2017 yuletide letter
Oct. 3rd, 2017 12:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lotesseDear Yuletide author,
Hi there! Thanks so much in advance for writing for me this year!
I like political, communitarian and feminist themes, authentic and rooted senses of place, women initiating and remaining in control of sexual encounters (though not necessarily always in a Domme-y way, complications are fun), stories about things that begin in early life and continue to press in adulthood, and happy or at least hopeful endings. I don't have a whole lot of blanket dnws or squicks. DV/intimate partner abuse themes are sensitive for me.
If I've written more about some requests than others, it doesn't indicate preference at all - it's just that some things take more words to explain, you know?
If you want to find me other places on the net, you can look me up:
-on tumblr: http://lotesseflower.tumblr.com/
-on the AO3: http://archiveofourown.org/users/lotesse
-on delicious: http://del.icio.us/lotesseflower
The Handmaiden (Sook-Hee, Hideko)
I'm interested in the transformative power of violence in these women's lives.
One of the things I admit I enjoyed about the adaptation from Fingersmith is the increased likeability of both of the women, the enjoyability of their violence against men and the innocence of their suffering of violence at the hands of others. Waters' characters are more unlikeable and complicit, imo, though neither Hideko nor Sook-Hee are saints. (My theory was that it had to do with the increased and more-obviously-racialized presence of colonialism, whereas both Maud and Suky are white, providing a set of clear villains for the girls to really team up against, but ymmv on that and I haven't done enough research to state it as a heavy claim.) I'm thinking about three sequences specifically: the scene where Sook-Hee finds Hideko hanging herself from the cherry tree and disrupts her self-directed violence, the tremendous and ime massively cathartic sequence where the women destroy the pornography collection, and the real brutality of the Gentleman's takedown at the end.
So: we leave our heroines freed, taking with them an object (the bells) previously used against Hideko in violence, now used between them in pleasure. Take me beyond the happy ending: I want to know about what's going to happen when violence intrudes on them again. You know it will, it always does. Violence from the self, between the lovers, from the system, from the chaos of the world, whatever: how are they going to handle that, separately or together?
-sexually explicit and/or kinky material is welcome, but not required, for this request. I am not myself troubled by depictions of unhealthy behavior, and in this canon it seems more probable to me than not; despite the softening of the female characters in the film, they're still not unhardened people.
Smoke Signals (Thomas, Victor)
I ship the PANTS off of Thomas/Victor, anything from gen smarm to full porn. I really like the complicated way that the boys express love and antagonism simultaneously, the fistfights and inappropriate questions that are almost recognition of intimacy, a demand for more. They're there for each other and they fuck each other up, and the two things are connected by the overarching gentleness of the community formed by the Rez and the weight of a lot of time.
some prompts:
-forced intimacy scenarios: on the Rez, on the journey, in the hospital. Snoozing together on the bus. Have to share a motel bed. Left alone together as children. Something that doesn't let them get away from each other, that makes them sit in the presence of their real connection.
-first time fic with angst and pining and tropey goodness and stuff.
-if you, dearest Yule Goat, feel up to telling the story of Thomas's relationship with the specific spirituality of the Couer d'Alene rez with accuracy and depth, oh my god go for it, do that thing, but if not maybe avoid this prompt. But -- how shamanism interacts with masculinity. Storytelling as a survival mechanism. Passive-aggressive adoption of the mannerisms of his grandmother. It's so good.
Indiana Jones (Indy, Marion)
I want to see more of pre-canon university-era Indy/Marion, shippy or otherwise.
Indy/Marion is such a strange, awkward ship - in Raiders, they've reached a true-OTP level of MFEO-itude, but by all accounts the thing began badly. I think of them as being right for each other, but not yet ready for each other, if that makes sense. So, who were these two as younger people? Marion's life must have been pretty unusual at the time, if she was spending significant amounts of time with her dad's grad student. On Indy's side -- having been a grad student myself, I can attest to how disorienting and isolating it can be. Was he more strait-laced or by-the-book then? Or was he always more rugged and hands-on in his approach to his fieldwork? How did his mentor feel about that? How did it impact Marion's adolescent psychodrama, at a time when she would have developmentally been differentiating herself from her father while still needing him, as a girl in an era when women were not commonly educated, as a portal to the wider world?
-if shippy: this is a heavy age-diff/underage ship. It sounds like the whole thing was inflamed and torrid and more than a little illicit. I am here for alla that. Awkward seduction bits? Marion ill-advisedly trying to use Indy for sexual release or initiation? A genuine sense of connection that neither can figure out how to deal with? Sneaking around for sex, either on a dig site or on campus? Emotional incest complications in the group due to Indy's closeness with Abner Ravenwood?
-if you're uncomfortable with underage, or are more interested in writing gen: show me that genuine sense of connection, and how it operates. Two isolated young people who find one another's minds and company attractive. What does Marion learn in her life amongst all these scholars, either in terms of mythology/anthropology or in terms of adult masculinity?
I'm generally into age-diff ships where a gifted/isolated girl is sexually initiated by a gentle, educated older male lover who adores but does not entirely understand her. I'd prefer softer, gentler Indy characterization, not so much with any overt sexism, abusive intent, or premeditated cruelty. I'm not interested in interpretations of him as abusive toward young Marion, although their affair would not be acceptable to me in reality -- this is fiction.
Thanks again for writing for me this year; I will love any story that you make for me <3
Hi there! Thanks so much in advance for writing for me this year!
I like political, communitarian and feminist themes, authentic and rooted senses of place, women initiating and remaining in control of sexual encounters (though not necessarily always in a Domme-y way, complications are fun), stories about things that begin in early life and continue to press in adulthood, and happy or at least hopeful endings. I don't have a whole lot of blanket dnws or squicks. DV/intimate partner abuse themes are sensitive for me.
If I've written more about some requests than others, it doesn't indicate preference at all - it's just that some things take more words to explain, you know?
If you want to find me other places on the net, you can look me up:
-on tumblr: http://lotesseflower.tumblr.com/
-on the AO3: http://archiveofourown.org/users/lotesse
-on delicious: http://del.icio.us/lotesseflower
The Handmaiden (Sook-Hee, Hideko)
I'm interested in the transformative power of violence in these women's lives.
One of the things I admit I enjoyed about the adaptation from Fingersmith is the increased likeability of both of the women, the enjoyability of their violence against men and the innocence of their suffering of violence at the hands of others. Waters' characters are more unlikeable and complicit, imo, though neither Hideko nor Sook-Hee are saints. (My theory was that it had to do with the increased and more-obviously-racialized presence of colonialism, whereas both Maud and Suky are white, providing a set of clear villains for the girls to really team up against, but ymmv on that and I haven't done enough research to state it as a heavy claim.) I'm thinking about three sequences specifically: the scene where Sook-Hee finds Hideko hanging herself from the cherry tree and disrupts her self-directed violence, the tremendous and ime massively cathartic sequence where the women destroy the pornography collection, and the real brutality of the Gentleman's takedown at the end.
So: we leave our heroines freed, taking with them an object (the bells) previously used against Hideko in violence, now used between them in pleasure. Take me beyond the happy ending: I want to know about what's going to happen when violence intrudes on them again. You know it will, it always does. Violence from the self, between the lovers, from the system, from the chaos of the world, whatever: how are they going to handle that, separately or together?
-sexually explicit and/or kinky material is welcome, but not required, for this request. I am not myself troubled by depictions of unhealthy behavior, and in this canon it seems more probable to me than not; despite the softening of the female characters in the film, they're still not unhardened people.
Smoke Signals (Thomas, Victor)
I ship the PANTS off of Thomas/Victor, anything from gen smarm to full porn. I really like the complicated way that the boys express love and antagonism simultaneously, the fistfights and inappropriate questions that are almost recognition of intimacy, a demand for more. They're there for each other and they fuck each other up, and the two things are connected by the overarching gentleness of the community formed by the Rez and the weight of a lot of time.
some prompts:
-forced intimacy scenarios: on the Rez, on the journey, in the hospital. Snoozing together on the bus. Have to share a motel bed. Left alone together as children. Something that doesn't let them get away from each other, that makes them sit in the presence of their real connection.
-first time fic with angst and pining and tropey goodness and stuff.
-if you, dearest Yule Goat, feel up to telling the story of Thomas's relationship with the specific spirituality of the Couer d'Alene rez with accuracy and depth, oh my god go for it, do that thing, but if not maybe avoid this prompt. But -- how shamanism interacts with masculinity. Storytelling as a survival mechanism. Passive-aggressive adoption of the mannerisms of his grandmother. It's so good.
Indiana Jones (Indy, Marion)
I want to see more of pre-canon university-era Indy/Marion, shippy or otherwise.
Indy/Marion is such a strange, awkward ship - in Raiders, they've reached a true-OTP level of MFEO-itude, but by all accounts the thing began badly. I think of them as being right for each other, but not yet ready for each other, if that makes sense. So, who were these two as younger people? Marion's life must have been pretty unusual at the time, if she was spending significant amounts of time with her dad's grad student. On Indy's side -- having been a grad student myself, I can attest to how disorienting and isolating it can be. Was he more strait-laced or by-the-book then? Or was he always more rugged and hands-on in his approach to his fieldwork? How did his mentor feel about that? How did it impact Marion's adolescent psychodrama, at a time when she would have developmentally been differentiating herself from her father while still needing him, as a girl in an era when women were not commonly educated, as a portal to the wider world?
-if shippy: this is a heavy age-diff/underage ship. It sounds like the whole thing was inflamed and torrid and more than a little illicit. I am here for alla that. Awkward seduction bits? Marion ill-advisedly trying to use Indy for sexual release or initiation? A genuine sense of connection that neither can figure out how to deal with? Sneaking around for sex, either on a dig site or on campus? Emotional incest complications in the group due to Indy's closeness with Abner Ravenwood?
-if you're uncomfortable with underage, or are more interested in writing gen: show me that genuine sense of connection, and how it operates. Two isolated young people who find one another's minds and company attractive. What does Marion learn in her life amongst all these scholars, either in terms of mythology/anthropology or in terms of adult masculinity?
I'm generally into age-diff ships where a gifted/isolated girl is sexually initiated by a gentle, educated older male lover who adores but does not entirely understand her. I'd prefer softer, gentler Indy characterization, not so much with any overt sexism, abusive intent, or premeditated cruelty. I'm not interested in interpretations of him as abusive toward young Marion, although their affair would not be acceptable to me in reality -- this is fiction.
Thanks again for writing for me this year; I will love any story that you make for me <3