Dear Yuletide Writer

[sinesofinsanity]

 Dear YuleGoat

First of all, thanks in advance. You are a wonderful, magical person, and we like some of the same things! Isn’t that great! :D


What Would The Robin Do Then? – Jean Little 

I requested: What happens next? Do Edward and Rosa go to the same school? Does Edward ever see Natalie again? Does Rosa invite Edward back for dinner? Does Rosa meet Edward’s dad or Edward meet Mr Lopez? Does the woman from the church group come back? Did Mario and Rosa fit in alright at school? What does Edward do when he grows up? You don’t have to answer any particular question, just tell me something that happens after the story.

Jean Little was my favourite author for years as a kid, but I didn’t find this collection of short stories until I was an adult. The stories are classic Jean Little: a glimpse into real life, at kids dealing with real life problems that are often glossed over or ignored in more traditional children’s stories. (How many stories have you read with characters with cerebral palsy?)

As much as I love this story, it has always left me with a feeling of “Then what?” Real life doesn’t have neat, clean endings so neither does this, but real life keeps going. So what happens next? What are the repercussions of the story?

You can set this as far into the future as you like. What happens the next day, or where Edward and/or Rosa and/or Natalie are in fifty years or any-when in between. You can use as many or as few of the characters as you like (if you want to only use Mario, great, if you want to use/create a huge cast, also great). You can also pair people up as you see fit, but keep it gen or PG (implications are okay, explicit violence and/or sex not so much)

Lastly, you can set it anywhere you like although I would prefer (if setting is important, it doesn’t have to be) that the canon story is in Canada.

Max Overacts

I requested: Max and Andi being sibling-y, or Max and Klaus being best friends-y or both or something else! Maybe Andi has to babysit Max and the power goes out. Or Andi has to watch Max and Klaus at her work while they wait for their parents after school. Or tell the story of how Max and Klaus met. Or Andi’s first non-ears piercing. Or Max and Klaus sneak into the high school to watch Objects of Interest compete in a Battle Of The Bands. Or the further mystery tales of Padgett and Crossley. Or take the Calvin and Hobbes comparisons to the logical extreme and have Max meet Calvin (as child or aged-up to reflect the time since CaH was published).  Focus on character interactions, but give them a bit of an adventure.

I love the characters in this comic. The different personalities and interactions are brilliant. Even the background characters such as the kids in Max’s or Andi’s classes have personalities and their own adventures (or enough artistic detail to make you believe they do). Each character is completely unique and they work together or not brilliantly.

Andi is fantastic. She’s a sarcastic, no-holds-barred, self-centred without noticing it teenager. She’s quick to jump to the defense of her friends, but takes offense to not being the obvious leader of her band, Objects of Interest. Her relationship with Max is saturated with pranks and sibling rivalry, but she’s always got his back.

Klaus is Max’s number two, but so much more than that. He provides Max with a sidekick to do theatrics and try out new ideas with, while keeping him grounded when Max gets too caught up in his own drama. Klaus is shown to have an imagination to rival Max’s own, but without the drive to do anything with it. It’s also been hinted that his mom is raising him on her own, which is an interesting element as it leads him to look up to Max’s dad.

With respect to the prompt, pretty much any story in this fandom would be squee-worthy.  Feel free to branch out and use other characters. If you want to do a story featuring only Eleanore or Jacob or anyone at all go for it. While I would prefer a story that’s grounded in the realism of the comic, AUs or future-fic are also excellent. But keep it gen, using the comic itself as a ratings indicator.

House Hippos

I requested: Something with interaction between house hippos and humans. Tell a story about the scientists who study house hippos. Or a child who finds a nest of house hippos and tries to keep them as pets. Or someone who has to keep rescuing house hippos from their cat, or rescue their cat from the house hippos. Or crossover with The Borrowers or The Littles. Or tell the house hippo’s perspective of the family whose house they live in. Animals can only talk to other animals. Humans can talk to animals, but they may or may not understand.

More than any other PSA I saw as a child, house hippos invaded the collective conscious because it was a case of the PSA lying to you and admitting they lied to you, but it was a lie that would have been so GREAT if it was true.

House hippos became a thing without making a big deal about it. I’ve heard people say “A house hippo stole my sock”, and they’re the source of the odd joke that make people smile and say “oh yeah, I remember that.”

Regarding the prompt, I’m looking for a story that accepts house hippos as a normal part of life. Who are the people who interact with the house hippos? If you are at all familiar with either The Littles  by John Peterson and Roberta Carter Clark or The Borrowers by Mary Norton I would love a story about how the tiny people living behind the walls have to deal with hippos sharing their space. Maybe a tiny family moves into a new house and it’s infested with house hippos! Or house hippos move into the tiny family’s long term house. Keep in mind that when not tiny, hippos are very dangerous creatures.

If you’re not familiar with either books, no worries (although I recommend them if you’re a fan of children’s literature, you can probably find at least one of either series at your library). Go wherever you like with the concept. If house hippos were real, how would people deal with them? How would you? 

No dialogue between humans and animals, although you can feel free to have humans who know the animals understand them (similar to how people understand their pets/animal roommates). No inter-species pairings.

General notes:

Things I like: I love character interactions and development. Characters who have unique personalities and motivations, whether those compliment or clash. I love the fantastic adventures of ordinary life and adding flair and drama to daily routine.

Things to avoid: I’ve requested gen or PG. As a rule of thumb, be no more explicit than the source material. This is not to avoid pairings, but I would rather the pairing not be the entire point of the story.

As Ferrris Bueller would say “no isms”. That is, stay away from language that is racist, sexist, ableist, homophobic, etc. Err on the side of caution.

Optional details are optional. Just have fun.

All of these fandoms are things I love and will love to see fic for. Fanficiton is great for filling in gaps in stories and exploring new aspects of characters, but it’s also a celebration of the works and a display of everyone’s different experiences with a work and the different things they take from it/reasons they love it.