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Gement's Yuletide letter 2021
Oct. 15th, 2021 02:29 amTable of contents:
General things I like
Do Not Wants (DNW)
Specific fandoms and prompts
- The Fairyland Series - Catherynne M. Valente
- Doom Patrol (TV)
- The Tick (2017)
Dear Yuletide Writer,
Hello, and thank you! I am Gement. I read broadly and will certainly be delighted by whatever you write.
Fourth wall breaks, crack, especially crack treated seriously, improbable pairings, alternative formats (epistolary, nonlinear, interactive, filk, art, interpretive dance...), unusual POV/tenses, style pastiches, flights of fancy, crossovers, crossovers, crossovers. The untitled Horrible Goose is always welcome in my fics.
Fancy waistcoats, banquets, duels, Byronic nonsense, Shakespearean nonsense, musical nonsense. People who can live forever or fly, by whatever means. Alternate universes where characters have more-or-different powers, or have used their existing abilities unexpectedly, or have similar powers but it's cyberpunk or whatnot.
Sincerity and goodwill. Hope. Stubbornness. People trying to do the right and honorable and brave thing, even when the people are flawed and the thing is very difficult or dangerous. Plot resolutions that are overall positive, even if serious prices had to be paid. (Character death is allowed.)
Characters' backgrounds/identities/orientations/abilities mattering to their perspectives, whether it's the background already established in canon or another option you'd like to dig into. #ownvoices content of whatever your voice is.
Gender play of most kinds (see DNW for exceptions), including but not limited to drag, camp, passing, roleplay, discovering that what one is doing is perhaps more than roleplay after all, and trying on genders and presentations like interesting hats. Magical transformations and Different-Gender AUs are also fun.
Happy poly, queer, misfit families in sizes from 1 to 100. I'm the person in the audience holding up a sign that reads "This plot could have been solved by poly and/or sixty seconds of honest communication." I love seeing traditional plots subverted that way, and I also love skipping right past all that to something else a gang of mutually supportive weirdos can take on instead. Three Turtle Doves poly prompts here.
M and E ratings welcome unless I specify otherwise. Enthusiastically consenting kink and smut between adult characters, especially when tops are confident and careful and everyone communicates as best they can. I like kink more than smut and negotiation more than both of them put together, though there's always room for a gleefully spontaneous hookup or a quickie in an established relationship. Enthusiasm can include CNC and very heavy power exchange or pain, as long as we all walk in and back out happy. As far as kinks go, I've written weird, read weirder, and have practical RL experience with a wide range, both RACK (risk-aware consensual kink) and BORK (balls-out reckless kink). If you have an idea and it's not in my DNW, take a chance! My Yuleporn 2021 listing has more details, too.
I appreciate the weird mismatched exuberance of Fairyland and Valente's descriptions of it, and that exuberance peaks at Blunderbuss the Combat Wombat. As long as Blunderbuss is somehow prominent in your gift, telling us what it is like in the Land of Wom and enthusiastically biting things, I will be delighted. All other canon characters are welcome along for the ride. Original Fairyland characters welcome. Crossovers welcome.
With that said, there's a reason I nominated the changeling crew as requestable characters, rather than the main protagonist team, and that is the overpowering whiff of trans and neurodivergent narrative in The Boy Who Lost Fairyland. What if that came even further out of subtext and into text? Or just leaning into those symbolic themes harder within the existing framework. What does it mean for the companions brought to life by changeling troublemaker magic, who have their own range of neurodiverse traits?
Other possibilities: Blunderbuss's independent adventures with other weird Fairyland residents, lists of things she has bitten (Valente's lists are an art form worth emulating), Blunderbuss's view on her friendship with Hawthorne, Blunderbuss and A-Through-L detective adventures.
Crossover/fusion possibilities: Any other portal fiction or fairy tales! The books have Oz, Peter Pan, Narnia, Wonderland, and Phantom Tollbooth references. Seanan McGuire's Wayward Children, Velveteen, and Indexing series are in the tagset this year and I have a LOT of mythology and fairy tales on my bookshelf. I think Blunderbuss and Ozma's Sawhorse in particular would have things to say to each other.
Special DNW for Fairyland: No M or E ratings or central emphasis on sex or romance, please. (The levels in canon are fine.)
[Update: I'm happy with just one character or the other, especially if it's a Danny story from before Maura's time.]
The episode "Danny Patrol" made me cry with fierce joy. It was the queerest hour of television I have watched in years, and they WON, and it's still hard. Doom Patrol in general hits the "band of fucked-up eccentrics" vibe just right. Any and all additional characters you want to include are welcome, as long as Danny and/or Maura are there. Original characters welcome if they are grounded in the canon. I am also great with crossovers.
I'm curious about Danny's experience of the world. They have a gender identity; do they have a sexuality, and how does that work for them? Their energy exchange with their Dannyzens seems a lot like ritual offerings to a deity, which would make Maura their high priestess, that's an interesting angle. What's it like being something other than a street, or trying to fit into different cities or dealing with people who wander in? A tour of the range of people who live there? Outsider POV, a story about a new Dannyzen meeting them would also be great.
Crossover/fusion possibilities: Bring in more parts of the DC universe or other comics, any lost misfit character who needs to find Danny, or compatible mystical locations (Callahan's Place?). I've also requested The Tick, which has Dangerboat who is a sentient gay boat who throws dance parties. Have a big fierce queer rave. Don't worry about me knowing the canon; I will gladly seek them out to find out who they are.
M and E ratings particularly welcome for this sex-positive street of kinky weirdos.
Special DNW for Doom Patrol: No queer/Dannyzen character death (brief mentions ok), no one misgendering/mispronouning Maura or AU gender changes for Maura. (There's room for her to be a genderqueer woman or femme-spectrum woman, that's fine as long as she is acknowledged as a woman.)
Five minute video: Larry Trainor is asked onto Danny's karaoke stage to sing with Maura.
This is an OR request, not an AND; you do not have to include all three characters in your story, which might be pretty tricky. Getting any two of them would be great, either interacting or in contrasting parallel tracks. All other Tick characters welcome (from any era), original characters are cool if they are sufficiently ridiculous, and crossovers welcome if you've got a juicy one. I consider Dangerboat an adult and fair play for shipping purposes.
The Tick has always been about the side characters for me. They're so different in every iteration, while the Tick keeps being his big blue nigh-invulnerable self right in the middle. Straight-faced surrealism: the way everyone just accepts that this is how reality works, I guess.
I like Dangerboat's quest for identity and recognition (and how that identity includes making truly uninspired techno theme songs for himself because apparently we all have to go through an awkward teenage phase), the way Walter has so carefully compartmentalized his former life but really honestly is that interested in cheese and trendy memoirs and good socks, Tinfoil Kevin's comfort with being homeless but not officeless (which is a very real state of affairs for people, but the office is rarely a giant robot head).
I like people getting to go off on their own wacky side adventures in this weird, weird universe, and I like that nothing TOO bad usually happens. Unless it was funny. Walter or Kevin mentoring Dangerboat? Adventures on the high seas while Overkill and Dot are busy with something and won't be back for hours (or will they)? Walter and Kevin bonding over deeply nerdy special interests, or dealing with their awkward shared secret org history, or both? How is Dangerboat's exploration of his sexual identity going? A very, very improbable OT3? The sky's the limit, Arthur!
Crossover/fusion possibilities: All other Tick eras, Mystery Men, other media with sentient vehicles, other media with spies and secret agents for Walter to have history with, Tinfoil Kevin opens portals to other dimensions... Inspector Gadget might honestly hit the trifecta. I've also requested Doom Patrol which has a genderqueer sentient street named Danny. But also, look, this is The Tick. You wanna put all three of them on the Great British Bake-Off and watch Dangerboat try to make creme pat, I'm here for it.
Sample videos of Dangerboat (the others don't have easy short clips):
- deeply uninspired techno theme songs
- throwing dance parties for his vigilante crewmates
General things I like
Do Not Wants (DNW)
Specific fandoms and prompts
- The Fairyland Series - Catherynne M. Valente
- Doom Patrol (TV)
- The Tick (2017)
Dear Yuletide Writer,
Hello, and thank you! I am Gement. I read broadly and will certainly be delighted by whatever you write.
General things I like:
Time travel, heists, spies, identity hijinx, farce, banter, people talking past each other in clever ways (whether or not it is on purpose), competence, teamwork.Fourth wall breaks, crack, especially crack treated seriously, improbable pairings, alternative formats (epistolary, nonlinear, interactive, filk, art, interpretive dance...), unusual POV/tenses, style pastiches, flights of fancy, crossovers, crossovers, crossovers. The untitled Horrible Goose is always welcome in my fics.
Fancy waistcoats, banquets, duels, Byronic nonsense, Shakespearean nonsense, musical nonsense. People who can live forever or fly, by whatever means. Alternate universes where characters have more-or-different powers, or have used their existing abilities unexpectedly, or have similar powers but it's cyberpunk or whatnot.
Sincerity and goodwill. Hope. Stubbornness. People trying to do the right and honorable and brave thing, even when the people are flawed and the thing is very difficult or dangerous. Plot resolutions that are overall positive, even if serious prices had to be paid. (Character death is allowed.)
Characters' backgrounds/identities/orientations/abilities mattering to their perspectives, whether it's the background already established in canon or another option you'd like to dig into. #ownvoices content of whatever your voice is.
Gender play of most kinds (see DNW for exceptions), including but not limited to drag, camp, passing, roleplay, discovering that what one is doing is perhaps more than roleplay after all, and trying on genders and presentations like interesting hats. Magical transformations and Different-Gender AUs are also fun.
Happy poly, queer, misfit families in sizes from 1 to 100. I'm the person in the audience holding up a sign that reads "This plot could have been solved by poly and/or sixty seconds of honest communication." I love seeing traditional plots subverted that way, and I also love skipping right past all that to something else a gang of mutually supportive weirdos can take on instead. Three Turtle Doves poly prompts here.
M and E ratings welcome unless I specify otherwise. Enthusiastically consenting kink and smut between adult characters, especially when tops are confident and careful and everyone communicates as best they can. I like kink more than smut and negotiation more than both of them put together, though there's always room for a gleefully spontaneous hookup or a quickie in an established relationship. Enthusiasm can include CNC and very heavy power exchange or pain, as long as we all walk in and back out happy. As far as kinks go, I've written weird, read weirder, and have practical RL experience with a wide range, both RACK (risk-aware consensual kink) and BORK (balls-out reckless kink). If you have an idea and it's not in my DNW, take a chance! My Yuleporn 2021 listing has more details, too.
Do Not Wants (DNW):
- Underage archive warning. (Under-18s dating and kissing each other is fine, but not my preferred focus.)
- Incest, ageplay, daddy/mommy kink
- Non-con/dubcon. (CNC/roleplay yes please, but I shouldn't be wondering if they're regretting it.)
- Omegaverse, mpreg, or fetishizing trans bodies. (People being trans and enjoying sex with their bodies is great, if you're confident in the difference.)
- Pregnancy, childbirth, lactation, child-raising (passing references are fine)
- Jealousy, pining, or cheating as the main source of plot.
- Mundane/No Powers AUs
- Unhappy/hopeless endings. (Bittersweet's fine if the vibe is positive.)
Specific prompts and requests:
The Fairyland Series - Catherynne M. Valente:
Blunderbuss the Combat WombatI appreciate the weird mismatched exuberance of Fairyland and Valente's descriptions of it, and that exuberance peaks at Blunderbuss the Combat Wombat. As long as Blunderbuss is somehow prominent in your gift, telling us what it is like in the Land of Wom and enthusiastically biting things, I will be delighted. All other canon characters are welcome along for the ride. Original Fairyland characters welcome. Crossovers welcome.
With that said, there's a reason I nominated the changeling crew as requestable characters, rather than the main protagonist team, and that is the overpowering whiff of trans and neurodivergent narrative in The Boy Who Lost Fairyland. What if that came even further out of subtext and into text? Or just leaning into those symbolic themes harder within the existing framework. What does it mean for the companions brought to life by changeling troublemaker magic, who have their own range of neurodiverse traits?
Other possibilities: Blunderbuss's independent adventures with other weird Fairyland residents, lists of things she has bitten (Valente's lists are an art form worth emulating), Blunderbuss's view on her friendship with Hawthorne, Blunderbuss and A-Through-L detective adventures.
Crossover/fusion possibilities: Any other portal fiction or fairy tales! The books have Oz, Peter Pan, Narnia, Wonderland, and Phantom Tollbooth references. Seanan McGuire's Wayward Children, Velveteen, and Indexing series are in the tagset this year and I have a LOT of mythology and fairy tales on my bookshelf. I think Blunderbuss and Ozma's Sawhorse in particular would have things to say to each other.
Special DNW for Fairyland: No M or E ratings or central emphasis on sex or romance, please. (The levels in canon are fine.)
Doom Patrol (TV):
Danny the Street, Maura Lee Karupt | Agent Wilson (Doom Patrol TV)[Update: I'm happy with just one character or the other, especially if it's a Danny story from before Maura's time.]
The episode "Danny Patrol" made me cry with fierce joy. It was the queerest hour of television I have watched in years, and they WON, and it's still hard. Doom Patrol in general hits the "band of fucked-up eccentrics" vibe just right. Any and all additional characters you want to include are welcome, as long as Danny and/or Maura are there. Original characters welcome if they are grounded in the canon. I am also great with crossovers.
I'm curious about Danny's experience of the world. They have a gender identity; do they have a sexuality, and how does that work for them? Their energy exchange with their Dannyzens seems a lot like ritual offerings to a deity, which would make Maura their high priestess, that's an interesting angle. What's it like being something other than a street, or trying to fit into different cities or dealing with people who wander in? A tour of the range of people who live there? Outsider POV, a story about a new Dannyzen meeting them would also be great.
Crossover/fusion possibilities: Bring in more parts of the DC universe or other comics, any lost misfit character who needs to find Danny, or compatible mystical locations (Callahan's Place?). I've also requested The Tick, which has Dangerboat who is a sentient gay boat who throws dance parties. Have a big fierce queer rave. Don't worry about me knowing the canon; I will gladly seek them out to find out who they are.
M and E ratings particularly welcome for this sex-positive street of kinky weirdos.
Special DNW for Doom Patrol: No queer/Dannyzen character death (brief mentions ok), no one misgendering/mispronouning Maura or AU gender changes for Maura. (There's room for her to be a genderqueer woman or femme-spectrum woman, that's fine as long as she is acknowledged as a woman.)
Five minute video: Larry Trainor is asked onto Danny's karaoke stage to sing with Maura.
The Tick (2017):
Dangerboat, Tinfoil Kevin, WalterThis is an OR request, not an AND; you do not have to include all three characters in your story, which might be pretty tricky. Getting any two of them would be great, either interacting or in contrasting parallel tracks. All other Tick characters welcome (from any era), original characters are cool if they are sufficiently ridiculous, and crossovers welcome if you've got a juicy one. I consider Dangerboat an adult and fair play for shipping purposes.
The Tick has always been about the side characters for me. They're so different in every iteration, while the Tick keeps being his big blue nigh-invulnerable self right in the middle. Straight-faced surrealism: the way everyone just accepts that this is how reality works, I guess.
I like Dangerboat's quest for identity and recognition (and how that identity includes making truly uninspired techno theme songs for himself because apparently we all have to go through an awkward teenage phase), the way Walter has so carefully compartmentalized his former life but really honestly is that interested in cheese and trendy memoirs and good socks, Tinfoil Kevin's comfort with being homeless but not officeless (which is a very real state of affairs for people, but the office is rarely a giant robot head).
I like people getting to go off on their own wacky side adventures in this weird, weird universe, and I like that nothing TOO bad usually happens. Unless it was funny. Walter or Kevin mentoring Dangerboat? Adventures on the high seas while Overkill and Dot are busy with something and won't be back for hours (or will they)? Walter and Kevin bonding over deeply nerdy special interests, or dealing with their awkward shared secret org history, or both? How is Dangerboat's exploration of his sexual identity going? A very, very improbable OT3? The sky's the limit, Arthur!
Crossover/fusion possibilities: All other Tick eras, Mystery Men, other media with sentient vehicles, other media with spies and secret agents for Walter to have history with, Tinfoil Kevin opens portals to other dimensions... Inspector Gadget might honestly hit the trifecta. I've also requested Doom Patrol which has a genderqueer sentient street named Danny. But also, look, this is The Tick. You wanna put all three of them on the Great British Bake-Off and watch Dangerboat try to make creme pat, I'm here for it.
Sample videos of Dangerboat (the others don't have easy short clips):
- deeply uninspired techno theme songs
- throwing dance parties for his vigilante crewmates
