Dear Yuletide Writer:
Hello, and thank you so much for writing for me! This is my very first Yuletide & I'm still learning, so apologies if this letter isn't up to snuff. I'm super excited to be here though, so I'm about to eagerly gush in your general direction! This is definitely a monster of a post but don't take it seriously, tbh. Feel free to use any or none of this if you've got your own ideas! I'd just ask that you avoid my squicks. :)
Also of note, I'm a notorious romance goblin so if you can manage it, I'd love shippy over gen for the fandoms listed!
tropes/stuff i love: mutual pining, arranged marriages, snark/bickering! competency, fake dating turning into REAL FEELINGS, bed sharing, deus sex machina, cuddling for warmth, cyberpunky goodness, gothic horror, magical realism, codependency, power plays, slow burns, smut! y’know, all that good stuff. I also do love a good AU; I’m a big fan of the ‘missing scene’/what if this scene in canon had gone differently type deal. very okay with violence, super duper okay with violence that ends with hurt/comfort.
DNWs: first/second person pov, character bashing (unless it’s IC dialogue I guess, I acknowledge I’ve nominated some prickly faves lolol), abusive relationships, abo, unrequested endgame polyshipping (e.g. no Joi/Joe/Mariette, please!), role reversal, genderswap, mpreg, rape, incest, noncanon character death. or very unhappy endings? Angst in the thick of it is aaaall good, but I'm a sentimental softie at heart, so I'd prefer a happy or a bittersweet ending at worst. All the mentioned fandom picks end quite bleakly in canon, so indulge me. LOL it’s holiday season!
Blade Runner 2049
Officer K/Joe, Mariette
Full disclosure, I was a little put off by the original Blade Runner when I saw it. Mostly because Rick Deckard as a protag was completely unpalatable to me. Luckily, some cosmic force delivered my grievances to Denis Villeneuve's doorstep and he made BR 2049 specifically for me, fashioning Gosling's K out of the unformed hopes and dreams in my head like my own goddamn Galatea! I LOVE K SO MUCH.
I reaaaally love how Gosling plays him so subdued. K, when faced with anything beyond the confines of his job, just totally folds. He’s accommodating to a fault and extremely aware of his subservience. He’s polite when faced with Joshi’s cruelty or advances, silent as he's harassed at the station or his apartment complex, and straight up just quietly, stonily dying when Luv kisses him. He knows he was created to be a tool to be wielded by others and that’s always at the forefront of his actions. That hurts me! And I love it!
But the rarity of him actually exerting autonomy and making choices for himself is what intrigues me, ESPECIALLY in regards to Mariette. The way he acts around her just feels markedly different - their interactions aren’t manufactured and there’s no power imbalance present. It’s so subtle, but he LIKES her of his own volition? There's a great electricity to how he holds her gaze when they both meet, the subtle smiles and hand touches!!!!!! Gosling/Davis’s chemistry is amazing and the alternating barbed conversation and soft eyes and touching through the movie are so good. His mostly quiet acceptance of his fate is such a good contrast to her spitfire nature; they play off each other so well. They have a ton of appeal for me, just on this basis of mutual consent, autonomy, and real, authentic human emotion from two beings who technically aren’t!
(attempting some) possible prompts: Focusing in on their moments of intimacy, as in canon: what was the three way scene like when Joi was gone? Or otherwise: AU where K actually took up Mariette’s offer and went back to look for her! Or if K actually found out who she was and who she worked for? (And kept very close tabs on her without her knowing until later under the pretense of police work? Nice.) AU where she ended up coming with him on his mission, like a redux of Deckard/Rachel, except infinitely less gross! I’m also all about the nonverbal with these two, so honestly slow PWP with a focus on K’s budding feelings would be wonderful. Something with them bonding about their replicant memories or sharing their experiences as being used as objects? (Who else could understand his exploitation better than another replicant used for sex work?) I’d also be definitely into missing scene fic showing Mariette rescuing and patching K up after the Vegas incident. Nooot sure if I’m too into post-canon just because I loved the poetic, tragic hopefulness of that ending so much. Basically, anything within the timeline of the actual film would be great.
**Also just a minor thing but with respect to POV, IF told from either of their perspectives as opposed to 3rd person omniscient, I'd really love K's point of view? I'm v keen to see inside his headspace and how he perceives things. That vantage point is just so interesting to me!
Fantastic Four (Comicverse)
Reed Richards, Victor von Doom
Their relationship is so dang good! Isolated by intellect and finding kinship in each other! TBQH lmao it's very much comic book kitsch, but it lowkey reads to me like a dynamic you'd find at the heart of a grim folktale/gothic romance. The cold, proud nobleman/monarch wrapped up in the brave, clever protagonist who can go toe to toe with them. It’s Koschei & Marya Morevna, One Thousand And One Nights, Prince Lindworm, Jane Eyre even??? That, but it's also somehow great minds and the rift between them? Your Teslas & Edisons, Freuds (lol) & Jungs, Huxleys & Owens, etc etc.
SO, TLDR; the duality of dueling scientists and the gothic fairytale with them appeals to me! It’s pretentious and passionate and dramatic and FUN. They spar over hard science but also one of them lives in a castle and is a king who wields MAGIC and a fixation out of a Brontë novel. Honestly lol, what’s there not to love. From college and on, they've had such a fascinating relationship that's arguably helped define both their characters. I love their weirdo mutual obsession! How it’s always ‘Victor’ and rarely Doom! And how they see each other as equals first and foremost; that’s the allure of it!! That grim mirrored realization of ‘no one else understands me in the way you do.’ Good good stuff. It’s esp meaningful to me on Doom’s end, even with his ego and the colossal chip on his shoulder, it’s still Reed who he’s always singled out as his closest peer. I like the intimacy to that weird hyperfixation and the implicit familiarity & fondness borne of such a longstanding obsession. He rebukes Reed’s offers of friendship/redemption/etc, but I don’t think he’s quite that impervious to sentiment. He just...externalizes it in some strange ways, lmao. He’s bitter! But also. I think he’s always been a little fond.
(yikes, gonna be bad at this but) possible prompts if you need them: the Ben-Reed-Victor college era is so fun, so I'd love any college nerd interactions! Bonus if you capitalize on like, the situational hilarity of them being undergrads together, from five AM fire drills to winter formals. Reed's a trust fund kid from Cali and Doom's a scholarship from the Eastern European countryside, but they're both kind of outsiders; what's their mutual NY undergrad experience like? Or the AU if Reed had come with him on his journey to hell! Doom's got a canon time machine, but they’ve never actually used it together, so something time travel related could be fun. In universe, the F4 have been gone a while and Victor remains the only person who knows why, so there's so much opportunity for pining (Reed fixed his FACE I'm not over it) and/or reunions! Or a Hickman Secret Wars-era AU where Reed was consort? Extremely piney IIM-era AU ft. the Maker? Wow, AU of that Julia Stiles romcom where she's in college, being doggedly pursued by her European prince classmate? LOL this is all completely just off the top of my head, it’s totally up to you. I love them so I’ll be happy to read anything you decide.
Incredible Hulk (Comics)
Bruce Banner, Rick Jones
This is probably the long-shot fandom but honestly, I’m completely content to ramble about the canon anyway LMAO. Onwards!
I was debating whether to go with Bruce/Betty because I also adore them (!!!!!) but eventually decided to go with Bruce & Rick. BRUCE AND RICK! They're so great. That dichotomy of Bruce as this kind yet solitary scientist vs optimist Rick, driven by his bleeding, loyal heart, makes up one of my fave relationships in the Hulk books. Rick stands by him always, sometimes when no one else will! Out of love or out of guilt? It's kind of BOTH? And I kind of love it. Their senses of responsibility for one another were established so early in the comics and it really helps define both of their characters, imho. Bruce’s instinctual noble rescue moment and Rick’s immaturity immediately giving way to like, undying fealty as soon as that bond’s created. LOVE IT.
Peter David's 2015 Future Imperfect mini’s extremely depressing conclusion was literally a sad, old Rick going "This is where I have to stay. Me and him. Until the end of time." And that! IS IT. The good stuff! Rick seeing Bruce's plight as his own cross to bear forever is just CHEF KISS. Rick’s THE Marvel sidekick, but he always ends up back where he started. Bruce's resulting lifelong protectiveness of Rick is also so good. His oldest friend, truest companion, and LITERALLY one of his berserk buttons. His half of the relationship manifests itself less... bombastically? when he’s Bruce, but the tender, subtler show of affection from someone who’s so harrowed and has to keep such a tight lid on their emotions is just all the more precious, tbh. If I also had to distill this dynamic down to archetypes I love, it's like a cross between king/lionheart, monster/damsel, and the cold scientist and his plucky young sidekick, so if your fic kept in mind any of those elements in their relationship, it’d be dopeee. No pressure at all, though!
possible prompts: Something examining the texture of their relationship and how it's evolved would be really interesting, when obligation becomes choice for either of them, or when friendship becomes love! AUs here would also be fun if you're game! Maaaaybe a Breaking Bad AU? Honestly, just because the setting and the dynamic fit so perfectly. Meek scientist with a dark secret and his earnest yet naive partner evading authorities in the southwest! Frankenstein AU where for the first time, the monster IS also Frankenstein. Totally opposite end of the spectrum: Period DramaTM King Kong/Skull Island AU, where the Hulk is some ancient creature in the Savage Land? + Future Imperfect AU where Maestro and Rick Jones are actually evil marrieds! Actual normal marrieds would also be great.
Betty/Bruce/Rick OT3 stuff! (They’re in LOVE!) Maybe something that taps into the feel of the ~Southwestern Gothic aesthetic that's so pervasive in good Hulk comics, like Ewing's latest Immortal Hulk? Speaking of, Immortal Hulk AU where Bruce is haunted by Rick's ghost... also good. Considering Bruce was recently dead while Rick was alive, mutual coming-to-terms-with-his-death experiences would be excruciating and great. Bruce is canonically avoiding Rick’s GRAVE, I love PAIN.
But honestly, I'd be happy with whatever. If it were as simple as 'Rick gets kidnapped for the umpteenth time,' I’d love it.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my letter! I truly went wild with this, but don't feel pressured to include stuff from here if you don't want to. Above all, I hope you have a fun experience! Happy Yuletide!!
Also of note, I'm a notorious romance goblin so if you can manage it, I'd love shippy over gen for the fandoms listed!
tropes/stuff i love: mutual pining, arranged marriages, snark/bickering! competency, fake dating turning into REAL FEELINGS, bed sharing, deus sex machina, cuddling for warmth, cyberpunky goodness, gothic horror, magical realism, codependency, power plays, slow burns, smut! y’know, all that good stuff. I also do love a good AU; I’m a big fan of the ‘missing scene’/what if this scene in canon had gone differently type deal. very okay with violence, super duper okay with violence that ends with hurt/comfort.
DNWs: first/second person pov, character bashing (unless it’s IC dialogue I guess, I acknowledge I’ve nominated some prickly faves lolol), abusive relationships, abo, unrequested endgame polyshipping (e.g. no Joi/Joe/Mariette, please!), role reversal, genderswap, mpreg, rape, incest, noncanon character death. or very unhappy endings? Angst in the thick of it is aaaall good, but I'm a sentimental softie at heart, so I'd prefer a happy or a bittersweet ending at worst. All the mentioned fandom picks end quite bleakly in canon, so indulge me. LOL it’s holiday season!
Blade Runner 2049
Officer K/Joe, Mariette
Full disclosure, I was a little put off by the original Blade Runner when I saw it. Mostly because Rick Deckard as a protag was completely unpalatable to me. Luckily, some cosmic force delivered my grievances to Denis Villeneuve's doorstep and he made BR 2049 specifically for me, fashioning Gosling's K out of the unformed hopes and dreams in my head like my own goddamn Galatea! I LOVE K SO MUCH.
I reaaaally love how Gosling plays him so subdued. K, when faced with anything beyond the confines of his job, just totally folds. He’s accommodating to a fault and extremely aware of his subservience. He’s polite when faced with Joshi’s cruelty or advances, silent as he's harassed at the station or his apartment complex, and straight up just quietly, stonily dying when Luv kisses him. He knows he was created to be a tool to be wielded by others and that’s always at the forefront of his actions. That hurts me! And I love it!
But the rarity of him actually exerting autonomy and making choices for himself is what intrigues me, ESPECIALLY in regards to Mariette. The way he acts around her just feels markedly different - their interactions aren’t manufactured and there’s no power imbalance present. It’s so subtle, but he LIKES her of his own volition? There's a great electricity to how he holds her gaze when they both meet, the subtle smiles and hand touches!!!!!! Gosling/Davis’s chemistry is amazing and the alternating barbed conversation and soft eyes and touching through the movie are so good. His mostly quiet acceptance of his fate is such a good contrast to her spitfire nature; they play off each other so well. They have a ton of appeal for me, just on this basis of mutual consent, autonomy, and real, authentic human emotion from two beings who technically aren’t!
(attempting some) possible prompts: Focusing in on their moments of intimacy, as in canon: what was the three way scene like when Joi was gone? Or otherwise: AU where K actually took up Mariette’s offer and went back to look for her! Or if K actually found out who she was and who she worked for? (And kept very close tabs on her without her knowing until later under the pretense of police work? Nice.) AU where she ended up coming with him on his mission, like a redux of Deckard/Rachel, except infinitely less gross! I’m also all about the nonverbal with these two, so honestly slow PWP with a focus on K’s budding feelings would be wonderful. Something with them bonding about their replicant memories or sharing their experiences as being used as objects? (Who else could understand his exploitation better than another replicant used for sex work?) I’d also be definitely into missing scene fic showing Mariette rescuing and patching K up after the Vegas incident. Nooot sure if I’m too into post-canon just because I loved the poetic, tragic hopefulness of that ending so much. Basically, anything within the timeline of the actual film would be great.
**Also just a minor thing but with respect to POV, IF told from either of their perspectives as opposed to 3rd person omniscient, I'd really love K's point of view? I'm v keen to see inside his headspace and how he perceives things. That vantage point is just so interesting to me!
Fantastic Four (Comicverse)
Reed Richards, Victor von Doom
Their relationship is so dang good! Isolated by intellect and finding kinship in each other! TBQH lmao it's very much comic book kitsch, but it lowkey reads to me like a dynamic you'd find at the heart of a grim folktale/gothic romance. The cold, proud nobleman/monarch wrapped up in the brave, clever protagonist who can go toe to toe with them. It’s Koschei & Marya Morevna, One Thousand And One Nights, Prince Lindworm, Jane Eyre even??? That, but it's also somehow great minds and the rift between them? Your Teslas & Edisons, Freuds (lol) & Jungs, Huxleys & Owens, etc etc.
SO, TLDR; the duality of dueling scientists and the gothic fairytale with them appeals to me! It’s pretentious and passionate and dramatic and FUN. They spar over hard science but also one of them lives in a castle and is a king who wields MAGIC and a fixation out of a Brontë novel. Honestly lol, what’s there not to love. From college and on, they've had such a fascinating relationship that's arguably helped define both their characters. I love their weirdo mutual obsession! How it’s always ‘Victor’ and rarely Doom! And how they see each other as equals first and foremost; that’s the allure of it!! That grim mirrored realization of ‘no one else understands me in the way you do.’ Good good stuff. It’s esp meaningful to me on Doom’s end, even with his ego and the colossal chip on his shoulder, it’s still Reed who he’s always singled out as his closest peer. I like the intimacy to that weird hyperfixation and the implicit familiarity & fondness borne of such a longstanding obsession. He rebukes Reed’s offers of friendship/redemption/etc, but I don’t think he’s quite that impervious to sentiment. He just...externalizes it in some strange ways, lmao. He’s bitter! But also. I think he’s always been a little fond.
(yikes, gonna be bad at this but) possible prompts if you need them: the Ben-Reed-Victor college era is so fun, so I'd love any college nerd interactions! Bonus if you capitalize on like, the situational hilarity of them being undergrads together, from five AM fire drills to winter formals. Reed's a trust fund kid from Cali and Doom's a scholarship from the Eastern European countryside, but they're both kind of outsiders; what's their mutual NY undergrad experience like? Or the AU if Reed had come with him on his journey to hell! Doom's got a canon time machine, but they’ve never actually used it together, so something time travel related could be fun. In universe, the F4 have been gone a while and Victor remains the only person who knows why, so there's so much opportunity for pining (Reed fixed his FACE I'm not over it) and/or reunions! Or a Hickman Secret Wars-era AU where Reed was consort? Extremely piney IIM-era AU ft. the Maker? Wow, AU of that Julia Stiles romcom where she's in college, being doggedly pursued by her European prince classmate? LOL this is all completely just off the top of my head, it’s totally up to you. I love them so I’ll be happy to read anything you decide.
Incredible Hulk (Comics)
Bruce Banner, Rick Jones
This is probably the long-shot fandom but honestly, I’m completely content to ramble about the canon anyway LMAO. Onwards!
I was debating whether to go with Bruce/Betty because I also adore them (!!!!!) but eventually decided to go with Bruce & Rick. BRUCE AND RICK! They're so great. That dichotomy of Bruce as this kind yet solitary scientist vs optimist Rick, driven by his bleeding, loyal heart, makes up one of my fave relationships in the Hulk books. Rick stands by him always, sometimes when no one else will! Out of love or out of guilt? It's kind of BOTH? And I kind of love it. Their senses of responsibility for one another were established so early in the comics and it really helps define both of their characters, imho. Bruce’s instinctual noble rescue moment and Rick’s immaturity immediately giving way to like, undying fealty as soon as that bond’s created. LOVE IT.
Peter David's 2015 Future Imperfect mini’s extremely depressing conclusion was literally a sad, old Rick going "This is where I have to stay. Me and him. Until the end of time." And that! IS IT. The good stuff! Rick seeing Bruce's plight as his own cross to bear forever is just CHEF KISS. Rick’s THE Marvel sidekick, but he always ends up back where he started. Bruce's resulting lifelong protectiveness of Rick is also so good. His oldest friend, truest companion, and LITERALLY one of his berserk buttons. His half of the relationship manifests itself less... bombastically? when he’s Bruce, but the tender, subtler show of affection from someone who’s so harrowed and has to keep such a tight lid on their emotions is just all the more precious, tbh. If I also had to distill this dynamic down to archetypes I love, it's like a cross between king/lionheart, monster/damsel, and the cold scientist and his plucky young sidekick, so if your fic kept in mind any of those elements in their relationship, it’d be dopeee. No pressure at all, though!
possible prompts: Something examining the texture of their relationship and how it's evolved would be really interesting, when obligation becomes choice for either of them, or when friendship becomes love! AUs here would also be fun if you're game! Maaaaybe a Breaking Bad AU? Honestly, just because the setting and the dynamic fit so perfectly. Meek scientist with a dark secret and his earnest yet naive partner evading authorities in the southwest! Frankenstein AU where for the first time, the monster IS also Frankenstein. Totally opposite end of the spectrum: Period DramaTM King Kong/Skull Island AU, where the Hulk is some ancient creature in the Savage Land? + Future Imperfect AU where Maestro and Rick Jones are actually evil marrieds! Actual normal marrieds would also be great.
Betty/Bruce/Rick OT3 stuff! (They’re in LOVE!) Maybe something that taps into the feel of the ~Southwestern Gothic aesthetic that's so pervasive in good Hulk comics, like Ewing's latest Immortal Hulk? Speaking of, Immortal Hulk AU where Bruce is haunted by Rick's ghost... also good. Considering Bruce was recently dead while Rick was alive, mutual coming-to-terms-with-his-death experiences would be excruciating and great. Bruce is canonically avoiding Rick’s GRAVE, I love PAIN.
But honestly, I'd be happy with whatever. If it were as simple as 'Rick gets kidnapped for the umpteenth time,' I’d love it.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my letter! I truly went wild with this, but don't feel pressured to include stuff from here if you don't want to. Above all, I hope you have a fun experience! Happy Yuletide!!