Yuletide 2020 - updated 10/28

[synergic]

Sleep No More (Any Characters, Any Combination)

The McKittrick Hotel is a dreamspace in real life, fluid in the way that only often-retold stories can manage. It's also one of my favorite places in the world. I miss it terribly.

I’m leaving this prompt pretty wide open because part of the fun of SNM as a fandom is that the show is a framework that invites so much speculation, and I’d enjoy spending time in any character’s head. If there’s a story you want to tell, please do it. But if you’re looking for inspiration here are some general thoughts, pairings that I'm especially drawn to, and a few special suggestions.

I really like drawing on the sketched-in Hitchcock-ian side of things and looking at the events of the night through the lens of small-town life. What led up to the night of the Macbeth murder spree? What is life like in a cursed town? How long has Hecate had her fingers on the pulse of this place, and did anyone have meetings with her when they were younger? (This question is canonically answered for Boy and Porter, but I’d love to see it written out as a story, or to make up a non-canonical addition.) How were the witches and Campbell recruited to the cause? Have the witches been here all along, or are they some kind of transplant for one evening of horror?

If you’re wondering whether I ship a certain combination of characters: yes. But I will confess special fondness for:

The Porter and Boy Witch. I am a sucker for hopeless, painful devotion. Love these two and their very literal inability to move past each other, the way they spend their lives endlessly stirring up the ashes of their romance.

Catherine Campbell leading Lady Macduff astray. She is Ms Danvers to me, always, with all the creepy sublimated sex appeal that implies. I would love an exploration of her relationship with Lady Macduff— how did she choose her for a victim? Convenience, or hatred, or fascination?

The Three witches, connected in unknowable ways. Are they siblings? Lovers? Both?

Sexy witch stepping on men. (Or ladies, for that matter. We don't see this as much in canon but I bet she could get Campbell in the same position Lady Macbeth does easily enough. Just saying!)

One pairing I don't ship but love very much: the Porter and Lady Macduff. I truly believe that he would save this woman if he could.

I don't usually ask for this.... but hell, it's the holidays and the show has gone dark. If you want to give me a softer, happier story for any of these characters— and for Boy Witch and the Porter, or the Porter and Lady Macduff in particular —I'm not above spending my yuletide wishes on that.

Edit: oh my god I never called out Speaks. If he’s the character we matched on please believe that this was not intentional! I have a couple of different versions of this letter floating around by now and grabbed from one that didn’t bring him up specifically, but he very much falls into the wonderful weirdness of town and I see him as anything from a regular guy rolling with the punches to a magical construct, depending on who’s playing him. When I say Sexy stepping on men, I definitely had him in mind. I also see disjoint echoes of the Porter in him and think a meeting between the two to discuss their respective witches could be amazing.

Finally, I am yearning for a return to all things immersive and would be very open to any kind of interactive or experimental fictions, especially for this canon.

DNW: Rape/Noncon, Non-Canonical Character Death, Focus on Suicidal Ideation, Alternate Universe Settings

*For this canon, please note that I'm fine with (and would even look forward to seeing!) a power imbalance. Any character being tricked or coerced into a relationship, physical or otherwise, is OK. However I would ask that everyone give enthusiastic consent in the moment. It's alright if they realize that was a terrible idea after the fact, though . . .

Then She Fell (Any Characters, Any Combination)

Another Immersive love of mine. This one officially closed this year, and I am feeling deeply nostalgic for the world of Kingsland Ward, so clearly not Wonderland, and yet a wonderment all the same; an exploration of the chambers of the heart.

I can't give any terribly specific story prompts here. More than anything, I want a return to that atmosphere. If you've been to TSF, I think you'll know what I mean. The love of minutia, liminal moments, poetry that doesn't go anywhere. The gentlest haunting. It is a good night for ghosts.

I will say that exactly what the denizens of the ward are would be an excellent starting point. Are they really just patients? The ghosts of Alice's backwards memory? Are they our own conjurations, drawn from a well-known book and a handful of letters? Picking a character and tracing their path would be lovely. So would a coda. Reconciling Alice and one of the queens (to growing up? to... not that?) Or the queens to each other, different as they are. For that matter — reconcile a queen to herself, and that would be quite enough. Or write me Hatter setting Alice on fire — or deciding that they shouldn't. Maybe they can take the boat out themselves. Or for something steamier: Hatter and the queens also clearly have some tension to sort out after that tea party . . .

(No preference as to Hatter's gender, by the way! I love them always.)

And again . . . I am yearning for a return to all things immersive and would be very open to any kind of interactive or experimental fictions, especially for this canon.

DNW: Rape/Noncon, Non-Canonical Character Death, Focus on Suicidal Ideation, Alternate Universe Settings

Dreamboy (Any Characters, Any Combination)

I discovered Dreamboy just as its cancellation was formalized. Or— no. Technically I discovered it live at a Night Vale Presents show. I adored Dane's performance live, but never got around to listening to the rest of the show. Until the day that word of the cancellation popped up and I realized I had really slept on this one.

So I went into listening to Dreamboy knowing that I was going to love it, and that it was already gone. And I found the experience to still be completely and utterly worthwhile. I don't think I will ever find another podcast with such fabulous narration, eerie magic realism, and so damn gorgeously (hilariously!) scored.

But all the same— man! All those loose ends. Pick any one of them and run with it for a yuletide story and I'll be happy. What's in the deed to the zoo? What happens now that all the lights in pepper heights have been replaced? Why is Cora's basement pregnant? Will Luke ever get his backpack away from the Schmalenbergers?

I picked "any" character, and so I really would be happy with a story that is just Dane or just Luke, if you think they would follow that thread alone. That being said, I don't really want the last Dreamboy encounter to be the end of their story. I'd love to see what happens to them now that they don't have a couple of horny fish urging them to hook up (or . . . don't they . . . ? Maybe the fish want dates? Who's to say??)

I also LOVE knowing that Jupiter's Lifeless Moons was based on Disaster Transport. I have watched this episode of Defunctland an embarrassing number of times, it's the train wreck I can't look away from. (If you don't want to watch a whole youtube video, fair, but may I at least recommend listening to this earworm of a song?) If you did nothing more than write about all the horrible things Dane has experienced running that ride, I would still be happy.

Finally: I know this is a long shot but let's go for an Interactive Fiction hat trick. Want to send me on a journey through the Zoo? Awesome! I would have so much fun. Alternatively, but closely related: music is so much a part of the Dreamboy experience that if you'd like to get weird and write me a song, link me a background score for your story, or anything like that, I would love it.

DNW: Rape/Noncon*, Non-Canonical Character Death**, Focus on Suicidal Ideation, Alternate Universe Settings

*I do want to note that I am totally fine with undernegotiated kink and the characters being fascinated with/exploring the boundaries of pain and what a person can physically take, in line with the canon story.

**I mean, unless we're talking ancient history...... really ancient.