Yuletide letter
Oct. 15th, 2020 02:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deep_dark_watersHello! I'm Deepdarkwaters on Ao3 and Tumblr and ambrotypes on Twitter for any recip-stalking needs.
Short version: I'm easy to please and happy to be completely surprised, as long as you don't include the couple of DNWs mentioned below. If you've got something in mind already then do it your way! These are just suggestions - I will honestly love anything about these people. Any rating, any gender pairing if you want to do romance/smut (and if you do, my yes list from the Smut Swap tagset is here if that's helpful). Also some of these fandom sections are longer than the others but it's not an indication of wanting anything more than the rest, there's just sometimes more to say because there are more characters or whatever, or because some of these are things I request in every exchange so there's years of bumf built up.
General fic loves: (probably not applicable to every fandom requested, but I include this in all letters as an overview of some of the things I enjoy reading in whatever combination) worldbuilding/exploration of the canon world; dialogue; description; competence; petty arguments; unreliable narrators; misunderstandings; found families; really old comfy friendships; really old comfy friendships that accidentally/unexpectedly become more; clumsy inappropriate humour; backstories; melancholy; loonngg dragged out UST that feels like it'll never end and then ENDS GLORIOUSLY; awkward imperfect sex where everyone's still having the best time ever; coming in pants; intense physical fight scenes; huge scale destruction; ridiculous things played completely straight for comedy purposes; kissing; when dick-in-hole sex isn't always the end goal or the only type considered 'real' sex; ghosts; stubble burn; beautiful clothes being messed up or torn in passion, or buttoned shirt cuffs or ties or stockings used as restraints etc; anything to do with playing/stroking/pulling/grooming/washing/whatever someone's hair.
Please no: noncon, physical torture, hanging of any kind (choking/breathplay is fine - it's the rope and drop thing I have the trouble with), or hair cutting. If you're writing smut please don't include any kinks not on this list. There are a few fandom-specific DNWs below too.
Crossovers: I'm open to crossovers/fusions in any of these fandoms except Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid, preferably with things that share a similar time/setting (e.g. other WW2 canons for Code Name Verity, other 19th century canons for Spirit, anything set at sea for The Sea Witch, etc). If it's something I don't know then I'll pick it up - I'm almost 100% guaranteed to like it if it has enough if common with any of these things to be a plausible crossover.
Mini-challenges:
Crueltide
Femslash Festivus
Season's Treatings
Wrapping Paper
Yuleporn
Black Eyes - Philippa Pearce
Black Teddy, Lucinda
Probably a bit of a long shot because I've been trying to find this story for years without being able to remember the title or author or very many details and nobody I asked had ever heard of it. I'd just given it up for lost when I happened to find it by chance in a book in charity shop a few months ago! I wondered if it would have lost some of whatever I found so creepy as a child but NOPE it's absolutely horrifying to me still in ways I can't really pinpoint but feel deep in my soul. The point of the story seems to be that Lucinda has a sad lonely home life and she processes difficult feelings through pretending her teddy has the power to make bad things happen, which is kind of not really what I'm interested in. I want the shallower reading of EVIL TEDDY DOES EVIL THINGS. How does that work? Is Lucinda's mother really a witch as she said and replaced Black Teddy's eyes with that power in mind, or is it a poltergeist-ish thing because Lucinda's so unhappy and he's just a conduit? In the story she seems scared of him and throws him in the road in the end, but what if she didn't get rid of him? What would her life be like as she grew up with this ability to make horrible things happen to people? It would be such a cool supervillain origin story. Or going in another direction, if things get easier with her home life would that translate to things getting less malevolent with Black Teddy? Would she end up turning vigilante and using her/Black Teddy's powers for chaotic good? Does Jane ever reconcile with them?
General DNWs for all fandoms: noncon, physical torture, hanging, hair cutting. Specific DNW for this fandom: please nothing about extreme child abuse. Jane's dad mentions that Lucinda's unhappy because "Her mother and father fight like cat and dog. She suffers." That can be awful enough, please no extra trauma on top.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Butch Cassidy, Sundance Kid, Etta Place
I love this film with my entire soul and have received a ton of amazing gifts for it in previous exchanges, but I'm endlessly greedy for more. I ship these characters in every combination possible so take your pick if that's your thing, but equally as happy to read something gen about their travel and adventures and scams as long as there's still a sense of how vital their friendship is.
Possible ideas for gen or shipfic:
What if Etta never left when she did? Or what if she and the guys went somewhere other than Bolivia? What if the two of them escaped the shootout and found her again? Or backstory: how did they all meet? How many times have they saved each others lives, or almost got each other killed? When were they happiest?
Ship/smut specific:
Butch/Sundance: Romantic friendship, friends with benefits, lonely in the middle of nowhere, tropey bed-sharing, omg we're alive sex, stop being a crybaby while I patch you up sex, whatever, I love these faces so much and just want to see them smashed together in any way you desire. (And many millions of bonus points if it's all a bit grimy and stubble burny and they don't really know what they're doing but are still so into it.)
Sundance/Etta: How many mainstream PG-rated films show canonical dubcon sex roleplay? ONE. THIS FILM. Please show me more if that's your thing! Gun kink, undressing, following orders, everything. I love their slightly weary established relationship in the film - is the playing something they started doing to liven things up a bit, or has it been like that for them from the start? Would love to see how they met, their first time, and/or the first time one of them suggested it or tried it. Or more of the established stuff - the way she goes along with it immediately implies it's something they've done a lot, but do they ever switch it up, Etta with a gun and bossing Sundance around? Would he go for that?
Butch/Etta: I'm obsessed with how tender these two are together. They seem so young and sweet and slightly awkward somehow, like first crush teenagers. What's the deal? Have they always been like that? Is the attraction a new development?
Butch/Sundance/Etta: This is the OT3 of my whole life, they're just so messy and beautiful and complicated and there's so much nuance to play about with in the way they all act together. Etta and Sundance are this odd mix of tired and intense, but Etta with Butch is completely different, they're so sweet and sincere. What I really love about this OT3 is the idea of Etta getting different things from the guys, like Etta/Sundance is smoking hot with the roleplay stuff but then there's all that comfortable lovely laughter and cuddles between her and Butch. That contrast is super attractive to me. V or triangle, I'm not fussy, I just love to see people's take on these three as lovers and what makes it all work.
General DNWs for all fandoms: noncon, physical torture, hanging, hair cutting. Specific DNW for this fandom: please nothing that takes place after the end of the film unless it's a fix-it, I don't want any of these characters to die (but don't care if anyone else is killed). Also please no crossovers/fusions for this.
Code Name Verity - Elizabeth Wein
Julie Beaufort-Stuart, Maddie Brodatt
These beautiful characters! Show me ANYTHING about them, individually or together. Canon-compliant (A motorbike trip out in the country on a day off? Under the umbrella during the air raid? A nighttime conversation in their shared room?) or fix-it (What happens after you know what? What changes between them? Is that the catalyst they needed for some swoony omg-I'm-so-glad-we're-alive kissing??) both equally delightful. Or an AU? Maddie and Julie in another time and another war. What's different and what stays the same? I have no real prompts, I just love these sweethearts so so much and I want to read a million novels about them. I'll love anything about deep and infinite friendship or something more, I really don't mind which, or if you only want to write one of the characters then I'd love to know more backstory for Julie especially, or anything about Maddie getting on with things after her either before or after Rose Under Fire. I have a raging competence kink, so anything about either of them at work would be glorious too, anything technical about machinery and flying and espionage and women's work in the war. . Honestly, anything goes here - I love these people like they're family, I just want to know everything. (Bonus: if you know Noel Streatfeild's Petrova Fossil and feel like a crossover, I'd love for these brilliant women to meet and be friends.)
General DNWs for all fandoms: noncon, physical torture (canon-level mentions of Julie's torture are fine, just please don't make that the main focus of the whole thing), hanging, hair cutting.
Spirit - George Roux (Painting 1885)
Ghost, Man
This does the rounds on twitter every few months and I love seeing it every time, it's so striking and intriguing. I love that there's no real consensus about what's going on, and if you ask ten different people to look at it and propose a story you'll get ten different ideas. Has she come back because she loves him? Is she back for revenge because he killed her? Is she some unknown lady haunting his house plinking the piano while he's trying to work? Is he a writer and he's somehow managed to conjure the character from his novel? Does she belong in one of those paintings on the wall but sometimes steps out to wander around the house? Who are these people?? I don't really have any concrete prompts, I'd just love to see what kind of story people can make from this. If it's helpful I'm a massive fan of classic 19th century ghost stories and gothic romances so that sort of mood will always work for me, but really I'm excited to see anything you're inspired to write.
General DNWs for all fandoms: noncon, physical torture, hanging, hair cutting. Specific DNW for this: I have a massive squick about capital punishment for crimes so please don't kill her like that! Any other death is fine.
The Sea Witch - Adrien Amilhat (Painting 2017)
The Sea Witch (Amilhat Painting)
This painting is new to me, I saw it when I went on the Narrative Painting site to check the dates of something else and I haven't been able to stop thinking about her ever since. Is she a witch? A ghost? A goddess who watches over the fishing boats in storms? Or is she stitching the waves into fishing nets for herself? How long has she been there? Are the sailors/fishermen afraid of her or friends with her? What's her story? Does she have other powers? She's so in command of the whole scene - is there a time when she's overcome? Are there more like her or is she the only one? Please tell me anything, I'm fascinated by this tiny glimpse and desperate to know more!
Alternatively, if you're into the idea, I really love the aesthetics of huge wild melodramatic sea storms and sea horror: epic storms, sea battles, shipwrecks, marooned sailors, reluctant cannibalism, shark attacks, the kraken or other similar creatures, anything! I feel she's not a malevolent witch so I'd rather not have anything along the lines of she's causing trouble for sailors, I'd prefer any horror to be more about storms and other people and creatures (maybe other sea witches?) and she does what she can to help.
General DNWs for all fandoms: noncon, physical torture, hanging, hair cutting. Specific DNW for this: I have a massive squick about capital punishment for crimes so if she's a ghost then please don't kill her like that! Any other death is fine.
The Uninvited Guest pt 1 & 2 - Adolph Menzel (Painting Duology 1844-1845)
Death (Menzel Painting)
There's such a great story in these two paintings but I've never been able to pinpoint the exact details of it for myself and I want to know more. Death's come round to do his job and someone's pelted him with wine bottles and thrown him out the window - what is going on?! The inscriptions say "Death has arrived" and then "Always such defenders, etc" but we have no idea who those defenders are: is it their time and they're throwing a tantrum about it, or is it absolutely not their time and they're fighting a skeleton for their lives? What kind of power and/or rock hard will do you need to be able to defenestrate Death himself? Is someone fighting for their own life or are they trying to protect a child, parent, sibling, lover, friend...? Are they right to, or is it a last desperate action? I've always kind of liked the trope of Death being kind and gentle rather than sinister and cruel, but that might not be what serves the story best here. I don't know! Tell me what you think his story is. Optional: is it relevant that the tree outside the window has autumn leaves in the second painting? Does that imply the person or people in the room have been putting him off for a long time already?
General DNWs for all fandoms: noncon, physical torture, hanging, hair cutting. Specific DNW for this: I have a massive squick about capital punishment for crimes so please don't have the death be anything to do with that! Any other death is fine.
Short version: I'm easy to please and happy to be completely surprised, as long as you don't include the couple of DNWs mentioned below. If you've got something in mind already then do it your way! These are just suggestions - I will honestly love anything about these people. Any rating, any gender pairing if you want to do romance/smut (and if you do, my yes list from the Smut Swap tagset is here if that's helpful). Also some of these fandom sections are longer than the others but it's not an indication of wanting anything more than the rest, there's just sometimes more to say because there are more characters or whatever, or because some of these are things I request in every exchange so there's years of bumf built up.
General fic loves: (probably not applicable to every fandom requested, but I include this in all letters as an overview of some of the things I enjoy reading in whatever combination) worldbuilding/exploration of the canon world; dialogue; description; competence; petty arguments; unreliable narrators; misunderstandings; found families; really old comfy friendships; really old comfy friendships that accidentally/unexpectedly become more; clumsy inappropriate humour; backstories; melancholy; loonngg dragged out UST that feels like it'll never end and then ENDS GLORIOUSLY; awkward imperfect sex where everyone's still having the best time ever; coming in pants; intense physical fight scenes; huge scale destruction; ridiculous things played completely straight for comedy purposes; kissing; when dick-in-hole sex isn't always the end goal or the only type considered 'real' sex; ghosts; stubble burn; beautiful clothes being messed up or torn in passion, or buttoned shirt cuffs or ties or stockings used as restraints etc; anything to do with playing/stroking/pulling/grooming/washing/whatever someone's hair.
Please no: noncon, physical torture, hanging of any kind (choking/breathplay is fine - it's the rope and drop thing I have the trouble with), or hair cutting. If you're writing smut please don't include any kinks not on this list. There are a few fandom-specific DNWs below too.
Crossovers: I'm open to crossovers/fusions in any of these fandoms except Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid, preferably with things that share a similar time/setting (e.g. other WW2 canons for Code Name Verity, other 19th century canons for Spirit, anything set at sea for The Sea Witch, etc). If it's something I don't know then I'll pick it up - I'm almost 100% guaranteed to like it if it has enough if common with any of these things to be a plausible crossover.
Mini-challenges:
Crueltide
Femslash Festivus
Season's Treatings
Wrapping Paper
Yuleporn
Black Eyes - Philippa Pearce
Black Teddy, Lucinda
Probably a bit of a long shot because I've been trying to find this story for years without being able to remember the title or author or very many details and nobody I asked had ever heard of it. I'd just given it up for lost when I happened to find it by chance in a book in charity shop a few months ago! I wondered if it would have lost some of whatever I found so creepy as a child but NOPE it's absolutely horrifying to me still in ways I can't really pinpoint but feel deep in my soul. The point of the story seems to be that Lucinda has a sad lonely home life and she processes difficult feelings through pretending her teddy has the power to make bad things happen, which is kind of not really what I'm interested in. I want the shallower reading of EVIL TEDDY DOES EVIL THINGS. How does that work? Is Lucinda's mother really a witch as she said and replaced Black Teddy's eyes with that power in mind, or is it a poltergeist-ish thing because Lucinda's so unhappy and he's just a conduit? In the story she seems scared of him and throws him in the road in the end, but what if she didn't get rid of him? What would her life be like as she grew up with this ability to make horrible things happen to people? It would be such a cool supervillain origin story. Or going in another direction, if things get easier with her home life would that translate to things getting less malevolent with Black Teddy? Would she end up turning vigilante and using her/Black Teddy's powers for chaotic good? Does Jane ever reconcile with them?
General DNWs for all fandoms: noncon, physical torture, hanging, hair cutting. Specific DNW for this fandom: please nothing about extreme child abuse. Jane's dad mentions that Lucinda's unhappy because "Her mother and father fight like cat and dog. She suffers." That can be awful enough, please no extra trauma on top.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Butch Cassidy, Sundance Kid, Etta Place
I love this film with my entire soul and have received a ton of amazing gifts for it in previous exchanges, but I'm endlessly greedy for more. I ship these characters in every combination possible so take your pick if that's your thing, but equally as happy to read something gen about their travel and adventures and scams as long as there's still a sense of how vital their friendship is.
Possible ideas for gen or shipfic:
What if Etta never left when she did? Or what if she and the guys went somewhere other than Bolivia? What if the two of them escaped the shootout and found her again? Or backstory: how did they all meet? How many times have they saved each others lives, or almost got each other killed? When were they happiest?
Ship/smut specific:
Butch/Sundance: Romantic friendship, friends with benefits, lonely in the middle of nowhere, tropey bed-sharing, omg we're alive sex, stop being a crybaby while I patch you up sex, whatever, I love these faces so much and just want to see them smashed together in any way you desire. (And many millions of bonus points if it's all a bit grimy and stubble burny and they don't really know what they're doing but are still so into it.)
Sundance/Etta: How many mainstream PG-rated films show canonical dubcon sex roleplay? ONE. THIS FILM. Please show me more if that's your thing! Gun kink, undressing, following orders, everything. I love their slightly weary established relationship in the film - is the playing something they started doing to liven things up a bit, or has it been like that for them from the start? Would love to see how they met, their first time, and/or the first time one of them suggested it or tried it. Or more of the established stuff - the way she goes along with it immediately implies it's something they've done a lot, but do they ever switch it up, Etta with a gun and bossing Sundance around? Would he go for that?
Butch/Etta: I'm obsessed with how tender these two are together. They seem so young and sweet and slightly awkward somehow, like first crush teenagers. What's the deal? Have they always been like that? Is the attraction a new development?
Butch/Sundance/Etta: This is the OT3 of my whole life, they're just so messy and beautiful and complicated and there's so much nuance to play about with in the way they all act together. Etta and Sundance are this odd mix of tired and intense, but Etta with Butch is completely different, they're so sweet and sincere. What I really love about this OT3 is the idea of Etta getting different things from the guys, like Etta/Sundance is smoking hot with the roleplay stuff but then there's all that comfortable lovely laughter and cuddles between her and Butch. That contrast is super attractive to me. V or triangle, I'm not fussy, I just love to see people's take on these three as lovers and what makes it all work.
General DNWs for all fandoms: noncon, physical torture, hanging, hair cutting. Specific DNW for this fandom: please nothing that takes place after the end of the film unless it's a fix-it, I don't want any of these characters to die (but don't care if anyone else is killed). Also please no crossovers/fusions for this.
Code Name Verity - Elizabeth Wein
Julie Beaufort-Stuart, Maddie Brodatt
These beautiful characters! Show me ANYTHING about them, individually or together. Canon-compliant (A motorbike trip out in the country on a day off? Under the umbrella during the air raid? A nighttime conversation in their shared room?) or fix-it (What happens after you know what? What changes between them? Is that the catalyst they needed for some swoony omg-I'm-so-glad-we're-alive kissing??) both equally delightful. Or an AU? Maddie and Julie in another time and another war. What's different and what stays the same? I have no real prompts, I just love these sweethearts so so much and I want to read a million novels about them. I'll love anything about deep and infinite friendship or something more, I really don't mind which, or if you only want to write one of the characters then I'd love to know more backstory for Julie especially, or anything about Maddie getting on with things after her either before or after Rose Under Fire. I have a raging competence kink, so anything about either of them at work would be glorious too, anything technical about machinery and flying and espionage and women's work in the war. . Honestly, anything goes here - I love these people like they're family, I just want to know everything. (Bonus: if you know Noel Streatfeild's Petrova Fossil and feel like a crossover, I'd love for these brilliant women to meet and be friends.)
General DNWs for all fandoms: noncon, physical torture (canon-level mentions of Julie's torture are fine, just please don't make that the main focus of the whole thing), hanging, hair cutting.
Spirit - George Roux (Painting 1885)
Ghost, Man
This does the rounds on twitter every few months and I love seeing it every time, it's so striking and intriguing. I love that there's no real consensus about what's going on, and if you ask ten different people to look at it and propose a story you'll get ten different ideas. Has she come back because she loves him? Is she back for revenge because he killed her? Is she some unknown lady haunting his house plinking the piano while he's trying to work? Is he a writer and he's somehow managed to conjure the character from his novel? Does she belong in one of those paintings on the wall but sometimes steps out to wander around the house? Who are these people?? I don't really have any concrete prompts, I'd just love to see what kind of story people can make from this. If it's helpful I'm a massive fan of classic 19th century ghost stories and gothic romances so that sort of mood will always work for me, but really I'm excited to see anything you're inspired to write.
General DNWs for all fandoms: noncon, physical torture, hanging, hair cutting. Specific DNW for this: I have a massive squick about capital punishment for crimes so please don't kill her like that! Any other death is fine.
The Sea Witch - Adrien Amilhat (Painting 2017)
The Sea Witch (Amilhat Painting)
This painting is new to me, I saw it when I went on the Narrative Painting site to check the dates of something else and I haven't been able to stop thinking about her ever since. Is she a witch? A ghost? A goddess who watches over the fishing boats in storms? Or is she stitching the waves into fishing nets for herself? How long has she been there? Are the sailors/fishermen afraid of her or friends with her? What's her story? Does she have other powers? She's so in command of the whole scene - is there a time when she's overcome? Are there more like her or is she the only one? Please tell me anything, I'm fascinated by this tiny glimpse and desperate to know more!
Alternatively, if you're into the idea, I really love the aesthetics of huge wild melodramatic sea storms and sea horror: epic storms, sea battles, shipwrecks, marooned sailors, reluctant cannibalism, shark attacks, the kraken or other similar creatures, anything! I feel she's not a malevolent witch so I'd rather not have anything along the lines of she's causing trouble for sailors, I'd prefer any horror to be more about storms and other people and creatures (maybe other sea witches?) and she does what she can to help.
General DNWs for all fandoms: noncon, physical torture, hanging, hair cutting. Specific DNW for this: I have a massive squick about capital punishment for crimes so if she's a ghost then please don't kill her like that! Any other death is fine.
The Uninvited Guest pt 1 & 2 - Adolph Menzel (Painting Duology 1844-1845)
Death (Menzel Painting)
There's such a great story in these two paintings but I've never been able to pinpoint the exact details of it for myself and I want to know more. Death's come round to do his job and someone's pelted him with wine bottles and thrown him out the window - what is going on?! The inscriptions say "Death has arrived" and then "Always such defenders, etc" but we have no idea who those defenders are: is it their time and they're throwing a tantrum about it, or is it absolutely not their time and they're fighting a skeleton for their lives? What kind of power and/or rock hard will do you need to be able to defenestrate Death himself? Is someone fighting for their own life or are they trying to protect a child, parent, sibling, lover, friend...? Are they right to, or is it a last desperate action? I've always kind of liked the trope of Death being kind and gentle rather than sinister and cruel, but that might not be what serves the story best here. I don't know! Tell me what you think his story is. Optional: is it relevant that the tree outside the window has autumn leaves in the second painting? Does that imply the person or people in the room have been putting him off for a long time already?
General DNWs for all fandoms: noncon, physical torture, hanging, hair cutting. Specific DNW for this: I have a massive squick about capital punishment for crimes so please don't have the death be anything to do with that! Any other death is fine.
