Watching Monday

I didn't watch any Parks & Rec last week! I don't remember why; I think I might have been trying to get some extra reading done, in preparation for Yuletide and the Ben January book-club.

I did watch the first two episodes of American Horror Story: Freak Show which I'm not particularly enjoying, so I don't think I'm going to watch more of (though my girlfriend likes, so she'll probably continue watching). It's certainly not as bad as it could be, given the topic, but eh. Not for me.

Sleepy Hollow
2.04
I totally approve of ridiculous fairy-tale plots just as much as ridiculous Armageddon plots or ridiculous American Revolution plots, so I love the use of the Pied Piper (which is a really weird fairy-tale on its own, now that I think about it. What the hell is that story even about? Pay your rat-catchers or they'll steal your children and entomb them forever in a mountain, the end? People in the Middle Ages were high as fuck y'all) and hope they continue. Actually, I also want some modern-day American urban legends to introduce Crane too: now that he can drive, he can pick up a mysterious vanishing hitchhiker! Slenderman! Bloody Mary!

I also like this season's dedication to mother themes so far. It's great to focus on Abbie and Jenny's trauma, after last season's overarching plot was mostly about Crane's family. You also so rarely see mother/daughter relationships focused on in genre TV shows or movies, so I really appreciate that. And a lot of people have mentioned this, but I also love that this week's mother was willing to sacrifice her biological child to protect her adoptive children, rather than treating one as more "real". And as this show is often so good at, I liked that two of the adopted kids were of color (I know cross-racial adoptions are controversial, but so is the focus on white boys as the ideal adoptive child, so between the two problems I'd personally prefer the show to go the way it did).

I loved Irving's Matrix-Armageddon vision (and he was way hot in that black tank-top), and his Bible bursting into flames. And this was a very shippy episode; Abbie wiping the coffee foam off of Crane's face was too amazing, as was their flirting (it was totally flirting!) about his driving.

Dear Yuletide Santa

Hello! Thank you so much for offering one of my fandoms. I'm a firm believer of "optional details are optional", so feel free to ignore any part of this letter that doesn't work for you; just use what (if any) you find helpful or inspirational. If you need more information or would like to ask a question, feel free to leave an anonymous comment.

If you're into Yuletide stalking (and who isn't?), here's where to find me:
Email: brigdh at gmail
AO3: Brigdh (You'll probably notice that I've written for some of the fandoms I requested, but that doesn't mean you have to write the same sort of stories that I do! One of my favorite things is to see the way different people have different takes on the same story.)
Tumblr: Brigdh
Livejournal: wordsofastory (obviously.)
Previous years' letters

Basics:
I'm open to porn, dark-fic, gen, and pretty much anything else you could think of. Happy endings, sad endings, and open/ambiguous endings are all welcome. Want to write death fic or angsty unrequited love? Go for it! Fluffy, teeth-rottingly cute kidfic? I'm into that. Completely filthy, shameless PWP? Yup. Plotty world-building fic? Love it. Missing scenes or character studies where nothing happens? My favorite! Tentative slow-build first times, or fic with an already established relationship? Both are wonderful! Weird stylistic conventions, like second person POV or iambic pentameter or an entirely epistolary fic? Awesome! Feel free to include injury, illness, death, infidelity, racism, homophobia, etc, as needed for your story.
Do not feel obligated to include Christmas (or whatever winter holiday-equivalent is appropriate to the fandom), but if you want to, feel free.
For each of my requests, the characters are very much OR instead of AND. Want to write a story about Rose without Hannibal, TJ without Amal, etc? Go ahead! (You could probably guess this from the prompts I give below, but I wanted to be clear about it.)

Dislikes:
I'm doing these first because it's shorter! I don't have any squicks, triggers, or strong DNWs (there's one exception, but it's fandom-specific, so I've got it down below in that fandom's section). There's very little in fic that I outright refuse to read; a good story will convince me to like almost anything. With that said, here are some of the tropes that I'm less interested in: soulbonding and soul mates; amnesia; bodyswap; mpreg; jealousy or possessiveness as a good, natural, or normal relationship element; overly sappy weddings or marriage proposals; and age regression. That's it! I'm a pretty easy-going reader. :)

Likes:
This section is much more fun! I like A LOT of stuff, as I said above. Action, case-fic, humor, curtain-fic, introspection, pining: all of them are great! I like fun stories, the sort that make you smile to read them. I love nuance and subtlety (hmm, that is probably the worst request ever. I like it when authors complicate things?). I really love stories that dig deep, exploring a world or a character's interior.
Most of the characters I love are pretty fucked up on the inside, but they are also capable of great strength. I like that balance: not a woobie but not a standard hero either. Many of my requests revolve around a relationship (whether you chose to write that as gen or romantic), and I really love reading about how people work (or don't) together. How do they help one another? How do they hurt? How do they understand or misunderstand? Do they share a sense of humor? What is easy between them, and what is complicated; what is spoken and what is not? Etc. In general, I like my couples to succeed together, but I like it to be hard to get there. I tend to like a lot of dysfunction in my fictional relationships, and I much prefer the unspoken to the outright-stated.
I love vivid imagery and rich descriptions (it is hard to be too 'purple prose' for my taste), and all the things that fall under that: clothing-porn, food-porn, elaborately detailed settings and landscapes, etc. I love banter and snark and elusive allusions, all sorts of unusual ways of showing affection, cross-dressing, swordfights, comedies of manners/farces, and found families/chosen families.
I adore all sorts of silly fanfic tropes, but here are some of my favorites: Genderswap (particularly of the "always-a-girl/boy" type rather than "woke up one morning" type), arranged marriage/marriage of convenience, pretend couple/fake dating, H/C of all kinds, sick-fic, roadtrips, huddling for warmth, masquerades/disguises/undercover, trapped together (snowed in cabin, handcuffs, etc), "five things", and platonic bed sharing.
I especially like AUs, both of the "canon-divergent" and the "completely alternative setting" types. I think they're a fantastic way of exploring what is essential to a character's personality, and what is merely surface, and that's what I find most interesting about them. It's so neat to explore how a different setting/upbringing/choice might or might not change a person. Some specific types of AUs I like are: pirates, any historical period, Robin Hood/conmen/criminals, rebels, steampunk, cyberpunk, apocalypses (especially zombies!), daemons, and circuses.

Porn: Again, don't feel obligated to write me a sex scene! But if you want to, here is my Yuleporn comment.
Dark-fic: As I said above, I'm open to this! Here's my Crueltide comment for some specific prompts.

( Specific Fandom Requests: Benjamin January, TJ & Amal, Brothers Sinister, and Fallen London )