yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuletiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiide

[fox]

Check your spam folder! (And thanks for the boldface heads-up, elynross!) I can has assignment! It is already Percolating in my Head! Wheeeeeeeeee!

As for the lovely person who is writing for me:

Dear lovely Yuletider:

Oh, my goodness, you wonderful creature. I'm so excited about yuletide this year, I can't even tell you. No, honestly. I'm not even exaggerating when I say that I am equally giddy about all of my requests. The mere fact that you will be writing one of them has made me so happy -- I'm supposed to be telling you what I dig in general and what I fairly reliably don't care for, in case you come looking for Additional Guidance, but what are the things I don't care for? I'm thinking of asking people to tell me this about myself, because I'm so psyched about yuletide I can't think of any.

Okay, here we go -- Things You May Want To Avoid If Your Purpose Is Specifically To Please Fox:

• RPF - this is pretty much my bullet-proofiest squick, in fact probably the only thing about which I will go ahead and use the word "squick" instead of something milder like "preference against". I could go into a whole thing about my boundary issues, but there's not really any need, because look what I requested -- how on earth would it even come up. For the record, in my confused little mind historical figures are not the same as public figures, so I've written in fandoms Based On A True Story before without a tremor. It's hard to know where the cutoff is, though, so probably best to avoid it altogether unless you're prepared to consult with a professional (i.e., someone who knows me well and can explain this better than I can).
  
  
• character bashing - this can be overt ("That cow; I never liked her" out of the mouth of someone who never gave any evidence in canon of disliking the person in question) or more subtle (narrative that makes a smart person stupid, a normal-looking person hideous, a strong person weak, a kind person cruel), but no matter how it turns up, it kind of bugs me. I mean: if there are plot-driven reasons for the characterization, fine, but I do hope you won't have character A kick character B all around in the dirt just because you've never cared for character B, you know?
  
  The more-subtle version of this is, in particular cases, sometimes called "feminizing" a character, or, much less offensively, "infantilizing" one (because it so often turns up in slash, where the -- sigh -- more submissive, usually also smaller and younger, party is mysteriously emotionally dependent on the other, given to random crying jags, etc., etc., so he is the "girl" and the dominant, bigger, stronger, older, etc. one is the "boy" (or (i know, nested parentheses, sorry) the "man", which, if you think about it, calling that "feminizing" infantilizes women, doesn't it, even before the girl/man opposition, which it may be best if I just stop now before I really go off the point)). I prefer that this not happen, at least not without a good solid maybe-someone-got-hit-on-the-head reason.
  
  
• um. - Really, that's about it. I think I'm pretty difficult to bug.

My flist are probably laughing in my face right now, but no, seriously, given that you are writing in one of these fandoms, you cannot but please me. Observe:

• As You Like It - I ask for Touchstone/Jacques every year. You may be the person who makes that wish come true! How could that not be awesome!
  
  (A question about Touchstone and Jacques is why they stay with their respective courts. I suppose Jacques couldn't have stayed at court after Frederick rolled in, but if he's so miserable with Senior, why doesn't he split? Touchstone at least chooses to go with the girls, so if he were unhappy it'd be his own fault; maybe that's why he's not. But anyway, as much as you care to explore what I think is a fascinating and usually unexamined relationship between the two fools, I'd love you to do so. Without, see above, bashing Audrey ... any more than Shakespeare already did.)
  
• My Fair Lady - I forgot to nominate this last year, so when request time came I remembered that I'd meant to ask for Higgins/Pickering, and I couldn't. You may be the person who makes up for my failure! How could that not be awesome!
  
  (Why does Higgins bring Pickering home with him so immediately, for a start -- and, possibly more interestingly, why does Pickering stay? Again, though: I'd prefer that this look at them in the context of the show, rather than disregarding or otherwise demeaning Eliza; if you find that you need to do something about her, I may mention that I don't hate Freddy as much as other people seem to, so it's okay with me if she doesn't either.)
  
• Gilbert and Sullivan - I didn't even know the G&S operas were a nominated fandom until I went to fill in my submission form. This is a brand new surprise for me! How could that not be awesome!
  
  (I think a state visit between the royal houses of Japan and Barataria would be hilarious. But if you'd rather tell me what happened after the finale of one opera or the other -- or some other opera* -- that's fine too. Note follows.)
  
  *(This is where I repeat what the sainted elynross teaches us about (a) optional details being optional, and (b) in fact, in this case, required details being fungible as well. I chose not to select "Any" for characters, because if you only offered, say, the cast of Princess Ida, well, I don't really know them, and the odds we wouldn't be a great fit would be fairly high. But I couldn't pick all the characters I do know, of course -- I could only pick four. So I chose Luiz and Casilda, and Nanki-Poo and Yum-Yum. (The operas are pre-crossed-over for our convenience. I think that's marvelous.) I did this only to raise the chances that we'd be a decent fit, since you will have offered those characters or "Any" characters. But listen: although I know Pinafore, Pirates, Patience, Mikado, Gondoliers, Iolanthe, and -- did I say in my request? I don't remember -- The Sorceror better than the rest, any G&S at all will be groovy. My optional details hereby free you from the tyranny of the required details.)

Things I like, and I think my friends will endorse this statement:

• scruffy.
  
• stoicism. (I didn't request this, but one time I was talking to someone about Dorothy L Sayers, and saying how I love Peter Wimsey best because he was so brave all that time he was in love with Harriet and she wasn't in love with him. Extrapolate as needed.)
  
• snark, but I do like it better witty than snippy.
  
• um. This is where I'm going to turn it over to my flist, who are welcome to comment on this post or whom you are welcome to contact in whatever mod-compliant ways exist. The best able to analyze my sensibilities are almost certainly ellen_fremedon and sanj. If they can't help you, they can at least probably point you at someone who can.

That's a little longer than it meant to be. Sorry. Go back one entry and look at how my day's been, and forgive me. :-D