primeideal | Dear Yuletide Writer, 2012

Dear Yuletide author/random passerby,

There once was a reader for Yule

Who thought that these fandoms were cool.

Fic written for me

Will cause me to squee

And then in all likelihood drool!

(i.e. thank you very much for stopping by! Obviously, all of this is optional--write the fic that means something to you, and I'll appreciate it too.)

Some general things...I really like happy endings. I also am cool with sad endings, in a melodramatic "give your life to save the day" sense, as long as there's closure and things aren't totally hopeless. I don't really like ambiguous endings. Along similar lines, I'm fine with a straightforward narrative style. I also completely love cleverness/witty one-liners/great deals of snark. What I don't really like is overly pretentious, "post-earnestness" style. I'm here for joy. (Or groaning at bad puns, or melodrama...but something sincere.)

I love gen. I will be happy to read gen fic of any stripe. I'm also fine with most canon pairings (I'll have more to say on individual pairings below, depending on the fandom, if you'd like something a little shippier). I would prefer not to see any explicitly sexual content, incest, rape or non-con.

You can read my fics on ao3 (http://archiveofourown.org/users/primeideal) to get a sense of my taste. A lot of my Animorphs stuff is only available on FFN: http://www.fanfiction.net/u/956132/. Older and of mixed quality, but still says something about me, I guess. Or me of several years ago. (I've written Selenity and Jennifer T. as well but not very much so no need to hunt that down.) But all these fandoms are things I've loved for years and years, I'm a nerd of stable taste. I'm sometimes on #yuletide chat, as primeideal, if you want to stalk me there but I'm not sure how often I'll be there (too much procrastination).

ANIMORPHS

My first fanfiction love! And a series still close to my heart even though I don't write quite as much there anymore.

Request: "Anything set in this verse? I love Elfangor/Loren, whether a snippet from their life on Earth or an AU. In the main series era, Tobias and/or Ax gen is fun, or Aftran and the Yeerk Peace Movement. I like Rachel/Tobias, but if you'd rather go with some snarky Rachel/Marco that'd be great too. Rereading the series I'm struck by all the different "fronts" of the war, from the Iskoort homeworld to the cloned Hork-Bajir of book 34, so if you'd like to go AU or do some alien worldbuilding that would be fun to see."

If you're in this fandom, you might know me better as "Ember Nickel."

In terms of the tones I enjoy, "The Andalite Chronicles" and its emphasis on hope (despite some tragedy) was one of my favorites of the series. I like that mix more than the giddy, off-the-wall "btw we're in Atlantis now?" of the middle of the series, and also more than the bleak ambiguity of the end. Another thing I don't care for is inaccurate teleology, in this case waxing poetic about how such-and-so-morph was "designed" or "perfect" for speed/strength/stealth/surprise/something. But like I said, anything goes.

OUTERNET

I'm amazed someone else out there has volunteered to write this fandom, first of all. Hooray for you!

Request: "Futurefic with Jack growing into his role as the Weaver would be fun. Throw in some background (or foreground if you'd rather) Jack/Merle if you'd like but otherwise gen is wonderful. Otherwise, young Selenity? Or more about him and Tracer merging? Feel free to just do worldbuilding and make up more alien worlds, too, in the hilarious spirit of this hilarious series."

Um, yeah. The humor is really what makes this series work, so don't hold back. I'm a fan of time travel if you want to do more time paradoxes. Or if you happen to know Animorphs too, a crossover making fun of all the similarities between them would be amusing.

SUMMERLAND

Baseball and fantasy. What's not to like?

Request: "Worldbuilding--maybe footnotes from other mythological baseball games or something like that? Or a post-series look at Jennifer would be lovely, if she keeps playing baseball. Jennifer/Ethan is fine, I'd prefer no underage sex or anything like that though. Maybe a look at Rodrigo's comeback season, or Ringfinger's other scouting adventures (on any world that strikes your fancy). If baseball is not your thing, no worries! Perhaps Thor Wignutt discovers his changeling counterpart?"

Things I don't enjoy so much about this book is trying to make our universe more fantastic than it is in comparison to the Summer and Winterlands--describing the Middling as "broken and beautiful" comes off like the adults are patting me on the head. On the other hand, my favorite quote from here is "The designated hitter rule? You deserve to be in here for that," so if you're a baseball person any shout-outs to its history would be greatly enjoyed (and if not, no problem).

SCHOOLHOUSE ROCK

A childhood favorite and now a Yuletide fandom! Hurrah!

Request: "Anything at all about Little Twelvetoes' duodecimal adventures (or maybe Twelvetoes provides a similarly playful introduction to higher math)? Feel free to ignore this character request and do any other Multiplication Rock characters that strike your fancy--Figure Eight girl and her lemniscates? Or how about some interdisciplinary crossovers (at least between the first four movies, I don't know the "Money" or "Computer" videos). Are the football team from "Three Is The Magic Number" the same as the Other Team in "Interjection"? Knock yourself out!"

The lyrics (for every song) are available here: http://www.schoolhouserock.tv/index.html. You can get up to speed with Little Twelvetoes in three minutes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiUi0Bm_THY And feel free to poke around YouTube for more videos!

Um...if you want to write about Noah, no religion-bashing please? It's a silly, and also really smart, fandom, so if you're both silly and smart you can't go wrong. :D

Once again, no need to adhere to any of this--go wild, have fun, and I'm looking forward to your story! :)