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Dearest Yuletider (or What Lal Loves in Stories)
Hi Person who is going to write me a story! And Everyone else who is along for the ride.
So, this is my yuletide letter, which is a teeny bit late seeing as assignments have already gone out and for that I am so, so sorry. Because, basically, you are SO awesome. You picked one of my fandoms, I already know that you are awesome.
So, there are things that I love in general in any kind of story.
<3 Banter. It is my greatest, dearest love. It can be flirtatious banter or friendly banter or people trying to get one up over their nemesis banter. I don't care. I am a banter!slut and I don't care who knows it.
<3 People being passionate about things. Just, yes, yes please. Which is linked to -
<3 People being good at stuff. I don't care what! I especially like to see ladies being purely competent at stuff, because, yeah, that is still upsettingly lacking. Extra bonus points if that is ladies being matter of factly good at stuff without it being made a Huge Deal By Everyone and making them any less of a normal, flawed person. Speaking of which.
<3 Flaws. I like my characters to have them, and I like the people who they love to have them and I like them to recognise that the person that they adore, in whatever sense of the word, has them.
<3 Trivia. What I mean by this is, little details that make up a world. Or fun facts about squid. Whatever. My greatest fic moment was sharing my "polar bears are ninja" funfact with the world. I just like all the crazy small facts of this world, and all the fictional ones, too.
Much love,
Lal, who just loves stories...
So, that's what I like! But really, I'm easy. What do YOU like?!
So, this is my yuletide letter, which is a teeny bit late seeing as assignments have already gone out and for that I am so, so sorry. Because, basically, you are SO awesome. You picked one of my fandoms, I already know that you are awesome.
So, there are things that I love in general in any kind of story.
<3 Banter. It is my greatest, dearest love. It can be flirtatious banter or friendly banter or people trying to get one up over their nemesis banter. I don't care. I am a banter!slut and I don't care who knows it.
<3 People being passionate about things. Just, yes, yes please. Which is linked to -
<3 People being good at stuff. I don't care what! I especially like to see ladies being purely competent at stuff, because, yeah, that is still upsettingly lacking. Extra bonus points if that is ladies being matter of factly good at stuff without it being made a Huge Deal By Everyone and making them any less of a normal, flawed person. Speaking of which.
<3 Flaws. I like my characters to have them, and I like the people who they love to have them and I like them to recognise that the person that they adore, in whatever sense of the word, has them.
<3 Trivia. What I mean by this is, little details that make up a world. Or fun facts about squid. Whatever. My greatest fic moment was sharing my "polar bears are ninja" funfact with the world. I just like all the crazy small facts of this world, and all the fictional ones, too.
I mean, obviously I do not expect you to be able to fit all of this into one small story! But take this as a flavour of the kind of stuff that I love bestest, but I love all kinds of other stuff too.
I love fluffy stuff, and I love hopeful endings. I don't like neat, everything tied in a bow, over simplified resolutions. I do love angst and complications. I don't love despair.
As you can see from that last example, I tend to put stuff that I like into my own writing, which can pretty much all be found under the fanfic tag. Other people's stuff that I like is bookmarked at delicious. I would say enter at your own risk, because the bookmarks were written for my own crazy self, and are therefore, well, kind of insane.
As for my specific fandoms. Well, I said on all my prompts that I am happy with anything, which is completely true, I promise you.
But this is my reasoning for choosing them.
1. Wire In The Blood
Carol Jordan/Tony Hill
I would love a story that focuses on Carol and Tony and their relationship. It doesn't have to end up a romantic thing, but something that explores the dynamic between them. They had such good Unresolved Sexual Tension! It can be from any point in their series together or afterwards, or an AU, I really don't mind. I am fine with any rating.
I chose this fandom because I love these two characters so much, and I was kind of destroyed by the direction they took the series in. I loved the way they worked together, that they were separately very, very good at what they did and together they were amazing and fought crime. I liked how realistically messed up Tony was, and how Carol didn't flinch from that. I liked how Carol was strong without being some cliché Tough Woman Cop, and how Tony respected that. I loved the scene where Tony is ill and confuses reality with fantasy and talks about Paris, it is just so powerful and brilliant and one of the best things I have ever seen. I loved that they were dark, and complicated, and still loved each other, and were still dark and complicated. Anyway, like I said, anything with them doing anything, because I love them and I love their back and forth and how they really understand each other.
2. Scott Lynch - The Gentleman Bastard Sequence
I would love anything set in this world, but one of the things that I love best about these books are the cons. So I would really love a story of a con job. It can be set any time, before the books, during or after, I don't mind. A real bonus for me would be to see something more of Nazca Barsavi, because I think she's amazing, but that would just be a cool added extra. Or if you just wanted to write something focussed on her, that would be awesome too. Any ratings or pairing are fine with me, including slash.
I loved both of these books so very much. I think I loved nearly every single character who appears in them, and the world that they are set in is so intricate and unusual and just plain cool. Like, I said, I loved the confidence tricks, the schemes, the sheer balls of the thieves. I have such a thing for this genre of story. I loved Oceans 11 and Duplicity and Hustle and this fic. I just find clever people doing clever, complicated, immoral things sexy, okay? I loved that there were a plethora of ladies doing all kinds of things well. I loved the relationships the characters had. I loved that things went wrong, and sometimes they could fix it, and sometimes they couldn't. People got hurt, and had to heal. There were consequences to being stupid, or slow, or wrong. I thought Nazca was a wonderful character and I would love to hear more about her life, which is why I singled her out, and I adored her friendship with Locke. But really, anything anything anything.
3. Frances Hodgson Burnett - The Secret Garden
I would love some future fic, it can be gen, that would be lovely, but I would especially like a Mary/Dickon story. I would love to see the ramifications of them getting together explored, with plenty of historical and social details. But I love all the characters in this book and would be delighted to hear more about any of them. Any rating is fine, and any pairing that does not break up Mary/Dickon
I have loved this book for a very long time. I mean, I think I was about 8 when I first read it, and it still makes me happy. I was thinking of it recently because of an excellent essay on how it is gothic but better, because people get a proper ending. I love Mary Lennox so very, very much. I love that she is mean and spoilt and still loveable. I love that she is strong and smart and skips and gardens. In fact, I love most of the characters because they are all so layered and complex. I love the real, true magic. I love the descriptions and the metaphors. And I think I have shipped Mary and Dickon since I was 8, so I just want to hear more about them, and about Colin, and what kind of people they all grow into.
I love fluffy stuff, and I love hopeful endings. I don't like neat, everything tied in a bow, over simplified resolutions. I do love angst and complications. I don't love despair.
As you can see from that last example, I tend to put stuff that I like into my own writing, which can pretty much all be found under the fanfic tag. Other people's stuff that I like is bookmarked at delicious. I would say enter at your own risk, because the bookmarks were written for my own crazy self, and are therefore, well, kind of insane.
As for my specific fandoms. Well, I said on all my prompts that I am happy with anything, which is completely true, I promise you.
But this is my reasoning for choosing them.
1. Wire In The Blood
Carol Jordan/Tony Hill
I would love a story that focuses on Carol and Tony and their relationship. It doesn't have to end up a romantic thing, but something that explores the dynamic between them. They had such good Unresolved Sexual Tension! It can be from any point in their series together or afterwards, or an AU, I really don't mind. I am fine with any rating.
I chose this fandom because I love these two characters so much, and I was kind of destroyed by the direction they took the series in. I loved the way they worked together, that they were separately very, very good at what they did and together they were amazing and fought crime. I liked how realistically messed up Tony was, and how Carol didn't flinch from that. I liked how Carol was strong without being some cliché Tough Woman Cop, and how Tony respected that. I loved the scene where Tony is ill and confuses reality with fantasy and talks about Paris, it is just so powerful and brilliant and one of the best things I have ever seen. I loved that they were dark, and complicated, and still loved each other, and were still dark and complicated. Anyway, like I said, anything with them doing anything, because I love them and I love their back and forth and how they really understand each other.
2. Scott Lynch - The Gentleman Bastard Sequence
I would love anything set in this world, but one of the things that I love best about these books are the cons. So I would really love a story of a con job. It can be set any time, before the books, during or after, I don't mind. A real bonus for me would be to see something more of Nazca Barsavi, because I think she's amazing, but that would just be a cool added extra. Or if you just wanted to write something focussed on her, that would be awesome too. Any ratings or pairing are fine with me, including slash.
I loved both of these books so very much. I think I loved nearly every single character who appears in them, and the world that they are set in is so intricate and unusual and just plain cool. Like, I said, I loved the confidence tricks, the schemes, the sheer balls of the thieves. I have such a thing for this genre of story. I loved Oceans 11 and Duplicity and Hustle and this fic. I just find clever people doing clever, complicated, immoral things sexy, okay? I loved that there were a plethora of ladies doing all kinds of things well. I loved the relationships the characters had. I loved that things went wrong, and sometimes they could fix it, and sometimes they couldn't. People got hurt, and had to heal. There were consequences to being stupid, or slow, or wrong. I thought Nazca was a wonderful character and I would love to hear more about her life, which is why I singled her out, and I adored her friendship with Locke. But really, anything anything anything.
3. Frances Hodgson Burnett - The Secret Garden
I would love some future fic, it can be gen, that would be lovely, but I would especially like a Mary/Dickon story. I would love to see the ramifications of them getting together explored, with plenty of historical and social details. But I love all the characters in this book and would be delighted to hear more about any of them. Any rating is fine, and any pairing that does not break up Mary/Dickon
I have loved this book for a very long time. I mean, I think I was about 8 when I first read it, and it still makes me happy. I was thinking of it recently because of an excellent essay on how it is gothic but better, because people get a proper ending. I love Mary Lennox so very, very much. I love that she is mean and spoilt and still loveable. I love that she is strong and smart and skips and gardens. In fact, I love most of the characters because they are all so layered and complex. I love the real, true magic. I love the descriptions and the metaphors. And I think I have shipped Mary and Dickon since I was 8, so I just want to hear more about them, and about Colin, and what kind of people they all grow into.
Much love,
Lal, who just loves stories...
So, that's what I like! But really, I'm easy. What do YOU like?!