ex libris (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
hellabaloo) wrote2015-10-17 12:50 pm
hellabaloo) wrote2015-10-17 12:50 pm
Entry tags:
Dear Yuletide Writer
Happy Yuletide! The most wonderful fannish time of the year :D
First of all, thank you for writing for me. Second, I most want to read the story that you actually want to write. You have my enthusiastic encouragement to wrangle a half-baked plot idea you’ve had forever into actual fic, even if it has nothing to do with my prompts. And if a prompt does catch your fancy, take it in whatever direction you like. I, uh, got a little excited coming up with prompts this year and I'd honestly happy with any of them.
Good luck writing and I can’t wait to see what you come up with!
General Info:
I'm hellabaloo on AO3 but historiograph on tumblr. I’ve also got accounts on DW and LJ, but honestly don’t use them much beyond exchange stuff.
Previous Yuletide letters: 2012, 2013, 2014
General Likes:
So many things! I love gapfillers and casefics and fics that hew incredibly close to canon. I love AUs: canon-divergent, for-want-of-a-nail type things or whole new universes (circus! organized crime/hitmen! librarian! professional athletes being professional athletes in different sports! in space! under-caffeinated, overworked grad student! Iron Chef! dance crew! gladiator!).
I love tropes (amnesia! soulmates/soulbonding! time loops! fake dating! gay chicken! identity porn! bed-sharing! slow-burn/UST/pining! unrepentant holiday schmoop!) and I love subversions of tropes too. I love interesting and complicated relationships between characters, but I love easy get-togethers and fluffy feel-good fics too. I love long, detailed, sprawling fics and I love fics that are perfectly contained, short morsels.
I ship a lot of different pairings and read a ton of porn, but I love gen and fics focusing on friendships, too. Check out my Yuleporn section for general kink likes. If I'm open to porn for a fandom, I’ve put more specific kink and ship likes/ideas in the individual fandom's prompt section.
Past vs. present tense isn't a big deal to me, although generally I prefer third-person narration.
General Dislikes:
Please no rape/non-con, mpreg, necro, terminal illness, non-canonical character deaths, infidelity, omegaverse, loss of limb or permanent/serious injury, character bashing, character flaws being glossed over, and characters assuming the worst of each other through lack of communication.
While I like a lot of AUs, please no coffeeshop or high school!AUs.
Yuleporn:
Likes (a non-exhaustive list): anything size difference related (especially forehead kisses! Although I will take forehead kisses in any context, tbh.), sex pollen/Pon Farr style/heat-induced uncontrollable urge for sex right now please and thank you, breathplay, accidental (not-so accidental) stimulation, barebacking and come play, frottage, coming in pants, spanking (more in a pain kink than a disciplinary way, please), assworship/rimming (but no scat, please), and edging.
Specific to my fandoms with goalkeepers: glove kink
Squicks: what I've listed above are the big ones, but also please no formal BDSM relationships (bondage or d/s elements by themselves is fine), infantilization/ageplay, or animal play.
If you’ve got any questions, please get the mods to ping me!I've also got anon comments turned on, if you want to go through unofficial channels.
⇒ The City of Dreaming Books / Die Stadt der Träumenden Bücher │ Colophonius Regenschein & Optimus Yarnspinner; Given there's not all that much overlap between the characters in canon, feel free to focus on just one or both of the characters. I'd love anything with them together, contrasting their different trajectories during the course of the novel. Or more about Colophonius' bookhunting adventures. Or something exploring Optimus' life and career after the book ends. I'd love anything with worldbuilding, exploring Zamonia/Lindworm Castle/Bookholm/the Catacombs.
I kept seeing this book in the Yuletide tag set and finally had the opportunity to read it this year. It was such a fun read! It's like fantasy meets cozy mysteries, sort of, and stays far away from the trend of grimdark fantasy. All of the worldbuilding—from the Zamonian versions of famous authors (Aliesha Wimperslake aka Shakespeare, Ojahnn Golgo van Fontheweg aka Goethe, Hornac de Bloaze aka Balzac) to Bookholm's writing/publishing/bookselling/reading culture and the eccentric characters Optimus meets along the way—was what really made it for me. I haven't had the time to read The Labyrinth of Dreaming Books yet, so please nothing spoilery about the plot, but feel free to use Bookholmian factoids from it.
Is this a Bildungsroman? I mean, it starts with Optimus, a relative youth and at the very beginning of his authorial career, going on an adventure where he changes from a lovable, if bumbling, naive Lindworm to an author with this crazy experience and finally has the inspiration to actually write. Either way, Optimus is really endearing in a "oh, you sweet summer child" kind of way to me. And what a total contrast Colophonius is to him! This might be informed by Optimus' massive fanboying of him, but Colophonius is first presented as this suave, gentleman-thief, rogue with a heart of gold type of character. When we see him as he is with the Booklings, he's beaten down, near death, and so cynical, which is so different than what was expected. They're very different characters, but I'm really interested in how and where their stories overlap.
Because the canon's in first person, this is an exception to my usually-prefer-3rd-person narration request. Feel free to go with the one you're more comfortable with or works best. Please just gen for this fandom! (Although background ships are fine by me.)
Prompts
⇒ Club de Cuervos │ Isabel Iglesias & Rafael Reina; I love Isabel and Rafa as individuals, but adore them as a couple. Any sort of background fic about their relationship pre-canon (how they got together, their first married fight, how they navigated Isabel having to make business decisions that affected Rafa, the player, etc.) would be amazing. Or even just curtain!fic about their lives as busy professionals, or after Rafa's retirement and his transition into a not-so-busy former professional athlete.
When I first heard Netflix were not only doing a series set at a Liga MX club, but a telenovela centered around everything that goes on at said club from the front office, to the players and their wives, right down to the fans I was so flipping excited. And Club de Cuervos definitely didn't disappoint. It's definitely got the overblown, ridiculous plotlines of a telenovela, but it's also got a wonderful amount of heart. Like, I did not expect to care about the characters as much as I did! Sidebar: I am irrationally annoyed that the name of the club isn't Nuevo Toledo FC and it's their nickname that's los cuervos and idek why.
Isabel and Rafa—my favorite power couple! Or they would be more of what you'd expect from a "power couple" if Rafa weren't such a chill, level-headed guy. From what we get of Rafa with the team before his retirement, you can tell his teammates respect him and just like having him in the locker room (even if he is more likely to have Dad Moments and be the voice of reason). His retirement speech was so lovely and touching and frankly unexpected given the tone of the canon that it was all the more moving. And Isabel is awesome. She's got all this drive, dedication, and ambition to succeed in such a male-dominated world as professional sports. There's clearly a reason why she holds the position she does at the club. I love how when she's presented with obstacles (like certain soda company execs who won't give her the time of day), she doesn't let it get to her and comes up with solutions to make them pay attention. If she wallows with comfort food in the process, she's only human. I love that their marriage is loving and genuine—it really seems like they've been together for 10+ years and are still going strong—and has such a great foundation of love and mutual respect, you can see them totally overcoming any challenges they may face (like awkward in-law encounters, deciding whether or not to have kids, Rafa dealing with retirement, Isabel getting hit on by attractive tv producers, etc.). Relationship goals, tbh.
Prompts
Literally anything with these two would make me ecstatic, but I had such a hard time choosing characters for signups that I’d also be thrilled with fic featuring the other nominated characters. If you're interested, here are more prompts:
ETA: i_have_made_a_huge_mistake.gif I was rewatching the early episodes and OF COURSE Rafa's last name is spelled 'Reina' on his jersey not Reyna like IMDB has listed and OF COURSE I nommed him with his last name spelled wrong and OF COURSE I didn't catch it when the tag set was open for review because that would make me good at Yuletide. There's always something I screw up XD
⇒ FC Barcelona RPF │ any (Claudio Bravo, Marc-André ter Stegen, Rafael "Rafinha" Alcântara); Other than preferring a fic where everyone's still a footballer, I really would be happy with anything. Marc and Claudio competing and developing a friendship. Rafinha deciding he's going to adopt Marc into the merry band of Brazilians Bros. Claudio and Rafinha striking up an unexpected friendship. It's all good by me. I ship Marc with both Claudio and Rafa.
Can I just say how much I love this club? Well, not the current board, but that's a topic for another day. The high-minded philosophy, the weight of the history, the approach to the game, the players, the fans, all of it—for better or worse—make Barcelona what it is. I really do love everyone in this bar. Heck, there's even an aspect of comfortable regularity to the drama that's part and parcel with supporting Barça year after year. And what a season they're coming off of! I wasn't really in Barça fandom such as it is for the 08/09 treble, but I've got similar feelings about this one. Which mostly means that I start giggling and marveling at this ludicrous achievement at the randomest times. (Ugh, and I might still be a little in denial about things re: Xavi's departure or Victor's ongoing exile in England or Thiago and Pep in Munich or the current list of injuries.)
If it's not already glaringly obvious, I have a soft spot for goalkeepers a country mile wide. And while I may not ever get over how Victor ended his career at Barcelona, both Bravo and ter Stegen have endeared themselves to me in no time flat. Like Claudio wasn't on my radar at all really until Chile's run during the last World Cup, and mostly I remembered ter Stegen for his tendency to score really embarrassing own goals while still being one of the top young goalkeeping talents in Germany. Not even 18 months later and between these two I'm swimming in more keeper-feels than I have in a while. They come to the Barcelona first team with relatively little baggage, unlike Rafinha, who's come through the academy. It's something I've been thinking about recently: a lot of his Barça B cohort (Thiago, the Dos Santos brothers, and Deulofeu too I think I can say) have moved on. But Rafinha's still at Barcelona, working to become a consistent starter in the first team and I wonder what that's like for him. To be one of the latest Masia kids in line that has to come after Xavi-Iniesta-the Baby Dream Team-Busi-Pedro.
About shipfic and rl WAGs: if you want to write anything shippy or porny, I am equally cool with the no-WAGs-AU or the open relationship/negotiated polyamory routes to bangtown. Just please don't break up any rl couples in a fic to get to the porn.
Prompts
⇒ H&M Modern Essentials Commercial │ David Beckham & Kevin Hart; This is such a funny and weird concept that other than just wanting more of the video, I am open to anything. Go wild. How far does Kevin push the envelope in the pursuit of going beyond method acting? Does Becks ever lose it or is he stereotypically English, stiff upper lip, only making oblique references to being mad? How does the world react to "I, Beckham: The Movie?"
If you haven't already seen this (it's like 7 minutes, linked here or embedded below), I cannot recommend it highly enough. It's such a silly concept and is both a complete story and frustratingly open-ended. There's so much left unexplored that I want to know everything about! Starting with how the hell did Kevin (or was it even Kevin? did someone throw out this cracktastic idea and Kevin got obsessed with the idea and ran with it?) convince top Hollywood brass that he could/should play Beckham in a biopic. How was David's agent sold on the idea? He clearly thinks it's nothing but a minor inconvenience and maybe a useful marketing move. Just trying to work out everything that had to fall into place to bring this about seems like it results in progressively wackier theories.
How did Kevin even get into soccer? He did visit Manchester City last year: was it a sudden fall into fandom or a gradual slide towards from being aware to being interested to being a total fanboy and when the opportunity to actually play David Beckham in a movie comes up he can't resist it. When does he get in too deep and start calling it football? What does Joe Hart (aka his cousin) think of all this? Especially with Becks being a United legend. And what about Becks? I am super interested in the mundane realities of a player's life after they retire.
I'm open to ship fic, but if it goes beyond "Kevin develops a massive crush on David because he's so darn pretty" and into porny territory I'd like Victoria to be involved or at least aware and down with what's happening.
Prompts
⇒ Luther │ John Luther & Justin Ripley; Open to canon-compliant S3 and S3 fix-it, I just really want more of these two interacting. Shippy or gen, either is great. I love the moral ambiguity of Luther, in particular, but Justin too and the situations that they find themselves in/the cases they investigate. Their dynamic is so archetypical: brilliant but troubled detective with questionable ethics and clear sense of justice and his loyal companion and occasional loyal opposition, and I love it so much.
Ughhhhhhhhhhh. The only thing I dislike about this show, is how much it afflicts me with a serious case of The Feels. It's just so damn good. I love how London becomes this menacing backdrop for the various cases and is almost a character in it's own right. Everyone's moral ambiguity and how the definition of both getting a job done and doing a good job does, and sometimes doesn't, change makes it such an interesting and really visceral show at times. By season 3, they've built up enough of the word to start bringing back these little threads from previous seasons that influenced characters and their decisions and rationale. Nothing's ever really forgotten and everything has consequences, and I love seeing everything unfold.
I just love these two so much, with all their flaws and all their weaknesses. I love how satisfying Luther's sense of justice can be, while still being a little terrified of how he approaches police work sometimes. And Justin! He definitely slots into my "cinnamon roll, to good too pure" category of faves, but he's also got some bite beneath that puppy devotion to Luther. The combination of the two is one of my favorite partnerships in any canon, police procedural or otherwise. There's so much about their personal feelings they don't say to each other, that when they do ("He's my mate. And I love him." GAH MY HEART) it seems like it's extra significant.
Please feel free to include Alice, Erin, and Jenny in your fic. Each of them have such interesting relationships with both Luther and Justin that it's hard not to mention them at all. I wouldn't mind either Alice or Erin in a background ship with either Luther or Justin, so long as the main focus is on the Luther-Justin relationship.
Prompts
First of all, thank you for writing for me. Second, I most want to read the story that you actually want to write. You have my enthusiastic encouragement to wrangle a half-baked plot idea you’ve had forever into actual fic, even if it has nothing to do with my prompts. And if a prompt does catch your fancy, take it in whatever direction you like. I, uh, got a little excited coming up with prompts this year and I'd honestly happy with any of them.
Good luck writing and I can’t wait to see what you come up with!
General Info:
I'm hellabaloo on AO3 but historiograph on tumblr. I’ve also got accounts on DW and LJ, but honestly don’t use them much beyond exchange stuff.
Previous Yuletide letters: 2012, 2013, 2014
General Likes:
So many things! I love gapfillers and casefics and fics that hew incredibly close to canon. I love AUs: canon-divergent, for-want-of-a-nail type things or whole new universes (circus! organized crime/hitmen! librarian! professional athletes being professional athletes in different sports! in space! under-caffeinated, overworked grad student! Iron Chef! dance crew! gladiator!).
I love tropes (amnesia! soulmates/soulbonding! time loops! fake dating! gay chicken! identity porn! bed-sharing! slow-burn/UST/pining! unrepentant holiday schmoop!) and I love subversions of tropes too. I love interesting and complicated relationships between characters, but I love easy get-togethers and fluffy feel-good fics too. I love long, detailed, sprawling fics and I love fics that are perfectly contained, short morsels.
I ship a lot of different pairings and read a ton of porn, but I love gen and fics focusing on friendships, too. Check out my Yuleporn section for general kink likes. If I'm open to porn for a fandom, I’ve put more specific kink and ship likes/ideas in the individual fandom's prompt section.
Past vs. present tense isn't a big deal to me, although generally I prefer third-person narration.
General Dislikes:
Please no rape/non-con, mpreg, necro, terminal illness, non-canonical character deaths, infidelity, omegaverse, loss of limb or permanent/serious injury, character bashing, character flaws being glossed over, and characters assuming the worst of each other through lack of communication.
While I like a lot of AUs, please no coffeeshop or high school!AUs.
Yuleporn:
Likes (a non-exhaustive list): anything size difference related (especially forehead kisses! Although I will take forehead kisses in any context, tbh.), sex pollen/Pon Farr style/heat-induced uncontrollable urge for sex right now please and thank you, breathplay, accidental (not-so accidental) stimulation, barebacking and come play, frottage, coming in pants, spanking (more in a pain kink than a disciplinary way, please), assworship/rimming (but no scat, please), and edging.
Specific to my fandoms with goalkeepers: glove kink
Squicks: what I've listed above are the big ones, but also please no formal BDSM relationships (bondage or d/s elements by themselves is fine), infantilization/ageplay, or animal play.
If you’ve got any questions, please get the mods to ping me!
Requested Fandoms
⇒ The City of Dreaming Books / Die Stadt der Träumenden Bücher │ Colophonius Regenschein & Optimus Yarnspinner; Given there's not all that much overlap between the characters in canon, feel free to focus on just one or both of the characters. I'd love anything with them together, contrasting their different trajectories during the course of the novel. Or more about Colophonius' bookhunting adventures. Or something exploring Optimus' life and career after the book ends. I'd love anything with worldbuilding, exploring Zamonia/Lindworm Castle/Bookholm/the Catacombs.
I kept seeing this book in the Yuletide tag set and finally had the opportunity to read it this year. It was such a fun read! It's like fantasy meets cozy mysteries, sort of, and stays far away from the trend of grimdark fantasy. All of the worldbuilding—from the Zamonian versions of famous authors (Aliesha Wimperslake aka Shakespeare, Ojahnn Golgo van Fontheweg aka Goethe, Hornac de Bloaze aka Balzac) to Bookholm's writing/publishing/bookselling/reading culture and the eccentric characters Optimus meets along the way—was what really made it for me. I haven't had the time to read The Labyrinth of Dreaming Books yet, so please nothing spoilery about the plot, but feel free to use Bookholmian factoids from it. Is this a Bildungsroman? I mean, it starts with Optimus, a relative youth and at the very beginning of his authorial career, going on an adventure where he changes from a lovable, if bumbling, naive Lindworm to an author with this crazy experience and finally has the inspiration to actually write. Either way, Optimus is really endearing in a "oh, you sweet summer child" kind of way to me. And what a total contrast Colophonius is to him! This might be informed by Optimus' massive fanboying of him, but Colophonius is first presented as this suave, gentleman-thief, rogue with a heart of gold type of character. When we see him as he is with the Booklings, he's beaten down, near death, and so cynical, which is so different than what was expected. They're very different characters, but I'm really interested in how and where their stories overlap.
Because the canon's in first person, this is an exception to my usually-prefer-3rd-person narration request. Feel free to go with the one you're more comfortable with or works best. Please just gen for this fandom! (Although background ships are fine by me.)
Prompts
◊ There's not much time for Colophonius Regenschein & Optimus Yarnspinner to interact while they're both with the Booklings, but I'd love something about the Booklings telling Colophonius about Optimus. Or pretend they had an extra day and Optimus got to awkwardly fanboy about Colophonius' adventures in the catacombs or spent it trying to interview him for a biography. Or something!
◊ I actually really loved the Booklings as characters in their own rights, so anything about them, their book repair workshop, Al, Wami, and Dancelot II spending countless hours working out how the Rusty Gnomes' book machine worked, encounters with bookhunters that feed the Fearsome Bookling reputation, etc.
◊ I'd love any more excerpts from Optimus Yarnspinner's canon. The City of Dreaming Books is supposed to be the first chapter of his memoirs, what does his prose, his poetry, or his experimental fiction look like?
◊ We got a small taste of Colophonius' adventures in the catacombs of Bookholm, and I'd love fic that was about further bookhunting adventures or battles between bookhunters.
◊ What was Optimus Yarnspinner's impact or legacy on Zamonian literary trends?
◊ Bookstores and publishing houses play a big role in Bookholm. Are there libraries? Did Smyke effectively run them out of business or outlaw them? Is there some guerrilla network of underground libraries and librarians fighting Smyke's control of Bookholm?
◊ The ending of the book was a little abrupt with Optimus escaping Smyke's house and Bookholm ablaze. What's the story of Bookholm's rebuilding?
◊ I just really enjoyed the world of Zamonia and Bookholm and the catacombs, so fic that really explores any part of the world and gets into worldbuilding would be amazing.
◊ I actually really loved the Booklings as characters in their own rights, so anything about them, their book repair workshop, Al, Wami, and Dancelot II spending countless hours working out how the Rusty Gnomes' book machine worked, encounters with bookhunters that feed the Fearsome Bookling reputation, etc.
◊ I'd love any more excerpts from Optimus Yarnspinner's canon. The City of Dreaming Books is supposed to be the first chapter of his memoirs, what does his prose, his poetry, or his experimental fiction look like?
◊ We got a small taste of Colophonius' adventures in the catacombs of Bookholm, and I'd love fic that was about further bookhunting adventures or battles between bookhunters.
◊ What was Optimus Yarnspinner's impact or legacy on Zamonian literary trends?
◊ Bookstores and publishing houses play a big role in Bookholm. Are there libraries? Did Smyke effectively run them out of business or outlaw them? Is there some guerrilla network of underground libraries and librarians fighting Smyke's control of Bookholm?
◊ The ending of the book was a little abrupt with Optimus escaping Smyke's house and Bookholm ablaze. What's the story of Bookholm's rebuilding?
◊ I just really enjoyed the world of Zamonia and Bookholm and the catacombs, so fic that really explores any part of the world and gets into worldbuilding would be amazing.
⇒ Club de Cuervos │ Isabel Iglesias & Rafael Reina; I love Isabel and Rafa as individuals, but adore them as a couple. Any sort of background fic about their relationship pre-canon (how they got together, their first married fight, how they navigated Isabel having to make business decisions that affected Rafa, the player, etc.) would be amazing. Or even just curtain!fic about their lives as busy professionals, or after Rafa's retirement and his transition into a not-so-busy former professional athlete.
When I first heard Netflix were not only doing a series set at a Liga MX club, but a telenovela centered around everything that goes on at said club from the front office, to the players and their wives, right down to the fans I was so flipping excited. And Club de Cuervos definitely didn't disappoint. It's definitely got the overblown, ridiculous plotlines of a telenovela, but it's also got a wonderful amount of heart. Like, I did not expect to care about the characters as much as I did! Sidebar: I am irrationally annoyed that the name of the club isn't Nuevo Toledo FC and it's their nickname that's los cuervos and idek why.Isabel and Rafa—my favorite power couple! Or they would be more of what you'd expect from a "power couple" if Rafa weren't such a chill, level-headed guy. From what we get of Rafa with the team before his retirement, you can tell his teammates respect him and just like having him in the locker room (even if he is more likely to have Dad Moments and be the voice of reason). His retirement speech was so lovely and touching and frankly unexpected given the tone of the canon that it was all the more moving. And Isabel is awesome. She's got all this drive, dedication, and ambition to succeed in such a male-dominated world as professional sports. There's clearly a reason why she holds the position she does at the club. I love how when she's presented with obstacles (like certain soda company execs who won't give her the time of day), she doesn't let it get to her and comes up with solutions to make them pay attention. If she wallows with comfort food in the process, she's only human. I love that their marriage is loving and genuine—it really seems like they've been together for 10+ years and are still going strong—and has such a great foundation of love and mutual respect, you can see them totally overcoming any challenges they may face (like awkward in-law encounters, deciding whether or not to have kids, Rafa dealing with retirement, Isabel getting hit on by attractive tv producers, etc.). Relationship goals, tbh.
Prompts
◊ I would love to read how Rafa and Isabel got together. Did Rafa woo Isabel with increasingly ridiculous gifts? Or did Isabel storm into the locker room after a home loss ready to chew everyone out and fall in lust with Rafa’s abs and pursue him? Was Salvador Sr. secretly playing matchmaker?
◊ Rafa is Pepe Reina’s cousin.
◊ That one scene, where Isabel watches Rafa work on his pottery? Totally thought they should have done a full homage to Ghost moment there, so give me loving, attentive sex on the pottery room floor.
◊ Heck, give me any sort of porn featuring these two. Sleepy morning sex? Sneaking around the stadium, having semi-public rendezvouses and getting off on the possibility of being caught? (Although no actual getting caught, please!) Sex on Isabel’s desk, after she stayed late to work on a project? Really, other than the squicks above, I’d be happy with all sorts of kinks. Maybe they experiment with bondage. Or Rafa discovers he’s got a bit of a possessive side and loves it when Isabel is wearing one of his jerseys. Or Isabel tells Rafa exactly how she expects him to jerk off in his hotel room while he’s away for a match. Or Rafa loves when Isabel sits on his face and can turn her into an incoherent mess.
◊ Post retirement h/c where Rafa misses playing so much and Isabel encourages him to do something to fill the gap.
◊ Isabel deals with the usual sexist idiots and Rafa takes care of her at the end of a long day, ft. feet-rubbing, cooking dinner for her, sharing a bath and washing her hair, etc.
◊ A crime family!AU where Isabel is officially her brother’s consigliere and unofficially the actual head of the family after their father dies and Rafa is her loyal bodyguard/hitman pining from afar.
◊ Rafa is Pepe Reina’s cousin.
◊ That one scene, where Isabel watches Rafa work on his pottery? Totally thought they should have done a full homage to Ghost moment there, so give me loving, attentive sex on the pottery room floor.
◊ Heck, give me any sort of porn featuring these two. Sleepy morning sex? Sneaking around the stadium, having semi-public rendezvouses and getting off on the possibility of being caught? (Although no actual getting caught, please!) Sex on Isabel’s desk, after she stayed late to work on a project? Really, other than the squicks above, I’d be happy with all sorts of kinks. Maybe they experiment with bondage. Or Rafa discovers he’s got a bit of a possessive side and loves it when Isabel is wearing one of his jerseys. Or Isabel tells Rafa exactly how she expects him to jerk off in his hotel room while he’s away for a match. Or Rafa loves when Isabel sits on his face and can turn her into an incoherent mess.
◊ Post retirement h/c where Rafa misses playing so much and Isabel encourages him to do something to fill the gap.
◊ Isabel deals with the usual sexist idiots and Rafa takes care of her at the end of a long day, ft. feet-rubbing, cooking dinner for her, sharing a bath and washing her hair, etc.
◊ A crime family!AU where Isabel is officially her brother’s consigliere and unofficially the actual head of the family after their father dies and Rafa is her loyal bodyguard/hitman pining from afar.
Literally anything with these two would make me ecstatic, but I had such a hard time choosing characters for signups that I’d also be thrilled with fic featuring the other nominated characters. If you're interested, here are more prompts:
◊ Isabel & Chava are such siblings and I love it. I’d love something set when they were kids, having free reign to run around the club or the stadium. Or a fic where other characters have to deal with their family drama.
◊ More about Mary Luz & Isabel's relationship. They're good foils for each other and I'd like to see more them actually interacting.
◊ Straight up Potro/Aitor porn. Especially if Aitor takes his sweet time and seduces Potro until he can't stand it anymore. I mean, this scene speaks for itself.
◊ I’d love Aitor backstory. He’s set up like this mix of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Luis Suárez, and Fernando Torres (if Nando were a bad boy)—what the hell was he like in La Masia? If the series roughly parallels the real world timeline, how does he feel about being replaced by Suárez? More tales from the Spanish team during the World Cup would be amazing. Or more random cameos (even if it's just name-dropping on Aitor's part) from Barcelona players.
◊ Moises, fictional captain of my heart! Give me the story of the season he got promoted to captain. Or something about needing to be the (mostly) responsible one on the team. Did he and Rafa have secret meetings to vent their frustrations about their teammates?
◊ More about Mary Luz & Isabel's relationship. They're good foils for each other and I'd like to see more them actually interacting.
◊ Straight up Potro/Aitor porn. Especially if Aitor takes his sweet time and seduces Potro until he can't stand it anymore. I mean, this scene speaks for itself.
◊ I’d love Aitor backstory. He’s set up like this mix of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Luis Suárez, and Fernando Torres (if Nando were a bad boy)—what the hell was he like in La Masia? If the series roughly parallels the real world timeline, how does he feel about being replaced by Suárez? More tales from the Spanish team during the World Cup would be amazing. Or more random cameos (even if it's just name-dropping on Aitor's part) from Barcelona players.
◊ Moises, fictional captain of my heart! Give me the story of the season he got promoted to captain. Or something about needing to be the (mostly) responsible one on the team. Did he and Rafa have secret meetings to vent their frustrations about their teammates?
ETA: i_have_made_a_huge_mistake.gif I was rewatching the early episodes and OF COURSE Rafa's last name is spelled 'Reina' on his jersey not Reyna like IMDB has listed and OF COURSE I nommed him with his last name spelled wrong and OF COURSE I didn't catch it when the tag set was open for review because that would make me good at Yuletide. There's always something I screw up XD
⇒ FC Barcelona RPF │ any (Claudio Bravo, Marc-André ter Stegen, Rafael "Rafinha" Alcântara); Other than preferring a fic where everyone's still a footballer, I really would be happy with anything. Marc and Claudio competing and developing a friendship. Rafinha deciding he's going to adopt Marc into the merry band of Brazilians Bros. Claudio and Rafinha striking up an unexpected friendship. It's all good by me. I ship Marc with both Claudio and Rafa.
Can I just say how much I love this club? If it's not already glaringly obvious, I have a soft spot for goalkeepers a country mile wide. And while I may not ever get over how Victor ended his career at Barcelona, both Bravo and ter Stegen have endeared themselves to me in no time flat. Like Claudio wasn't on my radar at all really until Chile's run during the last World Cup, and mostly I remembered ter Stegen for his tendency to score really embarrassing own goals while still being one of the top young goalkeeping talents in Germany. Not even 18 months later and between these two I'm swimming in more keeper-feels than I have in a while. They come to the Barcelona first team with relatively little baggage, unlike Rafinha, who's come through the academy. It's something I've been thinking about recently: a lot of his Barça B cohort (Thiago, the Dos Santos brothers, and Deulofeu too I think I can say) have moved on. But Rafinha's still at Barcelona, working to become a consistent starter in the first team and I wonder what that's like for him. To be one of the latest Masia kids in line that has to come after Xavi-Iniesta-the Baby Dream Team-Busi-Pedro.
About shipfic and rl WAGs: if you want to write anything shippy or porny, I am equally cool with the no-WAGs-AU or the open relationship/negotiated polyamory routes to bangtown. Just please don't break up any rl couples in a fic to get to the porn.
Prompts
◊ Goalkeepers mentoring goalkeepers is one of my favorite things. So I’d love anything about Claudio taking Marc under his wing. Maybe he invites him over for dinner with his family? Or they stay late to practice penalties with each other. Or Claudio teaches Marc things to yell in Spanish at his defenders. If you'd like to take the porn option for 500, I'd still like there to be an element of mentoring—so, sexually inexperienced!Marc is taught the ~ways of seduction by Claudio or Claudio rewards Marc with blowjobs every time he makes a particularly good save, etc.
◊ Let’s talk about Claudio Bravo. This is a goalkeeper who, at 32 and arguably at or near the peak of his career, is finally winning things with the Chilean NT and his club team. He’s played in the Chilean league, in Spain’s second division, and then after Chile’s performance at the 2014 World Cup he’s catapulted into playing with Barcelona in a treble-winning season and just how did he deal? Tell me that story.
◊ I love new-to-a-team fics and language barriers, so anything about Marc’s first year at Barcelona. Friendly competition with Claudio for the starting keeper position. Playing (and sharing a locker room!) with huge stars like Andres Iniesta, Leo Messi, and Neymar. Being taught how to swear like a sailor in Catalan.
◊ Rafa’s dealing with a serious, season-ending injury, in a season that was supposed to be his real breakthrough season on the first team, too. I’d love anything h/c related to the injury: Rafa feeling insecure about his place on the team and being comforted by his teammates (Marc? Marc!), Marc wanting to help but Rafa being all snippy and covering his fear about the injury with sharp comments and leaving Marc no choice but to bring in the big guns—i.e. Thiago, being frustrated and feeling guilty when the team’s not playing well and he’s stuck watching from his couch, or something else entirely.
◊ Marc and Rafa start sleeping together. It doesn’t mean anything until it does.
◊ Give me the slowest of slow burns as Marc and Rafinha can barely speak twenty words that the other can understand, but somehow they still get each other. (They are such goobers together. I love it.)
◊ There’s a training ground accident and Claudio and Marc swap bodies.
◊ Rafa and Claudio don’t seem like they’d have much in common. But they always seem find something to laugh about.
◊ Goalkeepers are kinda crazy. Barcelona get two new keepers in one season and the rest of the team has to deal with learning twice as many personal quirks.
◊ Rafinha might have an unhealthy obsession with Marc’s hands: how big they are compared to his, the calluses and little scars, how strong they feel when they grip his thighs. Give me emotional hand kissing, Rafa telling Marc how much he likes his hands, anything really.
◊ Okay, I know Leo’s not nominated, but have you been following the out-of-left-field bromance he and Marc have? BECAUSE I HAVE AND I LOVE IT. Look at how they hug each other! I’m pretty sure it’s a proven fact that anyone new that comes to Barcelona falls a little bit in love with Leo. I'd love anything with Leo and Marc interacting, getting to know each other despite the language barrier, or even them just being two ridiculous cuddlebugs together. (My tumblr tag for these two is here, if you're interested.)
◊ Let’s talk about Claudio Bravo. This is a goalkeeper who, at 32 and arguably at or near the peak of his career, is finally winning things with the Chilean NT and his club team. He’s played in the Chilean league, in Spain’s second division, and then after Chile’s performance at the 2014 World Cup he’s catapulted into playing with Barcelona in a treble-winning season and just how did he deal? Tell me that story.
◊ I love new-to-a-team fics and language barriers, so anything about Marc’s first year at Barcelona. Friendly competition with Claudio for the starting keeper position. Playing (and sharing a locker room!) with huge stars like Andres Iniesta, Leo Messi, and Neymar. Being taught how to swear like a sailor in Catalan.
◊ Rafa’s dealing with a serious, season-ending injury, in a season that was supposed to be his real breakthrough season on the first team, too. I’d love anything h/c related to the injury: Rafa feeling insecure about his place on the team and being comforted by his teammates (Marc? Marc!), Marc wanting to help but Rafa being all snippy and covering his fear about the injury with sharp comments and leaving Marc no choice but to bring in the big guns—i.e. Thiago, being frustrated and feeling guilty when the team’s not playing well and he’s stuck watching from his couch, or something else entirely.
◊ Marc and Rafa start sleeping together. It doesn’t mean anything until it does.
◊ Give me the slowest of slow burns as Marc and Rafinha can barely speak twenty words that the other can understand, but somehow they still get each other. (They are such goobers together. I love it.)
◊ There’s a training ground accident and Claudio and Marc swap bodies.
◊ Rafa and Claudio don’t seem like they’d have much in common. But they always seem find something to laugh about.
◊ Goalkeepers are kinda crazy. Barcelona get two new keepers in one season and the rest of the team has to deal with learning twice as many personal quirks.
◊ Rafinha might have an unhealthy obsession with Marc’s hands: how big they are compared to his, the calluses and little scars, how strong they feel when they grip his thighs. Give me emotional hand kissing, Rafa telling Marc how much he likes his hands, anything really.
◊ Okay, I know Leo’s not nominated, but have you been following the out-of-left-field bromance he and Marc have? BECAUSE I HAVE AND I LOVE IT. Look at how they hug each other! I’m pretty sure it’s a proven fact that anyone new that comes to Barcelona falls a little bit in love with Leo. I'd love anything with Leo and Marc interacting, getting to know each other despite the language barrier, or even them just being two ridiculous cuddlebugs together. (My tumblr tag for these two is here, if you're interested.)
⇒ H&M Modern Essentials Commercial │ David Beckham & Kevin Hart; This is such a funny and weird concept that other than just wanting more of the video, I am open to anything. Go wild. How far does Kevin push the envelope in the pursuit of going beyond method acting? Does Becks ever lose it or is he stereotypically English, stiff upper lip, only making oblique references to being mad? How does the world react to "I, Beckham: The Movie?"
If you haven't already seen this (it's like 7 minutes, linked here or embedded below), I cannot recommend it highly enough. It's such a silly concept and is both a complete story and frustratingly open-ended. There's so much left unexplored that I want to know everything about! Starting with how the hell did Kevin (or was it even Kevin? did someone throw out this cracktastic idea and Kevin got obsessed with the idea and ran with it?) convince top Hollywood brass that he could/should play Beckham in a biopic. How was David's agent sold on the idea? He clearly thinks it's nothing but a minor inconvenience and maybe a useful marketing move. Just trying to work out everything that had to fall into place to bring this about seems like it results in progressively wackier theories. How did Kevin even get into soccer? He did visit Manchester City last year: was it a sudden fall into fandom or a gradual slide towards from being aware to being interested to being a total fanboy and when the opportunity to actually play David Beckham in a movie comes up he can't resist it. When does he get in too deep and start calling it football? What does Joe Hart (aka his cousin) think of all this? Especially with Becks being a United legend. And what about Becks? I am super interested in the mundane realities of a player's life after they retire.
I'm open to ship fic, but if it goes beyond "Kevin develops a massive crush on David because he's so darn pretty" and into porny territory I'd like Victoria to be involved or at least aware and down with what's happening.
Prompts
◊ What if David Beckham and Kevin Hart were soulmates?
◊ So other than that first time, they never acknowledge that they’re wearing the same outfit. Is Kevin creepin on Becks as he makes his wardrobe choices for the day? Is it just really weird coincidence?
◊ Does Kevin make it (even) weird(er) and escalate from drawing versions of Becks' tattoos on himself to getting an actual tattoo?
◊ I love fake, in-universe media. What exactly did that article in the Hollywood Reporter say? A movie like a David Beckham biopic, especially after living the last few years in LA, would definitely get a Vanity Fair feature written on it. How does Kevin react to quotes from Becks about their time together?
◊ Where is Victoria during in all of this? What does she think of Kevin's portrayal of David in "I, Beckham: The Movie?"
◊ How do the exasperated calls/voicemails/texts between David and his agent evolve over the week that Kevin's doing his research?
◊ So other than that first time, they never acknowledge that they’re wearing the same outfit. Is Kevin creepin on Becks as he makes his wardrobe choices for the day? Is it just really weird coincidence?
◊ Does Kevin make it (even) weird(er) and escalate from drawing versions of Becks' tattoos on himself to getting an actual tattoo?
◊ I love fake, in-universe media. What exactly did that article in the Hollywood Reporter say? A movie like a David Beckham biopic, especially after living the last few years in LA, would definitely get a Vanity Fair feature written on it. How does Kevin react to quotes from Becks about their time together?
◊ Where is Victoria during in all of this? What does she think of Kevin's portrayal of David in "I, Beckham: The Movie?"
◊ How do the exasperated calls/voicemails/texts between David and his agent evolve over the week that Kevin's doing his research?
⇒ Luther │ John Luther & Justin Ripley; Open to canon-compliant S3 and S3 fix-it, I just really want more of these two interacting. Shippy or gen, either is great. I love the moral ambiguity of Luther, in particular, but Justin too and the situations that they find themselves in/the cases they investigate. Their dynamic is so archetypical: brilliant but troubled detective with questionable ethics and clear sense of justice and his loyal companion and occasional loyal opposition, and I love it so much.
Ughhhhhhhhhhh. The only thing I dislike about this show, is how much it afflicts me with a serious case of The Feels. It's just so damn good. I love how London becomes this menacing backdrop for the various cases and is almost a character in it's own right. Everyone's moral ambiguity and how the definition of both getting a job done and doing a good job does, and sometimes doesn't, change makes it such an interesting and really visceral show at times. By season 3, they've built up enough of the word to start bringing back these little threads from previous seasons that influenced characters and their decisions and rationale. Nothing's ever really forgotten and everything has consequences, and I love seeing everything unfold.I just love these two so much, with all their flaws and all their weaknesses. I love how satisfying Luther's sense of justice can be, while still being a little terrified of how he approaches police work sometimes. And Justin! He definitely slots into my "cinnamon roll, to good too pure" category of faves, but he's also got some bite beneath that puppy devotion to Luther. The combination of the two is one of my favorite partnerships in any canon, police procedural or otherwise. There's so much about their personal feelings they don't say to each other, that when they do ("He's my mate. And I love him." GAH MY HEART) it seems like it's extra significant.
Please feel free to include Alice, Erin, and Jenny in your fic. Each of them have such interesting relationships with both Luther and Justin that it's hard not to mention them at all. I wouldn't mind either Alice or Erin in a background ship with either Luther or Justin, so long as the main focus is on the Luther-Justin relationship.
Prompts
◊ Anything, and I really do mean literally anything, about Justin's loyalty to Luther. That scene in S3, where Superintendent Stark first questions Justin about his relationship with Luther is everything. I'd love something either related to the case against Luther or something more AUish involving a suspect capturing Justin for information and Justin refuses to divulge anything.
◊ If you're up for it, I always love a good casefic. Luther and Justin tracking down leads, interviewing suspects, trying to stay ahead of the case, sharing moments together during downtime to grab a bite to eat, I love all of it.
◊ Really anything with Luther and Ripley doing damn fine police work. Give me all the competence porn.
◊ I have rather recently discovered that I have A Thing for dramatic/emotional hand kissing. I don't particular care who's kissing whose hand, but I love it. In a S3 fix-it, Justin's just coming out of surgery and Luther tenderly kisses his hand. Or what's supposed to be a routine handshake turns into a tender moment.
◊ So tough guys crying is my jam, and as much as S3 broke my heart into a million little pieces, I adored Luther's reaction to Justin's death. Anything with heartbroken Luther mourning Justin's loss would be catnip to me.
◊ I'd love any sort of Justin lives!S3 fix-it, recovery, or h/c fic. Like a groundhog day/timeloop AU where Luther wakes up after each time he doesn't manage to save Justin.
◊ Justin and Erin continue their fake!dating scheme, only Luther doesn't realize it's fake and pines for Justin from afar being supportive and a good friend until Justin tells him the truth.
◊ Oh god, anything porny you want to write: go for it. Something with bondage or powerplay, watersports—particularly of the you're going to hold it until I tell you not to variety, with a dash of desperation/neediness thrown in, rough and quick sex that can be blamed on adrenaline after chasing a suspect, or seeking a human connection after a tough case would be fantastic.
◊ Okay, this so isn't the canon to ask for holiday-themed schmoop, but I kind of love realistic portrayals of how people, especially workaholic, lonely people, deal with manufactured holiday cheer and everything around them aggressively pushing the "IT'S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR" sentiment when they just don't feel that way. So even if it's just Luther and Justin sharing a drink while they take a break from a case or them awkwardly exchanging gifts, I'd like something set around the holidays.
◊ If you're up for it, I always love a good casefic. Luther and Justin tracking down leads, interviewing suspects, trying to stay ahead of the case, sharing moments together during downtime to grab a bite to eat, I love all of it.
◊ Really anything with Luther and Ripley doing damn fine police work. Give me all the competence porn.
◊ I have rather recently discovered that I have A Thing for dramatic/emotional hand kissing. I don't particular care who's kissing whose hand, but I love it. In a S3 fix-it, Justin's just coming out of surgery and Luther tenderly kisses his hand. Or what's supposed to be a routine handshake turns into a tender moment.
◊ So tough guys crying is my jam, and as much as S3 broke my heart into a million little pieces, I adored Luther's reaction to Justin's death. Anything with heartbroken Luther mourning Justin's loss would be catnip to me.
◊ I'd love any sort of Justin lives!S3 fix-it, recovery, or h/c fic. Like a groundhog day/timeloop AU where Luther wakes up after each time he doesn't manage to save Justin.
◊ Justin and Erin continue their fake!dating scheme, only Luther doesn't realize it's fake and pines for Justin from afar being supportive and a good friend until Justin tells him the truth.
◊ Oh god, anything porny you want to write: go for it. Something with bondage or powerplay, watersports—particularly of the you're going to hold it until I tell you not to variety, with a dash of desperation/neediness thrown in, rough and quick sex that can be blamed on adrenaline after chasing a suspect, or seeking a human connection after a tough case would be fantastic.
◊ Okay, this so isn't the canon to ask for holiday-themed schmoop, but I kind of love realistic portrayals of how people, especially workaholic, lonely people, deal with manufactured holiday cheer and everything around them aggressively pushing the "IT'S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR" sentiment when they just don't feel that way. So even if it's just Luther and Justin sharing a drink while they take a break from a case or them awkwardly exchanging gifts, I'd like something set around the holidays.