niki_chidon: (yuletide_generic)
Niki ([personal profile] niki_chidon) wrote2010-11-13 04:12 pm
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Dear Yuletide Writer

Hello, Yuletide Writer!

Thank you for writing me a story:) I hope you can have fun doing it!

Optional details are optional but you can find my fandom specific requests & some general blathering behind the cuts. You can also see my last year's letter and my fan fic pet peeves post on my personal journal. Though I pretty much recycled my last year's post, so...



Wulf and Eadwacer (poem)
by anonymous
From a collection known as the Exeter Book, written down about 1000 CE

Leodum is minum swylce him mon lac gife;
willað hy hine aþecgan, gif he on þreat cymeð
Ungelic is us.

Wulf is on iege, ic on oþerre.
Fæst is þæt eglond, fenne biworpen.
Sindon wælreowe weras þær on ige;
willað hy hine aþecgan, gif he on þreat cymeð.
Ungelic is us.

Wulfes ic mines widlastum wenum dogode;
þonne hit wæs renig weder ond ic reotugu sæt,
þonne mec se beaducafa bogum bilegde,
wæs me wyn to þon, wæs me hwæþre eac lað.
Wulf, min Wulf, wena me þine
seoce gedydon, þine seldcumas,
murnende mod, nales meteliste.
Gehyrest þu, Eadwacer? Uncerne earne hwelp
bireð wulf to wuda.

Ðæt mon eaþe tosliteð þætte næfre gesomnad wæs,
uncer giedd geador.


Translation (From An Anthology of Texts, our English Department's Introduction to English Lit book)

To my people it is as if someone brought them a gift (sacrifice, battle?):
they intend to receive us, if they come in an armed band (threateningly).
(or perhaps, "they will take him in, if he should get into danger", could be a question)
We are unlike (or "it is not like that with us")

Wulf is on an island, I on another,
The island is remote, surrounded by fens.
There are cruel men there on the island:
they intend to receive us, if they come in an armed band (threateningly).
We are unlike.

I endured (thought) in hope my Wulf's wandering
when there was rainy weather, and I sat tearfully,
then the bold warrior laid his arms on me;
it was joy to me; it was also hateful.
Wulf, my Wulf, my hope of you, your seldom coming,
makes me heart-sick and sad in mind,
not starvation.
Do you hear, Eadwacer? The wolf (or Wulf) is carrying our poor whelp
off to the woods.
What was never joined is easily torn apart -
Our song together.


I just want to know who they are, what has happened, and what will happen? Is Wulf the narrator's lover or son (as some scholars believe)? Is Eadwacer "the bold warrior" and the narrator's husband? Is the narrator a woman at all?

I especially love the lines "What was never joined is easily torn apart – our song together". Breaks your heart. Is there any hope for them? (Please let there be, I'm a sucker for happy endings;)

You can keep it in the original time period or transplant it elsewhere. Or if you want, maybe transplant the frame to some other fandom! Go crazy!



Banlieue 13 (Damien/Leïto)

I just want there to be more fic in this fandom. Almost anything will do! Of course Damien/Leïto slash would be brilliant but friendship is cool too. (Just as long as there's no Leïto/Lola, please!)

I don't speak French, I've seen the original version with subtitles. You can use both films, or ignore Ultimate, what ever strikes your fancy. Or give me an AU with the boys, honestly, whatever:)



Lewis (Lewis/Hathaway)

I just want there to be more fic in this fandom! Hathaway/Lewis or Hathaway & Lewis, friendship or slash, just give me witty banter!



Miami Vice (TV) (Sonny/Rico)

I'm hungry for anything, really. The relationship between Rico and Sonny is more interesting to me than complicated crime-solving plots. I don't even really care whether the relationship is romantic or friendly because it is so intense in the canon anyway. Anything that portrays that would be lovely, no matter which direction you take it in.

Though, of course, slash would be awesome:) I love them together. More about what I love in love stories in the general notes at the end of this post.

If you go for the friendship direction, I'd prefer if you didn't go into detail about them in relationships with others. And if you go for the relationship direction, no demonising the female characters, please.

Now, some suggestions: Sonny the Father is always something precious. Sonny and Rico relaxing together after a difficult assignment is always nice. All the scenes that we don't see after the credits start rolling...

Bonus points for Elvis, and Castillo kicking ass - literally or figuratively;)



General Likes and Dislikes aka What I Look for in a Story
(but I have nothing against people liking the things I don't, I don't mean to insult anyone by listing them)

~ Any rating is fine. I don't require NC-17 but I don't avoid it either, be the rating for sex, violence, or bad language. I usually prefer vanilla-kind of sex, though.

~ I like good ol' fandom cliches: (Hollywood) amnesia, temporary blindness, pretending to be a couple, etc.

~ I like infidelity for the sake of your true love! Don't ask, I just do. I dislike casual infidelity but when it's heart-wrenching "I shouldn't but I love you so damn much" it is good.

~ I have a huge embarrassment squick. Please take this seriously. I need to skip scenes in my favourite stories and avoid some comedies altogether because I so intensely dislike seeing the main characters in embarrassing situations. I kinda like the hero who's always on top of things;) (But not Mary Sue perfect either...;) (If something would make you cringe in real life or make you feel uncomfortable, it'll probably trigger my squick. Please be gentle:)

~ I'm not into incest, heavy BDSM, D/s, dwelling on bodily fluids, casual infidelity or casual sex for the sake of sex (so I'm a romantic)...

~ Pure smut isn't usually my thing. Plot-related sex is fine (and fun) but I don't need it to be described in detail, that's not where I get my kicks from. I have been known to skip long paragraphs of sex to get to the next line of dialogue. That's where the characterisation is done, that's where the relationships unfurl. That's where you hit my heart.

~ I generally prefer light-hearted stories, especially around December. That said, I love good angst - as long as it ends happily. No 'hurt' without 'comfort'. I'm a sucker for happy endings. So no pain-filled death stories, pretty please. Did I stress the importance of leaving me smiling enough yet?;) Still, a doze of angst makes the eventual happy ending that much sweeter.

~ Actually, if you could avoid killing anyone the characters care about that would be nice. Not their parents, grandparents or even distant cousins. Death and Yule have very bad connotations in my mind.

~ I love long plot-driven adventures that have a developing relationship on the side (and doesn't end with the "but I love *you*", "I love you too!" "Let's have sex!"; I want to see what happens *after* that, too. And I don't just mean the sex...;). But as I know long, plotty adventures are hard to fit into 1000 words, I'm not going to be horribly disappointed if I don't get one.

~ I love first time stories, and different type of 'coming out' scenarios: coming out in the classic sense of coming out of the closet as gay, to your love interest or with him (other people finding out about main characters' relationship), having your secret (secret identity, powers, race (as in, alien), immortality, etc.) revealed, etc. etc. These type of 'coming outs' are equally interesting in gen/het stories. The scenarios where everyone already knows what the character is trying to tell them tend to be embarrassing, though. Especially if there's smugness or condescension.

~ Humour is a plus but I'd prefer not the get an outright parody. Witty dialogue makes my day, any day!

~ As you might have guessed by now, I love romantic stories. But a sap-overload just sounds very OOC for most characters. Realism even in mush is the way to go! (And something more than the traditional "A wants B but thinks he can't have them, B wants A but thinks he can't have them, angst ensues, then C happens which forces them to reveal their feelings, and it all ends with declarations of love and instant sex.")

~ In the end, and most importantly, I'd rather get a story you really like to write, even if it's not quite what I've talked about, than a story you need to sweat out in blood to fit my crazy requests. I really truly hope you can have fun writing for me:)


Happy Yuletide, dear mysterious writer! Hope your presents are plentiful and your writing stress-free!

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