thewrongkindofpc | (no subject)

Dear Yuletide match,

(Hey, so I just reread this, and it occurs to me that it might sound a little overwhelming? I am sorry if it does, DNWs are clearly marked, and other than that, please feel free to skim and take or leave anything, I'm just excited!)

I want to start this letter like I always start my letters — by saying that I’d pretty much always rather read something you feel inspired writing than something that perfectly fits my request but you felt more MEH about. I’m writing my letter because I know it’s often a lot of help to me to get a letter, but feel free to discard as much of it as you want with the exception of this:

DNWs: I would love a story that doesn’t include or deal with brain damage or memory loss, either as a plot point or as a joke. Would also prefer no rape/noncon, and I’d also love a story that ends at least hopefully or in a bittersweet way — complicated feelings are excellent and I love them, I def don’t need a full on happy-ever-after, but I would prefer to avoid an extreme unhappy ending. Other than that, though, go wild!

General likes: missing scenes, close-to-canon AUs, more wild AUs that use canonical details in interesting ways, fic that explores how characters’ personalities formed, family stuff both found and otherwise, stories about the moment when someone starts to feel like they’ve really grown up, reconnection stories, established relationship stories and stories where the characters getting together isn’t where it ends, complicated-but-affectionate relationships, people in bands, domesticity.

I’m on Ao3 under the same name, if you want to poke around there, too!

The Wicked + The Divine

Okay so depending on which characters we matched on, I have a couple of very important things to tell you.

1) I have been convinced that Laura and Cass were MFEO since I read the very first two trades I picked up, and Laura introduced Cass in her internal monologue as, “I don’t like Cassandra, but I do trust her.” — Honestly, have you ever heard a more truly romantic sentiment??? And then, in the epilogue, Cass saying, “Laura, you were never my type until you were,” BE STILL MY BEATING HEART. I love the way these two knew each other from the very beginning, before they ever fell too deep into the pantheon, and I love how they always called each other by their names, even when Laura was in her deepest I am the destroyer Persephone mode and kept insisting that Laura was dead, and now that they are the canonical endgame ship I feel absolutely no compunction in saying that if you are at all inspired to write a bit from literally any part of this relationship, I am SO VERY THERE FOR IT.

2) I feel, strongly, that Cam/Baphomet should not have died, not just because I didn’t want him to, but also because I feel the transition from more selfish self-destruction to more selfless self-destruction is not actually as cathartic and growthful as the comic wanted it to be, especially for a character who has spent the length of the series in an abusive relationship. Also, I’m not a god revelations aside, these are characters with access to god-like powers which have been used for resurrections before, and if we accept my premise that Baph should not have died, we’re just a hop, skip and a jump away from fixing it, aren’t we? I don’t think Cameron-as-Baphomet because he didn’t think he could cut it as Nergal would have any trouble accepting that he was not really a god, do you?

3) Cam and Dionysus/Umar’s relationship is SO IMPORTANT TO ME. I love that it mirrors Laura/Cass’s in that they did meet for the first time pre-goodhood, and I love that in that first meeting Cam tells Umar that expecting people to do him a good turn the way he does for them is going to screw him over one day, and the Morrigan says the same thing to Dionysus again when he’s waiting in the dark for Cameron/Baph, she says that Baph will let him down, it comes up again and again right until Baph decides he’s going to die for Umar. I love their friendship and also if you wanted to write them an eventual romantic relationship where Cam still goes out and has the occasional hookup with extremely dominant women, which seems to be his thing, sexually, but they come home to each other and Cam runs a D&D game in their living room and when Umar has insomnia they stay up and watch dumb sitcoms and Cam falls asleep on his shoulder, well, I wouldn’t ARGUE with you.

4) Laura and Baph’s relationship is ALSO SO GOOD, horrible friends with disaster-benefits, quietly loyal to each other, each aware of the extent to which the other one can be trusted, each aware of the other’s limitations, good bad company till the END, I have so much love for them both separately and together.

And, of course, Dionysus and Cassandra have their very own mutual admiration society, and it occurs to me that none of these actually read like prompts, but basically what I want to impart here is that these four characters are all my favorites, and I would be delighted to read a story about any configuration of any of the four of them.

Wanted: A Gentleman

This is my very favorite K.J. Charles — I love the extended meditation on the narrative and emotional consequences of generations of queer-coded villains via Theo’s sense of both fun and self-flagellation. I love Martin’s deep and conflicted loyalties and pride. I love the way one of the things they connect over is romance novels. I would love love love to see some kind of window into how these guys’ relationship continues and develops after the story ends, and I’d love to see some kind of exploration of what a sense of domesticity might look like for them. I’d like to see if Theo gets better at writing heroes now that he’s got a romantic lead of his own in his life, too.

Thoroughbreds

One of my favorite movies of the last few years, I seriously can’t get enough of our two main characters and the weird, fucked up ways they love each other. I’d love to see some kind of future story with Amanda out in the world again, I’d love to see Lily in college, trying to navigate a more normal, social world again, I would love love love an epistolatory story where they stay in touch after the series. I’d also be so down for fic about the trial, I’d be here for fic where they fuck, I’d be here for an epic mostly-from-a-distance romance for the ages to rival Brian Fuller’s Hannibal. Honestly, if you loved this movie in any of the ways I loved this movie, I’m easy, I’ll love anything you do.

Atlanta

Darius is one of my favorite characters of all time. I think Lakeith Stanfield is one of the most consistently charismatic and magnetic actors working in Hollywood today, and Darius is such a wild, one-step-to-the-left-of-what-you’d-expect character. I’d love something about how he met Al, I’d love a window into his mind when he’s off on one of his schemes, I’d love to see what Darius in love would look like. If you ship him with Al, I could be so there for that, but also seriously no pressure.

Unless you want to write about both of them, I've definitely selected both characters in an either/or capacity, so if you're more interested in writing about one than the other, go for it!

Van is definitely one of the MVPs of the show, and I’d love more about her, too — I’m up for something from her point of view about how she feels about Earn, or about how they met. I’d love a story where she goes on some wacky hijinks with Darius for some reason. I’d love some of her feelings about parenting. Something about her own upbringing, and what she is or isn’t trying to reproduce. What she would be doing with her life if she wasn’t teaching, or what she might do next, now that she’s lost her teaching job. If Van is someone you’re inspired to write about, I honestly want it all.

Umbrella Academy RPF

Honestly, a lot of my feelings about these two weirdos have already been manifestoed in this video roundup: https://thewrongkindofpc.dreamwidth.org/14896.html and this fic: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26876845. There’s also a series of VERY GOOD INTERACTIONS on David’s appearance on Rob and Tom Hopper’s podcast, The Earth Locker, which is up on youtube.

Look, I went through an entire David Castañeda meltdown a while back, and I am still not over it. I love that he’s a little awkward in interviews, and I love that he sometimes doesn’t know what other people mean if they use a phrase he’s not familiar with and he just ASKS instead of getting all in his ego about it, or looks it up later and then says on the podcast, “I had to look that up, when you said that,” and then talks in a thoughtful way about whatever it was. I like that, in the Earth Locker thing, Robert was def doing that mildly possessive, talking-about-the-things-we’ve-talked-about-privately-so-the-other-people-here-know-that-you-and-I-are-closer-than-you-are-with-them thing with David. I LIKE A LOT OF THINGS, OKAY, and if you feel so moved to write about them getting to know each other on-set, or staying in touch between seasons, I will be OVER THE FRICKIN MOON.

Anyway, in whatever way we’ve matched, I think you’re wonderful, mystery author! Thank you in advance!! <3