Dear Chocolateer

Dear Chocolateer,

We hopefully matched on something that you enjoy and I enjoy, which means that we can both of us enjoy this fic - you'll enjoy writing it, and I'll enjoy reading what you've written. I hope that can be the case, anyway.

To that end, the ideas in the fandoms section of this letter are just that - ideas. I hope that one of them strikes your fancy, but if not, please don't twist yourself in knots trying to write one of them. Sometimes the brain works with the ideas, sometimes it doesn't.

Finally, if a relationship is marked as a pairing eg. "1stCharacter/2ndCharacter", I'd like the relationship to be physically or emotionally romantic - kisses or touching or sex, feelings and emotions and dealing with each other.

LIKES:
- female characters at the heart of the narrative
- interactions between characters, characters working together
- respectful romantic relationships
- stories of adventure and drama
- slices of life
- happy or hopeful endings
- character studies through interaction
- action/adventure/drama

DNW:
- pure scene setting with no interaction or dialogue by the characters
- character death
- cheating partners (but especially not to get the requested pairing)
- humiliation as humour

( the usual suspects )

These are all just ideas, if you can't work something from this, then go with the characters and relationship we matched upon and go for your life! I'm looking forward to reading your gift to me!

my Yuletide story reveal

I wrote for Val_creative who asked for Mulan.

the proper order of things (2512 words) by tielan
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Mulan (1998)
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Original Characters, Fa Mulan (Disney), Li Shang


I'm a little surprised how well it did comparative to what I was expecting. Even before reveals, it had about 35 kudos and 8 comments, which was way more than I ever thought it would see.

My initial go-to was the recipient's request for an amnesia fic, and I started something down that path but it didn't work the way I wanted it to go. So I ended up taking the idea of a 3rd party POV of Mulan's escapades, and particularly of her and Shang working together. I tied it into neo-Confucianism, which is a bit like neo-conservativism: women have a proper place, etc. Only the neo-Confucianists tied it into the gods and a philosophical Way That Things Should Be rather than the traditions and rose-coloured glasses of neo-conservatism.

--

As it turns out, the Pern fic was by someone who treated me a Lessa/F'lar Pernfic for Yuletide last year. Awesome. :D

But I was completely and utterly wrong on the Psy-Changeling fic. Never seen that person in my fandom life and they've only got 4 fics on AO3, and are largely in Teen Wolf and Critical Role fandoms.

Anyway, I seriously lucked out this year in Yuletide. xo