joylee

Dear Yuletide Writer,

Happy holidays! I love this season. The leaves changing. The crisp fall weather. The nights getting longer. Pumpkin Spice Chai (don’t judge, not Starbucks,my own). All of those things you make once a year and then wonder why you don’t do them more often like: turkey, cranberry sauce; seven different kinds of cookies, that each require at least three steps to make; fudge; and pumpkin pie, cause you haven’t stuffed yourself enough by this point.

The start of Yuletide!

Thank you so much for taking on one of my tiny and eclectic mix of fandoms. You are a gem and I know I will love whatever you decide to write.

I want you to have fun writing this. So if my suggestions strike you as bizarre or just unworkable, remember optional details are optional and go with what you want.

Getting some administrative stuff out of the way.

I’m Joylee over on AO3 and I do accept treats.

Joylee56 on Tumblr (although I haven’t posted in a while, I didn’t update my email when I should have and now need to figure out how to do so without access to the old account) and you can find my older Yuletide Letters scattered between here and my LiveJournal account Joylee56. - https://joylee56.livejournal.com/. There may even still be a Yahoo account under one of those names.

Yes, I am fandom old.

General Likes/Dislikes
Firstly I want to stress that my preferences are not carved in stone. I have read and enjoyed A LOT of fic over the years and much of it was at odds with these preferences. Aside from my DNWs I will not be disappointed in the least if you come up with something completely different than any of my suggestions. Optional details are optional! I am sure I will be delighted with whatever you decide to write. Some of the best stories I’ve read are ones that took the characters in directions I had never even considered.

My preferences run to stories with an upbeat ending. Angst along the way is fine. Conflict is what makes a good story. It is the holidays though so maybe don’t kill off a main character? I have no problem with smut if you are inclined to write it, although I do like the smut to include emotional attachment, but don’t mind in the least if you do a fade to black instead or even go straight gen, I like AUs. No problems with kid fic. Really like found family, fake marriage and marriage of convenience. Holiday related stories are fun, but don’t feel you have to do one.


Bride of the Rat God – Barbara Hambly
I nominated the pups from Bride of the Rat God and then a week later my old roommate from college was raving to me about this film she had just seen called Good Boy and I’m going ‘Hmph, somebody stole my idea.’

Basically I want the pups to be the protagonists of the story. Preferably told from their point of view and defending their Mom from things that go bump in the night. Even if the bump only comes from some overly curious racoons. Magic is fun though.

The level of intelligence and communication skills between the pups is up to you.

The addition of the other human characters from the book would certainly be welcome.


Alias
I really needed another character slot on this one cause I had a terrible time deciding who to put in that fourth slot and finally just gave up on it. So if you want to bring in other characters I’m fine with that.

I love Spyfamily, Jack, Laura/Irina and Sydney, interaction. I regard Jack as an unreliable narrator on the issue of Laura/Irina’s love for him and Sydney. Would love to see the period before Laura’s death/extraction with maybe them working together (without Jack realizing his wife’s a trained agent, he just thinks she's brilliant at everything) in a mission type situation. Maybe with Emily and Arvin thrown in for good measure? Or more stuff like the mission to India.

Or just normal family stuff with the spying on the periphery.

Also I don’t think Sydney is completely reliable on the question of Jack’s involvement in her childhood. Yeah, she had a live-in nanny, but it sounds like they must have been living in the same house. I grant you the likelihood of emotional distance at least from her perspective. At the very least the man has serious PTSD.

Not crazy about Sark as Sydney’s love interest. Personally I think they work better with a sibling vibe. Come to that I wasn’t real crazy about Vaughn as her love interest by the end of the series. Sydney is a smart independent woman. Once it turned out Vaughn was involved with Rambaldi she should have kicked him to the curb. But I’m willing to chalk that up to Bad Writing.

I am very open to AU in this fandom. Particularly if the AU involves Irina making it back to/never leaving her family and not going batshit crazy about Rambaldi.

Megamind
Definitely want Roxanne and Megamind. Established relationship, falling in love, working together for a common goal, damsel and supervillain bantering, or even just friendship; doesn’t matter as long as they're together. I love Minion (and the Brainbots but they weren’t nominated so under the rules I can’t actually ask for them) as well, but up to you if you want to use him.

Don’t feel you have to stick to canon. AUs are great forI this fandom. What if Megamind had become something other than a supervillain? Or he and Roxanne had met as children, teenagers or in college? Or they join forces to save the world from some other aliens invading Earth? (Which would work with my War of the Worlds prompt. Not pushing for it. Just brainstorming.) Basically anything you want to do, have fun with it.

While I’m more than okay with PWP, I do like it where there is some emotional/romantic development involved. Got no problem with alien sex (if you aren't familiar with the tentacles fanon in this fandom, check out the tag. It’s, ahem… creative.)

And remember kidnappings are canon.

Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
Couple of years ago stories started turning up on Yuletide which paired Col. Brandon and Elinor. I really enjoyed them and then burned through all of that pairing on AO3. Which didn’t take long there’s only a few of them. So would enjoy seeing Col. Brandon and Elinor together. The two of them seem much better suited to each other than to their romantic interests in the story. But if you don’t see them as a couple, close friendship would be fine. If you stick to canon I would prefer t+hat. I don’t see either of them being unfaithful to their spouses. And I hope this clarifies my DNW regarding them not cheating on their spouses which I realized after I posted could be confusing given the pairing request.

This request would be an exception to the ‘don’t kill of a major character’ preference stated above. If that’s the only way you can see them getting together, well… life expectancy was pretty low in the early 19th century even among the gentry.


War of the Worlds
I really liked the chemistry between Ogilvy and Amy. Especially at the end of the series where the two of them are working together to remedy the Martian terraforming (a reforming?). I like Robert Carlyle generally and thought he did a lot with very little in this series. Would love to see Ogilvy, Amy and George Jr. forming a family while they try to survive post-series.

Not picky about what kind of relationship Ogilvy and Amy end up with. In this time period I could easily see them getting married for the sake of propriety. (To repeat, I love Fake Married and Marriage of Convenience stories.) On both their parts. In the late 19th Century hiding sexual preferences by getting married was more or less required. Canon was pretty clear that Ogilvy was LGBTA, but vague enough on detail that if you want to make him Bi or on the Ace Spectrum and give them a romantic relationship I’d be delighted. But partners in their scientific pursuits works as well.

Either way I would love to see Ogilvy acting as a father figure for George Jr.

Mr. Darcy & Miss Tilney Mysteries - Claudia Gray
Since this ended up with a 2/0 rating on the sign up summary I’m not holding out a lot of hope for matching on it. I haven’t finished The Rushworth Family Plot yet but expect to before Christmas, so don’t worry about spoilers. I’d like to see a continuation of their story. Solving a mystery together would be great as well.

I really like the way the author (who in case you didn’t know used to be a Big Name Fan under a different pseudonym and I suspect is still lurking under a new one) has written Jonathan on the autism spectrum thereby pointing out that autism isn’t ‘new’. It also gave me an entirely different take on Fitzwilliam in Pride and Prejudice cause he really does come across as mildly autistic. Especially at the Meryton Assembly ball and his first proposal to Lizzie.

Plunkett & Macleane
The boys are a favorite tiny fandom. I ask for them every year, and this is pretty much cut and paste from prior years. I’ll take anything in this fandom: pre, during, or post movie; heist; modern AU; cross-over; you name it. You always wanted to do a post-apocalypse, Zombie, coffee shop, snowed in AU? Go for it.

But if you want ideas...

I do see these two as friends and found brothers rather than lovers. The exception would be a poly relationship with Lady Rebecca. . Or I could easily see Macleane returning to his philandering ways and Lady Rebecca turning to Plunkett for consolation/sympathy/support/just generally better husband material. Heck you could even combine the two ideas.

If you don't want to do romance (or even if you do) I'd love to see explored how the addition of Lady Rebecca to the mix, turning them from a duo to a trio, affects things. The class differences between her and Plunkett are even greater than between him and Macleane so that could be a problem. But they both have such a strong connection to Macleane that it seems to me that they would try to get along for his sake. And very easily discover that despite their differences in background they make a good team as well. To the point where Jamie is a little bit jealous? Or does he love that the people he loves like each other?

Or if you wanted to throw in Mary (flashback, AU or otherwise) or an OC for a love interest for Plunkett that would please me too.

If you want to just do a story with the boys that’s fine, too. Love a good heist tale.77

I’m fine with them being not too upstanding citizens in the New World. Not returning to actual thieving, but maybe not quite giving up all of their old ways. Especially if they end up in one of the Southern colonies, since I can’t really see Plunkett being comfortable with slavery,



I hope these notes give you some ideas, but feel free to go with your own. Most of all, have fun with it.