sailor | yuletide rushes in

Dear Yuletide Author,

Hello and thank you so much for writing for me!! ♥ You're a gem, and I'm so excited to read what you end up writing.

My AO3 is strickerbacks (formerly brampersandon), where you can see what I've written/received in past Yuletides or peruse my bookmarks for more of an idea of what I read on the regular.

In general, I'm not picky at all and am super easy to please, so no need to stress over anything. I do have my general likes/dislikes which are applicable across the board, and I've included potential prompts for each fandom, but please don't feel like you need to adhere to those prompts if they don't spark anything for you. I'm much happier reading a story that you wanted to write and enjoyed writing. If you're having fun, I'm having fun!

Things I Love

Found families and team dynamics — especially in a group of unlikely characters who may not always get along but absolutely do love each other

Intense relationships — you and me against the world (even in small, mundane ways — two characters finding an understanding in each other that they can't find in anyone else), mentor/mentee relationships (platonic or shippy), codependency/loyalty kink, the friends to lovers trope, pining (seemingly unrequited or actually unrequited)

Character studies — whether it's introspection or a study of how the character relates to their world/the other characters around them, anything that delves deeper into what makes a character tick is my jam

Reunions — possibly my biggest weakness in any narrative, I love characters coming back together, realizing what they missed (or didn't) about one another, distance being forced between them OR deliberately chosen by one or both, reunions that don’t go well, everything about it really

AUs of almost all kinds (exceptions below) — I have a special fondness for anything involving robots, ghosts, reincarnation, soulmates (including identifying marks/soulbonds/etc.), telepathy (touch or otherwise), space, theatre/film, mundane professions, etc.

Banter/lots of dialogue, 5 things fics, non-linear narratives, starting fic in medias res, exposition and world-building

Domesticity — more in terms of the concept of home than in the minutiae of actual home-making, I love characters working to settle in and feel at home in unfamiliar environments, missing home, finding homes in unconventional places (or people!), etc.

Porn with plot — some things I enjoy reading are age difference, breathplay, dubcon, edging, over-stimulation, begging, praise kink, lots of talking, frottage, size difference, voyeurism, role reversals, rough sex, light (not overly-negotiated) bondage, characters discovering things they didn't know they were into

Do Not Wants

Kidfic — characters being aged down into children or adult characters somehow acquiring children

Issuefic

Scenes of rape or self-harm

A/B/O, hard kink (lifestyle BDSM/scat/guro/watersports/etc.)

PWP — I love porn, but I prefer for it to be part of the bigger picture rather than the sole focus

Some AUs — genderswap, werewolves/vampires/other mythical creatures, royalty/regency

The Adventure Zone
Angus McDonald, Taako
Art source!

HAIL AND WELL MET, MY DUDES!!

Oh man. So despite being a mega-fan of all things McElroy-adjacent, I only set out to tackle The Adventure Zone within the last month or so. I expected it would take a lot longer for me to catch up, but I got so hooked so fast that I never stood a chance. Now I'm totally head over heels for this world they've created together and all I want is more.

Taako is my favorite member of the main trio (though they're all near and dear to my heart) — everything Justin has done with him is just so endearing. I love the "simple idiot wizard" trope so much, especially in combination with how laid back Taako is. I love his penchant for charming people, his rampant kleptomania, the badass spells he pulls out of nowhere (GARYL!!) and how he can manage to be such a hilarious jerk but so simultaneously adorable.

To me, that lovable obnoxiousness really shines the most when he interacts with Angus. Like the entire rest of the fanbase, I adore Angus with my entire heart. He's everyone's sweet boy and he deserves protection and care. Unfortunately, he's stuck with this rude wizard as a friend/sort-of-mentor/sometimes-older-brother-figure. I love how unflappably charmed by the trio Angus is, even when they tease him or brush him off. And I'm such a fan of the way Griffin turned him into a major supporting role by having him join the Bureau!! MORE ANGUS FOREVER.

The Lunar Interlude where Taako mentored Angus in the way of magic was easily my favorite one-shot of the entire podcast. Everything about it — Angus' over-eagerness to learn combined with how he can't stop himself from being a little know-it-all at Taako, Taako being a genuinely good teacher even as he screws up Angus' name and threatens him with that hysterical monologue at the end — it's all pitch perfect to me and I relisten to it all the time.

In the end, that was what really solidified my request this year. Mentor/mentee relationships have always been my jam, and Taako taking Angus under his wing is everything to me. It's even better that Taako is such an idiot because it makes him kind of a terrible mentor, but Angus is so willing to learn absolutely everything he can that he makes it work regardless. I love them!!

Potential Prompts:

Griffin and Justin fast-forwarded through the magic-learning montage in Lunar Interlude III for the sake of time, which means it's perfect fic fodder! If you want to delve more into Angus' first week of stumbling through magic apprenticeship from that Interlude, I would be totally delighted — or if you want to go into the future and explore what happens to Angus as he continues to learn from Taako, that's wonderful too! Anything about Taako teaching him more magic — however ineptly — would make my day.

Or, if you want to explore Angus still getting his detectivery on, I think that would be super cute!! Solving a little mystery around the Bureau and Taako getting involved (willingly or, more likely, not so willingly) — or maybe Angus getting to put his detective skills to work for the heroes while they're out in the field. Anything that lets him keep up his mantle as the world's greatest detective while he fits into his new role would be adorable, I think. :')

Angus has been with the Bureau for almost two full arcs now, which is a fair bit of time, but still! He's just a boy. A very capable, independent boy who also happens to be the world's greatest detective. Sure, he fits in pretty easily with the Bureau (and provides them an invaluable service by not tearing them down from the outside) but he still seems pretty lonely. ABANDONED ON CANDLENIGHTS, HOW CRUEL. When Taako isn't off adventuring, does he help Angus settle in at all — even (perhaps especially) without meaning to?

Shit is clearly about to get real real for our heroes as the campaign starts to wrap up — everything post-chalice has a certain sense of ominous inevitability to it. If you want to dip your toe into the larger lore of the world and explore some of the darker aspects — like the fact that Angus was well on his way to sleuthing out the Voidfish-produced memory gaps in the general populace, or Taako's run-ins with Kravitz, or the true nature of the Bureau itself — by all means, go for it. It would be fascinating to see how Angus deals with these things since he's such a fresh-faced little optimist, and maybe Taako has just the right balance of wisdom and irreverence to help him with it.

Club de Cuervos
Aitor Cardoné, Salvador "Chava" Iglesias Jr.

I think my favorite thing about Club de Cuervos is that it's as straight up ridiculous as football itself. I love that even though at its core it's about the Iglesias family power struggle, it very much fits into the world of football. I love that Cuervos FC isn't just a backdrop for a telenovela — everything about the show is perfectly woven into the intricacies and dramatics of running a football club. I love how much heart the show has! Every character has their own private world they're navigating through, and a lot of the relationships ended up becoming really special to me.

Basically, this show is everything I've ever wanted and more fic for it in general would make me the happiest Cuervo in the world. I requested Chava and Aitor because they're my two favorite characters (which is like picking favorite children at this point) and their relationship, platonic or shippy, hits all of my pings.

Chava is legitimately terrible. He's a complete nightmare of a club president, he's manipulative and disingenuous and obnoxious, he's pathetic and whiny and I adore him. I love him because of how truly awful he is, not in spite of it. So feel free to make Chava as annoying as you want!! I love that he doesn't know how to shut his mouth, and he's about 90/10 on bad ideas/good ideas but he does have little flashes of brilliance. I love that he loves football, and he loves his club... he just loves fame and fortune more. It's very human in the grossest way possible.

Aitor is a dream come true for me. He's a mashup of like, five different footballers minimally, so he's just absurd beyond compare. I love that he's an exaggeration of every stereotype of a world famous footballer. I love that when he defines his sexuality, it's men, women and robots. If you know Spanish football, you'd make my day, week, month, year by throwing in anything about Aitor's past in La Liga and especially on Spain's national team. (I literally think about this all the time. Aitor on the same team as Sergio, as Piqué, as Nando, as Iker, oh god poor Iker. WHAT A DISASTER.)

As far as them together — Chava is obsessed with what Aitor represents, with what that level of fame and prestige brings to the Cuervos, and then he has to deal with just how insufferable Aitor is once he finally brings him in. That's my jam!! I love that Chava bends over backwards to keep in Aitor's good graces. I love the rare moments of genuine friendship between them — Chava standing up for Aitor during the scandal really tugged my heartstrings, and their goodbye gets me every time I rewatch it (which is shamefully often).

Oh, also! Since we know season two will be up ~~sometime in November~~ December 9th, you have free license to do what you want with that! If you want to ignore whatever the new season ends up throwing at us and write fic solely based on season one, that's totally cool with me. If you want to try to incorporate the ongoing canon as well, please feel free! You don't have to worry about spoiling me since I can guarantee I'll be mainlining it the second it's on Netflix. :') Basically, I'm completely happy with whichever route you take.

Potential Prompts:

So like I said above, if you want to ignore what comes out of S2 and embrace jossing, any continuation of what happens after the final episode of S1 would be amazing. Their goodbye, man. Their goodbye. "You're too big for this town, Chava." What team in the U.S. was Aitor leaving for? Where does Chava go in the end? Does he track him down at his new club? (Or, if this gets addressed in S2 — IN MY DREAMS, I'M SURE — and you want to do canon continuation of whatever they give us, please be my guest!!)

Anything shippy/smutty for Aitor/Chava would make my goddamn day. Let's be real, Aitor is into him (let's be real... Aitor is into everyone) and there's just so much potential there! Maybe Chava puts a caveat on the "zero dicks" rule he gave Aitor because one can only withstand that level of seduction for so long. Maybe they get way too fucked up one night and things just happen. Maybe one or both of them lets themselves have actual, real feelings for longer than five minutes. (Canon-compliant gay panic from Chava is perfectly fine with me if you want to include it!)

If you aren't into shipping them, I'd also love and adore anything gen about Aitor making Chava's life hell, both professionally and personally. Somebody finally being more obnoxious than Chava and him really not knowing how to deal with it because he's so used to being the most annoying person in the room is so fascinating to me. What other ridiculous stunts does he have to pull to keep Aitor happy in Nuevo Toledo? What press conferences does he have to swoop in and save Aitor from ruining completely? Or any other moments of genuine bonding between them, that would be super sweet as well!

Additionally, I love the entire cast of this show — Potro and Moi's "friend"ships with Chava are so good, Aitor's contentious relationship with the entire team is so good, Chava's dramatics with Mary Luz and Isabel are so good, all of it is so good. If you want to include any other characters from the show, please feel free! Chava having to navigate a growing relationship with Aitor with regards to the rest of the Cuervos, or Hugo Sánchez/Félix/his family would be really interesting, I think! Or Aitor obnoxiously rubbing the fact that he's blowing the club president on the regular in the rest of the team's faces. That too.

Juventus F.C. RPF
Gianluigi Buffon, Paulo Dybala

If you're here for football, we most likely already know each other and you are probably woefully aware of just how deep into Juve hell I am. If not: welcome!! I love this team so much it hurts my heart, and the dearth of fic is killing me slowly. Fino alla fine.

Juve, more than any other team I've ever supported, feels like a family to me. There's such an emphasis on it in their media, and from the way a lot of the players talk about the club, I do feel like it's sincere. It's a team where everyone looks out for each other and where new players get folded in very quickly. I have a special place in my heart for older players helping newer ones fit in, and Juve is just rife with that.

And of course, nobody is a more ideal example of everything Juve is about than Gigi himself. Legendary keeper-captain of club and country, Gigi is such a stalwart presence between the sticks, in the dressing room, everywhere. I love that he's charming and enigmatic and magnetic, but also a total dork — he's funny and he knows it and he totally hams it up, but he's also distressingly earnest. I've never gotten over the fact that he wrote a love letter to the goal he defends and I doubt I ever will.

Then there's Paulo, local wonderkid, who's only in his second season with the club but is already so attached to it and so integral to the team. It still amazes me just how quickly he slotted in. Everyone on Juve loves Paulo, and for good reason — he's a bright ray of sunshine, he's young and energetic while still being responsible and level-headed. He's the perfect boy, basically. I cry over how mature he is for his age on the regular. He's also prodigiously talented, even if his sophomore season has gotten off to a bit of a slower start than his explosive first one did.

There's a massive age difference here. Sixteen years!! Paulo openly admits to being a huge fan of Gigi since he was a kid — he talks about how he used to choose him as his goalkeeper in video games, and when he was with Palermo he sought him out to get his jersey. Also, this interview snippet. And Gigi talks him up all the time, compliments him in interviews and talks about how important he is to Juventus. Their relationship is just open season on hero worship, captain kink, praise kink, all of it. IT'S A LOT.

I am totally happy with wherever you want to take their relationship — if it's them being platonic buddies and Gigi being an older mentor figure to Paulo, that's perfect. If it's shippy, I am all about that too. There's so little Juve fic in existence that I truly will be happy with anything having to do with them. It's an itch that desperately needs scratching for me.

Potential Prompts:

Like I said above, Paulo fit in pretty easily and immediately at Juve, but if you want to rewind the clock to his early days at the club and explore how captain Gigi welcomed the shiny new kid, I'd love that! Alternately, if you'd like to take it to current day and explore Gigi helping Paulo deal with a rocky start to the season, that would be wonderful too. I can handle a certain amount of transfer angst here — he did lose friends in Morata, Pogba, Zaza and Tucu during the transfer window. Gigi helping him deal with those losses would be great to read, although if possible I'd prefer not to dwell too much on the Pogba saga (I'm still straight black coffee bitter). Really, Gigi using his age and wisdom to impart some advice on Paulo would be just lovely.

If you feel like getting smutty with it, I'm all for that. Feel free to go as dirtybadwrong as you want with the age difference — I'm super fond of Gigi being exasperated as hell with himself over being into a guy sixteen years his junior but not being able to talk himself out of it. Also, I love trope subversion when it comes to this! I love the younger character being the pushy one and the older one being baffled by it. It's so multi-layered too — he's admired Gigi for so long, Gigi is the most senior member on the team and his captain, Paulo does so much for the team that should be recognized and rewarded... Seriously, just go wild with it.

(deep breath) SO, WHO REMEMBERS WHAT HAPPENED WHEN WE WON THE 5CUDETTO? I'm incapable of forgetting. That tweet haunts my dreams. So, since Paulo was such an instrumental part of Juve's incredible comeback season and historic win, and since they obviously got him fucking smashed afterwards, aaaanything about that would make my day a thousand times over.

AUs! I know sometimes writing season-compliant football fic can be daunting, but good news, I also love AUs. If you want to throw Paulo and Gigi (and the rest of the Bianconeri) into an AU of your choosing, I'm totally into that! Something that works for the team dynamic would be excellent (spies, mafia, etc.) or something that focuses more on the two of them (teacher/student or other authority figure/apprentice, soulbond, etc.) would be amazing too. I enjoy totally different universes altogether or AU elements being woven into the football world in equal measure — whatever strikes your fancy, I guarantee I'll love it!

And that about wraps it up! Again, thank you so much. I can't wait to read what you write and inevitably gush all over it.

Have a wonderful Yuletide season!!

♥ CBran

yuletide rushes in

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