Happy Yuletide

[clocketpatch]

Hello and happy holidays! I'm Clocketpatch here and on Ao3.

I hope that you have fun with this assignment. This letter is meant for inspiration more than anything else so feel free to ignore everything but the DNWs if you already have a story idea already in mind. I would be pleased to receive gen, slash, femslash, het, poly, tentacles... In fact, as long as it’s consensual, I’m okay with pretty much anything. I am also open to sex-pollen/ aliens made them do it/ pon farr/ possessed by the Old Gods type situations. Stories of any length are cool and I am always open to experimental formats, art, IF, poetry, and fics sent by carrier pigeon....

(Okay, maybe not that last one. I have zero space for roosting pigeons.)


Likes:

· Hurt/Comfort. I love it so much. Especially characters sacrificing themselves for others, and the traditional A rescues B and then cuddles formula

· Characters trying to better themselves (They can fail. Repeatedly. It's the effort I like.)

· Relationships (both romantic and gen) which are full of everyday snark and arguing, but always do their best to come through for each other and give support when the going gets rough.

· Found families

· Random swordfights

· Characters getting tied up

· Spy tropes

· Grooming/preening/hair brushing/back rubs

· Detailed descriptions of food or cooking

· Wing!fic, body-swaps, animal transformations, suddenly a girl/boy, Daemon AUs, is there a word for AUs where all the human characters are animals? Zootopia AU? Everyone's a mouse AU?

 · I will be satisfied by the flimsiest of plot hand waves if it results in dinosaurs or sapient bird characters

DNW: Explicit fic for characters under 18, Noncon, Amanda/Todd, stories focusing on mental illness (brief mentions of canon illness are fine, but please don’t spend multiple paragraphs describing symptoms).

Fandoms specific prompts are listed below. Order is Pepsi Commercials, Divine Cities, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, Dinotopia.
 

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Pepsi Commercials

Episodes 0 & 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4

I request this every year in every exchange I can, because I am ever so slightly obsessed with these commercials. I love everything I’ve received for this fandom, but it is small and I am greedy. You can write about anyone in the tagset. You can write about them individually, together, or not at all. World building is a thing you can do.

My head-canon is that Pheasant and Crow are partners in a dysfunctional arranged marriage. But if you want to stick more closely to what’s being said in canon you can write about them as actual, adopted, or symbolic brothers depending on your preference. Pheasant and Crow get me right in the id with Crow's fall into darkness, and Pheasant's loyalty and love and determination to save Crow from himself.

I'm also VERY interested in Dog's backstory, and how he managed to find clothes and learn metal-working while being raised by wolves in the forest. I'd love to see how his behaviour is influenced by his upbringing: howling, thinking about his place in his new "pack", growling at threats, searching for belly rubs... If you want to write it, Dog/Momotaro would not go amiss.

Or ANY backstory for Monkey, since his commercial was apparently never made. Or at least never posted to the internet. (Note, if Monkey commercial does exist and you know where to find it, please let me know. You will be my favourite person).

Or the ensemble adventures of Momotaro, Pheasant, Dog, and Monkey! I'm sure those four get up to lots of crazy hi-jinks together. Side-quests. Campfire stories. Helping strangers escape evil demons… I'm not expecting you to stick with the legend on which these commercials were based, so feel free to be creative. Gen is wonderful! Slash is wonderful! Poly is wonderful + friends! There are four good guys here so you could make a sedoretu if you wanted to.

Last year I realized that there’s a fourth episode with the backstory of the Oni, and watching it was like getting an extra Christmas. Anything you want to write about the Oni’s powers, or why he was travelling (was he chased away by his own people?), or his betrayal, or his fights with Momotaro, or Momotaro/Human!Oni, or… anything.

There is so much potential to explore in these commercials. Have fun!
 

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Divine Cities

The universe in the Divine Cities is fascinating. I want to know more of the (conflicting) histories of this place. I want to visit the old organic city of Ahanashtani, to explore the islands of Saypur, to examine the content of the Unmentionable Warehouse (or to see how it was used to grease the wheels of life in the past), to meet some of the Divinity's stranger children. I don't care who you use for this exploration. It could even be someone unnominated, or an original character. I don't even care if it's done textbook style with no real narrative or characters. This world is cool. More please?

Use any character in the tag-set. Heck, use any character not in the tag-set if you aren't interested in the ones nominated. Use them all together. Use them individually. I don't care. I just really, really, really want more fic for this fandom.

I also have character prompts (because I have a lot of prompts for this fandom. Because there is SO MUCH I want to know and see):

Efrem and Shara's friendship while she was training him. Them chatting about Continental history over tea. Efrem's perspective while he conducted his final mission in Bulikov. His interactions with Mulaghesh.

Mulaghesh! Her misadventures in politics now that she is maybe-maybe-not a little bit Divine. Or perhaps something about her tenure as Polis Governor in Bulikov. What happened in those three Worldly Regulations Trials where the accused were acquitted? It doesn't really work with canon, but if it strikes you as interesting, Signe/Mulaghesh is a pairing I’d be very interested in reading.

Shara and Sigrud's awesome spy adventures before the events of City of Stairs. What happened that time with the darts? How about the dragon? Or all of the other mad operations they ran across the continent for ten years. That is a full decade of fic fodder.

I really don't see Shara and Sigurd as a romantic pairing, but if you wanted to write about them having to fake a marriage/relationship for an op. that would be hilarious and awesome. Bodyswap would also be great. This series has so much potential for magical transformations, and I'd love to see any of the characters dealing with waking up as another person, or a dog, or suddenly a thousand years in the past/future.

Shara list!fic in general. Her brainstorming was my favourite bit of City of Stairs and I was sadly disappointed that it only happened a few times. My second favourite part was her cooking. So if you want to do recipe fic, or spend an extraordinarily long time describing food I would not say no to that!

Fic about the Komayd family. The life of the Kaj. The lives of Shara's parents. Auntie Vinya's childhood, or her experiences raising Shara.

AU where Shara let Vohannes bring her back to the continent and made her his princess. Could they be happy together? What would their relationship be like? Would they be able to change the Continent for the better?

Ivanya Restroyka’s life with Vo. Her life after in the country. Her ongoing relationship with Tatyana as she grows up. Tatyana’s past lives. All of the young divinities going forward. Will they repeat the mistakes of their ancestors or bring about something new?

Fix-it fic for Signe. Her life is so sad, and she is so smart and determined, and I just wish things could have gone better for her. That her and Pandey could have lived happily ever after. That she could have had a chance to make up with her father. That she could've continued being a badass hyper-competent business woman and bringing prosperity to both the Continent and the Dreyling Republic. I’m happy with how this series ended, and I think that it was satisfying and really well done, but…

I am still so broken up about Signe and want ALL the fic for her.
 

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Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency

Characters: Dirk Gently, Farah Black, Lydia Spring, Todd Brotzman (You don't have to use them all unless you really want to!)

I would strongly prefer not to read stories focusing on Todd and Amanda’s illness, or to see Amanda and Todd paired romantically.

I like what this show says about families, and how they love, protect, and hurt each other. I like what it says about redemption, and how the past can’t be washed away, and some sins can’t be forgiven, but that is no excuse for not trying to change and act decent going forwards – even if, especially if, the world seems to punish you for doing so.

I also adore how unapologetically mad this show is, so feel free to have Farrah randomly wake up with magic levitation powers, give Dirk a telekinetic daemon octopus, and bodyswap Todd with the kitten!shark. I will eat that crack up with a spoon.

I’d be glad to read anything where some or all of the cast members are working a case. This could be in an AU where Dirk isn’t kidnapped or at some unspecified point in the future when everything has been resolved and the detective agency is up and running. Outsider POV from a random stranger watching these people flail around and shout at each other would be fantastic.

I’m interested in Farrah Black and Lydia Spring’s childhood. How much interaction did they have? What other strange things were happening on the Spring estate? How much of the weirdness were they aware of?

Lydia Spring all on her own in Belize after the end of series 1. It’s canon that being stuck in an animal too long did strange things to the drones and I’m curious what lingering effects being a dog for a few weeks might have had on her. I would be all onboard with Lydia and Farrah meeting again as adults and working through their complicated feelings for each other.

I adore how hyper competent and loyal Farah is, and want her to have all the nice things and people in her life. I ship Farrah/Lydia and Farrah/Amanda, but mostly I just want her to be happy and accepted and completely bad ass.

For Dirk Gently, the show keeps repeating, “you are who you say you are,” to the point where I’ve started wondering if Dirk uses his reality warping powers (whatever they are) to consciously or unconsciously create what Dirk Gently is (whatever he is). I like how wise/naïve Dirk is and how hard it is to tell which of his character quirks are real and which are carefully cultivated fronts for concealing how he feels about being the universe’s pawn. I like his interactions and witty banter with Todd.

I’m really, really, really interested in why Dirk’s so afraid of the Rowdy 3 since Amanda doesn’t seem to have the same terror associated with their feeding sessions.

And then there’s Todd. Todd is such a contradictory ball of emotions and angst. I am open to pretty much anything involving Todd. Dirk doesn’t have to be around, but if he is, it can be shippy or completely platonic. Todd’s relationship with his sister and his guilt over his past is so interesting to me. I like that he has to live with his mistakes even after he’s grown as a person. Time travel doesn’t work for fixing mistakes in the Dirk Gently universe, and Todd’s said he wouldn’t try, but if some interdimensional weirdness happened to bring Todd into contact with into his former self, that would be an interesting conversation to be a fly on the wall of.

Finally, since I’m positive there must be some overlap in fandom, if you are a fan of Doctor Who (any era) or Sapphire & Steel, and want to write a crossover, you have my full and enthusiastic permission.
 

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Dinotopia

This place fascinated me as a child and still does as an adult. It's big and dangerous and just out of reach, but for the people who reach its shores anything is possible. I love how all of the people and dinosaurs work together. I love how differences are celebrated and accepted. I love the art and the steampunk aesthetic. But, above everything else, I love that it is an unapologetic utopia.

Feel free to use characters from the books, or to create OCs. I would love to learn more about how Paleogene and ice age mammals fit into Dinotopia society. Are there any early hominids running around the island? I'd also like to know more about dinosaur lifestyles and culture; especially individuals who take a different path than what might be expected of them. For example, are there any large predators who have left the Rainy Basin? What would it be like to be the first giganotosaur to train as a scribe in Waterfall City? What happens if a sauropod feels a calling to be a tailor? Or if an ankylosaur wants to join a fishing expedition? What are mixed families like? (Either different species of dinosaur, or dinosaurs and humans who raise kids together). I'm a big fan of feathered dinosaurs and the idea that hadrosaurs and ceratopsians weren't strictly herbivorous.

If you're interested in history, I would love to see the reactions of people from different eras and cultures when they first wash up on Dinotopia. I'd be equally happy with OCs or real historical figures. If you know the Bone Wars and want to include Cope and Marsh, I'd be head over heels happy to watch their feud get even more ridiculous once Real Dinosaurs are involved.

What is Dinotopia like in modern times, or in the future? Are the Denison's still alive? How has it remained shielded from the outside world? Has its technology advanced? Is there a Dinotopia space program? What would happen if Dinotopia was revealed to modern society? I have a feeling it would be a bit of an inverse of Jurassic Park, but then again, maybe it would go better than expected? A certain orange-hued politician might wander into the Rainy Basin and never be seen again? Renewable energy and longevity tea for all!