2021 Yuletide Promo Post

[crantz]

Welcome to the Fandom Promo post, everyone!

Here's where you get those eyes on your fandoms for sign ups!

Share what makes your Yuletide fandoms the shiniest and why you love them. A big part of Yuletide is how small our fandoms can be, and this is a good way to make sure other people know what gems there are out there!

Suggested form to use:

<b>FANDOM NAME</b>:
<b>WHAT MAKES IT GREAT</b>:
<b>WHERE CAN I FIND IT (optional)</b>:


(Bonus optional: What are you thinking of requesting for this?)

EDIT:

Useful tips (Not required, but helps people if they want to engage with your fandom!):

- Mention what form of media the canon is. Is it a comic miniseries? Is it a twenty season tv show? Is it a book? Is it a twitter feed?
- Is it standalone or part of a series?
- It's best to make each fandom its own entry with its own title in the subject line! That makes it easier for people to find/see what you're promoting! Don't worry about 'spam', that is the entire point of this entry and you're using it exactly as intended.


For reference, last year's promo post!

Comments

Fremvandrerne | Beforeigners (TV)

[ambyr]

FANDOM NAME: Fremvandrerne | Beforeigners (TV)


[That's Urd, a secondary character and my favorite.]

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Beforeigners is a high-concept sort of show: at some point in the recent past, time migrants started appearing in the world's oceans from three time periods: the Stone Age, roughly 1000 AD, and roughly 1800 AD. Flash forward several years, and you have a world uneasily struggling to absorb this continual flood of refugees with very different mindsets and variable abilities of coping with the modern world.

As a metaphor for Europe's struggle to absorb the refugees that stream across the Mediterranean in inadequate boats every year, this is not subtle. What makes Beforeigners more than heavy-handed political commentary is how deeply it leans into the absurd aspects of its premise, from the neolithic crime boss who is palpably proud of the "glory" his wife has earned through her blogging (as an Instagram-style influencer "The Caveman's Wife" who writes about mixed temporal relationships and pitches interior design ideas) to B4 (the social media network used by time migrants to find others they might have known in the past) to . . . well, look, I don't want to spoil all the jokes, but the thing about Beforeigners is that it is, at times, extremely funny.

It is also a Nordic Noir police procedural, which is to say that sometimes it isn't funny at all. The show opens (after a bit of worldbuilding backstory) with a woman's corpse: she's been murdered, and it's up to Our Heroes, Lars (a sardonic police force veteran with a standard-issue drug problem and bitter ex-wife) and Alfhildr (the force's newly appointed first Viking--sorry, we don't use the V word, Norse--cop) to solve a case that a surprising number of people have a vested interest in burying.

The show starts out police procedural with sci-fi trappings; it ends sci-fi show with a vague memory that hey weren't we trying to do a police procedural?

This is a show that passes the Bechdel Test effortlessly (I love Urd and Alfhildr's friendship so much). It is a show that has no problems giving its female characters agency. It is also, if this is a thing you like, a show with a heck of a lot of full frontal nudity, almost entirely of the male variety (which is how you know you're sure not watching USian TV). Does it always make sense? Nooooo. Some of the worldbuilding definitely does not stand up to even the most cursory of examination. But if you're willing to enjoy the ride, it's a heck of a lot of fun.

WHERE CAN I FIND IT (optional): There is currently one season, which is six episodes long. (Season two is in post-production and will be released . . . some day.) It's streaming on HBO in most markets.

WHAT ARE YOU THINKING OF REQUESTING FOR THIS?: Alfhildr and Urs backstory! Lars continuing his incrementally slow growth into becoming slightly less of an asshole. Greggers and Alfhildr meeting up, maybe? Really anything involving Beforeigners from different eras interacting with each other, since we don't get a whole lot of that in the show. This is also a great fandom for crossovers, and I still need to think of everyone I'm fannish about from the right stretch of the 1800s who might possibly have fallen through a time hole into Beforeigners present.

Re: Fremvandrerne | Beforeigners (TV)

[ariadnes_string]

seconded!

Dispatches from Elsewhere (TV)

[ambyr]

FANDOM NAME: Dispatches from Elsewhere (TV)



WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Do you like found family as a trope? Do you like puzzles? Do you like metafiction and experimental plot structures? Then have I got a show for you.

Dispatches from Elsewhere follows four extremely awkward people who get pulled into an Alternate Reality Game in Philadelphia. Peter is a middle-aged white cis guy who lives a life of quiet desperation as a data analyst; he can't remember the last time he had a feeling, good, bad, or indifferent. Simone is a young white trans woman who patterns herself on Amelie to paper over her crushing terror of rejection. Fredwynn is a middle-aged black cis guy with unshakeable self-confidence in his own genius so intense (partly deserved, partly not) that he utterly fails to relate to other people. And Janice is an elderly white cis woman who has spent fifty years following exactly the path expected of her and is now haunted by a creeping sense that she might have lost something along the way.

For all of them, the game, with its quests and puzzles and gorgeous sets, is the best thing that's ever happened to them: a source of joy, a structure for safely relating to others, a subject for obsession, a way to re-engage with the world. It (and their assigned teammates) quickly becomes the focus of their previously hollow lives. The found family feels are great; there's squabbling, and no one loves or trusts each other instantly, but that just makes it all the more satisfying when things start to come together.

Lingering in the back of all of their minds is the question, though: what if it's not a game?

WHERE CAN I FIND IT (optional): The story is complete in a single ten episode season. It's streaming on AMC+; it can also be purchased on DVD, or by episode on Amazon Prime and various other platforms.

WHAT ARE YOU THINKING OF REQUESTING FOR THIS?: I don't know how to answer this question without spoiling the entire structure of the show. I love all the characters (but I will probably not nominate Peter, because there's plenty of Peter in the show; I think my fourth character slot is likely to go to Lee.)

Re: Dispatches from Elsewhere (TV)

[gingertime]

This looks right up my alley, I love metafiction and ARGs! I'll definitely check it out :D

Anastasia (Play) by Marcelle Maurette

[pure_anon]

FANDOM NAME: Anastasia by Marcelle Maurette


WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Every single modern Anastasia story featuring amnesia and a grandmother-granddaughter reunion? It came from this.

But not many have done it as well as this.

Like most adaptations, this story concerns some conmen's scheme to find an impostor Anastasia to collect her grandmother's reward. Unlike many, however, this impostor knows from the start she is in a scheme--and goes along with it. She knows from the start she is not Anastasia.

Until she starts to get too caught up in it, that is. There's this fascinating ambiguity throughout the entire piece. Anna could be the real Anastasia, but she probably isn't. And in the end it doesn't matter. She and Maria Feodorovna build a genuine connection based on who they are; not on who Anna could be.

Anna in general is one of my favorite female characters ever. She is broken and damaged, but strong of character and will. She's smart as a whip, and knows exactly how to get around the conmen. She's unafraid to use them to her own advantage, just as they're using her. But at the bottom of this is her deep desire for love, for belonging. She's complex and multi-faceted and impossible to pin down.

Her could-be-grandmother is just as fascinating. She is old and tired; locked into her bitterness. She is sarcastic and biting and you at once see how similar she is to Anna. By the time you reach their confrontation, you know just how similar they are, and you beg for her to accept Anna. The most poignant part is that at the end, it does not matter to her whether Anna is Anastasia or not. She cares for her regardless.



The imagery and writing in this play is gorgeous, and the characters are all wonderfully defined. It is a haunting play, one that will stick with you for a long time.

WHERE CAN I FIND IT (optional): You can find the script at your local library, or on archive.org, or on openlibrary.
https://archive.org/details/anastasia00marc/page/n9/mode/2uphttps://openlibrary.org/works/OL8388101W/Anastasia?edition=anastasia00marc
There is also a radio play version available on youtube.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVPHaUBkTSM

You can also check out the 1956 film adaptation if you are interested (Ingrid Bergman is the best Anna ever!) but it is rather different than the film, and certain characters I am requesting are not in the film.

What I am thinking of requesting, so far, is post-canon Anna as she discovers for herself who Anna is (keeping in contact with her maybe-grandmother and falling back into a relationship with her lover Serensky, perhaps?)

Re: Anastasia (Play) by Marcelle Maurette

[ninety6tears]

I love the idea of her being in on the con. Gonna have to check this out! Do you know if the radio version follows the original script very closely?

The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells

[catalists]

FANDOM NAME: The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells (book series)

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Murderbot is a SecUnit, a construct (combo of robot and organic parts) rented out by the company that built it to provide security to survey missions to uncharted planets. It definitely can't murder you or anything, since the 'governor module' punishes any SecUnit that violates its rules--except that Murderbot hacked its module. Then, unsure what to do next, it continues half-assing its job for the next 35,000 hours while watching as much media as it possibly can...which is where the first book starts.

All of the books are hilarious, excellent sci-fi and also absolutely charming, as Murderbot starts to form relationships with humans, augmented humans, bots, and the controlling intelligence of a deep space research transport. I'm particularly in it for the relationship-driven fiction with an ace protagonist, but it's also worth reading for the fabulous world-building, the excellent characterization of its sprawling cast, and the comedy of Murderbot trying to deal with the feelings it likes to pretend it doesn't have.

Murderbot consists of five novellas and a novel:
-All Systems Red, novella
-Artificial Condition, novella
-Rogue Protocol, novella
-Exit Strategy, novella
-Network Effect, novel
-Artificial Condition, novella (set between Exit Strategy and Network Effect; the rest are chronological)

On a more spoilery note but very relevant to why I love it (if you want no spoilers, stop reading here), I've described Network Effect as an aroace love story and the quote-unquote-relationship friendship of Murderbot and ART, the too-smart-to-exist AI pilot of a research vessel, is an absolute joy to read and the driving force of the novel.

WHERE CAN I FIND IT (optional): Your local library (in both e-book and hard copy) or bookshop.org.

WHAT ARE YOU THINKING OF REQUESTING FOR THIS: I'm primarily interested in original flavor "casefic"/the continuing adventures of Murderbot and ART, but would love to see some more interactions between Murderbot and ART's humans, ART and Murderbot's humans, or more background on ART and the crew of the Perihelion as well. (If anyone else is planning to request Murderbot--please let me know! there's so many great characters and it would be wonderful to coordinate nominations.)

Re: The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells

[this_is_my_sock]

YASSS! I was just about to start a promo for this fandom!!

Additionally, if you're in the US (and maybe Canada?) and have a library card, your library may be part of the Overdrive system (https://clc.overdrive.com/) and you may be able to check out both e-book and audiobook versions of this series there, for free!

Sorrows of Love - Parthenius (short story collection)

[lepidamelancholia]

FANDOM NAME: Sorrows of Love - Parthenius

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: If you like Ancient Greek tragedy, this women-centric collection of short (1-2 paragraphs each, 36 in total) "love stories" might be relevant to your interest. They center around mortal women, though there are some divine interventions and magical elements (e.g. animal transformations). Many of the stories have unhappy endings, but you can focus on the romantic parts or come up with an alternate ending for her. For me, you can mix the stories together or focus on the one that's most compelling, and I am totally fine with both the romantic and the darker routes.

Content warning: "Love Stories" (as these are sometimes titled) is a misnomer; most of these stories are tragedies. In typical Ancient Greek fashion, rampant non-con (not graphic) and objectification of women.

WHERE CAN I FIND IT (optional): Here: https://www.theoi.com/Text/Parthenius.html

Re: Sorrows of Love - Parthenius (short story collection)

[(Anonymous)]

Did you nominate this? I can't seem to find it in the tag set :/

Dark and Stormy Night (Movie 2009)

[fleetsparrow]

FANDOM NAME: Dark and Stormy Night (2009, Larry Blamire)

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Do you love old movies? Specifically murder mystery/screwball comedies/old dark house types from the 1930s? Then you're in luck!

If you've never seen a Larry Blamire Thing (and yes, that's what they're called), you are missing out. I first found him with The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra and The Lost Skeleton Returns Again!, but Dark and Stormy Night is my favorite movie ever. It's hilarious, fast-paced comedy, where everyone has ridiculous names (like lawyer Farper Twiley, or psychic Mrs. Cupcupboard, or Dr. Van Von Vandervon), the slang is very '30s-based, and the murders are mostly played for laughs.

It has some great lines and my favorite through-line of any movie, the poor hapless cabby who just wants his 35 cents so he can LEAVE.

WHERE CAN I FIND IT: I think it's still available on DVD if you go looking (or want the Never Before Seen Colorized Version!), but it's definitely on Google Play Movies.

I'm nominating it with 8 O'Clock Farraday, Billy Tuesday (our two star reporters), and Happy Codburn (the above-mentioned cabby). Like, I have seen this so many times and let me say they are OT3 goals, my friend. I'm also nominating worldbuilding, in case you want to explore this pseudo-1930s world.

Basically, I cannot gush enough about this movie and I want everyone to watch it! And remember kids...

Feeding things will keep them alive!

Gateway - Frederik Pohl

[rachelmanija]

FANDOM NAME: Gateway, by Frederik Pohl

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: In this haunting novel, people find alien ships that they don't quite understand, so humans can fly them, but they have no idea until it's too late where they're going or how long the trip will be or if they'll arrive somewhere they can't survive or somewhere that will make them rich or save the world. Some ships never return at all; some return with the pilots dead. Plenty of people are desperate enough to try it.

The premise is fantastic, and the book really digs into it with a lot of interstitial material like mission reports, space station classified ads, etc. I'm going to request worldbuilding for Yuletide, because the world of the story is so fantastic.

The actual plot of the book is a bit YMMV; I found it very compelling, but it depends on your tolerance for the protagonist, who is an extremely 1970s sf novel protagonist. And speaking of 1970s, warning for typical levels of isms and also a disturbing domestic violence scene. That being said, I genuinely think it's a great novel. If you like haunting mysteries beyond human ken and the dark side of the sense of wonder, check it out.

There are sequels. I don't like them and will only be requesting the first book, which stands completely on its own anyway.

WHERE CAN I FIND IT: It's pretty easy to find. You can buy it online, it turns up in used bookshops for cheap, a lot of libraries will have it, and there's an audio version that's free if you have Audible Plus.

The Thousand Worlds, by George R. R. Martin

[rachelmanija]

FANDOM NAME: The Thousand Worlds, by George R. R. Martin. This is a space opera setting he used for a bunch of short stories and one novel, The Dying of the Light. You don't need to read all of them to know the canon as they're all standalone. My favorites of the short stories, which will give you a good sense of the setting, are "A Song For Lya," "The Stone City," and "Sandkings."

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: These stories, which were written very early in his career, are lush, romantic, expansive space opera full of sense of wonder and the feeling of vast, strange, beautiful, terrifying universe. They make me feel like I'm looking up at the stars and imagining inhabited planets orbiting those suns, with each planet inhabited by beings living their own fascinating stories.

Warning for some "typical 1970s sf dudes writing about women" stuff.

I'm going to request worldbuilding for this canon - not in the sense of "write about the foodways of Shkeen," but to write me an original story set in this universe.

WHERE CAN I FIND IT (optional): The canon is scattered in a bunch of short stories and one novel. The collection Dreamsongs Volume 1 is in print, and collects nine of the stories in the Thousand Worlds universe. They are "A Song for Lya," "Bitterblooms," "The Stone City," "The Way of Cross and Dragon," "The Tower of Ashes," "And Seven Times Never Kill Man," "The Lonely Songs of Laren Dorr," "Nightflyers," and "Sandkings."



There is also the novel Dying of the Light. It's in print and is worth reading if you like the short stories, but I would try the short stories first.

Re: The Thousand Worlds, by George R. R. Martin

[(Anonymous)]

Isn't Tuf Voyaging also set in the same universe?

[Fontainbleau]

18th Century CE Frederician RPF

[raspberryhunter]

FANDOM NAME: 18th Century CE Frederician RPF
Content notes: Really abusive and dysfunctional family
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Would you like a fandom with all kinds of canon slash tropes (mean abusive dad who might have been suppressing his own slashy tendencies, tragic love story with loyal best friend)? Would you like a fandom about a magnificent bastard royal figure who is a modernist and reformer (and very much into freedom of speech and religion) for his time but also likes to invade various territories for fun and profit? Would you like a fandom with interesting, layered female characters, including a woman who becomes Empress despite all of Europe thinking this is hilarious being that she's a WOMAN?

Let me introduce you to Frederick the Great / Friedrich II / "Fritz" fandom. Boy/adolescent Fritz is beaten and publicly humiliated by his father (Friedrich Wilhelm), and his boyfriend (Peter Keith) is deported when his father catches them. He falls in love again, and he and his new boyfriend (Hans Hermann von Katte) try to escape, but dad catches them and executes Katte -- and orders Fritz to watch (though evidence seems to show that Fritz was not in fact made to watch). Katte's last words are some variation on, "I die for you with joy in my heart!"

Fritz earns his freedom by marrying a woman (Elisabeth Christine), whom he sees... approximately once a year, for dinner. He eventually becomes king when his father dies, at which point he turns out to be pretty much a spectacularly magnificent bastard. On one hand, Voltaire reports on Fritz' liberal tendencies that he said, "In this country, there is freedom of conscience and penis." On the other hand, Fritz also goes around breaking treaties and invading people on paper-thin and/or really zero justification. Hilariously, he first writes the Anti-Machiavel, basically saying "You should definitely positively not break treaties and invade other people just because you can," and then a whole three months later invades Maria Theresia's province of Silesia, just because he can. (Later he tells his people to go look for a historical claim to Silesia, which they find.) Maria Theresia, meanwhile, fights three wars with Fritz, after which he gets to keep Silesia.

On the family front, Fritz goes on to treat his brothers... in a way rather reminiscent of the way his father treated him. He doesn't execute anyone's lover, but after a bunch of emotional beating up of his brother August Wilhelm, August Wilhelm dies of what everyone else in the family -- except Fritz -- thinks is a broken heart. (It may have been porphyria.) Yeah, lots of dysfunctional family in this fandom.

And I haven't even gotten into the snarky Voltaire/Fritz frenemy ship, culminating in Voltaire trolling the world by fabricating mean stories about his ex which weren't realized to be fabrications for two hundred years! Or his brother Heinrich who had a love/hate relationship with Fritz and was BFF's with Catherine the Great! Or the manipulative long-distance "relationship" with a boy who is way too in love with him -- aka Fritz and Peter III of Russia! (Thanks to alley_skywalker for that one :D ) This fandom has got it all, is what I'm saying.

WHERE CAN I FIND IT? (optional):
The best primer for this for a total beginner is probably selenak's primer on this as a TV show, complete with imagined fanon responses. selenak and mildred_of_midgard have been gracious enough to welcome me to their fandom by telling me all kinds of wacky stories about it. Much of these collected stories, synopses of various interesting bits about these characters, and various research can be found at rheinsberg (which I've linked to copiously in this post).

Re: 18th Century CE Frederician RPF

[alley_skywalker]

Heeeeey! Thanks for mentioning me <3 (But God I really don't need to be tempted into Peter/Friedrich angst. I don't know enough about Fritz to do it properly xD)

Tarot of the Haunted House (Tarot Deck)

[robberbaroness]

FANDOM NAME: Tarot of the Haunted House

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: It's a gothic romance told through a tarot deck!



There's a gothic heroine named Raven Wandsworth who comes to a mysterious manor which turns out to have pretty much every dark secret imaginable, from vampires to cults to ghosts and beyond. She even has a dashing love interest, the Knight of Cups- an angel! There are a million possibilities within each card and especially following the "plot" of each suit. I own a lot of tarot decks, and I've never found anything that interpreted the Fool's Journey like this. Built on a love of old school gothic romances and Hammer Horror movies, it turns each classic tarot archetype on its head to find something entirely new.

WHERE CAN I FIND IT (optional): It's a mass market deck, so you can get it on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or wherever you order your tarot decks. There's a review with lots of pictures on aeclectic, and more reviews on youtube.

Waxwork (1988)

[robberbaroness]

FANDOM NAME: Waxwork

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: This is a ridiculous horror comedy about a group of dumb teenagers who visit a waxwork attraction which is actually a rogues gallery of villains created by an evil sorcerer in the hopes of resurrecting them. The kids fall into the exhibits, which are all vignettes inspired by classic horror movies. Horror buffs will love all the homages, and the sequences with Dracula and the Marquis de Sade (both of whom I'm nominating!) are tailor-made to appeal to a Certain Kind of Girl (or Guy) who loves problematic fanfiction. The sequel's fun, too.

WHERE CAN I FIND IT (optional): Amazon Prime or Tubi for free, Youtube or Apple TV for 3.99

Climax (2018)

[robberbaroness]

FANDOM NAME: Climax

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: This is a weird, beautiful, hideous French horror movie about a dance troupe having their last rehearsal before a big performance, in a warehouse somewhere surrounded by snow. Everything is wonderful...that is, until someone spikes the sangria with hallucinogens. Once that starts kicking in, modern dance turns into something resembling a mythic bacchanal. Some dancers get violent, some get lustful, some try to hide, and some keep dancing to the point of damaging their bodies. Consider yourself warned for, well, everything that could possibly go wrong when a crowd of volatile people are powerfully drugged (including the death of a child), but it's a lot more psychological than gory (though there is gore!) It's an experience like no other, and shows you how terrifying the Maenads must have actually been.

WHERE CAN I FIND IT (optional): Amazon Prime, Hulu or Showtime for free, most other streaming services for 2.99 or 3.99

Traveller in Black - John Brunner

[raspberryhunter]

FANDOM NAME: Traveller in Black - John Brunner
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: These are five short stories by John Brunner that feature the Traveller in Black, a mysterious figure whose goal is to bring order to the universe and vanquish chaos, in a world that may be a forerunner of our own, but with magic and chaos and demons in place of the world ruled by order and reason as we know it.

The traveller (who has many names, but a single nature, and is usually referred to only as "the traveller") does this by his power/stricture: he is bound to grant any wish he hears. "As you wish, so be it," is his signature line, and he uses granting of these wishes (sometimes unwary wishes, sometimes wishes that the wisher thinks are thought out) to vanquish chaos. And he does so usually in a way that also tends to help the downtrodden and innocent as well as give the greedy and cruel their just deserts. There's a neatness, a sense of practical economy, to the traveller's solutions that I really enjoy, especially coupled with the atmospheric nature of the stories and the way that they weave in various ideas like the nature of luck, or what is the way that rational thought is to be communicated.

Note that these stories could easily be classed as horror -- I mostly think of the elegance of the traveller's solutions when I think of them, but there are a few extremely disquieting images described in the stories (especially "Break the Door of Hell," which is... honestly basically straight horror. But there are also a few disquieting images in "Dread Empire" and at least one rather disquieting one in "The Wager Lost by Winning.")

WHERE CAN I FIND IT?: The complete stories are, right now, only $1.99 on Amazon in the US! Used copies are also available but NOT from Amazon (unless you want to pay $$$ for them) -- AbeBooks and Thriftbooks are a better bet here.

For Real - Alexis Hall

[amphipodgirl]

FANDOM NAME: For Real - Alexis Hall
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: This is an mlm BDSM romance novel with a real understanding of what D/s is and how it works. It is also sweet as heck and full of heart (also smut 8^)
WHERE CAN I FIND IT (optional): Bookstores, Kobo, Kindle, Amazon
WHAT I PLAN TO PROMPT A pancake morning at Grace and Sam's; Laurie/Toby fluff; another trip to Oxford; their relationship as it matures

Re: For Real - Alexis Hall

[mixtapestar]

I adore this book. This is a good reminder to reread.

Arden St. Ives - Alexis Hall

[amphipodgirl]

FANDOM NAME: Arden St. Ives - Alexis Hall

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: It's 50 Shades of Gray, but make it queer and not awful.

Hapless, pansexual, adorable, klutzy Arden is about to graduate from Oxford when he encounters controlled, aloof billionaire alum Caspian Hart. He is drawn to Caspian from their first moment of contact and can't believe for one minute that someone that powerful and (apparently) flawless could have the least interest in him. He sometimes fails to believe this even when Caspian is taking an immediate, commanding, and very (ahem) personal interest in him.

Over time (and over the course of three volumes rich with character, wit, and allusion) he comes to discover what makes Caspian Like That and that there are things Caspian needs desperately that only Ardy may be able to give. These books are crammed full of people that I adore and would love to meet.

WHERE CAN I FIND IT (optional): Bookstores, Libraries, Kobo, Kindle, Amazon, libro.fm, Audible.

WHAT I'M LIKELY TO PROMPT So many things! Healing for Ardy and Caspian. Fluffy togetherness for Ardy and Caspian. Ardy drags Caspian to a Murder Ballad concert. Healing for Caspian and his sister Ellery. Christmas in Kinlochbervie. George being arch. The Milieu article about Caspian and Nathaniel's engagement being off. A happy-ever-after for Bellerose.

Docile - K.M. Szpara

[amphipodgirl]

FANDOM NAME: Docile - K.M. Szpara

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: This book blew my mind. It's a complex, layered examination of capitalism, compulsion, conditioning, consent, and connection. It depicts a near-future world in which debt becomes heritable and people burdened with familial debt, including student loans from previous generations, need to choose between debtor's prison and indentured servitude. If they elect servitude -- which often includes sexual service, especially if the servant, called a Docile, is young and attractive -- they have the option of taking Dociline, a drug which makes them happily compliant and causes them to forget their servitude. We follow a particular young Docile, who rejects Dociline, and the trillionaire who buys his contract. The connection changes them both in ways neither could foresee.

Please check content warnings, because this book is intense! But if you're like me you will be captivated by both Elisha and Alex and want to know more of their story.

WHERE CAN I FIND IT (optional): Bookstores, Libraries, the usual suspects.

WHAT I'M PROMPTING Happy fluff for Alex and Elisha. Prequel stories, like Dylan & Nora & Riley's. Alex and Elisha drive around Maryland interviewing ex-Dociles. Young Dutch and Jess arguing about whether to fight the system from the inside. Anything with Onyx.

Cozy Grove

[estirose]

FANDOM NAME: Cozy Grove (Video Game)



WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Cozy Grove isn't a game you spend hours a day at or try to beat all at once; it's specifically made so that you play only for a small time (up to an hour) each day, learning little by little about the inhabitants and what's keeping them there. Along the way, there's fishing, crafting, bug catching, and cooking. It's in the same general genre as Animal Crossing, and would also appeal to fans of Stardew Valley and My Time at Portia.

In this game, you play a Spirit Scout who was supposed to be sent to Cozy Cove on their first solo trip but ends up on the much more haunted Cozy Grove instead. With your boat floating out to the ocean shortly after you arrive, you have no choice but to help the inhabitants... but that's okay with you, because as the Spirit Scout motto says, "All Who Are Lost Deserve Kindness".

It's a very sweet game where you try to help the inhabitants (who are all bears) move on. Several of the characters are interconnected, and some of the stories are truly heartbreaking and will have you bawling.

(And of note, the Spirit Scout never gets a name or a gender... so you are free to have them present as whatever gender you'd like.)

WHERE CAN I FIND IT (optional): Cozy Grove is available on a variety of platforms: Steam (PC), Switch, Playstation, XBox, and Apple Arcade. I've been running it with no issues on Linux under Steam's Proton compatibility layer.

[raininshadows]

FANDOM NAME: Raya and the Last Dragon
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Non-standard dragons! Femslash enemies-but-also-feelings shippiness! (Femslash shippiness involving dragons, if you are so inclined!) Weird little bits of worldbuilding!


(Raya on the left, Sisu the Last Dragon on the right)

It is about a young woman named Raya, her quest to save the world (which she accidentally put in jeopardy) with the help of the dragon Sisu, and her rival/enemy/fellow accidental-breaker-of-the-world Namaari. (There are also a bunch of other people along, but I didn't nominate them. They're cool, though. One's a con-baby.) It has a happy ending and some really nice family moments, too. It's also heavily inspired by the cultures of East Asia, although that is not my field of expertise.

I am planning on requesting Raya, Sisu, Namaari, and any relationship within that group someone wants to write. (Sisu may be in her human form.) This movie had tons of femslash potential and I love it. Make them kiss. Make them all kiss.

WHERE CAN I FIND IT: Disney+! It's available without paying the premium access fee. It is a single movie, dubbed or subbed in a lot of languages, about two hours long.

Anime: Geneshaft

[itylien]

FANDOM NAME: Geneshaft (2001 Anime)

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: It's a space-opera anime sourcing from hard sci-fi. It has a giant robot with a bad design and work-in-progress OS, vibrant, interesting characters and... well. Somewhat hard to grasp plot that only sort of makes sense but is that not the charm of early 00's sci-fi??
It is an anime from early 00's but there are no gratuitous titty or panty shots. If anything plot-driven abundance of girls serves to highlight the few dudes as fan-service material but... Well. There's no fan-service. Great music though!
This thing is short, interesting and fun. Sort of a downer if you think about it but again - hard sci-fi. When is it not??
I personally love it for the character dynamics and the atmosphere. There's nothing quite like it.

Or to put it simply I really really ship the main character with her functionally!precog boyfriend whose brain if falling apart and am absolutely charmed by the fact there was a canonical character in the plot who shipped them as well ;DDD

WHERE CAN I FIND IT (optional): Wherever one finds anime to watch these days I hope.

I will want the fangirl character - Ryoko - to feature heavily in any story written for me.

The Last Scenario (Game)

[blurble]

FANDOM NAME: Last Scenario

WHERE CAN I FIND IT:

You can get it FREE for your computer here: https://site.scfworks.com/?page_id=8

OR, you can play it on your android phone (also free), thanks to RPGMaker games having an engine adapting them for phones! This is what I did, and it made a lot of waiting in lines, public transportation, etc, a lot more entertaining.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.radial.lastscenario

There are complete walkthroughs available on youtube (I used LunaticScreamer's, which had text instructions underneath each video)

There's also a fully-screencapped recapping of the entire story on the Let's Play Archive. https://lparchive.org/Last-Scenario/

WHAT IS IT:

An rpgmaker/classic jrpg style free indie game with lots of hours of gameplay.

The story starts out with a fairly typical RPG sort of setup, with a Chosen One character whose destiny is to save the world! The Chosen One is a pretty standard shounen-protagonist type character, full of idealism and naivete.

Almost everyone else in the cast is an adult with adult levels of cynicism, practicality, and maybe a little wistful "look at that shounen protagonist go" type feelings. The classic typical RPG setup ends up with plenty of subversions as the story examines the question of "what makes a hero" from a variety of angles.

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT:

Lots of things , but the reason I'm here nominating this fandom is because I love the characters SO MUCH.

In particular, the four characters I've nominated (because I'm not going to flail about everyone):

Matilda: the army commander with deep loyalty and a short temper who will threaten the higher-ups if they play around with the lives of her men for no reason.

Thorve: the doctor who had no purpose or direction left in his life so he let Matilda provide it for him. I love his patience, his emotional intelligence, the way he understands what other people need. I also love his spoilerific backstory so very, very much. Estranged friendships are catnip for me.

Ethan: who is relentlessly cool and really terrible at communicating when it counts. The mixture of effortless bad-assery combined with flailing really speaks to me.

Felgorn: the antagonist hero from the enemy empire. He's insanely skilled, he's very hot, he's tormented with guilt, what more can you ask for.

I love how each character gets to struggle and grow in their own ways, no one stays static over the course of the story, and I love the network of relationships between the characters.

Book: Poison (Wooding novel)

[itylien]

FANDOM NAME: Poison (2003 book)

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: It's such a classic young adult coming of age story it's... It might be leaning a little too hard into that angle even. A lot too hard. By the end the main character, who starts out as rebellious teenager - the kind who will cut off her nose to spite her face, Poison is her name and she chose it for herself to show up her step-mom - replaces an old man as a master of her world and starts writing her own story. It goes hard on the point it's trying to make ok?
I feel the young adult books these days eschew their didactic nature only to their detriment and this one didn't. It has a point obvious for all to see and is therefore available as reference. To accept or deny.

It just so happens I want the story written for me to... maybe not deny but sidestep the point of the book by writing the main character as the disaster she's going to become the moment she grows up and getting her to fuck the hot, monstrous Phaerie King.
Heart wants what it wants ;DDD

WHERE CAN I FIND IT (optional): It should be widely available and especially in young adult collections in any and all libraries.

Midnighter and Apollo (2016)

[scansionictus]

"You're the one with the fight enhancements. I'm a mere solar-powered alien experiment."

Midnighter and Apollo (2016) is a six issue comic miniseries written by Steve Orlando with art by Fernando Blanco. Its titular characters are Midnighter (75% human, 25% computer, 100% will kick your ass) and Apollo (sun god with a heart of gold). These two are partners in the "crimefighting duo" sense, but also in the "lovers who would go to the ends of the earth for each other" sense. And that's exactly what happens in this title: Apollo is grievously injured, and his soul is trapped in the underworld. It's up to Midnighter to—quite literally—go to hell to save him.

This series is great because it features all the action-packed theatrics of a comic book, coupled with the undying love of a romance novel, all served with a side of banter. If you're into "grumps for sunshine" dynamics, or "murderous man who's soft for his boyfriend," then this is for you.

You can find the trade paperback for purchase here or you can read it online for free here (I recommend adblock). This series follows on nicely from the Midnighter (2015) title however it does stand alone. I will be requesting our two heroes for this fandom!

Re: Midnighter and Apollo (2016)

[geckoholic]

I cannot possibly second this rec hard enough. ♥

Link Click (donghua)

[shadaras]

FANDOM NAME: 时光代理人 | Link Click (Cartoon)

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT:
Link Click is an 11-episode donghua (so, about 4.5hrs long). It's set in a mostly-realistic modern day world, but our main characters have some special powers that let them dive into photos for limited amounts of time. [The CN title translates to something like "Time Agents", I think?]

They do this to help people (find information that was lost, provide closure, get sucked into helping the police solve cases...), and they haven't been doing it for that long when the show starts.

One of them, Lu Guang, has the ability to look at a photo and see what happened in the 12 hours following the photo being taken. The other, Cheng Xiaoshi, has the ability to enter photos (generally by taking over the body of whoever took the photo). They can maintain a psychic link while doing this, so that Lu Guang is effectively guiding Cheng Xiaoshi through the photo using his foresight power.

I went in knowing the following facts: Time-related superpowers that have to do with photos, it's very easily read as gay, and while it starts as slice-of-life it gains plot (and everyone's yelling about where the season ended and looking forward to s2, which is in production). All of these were true.

This show made me cry and I love it because of that, because anything that hits me that hard in the emotions is something I'll get really attached to. However also I only watched through the first episode because I trusted the people who told me to watch it, because there are some tropes that briefly happen in it [which don't reoccur!] that I'm extremely tired of/dnw. But it was very very worth it for the thematic stuff and emotional heart of the show.

I'm nominating the main three characters (Lu Guang, Cheng Xiaoshi, Qiao Ling) and Worldbuilding.

WHERE CAN I FIND IT (optional): this carrd has information on that! (as well as content warnings)

[idan]

FANDOM NAME: Wolfwalkers (2020)
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: It's a standalone movie with a gorgeous artstyle.

"A young apprentice hunter and her father journey to Ireland to help wipe out the last wolf pack. But everything changes when she befriends a free-spirited girl from a mysterious tribe rumored to transform into wolves by night."

The core of the movie is about being your true self and rejecting oppressive authority, so while the action is set in XVII-century Ireland and features Oliver Cromwell and themes of anti-puritanism and anti-colonialism, it's no wonder that many people have also read it as queer. The companionship between the two main girls is wonderful whether you see it as friendship or a kind of first crush/pre-romance. I also love how various characters try to look out for one another and the different (and often hurtful, which is criticised) forms their caring takes. Also, it's just a magical, whimsical movie you can feast your eyes on. The sequences of transforming into wolves are amazing.


FANDOM NAME: Hellfire – annapantsu and Yamz Animatics
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: It's a 5-minute fandom, an animatic of the Hellfire song from The Hunchback of Notre Dame sung by a female voice. Which changes things! The visuals of the video make a good job of exploring that. The song is suddenly about the homosexual desire of (presumably) a nun for a secular girl, which adds another layer of complexity to the lyrics. The characters and the setting are different than in The Hunchback, so the animatic is ripe for exploration.


FANDOM NAME: Borzoi and Xoloitzcuintli centaurs - ink-the-artist
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Another 5-minute (or 1-minute) fandom. It's a post by a wonderfully weird tumblr artist (2 drawings in total). Look at them! They're dog centaurs and they're probably in love. I hope the fandom will be approved because I'd like to know more about the world they live in, their culture, their dresses, how they've met each other and what their lives are like.

[embraidery]

what delightful dog centaurs, thanks for sharing!!

Welcome to Our Village Please Invade Carefully (BBC Radio)

[thisbluespirit]

FANDOM NAME: Welcome to Our Village Please Invade Carefully (WtOVPIC if you can't type all that out each time)



WHAT IS IT: It's a BBC Radio sitcom by Big Finish author Eddie Robson that ran from 2012-2014, with only 11x 30 mins eps in total. It stars Hattie Morahan, Peter Davison, Jan Francis, Hannah Murray (Gilly from GoT) & Julian Rhind Tutt (S1)/Charles Edwards (S2).



WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: One tiny English village, Cresdon Green, gets invaded by aliens as part of a spearhead to an invasion that is eternally delayed thanks to budget cuts, while the spearhead's commander, Uljabaan (Julian Rhind-Tutt/Charles Edwards), runs a human research program to prepare with the aid of his advanced Computer/AI and a bunch of minions. Katrina Lyons (Hattie Morahan), who was only popping back for the weekend to visit her parents Richard & Margaret (Peter Davison & Jan Francis), is the only one in the village determined to try and fight off the invasion and save the planet, with the aid of bored (sometimes stoned) teen, Lucy (Hannah Murray). It's good-natured but sharp satire (even if the Computer says satire doesn't work) & was cancelled much too soon, so it's crying out for fic. Highlights include (imo) the Computer generally, Katrina's attempt to save Shakespeare, Margaret's ability to conquer through cake, any time the Minions get rebellious, the fete pun, the printer,and the funniest pub quiz ever.

If you want a quick taster, I've got some quotes and things at my tumblr that I've collected.

WHERE CAN I FIND IT: As a recent BBC Radio thing, it's really easy to get hold of! You can get the complete series as an audiobook by whatever usual means you obtain audio material. You can also just download or stream an off-air recording of the original broadcast at the Internet Archive for free! See here (but there are a couple of uploads to choose from there).

Wiki details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welcome_to_Our_Village,_Please_Invade_Carefully

Re: Welcome to Our Village Please Invade Carefully (BBC Radio)

[marginaliana]

This sounds delightful!