Secret Santa 2020 Dear Author Letter

 

Hello Dear Author Anon!

Thank you so much for participating in Crooked Secret Santa 2020! I had so much fun last year, receiving and gifting stockings of Crooked art, and I’m so glad we’ve matched this year. This letter is a bit of a mess because I’m into so many of the nominated pairings, but please bear with me!

I'm going to start with some general likes and dislikes, and then dig deeper into prompts. Everything in this letter is, of course, optional. But, when I write for these challenges I love having as much detail as possible, so I'm going to try to give you as much of that as I can.

Finally, I only use DW for DA letters these days, so please check me out on AO3 and tumblr.

General Likes: I love romance (first time or established relationships, doesn’t matter), especially with an earned happy ending. I adore coming out fics, fics about people (friends, family, press) finding out, outsider POV stories, future fic, h/c, fake dating, and found families. The more people involved (family, found families, coworkers) the better. I’m always down with world-building tropes that twist the world a bit but don't change it entirely, like soulbonds, name-on-wrists, and touch/emotional telepathy. I particularly enjoy fics that deal with overcoming societal expectations of gender and sexuality and characters struggling to deal with insecurities while trying to fit in with fame and what's expected from 'jock'/political/entertainment culture.

DNWs: Not a big fan of BDSM, unequal power dynamics, break-ups for infidelity, unhappy endings (although I’m definitely onboard with unhappy beginnings), de-aging fics, or stereotypical gender roles. First or second-person POV. Please no references to Rolo, Ronan, or Hanna.

Re: real-life partners: I’m fine with pretending the partner doesn’t/never has existed. I’m also good with fics where the partner is a best friend/beard, or where they dated but now no longer date. I'm also fine with post-divorce fic (although I'd rather that be way in the past and not have characters dwelling on it all fic). Any of those are cool! 

Re: AUs: I love alternate histories and AUs that play within the same story world. I also love sci fi AUs, robot AUs, dystopian fics and all sorts of future AUs. I do not, however, like mundane AUs (coffee shop AU, high school AU, college AU).

Re: Holiday Fics: I’m not a huge holiday fic person, but I do celebrate both Hanukkah and Christmas, so if the holiday is an incidental part of a fic, I don’t mind it. 

Re: Ratings: Pure smut isn’t my favorite, but other than that write what you’re comfortable with/wherever the story takes you!

Also, I've left my tumblr anon open if you have any questions throughout the exchange!

I’ve requested a, ahh, inordinate number of pairings: danlo, davs, dommy, OT4,  danjonjon, dan/elijah, elijah/michael, emlyssa, emlyssatanya, pritanya, pritanyaelijah, and commune (jon/tommy/lovett/dan/alyssa/elijah/michael/pri/tanya/em. So, I’m going to list some overall prompts and themes that would work for every pairing. Please feel free to adapt for different characters as you’d like!

• I always love soulmate AUs:
  • In a world where everyone's born with their soulmates' name(s) on their wrist, Dan's wrists are bare
  • In a world where your soulmate’s name is tattooed on your wrist, Jon has two names.  That might be okay in liberal places, like Oregon or Colorado, but it is definitely not okay in the wasp-y suburbs of Boston
  • In a world where soulmates have a psychic component, Dan's mind opens to his soulmate(s) at the exact time he's starting his dream job that also happens to contain a lot of sensitive information
• I’m also obsessed with canon-divergence:
  • Dan's knees didn't give out so he gave basketball a real chance instead of going to Georgetown
  • Lovett’s comedy career took off in NY before he joined the Clinton campaign
  • Dan never went to his interview with Obama and stayed a congressional aide. Maybe Tommy never went to his either.
  • Jon hired that other speechwriter
• But full AUs work excellently too:
  • They were born a few decades earlier but still met up on Harvey Milk’s campaign
  • Or in the Crusades
  • Or during the French Revolution
  • Tanya is a high-powered executive at a soul-sucking company, and only Pri and Em can make her realize it
  • DanJonJon as tired, worn-out cable pundits desperate for something different
  • Em and Alyssa meet each other working on the ERA
  • Reality TV AU (some ideas here, here, and here)
• Particularly sci-fi and dystopian AUs:
  • Transport the Crooked world onto a space station or an intergalactic government
  • Robots!
  • Pri and Tanya and Elijah are space pirates reluctantly working together to pull of a heist
  • A meteor hits the Atlantic Ocean and Crooked is, most literally, the last radio show on Earth
  • The country has descended into a second civil war
• Speaking of, I don't generally want a fic dealing with the pandemic, but I am fascinated by the idea of a Democratic National Convention bubble, ala the NBA bubble. The team, locked in a small space with an awful lot of his favorite people at a time where anxieties are running high
• I also love a good future fic:
  • e.g. Lovett’s 2028 Iowa caucus or Dan’s Senate office or Jon’s Gubernatorial campaign (any and all permutations of political campaigns/office), giving local speeches, shaking lots of hands, coordinating interns who are younger than they ever were, fighting back against quotes and pictures taken from their podcast days (I’m picturing ‘20 Hours in America’, PODSA style)
• Or a good canon fic:
  • Anything about Lovett's short hospital stay in Texas
  • Anything around the Kennedy Center Q&A
  • I’ve put together lists of my top OT4 and top Dan moments, any fic jumping off any of these moments would be excellent!
• Finally, some commune-specific prompts:
  • The aforementioned DNC bubble
  • Hospitality industry (e.g. hotelworkers, cruise ship, Below Deck AU?, running a Dude Ranch) workers who drown their frustrations in each other
  • An Away AU, a Lady Astronauts AU, any fic that takes place in a spaceship or on the Moon or Mars, the commune forming Earth’s newest colony
  • Vegas Casino workers who have a whole lot of fun once the guests go to bed
  • A future or past (or, let’s be real, current) resistance movement
  • A 1960s pot smoking, protesting, meal-sharing commune becomes a romantic and sexual commune
  • In front of or behind the camera sports AU: athletes attending the Olympics, anchors broadcasting the Olympics
  • A morning news show. A cable news show. A sports show.