Dear Yuletide Writer 2018
Oct. 8th, 2018 10:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
foxinthestarsHello, fellow Yuletider! Thank you for offering to write a story for me, or for considering writing me a treat! I’ve been participating in Yuletide every year since 2011 now. It’s become a beloved personal tradition for me, and I hope you have a great time this year!
See under the cut for the things you need to know…
I admit, sign-ups caught me at kind of a messy time this year, but no way would I sit Yuletide out! I am, however, pretty much copy-pasting my requests from last year. No worries, I still love all of this stuff! I still thank you and look forward to your story! I hope you enjoy writing it!
I'm![[archiveofourown.org profile]](https://p.dreamwidth.org/b164c54b26e4/-/archiveofourown.org/favicon.ico)
foxinthestars at Ao3, same username as on DW/LJ.
LIKES:
Sympathetic Protagonists, people being good-hearted
Happy Endings or Bittersweet ones
Competence
Explorations of Issues, Ideas, and Sticky Messes
Character Pieces
Genfic (but I’m also fine with all sorts of pairings, and even have a soft spot for poly)
Drama, Angst, Hurt/Comfort
Fluff and WAFF
Fixer-upper/Canon-Divergent/"What If?" AUs
Cuddling (cute fluffy cuddling or intense romantic cuddling, it’s all good)
Sensuality and Description Porn
Representation (Women/LGBTQ/PoC/PwD/et. al. being awesome)
DO NOT WANTS:
(Note that these are not necessarily things I disapprove of or even dislike, but they are things it’s not safe to give me in an exchange)
Humiliation/Abasement/Embarrassment (the Embarrassment squick can be triggered vicariously by, e.g., a character acting stupid or being set up to fail as an object lesson)
Rape, Non-con, Dub-con
Christocentrism
Crossovers (unless specifically noted)
Gritty/Grimdark
Sad/Bad/Tragic Endings
Actual Porn
Character/Ship Bashing
Directly speculating about future events in an open canon (This one’s weird. Writing in a timeframe beyond current canon with vague or absent explanation of how it turned out the way you’re depicting it is fine, but if you directly invent or handwave, e.g. “they got out of the current arc like thus and such,” or “the prophecy turned out to mean this,” I tend to bounce off.)
Suffocation in any form is acceptable but I need you to tag for it.
Special note: Around Yuletide Reveal Time I tend to in the mood for winter-themed stories — things with sensuous descriptions of long dark nights and bracing winds and deep snows, cold-reddened skin, getting warm by fires and sipping hot beverages and bundling up in cozy clothing, all that. If you want to get some characters into adorable and/or highly-charged body-heat-sharing situations, that’s fine, too, just note the “do not want” on porn.
Or just don’t worry about it. If it doesn’t grab you or doesn’t fit with an idea that does grab you, I don’t want you to feel like you have to shoehorn it in.
(This is a seasonal thing, so to anyone here looking for New Years Resolution prompts, a) thank you! and b) don’t worry about it unless you just want to.)
And the prompts, roughly in descending order of canon length:
Akatsuki no Yona | Yona of the Dawn
Characters: Kija, Shin-ah, Jae-ha, Zeno
You don’t have to include all the requested characters on this one. Focusing on one or two of them is fine. Feel free to include the rest of the ensemble, too; this really is an “I love everyone in this bar!” fandom for me, and basically everyone other than arc villains I like or at least could be interested to read about. The current dragons are my very favorites, tho, so I’d like a focus on one or more of them.
Maybe pre-canon. At least in the manga, Kija said he has been outside his village before, maybe show me one of those times. Maybe let Shin-ah meet someone from outside his village and have some kind of positive interaction with them (fleeting and bittersweet perhaps, but please not tragic). A time Jae-ha needed a rescue from the other pirates. Zeno being a stalker (note, I’d prefer that Zeno stories be set during the other main characters’ lifetimes).
Or maybe something after they’ve all met. Send one or more of them on an adventure. Or, the relationships are what really make this series, so just pick two of them and play them off each other somehow; every combination is precious with this bunch. (As a random specific prompt, I’ve thought it could be interesting if Jae-ha hurt his left leg enough to cause mobility problems for a while; could be serious, funny, or both.)
This is also a good series for “What If” AUs. Maybe a story where one of the dragons left their village under different circumstances — maybe adopted by Zeno or by another canon character. For a different sort of AU, spillover from this fandom actually got me into historical Kdramas, and after dabbling in those I think an AU set in Joseon Period Korea would be interesting, although it would take someone more knowledgeable than me to do it right.
(As of this writing, I have not caught up with the manga chapters since the Xing arc ended, so I'd ask that you not rely on the canon after that.)
Canon Review and Notes
Okay, we have a bit of a complicated situation here.
The anime’s TV episodes can be viewed free online in various places: on Yahoo!View (subbed or dubbed), on Funimation’s YouTube channel, or on Crunchyroll. The TV anime covers the manga through about vol. 8. There are also three OVA episodes that cover a few choice bits of later material; they’re only available in fansubs (1, 2-3 +bonus).
The manga is being translated by Viz, and is to about vol. 14 as of this writing — here’s the series on Amazon.
However, this is where things get complicated, because in the original Japanese, the manga is currently up to vol. 27. So yeah, for about half the story we’re still relying on scanlations. Titania Scans has most of it, including my favorite parts, and Impatient Scans has the most recent chapters. There are also people translating the new chapters on Tumblr, and you might need to search scanlation sites to fill in any gaps.
Where both are available, I tend to go with manga canon more than anime canon, but you don’t have to, and I don’t think it makes much difference on this one.
FYI, while I’m mostly a genfic person, I have soft spots for Yona/Lili, Yona/Everybody, Jae-ha/Kija (I do headcanon ace!Kija, but that just makes it more interesting), and Everybody/Cuddles. The Hak/Yona/Soo-won mess is crucial to the plot and all, but it’s not my catnip. No ship-bashing please.
I’ve also written several AkaYona fics myself — here they are on Ao3 — so you can read those if you want extra insight into how I relate to the material.
Kemono no Souja Erin
Characters: Erin, Ial
I want Erin/Ial, preferably something quiet and thoughtful, or something fluffy. Anything along that line would make me happy, really, but if you need an angle, maybe think about how he’s adjusting to his new life post-canon, and how Erin’s other friends are adjusting to this guy with his stone face and ninja vibes. Bonus points: include a warm, soft, furry animal, not necessarily an Ohjuu.
Canon Review and Notes
Crunchyroll used to have this, but unfortunately it looks like they've let it lapse, so it's currently only available in fansubs.
Recycling a long-running prompt here, but I still love these two. There are novels for this one, but I haven't read them (reading Japanese is hard for me), so I'm just working from the anime canon. It's more aimed at children, but that doesn't keep it from getting into some serious territory and I love it. After my first viewing (in fansubs), I wrote a review of it that you can see here. This series was actually my introduction to the author of the said novels, Nahoko Uehashi, who also wrote the novels behind Moribito. Both series are built on masterful, well-grounded fantasy worldbuilding (Uehashi-sensei is also an anthropology professor). As mentioned in the review, I loved the anime’s combination of the domestic and the epic. Erin is such a great strong heroine, too --- brilliant and curious, always chasing her dreams and holding to her principles. Ial is the kind of (figuratively) scarred stone-faced pretty boy I have a weakness for, I admit it. I was happy with the slow and subtle building of their relationship in canon --- Uehashi seems to be good at that, too ::coughBalsaTanda:: --- but I would like to see a bit more with these two.
Kuroorihime to Kawaki no Ou
Characters: Setia, Azurite
This is your “gimme,” but I would love to see fic for it — it’s a one-shot manga by the creator of Akatsuki no Yona. To be totally honest I think it’s kind of messed up (what with the literal nonconsensual bodice-ripping scene and the power imbalance being straightened on the back of a disability and everything, plus me being a huge AkaYona fan and seeing how familiar some of the character designs look adds an extra layer of ennh) — and yet! I still enjoy this story and still root for this couple, even if I do hope they continue much further on their journey toward, you know, an actually healthy relationship. So post-canon would be great; show me Setia being a badass queen and Azurite being a more enlightened but still badass king (with a disability). Maybe let one or both of them learn more about the other’s backstory, or have some feelsy or humorous fluff as they try to navigate this whole relationship thing. Another option I’d be interested in is a “What If?” AU with a completely redesigned version of Bado, one who’s actually a decent enough guy to complicate rather than simplify the situation and who maybe has an agenda of his own (I still root for Setia and Azurite and would hate to break them up, but a swerve toward OT3 territory would be just fine — something fraught but not doomed, perhaps?). Bonus points in any case for Setia being awesome.
Canon Review
Scanlation at Titania Scans
And that’s it! Happy writing and a Joyous Yuletide to you!
See under the cut for the things you need to know…
I admit, sign-ups caught me at kind of a messy time this year, but no way would I sit Yuletide out! I am, however, pretty much copy-pasting my requests from last year. No worries, I still love all of this stuff! I still thank you and look forward to your story! I hope you enjoy writing it!
I'm
LIKES:
Sympathetic Protagonists, people being good-hearted
Happy Endings or Bittersweet ones
Competence
Explorations of Issues, Ideas, and Sticky Messes
Character Pieces
Genfic (but I’m also fine with all sorts of pairings, and even have a soft spot for poly)
Drama, Angst, Hurt/Comfort
Fluff and WAFF
Fixer-upper/Canon-Divergent/"What If?" AUs
Cuddling (cute fluffy cuddling or intense romantic cuddling, it’s all good)
Sensuality and Description Porn
Representation (Women/LGBTQ/PoC/PwD/et. al. being awesome)
DO NOT WANTS:
(Note that these are not necessarily things I disapprove of or even dislike, but they are things it’s not safe to give me in an exchange)
Humiliation/Abasement/Embarrassment (the Embarrassment squick can be triggered vicariously by, e.g., a character acting stupid or being set up to fail as an object lesson)
Rape, Non-con, Dub-con
Christocentrism
Crossovers (unless specifically noted)
Gritty/Grimdark
Sad/Bad/Tragic Endings
Actual Porn
Character/Ship Bashing
Directly speculating about future events in an open canon (This one’s weird. Writing in a timeframe beyond current canon with vague or absent explanation of how it turned out the way you’re depicting it is fine, but if you directly invent or handwave, e.g. “they got out of the current arc like thus and such,” or “the prophecy turned out to mean this,” I tend to bounce off.)
Suffocation in any form is acceptable but I need you to tag for it.
Special note: Around Yuletide Reveal Time I tend to in the mood for winter-themed stories — things with sensuous descriptions of long dark nights and bracing winds and deep snows, cold-reddened skin, getting warm by fires and sipping hot beverages and bundling up in cozy clothing, all that. If you want to get some characters into adorable and/or highly-charged body-heat-sharing situations, that’s fine, too, just note the “do not want” on porn.
Or just don’t worry about it. If it doesn’t grab you or doesn’t fit with an idea that does grab you, I don’t want you to feel like you have to shoehorn it in.
(This is a seasonal thing, so to anyone here looking for New Years Resolution prompts, a) thank you! and b) don’t worry about it unless you just want to.)
And the prompts, roughly in descending order of canon length:
Akatsuki no Yona | Yona of the Dawn
Characters: Kija, Shin-ah, Jae-ha, Zeno
You don’t have to include all the requested characters on this one. Focusing on one or two of them is fine. Feel free to include the rest of the ensemble, too; this really is an “I love everyone in this bar!” fandom for me, and basically everyone other than arc villains I like or at least could be interested to read about. The current dragons are my very favorites, tho, so I’d like a focus on one or more of them.
Maybe pre-canon. At least in the manga, Kija said he has been outside his village before, maybe show me one of those times. Maybe let Shin-ah meet someone from outside his village and have some kind of positive interaction with them (fleeting and bittersweet perhaps, but please not tragic). A time Jae-ha needed a rescue from the other pirates. Zeno being a stalker (note, I’d prefer that Zeno stories be set during the other main characters’ lifetimes).
Or maybe something after they’ve all met. Send one or more of them on an adventure. Or, the relationships are what really make this series, so just pick two of them and play them off each other somehow; every combination is precious with this bunch. (As a random specific prompt, I’ve thought it could be interesting if Jae-ha hurt his left leg enough to cause mobility problems for a while; could be serious, funny, or both.)
This is also a good series for “What If” AUs. Maybe a story where one of the dragons left their village under different circumstances — maybe adopted by Zeno or by another canon character. For a different sort of AU, spillover from this fandom actually got me into historical Kdramas, and after dabbling in those I think an AU set in Joseon Period Korea would be interesting, although it would take someone more knowledgeable than me to do it right.
(As of this writing, I have not caught up with the manga chapters since the Xing arc ended, so I'd ask that you not rely on the canon after that.)
Canon Review and Notes
Okay, we have a bit of a complicated situation here.
The anime’s TV episodes can be viewed free online in various places: on Yahoo!View (subbed or dubbed), on Funimation’s YouTube channel, or on Crunchyroll. The TV anime covers the manga through about vol. 8. There are also three OVA episodes that cover a few choice bits of later material; they’re only available in fansubs (1, 2-3 +bonus).
The manga is being translated by Viz, and is to about vol. 14 as of this writing — here’s the series on Amazon.
However, this is where things get complicated, because in the original Japanese, the manga is currently up to vol. 27. So yeah, for about half the story we’re still relying on scanlations. Titania Scans has most of it, including my favorite parts, and Impatient Scans has the most recent chapters. There are also people translating the new chapters on Tumblr, and you might need to search scanlation sites to fill in any gaps.
Where both are available, I tend to go with manga canon more than anime canon, but you don’t have to, and I don’t think it makes much difference on this one.
FYI, while I’m mostly a genfic person, I have soft spots for Yona/Lili, Yona/Everybody, Jae-ha/Kija (I do headcanon ace!Kija, but that just makes it more interesting), and Everybody/Cuddles. The Hak/Yona/Soo-won mess is crucial to the plot and all, but it’s not my catnip. No ship-bashing please.
I’ve also written several AkaYona fics myself — here they are on Ao3 — so you can read those if you want extra insight into how I relate to the material.
Kemono no Souja Erin
Characters: Erin, Ial
I want Erin/Ial, preferably something quiet and thoughtful, or something fluffy. Anything along that line would make me happy, really, but if you need an angle, maybe think about how he’s adjusting to his new life post-canon, and how Erin’s other friends are adjusting to this guy with his stone face and ninja vibes. Bonus points: include a warm, soft, furry animal, not necessarily an Ohjuu.
Canon Review and Notes
Crunchyroll used to have this, but unfortunately it looks like they've let it lapse, so it's currently only available in fansubs.
Recycling a long-running prompt here, but I still love these two. There are novels for this one, but I haven't read them (reading Japanese is hard for me), so I'm just working from the anime canon. It's more aimed at children, but that doesn't keep it from getting into some serious territory and I love it. After my first viewing (in fansubs), I wrote a review of it that you can see here. This series was actually my introduction to the author of the said novels, Nahoko Uehashi, who also wrote the novels behind Moribito. Both series are built on masterful, well-grounded fantasy worldbuilding (Uehashi-sensei is also an anthropology professor). As mentioned in the review, I loved the anime’s combination of the domestic and the epic. Erin is such a great strong heroine, too --- brilliant and curious, always chasing her dreams and holding to her principles. Ial is the kind of (figuratively) scarred stone-faced pretty boy I have a weakness for, I admit it. I was happy with the slow and subtle building of their relationship in canon --- Uehashi seems to be good at that, too ::coughBalsaTanda:: --- but I would like to see a bit more with these two.
Kuroorihime to Kawaki no Ou
Characters: Setia, Azurite
This is your “gimme,” but I would love to see fic for it — it’s a one-shot manga by the creator of Akatsuki no Yona. To be totally honest I think it’s kind of messed up (what with the literal nonconsensual bodice-ripping scene and the power imbalance being straightened on the back of a disability and everything, plus me being a huge AkaYona fan and seeing how familiar some of the character designs look adds an extra layer of ennh) — and yet! I still enjoy this story and still root for this couple, even if I do hope they continue much further on their journey toward, you know, an actually healthy relationship. So post-canon would be great; show me Setia being a badass queen and Azurite being a more enlightened but still badass king (with a disability). Maybe let one or both of them learn more about the other’s backstory, or have some feelsy or humorous fluff as they try to navigate this whole relationship thing. Another option I’d be interested in is a “What If?” AU with a completely redesigned version of Bado, one who’s actually a decent enough guy to complicate rather than simplify the situation and who maybe has an agenda of his own (I still root for Setia and Azurite and would hate to break them up, but a swerve toward OT3 territory would be just fine — something fraught but not doomed, perhaps?). Bonus points in any case for Setia being awesome.
Canon Review
Scanlation at Titania Scans
And that’s it! Happy writing and a Joyous Yuletide to you!
