red tongues and hands

44. dear yuletide writer 2017

2017-10-06T01:24:01Z

EDIT 10/17/2017: THIS LETTER HAS NOW BEEN UPDATED TO INCLUDE THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: BREATH OF THE WILD. If this is the fandom you were matched on for me, I'm so sorry for the delay and thank you for your patience!!

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Dearest, most treasured Yuletide writer,

Please picture me waving at you as enthusiastically as possible. With both arms, even! I have a delighted grin on my face and probably imminent tears of gratitude in my eyes. I know you haven't written anything for me yet but I am just so moved by the possibility that you will that I can't contain myself.

Happy Yuletide season! I am so, so excited that you've been assigned to me, or are perhaps finding this letter by your own perusal! Yuletide is one of my very favorite annual shindigs, and this is my five-year Yuleaversary, which is so wild to me. I'm sure it's going to be a wonderful year and I'm so glad you're participating!

I should probably warn you ahead of time that this letter is going to end up being ridiculously long and exhaustively detailed. For that, I apologize. But I want to be as helpful as I possibly can in guiding you toward making a gift for me! Yuletide can be totes daunting, I get it—it still gives me some crazy nerves, because whoa, making a thing for another person, possibly a stranger; TERROR!—so the very first thing I want to get out of the way before my prompts or likes/dislikes or optional details is this: No matter what you write for me, I guarantee you I am going to LOVE IT. There is no greater gift to me than that it is yours and that you made it for me. I mean, how special is that? It could be 1k of my requested characters standing in a room staring at each other and I'd still be like, OH MY GOD. GET THIS FIC WRITER A PULITZER. BEAUTY!!! POETRY!!! MOVE OVER ALL OTHER PULITZER WINNERS!!!!

Yuletide should be as stress-free as possible, and sometimes life throws us curveballs, so I also want to tell you that if you feel you need to default, that is okay, too! Just make sure that you tell the mods as soon as possible before the default deadline so they can pass me along to one of their many capable pinch-hitters. I am not trying to be condescending; I just know it can be rough to admit that you might need to default, but the mods are super nice and understanding and they will accommodate you. So take it easy and do what is best for you no matter what!

On that note, always remember: no matter what my manifesto below may indicate to you, OPTIONAL DETAILS ARE ALWAYS OPTIONAL! You are not obligated to include any of the things I talk about in here. I only ask that you avoid my DNWs.

And, most importantly: THANK YOU, from the bottom of my little old heart, for writing for me this year. I can't wait to see what you make. I'm sure it will make my 2017.

"Gwen, haven't you talked enough?" That's what you muttered disbelievingly to yourself just now, isn't it? You see! I am incredibly perceptive! But anyway, you raise a good point. Let's get this letter off the ground! I hope that you will find the spark of inspiration somewhere among my ramblings.

I AM INTO (ODAO): slow burn narratives, character studies, ship studies, the 5 times + 1 time format, nonlinear narratives, interrupted confessions & almost kisses, developing romance, angst with a happy ending, emotional hurt/comfort, fake/pretend dating leads to feelings, snark and banter, found families, FRIENDSHIPS (especially unlikely ones), friends to lovers, seemingly unrequited pining, expansions of canon, female character-centered pieces, unresolved romantic/emotional tension, things like love and friendship daring to exist even in dire circumstances, nature imagery

I AM NOT INTO (DNWs): character death, heavy or detailed gore (minor injuries and violence OK), incest, marriage/pregnancy fic, established relationship fic, non/dubcon, first person POV, character bashing, sexual content, angst with no happy ending, actually unrequited love (for any ships I request, anyway), high school/college/coffee shop/florist/tattooist AUs, modern AUs, NSFW content of underage characters.

———

Majo no Takkyuubin | Kiki's Delivery Service
Kiki, Tombo
accessibility: amazon (DVD)

what i love about it:

Kiki was one of the first movies I ever owned and has been a foremost favorite from the time I was six years old. I love Kiki, headstrong and capable, but still so unsure of herself in ways I still find myself relating to. I love Tombo, who yearns for the sky and resolves to touch it with his own two hands, but is still so grounded, so friendly and kind. I love the friendship that grows between them despite a bumpy start—how perfectly they complement each other; she, who flies with her spirit and her soul and her boundless heart, whose relationship with her flying is so complex and uncertain; he, who flies with all the things he can hold and shape and build, who sees flight as equivalent to freedom, to progress, to adventure. I love that Tombo is maybe a little bit in love with Kiki from moment one, always beaming at her with such open adoration, fascinated by her, the new witch in town, who always wears a dark dress and rises above the clouds with such grace and ease, the most amazing girl. (They've been a longtime ship of mine, so you can imagine how thoroughly the Cup Noodles commercial annihilated my frail heart almost 19 years after I first saw them.) I love the warm and lively city of Koriko and how a countryside girl like Kiki learns to carry herself in it. I love the friendships she builds with all of its residents, and I love that she becomes its heroine, in a way, but not in the way that they idolize her; just in the way that they love her, and cheer for her, and support her. She's their town witch!

prompts:

I am thoroughly and wholeheartedly fond of Kiki/Tombo—their endearing friendship, their slow and earnest romance (if you're into that), the joy they take in each other's company, that they mutually inspire each other... everything. I would love shipfic, but am also totally fine with platonic gen if you're more comfortable with that. I didn't list Ursula and Osono as requested characters, but please feel free to include them as I adore them both as well, especially Ursula, who is, as the kids say, Life Goals T-B-H.

I would be so interested in reading about Tombo learning about magic from Kiki and Kiki learning about engineering from Tombo. The movie's approach to magic, that it's this versatile and incommunicable feeling that any witch can shape to her liking (like Kiki's mother's specialty in potions, or the "snooty" witch's skill for fortune-telling), is one that's so fascinating to me—how it's tied to the spirit, to creativity, to inner inspiration; how when you lose your faith in yourself, you lose your magic, too, because you are your own magic. By the same token, Kiki is a clever girl and I'm sure she could pick up on Tombo's technical approach to flying well enough, but maybe she gets frustrated with it? Maybe she has trouble seeing the point in going to all this trouble? Maybe she can't understand why ordinary people would put themselves in such danger, as they did with the Spirit of Freedom, just to get into the sky? Or maybe none of this happens—maybe she just has to stifle a laugh at how enthusiastic Tombo is about wrenches.

Any kind of slice-of-life type fic about Kiki coming into her own even more around Koriko would warm my heart. If you did decide to go the romance route with Kiki and Tombo, hearing the input and advice of some of Kiki's friends—Osono, Ursula, Barsa and Madam, etc.—when she realizes she might, oh dear, like him, is a concept I only just imagined this second and it is... adorable.

What happens when school starts up again? Does Kiki enroll and move her delivery business to part-time, or does she forego it to keep up her business and decide to study independently? If the latter, does she start to feel lonely when all of her new friends are gone for the better part of the day? Does she have trouble with certain subjects and need to ask for Tombo's help? If the former, how does that work out for her; does she miss the delivery service and feel out of place at school, like she did on the beach when Tombo's friends appeared and started chatting with him, reminding her, however unintentionally, that she's still something of an outsider? Does she get embarrassed when it turns out that everyone knows who she is; isn't she that amazing witch who saved Tombo over the summer?

Maybe after Kiki moves back home, she and Tombo promise to write letters to each other as often as they can. An epistolary-style collection of these letters for this would definitely thrill me, haha—I love that type of fic!

I'm not sure if this is breaking any rules, but Nissin Foods did so much to my heart in 30 seconds that it took me 48 hours to tweet it all out in a fumbling and ecstatic tweet thread that no doubt made nearly all of my mutuals mute me, and I am dying to see more of this tiny universe, since it's probably a one-off set-up designed to sell instant noodles and nothing more. I want to know everything! Kiki and Tombo, friends since childhood—how did that come about? How did she end up being the one to fall for him first in this universe; does he feel the same (OF COURSE HE DOES), and if so, when did he realize it? What is the story behind those brief flashes we saw—her gently fiddling with his hair while he slept in the library, letting him borrow her broom as a prop for his Halloween costume; the two of them eating Cup Noodles on a rooftop as it snows, laughing, warm? Maybe his answer isn't what matters—maybe it's everything that got them there. But again, this may count as a separate fandom, so it's a bit of a long shot.

In general, anything Kiki/Tombo + my ODAO list is guaranteed to fill me with joy. I've wanted good shipfic of them for so long! And again, feel free to include any other nominated characters in whatever story you choose to pursue, but if Kiki and/or Tombo could be the focus, that would be excellent!

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Fire Emblem Echoes: Mou Hitori no Eiyuu Ou | Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia
Celica, Conrad, Alm
accessibility: all cutscenes (youtube)

what i love about it:

I love Celica and Alm, the only Fire Emblem protragonists in the games I've played (granted, 13, 14, and 15 only) that have felt real and sad and hopeful and human. I love that, at its core, it's a legend, a story told around a bonfire for centuries, with just the right amounts of adventure and romance and tragedy and triumph. I love the whole ambience of it, a cluster of mortals against the gods of old, who were perhaps not as saintly as they had long believed, but began wanting the best for their people, though time corrupted their hearts. I love the near-operatic tragedy of it, a son who killed his own father without knowing it; a brother and sister torn apart, each believing the other dead; a boy and a girl who fell in love as children and vowed to reunite, no matter the wars, no matter the strife, no matter the forces beyond them. It's so unsuperficial, so heart-rending, that though the land may bear the sins and curses of those who came before us, we can still make it our own; we can still change it for the better, if we lean on each other, if we love. I LOVE THE OPENING CINEMATIC, SO DIRE AND HEART-STOPPING, AND HOW SEAMLESSLY IT SEGUÉS INTO THE MENU, CELICA AND ALM RUNNING IN THE FIELD, LAUGHING. Courage, my children; this is your song. I am the Earth; I will make you strong.

prompts:

Because I have a weakness for sad sibling relationships going all the way back to Hiei and Yukina in Yu Yu Hakusho, I would love to see fic about Celica and Conrad becoming a tiny family again after the war. Their support was cute enough, but didn't really get into the fact that they're finally reunited after all this time and that maybe they aren't sure how to go from there. I feel like it was easy and even necessary for them to forego discussing it because, hello, giant war, Duma to fight, but it's something they'll have to address sooner or later! I'm not looking for like, deep-seated angst here or anything, but their relationship and the story behind it just seemed so sweet and Conrad clearly adores Celica and thinks she's the coolest person ever—maybe he can be one of her foremost sources of support and comfort as she adjusts to being a queen. Maybe he encourages her to get up to some occasional mischief about the castle like they used to as children. Maybe they go on a journey together to visit the Sage's Hamlet and Celica gets to hear some amusing stories about Conrad growing up there, something of which he is profoundly embarrassed. They are just so sweet and Conrad is such a supreme dorko and Celica was probably overjoyed beyond words to discover that he was alive, and I need more of them!! Exploring how their interactions may have developed from his recruitment onwards could also be lovely to see!

I requested Alm, but he's not a requirement; it's just that as far as Fire Emblem Hets go, Celica/Alm is beautiful and hurts me to my core. They're mostly here as an alternative if you're averse to writing about Celica and Conrad. I'm easy to please as far as they go, and most of my ideas border on the cliché; some emotional hurt/comfort post-game, some "we're trying to figure out how to rule a new kingdom together and that's important but also we want to sneak away and kiss and stuff like all the time," some "Celica meets the Deliverance and Alm meets the Celica gang; hilarity ensues," some "In a Crowd of Thousands" vibes thrown in for good measure; anything like that. They're so sweet and so in love and I find that incredibly touching considering their circumstances. They're a pair of strong and charismastic leaders whose glares could stall armies on their own, but around each other they revert to a couple of giddy and earnest kids racing through a field of flowers, holding hands, unfettered by their destinies.

Character studies of any of these characters are also so, so welcome! I'd love an introspective piece about Celica and how she adjusts to life post-game, with Conrad and Alm being incidental, but still very present. I'd love a study of Conrad that covers his time in the Sage's Hamlet, and what his life was like there, and how he became the Masked Knight, and how he nurtured a hope that he would one day see Celica again.

I'm totally open to either gen or shipfic for this fandom, but no incest, please.

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Anne with an E
Anne Shirley, Gilbert Blythe, Diana Barry
accessibility: netflix

what i love about it:

I feel like I am one of the few people who, upon the announcement of this adaptation, felt more unfettered joy than trepidation. And it really delivered! While I won't deny it took a while for it to find its footing, I was completely won over by the way it handled these beloved characters, who I all but grew up with (the Anne books were a pillar of my childhood); the subtle things it changed (always to the characters' betterment) and the things it did not, and that it lent such life and love to. I love this Anne, who feels so believable and flawed in ways that book Anne never quite did—there are reasonable explanations for her resourcefulness and for her personality, and McNulty plays every facet so well, from the daydreaming chatterer to the prideful and quick-tempered wildfire to the earnest but occasinally misguided girl just trying to make friends. Despite her prior circumstances, she has a heart full of love; she just isn't sure how to give it out sometimes, especially to herself. This Gilbert, also, has such pathos, such personality, such presence beyond being the boy who falls in love with Anne from the moment she cracks that slate over his head. The conversation they have after his father's funeral, where she, without thinking, tells him he's actually quite lucky, and he whirls on her with such hurt and resentment in his eyes that it freezes her where she stands, adds so much to them, and the resolution of it means so much for their development. They make mistakes, but they're on equal footing, and it feels so much more organic this way, even the poignant note they part on. And Anne & Diana's friendship has always been very important to me, so of course I requested her as well. I couldn't just abandon my daughter.

prompts:

I don't have anything too specific as far as prompts go for this fandom, since so much of my love for AoGG is still rooted in the books, which have been an integral part of my heart's library for as long as I can remember. That said, the show has diverged enough from the books that it feels like there are new possibilities to explore, so you can take whatever approach you want.

I've long swooned over the eventual romance between Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe, and I didn't think it was possible for me to love them even more than I did when Jonathan Crombie gently stroked Megan Follows's cheek and murmured, "Or maybe I'll break one over yours... Carrots," but here we are. I applaud their incarnations in this show with my whole heart. JUST LOOK AT THIS NONSENSE; look at how her face lights up when she sees him at 8:55!!! OTP: "ANYWAY." Maybe he has the chance to write Anne a letter or postcard from time to time, from all of the places he's drifting through, but it's not as though she can write him back, so how does that work out? Does she enlist Diana's help in interpreting his cryptic messages? Do they giggle over the small collection of communications from Gil that Anne has built up in a box she keeps under her bed?

Alternatively, what does happen when Gilbert finally returns to Green Gables? I would love to see your take on this. Has Matthew passed by this point, or is he still alive, but ailing? Does his death come to pass after Gilbert's return and does Gilbert try to provide some comfort and help to Anne and Marilla? I'm actually very invested in the idea of Gilbert trying to be there for Anne after Matthew's death, especially since this canon had him lose his father much earlier than he did in the books. Though it's tragic, it's something that will bind them together, down the line. And that Gilbert would do all of that not just out of love for Anne, but out of his respect for Matthew, as well—that's important.

I'd be so interested in seeing some Diana & Gilbert friendship, as well. They didn't get too much interaction in the show, but you can tell that they're acquainted and that Diana finds him charming. I imagine them having something of a Ben Wyatt & Ann Perkins dynamic in this instance; bonding over the Leslie in their lives, by the fact that they are essentially the closest bodies to the sun itself, fondly rolling their eyes at her antics.

If none of this sounds appealing, the general vibe of developing Anne/Gilbert / Anne and Diana's friendship post-series (that is, post-what's on Netflix) would be spectacular!

I should also mention that I absolutely loved Jerry and his hot takes on Anne's nonsense. Having him feature in the fic you may write is something I totally encourage, but I'm not going to require him.

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Hyouka & Kotenbu Series
Any
accessibility: rightstuf (part one; blu ray)

what i love about it:

I love Houtarou/Eru. I love the innocent, bittersweet ache to their later interactions, their unspoken like for each other, Houtarou's profound admiration of Eru and all that she is, all that she stands for, all that he thinks he can never touch, spring and happiness and caring about people and never having to be alone. I love how mutual that admiration is, how Eru is so constantly in awe of him, at first, and then eventually starts to give him that soft, affectionate smile that he never sees, because she thinks he's the most wonderful person in the world. I love the lengths to which Houtarou will go to make Eru happy in spite of his own philosophies, and I love the delight Eru takes in learning little things about Houtarou, no matter how incidental. I love how much she flusters and surprises him. Romantic Houtarou/Eru is something that keeps me up at night, especially, like, Houtarou/Eru that always gets closer and closer to being overt but ends up just shy of it; the Houtarou/Eru where they almost hold hands, where they gaze at each other for a moment too long, where the sun is setting and they've been in the empty club room for hours and he has to turn away so she won't see him smiling—where he thinks he's not good enough for her, not bright enough, not talented enough, and she thinks she would just be a burden, she and her family and her responsibilities and her energy; where they learn that they're both wrong. But if you want to write them platonically, that's okay, too!
I also love Satoshi/Mayaka. I love their complexities, how they suffer and hurt when they both just want the same thing, how they both start to call out to each other sometimes in the hallway but then catch themselves, and go quiet, and smile, alone and rueful. They both care so deeply about each other, perhaps too deeply, because they know how to hurt each other deeply, too. And I love, love, love Satoshi. He is one of my favorite characters in anything, ever.
I love all of the dynamics among the main four; I love Houtarou and Mayaka's Vitriolic Best Buds relationship and I love the idea of Satoshi and Eru getting along well because he's arguably the most proper of the Classics Club after her. I love Houtarou and Satoshi's friendship; everything about it. I love Mayaka and Eru, huddled in the corner of a crafts store before Valentine's Day, as Mayaka inches over and bumps against Eru's shoulder to whisper a secret. I love its devotion to classic mysteries, its genuine approach to the high school years and to finding out who you are, even if who you are maybe feels like it isn't good enough, but at least you have your friends and that club room and the sunset, and a bag of flour you got by chance, and the promise of springtime. Even if it's all impermanent, as all good things in youth are—at least there's that.

prompts:

Goes without saying, but casefic! I love the influences that the anime takes so lovingly from classic mysteries, like the Christie 'verse, Sherlock Holmes, etc., so maybe something based on that? I'd love to see a Hyouka-lightened And Then There Were None or Murder on the Orient Express in the same vein as the culture festival arc's homage to The ABC Murders, if you need ideas, but going that route is absolutely not necessary—I love Hyouka's little mysteries that seem insignificant but actually wind up unveiling something important about the characters, even if the solution isn't all that breathtaking. Gosh, I would especially love... older cast casefic? Like they come home from college for the summer and fall back into the old routine of investigating something odd?

There is so much good future Satoshi/Mayaka fic out there that I almost feel bad asking for it, but I don't care. However, I have noticed that little of it seems to factor in the implication at the end of the series that they're going out! I'd love to see something that examines that—maybe they break up for some characteristically senseless (but nonetheless painful) reason? Maybe they consult their respective best friends for guidance? Maybe Eru ropes Houtarou into a conspiracy to get them back together? (Maybe, relatedly, Satoshi and Mayaka conspire to get Houtarou and Eru together?)

What is their last year of high school like? Have they made a name for themselves or are they still the same quiet Classics Club? Do they have kouhai who want to join, or who have already joined and are being prepped to take over the club after the old guard graduates?

I'm always fascinated by the concept of Eru's family and what a big freaking deal they apparently are, so: maybe Eru has an important family function and invites the rest of the Classics Club? Maybe Satoshi charms them all with his vast knowledge of their genealogy? Ships optional, of course.

Satoshi coming to grips with himself and his feelings for Mayaka and about Houtarou and learning with his friends' help that yes, he is good enough, he is worth something, he will be okay. Satoshi Fukube makes me so sad and I just need someone to tell him that he matters.

Tomoe Oreki is endlessly entertaining and getting to hear her takes on Houtarou's friendships and budding romance would no doubt be a riot. Can you imagine if she and Eru met? What a spectacle that would be!

————

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Link, Zelda
accessibility: all cutscenes (youtube)

what i love about it:

A lot of my positive feelings on BotW can be summed up in this Tumblr post, which is one of the best and most beautiful posts I've seen about any Zelda game ever. I LOVE this incarnation of Zelda probably the best out of any of them; I especially love the stark contrast between her and the Zelda of Skyward Sword, who was so in tune with the goddess, who accepted her fate without a fight, who was kind and gentle and almost martyrlike, for a time. I love Zelda's struggles, how real the expectations upon her feel, how difficult they are for her to bear. I love the evolving closeness between her and Link; I love the perfectly understandable reasons for why they don't get along right away. So much of their relationship in this game subverts all of the tenets of prior Zelda/Link dynamics, and I love that, but moreso I love how totally reasonable and heart-wrenching it is. I love the environment, for so many reasons, not the least of which is that I'm a big nerd for nature. I love the memory mechanic; I love though it may take time for Link to remember everything about himself, one of the first things he starts to remember is Zelda, Zelda, Zelda. I'M A MASOCHIST AND I LOVE THAT IT'S THEORETICALLY POSSIBLE FOR HIM TO SAVE HER WITHOUT REGAINING ANY MEMORIES OF HER AT ALL. I just. I love this entire game. It's so beautiful and sweeping and hopeful and intricate and ugh. I didn't think a game could bring me more splendidly painful Zelda/Link content than Skyward Sword, my favorite game of all time, but here we are. I also love the Champions, especially Urbosa and Mipha; I love the idea of learning more about a friendship between Zelda and Mipha in particular. As far as the Champions' "counterparts" go, I love Riju and Yunobo, and am totally fine with any of the other nominated characters making an appearance, but truthfully I'm not especially interested in Sidon, so I would prefer that any fic not feature him prominently.

Something else to note is that I have this one weird personal nitpick: when Link talks frequently in fic, it tends to take me out of it immediately. I thought it was wonderful that BotW addressed the fact that he doesn't really speak, and actually the fact that they implied the mutism is selective made it even more compelling to me. Obviously I'm not going to ask you not to give him any dialogue whatsoever, as I know that would be a pain, but if you plan on writing lines for him, I'd at least appreciate it if he wasn't, you know, Chatty McChatterson. That Link doesn't really have a canonical "voice" (that is, one you can apply to dialogue to make it IC) kind of dooms most fan-written dialogue for him for me. But the idea of him speaking up occasionally, fleetingly, in ways that say so little and so much all at once—that, I love! But if this sounds too difficult, don't worry about it. <3

prompts:

The memories did an excellent job, IMO, of showing just enough of Link and Zelda's evolving relationship that it felt believable, but holding back enough that there's still a lot of spaces in between that we don't really know anything about. I'd love an exploration of how they came to trust and depend on each other, especially one that delves into Urbosa's comments during "Subdued Ceremony" (that boy is a living reminder of her own failures; at least that's how the princess sees him) and "Urbosa's Hand" (she gets frustrated every time she looks up and sees you carrying that sword on your back; it makes her feel like a failure when it comes to her own destiny)—especially one in which, maybe, her insecurities become clear to Link and he isn't sure how to handle it. I'd love anything pre-Calamity about them, really—anything that expands upon the time between the memories we see, but through Zelda's eyes.

Though Link and Zelda were my only required characters, request-wise, I'd love to see something about a friendship with Zelda and Mipha. Mipha seemed so earnest when she was about to give Zelda advice on how to maybe unlock her latent power, and I adored Mipha in general, so I found myself wanting to know more about what her rapport with Zelda was like. I also love Urbosa; I lay my sword at her feet, as husband, please respond. So any appearance from her would be welcome. Mipha and Zelda and Urbosa would make for such a power trio. But again, since I'm not requiring Urbosa or Mipha, don't feel obligated to include them at all.

I would be very very into pre-canon Zelda and Impa, as their relationship throughout the franchise has always been very important to me, especially in Skyward Sword, which is, again, my favorite game of all time! Maybe Zelda and Link, in their travels after Calamity Ganon is defeated, return to Kakariko Village and Zelda and Impa are reunited and I cry buckets of tears.

Zelda and Link's travels post-Calamity Ganon's defeat is also a concept rich with potential. I've read a lot of fics that delve into the political aspect of this, which certainly makes sense—it's not like Link and Zelda can just fritter off into the wild and ignore the whole "rebuilding Hyrule" thing—but I find myself wanting for the quiet moments; Zelda reacquainting herself with the land, Link showing her all of the out-of-the-way places he discovered (like Sartori Mountain, or Lurelin Village, or TARREY TOWN, or Lover's Pond, or Eventide Island now that it's free of monsters, or any quiet spot in an Akkala forest or along the Faron Sea or in the Hebra Mountains or God, anywhere; why is this game so beautiful), or Link smugly showing Zelda all of the shrines he unlocked and taking delight in how much she geeks out about them... the moments before things get complicated again, when it's just the two of them and an open wilderness full of beauty and promise, a night wind and a fire to keep them warm in the snow of Hebra, a thunderstorm in Faron Woods, a sunset at Kara Kara Bazaar, and the conversations that arise. I'm so simple, but I have a huge weakness for mundane things, the things that make people most human. Or Hylian, in this case.

Zelda/Link is ridiculously important to me as a ship, like, always, but especially in this game. Any shipfic of them is basically [insert a stream of 💯 emojis]. You absolutely don't have to go the shippy route if that isn't your wheelhouse, but the second this game decided to shake up their accepted dynamic and look closely at what their relationship would be like with all the baggage and anxiety you would expect them to carry, I was struck dead in an instant. It plays so perfectly into my knight/liege trope bias that I regularly have to reassure my friends that I did not commission this entire game. They are, as the kids say, "my OTP." But again, if you aren't comfortable writing them romantically, anything that at least acknowledges the close friendship they have, one built on mutual trust and respect, that is absolutely enough for me!

—————

Smoke is starting to come out of my typing fingers now, so maybe that's a sign I should like chill out for two seconds? Are you still alive? Did you make it? I hope you did. You seem cool.

Anyway, writer, bottom line: Yuletide is a magical time, and anything you write, even if it does not even remotely cater to anything on that needlessly long litany of my emotional ramblings, will be magical, too. My heart will swell with gratitude and cheer no matter what you crank out for me this holiday season; I cannot stress this enough! Everything you see up there is a suggestion, not a requirement. As long as it features the characters I love, and you are writing it, I am absolutely positive that it will bring me joy and good feelings, and I will cherish it for years to come; I will tell my friends and neighbors about it, etc. I would love to see you run away with something of your own design just as much as I would to see you run away with something of mine. You have a great big beautiful brain and you will blow me away no matter what you choose to do.

If you made it through this whole thing without bolting the other way, then I just want to say that I am so, so, so excited to see what you write for me, and so grateful to you for what you're about to do. I know that it'll make my month. You are a trooper, and you are amazing, and I wish you the happiest holiday season imaginable!

All my love,

Gwen/Brella/blevins

43. dear yuletide writer 2016

2016-09-28T22:02:20Z

Dearest, most treasured Yuletide writer,

Season's greetings! Halloween is nigh at the time I am writing this, but, you know, whatever! What's shakin'? Well, me, with excitement, for one thing, but that's irrelevant—how are things with you? Good, I hope! Better than good, even! I hope for nothing but the best when it comes to the Best Yuletide Writer Ever (read: you!). You have no idea how delighted and honored I am that you've been assigned to me, or that, maybe, you're stumbling across this letter completely by accident, and that you are here, reading it, at this very moment! Words fail me! So, preemptively: thank you so much, you are so wonderful, and I apologize in advance for the lengthy enthusiastic yammering that is to follow; I am just, SO VERY EXCITED, and Yuletide is the best!!!!!!

While we're on the subject of preemptive things, there is something I want to get out of the way, first and foremost. Writing things for people can be hard, and terrifying, and daunting, whether this is your first Yuletide or your tenth or your fourth (like me!), so I just want to assure you: I will love literally anything you write for me. I am so hopelessly, hilariously easy to please when it comes to fic about the characters and canons I love—it could be 1,000 words of them just existing in the same room together in silence and I'd waste no time in submitting it for a Pulitzer. My prompts are not requirements; they're suggestions; if they are included, I'll consider it a magical Yuletide bonus! So really, honestly, anything you write will bring me joy. OPTIONAL DETAILS ARE OPTIONAL!

That being said, I know how Yuletide goes—sometimes you offer something and you're confident you can do it and then you get your assignment and the prompts aren't your jam and you have zero ideas and aaaaaah! Please don't feel bad if you have to default. It happens! I only ask that you do it before the default deadline and make things a little easier for the mods. There are so many pinch hitters and backup writers for this exchange, so do not worry about me at all. I'm sure you don't need me telling you this, but I wanted to make extra sure I did, just in case! Yuletide should be fun for both of us. Okay? Okay!

"Shut up, Gwen, oh my god," you are probably muttering to yourself, as this preamble stretches on into the hundreds of words. Well, fine, smarty pants. Onward to the Good Stuff!

I LOVE: any classic romance tropes (getting locked in a room/stranded somewhere and being forced to talk about things, fake-out make-outs, FAKE/PRETEND DATING LEADS TO FEELINGS most of all), friends to lovers, slow burn stuff, character studies, ship studies, the 5 times + 1 time format, nonlinear narratives, (most) AUs, almost kisses (more valuable than actual kisses), humor, angst with a happy ending, gen, hurt/comfort (emotional and physical), after-action patch-ups (A FAVE TROPE), characters being protective of other characters, snark and banter, found families, friendships, the concept of soulmates (romantic or platonic), ladies being treated with the respect they deserve, UST/URT with a healthy dose of mutual pining, friends to enemies, enemies to friends, friends supporting each other, friends conspiring to get their other friends together, oh, gosh, FRIENDS!!!

I DO NOT LOVE: character death, heavy or detailed gore (minor injuries and violence OK), marriage/pregnancy fic, established relationship fic (usually! Tatami Galaxy is an exception), non/dubcon, first person POV, character bashing, kinky stuff, angst with no happy ending, unrequited love, high school/college/coffee shop/florist/tattooist AUs, NSFW content of underage characters. I'm the most vanilla person alive when it comes to kinks/NSFW stuff in general, and tend not to go for it.

僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Midoriya Izuku, Bakugou Katsuki, Iida Tenya, Uraraka Ochako
accessibility: mangatown | viz (manga, 100+ chapters) | hulu (anime season 1, 12 episodes)

about:

Sometime in the near future, humans begin to manifest strange powers that come to be known as Quirks (basically, superpowers!). What begins as a series of genetic anomalies quickly spreads throughout the generations until nearly everyone, all over the world, is born with some manner of Quirk. The superheroes of pop culture legend become a reality; so, in turn, do villains. Heroes are the celebrities of society, celebrated and lauded for the work they do—and it has always been Midoriya "Deku" Izuku's dream to become a hero himself. There's just one problem: he's Quirkless.
Circumstances lead to Izuku inheriting the mysterious Quirk, One for All, from the #1 Hero he has idolized his whole life, All Might. Though this new power far exceeds Izuku's capabilities, he resolves to master it, carry on All Might's legacy, and become a great hero. To do so, he applies for and is accepted to the top hero school in the world, U.A. High.
Once there, he must learn to become worthy of One for All, step into himself both as a young man and as a hero, and, of course, face down a host of villains. The world is changing. All Might's era may soon come to an end. But Izuku and his plethora of talented, powerful classmates could just be the unstoppable heroes the uncertain future needs!

notes:

I CAN'T BELIEVE BNHA IS ELIGIBLE THIS YEAR! AAAAAAA! I just knew I had to request it not only because it has been my favorite thing ever this past year but also because I highly doubt it will be eligible next year at the rate it's going! The story of my discovering BNHA is a Tale for the Ages, but don't worry, I'll omit it from here.
I'm requesting Izuku, Bakugou, Iida, and Uraraka, but you do not have to include all four of them. Feel free to write about one or three or two or whatever, in any combo; I don't care! And you are more than welcome to include any of the other nominated characters, as they are all winners! BNHA has such a large and spectacular cast; I would even encourage you to go for bringing in the other members of Class 1-A if you are so inclined. I love all of them (except Mineta but we won't go into that).
Bakugou Katsuki is a terrible, horrible child, but he is my absolute favorite; I love, love, love that explodo-killing punk. His growth over the course of the series thus far, however slow-moving, has truly captivated me. He will get there someday! But I love any scene about him, any focus; when we met his parents a few chapters ago I was like, on the ceiling. My problematic fave son!!! Deeply saddened that Kirishima is not available to request this year, as he and Bakugou are my jam, but that is okay! I love seeing how the other characters besides Izuku handle him – his fight with Uraraka was a PEAK BNHA MOMENT! (Jk every BNHA moment is a peak BNHA moment this series is so good help.)
I'm not really looking for shipfic with any of these characters. All of the people I hardcore ship them with aren't nominated! That said, I do really like Uraraka and Izuku; they are my sweet summer children and Uraraka's big ol' crush on him is the CUTEST THING! As they stand right now, they fit right into my eternal, like, "requited crush that they believe is unrequited" bias, so, you know, I'm p much helpless.
And I adore Iida! I love getting to see his interactions with the rest of his classmates, who he loves and would protect with his life, and his growing bestfriendship with Uraraka and Izuku. His antics always make me smile. He's such a good kid! He tries his very best!

prompts:

1) I... love Izuku and Bakugou. I'm not shipping them romantically, but their... relationship (I hesitate to call it a friendship just yet) and the potential for what it could become is very, very important to me. It's so complex and difficult and interesting. When All Might had that line about how their participation in the exam fight against him was their first step down a long road that would one day lead them to becoming an unstoppable team... I. Freaking. Lost. It. Because that is my shit. That is what I am here for. Endgame Izuku and Bakugou makes my heart pound if I think about it too hard sometimes. So, in that vein: anything exploring the development of Izuku and Bakugou from where they are now to where they could be in the future. Partners? Rivals? Dare I even say friends? Maybe there's a villain fight and they're separated from the others and have to fight on their own. Maybe Izuku gets injured and Bakugou has to deal with him until backup arrives; maybe it's Bakugou who's injured! Maybe they're both captured by villains and tied up in some basement room together and have to figure out how to escape but also end up, like, Talking About Things™. These are all scenarios I daydream about, like, all the time. Bakugou protecting Izuku! Izuku protecting Bakugou and Bakugou not knowing how to deal with it! Bakugou knowing hella info about first aid and startling Izuku with his ability to create an effective makeshift tourniquet?! I DON'T CARE, I LOVE THESE BOYS.

2) Alternatively, Bakugou having to interact with Iida and/or Uraraka absent of Izuku. I imagine Bakugou and Uraraka would play off of each other in a very interesting, at times comical way. I saw a headcanon once that when Bakugou starts hollering or throwing a tantrum Uraraka just taps his shoulder and makes him float until he expends himself. That is perfect? That is the Uraraka & Bakugou aesthetic I am all about. I really like the idea of them becoming vitriolic best buds or, at the very least, some manner of friends/allies/what have you. Uraraka seems like she could really put him in his place, lmao. (I don't ship them romantically, though.) Like, God, what if Iida and Uraraka get paired with Bakugou for a project or an exercise or something? Can you imagine? Can you imagine them granting Bakugou no quarter because they have seen the way he treats their best buddy Izuku and they will have their revenge for that mistreatment, damn it? I CAN!

3) URARAKA/IZUKU PINING FIC. I'm garbage, I know, I'm sorry, but I am so, so here for it. Especially after the development in chapter 109! Uraraka wanting to shut down her feelings for Izuku because being a hero comes first! Izuku probably still having that fluttery crush on Uraraka from the beginning of the series but putting their developing friendship above it! LITERALLY EVERY OTHER CHARACTER SEEING URARAKA'S CRUSH ON IZUKU, I'M THRIVING. I would love to see Uraraka in turmoil about it and getting guidance from an unexpected place—does she confide in Iida? Does Bakugou have something to say? (Does Izuku confide in Iida, too? What does Iida do if both of his good friends are in like with each other but he's sworn to secrecy by both of them?!) I would love to see the two of them working together, be it as heroes or as students or as friends; I would love to see something drive a rift between them, as well! How do they handle it? This whole prompt is very inarticulate but any shmoop/angst-with-a-happy-ending/seemingly-but-not-actually-unrequited-pining goodness with these two would make my heart siiiiiiiing.

4) Obligatory Culture Festival Fic. That's all. I crave it.

5) Related to #4: Horikoshi, how can you show the cast in formal wear and still not have given me a school dance arc? I'll bribe you. I've got $5 I can spare. Maybe $4.

6) Five times Izuku told Bakugou the truth and one time he lied? Five times Izuku inspired Uraraka and one time she inspired him? Five times Izuku surprised Bakugou and one time Bakugou surprised him? Five times Iida and Uraraka stuck up for Izuku and one time they didn't have to? Five times Uraraka or Iida got stuck doing something with Bakugou? Five times Uraraka almost confessed to Izuku?!?!

Hyouka & Kotenbu Series
Any
accessibility: animefreak (anime, 22 episodes + 1 OVA)

about:

Originally published as the first in the Kotenbu series of light novels, Hyouka was adapted into an anime series in 2012. It tells the story of Oreki Houtarou, a quiet, deadpan energy conservationist whose withdrawn and inert ways are busted to pieces when he is urged by his sister to join the Classic Literature Club and meets its only other member, Chitanda Eru. Eru is energetic, tenacious, and bright; she loves people and is perpetually driven to help them, and she is fueled by an insatiable curiosity that can be set off by even the smallest of mysteries—she is, essentially, all the things that Houtarou is not. They are soon joined in the club by Houtarou's only friend, Fukube Satoshi, a cheerful self-proclaimed "database," and Ibara Mayaka, a grouchy aspiring mangaka. Over the course of a single school year, the four of them find mystery, excitement, heartbreak, and love in the most surprising places—and Houtarou breaks his rule of energy conservation again, and again, and again.

notes:

Writer, do you want to know a secret? I love Hyouka so much. Most of this whole chunk will be a repeat from my letter last year, but now that Satoshi and Mayaka are eligible, the sky is the limit.

First off, I love Houtarou/Eru. I love the innocent, bittersweet ache to their later interactions, their unspoken like for each other, Houtarou's profound admiration of Eru and all that she is, all that she stands for, all that he thinks he can never touch, spring and happiness and caring about people and never having to be alone. I love how mutual that admiration is, how Eru is so constantly in awe of him, at first, and then eventually starts to give him that soft, affectionate smile that he never sees, because she thinks he's the most wonderful person in the world. I love the lengths to which Houtarou will go to make Eru happy, and I love the delight Eru takes in learning little things about Houtarou, no matter how incidental. I love how much she flusters and surprises him. Don't speak to me about that ending scene, about that thing he almost said!! DON'T!!!!!

Romantic Houtarou/Eru is something I love and adore, especially, like, Houtarou/Eru that always gets closer and closer to being overt but ends up just shy of it; the Houtarou/Eru where they almost hold hands, where they gaze at each other for a moment too long, where the sun is setting and they've been in the empty club room for hours and he has to turn away so she won't see him smiling—where he thinks he's not good enough for her, not bright enough, not talented enough, and she thinks she would just be a burden, she and her family and her responsibilities and her energy; where they learn that they're both wrong. But if you want to write them platonically, that's okay, too!

Second: Satoshi/Mayaka is also... *clears throat; wipes eyes* um, idk, they're cool I guess. I love their complexities, how they suffer and hurt when they both just want the same thing, how they both start to call out to each other sometimes in the hallway but then catch themselves, and go quiet, and smile, alone and rueful. They both care so deeply about each other, perhaps too deeply, because they know how to hurt each other deeply, too. And I love, love, love Satoshi. He is one of my favorite characters of all time, in anything, ever. Daisuke Sakaguchi (his voice actor) was a special guest at Fanime this year and someone in the audience asked him who his favorite character he had ever played was, and he said Satoshi (and I silently cheered); I asked him what the most difficult thing about making Hyouka was, and he said playing Satoshi. "He has no faith in himself, you see," he said, "so feels like he doesn't deserve good things. After playing that for a while, I started to feel that way, too. It was hard!"

As for other ships—Satoshi/Houtarou is good; I can get on board, don't get me wrong, but it's just? Too damn sad? And I don't want to be sad at Yuletide. This show already makes me sad enough sometimes, ffs.

prompts:

1) Casefic! I love the influences that the anime takes so lovingly from classic mysteries, like the Christie 'verse, Sherlock Holmes, etc., so maybe something based on that? I'd love to see a Hyouka-lightened And Then There Were None or Murder on the Orient Express in the same vein as the culture festival arc's homage to The ABC Murders, if you need ideas, but going that route is absolutely not necessary—I love Hyouka's little mysteries that seem insignificant but actually wind up unveiling something important about the characters, even if the solution isn't all that breathtaking. Gosh, I would especially love... older cast casefic? Like they come home from college for the summer and fall back into the old routine of investigating something odd? That might give me too hefty of a feel, though. I might legit die.

2) There is so much good future Satoshi/Mayaka fic out there that I almost feel bad asking for it, but I don't care. However, I have noticed that little of it seems to factor in the implication at the end of the series that they're going out! I'd love to see something that examines that—maybe they break up for some characteristically senseless (but nonetheless painful) reason? Maybe they consult their respective best friends for guidance? Maybe Eru ropes Houtarou into a conspiracy to get them back together? (Maybe, relatedly, Satoshi and Mayaka conspire to get Houtarou and Eru together?)

3) What is their last year of high school like? Have they made a name for themselves or are they still the same quiet Classics Club? Do they have kouhai who want to join, or who have already joined and are being prepped to take over the club after the old guard graduates?

4) Houtarou Satoshi character/friendship study with a side of angst and thinking they're completely inadequate, thanks.

6) I'm always fascinated by the concept of Eru's family and what a big freaking deal they apparently are, so: maybe Eru has an important family function and invites the rest of the Classics Club? Maybe Satoshi charms them all with his vast knowledge of their genealogy? Ships optional, of course.

7) Satoshi coming to grips with himself and his feelings for Mayaka and Houtarou and learning with his friends' help that yes, he is good enough, he is worth something, he will be okay.

8) Houtarou fumbling to convince his sister offscreen that he and Eru are not dating, stop implying it, nee-san.

9) Mayaka makes an anime/manga lover out of Eru. Eru learns all the shoujo romance tropes and attempts to implement them in Houtarou's presence?!

10) Gosh, anything about Houtarou and Mayaka's strange frenemyship and/or Satoshi and Eru's friendship! Eru/Mayaka and Satoshi/Houtarou are wonderful and valuable, but I am even more fond of how they get along with their non-best friends!

四畳半神話大系 | The Tatami Galaxy
Any
accessibility: funimation (anime, 11 episodes)

about:

Based on the light novel of the same name by Tomihiko Morimi, The Tatami Galaxy (produced by Madhouse and directed by the great Masaaki Yuasa) is a magical and surreal, at times absurd, glimpse into the university years of an unnamed, and perpetually unsatisfied, narrator. Each episodic installment takes place in a series of parallel universes based on which club, or "circle," he chooses to join at the beginning of his freshman year. Whichever choice he makes invariably leads to some misadventure or another—whether he's dragged into mischief by his impish best friend Ozu, or circumstances of fate lead to him being unable to fulfill a mysterious promise to his crush, Akashi, he seems to find nothing but misery and strife, and constantly feels that, had he just made that one decision differently, he could attain that mythical "rose-colored campus life" he's always heard and dreamed of. Little does he realize that, each time he wishes he could start over, he does—but in searching for that incommunicable something, will he lose sight of what's truly important?

notes:

The Tatami Galaxy is, without a doubt, the best anime I have ever seen. There is not a single thing about it that I would change, nor did it leave a single thread of itself unexplored, unresolved, or unperfected. Its narrative is simple, elegant, and exquisitely self-contained. It hits all the right chords. It leaves you with a contented, fond feeling, and a certainty that, no matter how worried you are, things will turn out okay, and life is pretty good. So why, you may ask, am I requesting fic of it, if it is such a flawlessly wrapped up package? That is an excellent question! I don't know! I guess I just miss it! It gave me everything, and still I lie awake some nights yearning for more.

I could write sonnets singing praises to Akashi for the rest of my life. Watashi is so perfectly selfish and petty and anxious about life and for one or perhaps all of those reasons he is alarmingly relatable. And Ozu is the roguish little ghoul I'd love to bring home to ma. They are a holy trifecta of goodness. And I adore the world they're running around trying to live their lives in, one that's so close to ours but has some extra facet, some hidden undercurrent, that's distinctly unusual, borderline paranormal. Watashi's adventures (and misadventures) were a joy to watch, but what I truly want to throw myself into is fic that digs into Akashi and/or Ozu!

prompts:

1) Watashi oft makes the joke that Ozu is a youkai, mostly because he's ghoulish-looking due to poor diet and general devilish air, but you know, I always secretly hoped it would be revealed that Ozu really was a youkai, disguising himself as a regular human for no other reason than to torment Watashi, because he feels like it, and it's funny. I would love an AU where Ozu is genuinely some kind of magical creature, and Higuchi really is a god of matrimony, and Watashi has no clue! Tatami's portrayal of Kyoto as a bustling and beautiful city with something vaguely eccentric and perhaps supernatural keeping it alive reminded me very much of another of my favorite series, Uchouten Kazoku. I feel like that show's ambience and general mythos would match Tatami's super well!

2) "There's nothing as boring as a successful love story." Yeah, okay, Watashi; you obviously haven't met me. What is Watashi and Akashi's dating life like? Do things seem to go south and, in a fit of his old self-preserving panic, he pulls the rewinding trick he hasn't had to implement in ages? I love that, no matter how convoluted and bizarre the circumstances, he always makes the same promise to her, and the world always looks brighter and more colorful when he sees her, and she's always fondly intrigued by him, and they always find each other. I would love to see something, like this or not, that illuminates Akashi's feelings for Watashi, since we're mostly left to infer them based on what he observes. She is such a delightful puzzle, and the thought that someone as selective and quiet as she is would be so drawn to Watashi totally piques my interest! What makes him special to her? What if this entire time she's been doing the same thing he has, going back in time over and over because she, too, can't feel satisfied? What if they keep missing each other? THIS IS A CATCH-ALL REQUEST FOR ANYTHING WATASHI/AKASHI, BASICALLY. What a good ship!

3) I was always delighted when the anime dropped little hints that Akashi knew Ozu super well, perhaps even better than the protagonist. They always seemed to give the impression of being co-conspirators, or at least close buddies in playful misanthropy; that when he's teetering on the bridge in episode one, she glares up at him and scolds him with, "Ozu-senpai, have you done some more mischief?" never fails to make me grin. I would love to see fic that explores their friendship!

4) Honestly, anything about Akashi. I love her to death, but there wasn't nearly enough of her! What is her daily life like? Does she help tanuki cross the street safely on her way to school? Could she arm-wrestle Jougasaki and win? Does she know some witchcraft? I DON'T KNOW! Anything is possible! You tell me! It could be 100% canon divergent headcanon and I would sweep it up into my arms and hold it close.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Link (Zelda: Skyward), Zelda (Zelda: Skyward)
accessibility: youtube (all cutscenes)

about:

2011's Wii-based contribution to the vast The Legend of Zelda canon and the betterment of my life at large came in the form of the beautiful, the underappreciated, the incomparable Skyward Sword. Focused on the starting point of the entire series mythos, it tells the tale of the first Link, the first Zelda, the forging of the Master Sword, and, of course, the first battle with the primordial being that would one day become Ganon. The Link and Zelda of SS are not the Hero and Princess of legend—they're just two childhood best friends living on a floating island called Skyloft. When a malevolent force sends Zelda falling to the surface world below, however, Link resolves immediately to rescue her, and, in doing so, discovers that he is to play a key part in a tale far beyond his imagination—one that will, by the game's end, repeat itself for lifetimes to come. Sword and shield in hand, accompanied by the spirit of the Goddess Sword, Fi, he sets out on an epic journey across uncharted lands to find her (not realizing that she is on a tragic journey of her own); by the end of it, he is fighting in the heavens for the fate of the world itself, but all he wants to do—all he's ever wanted to do—is bring his best friend home again.

notes:

The year was 2014. Life was complicated. I had never played a video game not on some manner of handheld device. My view of the world of gaming was narrow, unenlightened. Then, my boyfriend asked me if I wanted to play a Zelda game at his house. "Zelda?" I asked. "Like those games our friend likes? With the little green guy? Eh, sure." What began with an "eh, sure" ended with me, spread-eagled on my friend's bedroom floor, clutching a Wiimote and Nuchuk in hand, weeping at the ceiling.
Skyward Sword changed me. To date, it is probably my favorite game of all time. It gets a lot of flak for a variety of stupid reasons, but I don't care and never have. It is a masterpiece. And to the franchise's credit, there was no better way for it to grab my interest than to make Link and Zelda two best friends in love who are infinitely reincarnated to play out the same battle against darkness and despair, over and over again; to forget each other and their bond every time, but to always find themselves drawn or flung together again, no matter the circumstances. That's horrible!!! I love it!!!!!!
Link/Zelda is such an OTP in this game? Self-immolation sounds like a painless alternative to thinking about them for too long. Zelda, especially, is a highlight of this game for me—her tragic acceptance of who she is and what she must do, how much she aches to return to that simple and carefree life with Link, how even as he's falling apart in front of her, she smiles, because she doesn't want him to be sad. Despite everything, "I'm still your Zelda." And Link, faithful and silent, who changes so noticeably over the course of the game, who starts to carry himself differently, who comes to wield a sword with confidence—who, though he never utters a single word, has the goddamn nerve to make this face.
These two, and their story, and their bittersweet ending, will have a stranglehold on my fragile heart until the end of time itself. Anything about them, anything at all, will be immediately framed and enshrined in my closet, Helga Pataki-style.
This is a weird P.S., but I've always taken Link to be canonically mute, so when he's super chatty in fic, I tend to find it jarring? Obviously I know this might just be a thing for me and that omitting any Link dialogue would be a challenge, so don't worry about it if it harshes your vibe (optional details are optional), but I figured it was worth mentioning!

prompts:

1) Post-game coda! How do Link and Zelda adjust to living on the surface? Where do they settle? Does Zelda set diplomatic relations with the other lands in motion? Do she and Link ever talk about everything that happened? Does it bring them closer or start to drive them apart? Do they feel melancholic at the fact that things can never go back to the way they used to be? Do they ever visit Skyloft? Do they ever step over the line from friends to lovers? (Oh, please tell me they do; please tell me it's complicated and achey and takes forever and culminates in something incredible.) "Post-canon slow burn friends to lovers relationship study" sounds like an awful mouthful when I say it out loud, but if I'm being honest, that is the ~*aesthetic*~ I'm going for with this mess of a prompt, lmao. NSFW would be okay here, too, if you felt so inclined, but obviously it's not a requirement! (~~And if you do I just want to say with absolute certainty that Link has fantasized about going down on Zelda at least once.~~)

2) Is there a name for that trope that's, like, "character A wakes up in the future but they are only there for a few hours/a day before they return to the present?" Because I would be all about a scenario with that trope, only not the future; just another Zelda game! Even more interesting, and this is super specific so feel free to ignore it, would be something in the vein of Twilight Princess, where Link learns sword techniques from a mysterious ghost/"shadow" that is later revealed to be Link from Ocarina of Time—can you imagine a future Link or Zelda having a meeting like that with their Skyward Sword ancestors?! MAXIMUM SORROW!

3) FI CHARACTER STUDY??? I'm not requesting her because I don't want to make her a requirement, but, like!!! What is Fi's perspective on the heroes who wield her throughout time? Do you know how much her offhanded quote in the non-canon-compliant Hyrule Warriors about how that Link "is not the master, but could be a master" tore me completely asunder in under two seconds? A fic examining Fi's journey throughout some of the other LoZ canon—her thoughts on the other Links, the other Zeldas, who have pieces of the ones she knew but will never be the same as they were—would wreck me; I WELCOME IT.

4) On the other side of the post-canon coin, PRE-CANON? How did Link and Zelda meet? How did they become friends? WHAT HAPPENED TO LINK'S PARENTS? What was their Knight Academy life like?

5) Related to #1, after the dust settles at the game's conclusion, Link and Zelda explore and map the world together.

6) To help her cope with nightmares and feelings of helplessness, Link teaches Zelda swordfighting?!

7) Honestly, both of them helping each other cope with nightmares and feelings of helplessness and the omnipresent fear that Demise will come back, could come back, and Link is still grappling with feelings of guilt over not protecting Zelda, and Zelda is still grappling with feelings of guilt and confusion over her identity as Hylia, and, ANGST HAPPENS.

8) Oh my God, Zelda struggling to find a balance between her identity as Zelda and her identity as Hylia, trying to reconcile the two, not knowing how, not knowing who she really is, and Link gently, faithfully helping her find the answer to those questions. Post-canon Zelda character study?! I'm ready to die!

9) This is a total wild card, but when the Breath of the Wild trailer dropped, my friend and I were like, "okay, but what if this Link is Skyward Sword Link, but he was like, put into the LoZ equivalent of cryogenic sleep to go out and save the world when he was needed most? And what if he wakes up and it's been like a hundred years and the Zelda he meets isn't his Zelda, but sort of is, but most definitely isn't?" I CAN'T REMEMBER WHY, BUT TO US, THIS POSSIBILITY MADE MAD SENSE AT THE TIME. Oh, my God, I'm watching the trailer right now and choking on my own emotion. I CANNOT WAIT FOR THIS GAME. Tying SS to it somehow would be so, so fascinating to see! This prompt might be breaking the rules, though, so it might be best to ignore it?

Writer, Yuletide is a magical time, and anything you write, even if it does not even remotely cater to anything on that needlessly long litany of my emotional ramblings, will be magical, too. Hearts and stars will shine in my eyes no matter what you crank out for me this holiday season; I cannot stress this enough! Everything you see up there is a suggestion, not a requirement. As long as it features the characters I love, and you are writing it, I am absolutely positive that it will bring me joy and good feelings, and I will cherish it for years to come; I will tell my friends and neighbors about it, etc. I would love to see you run away with something of your own design just as much as I would to see you run away with something of mine. You have a great big beautiful brain and you will blow me away no matter what you choose to do. If you made it through this whole thing without bolting the other way, then I just want to say that I am so, so, so excited to see what you write for me, and so grateful to you for what you're about to do. I know that it'll make my month. You are a trooper, and you are amazing, and I wish you the happiest holiday season imaginable!

All my love,

Gwen/Brella (blevins)

41. i turned out all right in the end | morning glories ficathon, vol. 12

2016-07-13T23:05:54Z

previous ficathons: i. for a better future, ii. all will be free, iii. siesta's over, iv. what faith is, v. nowhere else to go, vi. all together, one and all, vii. nobody but you can hear me, viii. there is such a thing as a tesseract, ix. best two out of three, x. this is the social event of the season, xi. boo us like we're human garbage

Casey, I—I want to be free.
I want—all of us to be free.

You guys.

What the fuck.

What the fuck.

Morning Glories #50—the monumental season finale, and halfway mark of the series—hits shelves today, after a 6 month hiatus. What will happen after #49? we wondered. Will Hunter and Ike be crushed by rubble? Will the Headmaster explain how he goes to the bathroom in that onesie? Will Casey and Zoe/Jade reunite and kiss? None of these things happened. But a lot of other things did happen, as they often do in this comic called Morning Glories. And now we are stumbling our way down the long, rocky road to recovery.

You, too, can catch this tremendous issue and join us in our eternal suffering if you so choose: it is readily available on the Image site, Comixology, or at your local comic book store. And it has four (4) variant covers, featuring the main cast in coordinated, fashionable outfits! (Note: covers are not canon compliant.) Prepare yourself, though. Hire a therapist or something, just in case. Set yourself up to go for a walk after. Think about the things that make you happy and just, uh, hope that they aren't characters in this comic.

I warn you, now more than ever, to be wary of the comments section if you haven't yet read the issue—there may be spoilers, and trust me, there is plenty to spoil in this issue. What a whirlwind. After I read it this morning I was just.

For those of you who are new to this neck of the woods—the very expansive, very scary woods that may play host to some ancient Sumerian ruins, but we don't like to advertise it much—fear not; I am here to help. The ficathons have been going on for well over a year now, usually on the tail of a new issue (though the last one was for #48; whoops! I am a bad mod!), and they basically work as follows: people leave prompts, people fill those prompts, people read those fills, people cry, people kill Hunter. Seriously. It's not a ficathon if Hunter doesn't die at least three times. Anyone can join in, with or without a LiveJournal account. Anonymous comments are enabled.

Leave a prompt, see if someone fills it; see a prompt you like, reply and fill it yourself. If you'd prefer to just lurk and read what gets churned out, that's cool, too! People love it when you leave feedback on the things they write, so that is also an option if you are feeling extra enthusiastic! You are not required to fill anything, and you can leave as many prompts as you like, for any ships and characters you like, anytime.

Anyone can participate! Whether this is your first time swinging by or you've been here since the first one, we are so so happy to have you! Anonymous commenting is enabled and screening is disabled, so you can join in even if you don't have a LiveJournal account. Keep in mind that whether you are a registered user or not, if your reply contains a link (say, to an external site where you've posted your fill if it's too long or you don't want to post it in parts), it will automatically be screened and Brella will have to manually unscreen it. LiveJournal does not notify her of this by e-mail, so sometimes it takes her a while to notice. If it's taking too long for Brella to approve it, just send her an ask on Tumblr and she'll get right on it!

Prompts can be filled multiple times, so don't feel bad if somebody fills a prompt you were eyeing. Nobody's got dibs, it's free for all! And, like, let's be real here, nobody in their right mind would complain about having their prompt filled twice.

Some of us (read: Silver) like to go wild and write fills thousands of words long, but there is no minimum or maximum word count for fills. Like, obviously, don't be a smartass and write a fill two words long, but feel free to write short flash fiction-y prompts! Sometimes less is more, after all!

Feel free to second prompts, encourage writers, or even chatter about your DREAM FILL for this prompt in the comments; who knows; it may inspire someone! Replies to the entry should all be prompts of some kind, but replies to other comments can be anything you like. We get very silly sometimes.

40. dear yuletide writer 2015

2015-10-21T18:06:35Z

To the best Yuletide writer in the whole entire world; the whole entire galaxy, even!,

How's it goin'? Life treating you okay? I hope so, because as I said earlier, you are The Best, and deserve The Best from all things, most especially, life. I'm so excited that you've been assigned to me/have stumbled upon my letter completely by accident (maybe you aren't even my writer?) and that you are here, reading this, at this very moment! That's the magic of Yuletide!

So, okay. I'm going to get something out of the way real quick, because I know that writing a thing for somebody is always at least a little bit scary and wild (whether this is your first Yuletide or your third like me or your tenth): don't sweat it; I will love literally anything you write for me. I am the most disgustingly easy to please human on this planet. You could write 1k of any of the characters mentioned below sitting in a room, staring at a wall in silence and pondering the transience of life, and I'd be like, OH MY GOD, ART!!! BEAUTY!! THIS IS THE BEST YULETIDE OF ALL YULETIDES!!

So really, please don't stress yourself too much—I can't describe how happy I am that you're even here, let alone that you're going to write me a Thing. You're wonderful and anything you make will be wonderful. I'm obvs going to riff on some prompts/favorite tropes here, but those are OPTIONAL and meant to guide you if you're really stuck. Feel free to disregard them entirely and go where the inspo takes you. Think of them more as suggestions than demands, because I'll be thinking of them more as bonuses than guarantees. OPTIONAL DETAILS ARE OPTIONAL. We're here to have fun. Okay? Okay!

I LOVE: any classic romance tropes (being locked in a room and forced to talk about things, fake-out make-outs, FAKE/PRETEND DATING LEADS TO FEELINGS most of all), (most) AUs, friends to lovers, character studies, ship studies, the 5 times + 1 time format, nonlinear narratives, almost kisses (more valuable than actual kisses), humor, angst with a happy ending, gen, hurt/comfort, after-action patch-ups, characters being protective of other characters (but not overbearing), snark and banter, found families, friendships, QP's, UST/URT with a healthy dose of mutual pining, friends supporting each other, friends conspiring to get their other friends together, oh, gosh, FRIENDS. I'm the most vanilla person alive so most of my ships are het, but I also like F/F in certain cases.

I DO NOT LOVE: Non/dubcon, first-person POV, character bashing, hard kinks, character death, angst with no happy ending, unrequited love, college/high school AUs, underage characters doing the full and clinical do. All of my requested fandoms involve characters who are under 18, so just to be safe, I'm putting out a "no" on, like, full-on porn. Thank you!

This letter is... kind of long, whoops. Please don't be scared. You can honestly ignore anything beyond "notes" entirely if you want.

Morning Glories

Any

accessibility: image/comixology (please support the series by buying it if you can!) | mediafire

about: Morning Glories is a series written by Nick Spencer and drawn by Joe Eisma that has been touted as Runaways meets LOST. The influences it draws from the latter are especially apparent; it has a complex, sprawling plot and a massive mythos lurking beneath the surface, and it will always keep you guessing. Six teenagers from around the world, all born on the same day (May 4), are sent off to an elite boarding school called Morning Glory Academy, where things are not always what they seem and your parents are murdered by the end of the first issue. They scramble to band together and escape this place, but their attempts to do so turn up more questions than answers—about the school, about themselves, and about life itself. Maybe they're just some broken kids trying to get home—or maybe they're gods. Maybe they're even the bad guys. IT'S SO GOOD!! PLEASE CHECK IT OUT! Join me IN HELL! (It's pretty violent and gory at times, though, so I'd recommend being wary if that kind of stuff squicks you out.)

notes: I am happy with fic featuring any of the nominated characters, because I adore the hell out of the Glories and anything about them, especially, but not solely, as a unit. My biases are Hunter, Casey, Casey/Hunter, Casey and Jade, Hunter and Zoe—basically any combination that doesn't involve Ike—but you're free to run wild with any of the characters nominated this year. I'm really not a Jade/Ike fan, but if they have to be incidental/in the background, that's fine. Just, no Jade/Ike shipfic, please. I'm not really into Ike or Ike-centric stuff, either, but I love it when he's used for tangential comedy/as a source of wry commentary. I LOVE MG GEN, so don't stress too much about ships if that's not your thing! (Side note, though: Casey/Hunter is a ship that I like/love/breathe for but ha ha it's whatever, um.)

prompts/suggestions:

1) I know I requested "any" but Hunter is my favorite character in, like, anything ever. He doesn't have to be the focus, but if he is featured in some noticeable way, I will be so happy. I love that when things get completely insane, he's the guy referencing Futurama and wanting to help his friends above all else. I love that he just bottles up all the things that shake him up and doesn't confront them (anything exploring that would be so cool). Any kind of Hunter character study/Hunter-centric thing is guaranteed to delight me. Hunter introducing the Glories to the AV Club. Hunter making the Glories watch some of his favorite movies. Hunter finding out Zoe is alive and not knowing what to do or feel! Hunter and Zoe and anything at all! Hunter and Jade fic (they are my favorite underrated duo, especially after #25 onward)! Hunter and Ike as like accidental allies in any scenario (somebody said once that they are a buddy cop comedy waiting to happen and I just, that's so true)! Just, anything with Hunter and any of the other characters. He has such great chemistry with everybody. How does he do it?

2) Slice of life fic. They are at a horrible murder school and the plot is so wild; sometimes I just want to know about their classes and grades and if they need to help each other study and what their opinions are of the cafeteria food and if MGA has a drama department. You know? Give my children some chill times. Nothing interesting even has to happen. I just want them to have a good day. Plus, I'm always really into their sparse but earnest efforts to cobble together a sense of normalcy to help them cope with all of the horrible things happening around them, to make sure that they still have a chance to be kids and go on picnic dates and worry about midterms. I'd even accept mushy holiday fic, tbh—the more bittersweet, the better.

3) Hunter and Casey have to fake date for some reason. This is, like, my favorite scenario in the universe and it has never been written to my knowledge?? Hunter being so, so bad at it; the worst liar; agonizing over whether or not it's okay to hold her hand in public. All of the other Glories totally knowing, but using it as an opportunity to make life that much harder for them. Whatever you want to do with this, literally, at all, will be such a gift. Addendum: Hunter and Casey do anything even vaguely romantic, or even vaguely platonic, literally, at all. I'm so starved. Hunter and Casey get into an argument spanning weeks over their favorite movies. Hunter gets another chance to ask Casey to dance. Hunter gets hurt and Casey takes care of him. Hunter and Casey and their past lives and fate; anything examining Future Jade's "it never ends with those two" or Hodge's "would a little goddamn stability kill you?" Hunter reacting to hearing Casey scream that the Academy killed her parents during the debate and Casey pushing him away. Oh, god. Hunter and Casey!!!

5) Zoe + any of the nominated characters, in any context, really, but especially a context where they find out she's alive/she comes back and they freak out. We also never got Casey reacting to Zoe's "death," which feels like such a crime? So maybe something with that? Idk, Zoe is amazing. I'd love to see her interacting with the rest of the cast now that we know more about her.

6) Casey Blevins character study? Headcanon about Casey post-election since #49 probably won't come out until January? Casey Blevins anything, really. It's been so long since we've had some actual intimate time with her and with what's going through her head, so I'd love to see some quiet moments with Casey, where the debate and the school aren't raging at the forefront of her mind, where she gets to interact with some of the Glories like the OLD TIMES. (Especially Zoe.)

7) This is way too many prompts; I'm sorry. BUT: I'm a sucker for missing scenes and codas in this fandom, because I always want to know more about these things that have been hinted to happen but that we never saw, like Casey and Hunter talking about what happened to them during Woodrun, or Jade telling Casey about her mom's suicide, or Hunter finding Fortunato in the basement, or basically anything between Ike deciding to be Casey's campaign manager and the big party. There are so many! The plot moves so fast that it sometimes has to skim over the quieter character development moments, which is totally fine, but also, I live and breathe for those, so. Go crazy.

8) This one's a real long shot, but what the heck; I'll throw it in. Inception AU! I can't believe that sharing dreams is absolutely 100% canon as of #31 and this has never been done? Wow. Go crazy with who fits what role, but if you want ideas: Hunter as the wide-eyed gifted architect! Casey as the reticent but unstoppable mastermind, haunted by the shades of her dead parents! Jade as the sarcastic point man, Zoe as the brilliant chemist who really doesn't want to be here but has to tag along because these idiots don't know what they're doing, Hisao as the forger?? Jun is there as the tourist? They have to go into Ike's mind and reconcile his daddy issues?? WHO KNOWS??? I DON'T! BUT THIS IS MY FAVORITE HYPOTHETICAL MG AU EVER!

Or you can disregard these prompts entirely. MG is, like... the canon of my soul, so I'll be happy with just about anything. If it happens to involve any of my biases listed above, then that's just a bunch of bonus points. (Just, again; nothing Ike- or Ike/Jade-focused, please.) This is also the fandom where I'd be totally cool with darker fic, because come on. I don't have any real prompts for that, but if you want to write darker fic, sign me the fuck up. I'm a weenie, though, so the only thing I ask is that you avoid any permanent character death. I may have a more comprehensive list of darkfic prompts for this later; I haven't decided. But they will be entirely 100000% optional, because I know not everybody's about that.

月刊少女野崎くん | Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun

Seo Yuzuki, Wakamatsu Hirotaka

accessibility: crunchyroll (anime, 12 episodes) | mangahere (manga, 70+ chapters) | amazon (legal manga preorder, out 11/17)

about: Sakura Chiyo is sixteen years old. She just confessed to the guy she likes, and he gave her his autograph. Turns out he's actually a successful shoujo romance mangaka who misinterpreted her confession as a declaration of admiration of his work, and who scouts her out to help him do beta on his pages based on her artistic talents. A hilarious troupe of side characters parade through Sakura and Nozaki's story, each fumbling their way through the affairs of the heart in their own way—the princely actress Kashima Yuu and the grouchy drama club president she adores, Hori Masayuki; Mikoshiba Mikoto, Nozaki's blustering best friend and the inspiration for the easily flustered, tender-hearted heroine of his manga; Seo Yuzuki, Sakura's ill-behaved friend who loves nothing more than singing and tormenting the frail, earnest basketball player, Wakamatsu Hirotaka... what better use is there for this colorful cast, in Nozaki's eyes, than using them as inspiration for his popular manga?

notes: The year was 2014. In July, Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun saved anime. In December, it saved me. I ADORE THIS SERIES. I ADORE EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER. I HAVE A TANUKI ON MY KEYS NOW. IT'S FINE. I requested Seo and Wakamatsu because they are honestly and truly my favorite pair in the story, but they have shockingly little fic (or at least non-AU fic) compared to the rest of the cast??? I mean, I can't be too bitter—every single GSNK ship is made of the purest gold, sent down from the heavens—but I'm just so into Seo and Wakamatsu's potential and their little contained story, that she's both the thing that keeps him up at night and the only thing that can help him sleep, that Lorelai is his goddess but he doesn't know, that Seo honestly might have just assumed they're dating and Wakamatsu knows nothing about it? GOD!!! I NEED MORE!!!

While I nominated Seo and Waka, I would be thrilled to see the entire ensemble up to hijinks, too; I love all of the nominated characters, so please feel free to feature them as much as you like! Also, I haven't read all of the manga, so I'm mostly going off of my knowledge of the anime! And just because this fandom has lots of AUs already, I'd like to request no AUs, please.

prompts/suggestions:

1) Wakamatsu's basketball team makes it to regionals (or whatever you would call that; I actually know nothing about basketball??) and the whole cast decides to go and support and cheer for him. Wakamatsu is losing more sleep than ever because he's so nervous, Seo sees this as a perfect opportunity to TRAIN WITH HIM, and Nozaki is like, this would be great for my manga. Homages to Lovely Complex entirely optional.

2) I love how tongue-in-cheek the series is about all of the shoujo romance tropes it so lovingly borrows from, so anything at all incorporating that (that the anime hasn't already touched on, which I realize is saying a lot) would be delightful. Maybe Seo and Waka kiss; one of them doesn't remember because they were sick or sleepy. Maybe Seo and Waka get locked in a closet or freezer. Maybe Seo and Waka decide to team up to get their friends together, or vice-versa.

3) Wakamatsu grappling with the fact that, one day, he suddenly just finds Seo really, really attractive. He's flung into crisis. What does he do? What does this mean? He scrambles to the rest of the cast for guidance.

4) We don't get to see much of Seo's views on Waka, or what's going through her head. Granted, that's probably because it is terrifying, but I'd still love to see it. So much of the camera is focused on Waka crying about this (perfect, amazing, stupendous) girl tormenting him that Seo's feelings and what Seo thinks or knows are just a big question mark. So I would love to see something about that!

Honestly, GSNK is one of those fandoms where I love everyone in every combination doing anything at all, so consider this final prompt a prompt to write whatever the hell you want about Seo and Wakamatsu's shenanigans and their big lovable cast of friends. I don't care! Anything you conjure up will fill me with unrepentant joy! Include whoever you want out of the nominated characters. My second preference to Seowaka is Hori/Kashima, so anything about them, anything at all, I will love. Or don't even write romance! Maybe Let's Love! gets an anime adaptation! I don't know! (This is me trying to be flexible: I basically just become excited and start babbling and it's confusing for everyone involved, but I do mean this sincerely: if you got matched to me and you don't want to write about Seo and Waka, you don't have to. I also love Mikoshiba, Hori/Kashima, and of course, Nozaki/Sakura.)

Hyouka & Kotenbu Series
Any

accessibility: animefreak (anime, 22 episodes + 1 OVA)

about: Originally published as the first in the Kotenbu series of light novels, Hyouka was adapted into an anime series in 2012. It tells the story of Oreki Houtarou, a quiet, deadpan energy conservationist whose withdrawn and inert ways are busted to pieces when he is urged by his sister to join the Classic Literature Club and meets its only other member, Chitanda Eru. Eru is energetic, tenacious, and bright; she loves people and is perpetually driven to help them, and she is fueled by an insatiable curiosity that can be set off by even the smallest of mysteries—she is, essentially, all the things that Houtarou is not. They are soon joined in the club by Houtarou's only friend, Fukube Satoshi, a cheerful self-proclaimed "database," and Ibara Mayaka, a grouchy aspiring mangaka. Over the course of a single school year, the four of them find mystery, excitement, heartbreak, and love in the most surprising places—and Houtarou breaks his rule of energy conservation again, and again, and again.

notes: Writer, do you want to know a secret? I love Hyouka so much. I'm a little sad that Mayaka and Satoshi weren't nominated this year, because the series is very much an ensemble affair, but I adore Houtarou and Eru, too, so I guess I'll live. I love the innocent, bittersweet ache to their later interactions, their unspoken like for each other, Houtarou's profound admiration of Eru and all that she is, all that she stands for, all that he thinks he can never touch, spring and happiness and caring about people and never having to be alone. I love how mutual that admiration is, how Eru is so constantly in awe of him, at first, and then eventually starts to give him that soft, affectionate smile that he never sees, because she thinks he's the most wonderful person in the world. I love the lengths to which Houtarou will go to make Eru happy, and I love the delight Eru takes in learning little things about Houtarou, no matter how incidental. I love how much she flusters and surprises him. You're special to ME, Oreki-san. She's not someone I can ignore. Don't speak to me about that ending scene, about that thing he almost said!! DON'T!!!!!

Romantic Houtarou/Eru is something I love and adore, especially, like, Houtarou/Eru that always gets closer and closer to being overt but ends up just shy of it; the Houtarou/Eru where they almost hold hands, where they gaze at each other for a moment too long, where the sun is setting and they've been in the empty club room for hours and he has to turn away so she won't see him smiling—where he thinks he's not good enough for her, not bright enough, not talented enough, and she thinks she would just be a burden, she and her family and her responsibilities and her energy; where they learn that they're both wrong. But if you want to write them platonically, that's okay, too! They do, after all, make the cutest friends. And even though Satoshi and Mayaka weren't nominated, it would be wonderful to see them, even if it's just in a minor/secondary role!

prompts:

1) Based on episode 20: "What you do on New Year's, you repeat all year." The year that Houtarou and Eru keep getting inadvertently locked in places together.

2) Casefic! I love the influences that the anime takes so lovingly from classic mysteries, like the Christie 'verse, Sherlock Holmes, etc., so maybe something based on that? I'd love to see a Hyouka-lightened And Then There Were None or Murder on the Orient Express in the same vein as the culture festival arc's homage to The ABC Murders, if you need ideas, but going that route is absolutely not necessary—I love Hyouka's little mysteries that seem insignificant but actually wind up unveiling something important about the characters, even if the solution isn't all that breathtaking.

3) I love it when Eru and Houtarou's roles are reversed and he's the one being dogged and curious about something (usually something involving her). Maybe she misses a day of school and he's determined to figure out why. Maybe she's behaving a bit strangely one day and he wants to find the cause. Maybe she's sad, and he doesn't know why, and the bigger mystery at hand is why he cares so much.

If none of these appeal to you, don't worry about it. I love both Houtarou and Eru very, very dearly. I'd be thrilled to see anything you write about either of them. :')

Bad Machinery
Any

accessibility: website (8 cases/chapters, 1 ongoing)

about: Bad Machinery was launched in 2009 as a new part of the Bobbinsverse—a sprawling webcomic "franchise," if you will, first begun by a guy named John Allison with Bobbins way back in 1998. It is about kid detectives. Shy Jack, innocent Sonny, and crabby Linton comprise the "boys' team"; clever Shauna, rebellious Mildred, and... Lottie comprise the "girls' team." They solve mysteries (sometimes entirely of their own making) in their bizarre hometown of Tackleford, which plays host to everything from time-traveling bullies to the Polish equivalent of dementors. The series starts when they're in their first year of grammar school (so they're... 10 or 11 I think?) and as it's running now, they're... I actually have no idea. 15? I think Linton said he was 15 at the beginning of the current case. Er, anyway: it's ridiculously charming, at times poignant, and always delightful.

notes: Listen, my Tumblr bio has proclaimed for the past year that the hardest question you could ever conceivably ask me is who my favorite character is (of the main six) in Bad Machinery. I stand by that. I have no character preference whatsoever, because I adore all of them. I guess the only thing worth mentioning is that I'm still gunning for Jack/Shauna (he knew what was up with her re: the dad stuff and pretended he didn't care but he DID), and still will be when I am a decrepit old skeleton clinging to the rails of a ship that has long since capsized. People will put me on display. I also have a soft, tender spot in my withered heart for Sonny, and for Lottie/Linton.

prompts:

1) Casefic! I miss the days when these kids actually solved mystery-type mysteries and not all this heavy stuff like the MYSTERY OF GROWING UP (but if it's not-so-subtly about that, that's okay, too). The mythos of Tackleford is just so absurd and expansive that I feel like you can do anything you want, but keeping with the theme of them dealing with odd mythological creatures such as selkies and the like would be so fun if you want to try that. If not, no worries. Go wild. I'd love to just see the two little groups team up again, or even to see the sort of unlikely team-ups we saw in Unwelcome Visitor, like Charlotte/Jack/Linton. Maybe the boys get their chance to time travel like the girls did in Forked Road? Maybe Lottie and Mildred's time in drama club extends to everyone suddenly because a bunch of the actors have fallen ill and they absolutely have to put this play on NEXT WEEKEND, can't you please help them out, Jack and Shauna and Linton and Sonny? Please?

2) Any shmoopy indie movie style thing about the summer everybody does things and becomes entangled with matters of the heart and builds something outrageous maybe? This is less an actual prompt and more just a feeling. I think we're returning to the root of my problem here: I want to see the main six being pals and getting into mischief as an ensemble again, whether it's over a case or over something as boring as life.

3) John Allison's scattered concept art for the "next generation" of Bad Machinery (Humphrey, Cecile, etc.) both intrigues and delights me. I'd love to see the mystery kids having to grapple with these younger gremlins now that they're coming into their own as Tackleford's next sleuths.

4) Sonny and Mildred are one of my favorite duos! Gosh! Mildred wasn't nominated this year, but I'd love to see these two getting into hijinks. Sonny's gentle and wary personality is always such a splendid foil to Mildred's bone-deep need for stylish insurrection, so anything about the two of them as a unit would be so lovely to see.

I recognize that Bad Machinery is kind of a tough fandom to write for since it's so niche and the canon, while I love it, is so all over the place, so I'm really giving you artistic license. I just love this series; I love the cast. Anything you write about any of them will be totally wonderful, I'm sure. :)

Yuletide writer, light of my life, stars and hearts will overtake my glimmering eyes no matter what you write for me; I can't stress that enough. The prompts are not mandatory; they're suggestions. I would love to see you run away with something of your own design just as much as I would to see you run away with something of mine. You have a great big beautiful brain and you will blow me away no matter what you choose to do. If you made it through this whole thing without bolting the other way, then I just want to say that I am so, so, so excited to see what you write for me, and so grateful to you for what you're about to do. I know that it'll make my month. You are a trooper, and you are amazing, and I wish you the happiest holiday season imaginable!

All my love,

Brella/Gwen (blevins)

39. boo us like we're human garbage | morning glories ficathon, vol. 11

2015-09-30T23:37:32Z

Casey, your turn—how would you address the concerns of the athletic department?
I don't... care?

Gosh, elections sure are exciting, aren't they? You get to see the candidates go at each other in a no-holds-barred battle of wits, you decide who to vote for based on who throws the better party where you hopefully don't get beat up by guards, and the best part of all? The total corruption of it all inflicted by the combination of a couple of shitty white dudes and an omnipotent, ancient spinning machine in the basement. Ah, democracy.

Morning Glories #48, a.k.a. THE DEBATE, hits shelves both physical and virtual today, and boy, is it a good one! Spine-tingling political intrigue! Mind-numbing revelations about your student council president candidates! You will say "wow!"

If you haven't grabbed it yet, you can do so via the Image site, Comixology, or at your local comic book store.

Anyway, now that a new issue has graced our bleary, 6 AM-addled eyes (or maybe that's just me), the time has come for yet another ficathon. What, you thought you could get rid of me? So did Isabel's enemies. (I think I've used that joke in a ficathon description before. Oh, God. Everything is bleeding together. What year is it.) And, hey, good timing, too, because Morning Glories is almost at 100 fics on the Archive of Our Own! [thunderous applause, party popper emoji, sound of someone crying; surprise it's me] We've come so far since that first 300-word Hisao/Guillaume fic entirely in Spanish. So far, in fact, that the tags on that fic still list Hisao as Jun. And Hisao is still alive. H-Ha. Um.

Let's get that AO3 tag to 100+ fics! We're legit, yo! Write! Write like your lives depend on it! I mean, I wouldn't depend on anything here at MGA, but, you know, whatever gets you through the day. Whatever helps convince you you're the hero of the story, even though you might not be. :) :) :))))))

For those of you who are new to this neck of the woods—the very expansive, very scary woods that may play host to some ancient Sumerian ruins, but we don't like to advertise it much—fear not; I am here to help. The ficathons have been going on for well over a year now, usually on the tail of a new issue, and they basically work as follows: people leave prompts, people fill those prompts, people read those fills, people cry, people kill Hunter. Seriously. It's not a ficathon if Hunter doesn't die at least three times. Anyone can join in, with or without a LiveJournal account. Anonymous comments are enabled.

Leave a prompt, see if someone fills it; see a prompt you like, reply and fill it yourself. If you'd prefer to just lurk and read what gets churned out, that's cool, too! People love it when you leave feedback on the things they write, so that is also an option if you are feeling extra enthusiastic! You are not required to fill anything, and you can leave as many prompts as you like, for any ships and characters you like, anytime.

Anyone can participate! Whether this is your first time swinging by or you've been here since the first one, we are so so happy to have you! Anonymous commenting is enabled and screening is disabled, so you can join in even if you don't have a LiveJournal account. Keep in mind that whether you are a registered user or not, if your reply contains a link (say, to an external site where you've posted your fill if it's too long or you don't want to post it in parts), it will automatically be screened and Brella will have to manually unscreen it. LiveJournal does not notify her of this by e-mail, so sometimes it takes her a while to notice. If it's taking too long for Brella to approve it, just send her an ask on Tumblr and she'll get right on it!

Prompts can be filled multiple times, so don't feel bad if somebody fills a prompt you were eyeing. Nobody's got dibs, it's free for all! And, like, let's be real here, nobody in their right mind would complain about having their prompt filled twice.

Some of us (read: Silver) like to go wild and write fills thousands of words long, but there is no minimum or maximum word count for fills. Like, obviously, don't be a smartass and write a fill two words long, but feel free to write short flash fiction-y prompts! Sometimes less is more, after all!

Feel free to second prompts, encourage writers, or even chatter about your DREAM FILL for this prompt in the comments; who knows; it may inspire someone! Replies to the entry should all be prompts of some kind, but replies to other comments can be anything you like. We get very silly sometimes.

38. this is the social event of the season | morning glories ficathon, vol. 10

2015-08-05T15:49:12Z

Yuuhy here! Brella is currently incapacitated, wailing into her hands, physically and emotionally annihilated by the way Casey and Hunter look at each other, so the burden of gathering you nerds has fallen to me. I'll be expecting your firstborn and/or goat sacrifices as thanks.

Today's issue is #47, filled to the brim with underage drinking, (apparently unsatisfactory) dance music (if you ask Guillaume), questionable brownies, and your regular dose of violence against minors and violence against Gribbs. Geez, Ike, have you no consideration for the fact for the man just recovered from a head injury caused by you? Rude.

If you haven't yet picked up the issue, you can get it on the Image site, Comixology, or at your local comic book store.

For those of you who ~~don't know what a vagina looks like never seen one on television the internet a sex ed class even~~ are new to the ficathon, the ficathons are a tradition (?) in the Morning Glories fandom wherein we try to make the gap between issues more bearable for each other by ~~making each other weep~~ fulfilling each other's hopes and dreams and probably killing Hunter a few times, just for fun, haha! Anybody can participate, with or without a LiveJournal account.

Leave a prompt, see if someone fills it; see a prompt you like, reply and fill it yourself. If you'd prefer to just lurk and read what gets churned out, that's cool, too! People love it when you leave feedback on the things they write, so that is also an option if you are feeling extra enthusiastic! You are not required to fill anything, and you can leave as many prompts as you like, for any ships and characters you like, anytime.

Anyone can participate! Whether this is your first time swinging by or you've been here since the first one, we are so so happy to have you! Anonymous commenting is enabled and screening is disabled, so you can join in even if you don't have a LiveJournal account. Keep in mind that whether you are a registered user or not, if your reply contains a link (say, to an external site where you've posted your fill if it's too long or you don't want to post it in parts), it will automatically be screened and Brella will have to manually unscreen it. LiveJournal does not notify her of this by e-mail, so sometimes it takes her a while to notice. If it's taking too long for Brella to approve it, just send her an ask on Tumblr and she'll get right on it!

Prompts can be filled multiple times, so don't feel bad if somebody fills a prompt you were eyeing. Nobody's got dibs, it's free for all! And, like, let's be real here, nobody in their right mind would complain about having their prompt filled twice.

Some of us (read: Silver) like to go wild and write fills thousands of words long, but there is no minimum or maximum word count for fills. Like, obviously, don't be a smartass and write a fill two words long, but feel free to write short flash fiction-y prompts! Sometimes less is more, after all!

Feel free to second prompts, encourage writers, or even chatter about your DREAM FILL for this prompt in the comments; who knows; it may inspire someone! Replies to the entry should all be prompts of some kind, but replies to other comments can be anything you like. We get very silly sometimes.

37. icon post: morning glories ➝ 24

2015-06-24T07:28:46Z

First batch of a series of Morning Glories icons that were requested by an anon on Tumblr: Morning Glories main characters + pastel colors. There are still a few Truants left to be done.

(Casey Blevins x6, Hunter x3, Hisao Fukayama x2, Ike x2, Jade Ellsworth x2, Zoe x3, Vanessa Richmond x2, Ian Simon x2, Irina x1, Guillaume Sorel x1)

preview:

Credit is appreciated but not necessary.

1	2	3	4	5	6

7	8	9	10	11	12

13	14	15	16	17	18

19	20	21	22	23	24

36. best two out of three | morning glories ficathon, vol. 9

2015-06-09T16:47:43Z

Turrible, turrible, turrible.

It's summer! The birds are singing, people are on vacation, and the students at MGA will never know what this feels like again! Sit on that one a while.

The ficathons saw a bit of a hiatus since March, because people are in school doing school things like not getting tased when they answer questions wrong, or throwing enormous unsanctioned parties to which Hunter and the AV Club were not invited, Ike could have sworn, but here they are anyway. But now they're back! The ficathons, I mean. Not Hunter and the AV Club. Seriously, who let them find out about this? Party ruined.

The most recent issue, #46, is out! You can get it now and feel enlightened on a cosmic level because IRINA IS BACK! Didn't you hear about Beth? She's, like, just an indistinct cloud of ascended joy-matter now. Grab it on the Image website or your local comic book store. Irina is waiting (to kill you, probably, but like, it's Irina, so even that would be pretty cool, you know?).

For the noobs in the audience, don't worry; you don't have to watch a video of a guy killing a goat to be properly initiated. The ficathons are a tradition (?) in the Morning Glories fandom, intended to get some more fic written and also to bring us closer through mutual fic-related suffering. They're a party! Not an Ike party, but still like, a party. Anybody can do this! You don't even have to have a LiveJournal account to cry! The 21st century is amazing.

Leave a prompt, see if someone fills it; see a prompt you like, reply and fill it yourself. If you'd prefer to just lurk and read what gets churned out, that's cool, too! People love it when you leave feedback on the things they write, so that is also an option if you are feeling extra enthusiastic! You are not required to fill anything, and you can leave as many prompts as you like, for any ships and characters you like, anytime.

Anyone can participate! Whether this is your first time swinging by or you've been here since the first one, we are so so happy to have you! Anonymous commenting is enabled and screening is disabled, so you can join in even if you don't have a LiveJournal account. Keep in mind that whether you are a registered user or not, if your reply contains a link (say, to an external site where you've posted your fill if it's too long or you don't want to post it in parts), it will automatically be screened and I will have to manually unscreen it. LiveJournal does not notify me of this by e-mail, so sometimes it takes me a while to notice. If it's taking too long for me to approve it, just send me an ask on Tumblr and I'll get right on it!

Prompts can be filled multiple times, so don't feel bad if somebody fills a prompt you were eyeing. Nobody's got dibs, it's free for all! And, like, let's be real here, nobody in their right mind would complain about having their prompt filled twice.

Some of us (read: Silver) like to go wild and write fills thousands of words long, but there is no minimum or maximum word count for fills. Like, obviously, don't be a smartass and write a fill two words long, but feel free to write short flash fiction-y prompts! Sometimes less is more, after all!

Feel free to second prompts, encourage writers, or even chatter about your DREAM FILL for this prompt in the comments; who knows; it may inspire someone! Replies to the entry should all be prompts of some kind, but replies to other comments can be anything you like. We get very silly sometimes.

myriad | penonsense | hunter: awful disturbing disgusting horrorfic of any kind
who cares who fired the gun? | moannas | zoe/irina: leave me bleeding on the bed, see you right back here tomorrow for the next round
adore, adore i | penonsense | irina & vanessa: "you make me cry, sestra." "come on, meathead." "don't call me this."
here i dreamt i was an architect | blevins | hunter (+ the glories): a builder of castles and roads, or maybe even just a small path
moment, heart, together | hyacinthous | hunter, casey, jade, zoe: neon genesis evangelion AU
both of you, ~~dance~~ sing like you want to win! | blevins | glories & truants: a capella competition
we spilled out on the floor | blevins | jade/ike: you and i were born ready to die, we are the only ones alive
guilty until proven innocent | yllawtsew | the glories: exulansis (from the dictionary of obscure sorrows)
untitled | penonsense | dr. ellsworth: i haven't made half the mistakes you've listed so far
une immense espérance a traversée la terre | blevins | casey, zoe, vanessa, irina: beat weighty tests with lofty cries
short-sighted | penonsense | jade/ike: light me up a cigarette and put it in my mouth / you're the only one that wants me to die / and i can think of a thousand reasons why i don't believe in you
we can't punch ourselves awake | wearealsoboats | casey/hunter: sorry about the blood in your mouth. i wish it was mine. i couldn't get the boy to kill me, but i wore his jacket for the longest time.

35. there is such a thing as a tesseract | morning glories ficathon, vol. 8

2015-03-27T06:29:25Z

previous ficathons: i. for a better future, ii. all will be free, iii. siesta's over, iv. what faith is, v. nowhere else to go, vi. all together, one and all, vii. nobody but you can hear me

No, not that glorified Rubik's cube from The Avengers; what are you, a five-year-old?

Yes, folks, the Morning Glories ficathon is busting down the doors of 2015 one issue late. You thought you could get rid of me? So did the Headmaster's enemies. Or his supporters, I guess. Since I would be working against him. Gotta pat myself on the back for that smooth save, there.

Anyway, since I forgot to start a ficathon for #43 and my friends (read: Yuuhy) didn't remind me, this one will just have to cover both that and the latest issue, #44! Apparently Mother's Day is in March according to the Spencerian calendar, because this issue is full of mother/daughter bonding and tragedy and references to A Wrinkle in Time and great, expressive art from Joe Eisma. Besides all of that, it also has a great Morning Glory Babies strip, so you should like, buy it at your local comic book store or on the Image website, or whatever. You don't need to go full Sex Criminals to acquire the money for this if you're too busy blowing your cash on video games like me, but I'm not saying you shouldn't. And don't forget #43, either! Boy, was that a memorable one for Silver. RIP.

Spoilers for #44 may drift through the comments section, but this wasn't too wild of an issue, comparative to last month's.

For the newbies: Ficathons are a tradition(?) in the Morning Glories fandom, wherein anybody and everybody, with or without a LiveJournal account, can prompt, fill, and read MG fics in a flurry of fannish creative abandon. The motivation behind most of this is to make each other sad (or maybe that's just me), but you do not have to adhere to this if you are a person with a functioning conscience.

Here's the 411.

Leave a prompt, see if someone fills it; see a prompt you like, reply and fill it yourself. If you'd prefer to just lurk and read what gets churned out, that's cool, too! People love it when you leave feedback on the things they write, so that is also an option if you are feeling extra enthusiastic! You are not required to fill anything, and you can leave as many prompts as you like, for any ships and characters you like, anytime.

Anyone can participate! Whether this is your first time swinging by or you've been here since the first one, we are so so happy to have you! Anonymous commenting is enabled and screening is disabled, so you can join in even if you don't have a LiveJournal account. Keep in mind that whether you are a registered user or not, if your reply contains a link (say, to an external site where you've posted your fill if it's too long or you don't want to post it in parts), it will automatically be screened and I will have to manually unscreen it. LiveJournal does not notify me of this by e-mail, so sometimes it takes me a while to notice. If it's taking too long for me to approve it, just send me an ask on Tumblr and I'll get right on it!

Prompts can be filled multiple times, so don't feel bad if somebody fills a prompt you were eyeing. Nobody's got dibs, it's free for all! And, like, let's be real here, nobody in their right mind would complain about having their prompt filled twice.

Feel free to second prompts, encourage writers, or even chatter about your DREAM FILL for this prompt in the comments; who knows; it may inspire someone! Replies to the entry should all be prompts of some kind, but replies to other comments can be anything you like. We get very silly sometimes.

all that's golden | veritous | jade/ike: anything from the dictionary of obscure sorrows
lethobenthos | penonsense | casey/hunter: anything from the dictionary of obscure sorrows
give me a disaster | moannas | zoe: i'm not the hunter, i'm not the marked / i'm just looking for wisdom in the dark
sometimes quiet is violent | amioneofthem | jimmy ellsworth: if you have a sister and she dies, do you stop saying you have one? or are you always a brother, even when the other half of the equation is gone?
when the wolf comes home | veritous | casey: i dare you to survive being grown for the rest of your life
behind every strong woman | wearealsoboats | zoe + the glories: AU where zoe lives to be the blevins campaign manager
agony! (cover by tiny abe and the headmaster) | kelso895 | agony! far more painful than yours!
untitled | penonsense | zoe: oh, but they didn't buy me when they bought my name
partings are such sweet sorrow | katsunspear | casey/hunter: i'm not calling you a ghost, just stop haunting me

34. MORNING GLORIES HOLIDAY FIC MEME

2014-12-20T20:25:59Z

QUICK, WHAT'S THE MOST FESTIVE AND HEARTWARMING THING YOU CAN THINK OF THIS HOLIDAY SEASON? If your answer is "sad imprisoned teenagers," then congratulations, you've come to the right place! Welcome home.

Yes, the halls of Morning Glory Academy have been decked (just like misbehaving students) in non-denominational decorations, and the staff will probably not torture or brainwash anyone for a couple of days, which is nice.

The rules for this little Yuletide clam-bake are functionally the same as they've been for all of the other, non-Yuletide clam-bakes, with the prompting and writing and reading of fics and such, but being that this is the holidays and all, a.k.a., the season of giving, let's try to fill as many prompts as we POSSIBLY CAN and give each other the gift of MG! Joy to the canon! I mean, since the comic itself is cripplingly lacking in joy and whatnot.

Because we love each other, and we're pals, and nothing says happiness and cheer like hurting each other through fanfiction. Your prompts don't have to be holiday-themed—just ask for what you want!

Be nice, be cool, be awesome; this is super informal. Have fun!

Prompt format: character/pairing | prompt
Fill format: character/pairing | title

If your fills get long, feel free to post them externally and just link back here in your reply to the prompt comment. Got any questions, feel free to ask. In the meantime, go WILD. I won't stand for anything but a flurry of giving and crying.

FILLS:

33. take a look into my eyes

2014-12-05T08:45:50Z

chiisai_tsuru asked for thoughts on Kyoukai no Kanata and specifically what happened with that youmu they never actually defeated in episode 6. I'm SO down.

pictured: my darling sad demon children who love each other very much

CAN YOU BELIEVE WE'RE GETTING TWO MOVIES IN 2015?? THIS IS THE STORY OF HOW I DIED. I don't know how I'll handle it. I don't know if I'll handle it. I might never make it to my 23rd birthday; this could be the end, especially waiting for those things called SUBS. I guess that's why we keep Shawn around.

I don't really know exactly how or why KNK changed my life; I just know that it did, and it's one of those shows—those stories—that I just love more and more every time I go back to rewatch it. And it's so short and compact and you can show it to your friends in a single afternoon and there isn't a single thing about it that I would change. I think the beauty of it is that underneath all of the dazzling accoutrements of rad fight sequences and giant monsters and action and blood swords, it's really just this achy, heartwrenching story about normal kids—normal people—who make normal mistakes and feel normal love (star-moving in its simplicity; I love you and you love me because we accept each other's flaws and remind each other that we are more than what everyone else says we are and what we fear becoming and we protect each other, always) and normal loneliness and normal fear and just realize, all of a sudden, that the lanterns take on an entirely different and more subtly beautiful color when they're together. (Except Hiroomi. Nothing about Hiroomi is normal. You know what's terrifying, though? On my most recent rewatch with the OVA included, I almost felt... bad for him. CLEANSE ME OF THIS SIN!!!)

You've got Mirai, who grew up thinking she was a monster, that she was tainted, who gave into her own selfish fear and killed her friend because she didn't know, how could she have known, being shut away for so many years; Mirai, who fights so hard to redeem herself and stop running from the past and grow her bonsai trees because they're the one thing she knows how to control. Mirai, who stopped the wretched and calamitous manifestation of all of mankind’s hatred with her miraculous capacity for love (and her fucking AWESOME battle skills), such a warm and ferocious heart inside of that tiny body she was once so frightened of. I can’t talk about Mirai too much or I might legitimately cry and then where would this post be? Not properly capitalized and punctuated, to start with.

You've got Akihito, augh, precious boy, stupid perverted teenage boy who just wants to die before he meets her because what's the point, what's the point when your mother won't listen and people are trying to kill you every day and you permanently mutilated the one person who ever showed you any tolerance, who ever started to look at you like you were something other than an abomination (and he'll remember the looks on those kids' faces until the day he dies, saying they don't want him to kill them, how it had cut him to his core to know that he could do that to someone when all he ever wanted was to have somebody around, somebody besides his blithely distant mother and his absent father who we STILL KNOW NOTHING ABOUT); Akihito, who makes himself rice omelettes all alone in his apartment every night; Akihito, who dives in headfirst to save Mirai every time not just because he cares about her but because this is his chance; this is his chance to be something better and something worthwhile and something somebody will remember for the right reason. Akihito, who spits at danger because he's the fucking IMMORTAL HALF-YOUMU, beating the world-ending beast of his deepest flaws until it's nothing more than a boy just like him, taking all of those faults back into himself because they're what make him who he is, and that's what saves the world, in the end: love and courage.

You've got Mitsuki, who grew up thinking she had to be all alone, because where her sister never loved her a whit, her older brother always loved her far too much for it to feel right, to do anything but go right through her; Mitsuki, who wants to be like Izumi, cold and unfazed and efficient and unstoppable, ordering the same pancakes Izumi does, cutting them the same way, always doing what Izumi says because Izumi knows best; Mitsuki, who learns all too quickly how much other people can hurt you if you let them, feeling her heart stop at the sound of Hiroomi's screams on the first night they met the creature called Akihito Kanbara (the creature who she reads with and eats lunch with and saves the world with and doesn't want to be killed, not ever, because he's the closest thing she's got to a friend before Mirai Kuriyama tells her to look at the lanterns and ask for candied apples and watch the fireworks until she's sure colors are bursting in some dark and buried part of her heart, too), sitting in that hospital room day after day with no trace of Mirai left and no sign of life from Akihito and wondering if this was worth it, this untouchable frigid grace, and deciding that it wasn't, and she wasn't going to watch the house anymore, because she has something worth fighting for now.

Hiroomi, who, uh, is Hiroomi. He sure is a Hiroomi, that crazy Hiroomi. With his… hands, and his scarves. (Hiroomi, who just wanted to be like Izumi, who protected the immortal half-youmu because he knew then that there was something more to this; Hiroomi, who, when asked, “Falling in love?”, looks away into the lingering twilight. GROSS, WHY DO I HAVE HIROOMI FEELINGS? I NEED TO STEP AWAY FROM KNK FOR A WHILE, AND ALSO, GO TO THE HOSPITAL.)

And that's just the main cast! I'm still figuring Sakura out, poor ANGEL; and can we JUST, CAN WE JUST DISCUSS THAT FOR A LARGE PORTION OF THE ED MIRAI IS REACHING OUT INTO THAT ABYSS ALL BY HERSELF THROUGH THE RAIN AND THE DARKNESS AND THE DOVE AND AT THE END, WHEN AKIHITO REACHES BACK TO HER, HIS HAND IS EVERYONE'S HANDS, AI'S AND MITSUKI'S AND HIROOMI'S AND AYAKA'S AND MAYBE HER MOTHER'S? Fucking BURN ME.

That youmu they didn't beat in episode 6 cracks me up, though. I'm still waiting for that end scene in the last episode to be extended to, like, pan away from Akihito and Mirai's emotional reunion to just show us that youmu floating happily around without a care in the world, until it turns around to see them leaning softly in for that I'm so glad you're alive I'm so glad you're here I'm so glad I can look in your eyes again kiss and fucking EXPLODES. THAT would have been a WAY better and MORE EMOTIONALLY EFFECTIVE ending, imo. Hire me, Kyoani.

No, but seriously. KNK is so important and beautiful and perfect to me. :') Because LOVE ALWAYS WINS!! Love, and teenage boys being stupid and reabsorbing apocalyptic demons back into themselves for really no reason at all other than that it looked cool.

32. no stranger would it be (december posting meme)

2014-12-03T21:27:50Z

Yoinked from the lovely redbrunja—I need to wake this journal the heck up, dammit. I am also three days late with it so I guess we're just gonna ignore December 1, 2, and 3.

Pick a date in December and give me something to talk about. Give me a question or topic-- absolutely anything fannish (or non-fannish) goes: TV, movies, books, comics, fandom, ships, fictional characters, actors, writing, arting, whatever strikes your fancy...

Also, feel free to suggest multiple topics/dates or to just leave a topic and no date, I'll fill it in. ;)

~~December 1:~~

~~December 2:~~

~~December 3:~~

December 4: chiisai_tsuru: Kyoukai no Kanata and what the hell ever happened with the monster they never defeated in episode 6.

December 5: leopoldfitzed: All about Morning Glories and why it's my favorite thing in the universe.

December 6: thecivilunrest: Thoughts on Free! (I'm gonna do it.) And thoughts on Hyouka and why it became one of your faves.

December 7: Anon: ALL the Young Justice.

December 8: hellalara: Uchouten Kazoku.

December 9: chiisai_tsuru: Why the Angel Beats! theme song is the worst.

December 10: Anon: Talk about Teen Wolf! Just your favorite pairing, or whatever you like, or even everything!

December 11:

December 12:

December 13:

December 14: ladymercury_10: Favorite non-Morning Glories comics.

December 15: Anon: All of the Brooklyn Nine-Nine feelings and backstory headcanons.

December 16: yllawtsew: French. Your relationship with it, more stuff about your exchange, where you want to go next with French. Something.

December 17:

December 18:

December 19: Anon: Thoughts on Taylor Swift's modern masterpiece, 1989.

December 20:

December 21:

December 22:

December 23:

December 24: amioneofthem: Favorite Christmas-themed EVERYTHINGS; TV episodes, movies, songs, stories.

December 25:

December 26:

December 27: ariad: Talk about hair. Fannishly.

December 28:

December 29:

December 30:

December 31: amioneofthem: Favorite New Year's-themed EVERYTHINGS; TV episodes, movies, songs, stories.

31. yuletide carols being sung by a choir

2014-11-30T07:57:51Z

holiday love meme 2014
my thread here

30. nobody but you can hear me | morning glories ficathon, vol. 7

2014-11-20T01:58:42Z

previous ficathons: i. for a better future, ii. all will be free, iii. siesta's over, iv. what faith is, v. nowhere else to go, vi. all together, one and all

Hello I'm Casey Blevins and this is Jackass. I mean, the Morning Glories ficathon. Also, I am not Casey Blevins. She has more important things to do, like not actually existing. Joke's on you! I'm actually Brella!

You wanna know something crazy? I've been hosting these ficathons for a year now! The first one was hosted on November 2nd of last year. Time flies when you're being emotionally and mentally exhausted to the point of lying on the floor staring at the ceiling wondering where it all went wrong by a really really good comic, right? Or maybe that's just me.

Anyhoo, for those of you who don't know, every time a new issue comes out, we in the MG fandom converge to prompt fanfics, write fanfics, read fanfics, and generally do fanfic things, usually with the express intention of making each other really, really upset, but that's optional.

#42 hit the shelves today, and it's a jam-packed one—definitely get your hands on it at your local comic book store or on the Image website! It's great. Really, just—just get it. Keep in mind that, since the new issue is out, some of the prompts and fics may contain spoilers! Tread lightly if you'd rather avoid those until you've read the issue. It's pretty much anything goes down there. Hurry up, though, so you can party with us!

Here's the 411.

Leave a prompt, see if someone fills it; see a prompt you like, reply and fill it yourself. If you'd prefer to just lurk and read what gets churned out, that's cool, too! People love it when you leave feedback on the things they write, so that is also an option if you are feeling extra enthusiastic! You are not required to fill anything, and you can leave as many prompts as you like, for any ships and characters you like, anytime.

Anyone can participate! Whether this is your first time swinging by or you've been here since the first one, we are so so happy to have you! Anonymous commenting is enabled and screening is disabled, so you can join in even if you don't have a LiveJournal account. Keep in mind that whether you are a registered user or not, if your reply contains a link (say, to an external site where you've posted your fill if it's too long or you don't want to post it in parts), it will automatically be screened and I will have to manually unscreen it. LiveJournal does not notify me of this by e-mail, so sometimes it takes me a while to notice. If it's taking too long for me to approve it, just send me an ask on Tumblr and I'll get right on it!

Prompts can be filled multiple times, so don't feel bad if somebody fills a prompt you were eyeing. Nobody's got dibs, it's free for all! And, like, let's be real here, nobody in their right mind would complain about having their prompt filled twice.

Feel free to second prompts, encourage writers, or even chatter about your DREAM FILL for this prompt in the comments; who knows; it may inspire someone! Replies to the entry should all be prompts of some kind, but replies to other comments can be anything you like. We get very silly sometimes.

if you were a planet, you'd be poopiter | darrkvengeance | david: look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair
mark off each day with a cross | wearealsoboats | akiko: calendar girl who's in love with the world stay alive
a sin to keep | anonymous | zoe/hunter: If I'm a pagan of the good times / My lover's the sunlight / To keep the Goddess on my side / She demands a sacrifice
we were born sick | anonymous | hunter + future jade: based on this picture
god, please forgive my humanity | anonymous | ike/jade: a second is a century, and a century is all we need

29. dear yuletide writer 2014

2014-10-21T21:20:51Z

Dearest, most treasured Yuletide author,

Season's greetings! (With many spooky ghosts and goblins and jack-o-lanterns.) Hello, friend! We're here again; how about that! Don't worry; I can't believe it either. This is my second Yuletide—I don't know which of yours it is, but no matter what, you are going to do an amazing job. I guarantee it. This is not even because I am an absurdly easy person to please; I am just so delighted to have as enthusiastic and talented a writer as you, and I can't wait to see where this (kind of long, oops, I'm really excited) post may lead you!

You should know that I am not exaggerating when I say I'm really easy to please; people writing things for me is generally guaranteed to make my entire month, no matter the subject. OPTIONAL DETAILS AND PROMPTS ARE OPTIONAL! I've just listed them in case you need something to go off of, but the most important thing is that you have fun! If you are happy, I will be happy. :)

The characters I've requested, even in the "any" section, are characters that I love with all of my stupid heart, so I'll be teeming with glee to see them doing anything in any context at all; they could all be sitting on a park bench, talking about nothing, and I would get misty-eyed, proud of them, happy that they exist. So don't you even worry for a second about screwing up. It is 99% impossible. I am really super flexible, no matter what my requests and prompts may or may not indicate to you, and I will be overjoyed to have anything written for any of the fandoms I put on my request list!

Obviously, I am going to rattle off some of my favorite fic tropes and prompts here, but that should not make you feel like you need to fulfill even one of them if you don't want to—think of them more as suggestions than demands, because I'll be thinking of them more as bonuses than guarantees. I've got your back. I know how scary this is, writing something for someone you may never have met, and you're very brave for doing it, and I can't thank you enough. Seriously.

(Wait, maybe we have met?? Oh, man, that's creepy.)

Likes: Angst with a happy ending, hurt/comfort, snark and banter, AUs (honest to God, I love, love ANY AU), classic romantic tropes (fake-out make-out! pretending to be married or together to fool the bad guys! being locked in a small space together until they are forced to touch each other!), friendships, found families, het, queerplatonics, gen!!, domesticity, humor, character studies, ship studies, nonlinear narratives, cold opens, almost kisses (almost better to me than actual kisses), and oh, boy, do I adore my UST. This is not a joke. The more unresolved those feely feelings are, the more moved I will be; it is a legitimate problem. The slower the burn, the deadlier the fire.
On the non-romantic side, I love people being pals, canon friendships or not, especially if they don't actually want to be; I love family dynamics, especially if they're for a family that isn't related by blood but by bond, and as much of a goof it makes me, I don't care, holiday stories will melt my heart.
I am a big wuss who can only take my angst if it is alleviated by an ending of even mildly uplifting proportions, because while I do love the emotional turmoil, I can only do it for so long!! Character death will make me sad, but I understand that muses are occasionally murderous things, so if you need to stick somebody in a grave, I forgive you. Anything goes in the rating department; G through E.

Dislikes: Non/dubcon, hard kinks, characters being humiliated for humor, character bashing.

If that was not enough information for you, I would suggest checking my Tumblr tags, my list of favorite TV tropes (arguably the most useful thing here), or my AO3 bookmarks.

REQUEST 1:

Lovely*Complex: Koizumi Risa, Ootani Atsushi, Fukagawa Haruka, Kotobuki Seiko

Accessibility: Lovely*Complex (or LoveCom) was originally a shoujo manga and was then adapted into an anime series of 24 episodes. It is a romantic comedy (I hesitate to advertise it as "comedy" when it has made me cry pain tears on many occasions) about an unusually tall girl, Risa Koizumi, who falls for her vitriolic best bud, an unusually short boy, Atsushi Ootani. Because of their close friendship, and their reputation as a comedy duo, Ootani takes a much longer time than Risa to sort out his feelings, though this may also have to do with the fact that he is extremely slow on the uptake. Their journey to becoming a couple is long and convoluted and insanely enjoyable to watch. OTPs come and go, but Koizumi/Ootani is forever. The manga involves a lot of extra storylines and arcs and follows the characters through their first year of university, but the anime ends at their high school graduation. All of the episodes are on animefreak.

Character Notes: I just want to say how happy I am with the character nominations this year—I actually didn't nominate LoveCom myself, of which I am ashamed. Risa and Ootani are fairly straightforward, as they are the main characters; the other two characters nominated are Fukagawa Haruka and Kotobuki Seiko, who are both very wonderful and very queer. Haruka is an effeminate boy who idolizes Risa (something many people in the show misinterpret as romantic attraction); Seiko is DMAB trans, a cutie pie, and was introduced for an arc in which she pursued Ootani. Seiko and Haruka eventually become joined at the hip, never seen in a scene without each other. Their friendship is similar to Risa and Ootani's, in that they harass and snark at each other frequently. And let's just say that I ship it, like, a lot.

Assume that my prompts deal with the anime and not the manga.

Prompts:

1) Any friendship/gen. I adore the group dynamic on this show; any combination of characters, any time. Risa and Ootani might be my favorite anime protagonists of all time (Risa especially), so it's obviously fine if they are the focus of any gen; the same goes for Haruka and Seiko. I love anything about class trips, group vacations, bath house days, karaoke nights, or just sitting around on their asses shooting the breeze—no objections will be made to slightly heavier themes of growing up together while they're whiling the summer days away.

2) Risa and Ootani do Christmas for real. The unavoidable ensuing comedy of errors on their first Lover's Day as a solid, relatively drama-free couple is a bonus. Ootani trying to act aloof and exasperated but turning on his soft side when Risa starts crying and feeling bad about what a failure it is is also a bonus. What does this comedy of errors entail? That's up to you. Maybe the restaurant they were planning to go to is closed because Risa read the hours wrong online. Maybe the Umibouzu concert is canceled due to extreme weather. Maybe the subway line back home is unexpectedly closed off for maintenance and they have to figure out how they're going to get home without freezing to death. Maybe Ootani loans Risa his scarf because she forgot to bring one because she left the house in a hurry. Maybe it's none of these. Roll with it; I'm just firing off thoughts if you need them! Fluff and shmoop encouraged.

3) Haruka and Seiko's friendship throughout the years. Haruka and Seiko encouraging and accepting and being there for each other. Maybe something more? I love their relationship either way, so be it gen or shippy, I'll love it.

4) Everyone goes to Maity and Judy's wedding. Wedding fluff and tropes ensue.

REQUEST 2:

Uchouten Kazoku/The Eccentric Family: Shimogamo Yasaburou, Benten | Suzuki Satomi

Accessibility: Based on a light novel of the same name (and only covering the first one), Uchouten Kazoku is a whimsical slice-of-life dramedy about the lives of tanuki, tengu, and humans living in Kyoto, Japan. The protagonist, Shimogamo Yasaburou, is a carefree and laid-back tanuki and gifted shape-shifter who loves imitating humans and being a part of their world. He has a mother and three brothers: Yaichirou, the oldest and most responsible, who is running for Nise-Emon (basically the tanuki president and representative of the tanuki world in all political dealings); Yajirou, who is gentle but depressed, permanently stuck in the form of a frog and living at the bottom of a well; and Yashirou, the baby of the family, innocent and sweet and able to generate electricity at will. The one danger of being a tanuki is that there is always the chance you will be boiled in a hot pot by the Friday Fellows, who eat tanuki once a year as a delicacy for their year-end bash. That's what happened to Yasaburou's father. Mixed up in all of this are Professor Akadama, a once-proud tengu who can no longer fly, and Benten, the newest and only female member of the Friday Fellows, who was once Akadama's apprentice—a human girl who he taught to fly. Her loyalties are sketchy; she's the one who ate Yasaburou's father, but they have a mutual attraction to each other, or so it is implied, and they are apparently the reason Akadama can't fly anymore, thanks to what they call the Demon Cedar Tree Incident.

Character Notes: Benten is the most interesting character I've seen in anime in a long time and I will be bitter my whole life that she was never fleshed out more. I guess that's second book/season stuff, but all of that is a long way off. She used to be a simple country girl who was kidnapped one day by Akadama and taken in as his apprentice, and he has this really gross thing for her; Yasaburou comments in one episode that the Benten he knows now bears little resemblance to her former self, the girl he first met under Akadama's cherry tree, Suzuki Satomi. She still tries so hard to grasp her lost bits of innocence and childhood, teasing Yasaburou, grabbing onto a whale's tail, cheerfully asking Yasaburou to fetch her the moon and bring it back. Yajirou, the frog brother, says that Benten regularly comes to his well, but where most people tell him of their troubles or ask him for advice, she simply sits there, gazing up at the sky, and silently cries. "I've never gotten anything in life I wanted," she tells Yasaburou once, and what an odd thing for the most feared and respected being in the three worlds to say.
Yasaburou is wonderful as well and I have an enormous soft spot for him—it's implied in the anime that he is so powerful that the Big Bad, Ebisugawa Soun, needed an enormous fleet of men to capture him, that he would be the hardest of the family to take out of the picture, so hard that Ebisugawa would take him on himself. Yasaburou misses his father, but is clearly still in some kind of shock about the fact that he's gone, reacting to tidbits about his death and final moments with cryptic silence. I swear to God, this kid needs a good cry. According to his father, Soichirou, Yasaburou is the most like him—fun-loving, good-hearted under his front of flippancy and irresponsibility, and an idiot to the very blood.

Honestly, this would be an unwise fandom to tackle if you don't have any familiarity with the source material; the connections and backstories are so rich and nuanced and complex that it really pays to watch the anime. It's one of my very favorites, and it's a very quick watch; only 13 episodes! One of the best of 2013, I think. It's all available here.

Prompts:

1) Literally any Benten character study/backstory headcanon/pre-canon/gen/anything. I care so much about Benten. I'm starved. It can be your wildest headcanon and I'll probably still sweep it up into my arms. I need more Benten in this world. Especially if that pre-canon/character study happens to include info about the Demon Cedar Tree Incident.

2) Yasaburou and Benten's UST fuels my soul—those awed, lingering gazes he gives her! the way she shares scraps of her real, childish self with him!—and I would love to see more of it. Since it's obvious that they can never really be together, for so many complicated reasons, I would love to see their encounters throughout the years, how their quiet love and respect for each other grows, even if—especially if—nothing ever comes of it but an extremely close friendship that no one around them really understands. I'm Yasaburou/Benten trash, basically, especially if they're a solid "they want to, but they won't/can't" on the "will-they-or-won't-they?" scale. But I also love them as close friends, with a strange understanding that no one else quite understands, so if you don't want to write them shippily, don't worry about it!

3) Also: Benten/Yasaburou + fake dating.

4) Yasaburou wrecks and warms my heart all at the same time, so I'd love anything Yasaburou-focused. Do as you will with him. His laid-back and self-defeatist but unshakeably good-hearted nature is just. [clenches fist]

Largely, Uchouten is one of those series that charms me just in how richly fun and light and touching it is, so honestly, anything that keeps in the spirit of the story will make me very, very happy. :)

REQUEST 3:

Kyoukai no Kanata/Beyond the Boundary: Kuriyama Mirai, Kanbara Akihito, Nase Izumi, Nase Mitsuki

Accessibility: Like Uchouten, KNK is based on a light novel. It tells the story of Mirai Kuriyama, the last surviving member of a cursed clan of Spirit World Warriors, people who are tasked with defeating bizarre monsters called youmu; and Akihito Kanbara, a half-human/half-youmu hybrid capable of leveling cities when his youmu half takes over. Mirai starts using Akihito as a practice dummy to improve her skills as a Spirit World Warrior, since it's impossible to kill him. He has a bit of a crush on her because she wears glasses, which he gets off on. They grow close as friends and develop a mutual love for each other, but circumstances keep them apart—namely that Mirai was sent to kill him in the first place, because his youmu half is actually the fearsome, apocalyptic Beyond the Boundary.

Character Notes: Akihito sees himself as a monster and curses his immortality, wishing that he could die so that the people around him wouldn't get hurt. He's isolated and feared by Spirit World Warrior society, and his "friends," the Nase siblings, Hiroomi and Mitsuki, only spend time with him to keep an eye on him (at first). Mirai has endured a lifetime of being shunned and feared for her cursed blood, and was responsible for the death of her best and only friend several years ago. But when Mirai asks Akihito if she looks like a normal person to her, he tells her yes; to him, she's just a cute girl with glasses. The feeling is mutual; when Akihito poses the same question to her, Mirai answers, yes; to her, he's just a creepy senpai who likes glasses. THEY ARE SO IN LOVE AND IT'S AWFUL, BECAUSE THEY CAN NEVER BE HAPPY, BECAUSE SHE HAS TO KILL HIM OR ELSE HE'LL DESTROY THE WORLD.
Izumi is the head of the Nase family, a prestigious family of Spirit World Warriors, and has to juggle her duties as its "political" representative with her responsibility to look after her younger siblings, Hiroomi and Mitsuki, who are also gifted Spirit World Warriors. We discover at the end of the series that she, like the antagonist, Fujima, has a youmu dwelling inside of her. She has a strict set of moral values and is incredibly cunning, as well as ridiculously strong in a fight; she tends to come off as cold and detached, and apparently has had past romantic entanglements with Fujima.
Mitsuki is her younger sister and arguably Akihito's closest friend; they're in the literature club together. She's about as aloof as her sister, mercilessly belittling Akihito and insisting that she can't allow herself to have fun or become close to people because of her duties as a Spirit World Warrior, but she softens up over the course of the series, growing to genuinely care for Mirai in particular. She's a snark machine and has a pet, Yakiimo. Even though she's the youngest, she decides to stick up for herself in the climactic battle and say she won't stay home to watch the house anymore.
KNK is great; it has monsters! Romance! Cute girls with big weapons! Gorgeous animation! Amazing music! Watch it here. Or at least watch the OP and ED! If those don't get you pumped to watch, I don't know what will. It's only 12 episodes; you can watch it in under 4 hours. The ladies outnumber the dudes 8:3! Please try it! It's very important to me!

Prompts:

1) I never say good-bye, and I never will. Under the assumption that Mirai was absorbed into Akihito when he reabsorbed Beyond the Boundary, and only he can see her now, I'd love to see something about his immortality and how she'll always be with him now even after everyone around him comes and goes, so he'll never be alone, no matter how long he lives. I have such a weak spot for immortality love stories! You can feel free to break my heart in half with this one; I welcome it.

2) Izumi Nase character study, especially post-series. I'd love to hear about her keeping tabs on her younger siblings and/or the rest of the cast after her disappearance. She's another one of those characters like Benten for me, where you can tell there's so much more to be tapped, but she's never expanded upon because her role in the story is incidental at worst. I just want to see Izumi in emotional turmoil, that's all!!!

3) Basically any Mirai/Akihito angst with a happy ending. I don't care what they're doing as long as they love each other. It's ridiculous.

4) Family gen revolving around Izumi and Mitsuki. I love stories about sisters. Mitsuki seems to have skipped the stage of life where she looked up to Izumi and is just generally disillusioned with her now, unlike Hiroomi, who had a much rougher time on that journey from believing in his sister to rebelling against her. I'd love to get more on that.

5) Anything resembling an Akihito character study, especially based on what we heard and saw during the "big battle" in the last episode. I want to know so much more about my son, even if it's solid headcanon. I love him too much. He makes me so sad.

If none of these appeal to you, my general loves are the Nase family, Mitsuki and her complicated feelings, Akihito/Mirai being dumb and sad, and any ensemble gen. Go wild!

REQUEST 4:

Toki o Kakeru Shoujo/The Girl Who Leapt Through Time: Konno Makoto, Tsuda Kousuke, Mamiya Chiaki

Accessibility: The source material for The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is a 1967 novel by Yasutaka Tsutsui, although the main character of that novel is a side character in the animated film, as well as much older. The animated film is about Makoto Konno, a tomboyish high school girl who loves nothing more than playing baseball with her two best friends, Kousuke and Chiaki. As they enter their final year of high school, change hangs overhead, something Makoto is intent on not confronting. One day, while in an empty classroom, she is startled by an unknown figure and falls, landing on what looks like a small walnut. She soon discovers that the walnut gave her the ability to "time leap" — travel through time, basically. She starts using this ability for frivolous things, like getting to have pudding four times in a row, or make a karaoke session go on for hours and hours. This is all fine, until a situation arises where she needs to use a time leap to save the life of someone dear to her, and she discovers too late that there is a limit to how many she can use. It was directed by Mamoru Hosoda and the English dub is available to watch on Youtube.

Character Notes: Chiaki has feelings for Makoto, and it is actually his attempts to confess to her that result in her using up a large portion of time leaps to avoid it. It is revealed at the end of the film that Chiaki can time leap as well, and is from the future. He came to the past to see a painting that Makoto's aunt (the protagonist of the original story) is restoring, but grew so attached to Makoto and Kousuke that he stayed longer than he should have. Makoto only realizes that she reciprocates his feelings when he must return to the future without any apparent hope of ever coming back, but he tells her that he'll wait for her. "Okay," she says, tearfully. "I'll be there. I'll run to it." And I die, basically.

Prompts:

1) Pre-canon Makoto, Kousuke, and Chiaki gen? Yes, please! I would love to see expansions of some of the flashes we got of them during Makoto's final time leap—meeting Chiaki for the first time, getting a Christmas tree together, basically hanging around being idiots in the fall and winter. Bonus points for a pining Chiaki and an oblivious Makoto and a very exasperated Kousuke. I really just love the friendship among these three and would love to see it in its nascent stages.

2) After I showed the movie to one of my best friends, he said he was disappointed because, at the end, he was expecting Makoto to get into her desk at school, feeling sad, and suddenly hear a crash, whirling around to see Chiaki barrel-rolling into his desk and acting like nothing had happened, wryly asking her what she was staring at. I can't get this idea out of my head now so thanks a BUNCH, Kevin!!!!! Maybe you could roll with this?

3) If all else fails, I am major Makoto/Chiaki trash, so make of that what you will. I'd never object to gen, though.

If none of these appeal to you, my general loves are the solid Makoto-Chiaki-Kousuke friendship, Makoto growing up and being amazing and protecting the painting and learning all she can about time travel—Makoto anything, really. I love that girl!

REQUEST 5:

Hyouka & Kotenbu Series: Any (Oreki Houtarou, Oreki Tomoe, Chitanda Eru, Fukube Satoshi, Ibara Mayaka)

Accessibility: Hyouka is produced by the same company that did Kyoukai no Kanata, and is based on, you guessed it, a series of light novels! It's a slice-of-life high school story, dabbling in comedy, drama, romance, friendship, and above all else, MYSTERY! Its narrator, Houtarou, starts out not believing in expending any energy for anybody's sake, but the bubbly and good-hearted Chitanda helps him have confidence in himself and become a better person. His best friend, Satoshi, is basically his dead opposite; funny, expressive, extroverted, and energetic, but harbors a sad sort of jealousy of Houtarou and his talents. Mayaka has been carrying a torch for Satoshi for years, wants to be a mangaka, and hates Houtarou; where Satoshi complements Houtarou, she complements Eru, because she's fiery, bossy, and snide. Four goofy teens solve mysteries of varying legitimacy together and become best friends. It's like it was made for me. I have not read the light novels, so please assume that my prompts are for the anime alone.

Character Notes: I said "Any" here and I legitimately mean "Any." I love all of the characters nominated. I ship both of the "canon" pairs with great passion; that is, Houtarou/Eru and Mayaka/Satoshi, the latter just a little more than the former. Oreki Tomoe is my life; I love that she's the biggest mystery the show has to offer and nobody even tries to solve it. I love the idea of exploring the family relationship between her and Houtarou. I love the idea of exploring the friendships of the members of the core four we don't get to see interact as much—Satoshi and Eru; Mayaka and Houtarou. Mostly I am super into how BEST FRIENDS they all are.

Prompts:

1) The university years. There are already several fics on this topic in the AO3 tag, but I can never get enough, especially, especially, if Satoshi or Mayaka are the focus, but I will be thrilled with gen—and/or Houtarou and Chitanda focus, heck, I love ALL THE KIDS!—as well. What kinds of things are they going through now that they're not high schoolers in a geography classroom anymore? I am especially enthusiastic about scenarios in which they are not all necessarily attending the same school; maybe Houtarou and Satoshi are at one, but Mayaka is at another; maybe Eru decided not to go to college and instead to start familiarizing herself with the family business? Maybe they only see each other when they Skype, or come back to Kamiyama City for winter vacation? Maybe a mystery is waiitng for them when they return?

2) Oreki Tomoe keeps tabs on her little brother and his friends, because that's what a good sister does. She has a series of amusing observations about him and them.

3) Slow burn Houtarou/Eru is my everything, everything to me. That's it; that's the prompt. Especially if Satoshi and Mayaka conspire to get them together, or whatever, like real idiot best friends would.

4) Hogwarts AU!! Houtarou, the Ravenclaw who doesn't know why he's in Ravenclaw with all these other, more capable Ravenclaws, Satoshi, Eru, and Mayaka. (Mayaka's house is negotiable, actually; I can see her being Gryffindor, but it's all your call.)

If none of this appeals to you, honestly, I just love Hyouka in every way, from every angle. I would love, love, love a story that's just about their friendship throughout high school—or even just a throwaway mystery that takes place sometime during the story that's all about them being big nerds and dropping ship teases and not knowing what to do with their nerd selves.

Yuletide writer, light of my life, stars and hearts will overtake my glimmering eyes no matter what you write for me; I can't stress that enough. The prompts are not mandatory; they're suggestions. I would love to see you run away with something of your own design just as much as I would to see you run away with something of mine. You have a great big beautiful brain and you will blow me away no matter what you choose to do. If you made it through this whole thing without bolting the other way, then I just want to say that I am so, so, so excited to see what you write for me, and so grateful to you for what you're about to do. I know that it'll make my month. You are a trooper, and you are amazing, and I wish you the happiest holiday season imaginable!

All my love,
Brella/Gwen (blevins)

28. all together, one and all | morning glories ficathon, vol. 6

2014-09-11T03:44:43Z

previous ficathons: i. for a better future, ii. all will be free, iii. siesta's over, iv. what faith is, v. nowhere else to go

One universe or many, it doesn't seem to matter, does it?
None of it is real without us.

It is that time again, my friends! I would say I can't believe it has rolled around again, but I am too shocked and anxious over today's new issue to say or theorize much of anything. How do I know I'm even real? How do we know the ficathon is even real? Sleep tight, existentialism, you had a good run.

A new issue of Morning Glories came out today, #40, and it's a wild one—get on your thinking hats, everyone; this one makes previous issues look like kindergarten. Pick it up at your local comic book store, grab a digital copy off of the Image website or Comixology, brace your damn selves!!!

For you newcomers out in the audience, the ficathon has become something of a regular little event here in the MG fandom world, and by that I mean I never shut up and keep hosting it, but hey, semantics! Basically what goes down is that people come bustling in to leave prompts, fill prompts, read fills, or generally loiter about like Akiko ghosts and provide non sequitur commentary. Actually, that last one doesn't happen very often, because that is what would be filed under spamming, which is a no. But we are not here to discuss the no's! Except for the most important one: NO, YOU SHOULD NOT TRUST IAN SIMON.

Need a little refresher? Not to worry, I'm on your side! Classes for the day have been suspended, let's roll on out to the front lawn for WOODRU—I mean, uh, that is, the rules and regs:

Prompt fics! Write fics! Read fics! Do all three, or just two, or even just one! The system is pretty simple: Leave a prompt, see if someone fills it; see a prompt you like, reply and fill it yourself. If you'd prefer to just lurk and read what gets churned out, that's cool, too! People love it when you leave feedback on the things they write, too, so that is also an option if you are feeling extra enthusiastic! You are not required to fill anything, and you can leave as many prompts as you like, for any ships and characters you like, anytime.

Anyone can participate! Whether this is your first time swinging by or you've been here since the first one, we are so so happy to have you! Anonymous commenting is enabled and screening is disabled, so you can participate even if you don't have a LiveJournal account. Keep in mind that whether you are a registered user or not, if your reply contains a link (say, to an external site where you've posted your fill if it's too long or you don't want to post it in parts), it will automatically be screened and I will have to manually unscreen it. LiveJournal does not notify me of this by e-mail, so if it's taking too long for me to approve it, just send me an ask on Tumblr and I'll get right on it!

Don't be discouraged if you see a prompt that inspires you and someone has already replied with a fill; you can go right on ahead and fill it with your own spiel. Nobody's got dibs, it's free for all! And, like, let's be real here, nobody in their right mind would complain about having their prompt filled twice.

Feel free to second prompts, encourage writers, or even expand on prompts in the comments and chatter about your DREAM FILL for this prompt; who knows; it may inspire someone! Replies to the entry should all be prompts of some kind, but replies to other comments can be anything you like. We get very silly sometimes.

Keep in mind that there will probably be spoilers in the comments, so tread lightly if you want to avoid them!

Be nice, be cool, be awesome. We are all reasonably nice here—to each other, not to the MG characters. Haha, what did you think this was, fun and games? GUESS AGAIN!!!

When leaving prompts, make sure they conform to this format, or something like it, for the sake of organization:

character/pairing | prompt

And when leaving fills, make sure they have this header, or something like it, for the sake of organization:

title | rating/warnings if needed | character/pairing(s)

If your fill exceeds the number of characters permitted in a single LJ comment, you can either post it on an external site (like AO3, Tumblr, or your own journal here) and link to it in a reply, or post it in parts. This can also apply if you're filling a prompt that's one of the classic "5 Times + 1 Time" suckers. If you post it in parts, make sure to tack on an addendum to your fill header that makes it clear which part is which and how many parts there are, so something like this: 1/4, 2/3, or, if you're not sure how many parts it will have, 1/?. This makes it easier for me to organize them in the fill list. You can see an example of this here if it's unclear.

No time limit, as usual! Keep it rolling until you don't feel like it anymore! And anyway, if it eventually peters out, don't worry; there is probably an alternate world where this goes on forever, right next to the one where Fortunato Medeiros is happy. :) :)

FILLS:

our endorsement for student body president | darrkvengeance | the answer editorial staff: snapshots from casey's political campaign
dear diary | darrkvengeance | irina: age 13
exulansis | claryfrayed | jade/ike: anything from the dictionary of obscure sorrows
but i'm standing still | blevins | jade: the world spins madly on
i know what you came for | wearealsoboats | zoe: flash your feathers like your monkey bravado can impress. i saw a t-rex fight a comet and lose. you’ve got nothing I want.
she keeps me warm | wearealsoboats | zoe/jade: the monsters creep closer when you're not around
making chaff of mountains | blevins | akiko: you can be a threshing sledge, new and sharp with many teeth.
the transitive property of equality | vegafalling | guillaume/jun: pacific rim AU
i'll be your rock when the water comes | blevins | casey/hunter: you were my rock, never my stepping stone
you can grow flowers from where dirt used to be | blevins | casey/isabel: i just want to get to know you

27. nowhere else to go | morning glories ficathon, vol. 5

2014-06-30T18:55:05Z

previous ficathons: i. for a better future, ii. all will be free, iii. siesta's over, iv. what faith is

Best two out of three?

Guess who's back, back again? Casey's back. Tell a friend.

We here in the Morning Glories world have a ★☆★new issue★☆★ coming out this Wednesday, just in time for Independence Day, which is ironic, because all of these kids are prisoners! Somebody tell me how to add fancy zinging sound effects to LiveJournal entries, because this is cool, rad news. I have been holding off on starting another ficathon until we were closer to the release date, because it was a round of real good fun last time when it fell on the same day as a new issue. (Understandably; HOW ABOUT THAT LAST PAGE, AM I RIGHT GUYS?? HOW ABOUT BETH'S REACTION?)

So let the swell times of emotional destruction (and occasionally unadulterated absurdity) through fanfiction recommence. You're all old hat at this by now, I'm sure, but just in case you forgot, let's do a little reading of the rules, Dagney-style. (Haha, kidding, like anyone could ever come close to the Silver Fox.)

Prompt fics! Write fics! Read fics! Do all three, or just two, or even just one! The system is pretty simple: Leave a prompt, see if someone fills it; see a prompt you like, reply and fill it yourself. If you'd prefer to just lurk and read what gets churned out, that's cool, too! People love it when you leave feedback on the things they write, too, so that is also an option if you are feeling extra enthusiastic! You are not required to fill anything, and you can leave as many prompts as you like (that said, please try to avoid spamming; I get e-mail notifications for every comment left here).

Anyone can participate! Whether this is your first time popping by one of these clambakes or you've been joining in since the first one, you are absolutely welcome. This issue's tagline is "Welcoming Committee," after all! Don't be shy, we are all very nice.

Anonymous commenting is enabled and screening is disabled, so you can participate even if you don't have a LiveJournal account. Keep in mind that whether you are a registered user or not, if your reply contains a link (say, to an external site where you've posted your fill if it's too long for LJ's character constraints or you don't want to post it in parts), it will automatically be screened and I will have to manually unscreen it. LiveJournal does not notify me of this by e-mail, so if it's taking too long for me to approve it, just send me an ask on Tumblr and I'll get right on it!

Prompts can be filled multiple times, so don't be discouraged if you see a prompt that inspires you and someone has already replied with a fill. Let's be real here, nobody in their right mind would complain about having their prompt filled twice.

Feel free to second prompts, encourage writers, or even expand on prompts in the comments. Replies to the entry should all be prompts of some kind, but replies to other comments can be anything you like (again, while trying to avoid spamming).

Keep in mind that once the issue comes out on Wednesday, there may be spoilers in the comments, so tread lightly if you want to avoid them!

Don't be an Ike; that is, any variation of a jerkass, buttwad, pissant, or arsonist. We frown upon arson here in the real world.

When leaving prompts, make sure they conform to this format, or something like it, for the sake of organization:

character/pairing | prompt

And when leaving fills, make sure they have this header, or something like it, for the sake of organization:

title | rating/warnings if needed | character/pairing(s)

If your fill exceeds the number of characters permitted in a single LJ comment, you can either post it on an external site (like AO3, Tumblr, or your own journal here) and link to it in a reply, or post it in parts. This can also apply if you're filling a prompt that's one of the classic "5 Times + 1 Time" suckers. If you post it in parts, make sure to tack on an addendum to your fill header that makes it clear which part is which and how many parts there are, so something like this: 1/4, 2/3, or, if you're not sure how many parts it will have, 1/?. This makes it easier for me to organize them in the fill list.

There is no time limit on this. It goes until people stop commenting. Be nice, be cool, be awesome. I know you all are, but formality's formality. Keep your head down if you see Gribbs in the hallway, I heard he beat some kid up and left him for dead in a cell with blood all over the walls. Nasty.

Oh, and a postscript: This journal is no longer under the handle kidiots. I felt like it was time for a change; I was kidiots for two years. This is still the same journal, I promise I am not an impostor!

Have fun!

FILLS:

ellipsism | anonymous | casey & david: anything from the dictionary of obscure sorrows
the sun does not cause us to grow | blevins | jade/casey: ~~five~~ four times jade trusted casey + the one time she didn't
the will to survive | yllawtsew | casey: i'm the hero of this story, i don't need to be saved
add me to your list | anonymous | casey/zoe: summer tropey stuff
never in your wildest dreams | timewaslost | casey/zoe: summer tropey stuff
an occupational hazard | blevins | casey/hunter: how to train your dragon AU
singing morphine alarms out of tune | spatjewels | ian: clone degeneration
that's my soul up there | blevins | casey/hunter: the wicked + the divine AU
welcome back | moannas | casey/zoe: welcome back
the will to survive | yllawtsew | casey: i'm the hero of this story, i don't need to be saved
wait four years and then... | yllawtsew | casey/hunter: anything from the dictionary of obscure sorrows
cut the thick skin | first-spark | jade/ike: singing while rome burns down
oh, you're gonna lose your soul | blevins | the glories: teen wolf AU
that's the way we do it in the 99 | claryfrayed | ensemble: brooklyn nine-nine AU
wallflowers | anonymous | hannah: i'm fine at parties. i just stand in the middle of the room and don't say anything.
it's a whole new world | first-spark | hunter: toto, i've a feeling we're not in kansas anymore
what the fuck happened to your face? | claryfrayed | jade/ike: what the fuck happened to your face?
[insert that song from lazytown here] | spatjewels | irina and mr. n: cake-baking business
you thought the lions were bad | vegafalling | jun/guillaume: towerball
bubblegum smiles | anonymous | pamela and isabel: anything

26. what faith is | morning glories ficathon, vol. 4

2014-04-16T21:51:53Z

previous ficathons: i. for a better future, ii. all will be free, iii. siesta's over

Shh, it's okay, it's okay.
It's time to stop running.

And so another arc of Morning Glories comes to a close, with #38 being released to the unsuspecting public today – grab a copy at your local comic book store, download it off Image, prepare to be amazed! The fourth bi-monthly Morning Glories ficathon is in celebration of both the release of the new issue and the end of the seventh arc, so come in here and party with us! Like Gribbs, we will never die.

Before we get into the usual reading of the rules, Woodrun style, I want to point out that there will probably be SPOILERS in the comments section for #38, so tread lightly if you haven't read the issue yet. Don't worry, though, there's no time limit on the ficathon, so you can take as long as you need to catch up! And if you're going to be around at 8:13 EST, the Morning Glories Tinychat will be up and running, and if you've never gone, I highly encourage it – we all basically talk about the new issue, Nick and Joe sometimes pop in (not Joe this time, though, as he'll be busy), and it's generally a very fun time filled with Nick laughing ominously every time someone asks him a question. More info here.

Now that that's out of the way, here's the lowdown! Here, you can prompt fics, fill fics, or read fics – amazing, wowee, shazam! It is much more fun than the average weekend at Morning Glory Academy, where you sit around contemplating the futility of existence and wonder who let Roy out of his cage again. THE RULES & REGS:

Leave a comment with a prompt in it! Reply to prompt comments with fills (in the form of fic)! You don't have to exchange one for the other; you can leave as many prompts as you want and you are not required to fill anything, although we'd love it if you would, because who doesn't want to see their prompt turn into a full-fledged fic, am I right?

Anonymous commenting is enabled and screening is disabled, so you can participate even if you don't have a LiveJournal account. If your comment has a link in it – like, let's say you're posting your fill on an external site and just want to link to it – it will be automatically screened for spam; I have no control over this, but all that will happen is that I'll need to approve it before it shows up in the comments section. LiveJournal doesn't notify me if these kinds of comments show up, so you may have to send me a direct message here or through my Tumblr.

Multiple fills for prompts are most certainly allowed, so don't be discouraged if someone's already filled a prompt that inspired you.

Feel free to second prompts, encourage writers, and reply to fills with comments – honestly, you can chat around if you want, provided you aren't replying to the entry itself with non sequitur remarks and/or non-prompts. That said, try not to get spammy!

Do not be a jerkwad, butthead, or anything remotely resembling an Ike. We're here to have a good time and cause suffering to our favorite characters; show some compassion!

When leaving prompts, make sure they conform to this format for the sake of organization:

character/pairing | prompt

When leaving fills, make sure the header conforms to this format for the sake of organization:

title | rating/warnings if needed | character/pairing(s)

If your fill is longer than LJ's comment constraints allow, you can either post it to an external site (like AO3, Tumblr, or your own LJ) or post it in parts in reply to the original prompt comment. If you post it in parts, make sure to distinguish which part is which (just tack on a little 1/3, 2/3, 3/3 to your header, or something along those lines). This makes it easier for me to organize them in the fill list.

Okay, I think that's it! Be nice, be cool, be awesome. Watch out for loudly barking dogs and angry Ukrainian girls with assault rifles. They are more common than you might think! Mr. N is taking egg orders, so feel free to leave those, too.

Have fun!

FILLS:

there'll be sun, sun, sun | blevins | walid/caleb: anything
laechisism | kaldurahms | jade: anything from the dictionary of obscure sorrows
bedsprings | spatjewels | ike/jade: the one perk to having Gribbs give him weird drugs and then beat the shit out of him is how much Jade freaks out about it (and takes it upon herself to go all first aid on him)
clumsy | claryfrayed | casey/hunter: "Scientists divide my body into systems, cardiovascular, circulatory, respiratory, but when you are in my presence, it all becomes nervous."
i would give my life to be (human) | blevins | zoe: dying really, really sucks
today is gonna be the day | blevins | hannah/esi: anyway here's wonderwall
No Angels | vegafalling | ike/jade: you were a nice cup of tea... until you burned my tongue like the asshole motherfucker you are.
moments from the life of friends | anonymous | casey&jade: something happy based on mindy kaling's best friend rights and responsibilities
if only just once | yllawtsew | casey/hunter: we should just kiss like real people do
this is real | claryfrayed | ike/jade: so you were never a saint, and i loved in shades of wrong
stages of grief | spatjewels | the glories: ike stumbles back from his meeting with gribbs yelling "ZOE IS ALIVE" and they have to decide what to make of this
a time to be alive | spatjewels | jade/jun: i can't get you off my mind since then
my lips were much too shy | vegafalling | walid/caleb: two mattresses
but if you close your eyes (does it almost feel like nothing changed at all) | blevins | fortunato: fortunato gets a hug
tending to grace | anonymous | casey/jade: for a girl of flames, you would burn the sky – what will you do when she drowns?
watery tarts | darrkvengeance | pamela and irina: anything
just for a moment | yllawtsew | casey/hunter: "i love you." "no, you don't. but thanks for saying it."
nodus tollens | anonymous | casey: anything from the dictionary of obscure sorrows
compare and contrast | lassos | ian: simon family reunion (consisting solely of ian simon) (every one of him)
rigor samsa | yllawtsew | casey: anything from the dictionary of obscure sorrows
air i can't breathe | kaldurahms | hunter: you are not who you think you are
never find the words to say | kaldurahms | ian/akiko: a sacrifice is always demanded
nothing to do, nothing to lose | anonymous | jade: now we're just feeding the fever

24. siesta's over. | morning glories ficathon, round 3

2014-02-07T20:03:36Z

previous ficathons: i. for a better future, ii. all will be free

Where have you been, my friend?
Prison, Andres – didn't you hear?

Happy 2014, friends! Time for another Morning Glories ficathon to ring in the new year (a month late, shhh, shhhhhhh), since 2013's were lots of fun and filled with suffering (a MG staple) and this might as well be a tradition by now, whatever, whatever. BET YOU THOUGHT YOU'D SEEN THE LAST OF US, but now we're here to kick in the door to your AV Club, sprawl out on the couch, and name your super secret stealth newspaper! Top that!

For those of you who are poking your heads in for the first time – and we welcome you; we welcome everybody! – I'll run through the ol' rulebook. Don't worry – if you forget to follow any of these, we will not punish you by locking you in a dark cell and gouging your eyes out. We are much more lenient than the Morning Glory Academy staff, although Harry and Barry do work part-time security here, so. Here's how these things work!

Leave a comment with a prompt in it! Respond to a prompt with a fill (that is, fic)! That's literally it; it is very easy. Leave a prompt and somebody might fill it; see a prompt you like and fill it yourself; sit back as a bystander and watch the fics come in; whatever you want to do! If you're leaving a fill, reply to the comment with the prompt in it. If you're leaving a prompt, post a new comment down below. It's easy-peasy! (In Pamela terms.)

Anonymous commenting is enabled and screening is disabled, so anyone can comment, anytime. Keep in mind, please, that if you respond to a comment with an exterior link, it will screen automatically; I have no control over this. If this happens, I will have to manually unscreen it, and LiveJournal does not notify me of this, but I check pretty regularly to see if there are any comments that need my approval. If I take too long to do this, just send me a direct message or contact me on Tumblr. This is only if your comment contains a link, though! Otherwise, you are fine.

Leave as many prompts as you want, but try not to get spammy up in here.

Multiple fills for prompts are absolutely fine! Don't worry about it if someone has already filled a prompt that inspired you – you can fill it, too.

Don't be a jerkwad, butthead, or any variation thereof. Don't be an Ike.

When you leave prompts, if you can, try to make sure they fit the following format, for the sake of organization

character/pairing | prompt

When you leave a fill, put some version of this at the top of your comment:

title | rating | number of parts (if applicable – LiveJournal comments have character limits, so if your whole fic exceeds one comment, just put (1/2) and (2/2) respectively for each part. oh god I hope that makes sense)

If you don't want to post your fill in comments, or if it's too long to bother, feel free to post it elsewhere – your own LiveJournal, AO3, Tumblr, whatever – and just link to it when you reply to the prompt comment. If you do post your fill in parts, just reply multiple times to the prompt comment.

Be nice, be cool, be awesome. There's no time limit on this; it'll keep going until people stop. Watch out for snakes. And goats. And David. Watch Dark City. All that jazz.

Have fun!

FILLS:

onism | yllawtsew | casey: anything from the dictionary of obscure sorrows
morning will come | blevins | casey/hunter: i can't make you love me if you don't; you can't make your heart feel something it won't
it's bad luck to see the bride | anonymous | jade/ike: don't walk away and turn and say you love me anyway; i don't wanna see you till our wedding day
your rails could always outrun mine | spatjewels | vanessa/irina: "she was beautiful, but she was beautiful in the way a forest fire was beautiful: something to be admired from a distance, not up close."
you can keep these streets of yours | blevins | casey/zoe: superhero AU
oh mother tell your children not to do what i have done | blevins | zoe: this isn't control
these are the tattered things | spatjewels | akiko/ian: "i'm sorry. i didn't know what i was doing."
cutting down the family tree | spatjewels | jun: he knows the subtle signs this body isn't his
the words thoughts | yllawtsew | casey/hunter: they only know how to talk, never what to say
not a gentleman, thank goodness, but a gentle man | vegafalling | clarkson/tom: i don't know what drew me to you, but here i am (or why she started dating tom)
i'll see you all this coming fall | blevins | jade/ike: normal AU where Ike's parents hit their boiling point so they ship him out to the boonies
la gaudière | yllawtsew | jade/ike: anything from the dictionary of obscure sorrows
flames licking at her heels | anonymous | jade: dragons breathing fire in the backyard at night
so much is overrated; this, too | amioneofthem | jade: dying is an art, like everything else. i do it exceptionally well. i do it so it feels like hell. i do it so it feels real.
i'll be your rock | yllawtsew | casey/hunter: maybe you were the ocean and i was just a stone
what a useless word 'subtle' is | amioneofthem | jade/ike: valentine's day
apotheosis | moannas | ike: you can be your own god if you want to
miss the sun | kaldurahms | ian/akiko: "you should go and see her. she needs you."
with great power comes great amounts of puking | amioneofthem | hunter: time in dreams is frozen. you can never get away from where you've been.
night time | anonymous | casey/hunter: you've got a face for a smile, you know

23. 2013: a year in fic

2014-01-02T07:48:06Z

Read 2012's here.

Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you'd predicted?

Honestly, if I thought I got a lot done in 2012, 2013 blew it all out of the water. In February, I wrote 12k of Wally/Artemis kisses and thought that I could mark that as my my most exhaustive endeavor of the year already, but then I started The Next Great Adventure – probably my greatest fic accomplishment of this year and also of my life – in March, and when I finished it in June, it had grown to 107,576 words (according to AO3). And then, like, two months after that, I finished my Big Bang fic, which was 72k, and then in one weekend I wrote a 21.5k Morning Glories AU, and then in December I cranked out 11k of a Teen Wolf fic. I haven't had a single lull in activity, I don't think – this year has just been a constant stream of work, work, work, and I've loved every second of it, and then suddenly it all petered out at the end and I'm still struggling to bring it back. I might have overdone it, haha.

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January?

TEEN WOLF!!! Oh my GOD, if you had told me in January that I'd be writing fic of Teen Wolf before the year was out, I'd have laughed in your face until I'd gone blue.

What's your own favorite story of the year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest?

God, this is hard. For the first time, I feel like nearly everything I've put out this year has been something I'm proud to share. TNGA is obviously my first answer, because I'm so happy that I managed to finish something of that scale and see it be so well-received by the fandom, but... I am really, wicked proud of i will kindle a fire in the wall. I feel like that's some of the best writing I've ever done. There's not a single word I'd change. And that's a little crazy for me, because all attempts I'd made at character studies prior to that had ended in total failure, but that one just came out exactly like I wanted it to.

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?

I mean, outside of writing fic, I took a nonfiction writing class this semester, which I'd never done before, because I'd always held this kind of juvenile and ignorant derision for writing of the nonfiction persuasion and wanted nothing to do with it, particularly writing it myself. But it made me learn a lot about how to write human beings and how to write life and make it convincing and universal and I like to think I walked away with some worthwhile there.
In terms of fic, though... huh. When I first read through what had been released so far of Morning Glories over the summer, I thought to myself, "I am never, ever going to write for this; this shit is WAY too complicated and I am in no way smart enough to try my hand at it." Lo and behold, I ignored my own advice and I've written lots of MG fic since then. But probably the biggest challenge I took on that I didn't KNOW was going to be as much of a challenge as it was? My big bang fic, royally flushed. That thing was totally outrageous, and it was a stylistic nightmare, and I realize about a quarter into it that I didn't know shit about the way government actually WORKED, and oh, God, it got to the point where one night I drank a screwdriver and a half to rid myself of inhibitions and just slammed out a bunch of stuff while mildly drunk, and I'm so glad I did that, because there was a wall I needed to take down before I went any further. That thing damn near killed me, though. There was crying and hyperventilating involved. After I turned it in, I had to stay away from my laptop for like 48 hours because I was so dazed from sitting in front of it for so long.
But hey, I learned I can overcome hurdles! And I was fairly happy with how it came out (it was still a very big mess), so all was not lost.

Do you have any fanfic or profic goals for the New Year?

I failed miserably at my goals from last year, so I don't even know if I should risk making any again, but: I got an original idea that I really, REALLY want to see through (and that I'd be glad to yammer about if anyone is actually interested) so if I don't do that this year I'm going to be very disappointed in myself.
I also want to write more long AUs. And there's an MG fic that's been stewing around in my head for like two months that I really just need to sit down and write.

From my past year of writing, what was...

My Best Story:

The Next Great Adventure is such a boring answer, but it's really the truth. I feel like I hit a home run with that one. I hope I did, anyway. If we're going by more regular-length stuff, though, then i don't love you but i always will.

Story Most Underappreciated By The Universe:

I worked really, reeeeally hard on an agitation of the hands and I thought I did a pretty good job with it, but it's... not Stiles/Derek, and anything not-Stiles/Derek doesn't tend to get much notice in the Teen Wolf corner of AO3 from what I've seen. That's cool, though; I'll be honest, I could've done a little more with that one but I just didn't have the time.
I'm also pretty sure that only four or five people have actually read children of the wild ones.

Most Fun:

all the world's a stage and our cities never sleep, no contest. Writing both of those things was a scream.

Most Disappointing:

I had a lot of plans for promises, swear them to the sky and just... dropped the ball on every single one of them. And it's about twice as awful because that was a birthday present for a friend of mine. Oops.

Most Sexy:

I ACTUALLY HAVE SOMETHING I CAN RESPOND WITH THIS TIME, WHOA. I wrote part four of we are the sparks that never fade in a notebook during class and I'm pretty sure the guy sitting next to me was reading it, because he kept craning his neck over, and if how red his face suddenly got is any indicator, I think I done did good.

Hardest To Write:

Doing they shall run and not be weary completely exhausted me solely on an emotional level, and I had a damn hard time getting some of it out; that one was just a total drag. And I'm pretty sure you're my sweetheart took about six tries.

Most Unintentionally Telling:

It's actually really no mystery at all why they shall run and not be weary was such a struggle for me, since it was about the most viscerally personal fic I've ever written. Nearly all of the events that transpired within it concerning the actual cancer were drawn from, if not direct duplicates of, my own experiences with my dad's illness and subsequent death. I remember reading issue 19 of Morning Glories for the first time and having to take a break because of how hard I was crying, because of how relatable it was and how much I understood it all and how familiar it was, because of how well I suddenly felt like I understood Hunter when he went to visit his mom's grave. Damn.
That paragraph toward the end about how he wrote his mom the card? That's literally something that happened to me, except I wrote the card for my dad, but that's the only difference.

Choice Lines:

He is not always there in that cave with her – he has classes, he has curfews. But when he is, Irina forgets the mingling stench of flowers and blood; Irina forgets the glass burrowing itself in her spine as that monster threw her from the window. Irina forgets how easily her body can bend and break, just as she had for many years before sprinting into that greenhouse, for her body seems at times to be made of marble when the pads of Fortunato’s digits skirt across her elbow when he thinks she is asleep. Her body seems to be infinite and whole, even if it is only the hairs on her head that he will ever touch.
— crepusculascens

In loving memory, the tombstone says, and you feel like you haven’t sobbed this hard, in such sloppy and noisy howls that heave out of you for far too long, since you were an infant wailing at the new bright coldness of the world, only calmed when she took you into her exhausted arms, red hair stuck to her face and cheeks round with her triumphant smile, and whispered, “You’re okay, little guy. Mommy’s got you now.”
— they shall run and not be weary

You haven't seen Jimmy cry in years, but damn if he doesn't let it loose when he sees that book burning in your wastebasket. He goes from gripping you at the shoulders and shaking you and shouting that you gotta stop all of this to crushing you into an embrace and sobbing into your hair, and suddenly you're both little kids again, scared of copperheads and the cracks in the walls that look like they move at night. You fist your fingers into your big brother's shirt and scream that you just want your mama, you want your mama, you'll never want anything else as long as you live if you can just get her back.
— i will kindle a fire in the wall

You don’t know what to do, how to respond, so you just stay the way you are, cradling her awkwardly, willing your arms not to scoop her closer until her face is nestled against the crook of your neck. Delirium sifts behind the glassy blue of her eyes, and her eyebrows are upturned distraughtly, but after a moment, clarity sharpens in the farthest caverns of her gaze and she focuses on you, dead-on.
“I remember you,” she murmurs, sounding surprised. Something tickles the skin over your jaw and makes your skin shiver, and you realize that she’s touching you, examining you. The cylinder hums steadily behind the both of you, refracting eerie light onto her arms. “I… I remember you.”
— i don't love you but i always will

There is nothing typical or expected about this, she thinks, but it feels so right that she could do it until she no longer knew how. Stiles’s hands snake up to rest at the small of her back, and she grazes her lips against the hollow of his throat, knowing how easy it would be to kill him now if she were a wolf, if she were a hunter, but maybe that is what has made her want to bind herself to Stiles at the skin since the new school year had started: he is so vulnerably human, just like her; so fragile and trusting are they, by nature, and no amount of senseless screams that tear themselves from her in the middle of the night will change this – this frail beating of his frenzied pulse against her tongue.
— an agitation of the hands

And maybe they fall asleep like that, bundled and curled in on themselves, her head nestled against the dip of his collarbone and his arm slung at her hip, and maybe these are the mornings when they’ll wake up and not jump apart, because they’ve been living together, here, for three of those six months, after Jeff had shown up at the door of her apartment with, like, six suitcases full of hipster crap and his PS3 and his mint collection of Spider-Man comics and had written it off as him “being in town.”
— can't steal happiness

The déjà vu builds itself around her rapidly: they’re kids again, battle-lust bursting from their joints, clumsy kisses and matching bloody noses, fiercely tangling their fingers with each other’s when the sun goes down. Wally, a few new freckles and joyful eyes, beams and links his hands together, and when she steps onto them and vaults herself into the air with his boost, somersaulting through nothing and holding her breath with her arms spread wide, it’s the first time that connecting her foot with something on the downward plunge has been the last thing on her mind.
— The Next Great Adventure

21. for auld lang syne | young justice commentfic-athon

2014-01-01T04:00:44Z

Congratulations, Team.
You have won the day.

In the spirit of the New Year and what it means for the Young Justice canon, how does an impromptu ficathon sound? It's been a while, fandom's a little sleepy, but if you feel like sticking your head back into the world of YJ again, here's a spot to do it in.

If this is your first time venturing into the world of comment ficathons, you can look at some of the older ones I've hosted as examples: Bam, boom.

Keep in mind the usual guidelines: your prompts and fills can be any rating, any pairing, anything you like, as long as characters from the 2011 Young Justice cartoon feature centrally. Fills can be any length, but if they're super long, it might be easier to post them to your own journals or to AO3 and just link to them in your reply to the OP's prompt comment. Keep in mind that LJ sometimes screens comments with links in them, so it might take a while for me to notice that it's there and approve it, but just be patient and it'll go through! Please don't try to post the same comment link multiple times if it gets screened; just send me a private message to give me a heads-up.

Anonymous commenting is enabled, so you can prompt anonymously to your heart's content, since I know not everyone has an LJ account.

Multiple fills for prompts are absolutely allowed. You can also leave as many prompts as you want; there is no limit. Obviously spamming is uncool so please avoid that, but there are no hardcore restrictions.

Don't be a bummer or a jerk! This one's obvious; I trust you guys.

When you prompt, click "POST NEW COMMENT" at the bottom of this entry and make sure it adheres at least loosely to this format, for clarity's and tidiness' sakes:

character/pairing | prompt

When you fill, make sure to pop this header on there for those very same sakes:

title | rating | number of parts (if applicable – livejournal has a character limit on comments so if you have to post your fic in parts, try to number them appropriately)

This can go on for as long as you guys want; there's no time limit.

Have fun!

19. the great yuletide rec post of 2013

2013-12-29T21:25:09Z

Ah yes, Yuletide recs!!! I come bearing many! I've alphabetized them by fandom. So many great fics, wow, wow. And I hate to pick favorites, but really, REALLY, aside from the one that was written for me for Super 8, the Hark! A Vagrant fic is... a revelation.

15 recs, 15 fandoms.

A

The Feline Specialist (1775 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Alien (1979)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Relationships: Jones the Cat/Ellen Ripley
Characters: Jones (Alien), Ellen Ripley (Alien)
Additional Tags: POV Jones, Rewrite, Yuletide 2013, Yuletide Treat, The Cat is the protagonist
Summary: Jones was born a ship cat, it was his duty to hunt down vermin on the Nostromo, this time was no different.

B

Monday Morning Mirror (1584 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: The Breakfast Club (1985)
Rating: General Audiences
Relationships: John Bender/Claire Standish, Andrew Clark/Allison Reynolds
Characters: Allison Reynolds, Andrew Clark, John Bender, Claire Standish, Brian Johnson, Carl
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, POV Outsider, POV First Person, High School
Summary: It's Monday morning and no longer Saturday. Saturday changed everything, but what about Monday?
Carl watches the Breakfast Club return to school.

Bribery Will Get You Everywhere (2941 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Rating: General Audiences
Relationships: Jake Peralta/Amy Santiago
Characters: Jake Peralta, Amy Santiago, Rosa Diaz
Additional Tags: Christmas, Kissing, Meet the Family, Fake/Pretend Relationship, sort of
Summary: Jake gets bribed into visiting Santiago's family for Christmas. It's not bad, but don't tell anyone that.

C

Hello Operator, Please Give Me Number Nine (3066 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Calvin & Hobbes
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Characters: Susie Derkins, Death - Character
Additional Tags: Nerdiness, Deus Ex Machina, Calvinball, Ingmar Bergman references, This is creepier than I intended it to be, Death as a character
Summary: The lesson here, Susie thinks, is that tricking Death is tricky business. How do you outwit the personification of oblivion? Chess, obviously, won’t be the answer.
Or: Susie plays Calvinball with Death.

flowers start to bloom in every different hue (1833 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Coraline (2009)
Rating: Not Rated
Relationships: Coraline Jones/Wybourne Lovat
Characters: Coraline Jones, Wybourne "Wybie" Lovat
Summary: Coraline grows up, gets a tattoo, and falls in love. In that order.

The Body's Memory (2198 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Cowboy Bebop
Rating: General Audiences
Characters: Ed (Cowboy Bebop), Faye Valentine, Spike Spiegel, Jet Black
Summary: There were two parts: the life before and the life after.

D

Four Things that Weren't Adequately Covered in Mulan's R.A. Training (4541 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Disney Princesses
Rating: General Audiences
Characters: Fa Mulan, Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), Snow White (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 1937), Ariel (The Little Mermaid), Tiana (Princess and the Frog), Rapunzel (Tangled), Belle (Beauty and the Beast 1991), Merida (Brave), Cinderella (Cinderella 1950), Jasmine (Aladdin)
Summary: Mulan is a Resident Assistant on a dormitory floor at a college. Gosh, some of the students on her floor come from really screwed-up families.

F

Between Spaces (1021 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Friends
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Characters: Phoebe Buffay, Rachel Green, Monica Geller
Summary: Yarn, scrambled eggs, and an absence of snowballs. Rachel Green learns about being a grown-up.
Set during the first season of Friends.

H

An Analysis of the Implicit Rules of Expletive Infixation (Or, Where the Fuck do You Put the Fucking Fuck?) (7944 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Hark! A Vagrant
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Characters: Vanessa, Mystery Solving Teens
Additional Tags: Explicit Language, humorous references to suicide, Bad Puns
Summary: In which Vanessa and the Mystery Solving Teens Uncover a Dastardly Plot, Participate in Civic Life, Stake Out a Villain's Headquarters, Lie to a Small Child, and Ramble through Nature Au Naturel.
Or, How Vanessa Dragged the Mystery Solving Teens Toward Graduation while Committing Aggravated Assault on the Rules of English Grammar.

L

Thighs (3139 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Love Actually (2003)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Relationships: David/Natalie (Love Actually)
Characters: David (Love Actually), Natalie (Love Actually)
Summary: The position of Prime Ministerial Consort is not an official one. But there are expectations nonetheless.

M

From Life (2944 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Majo no Takkyuubin | Kiki's Delivery Service
Rating: General Audiences
Characters: Kiki, Ursula, Osono
Additional Tags: Misses Clause Challenge, Yuletide Treat, Female Friendship, Slice of Life, Post-Film
Summary: Ursula celebrates the holiday season downtown.

P

Stand In The Place Where You Live (6261 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Parks and Recreation
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Relationships: Leslie Knope/Ben Wyatt, Andy Dwyer/April Ludgate
Characters: Leslie Knope, April Ludgate, Ben Wyatt, Ron Swanson, Ann Perkins, Tom Haverford, Jennifer Barkley, Andy Dwyer
Additional Tags: Elections, American Politics, Climate Change
Summary: Snapshots from the Knope presidential campaign.

Flotsam (2468 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Psycho (1960)
Rating: General Audiences
Characters: Lila Crane
Summary: Lila goes on in the aftermath of Norman Bates.

S

As Long As There Are Dreams (3186 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Secret of Kells (2009)
Rating: Not Rated
Characters: Aisling (Secret of Kells), Original Characters
Additional Tags: Ireland, Anthology Piece, Orphans, Celtic Mythology & Folklore, Yuletide 2013
Summary: Aisling flits in and out of the lives of children throughout Irish history.

remember, tonight we're gonna run til dawn (2497 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Super 8 (2011)
Rating: General Audiences
Relationships: Alice Dainard/Joe Lamb
Characters: Joe Lamb, Alice Dainard, Charles, Cary (Super 8), Martin
Summary: The kids get out of town and take a little roadtrip to Cleveland.

20. let the retrospective memeing begin

2013-12-26T16:46:33Z

First lines of first posts of 2013 (shamelessly ganked from redbrunja; I also might have lines from Tumblr posts where needed since I barely used this thing at the beginning of the year)

January: I wrote a lot more fic this year than I've ever written in my life.

February: there are three or four of you that i talk about irl so much that my boyfriend asks how you are doing

March: In less than 24 hours, Young Justice: Invasion comes to a close.

April: i had some wax from an old candle lying around and my boyfriend was in my room and i said “i’ve got some chunks of ass do you want one” (#i meant wax)

May: (I'm going to try numbering my entries now, because at least that way I'll be spared coming up with titles for stuff.)

June: i had the most hilarious dream last night

July:

August: ok so i have a lot of messages to answer!!

September: So I'm in France.

October: Dearest, most treasured Yuletide writer...

November: Oh hey look, it's Brella hosting another ficathon, surprising no one!

December: Okay, so, suddenly, out of LITERAL NOWHERE, I'm down to my last six days in France??????

15. just hear those sleigh bells jingling

2013-12-07T16:33:11Z

holiday love meme 2013
my thread here

14. all will be free | morning glories commentfic-athon, redux

2013-12-06T22:17:59Z

There is no end to this game, Ian.
This game is all there is.

About a month ago, I decided to try hosting a Morning Glories ficathon and it went over way better than I had thought! It was a total blast and I think we had over forty fills? And a few people have asked me since then if I was going to have another one anytime soon, and since it's December and December is a month for GIVING and HAVING FUN (as much fun as can be had when there's a 99% chance your favorite character is going to die or be brutally mutilated, I mean statistically speaking, canon-wise), I thought now was the time to do it again!

I hope you'll forgive me copy-pasting all the technical info from the last one; it's the week before finals; I'm entitled to be a lazy ass, I think.

You all know the drill, I'm sure. Comment with a prompt and wait to see it filled! See a prompt you like and fill that sucker! Any pairing, any characters, as long as they are from the Morning Glories series (duh, doy). Fills can be any rating, any length. Go nuts.

Anonymous commenting is enabled and screening is disabled, so you can prompt anonymously to your heart's content, since I know not everyone has an LJ account.

Multiple fills for prompts are absolutely allowed. You can also leave as many prompts as you want; there is no limit. Obviously spamming is uncool so please avoid that, but there are no hardcore restrictions.

Don't be a jerkwad! We are here to have fun and probably destroy our favorite characters; show some compassion!

When you prompt, make sure it adheres at least loosely to this format, for clarity's and tidiness' sakes:

character/pairing | prompt

When you fill, make sure to pop this header on there for those very same sakes:

title | rating | number of parts (if applicable – livejournal has a character limit on comments so if you have to post your fic in parts, try to number them appropriately)

If you don't want to post your fill in comments, or if it's generally just too long to bother, then you can just reply to the prompt with a link to an external site where you posted it, like your journal or AO3. Whatever works for you!

If you are writing a fill in parts, please reply to each part with the next one, instead of replying to the original comment. This makes it easier to link to the fills on the masterlist! So let's say you reply to a prompt comment with part one of a fill – for part two, you reply to your own comment that has part one, instead of replying to the OP. Does that make sense? Probably not.

Other than that... I dunno, pray a lot if things get bad? I mean, Fortunato always lived by that, and look where it got him. Comfortable and PERFECTLY FINE, HAHA, HE'S FINE!!!

Be nice, be cool, be awesome. There's no time limit on this, either; you may prompt and fill indefinitely. Let's try to keep this up for all of December if we can! Party, party! (Deck the halls with boughs of OH GOD EVISCERATED STUDENTS, falalalala, la la la la.)

Have fun!

FILLS:

mimeomia | kaldurahms | jade, anything from "the dictionary of obscure sorrows"
rigor samsa | moannas | zoe, anything from "the dictionary of obscure sorrows"
my future isn't bright | blooming_cosmo | the glories, everyone manages to get out of the academy, only to realize that they have no idea how to go back to their old lives
they say home is where your heart is set in stone | kaldurahms | hisao/guillaume, we used to play outside when we were young and full of life and full of love
stunner | blooming_cosmo | casey/hunter, there you go, you paralyze me, and i don't know why
and we'll close the town in a whirl | blevins | ike/jade, country girl in the big city
untitled | yllawtsew | casey/hunter, there you go, you paralyze me, and i don't know why
in the stillness of remembering what you had | kaldurahms | casey/hunter, "i must have loved you a lot." "you did."
an eye for an eye | blooming_cosmo | irina/fortunato, in which fortunato re-learns irina's face and body without his eyes to aid him
i'll give you a whole field of flowers | blooming_cosmo | casey/hunter, something cute
sappy clichés | spatjewels | andres/hannah, "you know that romantic crap won't work on me, right?"
aria, ad agio | blevins | casey/hunter, your fingerprints are all over who i am now.