Yuletide Letter 2018

[donutsweeper]

Thank you for writing for me!

In general I like stories that focus on character development and interactions, hurt/comfort, competence (it's always great to read stories where people do their jobs and do it well even under extreme circumstances), missing scenes, and plotty adventures. Humor, snappy dialog and/or snark are all wonderful and canon type violence is fine.

Graphic violence and rape can be a trigger of mine, so I'd appreciate if you did not include either in a story written for me. Other DNWs include A/B/O, character death, genderswap, mpreg or xeno.

Donut Shop Anthropomorfic (any)

Well, there's no way anyone is going to believe this, but I didn't actually nominate donut shops despite giggling over the idea in discord. But, that said, since they are in the tagset I am, of course, going to request them. Possible story ideas include if there is a greater conspiracy for the donut chains to try to take over America and then the world or if DD actively tries to get people addicted to their munchkins. Or perhaps, is there something special in Tim Horton's double double? Does KK scheme to try to drive small Mom & Pop shops out of business? Will Voodoo Donuts' ability to rise from the dead ruin the big chains' plans of world domination? What is the vital ingredient in donuts that keeps us coming back for more? Inquiring minds want to know!

As a surprise to no one, I talk about donuts a lot pretty much everywhere I wind up: LJ, DW, irc, discord, real life, etc, and I honestly only vaguely remember the conversation where we discussed the big idea of the big donut store chains swooping into new areas and causing small shops to close since they couldn't compete and how maybe it was all part of a bigger conspiracy but if it was it wouldn't work because they'd brought down by Voodoo Doughnuts which (for obvious reasons) wouldn't stay closed if killed off. Or something to that effect.

Please tell me about the donuts and their respective shops and the war between the munchkins, timbits and doughnut holes. What is actually in the bright red raspberry filling? Why are donuts so tasty and addicting? If you have a different idea in mind go for it! Donuts are my favorite things in the world, you can't go wrong telling me a story about them!

The four shops in the tagset are Dunkin' Donuts, Krispy Kreme, Tim Hortons, and Voodoo Doughnut feel free to include any, all, none or other random shops at your leisure.

Strange World (TV) Major Lynne Reese, Paul Turner

OH MY GOD FIX THE ENDING OF THIS SHOW!

*Ahem*

This show was great for all the unusual and often criminal science cases it dealt with in its short run. The relationship between Paul and Lynne was also presented as such a cornerstone to everything because of their history and their friendship, but also the complicated nature of her feeling she failed him and failed science by not listening to him back during the war. I would love to read about other cases they investigated (either before 1x13 or in some happy 'Paul got better' post-series future).

ABC commissioned this show about investigating criminal abuses of science but then cancelled it before showing nearly any of its episodes. Luckily, the old SciFi channel picked it up and aired it in its entirety a few years later. For a show that's almost 20 years old it focused on a lot of subjects that are still issues today: people still worry about genetically modified food, AIs, medical advancements, technological developments, etc. Would their cases be different if it were set today? Would the 24 hour news cycle and social media alter how they found cases? Solved them? What other cases might they have investigated if Paul hadn't relapsed? Or what other cases did they have during those months they worked together for USAMRIID that weren't shown?

I loved this show, anything more in its universe would be great to read. All thirteen episodes of Strange World are up on youtube (although possibly in the wrong order since the wiki has them in a slightly different one.)


The Thing From Another World (1951) Captain Patrick Hendry

I love old school, black and white scifi/horror movies and 'The Things From Another World' is one of the best. One of the draws for me is the interaction between the characters, especially between Capt. Hendry and his flight crew as well as the Captain and Nikki. What happens after the movie ends? Do Pat and Nikki live happily ever after? Does he (and the men under his command) get in trouble for blowing up the UFO and destroying the creature? Or did they fail to burn all of Dr. Carrington's experiments and they have another alien to face? I'd love to read about any and all of it!

This movie is one of the best examples of old scifi/horror out there in my opinion. There's suspense, wonderful characters, snappy dialogue, and clever writing all tied into a cold war allegorical plotty movie. I love the way it combines the tension of the isolated, unforgiving setting along with the struggles of the characters as they try to survive against the unknown and alien foe while disagreeing among themselves on the best way to do that, without demonizing either side, and still give us a wonderful action story with a touch of romance.

I really don't know what to ask for besides what was in my optional details other than to say I'd be thrilled with any more adventures of these characters so if you have any ideas other than what I've suggested, please run with them. The movie is out of copyright and can be watched legally at archive.org here.


The Thing In the Walls Wants Your Small Change - Virginia M Mohlere The Dragon (The Thing In the Walls Wants Your Small Change)

This is a bit of an odd request because the dragon is, in a way, a rather minor part of this story. But it's so interesting! Is the dragon the only thing that lives in the walls? How did it feel about someone moving into the apartment whose walls it inhabits? Have others offered coins before?

Worldbuilding would be perfectly fine for this canon, focusing on the dragon or not. DNW xeno.

I spent the entire time I was reading this story enthralled with the dragon and wanting to know more about it. According to Caro the place the dragon enters the apartment just looks like an ordinary section of wall during the day, what changes to make it a place it can go to and fro with ease? Are there other things living in the walls? Caro put the money in the crack to appease house ghosts/spirits, do they exist too? What did the neighbor mean when she said the building was a 'clean place' and protected if she hadn't realized the protection was so literal?

I really don't know what else to say except I'd love to read more about this world and the dragon.

The Thing In the Walls Wants Your Small Change was published online and can be read here.


To Whatever - Shaenon Garrity Ethan (To Whatever), Whatever Lives in the Walls (To Whatever)

Ethan's notes to Whatever Lives in the Walls give a glimpse of the slow shift from possible thing vaguely inhabiting the same general area to sort of unacknowledged sometimes visitor to semi-roommate to acquaintance to close friend without going into any real details, details which I'd love to see.

Worldbuilding would be perfectly fine for this canon; it would also be fine if only one (or neither in the case of worldbuilding) character showed up in a story for me. DNW porn, especially xeno.

This story has been in the Yuletide tagset for a number of years now and every time I always looked forward to reading what people came up with about it but it was never actually requested so I decided to be the change! With the exception of xeno, I'm really interested to read anything and everything people might come up with about this story. I just want to read more about Whatever (aka Whoever, aka Roomie) and I want to know how Ethan learned the runes it communicates with, if they ever actually meet face to face, if they ever travel to the Elder City together or meet others Who Walk Between, etc.

Keeping with the original story's epistolary-style would be interesting, but is not remotely necessary.

To Whatever was published online and can be read here.


Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea Lee Crane (Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (TV))

The crew of the Seaview faced one unusual foe or impossible situation after another: time travel, ghosts, dinosaurs, werewolves, mermaids, aliens, evil scientists, lobster men, not to mention, of course, numerous ridiculously large sea creatures. What other adventures did they have? Gen please.

When not embroiled in political shenanigans (an ongoing plot of S1 that was quickly dropped) the crew of the Seaview faced one improbable special effects monster/ridiculous situation after another. Among other insanities the Admiral turned into a werewolf at least twice ("Werewolf" and "The Brand of the Beast"), the Captain got possessed by a ghost ("The Phantom Strikes" and "The Return of the Phantom"), the entire crew got taken over by a vindictive mummy ("The Mummy") and replaced by both waxed ("The Wax Men") and evil dolls ("The Deadly Dolls" guest starring Vincent Price no less), some even found their way to Venus once ("Journey With Fear"). They have a sub that also flies. The crack is CANON. It's also humorous to see what it thought the 'future' (the show began airing in 1964 yet set its first season in 1973 but later ones in the '80s) would entail.

This show was so ridiculous, but I want more. I want to read about other adventures like the one where the Seaview gets caught in a timeslip, the crew is attacked by cementing sludge, the meatloaf from the mess gains sentience due to cosmic radiation, the Captain says, "Fuck it" and retires to be an artist only have an alien crashland in the middle of the field he was trying to paint or... well, anything and everything you can come up with. The more out there and crazy the better.

Most of S1 and S2 is streaming legally (in the US anyway) at yahoo view although the entire series is *ahem* available on youtube as well. Episode summaries, pictures and show info are available here.

I hang out in the yuletide discord using the name ibble so if you have any questions or would like more information just ping a hippo to ask me.