd like something not overly mushy, but where the characters are so obviously comfortable with each other and are allowed to share the parts of themselves other people would judge them for. prompts could be something like weird shenanigans to get ally's mom to like colin, or them just hanging out doing weird shit, or running into ally's ex julie and it turns out colin slept with him too pre-transition (or even post! bisexual icons), cue hilarity.
other possible ideas if you don't want to go established are fake dating. i friggin love fake dating. maybe ally can't find a date on time for the wedding (no jake adams reaching back) and doesn't want to be judged too bad, or when tracking down one of her exes they get into a weird shenanigan-y situation where they spontaneously get roped into it and keep escalating, or even try to use it as an excuse for a quick getaway once and then the person they were faking it for ends up being a lot more involved with their lives and they have to keep the pretense up. if you want to go full AU this could be one of those "hired a fake boyfriend on craigslist to get my mom off my back about my dating habits (by either being absolutely horrid, or by being the best date ever after which i'll be absolutely heartbroken and not ready to date anytime soon, sorry mom)" sort of situation. in any case, banter is appreciated!
if you're going for nsfw for this pairing, i really enjoy subversions of what is socially "expected", plus those two would probably be hella kinky (or at least colin would be, and ally wouldn't have considered so many things or would have denied herself those things for appearance's sake when it came to her exes. probably some hangups to explore there). some minor bondage, a little masochism, discussions of pegging would be nice as well ;) (bonus points for colin being into a little pain e.g. pinching, spanking, could go from a normal casual butt slap slight overreaction into “wait, you’re into this?”, cue smut) or we could add a few romcom stupidity shenanigans and turn them smutty, like one of them getting stuck somewhere dumb and in the process of them trying to get the other out they both end up horny and make the situation even worse.
--
thank you so much for staying with me this far! i hope you have a fantastic time this yuletide, and that you end up loving your own requested fic as well!
