#ITPE 2020

[shmaylor]

Happy ITPE Dear Podficcer!

I’m putting lots of detail in this letter not to be overwhelming or because I’m super picky, but because I’m hoping lots of info will make it easier for you to narrow your fic search. But whatever you make me, I’m totally going to love it!

Likes:

- Fake married

- Accidentally married/woke up married

- secret married!!

- why do so many of my favorite tropes involve marriage?? who knows. (dating instead of married is also super legit for these tropes)

- Groundhog day/reincarnation (they keep meeting and/or dying over and over until they get it right)

- Emotional vulnerability is hard, but they're Trying Their Best

- piiiiining, oh dear god the pining
- getting together
- established relationship

- Origin stories and character studies

- Team humor fic and banter

- I love canon divergence and altered canon, but not full AUs (coffeeshop, fairytale, vampire, etc).

- I've been using the phrase "beautiful sharp-edged things" to describe a particular type of fic I love. Which uhhhh, I don't know if that helps, but maybe it gets a certain kind of feeling across??

- Gentle fics that quietly cup you in their palms and support you through the tough emotions and maybe it's not all okay at the end, but you feel like it could probably be okay eventually

- I'm sorry this has all gotten very poetic. please ignore those two things if they don't make any sense

Do not want:

- pregnancy fic, kid fic, or de-aged fic

- curtain fic (I like fluff, but not so much when there isn't plot or character study or a little something else going on too)

- heavy secondhand embarrassment

- infidelity

- unrequited love

- domestic violence and non-con. mentions of it and canonical stuff are fine, but please nothing graphic that's been added to give a character A More Tragic Backstory.

- Hazing. i.e. anything a person has to do when joining a group/organization that doesn't have a purpose beyond embarrassing, inconveniencing, shaming, or hurting them. The power dynamic of new person vs established group is what makes this bad for me. Teammates who have been together a long time pranking each other or whatever is fine. 

Generally the maximum amount of violence/messed-up stuff I like in fic is proportional to the maximum amount of violence in a particular canon.

All ratings are welcomed. I'm not so much for PWPs, but sex scenes as part of a larger story are great!

My own work is generally very self indulgent and recorded for me, so my podfics are a good indicator of what I like.

Things I like in specific fandoms (in no particular order) (seriously, I'm equally happy to get gifts in any of these fandoms):

The Locked Tomb

- Harrow/Gideon, obviously

- Harrow/Ianthe where everything is fucked up in a delicious way??

- Camilla and Sextus (forever in my feelings about 'go loud', a scene which I have re-read at least 15 times)

- weird skeleton sex

- WORLDBUILDING and deep dives into side characters

- please please no modern/mundane AUs

The Old Guard

- Nile's introduction to being immortal and her developing relationships with the others

- Team banter!

- Joe/Nicky. I love them being soft, but I also love exploring that transition from murder to not-murder

Black Sails

- James/Thomas. The tragedy and eventual healing of their story, hngggg it kills me  

- Anne/Jack/Max

- This is a fandom where I love to be hit with the angst-with-a-happy-ending feelings

- not into Silver/Flint

Teen Titans (Animated Series)

- I just started rewatching this show and I'm rolling around in delightful nostalgia. I haven't actually ever read fic for it, so I don't know what's there, but I thought I'd put it on my list anyway!

- I'm here for TEAM and BANTER and SLICE OF LIFE

- I don't have any knowledge of the comics or the Teen Titans Go! series 

Westworld

- I finished this show like 3 days ago and haven't read any fic yet, but hot damn there is so much cool stuff that could come from this canon. 

- ROBOTS. WHAT IS SENTIENCE. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A PERSON. ROBOTS DEVELOPING EMOTIONS BECAUSE WE CAN'T HELP BUT MAKE THEM IN OUR OWN IMAGE. 

- My most loved characters:  Delores, Maeve, Bernard, Elsie, Felix, Charlotte 

- From the briefest glance in the tag, the fandom seems to be very interested in Logan Delos and I can't overstate how much I don't care about him

The Thrilling Adventure Hour

- Beyond Belief is my favorite segment and I love Frank/Sadie SO MUCH

- Captain Laserbeam or Sparks Nevada content would also be great.

The Expanse (TV)

- Bobbie/Chrisjen(/Cotyar) 

- No grief fic please! Either Cotyar lives or we just don't mention him! 

Yuri on Ice:

- Yuri P./Otabek, and how Yuri is bad at feelings and denies even having them, but people love him anyway

- Canon ages or waiting to get together until later are both great, but I really hate the "we will wait to have sex until the very second you turn 18, and then deflower you immediately"

- I have A Lot of feelings about performance and the effort involved in producing that kind of art with your body while also being competitive about it, so fic exploring any of that is extra delightful. 

Hannibal

- Hannibal/Will and all that fucked up murder husbands stuff

- like...if someone isn't covered in blood at least once, I'm probably not interested

- dubcon is totally fine in this fandom!

Roswell New Mexico

- gosh this show! my bisexual alien disasters!!

- I'm not tied to a particular ship in this fandom and I'm looking more for good quality writing here rather than specific tropes or pairings!

- Hard no to Michael/Alex fic that treats Maria badly (or any fic that treats Maria badly, but lbr Michael/Alex fic is where you're going to find it)

- Liz & Rosa navigating what it means to be sisters again

- Maria, Michael, and Alex messily figuring out how to make a poly relationship work for them 

Star Wars - Rogue One

- THE SADDEST CANON. I ENJOY SUFFERING

- Pre-canon fic

- Fic that ends where the movie ends; aka everyone dying, but it's hopeful and their sacrifice isn't in vain.

- Everybody Lives AUs. Celebratory or growing through the trauma of their experience, all of it is good stuff.

- No thank you to "some die, some live"

- Team feels

- Cassian/K2

- K2-focused fic about what are emotions, when is a robot a person, all of that messy philosophical stuff

Wayfarers (Becky Chambers Books)

- Jenks/Lovey. please dear god, this is the pairing of my heart and I'm still fucked up about it and I need fic, but tragically there isn't any. So this is a long shot wish more than anything else. 

I’m on twitter and tumblr @ theshmaylor and just shmaylor on AO3!

That was a lot of things, but I hope it was useful. Podficcer, you are a wonder and a delight, and I hope you have a ton of fun with this exchange. I can’t wait to listen <3