starfishstar

Dear Yule Goat! Thank you for writing for me. :-)

General notes: I’m starfishstar on AO3, DW and LJ. I’m easy to please! If you write a story about any of these characters, out of love for these characters, I’m going to be delighted with it. :-)

DNW: major character death; graphic violence; smut/PWP

Likes: A focus on character interactions, be that friendship or romance or family. Found family dynamics. Humor and banter. UST (all the UST) as long as it resolves by the end. Happy or hopeful endings (angst and complexity are fine – I like stories that are realistic! – but I do look for for at least a degree of hope).

FANDOMS:

Seraphina Series - Rachel Hartman

Seraphina – and Rachel Hartman – is an all-time favorite of mine. I appreciate so very much the empathy with which Rachel Hartman writes her characters. And oh, how I love these characters! (And this world! Oh, Rachel Hartman’s worldbuilding!) I’ve requested “any” characters, and I am indeed happy to follow you wherever you’d like to explore in this world. Here are some suggestions, if you’d like prompts. :-)

* Orma! It was requesting – and receiving – Seraphina fic a couple Yuletides ago that reminded me just how much I love these characters – in particular Orma and the awkward, dragon-ish, and yet ultimately very loving bond between him and Seraphina. They don’t always understand each other, but he really looks out for her. (And you get the sense that throughout her childhood he was often the *only* one looking out for her, which is heartbreaking.) One of my favorite lines ever is this:

“Orma moved a pile of books off a stool for me but seated himself directly on another stack. This habit of his never ceased to amuse me. Dragons no longer hoarded gold; Comonot's reforms had outlawed it. For Orma and his generation, knowledge was treasure. As dragons through the ages had done, he gathered it, then he sat on it.” :D I love that image, Orma the dragon atop his hoard of…knowledge.

So: Orma and Seraphina in her childhood, Orma and Seraphina during the events of the books, Orma post-memory pearl…?

* Seraphina/Kiggs/Glisselda post-Shadow Scale – I’m not really looking for anything explicit here; rather, I’m endlessly curious about the dynamics of this relationship, what kind of day-to-day life the three of them build for themselves and how their triad works. Do the ways they have to play pretend in public take a toll? When they get precious moments just to be themselves, what is that like? Come to think of it, this needn’t necessarily be shipping fic – just give me Seraphina & Kiggs & Glisselda bantering together in the behind-the-scenes of running a kingdom.

* Tess! Truly anything about Tess. I love Tess so much. Tess and Seraphina finding rapprochement. For that matter, Tess and Jeanne finding rapprochement! Tess out there having adventures on the road (or sea!). Tess and Pathka friendship fic. All things Tess. <3

Call Me By Your Name (2017)

Ah, yes, another fandom I can never hope to be objective or sensible about! I love the world of this movie forever. (Does it give you a sense if I say that I watch hardly any movies at all, but I watched this one three times?) I love the sensibility of it, the way everything in this summer is steeped with longing; how the days are endless and lazy and drenched in sun, yet at the same time there’s this undercurrent of urgency at how fleeting this idyll is.

Tell me absolutely any story of Elio/Oliver. During that summer, the longing before they confess their feelings, the stolen moments once they’ve come together, the bittersweetness as the summer rushes to its close; or give me the story of after – do they stay together? do they find each other again 20 years later? or something in between? The only thing I ask is that any headcanons from “Find Me” be left out of it. Consider yourself unbound by that particular headcanon, and free to explore any headcanon of your own. :-) (The movie after all, unlike the book, leaves it open – we don’t know what happens next after that Chanukah-time phone call.)

Additional suggestions:

* Annella! I’ve nominated her as well, because I love her so much. She’s such an understated character, beautifully portrayed by Amira Casar. She’s so wise, clearly knowing a lot more than she lets on about what’s going on with her son. She hangs back, letting him figure things out for himself, but she’s also there when he needs a shoulder to cry on (literally). Elio’s father gets the most notice because of that show-stopping speech at the end (and Elio’s father IS incredible!) but I’d like to turn that attention on Annella as well. Annella and Elio? Annella and Oliver? Or even Annella and Sammy discussing Elio and Oliver? I’m happy to read about any combination of these characters! I didn’t happen to nominate Elio’s father this time, but he’s marvelous too. I love them all, and would be happy to read about all/any of them.

* Judaism! I’m Jewish (culturally, not observant), and I’ve found it very moving to have found myself a Jewish-character fandom. So if Judaism is something you’re familiar with and/or can write with cultural sensitivity, I am hungry for Jewish content for Elio and Oliver – celebrating holidays together? sharing favorite family foods? discovering unexpected differences between the traditions they grew up with (Oliver in the US, Elio in Italy)? musing on the bond between them and the ways that shared identity may have contributed to it, à la Elio starting to wear his Star of David necklace because that feels like a connection to Oliver?

Fandom-specific DNW: Plot points/characters from “Find Me”; treating female characters dismissively (i.e., please either don’t include Marzia in the fic at all, or let her be a fully developed character in her own right).

John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme

Eee! John Finnemore, my delight! I often describe John Finnemore as my favorite writer. I don’t even seek out comedy, usually (I enjoy it, it just doesn’t often occur to me to seek it out) but I am a devotee of all things John Finnemore. I’m astounded over and over by the workings of his brilliant brain. Which doesn’t really help you know what to write for this fandom, I suppose! But it’s just to say: absolutely any corner of this sprawling world of almost entirely unconnected sketches that you want to play in, I will delight in it.

Finnemore | The Storyteller is the only character who was nominated this time around, and I am certainly *more* than happy with a Finnemorean tall tale! (A couple years ago in Yuletide we had a bumper crop of three “Since You Ask Me”s at once, and it was marvelous!) I love the virtuosic wordplay and unrepentant silliness of Since You Ask Me. Go wild!

But please feel equally free to write about absolutely any other character or sketch, not just Finnemore. I deliberately didn’t nominate or request any specific characters, because part of the fun to me is finding out what *other* fans have as favorites! In case it’s edifying, here’s an incredibly abbreviated and criminally incomplete list of some favorites of mine:

– The Goldfish and King Neptune
– Before You're Thirty (Be kind, have fun)
– Captain Dinosaur song
– JFSP Accidentally
– Towels (‘Towels on the bed mean Sleepy Towels’)
– Horse Box
– A History of Choice
– No Further Questions
– Pet Tips
– Animal Designers Crisis
– New Friend (sniffer dog)
– The Interview Sketch - Ice Cream Van Painter
– Will The Train Manager Contact The Driver + Train Delay
– Belgium
– New Player Tutorial
– Voice in My Head
– Russian Revolution by Email
– Animal Interviews
– Three Guards (Tiger with a gun)
– Since You Ask Me’s such as: Denouement Parlour, Ghost Story (Eagling), Spies (A mole in the zoo), Proposal, Family Curse (Wim-Bim-King-Sim-Sham), Murder Mystery (Turbot Bacardi), Train Adventure ('You are Uncles by trade?'), Crossing the Atlantic (Mr. Floofywhiskers), Ghost Story (Jacket pocket jacket pocket), Mysterious Trapdoor, etc. etc. etc.
– John-the-character musing about things that John-the-writer has clearly also found himself thinking about, e.g., how to tell the hot-water tap from the cold-water tap

Fleabag (TV)

Another fandom I didn’t expect to fall into, but then last year’s Yuletide happened to me. ;-)

I’ve requested Fleabag, Priest, and Claire, because I’m equally interested in the Fleabag/Priest or Fleabag&Claire dynamics – but that doesn’t mean you have to write all three! (Though all three interacting could certainly be interesting…) I’m happy with any combination. In fact, if you want to delve into other relationships in Fleabag’s life (Fleabag & Boo?), I’m down with that, too.

Like approximately everyone on the face of the planet, yes, I ship Fleabag/Priest. ;-) That said, I’d like to keep it more or less canonical, if that makes sense? i.e., I’d love to read a fic where they eventually find their way back to each other, but it should involve realistic grappling with the significant(!) hurdles that stand in the way of that, not just handwaving any of it away. And I’m also okay with a fic where they don’t end up together, as long as it’s a happy/hopeful ending – much like how the ending of the show itself feels to me, where it’s deeply bittersweet, but also they’ve both been changed by the encounter, and there’s a sense of hope and of moving forward. I’d be very curious to see what that “moving forward” looks like for Fleabag! What is the next chapter in her life?

Or Fleabag and Claire, of course! I love their arc, across the course of the two seasons, so much. How they finally reach that place of recognizing and admitting that, as Claire says, they are the only person each of them would run through an airport for. What is Claire’s next chapter? Finland? Is she happy with her new job? Does she settle down with Klare? Does Fleabag visit her? How does Fleabag cope with Finland???

Seven Kingdoms Trilogy – Kristin Cashore

Another all-time favorite! Graceling imprinted on my mind at a formative time and as a result I will never be able to be entirely sensible about it. I love the whole series unreasonably. :-)

I’ve requested Katsa, Po, and Bitterblue, but you’re not required to write all three! I’m interested in any combination.

* Katsa/Po, having their wild, glorious, adventurous mostly-shared life, where they go their separate ways, do their separate good works, but always find their way back to each other. I’d be happy to see them on one of their do-gooder missions, or just hanging out and enjoying each other’s company.

* Katsa & Bitterblue: I love the big sister-little sister dynamic they’ve clearly developed by the time of Bitterblue. I love how much they care about each other. I love how Katsa, with all her drama and big personality, always makes time for Bitterblue. I’d love to see any amount of them interacting, Katsa helping Bitterblue with the hard work of governing, any of that.

* Po & Bitterblue: I also adore the close bond these two have, and how much Po looks out for his little cousin. I recently reread Bitterblue, though, and I was a little disconcerted by how much Bitterblue demands of Po in the book – he’s injured and juggling a million things, yet she’s constantly summoning him to fix every one of her problems… I don’t think Cashore intended it to be that unbalanced, but it rubbed me a bit the wrong way. So I’d love to see Bitterblue and Po interacting, working on or solving something together, but a bit more as partners rather than Bitterblue relying on Po’s Grace for everything. That could be part of the story, in fact: What would it take for Bitterblue, who’s always looked up to this glorious, talented, Graced older cousin of hers, to start finding equal footing with Po as friends and colleagues?

* Katsa & Po & Bitterblue: The same could be interesting here… We see in Bitterblue that Bitterblue adores and idolizes both of them, but also sometimes feels left out of the intensity that is Katsa-and-Po. What would it take to move the three of them towards equals and friends, rather than only big sibling-little sibling dynamics? Maybe on a mission for the council or having to work together to solve some problem in Bitterblue’s kingdom?

But again, don’t feel you have to include all three of them; and equally, feel free to include others! The Bitterblue & Hava bond would be fascinating to explore, as would the hints of a Bitterblue/Giddon relationship… Giddon is so different, between Graceling and then Bitterblue, that on first read I was trying to decide if I even bought him as the same character. On reread, I think I do. But it would interesting to explore more of that evolution in him, how he went from the Giddon we see through Katsa, to the Giddon we meet through Bitterblue.

ETA: Raffin and Bann! I can't believe I thought about Raffin and Bann, but then forgot to write them down. I would love any and all happy Raffin/Bann content. Also, Po and Giddon's friendship is pretty great. Also, Helda. Is it clear yet that I love all of them? :D

(These prompts have ended up quite Bitterblue-centric, only because that’s the book I reread most recently… In reality, I’m open to anything in this world!)