Yuletide 2021 Dear Author Letter

[speakingwosound]

 

Hello Dear Author Anon!

Thank you so much for participating in Yuletide 2021. It's my favorite challenge of the year and I'm so glad we've matched. This letter is long, but please, please, please don't get intimidated. You love my small, underserved fandoms as much as I do so, honestly, I'm going to love anything you write!

I'm going to start with some general likes and dislikes, and then dig deeper into each fandom. 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 or infidelity, unhappy endings (although I’m definitely onboard with unhappy beginnings), de-aging fics, or stereotypical gender roles. First or second-person POV.

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. 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 AUs, high school AUs, college AUs).

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!

Prompts (in no order I promise!) below:

For All Mankind - Margo, Molly

For All Mankind has taken me by storm the past couple months. I don’t know why it took me so long, because it was all my favorite things: the space race; alt-history; fascinating pop culture references; amazingly-drawn, intelligent, ambitious women who often share the screen together; equally complicated men who make mistakes and (often) learn from them. I’ve requested Margo/Molly because I adore their dynamic (the tension, the bristled support, the understanding only really the two of them can have together), but I love a lot of the other characters. Feel free to include Gordo/Ed or Molly & Ed as platonic soulmates or anyone else you’re drawn to.

• Because I’m enamored with the alt-history world, I’d prefer to stay canon or canon with a slight twist (e.g. I always love soulmates! Or another speculative element on top of the canon-world). I will honestly read anything Molly/Margo, but a few moments/character bits that have stood out to me:From the first moment, they were testing each others’ limits. Margo calling Molly on her reentry equations and Molly finishing the test in record time is both a challenge and a recognition that they’re equals in ambition, talent, and ego. Does Margo find Molly later and give her her test results before pushing her into a supply closet to make out? Does this start a back-and-forth challenge that continually has them competing? 
• That scene early in season 1 at the jazz club, with Molly leaning forward in her chair to stare at Margo playing the piano. Followed by Margo’s insistence that Molly maintain her secret. How often does Molly go back to see her play? How often do they get a hotel room afterwards?
• They represent the first woman in space and the first female head of the program. They know what it’s like to face the pressure of perfection. How have they pushed each other to get there? Do they take solace in each others’ understanding of their position?
• Anything with Molly on the moon. That’s it, that’s the prompt.
• I lied. It’s fascinating to think about Molly and Margo communicating while Molly is on the moon. How do they find private time? Do they speak in coded letters? Do they bottle everything up until Molly returns? How much of all of this does Molly share with Ed?

Game Changers - Ilya, Shane

I haven’t been in hockey rpf fandom for almost a decade now, but these romance books bowled me over this summer. I don’t have a good explanation. There’s something about rivals who have been in love since they were babies, stumbling through the NHL together and having to hide themselves behind closed doors (or, in Shane’s case, in empty investment properties). I adore both these boys equally: Shane’s naive innocence laced with ego and a healthy awareness of his position in the NHL and in Montreal generally fits so well with Ilya’s gruff no-holds-barred exterior that encases the soft boy who has never been loved.

I don’t have a ton of specific requests for this fandom. Ilya and Shane’s sequel comes out next spring and I need anything that will hold me over. Give me a quiet scene between the two of them at the lake house. Give me a fic at their charity hockey school. Give me Ilya coming out to his team (as the fifth book is so clearly building towards, what a tease of a book). Give me Troy awkwardly coming to Ilya’s for dinner with him and Shane. Give me Ilya and Shane at one of Fabian’s shows with Ryan. Give me Scott finally getting his head out of his ass and seeing that Ilya and Shane are together. I’m kind of obsessed with the Ottawa team so give me anything with any of them. See? Promised I’ll be happy with anything!

Ted Lasso - Ted, Trent

This is another show that I waited too long to see. I’ve devoured both seasons over the past few weeks, but I was struggling to figure out who to slash until I saw this brilliant video and I. Was. Sold. Ted and Trent (Crimm, The Independent) have such an achingly slow and sweet relationship built on both mutual respect and the natural antagonism of their jobs. Ted’s natural energy is balanced by Trent’s calm thoughtfulness. Ted’s warmth and optimism are needed contrasts to Trent’s general pessimism at the current world order.

As is clearly a theme in this letter, I will read and love anything Ted/Trent. A few specific prompts/thoughts if that’s more helpful though:

• Any moment from that same brilliant video, from a Ted/Trent perspective.
• This is the full article that Trent wrote about Ted’s anxiety at the end of season 2. Tell me Trent wasn’t desperately in love while writing that article?
• Speaking of, I like the idea of Trent quitting his job because he’s too in love with Ted to keep that conflict of interest between them. What if Ted took him up on his offer to drive Ted home? What if that conversation outside the stadium had gone more like a declaration of love? What if Trent came by the next day with the morning paper and a coffee and an offer of a date?
• I can also see them getting together at the very beginning of the show. Maybe they sleep together the night before Ted’s first day with the team, not knowing who each other is. They’d have to stay apart for their jobs. How does that go? When do they slip up? When do they look across the press room and want each other so much it hurts?
• What’s Trent’s next move? Does he work with the team? If so, do he and Ted get closer over the next football season?
• I also really love all the other characters. Please feel free to incorporate Rebecca or Keeley (or Rebecca/Keeley) or Roy or Coach Beard!

Crooked RPF - Dan, Jon, Lovett, Tommy

 

My perennial fandom! I’ve requested Crooked a lot, so if you want even more Crooked ideas feel free to scroll back for previous YT, Crooked Secret Santa, and Crooked Exchange letters. This year, I’ve requested all four of the boys. I’d LOVE an OT4 fic, but also please feel free to write the permutations within OT4. My favorite pairings besides OT4 are danlo, jonjon, and danjonjon. The only things I ask are that the fic includes Dan and doesn’t include any of the boys’ real life partners.

For inspiration, here’s my top OT4 moments and a list of my Top 15 Dan moments. Here are a few more specific prompts if 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 everyone’s born with their soulmates’ name on their wrist, Lovett doesn’t have one name he has three; in a world where soulmates have a psychic component, Jon's mind opens to his soulmate(s) at the exact time he's starting his dream job
• 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; Dan never went to his interview with Obama and stayed a congressional aide; Tommy took the job with Senator Kennedy and never joined the Obama team; Lovett’s comedy writing took off before he entered politics
• Full AUs work excellently too: the boys were born in a different decade/century; Dan is a high-powered executive at a soul-sucking company; 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!; the apocalypse has come and Crooked are fighting for their lives; the country has descended into a second civil war
• Finally, canon and future fic based on canon work excellently too! Any instance of road trips or the HBO specials, or canvassing - these are all excellent opportunities!
• (I lied again) Finally, finally, I like the entire Crooked team (e.g. Michael, Elijah, Tanya, Alyssa from afar), so if you’d like to incorporate them I’d be very into it!