Yuletide 2024 letter
Oct. 5th, 2024 07:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
isabrellaWhoa! Life comes at you fast! I was so not expecting to do Yuletide this year, and then I was so not expecting to do more than three requests, and then… well… this happened. Have fun!
I'm isabrella on AO3, Dreamwidth, and Tumblr and I'm open to treats!
Setting-changes AUs (canon divergence is fine); crossovers outside of my requests (so putting together canons I've requested is fine, adding another canon is not); death of main characters; gore; gender-swapping; non-canonical/unrequested gender identities, mental illnesses, or neurodivergences; readerfic, first or second person narrative (okay in things like texts, social media, or letters; not applicable to Mossa and Pleiti); fic about pregnancy or childbirth; fic about body image issues; non-con (dub-con like sex pollen is fine; I'm also fine with previous sexual assault being touched on); omegaverse; age regression; sex under the age of 15 (15+ is fine); mentions of pregnancy/children during sex; blood/vomit/feces/urine in sex; restraint during sex; explicit/planned roleplay during sex; degrading language in sex; M/F smut.
- Tropey fics such as: There Was Only One Bed, Fake Dating/Marriage, time loops, best friends to lovers and conversely enemies to lovers.
- Angst! Especially of the comphet kind.
- Found family, especially in the context of all-women settings (like pageants, girl bands, sports teams, *secret mermaid clubs*, women in STEM groups, Girl Scouts/Girl Guides) that kind of provide an alternative structure for the close relationships between girls and/or women.
- Humour, especially of the juxtapositional kind (think Gideon the Ninth). I'm from NZ so if you're from NZ or Australia you probably get what I mean here; everyone else feel free to give it the old college try.
- Hurt/comfort (ranging from illness to injury, everything is fine! I have no squicks about blood/vomit/etc. outside of sexual contexts). In fact, feel free to absolutely go hard on making them miserable with broken limbs, the flu, food poisoning, migraines, cramps, concussions… As long as someone is crying or trying VERY BRAVELY not to cry and someone else is trying (especially if they're completely inept) to fix it, I'll be delighted.
- When the author knows a lot about a specific subject and uses it to great effect in the fic (literary analysis, statistical analysis, feminist theory, ornithology, genetic engineering, whatever your special interest is, go wild!).
- Exploring the ways that different characters show each other love.
- Characters absolutely not saying what they mean and instead communicating through completely insane metaphors and parallels to avoid talking about their real feelings.
- Themes around fame, feminine rituals, public/private personas, and hiding who you are to project a performance persona (if you've read any of my recent work, you will see this laid out in excruciating detail).
- Doing each other's makeup, doing each other's hair, borrowing each other's clothes (being forced to borrow each other's clothes…). It's the feminine rituals of it all (can you tell I imprinted on the Girls Like Girls music video as an impressionable young teen?).
- Exploring characters' cultural/religious/familial history and connections.
- Exploring queer history and activism.
- Epistolary/other non-traditional formats for fic, especially social media-related stuff.
- When sex is funny/authentically awkward/fumbling/a complete comedy of errors but it still turns out hot.
- Any sexual first times (first time with each other, first time with a woman, first time of all time, first time trying something specific, etc.)
- Sex which is really about emotional intimacy.
- Using canonical magical powers during sex.
Characters requested: Miss Florida (Olivia) & Miss Montana (Zolita)
I would like the fic to include both characters.
This is a super quick watch (under 10 minutes, or the extended Queen of Hearts short film is 16 minutes), so if I'm on the pinch hit list or you're looking for a new, quick femslash thing, this is ideal.
TL;DR: set at the fictional Miss Queen of Hearts national pageant, Miss Montana (implied open lesbian) and Miss Florida (very closeted daughter of implied Republican Congresswoman Dawson, the host of the pageant) have a tangled past and end up hooking up behind closed doors at the pageant.
I love the sneaking around, the drama, the history between them… I love the power dynamics and the snarky little one-upping comments they make to each other. And not gonna lie, I do seriously enjoy the "and everybody clapped" ending here. Call me a sucker. Whatever.
And definitely feel free to include social media or media elements reporting on them in this one!
Prompts:
- Comphet Miss Florida cheating on her boyfriend with Miss Montana and subsequent angst.
- What happened at the teen pageant they did together?
- When they first meet at the teen pageant, Olivia is crying because one of the judges was harsh on her and Zolita takes pity on her and fixes her makeup (and kisses her, sending her into an entirely different kind of tailspin) before they go on stage.
- Rooming together at pageants over the years. (Is this a thing that happens at pageants? We don't even have pageants in this country so truly I have no idea. Just roll with it.)
- Social media commentary or reporting on their falling in love and dropping out, contrasted with their actual experiences.
- Honestly even just a fic novelising and expanding on what's in the video (or part of it) would be great.
Sorry I literally do not know how to prompt not-shippy for this one.
Characters requested: Rikki Chadwick & Emma Gilbert
I would like the fic to include both characters.
Unbelievably, I have recently watched this show for the first time as an adult with my bestie (i.e., I never saw it as a kid) and it… is pretty good????? Further unbelievably, it is available officially and for free on YouTube (depending on where in the world you are).
As of writing this letter, we've finished S2 but intending to be completely finished with S3 by December, so if there's anything from the future that you think fits with what I'm into here, that would be A-okay with me.
I am completely obsessed with the Rikki/Emma dynamic. The mild enemies-to-lovers of it all. The complementary fire and ice powers. The uptight/rebellious girl pairing.
Specific DNWs: AU - no powers; sex while they're mermaids; whatever the hell was going on with the ambergris in S2 E15.
I am happy for them to have sex from age 16!
Rikki/Emma prompts
- Emma cheating on her boyfriend with Rikki because she just can't stay away and they're meant to be together because they have matching powers <3
- Hurt/comfort anything.
- You KNOW that Bad Moon Rising (S1E18) is STUCK IN MY BRAIN. Emma coming to save Rikki from herself and comfort her. I could read ten million versions of Rikki hunched over crying in a forest of fire and Emma fixing that for her with her perfectly complementary ice powers and still want more.
- Full moon sex pollen. Obviously. Bonus points if Rikki is using her powers to turn the heat up a little for Emma.
- Rikki saying casually one day, "Oh, you don't use your powers to help you… get off? Let me show you how," and Emma being into it. Except of course ice powers are way less helpful for that, so Rikki ends up doing it for both of them.
- Emma and Rikki having a sleepover and Rikki goading her about being uptight until Emma finally snaps and says, "How's this for uptight?" and kisses her. (Fire and Ice [S2E4] vibes but better because Rikki and Emma are all alone and having the most sexually tense sleepover in the history of homoerotically repressed teen girls).
- Emma and Rikki just seem to turn into chaos demons in S2 by constantly using their powers to create problems. I consider this a form of dating.
- Rikki gets sick and pretends she isn't sick and Emma has to chase her around trying to make her lie down. Also vice versa if they have a biology exam or something.
- Rikki gets a job at the JuiceNet café specifically to annoy Emma.
- Emma and Rikki have a homoerotic camping trip on Mako Island (as teens or adults <3).
- Emma and Rikki fighting with their complementary powers.
- Angst about Emma leaving (I'm told she gets replaced in S3. RIP.)
- Angst where Emma and Rikki are hooking up but Emma is deeply in her head about it and keeps insisting that they keep it a secret and it's not that serious etc. (Casual by Chappell Roan eat your heart out.)
General prompts:
- If shippy stuff is not your thing: shenanigans fic about Cleo, Emma, Rikki, and Lewis in the same tone of the show would be great, either slotted into the high school arc, or in university, or as adults.
- Anything drawing on obscure mermaid or cryptozoological sea creatures could be fun, in the vein of Cleo's siren song episode.
- Emma makes Rikki (and Cleo and/or Lewis?) join the Duke of Edinburgh scheme for their "university applications". Shenanigans ensue.
- Character studies of Rikki or Emma or time they spend together as friends.
- The college/adult trio mounting a campaign to save coral reefs or something similar.
- Epistolary stuff with any of them writing letters, texting, making blogs, etc.
- Shenanigans during the traditional Australian beach Christmas (bonus points for simultaneous full moon shenanigans). Emma and Cleo and Rikki and Lewis are all present at the beach BBQ and desperately trying to avoid the perils of condensation, getting splashed, or forced to swim.
- Halloween shenanigans. Again bonus points if this a full moon double whammy. Emma and Cleo have to take their younger siblings trick or treating. "Wow, that's the best mermaid costume I've ever seen!" etc.
Characters requested: Ayesha, Amina, Momtaz, Bisma
I'm happy for the fic to focus primarily on only one or a few of the characters, or include all of them, and I'm definitely happy for Saira to be as central to the fic as one of the characters I've requested, I just had to narrow it down to four for the request! I would also love Amina/Saira fic.
I am completely obsessed with this show. This is the best TV show I have ever seen, hands down. If you matched with me on something else and you like female-driven comedies like Derry Girls or Hacks, I would definitely recommend giving it a try. It's kind of like that and kind of like if your 12 year old self who liked to sing into a wooden spoon microphone got a TV show and kind of like a study on feminine rage.
Specific DNWs: smut, poor lab etiquette (yes, the show is egregiously guilty of this. Yes, I scream every time people are wandering into her microbiology lab which is DEFINITELY keycard access only).
Amina/Saira prompts:
- Amina's parents kind of adopt Saira. Maybe Amina has some complicated (jealous) feelings about this which lead her to realise that she has feelings for Saira.
- Amina helps Saira make an online dating profile so that Amina has to list all the things she likes about Saira.
- I would love to see music structuring their relationships/friendships - anything where you can weave musical theory into the structure of the fic would be awesome.
- Saira sets out to write a song to tell Amina her feelings because she communicates best through music, but she has no idea how to write a love song and it keeps coming out rage-y.
- Amina going back to her roots teaching underprivileged children guitar/music, except this time she's dragging Saira with her and the kids think they're super cool and also in love.
- Amina has her very uptight version of the "am I gay quiz" Google search, whereby she carefully hunts through sexuality labels until she decides on an extremely specific one that she uses to tell Saira she's into her.
& if the shippy stuff isn't your thing feel free to take the core concepts and make them platonic or whole band or individual character-focussed.
General prompts:
- Character studies of Ayesha, Amina, Bisma or Momtaz (or even Saira with another character too) would all hit the spot (and bonus points if it's funny too!). I love Ayesha being angry and also her complicated relationship with coming out/labelling. I love Amina's whole thing. I love Momtaz being a business savvy girlie but no one sees beyond the niqab. I love Bisma's struggle to be a good mum and also be herself; lots of conflict there balancing her art, her relationship, her daughter, her faith, her music, her unerring commitment to doing her best. I *love* Saira's tough exterior and wounded soul vibes <3 my favourite type of girl.
- Whole band shenanigans would be brilliant - pop up concerts, writing new songs together,
mentoring the younger/up-and-coming bands (and recognizing themselves in them!). Equally, what if Amina's mum or Momtaz's grandma decided they wanted their turn to be rockstars?
- The band exploring what fame means to them.
- Ayesha exploring her queerness - I am *not* in any way super invested in her labelling herself or having a traditional coming out arc, but maybe finding other people who accept her the way she is, or creating meaningful art about her experience.
- I love how being Muslim is deeply embedded in all of their experiences of the band, and fame, and each other, and so on, so anything exploring that is very up my alley.
Characters requested: Leighton Murray, Kimberly Finkle
The fic can include only one of the requested characters. I am also happy for you to include Whitney, Bela, and any of the side characters (especially women) for the shenanigans/angst/plot. If you're going non-shippy, I'm definitely more into focussing on the female friendships rather than the male characters or any drama caused thereof (the S2 ending of it all…).
Leighton/Kimberly prompts:
- AU where instead of doing community service at the women's center, Leighton has to do it at the LGBTQ+/Rainbow centre where Kimberly is doing her work-study experience (she's definitely just an ally). And then they end up kissing.
- I love the juxtaposition between Kimberly's do-gooder working class upbringing and her money struggles and Leighton's extraordinarily privileged background, so anything digging into how they negotiate that and manage a friendship is interesting to me. Leighton gives Kimberly her off cast coats in S1! Was that just because she was worried about her????
- Fake dating for some reason. Maybe Leighton is trying to fend off all her jealous ex-situationships with her definitely-real, definitely-serious girlfriend Kimberly. Maybe she's trying to piss off her parents with a girlfriend.
- I don't care how you make it happen but Kimberly and Leighton in a couples Halloween costume speaks to me on a spiritual level.
& if the shippy stuff isn't your thing, take any of these prompts platonic!
General prompts:
- Any Leighton or Kimberly character study! Leighton's string of on-and-offscreen girlfriends as she figures out her identity. Kimberly coming to terms with what losing her scholarship means to her.
- Happy for you to write about Leighton and Alicia or Leighton and Tatum and have Kimberly there as a supportive friend/sounding board/interlocutor.
- Any whole group shenanigans is also great - maybe they're throwing a party, maybe they're moving into a shared house rather than the dorms, maybe they're all visiting someone's family for the holidays (Christmas, or semester break, or whatever else).
- In the future, they're reuniting for someone's wedding party and shenanigans ensue. Bonus points if Leighton and Kimberly end up having a tryst.
Characters requested: Mossa & Pleiti
I would like the fic to include both characters.
I'm insane about these I would make everyone I know read them if I could. Malka Older I want to crawl inside your brain. I think these books are an incredible feat of worldbuilding and romance and they're MYSTERY NOVELLAS. The skill to pull this off is literally mindblowing to me.
Things I love about it: the worldbuilding. It feels so lived in and all the little details like people living on separate day cycles and the railways built around the planet and the kind of historical-but-futuristic vibes! The fascination with Earth ecology/biology, the sci-fi elements mixed with the pseudo Victorian era vibes. I love that academia is so central to Pleiti and so… realistically stupid? I'm not in academia anymore but the absolute nonsense politics of it all and the fact that studying literature is considered life or death is incredibly funny and accurate to me. The politics of resurrecting animals and plants is fascinating to me. I love the pining of it all and the nebulous nature of their relationship and the push and pull of their growing affection etc.
Specific DNWs: smut, also feel free to write first person like the books (either POV) if you want (an exception to my first-person POV DNW).
Prompts:
- I would be into any kind of in-universe worldbuilding texts for this one, like academic articles or popular historical books or anything else you can think of that plays with format!
- The sociology of how religion and culture has been transmuted into this society is super interesting to me! Pleiti has a qibla globe (side note: would love to know more about how that works on pseudo-Jupiter) and she also says "May his memory be a blessing" to Mossa about her father so I wonder what all that implies about how aspects of various current-day religions have survived/changed on Giant.
- Anything that delves into the science of the resurrections (I have a biology degree specializing in genetics so I do find the Jurassic Park/seed bank/etc. of it all clown but fun).
- I am curious about the kind of social hierarchies that are hinted at but not interrogated at length thus far (Mossa is from Io, which seems to be considered backwards, Pleiti is from a farming area, Pleiti thinks about the class implications of porters, etc.) Pleiti reading one (1) sociological text from the Modern faculty and having her mind exploded is very funny to me. SORRY I also did sociology I'm a girl of many stripes.
- Mossa taking Pleiti to visit her honorary family, or Pleiti taking Mossa home to her farming platform.
- Letters between Mossa and Pleiti is very on brand.
- Flashbacks to their time in college - was Mossa always solving mysteries then too? What did Mossa even study? What did they get up to together?
- Hurt/comfort of any kind. Come on you know the second Pleiti was tending to the claw marks on Mossa's back I was going out of my mind.
- Honestly I just love the books themselves so any case-ficcy type stuff would totally go wild for me.
- A character study of Mossa or Pleiti.
- Pleiti's reaction to some piece of amusing Earth culture that she's studying. What does John exploding cows in Nona the Ninth imply about New Zealand ecology? A personal fave would of course be the Girl Guiding handbooks from the early 20th century, because I am a freak! (Many of these can be found on Internet Archive I believe). Pleiti reacts to the Famous Five.
- Pleiti's interest in creating an interdisciplinary working group (I experienced a visceral war flashback to university writing that phrase) for reintroducing flora and fauna to Earth could potentially be an interesting starting point. Alternatively, she seemed like she might be leaning towards joining Mossa in some kind of regular investigative jaunt. What does that mean for her studies, her sense of herself, etc.?
- Mossa and Pleiti attending some kind of festival or celebration such as the Feast-Day of Valdegard.
Characters requested: Abby Matsuda, Dulcie Collins, Eddie Redcliffe
I'm happy for you to include just one of the requested characters, and also feel free to add Sven to the trio for the police shenanigans vibes.
I cannot believe how good this show is. It immediately rocketed to spot #3 on my shows of all time list (After We Are Lady Parts and Motherland: Fort Salem, before Hacks [but only just]). I was a skeptic at first (right up until "Oh no my mooncup's still in", so only about 2 minutes, but still), but truly "Australian crime comedy about a lesbian town" delivered beyond my wildest dreams. You do have to turn off the copaganda radar a bit but you know. The brain loves a good mystery show. And the moral of it all was incredibly peak to me (spoilers: men shouldn't do feminism is very funny as a concept to me; racist colonizers should die of snake bites on their own gatekept island also incredible). I loved the very very Australian and small town humour and if you can lean hard into that I would be thrilled.
Eddie is a peak character (emotionally stunted and damaged detective who covers it up with being dismissive, funny, and sexually explicit is simply a trope that is 100x better when it's a grungy woman in a Hawai'ian shirt and cargo shorts). Abby is a peak character (overachiever who is actually so insightful but just needs to learn to believe in herself [plus: 👅✂️ made me scream]). Dulcie is a peak character (heart of gold practical woman in the company of a lot of unpractical people).
Specific DNWs: smut (go hard on sexual innuendos and explicit language though, very canon!), crossovers (with the further very specific exception of Ellie and Abbie and Ellie's Dead Aunt for this request only), racial slurs.
Prompts:
- Put them in stupid situations. Cath makes them all go out for karaoke for someone's birthday (Eddie doing karaoke? Now that's what I call comedy). Eddie tries and fails to learn how to cook an omelette.
- Drunken heart-to-hearts that are still stupid and fucking funny.
- I could definitely also do serious fic about Abby, because I love that ending for her! Yes go get 'em girl! Does she go back to university and pursue her real passions? Is she immediately promoted over James (making him seethe)? Does she have a tryst with Kate?
- The implications of Eddie asking about giving women the old college try. You know Cath is all over that immediately and trying to introduce her to everyone in the Darwin lesbian scene without knowing a single lesbian in the Darwin lesbian scene (except of course she does, by proxy, because she's dated all of their college exes).
- A little case fic type stuff also wouldn't go amiss, especially if it's a silly mystery of the type Eddie is constantly denigrating (who stole my bin, my hat blew away, the teens kicked a rugby ball into my garden, who threw a seed bomb in my gutter [inspired by my real life], etc.)
- Character studies of Dulcie, Eddie, or Abby, of course. With Dulcie I'd prefer to steer a little clear of focussing too much on Cath as she was a bit much for me!
- They're all in town for the Feastival and there's some light-hearted "crime" going on (someone is stealing Skye's Ibérico ham, the genitalia cupcake stand is getting spiked with weed cupcakes, the teens are up to shenanigans).
I'm isabrella on AO3, Dreamwidth, and Tumblr and I'm open to treats!
Setting-changes AUs (canon divergence is fine); crossovers outside of my requests (so putting together canons I've requested is fine, adding another canon is not); death of main characters; gore; gender-swapping; non-canonical/unrequested gender identities, mental illnesses, or neurodivergences; readerfic, first or second person narrative (okay in things like texts, social media, or letters; not applicable to Mossa and Pleiti); fic about pregnancy or childbirth; fic about body image issues; non-con (dub-con like sex pollen is fine; I'm also fine with previous sexual assault being touched on); omegaverse; age regression; sex under the age of 15 (15+ is fine); mentions of pregnancy/children during sex; blood/vomit/feces/urine in sex; restraint during sex; explicit/planned roleplay during sex; degrading language in sex; M/F smut.
- Tropey fics such as: There Was Only One Bed, Fake Dating/Marriage, time loops, best friends to lovers and conversely enemies to lovers.
- Angst! Especially of the comphet kind.
- Found family, especially in the context of all-women settings (like pageants, girl bands, sports teams, *secret mermaid clubs*, women in STEM groups, Girl Scouts/Girl Guides) that kind of provide an alternative structure for the close relationships between girls and/or women.
- Humour, especially of the juxtapositional kind (think Gideon the Ninth). I'm from NZ so if you're from NZ or Australia you probably get what I mean here; everyone else feel free to give it the old college try.
- Hurt/comfort (ranging from illness to injury, everything is fine! I have no squicks about blood/vomit/etc. outside of sexual contexts). In fact, feel free to absolutely go hard on making them miserable with broken limbs, the flu, food poisoning, migraines, cramps, concussions… As long as someone is crying or trying VERY BRAVELY not to cry and someone else is trying (especially if they're completely inept) to fix it, I'll be delighted.
- When the author knows a lot about a specific subject and uses it to great effect in the fic (literary analysis, statistical analysis, feminist theory, ornithology, genetic engineering, whatever your special interest is, go wild!).
- Exploring the ways that different characters show each other love.
- Characters absolutely not saying what they mean and instead communicating through completely insane metaphors and parallels to avoid talking about their real feelings.
- Themes around fame, feminine rituals, public/private personas, and hiding who you are to project a performance persona (if you've read any of my recent work, you will see this laid out in excruciating detail).
- Doing each other's makeup, doing each other's hair, borrowing each other's clothes (being forced to borrow each other's clothes…). It's the feminine rituals of it all (can you tell I imprinted on the Girls Like Girls music video as an impressionable young teen?).
- Exploring characters' cultural/religious/familial history and connections.
- Exploring queer history and activism.
- Epistolary/other non-traditional formats for fic, especially social media-related stuff.
- When sex is funny/authentically awkward/fumbling/a complete comedy of errors but it still turns out hot.
- Any sexual first times (first time with each other, first time with a woman, first time of all time, first time trying something specific, etc.)
- Sex which is really about emotional intimacy.
- Using canonical magical powers during sex.
Characters requested: Miss Florida (Olivia) & Miss Montana (Zolita)
I would like the fic to include both characters.
This is a super quick watch (under 10 minutes, or the extended Queen of Hearts short film is 16 minutes), so if I'm on the pinch hit list or you're looking for a new, quick femslash thing, this is ideal.
TL;DR: set at the fictional Miss Queen of Hearts national pageant, Miss Montana (implied open lesbian) and Miss Florida (very closeted daughter of implied Republican Congresswoman Dawson, the host of the pageant) have a tangled past and end up hooking up behind closed doors at the pageant.
I love the sneaking around, the drama, the history between them… I love the power dynamics and the snarky little one-upping comments they make to each other. And not gonna lie, I do seriously enjoy the "and everybody clapped" ending here. Call me a sucker. Whatever.
And definitely feel free to include social media or media elements reporting on them in this one!
Prompts:
- Comphet Miss Florida cheating on her boyfriend with Miss Montana and subsequent angst.
- What happened at the teen pageant they did together?
- When they first meet at the teen pageant, Olivia is crying because one of the judges was harsh on her and Zolita takes pity on her and fixes her makeup (and kisses her, sending her into an entirely different kind of tailspin) before they go on stage.
- Rooming together at pageants over the years. (Is this a thing that happens at pageants? We don't even have pageants in this country so truly I have no idea. Just roll with it.)
- Social media commentary or reporting on their falling in love and dropping out, contrasted with their actual experiences.
- Honestly even just a fic novelising and expanding on what's in the video (or part of it) would be great.
Sorry I literally do not know how to prompt not-shippy for this one.
Characters requested: Rikki Chadwick & Emma Gilbert
I would like the fic to include both characters.
Unbelievably, I have recently watched this show for the first time as an adult with my bestie (i.e., I never saw it as a kid) and it… is pretty good????? Further unbelievably, it is available officially and for free on YouTube (depending on where in the world you are).
As of writing this letter, we've finished S2 but intending to be completely finished with S3 by December, so if there's anything from the future that you think fits with what I'm into here, that would be A-okay with me.
I am completely obsessed with the Rikki/Emma dynamic. The mild enemies-to-lovers of it all. The complementary fire and ice powers. The uptight/rebellious girl pairing.
Specific DNWs: AU - no powers; sex while they're mermaids; whatever the hell was going on with the ambergris in S2 E15.
I am happy for them to have sex from age 16!
Rikki/Emma prompts
- Emma cheating on her boyfriend with Rikki because she just can't stay away and they're meant to be together because they have matching powers <3
- Hurt/comfort anything.
- You KNOW that Bad Moon Rising (S1E18) is STUCK IN MY BRAIN. Emma coming to save Rikki from herself and comfort her. I could read ten million versions of Rikki hunched over crying in a forest of fire and Emma fixing that for her with her perfectly complementary ice powers and still want more.
- Full moon sex pollen. Obviously. Bonus points if Rikki is using her powers to turn the heat up a little for Emma.
- Rikki saying casually one day, "Oh, you don't use your powers to help you… get off? Let me show you how," and Emma being into it. Except of course ice powers are way less helpful for that, so Rikki ends up doing it for both of them.
- Emma and Rikki having a sleepover and Rikki goading her about being uptight until Emma finally snaps and says, "How's this for uptight?" and kisses her. (Fire and Ice [S2E4] vibes but better because Rikki and Emma are all alone and having the most sexually tense sleepover in the history of homoerotically repressed teen girls).
- Emma and Rikki just seem to turn into chaos demons in S2 by constantly using their powers to create problems. I consider this a form of dating.
- Rikki gets sick and pretends she isn't sick and Emma has to chase her around trying to make her lie down. Also vice versa if they have a biology exam or something.
- Rikki gets a job at the JuiceNet café specifically to annoy Emma.
- Emma and Rikki have a homoerotic camping trip on Mako Island (as teens or adults <3).
- Emma and Rikki fighting with their complementary powers.
- Angst about Emma leaving (I'm told she gets replaced in S3. RIP.)
- Angst where Emma and Rikki are hooking up but Emma is deeply in her head about it and keeps insisting that they keep it a secret and it's not that serious etc. (Casual by Chappell Roan eat your heart out.)
General prompts:
- If shippy stuff is not your thing: shenanigans fic about Cleo, Emma, Rikki, and Lewis in the same tone of the show would be great, either slotted into the high school arc, or in university, or as adults.
- Anything drawing on obscure mermaid or cryptozoological sea creatures could be fun, in the vein of Cleo's siren song episode.
- Emma makes Rikki (and Cleo and/or Lewis?) join the Duke of Edinburgh scheme for their "university applications". Shenanigans ensue.
- Character studies of Rikki or Emma or time they spend together as friends.
- The college/adult trio mounting a campaign to save coral reefs or something similar.
- Epistolary stuff with any of them writing letters, texting, making blogs, etc.
- Shenanigans during the traditional Australian beach Christmas (bonus points for simultaneous full moon shenanigans). Emma and Cleo and Rikki and Lewis are all present at the beach BBQ and desperately trying to avoid the perils of condensation, getting splashed, or forced to swim.
- Halloween shenanigans. Again bonus points if this a full moon double whammy. Emma and Cleo have to take their younger siblings trick or treating. "Wow, that's the best mermaid costume I've ever seen!" etc.
Characters requested: Ayesha, Amina, Momtaz, Bisma
I'm happy for the fic to focus primarily on only one or a few of the characters, or include all of them, and I'm definitely happy for Saira to be as central to the fic as one of the characters I've requested, I just had to narrow it down to four for the request! I would also love Amina/Saira fic.
I am completely obsessed with this show. This is the best TV show I have ever seen, hands down. If you matched with me on something else and you like female-driven comedies like Derry Girls or Hacks, I would definitely recommend giving it a try. It's kind of like that and kind of like if your 12 year old self who liked to sing into a wooden spoon microphone got a TV show and kind of like a study on feminine rage.
Specific DNWs: smut, poor lab etiquette (yes, the show is egregiously guilty of this. Yes, I scream every time people are wandering into her microbiology lab which is DEFINITELY keycard access only).
Amina/Saira prompts:
- Amina's parents kind of adopt Saira. Maybe Amina has some complicated (jealous) feelings about this which lead her to realise that she has feelings for Saira.
- Amina helps Saira make an online dating profile so that Amina has to list all the things she likes about Saira.
- I would love to see music structuring their relationships/friendships - anything where you can weave musical theory into the structure of the fic would be awesome.
- Saira sets out to write a song to tell Amina her feelings because she communicates best through music, but she has no idea how to write a love song and it keeps coming out rage-y.
- Amina going back to her roots teaching underprivileged children guitar/music, except this time she's dragging Saira with her and the kids think they're super cool and also in love.
- Amina has her very uptight version of the "am I gay quiz" Google search, whereby she carefully hunts through sexuality labels until she decides on an extremely specific one that she uses to tell Saira she's into her.
& if the shippy stuff isn't your thing feel free to take the core concepts and make them platonic or whole band or individual character-focussed.
General prompts:
- Character studies of Ayesha, Amina, Bisma or Momtaz (or even Saira with another character too) would all hit the spot (and bonus points if it's funny too!). I love Ayesha being angry and also her complicated relationship with coming out/labelling. I love Amina's whole thing. I love Momtaz being a business savvy girlie but no one sees beyond the niqab. I love Bisma's struggle to be a good mum and also be herself; lots of conflict there balancing her art, her relationship, her daughter, her faith, her music, her unerring commitment to doing her best. I *love* Saira's tough exterior and wounded soul vibes <3 my favourite type of girl.
- Whole band shenanigans would be brilliant - pop up concerts, writing new songs together,
mentoring the younger/up-and-coming bands (and recognizing themselves in them!). Equally, what if Amina's mum or Momtaz's grandma decided they wanted their turn to be rockstars?
- The band exploring what fame means to them.
- Ayesha exploring her queerness - I am *not* in any way super invested in her labelling herself or having a traditional coming out arc, but maybe finding other people who accept her the way she is, or creating meaningful art about her experience.
- I love how being Muslim is deeply embedded in all of their experiences of the band, and fame, and each other, and so on, so anything exploring that is very up my alley.
Characters requested: Leighton Murray, Kimberly Finkle
The fic can include only one of the requested characters. I am also happy for you to include Whitney, Bela, and any of the side characters (especially women) for the shenanigans/angst/plot. If you're going non-shippy, I'm definitely more into focussing on the female friendships rather than the male characters or any drama caused thereof (the S2 ending of it all…).
Leighton/Kimberly prompts:
- AU where instead of doing community service at the women's center, Leighton has to do it at the LGBTQ+/Rainbow centre where Kimberly is doing her work-study experience (she's definitely just an ally). And then they end up kissing.
- I love the juxtaposition between Kimberly's do-gooder working class upbringing and her money struggles and Leighton's extraordinarily privileged background, so anything digging into how they negotiate that and manage a friendship is interesting to me. Leighton gives Kimberly her off cast coats in S1! Was that just because she was worried about her????
- Fake dating for some reason. Maybe Leighton is trying to fend off all her jealous ex-situationships with her definitely-real, definitely-serious girlfriend Kimberly. Maybe she's trying to piss off her parents with a girlfriend.
- I don't care how you make it happen but Kimberly and Leighton in a couples Halloween costume speaks to me on a spiritual level.
& if the shippy stuff isn't your thing, take any of these prompts platonic!
General prompts:
- Any Leighton or Kimberly character study! Leighton's string of on-and-offscreen girlfriends as she figures out her identity. Kimberly coming to terms with what losing her scholarship means to her.
- Happy for you to write about Leighton and Alicia or Leighton and Tatum and have Kimberly there as a supportive friend/sounding board/interlocutor.
- Any whole group shenanigans is also great - maybe they're throwing a party, maybe they're moving into a shared house rather than the dorms, maybe they're all visiting someone's family for the holidays (Christmas, or semester break, or whatever else).
- In the future, they're reuniting for someone's wedding party and shenanigans ensue. Bonus points if Leighton and Kimberly end up having a tryst.
Characters requested: Mossa & Pleiti
I would like the fic to include both characters.
I'm insane about these I would make everyone I know read them if I could. Malka Older I want to crawl inside your brain. I think these books are an incredible feat of worldbuilding and romance and they're MYSTERY NOVELLAS. The skill to pull this off is literally mindblowing to me.
Things I love about it: the worldbuilding. It feels so lived in and all the little details like people living on separate day cycles and the railways built around the planet and the kind of historical-but-futuristic vibes! The fascination with Earth ecology/biology, the sci-fi elements mixed with the pseudo Victorian era vibes. I love that academia is so central to Pleiti and so… realistically stupid? I'm not in academia anymore but the absolute nonsense politics of it all and the fact that studying literature is considered life or death is incredibly funny and accurate to me. The politics of resurrecting animals and plants is fascinating to me. I love the pining of it all and the nebulous nature of their relationship and the push and pull of their growing affection etc.
Specific DNWs: smut, also feel free to write first person like the books (either POV) if you want (an exception to my first-person POV DNW).
Prompts:
- I would be into any kind of in-universe worldbuilding texts for this one, like academic articles or popular historical books or anything else you can think of that plays with format!
- The sociology of how religion and culture has been transmuted into this society is super interesting to me! Pleiti has a qibla globe (side note: would love to know more about how that works on pseudo-Jupiter) and she also says "May his memory be a blessing" to Mossa about her father so I wonder what all that implies about how aspects of various current-day religions have survived/changed on Giant.
- Anything that delves into the science of the resurrections (I have a biology degree specializing in genetics so I do find the Jurassic Park/seed bank/etc. of it all clown but fun).
- I am curious about the kind of social hierarchies that are hinted at but not interrogated at length thus far (Mossa is from Io, which seems to be considered backwards, Pleiti is from a farming area, Pleiti thinks about the class implications of porters, etc.) Pleiti reading one (1) sociological text from the Modern faculty and having her mind exploded is very funny to me. SORRY I also did sociology I'm a girl of many stripes.
- Mossa taking Pleiti to visit her honorary family, or Pleiti taking Mossa home to her farming platform.
- Letters between Mossa and Pleiti is very on brand.
- Flashbacks to their time in college - was Mossa always solving mysteries then too? What did Mossa even study? What did they get up to together?
- Hurt/comfort of any kind. Come on you know the second Pleiti was tending to the claw marks on Mossa's back I was going out of my mind.
- Honestly I just love the books themselves so any case-ficcy type stuff would totally go wild for me.
- A character study of Mossa or Pleiti.
- Pleiti's reaction to some piece of amusing Earth culture that she's studying. What does John exploding cows in Nona the Ninth imply about New Zealand ecology? A personal fave would of course be the Girl Guiding handbooks from the early 20th century, because I am a freak! (Many of these can be found on Internet Archive I believe). Pleiti reacts to the Famous Five.
- Pleiti's interest in creating an interdisciplinary working group (I experienced a visceral war flashback to university writing that phrase) for reintroducing flora and fauna to Earth could potentially be an interesting starting point. Alternatively, she seemed like she might be leaning towards joining Mossa in some kind of regular investigative jaunt. What does that mean for her studies, her sense of herself, etc.?
- Mossa and Pleiti attending some kind of festival or celebration such as the Feast-Day of Valdegard.
Characters requested: Abby Matsuda, Dulcie Collins, Eddie Redcliffe
I'm happy for you to include just one of the requested characters, and also feel free to add Sven to the trio for the police shenanigans vibes.
I cannot believe how good this show is. It immediately rocketed to spot #3 on my shows of all time list (After We Are Lady Parts and Motherland: Fort Salem, before Hacks [but only just]). I was a skeptic at first (right up until "Oh no my mooncup's still in", so only about 2 minutes, but still), but truly "Australian crime comedy about a lesbian town" delivered beyond my wildest dreams. You do have to turn off the copaganda radar a bit but you know. The brain loves a good mystery show. And the moral of it all was incredibly peak to me (spoilers: men shouldn't do feminism is very funny as a concept to me; racist colonizers should die of snake bites on their own gatekept island also incredible). I loved the very very Australian and small town humour and if you can lean hard into that I would be thrilled.
Eddie is a peak character (emotionally stunted and damaged detective who covers it up with being dismissive, funny, and sexually explicit is simply a trope that is 100x better when it's a grungy woman in a Hawai'ian shirt and cargo shorts). Abby is a peak character (overachiever who is actually so insightful but just needs to learn to believe in herself [plus: 👅✂️ made me scream]). Dulcie is a peak character (heart of gold practical woman in the company of a lot of unpractical people).
Specific DNWs: smut (go hard on sexual innuendos and explicit language though, very canon!), crossovers (with the further very specific exception of Ellie and Abbie and Ellie's Dead Aunt for this request only), racial slurs.
Prompts:
- Put them in stupid situations. Cath makes them all go out for karaoke for someone's birthday (Eddie doing karaoke? Now that's what I call comedy). Eddie tries and fails to learn how to cook an omelette.
- Drunken heart-to-hearts that are still stupid and fucking funny.
- I could definitely also do serious fic about Abby, because I love that ending for her! Yes go get 'em girl! Does she go back to university and pursue her real passions? Is she immediately promoted over James (making him seethe)? Does she have a tryst with Kate?
- The implications of Eddie asking about giving women the old college try. You know Cath is all over that immediately and trying to introduce her to everyone in the Darwin lesbian scene without knowing a single lesbian in the Darwin lesbian scene (except of course she does, by proxy, because she's dated all of their college exes).
- A little case fic type stuff also wouldn't go amiss, especially if it's a silly mystery of the type Eddie is constantly denigrating (who stole my bin, my hat blew away, the teens kicked a rugby ball into my garden, who threw a seed bomb in my gutter [inspired by my real life], etc.)
- Character studies of Dulcie, Eddie, or Abby, of course. With Dulcie I'd prefer to steer a little clear of focussing too much on Cath as she was a bit much for me!
- They're all in town for the Feastival and there's some light-hearted "crime" going on (someone is stealing Skye's Ibérico ham, the genitalia cupcake stand is getting spiked with weed cupcakes, the teens are up to shenanigans).
