Dear Yuletide Writer 2024

[suburban_sun]

Dear Yuletide Writer,

Thanks for signing up for this always-fun exchange! I'm looking forward to reading whatever you write! (And for anyone else stumbling across this letter, know that treats are always welcomed.)

Below you’ll find the following:

• My Requests
• About Me
• General Likes
• General DNWs
• Fandom Specifics/Prompts

My Requests:

• Mythic Quest - Ian Grimm, Poppy Li
• Mad Men - Peggy Olson, Stan Rizzo
• Love Hate & Clickbait - Clay Parker, Thom Morgan
• Loot - Any

I’ve tried to list some varied prompts for each fandom, but please don’t feel like you have to stick to what I’ve come up with. If the rest of my letter gives you another idea you’d like to write, I’d love to read it!


A little about me to start:

My AO3 name is SuburbanSun; you can also check out my Tumblr if you’d like: unbreakablejemmasimmons.


General Likes:

Fave shippy tropes:

• Rivals/enemies to lovers
• Secret dating/sneaking around
• FWBs that turns into something more
• Fake dating
• Mutual pining
• “The love is requited they’re just idiots"/idiots to lovers
• Truth serum/in vino veritas

Fave gen tropes and story elements:

• Found family dynamics
• Competency/mutual respect
• Shenanigans/heists
• Time travel
• Time loops
• Snappy banter and dialogue

Subversions of tropes are also great!

Most of my prompts tend toward canon universe ideas because that’s just what I tend to think of first, but I enjoy AUs too, and here are a few types that I’m always a sucker for:

• Secret Service/bodyguard/witness protection AUs
• Private eye AUs
• Politics AUs (like my requested characters running for office or working on a campaign)
• Vampire slayer AUs
• Food truck or food critic AUs

Epistolary style, either as a small part of a story or as all of it, is always fun to me, if it’s up your alley. Phone calls! Emails! Letters! Post-It notes! I love it all!

General DNWs:

DNWs: Superangst and sad endings. Babyfic/kidfic/pregnancy. First person POV (except in epistolary elements).

Fandom Specifics/Prompts:

Mythic Quest
Ian Grimm, Poppy Li

This show was such a fun discovery for me as I browsed Apple+. I’d heard good things, but the first episode hadn’t grabbed me, and I’m glad I stuck around because by episode 3 I was cackling out loud. Then the quarantine episode had me crying, followed by Everlight, which buoyed my heart. It’s been a wild ride!

I love the relationship between Ian and Poppy as it’s laid out in the show. I don’t ship them romantically, but I love their prickly partnership, their codependency, and the way that they are maybe the only people in the world who really, begrudgingly, get each other. I love everyone in this bar, so any other characters are welcome.

Prompts:

• I’d love something that explores either of the characters’ personal lives, since we see so few glimpses of them in the show.
• It really tugged on my dumb heartstrings when Ian sought out Poppy when he was in the hospital in season 2, or when he showed up--unexpectedly, but right when she needed him--at her doorstep in the quarantine episode, so while I don't really ship them romantically, I would welcome more of that neediness and comfort.
• Sarian made me cry. Happy to get more flashbacks with these two, from the early stages of their partnership or from even before that.
• I'm addicted to a Vampire Slayer AU, so... Poppy the Vampire Slayer?

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Mad Men
Peggy Olson, Stan Rizzo

 

I love and miss this show so much. It was so smart and made me feel so many things, and in truth, Peggy Olson is one of my favorite characters in all of fiction. I know I request this show and these characters every year, but I truly always want more of these two!

Peggy/Stan is such a great ship, to me, and one I was on board with from the very beginning. Omitting his boorish behavior early on, once they established a rapport, they were such equals, and he seemed to respect her so much, and vice versa. They got on each other’s nerves and knew how to push each other’s buttons, but that’s just because they connected so well and really got each other.

 

Prompts:

• I adore the time period where they’re basically phone buddies. Maybe an AU where they get together earlier in the series, during that time? How their phone conversations evolve from discussing work to discussing everything to falling for each other (or realizing they already had)? Phone sex (or getting ever-so-close to it before realizing they’re in the office and it’s inappropriate) is a-okay here too.
• In the same vein, epistolary fic could be really fun to play around with here. Maybe a story told through a series of interoffice memos, messages, notes in the margins of copy pitches and along the edges of spec art?
• They’re working through the weekend on some pitch or another, holed up in the office with a stash of booze and half-empty cartons of Chinese food, but they can’t focus on work ALL night, can they?

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Love Hate & Clickbait
Clay Parker, Thom Morgan

I enjoyed this book so much! I'm a sucker for a romance set in the world of politics, which is what drew me to it to begin with, but the delicious enemies-to-lovers of it all sucked me in. I would really love something set in the time when they are still harboring a bit of that dislike for each other, whether they're also hooking up already or not. Any missing moments set in the period mentioned above would be lovely, and smut is welcome if you'd like! 

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Loot
Any

Loot is so sneaky good and nobody watches it! Please more people watch this gem of a show on Apple+. This is very much an "I love everyone in this bar" type of show for me; the ensemble is just such a delight. For this, I'd love any combo of the nominated characters!

Prompts:

• I definitely ship Molly and Arthur and would love to read more about what happens next after she shows up at his door and then flees in the finale.
• I do really love the comedy of Molly's utter batshit insanity wealth, so feel free to lean in there. The things rich people can do and have access to is wild. 
• Nicholas and Howard's friendship is an utter delight, and I love how they've come to support each other. More of that!
• Arthur is such a fun dorky contrast with the others. What surprises does he have in his past that the others would be shocked to discover? 
  
• As a huge Taylor Swift fan, I loved all the Swiftie episode, and love even more that Howard is a Swiftie. Any way you want to weave that into a story is great!

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So, that’s that! I really hope you enjoy the whole process of writing and receiving something in return, and thanks for participating! Happy writing!