storing penguins

Dear Yuletide Author,

Happy Yuletide! Thank you so much for writing for me! I hope that your assignment is fun for you, and I'm sure that I will love whatever it is you produce! I'm absolutely looking forward to it.

I hope that this letter gives you some idea of the fic I tend to steer towards. You can also check out my bookmarks on Ao3 at mnemosyne or my tumblr at threefeettotheleft. Or read back my other fic challenge letters, which is all I appear to use this journal for. These are mostly guidelines, I'd appreciate it if my triggers/squicks list was respected, but as for the ideas and prompts, feel free to chuck those if you don't feel like that's the thing you want to write. Also, if I mention additional characters/ships - these are for flavour only, they're not requests for content, I promise. 

Onwards!


In general, I tend not to read fics with explicit sex or violence, it's just not my cup of tea. I also am not particularly here for angst - I do sad, bittersweet, but angst or whump, without optimism is not my favourite thing. I can go for a little hurt/comfort, with the emphasis on the comfort. This isn't to say i need totally happy fluffy fics (I am the queen of bittersweet), but i do like things where characters get to feel hope and maybe even happiness.


Triggers/Squicks:
Sibling death
alcoholism
non-con, coercion
child abuse
explicit torture/gore/body horror (there is a FtWD caveat to this - canon levels of walker gore, I do not mind. but preferably not on living humans)


Fear the Walking Dead
Nick Clark, Victor Strand

I actually loved the slowness of season one and the creeping horror of a world that wasn't quite yet falling apart, or at least, not admitting that it was. Don't get me wrong, I the more TWD style of walker action scenes, but i think both shows shine when they focus on the way the characters try to keep hold of or adjust their humanity in the apocalypse.

Victor Strand is easily my favourite character on the show. I'm interested in the way that he appears initially to be such a cool tactician, and then we gradually learn that it's not so much that he's leading with his head, but that he has specific goals in mind, and is constantly evaluating the roots to them. He's sensible and pragmatic, and even ruthless at times, but he is outstandingly loyal when he chooses to be and he clearly loves very deeply. I enjoyed the relationship he developed with Nick over the course of series one, and the way he connects to each member of the Clark family later on. Nick also fascinates me, in his constant search for understanding. He's self-centered, I think, rather than selfish, but I feel also something of a romantic in a very old fashioned sense of the word, he wants to cling to an ideal of something, but hasn't found it yet. The two of them are a study in contrasts, which is part of what makes them such a wonderful pairing, romantic or otherwise. Another character I love seeing interact with these two is Alicia. She's another character with a streak of pragmatism that can bring her into conflict with not only Nick, but herself - she wants to allow herself to focus on her own needs much more, but between looking after Nick, and looking after herself when her mother's focus was elsewhere, she's never really had the chance. And I do think that Nick and Alicia love each other deeply - I'm just not sure that they particularly Iike each other.

In terms of canon, I am just about to catch up with all of FtWD and have seen all of TWD. If you want to play with any of the TWD universe or characters, feel free, that could be very cool. 

Ideas:

- reunions
- anything about Strand's previous life (it's ok if Nick isn't in the fic)
- missing moments/scenes of Nick and Strand on the Abigail



Turn: Washington's Spies
Robert Townsend, John Andre

Just as with the previous fandom, I do have one preference for a character if you can only do one character, and that character is Robert Townsend. If you don't feel like you can work Andre into the fic you're writing, well then, that's sad for John Andre, but not so much for me. Obviously though, I love them both and if Andre is the focus, that's fine. He's just not... mandatory. I had the good fortune of visiting Oyster Bay earlier this year, and let me tell you, my fascination for the historical figure of Robert Townsend is in no way in conflict with my adoration of the fictional. I think it's a wholly respectful dramatisation of this interesting man.

It may become slightly obvious that I really adore characters with a strong duality in their nature, and Robert's public reticence vs his private passions is like catnip to me. In a series in which a lot of people pride themselves on being clever, Robert simply is. He has a sharp mind and strong morals, and appears to be constantly calculating, whilst rarely letting anyone see that. In many ways Andre is a schoolboy next to Robert, wearing his emotions rather more on his sleeve, even as he tries to be the more calculating, ruthless sort. They are both men of deep convictions that can override their personal feelings - but those feelings are no less strong and heartfelt for all that. I don't think either of them are bad men - and I don't think that, even though they are on opposing sides - Robert feels that of Andre either. 

Also, Robert is definitely the Responsible Adult of the Culper Ring and the best part is he knows it.

As a note, I am super not here for Abe/Robert or Anna/Robert. 

Ideas: 

- Robert reacting to Andre's execution, maybe with him interacting with his father, or other members of the Culper Ring. Or Abigail! Abigail is pretty great too.
- ok, I can do a Robert/Andre ship, idek man I just love the two of them maybe connecting on one level, but being totally opposed on the other? I am all about the internal conflicts there
- I'm really fond of Samuel Townsend too, so anything where Robert's father either comes to visit him, or he goes back home would be great
- sort of future!fic? Post war, Robert in later life.
- Robert and Andre and all of Andre's Many Feelings because Andre has So Many Feelings All of the Time
- Andre's a poet and an artist and m-a-y-b-e he could [non-romantic] discuss Art and Poetry with Robert | [romantic] discuss "Art" and "Poetry" with Robert (I kid - like, I am definitely about Andre doing art that features Robert in some way).


New Warriors
Rina Patel, Robbie Baldwin

Oh Rina, Rina, Rina. How I miss you. How underused you have been so far. And you, Robbie. My very favourite Marvel character of all time. 

These two? These two are SO GREAT. I ADORED Rina's determination and inquisitive mind, and how she threw herself right into the middle of danger because she felt she had to. I like that she sought out the New Warriors herself, I like her compassion and her strength. I'd have loved to have seen Rina brought back into the fold, as I think she had so much more to give - alas, all we got was a slightly confusing panel of her being chased by a mob for having powers in Civil War. Robbie is, of course, a much more written about character, having been there from the get go, and around in almost every iteration of the New Warriors going. I don't particularly think his turn to Penance was well handled, but it was an interesting arc - but more and most importantly to me, was the arc he got afterwards, learning to deal with his survivor's guilt and PTSD and take on the Speedball moniker again.

In general, I think the New Warriors canon is a powerful one. They're a diverse cast of very different personalities, but I never felt like the bonds between the core team were forced, banding together so fiercely through storylines that were not about dealing with powered individuals, but things that were happening in their mundane lives. I've read... all of it. Including the new stuff, a chunk of Robbie stuff outside of NW canon (probably everything Robbie's appeared in? Almost everything). But I am not a purist, nor particularly over-attached to any particular team, so anything from the newer iterations to the older is fine by me. I'd prefer Speedball!Robbie over Penance!Robbie, but if you've got something you really want to write that involves Penance, do go ahead.

If it is a shippy fic, I would prefer it if Robbie was his slightly older self - think more 17/18+.

Ideas:
- I'd love to see a version of Rina working with (or just interactive with, no mission needed) the Yost/To team roster - where she's been, what she's been up to, whether or not she has her powers. 
- actually, literally anything with Rina following her last appearance in the comics as a member of the team. I just want to know more about her, her life.
- fic exploring dealing with Robbie being "dead" (when trapped in the kinetic dimension & replaced by an imposter)
- the two of them being dumb nerds in love because they just need some out and out happiness in their lives
- what IF Rina was part of the TV series, hm? What IF.


Critical Role
Jarrett Howarth, Shaun Gilmore, Pike Trickfoot

Aha, that webseries in which a bunch of nerdy ass voice actors get together to play Dungeons and Dragons, leading to much HILARITY and also HEARTBREAK.

Let me get this straight: I love each and every one of these fucking nerds. And I sort of mean the actors, but also I mean the entirety of Vox Machina and their terrible terribleness even as they are heroes doing great things. I'm happy for anyone to turn up in the fic, though obviously, I would like the focus to be firmly on the three characters mentioned. In terms of canon, I'm usually up to the final episode, so don't worry about spoilers, but likewise, don't worry about any canon divergence because there's so much damn canon to be aware of.
I'm not really here for (sorry) Percy/Vex. I am kind of here for Percy/Gilmore and Percy/Pike though, and could be convinced by Jarrett/Gilmore (and Jarrett/Pike. I could ship Pike with quite a lot of people. I love Pike so much. Just. So much, you know?) . So, there's that knowledge for you.

Jarrett and Gilmore are two are two of my (many) favourite NPCs. I love that they both have capital P Pasts and how you can see that informing the way they interact with Vox Machina. I love Jarrett's arrogance and his loyalty, Gilmore's enthusiasm and kindness, and how both of them feel like they've deliberately crafted a public persona, which conceals many layers beneath. Pike, though, is hands down one of my favourite characters in anything ever. I love the gentleness with which Ashley plays her, but also how much she clearly has a zest for life - being best buddies with Grog does let her let out her wild side. Pike is probably the living embodiment of the trope "Good is not soft". One of the great subtleties of Pike's character is the way that she views and talks about herself, as a flawed person, trying her best to better herself, vs the way the others talk about her, often as if she is an authority on morality, faith and goodness. I'm absolutely stuck on having these three characters interact, given that they have all occupied spaces in close proximity, especially all as people "left behind" as it were, by Vox Machina when they've gone adventuring. 

Ideas
- I love the role of religion and faith in D&D, it's one of my favourite parts of the lore to explore. I would love to see fic dealing with the various views and roles of gods in these characters lives.
- I'm totally down for fics with the three of them working together in Whitestone (or, she says optimistically, in Emon), and if you want to have characters like Kash, Cassandra, Zahra, Allura, Kima or Damon cameo, I'm cool with that. And probably encourage it.
- Whilst I'm not sure a fic built around it would be particularly for me, I wouldn't mind if the death of Tiberius is touched on by any/all of the characters, because they all knew him and he was such an integral part of Vox Machina.
- On that note, early fic which does involve Tiberius might also be good. But obvs, i didn't request Tiberius as a character, so don't consider this a request for him. 
- I could go for some pre-Chroma Conclave fic. Hey, maybe Gilmore knows what's up with that steal armour Pike never got around to ordering.
- oh hell, maybe they just all get drunk together because adorable, adorable. 


Jurassic Park trilogy
Alan Grant, Billy Brennan, Ellie Sattler

Ok, so I once wrote a rant about how Jurassic Park 3 is a love story and I absolutely stand by that. Alan, Billy and Ellie are my favourite kinds of people: science nerds. God, they're smart. For the record, I ship every single combination of these three characters (though I've never seen Billy/Ellie), including all three of them together. If you are going down the shipping route, as long as nobody's left heartbroken or sad, I'm cool with it.

I find Ellie and Billy are the more gung ho characters (the "astronauts", if you will). They're the ones jumping feet first into things. It's Ellie who agrees to go to the Park, it's Ellie who grabs the foliage and starts investigating it immediately, it's Ellie who leaps from a moving vehicle to see the triceratops and then later trots off with Muldoon and starts trying to rescue people. Ellie is a hero. And I adore every single one of the things the movie has her saying about women and sexism in survival situations, plus her role in the third film, where even though she is mostly not there, being at home with her child, she is stepping up and being a capable and vital part of saving lives on the island. With Billy, i think we're meant to read the character as a more mercenary type, looking a bit more for the glory/money, but for me, his early scenes parallel Ellie's. Let's not forget that Billy is site manager on Alan's dig because he's capable, he's clever and he's passionate about his work. He leaps at the chance to go to this island, partly because of the money offer (and don't forget both Alan and Ellie choose to go to JP in the first film at least in part because of the money), and partly for the scientific opportunities it grants him. Even his later actions i can well believe are driven by the science. Alan is, of course, their grumpy counterpoint (although it's so heartwarming to see him so thoroughly charmed and enthralled by dinosaurs, even in the third film, when he's gone through so many terrible things by this point). He takes control when he needs to, perfectly willing to place himself in danger when the situation calls for it, but appears to be more willing to let others take the lead in the less life-threatening situations (and certainly the social ones!). So I like the ideas of Billy and Ellie and their taciturn Alan-person just being badass scientist nerds together.

The fandom says trilogy. Let me state for the record: Every. Single. One. Of. These. Movies. I. Love.  All of them. 

Ideas
- Any immediate aftermath of JP3 fic
- If you want to look ahead to JP World, what perhaps would the three of them make of it? Would they go at all? Were they involved in its creation?
- how the characters try and go back to their lives - perhaps Billy seeks advice from Alan and Ellie?
- when did Billy start working with Alan? When did Ellie stop?
- Billy and Ellie bonding time! They've got to know each other.
- AU in which Ellie appears in JP3

Hi!

Thank you so much for checking out this letter from my multitude of requests. I appreciate the time and hope that you will have fun fulfilling the prompts. The reason I left the details to the letter is that I am generally easy going about what I want to see. It's the same reason I left open so many fandoms - I would be totally absolutely happy with anything from any of them!

If you want to see stuff that I write and rec, I'm mnemosyne on Ao3 and threefeettotheleft on Tumblr.

Here's what I wrote for Yuletide, and is probably still the same best summary of stuff I like:
"In general, I prefer my fics on the lower end of the ratings spectrum, I don't mind sex scenes, but in truth, tend to skip over them (a habit borne of reading entirely too much badly written smut, sorry). I love character driven stories - you know those bottle episodes of TV shows in which people get stuck places and are forced to talk to each other about stuff? I'm so into that. This isn't to say I don't appreciate a good plot, but characters are my bag. In romances, I like to see a relationship begin and grow, esp if it's non-canon - I like to see how a point is reached.

I'm an optimist. I like optimistic stories; they don't have to be happy stories, but I tend not to look for angst, tragedy or deep cynicism.

Yay: Bonding, first kisses, respect, supportiveness, competence, working together, banter, discovering truths, earned happy endings, nerding out (over whatever interest), fake dating/fake married leading to romance, quiet moments in a storm.
Nay: Humiliation, angst, explicit sexual situations, explicit violence, torture, character death, a/b/o, pregnancy/kidfic, tragedy (without optimism), cruelty, established non-canon relationships (ie, prefer getting together), character bashing (beyond established canon)

Triggers/Squicks: Alcoholism, character death (particularly if sibling death - big flashing trigger, please do not), relationships with large power imbalances."


The specifics! Totally, totally guidelines only.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
group: Julian Bashir & Elim Garak (DS9)

I shipped this ever since I saw their first meeting. One's a Cardassian spy, the other a naive human doctor who likes to pretend to be a spy. I love the give and take of their relationship, the way they both spend so much time learning about each other, needling each other, helping each other and protecting each other. There's a lot of respect there, even when they pretend there isn't. I was so glad that they got a closing scene together at the end of the series, a testament to an unorthodox, but deep friendship. Or romance. Definitely romance. Would totally love to see something between them post-series, but that's entirely optional.



Star Trek: Voyager
group: Harry Kim & B'Elanna Torres (VOY)

Nerds! They're nerds. They are hilarious, competent, nerds. Who love each other dearly. I love the idea of Harry and B'Elanna, reluctant BFFs.



Z Nation (TV)
Cassandra (Z Nation) Roberta Warren (Z Nation)

I'd prefer if Cassandra was pre-zombie Cassandra. They're the both of them strong, smart women, very tough and private. It would be great to see something of them bonding, in a way we never really got to see in the show itself. Alternatively, no-zombification Cassandra AU would be awesome as well.


Dragon Age II
Sebastian Vael (DA2) Fenris (DA2) Isabela (DA2)FanFic

Isabela: And you’ve all been wondering why I don’t wear pants. So much less toxic goo to clean off.
Sebastian: I should have thought of that.

Isabela, Fenris and Sebastian are an underrated trio. They've all got utterly terrific senses of humour and I think a lot of faith in one another. I'd like to see anything in which they get to forge their own little adventure without Hawke around.


Captain America (Movies)
group: Riley & Sam Wilson (Captain America)
Riley lives AU? No? Then anything featuring Riley and Sam's partnership.


Orange is the New Black
Any Character
Literally anything about these ladies would please me. Ships? I ship everything. Gen? Awesome. I love all of them.


Dragon Age: Inquisition
Cremisius "Krem" Aclassi (DAI)

Get the pattern that I like people with sly, dry wit a lot? I love Krem. I ship him with Cullen particularly, but I'd also be really enamoured of any Chargers fic at all, because it feels to me that Krem very much is the Iron Bull's go to leader when the Iron Bull is off elsewhere.


Fear the Walking Dead (TV)
Victor Strand (FtWD)

Strand is amazing. He builds himself a character that he clings to, but at the heart of it, is determined to protect those he loves over anything, even when it may bring himself harm. I do ship him with Thomas, but also with Nick. I definitely ship him with Nick. Just... putting that out there.


DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Group: Jefferson "Jax" Jackson & Mick Rory & Leonard Snart (DC's LoT)FanFic

I like Jax's youthful arrogance and boundful heart. I like Rory and Snart pretending like they don't care (but secretly they care a LOT oh my god). I like that they are all totally down for Hijinks and I like that Snart and Rory - like the entire team - kind of gang up big brotherly on Jax. I like that Jax knows this. Bring me all the team fluff in the land.


Assassin's Creed
Ratonhnhaké:ton | Connor (Assasin's Creed)

Ratonhnhaké:ton has such depth of feeling that he struggles to keep contained. He's compelling in his pride and the love that drives him. I'd love to see anything dealing with him and life on his homestead, the people he gathers to himself. I mean, this is the dude who ran all over the place finding flowers so he could help a friend woo a lady, whilst apparently singlehandedly saving all the days in the American Revolution (ok, I exaggerate. But not much). I love him, he's beautiful.