Yuletide 2017

[hearteating]

Dear Yuletide Author,

Thanks for writing for me! I'm hearteating here and on AO3. Below my general likes and DNWs, and then fandom-specific prompts and ideas. I'm looking forward to whatever you produce, and I hope you have fun with your assignment.

General/Narrative Likes: monsters; magical realism; larger-than-life characters/scenarios; canon-divergent AUs; non-mundane AUs; future-fic; adventure; character studies; need vs want vs have; missing scenes; ethical dilemmas; friendship; found/made family; competence; cooking; dream sequences (that aren’t the entire fic); banter; fight sequences; introspection; worldbuilding; time travel; loyalty (to people or to causes); casefic

Ship-related Likes: Complicated feelings; bad at feelings; friends-to-lovers; enemies-to-lovers; slow burn; awkward flirting; fake relationships turned real; intimacy; sensory details; handholding; pining; forehead-touching; hand-holding

Smut Stuff: intercrural; orgasm delay/denial; multiple orgasms; overstimulation; awkward sex; hand kink; oral; messy sex; nonpenetrative sex; bloodplay; manhandling; hair kink; power dynamics; laughter during sex; body worship; consent issues due to outside forces; eye contact during sex

DNW: Pregnancy; body horror or body modification beyond canon-levels; A/B/O; incest; major character death (permanent); infidelity/cheating as a focus or plot point; medical kink; underage (15 and under); hopeless endings; mundane AUs; issuefic


Killjoys
D'avin Jaqobi; Fancy Lee
Watch it here

Killjoys is my favorite current sci-fi show- I like the visuals, the dialogue, and the wordbuilding. I love how tropey and fun it can be, and it has some great emotional beats that feel like a punch in the gut. The characters are all larger-than-life, but it works with the feel of the show and the world. The relationships between the leads are strong and well-done and I don't think there's a main character I actively dislike. That said, fic between D'avin and Fancy is nonexistent (as of this letter), so I'm requesting them. All other characters more than welcome to show up.

I confess, when I first met D'avin my first thought was 'Ugh, this guy.' You know, the strong-jawed jock with a tragic past who will probably take over the plot and have an obnoxious romance with the lead. But he grew on me, and now I am incredibly fond of this goofball jock. I love how much he cares about Dutch and Johnny, the extremes he'll go to for their sakes. His willingness to go to extremes, in general.

Fancy, I liked right from the start: handsome, competent, self-aware, and wry. I was delighted to see more of him in S2, traveling with Khlyen and being Hullen, and even more delighted to see him in S3, dealing with the aftermath.

I like each character on their own, but D'avin and Fancy together? Amazing. From their 'allies, I guess' interactions in S1, to their antagonistic relationship in S2, to their trust and understanding in S3, these two have fantastic chemistry and bring out the best/worst in each other. Their banter is great, and I hope they have more scenes together in S4 (I hope Fancy has more scenes, period). Also, I ship them.

Prompts if you want them:

• Fancy gets Hullenized again, and D'avin uses his power over the Green to de-Hullenize him again (From a distance? With his dick? Originally from a distance but, as things go on, D'avin's Magical DeHullenizing Dick makes an appearance? You decide!).
• Canon-divergent Red 17 fic, ft Fancy as a new Hullen and D'avin as a medical curiosity/prisoner, desperate for familiarity
• Fancy and D'avin go on a mission together. This could be post-S3, canon-divergent, a 'missing mission,' whatever! Maybe they're trying to gather intelligence for the war, or maybe they're collecting a bounty, or maybe they stumbled onto something by accident and are now stuck together.
• Something exploring the similarities and differences between them. There was that great moment in S3 where D'avin shared how he understood what it was like to be controlled by something in your head, to live with that shame and knowledge, and I am 100% interested in hearing more about it.
• More about what life is like for the Cleansed! I felt cheated that we only got hints about what life was like for them, and I'd love a Fancy-focused fic on what life is like, and what it means that D'avin wants them to fight in the war.

Feel free to get dark, or string 500 of your favorite tropes together, or anything along those lines. You want to write a Groundhog Day-style fic where Fancy and D'avin pretend to be dating at a Green spa and D'avin has to spend the entire time trying to hide the fact that the Green hates him? I love it. You want to write weird messed up fic about guilt and loss of bodily autonomy and trying to reclaim who you are? I am so there. D'avin and Fancy accidentally bump into each other in the armory and bitch at each other about who deserves the last [really cool weapon]? Nice. Future-fic where they've both retired from missions and never expected to grow old and are at a loss what to do with themselves? Hell yes.


Always Crashing in the Same Car
Bill Mackinnon; James Booth
Watch it here

I love this short- it's both hot and unsettling, and it has Paul McGann and Richard E Grant. I am very interested in reading more about the power dynamics of Bill and James' relationship, and how it has evolved and continues to evolve.

• If you want to write smut for this, a) I am all for that, and b) feel free to check out my Smut Swap letter from earlier this year. I'd love to read about Bill having the upper hand, and James being shamefully into it.
• It's implied in the short that Bill has been the man behind the curtain for several years. How did it start? Did he handpick James, or has Bill always gone after the person at the top, whoever they are? Both options are really interesting to me.
• What does Bill do with the tapes? Are there any further instances of James fucking up and Bill cleaning up after him? Post-short fic would be great!
• I like the canon setting, but also...space opera AU

I can't think of any other prompts, so if you already have an idea of what you want to write, go for it. There are a lot of directions I think you could go for this canon, and I'd love to read any take on it.


Daniel Blackland series
Gabriel Argent; Max

I love the worldbuilding in these books. Bone eating! Cannibalism! Water magic through signs and sigils! Bureaucracy! The alternate history! There's so much hinted at and ripe for exploration. Honestly, if you want to write for this series but are struggling with writing Gabriel and Max, you can't go wrong with worldbuilding (or cannibalism).

I have a huge weakness for bureaucracy in fantasy settings, so it's no surprise that I love Gabriel Argent, dedicated civil servant. He's an unathletic nerd who believes in doing good for its own sake, but he's also not immune to power plays or murder. He's manipulative and tired and he makes noises about how smart he is when no one else does.

And then there's Max, the magically-modified dog person! I love his progression from suicidal hound to Assistant Director of the Water Department, from not trusting anyone to being willing to shoot his best friend for his own good. Also he apparently looks like a beaky-nosed silver fox suit model, and I am very into that.

Together, I love their loyalty to one another and their camaraderie. I ship them, because they hit my deep love of loyalty and willingness to do terrible things for/to one another, but if you don't and want to write about other aspects of their relationship, that's cool.

Prompts if you want them:

• "Are you fucking my hound?"- Considering how Gabriel was very careful in trying to establish a sense of equality between him and Max, and not to make Max feel like he was a thing, how would their relationship change if they were fucking (from the start)? Would it be a power play on one of their parts? Gabriel trying to keep Max loyal or Max trying to make sure Gabriel finds him useful? Would it change things down the line?
• Osteomancer!Gabriel AU- I feel like this would be pretty dark, but I'm also very intrigued by how osteomancer!Gabriel would be different from how he is in canon. How would his and Max's relationship be different, considering Max's sensitive nose and Gabriel's relatives?
• What happened during the ten years between California Bones and Pacific Fire? What sort of power plays went down in LA that the new Director of the Water Department and his Assistant Director had to deal with? How did the progression from allies to best friends go, and did they even notice the progression? How many attempts on Gabriel's life have they had to deal with (or on Max's life)? How many people assume they're fucking, and are they/did they?
• What happens after? Getting shot didn't stop Gabriel from working, and Max stays by his side, so does this continue? Does Gabriel train up a protege or do they go out in a blaze of glory or what? If you want them to go out in a blaze of glory, then consider the 'permanent major character death' DNW lifted, but please don't linger on the process of them actually dying.
• What was Max's life like before Gabriel?

Please feel more than free to include any other characters from the series, or make some up. There is currently one (1) fic for this series, and I've read it multiple times, and I'd love to have another fic for this series to also read multiple times.


Lightless
Any

I love this series- the two overarching plots of intragalactic rebellion and the birth of an AI with unfathomable power, and how they come together; the concepts of found/created family (for better and for worse) and how even things done with the best of intentions can have terrible consequences; the way the second two books compliment each other; the characters. And I like the different atmosphere of each book- claustrophobic/psychological, expansive, and more personal.

Althea spends much of the series in over her head, a tech who just wanted to hang out with a cool ship on a research mission and now has to deal with spies and war and her ship gaining sentience and needing to be fostered. And she tries her best with Ananke, she really does! It's just that if you're a new AI with ridiculous amounts of power, your moral compass may not be aligned with mere mortals. I'm really curious as to what happens with Althea, who does love her terrible ship even as she's a scared prisoner.

Ananke, the aforementioned newborn AI, is fascinating. Born in violence, terrified of being alone, refuses to take 'no' for an answer. She's a tantrum-throwing god and the biggest threat on the scene, and I am so interested in her- how she thinks and what she does next and her relationship with her "parents."

Ivan and Mattie are essentially a package deal, in that so much of what we know about them is wrapped up in each other. There's their childhoods, of course, but once they met? It's hard for even Constance to imagine them without each other. Ivan's been part of the revolution his whole life, and Mattie only half cares about it. I just really enjoy their dynamic- best friends with a messy history and priorities that don't always line up and who love each other.

I'd be delighted to receive anything for this series- it would mean someone else has read it! If you would like prompts, however:

• What happens next? For Althea, who defied Ananke? For Mattie and Ivan, together now but heading towards an unstable rebellion? For Ananke, who has been rejected by all three of her "parents"? Where does the revolution, fractured and scared, go from here? Does Ananke go after Mattie and Ivan again?
• We know Ivan flirts with/seduces targets, and we see Mattie's jealousy. I'd love to read about Ivan undertaking a longer-term seduction and how that affects his relationship with Mattie. Pining, unstated (unrecognized?) feelings, sexual tension...all good. If you want to keep it in-line with canon and leave everything unspoken, that's cool, or if you want to go canon-divergent and have something happen between them, that's also cool.
• More about Ananke and Althea's relationship. Althea tried to kill Ananke, and Ananke punished her in a horrific manner. Now they're stuck with each other, so how does that go?
• I'd love to read more about Ivan, Mattie, and Constance, pre-series. I know Constance isn't nominated (four slot limit :/), but she's a huge part of their characters, so if you want to write about her, please do!
• Worldbuilding! There's so much that can be done with worldbuilding, and I'd be delighted to read any of it.

Again, pretty much anything for this series would make me happy, and I think there are a lot of directions you could go. Also, if you've read the series and want to talk about it, even if you don't want to write for it, please feel free to hit me up!