Yuletide Letter and Fannish Rambling
Nov. 2nd, 2014 11:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kiki_engDear Yuletide Writer,
Hi! I am so sorry that this is as late as it is. Thank you so much for writing a story for me in one of these fandoms. I am kind of absurdly excited for whatever it is that you're writing. ♥
Requests, optional details and fandoms - with pictures and spoilers:
Calvin & Hobbes
Optional Details: Watterson wrote that different people having different perceptions of Hobbes was down to different people having different perceptions of reality, so, if you want to write about Mr. Bun I'd love to read about the relationship that Susie has with him since her reality is clearly very different than Calvin's. I'd love to read something with Susie and Rosalyn interacting with each other. Futurefic would be awesome; I'd love to read about the adventures that Calvin has when he gets older, what his life looks like then, what his relationship with his parents is like. I'm basically going to be delighted anywhere you choose to go with this fandom - the bodyswap fic, the X-Files AU, the night Rosalyn babysat no one... Gen, het, slash or femslash.
I grew up on Calvin & Hobbes. I feel like I must have been reading it as soon as I could read; it was formative for me and a lot of the people around me. A number of Calvin's facial expressions are also my sister's facial expressions and I relate to the characters, sometimes a lot, and sometimes somewhat embarrassingly. I love so many of the things that Watterson chose to make this strip and to do with it.
I love that this is a strip that is incredibly critical about capitalism, art, and media, that's interested in philosophy, and delights in the grotesque, that features increasingly accurate dinosaurs as it progresses, that delights in imagination and the wonder of the natural world, that often has a very wry sense of humour, that's very character focused.
[Hobbes: "I like my smock."
Calvin: "Good. ...OK, I'll divide up the clay. Here's yours."
Hobbes: "You can tell the quality of the artist by the quality of his smock."
Calvin: "Uh huh... You have to work this stuff a bit to get it soft."
Hobbes: "Actually, I just like to say smock."
Calvin: "See, just knead it like so, and then it can be modeled."
Hobbes: "Smock smock smock smock smock smock!"
Calvin: "WHAT ON EARTH IS WRONG WITH YOU?!"]
I love Hobbes. I love all of the ways that he is a big cat - that he pounces on Calvin and takes naps and stretches out and is a little above human concerns, sometimes. I love the way he rolls his eyes at Calvin sometimes, and has that awareness and practicality. I love his face.
[(Calvin and Hobbes are sitting at a table with plates and glasses full of liquid.
Calvin: "A toast to us!"
Hobbes: "To us!"
(They appear to clink glasses.)
Calvin: "Best friends forever!"
Hobbes: "Right!"
(They munch freshly popped toast.)]
I love their friendship. I love how they delight in arguing with each other. I love all of those discussions that they have while they're turning over rocks to look for bugs, or walking along in the forest, or speeding down a hill. I love how much they care about each other and express that.
[(Calvin and Susie are sitting next to each other in class.)
Calvin: "Psst...Susie! What's 12 + 7?"
Susie: "A billion."
Calvin: "Thanks!"
Calvin: "Wait a minute. That can't be right... That's what she said 3 + 4 was."]
Susie's great. I love how just sort of "nope" she is about Calvin and his antics a lot of the time. I love that she's good at school and has a pretty good throwing arm. I love how she plays lacrosse and just how intense she is about school already. I love how she messes with him and gets upset and retaliates and gets revenge, because all of that is incredibly amusing to me. I love how grounded she seems to be a lot of the time; her tea parties are incredibly charming to me because of that.
[Calvin: "Yesterday Dad went out to buy a hardcover novel. He said he wanted to read something long, rich, and thought-provoking for a change, and he wanted a cloth binding so his book could be carried around and reread later. Then he said he was going to buy the book with cash, so nobody could trace the purchase to him and exploit his interests for commercial purposes."
Hobbes: "Your Dad's going into the future kicking and screaming, isn't he?"
Calvin: "What if he's turning into some kind of subversive?"]
I love Calvin's dad. I love all of the little ways he sort of refuses to slot into societal expectations - that he makes cash purchases with that sort of awareness is really great to me, that he doesn't want to own an answering machine, that he gets up at absurd hours on his off days to bike in terrible weather, that he's got all of these really set ideas about how he wants to live that don't quite match up with corporate interests. I love all of the ways that he messes with Calvin, all of his "scientific" explanations and how he tells Calvin that they're going to keep the Christmas tree in the garage, because it's easier, and if he gets a present he can open it out there.
I love Calvin's mom a lot, how she's incredibly patient, but there is this very hard edge as well. I feel like the part where she has interests outside of her son is a lot more subtle than it is with Calvin's dad; we see that she reads and gardens and writes letters and she's a lot more social than Calvin's father seems to be, but, there's less of a focus on that because she doesn't have that personality that monologues about why she likes things. I like how she's not at all onboard for camping in the rain and starts back-paddling the canoe. I like how much she cares about her kid.
[Calvin chases after a fly. Calvin catches the fly and smiles. Calvin releases the fly out the front door as unbeknownst to him three more fly in over his head. Calvin walks away, still smiling.]
I like Calvin a lot. I love all of the ways that he delights in the natural world and all of those moments where it's obvious what a good heart he has. I also really like his devious grin, his incredibly vivid imagination, and how much he delights in the gross and macabre. I love his snow sculptures.
[(Mom and Dad are arriving home from a night out.)
Mom: "Sorry we're late, Rosalyn. Did you get Calvin to bed?"
Rosalyn: "Yes, but..."
Calvin (not in panel):"MOM! DAD! IS THAT YOU? DID YOU GET RID OF THE BABY-SITTER? THANK GOODNESS YOU'RE HOME."
(Mom and Dad have wide eyes and Rosalyn is face-palming.)
Mom: "Has he been this way all night?"
Rosalyn: "Well, his voice gave out about 11 o'clock, but it seems to be-"
Calvin: "IF SHE'S STILL HERE DON'T PAY HER!"]
(Dad is pulling money out of his wallet for Rosalyn's outreached hand.)
Mom: "Give her a little extra, will you, dear?"
Dad: "Is five enough?"
Rosalyn: "Could you make it eight? College tuitions are up."
I think my favorite Rosalyn moment is her beating Calvin at Calvinball. I love how, with Calvin, she just rolls her sleeves up and wades in and deals with it, basically, and also terrorises back a little. I love how she basically sets her own rate for babysitting Calvin.
I love the world and characters of Calvin & Hobbes.
Enchanted Forest Chronicles - Patricia Wrede
You could write something with Mendanbar as something other than a cis man. You could write the coffee shop AU. You could write about Kazul and Cimorene wrangling the kingdom into order after the second book, doing political things. You could write something out of the Wizard's academic journal. You could write about Morwen's cats coming into her life. You could write about Telemain as a child. I am so besotted with this series that anywhere you want to go in this world, or take the characters from this world, is going to make me happy - any rating, gen, het, slash or femslash.
I fell so very hard for these books when I was a kid, loved basically everything about them, and would probably have been quite willing to live in them.
I love the world that's presented in them, how there are all of these really typical fairy tale tropes flying around and the books have all of these people going "No, I'm not doing that; I'm doing things my way and I'm going to be happy that way." I related so much to Cimorene being an outsider and incredibly sensible and I remember reading to the end of the first book and getting to her happily ever after, where she has married no one and is going to work for the King of the Dragons and it was the perfect book; I was hit with such a dose of glee and happiness and yes at that.
I love the rhythm of the books a lot.
I love all of those details. I love all of those voyages that Cimorene takes and I love Cimorene. I love that she's stubborn and very organised and makes cherries jubilee and conjugates latin verbs and is interested in fencing and magic. I think it's awesome that when she goes off to do her own thing she doesn't get caught up in the prejudices of her homeland and ends up making friends with a dragon and a witch. I love how there are also things from her traditional upbringing that she ends up finding useful.
[All of the books of The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, stacked one on top of the other in a deliberately haphazard fashion, in chronological order with Dealing with Dragons on top. The cover art features a large scaly green dragon and a woman in a maroon dress with a sword standing up to her in a dramatic fashion. The book has suffered some minor damage; the cover shows fraying, a few tiny rips, and a once bent corner.]
I love Kazul. I am so filled with delight that she is a dragon and all of the manifestations of her being a massive scaly winged predator. I love how well she and Cimorene are matched and I find it pretty amusing that they've both got this thing where they like to be in control - like when Kazul hosts that dinner party, solicits opinions on a situation and then afterwards announces that it's her business and nothing is happening without her say-so or when Cimorene seems to decide on who Daystar is marrying before he does. (Both of those bugged me, actually, but I do think it's funny.) I love that Kazul is friends with a witch and a giantess and that she's a grandmother and has a massive library.
That is also a thing that I appreciate about Morwen. I love how into books she (also) is and I love how very, very organised she is. I think I still sort of want to be Morwen when I grow up, and live in that magic and tidy house with a large number of cats. I love that there's a thing that witches can talk to their cats. I also love how very practical Morwen is and how she looks after Shiara and Daystar with their bundles in the fourth book, keeping them supplied.
I love that Morwen and Telemain are old friends that have fallen out of touch and that they end up renewing their friendship. I love that Telemain is basically incapable of simplifying his speech and that it pains him to do so. I love that he is interested in all magic and how sort of put out he is about the wizard's secrecy. I love that he gets distracted and caught up in things and has this strong drive to learn.
I love Mendanbar a lot. I love his bird nest hair and dislike of formal occasions. I love how Mendanbar is a problem solver, that he'll listen to people talk about their problems and then he'll suggest something. I love how he does magic, how he perceives threads when he's working with the forest and the detail work that he puts into it sometimes. I love how much of Mendanbar's existence is magic, that it's part of how he sees the world and that the magic of the Enchanted Forest is his home, basically. I love how he sort of muddles through proposing to Cimorene.
I love these books. I love their juxtaposition of the ordinary and the fantastic, that they made the fantastic feel real when I was a kid.
Les Aventures Extraordinaires d'Adèle Blanc-Sec (2010)
Anything about Agathe and Adèle's relationship would be great. I'm really interested in reading about someone who really gets Adèle and can keep up with her - Agathe or someone else. I'd love to read about what Agathe does after the events of the film - what she does with a competitive drive that matches her sister's. I'm a little curious, too, about what plays out between Agathe and Andrej, and I totally want to know about what happens to Adèle on the Titanic. If you wanted to explore more about the dinosaur I would be really excited to read about magic or science or dinosaurs in any combination. I love the world and the characters in this; any direction you choose to go will make me happy.
[The actress made up as Adèle, a young woman with a hat covered in richly coloured plumes, holds out her long emerald dress-coat as she twirls, a wide smile on her face. There are gold sarcophagi in the background.]
This picture? Is pretty much how I feel about the entire film. Adèle, pictured above, is the main character. She is kick-ass. The film is set in 1911. In the first five minutes of the film a pterodactyl hatches.
[Adèle looking over her shoulder as she rides a camel in the desert. She is wearing a wide-brimmed tan-coloured hat, the top part of which has been covered over with a lightweight white fabric, two pieces of which drape over the brim, down to her waist. She is also wearing some kind of detailed white top and a beige vest tied at the waist with a belt.]
Here is another picture of Adèle, because she is fantastic and I am going to talk about her a bit. You may have noticed that she has amazing hats. She does, indeed, have amazing hats. (Everyone’s wardrobe in this film is fantastic. I really love the aesthetic of this film.) She is pretty much made of awesome. She's this famous author that does book signings and has amazing adventures. People have made Indiana Jones comparisons, which are pretty fitting*, but she is more awesome than he is.
*especially since this is a film that shares that kind of flawed approach to archaeology
She’s independent, no nonsense and fantastically unphased by everything. She is caustic, polite, and not terribly dignified. She has deep emotional pain and guilt and feelings.
[Adèle and Agathe facing each other over a tennis net, their rackets in hand. Adèle is also holding two balls and she is wearing a hat. Both of them look serious and somewhat hostile.]
Her sister Agathe suffers an accident pre-film and Adèle makes it her mission to fix it. Adèle's so focused on that it's amazing and the glimpses that we get of their relationship are a lot of fun, too; they banter and are gloriously competitive. They seem to be rather similar in some ways, but very much not so in others.
[Over the shoulder of a white-haired person we see three police officers in a vee formation. The man at the front has his jacket open, both thumbs looped into the pockets of his vest, and his shoulders set back. Behind him one man is holding up a badge and the other tipping his cap. All three of them are wearing bowler hats.]
Everyone in this film is kind of who they are to a ridiculous extent, like they’ve fallen out of a book. Inspecteur Caponi is a copper, essentially. He’s this bravado-filled man who’s simultaneously downtrodden and dealing with what appears to be a massive sleep debt.
There’s some really entertaining bureaucracy and politics on display in this film. Part of that is this great sequence with Caponi’s boss, Cheval, who has this amazing face; he has eyes and a moustache (this is a film worth watching for the moustaches alone, I swear) and a voice - it’s pretty awesome, for all that he’s this itty bitty part of the movie. I love how richly textured this film is.
[Two men are looking over a fence in a wooded area. A white-haired man has wide blue eyes and his younger companion with dark hair and wire-frame glasses is smiling as he talks with a hand. They are both wearing white lab coats over their clothes.]
These two scientists are also pretty awesome. Andrej, the younger, is like an adorable puppy; he’s a fan and besotted with Adèle and kind of brilliant and awkward. (I love how Agathe reacts so drastically differently to meeting him than Adèle does.) Ménard is awesome; he’s a slightly mad scientist and just generally this fantastic old man.
[A man with a pith helmet, dark eye makeup, beard, and a moustache with waxed tips is holding a gun at a forty-five degree angle to the side. It has a shoulder strap with a leopard fur lining.]
There’s a chase sequence in the credits with Ménard and this guy, Justin de Saint-Hubert. There is an old man with a gun manically shooting at things; that is pretty much how the film ends.
Les aventures extraordinaires d'Adèle Blanc-Sec is a film that I’m completely and unrepentantly in love with. It’s this glorious mad-cap French adventure-fantasy-comedy and it’s chockfull of amazing characters and sets and costumes and it is just generally shiny.
Pasta (TV)
I would love to read the AU where Yoo Kyung and Hyun Wook actually go to Italy when they've got that simultaneous schooling and job opportunity. I'd also be really interested in something exploring the relationship they have with Eun Soo - romantic, platonic, whatever. I'd love to read about what got Eun Soo into cooking, about Hyun Wook's family, or about Kim Kang - hassling her brother, having feelings, working, whatever. I think Kang's fascinating, so anything about her would be great - I have a lot of affection (if somewhat more halting for some, because sexism makes me unhappy) for all of the nominated characters so I'd like to see more of them, however - soulbonding, royalty AU, amnesia fic... wherever you want to go.
I almost quit watching this show so many times. There's misogyny and meanness and evil scheming and as I'd watch I'd be like Noooo.... Everyone is terrible. Except for Yoo Kyung. Yoo Kyung is awesome and no one deserves her. I was so betrayed by this show.
When Hyun Wook and Yoo Kyung meet it is beautiful and amazing and the cutest meet-cute.
[A man and women are crouched down on pavement. They are both wearing backpacks and he is pouring from his water bottle into her cupped hands.]
There was that moment where they save goldfish from oncoming traffic and it is wonderful and adorable and they are silly and a bit awkward with each other after and I basically had hearts in my eyes and then it all just goes south so fast, and I still feel so terribly wronged by that.
[Seo Yoo Kyung is standing at a crosswalk at night, her arms at her sides, palms open, and an expression of wtf on her face.]
This basically, was how I felt and I started chanting things at my screen and watched a number of episodes waiting for bad things to happen to Hyun Wook. I absolutely hate that trope where the alpha hero, wronged by a woman he loves, proceeds to scorn all women. I hate Hyun Wook's misogyny and I hate that all of the men on this show were complicit in his treatment of women.
...and yet this is a thing that I successfully watched and started rewatching, actually, and then proceeded to nominate and request for yuletide. I feel like I should explain. This show was really good for me.
[Yoo Kyung's face is visible in darkened profile and Hyun Wook is crouched down looking at her, head tilted and brow-furrowed, side-eying her.]
Choi Hyun Wook, the alpha hero, is played by Lee Sun Gyun, who played the beta hero in Coffee Prince, and he makes the most amazing faces. Hyun Wook also, and this is like, the best thing ever for me, struts around all "I am the chef.", so seriously, in these ridiculous scarves. His scarves are awesome. I basically think that he is a hilarious individual. Hyun Wook is in a situation where he is the head chef at a restaurant and so the boss of most of the people that he interacts with and he's got this urge for things to be his way and a desire to project authority and part of that, for him, is doing that stylishly, which delights me endlessly. There are bits where his plans or the image that he projects falls through and he flounders a bit and those moments are really wonderful.
I love a lot of the interactions that he has with Seo Yoo Kyung because of this, because she's stubborn and driven and refuses to go away because she is a chef and she has decided that she is basically never leaving that kitchen. I love that it's totally not about him for her and all of these acts of quiet defiance that she commits. That clash is a lot of fun for me, and I love how their relationship develops, that there are arguments that they have and also these really adorable feelings for each other. I love how she complicates his life and causes him suffering and also makes his life better. I love how there's this instant attraction and then their romance is this terribly begrudging thing.
[A small amount of olive oil pasta on a large white plate is being pulled apart by someone with a fork.]
The fact that this is a drama about chefs and so there is all of this cooking that happens is really great. The sheer volume of food in this show is fantastic. I love how enthusiastic everyone is about food, too, and the Eun Soo, when they visit him has pictures of food stuck to the ceiling over his bed.
[Yoo Kyung is looking at Eun Soo who is looking at Hyun Wook who is looking at her. They are all lying down together and Eun Soo and Yoo Kyung each have their heads pillowed on one of Hyun Wook's outstretched arms. Their faces are amused and evaluative.]
That visit to Eun Soo's apartment that Hyung Wook and Yoo Kyung make made me ship them all a bit, because there's that thing where the relationship between the two of them is secret and Eun Soo being the only one who knows makes him a bit of a third party to that, and, then they all end up sleeping together and Hyung Wook demands to be in the middle.
[A fashionable looking woman, Kim Kang, has her hands planted on her brother's desk and is leaning forward. He is wearing a suit and looking up at her from his seat.]
Kim Kang is a character that won me over with her feelings, basically. Her delicate emotional side made her everything more appealing to me. I do really like the way she hassles her brother and ships him and Oh Sae Young, but I am much less a fan of the way she comes onto the kitchen staff that work in the restaurant that her brother owns.
There are a lot of people in this show that are not perfect and have flaws and things that they do badly. Those flaws are why there were moments that I quit watching this show, but, what got me through to the end was probably Hyung Wook's ridiculousness, Yoo Kyung's goodness (I have barely written about her but she is lovely, full of that goodness and a drive.), them in combination, and also the potential that so many of these people have to grow. It's also a show that has all of these really funny moments scattered throughout it. There's a lot of genuine delight to be had watching this show.
Other Information
I like sex safe and consensual. I'm not a big fan of professional ethics violations - e.g. I don't like doctor/patient. I do like relationship barriers; I like people sorting things out or getting over their issues in order to establish that relationship. I like that tension. I like people getting to a place where they're on equal footing with each other.
Characters role-playing non-con is something that I'm good with. If you want to write a story with kink or sex I'd be excited to read it; I'd be excited to read a story without those elements, too. If you want to write a story about an asexual character - or an aromantic or a genderqueer or a trans character - I'd be happy to read that as well.
"Lame", "hottie", and "girlie" are all words that I don't really like. I don't like "lame" when it's used in an ableist context. I have some strongly negative associations with "hottie" and "girlie"; those are words that are likely to make me cringe and feel uncomfortable.
I love fanfic. I love it for its ability to fill in gaps in a story, to flesh out characters, to explore an idea, to make a point, to be diverting, to show me something I didn't see before. I love its many versions of the same story; I love its tropes. I'm going to be really excited whatever direction you go in. Please, write what you want to write; the optional details are very much optional.
Have fun! And thank you so much, again, for writing something in one of these fandoms! You're awesome!
♥
Hi! I am so sorry that this is as late as it is. Thank you so much for writing a story for me in one of these fandoms. I am kind of absurdly excited for whatever it is that you're writing. ♥
Requests, optional details and fandoms - with pictures and spoilers:
Calvin & Hobbes
Optional Details: Watterson wrote that different people having different perceptions of Hobbes was down to different people having different perceptions of reality, so, if you want to write about Mr. Bun I'd love to read about the relationship that Susie has with him since her reality is clearly very different than Calvin's. I'd love to read something with Susie and Rosalyn interacting with each other. Futurefic would be awesome; I'd love to read about the adventures that Calvin has when he gets older, what his life looks like then, what his relationship with his parents is like. I'm basically going to be delighted anywhere you choose to go with this fandom - the bodyswap fic, the X-Files AU, the night Rosalyn babysat no one... Gen, het, slash or femslash.
I grew up on Calvin & Hobbes. I feel like I must have been reading it as soon as I could read; it was formative for me and a lot of the people around me. A number of Calvin's facial expressions are also my sister's facial expressions and I relate to the characters, sometimes a lot, and sometimes somewhat embarrassingly. I love so many of the things that Watterson chose to make this strip and to do with it.
I love that this is a strip that is incredibly critical about capitalism, art, and media, that's interested in philosophy, and delights in the grotesque, that features increasingly accurate dinosaurs as it progresses, that delights in imagination and the wonder of the natural world, that often has a very wry sense of humour, that's very character focused.
[Hobbes: "I like my smock."
Calvin: "Good. ...OK, I'll divide up the clay. Here's yours."
Hobbes: "You can tell the quality of the artist by the quality of his smock."
Calvin: "Uh huh... You have to work this stuff a bit to get it soft."
Hobbes: "Actually, I just like to say smock."
Calvin: "See, just knead it like so, and then it can be modeled."
Hobbes: "Smock smock smock smock smock smock!"
Calvin: "WHAT ON EARTH IS WRONG WITH YOU?!"]
I love Hobbes. I love all of the ways that he is a big cat - that he pounces on Calvin and takes naps and stretches out and is a little above human concerns, sometimes. I love the way he rolls his eyes at Calvin sometimes, and has that awareness and practicality. I love his face.
[(Calvin and Hobbes are sitting at a table with plates and glasses full of liquid.
Calvin: "A toast to us!"
Hobbes: "To us!"
(They appear to clink glasses.)
Calvin: "Best friends forever!"
Hobbes: "Right!"
(They munch freshly popped toast.)]
I love their friendship. I love how they delight in arguing with each other. I love all of those discussions that they have while they're turning over rocks to look for bugs, or walking along in the forest, or speeding down a hill. I love how much they care about each other and express that.
[(Calvin and Susie are sitting next to each other in class.)
Calvin: "Psst...Susie! What's 12 + 7?"
Susie: "A billion."
Calvin: "Thanks!"
Calvin: "Wait a minute. That can't be right... That's what she said 3 + 4 was."]
Susie's great. I love how just sort of "nope" she is about Calvin and his antics a lot of the time. I love that she's good at school and has a pretty good throwing arm. I love how she plays lacrosse and just how intense she is about school already. I love how she messes with him and gets upset and retaliates and gets revenge, because all of that is incredibly amusing to me. I love how grounded she seems to be a lot of the time; her tea parties are incredibly charming to me because of that.
[Calvin: "Yesterday Dad went out to buy a hardcover novel. He said he wanted to read something long, rich, and thought-provoking for a change, and he wanted a cloth binding so his book could be carried around and reread later. Then he said he was going to buy the book with cash, so nobody could trace the purchase to him and exploit his interests for commercial purposes."
Hobbes: "Your Dad's going into the future kicking and screaming, isn't he?"
Calvin: "What if he's turning into some kind of subversive?"]
I love Calvin's dad. I love all of the little ways he sort of refuses to slot into societal expectations - that he makes cash purchases with that sort of awareness is really great to me, that he doesn't want to own an answering machine, that he gets up at absurd hours on his off days to bike in terrible weather, that he's got all of these really set ideas about how he wants to live that don't quite match up with corporate interests. I love all of the ways that he messes with Calvin, all of his "scientific" explanations and how he tells Calvin that they're going to keep the Christmas tree in the garage, because it's easier, and if he gets a present he can open it out there.
I love Calvin's mom a lot, how she's incredibly patient, but there is this very hard edge as well. I feel like the part where she has interests outside of her son is a lot more subtle than it is with Calvin's dad; we see that she reads and gardens and writes letters and she's a lot more social than Calvin's father seems to be, but, there's less of a focus on that because she doesn't have that personality that monologues about why she likes things. I like how she's not at all onboard for camping in the rain and starts back-paddling the canoe. I like how much she cares about her kid.
[Calvin chases after a fly. Calvin catches the fly and smiles. Calvin releases the fly out the front door as unbeknownst to him three more fly in over his head. Calvin walks away, still smiling.]
I like Calvin a lot. I love all of the ways that he delights in the natural world and all of those moments where it's obvious what a good heart he has. I also really like his devious grin, his incredibly vivid imagination, and how much he delights in the gross and macabre. I love his snow sculptures.
[(Mom and Dad are arriving home from a night out.)
Mom: "Sorry we're late, Rosalyn. Did you get Calvin to bed?"
Rosalyn: "Yes, but..."
Calvin (not in panel):"MOM! DAD! IS THAT YOU? DID YOU GET RID OF THE BABY-SITTER? THANK GOODNESS YOU'RE HOME."
(Mom and Dad have wide eyes and Rosalyn is face-palming.)
Mom: "Has he been this way all night?"
Rosalyn: "Well, his voice gave out about 11 o'clock, but it seems to be-"
Calvin: "IF SHE'S STILL HERE DON'T PAY HER!"]
(Dad is pulling money out of his wallet for Rosalyn's outreached hand.)
Mom: "Give her a little extra, will you, dear?"
Dad: "Is five enough?"
Rosalyn: "Could you make it eight? College tuitions are up."
I think my favorite Rosalyn moment is her beating Calvin at Calvinball. I love how, with Calvin, she just rolls her sleeves up and wades in and deals with it, basically, and also terrorises back a little. I love how she basically sets her own rate for babysitting Calvin.
I love the world and characters of Calvin & Hobbes.
Enchanted Forest Chronicles - Patricia Wrede
You could write something with Mendanbar as something other than a cis man. You could write the coffee shop AU. You could write about Kazul and Cimorene wrangling the kingdom into order after the second book, doing political things. You could write something out of the Wizard's academic journal. You could write about Morwen's cats coming into her life. You could write about Telemain as a child. I am so besotted with this series that anywhere you want to go in this world, or take the characters from this world, is going to make me happy - any rating, gen, het, slash or femslash.
I fell so very hard for these books when I was a kid, loved basically everything about them, and would probably have been quite willing to live in them.
I love the world that's presented in them, how there are all of these really typical fairy tale tropes flying around and the books have all of these people going "No, I'm not doing that; I'm doing things my way and I'm going to be happy that way." I related so much to Cimorene being an outsider and incredibly sensible and I remember reading to the end of the first book and getting to her happily ever after, where she has married no one and is going to work for the King of the Dragons and it was the perfect book; I was hit with such a dose of glee and happiness and yes at that.
I love the rhythm of the books a lot.
"Linderwall was a large kingdom, just east of the Mountains of Morning, where philosophers were highly respected and the number five was fashionable. The climate was unremarkable. The knights kept their armor brightly polished mainly for show---it had been centuries since a dragon had come east. There were the usual periodic problems with royal children and uninvited fairy godmothers, but they were always the sort of thing that could be cleared up by finding the proper prince or princess to marry the unfortunate child a few years later. All in all, Linderwall was a very prosperous and pleasant place.
Cimorene hated it."
Cimorene hated it."
I love all of those details. I love all of those voyages that Cimorene takes and I love Cimorene. I love that she's stubborn and very organised and makes cherries jubilee and conjugates latin verbs and is interested in fencing and magic. I think it's awesome that when she goes off to do her own thing she doesn't get caught up in the prejudices of her homeland and ends up making friends with a dragon and a witch. I love how there are also things from her traditional upbringing that she ends up finding useful.
[All of the books of The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, stacked one on top of the other in a deliberately haphazard fashion, in chronological order with Dealing with Dragons on top. The cover art features a large scaly green dragon and a woman in a maroon dress with a sword standing up to her in a dramatic fashion. The book has suffered some minor damage; the cover shows fraying, a few tiny rips, and a once bent corner.]
I love Kazul. I am so filled with delight that she is a dragon and all of the manifestations of her being a massive scaly winged predator. I love how well she and Cimorene are matched and I find it pretty amusing that they've both got this thing where they like to be in control - like when Kazul hosts that dinner party, solicits opinions on a situation and then afterwards announces that it's her business and nothing is happening without her say-so or when Cimorene seems to decide on who Daystar is marrying before he does. (Both of those bugged me, actually, but I do think it's funny.) I love that Kazul is friends with a witch and a giantess and that she's a grandmother and has a massive library.
That is also a thing that I appreciate about Morwen. I love how into books she (also) is and I love how very, very organised she is. I think I still sort of want to be Morwen when I grow up, and live in that magic and tidy house with a large number of cats. I love that there's a thing that witches can talk to their cats. I also love how very practical Morwen is and how she looks after Shiara and Daystar with their bundles in the fourth book, keeping them supplied.
I love that Morwen and Telemain are old friends that have fallen out of touch and that they end up renewing their friendship. I love that Telemain is basically incapable of simplifying his speech and that it pains him to do so. I love that he is interested in all magic and how sort of put out he is about the wizard's secrecy. I love that he gets distracted and caught up in things and has this strong drive to learn.
I love Mendanbar a lot. I love his bird nest hair and dislike of formal occasions. I love how Mendanbar is a problem solver, that he'll listen to people talk about their problems and then he'll suggest something. I love how he does magic, how he perceives threads when he's working with the forest and the detail work that he puts into it sometimes. I love how much of Mendanbar's existence is magic, that it's part of how he sees the world and that the magic of the Enchanted Forest is his home, basically. I love how he sort of muddles through proposing to Cimorene.
I love these books. I love their juxtaposition of the ordinary and the fantastic, that they made the fantastic feel real when I was a kid.
Les Aventures Extraordinaires d'Adèle Blanc-Sec (2010)
Anything about Agathe and Adèle's relationship would be great. I'm really interested in reading about someone who really gets Adèle and can keep up with her - Agathe or someone else. I'd love to read about what Agathe does after the events of the film - what she does with a competitive drive that matches her sister's. I'm a little curious, too, about what plays out between Agathe and Andrej, and I totally want to know about what happens to Adèle on the Titanic. If you wanted to explore more about the dinosaur I would be really excited to read about magic or science or dinosaurs in any combination. I love the world and the characters in this; any direction you choose to go will make me happy.
[The actress made up as Adèle, a young woman with a hat covered in richly coloured plumes, holds out her long emerald dress-coat as she twirls, a wide smile on her face. There are gold sarcophagi in the background.]
This picture? Is pretty much how I feel about the entire film. Adèle, pictured above, is the main character. She is kick-ass. The film is set in 1911. In the first five minutes of the film a pterodactyl hatches.
[Adèle looking over her shoulder as she rides a camel in the desert. She is wearing a wide-brimmed tan-coloured hat, the top part of which has been covered over with a lightweight white fabric, two pieces of which drape over the brim, down to her waist. She is also wearing some kind of detailed white top and a beige vest tied at the waist with a belt.]
Here is another picture of Adèle, because she is fantastic and I am going to talk about her a bit. You may have noticed that she has amazing hats. She does, indeed, have amazing hats. (Everyone’s wardrobe in this film is fantastic. I really love the aesthetic of this film.) She is pretty much made of awesome. She's this famous author that does book signings and has amazing adventures. People have made Indiana Jones comparisons, which are pretty fitting*, but she is more awesome than he is.
*especially since this is a film that shares that kind of flawed approach to archaeology
She’s independent, no nonsense and fantastically unphased by everything. She is caustic, polite, and not terribly dignified. She has deep emotional pain and guilt and feelings.
[Adèle and Agathe facing each other over a tennis net, their rackets in hand. Adèle is also holding two balls and she is wearing a hat. Both of them look serious and somewhat hostile.]
Her sister Agathe suffers an accident pre-film and Adèle makes it her mission to fix it. Adèle's so focused on that it's amazing and the glimpses that we get of their relationship are a lot of fun, too; they banter and are gloriously competitive. They seem to be rather similar in some ways, but very much not so in others.
[Over the shoulder of a white-haired person we see three police officers in a vee formation. The man at the front has his jacket open, both thumbs looped into the pockets of his vest, and his shoulders set back. Behind him one man is holding up a badge and the other tipping his cap. All three of them are wearing bowler hats.]
Everyone in this film is kind of who they are to a ridiculous extent, like they’ve fallen out of a book. Inspecteur Caponi is a copper, essentially. He’s this bravado-filled man who’s simultaneously downtrodden and dealing with what appears to be a massive sleep debt.
There’s some really entertaining bureaucracy and politics on display in this film. Part of that is this great sequence with Caponi’s boss, Cheval, who has this amazing face; he has eyes and a moustache (this is a film worth watching for the moustaches alone, I swear) and a voice - it’s pretty awesome, for all that he’s this itty bitty part of the movie. I love how richly textured this film is.
[Two men are looking over a fence in a wooded area. A white-haired man has wide blue eyes and his younger companion with dark hair and wire-frame glasses is smiling as he talks with a hand. They are both wearing white lab coats over their clothes.]
These two scientists are also pretty awesome. Andrej, the younger, is like an adorable puppy; he’s a fan and besotted with Adèle and kind of brilliant and awkward. (I love how Agathe reacts so drastically differently to meeting him than Adèle does.) Ménard is awesome; he’s a slightly mad scientist and just generally this fantastic old man.
[A man with a pith helmet, dark eye makeup, beard, and a moustache with waxed tips is holding a gun at a forty-five degree angle to the side. It has a shoulder strap with a leopard fur lining.]
There’s a chase sequence in the credits with Ménard and this guy, Justin de Saint-Hubert. There is an old man with a gun manically shooting at things; that is pretty much how the film ends.
Les aventures extraordinaires d'Adèle Blanc-Sec is a film that I’m completely and unrepentantly in love with. It’s this glorious mad-cap French adventure-fantasy-comedy and it’s chockfull of amazing characters and sets and costumes and it is just generally shiny.
Pasta (TV)
I would love to read the AU where Yoo Kyung and Hyun Wook actually go to Italy when they've got that simultaneous schooling and job opportunity. I'd also be really interested in something exploring the relationship they have with Eun Soo - romantic, platonic, whatever. I'd love to read about what got Eun Soo into cooking, about Hyun Wook's family, or about Kim Kang - hassling her brother, having feelings, working, whatever. I think Kang's fascinating, so anything about her would be great - I have a lot of affection (if somewhat more halting for some, because sexism makes me unhappy) for all of the nominated characters so I'd like to see more of them, however - soulbonding, royalty AU, amnesia fic... wherever you want to go.
I almost quit watching this show so many times. There's misogyny and meanness and evil scheming and as I'd watch I'd be like Noooo.... Everyone is terrible. Except for Yoo Kyung. Yoo Kyung is awesome and no one deserves her. I was so betrayed by this show.
When Hyun Wook and Yoo Kyung meet it is beautiful and amazing and the cutest meet-cute.
[A man and women are crouched down on pavement. They are both wearing backpacks and he is pouring from his water bottle into her cupped hands.]
There was that moment where they save goldfish from oncoming traffic and it is wonderful and adorable and they are silly and a bit awkward with each other after and I basically had hearts in my eyes and then it all just goes south so fast, and I still feel so terribly wronged by that.
[Seo Yoo Kyung is standing at a crosswalk at night, her arms at her sides, palms open, and an expression of wtf on her face.]
This basically, was how I felt and I started chanting things at my screen and watched a number of episodes waiting for bad things to happen to Hyun Wook. I absolutely hate that trope where the alpha hero, wronged by a woman he loves, proceeds to scorn all women. I hate Hyun Wook's misogyny and I hate that all of the men on this show were complicit in his treatment of women.
...and yet this is a thing that I successfully watched and started rewatching, actually, and then proceeded to nominate and request for yuletide. I feel like I should explain. This show was really good for me.
[Yoo Kyung's face is visible in darkened profile and Hyun Wook is crouched down looking at her, head tilted and brow-furrowed, side-eying her.]
Choi Hyun Wook, the alpha hero, is played by Lee Sun Gyun, who played the beta hero in Coffee Prince, and he makes the most amazing faces. Hyun Wook also, and this is like, the best thing ever for me, struts around all "I am the chef.", so seriously, in these ridiculous scarves. His scarves are awesome. I basically think that he is a hilarious individual. Hyun Wook is in a situation where he is the head chef at a restaurant and so the boss of most of the people that he interacts with and he's got this urge for things to be his way and a desire to project authority and part of that, for him, is doing that stylishly, which delights me endlessly. There are bits where his plans or the image that he projects falls through and he flounders a bit and those moments are really wonderful.
I love a lot of the interactions that he has with Seo Yoo Kyung because of this, because she's stubborn and driven and refuses to go away because she is a chef and she has decided that she is basically never leaving that kitchen. I love that it's totally not about him for her and all of these acts of quiet defiance that she commits. That clash is a lot of fun for me, and I love how their relationship develops, that there are arguments that they have and also these really adorable feelings for each other. I love how she complicates his life and causes him suffering and also makes his life better. I love how there's this instant attraction and then their romance is this terribly begrudging thing.
[A small amount of olive oil pasta on a large white plate is being pulled apart by someone with a fork.]
The fact that this is a drama about chefs and so there is all of this cooking that happens is really great. The sheer volume of food in this show is fantastic. I love how enthusiastic everyone is about food, too, and the Eun Soo, when they visit him has pictures of food stuck to the ceiling over his bed.
[Yoo Kyung is looking at Eun Soo who is looking at Hyun Wook who is looking at her. They are all lying down together and Eun Soo and Yoo Kyung each have their heads pillowed on one of Hyun Wook's outstretched arms. Their faces are amused and evaluative.]
That visit to Eun Soo's apartment that Hyung Wook and Yoo Kyung make made me ship them all a bit, because there's that thing where the relationship between the two of them is secret and Eun Soo being the only one who knows makes him a bit of a third party to that, and, then they all end up sleeping together and Hyung Wook demands to be in the middle.
[A fashionable looking woman, Kim Kang, has her hands planted on her brother's desk and is leaning forward. He is wearing a suit and looking up at her from his seat.]
Kim Kang is a character that won me over with her feelings, basically. Her delicate emotional side made her everything more appealing to me. I do really like the way she hassles her brother and ships him and Oh Sae Young, but I am much less a fan of the way she comes onto the kitchen staff that work in the restaurant that her brother owns.
There are a lot of people in this show that are not perfect and have flaws and things that they do badly. Those flaws are why there were moments that I quit watching this show, but, what got me through to the end was probably Hyung Wook's ridiculousness, Yoo Kyung's goodness (I have barely written about her but she is lovely, full of that goodness and a drive.), them in combination, and also the potential that so many of these people have to grow. It's also a show that has all of these really funny moments scattered throughout it. There's a lot of genuine delight to be had watching this show.
Other Information
I like sex safe and consensual. I'm not a big fan of professional ethics violations - e.g. I don't like doctor/patient. I do like relationship barriers; I like people sorting things out or getting over their issues in order to establish that relationship. I like that tension. I like people getting to a place where they're on equal footing with each other.
Characters role-playing non-con is something that I'm good with. If you want to write a story with kink or sex I'd be excited to read it; I'd be excited to read a story without those elements, too. If you want to write a story about an asexual character - or an aromantic or a genderqueer or a trans character - I'd be happy to read that as well.
"Lame", "hottie", and "girlie" are all words that I don't really like. I don't like "lame" when it's used in an ableist context. I have some strongly negative associations with "hottie" and "girlie"; those are words that are likely to make me cringe and feel uncomfortable.
I love fanfic. I love it for its ability to fill in gaps in a story, to flesh out characters, to explore an idea, to make a point, to be diverting, to show me something I didn't see before. I love its many versions of the same story; I love its tropes. I'm going to be really excited whatever direction you go in. Please, write what you want to write; the optional details are very much optional.
Have fun! And thank you so much, again, for writing something in one of these fandoms! You're awesome!
♥
