Dear Yuletide Writer...

[daisyninjagirl]

Dear Yuletide Writer,

Thank you for picking something I like! I hope you have a lovely time in this exchange, and also that someones writes something just as wonderful for you.

General Stuff About Me

I tend to enjoy more stories that are reasonably consistent with the original canon - so sequels and prequels and inbetween scenes and canon divergence AUs, and I love it when a minor character gets their story expanded or someone does a nifty bit of world building on some little detail and makes it all make sense.   I think poetry and interactive fiction are supposed to be opt-in for this exchange - if you've got an idea that works best in these formats - go for it!  Original characters are also fine, and I've seen some AUs and crossovers that have really blown me away, so please take this paragraph as an 'optional details are optional' section and write the story that will make you happy.  The prompts I've given are also optional, please have fun with what you choose to write.  Also, stories that pass the Bechdel Test Are Love.  

Squicks and Do Not Wants

I'm seriously not into non-consensual or underage sex. I also don't like graphic torture scenes or incest. I'm not much interested in reading a story about consensual BDSM; or where pregnancy or infertility is the main focus.  I'm more interested in how characters' relationships work out with each other than erotica and I would rather not get an M or E rated story.  I think it would be hard to link my current prompts to current world events, but please don't try, I want some escapism! (Ta :-) ) 

The Sparrow Parable (Bede's Historia Eccliastica de gentis anglorum)

(The Sparrow)

I asked for this in an exchange earlier this year, and got a story so lovely it's made me hungry for more in this microfandom!  This is such a compelling image - the sparrow flying through a brief space of warmth and light, with darkness and storm both before and after.  I'm not exactly sure what I would like?  Maybe a literal retelling of the story in the canon setting of early mediaeval Britain, with the king and his advisors trying to grapple with this in real time (without a clever historian making them all sound eloquent)?  Maybe move the point of view to the sparrow itself?  Maybe go really meta and metaphorical?  Maybe invert it like the poem Grendel does in this link?  https://thijsporck.com/2020/07/27/from-bede-731-to-bone-1991-2004-a-sparrows-flight-through-the-ages/

Swan Lake - Bourne

(Any)

 

I saw this for the first time a couple of years ago and it really really blew my mind.  I had had no idea that ballet (dance theatre?) could be like that, I can just spend the whole show watching people's faces rather than looking at the dancing because this, and I have now come to find out, all of Bourne's choreographies focus on story and character, and the dance steps are in service to that, rather than a wall of women in tutus moving in unison, and counting how many fouettes.  I love how there's always jokes and moments for the supporting characters being popped in every time there's a little gap in the main story, and I love the texture, how it's never clear how much of this is magical realism vs the Prince dissociating from reality, and I love how in this version it's the Prince who has to be rescued.

 

Prompts: 

- I just love the Girlfriend so damn much!  She's this happy, bubblegum pink girl breaking into the sordid dark red and grey life of the palace, as much of an intrusion into the Prince's unhappiness as the Swan/Stranger.  I love how she alone, of all the guests at the ball, seems to be worried about the Stranger, and how, even with her self-interest, she does actually try to look out for the Prince time and time again.  Tell me more about her!  How did she get invited into the Prince's orbit in the first place?  Does she survive the night of the ball?  Would she believe what the Prince had to say about swans?

- This starts with the Prince having nightmares about swans, and ends with the same staging but as a peaceful embrace, a moment of grace.  What are the Prince's dreams like as he's a child?  How do they develop over time? What is the splendid view he was interrupted from watching as a child, so that he could go and shake hands instead?

 

AU Prompt:

- What if it didn't have to be a tragedy?  What if the Prince and the Queen had managed to bring themselves to touch each other, just enough?  What if the Stranger had been appreciated but turned down?  What if the Swan had managed to defeat the other swans?  What if the Girlfriend was just slightly less embarrassing?  Or the Prince hadn't seen her take the money?  What if...?

Brat Farrar - Josephine Tey
(any of Brat Farrar, Eleanor Ashby, Patrick Ashby)

This is such a satisfying detective story - and ghost story. I really love how this is an instance of an imposter plot that doesn't go all Prisoner of Zenda with the replacement being an improvement on the original - here, Brat is Patrick's champion.  I'm really interested in the life that Brat and Eleanor (and the unnominated Aunt Bee) make for themselves in Ireland after the shouting is over - does Eleanor have any convincing to do to make Brat alright with things?  Or would you like to do a character study of Brat and his urgent need to wander.  Is finding his family enough for him to settle down again, or does he have to deal with more restlessness?   Does Brat ever go back to visit Matron and the old orphanage?  Would you like to show what Patrick was experiencing during his childhood?  His perspective as a ghost?

AU Prompt:
What if 'Brat Farrar' really was Patrick, who had somehow managed to survive the murder attempt and fled.  Does he come back remembering who he is?  Or is some of it a blank and he's working on instinct?

Welcome to Our Village - Please Invade Carefully
(Any of Uljabaan, Lucy, Katrina)

I literally just found this fandom from the fandom promotion plot.  It's great!  So much absurdity, perfectly timed dialogue, and the inexorable pull of country village life thwarting the hostile invasion attempt.  And the fact that Uljabaan, Katrina and Lucy are all Sworn Enemies (TM), but they're always in and out of each other's houses. 

Would you like to go into another Enemy Plot/Foil and Thwart attempt between Uljabaan and Katrina and Lucy?  Or go back and do a prequel of the events so efficiently summed up in the pilot episode and show what Uljabaan's arrival (as lost heir, and then alien commander) actually looked like?  Katrina is supposed to have an ex-boyfriend who's an Arsenal fan - by some convoluted turn of events does he turn up at all?  Does the outside world ever figure out what's going on?  They're not nominated, but I'd also love more Minions-action, with their love of cake and Jane Austen and general good humoured incompetence.  Do they get infected by humanity?  Does Uljabaan?  Is there a point where he gets a chance to leave and just...doesn't?

Love's Labours' Lost - RSC 2014
(Any of Rosaline, Berowne, Princess of France, Dumaine's Teddy Bear)

This specific production of Love's Labours' Lost is the version done in 2014 as a paired production with Much Ado About Nothing (which was advertised as Love's Labours' Won) as a way to memorialise the Great War.  It's also the version where they thought hard about how to turn Shakespeare into an operetta, with beautiful singing, an extended musical theatre number for the play-within-a-play section at the end, and some demented dancing cossacks turning up at a key point.  All of which is to say that it's a lot of fun, and I love it to bits, while also recognising the dark moment in history that they're building up to.  (Here's a couple of internet primers of the plot for you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_xlbjxtP7I, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17jLGj_pBQ8)

Prompts:

- Would you like to dig more into Berowne and Rosaline's relationship with each other?  What happened when they danced in Brabante?  Why does he think she 'does the deed'?  (And does she?)  Do they get to meet again after Berowne's year of service in a hospice?  What would that service  look like in the context of WWI?  And what kind of feelings does he have about going into hospitals when Britain is trying to recruit as many fighters as it can get.

- I love the Princess of France, who has so much wit and poise when dealing with a group of overgrown schoolboys who think they're in a competition with her - and she's always winning.  Would you like to talk about her career as a diplomat?  Her relationship with her Ladies?  Does she reconcile with the King of Navarre?  

- I've asked for Dumaine's teddy bear because I love that scene with everyone in their pyjamas all having the same thought on where to go to have a quiet soliloquy, and the stage business with the teddy bear pretty much sums up all the absurdity that went into it (along with, frankly, Dumaine's hairnet and the, ahem, varying quality of the poetry displayed.)  Would you like to bring in some more stage business with the teddy bear?  Does it become a mascot for the soldiers gone to war?  Is there a story about why Dumaine likes it so much?  (Here's a short clip, but watching the whole thing is better ! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGtgy6BCy20)

- Can you think of an excuse to wedge in another song and dance number?  More is more!

- These are not nominated characters, but I also really love Moth's and Don Armado's friendship with each other - if you'd like to write them into your story, I'd love to see them.

Comments

[thisbluespirit]

I literally just found this fandom from the fandom promotion plot.

Oh, YAY! I'm so glad! Isn't it great? ♥